Today - Preparing to move house

Moving house can be and in fact is well noted as a high stress life situation but much of this can be avoided with a little planning.
The first and most important thing is to avoid packing and taking stuff you don’t need or use - yes clutter! I know I probably sound like a broken record by now but why pay to move stuff from A to B when you don’t even need it! Really you may well be able to hire a smaller vehicle if you get rid of the junk. So first thing is to declutter well ahead of time.

Next if you are moving yourself and not hiring removalists then DO NOT under estimated the size of the vehicle you’ll need to move everything, this is a very  common problem so make sure you allow extra room.
Now when you pack it is vital that you label what’s in each box and also what room it’s for - you should know where you’re moving to and the various rooms that are in it. So if you currently have 2 kids on one room and youre moving to a home ehere they’ll have a room each then the items packed for each child should be in separate boxes marked for the different rooms.

This same technique can be applied in a micro fashion for the kitchen whereby you mark what the items are that’s in the box and where in the kitchen they’ll be going.
Create an inventory of all your boxes and other items so that you have a comprehensive list that you can check off at the other end immediately. That way if something is missing you know straight away rather than a month down the track when you go looking for it.

Moving house is a fabulous time to declutter,  free yourself of stuff you don’t need and get into new habits in your new home. It’s a whole new start where you can apply all the best strategies covered in this series and become totally organised at last or again as the case may be! All you need to do is a little planning, it’s quite simple and well worth the effort.

That’s it for this time, next episode is the series Finale!

Previous in series Next in series

Today - When Hobbies become a Home hellmaker

Many homes suffer from home hobby hell & here’s how it happens. You like to do crafts, all sorts of crafts, you like to make cards, do tapestries, knit, sew, scrapbook etc etc and you like to grab every opportunity to snap up items that are suited to those crafts, in fact in some cases you seem to feel compelled to own the entire set of things. Over time though you find that all of this stuff has started to expand & take over the house.

Other family members are complaining about your stuff being everywhere and whilst you just haven’t got as much time as you’d like to spend on these things you just can’t seem to pack it away.
OK here’s a reality check. There’s only so much you can do in 24 hours and only so many tasks you can attend to in any week, month or year. Whilst your heart might be willing, time ain’t on your side.
Remember back in episode 7 I spoke about managing your time and about prioritising non-negotiable tasks and commitments. Take another look at your weekly and monthly schedule and your available time to spend on those hobbies. When you’ve done that you need to look logically at all those crafts and how much you’ll get done in your available time. Think about how long it generally takes you to complete one of your items and then at all the materials you have and how many of those items you can create from them.

At some point you simply must stop buying more materials until you have used up a good portion of what you have. If everything you have is really in disarray then your first task is to tidy and organise your materials such that you can estimate just how many items you can create. As well, perhaps consider eliminating a hobby or 2 particularly if you just haven’t gotten around to starting something that you’ve had the materials for for over a year.
Remember that hobbies are meant to be relaxing and enjoyable but if you’ve allowed things to get out of hand you’re less likely to enjoy the time you do have to spend on them. So don’t let your hobbies create hell at home.

That’s it for this time next episode Being Prepared for an Emergency

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 Setting up a functional kitchen.

There’s no doubt in my mind that the majority of kitchens in the average home were NOT designed with the needs of the average user in mind. I’m constantly astounded at the absurdity of some of the layouts I see that leave the king or queen of the kitchen struggling to deal with simple tasks and wasting vast amounts of time due solely to poor design.

Unfortunately kitchens are very expensive rooms to replace and so we’re stuck with trying to make the best of a bad situation, so here’s a few pointers that you can implement to help reduce the impact of poor kitchen design.

Look at your kitchen and work out your magic triangle - this is between the sink, stove and fridge. Somewhere in that triangle should be bench space to prepare your meals on. Sometimes it’s quite inadequate so the last thing you should have are any items stored in this area, it should be free clear space for preparing.

Next consider all of your kitchen contents & categorise them based on using the ‘FROG’ acronym.

• F=frequently used
• R=regularly used
• O=occasionally used and
• G= gotta keep but rarely use or don’t use.

Now cutting knives for example will likely be an F item and the Xmas dinnerware will be a G item.
Now look at your kitchen and decide what cupboards and shelving is convenient and what is a right royal pain in the butt to access. Generally those hideous corner cupboards with the fold out doors, with or without a lazy susan, are next to useless especially the bottom ones. These then are perfect for those G and probably some O items. Basically you’re looking to limit the number of times you have to get down on your hands and knees with your head shoved in a dark corner to fetch something. All items that you use on rare occasions should go in these inconvenient places.
At the other end of the scale are all those F items, cutlery, regular dinnerware, kettle, toaster, etc - items used daily, these should be in the easist most accessible and convenient locations.
All food items are best stored in a cupboard that allows you to see your full inventory easily, so avoid using several cupboards across the kitchen.
Lastly I’ll state the obvious; cleaning and washing items under the sink - (use a lock if you’ve got kids), pots and pans under, over or beside the stove area and cull that tupperware collection ladies before it mutates and consumes your home! ;D

That’s it for this time, next episode - Menu planning and grocery shopping.

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 Setting up a communication hub.

When it comes to being organised in a busy household particularly with school kids and teens who have do of activities it’s really important to have just one area where everyone knows they can find out important information about the entire family’s schedule.

I like to call this place the Comm’s Centre. Now back in the old days a mere few years ago the most sensible place for such a set up would be near the telephone that was often in or near the kitchen, thatis one of those telephone that was permanently attached to the wall! Now whilst these archaic devices are inconvenient due to their lack of mobility their advantage was they were always reliably in the one place.

If you have landline phone permanently attached to the wall then that’s the perfect spot for your Comm’s Centre location. If on the other hand you have one of those evil elusive walkabout jobs or only mobile phones then your first challenge is to develop the habit of always putting that back in the same place after use and this can be your comm’s centre. I would recommend that place to be what is the most social gathering point in your home. Generally this tends to be the kitchen/dining area.

Your comm’s centre should have the following items
1. a large wall calendar - generally a month-at-a-time is best, so there’s enough space to write events in each day.
2. A cork board to pin notices, photos, tickets etc to.
3. A whiteboard or chalkboard to write large message that everyone will see.
4. Pens, pencils and sticky notes.
In addition this is the perfect area to also have your phone recharger and other device chargers plus your keys, wallets and purses, & mail inbox and that Household reference binder mentioned in the last episode!

Many of these items can be located on the wall so you avoid consuming precious bench space .
You’ll really love this setup once in place, it saves a whole heap of heartache by containing everything in the one place. Remember to explain to everyone how the system works and your family scheduling messages and communication will run like clockwork! No more missed events or double booking the same dates or lost notices the comm ’s centre is your family reference place.

That’s it for this time next episode - Organizing a practical kitchen.

Previous in series