Blog

  • Decluttering in February

    ByRosie

    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…

  • Extra credit routines help you do the hard jobs

    ByRosie

    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…

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    Routines vs Calendars

    ByRosie

    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…

  • Unclutter your Life in One Week

    ByRosie

    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…

  • Focus on core tasks with your Daily 7

    ByRosie

    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…

  • 15 Minutes* in the Dining Room Hotspot of DOOM

    ByRosie

    I’ve got this pair of little black shelves in my dining room, and I had not been keeping up with it.  Oh, no,  I had not.  But last week was dining room week in my focus zones, and something had to be done.  So I set my HomeRoutines timer for 15 minutes and got on with it. To be honest, I had to set my timer twice, because I got kind of distracted by the kids and a text from my sister reminding me I…

  • Routines: Good and bad examples

    ByRosie

    Creating your own routines is a great way to get in the habit of completing the regular tasks you do throughout the day. Everybody has some sort of routine, but it is not always a good one.  A few years ago I had a really crappy morning routine. It involved waking up late, rummaging through a pile of washing, ironing something from the pile, brushing my teeth and running to the bus-stop without any breakfast.  Then there was that one bus driver who would flash…

  • Keep your HomeRoutines on your iPhone or iPod Touch

    ByRosie

    Home Routines is a happy place for all those repetitive (and often thankless) jobs that come with running a household.  Each time you complete a job or routine, you give yourself a star.  At the end of the day, you can look at the Accomplishments screen and see how much you got done – even on the days that it feels like you didn’t do anything. Home Routines is ideal to store your own personalised routines and detailed cleaning tasks,  whether they are your very…