Another great way to sort your closet and make $$$....

Nancy Brenner, expert shopper, reports on another great way to make money of the old clothes in your closet. Enjoy the article in Forbes and happy hunting....the proof is in the wardrobe.

The UBS Dress Code: Do's and Dont's

I caught this article on "In the papers" on NY1 this morning. I couldn't believe I was hearing the "do's and dont's" see below.
To me this seems like basic life maintenence but if not could be an incentive to work with a professional organizer/LMSW to help get you set for the do's....

• DECEMBER 15, 2010

Dress to Impress, UBS Tells Staff

By ELENA BERTON

First impressions count. This is the message Swiss bank UBS AG is sending its Swiss retail banking staff with a 43-page code dispensing advice on how to impress customers with a polished appearance.

Echoing rules applied at Swiss boarding schools, UBS's guidelines go beyond a list of dress "do's" and "don'ts" by providing hygiene and grooming tips often dotted with aphorisms worthy of fashion and beauty magazines.

The move is part of a test UBS is carrying out in Switzerland across five pilot branches. It follows a recent advertising campaign aimed at re-establishing confidence in the Swiss bank's brand and mending relations with clients.

The UBS Dress Code: Do's and Don'ts

Do's

For women:

• Wear your jacket buttoned.
• When sitting, the buttons should be unfastened.
• Make sure to touch up hair regrowth regularly if you color your hair.

For men:

• Store your suit on a large hanger with rounded shoulders to preserve the shape of the garment.
• Schedule barber appointments every four weeks to maintain your haircut shape.

Don'ts

• Eating garlic and onions
• Smoking or spending time in smoke-filled places
• Wearing short-sleeved shirts or cuff links
• Wearing socks that are too short, showing your skin while sitting
• Allowing underwear to be seen
• Touching up perfume during or after lunch break
• Using tie knots that don't match your face shape and/or body shape

As if taking a cue from style manuals, which often stress the importance of well-cut basic outfits in neutral colors, the bank expects its retail banking staff to wear suits in dark grey, black or navy blue, since these colors "symbolize competence, formalism and sobriety."

Short skirts are off limits for female staff, who are told the ideal length should reach the middle of the knee. Showy accessories and trendy spectacles are a no-no. The document isn't short of handy grooming tips.

"Light makeup consisting of foundation, mascara and discreet lipstick ... will enhance your personality," the code says, while advising women not to wear black nail polish and nail art.

The hair-care section notes studies have shown that properly cared-for hair and a stylish haircut "increase an individual's popularity."

AFP/Getty Images

Oswald J. Gruebel, chief executive of Swiss Bank UBS, speaks during a press conference in Zurich earlier this year.On the other hand, designer stubble is out of the question for men, as is excessive facial hair.UBS's advice for men even extends to underwear, which should be of good quality and easily washable, but still remain undetectable. Black knee-high socks are preferable as they prevent showing bare skin when crossing legs, it says.

Strong fragrances are unadvisable in the presence of customers, along with garlic and cigarette breath, the code says. The solution: "Avoid garlic and onion-based dishes."

Accessorizing for male staff excludes items like bracelets and earrings, but wearing timepieces is encouraged, since wristwatches suggest "reliability and great care for punctuality."

Male employees are also warned about using hair dyes to mask their advancing age, since the "artificial color contrasts excessively with the actual age of your skin."

UBS spokesman Jean-Raphael Fontannaz acknowledged that the code may appear very detailed and "in line with Swiss precision," but pointed out that these guidelines were originally set up for temporary staffers who may be new to working in a banking environment.

He said the dress code may be rolled out in all UBS's branches in Switzerland if the test proves successful. "Even so, only around 1,500 [employees] would be affected, less than 10% of our staff in Switzerland," Mr. Fontannaz added.

"The goal is for clients to immediately know that they are at UBS when they are entering the bank," he said. "After the test phase we may implement the dress code, or adapt it, or not use it at all."

—Anita Greil in Zurich contributed to this article.

Write to Elena Berton at elena.berton@dowjones.com

Item reccomendation of the month...

Yes, it has been a while since I my last post. I have been organizing, researching and learning new tips and ideas. I wanted to share it forward with my readers.

Ottomans. Functional, storage, additional seating and good all around for just putting your feet up. I just purchased this ottoman from Overstock. It is under $100, free shipping and very versatile. Inside I have stored blankets for the couch and guests sheets and pillows. A bonus tip about this item, you can collapse it and store it under your bed or in a closet if you need more space!

For me it's about multi-purpose. I think this item is a great addition to apartment living and wanted to share it with you.

insight into my own inspiration....Closet Rehab

I thought I'd pass this interesting article along. Clearly I am not the only one who's hung onto old clothes.

Closet Rehab: Why We Keep Clothes That Don't Fit - iVillage: "Closet Rehab: Why We Keep Clothes That Don't Fit"

Echos of truth from NY Times essay "Why Sisterly Chats Make People Happier"

The anniversary of my birth is this month and it could not be more appropriate that I came across the article below. Something about me...I am the youngest child with three older brothers. I think my interest in organizing and rearranging things in my childhood bedroom stem from my disinterest in GI Joes, Lego's and Lincoln Logs or more so my brothers disinterest in their little sister.

Every year on my birthday, like most parents or family members, I get asked what I would like as a gift. In my mid-adolescents the PERFECT gift came to mind. What do I want you ask....an older sister. I want an older sister. Someone to confide in, share stories, gripes about life, laughs. Someone to ask advice from or get unsolicitated advice from and know, no matter what, they love you, regardless of your decisions or actions. Don't get me wrong. older brothers are caring and supportive but there is something to be said about sisters.

This essay below validates my desire for that older sister. Now easing into my 4th decade in this world, with more than 15 years of asking for a gift that will, knowingly, never arrive, I have come to terms that this gift is unattainable, for many reasons.

I did however luck out. I do not have an older sister but I do have four amazing sister-in-laws. Each sister-in-law is different from the other, most older than me, and have full-filled, beyond my wildest dreams, my wish to have an older sister. They act as a sounding board, support, friend, listener, among many other things.

Don't get me wrong I love calling my local brother on the phone and when he gets distracted by the TV and I have to start singing my sentences to grab is attention. But sister's seem to offer that ear differently.

October 25, 2010

Why Sisterly Chats Make People Happier

By DEBORAH TANNEN

“Having a Sister Makes You Happier”: that was the headline on a recent article about a study finding that adolescents who have a sister are less likely to report such feelings as “I am unhappy, sad or depressed” and “I feel like no one loves me.”

These findings are no fluke; other studies have come to similar conclusions. But why would having a sister make you happier?

The usual answer — that girls and women are more likely than boys and men to talk about emotions — is somehow unsatisfying, especially to a researcher like me. Much of my work over the years has developed the premise that women’s styles of friendship and conversation aren’t inherently better than men’s, simply different.

A man once told me that he had spent a day with a friend who was going through a divorce. When he returned home, his wife asked how his friend was coping. He replied: “I don’t know. We didn’t talk about it.”

His wife chastised him. Obviously, she said, the friend needed to talk about what he was going through.

This made the man feel bad. So he was relieved to read in my book “You Just Don’t Understand” (Ballantine, 1990) that doing things together can be a comfort in itself, another way to show caring. Asking about the divorce might have made his friend feel worse by reminding him of it, and expressing concern could have come across as condescending.

The man who told me this was himself comforted to be reassured that his instincts hadn’t been wrong and he hadn’t let his friend down.

But if talking about problems isn’t necessary for comfort, then having sisters shouldn’t make men happier than having brothers. Yet the recent study — by Laura Padilla-Walker and her colleagues at Brigham Young University — is supported by others.

Last year, for example, the British psychologists Liz Wright and Tony Cassidy found that young people who had grown up with at least one sister tended to be happier and more optimistic, especially if their parents had divorced. Another British researcher, Judy Dunn, found a similar pattern among older adults.

So what is going on?

My own recent research about sisters suggests a more subtle dynamic. I interviewed more than 100 women about their sisters, but if they also had brothers, I asked them to compare. Most said they talked to their sisters more often, at greater length and, yes, about more personal topics. This often meant that they felt closer to their sisters, but not always.

One woman, for example, says she talks for hours by phone to her two brothers as well as her two sisters. But the topics differ. She talks to her sisters about their personal lives; with her brothers she discusses history, geography and books. And, she added, one brother calls her at 5 a.m. as a prank.

A prank? Is this communication? Well, yes — it reminds her that he’s thinking of her. And talking for hours creates and reinforces connections with both brothers and sisters, regardless of what they talk about.

A student in my class recounted a situation that shows how this can work. When their family dog died, the siblings (a brother and three sisters) all called one another. The sisters told one another how much they missed the dog and how terrible they felt. The brother expressed concern for everyone in the family but said nothing about what he himself was feeling.

My student didn’t doubt that her brother felt the same as his sisters; he just didn’t say it directly. And I’ll bet that having the phone conversations served exactly the same purpose for him as the sisters’ calls did for them: providing comfort in the face of their shared loss.

So the key to why having sisters makes people happier — men as well as women — may lie not in the kind of talk they exchange but in the fact of talk. If men, like women, talk more often to their sisters than to their brothers, that could explain why sisters make them happier. The interviews I conducted with women reinforced this insight. Many told me that they don’t talk to their sisters about personal problems, either.

An example is Colleen, a widow in her 80s who told me that she’d been very close to her unmarried sister throughout their lives, though they never discussed their personal problems. An image of these sisters has remained indelible in my mind.

Late in life, the sister came to live with Colleen and her husband. Colleen recalled that each morning after her husband got up to make coffee, her sister would stop by Colleen’s bedroom to say good morning. Colleen would urge her sister to join her in bed. As they sat up in bed side by side, holding hands, Colleen and her sister would “just talk.”

That’s another kind of conversation that many women engage in which baffles many men: talk about details of their daily lives, like the sweater they found on sale — details, you might say, as insignificant as those about last night’s ballgame which can baffle women when they overhear men talking. These seemingly pointless conversations are as comforting to some women as “troubles talk” conversations are to others.

So maybe it’s true that talk is the reason having a sister makes you happier, but it needn’t be talk about emotions. When women told me they talk to their sisters more often, at greater length and about more personal topics, I suspect it’s that first element — more often — that is crucial rather than the last.

This makes sense to me as a linguist who truly believes that women’s ways of talking are not inherently better than men’s. It also feels right to me as a woman with two sisters — one who likes to have long conversations about feelings and one who doesn’t, but who both make me happier.

Deborah Tannen is a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University and the author, most recently, of “You Were Always Mom’s Favorite! Sisters in Conversation Throughout Their Lives.”

1 large bag to Goodwill

Yesterday I sorted and dropped one large bag off at Goodwill and I think it feels great. I just needed to share.

I took all of my pants and skirts out my closet. Then took them all off the hangers, then began my sort. I know I was definitely hard to part with skirts I've had since 2005 and have not worn since well.....2005. But I decided yesterday it was time to pass it on and pay it forward to some lucky person shopping at the local Goodwill store (it's always packed with shoppers).

As soon as I sorted and downsized I knew I needed to take the bag right away otherwise I would "re-sort the bag" especially since I now have spare room on my hangers in the closet. I even thought to call a few friends to see if they would want them, which is not a bad idea but I needed to go directly to the store. I really felt that even the faintest review of the skirts might make me rethink my sort.

24 hours later, no regret. I told myself that I should only keep clothes that I actively wear on a year-to-year basis. I did hold on to 3-4 skirts that will probably go the next purge around but I made big progress. Yes there were skirts and pants that I got in foreign countries that held very nice memories but I use my own tip on myself, I took a picture of the item before I placed it in the bag. Now I will always have a keepsake of that great item.

My point is, even for a professional organizer it is difficult to part with things and find the right time even if you know it is now.

T-shirts and pjs are next week's purge project...

cash for clutter and other fun ideas.....

The current issue of the magazine "First for women" (Oct. 18, 2010) features the article "12 genius ways to turn your clutter into cash." This article offers suggestions and advice regarding how to get rid of unwanted items and get some cash or new goods in return.

1. Recyclables: Mentions the site www.recyclebank.com which offers a program weighing recyclables and awarding in return points good at retailers

2. Sporting equipment: Mentions the site www.playitagainsports.com offering cash for up to 30% of items' resale value

3. Cosmetic containers: Mentions the facts that Estee Lauder's Origins stores accept cosmetic containers for recycling and that returning six used MAC Cosmetics containers to a MAC store leads to a free lipstick

4. Cell phones: Mentions the site www.cellforcash.com which offers cash for outdated phones

5. Video games: Mentions the site www.gamestop.com which offers credit usable at local GameStop stores

6. DVDs and CDs: Mentions the site www.secondspin.com which offers cash for disks in good condition

7. Hobby equipment: Suggests that folks looking to donate used supplies or equipment reach out to special-interest groups accessible via www.meetup.com

8. Unused gift cards: Mentions the fact that www.plasticjungle.com will buy unused gift cards with a minimum balance of $25 (per card)

9. Jewelry: Suggests visiting a reputable jeweler and mentions the site www.americangemsociety.org, where one can find names of certified jewelers

10. Electronics: Mentions the site www.gazelle.com which offers cash for electronics that power on

11. Books: Mentions www.cash4books.net which offers cash as well as free FedEx shipping labels

12. Memorabilia: Mentions www.ebaytradingassistant.com which offers information on eBay's new registered drop-off locations facilitating sale of items on eBay

Safety first?

For my generation, putting a seat belt on when you get into a car is a natural instinct. I do recall our family car's in the early 80's that did not have seat belts. How times have changed for the better.

My parents always told me when I was learning to drive, they weren't worried about me on the road, they were more worried about the other people on the road. I think the same applies to adults wearing helmets.

Clearly the same idea is not translated to riding bike's. I was under the impression it was the Law that everyone riding a bike must be wearing a helmet but that does not seem to be the case. Watching people in Riverside Park and Central Park riding their bike's, I just don't get when I see the kid's wearing helmet's and the parents riding behind without helmets. What's good enough for the kids isn't good enough for the parents?

I am really perplexed when I see people riding without a helmet. Isn't it safety first?

home craft inspiration

I have a 3-ring binder full of clippings and items I've torn out from various magazines and newspapers over the past 10 years of craft ideas for the home that I'd some-day-like-to-do. I am starting to feel that time is coming near.

Ideas for coffee tables, jewelry/makeup holders, homemade picture frames, bulletin boards of the sort. Now that we are settled I am starting to feel the craft homemaker in me starting to itch to come out. I will keep you posted on my projects and I hope Husband is on board with these ideas....

hanging up

We have now moved to the "where should we hang things on our walls" stage of our move. The boxes are gone, the clothes are put away, and things have finally found their homeOn one hand we are inclined to re-hang our pictures in similar places as they were in our last apartment. But I think we are both wavering on that option. Now I am getting to the point where I love the paint colors we picked but am tired of seeing them bare.

This got me thinking about how much hanging pictures, diplomas, etc really make a house a home. I have been looking more closely at friends apartments and how they display their things to give me inspiration. I know it doesn't sound like it is something that is so complicated but we're not moving for a long while and I have a feeling these holes we make in the wall will be there for a long while.

I am browsing my organizing sites for inspiration....