Hello! Is this thing on?

Hi all

I have a quick question for all of you:

Is anybody out there still doing the challenges on a regular basis?

I'm thinking of stopping it totally but I'd like your feedback first about the Friday Declutter Challenge.

1. what works for you?
2. what doesn't work for you?
3. would you notice if I stopped?

I don't mind honest feedback so go ahead and let me have it!

Friday Declutter Challenge - sweatshirts and jerseys

Today we're decluttering and organising sweartshirts and jerseys.

If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, you've just finished with winter so this is an ideal time to go through your winter woolies.

But that doesn't exclude those of us in the Southern Hemisphere - as you move your clothes around, ask yourself honestly if you're going to wear ALL your old winter clothes.

And especially if you've bought some new clothes, use the one in - one out rule.

In South Africa, there are TONS of places who are desperately looking for winter clothes for homeless and underprivileged people.

If you work at a large organisation like I do, you probably have some CSI initiatives to collect clothes - use the opportunity to lighten your wardrobe AND bless those less fortunate.

Over to you! Let me know how you do in the comments.

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The Organise your Home ecourse is a step-by-step system delivered in bite-sized pieces so you will NEVER feel overwhelmed. You even get an audio of me teaching you how to organise your space.

Tons of people have been through this system; are you next?

Tomorrow we're decluttering...

sweatshirts and jerseys

Are you ready for the challenge?

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The Organise your Home ecourse is a step-by-step system delivered in bite-sized pieces so you will NEVER feel overwhelmed. You even get an audio of me teaching you how to organise your space.

Tons of people have been through this system; are you next?

Organising your notebook

This is my colleague's notebook that I've been threatening to blog about for months.

I love the way she organises her notes - hopefully this will work for some of you too.

• She uses yellow post-it flags to highlight pages where there are still outstanding actions. This means she doesn't have to page through the whole notebook to find her place.
• She also writes the client/ product name on those flags to help keep her place.
• When she has a list of personal to-dos, she folds the page in half to help categorise those tasks separately. Can you see the page on the left is folded over?
  

I like to start a new page for each client meeting and for each day's work.

Of course I always use a spiral-bound notebook!

I write down my action items either in the meeting, or at my desk as I take calls or think of things to do. When I've done them, I highlight them in pink so I can still read them but they don't "bother" me anymore.

I don't use my work notebook for personal things unless they have to be done on that particular day, e.g. paying the doctor before I go to my appointments

How do you organise your notebook?

Quick - organise your desk in 10 minutes

Just for today, here's a quick office organising challenge.

1. Set your timer for 10 minutes
2. Put on some upbeat music ("You can't hurry love" - Phil Collins does it for me)
   
3. Throw away all the stuff that doesn't belong on your desk
4. Sort and make piles of paper - to action, to file, to pay, etc.
5. Label these piles with post-it notes
6. Return errant items to where they belong

That's a really good start - well done!

Now doesn't that feel better?

HELP! I can't get my posts to schedule in advance and I'm going crazy!

This is still happening to me. Figured out it's only on this blog, not on the other one. I went through each page of my settings (comparing the two blogs) looking for the magic pill that would fix it, to no avail.

Can anybody tell me what to do next?

This was posted on 14th May ....

My post scheduling feature is not working.

Is anybody having the same problem? And more importantly, how can I fix it?

When I change the date and time, Blogger is still posting it at the time I write the post, i.e. now (Thursday night) instead of posting it tomorrow morning at the time I'm selecting.

It's driving me BATTY!

(Apologies to those who read through their feed reader - you must have seen my efforts at taking the post down and re-posting it)

Pregnancy update

I've had so many "behind the scenes" emails asking about my pregnancy so I thought I'd do a quick update.

By the way, the reason I didn't update sooner is because I thought, "well who on earth would be interested in reading about my life?"

So for those of you who are interested, have a read here.

If you've anymore questions, let me know and I'll answer them. I do need to do a Baby Organising post again soon - will take pictures during the next week and get that up.

Friday Declutter Challenge - pants and jeans

Today we're decluttering and organising our pants and jeans.

Don't get cross with me when I say this to you... but if you've been saving a pair of jeans hoping that you'll fit into them one day, don't.

Release them and reward yourself when you get to your goal weight.

It's much nicer to buy a sassy pair of jeans when you're lighter than having to wear older, less fashionable jeans.

Over to you! Let me know how you do in the comments.

**************************************

The Organise your Home ecourse is a step-by-step system delivered in bite-sized pieces so you will NEVER feel overwhelmed. You even get an audio of me teaching you how to organise your space.

Tons of people have been through this system; are you next?

Tomorrow we're decluttering...

pants and jeans

Are you ready for the challenge?

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The Organise your Home ecourse is a step-by-step system delivered in bite-sized pieces so you will NEVER feel overwhelmed. You even get an audio of me teaching you how to organise your space.

Tons of people have been through this system; are you next?

Making-do organising when travelling

You know how, when you travel, things aren't the same as at home???

Well, this is what I did to create some order when we were in Ireland.

I hung a plastic bag on the key to create a wastepaper basket and used this lightweight travel backpack for my socks and underwear.

What do you do to make your stay in other people's homes easier?

10-minute organising project - the pantry!

I love organising projects that take very little time to complete but make you feel oh-so-good as if they were a lot more complex than they actually were.

I've shared the fridge organising with you before; today I'm going to share another of my 10-minute projects, organising the pantry.

• throw out expired food like sauce packets, etc.
• move older food to the front and be sure to use them up in the next week
• use baskets and other containers to keep like categories of food together
• as easy as that, you are DONE!
  

When was the last time you organised your pantry?

Friday Declutter Challenge - we're decluttering shoes!

Edited to add my decluttering pics


Today we're decluttering and organising our shoes - takkies (trainers), sandals, closed shoes, slippers, the whole lot!

You don't need to throw perfectly good shoes in the bin if they're in good condition; rather donate them to a women's shelter or another worthy cause.

These are the ones you want to get rid of:

• broken
• out of style
• doesn't suit your lifestyle (if you've left the corporate world, then you probably don't need all your fancy shoes you used to wear with your power suits :))
• too many of the same kind
• hurts you when you do wear them
• haven't worn them for a couple of years (they're probably outdated by now)
  

I have at least two pairs to get rid of because I bought two pairs in Ireland and I have to stick to my one in- one out rule, so here we go.



Over to you! Let me know how you do in the comments.

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The Organise your Home ecourse is a step-by-step system delivered in bite-sized pieces so you will NEVER feel overwhelmed. You even get an audio of me teaching you how to organise your space.

Tons of people have been through this system; are you next?

Ladies, declutter your shoes!

shoes, glorious shoes

boots, flats, active shoes, slip-flops, slippers, everything!

Tell me in the comments how many pairs you THINK you have - tomorrow you can do the actual count :)

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The Organise your Home ecourse is a step-by-step system delivered in bite-sized pieces so you will NEVER feel overwhelmed. You even get an audio of me teaching you how to organise your space.

Tons of people have been through this system; are you next?

So tell me, why aren't you organised?

I have some ideas about why some people who really, really, really want to get organised but just don't do it.

These are some of the reasons I get from people:

• procrastination
• not believing that they deserve to live in an orderly home
• no time
• no money for organising tools
• just don't know how
• they can't because their husband/ kids/ cat/ dog messes up after they organise a space :)

I'm telling you today that you CAN get organised.

All of those reasons above are simply excuses and limiting beliefs.

So what are the things you tell yourself?

I'm hoping that by challenging you to be courageous and fearless, you'll shine some light on what's really holding you back and take some action.

And if you're not sure where to start or how to do it, the Organise your Home ecourse is a step-by-step system delivered in bite-sized pieces so you will NEVER feel overwhelmed. You even get an audio of me teaching you how to organise your space.

I am FINALLY that person I've always wanted to be

Is it just me or do you do this too?

I used to always look at people and think, "wow! I wish I could be like that"

Not at prettier, skinnier, cleverer people, mind you.

But at people that could travel with just one piece of luggage. I'd stand behind them in the checking in queue at the airport and literally be jealous that they could go on a holiday... to a foreign place....not their home.... with so little!

You might not know this about me but I'm (naturally) a very heavy traveller - I like to be prepared for every eventuality!

When I'd go home from university and my dad collected me, he'd joke and say things like, "only 3 bags?" yet it wasn't really a joke because that was me!

But now I am FINALLY that person.

Check this out!

A mere 9,8kg of luggage taken all the way to Dublin, Ireland on our recent holiday. No hand luggage except for my handbag.


It did help that I'm pregnant and have 3 pairs of maternity pants and only so many tops but now that I've tasted the freedom of easy travel, I'm hooked!

So what kind of person are you? Do you travel light or were you like the old me?

Friday Declutter Challenge - underwear drawers

Today we're decluttering and organising our underwear drawers.

First, before you even start organising, get rid of all the old, ugly, stretched out garments.

Remember what your mother told you? What if you're in an accident with ugly underwear? :)

Now that that's taken care of, you can organise.

There's also a lot less to have to think about which in my book, is win-win!

I use cereal boxes to keep everything organised, thus dispelling the myth that organising has to be expensive.

More cereal boxes and those cardboard dividers for drinking glasses

Over to you! Let me know how you do in the comments.

**************************************

The Organise your Home ecourse is a step-by-step system delivered in bite-sized pieces so you will NEVER feel overwhelmed. You even get an audio of me teaching you how to organise your space.

Tons of people have been through this system; are you next?

Tomorrow we're decluttering...

our underwear drawers

That's underwear, socks and pajamas

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The Organise your Home ecourse is a step-by-step system delivered in bite-sized pieces so you will NEVER feel overwhelmed. You even get an audio of me teaching you how to organise your space.

Tons of people have been through this system; are you next?

One of my favourite organising books EVER!

Confessions of an organized homemaker - Deniece Schofield

This is one of the very first organising books I read and is still one of my absolute favourites. I learned one of my favourite organising tools in this book.

If you haven't read it, I strongly encourage you to get it from the library and read it with a notebook so you can jot down the good ideas that will work for you.

Have you read it? What did you think?

3 ways to use food so it doesn't spoil

I hate wasting food with a passion!

First of all it's money and also, I can't help thinking about all the hungry people right on my very doorstep.

So I have a few ways I use up food so that it doesn't spoil.

1. Use veggies to make stirfry (as in picture above). In fact, in the above picture, I had some chicken, some spaghetti and veggies. By cooking this one meal, I managed to use all of those up which makes me very, very happy.
2. If there are still veggies left (this particular night, there was also a lot of broccoli), throw into the freezer for use in soups whenever you get around to it.
3. We store bread in the fridge anyway because it's warm in Johannesburg and bread goes mouldy very quickly. Sometimes we still can't get to eat the bread quickly enough so I toss the bread in the freezer. I really like saving time so I package them in packs of 2 slices so that I can simply grab a bag, pop the bread into the toaster and I'm good to go.
   

Those are the only foodstuffs that spoil in this house because when I cook, I cook enough for two meals and immediately freeze the other meal.

What other tips can you share? What works in your house?

Friday Declutter Challenge - T-shirts!

Right, so today we're decluttering T-shirts.

I want you to go through all those T-shirts, especially those at the back of your cupboard...I have them so I know you have them too :)

Look what I found...

an ex-boyfriend's T-shirt from university!

and one from when we worked in the children's church before we were married actually (this is 14 years old)

You should be wearing clothes that fit well and that flatter you because you're worth it.

Throw out those old T-shirts - I don't even think you should keep them to wear to the gym because you deserve to look cute even when you're all hot and sweaty from exercising.

How many T-shirts did you get rid of today?

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Marcia Recommends
The Organise your Home e-course will help you get your entire home organised in just 12 weeks. Tons of people have been through this system; will you be next?

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Challenges for the rest of the month...

8 - underwear and socks, including pajamas

15 - shoes

22 - pants & jeans

29 - sweatshirts and jerseys