How I avoided burning down my house 🔥

It occurred to me a few weeks ago that I've been in my current home for a DECADE. This is the longest I've lived ANYWHERE since my childhood home, and y'all ... the accumulation of ✨stuff✨ really proves it.

Earlier this summer, I had planned to do a remodel of my primary bathroom. I was working with Dani from Inspired Interiors (who is LOVELY, HIGHLY RECOMMEND, EVERYONE GO HIRE HER) when I had a complete fucking nervous breakdown over the sheer amount of prep work that is required for a remodel.

Namely, cleaning and packing my whole damn house.

So you know what I did? I cancelled the remodel and instead, hired a home organizer.

Listen. I'm a single mom with ADHD and two young kids. I'm not a hoarder, but I become paralyzed at the intersection of "keep / donate / toss." I was feeling suffocated by my surroundings and was *thisclose* to striking a match and burning it all down.

But I figured I'd get less jail time if I just hired someone instead.

When I told my dad what I was doing (and how much it cost), he lost his mind. He thought I was absolutely NUTS. My kids are livid at the idea that some of their stuff (read: old McDonald's toys they have not looked at in years) might vanish under mysterious circumstances. But me? I knew I needed the cleanse.

Enter Lisa from The Productive Owl. Her whole business model is designed specifically for neurodivergent families who are overwhelmed by stuff to the point that we are unable to manage it ourselves. Over the last few weeks, she has helped me by not only physically removing stuff from my home, but also by designing systems for me that help me keep the stuff to a minimum (and off of every available surface).

This is the difference she made in my office yesterday:

When I tell you I feel like I can BREATHE 😮‍💨 I am no longer embarrassed to have people come to my house. I can find things that I thought I lost long ago. It's WILD.

"But Tori, couldn't you just do this yourself? Like how much time does it take to sort through your stuff and throw things away?"

A LOT. It takes a lot of time. And a lot of energy. And both of those things are precious commodities.

So I'm here to tell you that if you ALSO feel like your time and energy are too precious to spend on things you don't want to do — whether that's home organization or social media 😉 — it's okay to outsource. Encouraged, even.

We only have this one life. And with the proliferation of AI, we may not have that much of it left, anyway. Do the things that bring you joy. Outsource the things that don't. We all deserve that freedom and comfort 🧡

🏷️ Instagram is now allowing users to add tagged posts to their grids. "But couldn't we already do this??" No, actually — that was only for posts you were listed on as a collaborator. Maybe you didn't collab, but you were involved somehow. And now, you can have the proof on your grid ✨

🤖 Meta is still trying to make Muse AI happen. This is apparently a different Muse AI from the one that was going to steal all our likenesses and voices, and appears to be designed more along the lines of competing directly with ChatGPT and Claude. Meanwhile, I can't get Instagram to add audio to my posts even after adding it TWICE, NATIVELY, IN THE APP, so maybe Meta could focus on users' real needs for a change??

💸 Meta is also now charging us to use AI with the launch of their new Meta One subscription tiers, to which I must ask ... is it possible to put ALL of the AI behind a paywall so I NEVER have to encounter it??

Let's take the question mark out of "what to post" with a Content Lightning Round! These virtual sessions can be 30 or 60 minutes, and give us time to brainstorm tangible content ideas for your socials.

What you'll get:​
⚡ A list of actionable content ideas
⚡ A strategy on how to implement them
⚡ A recording of our session that you can come back to again and again

Plus: When you book a Content Lightning Round between now and the end of October, 10% of proceeds will go to No Hate in WA State, a campaign fighting anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in Washington state that will be on the ballot this November.

Book your Content Lightning Round ⚡️

​
OTHER WAYS TO WORK WITH ME 👇🏻

🌼 For the small business owner who doesn't want to deal with socials AT ALL, my Super Bloom package is full-service done-for-you social media management that includes content strategy, creation, scheduling, and community engagement!

🌿 If you like personally responding to comments and DMs but don't have time for all the content creation and scheduling, my Big Bloom package offers social media support to take the content component off your plate!

🌱 If you just need help getting photos and videos off your camera roll and turning them into content that converts, my Lil Bloom package is for you!

Pick your package!

🎒 SCHOOL STARTED! You may remember in my last newsletter that Seattle Public Schools were still in the midst of bargaining with the teacher's union into the wee hours the night before school was supposed to start. I am still reeling from the stress of that week, but miraculously, school started on time. We've had some kerfuffles (like the fact that the city bus Big Kid took every day changed routes and no longer goes past our house 😭), but overall, I think my kids are happy to be back at it (and I know I'm certainly happy to have a more concrete week-to-week schedule after a very loosey goosey summer).

👯‍♀️ My bestie and her eldest kiddo were in town over Labor Day weekend, and I may have tried to pack too much shit into three days for all the neurodivergents in our group 😅 With that said, we managed to go to a Mariners game, have Big Kid's birthday party at Seattle Meowtropolitan (a cat cafe), and went to Messina for their incredible pasta flight. So while it was a challenging weekend, it was also a really fun one 🥂

🔯 We are in the midst of the Days of Awe, which are the ten days in between Rosh Hashana (the Jewish new year) and Yom Kippur (the day of atonement). Something feels different to me this year, and I can't put my finger on it. Maybe it's the heavily Millennial clergy at my synagogue and their infectious hope, maybe it's the change in the air as we watch white men face the consequences of their actions in real time, but I just feel like this next year is going to be a good one.