work from home – Schpilkes The Blog

A Six-Year Mission: Decluttering One Box at a Time

A Six-Year Mission: Decluttering One Box at a Time

We’re on a six-year mission to declutter the house—a mission that began when a broken pipe flooded and destroyed our entire first floor.

We had to box up everything salvageable and move it to the garage while the renovations were underway. Just as the construction was finally completed and we were allowed back in, COVID hit. Suddenly, four adults and a dog were working and living full-time in a house that still wasn’t organized. Computers were everywhere. The boxes? Still in the garage.

Our two-car garage quickly became a one-car-plus-boxes garage. For the past couple of years, we stared at those boxes, inventing every excuse not to deal with them. It’s too cold. It’s too hot. I’m tired. My leg hurts. Any excuse, valid or not, was enough.

But this past year, we finally started. Every weekend, we tackle one box. This weekend’s box? Flat sheets.

I hate flat sheets. I know people use them as a barrier between themselves and the comforter, but I find them cumbersome and annoying. I donated some, but we’d kept extras in the garage “just in case”—for painting, protecting furniture, or other projects.

We pulled them all out, washed them, sorted them. Now we’re asking: what do we really need? Maybe two or three. The rest? Donate or sell.

We don’t always see progress when we take small steps. The garage isn’t clean or organized yet—but there’s one less box to tackle, and one small shelf that’s now empty and clean.

I saw a post today that said: “There’s nothing too small to celebrate.” And so, I’m celebrating one less box, and a decluttering journey that’s still moving forward.

When the Bots Win: My Frustrating Return Dispute with Poshmark

I’ve been arguing with Poshmark for the past week—yes, me, a tiny human being in a standoff with a big company over one of my sales.

Poshmark’s return policy is supposed to be clear: no returns for buyer’s remorse or fit issues—only for misrepresentation. But lately, buyers have been exploiting that exception, and Poshmark’s bots usually approve these returns without much scrutiny. Why? Because they don’t want to upset buyers. Ironically, this is upsetting sellers—the very people who supply the platform’s inventory.

Poshmark takes a 20% commission on every sale. In exchange, they offer easy shipping and claim to provide protection for both buyers and sellers.

My sold listing included plenty of photos—front, back, inside, outside—and detailed measurements from every angle, along with a solid description. Buyers can either click “Buy Now” at the listed price or make an offer to negotiate. In this case, the buyer—located in a different time zone—sent an offer while I was asleep. Impatient, they went ahead and bought it at full price.

I don’t ship immediately when someone pays full price. There’s a window for cancellations, and I like to give time for buyer’s remorse to settle in. So I shipped the next day, as I usually do.

Just two minutes after the item was marked “delivered,” the buyer opened a return case citing misrepresentation. I reached out privately and—surprise—the buyer admitted they regretted the purchase. (Yes, I took a screenshot.)

I responded to the case with all the listing photos and that screenshot. But of course, I got the typical bot reply.

Frustrated—and admittedly with some free time—I emailed customer service with a full breakdown. This time, a human responded. They agreed I was right, but said the return had already been approved and couldn’t be reversed. Essentially: “Sorry, our bad, but tough luck.”

I work in customer service myself. I know what it’s like to be on the receiving end of complaints. But I’ve never told a customer, “Yeah, we messed up, but it’s your problem now.”

Their follow-up email was vague and meaningless. I responded again, expressing my disappointment in the company.

My husband thinks I’m nuts—and maybe I am. But I don’t like being called a liar, especially not by a person or a platform I’ve supported.

I love Poshmark. I buy and sell there because it’s easy to use compared to other platforms. But their customer service? Let’s just say it should be renamed the “Customer No Service” division.

I don’t know if they’ll respond to my last email—and honestly, at this point, I don’t care. But they’ve left a bad taste in my mouth, and now I’m reevaluating this whole side hustle.

“Have you had a similar experience? Let’s talk.”

#CustomerServiceFail #poshmark #onlineseller #buyersremorse

March to Your Own Beet!

March to Your Own Beet!

Life is sometimes about patience and constant growth, following an unknown path, and trusting your instincts. It doesn’t have to be something huge or life-changing, but rather something small that can bring you joy and an opportunity to celebrate even the smallest achievements for yourself.

I own a small house in California. I don’t have a huge backyard, but rather a small patio with just enough space for container gardening, a BBQ, and a small patio set. I’ve always dreamed about having a big backyard so I could garden. For some reason, I enjoy plants. I’m not a great gardener, but I’m a happy one.

I planted tomatoes and peppers from scraps leftover from making salad, grew an avocado tree from the pit, and generally enjoyed schlepping around and playing in the dirt. I also have a great love for garden centers—Lowes and Armstrong were always my favorites.

Last year, I became a little more ambitious and planted two types of eggplant. My optimism also led me to buy beet seeds. I thought, “What could happen? If they grow, they grow; if not, the packet was only a dollar ninety-nine, and I had fun.”

To my pure joy, leaves sprouted, and I watched my beet grow from a tiny plant to one with huge leaves. Every day, I checked on it, making sure it was growing, and trying to figure out when it was time to harvest. Yes, I could’ve Googled it, but instead, I decided to follow my own instinct. A year later, I have beets—and I am extremely excited.

I’m very well aware that buying beets at the store is easy, cheap, and convenient. But there’s something so special about seeing something grow from a seed to a full-blown plant that I harvested today.

Some days are all about the little things that make you happy—those small achievements that no one else may notice or care about, but they still manage to put a smile on your face and make you want to march to your own beet!

Finding Balance When Life Gets Out of Sync

I’m technically on vacation this week—well, a forced vacation, as our office is closed. In my mind, vacation means fun, sleeping in, taking naps, and enjoying good meals. But apparently, my mind and my reality are not on the same page. I haven’t slept in once, and fun seems to be in short supply.

The first day of my “vacation” didn’t involve a flight to Hawaii or a relaxing retreat. Instead, it included a root canal. Yes, a root canal. Working non-stop for seven weeks meant that not only was I exhausted, but I also neglected my health, sleep, and all my appointments. The only thing I didn’t sacrifice was Pilates. I stuck with it, no matter how tired I felt, and honestly, it became my lifesaver.

Don’t get me wrong—I’m all about maintaining a healthy work-life balance. But life circumstances changed earlier this year. My husband lost his high-tech job as part of the massive layoffs happening everywhere, and I became the primary breadwinner. Not only did I take on a regular 40-hour job, but I also had a side hustle. To make ends meet until my husband found another job, I had to pour more energy into that side business.

And so, the concept of work-life balance pretty much flew out the window. In addition to my full-time job that covered health insurance and paid the bills, I dedicated time to building my side hustle. The positive side of this was that I became laser-focused on its development and the direction I wanted it to go. The downside? Exhaustion. Exhaustion to the point where even sitting down to read a short book felt like a monumental effort.

Luckily, my husband has found a new job, and I’m able to worry a little less. But finding that elusive balance again is no easy feat. When you’ve spent so long running on stress, it’s hard to suddenly switch gears and restore equilibrium. My brain has become so accustomed to juggling multiple tasks at once that it doesn’t know how to slow down and regain some semblance of balance and sanity.

Scheduling doctor and dentist appointments is a step in the right direction—at least I’m putting my health first. But it doesn’t necessarily help my mental state. I’m also using this “vacation” to focus a bit more on my side hustle and how to turn it into a profitable business.

Will I manage to get some rest, or at least sneak in a nap during my time off? I’m not sure, but I’ll definitely do my best to make it happen.

Made my 1st online sale

I made my first sale on poshmark yesterday and I was very excited, no I am not endorsing poshmark and I will not be retiring any time soon. The reason I am excited is that I’m finally moving extra clothes I do not need or have ever used out of my house, decluttering and making a couple of bucks in the process.

Cleaning your closet is an emotional process, at least for me. It is the process of learning to let go and actually letting go. I have clothes in sizes that will not fit me again any time soon. I kept telling myself that I will use them in the future once I lose some weight , but in reality I was afraid to admit that my body has changed and that is ok.And in reality when and if I will need smaller size clothes I can always buy more.

The other items I am letting go off are all the great deals I got during the pandemic and boy there were really good deals, such good deals that they were never worn and still have tags on them. Shopping online was very dangerous back then, we got constant deals and free stuff. The

the only problem with all the good deals was that I did not need them. Like many of us I worked remote and meetings were on zoom and there was no real need for dresses, dress pants or blouses. But like other people I justified it with “ I will use it when we get back to the office” , I was over optimistic. I have yet to use 80% of the items I bought and now I am sending them on a journey to a better home and in the process making enough money for a sushi dinner.

My Facebook was hacked this week

My Facebook was hacked this week, there is nothing special about it. I hardly use my Facebook and I very rarely post on it, if anything I only post stuff that is related to my blog. I lost control over my account for several hours, mostly because I don’t go on my Facebook often and because the email I used for the account was my trash email that I rarely check. I would I would have seen the notification that my email and contact information was changed. Definitely an oversight on my side and will not happen again. I spent several late night hours recovering my account successfully and then changing all passwords on all my other accounts and adding as many layers of security that are available now.

I was done with all this at 1am and then took several hours to calm down and decompress as I was extremely angry and that created even more anger and aggravation in me. This anger woke up my internal Liam Neeson as in the Taken movie series, and I am filled with fury and obsession. Or as my husband says there is nothing more worrisome than me with a vendetta.

Despite being a middle aged woman with liberal arts degrees I figured out how to get my account back, find the hackers email (which I assume to be their junk email), track their IP address and block their devices. I have not decided on what to do with this information yet. But I have become a little neurotic, I check everything many times a week and too many during the day now,

Add the extra security to all your accounts, create your recovery codes, make sure your email that is connected to the account is updated and stay vigilante.

My Emogi Stone

In July 1799 Napoleon’s army found the Rosetta stone and ever since then hieroglyphs have been interpreted and understood. This was a great moment in history for the human kind and as someone could finally interpret the hieroglyphs in Egypt.

And then in the 2000 we had another monumental discovery, emojis. Ever since then humanity went back and humans started conversing again in pictures, apparently the cave man had it right. I recently received a text from a prospective client of mine on my work phone in response to something I texted them. Instead of a real conversation I received a text back with 5 faces with tears, 10 praying hands and 3 hearts. Mind you, this prospective client is an adult and this was a business text. We have never met each other. As I am an adult who only uses emojis in texts with immediate family and friends, I was a little dumbfounded as I had no clue on how I am supposed to respond to this.

What happened to business writing or texting? A couple of years ago I took a great class through Coursera on Business writing, professional texting etiquette was not part of the course. Neither was interpreting emojis part of the course. I am aware I am a little older and don’t use emojis that often and I do use real words and sentences so I am not always sure what the interpretations for emojis are. I am debating creating an “ Emogi Stone” to help people interpret what other people are texting us or to make sure we are not texting something weird to others.

However, in my own personal humble opinion, there is no room for emojis in business emails and texts unless you work for a software company that creates emojis as part of their business. It seems like we regressed back a couple of hundred of years. So in your personal life go ahead, and if you really feel inclined to send me a business text, please 📧 🔠🙏

When the Temperature “feels like”

The temperatures dipped this week in California and we are cold, real cold and not the fake California cold. We keep getting blizzard warnings, snow at the Hollywood sign and rain, lots of rain. When we actually get weather we check out the weather channel to see how many layers of clothing we need since a sweater and jacket will clearly not be enough and we will need to wear a warm coat, that’s if we even own one. But the temperature report does not only consist of what the thermometer says, they also include information about what the temperature feels like, feels like to whom?

That’s what made me wonder- when they say it’s 46 and feels like 42 degrees, Who is the person that works for the forecasters and tells everyone what the temperature feels like. What if that person’s internal thermostat is broken and they run cold or hot. Today it said 42 degrees but feels like 41, now really will I be more cold with that extra less degree?

If there was a 10 degree difference , I might feel it again depending on the circumstances. Let’s say it says 70 degrees but feels like 80, I would. But if it is 10 degrees formally but they say it feels like 9 or 11, I believe I will be freezing cold regardless.

So my mission now is to find that person that reports the “feels like” aspect of the weather report, find them and see if that person’s internal thermostat is accurate and then go find the people who report the temperatures and ask them if really anybody cares about this and does it really natter.

My dislike of 10 best lists

The internet is full of lists – 10 things you should not buy at costco, 10 things you should, 10 things you should or shouldn’t buy at trader joes, target or whatever store you go to.

As much as I love lists like any other person (I hate lists!) These people who write the lists either have too much time on their hands to go from store to store or they must enjoy the constant travel from store to store and forget to add the shopping time or the gas as a cost.

My time is limited and even if I love a great deal and really I do,I have to also account for my travel time and the time it takes me to go from one place to another to find the bestest deal. Driving time comes at a cost. Many of us discovered that when we moved to work from home when tha pandemic closed everything that without driving we had time to play with our kids, cook and even give the dog an extra walk. So even if I am on the hunt for my next great deal I have to calculate my driving time. What will I miss if I spend more time in the car plus in some cases the cost of gas adds up.

Not to mention that we all value our products differently, what I see as a great bargain or the best product ever, does not mean anything to someone else with different preferences. There is a reason I buy a specific brand of toilet paper despite an article telling me that a different brand is better, better for whom I ask?

So read these lists, take what you want from them, But don’t let them rule your universe as at the end of the day you have your own list.

Resenteeism or hating your job

Read an article this weekend about work resenteeism as in resenting our work, I started laughing, apparently I love humor columns. They coined this as a new term and a new danger to the work environment. However, some of us have resented or hated our jobs for many years without having a great term to define it, we just called it hating our jobs. That’s why you see so many people going drinking after work in TV shows or in the movies, at least in my opinion. I on the other hand do not drink at all, maybe I like my job, maybe not.

According to the latest articles there are several reasons for resenteeism, being underpaid, overworked, feeling like you missed the boat on getting a different job with all the layoffs going around, not feeling appreciated and undervalued by your company. These are all valid reasons that have been around forever and will most likely be around forever. However for most of us, we don’t always need to find a reason why we hate our jobs and yet stay at the job we hate. Most of us stay in our jobs because we are responsible, we have family obligations, we need to put food on the table, we have kids in college, a mortgage and the need for health insurance. Maybe we should all start drinking.