How do you manage time? Do you say: “I am too busy,” “I have too much to do,” “I don’t have enough time for…” Here’s something you might not want to hear: You’re already in control of your time. You just haven’t set the time aside to do the things on your wishlist.  If you don’t set the time aside, you’re absolutely correct; you don’t have enough time. But, if you do set the time, magically, you will.

Start using your calendar as your key to unlocking what you want. What you spend your time doing is what your life will become. You want to be more mindful? Set yourself up to learn how to practice mindfulness. For me, the key to unlocking mindfulness was my meditation practice.

Our homes continue to be our everything space – workplace, school, gym, restaurant and more. The good news: we don’t have the outside world to distract us this year. No lunch dates. No office birthday parties. No outside interference. If we create a mindful home, it will support our resolutions … To lead a more organized and inspired life, the space around you must function to meet your new needs. It’s empowering: if your home is organized, your mindset will be too.

Remember life pre-pandemic lock down before your dining room morphed into your zoom room, office, workstation and study hall.? Thanks to your new work-at-home lifestyle, files and papers found a permanent home on your dining room table. You probably haven’t had a meal on that table, besides a quick sandwich and many lattes, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now the holidays are here, and while we won’t be hosting big gatherings this year, it would be nice to have a holiday meal with a few close family and friends in your safe bubble. It’s time to reclaim and tame the dining room table! A little organizational magic and presto you can alleviate the room identity crisis and turn it into a beautiful two-in-one space. An office by day and a dining room by night!

Every year, for the past eight years,  NorthStar Moving has hosted a community food drive called Let’s Send Hunger Packing. Our 2020 Let’s Send Hunger Packing Food Drive just came to a close and I am proud to share our team and community truly stepped up. We raised the most donations in our eight years of conducting the food drive! We raised $47,046 for the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, providing 188,184 meals to feed hungry children in Los Angeles County. We are so grateful to everyone dedicated to making a difference in the lives of hungry children throughout the LA region. This is something all of us can do to make a difference in a hungry child’s life: donate to your local food bank, it’s as easy as a click of a button.

Over the past few months, we have all been learning how to adapt to the changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. While many of our social events or travel plans have been put on hold, moving does not have to be. Moving and Storage are actually considered essential businesses, which means they remain open. With a little extra planning and by following the CDC and WHO safety measures, you can safely move during the COVID-19 outbreak. Here are some of our top safety tips for moving during COVID-19 to protect your family and belongings.

Perhaps, your work has now swallowed up the dining room table? Or, your kids are taking online classes on their bedroom floor? Is the only quiet place you can find to conduct a Zoom conference call in the bathroom? Yikes! It’s time to take control!

Our lifestyle change was abrupt, and with more companies potentially moving to a more permanent work from home policy, we should think about how to configure our space to better serve our new lifestyles.

Here are some simple steps to help transform your home space into a comfortable and functional place suited to your new stay-at-home needs:

These are certainly challenging times, especially if you have children who are home because their schools and daycare facilities have been temporarily shut down due to COVID-19. Whether or not you are working from home yourself, many still need to figure out how to keep their kids busy and challenged – without the options of trips to parks, libraries, theaters, museums and other public gathering spaces. Here are some tips on how to keep your kids’ minds moving and motivated throughout however long this takes.

Just a few short weeks ago, “spring cleaning” meant taking advantage of the longer days to dust off your home and make it nice and shiny for the warmer months. Today, we’re living a new reality.  

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought us all together. We are sharing the collective experience of being at home, doing our utmost to stay healthy and making sure we are doing our part to flatten the curve to keep entire communities safe. Since many of us are at home full-time, it is vital that we ensure our environment is safe and virus-free. Staying home and staying clean & disinfected is how we are going to flatten the curve and keep us all safe.

Here are the 5 things you can do to help keep the coronavirus from living in your home:

Moving can be stressful for all living beings. When it comes to change, plants are especially vulnerable. However, with a little love and some planning you can protect your plants and help them adjust to their new environment. 

Whether you are worried about your small succulent collection or you are a certified plant parent, be assured these tips from Tim Moore, lead editor of Backyard Boss, will help keep your plants safe and secure throughout the moving process.

If you are moving, it is the perfect opportunity to help feed hungry kids. The act of giving while you move will actually make your move easier and potentially help those in need. As you pack up your kitchen, don’t throw away those unexpired canned and dried goods, donate them! Save yourself some heavy lifting and shelf place in the new place. Sounds easy right? It gets better, you don’t even have to take the food down to your local food bank yourself!

Visit www.MoveForHunger.org, a non-profit organization that will connect you with a local moving company that will deliver your non-perishable food donations to your local food bank for you. Check out their Find A Mover tool and feel good about working with a moving company that gives back. It’s free and one less thing to pack.