Janice

Are Your Children Already Bored With Summer?

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Today is the official first day of summer.  However, for most families summer started around Memorial Day or shortly after.  If your children aren’t going to camp or summer school most likely they are already looking for things to do.

Below are some ideas to help you get organized and come up with ways to keep your children busy.  These ideas are great ways to keep them from spending hours and hours in front of the TV or computer.  That may keep them out of your hair but it isn’t healthy for them.  Check out these links now and have a plan in place before you hear those dreaded words, (if you haven’t already) “Mom, we’re bored.  What can we do?”

Organize Your Summer

These sites are filled with ideas to help you organize your schedules.

http://www.bhg.com/videos/m/32064133/organize-your-summer.htm

http://www.bhg.com/health-family/parenting-skills/family-relationships/family-tips-for-a-successful-summer/

Summer Game Ideas

Here are some ideas for backyard games. Create a simple notebook with the instructions so it’s easy to help your children get started playing.

http://www.bhg.com/health-family/activities/games/backyard-games/#page=1

http://familyfun.go.com/summer/summer-games/1/

Vacation in Your Own Home Town

Last year I wrote a blog post after the 4th of July filled with ideas and links to websites about vacationing close to home. This year I’m giving you the link to that post now so you can plan ahead and take advantage of some great things to do before, during, and after the holiday. There are also some links for ideas for the 4th of July.

http://organizebythemonth.com/vacation-in-your-own-hometown/

http://fun.familyeducation.com/fourth-of-july/holidays/32874.html

http://holidays.kaboose.com/july-4/

 

It’s not to late to set up a Summer Planner filled with ideas to make this summer an organized and fun one.

Janice

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Father’s Day Gift Ideas

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Fathers Day Graphics

When you’re trying to control the clutter, gift giving holiday’s can be a real challenge.  We want to honor and show our gratitude with some kind of purchased or homemade gift. We want to give something the recipient will like and use. We don’t want to give them something that will become clutter.

Father’s Day can sometimes be very challenging.  We are lead to believe that most men would like to have new tools, or tickets to a sporting event, or some new electronic equipment.  Of course there is the old standby tie but many men just don’t wear ties that much anymore.

Some of the above will make great gifts if the Dad is interested in those things. Sometimes those kinds of gifts are just too expensive.  That doesn’t mean you should settle for just giving him something that may end up in a drawer or gather dust.  It’s time to get creative.

Fathers love the attention on Father’s Day just as much as mothers do on Mother’s Day.

Here are some ideas that don’t have to cost a lot or become clutter.

  1. If you can’t afford those tickets to a sporting event consider taking Dad to a movie. Or you can buy his favorite movie on DVD and plan a special afternoon at the Movies in your own home. Make popcorn, buy his favorite candy or snack, turn off the phones, and enjoy an afternoon together.
  2. Plan a dinner where you and/or the children cook everything and wait on Dad like he is a king.
  3. If you have younger children they can plan for games, activities, and even decorations.  See the links below for some ideas.
  4. If Dad has a hobby then some sort of new tool or equipment for that hobby would be appreciated. Most hobbies have a lot of items in a wide range of prices. You can create a gift bag of several lower price items instead of one large, expensive one.

These two links have lots of other ideas for Father’s Day.

http://family.go.com/disney/disney-fathers-day-crafts-recipes-photo-gallery-pg/

http://holidays.kaboose.com/fathers-day/

Happy Father’s Day!

Janice

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An Experiment in Clothes Closet Clutter

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I was reading a blog post from “Be More With Less” where she talked about doing experiments on how to live with fewer things.  She said to look at these experiments as temporary.

This seemed to hit a cord with me.  The definition of experiment is: a test, trial, or an act or procedure for the purpose of discovering something unknown.

The unknown can be learning to live without clutter.  Of course everyone’s definition of clutter is different.  Most of the time it’s the fear of having nothing left after we clear out the clutter keeps us from taking actions. A temporary experiment with decluttering might just be the way to discover those fears are unfounded.

Experiment – Step 1

I decided to give it a try.  Somehow my clothes closet has grown smaller over the past several years. I figured that is a good place to set up an experiment. Tackling one section at a time should help to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

I started by taking everything off the 3 foot rod where most of my tops are hanging.

When I piled them on the bed I separated them by winter, summer, and all those T-shirts that have accumulated from special events or vacations.

 

I packed away the winter clothes in under-the-bed boxes. Since it’s summer, I’ll deal with those clothes this fall.

After all the extra hangers were put in another closet, I hung the summer clothes back in my closet. I easily got rid of six summer tops, but I know I need to declutter more.

After putting the summer tops back in the closet I realized I had 13 more clean tops hanging in the laundry room. They are not in the photo above so needless to say my closet will still be crowded.

Experiment – Step 2

In this step comes the real “experiment”.  All the vacation/event T-shirts (the ones laying on the bed in the above picture) were hung up in a closet in another room. I always think I’ll wear them to work out in the yard but I never do.

The next thing is to mark a calendar or desk planner for a date in September. Summer will be winding down so that will be a good time to make a decision on whether to keep those T-shirts or not. Maybe by then I’ll discover I can live without them and give them away.

Summer is the time we naturally “lighten up”. Take advantage of this time to experiment with different areas that are cluttered in your home.  Pack away books, trinkets, and other items on your shelves. Live with the uncluttered summer cottage look for several months. Then decide if you miss all those things.

Remember, the experiments are temporary. You’re preforming the experiment to see if you can live without many things that clutter up your home. You don’t have to get rid of anything just yet.

Of course if there are things you’re ready to let go of now, then go for it! That will be less to deal with later.

If you’ve preformed an experiment like I described above I would love to hear about it.

To a lighter load along the way.

Janice

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How to Pay the Love of Reading Forward with the Gift of Books

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During this past month there have been so stresses in my life I haven’t spent any time on writing blog posts. I have spent some time taking care of myself to heal some of the emotional wounds that have been building for a long time.

One way I took care of myself was to go to the annual St. Louis Book Fair. It is sponsored by Macy’s as a fundraiser to benefit local non-profit education and literacy programs. It’s been going on for 60 years. I remember going with my mother and sisters when I was a child.

Because I have way too many books for my current bookshelves (their double stacked already) I have avoided going to the fair for about 5 or 6 years. This year was different. It was time to get back to doing something I love. But it also required making a promise to myself to declutter some of the old books so I don’t feel guilty about buying new ones.

With some birthday money (my birthday was last Thursday) I went to the book fair on Friday. I ended up buying 19 books.  Some were cookbooks (3) and the rest were non-fiction books.  I didn’t even go over to the fiction book section because I still have a few I haven’t read yet.

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On Saturday I found a box and started going through one shelf at a time to pull out some books I could get rid of. If you’re a booklover like I am you know how hard it is to let go of them. Since the majority of my books are non-fiction I always feel like I’m giving away a valuable resource. Even with so much information easily available on the internet I still find it had to let them go.

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So far I have 23 books in my box. Yea me! Since I bought 5 books last week at Goodwill (first time there in over a year) plus the 19 books bought at the book fair I feel I have done pretty well so far. Even with pulling that many books off the shelves I still don’t have enough room for the new books.  Therefore I will get another box and work on filling that one.  I have four more bookcases like the two below.

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My local Macy’s store collects books year round for this book fair. My goal is to have a least 30 and hopefully 40 books to take to the loading dock by next week.  I’ll be paying it forward so those books can be sold next year to help support the education and literacy programs. That way more children and adults will be able to learn how to read all the magic and knowledge that books contain between their covers.

There are lots of ways to pay the love of reading forward.  I remember one year I had a garage sale and because it was cold and rainy there were very few customers. Right before closing up a young woman came in looking for children’s books which I had a few. She said she was going to be a new 1st grade teacher in the fall and was buying reading books for her classroom. I gave her the whole pile of books for free. It felt so good to help out a new teacher that would be able to instill the love of reading to her many students.

So pay the love of reading forward by donating your books to a charity, local school, or a new teacher starting out. If you’re not reading them anymore then they aren’t doing anyone any good sitting on your shelves.

To a lighter load along the way.

Janice

 

If you’re planning on having a garage sale be sure to check out the eBook:

“How To Declutter With A Garage Sale”

It will help you from start to finish with clearing the clutter out of your home.

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So Many Things All At The Same Time

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This is the time of year where so many things are happening at the same time.  In the next three weeks there is Easter, Passover, taxes (USA) due, and Spring has come extra early with gardening chores in full gear.  As Willie Wonka said in “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”:

“So much time, and so little to do! Strike that, reverse it.”                                          ~ Willy Wonka

 

Tax formsRight now I’m trying to finish up the taxes so I get them out of the way. They are due three weeks from today (April 17th) so it’s time to finish them up if you haven’t already.

 

Passover matzoA week from this coming Friday is the first Passover Seder.  I’m using my planner ( see last blog post on how to set one up) to help me stay organized. I’ve already purchased some of the food items. I check the planner on a daily basis to see what babysteps I can take each day to help me prepare for my company ahead of time and prevent the last minute panic. I’m still working on changing my lifelong procrastination habit!

 

Easter is less than two weeks away so if you celebrate this holiday and are having the family over you should also be taking babysteps to prevent the last minute panic.

CB030060If you haven’t see up a planner yet I suggest you do it today. It gives you a place to write down all the information and schedules so you don’t have to worry about forgetting to remember to do something. 

 

 

Here are some sites to help you prepare for either or both holidays.

Easter:

http://holidays.kaboose.com/easter/

http://www.apples4theteacher.com/holidays/easter-fun/

http://wilstar.com/holidays/easter.htm

http://www.holidays.net/easter/

Passover:

http://www.aish.com/h/pes/

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/holidaya.html

http://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/default_cdo/jewish/Passover.htm

To a lighter load along the way!

Janice

 

 

 

 

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