Organising tools ahoy!

Hello, a quick update today about yesterday's shopping trip to Officeworks. I was out, child-free for a change and while in Officeworks found these funky tools that I'm already getting great use from.

This little A5 zip-up folder is to put in my handbag as a portable office. I am too cheap to pay freight for FlyLady's "Office in a Bag" so I'm having a go at the version for under $10! It already has some medical bills for my Dad in it that need to be delivered to Medicare.

This groovy little sideways piece of plastic is to go on the wall beside my computer. I'm going to store current bills in it. Previously they went into piles, which grew and grew towards the ceiling. With this slender wallet on the wall there will be a limit to how many bills fit in at once, so I'll be forced to keep up to date. I really need this kind of visual reminder.

These very boring looking magazine holders are already seeing use. Back in December I photographed my cousins's sorting system where she kept these all decorated up as sorting systems for school and extra-curricular activities for children. At the moment I've already stocked 2 of them, one with my daughter's school notes, tuckshop bags, and other important documents relating to school. The second one is what I call "home and motivation" and it contains my dreams workbook, housecleaning notes and other nifty house organising references.  Once I have the system working I will decorate them and re-post.

I'm doing well with side-ways pictures today! These labels are for storage in our fridge. We are often confused about whether food has been 3 days or 5 days - which can make a difference. If we label the leftovers I figure thats one more part of life we've saved time and made easier. We both share cooking so its easier to be able to open the fridge and see whats in it. Especially good for my husband who finds it difficult to think about anything once it is inside a container unless there is a label.

And these little beauties are re-useable labels for anything. I figured my husband who loves labels can find a use for them.

What organising tools do you use?

The Big Routine - What do I need?

Vegetable gardening week has thus far been an abyssmal flop.  I did have one day of planting, and managed to acquire some cuttings of Nasturtium, that are excellent for keeping away pests.  So instead of updating on the nonexistent veggie progress, I’m taking sometime out to review my month’s blogging to see what kind of routines that have been on my mind.  Hopefully it will give me some idea of a daily cleaning routine that I can then experiment with next week.

A personalised summary of routine cleaning and organising from previous blogs shows the features my cleaning routine needs to have:

1.       Using the electronic diary in the phone for all family commitments works

2.       I like to make cleaning fun, with games, aps and fun sounding things like 27 fling boogie.

3.       I can’t clean ‘all the things’ at night late, it leads to insomnia!

4.       Focussing on one area a week works well to remind me to prioritise cleaning

5.       It would be beneficial to have regular visitors to keep a level of cleaning frenzy going

6.       Whenever possible, always leave every room brighter (eg pickup rubbish/junk) throughout every day

7.       Regularly cleanout the fridge before bin day, pay bills as soon as they arrive (I’ve had some disappear into the paper piles!), upload pictures at least monthly, send greetings quarterly.

8.       Spend at least 2 hours everyday on cleaning until the chaos is controlled.

9.       Have 2 days in a row alone in the house to clean every fortnight at least, again until it is controlled.

10.   Keep on top of my teeth and hair care to keep me feeling presentable to the world

11.   Make effort to have some ‘emergency’ supplies to be prepared for changes.

 How to apply these criteria is coming up in part 2 of the big routine!

Keeping it all together

In theory I have a system for keeping it all together. My life that is. And my husband's, our childrens' and my father's lives.  Its the calendar function on the iphone and I am still shocked at how well it works - I put EVERYTHING into that little machine now. All appointments, school functions, TV Shows I want to watch, and all the other little and big things. 

Today it feels like all I am acomplishing with it is keeping track of the things I can't keep up with! The doctor's appointments I've had to cancel, the day out with my father that isn't going to happen because I can't access all the equipment I need for him, and what feels like a million other things at the moment.

I simply do not know how to keep up with the commitments in my life. Perhaps today I went off the rails a bit sideways with some upsetting phone calls, or maybe I was exhausted after hauling a toddler around a dairy farm yesterday in the Ergo Carrier while keeping track of a bunch of 4 and 5 year olds!  I'm not sure.

What I do know is that I need to work harder on routines, especially a morning and evening list, similar to flylady, but one that suits me.  I need this quickly, so that the next time my husband decides to use a blade to cut out cardboard squares and slice a tendon, I'm less thrown by the three days of chaos that ensues.  He's fine by the way, tendon is healed really well.  I'm still unimpressed he was playing around with the crafty stuff for himself instead of playing the 'clean floor game' like I asked him to when I was dragged off to rescue my father who phoned because he was in so much pain and the staff wouldn't / hadn't given him painkillers all day.  One thing that I did learn, thanks to a random tune on my phone whilst upset prior to the dairy farm trek is to:

I need to play every morning in the car, as I'm not a fan of school drop-off.

Motivation to Clean - its out there!

The list is here! My top 7 motivators to get up and get cleaning! For me personally the overall motivation is to live in a clean, tidy environment. However finding the daily motivation to make sure that happens is another matter entirely.

Here are some of the best tips I've found so far:

1. Invite someone over! Now I've spent some time adjusting my attitude that I want my house clean for ME, not for visitors. That still doesn't stop me from cleaning more when I know someone is coming. And while that in grained habit exists, keeping a regular stream of visitors through your house can be a terrific motivator.

2. I also found this article about dust mites disturbing enough to prompt the motivation up a gear.

3. Visit someone with a clean house! I will admit that jealousy of someone else's clean domain really gets me going in terms of motivation to do the best with what I have!

4. Get some alone time with your mess. I find that one of the biggest motivators for me is having the time when I'm not going to be interrupted by a toddler to really get into the swing of cleaning up.

5. Finish something. Anything. It could be the washing up, or it could be something like posting a letter that you just haven't gotten around to doing. Whatever it is doesn't matter, as long as you finish one thing. It is inspiration to keep going.

6. Set a timer and just start with a de-junking / rubbish collection / 27-fling Boogie and throw out as much rubbish and recycling as you can. If that doesn't motivate you to keep going, well at least you've done 15 minutes of cleaning already! Fill up your bin!




7. Get dressed up - Right now, when you're attempting to get motivated, start out by getting dressed up - whatever that means to you, whether it is Flylady's lace up shoes or your own personal 'ready' look. Mine is hair and teeth, I discovered here.

And if you are so stuck, that you can't face any of these tips, feeling overwhelmed, then try my magic 4 - have a glass of water, do some exercise, take a long view (how much does it matter right now?) and get started, anywhere. Do not panic.

Cleanup Challenge Day 3

After a couple of high-pain days I was ready to get back into the cleanup challenge. The front entry had been littered with various things, toys, a boxful of generic nonsense from the car, and 2 boxes of tools during the course of the previous week. So quite by accident, I spent over 40 minutes cleaning up just the entry, replacing childrens books in the bookcase, moving tools to the edge of the room neatly, re-tidying shoes and then sweeping the whole thing.

I also took the time to re-organise and stand up all my photo frames and make the room look a little more inviting. My 'end of day cleanup' swept the kitchen floor too, and swished the toilet, put on 2 loads of washing. So far, its a success, although I have had to be mindful of the concept of creating a habit, and not feeling guilty when I was too sick to get stuck into it the previous night. I've also had the opportunity to consider some information from "The Happiness Project" author in her blog, that you should not get more organised, and rather should just throw throw throw things out. It makes sense. There is too much stuff in my house, and I'm better off without most of it I'm sure. Her 'don't get organised' blog is a great read. What I'm going to spend the morning doing is following FlyLady's excellent plans for decluttering. 27 Fling Boogies and 5 minute Fire Drills here I come!

Getting dressed up in the morning

The amazing Flylady (www.flylady.net)suggests that every day we get dressed up all the way to lace-up shoes. I understand the theory of her logic, that being all dressed including shoes would trigger a sense of purpose. Only for me, that just didn't happen. I put shoes on and felt no different to being comfortably barefoot in my home. Except less comfortable.

But this week, as I tackled a particularly difficult knot in my very long hair, I had a lightbulb moment! For flylady, putting on her shoes is the ultimate symbol of her readiness for the world. For flylady, getting those shoes on was what made her feel 'fully prepared' to meet the world head on. I live in the subtropics. Shoes to me mean stinky feet and dull office jobs. They mean the opposite of comfortable, and are a reminder of how I prefer to be barefoot. However there are two things that symbolise my readiness to meet the world head-on. For me, having my hair recently fully brushed, and brushing my teeth mean that I'm ready for anything and feeling good about my level of preparation. Sometimes I go out without doing my hair properly, I give it a quick flick with the hairbrush and hide it all in a bun. I still go out, but I feel less perfect, less ready for the world. I know I'm hiding several knots in the bun! And brushing my teeth properly is much the same. The longer I take on my teeth, the more 'world ready' I am. So my version of 'getting dressed to lace up shoes' is 'brush my hair fully and clean my teeth thoroughly'. If I've done that at the beginning of the day, I feel more ready for what the day might bring, even ready for unexpected visitors, because I feel good about how I'm presenting myself, even if I'm barefoot! So if lace-up shoes don't resonate with you, maybe the shoes aren't your trigger for 'readiness' - maybe its wearing a bra, or putting on lipstick, or wearing your favourite jewelry. Maybe its starting the day with washing your hair. If you stop and think, you'll know what it is. That part of getting 'ready' that you wouldn't dream of leaving out when going somewhere important like a wedding or party or work, but you might not do every time you go to the corner store. That part of getting ready that might be difficult or annoying, or not seem important to do every day, but when you think about it, makes you feel good, even if there is no wedding to go to! I'm going to make an effort with my hair and teeth and let you know the results.