Display Christmas Cards as they come in!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

 

So it is that time of year again!  If you are like me, you open the mailbox every day to find at least one beautiful holiday card, many with pictures of beautiful, cheerful families!  I LOVE to get them, and always feel so bad if I end up shoving them in my mail drawer with the not-so-beautiful, not-even-close-to-cheerful bills that arrived in the same delivery.

 

I also have a problem with my bathroom, and would rather not get into that now, but I decided to solve two problems at once here.  So I will briefly tell you the problem with my bathroom… It is the first thing you see when you walk in the front door!  Who thought of that?  Ridiculous!  If I keep the door to the bathroom closed, it is tolerable to look at, but very blah.

 

So here is my solution!

 

Supplies you will need:

o Beautiful wide ribbon, cut into three long strips.

o Three flat thumb-tacks.

o A bag of paper clips stashed nearby.

 

Every Christmas season, I find a beautiful wide ribbon in my wrapping station (yes, I have a wrapping station, and you can too - call me!).  I cut it into three long strips.  I take three flat thumb-tacks and tack the three ribbons to the top of the door of the bathroom.  (The actual door, not the door-frame.)  The ribbons then hang prettily down the door.  I like to have one slightly longer than the other two, and hang the longer one in the middle.

 

As Christmas cards arrive, I pull them out of the envelope and grab a paper clip.  Simply paper clip the card and the picture to the hanging ribbon, and voila!  Beautiful display of all of your cheerful, festive holiday cards, and a nice decoration as well!

 

One more tip:  I keep my paper clips in the mail drawer, since I am also dumping those not-very-cheerful bills here at the same time that I am discovering my lovely Christmas card.

 

Here is a photo of my boring bathroom door with my now-festive holiday display:

 

 

 

Balance your life!

Nora

 

 

Your system must work with YOU.

Friday, December 04, 2009

 

When I go to visit a new client, he or she often feels that I should give them a brand new way to handle those items that always seem to plague them - a system that is totally different from what they do now, because they say "this just isn't working!"  While I do create new systems and new rules for dealing with the items in the home, what often surprises my clients is that I base these systems on their current behaviors.

 

Why would I do that?  Well, every system we implement together must work with your natural inclinations.  If your natural inclination is to toss your purse, your keys, and your briefcase on the table when you walk in the door, it would be unrealistic to think that tomorrow you will easily start putting your briefcase in your office, your purse in the bedroom, and your keys on a key hook in the entry hall.  (Okay, you might do it tomorrow, but you probably won't keep it up for long!)  Because believe it or not, for some reason it DOES work for you to dump them there.  Maybe you have kids trailing you when you

walk in the door, and they need to start their homework and get a snack.  So you don't have time to run all over the house putting things "away" right now.  You just put your belongings on the nearest surface - the table.  Maybe it isn't the kids - maybe you put them there so that you won't forget them in the morning.  Maybe you put them there because you are just tired and realize that you just don't care enough right at that moment to put them anywhere else.

 

Well, guess what?  You don't need to!  What you do need is a system that allows you to free your breakfast table for things like breakfast, while  dropping your briefcase, purse, and keys nearby in a more discreet location.

 

The point of this example is to say that you don't need to change everything completely.  You need to figure out why you do things the way you currently do, figure out what bothers you about the way you currently do them, and then come up with a better way to accomplish both of these goals.

 

The system we come up with must be tailored to the way you already operate, or it won't last and it won't help you.

 

Balance your life!

Nora

 

 

When I started to organize my mess, the mess got BIGGER?!?

Thursday, November 5, 2009

 

So you have decided to organize that "big mess" that you have been putting off for so long.  You are ready for that space to be presentable again.  So you dive in and begin the process.  After an hour of dedicated, concentrated work on the project, you stand up to get a glass of water, look back at what you have been doing to see the fruits of your labor and see that…. YIKES!  The mess looks bigger now than it did before!

 

Has this happened to you?  Doesn't it feel discouraging?  This is the ugly truth about organizing - it is often true that as you are cleaning up an area, it seems like you are making things worse rather than better.  But don't worry - that's normal.  Here is why:  If you want to clear out one area, you have to move some things that were stacked or packed tightly in that space.  For example, let’s say you have a pile of 50 magazines.  They are stacked all together in one (towering) pile.  If you know that you want to keep a few of them and dispose of others, you have to have at least two piles during this sorting process – one for keeping and one for disposal.  That means that until you actually dispose of the ones you aren’t keeping, you have two piles instead of the one that you started with.

 

The trick here is to KEEP GOING and don't get discouraged!  The mess might get bigger at first, but if you keep moving, you WILL come to the end of that task, and things will start to look better.

 

So keep moving!

 

Balance your life!

Nora

 

The clutter is so bad, I don't even know where to start.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

 

Are you feeling overwhelmed?  Is your house such a mess that you can't even figure out where to begin?  This is to be expected when you have a big job, and it won't be easy to tackle it.  In order to get it done, you need to keep your focus and keep your task small.  If you are feeling overwhelmed by the volume of stuff you need to go through, set yourself a small goal.

 

Try Nora’s trick:  Sit down on the floor.  Look directly in front of you.  Whatever you can see without turning your head and without standing up is what you will work on right now.  And THAT’S IT.  Don't plan to do more than that section.  Once you have finished that little area, stand back up.  Look around.  Does that little section look better?  If so, go get yourself a drink and congratulate yourself on a job well done! 

 

If you still have the energy and time to keep moving today, go back to the same room and start again.  Use the same method - choose one little area (the one that's right in front of you) and get it done!

 

This method works for big jobs, and it also works on just regular cleaning days when you know you need to get things done, but are having trouble motivating yourself or focusing on what you need to do.  Just start right with whatever is right in front of you right now.

 

Balance your life!

 

Nora.

 

 

When I started to organize my mess, the mess got BIGGER?!?

Thursday, November 5, 2009

 

So you have decided to organize that "big mess" that you have been putting off for so long.  You are ready for that space to be presentable again.  So you dive in and begin the process.  After an hour of dedicated, concentrated work on the project, you stand up to get a glass of water, look back at what you have been doing to see the fruits of your labor and see that…. YIKES!  The mess looks bigger now than it did before!

 

Has this happened to you?  Doesn't it feel discouraging?  This is the ugly truth about organizing - it is often true that as you are cleaning up an area, it seems like you are making things worse rather than better.  But don't worry - that's normal.  Here is why:  If you want to clear out one area, you have to move some things that were stacked or packed tightly in that space.  For example, let’s say you have a pile of 50 magazines.  They are stacked all together in one (towering) pile.  If you know that you want to keep a few of them and dispose of others, you have to have at least two piles during this sorting process – one for keeping and one for disposal.  That means that until you actually dispose of the ones you aren’t keeping, you have two piles instead of the one that you started with.

 

The trick here is to KEEP GOING and don't get discouraged!  The mess might get bigger at first, but if you keep moving, you WILL come to the end of that task, and things will start to look better.

 

So keep moving!

 

Balance your life!

Nora