Get Organised in 30 Days, Day 3

Pamper Mission!

You heard it folks, time to look after yourself!

source

Today you are going to take some time to look after yourself. Time to relax  and unwind with a face mask. If you would like to make your own, you can try one of the recipes I found here.

Nice and easy. Remember also to drink lots of water with the weather heating up in the next few days. 

Have Fun and God Bless

Rivkah

Get Organised in 30 Days Challenge Day 2

 Trash and Treasure Hunt

Yes today we are going on an old fashioned treasure hunt. You have 15 minutes to fill a bag with "Trash" and a container with misplaced "Treasure".

At the end of your 15 minutes you should have 2 full containers, just like this image below.

Then you have another 15 minutes to take out the trash and correctly home the treasure. Have fun with it and even get the kids involved. Grab a couple of small bucket and let them go "treasure hunting" too

Until tomorrow

 Happy hunting and God Bless

Rivkah

Get Organised in 30 Days Challenge, Day 1

Ok here we are and ready to kick it off with a bang!! Are you ready for a little hard work and a lot of reward. We are going to make it fun so we can get it done.  We will have everything from Trash and Treasure hunts, to slipshod scrub and shine, and everything in between.

Ok so those of you who are following me on Facebook already know that today's task is going to be a doozy. I would like to thank my trusty "Challenge Tester", Tash for being my guinea pig over the course of this month. Without her, I wouldn't know how well my instructions all work or how quickly a task can be achieved.

Time to get to it!

Ok, so for today's task you will need; cleaning cloths, gumption or similar, non abrasive scourer, tea towels, all purpose spray and your timer.

We are going to transform our kitchen in under an hour.

Set your timer for 15 minutes and start on the left side of your kitchen. Get rid of the rubbish, clear any hotspot (pile of clutter), remove all loose items and then give your benches a really good scrub. You

may need to give it a couple of washes to remove all powdery residues. Clean down any appliances and replace only the most necessary items. If you have time left on your timer, spray and wipe down cupboard doors and handles. 

Repeat this for your entire kitchen for no more than an hour. When you get to your sink clear it and scrub the bench, use the gumption and scourer to really polish up your sink (please if you have a ceramic sink, do not do this, instead use some vinegar and bicarb to soften and safely remove residues.) Then you can rinse and towel dry. You should have a really lovely shine in your sink. It you want to help repel messes even further, try a little Windex before towel drying ;)

Here are our before and After shots of our Test Kitchen.

Before

Before

Scrub that bench!

Post scrubbing, Note that it needs another wipe over.

Clean cupboard fronts

After 15 minutes

Shiny Sink and Windows

1 hour in!

1 hour in

1 hour in! 

1 hour in!

The conclusion

Now we discovered that in 1 hour, Tash didn't get to the stove top or fridge doors. Nor did she take the rubbish out in that time. Please remember to give yourself a 10 minute rest break at the 30 minute point. The aim isn't to burn out. This kitchen is not finished yet, but it will be by the time our challenge is over.

Have fun with this, turn some music on and go for it! Until tomorrow,
God Bless

Rivkah.

Goal Setting

Where do you want to be in a day, week, month, 6 months or a year?

This is probably one of the most daunting questions for an disorganised person. Why? Because they have to take stock of where they are and where they want to be.

For me, my initial goal was to never move house with 5, 90L containers of paper clutter EVER AGAIN! When I first realised my life was out of control and that I had no idea of what I owned or what we owed, I was a mental wreck. Friends wouldn't visit me, I didn't want to be home to face the mess and my 2 very young children really needed a safe environment to grow up in. 

So I set myself the goal of finding a system that would teach me how to get organised and learn to love myself and Love my family through my actions. For 2 years off and on, I used the FLYLADY method. It was a great starting point, BUT I felt like I could get overwhelmed quite easily and that I was always working on "cleaning house". Needless to say I did improve my ways and my family were the ones most surprised. When they would come to visit, they used to dread what they would find, until I set goals and stuck to them. Today they love to visit and see I am more relaxed.

Ok time to set goals, from the longest to the shortest.

A Year

Where do you want to be from a year from now? My guess is that because you are reading my blog, you want to get organised, have less stress and feel comfortable having people over, because you know the toilet is clean, the kitchen is tidy and Mt Washmore isn't taking over the house. Well those were my goals. I wanted to be able to buy a home and know that our finances were in order and could feel comfortable to invite someone over at the drop of a hat.

6 Months

By the 6 month mark, having good regular routines in place and getting the right amount of rest were my goals. I knew that if my routines were in place and the house was decluttered, that I could feel more rested, plan, make and eat better and more regular meals and even know what I was going to be wearing tomorrow.

A Month

By the end of a month, our goal is to see a change in our homes and our own attitudes. Others may start to notice a shift in you by the 1 month mark. Routines will be starting to fall in place. Even if it is just a small one, like taking the dirty laundry to be sorted every night. Each month we can extend ourselves a little further. The common theory is that it takes 21 days to form a habit. Disorganised people tend to take 28 to 31 days, continuous effort in a habit to keep it for a lifetime. This is where I am going to tell you one thing. DON'T BEAT YOURSELF UP IF YOU FAIL THE FIRST TIME. It took me 3 or 4 go's on some routines to make them a habit. Others I am still working on.

A Week

What do you want to see happen by the end of the week? In my first week, I discovered my sink could be shiny and stay clean. By doing the dishes every night and clearing and wiping the bench, we started to win the battle against some yucky household pests (German Cockroaches). My kitchen was my very first goal. I cleaned it from top to bottom. Although it did take me 2 weeks to completely clean it. I did it with one constant thing, my timer. I worked on my kitchen for 15 minutes twice a day. Once my kitchen was clean, the Cleaning bug got me. Each week I wrote a to do list and set about ticking off each item as I achieved it. P.S. I LOVE TO DO LISTS!

1 Day

This may be the most important goal. You see, very can have all the long term vision we like, but if we don't plan to succeed, one day at a time, we won't succeed. This is the reason my blog is called One Day at a time. Planning to keep it simple and set manageable goals, one day at a time, we don't bur out and fall back into our old ways. Trust me, I have learned from experience.

Conclusion

So now that you have seen how I break down goals, I challenge you to sit down with a piece of paper, a cuppa and set your goals. Remember that we are starting our challenge on January 1st. A good diary or daily planner will help you heaps with planning and goal setting. I have tried many different types over the years and have now settled on one that works for me. GO on have fun with it and don't over set goals. Keep them simple and remember to be nice to yourself in the process.

Til next time,

God Bless

Rivkah

Prior Preparation and Planning

Now that Boxing Day is upon us and the festivities of Christmas are mostly over, we can start planning and gathering our tools for being organised.

Disclaimer: I have not been paid to advertise any products in this post. All products used are by my experience only. I give full credit to FlyLady.net and The Organised Housewife for their products.

Planning

We need to plan time, tools, goals and reward. In the beginning, just seeing a clean room may seem like reward enough to some, but for others of you, you may need a tanigble reward for completing a task. I know for me, it was as simple as have sticks of Chai Latte in the cupboard. When I had completed a challenge, I would reward myself with a Chai Latte. Over time the challenge became less of a "Chore" and more of a routine(and yes it is ok to fall down and pick yourself back up, I did this many times and sometimes still have to).

For me, the most important time of the day to get organised is the evening. After dinner, my 30 minutes of organisation begins. 

• Dishes get done, benches, table and stove are cleaned (15 min)
• Washing is collected and tomorrow's load is put in the machine. The detergent is added to the dispenser and the machine is set and ready for Hubby to hit the start button in the morning. (5 min)
• I then plan tomorrow and lay out my clothes as appropriate for the day ahead. (10 min)

These few tasks make the morning run smoothly. I can get dressed while still half asleep, the kitchen is tidy and makes me smile when I come in to make breakfast for the family. The washing load is then ready for hanging, as soon as I arrive home from school drop off/ work. Having my day planned, means that I can see what NEEDS to be done and what can be FLEXIBLE, should something come up that needs my attention.

Gathering our tools

In order to get organised and on track for peace in our home, we need to have a few inexpensive tools.

• 3 containers for our organising missions. (Give away, Put away and Throw away)
• A container to hold our cleaning equipment ( I got this cute one at Kmart for $9)
• Micro-fibre Cleaning Cloths approximately 3-5 will be enough. I personally like the FLYLADY ones.
• All Purpose cleaner. I have recently Changed over to making my own as we have skin irritation issues in our family. You can find the recipe for it here on The Organised Housewife website.
• Glass Cleaner.
• A non abrasive scourer.
• Gumption or Marble Paste.
• A toothbrush and a Dish brush.
• Furniture Polish. (Optional) 
• A working Vacuum cleaner and a broom/cobweb broom.
• A timer. THIS WILL BE YOUR BEST FRIEND

Tomorrow I will introduce a simple plan for keeping on track with our Goals at home.
Stay tuned and God Bless

Rivkah

My Get Organised Challenge Introduction

Over the next month or two, I am going to be co ordinating a challenge for a few friends via my blog. I know I haven't been very busy on here for quite some time and so I have decided to rename and reorganise it at the same time.

The very first thing we need to look at is WHY?
This can be for any number of reasons, but the main one is that we feel as though we are drowning in the day to day. We do well for a while, but then we crash and burn. The main reason for this is that we try to do too much too soon. Routines can take between 21 and 30 days to form into habit. Just think about that cup of Coffee you have every morning. I bet you have it at the same time every day after you have been through your little morning "routine". This is a habit that you have formed over many months and years, going right back to when you were a child with your morning milk or Milo.

HOW? is our next question. By taking one small step and one little bite at the apple each day. I am not going to overload you with routines. I am however going to recommend 3 tasks that need to be done every day to help form these new routines. Everything else will fall in line as we go.

Those three tasks are:

1. Make your bed everyday
2. Clear your sink every night before you go to bed.
3. Wash, dry fold and put away a load of washing everyday for families and every 2nd day for singles and couples.

These 3 routines will help establish order and calm in our homes as well as a feeling of achievement.

Each week, I will aim to set tasks in this way
Monday: Declutter
Tuesday: Clean
Wednesday: organise
Thursday: Plan/pay bills/filing.
Friday: Pamper Mission
Saturday/Sunday: Challenge.

Each task during the week will take only 15 minutes. We may not finish the task each day, BUT that is ok. The challenge is to improve, not to burn out. On the weekends I will set a task that may take up to an hour.

The best part about this is that the rest of your day is yours.From your entire day, there should only be 1 hour taken up by your new routine. We are all going to be in this together. I am going to be doing it with you so that I can photograph each challenge.

I hope you can all join me from January 1st, 2014 to take on this challenge and reclaim time and joy in our lives, One day at a time.

God Bless

Rivkah

MIA??? Where has the year gone already

So I haven't been blogging quite as much as I would have liked this year. I can't believe that it is already May. I have been busy with a few projects and I am hoping to get them posted this weekend. The first is my purple happiness quilt. It is a nice little lap quilt. I have also been working on a quilt based on one called roads to springtime. I have just also come back from a stamp camp this weekend just gone, so I have lots of lovely cards to show off too:)
The renovations here at home are on a go slow, as I have been battling with tennis elbow. I have suffered a great deal of pain with it sadly. But there are still things that I can show off.
On the home organisation side of things, I have recently completed a 28 day challenge for shining my sink. As well as laying out my clothes every night. My current challenge is removing the paper clutter from the office. This is my biggest challenge. I hate this one with a passion and always seem to find a reason to procrastinate. So now I have to deal with it.

Looking forward to letting you all in on the progress very soon

God bless

Rivkah