I received my next question for BlogHer's Life Well Lived series. It is:

What are your favorite resources (Products, Apps, Books, Websites, etc.) to help you get organized?

I would love to tell you that I'm the sort of person who has an app for her grocery list and her entire family's birthday list organized in a cute card folder. But I would be LYING. I am a fairly organized person, but I don't use anything special, for the most part. Here are my tools.

1) Notebooks -- I don't like to mix my notes. I have currently a notebook for work, a notebook for my YA novel, a notebook for my new novel, a notebook of marketing ideas if either novel finds purchase and a notebook for The Writers Place, which is a local nonprofit arts organization for which I serve on the board. I get twitchy if I have to make a note about one in another, because then I'll forget I did it. I realize this is a little weird, but it works for me. When the work notebooks get full (which happens once every month or two months), I put them on a shelf in my office. When they are four notebooks old, I recycle them, because seriously, if we haven't used that idea yet, we probably won't, right?

2) Grouping Like Objects -- This is really the only way I survive. Shoes only live in closets. Swimming suits only live in certain drawers or hanging in the bathroom. Jewelry is all in one place. New mail is in one basket, mail to be filed is in another basket and bills to be mailed are in a third file. All the travel-sized toiletries are in the same bag all the time, and I just grab it when I have to go on a trip. My husband travels a lot for business, and I recently got him some travel bags so he can just have a bunch of ties that go with everything all the time ready to go in an instant. We have a place where we keep coupons so we try to grab them before we go to the store or out to eat. If I have to spend time looking for something, it's a fail -- life is too short to be turning your house upside down all the time.

3) Excel Spreadsheets -- My friend Jodi turned me on to using Excel for personal stuff way back in 1997. (She used to be an accountant.) Now I have a Google doc of the paint colors on every wall in our house, because seriously, if you need to touch up and you don't remember the color? NIGHTMARE. I have a Google doc for our monthly budget. I have a Google doc of my novel submissions. I have a Google doc of family addresses. If Google crashes, I will die, but it won't matter, because so will the Earth.

4) Outlook Notes -- I use Outlook notes for stuff I really should remember but never, ever do.

5) Post-Its and Notepads -- Grocery lists and daily to-do lists. I throw them away the minute they are done. I stick them to the steering wheel of my car while I'm driving because I am so absent-minded, I can forget something on contact. Yesterday I had a check to deposit, I had it on a Post-It in my car, and I STILL forgot because I was talking to my daughter and just automatically drove home instead of going to the bank. 

6) My Friends -- I have friends who just know stuff. Foodie friends, bookish friends, grammar freak friends, stylish friends, friends who know how to garden, friends who know what I wore to BlogHer last year -- you get it. Friends are very good for storing all that information you'll never remember. Just call in a lifeline if you don't know if maxi dresses are still in. OKAY, THAT WAS A SERIOUS QUESTION. ARE MAXI DRESSES STILL COOL?

Do you guys all app out or are you like me?

Over at BlogHer, Alicia from Get Buttoned Up has a loooong list of apps and things that can help you get organized.

And, as always, when I subject you to this sort of post, I want you to win something. This time it's an iPod Touch!

On Monday night, I sat across the aisle from Gloria Steinem at a premiere of Jane Fonda's new movie with Catherine Keener, Peace, Love & Misunderstanding. I sat next to my BlogHer editor-in-chief, Stacy Morrison, who as usual was wearing shoes much more fabulous than mine. The whole thing was at the New York City Museum of Modern Art. 

What makes this even better is that I'm typing this from my normal office in Kansas City while wearing a running skort and a baseball hat.

When Stacy told me about the event, I immediately asked what I was supposed to wear. I worried about it briefly, then decided I would wear one of my Outfits by Goodwill -- a black Jones New York cocktail dress with satin trim and hot-pink, pointy-toed mules. I also wore the necklace my niece made that everyone thinks I paid millions of dollars for, when in actuality I think I slipped her $40.

We had a great time at the premiere and the afterparty, but when I got back to my hotel room, I realized the zipper that was too stuck for Stacy to pull it all the way up when we left was too stuck for me to pull down. AT ALL. And the dress was too well made to tear. I was completely trapped in Jones New York. I tugged and pulled, but considering that it was almost midnight and I was exhausted and I paid $6 for the dress in the first place, I concluded that two wearings -- a friend's wedding and GLORIA STEINEM -- was a fine ROI for $6. Since I was in a frickin' extended-stay hotel with no room service or maid service, there was a butcher knife handy. 

I should've photographed the knife. 

Blogging conference keynotes are like other keynotes until they aren't. The keynotes at BEA Bloggers Conference were hilarious. 

First up was Jennifer Weiner, who has been pumping out almost a novel a year for the past twelve or so years. She had a lot to say about the New York Times, chick lit (or really, do we have to call it that?) and the ups and downs of her writing career. I found her funny and approachable, especially when she told us to let her know if her bra showed while she was talking. And she was a salty girl, which is always entertaining if the person has a great sense of humor, which Jennifer does.

I didn't see the closing keynoter Jenny Lawson (also known as The Bloggess and oh, that debut author who has been sitting on the New York Times bestseller list for the past six weeks) until right before she took the podium. 

Me: Dude, you should know that Jennifer Weiner dropped six F-bombs and two "blow jobs" in her keynote.

Jenny: Really? Wow.

Me: Yeah. I think that's not the bar, that's the floor.

Jenny: Oh shit.

I wasn't too worried. Jenny, after all, said "lady garden" on CNN.

She ended up telling us the story of her ten-year overnight success and how her "mythical hobbit" showdown with Heather Armstrong (aka Dooce) (also an awesome person and friend with many books you should buy) at BlogHer 2008 ended up getting the attention of her now agent, Neeti Madan, with whom I served on a blogs to books panel at the same fated BlogHer conference -- a panel which apparently drove Jenny to drink. (I'm sorry, Jenny. Eek.) I didn't know Jenny back then but I, too, was fascinated and ended up reading her blog and became a huge fan shortly thereafter. The woman is so funny she can make me cry with one sentence. I'm not kidding. Go buy her book. The story turns out well because Heather and Jenny became friends, but as two extremely well known bloggers who now have to live their lives online, I feel for both of them. I applaud their success online and offline and believe them both to be talented writers who deserve every accolade. Those of us who are not extremely well known have no idea what it's like to have our actions critiqued publicly all the time. Following the evolution of the mythical hobbit reminded me HELLO BLOGGERS ARE PEOPLE and also? Don't analyze people in public. It's rude. I try very hard not to do that anymore. ANYMORE -- because I have done it in the past, and I truly regret it. /moral of the story

It was interesting to see two funny ladies -- one well into her career and one who's just slipped under the velvet rope into the world of Big Six publishing -- tell their versions of the journey to publishing success. Congratulations to both of them. I wish you guys could've been there. Also, Jenny and I spent Tuesday night in the same hotel only I didn't know it until I saw her the next day. Jenny started tweeting about it and managed to trend #WorstHotelEver. I walked in, feared bedbugs, walked around the street and bought a bottle of wine even though it was midnight. It is very easy to miss material, my good friends.

I have funny stories from my trip to Book Expo America to speak at its subconference, Book Bloggers Conference. However, as always happens when you return from a business trip at 10 pm during the work week, I'M DYING. So, tomorrow! In the meantime, please to enjoy some fuzzy, crappy pictures I took with my phone!

Horseless carriages. I SLAY ME!!!

Panel beginning to fill up -- it had great attendance, phew!

Book Blogger Convention co-founder Michelle Franz and my partner in bookish crime at BlogHer, Karen Ballum aka Sassymonkey.

Me, Jenny Lawson (The Bloggess) and Karen Ballum (Sassymonkey)

There is so a story behind this.

Also, Ray Bradbury died today. My tribute to him is on BlogHer.

I'm getting ready to take off for New York City to speak at Book Bloggers Conference, which is part of Book Expo America. The opening keynote is author Jennifer Weiner, and the closing remarks -- wow, is the world small -- are by my friend Jenny Lawson, also known as The Bloggess.

My session is on monetizing book blogs. I'm excited to meet and talk shop with my fellow panelists.

So You Want to Make Money?

Syndication, Monetization and Affiliate Programs for your Blog

Moderator: Scott Fox, ClickMillionaires.com
Speaker: Rita Arens, Senior Editor, BlogHer.com
Speaker: Ron Hogan, Beatrice.com 
Speaker: Thea James, Co-Founder, The Book Smugglers
Speaker: Sarah Pitre, Blogger, Forever Young Adult 

Though it's making me sad to leave for two nights, I'm beyond excited to wade in the deep end of publishing for a while day and a half. I WILL TAKE WHAT I CAN GET AND LIKE IT.

I'll be photoblogging hopefully while I'm there so I can take you with me. This is a huge conference for the publishing industry, and I have no idea what to expect.

BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS 

I wrote a post today for BlogHer admitting that I really can't stand being plugged in all the time -- so I'm not. I know many, many "normal" people who have no problem avoiding social media and email, but not too many people like me -- bloggers, people who work in new media. Am I the only one?

I have a confession to make: I have no problem unplugging. Hello, my name is Rita, I work on the Internet, and I frequently leave the house without my phone. There, I said it.

I started blogging in 2004 and remember vividly sitting next to Liz Gumbinner at the BlogHer Business '07 in New York City watching her use this crazy thing called Twitter on her new-fangled iPhone. I didn't really get immersed in Twitter until 2009 when I joined BlogHer and no longer had to hide my social media use when someone walked by. In fact, I had more of it than ever -- trying to keep up with Twitter, Facebook, internal IM, two e-mail accounts, my blog, everyone else's blog and BlogHer.com was something that took some getting used to. I started having those work dreams about being assigned to catalogue the Internet again, and that's when I knew I had to get a handle on it.

Read the rest on BlogHer.

Scene: Gas station. Vicki is parked, and I'm pumping gas. Vicki's top is down. Stop it -- she's a convertible.

Little Angel: (with a clear view of the pump since the top is down) $1, $2, $3

Me: Yup.

Little Angel: That's going really fast.

Me: Yup. Vicki's got a fifteen-gallon tank. It's going to be like $50.

Little Angel: $15, $16 ... (on up to $48).

Me: Huh, gas prices must've gone down.

Little Angel: It costs that much money just to put gas in the car?

Me: Ha. Yes.

Little Angel: No wonder you're not a stay-at-home-mom.

Ba-dum, ching!

Speaking of not being a stay-at-home-mom due to financial necessity, I wrote a new post on crying vs. yelling at work over at BlogHer. The comments are great, go check it out!

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Struggling to get your kids to exercise? Check out my review of Geopalz on Surrender, Dorothy: Reviews!

Thank you for bearing with my through yesterday's whining. Despite waking up at 3 am realizing I might still be at a doctor's appointment when the school bus arrives outside my door today and not being able to go back to sleep for an hour, I feel better today than I did yesterday. I've even already solved for the school bus problem! Yay, me.

As I'm currently moping around wishing I had an energy level commiserate to vacuuming, it's funny that this is the week that I've been selected to write about keeping up with kid clutter for BlogHer's Life Well Lived series. Ha ha ha ha ha. But actually, I do normally hate clutter with a passion, and as soon as I feel better for realz, I'm going to attack the following.

The Question: What are your best tips for keeping the clutter at bay with kids in the house? How do you help your kids develop good organizing skills?

The Answers:

1) Have one kid. I'm sort of kidding. On the serious side, kids bring home a steady stream of papers, pencils, wads of gum, extra shoelaces and various cheap plastic crap they will declare essential to their existence. This stuff multiplies exponentially per child. If you haven't started your family yet and you seriously hate clutter, just be aware of how your personality may or may not jibe with a big family. Kids are cluttery. Yes, we can try to combat it, but a certain amount is normal and reasonable and it's not fair to try to contain them within the bounds of an adult. 

2) Make sure everyone has containers for his or her stuff. Downstairs where the school-related clutter backs up most, we have a homework box and a crate we use to house all the library books. Yes, there are two things sitting on the kitchen floor at all times, but at least the piles are minimized. We have a few other baskets for my husband and me -- one is for bills that haven't been opened yet and another is for bills that need to be filed or shredded. 

3) Act on piles every day. My husband and daughter get sick of me walking around the house, picking up their shoes and tossing them in the hall closet. See also removing recylables to the garage immediately, tossing school assignments not keep-worthy and demanding my daughter decide if yet another wacky wall-walker is necessary or expendable. However, I've noticed in the weeks I don't do that, the piles take over every surface of the house within a mere three days, putting algae to shame.

4) Make garage sales pay off for the child(ren). In exchange for ruthless clean-outs, I let my girl keep the proceeds from our yearly garage sale/lemonade stand. It's her version of watching us sell stuff on Craigslist and use the money for something else.

5) Find a personal hand-me-down recipient. If your kids know where their outgrown clothes are going -- to which specific kid -- they're much more likely to relinquish something than if it's just going in the Goodwill pile. At the first sighting of a too-high hemline or extra ankle exposure, remove said item of clothing and put it in a sack for your favorite little neighbor or relative or friend. 

6) Hang shelves. My girl has a snow globe collection that made it so frustrating to dust in her room that I finally begged my husband to hang some shelves on her walls. It's so freeing to be able to access the surface of her dresser -- I can't even tell you what this does for my soul. For some reason, clutter on the floor is infinitely more annoying to me than clutter on a shelf. Why? I do not know.

7) Group like objects. We have spaghetti jars full of googly eyes, pipe cleaners, beads, paint brushes, etc. in the basement, along with an old dresser full of craft stuff. Being able to see what you have makes it less likely you'll buy the same thing twice. I try to teach my girl to look first before we buy anything. Nobody needs 42 tubes of Elmer's Glue. No, you don't. Back away.

That's pretty much it. I feel like my house is overcome with clutter most days, even though it's not as bad as it could be. I find making a swoop around the house every afternoon before dinner does a lot to calm my soul. How do you handle kid clutter? 

Here's what Alicia from Get Buttoned Up had to say at BlogHer.

As always, I want you to win some stuff. This time you can win an iPod Touch and a $50 iTunes gift card. So go enter! (and hurry, I was late on the pick-up and the sweepstakes ends TOMORROW MAY 16)

I've had a rough few weeks in terms of ego. The self doubt creeps in, the why-am-I-doing-this, the what-if-this-happens-what-if-that-happens-what-should-I-do-next. Yesterday Beloved pointed out I'd forgotten an entire conversation with him because I was secretly stewing over something else. 

I recently read Vanessa Williams memoir with her mom, Helen Williams, for BlogHer Book Club. I admit to never following Vanessa's career, and so I probably would not have picked up this book on my own. What I took away is that Vanessa has some serious fire in the belly. She never doubted herself, not when she was blocked from Broadway after the Miss America thing, not when she faced numerous professional obstacles that would've sidelined most actresses. Or singers. Or dancers. She apparently is all of these things. She wrote: 

I knew it would be tough, but I also never doubted I would succeed. When you know this, you don't have dark days, you don't hit rock bottom. You just have days when you want to scream at people: "You have no idea what I can do!"

You need that kind of confidence, and of course talent, and a truckload of luck to succeed in any creative field. Creative fields are tough. Those in charge give your work (or good Lord, if you're an actress, your actual self) a cursory glance and make a snap decision, usually based on gut and whatever hole they're trying to plug that day. It's inevitable you will only be the right fit in certain situations, but in order to get yourself into the situations where luck might smile on you, you have to have the confidence to keep going, keep picking yourself up off the floor and resubmitting the work to the next gallery or agent or editor or producer. 

I'm in a place where the next few weeks will result in euphoria or the need to pick myself up off the ground. I feel the need to start kindling the fire now, but I'm looking around my writing cave and finding very little firewood. I've been riding the wave of amped-up anxiety since January, trying to pack it back so I can read to my daughter or make dinner or attend meetings. It pops up at the most unexpected times, the ohmygodwhat'sgoingtohappennext, and sometimes it kills me that I have to keep on living normal life when creatively I'm hanging in such a big career balance, just swinging waiting to see if luck and talent will coincide with someone who needs something just like mine at this particular place in time in history and in publishing. It's been three years since I started dreaming this particular dream. Three years is a long time to keep a fire stoked, through rewrites and feedback and agents and writing partners and readers.

I'm looking hard at myself as I wait to hear what will come of this particular ride. If it doesn't pan out the way I hope it will, I'm going to have to start over, take another tack. Do I believe the world doesn't know what I can do?

I have to.

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Congratulations to the winner of the Midwest Dairy Council's Get Mooooving gift pack on Surrender, Dorothy: Reviews!