Today - A review of the series

In the past 37 episodes I’ve covered rather alot of ground. I’ve explained exactly what clutter is, what causes it and the mental and emotional impact that a cluttered home or work space can have and some survey statistics to back that up. Then I listed the common mistakes that people make when attempting to organise their clutter and how to avoid these problems. I touched on the mental blocks that often stop us from making any progress and the number one secret of organised and successful people which of course is managing their time.
Then I covered the concept of the family CEO or domestic diva as a way of stepping fully into the very important and responsible role of successfully managing your household. This was followed by learning how to set goals a couple of ways to go about decluttering and then what your big picture vision is for your home and life., and then the huge importance of plugging the leak that’s causing much of your clutter problems in the first place.

At this point we got into the nitty gritty of how to go about clearing your clutter by taking the tried and true clutter diet method or the bigger and harder week-end wallops. I provided some resources for recyling useful but unwanted items you find in your clean up and some options for limiting the build up on the future. I followed this by providing detailed ways of approaching specific problems areas of the home like kitchen appliances, garages, wardrobes, kids rooms and many more.

Then onto the paper problem with solutions for filing systems, mail and setting up a communication centre and family binder. I covered dealing with hobbies, emergencies and staging your home for sale and lastly preparing for a house move.
I’ve enjoyed creating these information and how to programs for you and hope they’ve been of us to you.

Follow the series link below to find all the previous episodes.

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The following is a transcrpit of the 2 minute radio segments I present
3 times per week on 101FM You can listen in live via the website every
Mon-Wed-Fri at 2:30PM AEST (Sun-Tue-Thur at 9:30PM PT  12:30AM ET
4:30AM GM)

Today- Menu planning and grocery shopping.

One of the biggest time wasters and my pet hate is grocery shopping so the less time I can spend in those godforsaken stores the happier I am. To be honest I wonder just how many other people enjoy it, after all, I don’t see droves of happy smiling faces dancing up and down the aisles cheerily popping items in their trolleys.

One of the ways to reduce the entire process to the minimum of pain is to plan! and that means right back to what meals you intend to have over the next week or two or what ever distance it is between your shopping expeditions.
Most families have favourite meals and most home cooks have their quick and easy meals as well as their know-off-the-top-of-their-heads ones.
Taking the time to have a look at your calendar to see what upcoming events will impact your meal prep time is your first step and then go ahead and plan your meals for each day remembering to consider when it is that you are generally low on energy and prefer the quick and easy, and so forth.

With that done you can make a list of all of the ingredients you require for each meal cross checking with what you already have in stock. Having a dedicated notebook for writing down an item when you are out of stock is a time saver too. Now internet shopping is an option but personally as much as I’d prefer this option  my experience so far has been that it takes as long to do online as it would to drive to the shop and do it yourself.
What you can do is; make a note (one day) of the aisle layout of the store you generally use and then write your list according to the order your go through the store.
Now my final suggestion (and one of my pet peeves to avoid)  is the horrid mess of unrelated items in bags after the check out process, grrrr. Well I totally solved this one by A. - using recycle bags  and B.- placing one bag on the counter followed by all the items I want grouped together in that  bag - generally related to where they’re stored. Then you put the next bag up followed by the next group of items. Do this instead of handing all your bags at once to the check out person for them to randomly fill.
Hey this might sound a bit anal but it sure makes things easier when you get home and it really doesn’t take any longer to go through the checkout than if you just shoved it all up there mindlessly.

That’s it for this time , next episode When Hobbies become a Home hellmaker.

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The following is a transcrpit of the 2 minute radio segments I present
3 times per week on 101FM You can listen in live via the website every
Mon-Wed-Fri at 2:30PM AEST (Sun-Tue-Thur at 9:30PM PT  12:30AM ET
4:30AM GM)

Today Dealing with mail.

Your incoming mail is often where the whole issue of paper overwhelm begins. Here is where you need to take a hard look at what you’re currently doing that isn’t working and decide that you are going to change those habits to more effectively deal with this nasty clutter maker. Start by always dealing with your mail immediately you collect it.

The first strategy should be to toss out any junk mail you don’t want - if it’s something that is coming in regularly that you no longer want then make a note of it in your diary or calendar. Do this for a month, a timeframe that will cover most of the regular stuff you receive that you no longer desire and then make a time to sit down and write, email or call each one to be removed. There are sites that help you be removed from list altogether which is a great options if you’re concerned about the amount of trees being sacrificed to provide us with something we commonly refer to junk! (see sidebar for links)

Next strategy is to deal with your other mail straight away as well. If you receive a bill then make a note on your calendar of when it’s due to remind you to pay it if you’re not using auto debits and then file it at the front of the existing folder for those accounts. It’s simple, effective, and you know where the bill is when you come to pay it - it’s in file where it belongs after it’s paid. The crucial step here is marking the due date on the calendar - and aim to pay it the day before.

Don’t leave mail in a ‘deal with it later’ pile that grows exponentially and overwhelms you.  Keep all your invitations, appointments and other date related notices together in their own home for easy reference and write them in your diary and/or on the calendar immediately as well.
Avoid wasting time browsing through catelogs if you aren’t ‘in the market’ for the kind of items it’s advertising this will; 1 - save you time & 2 likely save you money by avoiding temptation, you can’t miss what you’ve never had!

That’s it for this time, next episode  Creating a household Reference Binder.

Previous in series Next in series

The following is a transcrpit of the 2 minute radio segments I present
3 times per week on 101FM You can listen in live via the website every
Mon-Wed-Fri at 2:30PM AEST (Sun-Tue-Thur at 9:30PM PT  12:30AM ET
4:30AM GM)

Today A Logical Filing System

The first issue here is what is logical - that’s kinda personal, what makes sense to me may not to you - but then there are some basics to follow if you’ve never really learned about how to file before, that will make  tolerable this rather naff task !

Let’s take a scenario that is becoming ever more common these days and that’s a home based business.   The first step is to separate out anything to do with your home. All paperwork related to the running of your home should be in it’s own section with it’s own sub categories, like;

• bank statements,
• phone,
• mobile phone,
• home insurance,
• car rego & insurance etc.

Whilst there are certain costs that can be claimed for a home based business that are to do with these files, keeping them separated and in the ‘home’ category will keep things simple and logical. Depending on what type of business you operate at home you can divide your files into the following categories.

• 1. Financials - these are anything to do with money - creditors, debtors, business budget, P&L statements, tax returns, BAS, tax office information and wages.

• 2. Marketing - this would contain files for Logo design and stationery, mailing lists, testimonials, product & service information, market research and sales team information.

• 3. Infrastructure this would hold documents to do with Insurance policies,  vehicle records, office contents, business registration, trademarks and company & trust documents.

• 4. People category with  staff & clients subcateogries, covering client files, contracts job details etc and staff contracts, applications, training  & meetings.

Again these main dividers need to make sense to you and anyone else likely to need to use the system.
Keep your subcategories to a maximum of 3, 4 at most, or you run the risk of it becoming too complicated which will result in frustration and a failure to work the system correctly and soon chaos will ensue. Consider how much paperwork you’re filing and how frequently you do so when setting your system up and of course allow room to grow!
That’s it for this time, next episode Dealing with mail .

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