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HOME/ Homemaking/ Organizing/ Simplifying

De-cluttering Our Study

My study was a MESS! I knew when I could no longer shut the doors of the study closet, that it was time to get busy and do something about it!  It tends to be the dumping ground of our home, (what Flylady would call a great big “hot spot“) its located right in the middle of the house, but you can’t see it from the main living areas, so it seems to be the place that collects clutter.  I’ve managed (with the help of the Flylady system) to get the rest of my house sorted and de-cluttered, except for a storage closet and some drawers, which I will be doing a before and after blog post of, once I get motivated. Being the last closet, it will be a doozy!
It’s humbling letting you see my mess, but I love before and after pictures, so I’ll swallow my pride and let you see. 🙂
I always start by making sure I have a trash bag for garbage, 2 baskets (one for stuff I want to give away, one for stuff that belongs somewhere else in the house), a duster, and a broom.  Oh, and music, of course, music makes everything just a little more fun!  Today I de-cluttered to Jordan Sparks, Colbie Calliat,  a little Shakira cuz’ she makes me move!!  For more details on how to de-clutter, check out this link.

My study is quite small, but the mess was pretty overwhelming, so I divided it into zones.  I started with the desk zone, then did bulletin boards, then the bookshelf zone, and finally the closet zone.
It only took me an hour and a half! Going through paper work was what consumed most of the time. Why do I procrastinate so long, when it really does not take that much time to finish?  I can’t tell you how great it is to sit here at the desk with everything in its place.  It makes me want to tackle more, maybe even paint the study something other than boring beige!

About those baskets full of things to give away and put away, the DO IT NOW method is really important.  In the past, I have taken a break with the idea that I deserved one, and had every intention of getting back to the baskets.  Well, my “break” lasted months and I still had a bin of stuff sitting in the closet. (if you look closely at my before pics, you will find one in the closet that I sat there after de-cluttering my basement and taking a “break”:))  So this time, I did it right away!  The “put away” basket is the worst, I usually just sit on the floor and make a pile for each room, then start delivering stuff back to their homes.  This is a great time to get the kids involved, let them do the delivering for you!

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HOME/ Homemaking/ Organizing/ Simplifying

Flylady

If you have been around me long enough, you will learn that I am a HUGE Flylady Fan.  I found her website at least 8 years ago, and have been using her techniques to take my home from chaos to peace ever since.  There have been times in the past where I did everything her site told me to do, (and it worked!!) but honestly, most of the time I just use some of her main points to keep my homemaking and attitude in check.  I would like to get back to using the system as a whole, I did that when my girls were babies and toddlers, and it really made a huge difference in my homemaking.

What is Flylady?
Flylady is a group online that offers advice, tips and humor to assist people in keeping their homes tidier, especially for those suffering from “CHAOS” (Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome).  It is a group centered around Flylady.net and uses an email delivery system, so the “Flylady” can speak to and encourage you through emails.  You can set it up to receive numerous email reminders all throughout the day, or there is a setting to receive them all in one lump email at the beginning of the day (this is the one I choose, I don’t like inbox clutter!).  Its like having your own little cheerleader as you get your home in order.  I know, cheesy, but IT WORKS!!
Subjects covered by Flylady include clutter, routines, weekly cleaning with focus on the zone of the week (five in total), self-esteem, and letting go of perfectionism.  It is a free site, but she does have a small store at the website where tools are sold for organization, decluttering and cleaning.  I personally love her ostrich feather duster and I use her insulated water bottle every day!
The system encourages “baby steps” to develop routines and habits to organize and maintain your home.  She has you declutter and menu plan, she has “anti-procrastination” days, and she teaches to plan ahead by establishing routines.  She helps organize personal finances, makes sure you take time to pamper yourself, encourages Friday Night Date Night, Saturday Family Fun Day and Sunday Renew Your Spirit Day.
Below is a great explanation of what the Flylady system consists of from Wikipedia:

Babysteps and Routines

New recruits to Flylady are called “Flybabies” and are introduced to “babysteps” – a series of 31 small daily tasks which introduce and then reinforce aspects of cleaning and decluttering which build into a daily routine, with tasks split into morning routines, after-work routines and bedtime routines.
Shine Your Sink
The first task is “Go shine your sink!” By clearing away the clutter in the sink, scrubbing and shining it, the entire kitchen looks better from such a simple step, and the Flybaby gains encouragement from seeing such a clean and shiny sink and is inspired to help make the rest of the kitchen gleam, too. Flylady asserts that each room has its own “shiny sink”– making the bed in the bedroom and cleaning the desk off in the office will all have the same effect.
15 Minutes at a Time
A crucial part to the Flylady system is that you should only spend 15 minutes doing something, as otherwise you will become bored and get sidetracked. Flylady refers to people who need her system as “SHEs”– “Sidetracked Home Executives” who are perfectionistic and fear beginning to tackle housework because there won’t be enough time to do it all or it won’t be done perfectly. SHEs are in contrast to “born organized” people who are naturally very organized– but even “born organized” people can use Flylady’s system with success. Because of this perfectionism, the SHE cannot ever get started cleaning and the clutter gets worse. By focusing on spending only 15 minutes at a time on cleaning, SHEs learn that a lot can be done in 15 minutes, a task is always quicker and easier than you would imagine it to be, and you do not have to spend all your time cleaning in order to get your home company-ready. Flylady also highly encourages the actual use of a timer to measure the 15-minute increments, to measure them accurately.
Clutter Cannot Be Organized
Another important aspect of Flylady’s system is her attitude towards clutter. She tells her group that if you look at something and it doesn’t make you happy, you should get rid of it. Many people fill their houses with clutter and then try to organize it in some way. Flylady says that clutter cannot be organized, because by its very nature it’s an obstacle. Only when Flybabies reduce their clutter can they expect to be able to organize their household. This is done in Flylady’s system, 15 minutes at a time, through the “27-fling Boogie,” in which a Flybaby goes around an area and chooses 27 things to either throw out or give away. FlyBabies are also encouraged to prevent clutter to enter the home – buying less and buying only what they need.
Weekly Routines
Once Flybabies have learned the basic habits and are able to manage their daily routines, Flylady then advises including weekly routines, whereby each weekday is assigned an additional task – Monday is daily cleaning, Wednesday is errand day, Thursday is grocery day and Friday is “desk day” – sorting out paperwork and finances, as well as the day to declutter the car. One additional day can be a “weekly home blessing.” If a Flybaby has been keeping up with her routines, 15 minutes at a time, during the week, she will only have to spend a small amount of time doing a weekly dusting/cleaning, or a “home blessing.”
Get Dressed to Shoes
Flylady encourages Flybabies to “get dressed to shoes”– getting dressed in street clothes down to lace-up shoes, which help them to get moving during the day and have a better effect on the mind than staying in pajamas. For women it is also important to do their hair and wear make up as this is intended to have a positive effect on their self-esteem.
Zones
Once your home is decluttered and your daily and weekly routines established (which may take months or even years, depending on how cluttered your home is!), Cilley advises “zone work” – each month, the home is split into five zones, and a daily ‘mission’ is set in that week’s zone. Each mission covers more detailed cleaning but should take no more than 15 minutes. Some missions are repeated in subsequent months, so that the missions take less time as there is less clutter and cleaning. As this point, Flylady recommends you tackle detailed zone cleaning, which cover the kinds of tasks you would usually expect of a spring clean – cleaning skirting boards, cleaning windows etc. However, as you should only tackle what you can do in 15 minutes, this spreads the detailed cleaning over a period of time, so that rather than ‘spring cleaning’, you simply do a little bit every day and your home stays tidier and cleaner.
Control Journal
Flylady advises the use of a “Control Journal,” a notebook or binder, as a personal manual for noting one’s routines. This may also include a folder in which important papers and bills are kept so they can be worked on while waiting in public places such as doctor’s offices. A Control Journal should also include important information so it can be had at a moment’s notice in case of an emergency. Before taking someone to the emergency room, a Flybaby might grab her Control Journal, where she knows she has stored a list of medicines taken by the patient. Knowing that all that important information is kept in one place saves a lot of time, money and stress, according to Flylady, and is certainly worth the initial time involved in setting up the journal.
Flylady Reminders
Daily reminders of the routines, zones and missions are sent out when you subscribe to the Flylady groups. There is a UK group which sends out reminders according to GMT rather than US timezone, and many alternative ‘non-official’ groups.
Perfectionism leads to Procrastination
According to the FlyLady system, the most frequent reason for procrastination and inefficacy is perfectionism, as people won’t start a task if they think they don’t have the time or the ability to do it perfectly. Some frequently repeated sayings in this respect are “good enough is good enough” or “housework done incorrectly still blesses your family”.

I have loved Flylady, and what I have learned from her influences what I do and how I do it, everyday.  I will be talking about her from time to time on this blog.
FAMILY/ HOME/ Homemaking/ Marriage/ Simplifying

Is Your Bedroom A Retreat?

 

There is something about staying in a hotel that I love.  Yes, the fact that I am not the one to wash the sheets, make the bed, or take out the trash is pretty awesome, but it is more than that.  I LOVE the simplicity of it.  There is no clutter in a hotel room, and everything that exists in the room is well thought out and purposeful.  There is a chair to sit in to put my shoes on, there is a nightstand with a lamp and clock that are both bedside and easy to reach.  There is a drawer in the nightstand to house books and my Bible.  A pen and paper sitting ready for me when I need to jot something down.  The closet is small enough to hold only the bare minimum, which forces one to think through what is put in there.  There is an extra pillow and blanket in the closet, just in case.  A laundry bag for dirty clothes, an iron and ironing board to grab if needed and a trash can for waste.  All of these things are practical and useful and make our stay comfortable.

At home in our own room, I have most of the things mentioned above, minus the extra blanket, pillow, trash can, pen and paper.  I would have to walk downstairs for an extra pillow and blanket, to the bathroom for the trash can, and to my daughters room for a pen and paper.  That sounds like a bit too much walking for me, so I will add these items in my room when I get home!  Notice the thinking through process…I am constantly thinking about the most practical spot in my home for things, depending on how and where I use them.  I have to pause and think, “Is it worth having this item in more than one spot in the house?”  I try to avoid having the same item in two different places, as much as possible, for the sake of simplicity.  Before I add new items to any area, I stop and make sure it jives with the simplistic approach to life. So, do I really need a pen in my room?  How often would I need or use one?  The answer is quite often.  I love sitting on my bed and reading my Bible.  There are many times I want to underline what I am reading, but I have to get off my cozy bed to get a pen. Or, those times when I have my phone right by me  and I need a pen to jot down a phone message.  Yes, it is time to put a pen on my nightstand, in a pretty holder, within reach!

(Not our bedroom.  Thought I would keep ours a private retreat:))

 I have been very purposeful about keeping our bedroom clutter free and comfortable.  It is important to me that our bedroom is a room that we both want to be in, that is intimate, relaxing, comfortable, practical, and that feels like a retreat from the rest of the world.  There are a few things I have done to help create all those things. I did not spend a bunch of money, most things are just small touches here and there.

Here are a few ways I created a retreat like feeling in our room:

-A good place to start is get rid of clutter!  I cannot relax when I am surrounded by stuff, and I do not want reminders of what I have not done staring at me while I am trying to retreat from life, trying to “spend time”:) with my husband, or trying to sleep.
-Get rid of those piles of clothes.  Hang clothes up right away that are clean, have a place to put clothes that are dirty.
-Make sure everything you use regularly has a place.  Have a basket for the tv remote, a shelf, basket or drawer for books.
-Clear off open areas (like the top of a dresser) and keep them clear except for things that are important to you and belong there.  On my dresser, there are pictures of my kids that make me smile, a picture of Todd and I on our honeymoon, a few candles, and mirrored vases that reflect the candles which makes great ambience. (ohhh, this is getting a bit personal…moving on)
-Gender neutral, if there are two of you.  I made sure the decor in our room is not too feminine,  I am sure Todd appreciates this:)  Remember, if you are married, this is a place for both of you, so be careful how much pink and flowers you use.  Let your husband know by your decor that you care about how he feels in the room, too.
-Invest in quality bedding.  We couldn’t afford the best sheets in the world, but I bought the best we could afford.  Our comforter is fluffy and soft, and we have enough pillows to prop us up in bed to read or watch t.v.
-Pillows!  Ahhh, pillows.  I love pillows.  I must confess this is an area where Todd has complained.  I got a bit carried away with decorative throw pillows,(ok, really carried away) and every night he would have to move a boatload of pillows to get into bed.  We are now down to moving just three, they add color and beauty to the bed and are not that big of a deal to move.  If I am in the room before my hubby, I try to remember to move them out of the way for him and pull his covers down.  I don’t know if he notices this, but I know it is a small touch hotels do that I love, so I do it for him.
-Music! This is something that is missing from our room.  I would love, love an ipod speaker dock that comes with a clock!  Maybe someday..:)  Relaxing music would be great to add atmosphere and ambience.

So as much as I love hotels, coming back home is always something I am ready for.  I love our home, and I am so very thankful that God has blessed us with a little retreat from the world that I get to take care of! (and yes, that includes being thankful to make the bed and wash the sheets!)

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HOME/ Organizing/ Simplifying

Over The River And Through The Woods To Grandmothers House They Go!

Have you ever dumped the kiddos off on the grandparents and took yourselves a little trip?  We are super blessed to have wonderful grandparents who let us do this.  Once a year, my husband and I go out of town to a conference with his workplace.  When we do, I pack for the 2 of us in normal suitcases like normal people, but when it comes to my kids clothes,  I have found this system to be simple, easy and fast. I keep the clothes on hangers!  We hang most of our clothes except for jammies etc,  so their clothes are already on hangers in their closets.  I just have to grab the outfits and off we go!
For my younger 2, I like to wrap the hangers of each outfit together with a rubber band.  I also put little signs on them with their name and what day of the week to wear that particular outfit.  My youngest has a field trip to the pumpkin patch while we are gone, so I made sure the outfit for that day had layers because it will be a chilly, turning warmer in the afternoon, kind of day.  It also helps to keep them from grabbing their “pretty” outfits and wearing them to school instead of to church.  Having them labeled really helps keep them straight, and hopefully will help grandma when it comes to the girls getting dressed, without needing her guidance each morning.  This time I wrote little love notes on the back of the labels for them to read each day, they love sappy stuff like that!
As you can see, my oldest is too cool to have mom put together her outfits, so we just rubber banned her shirts together and her pants together.  She’s already doing the typical female “I’ll decide what to wear the day of, depending on what mood I am in” thing.  She’s only 10!!  She is pretty good at the whole fashion thing, so it is easy to give her a bit more freedom than her sisters.
The rest of the packing is a breeze and they do it themselves for the most part.  They love lugging out their little suitcases, picking a special stuffed animal to take, and trying to sneak whatever they can into their suitcases without mom seeing. 🙂  I told them to make their stuff pretty so I could take a picture for the blog, it made me smile to see what they did, everything laid out just so.  They have been watching me take pictures of our life for this blog, and were pretty excited to be a part of that process. Too cute.

When it comes time to load the car and take it all over to grandmas, we just pile the hang up clothes into a laundry basket, and unload it right into the closet when we get there.  Easy Peesy!

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HOME/ Simplifying

Print Friendly

I just found this nifty website called Printfriendly that can make any web page printer friendly! How great is that? Why do I love?
-it is simple and easy to use
-it will save ink
-it will save paper
-it will save money
-it is friendly to our environment by creating less waste
-it gives you a bookmarklet button to add to your bookmark toolbar
I will be adding a button on all my blog posts from this site so you will be able to print a post out in a printer friendly way.  It even gives you the option to remove images. This will be especially helpful for my posts that contain recipes.
I just love finding things that make life more simple!
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FUN/DIY/ HOME/ Homemaking/ Simplifying

Makes Me Happy-Wooden Clips

In my quest to simplify, I have tried to get rid of stuff that takes up space, and replace it with something more practical, simple and cheap.  These wooden clips fit that description perfectly.  They are so much better than having a bunch of plastic, different colored chip clips laying around, or shoved in drawers.  I personally have very, very little drawer space in my kitchen. VERY little.  Like, 2 normal size drawers, and one itty bitty skinny drawer stuck in the corner.  One drawer I have my silverware in, the other I have miscellaneous utensils/measuring cups, and the itty bitty one is the only ‘junk’ drawer I allow myself in the whole house.

I’ve actually found a way to be grateful for my lack of drawer space. It forces me to be strategic in my kitchen and really think through everything I bring into it.
 Back to the clips, I love these things!  I use them all the time and keep them in a mason jar;) in a very accessible spot in my pantry.  Makes me happy!  I know, doesn’t take much..
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FUN/DIY/ HOME/ Organizing/ Simplifying

Art Bags

My girls’ favorite thing to do is art. All 3 of them do some type of creative art every day, it is just in them.  Ever since they were little, we have always made sure paper and colors are available for them to use whenever they want. As they have gotten older, I have worked hard to make sure they have access to age-appropriate supplies, so that they can create whatever their little art brains desire.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have rolling carts with labeled drawers upstairs where we keep all their craft supplies and use them a lot, but I also wanted to have basic supplies handy on our main floor that they could just grab and start creating with!
My solution was to make them each their own little school supply bag. I shopped for these at the beginning of the school year when all the supplies were super cheap. I found the bag at Wal-mart in the craft supply section. All of the bags are black, but I made them distinct with certain supplies that were all the same color (my youngest daughter likes blue so her scissors, pencil sharpener and pencil erasers are all blue.) This is how they tell which bag is theirs.

I keep the bags in a very central location (our dining room) right by the table, not only because they are in view and the girls will use them more if they see them, but also so I can make sure they take good care of their bags (even though the supplies were cheap, they add up when you times it by 3!) and put them away properly.  Our table is also where they do their homework so the bags are very handy for that!  I am pretty strict about keeping them in the dining room to use at the table.  I only allow them in the car for trips that are longer than an hour, just because it seems like something always gets lost in the car!
Before, we had supplies on all 3 levels of our home and showing up in places where they didn’t belong! I grew weary of questions like “mom, where’re my little scissors?” and “mom, where’s my tape?” Now that they are in one area it has worked so well.  They know right where they are, and find them daily, sitting on a shelf waiting for little creative hands to grab and use them!

 

 

 

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