Our launch pad works for me

I have a 3-drawer wicker thing just inside our door.



1. Now it's summer here (south africa) so we have caps in there - the sun is potent and whenever we go outside I like to be protected - and of course, our individual umbrellas (they are the small ones).

In winter, I keep gloves, scarves and woolen caps.

One drawer each and an extra for miscellaneous of the same type (extra umbrella, or extra gloves).

I put the 2 gloves together and turn them inside out so they are little balls (hope this makes sense) so there's no hunting around for a missing glove.

2. I keep my church Bible on top of the wicker thing.

3. My office in a bag and our gym bags are also there, as well as any errands that have to be run.

So before I leave the house, I grab my handbag, work bag on the other side of that wall, and then anything else from this little station.

It definitely works for me!

How do you remember what to take with you?

Organising vitamins in the kitchen

We keep our vitamins in the kitchen because we take them after we have breakfast. I take 4 - a calcium magnesium supplement, evening primrose oil, a woman's multivitamin supplement and my favourite, vitamin C.

before - this is the mess when I unpacked it all. I returned medicines to the bathroom, put the extras in a separate container and organised the rest for easy use.

after - that green basket holds all the extra boxes. Clicks often has 3 for the price of 2 specials on vitamins and I stock up. In this picture, you can see how easy it is to take down the little green basket, take the vitamins and put it back.

after - this is what it looks like on my corner shelf. The flat plastic container to the left of the front green basket is what I keep in my lunch bag and take to work. There is just enough space for 5 of each for the week.

and this is the aerial view

1. Does this idea work for you?

2. Where do you keep your vitamins and how do you organise them?

For more tackles, visit 5 minutes for mom

Organising your recipes & menu plan Monday - 12 Nov 2007

Don't forget about my contest on my other blog!

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I wrote a post for Clutter Control Freak recently on organising your recipes. You can read it here - there's also a wonderful resource in the comments!

At the moment, I'm scheduled for surgery on Friday (minor female stuff) which means I've been cooking because I'm not sure how quickly I'll be mobile ;) I'm booked off for two weeks afterwards and then he's said to "take it easy" for 6 weeks in total, so no exercise - YAY! (Have to look on the bright side, right?!)

Menu for the week

Monday

Marcia - out

Dion - fasting

Tuesday

Chilli con carne, rice and carrots

Wednesday

Baked potatoes with spicy lentil sauce (food from freezer - taking with me to work as I'm going straight to another talk)

Thursday

Fish, chips and salad (carried over from last week)

Friday

probably hospital food - yuck! (on the bright side, weight loss!)

Dion can pick from the freezer :)

*** I discovered a healthy snack this week - julienned carrots! I take a small container (about 50g) and keep it next to the computer so when I snack, I snack healthy and I find I like the crunchiness. Now here's the thing - without saying a thing, I saw Dion doing the same yesterday. Isn't that cool?!

Visit Laura for some great menu ideas.

If you're interested in joining my research and development team, email me!

Thanks for reading! Come back tomorrow to see how I organise my vitamins.

Oh, and PS, I'd love to read about some of your small, simple pleasures in life!

I need your help!

Edited to add:
I now have 6 people and I'm looking to double that. I need people who buy e-books, e-courses and so on. Is that you?

I'm putting together a Research & Development team and I'm looking for about 10 people who fulfill these requirements:

Essential
1. honest and people of integrity
2. can give good, constructive feedback
3. communicate well (either written or verbal)
4. a keen interest in goal-setting, time management, organising and success
5. someone who reads other people's stuff and buys e-products now and again
6. Must click with me. This sounds very airy-fairy but if we're going to be working together, then we need to be like-minded, right?

Optional, but nice-to-have
1. On my mailing list at http://takechargesolutions.org
2. Read my blogs regularly
3. Previous buyer of one of my products
4. Previous coaching/ organising client, or workshop attendee

What is required
1. If I select you to be on my team, I will ask you to subscribe to my mailing list because I need you to get THE WHOLE ME and that includes my entire marketing message.
2. I will also ask you to read my blogs (this one and the other one ---->>) on a weekly basis.
3. I need you to give me written feedback on my products, offerings and such. So if you write well, then that's a bonus!

What's in it for you
1. A first look at any new products! For free!!!
2. An opportunity to learn from me.
3. You get an inside look at how I do things.
4. 10% discount off all products, coaching, organising, etc, effective immediately.
5. Access to a new network of like-minded people

How it all works
1. Email me and tell me why you're interested.
2. I'll send you a quick list of questions
3. Depending on your answers in 2 above, we'll have a quick chat on Skype or in my chat room
4. If you're selected, I'll give you access to a special members-only blog I've already set up and we can get cracking!

I'm very excited and looking forward to working with some of you!

My best 4 ways to tame the magazine monster

For someone who does not own a single magazine subscription, I sure do manage to accumulate a lot of magazines.

For this picture, I went around the house and collected everything in sight!

1. I keep them mainly in the bathrooms (ahem) because that's where they mostly get read. When I find something good, I tear it out there and then so I don't waste time looking for a recipe later. Because of course then I'd get sidetracked and look at all the gorgeous pictures again :)

2. The only time I get through a lot of magazines quickly is when I get my car washed. I take 3 - 4 magazines with me and use the waiting time to read, tear out articles and declutter.

3. I also like taking magazines with me when I'm taking a long plane trip, about 8 hours or more. It's nice because when I'm done, I offer it to the passengers who look like they need something else other than in-flight entertainment. I'm helpful like that :) And the best is I can leave them right there on the aircraft!

4. When I go through magazines, my motto is always less is more. So I try very hard not to keep anything I know deep down I'm not going to need or use. I know myself and even though a recipe might look delicious, it's not likely to be something I try and cook/ bake if it's in the least bit complicated :)

Of course, once I have the 2 - 3 pages per magazine, I use my beloved flipfiles/ display folders to organise them. And since Barb wrote about her great ideas notebook, I started a Gorgeous Things flipfile too with beautiful furniture, houses I like, etc. It's good to dream.

By the way, the short flights to PE and CT don't work for magazines. That's strictly e-book time. I finished 150 pages of reading on this last trip down to Cape Town in between the eating and chatting. I use a plastic book bag like this which works very, very well.

Organising with health problems

I'm working smart today and making this my Works for me Wednesday post!

Jo has left a new comment on your post "Fall Y'all bloggy giveaway - a virtual organising ...":

My organizing question is- how does a mom of three, who has cancer and health problems, become good at organzing despite her Adult ADD? Tough one I know but one I battle constantly. WANT to organize, exhausted all the time, start something and never finish. I just want to get things done for once.

Here's what I sent Jo in an email but I'd love you all to also pitch in with your ideas.

Hello again and thanks for your great question.

1. If you know HOW to organize (have systems and so forth), then I’d get some highschoolers in, pay them minimum wage and get them to do it according to your specifications.


2. Can your relatives help?


3. Advertise on your blog for someone good at organising/ professional organiser to come in and help you – maybe do an hour or two free and you can do a nice testimonial for them.

The main thing is that once the systems are there, you can get anyone to “follow your rules” even if you physically can’t do so.

Readers - please share your ideas in the comments! Thanks.

If you want to answer some more questions :), visit http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com

And the winner is...

Remember last week's giveaway?

Thank you so much to all of you who participated - I LOVED all the great questions. And wow - such a lot of questions on paper which just happens to be my favourite thing to organise.

I wish I could give EACH and EVERY ONE of you a free virtual organising session because I would love to help all of you.

But - good news! I've decided to give all the commenters 10% discount off a virtual organising session - the normal cost is R150 but you get 10% off. Please use coupon code virtual to see your discount at checkout! Offer valid until 16 November. That means you must have paid for it - I can do your session after that, no problem.

Here's the link to the store and to the other organising goodies

And the winner is....

Mary (Anonymous commenter) with yahoo address, who said...

My biggest organization problem is paper! I get overwhelmed with it and don't know what to do about it. Thank you.

Congratulations to you, Mary. Please email me so we can set up your session and get you organised :)

Menu planning & planning for busy weeks - 5 Nov 2007

I knew we'd be back late last night from Cape Town (see previous post) so I cooked extra last week so I could have some freezer meals for Mon and Tues.

I'm using the time I would have been cooking to write a quick newsletter for Wed's mailing and catch-up with emails. Although, my email box is not looking bad at all. I'm impressed :) And of course, preparation for my talk on Wed.

Anyway, so here's my menu for the week.

Monday
Stirfried sausage, chickpeas and veggies with rice

Tuesday
Spaghetti chicken casserole

Wednesday
Something quick - doing a talk, how to manage your time and take back your life for a group and will only eat around 8pm

Thursday
Grilled fish and chips (95% fat-free) with salad

Friday
Eating with friends

How do you plan for busy weeks?

I'm back!

Just checking in to say that I'm back and will post more tomorrow.

However, I thought I'd leave you with a few pictures - the view from my window on the 'plane as we were descending into Jhb earlier this evening.

look at the gorgeous grey skies over the wing of the aircraft - these beautiful clouds unfortunately resulted in a fair bit of turbulence and I'm just getting over the queasiness now, two hours later

this view always makes me think of a patchwork quilt :)

And now, I'm off to make a mug of green tea, which I'll drink while making my to-do list for tomorrow. Then I'm jumping into bed.

And yes, the draws for the 3 giveaways are already on my list!

Favourite organising tools #9 - Office in a bag

As many of you know, I work a full-time job, run the business after work and on weekends, and I do ministry work at my church.

With all these things going on, I have to be quite portable because there's nothing worse than not having something you need. Or having it, but in the wrong location!

So I have an "office in a bag".

1. I use one of these book bags for my business & personal stuff to and fro work.

2. The pictures below show the one I use for the ministry work.

It has two pockets. You can slip paper and larger items into the big one and smaller items like keys and smaller notebooks into the front pocket which then has a plastic zipper.

I love this thing because of the handles. You can't see them very well because when I bring it back home, I store it on its side with the handles folded over so it fits nicely into my launch pad. (Just realised I've never posted my launch pad - okay, made a note and will do so)

What I keep inside

1. Forms for doing the assessment
2. Ministry details
3. Notebook (Disney one) because so many people don't keep paper with them
4. Pencil bag with mini stapler, mini staple remover, pens, highlighter, paper clips, etc)
5. I used to have office keys but since we moved to the new church building, I do the assessments at a coffee shop so we are really portable now.

What do you use for your "office in a bag"?