Preparing For The New Year!

New Start For New Year

I always love the New Year! It motivates me to make changes. Do I make resolutions? Yes – No – Kind of.  I make goals for the new year. I think goals are always good to have.

My goals for this year?

1) Lose weight (yes, I know.. everyone’s goals. Dave and I are joining Weight Watchers together.)
2) Exercise (although routine one .. right?)
3) Not work as many hours – now that is different, right? I’ve been working between 60-80 hours per week for a year an a half now with my social media job. I LOVE it… but my house, my health and my family have suffered.  I have to consciously not work so many hours, and because I love what I do, it’s difficult.

Those are my biggies.

What are some other things I like to do with the new year?

I like to clean up and clean out.  When that Christmas Tree and decorations come down, I like to get into other areas of the house and clean them up too.

Today I dove into the pantry, the refrigerator, my office, my paperwork, my tax information.

I make myself a check list for the new year. I use them for work, so made another one.   What is on it?

1) Weight
2) Exercise
3) Household jobs
4) Tracking food for each meal

There are a few other goals on the list. But I used excel, put the tasks I wanted to accomplish down the left side. Across the top I put the days of the week and I’ll check off as I do things.

What works best for you?  I don’t know.. that is up to each individual.  But I suggest the following:

1) Decide what goals you’d like to accomplish for the new year. Personal and business
2) Write them down
3) Make yourself some kind of check list. Documenting what you accomplish each day is helpful.
4) Prep other areas of your home, life to get ready.

Happy New Year!

 

Happy New Year 2012!

New Beginning, New Start, New Year

I think it is wonderful that we can “start fresh” each year. Make goals (resolutions if you like) and plans for what’s to come.   My husband got me in the habit of actually writing down my goals for the year.  He has done it for years. So I also began doing this several years ago.

I opened up my goals for 2011 the other day and evaluated what I did and didn’t accomplish.  There were several I did accomplish and several I didn’t. (that will be included on this year’s list of goals).  It’s wonderful if you can accomplish everything on your list, but chances are you won’t… and that is ok. Goals are that.. what we strive for.

It is a time of reflection, evaluation, a moment to stop and think what we are doing…. where we have been and where we want to go.

We need to not take our lives for granted.  We all do, it is human nature to get comfortable and think life will never change. But all you have to do is pick up a newspaper, or look at the latest online headlines and we know there is no predictability in life. Life is fragile, it is precious and we need to do our best each day to make our short lives that which would make our children proud, our parents proud, our spouses proud, God proud and ourselves proud.  Most of us (including myself) have a long way to go before we can say that, but it is a goal we should all be striving for.

My suggestion to you today would be to sit down by yourself and write out your goals for the year.  What would you like to accomplish, what would you like to strive for? What would make you feel good next year to see you had worked towards?

Think about it.

Happy New Year!

Organizing – How To Start

Organizing a New You….So what does that mean?   Organize your home, organize your schedule, your kids, your life? Does it seem like the impossible?  It can be done! But be careful not to bite off more than you can chew and end up in “it is too overwhelming and I don’t think I can do it” land.

Here is how to start.

Planning

1) Sit down with a pad of paper, pen, calendar and cup of coffee in a relaxed atmosphere.

2) Make a list of all the things you would like to organize.

3) Now number them in order of importance. (at least the top three areas that drive you the most CRAZY)

4) Put a date beside those top 3 of when you would like to have them completed by.

5) Block out at time on your calendar to start #1 on the list.

Supplies

Do not go out and buy a bunch of things to organize with. Until you know what you are going to end up with after your “sort” you don’t know what you will need. (unless you want to purchase some clear storage bins..but if you do be sure you have shelves to store them on and measure to be sure they will fit.

1) Black trash bags – trash

2) White trash bags – Donate  (separate colors so you don’t throw out your donate items in the trash)

3) Labels for boxes or bins (masking tape & sharpie marker will be fine)

4) Boxes for storage (my favorite are clear bins)

Sort

Make 5 signs for each of the piles you are going to make while sorting. Then for each item only give yourself 5-10 seconds to make your decision (no time to wander down memory lane). Be tough if you want to reclaim your space.

1) Keep – Love it, Use it, Can’t live without it.

2) Donate – Others would put to better use, doesn’t fit, don’t like it, don’t use it (use the white trash bags)

3) Storage – Holiday decorations, speciality items you use (camping, skiing)

4) Move – Items that need to be kept but don’t belong in this space.

5) Trash – Broken, un-donatable. Try to recycle if possible. Use the Black trash bag.

Tips

*It will seem messier before it gets better. Don’t get discouraged and keep going.

*This takes time, don’t think you will get an entire room done in 2 hours. Start with a small area.

* Once you have sorted your items you are ready to reorganize them in an orderly way.

The New Year – The New You

I love the New Year!!  It gives you a new beginning.  A new place to start….a fresh slate.  The encouragement of new goals.

I don’t say resolutions ….I say goals.  Yes I believe you should make goals!   Why not try and make improvements in areas you want to make better.

Sit down tomorrow and reflect. Reflect what last year was and what you want 2010 to be.  Make a list of the goals you want to accomplish. Then next year you can see what you have accomplished during the year….or what you still need to work on.

I am going to be recording my journey for both weight loss and a healthier “me” as I go into my 50th year.  You can follow along on my Chat with Sandy blog starting on the 2nd of January.

Happy New Year!!

Happy New Year!

Are you ready for tonight? Big plans or just laid back and relax with family? Dave and I do not have any kids home tonight, but we are just going to go to an early dinner and movie. Hopefully we can stay up until midnight!!
New Year’s resolutions are a source of much discussion. Some people say you should never make resolutions because you will never keep them, other people say you should.
I believe that it is a great idea to make goals for the new year. I don’t know if I want to say resolutions because it sounds so permanent. “I resolve to do this!!”.
But I think the beginning of something new (2009) is a good time to give yourself goals for the new year in what you would like to accomplish financially, mentally, spiritually and physically. So where does organizing come in? It can fit into almost all of the categories. To be organized and know where things are makes things move smoother, makes you feel better and makes your family happier. You ultimately end up saving money because you aren’t wasting time looking for things or spending extra money re buying things you can’t find.
Take some time tomorrow with pen and paper in hand…find a quiet place to be by yourself and just sit and think what you would like the new year to bring. Is it losing weight (my goal last year and I have lost all but 3 pounds of my 50 pound goal), getting in shape (one of my goals for this year), saving money this year or reorganizing that room that you can’t open the door into!
Be realistic! Don’t give yourself a goal that you know you can’t accomplish (finding the perfect man and having 2 babies before July!)
Organizing your thoughts for the new year can bring things into focus to start off fresh!!

Holiday Decorations

Holiday Decoration Storage

Is Your House A Mess At Holiday Time?

Storing Holiday Decorations

What do you do with all those Thanksgiving, Christmas decorations, Halloween ghost and goblins, Easter baskets, New Years Eve and 4th of July decorations? They can take up a lot of storage space (especially Christmas if you are anything like me). But stores are gearing up and selling a lot more decorations for all holidays and it is easy to jump into the decorating phase. I saw a house this Halloween that had more decorations and blow up characters and lights than you usually see at Christmas.

**You need to make sure you have the room to store them if you buy them.

 

Clear Colored Plastic Containers work best.
I suggest that you look for the clear colored containers they have out for that holiday. I think these are great!! I can go down and immediately find my Halloween decorations because they are the ones in the orange and black (clear orange) containers. Of course they are still labeled..but it makes it so easy. My Easter containers are pink and Christmas is red and green. Again I still go for the clear over solid non-see through bins. So if you can’t find the colored clear ones, then just get clear. Being able to see what is in the at a glance is time saving!
So before you buy any more decoration, make sure you have the room to store them, then find clear colored bins to store each separate holiday in. Still label it and getting out decorations will become a very simple thing!

If you realize that you do not have the storage space for the decorations, that you have decorations in many different areas of your home (due to lack of adequate storage)… then what you more than likely need to do is to sort out your holiday decorations into what you really need each year and what you haven’t used in several years.