While back-to-school is the time of year when people think about getting organized I’ve been on a mission to clean up my life and clear the clutter from my head–now.
The thing that causes me the most angst are passwords. We need passwords for everything–banking, email, Twitter, Facebook–not to mention my children who add to this list with user names and passwords for their online games. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to reset my password for Facebook but it’s in the double digits.
Clutter Buster No. 1: The Mead Password Keeper ($4.79)
Now all of my passwords are in one place instead of random pieces of paper or my head, and I keep the organizer in a safe place where nobody can access it but me.
Until I got the Loyalty Card Wheel you wouldn’t want to be the person stuck behind me at the checkout counter because I would be rummaging around in my wallet while saying, “I know I have it in here somewhere, just give me a second.”
Clutter Buster No. 2: Loyalty Card Wheel ($4.99)
My loyalty cards are now in one place. Flip it open and the cashier can scan the card. Easy peasy slice o’ cheesey.
This last item is more about offering me peace of mind. My smartphone is a big part of my life. Having one allows me to do my job on the go, without it I would be shackled to my computer. This means it’s a big deal if something were to happen to it.
We’ve all heard about the trick where you put your electronic device in rice if you drop it water. Unfortunately, rice doesn’t always work. Enter the EVAP by Kensington (retails for $19.99) which is seven times more absorbent than water. It even has a humidity indicator to let you know when your phone is ready.
Knock-on-wood, I haven’t had to use it yet but I like to think of it the same way I think about having life insurance. I hope I’ll never need it but will be happy I have it if something ever happens.
It's the simple things that keep me sane. What do you do to de-clutter from your head?
Disclaimer: I contacted the PR firm for Mead and Acco and asked to send me the three above items but I will never write about a product unless I like it and would use it in my day-to-day life.
Errrrr…..can we talk about this aging thing just for a minute?
This is not a woe-is-me post. I’m proud to be 45. My 40s have, so far, been good to me. I’m in kick-ass shape and have better cardio capability than I did in my 20s. There is a freedom in 40 that I didn’t have in my younger years. A what-the-hell-I-might-as-well-try-who-cares-if-I-look-stupid attitude that makes life more fun.
But there are also things people never told me about getting older. Things that are quite shocking to say the least.
I think I covered the whole grey pubic hair thing which, while not fun isn’t an “Ermahgerd” situation because it's not like anyone is going to see it besides my husband, my doctor, or my kids when they barge in on me in the bathroom to show me the Minecraft city they built. And we all know about the wrinkles and acne at the same time because menopause is SO MUCH FUN but there seems to be other things going on.
Like the lines embedded in my chest when I wake up each morning. The ones caused by sleeping on my side and my boobs doing the gravitational reach towards the floor. The triangular creases in my chest that don’t go away for hours and seem to be staying longer and longer each day no matter how much cream I slather on them.
Or the grey hairs I found in my eyebrows but can’t pluck because my eyebrows are getting thinner. Yet while my eyebrows are disappearing, I’m growing more hair on my toes.
My grey roots are not only winning the war, they marched down to my armpits to build up the army.
The glasses I wear to to watch television are not new but the lines formed on my forehead from peering over top those glasses so I can read are.
My knees crack and my spine pops. The day I start snapping I've basically become a rice crispie cereal.
The hair in my nose seems to want to form a relationship with the hair now growing on my upper lip.
And then there is the one long wirey hair on my newly grown momstache that appears out of nowhere every two weeks and needs to be plucked. I guess I should be grateful it doesn’t come with a wart.
And last but not least, the one that is most painful for me in this whole aging process is the carbo-bloating. I used to be able to chomp the chips, pile back the popcorn, and consume carbs with abandon. But now?
Now I need elasticized buffet pants to accommodate the bloating that occurs afterwards. I don’t even have a dog to blame on the aftermath.
Can we all talk about this? Because I can’t possibly be the only one this is happening to, right?
Right?
It's no secret that many moms drink. We settle down after the kids go to bed and enjoy a glass of wine (or two) or we go out with our girlfriends or enjoy a drink with dinner. We joke on Twitter and Facebook asking if it's wine o'clock. We ask if it's cocktail hour. I get it. I love my glass of wine in the evenings.
But this? Holy Hannah. I don't know how I stumbled across it but stumble I did.
RELATED: What They Don't Tell You About Aging
It's an app (or you can do it on your computer) that shows you how drinking will age you depending on how much you drink per week. The app isn't supposed to stop people from drinking but to make them more aware so they cut back.
The results weren't pretty. I did it with a few pictures and if I drink 10+ glasses of alcohol a week, none of the results are good. My skin looked ruddy, bags under my eyes were deeper and larger, wrinkles were more pronounced, and of course there was weight gain because alcohol is all empty calories made from mostly sugar.
This is regular me:
This is me drinking 1 to 5 drinks per week:
6 to 10 drinks per week:
And finally, 10+ drinks a week:
Here's another shot of me not drinking:
And 10+ drinks a week:
What do you think? If you drink a glass of wine or two every day, would this persuade you to cut back?
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