There’s nothing quite like a little encouragement to give you a boost and help you go that extra mile.  This morning, I went to my usual Wednesday morning spinning class at 5:30am.  I had gotten up extra early in order to go to the grocery store before my class.  I also caved and bought some iced coffee while I was there.  It’s going to be a long day (with no nap in sight), so I figured I deserved a treat.  :)  As I was adjusting my bike and warming up, my instructor told me that his wife loves my blog and has been very inspired (I love you Jenny!)  That completely made my day!  As I was talking with an old friend last night, I simply told her that the reason I do all of this (cleaning, organizing, consulting) is because I LOVE it.  I love the instant gratification.  I love how much simpler it makes my life.  I love the encouragement I get from my husband when he comes home to a clean house and dinner on the table.  But most of all, I LOVE that not everyone thinks like I do, but most everyone can benefit from my help!  I came to the realization that most people do not like cleaning.  Most people hate the thought of spending a day cleaning out and organizing their closets, and that is where I come in!  Whether you need a nudge in the right direction, a little help to get started, or you need me by your side to the end of your project, I want to help!  The purpose of my blog is to encourage and build you up!  If you are inspired by the tidbits of my life that I include in my blog, let me know!  I’m so encouraged to know that even though I don’t have a gigantic number of clients at this moment, I’m still touching lives and encouraging readers (mostly women I’m assuming) to embrace their role in their home and make the very best of it!  Getting organized makes life so much easier.  My mother has asked me to tackle every closet in her house while I’m there for Thanksgiving vacation.  I’ve also organized an entire hope chest (and lifetime) of free floating photos from her house.  I’ll be returning those in a labeled photo album and organized in chronological order. 

I’m starting a monthly challenge by having readers send me pictures of a current organizational challenge in their home/life.  I’ll help you get started with a plan on how to get your particular space organized, and then you can send me the after picture and I’ll post them on my website.  In fact, from now until January 1, 2009, I will come to your house for FREE and help all of my local friends with any organizational challenge you don’t feel you can tackle on your own.  Just for fun!  Just because I love you guys and I want to make your life easier!  Email the photos of your challenging space to audrey@madetoorganize.com.

Have a wonderful Wednesday!

~audrey

Do you ever have those weeks that fly by and you wonder where they went?  Suddenly it’s Monday again and you feel like you’ve been running around in circles?  It is only Tuesday and it has already seemed like that for me. 

I decided, with the encouragement of a workout buddy, to start going to the gym at 5am again.  Yesterday was Monday.  What better day to start, right?  I sluggishly rolled out of bed at 4:45am, got dressed, and out the door at 5am.  Our spinning class wasn’t until 5:30, so I stopped at the gas station to get some coffee.  By the time I got home at 6:45am, I was wound up and ready to start my day at full force!  Before I could even take my shoes off, I started straightening the office, picking up leftover toys from the night before, cleaning up the kitchen, starting a new load of laundry…I was ready for a productive day!  I made a few mental notes about what needed to be done that day and kept moving.  I changed the sheets, did about four or five loads of laundry, took my five year old to piano lessons (in the pouring down rain), made lunch, did a clean sweep of the house and put the baby down for a nap around 12:30.  By this time, I was running on fumes!  I took my clean sheets out of the dryer and bundled up on the couch while my older two watched Nemo… I ended up taking a two hour nap!  That was quite refreshing, but I was still dragging the rest of the afternoon.  However, because I had already gotten so much accomplished earlier in the day, I was okay with my afternoon laziness.

Today was a completely different story.  My husband and I got up around 8am, made breakfast for the boys, and left to go vote while my father-in-law watched the munchkins.  By the time we got back, around 10:30am, Josh left for work, the boys all went out back to play, and I got started on more house stuff.  I’m pleased to report that I finally finished my laundry, the kitchen is clean, the entire house was tidey and picked up, my grocery list and menu are ready for the next two weeks, and I FINALLY tackled my master bedroom…and WON!  It’s absolutely amazing and baffling to me how much stuff accumulates in my bedroom!  Here are just a few examples… childrens’ shoes, pacifier clips, medicine bottles, lots of miscellaneous trash, tags ripped off of new clothing, unmatched socks (I matched every thing I had and trashed the rest!), old magazines (these can clutter every room in your house if you’re not careful!)…the list could go on, by I won’t.  Now it is 4:30 in the afternoon.  My house is quiet and peaceful.  I’m babysitting for a friend who went to vote.  Her baby is laying down in the living room with my older two and Owen is taking a very long, much needed nap.  I now have the time to catch up on the things that I love to do, but often get pushed to the back burner…like blogging!  It feels great to have productive days like today.  I got a lot done, I spent quality time with the kids, I’m not exhausted, I haven’t blown my top today, and I still have a good six hours before my day will officially end.  Overall, I complete success!

~audrey

P.S.  To tackle your magazine clutter, pick out your favorites that you just don’t want to part with.  Get a three ring binder and a box of clear plastic sheet protectors.  Go through each magazine and tear out your favorite design ideas, recipes, crafts, etc.  Make dividers in your notebook for the subjects that pertain to your interests and slide each page into its own sheet protector and you can compile a notebook of the very best of all of those magazines that take up so much space around your house.  Recycle the remainder of the magazines and you’ll be one step closer to organizational bliss.  Once your notebook starts to get full, you may need to make a separate notebook for each subject.  However, that will still be more functional and take up less space than saving all of those magazines!  Happy Organizing!

I had some girlfriends over for lunch yesterday and I realized something.  MOST people are not nearly as organized as I am.  And I don’t mean that in a bad way.  Looking at my girlfriends, I would never know that they are or aren’t organized.  It’s simply the responses that I get when they see how organized I AM that I realize I am not the norm.  For example, one of them was looking at my dry erase board in the kitchen that lists our dinner menu for the week.  For me, that is simply a reminder of what I can make with the groceries I have.  If I didn’t post that in plain site for myself, I would be frazzled every afternoon, wondering what I’d make for supper.  Another example is my “household notebook”.  I proceeded to show my girlfriends my household notebook and my “master lists”.  I have a master list for packing, groceries/shopping, dinner options, and lunch options.  This is simply an easy way to cut time out of the things I do on a normal basis.  A great deal of planning goes into packing for a household of five to go away for a weekend…or even a day!  BUT, I can save a GREAT deal of time by printing my “Master Packing List” and simply going down the checklist.  Remember, I still have to make sure that all the necessary items are clean, the suitcases are down, the baby items are up-to-date with the age of the baby, my house gets cleaned before I leave…you get the picture.  But the time I save not having to make that list over and over is invaluable to me.

Another example of the order in my life is my cleaning schedule.  Thanks to Flylady, my house is always 20-30 minutes away from being ready for company.  That means, I maintain the cleanliness and tidiness of my home well enough, so if someone calls and wants to “drop by” in about thirty minutes, it doesn’t throw me into a state of panic.  It also means that I don’t have to spend an entire week or even a few days cleaning for a weekend dinner party or get together in my home.  A lot of that has to do with the fact that my house is not cluttered.  To me, when the house is cluttered, it doesn’t matter how clean it is, it just doesn’t feel good.  One of my girlfriends that was over yesterday commented on how uncluttered my house, especially my living room, is.  I don’t really realize it because I’m here every single day and have to pick up the same messes of clothes, dishes, and toys day in and day out, but it was good to know that it doesn’t look cluttered to an ‘outsider’.

Laundry will be my last example.  I have a four section laundry sorter in my garage/laundry room.  Kids clothes, adult clothes, linens, and whites.  When one section gets large enough to make a full load, I do it.  Occassionally I’ll spend the better part of a day on laundry, just so I can skip a few days of doing a load here and a load there.  And keeping it sorted makes the putting away part much easier.

Please don’t misunderstand me.  My entire life is not completely orderly and organized.  There are PLENTY of areas that need improvement.  For example, I wish I was more organized and disciplined with my childrens’ homeschooling.  I need to spend more time blogging and working on my business.  I don’t keep my finances as up-to-date as I ought to/need to!   Sometimes I’ll go two or three weeks without recording anything in my checkbook or balancing it!  I always have a running tally in my head that keeps me from getting in trouble, but I really need to be more precise.  My husband would say that my car needs more attention.  I love my luxurious minivan but sometimes I’ll go six or seven thousand miles between oil changes and that is BAD!   I’ll be driving this vehicle until the wheels fall off and I really need to take better care of it.  And finally, my master bedroom!  No matter how clean and uncluttered the rest of my house is, I can never seem to conquer the master bedroom.  I have excess magazines, unmatched socks, clean/dirty clothes in baskets, it’s endless.  I think I will work on that tomorrow!  I’ll let you know how it turns out!  I’d love to hear about the areas in YOUR life that are the most organized or need the most improvement!  Please comment and let me know your style of order.

~audrey