Monthly Archives: November 2009

Last night my cousin Kelly tweeted that she needed to be more organized in her life and wanted some time management skills. Oddly enough I tweeted at THE EXACT SAME TIME that I needed some blog inspiration. Ok if I’m being honest, I was far too lazy last night to get up and tweet and besides Garrett was commandeering the computer and my cell phone is totally from like 1997 so that wasn’t even an option , but I was totally THINKING about tweeting “I need some blog inspiration” which is almost like actually tweeting it, right? Right.

Anyway, I fancy myself fairly organized and I’m pretty OCD with some of the Standard Operation Procedures around our house. Granted, that doesn’t mean I don’t know how to procrastinate and avoid like it’s going out of style, but the foundation is there, you know. Part of the reason I am so crazy for being organized is that I think it simplifies my life which in return makes me sooo much less stressed. With that in mind, I thought I would throw out some of my own philosophies and link to a few fun resources about organization for Kelly, and well, for you if you are looking for some inspiration. Come join my crazy organized world, friends! There is a place for everything and everything has a place!

*So, first and foremost, declare your intentions, and mean it. I find this is by far the most overlooked part of any life change that you are embarking on. So in this instance, think about WHY you want to get organized — what improvements are going to come about because you are choosing to get organized? Is the clutter detracting from your quality of life? Are you finding you forget things or pay bills late? Think about how much better it would feel if you didn’t have stress from (insert stumbling block here). Bottle that intention. This is so important is because in times of trial, you will be tempted to not stay on track so I find it helps to have a mantra or intention to keep you focused.

*Find some visual inspiration. Whether it is something like the Pretty Organized Flickr Pool that will inspire how a room looks, or a fun Mantra Poster to hang in your office or otherwise unorganized area, or a gorgeous, but functional weekly planner that actually makes you WANT to use it — whatever it is, find a token or a tool that makes being organized fun, pretty or stimulating. You will have a better chance of sticking to it and staying on track.

Simplify! This is one of the easiest ways to have an organized life in my opinion is to simplify at all times. Whenever you are doing something, planning something, or scheduling something, ask yourself — is this making my life simpler or more complicated? Is this necessary, or could I do it another way? A few Food For Thought resources on simplifying are: This list 27 Simple Ways to Simplify Your Life and this collection of quick tips100 Tips to Simplify Your Life

*Control Your Clutter. Unfortunately, in my opinion, clutter and organization are mutually exclusive. I am a recovering piler. I used to have very nice, neatly stacked piles of things all around my house that I rationalized were acceptable because, of course, I knew exactly what was in them! And I had put them in that very specific pile on purpose. But honestly, piles are just a euphemism for clutter, and clutter is oh so energy sucking! This article on clutter control is pretty enlightening, I think. And I especially love that this article calls out the “It’s fine. I can always use another (insert item here)…” philosophy. To me, wrapping your arms around that idea — that you don’t need 500 of a certain item (thank you cards, notepads, pens, pencils, books, rolls of toilet paper, whatever your items are) no matter how useful they are — is paramount when it comes to effective clutter control. Too many items leave you scrambling for space, and juggling that space management does NOT simplify life.

*Last but not least, I’m including a link on Scrapbook Organization because as you can imaging Scrap_girl77 does enjoy the scrapping once in a while, so Kelly, here is a quick link that not only tells you how to organize your oodles of supplies, but how to find more time to actually scrapbook. I thought the last part was sort of universally useful, I mean, even if you don’t scrapbook, who doesn’t want more time for…well, anything, right?

You know what is a challenge for me — writing about something as I’m going through it. I mean, yeah I can sit down and pen a number of complaints or talk about my favorite things at a moments notice, but to actually gain some perspective, corral a feeling into an bigger purpose idea, identify it and make sense of it — like with words — can be a real struggle. And there is a lot going in my head right now, things related to work, health, geography, scary next steps (Hi, have I mentioned I’m writing a book. There I’m just throwing that out there because OH MY GOD, it’s just scary to say)…and I just don’t have the perspective to get them down right this second. But I’m working on it, I promise.

Today, though, you get only tidbits.

1. I need some new clothes. We’ve had this “Casual Dress” thing going on at work as a part of a United Way fundraiser where you could purchase dress down days. So basically for about 3 months now, I’ve been wearing jeans everyday to work and it was AWESOME! Today was the first day back to business casual and golly gosh darn it, I hate everything in my closet. Also, I need to purchase some warmer things. But not warmer things like this, even though, hi I want to drop like $100 on cute fleeces and pj bottoms right now. Why can’t we wear those to work?

2. My allergies have been something fierce lately and I’m starting to think it might be food related. Or the seasons changing? I don’t know what it is but can I just tell you….The sneezing…is NOT glamorous. And it happens everywhere: at home, grocery shopping, at work, running errands. My allergies know no boundaries and it has been embarrassing on more than one occasion as of late.

3. My Netflix queue is kind of empty…what have you watched lately that is worthy of a rental? We are currently making our way through The Wire, which is enjoyable. But I’m thinking more along the lines of crisp Fall/Winter evening movies. Ideas?

4. We had a little get together this weekend to watch some football and I had so much fun cooking for it. I made Mexican Chicken Soup, Shepherd’s Pie, Red Velvet Cupcakes, Banana Chocolate Bundt Cake and a bunch of other simple appetizers. I think we had a metric ton of food, but it was such a fun time, and now we have LEFTOVERS! And tasty ones to boot.

5. I’m going to go to the gym 5 times this week, dammit. Oh, hey — I guess that little tidbit was more for me than for you. Wish me luck?

Hope you all have fabulous weeks also!