What a lovely mess

In hopes of selling our home and moving to a new one, we have begun the cleaning out process here at the Smith household.

I always love this kind of mess, because it's like the calm before the storm, except in reverse. Practically everything that we own is currently residing in our dining room area waiting to be organized, repaired or dumped.

Some of the things we've kept over the years is very interesting. I have about 150 Martha Stewart magazines. I wonder what I could get for those on ebay? Cards from the third grade and glue sticks out the whazoo fill what seems like a convoy of plastic tubs running through the house.

Some remnants of an old business of mine called Lucky Dog Cafe were prominent, and brought back such great memories. I really had fun with that one. It was an all natural pet treat business, but I named the treats things like Carobccino Chip, and Minty Biscotti, and packaged them in coffee cups and coffee bean bags to go with the cafe theme. Baking isn't easy, and in the doggy world, every single flavor is a $50 state fee per year (and could be more these days) so, I stuck to three flavors and was soon realizing that I would never be able to compete with the big boys who had things like brownies, bagels and actual cakes for the furry folk. So, I moved on to a few other random things, like wreaths and resume writing, before coming to my lifelong passion, which is DipSticks.

Getting organized and cleaning out feels good. It's always nice to take that trip down memory lane, but to clear your head and focus on the future, both in life and in business...that's what it's all about.