(bench and storage baskets on my walkway behind family room area)
I am devoted to taking each month to reorganizing and organizing different areas of my home.
For years I have purchased different magazines for this purpose and they actually help. I shop at stores that have home organizational tools/supplies to make things look a little more presentable. I try to go there at least once a quarter or every other quarter to help me organize things. I have one particular store that is my weakness. However, when I do visit the store I have a complete list of the items that I need so that I am not side track and spend more than what I should.
This past fall I picked up another magazine and it was so helpful to see a calendar for getting started at the beginning of the year organizing different parts of your home. Let's face it, things can kind of get out of whack with a busy schedule. I am a working professional with a demanding job and a business owner. I am heavily involved in community service as well as neighborhood activities. Sometimes I really do not see how we have time to manage what we have. However, we have managed to. Things are not perfect, however, we try to stay on top of them.
We try to keep all areas as presentable as we can by picking up behind ourselves and putting things away before we go to bed. This habit is definitely important as families add members to their household, as we are now. I have talked to a few friends and acquaintances who feel that they are just overwhelmed with small children and have had a difficult time keeping their main areas of their home tidy and they feel that it is just not obtainable and admit that they are embarrassed to have people over because they need help. They admit that once their home is cleaned, it only remains that way for a few days, even with a house keeper coming monthly. Then on the other hand, I have friends with several small children and you would not know it upon entering their home at any time. Their home is always neat and in order because they have adopted the habit of picking up and cleaning up each day and teaching their little ones to pick up behind themselves.
One thing that always stuck with me as a little girl was to always keep your main areas of your home presentable because anyone could stop by and your home is a reflection of you. It does not have to be perfect, however, keeping it neat and tidy daily helps with things not building up and becoming an eye sore or an overwhelming task.
I have become the queen of purchasing cute baskets and different storage devices for our closets and areas to house different things so they are not just thrown anywhere and can be tucked away neatly. Sometimes I have to move them to different areas as needed, and particularly when I purchase more baskets or either I see a basket that fits my style and need more.
A few of our helpful items are having an upright vacuum on each level for quick and easy pick ups (or you may option for one and take it up and down as needed). Also we have a powerful hand vacuum for cleaning the steps and we have an electric steam vacuum for sanitizing the floor when needed. We have a larger vacuum that my husband uses because it is a little bulkier since it has the large canister and water has to be added for each use. We were kind of suckered into purchasing that overpriced piece of equipment the first year we moved into our home by a sales rep who was selling these vacuums in our subdivision. It does work well, however, it is not necessarily worth the price, even though it does a lot of things.
I can say that we did a lot of reorganizing back in the summer/fall as we were preparing for our home study with the new agency. At that point, I knew we were going to have to keep things on point at all times as we would be having different visits for our home study. So, some of the areas will not need addressing or heavy addressing as we have really taken care of those areas recently because we did those back in the fall.
The focus area for this month is the home office. I will make a separate post for the home office focus as it pertains to me and the recommendations. I will be posting each month on the room for organization each month as I have it listed in my magazine. This will surely keep me on track and hopefully help some others.
Having a goal and plan for organizing each month is very helpful and I think that it will definitely hold me accountable to making sure that it is done, so that I am not overwhelmed when I try to organize a particular room or rooms at one time.
So, what are your home organization goals or problem areas?
Who is going to tackle their areas with me, month by month?
6 comments:
I need to organize my office,but I'm afraid to throw away my papers even after I've scanned and saved them in my comptuter. It's the worse room in the house.
Ok Angela,
Join me in the journey to reorganizing the office for 2011!
You will feel relieved once everything is in place and you have a nice neat hide away for your must keep documents!
I will post later today about the Office and what is suggested for organizing and cleaning.
My office used to be out of control too. However, I couldn't take it because I always wanted it tidy and neat like the other rooms. Besides that, its off my FR and you can look through the French doors to see inside if you wanted to. I used to always keep the door closed, however, we keep the french doors open now because we work hard at keeping it neat and orderly. I still have one or two mini piles on my desk right now, but I am about to get rid of that!
My big issue for the office is reorganizing what is in the bookshelves and getting rid of unnecessary things. Things are put away, but I need to revamp.
It gave a headache walking into a messy office, even though offices are a work place and things will be out, but I think I feel better and I am more productive when it is neat and orderly. Just a little OCD, but I need to be with all that goes on in this house!
Organization is always my goal but doesn't always happen. My org goal for the year is to get rid of paper and clutter. Clutter in the form of gently used clothes, furniture, and/or equipment. I actually started working on this last year but haven't delved too deep since the new year started. My home office is a mess and has recently become a dumping ground. It drives me insane and keeps me from working on projects. As for the rest of the house, I start organizing an area, get distracted and then start again somewhere else. I love the
idea of devoting a month per area.
Please count me in on organization 2011!
Oh Joyce,
You are not alone my dear friend! I have some of those same issues with hopping around from task to ask if I do not stay focused! I will definitely talk about that more during my journey through this.
I am glad you are joining me for this organization month by month. I am going to try to show before and after pictures too. I guess I need to do the post for the office on tomorrow, so that we can get started. We only have a few weeks left in January, however, it can be done since we are just focusing on 1 room!
Found your blog through Tricia's :) We are in the process of adopting the two girls in our home and when I came across your timeline I was astounded. I pray all things come together quickly. I look forward to following your journey!
Lena, Thanks for finding me!
Yes, it can be a journey. Everyone's is different and domestic is a different process as a whole. We waited for over a year with one local agency here that is well known and in many different states, however they just had a dry spell. We wanted to give them a fair chance and we did.
We moved forward with going with another agency last summer and this past fall completing the final steps. Since being in this journey we have learned of other agencies that place many AA and biracial infants, however, most are out of state, but I am keeping my eye on 2 in the event if needed in the future.
Every state is different and every agency is different with their wait time. Although we know that there are many children of color that need homes, it is still a process. Some placements happen quick and some do not. As a whole in my state, most of the private adoptions slowed down over the past year for some reason and the wait time was still about a year to a year and a half with getting an AA infant.
Many of the placement facilitating type agencies have a lot more to offer because they are advertising all over. It has really been a learning experience.
Thanks for stopping by and I also help that we will have some news to share soon as well.
Post a Comment