This is Our Happy Place

Wow, what a busy season! 

We love it. But boy am I tired!

This is a short post, but I just wanted to share what's going on over here. We made this crazy decision to replace the carpet in every bedroom of the house. This decision was made at a crazy busy point on our year, because why not?

We spent a week packing up all the kids rooms, then painting all of the bedrooms, then the carpet got installed. In the middle of it all our water heater went out. All of this crazy in the midst of having to do regular life.

Time to get back on track, get out of survival mode and thrive! I have lost track of my schedule a little bit so I need to jump back in. 

Thankfully I ninja planned my menus in December (Link to Menu Ninja post) so I was totally set for dinners. But, I seriously fell off track with my daily routine (link to the Daily Routine Post). 

As we find our footing again I think it is important to remember that we have to revisit our schedules and plans often. 

Even when we find our groove, we are always in the "still figuring it out" stage, so be kind to yourself.

Cheers!

Tammy

PS... Current obsession that helps me get it together?  (Yes I have said this before, but still) ... Removable chalk boards!! I know the vinyl isn't intended to be used as a chalk board, but, its so great! With the removable vinyl you can cut them to the size you want and write on them with erasable chalk markers. When you no longer need the chalk board there, take it down! Next to the bathroom mirror for affirmations or reminders? A label to remind your sons to pee in the toilet and not on the floor? Pantry organizing? All of it! It is so cool... 

(If you buy using the link I post here I will get a thumbs up from amazon :)

Roll of quality removable vinyl, 

Chalk markers that make me happy... 

My 15 Minute List

I have a love/hate relationship with organizing and clutter. I love organizing at your house, I hate organizing at mine. What’s worse, I have a lot of junk and I have the shortest attention span given to an adult. 

I have totally read organizing blogs and blogs about how to get rid of all the clutter... no method has ever worked for me. Mostly because I don’t want to waste time on it when I could be doing something fun.

Over the last few years I have found something that works. I love it. I call it my “15 Minute List.”

I still have my regular to do list that I check off through out my regular day and my daily routine. The 15 Minute List is made of a few things I take from my to do list; projects, messy rooms, organizing tasks etc. The bigger tasks that are always making a fuss in the back of my mind, but I never make time to do them. 

There are two ways that I use my 15 minute list. On a day that I will be home most of the day, or I find myself feeling ambitious, I will pick 3 things, write them on my chalk board on the fridge or a few post-it notes on my desk, set a 15 minute timer and really dive in to a task. Just one task at a time.

I work well and quickly for 15 solid minutes. If I get interrupted by a kiddo with a need, I pause my timer and start up again immediately after I shoo my kiddo away. After my 15 minutes I refill my coffee, make sure I am ready, then I move on to the next 15 minute task. I put a check mark next to each as I go so I don’t have to remember where I left off. 

If I finish a task on my list, I just add another one and keep going through the list. Boy do I love checking things off on my lists.... 

Reality is, I dont have time to spend hours every day organizing or checking off lists. But, I still do my 15 minutes every day. 

Every one of us can find 15 minutes somewhere in our day. 

The other way I do my list is the most common for me. I move my 15 minute list to my handy dandy post-it’s on my desk. (I am ordering these ones next) I won’t have time to really dedicate to it this week. So, because I have to keep moving forward, I will spend 15 minutes on one task today. 15 minutes on the next task tomorrow. On and on until forever. 

I always do 3 tasks at a time. You can do 1 or more, but I feel like switching from task to task really accommodates my inability to focus on one thing too long and its short enough that by the end of the week I will have spent at least 30 min deeply focused on each task. Often times I can squeeze 15 minutes out of my morning and another 15 minutes out of my evening, doubling my efforts. 

I will always have organizing and decluttering to do with 8 people living in this small house, but I don’t always us my 15 minute list to organize. I also use my 15 minute list to deep clean a specific zone of the house. You can remove everything from a cabinet, clean the shelves, wipe everything down and put it all back. If you hurry, you can do anything in 15 minutes. 

A little secret, when I am feeling rebellious or particularly sassy, one of my 15 min list items will be “crochet” or “craft”.... because I need to do those things too... because I am me... and I have to... 

Now, the real solution to this problem will come when I stop buying so much stuff and teach my family to put things away where they belong... I am working on that this year.

Cheers!

Tammy