DrDeClutterBlog.com

“Take this marriage thing seriously -
it has to last all the way to the divorce.”
~ Roseanne Barr

Did you know that statistics show there are 1.2 million divorces in the U.S. every year? That means that every year, another 2.4 million people go through divorce. That doesn’t include the children, pets, in- an out-laws and all others affected emotionally and sometimes financially.

If the average cost of divorce is $20,000 per couple that means that Americans are spending $42 billion (yes, that’s billion) on divorces each year! AHHHHHHHHHH!

Stop losing your money, your mind and your mojo over personality and other “differences” gone south.

 If you have questions about your divorce, or need a “Divorce Survival Kit: How to Survive Your Divorce Financially” to help you through one, I want to introduce you to Certified Financial Planner (CFP®) Carol Ann Wilson, professionally trained as a Collaborative Divorce Specialist and a Certified Financial Divorce Practitioner. She is a nationally recognized expert in divorce financial planning and have been quoted in hundreds of articles throughout the country. In addition, she works as a pre-divorce financial analyst/consultant through her consulting company, and is an expert witness in court.

She has a deep passion to help people, men and women, financially survive their divorce. We have all seen it happen, time and time again, after divorce, one spouse or another (sometimes both!) struggle to stay afloat. It is just not necessary.

See Carol Ann’s Bookstore and get Carol Ann’s 10 Most Common Money Mistakes in Divorce.

Make sure to take those memories on film or with digital clicks this summer!

And, when you scrapbook them, write down as much as you can that will describe it so that tomorrow and decades from now anyone can know what the event was, where you were, the date, names, ages, what people were saying, funny things that happened, etc. 

June 21, 2009: My friend Suzi and her 13 year old daughter Laura from Nebraska. They came up to visit with husband/dad Myron to Estes Park. This photo is at Celestial Seasonings in Boulder. We took the tour; the Mint Room cleared our heads! This is Sleepytime Tea Bear in the tour video show room before the tour.

Why write all this? There is simply no way that you or they will remember those details if they are not recorded in some way, especially when on vacation when time gets blurred and neat fun factoids get lost and forgotten.

Don’t miss out on a great experience touring the Celestial Seasonings Tea Factory and Gift Shop when you’re near Boulder, CO. The Mint Room is awesome!

See Part 5 

Turn unused, odd and old pieces of jewelry into new jewelry and art!

You may find pieces that you’ll never wear, or one part is missing, a strand of beads has broken — but you can make art pieces out of them, or use them in your craft supplies. Put them in a separate container and label it. If you’re not the crafty one, give them to someone who is!

Restring beads, add a few new ones, glue to a broach back, etc.

Example: The above photos are pieces of new jewelry my friend Donlyn has made from disassembled old jewelry.

You can visit Donlyn’s beautiful Mercantile anytime to see what else she’s created, and buy it too!

Plus, this is a great way to recycle. Why head gems to the landfill when you someone can enjoy them one more time!

Sometimes our kitchen drawers, cabinets, pantries and other room storage areas just don’t work for us. ShelfGenie specializes in making you happy!! These drawers roll open and shut “like butta!”

GET A $100 DISCOUNT! Here’s a great deal for you if you live on the Front Range of Colorado! If you mention ”Dr. DeClutter” referred you, ShelfGenie will give you a $100 discount on your job!

Stop struggling with cabinets and drawers – call ShelfGenie today and enjoy your kitchen. See the number on the ad above.

Are you a knitter? Crocheter? Yarn project designer?

Do you wish you could stay on top of — and keep organized — your yarn, needles, patterns and projects?

Wish no more!

My friend Sherry L., a big knitter from Arvada, CO just told me about this very cool site – Ravelry (when you click and go to site, if you get dog pictures, you’ll need to try later, they must be busy telling a great yarn!) - where  you can

• Organize your projects, stash, needles, and more.
• Share and show off your work. Share your ideas and techniques.
• Discover and find new designs & yarns.
• Make friends.
• Try new things.
• Have great fun! and more!

Sherry stays motivated and moving forward easily with this nifty site.

Ravelry is a knit and crochet community, plus other yarn arts too.

Ravelry is a place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools, and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration.

Ravelry if a place to make new friends while completing your own special projects.

Very unique – it’s content is all user- driven, “we as a community make the site what it is.”

At this posting, they have 349,355 registered users.

If you’re serious about getting your yarn projects done, and have more fun on the way, Raverly is for you!

Touch times bring out the fear and greed in people. Sadly, there always have been and always will be people who are more than willing and ready to take advantage of those in need, afraid and unlearned in the art-of-responsible-research for self preservation.  (Of course even some of the most learned can get caught up in a scam, the most recent cost many foundations millions and billions of dollars!)

The following is an email from Paul Duxbury, online coach and blogger from Altrincham, Cheshire, UK that covers the pot holes pretty well, and gives some ideas for a good path to follow.

NOTE: As with any referral/resource I offer, be responsible to check everything out for yourself as well for integrity and truth.

FROM PAUL:

For anyone with the skill to help others earn extra monies yes there is an opportunity – but it’s an opportunity to help people. Yes you can look to earn a reasonable amount
from helping people but there will be people who look to line their own pockets at your expense.  So this email is by way of highlighting some of the things you might
encounter and want to avoid!

Marketing Scams: Anyone who has researched ways to make money online has probably come across a scam or two.  Marketing scams have been around for a very long time, but the Internet has made it much easier for them to proliferate.  If you want to make money online, it’s critical to know as much as possible about marketing scams.  Following are some of the more common types of marketing scams.

Pyramid Schemes: A pyramid scheme is similar to multi-level marketing (MLM), which involves participants buying products to create commissions for the person who recruited them.  The recruits then recruit new participants from whom they will earn commissions, and the person above them also earns a commission on their recruits.

MLM is not a scam in and of itself, but pyramid schemes are.  Instead of selling products, participants in a pyramid scheme simply receive money from their recruits, who are then asked to recruit people to pay more money in, and so on.  This is illegal, and often results in loss of money for all but the people at the top of the pyramid.

Envelope Stuffing: Those who want to work from home but lack formal education are often thrilled when they find opportunities to make money stuffing envelopes from home.  With promised pay of a few dollars per envelope, it sounds too good to be true.  And it is.

Advertisements for envelope stuffing jobs usually ask interested parties to send $3 to $5 for more information.  Victims do not think twice about making this small investment because of the promised pay.  But when they send in their money, they receive instructions to place ads just like the ones they responded to and send respondents the
same instructions they received.  They are only paid when someone orders more information about stuffing envelopes.

Affiliate Marketing Scams: Affiliate marketing is a legitimate way to make money online, and it is fairly easy if you run a website or blog.  All you have to do is link to advertisers using a specially coded link, and if a sale is made, you receive a commission.  Lots of reputable companies have affiliate programs, but as in any case, there are a few bad seeds.

There are some warning signs to look for:  An affiliate program should always be free to join, because you are not required to buy a kit or samples.  Some programs that charge fees are just fronts for pyramid schemes, and others might take your money and run.  You should also be able to easily find contact information for the company.  If you’re in doubt, search Google for information about the company.  If it is a scam, you’ll probably find complaints online.

Marketing scams can cost opportunity seekers lots of money, and being taken in by them can be very disheartening.  By doing your homework on any company you consider getting involved with, however, you can usually weed out these scams.  There are legitimate opportunities out there, so don’t let the fear of being scammed stand in your way.

Some of you may have already seen something which has been receiving rave reviews from those looking to earn a little extra money.  It’s a resource that Paul has provided at
absolutely no charge and can be found at:

http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-make-money-now

I hope this slightly longer than usual email will help.

Take care, Paul http://www.paulduxbury.com/

NOTE: As with any referral/resource I offer, be responsible to check everything out for yourself as well for integrity and truth.

Hey, here’s a cool deal!

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My dad passed on this morning at 9:50 a.m.We are a small family who will reminisce by phone and gatherings. But for large families or those who are split across the country or continent making phone calls, even email and planning for funerals, etc. can be overwhelming.

Louise and Monte Zweben have created a website, out of their own experiences of family loss, that will be helpful to so many. This wonderful new service is used to notify family and friends about the death of a family/close friend and the upcoming schedule/location of related services when otherwise it’s all too stressful and difficult.

Sympathy Tree is a new website and service that can be an important part of the ongoing grieving and healing process as well. When people gather at a funeral or a memorial service, they see friends and relatives they have not seen in a while. Together they pay tribute, share stories and memories, and comfort one another. It’s often a very cathartic and reflective experience. Louise and Monte realized that this experience could be extended beyond the funeral events by creating a virtual place online where people can come together to grieve, heal, and comfort each other for generations to come. Thus the birth of SympathyTree.com, a place where children, grandchildren and other friends and family can visit anytime from anywhere in the world to converse, tell stories, enrich those stories with photos and videos, and allow others to add their own thoughts and photos to stories.

Louise and Monte Zweben‘s vision is for SympathyTree to become a site where people come to celebrate the lives of those they have recently lost and share their stories of love and loss, sadness and joy, and in the process, provide comfort to each other during this difficult time. They see SympathyTree as the place where future generations can treasure those stories and “get to know” their grandparents and great grandparents. Finally, they invision it to be a site through which immediately family members of the deceased can notify their friends and family privately about the services and assist them during the most stressful time of their lives.

I love having clients, now friends, who are so creative.

Sandy Sartor is one of these. In an effort to help her very right-braincreative/learning children learn left-brain math, she created these very cool books!

Listen in Addition and Multiplication Sensation, move the mind, and the body, to learn snappy songs to number adding and multiplying. Great job Sandy!

Click here and find out more!

I’m not excited about people “storing” things, but sometimes there is that in-between time; between moves, etc. where you need that truck, shed, compartment or barge! in which to put your precious (and sometimes not-so-precious-but-you-haven’t-looked-in-those-boxes-for-20-years) stuff.

There are some good companies out there to help you in a jiff. 1800packrat is one of them. Check them out and see how they might help you too!