How to Make Lemonade

There’s just no two ways about it: life is very different this week from last, and this is a very weird time to be living through.

My niece, 3.5, gathering lemons in her yard. Fun while sheltering in place! (Photographed by her mama, we are only speaking via FaceTime these days.)

I’m not an expert on anything but organizing, so I’m not going to give you any medical or sanitation advice. But what I can do is tell you what I’m doing day to day, and give you some ideas for how to spend this very strange and isolated episode.

After taking a few days to feel sorry for ourselves and maybe have more wine than is strictly advisable, my husband and I decided to take an active approach towards the shelter in place order here in San Francisco and make a small amount of lemonade out of the big fat bitter lemon that is COVID-19.

Our major concern is the health of our community, whether that means in terms of the spread of the disease or in terms of supporting people who are struggling economically. So we are following the shelter in place orders to the letter: we aren’t leaving the house at all except for walks during which we maintain social distance, and everything coming into our house gets a full scrub down/waiting period in the garage. And we are supporting our local small business owners in any way we can: continuing to pay our service providers no matter what, ordering take out food from our favorite restaurants, and signing up for virtual workouts and events.

But our own health, both physical and mental, is important too! We’re making time to hang out together rather than defaulting to a ton of screen time (we played gin rummy all evening last Saturday and had a pretty amazing time if we’re honest), and to connect with friends and family near and far through the magic of modern technology. Both of our jobs have changed dramatically, and we’re setting specific work hours to tackle our new challenges without totally running ourselves ragged.

Ultimately, the upshot of shelter in place for us is that we just plain have more time on our hands! So, we’ve also made a list of projects around the house that we just haven’t gotten to yet, and plan to tackle those over the coming days.

Everyone’s situation these days is a little bit different, and I support you in doing whatever you gotta do to make it through. But if you, like me, are finding yourself with more time on your hands than you quite know what to do with, I have a suggestion: now is a great time for all those organizing projects you’ve been putting off.

If you’ve got an overflowing closet, a storage space you haven’t touched in years, a garage full of goodness knows what, or a cluttered kitchen preventing you from getting in there and cooking, this is your moment. It’s the perfect project given current constraints: you’re working with only your immediate family members, inside the comfort of your own home, and any organizing product you decide to purchase can be shipped to you.

And if you’re feeling up for the challenge, I’m here for you!

• you can download and follow my How to Organize Your Closet guide

• you can read my blog series on the basic principles of organizing (Intro, Parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

• you can contact me directly

• you can work with me remotely.

Wishing you and yours the best of health, love, and hope during this uncertain time.

LMW