January - Final Thoughts

Well, I started of this month with an idea. It was a plan for the month and the year ahead. Not really a resolution but a life change. January was all about getting organized, de-cluttering, becoming more efficient on my road to Working Smarter, Not Harder.

So how did I do?

Well, it was a start. It was hard. I still have a number of tasks on my list which is OK because it is a process, an ongoing process. I am not going to abandon all my January efforts. I am going to continue working on getting organized, I still have several boxes of bills and receipts, I need to slim down the number of toys and clothes that we have in our house and I need to get all the rooms, especially the home office and the kids toy room, organized BUT ....the important thing is I started. I will continue to update that process but I am also moving on. February is just minutes away and that means a new topic or theme. February will be about love and relationships - with my husband, with my kids, with my family and with friends.

Getting Organized - Tips and Tricks

So I have spent much of this month trying to get organized. It was the theme of this month all in an effort to Work Smarter, Not Harder. Getting organized has been a real challenge. I am not the most organized at the best of times but I have been trying to stay really focused with this challenge.

I feel like we are over run by our stuff, that our stuff is starting to control our lives. We have an old 4 bedroom house and what it lacks the most is storage, there are only a few closets in the entire house. The biggest closets in the house are in our master bedroom and the basement and that makes storing things a challenge. My husband has a home office and that presents additional challenges. We have a lot of stuff  in the office, including paper, comic books, toys and action figures that my husband has worked on and really no where to put any of it. To be honest that is the problem throughout the house. Our bedroom is over run with clothes, the toy room is over run with toys that have spilled over to every floor of the house. The plan is to move the toy room to the basement and make the two rooms on the third floor of the house office and spare room but one thing that is holding us back  is that we are currently housing a friend's stuff in our basement. We had someone living in our basement for a while ( ok, several years) and now that he has moved out he forgot to take his stuff with him. There is a date for the stuff to leave but in the meantime the move is on hold. What I am trying to do while we wait is de-clutter and organize. Sadly I don't feel like I have made very much progress. I think in order to really get effective change I need to enlist the entire family - husband and two kids. I think I also need to get some tips and tricks from an expert.

I put it out there on twitter that I was looking for an organization guru and that's when my twitter peeps said if I needed to get organized then I needed to talk to Lindsay Harris, @lindsayglowbaby, of Glowbaby.ca.

Lindsay and I spoke over the phone for about 30 minutes. I asked her questions and she asked me some questions. It is really important to talk about the areas that are the biggest challenge. The amount of stuff in our house has to be the biggest challenge. There is four people in our house who all have lots of stuff and it is starting to overwhelm us. Lindsay talked a lot about what she does in her house and the kind of routines they have in place. I want to touch on a few of the best tips Lindsay gave me because I think they can work for everyone.

De-clutter: It is really important to go through the things in your house to make sure that you are using everything. It can be a daunting and overwhelming task but if you go about it room by room it can be easier to tackle. Lindsay also says sometimes it is easier if you start with the room that is the least cluttered.
                  Lindsay says it is really important to go through toys and clothes on a regular basis to get rid of anything that isn't being used. Throw away anything that is broken or damaged. Donate anything you think is still in good condition that someone can still use.

Everything has a home: Once you have thinned out all your stuff it is essential that everything has a place. Storage in each room is key says Lindsay. If there is not enough storage for all the toys and things don't have a permanent home in the room then the kids will have a difficult time cleaning up because they won't know where anything is supposed to go. Lindsay says a really good tool to help everyone keep the toy room clean is to label bins with pictures of what is supposed to go in it that way the kids won't have to guess.

Maintenance it key: Lindsay says it is easy to keep things organized and tidy when you make it part of a regular schedule. When it comes to de-cluttering she says it is a good idea to do it every couple of months to make sure that everything in your home is getting used. "It is never done. It is an ongoing job", says Lindsay. If you make it part of the entire families regular chores then it is more likely to get done. Lindsay says if you actually schedule cleaning and organizing like  an appointment then you are more likely to complete the task and there is a better chance of it becoming part of your every day routine.

This month was all about getting organized and de-cluttering for me. It was an overwhelming task for me. I got things started and I am far from being done. While I am planning another focus for February I will still be working on getting organized and de-cluttered. It could take me the entire year to tackle this challenge. I will continue to update how it is going.


What tips and tricks do you have to stay organized? How do you de-cluttter?

Frugal Friday - Counting Your Pennies

Have you ever thought about all those pennies in your change purse?  How much are they really worth?

I have come across people who throw away those pennies. They consider them a nuisance but there is something to be said for that old saying.... "count your pennies!"

My kids love to count change and drop it into their piggy banks. They each have several piggy banks around the house. The ones they like the best are from they bank and they are see through. They are able to see exactly what they have inside. But when did we as adults get to the point where we consider change as a pain in the wallet? We treat change like it is worthless, a nuisance but it can really add up. We try to save change ( unless I am giving in to my cravings and using it for the vending machine at work) in jars, jugs, piggy banks and bins. More than once or twice I have taken large buckets of change to those change counting machines to tally up our haul. I once cashed in more than $100 that I used for that week's groceries.

What do you do with your change? Do you spend it, save it, or toss it?

I am going to challenge myself this year to see just how much I can save in change by the end of the year. Wonder if I can save enough for our annual trip to Florida? Can I save enough to go to Disney?

Thursday Thoughts

So I just wanted to mention someone who is very positive and is a sounding board for me. Laurel A. Crossley-Byers, known as @optimom on twitter. We actually met on twitter. After talking on twitter we realized that we were practically neighbours and now we are great friends in real life - as they say.

Laurel is a great motivator. She has a great focus on mind, body, spirit. We meet on a regular basis just to talk about life, to talk about work and talk about future work. She is a great listener and always has great advice. She is a great coach.

So I took advantage of having a friend like her and we did a short coaching session together.  She had me try to envision a great space to work in, what it would look like, feel like, where it would be located, the type of work I would be doing in the space. We talked about mind, body, spirit.

Mind = stimulated
Body = rested
Spirit = relaxed, not stressed out

Part of envisioning is setting a plan in motion. While I was thinking about what I would be doing in 5 years time, we also talked about how to make it happen in the present. And that where my plan to Work Smarter, Not Harder came into clarity. I had often thought that there must be a better way to work and live. Laurel and I talked about how I might write more, and the key to this is write more paid writing gigs. We also talked about writing things that I liked. I also need to come up with better ways to promote myself.

So I am working  on it. I think it is always a work in progress. Part of that work is this blog.

Sweetness

  

 

Motivation Monday

I don't know about you but I often find it hard to stay motivated, especially in the cold winter. It just seems like the cold, snow and dark days of this season make it hard to stay motivated and creative. I am happy to say that my goal to work smarter, not harder this year is helping me stay on point and get things done. I am not saying that I am crossing everything off my daily to do lists but I am trying and that is half the battle.

Writing on my blog is also helping and that has a lot to do with being accountable to all of you. Funny how when you share your plans with the world it is much easier to succeed. I have a long road ahead. I hope to have themes and focused task for each month of the year in the hopes that at the end of it all I can honestly say I WORK SMARTER, NOT HARDER.

There is a quote from one of my favourite movies, Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium,  that I think helps me to stay motivated. Mr. Magorium says ...."Your life is an occasion. Rise to it"

Lazy Sunday - NOT!

So the plan this year was to work smarter not harder right? Well part of that plan was to not do housework on the weekends or at least do as little as possible. Last weekend was a trial run and let's just say it didn't really go like I planned so I thought this weekend would be better. I at least thought I would give it a champion effort.

So how am I doing?

Well let's just say if this was twitter I would be swimming with the fail whale for sure.

Yesterday, I did the dishes and tried to tidy the main floor but that is very difficult with two kids, especially when one of them gets into everything, including Barbies and lots and lots of hair products. I think I spent much of yesterday following behind her. Then I decided that I would tackle the hall outside the my husband's office and the kids play room. It was littered with boxes and stuff since my husband started to clear out and de-clutter his office. It was a hazard for sure. That only took an hour or so. I even tidied the kids playroom and my husband's office a bit. And of course you know what that means? It means that kids needed to play right in the newly cleaned hallway of course. Just another mess that someone ( ME! ) will have to clean up later probably.

Actually, this year as part of the plan, as a household we are working on getting everyone to take their part in the mess and clean up. We are encouraging the kids to clean up after they play, to put their clothes away and in the hamper when they are dirty and also to bring their dishes to the kitchen after they eat. My kids are young enough right now that they actually like to clean, like vaccuum, wash dishes and clean the bathrooms - strange I know but I am taking advantage of it because I know it might not last long.

Now it is Sunday. A day to relax right? WRONG!

Today I have a long list of things to do because I didn't get the done during the week. I could just sit with my feet up today but realistically that just wouldn't be productive. I did get to sleep in this morning. The kids didn't wake me up until 9 o'clock. GLORIOUS. I did have a nice cup of coffee with  my breakfast.

So today I attempted to fix both the dishwasher and the dryer -- while I did manage to clean them up neither one is working properly. Guess I will be calling the repair man soon.

So much for a restful weekend but at least I got some things done. There is always next weekend to put  my feet up.