Organizing Life: Part 5 Smile

 I hope you have enjoyed the adventure of organizing life. Now it is time to sum it all up with part 5: Smile. It is kind of ironic that the  last post in this series has stretched my organizing "capacity" to the maximum.
In the midst of organizing my life we have sold our home. It is a good, but that is another story to come soon.  The selling of our home has meant that every daily activity we simplified , scheduled, strategized, and systematized, has been put on hold and applied towards packing, cleaning, and organizing a move.
So, to write about smiling in the midst of organizing life has truly been easy simple okay let's face it, tough. Life doesn't always happen according to our schedules and this is only proof of that fact. I can however, say we have fared through it with some learning lessons to go with it.
SMILE, n,

1. A peculiar contraction of the features of the face, which naturally expresses pleasure, moderate joy, approbation or kindness; opposed to frown. Sweet intercourse of looks and smiles.

2. Gay or joyous appearance; as the smiles of spring.

3. Favor; countenance; propitiousness; as the smiles of providence.

 It is easy to smile through anything when we stop and truly evaluate the situation in relation to the big picture in life. The hard part is knowing when to stop the negativity roller coaster. Our emotions can get so involved with our rational thinking skills it can cloud over many problems that could be fixed rather expediently.

 

Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.  

(Psalms 42:11)

 

The light of the eyes rejoiceth the heart: and a good report maketh the bones fat.  

(Proverbs 15:30)

 

Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. (Acts 2:28)

 

 

Our countenance is said to be a "window of the soul" to be more precise it is a quote from Marcus Tullius Cicero a Roman statesman born in 106 BC who said "The countenance is the portrait of the soul, and the eyes mark its intention."

Cicero by: Martin Knoller 1775

Organizing Life is shown in our countenances to be sure. Our faces will reflect our attitudes towards what we are doing.  If it is a chore to organize everything right now, stop and re-evaluate why and how you are working towards your goal.  If your goal is to just get by, than it will be reflected in your countenance. Smiling has some great health benefits read this article Health Benefits From Smiling. Sharing a smile may sometimes be harder to do, but it sure goes much farther than a scowl or a frown. Think about what you are multiplying by a smile: joy, happiness, laughter, warmth and beauty.

 

 

Photo Courtesy of: Beauty Begins With A Smile

 

Organizing Life Part 4: Scheduling

Is this how you feel in your time organization? "I'm late, I'm late, I'm late for a very important date?" Are you constantly try to catch up on getting everything needed to run a household finished in one 24 hour period of time? I know the feeling, very well. Make sure to read these articles first Organizing Life Part 1: Simplify then Part 2: Strategize and finally Part 3: Systematize if you haven't already.
Let me tell you a little secret. I hate schedules! Now, that I have confessed, I understand the reasons for needing a schedule. I can plan accordingly for items and  I use paper to help keep me accountable to the clock a little more, because I understand the value of having a plan.

An old proverb says it best. "He who fails to plan, plans to fail."

A business can't be run without schedules, neither can a home run well without one. Life in general has a schedule. After all God organized time in the Beginning...He  created years, days, and hours for a reason. In reality we all have to meet a schedule whether it is our own or that of someone else. It makes time organization a big factor in the ability to accomplish tasks or go about living in disorganized chaos.

There are several types of schedules: hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, yearly etc. Creating your schedule will include factors that you included in getting a system that works. Let's get started:

• Start big and then work smaller. Come up with what you want to be accomplished over the next year. Write down goals and needs large and small. This is just what you want not a set concrete system, just a plan to get started. Here is a Goal Plan Form
• Move to a semester (3month) plan or a seasonal plan that lists specific items that need to be scheduled to get through the year systematically. Then break it down monthly. Want a great household half-size planner or purse size planner? see Donna Young Purse size planner   DonnaYoung Household Planner

Donna Young has a lot of information, worksheets and a computer excel program with her whole web site directly linked as well as a virtual planner for a school year and an automated chore chart maker. She has spent 100s of hours creating these forms and planners most of which are free for downloading to save you money and time! The computerized version planners are available on CD along with her whole website linked for you for only $25.00. Look here: for information on the Young Minds CD . It is a wonderful way to use her website without being online.

• Work out a weekly schedule, it can be variable or the same from week to week. Include your household chores, meal planning, schooling, field trips and appointments. Vary it as needed. 
• Daily tasks need to written out as an hourly routine or a general outline of tasks to be covered. You can work with an hour by hour chart or a handy daily checklist to ensure everything gets covered. Both types can be found here: Daily Schedule Planners

I usually go for a generalized plan of action for each day. We have a vary broad age range in our home and needs vary hour to hour and day to day. I work with a format that lists out the goals to be accomplished that day for cleaning, meals, chores, school and free time. Dad will usually let us know of at least one task he would like to have done each day as well. When everything is finished then it is free time. It may vary.
I found an excel planner for excel that I might use at DIY Planner Kits called  Chaos Oasis . I would of course now need to learn excel, well part of my study course I guess.
  DIY Planner has printable planners all downloadable for free (for non commercial use) they come in classical A4 or 81/2" X11" . I think I'll start there and save excel for later.

I won't forget the smart phone schedulers so here is a freebie  pick for scheduling Cozi Family Planner

Happy Scheduling! If you have any links or ideas please share them, we love any tips that people would like to share. I can't physically surf the net to find the "perfect" plan so feel free to list any links or resources you know of.

Organizing Life Part 3: Systematize

Now we are getting to the heart of "Organizing Life." It is creating a system that will work for you and helping keep track of all the things that need to be done in a day. If you have simplified the areas that you know aren't working, and come up with a strategy to get it done(see:Organizing Life Part 1 and Organizing Life Part 2), then you are ready to start systematizing. I am going to focus on some main areas of organization  and the ways  I run a household with a husband, children, housework, home schooling and meal planning.
For a system to work it needs to be user friendly and do-able. Often we can plan for failure by trying to plan too much and then end up frustrated and abandon the plan all-together.
September seems to do it in home schooling families more than the normal January start to a calendar year. There are marvelous plans made in the mind to be done for the home schooling year and then reality hits and things start to get in the way. Holidays creep up, family obligations, sickness, appointments, burn out,  and boredom. A system of success will plan in for the unexpected and allow for life's unending schedule changes.

Binder System: Home Management Binder: Free Basic Sheets for Creating A System

• This is where you put your brain on paper when you can't remember what needs to be done next. See: Organized Mom and Brain In A Binder Pages For Purchase
• Make it as simple or complex as you need. Remember you are unique and so will your schedule be.
• Make broad categories and then sub-catergorize as needed. (Ex: Housework-daily chores-monthly cleaning-semi annual-annual cleaning)
• I put my notebook pages in a large 3 ring D binder. I also use plastic page protectors   I found them from Sam's Club and only about 20.00 for 200, 8 1/2" X 11" pages. These are very helpful to guard against spills, and using them as wipe off page with dry erase markers. I also use them to protect recipes and music pages for our downloaded worship song pages.
• I also recommend tabs. These are very nice to find the section you need in a hurry for your Home Management Binder instead of flipping every page. I used Post-It Flags that I got from Dollar General for $1.00 each color. 3M has a great coupon deal right now until 11/30/2011 for $2.00 off a minimum of $4.00 in post-it flags. These tabs are great: they can be written on and removed whenever you want(with no marks). I use them in our books to mark pages, in teacher's manuals-to keep track of lessons, book mark Bible pages and as place holders for favorite recipes.
• Another popular smaller sized pre-made organizer is by Franklin Covey  where you can build your own system and add what you want and then reorder pages when you need it. Price is around $25.00 to get started with your own design. They come in binder style or spiral bound.

 Electronic Organization Systems  Top Apps for I Phone & Top Apps for Android 

• I must admit I haven't gotten into this area of organization and productivity. I only am listing ideas that others have used and found helpful for organizing their lives. I include it here because I know there are a lot of people switching their  life's schedules into an electronic virtual calendar of events. Personally, I prefer paper, because technology is constantly becoming outdated and failing. Imagine your entire life on a virtual device and one short circuit happens,  your whole organization schedules and personal info gone *poof* in an instant. Talk about frustration, I get frustrated when I can't find the car keys, I can't imagine everything I did gone when I lost my phone or dropped it in puddle.
• The top apps for smartphone users created just for moms.  It does sound intriguing as a back up, but for now I can't justify the $200 plus cost of a smartphone and the $30 month extra charge for using the internet on the phone to have all these wonderful tools and have them suck my time away.
• Since I know the apps are being used, after research I did find the saying true, that there is an app for everything. Here is one for housework, another for meal planning  , home scheduling, calendar and syncing of programs and grocery buying. Just need to find one that will do it all  for you now.
• I also am thinking about eliminating the need for so many books, which I love and have 1000s of them. I might actually break down and get a kindle or nook. It would be nice for traveling light and it allows you to download all pre-1923 books for free about(1.8million). Gotta love the classics! Probably will save up for it, who knows. Heard great reviews about them, but then again if it crashes there go all your books.

 How It All Fits Together

Put main categories first in your system, what takes the most time, and plan around it and for it. Don't forget to check out the spring planner pages  at Passionate Homemaking for ideas in your system.

http://momstoolbelt.com/

My Home Management Binder Includes:   

• Housework Daily Schedule Candy's schedule adapted from her e-book The Joyful Christian Homemaker pg. 70.  I also adapted a half sheet list for each day on my refrigerator of focal points so I don't need to constantly turn to my binder.
• Meal Planning/Grocery Lists Dinner Tool for meal planning All Recipes for more great recipe ideas and for Grocery Lists as well as coupons Grocery Wiz
• Home School Weekly Schedules   Unit Study Planner  Semester Planner
• Appointments/Events Upcoming field trips, Dr. appointments, planned trips, possible trips
• Ministry  events, places, ideas, appointments
• Budget pick one you like Printable Budgeting Worksheets
• Contacts business card info, websites to remember, links I love, home schooling groups, networking
• Organization Tips Get Organized For Homeschooling  and One Bite At A Time  and Fly Lady

The Home Management Binder is a work in progress, so it changes as our needs change. Anything not used gets thrown away and another item takes it place.

Let me know about your system and share any links or ideas that work for you! I am always eager to hear of new and better ideas.

Organizing Life: Part 2 Strategize

This is part 2: Strategize of "Organizing Life." If you missed part 1 find it here: Organizing Life Part 1: Simplify

strat·e·gy

   a : a careful plan or method : a clever stratagem b : the art of devising or employing plans or stratagems toward a goal

In any plan for organization there needs to be in place a strategy to accomplish what you want to do.  There are hundreds of ways to plan for your own personal organization needs. It is not one size fits all. Some organizational needs will meet single people, married, one child, several children, a large family, or a new "empty nest". Every need is different and therefore the strategy for filling the needs may look different. So coming up with a plan that works just for you involves your time, personality, resources, learning style(3 Different Learning Styles) and mental attitude.

•  For some, it helps to write down what you want to achieve and then list ways to accomplish it. 
• Others need to see a pre-made concrete list to follow and adapt it to their own situation.
• Another common approach is watching and helping out an organized person walk through their day and pick their brain for ideas.

Enjoy the journey, if you look at organization as running your life and not life running you it makes coming up with a new strategy fun instead of a dreadful task.(Unless you are one of the rare few who live life searching for things to organize, if so we'd love your input and ideas in the comments!)

I have created a list of websites that I found with free organization pages to complete a home management notebook that accomplishes what you need for your own situation. I will categorize areas later in Part 3 Systematize in order to make it easier to start broad and get more specific, then you won't need to go back and forth to each site later on if it doesn't apply to you. 

General Home Organization Topical Pages

Cindy Rushton Limited Time Deal Had to add this one in last minute this was a tremendous help in organization. Her birthday deal offers 66% off anything in her e-store. Browse this store something is sure to bless, encourage or inspire with a great price, well worth the investment. Help for the weary moms. I bought the Organized Mom Super Set under the bundles section.

Organized Home Notebook Pages includes loads of general topics and hints for a home management notebook

Note Booking Pages Free Printables This is the largest note booking site I have ever seen, sign up by email and receive samples and discounts of note book pages on just about any subject. It is great for homeschooling families. WARNING this site has so much to offer it might lure you away for hours! Make sure to come back and get a strategy down first!

Passionate Homemaking: freebie I found some great sample pages here and is what I used to revamp my old notebook and help me enjoy looking at it. The notebook is a sister site to Note Booking Pages above. A lot of the information pertains to 2010 but I loved the cover "Keeping the Home One Day At A Time". Stop by momstoolbelt.com  to get their free samples too or buy the whole deal for $15.95 with edit before you print page capability and seasonal cover changes.

http://momstoolbelt.com/moms-home-journal

The Home School Mom Just as the name suggests, this site offers items specific to home schooling families and schedules around it. It also has some general items as well which anyone could use such as menu planning pages and calendars.

My Blessed Home Freebie This is a  large free ebook that contains tremendous amounts of hints, inspiration and practical knowledge in organization. From being joyful at homemaking, building a notebook and ways to organize, to recipes that are nutritious and delicious this book is a winner! Pass it on to a friend, they are sure to love it.  Candy the author was my first introduction to a Home Management Notebook and I have dug out those first pages that I downloaded from her 6 years ago and have reincorporated into my new notebook. Stop by and tell her thanks for such a wonderful resource at http://myblessedhome.blogspot.com/.

These links should get you started with ideas and there are 100s of other websites out there that pertain to household management and organization if you run a search. Figure out which organizational face lift you need in life and fits your lifestyle and then you can move on to systematizing your plan into action.

Remember:   Two key areas that can hinder someone from coming up with a viable strategy are:

1. Being Paralyzed Into Doing Nothing. Everything is in chaos so where do I start?

The hardest part is staring at a blank page wondering where do I begin? My whole life  is a mess.

The book ""Confessions of an Organized Homemaker" by Deniece Shoefield  has an entire chapter  (Chapter 21) devoted to "Where Do I Start?" on page 205 of the 1994 edition she recommends starting with a simple checklist:

• "I am able to keep the house picked up"
• "I am able to keep the laundry current"
• "Meals are well prepared and served regularly"
• "The kitchen is usually in good order"
• "Bathrooms are usually cleaned and straightened regularly"
• "I am able to keep the entry areas cleaned and tidy"

If you can't check off one or more of these areas you will know where to start with a strategy to conquer it. 

I started more broadly and decluttered everything. Too much stuff was littering every area of our lives. I tended to ignore it, but when it started to hinder me and others I realized it was time to go. 

I am a very visual, left-brained person and organization and scheduling are definitely not on my resume of strengths. I could not even think of using a time schedule for the day with every waking 15 minute increment of time mapped out for me. On the other hand, managing the lives of 8 children and the varying schedules needed to run a household, I had to have some kind of guidance to see that I was accomplishing something each day. So I went with a strategy that includes a daily guide with goals to accomplish rather than a detailed hour by hour guide. I can make room for more or less detail with the pages in my Home Management Binder and not feel constrained to a routine that would bore me into doing nothing. I can look and see whether or not there are schedule conflicts and know what things to say yes or not to. I think Lewis Carroll's quote here is fitting:

“If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

    2. Procrastination: It is the enemy to any strategy, putting it off till tomorrow will keep you perpetually going nowhere. Here are some quotes if you tend to be a procrastinator.

"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise: Which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man." (Proverbs 6:6-11)

"The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat." (Proverbs 13:4)

" He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster." (Proverbs 18:9)

"Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands." (Proverbs 14:1)

Find one area to get started with a strategy and go forward. Look for areas that are specifically hindering you and conquer these areas by forming new habits that will keep you on a path moving forwards, not backwards or into stagnancy. Don't be afraid to venture into territory you've never tried before, your attitude should be one of enthusiasm not drudgery. No strategy will work if you are going to dread looking at it every day. Get a fresh outlook on things by looking at how others do it. Most of all have fun coming up with a very personalized strategy you and your family will enjoy, include everyone them come up with ideas together with you.

Organizing Life! Part 1: Simplify

It's been a while since a post, I know, but it was all for good reasons.  I have been busy trying to reorganize our family's disorganized, erratic lives.

We have been trying to struggle somewhere between slight chaos to complete disorder. We have had many, many things that have gotten in the way of common sense and civility around the home. So, before another year of home schooling started I realized I had to reign some things in and simplify my life so that the whole house could be healthy and thriving again.
Hopefully our mistakes can be of some help to others and we can all learn from one another. I will probably break this down into a series so that each post won't be impossible to read through. Enjoy and happy organizing.

My Five Step Plan :     Simplify, Strategize, Systematize, Schedule, Smile!

SIM'PLIFY, v. t. [L. simplex, simple, and facio, to make.] To make simple; to reduce what is complex to greater simplicity; to make plain or easy. The collection of duties is drawn to a point, and so far simplified. It is important in scientific pursuits, to be cautious in simplifying our deductions. This is the true way to simplify the study of science.http://www.1828-dictionary.com/d/word/simplify

When everything around you is in disorder it's time to simplify.  Give a good look around at what could be made to be done easier, faster or more efficiently. Sometimes the most glaring things can be overlooked simply because we are so used to our habits, good or bad. It is helpful to have some fresh perspective of ideas from others that we may not have thought of in simplifying our lives. Originally I sought out help from two blogs that I follow. 

The first blog is Charlotte Siems a mother of 12: she has been an inspiration of getting me back into shape physically and has also had an impact on getting me in shape spiritually and mentally as well. A little healthy conviction goes a long way.  I was slightly overwhelmed with life in general. A bit like this:

Isa 1:5

¶

Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

That's when Charlotte sent me this post; But I Don't Like Housework. I swallowed the conviction that I wasn't enjoying much of anything I had to do in life and instead of throwing my hands up I searched her blog for something to do about it when I found:    How I Got Organized As A Young Mother. 

I bought the book online that she mentioned in the article for $3.50

 and started skimming through it on quick fixes to get life moving again (starting with me first.)

The organization sounded good but I was so overwhelmed I didn't even know where to start and then remembered my Home Management Binder. It was long forgotten, stored away and I looked for it but couldn't even find it! I did internet searches trying to remember key words from it with no luck and I will tell you more about that under Strategize Part 2.  

My search wasn't all  in vain, it did bring me to Simplemom and   she had sine free downloads for a home management binder. She also released an ebook that I bought in order to simplify my life and get reorganized from scratch. It is One Bite At A Tme: 52 Projects For Making Life Simpler.

To get the book

 It was just recently released and only $5.00  the perfect price for our budget minded family. It gave me the jump start I needed. I didn't feel like I needed to accomplish everything in one week and started with "eating my frog" and "decluttering my mind" in order to start purging. It suggests 52 weeks to simplfying life but there is no order to follow, nor is it constrained to getting things done in one year.

I started by decluttering life and throwing things away. Junk that was collected over years of storing it thinking "someday I or _______ could use that". It was liberating to just purge the stuff that was leaving me stagnant and not moving anywhere.  So, now that I was simplifying things such as clutter I moved on to a plan to organize my time and daily activities.

Simplification, the first step in organizing life. I will elaborate more on strategies to get moving next post. I will leave you with this quote on simplicity.

The best things in life are nearest:  Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you.  Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.  ~Robert Louis Stevenson