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For those of you who haven't started the back to school dance yet, it is coming soon! Back to school always feels a little bittersweet to me. While I am sad to see the summer fun end, I eagerly anticipate getting back to a routine.  For those of you with a few days left, why not finish up the summer creating one last memory. Spend the afternoon creating a craft with items you collected over the summer break. Make it something simple that gives you time to reminisce about the family fun you had. Maybe it's creating a scrap book of photos or a craft with shells you have collected. The idea is to enjoy your time while organizing your summer mementos. Check out my Pinterest page for more ideas! If you you are already in that back to school mode, be sure you have things set up for a successful year.
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 I recently spent some time working with a client to get unpacked and organized after a move to a new town. Being a single parent of a young girl her focus was on spending time with her daughter and getting integrated into their new community. She knew on her own it would take weeks to get her home functional. So she called me!
We spent two days together and accomplished more than she could ever have imagined. Although she did a great amount of purging before her move, she did even more after the move. Her goal was to live LIGHTER. Seeing things in her new home made her realize she just didn't need it anymore. It is so important to think about where you are going so you can determine what you need to bring with you. If you are headed for a fresh start, don't bring old baggage! Having someone work along side of you whether a friend or professional is so important. As my client would often repeat, 'I would never do all this without you pushing me forward.' As she would go through items to make a decision to keep or discard she would look at me in amazement and say, 'I have wanted to do this for years!' To keep costs down we repurposed items she already had to use as organizational tools. Craft room baskets became laundry room shelving and decorative boxes became office supply holders. We kept things fresh by using items she had always used for one purpose and switched them up to use for another. A bread basket became a charging station and a picture that always went in a bedroom was put in a bathroom. She really struggled over a few items. She knew she did not want to display them but she couldn't let go of them. We stored those with her seasonal items. Now she will bring them out for display only during a holiday season! Any move can be overwhelming. To do it alone just adds to the stress. Be open to asking for help from a friend or professional. Feel free to call me with questions. If you are not in my area I can recommend a NAPO professional near you. Here's to new beginnings!  July is the time most of us are off for some summer fun! If you vacation for a day, a week or the whole month long, your time should be filled with fun not frustration. A recent trip to a friends summer house reminded me of the importance of keeping it simple to get the most out of your vacation. As I looked around the beauty and comfort of her home I observed the simplicity in her organized ways. Everything had its place and could be easily located in the area where it is most often used.
 The older I get the more I am convinced that we should ALWAYS celebrate our accomplishments and achievements. BIG OR SMALL. We celebrate a child's first step, lost tooth, and more.
We become adults and seem to forget how import and how good it feels to celebrate. I came across a 3 minute video from Kim Kyosaki of www.RichWomen.com. She asks the questions, "Do you compare your achievement to where you were OR to your ideals?" "How do you react after you achieve a goal?" CHECK IT OUT NOW! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzgPGGtSQWE I ALWAYS use the philosophy with my clients that Kim Kyosaki speaks about. When we are in the thick of a project, the horizon sometimes seems so far. I remind them where we started from so they can celebrate their progress. Taking BEFORE PHOTOS of your organizing project is a great way to aid in your celebration. When you aim for the HORIZON you will continue to make progress. Keep aiming high!  Coop cleaning day is a sure sign of Spring at our house. As luck would have it, that job fell to me today. Because it has been such a long winter, I truly enjoyed the task. I don't know who was more excited to be outside, me or the chickens! The next project will be the garden shed. It is so fun to open the doors and be reminded of the beauty that will be blooming in my yard in just a few weeks. To make this task less daunting and more enjoyable I make sure I close the shed up properly in the fall. I mend or throw away any damaged or broken planters and take time to look over the garden tools to see if anything needs replacing. You know the rule to keep likes with likes? It works well in your garden shed too. Small tools and garden stakes have their own spot as well as all my little yard people. (We all have a few little people, right?) Pots are emptied and stacked and old soil is composted.  I add a few new planters every Spring to keep things fun. I even adhere to the one in, one out rule that I use in my clothes closet. My friends and neighbors love to take some of my older pots that are in good condition for their yards. They love their 'new' planters and I enjoy seeing them in their yards.
Win Win! No time last fall to get your shed in order? It's never too late to get started. While it may be a little more work this Spring, just think how easy it will be to close things up in the Fall! 12/29/2013 0 Comments New Year Resolutions 2014! Survey says…
Top 10 New Years resolutions for 2014 1 Lose Weight 2 Getting Organized 3 Spend Less, Save More 4 Enjoy Life to the Fullest 5 Staying Fit and Healthy 6 Learn Something Exciting 7 Quit Smoking 8 Help Others in Their Dreams 9 Fall in Love 10 Spend More Time with Family (By the way, if you work on #2 you could also achieve #1, #3, #4, #6, #8, & #10 & who knows what else!) 45% of us will make a resolution 75% will maintain our resolution through the first week 64% will maintain past 6 months 24% will never succeed and will fail on our resolution (ouch!) When you made that resolution last year, did you have a plan to achieve your vision or did you just imagine what it looked like? Resolve away, but know how you will get there. Follow these steps to success. 1 Clearly stated goal (simple, not too general) 2 Action Plan (clear steps to get there) 3 Resources (friend, professional, other) 4 Reasonable time frame (be sensible about how long it will take) Like this… 1 I will organize my kitchen 2 Purge pantry of outdated items or things I wont use remove appliances, gadgets, dishware, etc I don’t like or use any more put thngs back properly (you get the picture!) 3 I will call a professional organizer for assistance 4 Job will be complete by January 31 by working on Monday mornings Or this… 1 I will lose 25 pounds 2 exercise 4 times a week (walk, yoga class, etc) make healthier food choices avoid my triggers 3 I will join WW and have a friend be my buddy for exercise and accountability 4 I will have weight off by April 1 Break your goals down to manageable bites and you will not set yourself up to fail. I believe the 75% set a GOAL not a RESOLUTION. For you 24%, never say RESOLUTION! This is a GOAL only year! Survey Source: University of Scranton. Journal of Clinical Psychology - published 12.13.13 |
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