This holiday season, pay attention to the events, the people, the traditions, the parts that bring overwhelm or stress.

Say NO—and mean it; you can safeguard your family’s peace and joy.

Recently, multiple friends blew up my inbox with headlines that read "Marie Kondo no longer has a perfectly tidied house 100% of the time now that she has three kids."

I’ve recently begun reading “My Hygge Home: How to Make Home Your Happy Place” — wow have I been seeking and curating these treasured moments for most of my recent years.

On our first call, a potential client said, “My daughter strives to keep her room tidy because she wants her space too feel ‘Clean crisp serene minimal.’”

“Pause, Mom. What are YOUR adjectives?”

(MY 3 Y/O SIGHS DEEPLY AS HE WRAPS HIS ARMS AROUND ME) "I'm so happy you're here, Mama."

When I was overthinking my name for my professional organizing small business, I kept returning to the word "grace" (in the secular sense of giving yourself kindness and permission to mess up/struggle).

MENTAL HEALTH BREAK.

Be still, look around your room right now, and take a deep breath. Do you feel calm and clear in your space, or is it more like…overwhelm, panic, irritability, hopelessness? YOU ARE NOT ALONE.

Some years ago, my stepdad told me, "We create 99% of our own problems."

I may have been immediately on the defense. 99%? That seems a bit high--what do you think?

Right now, on this very big, exciting, and special day in my family, I’m the only one awake.

“What If”

This image really, really hit me. “What if” is scarcity mindset. Not enough mindset. It’s driven by anxiety.

I’m doing a lot of reflecting on my younger self as I’ve been given this awesome opportunity to declutter, help with design, and organize three teenagers’ bedrooms. I had a butterfly phase, I went through a Wicca phase in high school and collected all the witchy things, I hung up posters in my dorm room that “seemed cool” so I’d fit in.