Do It Anyway and Be Happy

Over the holidays I was lucky, my husband was home and not only painted my daughter's room, but enlisted the kids (he is a natural born delegator) to help get the house back in order - it was still limping from when I was sick for a few weeks and then busy with catch up and a busy business month.

So now I am more determined than ever to keep up my circuit, it is my saving grace amongst KAOS! (I will have more details on my circuit so that you can do it too... coming soon on my website, just waiting for a few more details on the graphics for my logo and we will be on our way)

I had been doing well but was having a complete block as to wanting to do one of the modules in my circuit - my hall - it is a gathering point, both at the bottom and top of our stairs.

So I decided to do a fun one first - I did 5 minute magic - choosing a corner that had been nagging me for a week. It was finished in about 3 minutes - why didn't I do it sooner? - so I continued on to the hall.

When the time was up, I set it for another 5 minutes, pushing myself to just do that.

In 5 minutes, it was pretty much finished both of hallways, so I worked another minute and got it done.

Now I am enjoying a coffee, feeling very good about my clean space and the fact that I didn't cave and go for the easy now, hard in the long run solution - which would have been to leave it and pretend that I was going to do it later - later never comes!

ACTION TIP

Push yourself to do what you know you need to do to function happily and peacefully. You will probably be amazed at how easy it ease. Reward yourself when you are finished.

If you are having a problem getting started, set your timer for 5 or 10 minutes, what ever you can manage. At the end of the time, you will likely want to finish it. If you don't, promise yourself that you will set aside another 5 or 10 minutes tomorrow, next hour or this evening, and do it again.

Keep it up until your task is finished. And feel great all the way knowing that you are heading in the right direction.

Feels good, doesn't it!

Another Gift for Today

Yesterday was my birthday. I blogged about "My Gift" on my work at home mom blog - today I have decided to give myself another gift.

I decided to give myself the time to declutter something that has been nagging me, without rushing or feeling that I should be doing something else. Just enjoying the feeling of giving myself one more peaceful space, one more beautiful thing to look at when I walk into the room.

So I'm decluttering a small table that has a small waterfall on it that my sister gave me for Christmas. The waterfall has been empty for awhile, it's been "on my list". So today I'm getting it back in order.

March for me, is traditionally "me" month as it is my birthday so I try to re-evaluate and catch up on appointments etc.

This year I truly feel like I am getting a fresh start, partly from the progress I have made in organizing and clearing out what I don't need. It is an ongoing process.

A program that I really like and am going to start again from the beginning is Carole Pagan's program called Whole Life Overhaul.

It has a little bit of everything, you recieve an email every day as well as a weekly file download of each day so that you can print it or get a preview of what is coming.

She covers a lot of life areas. I love her down to earth style and practical advice. I have purchased every product that she has and found each one to be very good.

If you would like to get your start with me, sign up today. Your worth it.

If I get enough people who would like to join, I will consider starting a blog or forum just for us.

If you have some friends who might like to join us, now would be the perfect time to pass it on.

Whole Life Overhaul.

ACTION TIP

Plan to spend part of today decluttering or beautifying something of your choice, something that will increase the pleasure in your every day life, something that will take a load off, remove a small piece of stress that you have been living with every day.

If you'd like some guidance and new ideas, a daily incentive, join Carole at Whole Life Overhaul

I'll be doing it right along with you! If you join, send me your invoice number and let me know if you'd like to be notified if I create a forum or blog for us.

Declutter that Sock Basket, Once and for All!

This week I have been cleaning with an eye to eliminating rather than managing.

My sock basket has been an eye sore in my bedroom and a general all around pain in the butt for as long as I can remember.

I finally figured out the secret to decluttering the sock basket once and for all.

I sorted through the basket piling socks by owner, matching any obvious pairs as I went. After doing that, the piles are then placed in a smaller basket or box for "the owner" to sort and manage. The box or basket now belongs in their bedroom instead of mine!

It's so simple and effective.

One thing you may want to do is to check periodically that "the owner" is sorting and putting away so that they don't end up with a sock fest all over their bedroom.

I am going to get my younger daughter to do her sorting before she takes hers to her room so I am sure that it gets done.

I now have a new 2x2 square feet of clear space in my bedroom, and one less thing to nag me daily.

ACTION TIP - Manage Your Socks!

Sort all of your socks that have accumulated into your sock basket or pile into piles by owner.

You may want to do a grand sorting first, we did one a few weeks ago.

Be ruthless is getting rid of old and holey socks.

You can use "some" of them for rags, kids have fun putting them on and using them to dust. (that's on their hands, although I'm sure they would have more fun dusting with their feet :0)

If you have really nice socks, you can cut the feet off and use the squares to make a little blanket. But don't allow this to become another pile (been there, done that :0)

Let your kids know that their socks are now their own responsibility.

If you don't have a nice, little basket or box for them, make it a point to get one.

Younger kids would probably enjoy decorating a box for their room, maybe with some sock people.

Take one grand step towards peace and tranquility. Get the sock basket out of your bedroom!

(another great advantage to this is that you will no longer have people wandering through your bedroom looking for socks - and even better - they won't expect you to know where their socks are!)

Blitz At My House This Week

The past few weeks have been seriously low on the production scale as my kids have had the flu, and then I got it and have spent days this past week asleep.

So, now that I have awakened :0) I am seeing things with a new eye and really am motivated to spend this week with a focus on getting rid of the things that I have been hanging on to.

Since I've spent so much time in my bedroom, I must be getting sick of it (pardon the pun) as I had an irrestistable urge to change the furniture around.

In doing so I am also cleaning out a corner that has collected a lot of stuff, a corner that's been "on the list" for quite awhile.

While our pomeranian pup isn't going to be happy, it's her place that she goes when she needs privacy, I will be happy to get rid of it.

ACTION TIP

Make this week your blitz week. It's going to be spring soon, so why not celebrate by spending some time preparing your house for the days when you don't want to be in it.

Do your usual cleaning routine with an eye to the piles that you have been ignoring or putting off.

Also look at the things that you have been hanging on to for no reason.

Now is the time to get rid of them.

Have you got an odd sock basket? Sort it and get rid of it. That's a good start!

Magazines? Books? The library would love them.

Cupboards? What could you do with some extra space if you get rid of the old stuff you don't use?

Could you save on your groceries this week if you use up some of the items that have been sitting there for awhile.

I hope you join me this week with your own "Blitz".

Flash forward to next weekend. You'll be glad you did.