Read the full feature story in the January/February 2026 issue.

Need to get a grip on your life? Joann Bogard recommends starting with better organization. “We’re crazy busy all the time, rushing out of the house, and a lot of that is because we don’t have a plan, we don’t have our lives organized enough,” says the longtime Evansville resident. Bogard, who long has had a passion for organizing, established The Mindful Organizer in 2021 and sees firsthand the stress that disorganization sews and the energy it draws from people.

Being better organized can mean you’re getting out of the house on time, choosing what to wear in advance, and finding food in the freezer because you’ve already meal prepped. “(Organizing) can be, ‘I want my pantry to look like Pinterest,’ but typically it’s, ‘I’m overwhelmed, I can’t find things,’” she says.

Bogard says preparing for the next day is important, “and it’s hard to do when you don’t know where things are.” One way to start is by investing in designated drop zones. “Having physical spaces for everything is important,” she says. “Instead of shoes piling up by the front door, set them on a rack. Have a box for mail to go into. Look for something that collects those things and compartmentalizes them so they don’t walk off.”

In fact, Bogard underlines drop zones as a critical solution to a common stressor. “When we’re stressed about personal space, it creates turmoil in other areas in our lives,” Bogard says. A key stumbling block: not having frequently used things within easy access.

“Having things easily accessible helps you create that routine or habit of not just putting something down, but putting it away. Put it where it goes,” she says, adding, “It’s easier to put them back because you’re creating a habit.”

One tip to crossing items off your list: Involve a friend to help you stay on track. For example, “Many women want help purging clothes in their closet. They know how to do that, but carving out time and having someone hold you accountable, to me, it’s like exercise,” Bogard says. “I know how to exercise, but I’m horrible at holding myself accountable. I just need someone to kickstart me. It’s the same with organizing.”

Read the full feature story in the January/February 2026 issue.

Creating a clutter-free closet takes time and will power. It’s common for people to put something away and then forget about it — or think, “I’ll deal with this later,” but never do. It’s the trap of the closet: It easily hides away items that might not have a home anywhere else.

But all that clutter and disorganization quickly piles up, no matter if it’s behind closed doors. “What most people don’t realize is that a closet is a productivity tool, not just a storage space,” says Thomas VanVactor, owner and lead designer at Closet Pros. “The way your closet is designed directly affects how smoothly your mornings go.”

Poorly designed closets cause clothes to get lost, wrinkled, or forgotten — you may even unintentionally buy duplicate items. VanVactor recommends a combination organization system that mixes hanging, shelving, and drawers. This should include drawers that keep the everyday items tidy and shelves that provide open visibility so you can lay eyes on everything stacked on them. Circling back to those wrinkled outfits, hanging space prevents clothes from becoming rumpled or piling up. “When these elements work together, the closet stays organized long-term because the layout actually supports your day-to-day routine,” VanVactor says.

Also, try a zoning system that separates your closet-based items into three different sections. Zone One includes everyday wear and should go front and center in the closet. Zone Two groups items you use weekly or occasionally and should be placed on mid-height shelves or the second row of hanging for easy access. Zone Three is reserved for seasonal or rarely used items; place these on the top shelves or in labeled storage bins.

The result: Everything has a regular landing spot that you become familiar with. “A well-designed closet works like a map: You always know where things live,” VanVactor says.

In Plain Sight

Cindy and Steve Basinski never have to wonder what’s in their closet — they can see almost everything. On display in their H.G. McCullough-designed home (featured in the September/October 2022 issue) are racks of everyday wear and back-lit shelves of shoes at the ready. Seasonal items are tucked away into drawers, cabinets, and clear bins — out of sight but still within reach.

Read the full feature story in the January/February 2026 issue.

The best mudrooms streamline your daily routine. They offer dedicated storage solutions for placing outerwear, shoes, and accessories, all of which you can grab on the go or securely deposit after a long day. Furry friends even make their way in via dog showers and grooming stations, perfect for pampering your pooch and keeping dirt out of your home. Whatever your needs, a mudroom reflects — and impacts — how you live.

“Ample storage is the biggest consideration,” says John Diekhoff, part-owner of Popham Construction. Landing zones for backpacks and cubbies tall enough for hanging jackets are two go-to design choices. “The best cubbies also feature space above for winter hats and gloves,” he says. Ideally, below the cubbies, there are footlockers for rain boots, work boots, and winter shoes.

Speaking of shoes, Diekhoff says mudrooms also should have a bench for easy changing. If you are switching out house slippers or sandals for outer footwear like hiking shoes, designate a place to sit down and simply make the swap without any hassle.

Recent design trends feature a combination mudroom/laundry room. In these, the floor-to-ceiling cubbies typically are converted into shelves to hold laundry essentials. To further optimize your laundry needs, Diekhoff recommends adding a large basin for pre-soaking laundry, cabinets for steaming clothes, an ironing station, or pull-out drying systems.

Back to the dog showers. “I actually try to push these,” Diekhoff says. Showers come with a handheld shower head and are elevated so you don’t have to lean over as you would bathing your pup in a bathtub.

Most important is keeping the inevitable water that sneaks in at bay. “Regardless of whatever you use your mudroom for, I always encourage clients to choose tile or luxury vinyl flooring for their water resistance capabilities,” Diekhoff says. Avoid wood or wood-engineered flooring because they do not hold up to the elements. “But you can use wood in your cabinets and cubbies — many homeowners today prefer painted wood cabinets — but that is the preference of the homeowner,” Diekhoff says. “There is no right or wrong answer here.”

Keep Mess At Bay

Newburgh residents Jeff and Misty Bosse included pull-out stairs in their mudroom so their French bulldogs, Norm and Lulu, can easily trot up to the sink for a bath. “It’s a great concept,” Misty says. (Read more about their award-winning home.)

Read the full feature story in the January/February 2026 issue.

Stephanie Clark remembers once lamenting that she has no special talents. Her mother replied, “Of course you do. You are so organized!” Glamorous or not, being organized keeps her life running smoothly, and her talent takes a tasty turn in the kitchen.

On a Sunday afternoon, there’s a good chance you’ll find Stephanie and her daughter Allison at home, chopping vegetables and trading recipes. Stephanie began meal prepping once her children — now ages 31, 28, and 25 — were grown. Despite the empty nest, she and husband Alan, who serves as CEO of Owensboro, Kentucky-based CRS One-Source, still were busy. Acknowledging meal prepping’s ultimate convenience, Clark was attracted to having healthier food options at the ready. “Once you do it and see how much easier your life is and how much healthier you can eat when you have something you can grab, it makes an enormous difference,” Stephanie says. “It’s more about having things on hand so that when we’re going home and hungry from running errands, there’s something we can grab instead of stopping for food on the way home.”

Allison joined her mother a year ago after moving back to Evansville. Every few weeks, the pair swap recipe ideas from social media and cookbooks, devise a weekly meal plan, then spend Sunday afternoon cooking and preparing anything from egg bites and lasagnas — “we always make a double batch and freeze those,” Stephanie says — to cups of overnight oats or chia seeds. The result: They’re eating healthier, reducing food waste, and saving resources, money, and time — the latter, by their estimate, about three hours cooking per week.

“It brings a lot of peace and calmness to spend that time with my mother, plus clarity on what I’m going to be eating. I’ll think, ‘The pasta salad we made sounds delicious. I can’t wait to go home and eat that,’” Allison says. “It brings peace to everyday life where things could be chaotic.”

Their ritual underscores a key ingredient to meal prepping: One does not need to be a culinary expert or invest in intricate equipment to successfully plan their meals. Moreover, they are more present with each other because the chaos of cooking a meal each day is eliminated. “We bond and talk. We get to spend the day together,” Stephanie says.

Tips for Meal Prepping

Customize your plan:
Stephanie and Allison assess how many people they’re feeding and prioritize grab-and-go options for breakfast and lunch. They shop their refrigerator and pantry first and also use the ReciMe app: Upload a picture of a recipe to the app, which populates ideas into a miniature cookbook, grocery list, or even a meal plan.

Start simple:
“An egg bake is so easy,” says Stephanie, who incorporates items about to lose their freshness, like vegetables. “We dump everything in a 9×13 pan and bake it.” If meal prepping alone, stick to 1-2 things so cooking and cleaning don’t eat up too much time. Depending on the time of year, the Clarks break out the crockpot for soups — “set it and forget it!” Stephanie says.

Make only what you need:
At first, “We made too much of too many types of things. It’s a lot to do in one day, and we couldn’t eat it all before it went bad,” Allison says.

Join forces with a friend:
Meal prepping is more fun with company — and dishes and ingredients go further when shared. “Keeping each other accountable has been very good,” Allison says.

Update your recipes:
Stephanie has been on a high-protein kick, and recent meal-prepped dishes have included a hearty salad with beans and yummy sweet potato brownies.

Do it one bite at a time:
Meal prepping “can be overwhelming if you’re cluttered and don’t know where to start,” Stephanie says. “Start with a few things, and grow to what works for you and your family.”

Read the full feature story in the January/February 2026 issue.

Clutter can involve important files, heirlooms, and everyday items, but once they stack up, their purpose gets lost — and creates stress. To declutter, Joann Bogard of The Mindful Organizer emphasizes setting priorities, showing yourself grace, and sticking to the plan.

Figure out what results are best for you before you begin.
Bogard says to have a conversation with yourself to identify what you truly need in an organized home. For example, “Do I work better if I have everything out on my desktop, or do I tuck it away because it gives me anxiety to see it?” she says. “Ask yourself that question — most people know themselves well enough to answer it.”

Make a handwritten list and use it to prioritize.
Prioritize what’s most important in that first minute. “Using index cards is helpful because you can shuffle them,” Bogard says. Start by setting goals — Card One could say, “I won’t stop until I finish this.” “A client’s problem usually is that there are so many projects to get done, they start one, don’t finish it, then start another, and don’t finish it. They don’t prioritize correctly,” she says. “Take time to make those lists and then physically cross things off or throw the card away when you’re done.”

Show yourself grace, but stick to your structure.
You can reprioritize, Bogard says, but don’t start another project until the first one is done. “Make them small projects, like utensil drawers or where you store your pots and pans — not ‘I’m going to reorganize my kitchen,’” she says. Make sure to be kind to yourself during the process. “We’re all busy. I even do that, too — how can someone who organizes not find something?” Bogard laughs.

When purging items, she recommends using boxes or black trash bags so your eye isn’t drawn back to what you’re trying to shed. “Once it’s in the bag, people usually don’t dig back through there,” she says. “For things they’re unsure about getting rid of, get a cardboard box, box it up, mark it with today’s date, and put it in the garage, basement, or attic. And if you haven’t used it in a year, don’t even open it — go ahead and donate it. You already know you don’t need it.”

Read the full feature story in the January/February 2026 issue.

Susan Hyatt cuts right to the chase: “What’s robbing you of success?” the Evansville-based Master Certified Life Coach asks clients, encouraging them to identify the habits and behaviors that are holding them back from self-improvement. Although consistency and accountability factor heavily into creating good habits or breaking negative ones, in order to truly change yourself, Hyatt says you have to align your awareness, thinking, and goals.

Hyatt’s advice is sourced from experts, medical studies — and her own lived experiences. “One (habit) I consider an absolute miracle is I went from someone with a Ph.D. in Couch Potato to someone who moves her body consistently,” she says. She decided who she wanted to become, plugged into that mindset, and changed her identity around exercise. “People who knew me then marvel that I’m somebody who now has an app to lift weights,” she says. “Susan Hyatt in 2007, she would have laughed at that.”

Be Your Biggest Cheerleader
“What you’re telling yourself needs to be supportive,” Hyatt says. “Self talk often is so negative. We’ll discount ourselves in a way that we’ll never speak to someone else.” She recommends this as the first obstacle to overcome: “Universally, you change habits by the way you think and speak to yourself.”

Align Your Thinking With Your Goal
Pay attention to and match your thinking to what you’re wanting to become. “Awareness of what you want to change, who you’re becoming, and how you’re thinking needs to be in alignment,” Hyatt says. “Otherwise, step into a new identity.”

Start Small
“Seventeen years ago, I was someone who said, ‘You can’t make me exercise.’ Now, I run 4-5 times a week and lift weights 4-5 times a week,” Hyatt says. “It started a little at a time: walking a few days a week, me being curious about what I’m capable of. At the time, I didn’t like it, but moving my body was necessary for my mental and physical health — it motivated me because I felt so bad all the time. I started moving to feel better with my mental health and it escalated and improved from there.”

Hyatt says to expect a certain amount of regression where old thoughts and habits come back, and use your new mindset to address it. “Say, ‘OK, let me reframe this thought and, with kindness, redirect myself back to what I want to do,’” she says. “It’s not black or white. It’s all part of the process. People give up way too soon because they’re not doing it perfectly.”

Think positively and proactively, Hyatt encourages. “If it has crossed your mind, it’s something you really crave and want, and you have what it takes to create it,” she says. “You wouldn’t have the desire without the ability to do it. That’s my biggest pep talk. Otherwise it wouldn’t dawn on you.”

Setting Attainable Goals

Last February, the Evansville Thunderbolts were struggling to make the playoffs. Coach Jeff Bes called a meeting, where players outlined steps toward becoming a championship hockey team. “Those short-term goals Coach always sets (are) a good way to tackle big tasks,” Captain Matthew Hobbs says. “We put it all on the board and stuck to our plan.” (Read more about the Bolts and their eventual SPHL championship.)

Read the full feature story in the January/February 2026 issue.

Stress affects our minds, bodies, and spirits, but easy rituals can reduce and prevent those feelings. Dr. Juan Cabrera says practicing gratitude is one of the simplest boosts that people can give themselves. “This is something that I do every morning with my first cup of coffee before I leave the house,” says Cabrera, who opened his mental health practice in 1997. “I’ll write — literally, I have journals dating back years — gratitudes I come up with every morning. … A gratitude practice sets my mind in a positive direction, so that throughout the day, I’m thinking more positively than negatively.”

For batting back stress, Cabrera also recommends setting boundaries, taking micro-breaks, and using a one-task-at-a-time approach to avoid becoming overwhelmed. Give your mind attention through meditation and breathing exercises, and make sure you sleep on a consistent schedule. Bursts of physical activity (and the socialization that may come with them) also help dial down stress: Cabrera enjoys playing pickleball and does 15-20 minutes of yoga each morning.

Most importantly, don’t feel like you have to go it alone. From friends and family to medical professionals, “turn to your support network for assistance and advice,” Cabrera says.