Goodbye Chaos, Hello Peace!
  • Home
  • Books
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact
  • Our Stories

Decluttering......155 on the 9th -  & Story of the Dead Sticks

8/7/2016

0 Comments

 
I've started working my way about the living/dining room, starting to the left of the doorway. I began with this bookcase - here's the before pic:
Picture
When I was done just tossing things I no longer wanted from this bookcase, here's what was left (and one of the baskets is empty):

After that, I started working on another bookcase, but I'll leave the pics of that for tomorrow, as I got tired and will finish it up then.

There was lots of wading through the contents of binder, ditching no longer needed papers and consolidating the rest.

There was also a lot of letting go of things I know, realistically, I will never use, or things which, well I can just live without!

Picture
Plus I was reminded of the story of the dead sticks. A few years ago, my friend and I both read a book from the library (Lessons in letting go : confessions of a hoarder by Corinne Grant); it was the story of one woman who began the journey of letting go of lots of clutter. (As I remember it..) at one point, she needed to move apartments, and a friend came to help her pack and move. As he's emptying the closet into boxes, he holds up something and says "Why do you have this?" She replies "Oh, that's the bouquet my boyfriend gave me at our prom!" He looks at it in confusion and says "But it's just a bunch of dead sticks!?!" And that's when she realised...yes, actually, it is just dead sticks. The bouquet had long ago dried out, and then disintegrated. You couldn't tell what it really was anymore, and it certainly served no useful purpose. After all, she could remember the good times without the dead sticks. She tossed them out, and vowed from then on, not to keep any more dead sticks.
Picture
Today I realised I had some "dead sticks." For example, in 2014 I spent a ridiculous sum on an absolutely gorgeous planner in a purple (my favourite!) leather zip-up cover with a flower on it. It was soooo pretty! Surely it would make me super organised. It didn't! I hardly used it. And of course, 2014 was a while back. There are no extraordinary notes or memories recorded in that pretty diary. Why do I still have it? It was too pretty to throw out - but it's not like I'm going to use it again!

And how about all those packets of fancy copier sheets my mother passed on to me 10 years ago, and I haven't used yet (you know, glossy photo paper, T-shirt transfers, address labels in an ugly format....)?? Why do I still have them??


Dead sticks, people, dead sticks! Time to let them go.

Today I have decluttered the following items:
2 file boxes
6 binders
30 completed school books
7 literature resource books
13 unused school resources to pass on
1 CD-rom Essay Writing set (another dead stick - never been used!)
1 keyboard
1 mouse
2 bags of trash
1 fishbin full of paper for recycling or burning
46 random items from the shelves
6 packs special printer papers
1 clearfile
2 new accounting books (I do this digitally now)
1 hardcover book
1 graph paper refill
1 new visual diary
7 books to sell
6 dictionaries
2 books - first aid and bush craft
1 paintbrush canvas roll
1 spiral bound notebook
1 2014 (dead sticks) purple diary
10 kid's story books
3 kid's educational newspapers
1 basket
1 marble

That's 155 items and a BIG bin full of paper!

It really does feel good to let go! I feel like I'm peeling back lots of layers, to ultimately reveal what is hidden underneath - a life of calm and pleasantness.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Decluttering....110 on the 8th!

8/7/2016

0 Comments

 
According to the decluttering game I'm playing, I'm supposed to declutter 8 items today - but I was on a roll, and ended up decluttering 110 items instead!
It started when I decided to clean out my kitchen utensils drawer...from which I eliminated 33 items - I grabbed an oven tray that is no good any more, and piled 22 junk items in it from the drawer for the trash, and put another 11 items into the donate box for goodwill.
Picture
Picture
Then I folded the laundry, and as I was putting it away, decided it was time I tidied up my underwear drawer. I've lost a lot of weight recently, so threw out 2 bras and 19 pairs of undies I don't need any more.
Picture
Picture
I've decided that over the next couple of weeks, I'm going to focus on decluttering my living/dining room. I grabbed some obvious don't-needs from the DVDs stack, and then decided it was time I dealt with the box of books in one corner I've been meaning to get rid of. So today I either listed for sale or gave away these 51 books and DVDs.
This evening, I decided to go through the binders off one shelf while watching the end of a DVD mini-series (it will go in tomorrow's toss pile!), and I ended up tossing the contents of 5 binders - which are going in the donate box.
Picture
So that's 110 items (not counting the several hundred pieces of paper from the binders!)
I think I was extra motivated because last night before bed I skimmed back through Leo Babauta's The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life. Reading books which remind me of all the good reasons to reduce clutter and excess is always good motivation. Leo recommends these overall principals:
  • Omit needless things
  • Identify the essential
  • Make everything count
  • Fill your life with joy
  • Edit, edit!
"Figure out what makes you happy. Get rid of the rest,
so you have room for those important things." Leo

It feels good to let go!
0 Comments

Decluttering Game - 6th & 7th

7/7/2016

0 Comments

 
Between yesterday and today, I have selected 13 more items to toss, give away or sell:
  • A three-ring binder
  • The contents of 5 other binders (the binders themselves have gone into my box of spare binder for reuse when needed)
  • A brand new book
  • A brand new bra
  • 6 DVDs to give away
  • 3 DVDs to sell
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

Five for the 5th

5/7/2016

0 Comments

 
I'm playing a decluttering game - getting rid of as many items as the day of the month. Today is the 5th, and I've selected 5 more books to toss.
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

A Decluttering Game

3/7/2016

0 Comments

 
Life is full of seasons. There's the season of youth, the season of being newly married, the season of having young children, the season of homeschooling, and so on. Things never stay the same forever.

My life is entering a new season - in a very short space of time, my eldest has married a beautiful lady and moved 6 hours away, my second has moved out of home, my third has moved to the South Island, my fourth has finished homeschooling, and my youngest has enrolled in a program at a highschool to finish off the end of her schooling. For 25 years I've been a homeschooling mother. Suddenly, I am not. And it is way harder than I thought it would be!

This week I've been thinking about the change of seasons, and preparing for God to do a new thing in my life, whatever that might be. A part of that change is a process of letting go - letting go of the things we don't need any more, the resources for all those "good ideas" we never got around to, the things I meant to do and wished to do, but didn't, and the general clutter that accumulates in a household of 7 busy people. 

It's time, once again, to pare down, streamline, simplify. And for me, it always helps to have a focus or a goal to motivate me. Long time readers will remember that 2 years ago I decided to get rid of 1000 things​ - a seemingly huge goal, but it ended up being more than that.This week, someone posted a link on Facebook to a decluttering game, posted as The Minimalism Game.

In this "game" the idea is to locate and get rid of one item on the 1st of the month, 2 items on the 2nd, 3 on the 3rd and so on right up to 30 items on the 30th of the month. At the end of 30 days, one would therefore have eliminated 465 items. The items can be given away, sold, thrown out - whatever. But they must leave your home and life forever.

Just what I need to focus my general desire to start decluttering! So, this is what I'm going for the month of July. Who knows, I may repeat it every month for a while. I like the slow build up at first, as it gives me time to get in the grove, plus allows time to do other things.

So, on the 1st of July (the day before I read about this game), I had allowed my daughter to select a book to give away to a friend.
On the 2nd of July, I listed 2 books to give away on a local Helping Hands page where items are freely given to help others. One has now been given away, and the other is in the box I will drop at the local thrift store once it fills up.
Picture
On the 3rd of July, a Sunday, I took a break, but listed those 3 items to give away first on the 4th - a stick blender multi-set, a greeting card notebook, and another book.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Today is the 4th - so far I have thrown out a pile of damaged or odd socks (11 of them, but I'm just going to count them as one item), two plastic shopping bags which will go to the thrift store (counted as 1), a pair of cut off shorts, and am about to list a book for sale on Trade Me.
Picture
Picture
Picture
In the process, I've sorted out the sock pile, cleaned out one bookcase, and tossed out quite a bit of trash (not counted, though it could be).

I'm going to post updates each day.

How about you? Do you want to join me in playing this decluttering game? You could either throw out 10 things today and be all caught up, or just jump in where you are, and get rid of 4 items today, and then 5 tomorrow, and so on.
0 Comments

Is God Besieging You? How Marvellous!

16/8/2015

0 Comments

 
This week I started on a 90 Day Devotional Challenge. This came in God's perfect timing - just the week before at church I had felt God speak to my heart and call me to turn more fully back to him. There is NOTHING more important in this life than knowing Him; He brings true peace in this life and the promise of eternal life. But the busyness of every day life can slowly creep in until our days and minds are overwhelmed with all our to-do's, and the truly important gets pushed aside in deference to the urgent.

This week's focus has been on Psalm 139. The first few verses describe how well God knows us - there is nothing that escapes Him.
"O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord."
Psalm 139: 1-4

He knows our thoughts, our words, our actions, even before they have happened. He knows us COMPLETELY. We cannot hide from Him!

And then this morning I was looking at verses 5 & 6:
"You hem me in - behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain."
To start with, I was thinking of this phrase "you hem me in" in terms of a kind of protection and guardianship. A sweet thought; one I appreciated. However, something about this was niggling at me, so I decided to dig a little deeper.....
Whenever I want to do that, I usually start by checking the verse in the King James Version, because then I can use the words used there to find out the original Hebrew or Greek word they were translated from. Doing that often leads to some interesting insights.
Verse 5 in the King James:
"Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me."
Hmmm....beset. That doesn't sound quite so warm and fuzzy. Now to check for the original word. I pulled out my trusty Strong's Concordance, which lists every single word in the King James Bible, what verses it appears in, and links to the original language. Strong's tells me that the word here translated "beset" comes from the Hebrew tsuwr which means to bind, besiege, confine, cramp, shut up, enclose, treat as an adversary etc. This original word appears 38 times in the Bible. In 24 of them it is translated "besiege" and generally is referring to an army laying siege to a city or people. In the rest of the verses it is translated as: distress, bind, adversaries, assault, bags, beset, cast, fashioned, fortify, inclose and bind up.

So, I was thinking about what this verse was saying. Would God cause me problems - allow me to be hemmed in by troubles (in a negative way) - for some reason? No! - that does not make sense in the context of the passage. Remember, verse 6 says such knowledge is wonderful - so wonderful it is hard to comprehend! 

So I thought about what "besiege" means, and why armies do it. My dictionary defines besiege as: "To surround with military forces to bring about surrender." An army besieges a city by surrounding it, limiting access by others from outside, and then waits for the people within to surrender to the commander of the army. During a siege, the army is fully alert and engaged with the task of bringing about the ultimate victory - the surrender of the people within.

And then I understood.....God, the incredible, all powerful, all knowing, Creator of the universe, who knows you and me so thoroughly - who knows our sins, our failings, our struggles; knows us warts-and-all - HE also CHOOSES us. And He wants me not just to acknowledge Him as Saviour, but to make Him Lord. For this reason, God will besiege us - surround us on all sides and ask us to surrender fully to Him. FOR OUR GOOD!

Isn't that amazing? Isn't that wonderful? God loves us so much that He sent His only Son to die for us - but that's not all! He is so interested in me personally (and you too!) that he is willing to fully engage in our lives, to surround us with His powerful presence, and to wait for our full, unconditional surrender.

Will you say Yes! to God? Will you surrender wholly to Him and make Him Lord of your life once again? Oh what blessings await!
Prayer: O Lord, I thank you that you never give up on me! I am so thankful that even though you completely know me, still you love me and choose me. Thank you, Father, for calling me to draw near to you again, and to go deeper with you. Lord, I say yes to you. I choose to surrender to you. But Lord, I know I can't really do that fully on my own. Please keep working in my life and draw me closer to you. Help me to know you more and more, so that I will increase in wisdom and understanding of you and your marvellous ways. Amen.
This all reminded me of the chorus from a song we sang at church recently:
How marvellous! How wonderful!
And my song shall ever be,
How marvellous! How wonderful!
Is my Saviour's love for me!

How marvellous indeed!
0 Comments

1000 Things Wrap Up: Does Decluttering Ever End?

28/5/2014

0 Comments

 
So, you've decided it's time to get rid of the clutter in your home and life. Maybe you've decided to launch a "campaign" something like my "1000 things" in which you plan in a certain period of time to eliminate all the excess from your home. Or maybe you are planning on a more little-by-little approach. Either is fine. Both will work, if you keep at it. But the question that is often in our minds is "Where does it end?" Will there come a time when there is no more clutter, and I don't have to declutter anymore?

Well, yes and no. If you stop bringing more stuff in and keep working at it, then yes, you can get to a point where your house is (mostly) free from excess. But, without continuing effort, it won't stay that way for long!

If you live with other people. If you ever bring something new home. If you have friends who send you gifts. If you read magazines or do puzzles. If you buy any item that comes with packaging. If you lose or gain weight, or your kids grow. In other words, if you live life!....clutter will happen!

But it does not have to become that overwhelming, all consuming monster it once was, ever again. The secret to preventing that from happening is some new habits and routines, such as these:
1. Quick maintenance - after you've decluttered a space or a room, you need to sweep through it from time to time, quickly removing any new items of clutter that may have been deposited there. This may just be part of your regular housework routines - as you tidy, dust or vacuum, pick up and deal with unnecessary items as you go.
2. Regular deeper sessions - once a week or once a month, go back through one cupboard, drawer, shelf, room - whatever works for you - and check to make sure nothing there has become outdated, outsized, worn out, or no longer needed. If so, eliminate! If you've already decluttered thoroughly, and you keep doing this regularly, it won't take anywhere near as long to do as the first time!
3. Have a place to put stuff you don't need easily, and use it - to me this means a bin in the foyer for recyclables, a bag in a handy cupboard for clothes to pass on, and an accessible box for things headed to the thrift store. As soon as the bag or box fills, or once every week or two, take those items out to the car and make a point of dropping them off when you go into town.
4. Teach your kids good habits and thought patterns - it's ok to let go of stuff you don't need any more, where to put such things, and to think about where they are going to keep anything new they bring home (is there room, do they really need it, what will they get rid of when they add this?)
5. Adjust your own thoughts and habits too! Do I REALLY need this? And remember, it's ok to pass something on as soon as you've finished using it. Just because that was a good magazine, doesn't mean you need to keep it forever! Don't allow yourself to just bring random things home - it needs to be something you need or truly want, and there needs to be a place for it.

A good rule-of-thumb is to take 15 mins every day to move through your home looking for and getting rid of clutter.

Picture
Last week we finally had a nice, sunny day, and I was able to put my collected items out by the road. I put out about 7 boxes of stuff, and 5 hours later when I packed the rest up, there was only 1.5 boxes worth left.

Since then, I've done a little more decluttering, but I've decided it's time to wrap up my 1000 Things campaign - after all, I've exceeded that goal, and there are other things in life that need my greater focus right now.

In the past week, I've added another 58 items to my give aways - including clothing, jigsaws, a radio, binder, wastebasket, crockpot, muzzle, craft things and more, and added a couple more items of furniture to the sell list.

Due to the fact we're now into wintery weather, it's no longer practical for me to put things out by the road, so all remaining items are going to be dropped off to a local charity tomorrow, and I'm going to focus over the next couple of weeks on advertising and selling the remaining books etc I've earmarked for sale. If they don't sell by then, they will also go to the charity.

As I've now decluttered all the rooms in my house, as well as a couple of sheds, I feel pretty good about what I've accomplished. There are more books and DVDs that will go in time, but most of those will be for sale, and there's no point pulling them off the shelves until I've cleared away the ones already for sale.

I also need to spend some time catching up on some other projects - finishing setting up my new paperwork system, catching up on ironing and mending, and so on - these things and more may be the subject of future blog posts.

All in all, despite the fact that eliminating 1000 things seemed like a huge goal, I've got rid of over 1200 items over the last 6 weeks or so, and while my house looks less cluttered, it certainly doesn't look empty! My family are amazed that we could let so much go and not even notice the difference in any negative way - a fact that has inspired them to keep letting go of more of their own stuff!

I hope you've enjoyed my 1000 Things campaign, and have been inspired to let go of some of your own excess!

0 Comments

1000 Things Week 4: Stop Acquiring More Stuff!

11/5/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
If you desire to get rid of the clutter in your home, here's an important tip: Stop Adding To Your Stuff!

One of the reasons most of us struggle to get around to dealing with all the stuff we already have, is that we keep adding to it, rather than subtracting from it. We pick up bargains at yard sales and second hand stores, buy more than we need from thrift stores, and get items on sale that look attractive to us. If you’re a homeschooler like me, you’re probably a bookaholic too, and constantly bringing home new finds!

Here’s what I want you to do - make a commitment for a certain period of time (at least 3-6 months, preferably one year) to not buy or acquire ANYTHING except basic essentials, and those only when you truly need them! Half measures won’t do - if you tell yourself you’ll get LESS stuff, then you’ll always find an excuse to get this and that. If you make it a firm NO! then it will be easier to be strong.

And how are you going to get by while you’re not getting more?? Two things -
  • You’ll learn to be content with what you have. “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” 1 Timothy 6:6
  • You’ll use up or make use of what you already have. There was a saying during the Great Depression:
“Use it up
Wear it out
Make it do or
Do Without”

Imagine actually reading all the books on your shelves. Or using all those wonderful home school materials you’ve collected over the years but not actually used, instead of buying more. Imagine actually looking at all the recipe books you’ve got, and weeding out the ones you don’t need, instead of acquiring more. Think what it will be like to use (or discard) all those patterns, craft ideas and recipes you’ve collected and hoarded. To use the clothing you have to come up with what you need, before looking for new ones. Think of actually playing all the games your family owns, doing the jigsaws, working together on crafts with what you have.

Imagine finally, once and for all, actually dealing with all your stuff and getting rid of all your clutter. It won’t happen until you stop adding to it!

Suggested “Rules”

Here’s what I suggest for the “no adding stuff” period:
  • Do not buy or allow into your house any do-dads, knick-knacks or “this would look good in/on my___________” items whatsoever! Make do with what you’ve got in the meantime. Remind yourself the day will come when you house is free of clutter and mostly tidy, and THEN you can get some of those wonderful items you want to make your house look pretty.
  • Do not get any more books!! Stay away from second hand book stores and other grounds of temptation. Unsubscribe from the second hand books and curriculum email loops. (Ouch!!) The ONLY exception is purchases of specific, pre-planned curriculum for your home schooled kids or other students that you really need! If you don’t already have plans in place to buy certain items (such as if you are following a specific graded curriculum), then don’t buy anything! Use what you have - come on, I know you have lots of stuff! Get out those unit studies and good books you brought way back and actually use them. If it turns out they aren’t suitable, then sell them! Then, use your library, and free internet resources when you do need extras. But see how much you can actually get done using what you already have on your shelves!!
  • For the period of your commitment, you may not cut out any recipes or craft patterns, or collect any papers that “might come in handy one day”. NONE! Until you’ve used, sorted or got rid of all such items you already have stashed, you are not to add to them. Don’t worry, you won’t really miss anything important!!!!
  • Avoid garage or yard sales, ebay, sales of any kind, second hand stores and thrift stores! You are NOT in the market for ANY miscellaneous “useful” items of any kind. Be strong!! Only pre-planned purchases for needed items may be made. No extras at all!!
  • “Needed” means items pertaining to the basics of life - such as food, clothing and shelter. Plan to buy only the items you REALLY need in these categories, after seeing if you can make do with what you have. Plan to avoid any other spending altogether on “things”. Your bank balance will be much healthier too!!
  • No purchases of puzzle books etc - use up what you have, or do free crosswords out the newspaper or online. Save your money; reduce clutter!
  • When you do need to get something new, make it a rule to immediately get rid of at least one similar item - preferably 2 or 3. So if you buy a new pair of shoes, immediately throw out the old pair, or if you're the type that has many pairs of shoes, select 2-3 pairs you don't really need and let them go.

There will be the odd exception to the no acquiring rule that is acceptable - when it's something you've long needed to get or replace to truly make your life better; usually it's an item to replace a damaged or worn out essential piece of home hardware (furniture and equipment). For example, I made an exception for myself recently - I've been looking for a better computer/office desk for 3-4 years, and spotted the perfect one outside a thrift store as I was walking past for only $40. I got them to put it on hold, wrote down the measurements, went home and checked it would fit where I wanted, thought about it overnight and then the next day went and bought it. When I put in the office, I immediately advertised the old desk for sale, and I also identified two more desks from the house that I could get rid of. This new desk perfectly fits what we need, and improves our lives, making things easier in several ways. Considering the bargain price, it would have made no sense to pass up this opportunity because of a "rule" - so do use your common sense. Like all "rules" it's purpose is to improve your life, not make it miserable!

So, how about you? Ready to commit yourself to a "no new stuff" for a period of time? Make a simple poster/contract, fill it in, and post it on the fridge where your family can also see it. Or print my one, and use that. Download HERE.



Picture
The fourth week of my 1000 Things Challenge was just that - a challenge! A week full of bad weather, injury and illness, as well as other things going on. I managed to get some decluttering done - focusing on items in my "storage shed" - a place where I keep things like preserving jars, fabric, extra bits and pieces, and which currently has to double as a garden shed as I don't have one. It was good to give it a clean out, and in the process I added 30 items to the give away piles - 2 insulated lunch bags, 1 stacking stationary container, 1 jelly mold, 3 small baskets, 1 pack of scrapbooking supplies, 2 pencil cases, 1 tablecloth, 3 plastic plates, 1 sprinkler, 1 bird house, 6 candles, 1 dynaband, 4 packs of Newspapers in Education resources, 1 pack of ANZAC photos and resources, 1 office chair (not pictured) and 1 roman blind (not pictured).

Picture
At the same time, 121 items got added to the for sale items - 1 automatic pet feeder, 1 set of caligraphy gear, 1 box full of caligraphy books and resources, 21 pieces of dinnerware, and 97 homeschool workbooks and answer books - though I strongly suspect the vast majority of those will end up transferred to the give away pile after I've sold what I can.

So that brings the grand total of items eliminated over the last four weeks to 1140!
0 Comments

1000 Things: Week 3 Summary

5/5/2014

0 Comments

 
Constant rainy weather has prevented me from putting give away items out by the kerb, but I'm still gathering them up into boxes, ready for when I can give them away. In the 3rd week of my "campaign" to eliminate the unnecessary from our home, I identified another 76 items to give away, and 74 to sell - a total of 150 for the week, and 989 so far over the last 3 weeks!

From this point out, I'm going to need to change the way I do this each day. Because I have other areas in my life I also need to focus on, I've decided to schedule in 1 hour each day for decluttering, and rather than just focusing on items to give away or sell, I need to focus on completely decluttering or dealing with a particular part of the house in that time. So some days it may mean I eliminate a lot of trash or recycling, but don't add much to the give away/sell totals. And that's just fine, and probably natural at this point in the process - the initial easy-to-deal-with areas (piles, boxes, surfaces) have been gone over once. Now I need to do things like finish reorganizing my filing and paperwork, dealing with piles of mending and ironing, work my way through cupboards and shelves more slowly and make more considered decisions about what they contain and so forth.

Eliminating clutter and excess is very like peeling an onion - there are layers. The outer layer is the obvious stuff lying around, or those things already waiting for you to deal with them in boxes and so forth. The next layer is giving each room a good clean up, perusing all shelves and drawers for unneeded items as you go. And then comes the deeper stuff, bit by bit, layer by layer.

How about you? Are you decluttering? Got any comments or questions? Leave a comment
0 Comments

1000 Things Days 11-13: Is A Schedule Really Worth It? Every Time I Try To Follow One, "Life Happens"?!?

5/5/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
When I was a teenager, I used to have a poster on my bedroom wall of a beautiful lion lying with one front paw over the other, captioned "Every time I put my best foot forward, someone steps on it." It can feel a lot like that when one decides to "get organised" or start following a schedule. Almost guaranteed, just when you think you've worked out the perfect schedule, someone throws up on it. Or "life happens" - a sudden illness or injury by anyone in your family will throw your schedule off, the car breaks down, the cat gets stuck up a tree, the toilet backs up...any one of a myriad possibilities. And it can make you groan and ask yourself "WHY do I even bother??"

So what is the point of a schedule? And is it really a useful, workable tool in a busy life full of unpredictable people and events?

The point of a schedule is not to program your life down to every minute. Its purpose is to give a guiding structure to your days - a chosen focus for a given time period. It's designed to be a tool that helps you get more done, not a task-master that slaps you around and makes you feel inadequate! Here's how I come up with a schedule:
1. I start by thinking about all the major focuses of my life right now - what am I trying to get done? What balls am I juggling? Life is full of seasons - there is constant change as kids get older, needs and desires and interests change, health gets better or worse, certain projects are being worked on etc. You can't create one schedule and expect it to carry you through the rest of your life. You probably need a new one at least every 6 months, or if certain projects are for a shorter period of time, then even more often.
2. Once I've made a list of my current obligations and ambitions, I ask myself if ALL of them are important enough to deserve my focus right now? Could some be dropped, or delayed? And then I ask myself, for the ones remaining, approx how big a block of time do I realistically need to focus on them each day?
3. I start outlining a schedule - what things serve as essential framework? I need to get enough sleep - when am I going to go to bed and get up? Are there fixed daily commitments I need to allow for (eg getting someone off to work or school, or a part time job or course)? What other things are important to me to make time for? Daily prayer and Bible study? Personal exercise? Housework? Plot these in.
4. Now look at all those main focuses you listed  - where do those blocks of time best fit in? Can you fit them all in every day, or do some need to alternate? Do you need to adjust how much time you allowed for them? We all have only 24 hours in a day, a good portion of which needs to be set aside for rest, eating, self care and family responsibilities. It makes no sense to then expect we can fit in 14 hours worth of work or commitments in the remaining, say, 8 hours of available time! And this is one of the main benefits of creating a schedule - it helps you be more realistic!
5. I keep fiddling and adjusting, dropping or curtailing things until I have a schedule that seems workable and realistic, with enough breathing space in it not to turn me into a crazy, frustrated madwoman!
6. Most important, I acknowledge to myself that days are seldom going to go according to plan, and that this schedule can and MUST be flexible! So why bother with one in the first place? Because.....

  • With a schedule in place, generally more will get done than if one just "flies by the seat of one's pants," even on those days when disaster strikes.
  • A schedule gives you a focus - you know what you're needing to work on in a given time. Yes, you definitely lay aside your agenda when a child or husband needs you, but the rest of the time, you know what you are supposed to be focused on, and can train yourself not to get sidetracked by other things  - email for example.
  • When interruptions have come and gone, you can get back on track more easily. If a big chunk has been taken out of my day, I then chose whether to ignore the things left out and just pick up at the current time on my schedule, or to go back to important things, and adjust the rest of the plan for the day.
  • The process of creating a schedule has the very desirable effect of making us take a realistic look at our lives and what we are expecting to fit into them, and discover whether it's possible, or we're setting ourselves up for a sense of failure. Once, many years ago when my children were small, I made a list of everything I felt I needed to get done every day, with approximate, realistic times of how long it took. I discovered that my days included some 32 hours of responsibilities, for every 24 hours period. This did two things for me - it stopped me feeling so guilty that I wasn't "getting it all done," and it caused me to adjust my expectations of myself!

So, let me give you a real life example:
This past weekend I realized I needed a new schedule to help me better manage my current aims and responsibilities. I have several things I'm focused on right now:

  • Keeping up on housework
  • Making sure I set aside time to spend in Bible study and prayer
  • My 1000 Things decluttering goal - until the end of May - including giving things away, and advertising items for sale as well as posting sold books etc.
  • Blogging about the decluttering, and also maintaining my gardening blog
  • A Permaculture Design Course I'm enrolled in - it's online and from home, but needs a couple of hours a day study, until the end of July.
  • Homeschooling my remaining two students - they learn mostly independently now, but I need to be present and available to help with problems, administer tests etc
  • Keeping on top of all the administrative tasks of running a household and my husband's business.
  • Doing the gardening and homesteading that provides much of our food etc
It took a bit of juggling to figure out how to fit all these things in, along with the other usual responsibilities of having a family. I had to acknowledge that the amount of time I wanted to allow for some of these things would simply not fit into the schedule, and so I had to chose to reduce the allocated time - knowing that it's better to do SOMETHING often than to wait for "enough" time and end up doing little or nothing at all towards a particular goal!

Picture
I finally came up with a workable schedule for the next few months. It's not perfect, and will certainly need tweaking as I go along. Of course, it will only work for those days when I'm mostly at home. But it does help me get more done.

I started using this schedule on Monday, and was doing well, until 9:50am when one of my daughters fell off a chair in the room she is renovating for her sister and impaled her foot on a crowbar. (There's something about Mondays and schedules....). The next several hours were spent in first aid, doctors etc....BUT despite this, my schedule had already helped me get much more done that I otherwise would have by that time of the morning, the majority of the important items on my running to-do list for the day were already crossed off, and when the situation was over, I knew exactly what I needed to do to get the rest taken care of, and where to pick up with my schedule!

Yes, I think a schedule is definitely a useful, workable tool, even in a busy, crazy life full of the unpredictable - so long as you use it to help you think and plan, then hold it loosely day to day.


Picture
Due to a lot of unexpected interruptions last week, I wasn't able to keep up with daily blogging about my 1000 Things, though I was able to declutter most days. So here I'm combining the items assigned to give away or sell over three days of last week.

50 items were added to the give away boxes, including: 3 books, 2 sets of kids writing paper, 1 DVD, 12 CD cases, 2 blank DVD-R discs, 1 set origami papers, 1 set of invitations/envelopes, 2 audio CDs, 2 calendars, 1 knick knack, 7 post-it pads, 1 bookmark, 1 notepad, a bag of gift tags, 1 CD holder, 1 notebook, 1 compendium, 1 homeschooling manual, 1 tray and 8 highlighters.

Picture
12 DVDs, 6 Videos and 45 Books joined the for sale items, for a total of 63.

0 Comments
<<Previous
Forward>>

    Author

    Cynthia Hancox's desire is to lead women step-by-step from chaos to peace in their homes and lives.

    Archives

    August 2016
    July 2016
    August 2015
    May 2014
    April 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013

    Categories

    All
    1000 Things
    Chapter By Chapter
    Decluttering Game
    Encouragement
    Marraige
    Priorities

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.