So this morning I shared a post from I dream of Clean on the HomeRoutines Facebook page, and asked: Do you have one little thing that would make a big difference if you got it done? We often have these little things on our “quality of life” to do list! I have a giant toddler handprint on my living room window – I think I will get to it because it is terribly distracting! and then kept on sitting on my butt reading through my…
Back in the early aughts, I used to design and develop computer based training. We’d take the staff development goals of businesses, and find which ones could be turned into learning objectives, then design training programmes to run on a CD-ROM or the internet. As we designed the programmes we continuously improved them – so many rounds of feedback, so many changes and tweaks. Sometimes, a idea I thought was the best thing since sliced bread didn’t work out in the real world, so I…
On The Whole Shebang, SHE stands for Self, Home, Endeavors – a potentially more positive definition of SHE than “Sidetracked Home Executives.” It was created by Krista, a professional organiser, who is sharing her beautifully designed resources and plans with all of us. The basics of her plan are on her SheBang 101 page: Creating your own Morning, Afternoon and Evening routines (we like routines 🙂 Krista’s example routines are great too. Creating a special SHE spot of your own in your house – a…
I think the universe is sending me a message: three of my favourite sites are focussing on Decluttering this month. And I’ll keep telling myself that I’m not behind – I’ll just jump in where I am! FlyLady The FlyLady‘s monthly habit is decluttering for 15 minutes a day. She has some good instructions on how to declutter and some different fun ways to get motivated. I’m feeling a bit guilty now because she keeps talking about how you should put boxes of decluttered stuff…
I was thinking about how easy it is for me to make my routines too long, with too many tasks in them. There are things that absolutely have to be done in my morning routine – like changing nappies, breakfast dishes and so on. But then there are things that can slide more easily, like sweeping the floor post-breakfast etc, especially when I get tied up chasing toddlers around the house, and you just know they’re going to run through the swept up piles of…
I’ve tried out many systems over the years. There’s always something “new,” from bullet journals, Getting Thing Done, time blocking and so forth. I would often find it very tempting to write the things that I should do, or intend to do, on my calendar. My thought process was that if I put it on the calendar it’s official! With a time and date next to it, it definitely will get done! Life doesn’t often work like that, though, so I’d end up with a…
I’ve just finished reading Unclutter Your Life in One Week, by Erin Rooney Doland from Unclutterer.com The book has lots of excellent advice and exercises to help you simplify, although I wouldn’t try and do it all in one week, not with three littles underfoot! There is nothing like uncluttering an area only to have little people discover all the “New” things that you’ve just uncovered! Erin talks about creating routines in several sections of the book (yay), so I thought I’d have a go…
You can make lists and lists and lists, and have the best of intentions, but some days you can only manage the basics. Having a pre-prepared list of the absolute priorities can help out on difficult days. If you look around at what other people consider to be “basic lists” it can be helpful or sometimes overwhelming at times. But after all, your absolute priorities are up to you. Stephanie O’Dea from Totally Together Journal wrote a great article called The Daily 7 for a…
We are note worthy! We are note worthy!
Tsh at The Art of Simple has an excellent article today with twenty ideas to help develop a routine at home when you have little kids around There’s nothing magical about any one particular routine — it’ll probably change in a month anyway, as routines often do with little ones in the house. But simply having some sort of written-out plan helps me know what’s next, how to stay focused, and not feel like I’m running in a hamster wheel. I love this thought. I…
