Organizing Creates Time for the Little Things

There are so many things I hear people say they want to do, but they just don’t have the time or space.  Often, these things are seemingly small gestures that have a big impact in connecting people.  Getting organized will give you the time and space you need to make these connections.

For example: the humble thank you note.  An old fashioned creature now rarely seen in the wild, thank you notes are at once a relic from a former age and a beautiful, personal touch that enhances relationships and provides the people you love with a boost via the unexpected nature of snail mail. 

I can see the eyes rolling already.   Who has time for thank you notes??  Well, to write a thank you note all you need are the following things:

·      A reason to write – perhaps your sister gave you a birthday present, a friend invited you to a dinner party, or an aunt and uncle hosted you at their vacation home

·      Stationery, pen, and stamps

·      A clear writing surface

In my house, the clear writing surface is the desk in my home office.  This is how it looks regularly – yes, really! My stationery lives in its box on a shelf in the office closet, and pens and stamps are easy to access in the desk drawers.

Not everyone has a dedicated home office, and your best writing surface might be your breakfast room table, a vanity in your bedroom, or a shared work table in a craft or play room.  As I always say, the best organizing solutions are tailored to you and your lifestyle.  What matters is that, through the process of decluttering and organizing, you have a surface that always stays clear and the materials you need close at hand.

Ever since I can remember, thank you notes have been a priority in my family.  I’ve had a set of personalized stationery since I could write, and my mom would always take me to Letter Perfect in Santa Barbara to pick it out.  It definitely made the seemingly onerous task of writing thank you notes for birthday and Christmas presents a little more fun!  My current stash is from the very same place, picked out in 2010 when I was getting married.

However, there’s no need to go through the time and expense of custom stationery.  Whatever you use should be simple and clean, so that you can use it for all kinds of writing occasions – I’ve written to people not only to thank them, but also to express sympathy in a time of need and send congratulations on a major milestone.

Today I wrote to thank my best friend for hosting me on a 3 day visit to her new home out of state.  We lived in the same city for almost 10 years, and it's important to me to keep that connection strong even though she moved halfway across the country!  If you had the time and space, who would you write to?

LMW