Start With A Plan

So yesterday I ended my blog wondering how many of you would come back! I hope that many of you have chosen to take on the challenge of yourself and whatever area you feel is most important to start with.  I would encourage you to make is a smaller area to begin with.  

When you can work with a small space and accomplish it fully, you will fill more energized to continue! 

So if your ready...LETS GET STARTED! 

Organizing starts with a plan, discipline and a FIRM foot in reality. 

Please focus on the latter part of that sentence : "..a FIRM foot in reality." I stress this point because as you approach the first "clean out" point in your home, you need to remember that the items that you will see might be items that you haven't seen in months, or even years! You are likely to have forgotten about them.  Your emotional heart strings will tug at you to keep it, and this is where the firm foot in reality will need to give you a swift kick back from yesteryear and into the present again. 

The rule of thumb is that if you haven't "needed" it or "used" it for 6 months get ride of it.  But there are of course exceptions.  As spring approaches every year and I go through my sons clothes, there is usually a piece or two that tugs at me and reminds me that he is growing up, and will never again wear the adorable "park ranger's" shirt again, or the jammies that I held him in night after night while we read a book before bed. These items are OK to want to keep! But you should have a plan for them! Starting off a project knowing that your emotions are gonna get involved and that it is OK, but you should have a firm hold of your expectations for the project's outcome, and a plan to allow yourself to feel those emotions as you make your decision about it based in reality. So are you ready to learn the basis steps in forming your plan?

1. Get your mind set up for success! As I just touched on, you should remember its OK to be emotional, and reminisce, but be ready to make a choice and move one.  Keep your "plan" in the front of your mind.
2. Have a space ready and prepared for the clean out! Usually this would be a space near the actual closet, or desk for example. 
3. Get 3 sheets of paper and a trash bag. One the 3 sheets of paper you should write: KEEP, GIVE AWAY/YARD SALE, UNSURE.  Then place these papers across the area that you would want to work in. (IE the floor, or bed) Make sure that the trash bag is open and ready to use.

Now here is where the real challenge will come in... 

Are you ready for it???? 

When you touch something, you should be looking at it and making a choice within about 5-10 seconds. If you haven't "Use it or Touched it" in the last 6 months, but it is still nice enough for some one to use, put it in the give it away/yard sale pile. Some else will have a need for - I PROMISE! It will not got to waste and you will not feel like a failure because your best made plan didn't pan out! Remember to keep a firm foot in reality! DO NOT and I will repeat it DO NOT beat yourself up because you thought you wanted to scrap book and have $60 worth of items in an A.C.Moore bag that you have never used. Guess what - there is a Mom out there some where right now that is wishing she had the money to scrap book, but she just doesn't. She will visit your yard sale and you will make her the happiest Mom in the world.  She will go home with her bag of goodies and feel like Super Woman for getting such a good deal on it, and you will have allowed yourself to be used for the Glory of God. You just answered a pray she sent up! Allow yourself to feel the Joy of that moment instead of belittling yourself for not using it.

When you get finished with your first sort, you should bag or box up all the Yard Sale/Give Away items. Move them right away to an area of your home that will not be in your way and that you will not be tempted to go through them again and pull items out of. The garage is a great place, or even in the hall closet that you probably haven't entered in some time.  It doesn't matter where it is, the point is that it shouldn't make you crazy seeing it stare back at you, and you shouldn't want to rehash the work that you already accomplished! Next have the husband or child take the trash out for you. WAIT, DON'T THINK YOU CAN DO IT YOURSELF! There is a HUGE point here - it is important for them to see the hard work you have just accomplished! If they don't get to see how hard you worked or how proud you are of yourself, they are not going to be invested in keeping the area organized either! Remember that you have helped condition them to be accepting of the lack organization that has lived in the space for a long time.  This is the moment that you are breaking your habits and you are going to start chipping away at their bad habits as well! 

Now you are left with two piles, the keep pile and the give away/yard sale pile. 

I want you to walk away now!

You have done a great job and you probably feel a bit mentally and emotionally exhausted, maybe even physically.  I need you to live with your choice of what you have chosen to keep for 24 hours, and I need you to be thinking about the maybe pile. I also need you to reset your foot in reality and feel your small victory before we approach the piles that are left. 

CONGRATULATIONS! 

I am so proud your accomplishment! And honestly you should be too! You are a rock-star! You faced your fears head on - and you realized this wasn't as bad as you thought it was going to be, or maybe it was, but you got through it, and that my friend is a HUGE accomplishment! Celebrate yourself and allow yourself to be proud! Don't tell yourself that you are silly it was only a desk or a closet. Be PROUD of yourself and feel the JOY in the moment! YOU ARE A ROCK-STAR! 

See you back here tomorrow for day TWO! 

Organizing Your Life

When you hear the term: Organizing Your Life, does your mind flash forward to a room or closet in your home that is cluttered and crammed full of "lost treasure's."  Does your heart start to beat a little faster just thinking about this space of clutter?

Breathe....

Rome wasn't built in a day and the closet that you have been cramming full of stuff for the last 5 years isn't going to fix itself in a day either!

Let me tell you what organizing boils down too, its really quite simple, you probably won't even believe me when I tell you...

AUTHENTICITY

Webster defines Authentic as:

 adjective \ə-ˈthen-tik, ȯ-\

: real or genuine : not copied or false

: true and accurate

Often I get asked why being authentic is so important in organizing, and the truth is this...

Usually, not ALWAYS, but usually when someone is experiencing clutter or disorganization, it is because there is an area of your life that you currently feel out of control of. Some times its the shock of a situation, sometimes losing yourself to someone or something, and sometimes its so deep, and been covered up with some many destructive habits, that its hard to pinpoint. Being open, genuine and authentic will allow to clean the mess up in your heart & soul once and for all.  Believe it or not it is really the foundation of beginning your organization make over.

So let me be authentic in front of you and show you some of my own Vulnerabilities that lead to my organizing "wakening."
       I think I was drawn to organizing because I felt so out of control of my own life growing            up. I didn't have a very good home life, and my mother was an unorganized mess. I felt          like my world was closing in on me and I needed to run away before the avalanche of her        self destruction buried me! I have learned over the years that organizing is very little              about the space that you are cleaning, its really about getting down to the heart of why it        got to this in the first place.

Allowing yourself the blessing of being authentic, even if it is in your head, means allowing yourself to start to feel Joy again.  When you numb Vulnerability, (in this case with clutter) you are also numbing Joy. You have to allow yourself to feel the discomfort of whatever it is you're hiding from so you can move past it. Its like ripping off a band aide, you know its going to sting, and you are going to want to curse under your breathe, but after a little time passes, you really don't feel it anymore.

So what do you think, are you ready to begin your journey?

If you think you are, then please join me back here tomorrow and we will start the journey of:

 31 days of everything in its place!

I hope to see you have here tomorrow! 

~Joyfully Yours,

              Jessica

Finding Life's Simply Joy's

Do you at time's feel a little like a bungee cord? Being pulled at both ends and there is no give left.  STOP!

Stop right now and look out your window.  Is the sun shining? Is it raining the kind of rain that makes your want to curl up in your bed and read a book?  There is Joy all around, and right now, at this moment, are you taking it in? Or wishing it way for a moment that is ahead of you?

I am 29 years old, and over the last 5 years I have been on a journey to understand what life is really about. I know that this is going to sound silly when I tell you this, but at 24 I had a "semi-" Mid life crisis moment! I didn't understand how some people are so blessed and other's couldn't get ahead no matter how hard they worked! (Yes I was on of the "couldn't" get a head bunch at the time.) So I started reading. I read Eat Pray Love, The Secret, and about a dozen other books. But I couldn't get the answer's I wanted. I keep reading over and over again that you have to stop doing things in the negative and move towards the positive, you have to stop focusing on what you don't have, you have to stop doing things for yourself and have a heart of giving, and gratitude.  I WAS EVEN MORE CONFUSED! I could hardly afford to pay my own bills, how could I give what I didn't have away???

Then something happened. It was life changing to me, and looking back now, I know it was my turning point, but in that moment I had no idea.  I meet my friend (at the time new landlord) Bonnie Keagy.  She was like life changing moment. She helped me to understand that if I keep a positive mind, seek to have good people around me, and be grateful, that things will simply change.  

Now don't be mistaken by the above paragraph.  Life still throws me curve balls but the difference is  I look for the positive life lessons in it now, not the chaos of the moment. 

If you stick with me, I will show you life's little joys and before you know it you will be seeing your own joy's.  Something that will help inspire you to notice these joy's is to start a gratitude journal.  It could just be a $0.50 note book that you get when you take your kids back to school shopping or something like mine that say's Dream Big! Just take 5 minutes before bed and write down 3 things that you are grateful for during the day.  I will always end my blogs with my three things! 

My Gratitude Journal:

1.  It is a beautiful 72 degrees outside today! I was shocked! Its the middle of July! I am thankful to have to Lord shining the Sun down on my bare arms!

2. That my in-laws are always so gracious with us. My son always has a wonderful retreat from the world, and they love him so much! It makes my heart swell with pride in the family that I was lucky enough to marry into!

3. My healthy diet. It feels wonderful to keep my family on the track of longer life! 

What your 3 items of Ordinary Joy that you are grateful for today?

Joyfully yours,

-Jess