Project Unclutter: Final Thoughts

  A month ago, I started Project Unclutter.  I got the idea from a book: Unclutter Your Life in One Week by Erin Rooney Doland.  So the big question is, did I unclutter my life?  Not entirely.  I have made great strides in uncluttering my wardrobe, kitchen, bathroom, and living room.  I have also managed to maintain the level of order I've found for a solid month.  It will still take more time for my study.
  Having tried it would I recommend Unclutter Your Life in One Week?  Absolutely.  I have been a pack rat my entire life.  I have tried many different plans to relieve myself from CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome) and so far this has been the only one that seems to work for me.  I had the desire to be organized before, but now I feel that I have finally been shown the way.

What books have made a difference in your life?

DIY Savings: "Fabreze"

  I am always concerned about how my apartment smells should anyone come over.  Therefore, I find myself using a lot of Fabreze.  When I am doing a 30-minute clean it takes seconds to just spray down the carpet and sofas as I go.  So when I realized the other day that I was almost out of Fabreze, I turned to the internet to find out how to save money and still keep my apartment smelling fresh.

   There are many recipes for home made "Fabreze".  Most of these recipes involve some combination of water, fabric softener, and sometimes baking soda.  The recipe I used is from tipnut.  There are four options on the page, so you may choose any you wish.  I used #2, and so far I like it.  It seems to work just as well as the real Fabreze.
  So what are the benefits of making my own?  The first is the most obvious: cost.  A bottle of Fabreze can cost $3 or more at your local grocery store.  A bottle of cheap fabric softener can be found at a local dollar store or Family Dollar and will last much longer.  I even used my old Fabreze bottle, so I did not have to pay for a new one.
  The second reason is less obvious.  When buying my fabric softener, I spent a little more money to buy a product called Seventh Generation.  Seventh generation is non-toxic and biodegradable, it uses natural scents, and the softening agent is plant based (most fabric softeners are made from animal fat).  I might have paid more, but it will still come out cheaper than buying Fabreze.  Plus, using the right fabric softener is better for the environment.
*Note: If using on material that is flame resistant, most fabric softeners reduce flame resistance.

What do you use to keep your home fresh?

Project Unclutter: Day 4 (sacrifices)

   I love Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien.  If you know me, you are laughing at this point.  It's been my favorite book since age 12, long before the movies came out.  So what does this have to do with uncluttering?  I'm getting to that.

   I started out the day behind.  Two trips to the mechanic yesterday totaled about five and a half hours in a waiting room (at least the car is fixed now).  So I never got a chance to organize the kitchen.  However, thanks to a little elbow grease and the fact that the living room wasn't very cluttered to begin with, I am now caught up.
   The hardest part of uncluttering is deciding what to get rid of.  This is where Lord of the Rings comes in.  I went through my cups this morning.  We have more cups than two people need.  It is difficult to fit them all in the cabinet.  Some of them had to go.  The first question is which ones do we use on a regular basis.  Then there were the cups that we use on special occasions or when we have guests.  We have to keep those of course.  What was left?  Sadly I looked at a tall white cut with an image of a horse and the word "Rohan" on it.  (If you don't know what Rohan is, it is an place in Lord of the Rings where my favorite character is from.)  I love this cup.  It is beautifully made.  Unfortunately, I never use it.  It just sits in the cabinet taking up space.  Then i saw another cup.  A glass goblet with a picture of Arwen, an elf from Lord of the Rings, on it.  This one even had a base that lit up and caused your drink to glow.  I had to make a decision what do I want more an uncluttered kitchen or more Lord of the Rings paraphernalia.   They are now sitting in my yard sale pile.
   Have you had to make any sacrifices for an uncluttered home?

Project Unclutter: Day 3

   Life gets in the way of the noblest of goals.  It's nearly 11am on day three of Project Unclutter and I have not yet begun today's tasks.  Mostly due to the two and a half hours I spent at the mechanics this morning only to learn that I have to go back this afternoon when the part comes in.  Other than that things are going well.
  Since I have nothing new to report yet I thought I'd share something fun.  I mentioned in a previous post that Erin Rooney Doland the author of Unclutter Your Life in One Week recommended creating a playlist for a thirty minute daily clean.  I thought I would share mine today.  (It may change as I continue to develop it.)  I tried to pick upbeat songs.  I figured if it makes me want to dance it will make me want to move (hence all the swing music).  I hope you enjoy it.

1. This is Your Life by Switchfoot
2. Magic Dance by David Bowie
3. Just Can't Get Enough by Depeche Mode
4. You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) by Dead or Alive
5. This Cat's On a Hot Tin Roof by Brian Setzer Orchestra
6. White & Nerdy by "Weird Al" Yankovic
7. Bei Mir Bist Du Shoen by Janis Siegel
8. So Long Farewell Goodbye by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy

Do you listen to music while you clean?  If so what do you listen too?

Project Unclutter: Day 2

  A day and a half into Project Unclutter, I now have a clean closet, a reception station to hang my keys, coats, and purse, I can see the surface of my desk, and uncluttered my bathroom.  Now I'm working on establishing routines, so I never again face the mess I was facing.  My pile of things to sell at a yard sale this spring has grown from a hill to a mountain.
  I am behind on one thing: my office.  I work from home.  I also live in a modest apartment.  That means storage space is limited.  Added to that is the fact that my husband and I are both pack rats.  Therefore the study has been used for extra storage since we moved in.  Today I am supposed to be sorting through my paper clutter.    I should get rid of the papers I don't need and scan papers I need the information from, but don't need the hard copy.  This will take more than the limited time I have today.  Hopefully, I'll at least put a dent in it.
   It may take longer than scheduled, but with the skills I'm learning, I know I will eventually live an organized life.

Project Unclutter: Day 1

  It's Monday afternoon, and I'm half way through day one of Project Unclutter.  It seems to be going well so far.  I can now actually walk into my closet and close my drawers without a struggle.
   In her book Unclutter Your Life In One Week, Erin Rooney Doland starts Monday off with the wardrobe.  This is a difficult one for me.  I am always worried that once I get rid of something then I'll want it again.  Some of my clothes have been around for decades.  Ms. Doland provides a useful tool, guidlines designed to help weed out what you don't need.  For example I have a cute blue sweater that I have had for many years.  I like the sweater.  It's comfortable and warm.  The only problem is that I don't have anything it really goes with.  I sometimes take it out and make a futile attempt to match it with something, but end up putting it back.  One of Ms. Doland's guidelines is "The item should work in coordination with a minimum of two items in your wardrobe."  It is now sitting in my yard sale pile.  (Before you feel too sorry for me I have the exact same sweater in black.)
   Between the purging, sorting, and relocating the process took about 2 hours.  The second task is my office.  This is going to be even more challenging, but I am looking forward to seeing the results.

New Years Resolutions 2012

   In a blog about changing your life, I would be remiss if I did not write about new years resolutions.  Tomorrow is New Years Day. It is the time when people everywhere promise to make changes in the coming year, but few of them last until February.  Does this mean we should give up on the whole resolution business? No.  We should instead examine our previous attempts and fix whatever we did wrong.
   One common error is that we often make our resolutions vague.  Without a clear plan of action, we almost never achieve what we set out to do.  For example, we may say we want to loose weight, but if we do not plan how we are going to bring this about, we will probably to loose anything.
   Another common error is to set unrealistic goals.  In our weight loss example, if I say I want to loose 75 pounds by the summer, I am setting myself up for failure.  Instead I could try to loose a more reasonable one to three pounds a week.  As long as you are taking steps towards your goal it is okay if it takes a while.

 
  Finally, don't be discouraged by your mistakes.  One of my goals for last year, was to learn how to keep a container garden for vegetables and herbs.  I have always had a bit of a black thumb and for years I gave up on growing plants.  But last year I decided to give it a go.  Well needless to say it did not go well.  After I planted we had a freak rain storm that completely swamped my pots and killed my little plants.  I was very discouraged, but now I know not to put the pots where they get all the runoff from the roof.  I don't know if I will succeed this year, but even if I fail, I will learn from it.
  So what are my resolutions this year.  I am not going to count my three goals as resolutions, because I am already doing them.  Instead, I am making smaller goals to help bring about the larger ones.

Resolution 1: Once again I am going to attempt to grow my own herbs and vegetables.  Do the upside down tomatoes really work?
Resolution 2: Pay off my car.  I'm not sure if I can actually do this in a year, but I can at least pay off most of it.
Resolution 3: Finish my novel. Okay I confess I've made this resolution every year since 2006, but with all the time management skills I'm learning I can pull this off.
Resolution 4: Remember to send people birthday cards this year.

What is your New Years Resolution?

Project Unclutter: Book Review

 One month ago, I wrote about Project Unclutter.  The first step of Project Unclutter was to read the book Unclutter Your Life in One Week by Erin Rooney Doland by the end of the year.  Well here it is December 28 and despite holiday madness and an increased work schedule I managed to make it.  In case you did not read my previous post, in Project Unclutter I will follow Doland's advice and see if I really can unclutter my life in one week.
  I initially scoffed at the title of this book.  I have been trying to get organized and uncluttered for years.  How can it be done in one week?  I still have my doubts, but with the guidance of Unclutter Your Life in One Week I should make tremendous progress.
  The first thing that won me over was Ms. Doland's testimony.  She admits that she was not always organized herself.  As she put it, she was "surrounded by stacks of papers, piles of shoes and clothes, and dozens of boxes of sentimental trinkets."  This is key.  Over the years I have read many articles and books on getting organized.  The only ones which have been of much use are the ones written by people who have actually changed their lives.  Someone who is born organized has difficulty understanding those of us who are not.  However, someone who has been unorganized herself knows what they were doing wrong and what they did to fix it.
  The book is organized by the days of the week, Monday through Friday with the weekend grouped together.  Each week day is divided into three parts: morning, at work, and evening.  This breaks the enormous task of organizing your life into manageable bite sized pieces.  I also liked the fact that she includes work.  I work from home now, but I can still apply her principles to my home office.
  As for the specific advice she gives, there is so much useful information that I could write about.  Some examples are, making a 30 minute playlist to clean to, and scanning information in your computer so you don't have to keep stacks of paper. There is much more, but instead of sharing it all now, I will let you know how it works after I've tried it.  Starting on Monday, I will begin the year by putting Unclutter Your Life in One Week to the test.  When I can, throughout the week I will let you in on my progress.
   Despite my initial scepticism, Unclutter Your Life in One Week is a very useful book.  I still doubt it can be done in a week, but I believe it will be a great help in my journey towards an organized life.

Project Unclutter: What it is

  I have discovered a new website: unclutterer.com.  So far I'm really enjoying it.  It has helpful tips and a bit of humor.  In exploring the site I found reference to a book Unclutter Your Life in One Week by Erin R Doland, Editor-in-chief of Unclutterer.com.  My reaction to the title: "Yeah, Right.  Like I could really get rid of all my clutter in one week."  But I did look it up on amazon.  The reviews were mostly positive and the sample pages looked like they contained helpful advise.  Plus I had another order to make and this book would qualify me for free shipping.  So I ordered despite my doubts about it's claims.
  It was then that Project Unclutter was born.  I decided that instead of just scoffing at the prospect of uncluttering in a week, I would put her claims to the test.  I have the first week of January off of work and I can devote that entirely to uncluttering.

   Project Unclutter will come in two parts.  First, I need to read the book.  I'll do this between now and the end of the year.  I plan on writing a review of what I find in a subsequent post.  Second, I will put it to the test.  I chose the week I was off, so I fully test the theory without distraction.  I will let you know how it goes.
   I still doubt I can completely declutter in a week, but I can at least make a dent in it. I know it's very early for a New Years resolution, but I will make mind now.  Here's hoping 2012 will involve a lot less clutter.  Who will join me in Project Unclutter?

Ode to a Timer

  My timer is awesome!  When my time, like a wild beast tries to runaway, my timer helps to keep it.  Sometimes, a task seems so large I fear I shall never finish.  My timer shows me that I can at least do fifteen minutes.  And if this time is not sufficient, I will try again tomorrow and the next day until it is complete.   My timer allows me to spend a little time on the unimportant and free time up for what is necessary.  So at the end of the day when I lay my head down, I know I may not have done all, but I have done what I could.  My home is improving fifteen minutes at a time.

Sample Schedule (Timer): (not my actual schedule)
5:00 Leave work
5:30-7 Exercise
7-7:30 Prep dinner
7:30-8  Eat Dinner
8-8:15 (15) Clean up
8:15-8:30 (15) Vacuum
8:30-8:45 (15) Clean Bathrooms
8:45-9 (15) Clean Hot Spots
9 -11  Relax

* Timer method adapted from flylady's Declutter 15 minutes a day and Home Blessing Hour.

How do you make time to clean?

UPDATE: Organizing my time to organize my home

  In my last blog, I shared a link to print out an awesome planner.  The only problem was how to make something that I could carry in my purse.  I came up with a simple solution.

1. I printed out enough pages for the rest of the year (about 35 pages).  I folded each in half.
2. I laminated a plain black piece of paper. and folded it.
3. I placed the pages inside the black laminated paper.  
4. I punched wholes in the crease on each side
5. Finally, I used a ribbon to tie my book together.

    This seems to be working well.  It was cheap and easy to assemble.  What are some of your money saving DIYs.

Organizing my time to organize my home

   Okay, I have a confession.  I have been doing well with my first two goals (Get financially fit and Get healthy), but I have not been doing as well with getting organized.  For some reason it seems easier to get pumped up about money and fitness.  Cleaning on the other hand is not so exciting.  It's not that I can't organize.  I'm actually pretty good at it.  I just can't seem to keep things organized.  So I sat down and thought about how I can jump start my efforts.  I realized that while I sometimes read sites like getrichslowly.com and peruse any health related article that pops up on yahoo, the only organization site I know is flylady.net.  I don't even visit that one as often as I should.  Therefore I sat out on a mission to find any other websites that might offer valuable tools for keeping organized.
  At first I found what I expected, lots of adds for the container store.  This is not exactly what I need.  After all I am trying to save money, but eventually I did manage to find something really useful.  On a website called simpleorganizedliving.com I found a post about scheduling.  I have long known that this is the key to staying organized, and have been working on finding a system that works for me.  The author spoke of her planner and how the ones she bought did not meet all of her needs, so she made her own.  At the end of the article she has a link to a free download of her finished planner.

   The planner has virtually everything I need.  I am on my fourth day of trying it out, and I love it.  It is set up as daily planning sheets.  For my organization efforts it includes a to do list, a top five to do list, a place to write appointments, a meal plan, a "to buy" list, a space for notes, and best of all a daily routine similar to the one developed by the fly lady.  It also has eight little pictures of water cups for me to keep track of how much water I'm drinking, and a spot to write down how much exercise I'm doing.
  I'm trying to come up with a fun DIY to make a little book out of it to carry in my purse.  Any suggestions?
http://www.simpleorganizedliving.com/2011/02/09/my-daily-routine-free-printables/

Goal 3: Get Organized

"We're the kind of people who, if we were deciding what absolute minimum essential items we'd need to carry in our backpacks for the final, treacherous ascent to the summit of Mount Everest, would take along some aquarium filters, just in case."

Dave Barry

   Goal 3: Get Organized.  I suffer from what flylady.net calls CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome).  When my friend calls and says "Hey, I'm going to be in your area this afternoon.  How about I stop by?",  I feel the panic rise.  I look around at my apartment and see the cat hair build up because I haven't vacuumed recently, my couch cushions in disarray, and a coffee table I can barely see the surface of.  That's just for starters.  I would love to walk into my apartment and see everything clean, but when I do clean up I can not seem to keep it that way.  I often wonder what is wrong with me.  It seems so simple for other people.  I don't know how many times I have been told that all I have to do is put something away when I'm not using it.     But try as I might, I cannot seem to do this.
  Several years ago, a friend (thank you Amy) introduced me to a book called 'Sink Reflections' by Marla Cilley aka The Flylady.  I have read book and articles about getting organized before, but this one was the first one that explained how to keep it clean.  The answer is time management.  The Fly Lady has developed a series of routines to ensure that things get clean and stay clean.  I don't start doing them all at once, but start small and gradually add more.  It is going to take a lot of time and work, but ultimately I hope to form new habits.

The Three Goals

God, Grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

Courage to Change the things I cannot accept,

And the wisdom to know the difference.

Serenity Prayer

Change is possible. There are three general areas of my life I have wished to improve upon for a long time. I have worked on each of these three goals for many years,  

focusing on one or another for periods of time. Although I have experienced limited 

success, for the most part I have not been able to obtain my goals. I believe that this is because in focusing on one area I neglect the others. Ultimately I plan to achieve all 

three goals and therefore must change my behavior in all areas to succeed.

So what are my three goals?

Goal 1: Get financially stable
Goal 2: Get healthy
Goal 3: Get organized

I will be posting once a week (probably on Wednesdays) about achieving these goals. In doing so, I hope to keep myself accountable to you, the reader, and to encourage any of you who may share my struggles. The change starts now.