junk drawer no more.

In the past, when I've need to find an important paper for the kids or the menu for lunches or some other vital piece of information I've had to rummage through my junk drawer.  It was always stacked high with papers that had no order whatsoever.  I always had pens in there somewhere and could never find one that worked when I would be frantically searching for something to write with while I was on the phone.  Instead I would be quite the sight scurrying around the house on a quest for some scrap of paper to jot a note or phone number on. 

No more.

Thanks to the book Simplfy Your Time I no longer have a messy junk drawer.  I HAVE read this this book before!  But for some weird reason it never occured to me that this system could work for my junk drawer.  I love it!

I've been knowing that I needed a solution for this ridiculous drawer for ages.  It may seem silly but this drawer has caused me plenty of stress.  I'll realize that I've stuck something important in the drawer...a piece of paper that need to be filled out and returned to school, a piece of mail...and I'll desperately be looking for it while the kids tap their toe anxious over making it to the bus.  Not to mention that every time I open the darn drawer I think to myself, "I so need to do something about that mess!"  I'm excited to say the stress and frustration is no longer.

Over the weekend I bought some little metal rectangle shaped bins precisely for my out-of-control drawer...not completely sure what I was going to do with them but knew that I need to corral all of the pens and pencils. 

I read about the amazing filing system and knew that I had everything I needed to be forever rid of my pile of junk drawer. 

Here are the quick and easy steps:

BUY:

1. Containers that will make you smile when you open your drawer but that will be the right size for whatever you want to contain.  (I bought mine in the Wal-Mart -I would have bought them at Target also but they were closed by the time Mike and I were heading home from our date- kitchen aisle next to all of the silverware organizers.).

2. A label maker.  If you don't have one of these yet, you totally need to get one.  I'm in love with mine!!!  They make any organizing that you want to do look fabulous.  I have the DYMO letra tag.

HOW TO:

1. Take EVERYTHING out of your junk drawer.

2.  Now be ruthless.  Throw away everything that you don't need any more, any thing that's too old, pictures your kids' have drawn for you and now you don't know who did it or when because you didn't write it on the back (you are not a bad parent if you throw some art work away...), and any thing that doesn't appear important.

3. Divide every piece of paper into a category.  You only need to touch this paper once.  Don't divide all the trash from the stuff you're going to keep and then go through it all again and decide which category it should go into.  Decide both at the same time.  These are the categories that you can use:

Calendar: (school lunches calendar, family calendar, football calendar, etc.)

To do:  This is your list of things that you need to do or permission slips that need to be signed, pictures that need to be paid for, etc.

Our interests:  Coupons for a great place to eat, date ideas, the picture and info of the couch you want to buy, nature center classes, etc.

Information:  School rules and guidelines (we have A LOT of these here!), neigborhood news, etc., restaurant menus

To Decide:  Scholastic book orders, fence company information, projects that you're working on making decisions for

*Homework Projects:  Information for homework projects that are coming up.  I love having them all in one place.

*Menus:  Family weekly dinners menus, list of favorite dinners, grocery lists

*Mike:  Paperwork, school work, and things that Mike needs to look at asap

*Davina:  Paperwork, school work, and things that Davina needs to look at asap

*Job chart:  List of weekly jobs for the kids to do on Saturdays

*Folders that I've added to the mix to help me be more organized.

4. Label each of your folders (add some categories to customize your system for you if you need to) with your handy dandy label maker.

5. Put all of the piles of paper (which should be pretty small piles!) into the folder category they belong in.

6. Place pens in one container, post-its in another container, etc.

A couple of notes:

I also keep a tape measure in my drawer in one of my little square blue bins because I'm always needing one around the house and I don't want to go off searching for one all of the time.  I have a container for the little keys that go to the locks around the house.  It seems like someone is always locking the bathroom door behind them...when they come OUT of the bathroom.  I have a pencil bin so that there are always homework pencils handy when the kids sit at the counter working after they get home from school.  I also made room for our phone chargers in a container in my junk drawer so that we're not doing a desperate search for one when our phones are doing the dying beep at us.

You would not believe how much this little system will help your life feel more organized and less stressed.  It seems so little and so inconsequential but it little things can make a BIG difference.  I love that I can open the drawer and find anything I need in a second.  I also love opening it just to look at it and admire the fabulous job Mike and I did on it the other night together.  I walk by it and open it and gaze at it just to see how perfect and wonderful it looks.  That makes me happy.

blissful. LIFE.

thirteen. pounds.

I've passed the 10 pound mark and I'm so excited that I'm about to get back into the 130s!  I honestly thought that I would see a much bigger, more dramatic difference having lost 13 pounds...that I would magically be in a smaller size, that my current clothes would be falling off of me, and that I would see a major difference in the mirror. 

It could be that I live with myself all of the time and so it's harder for me to see the progress.  Even though I'm not in jeans a size skinnier, I do think my face may be looking a little less pudgy and I think my back fat (you know, the stuff that accents that you really are wearing a bra) is melting away.  I think I may also be getting a waist again.  All of this is good news.  I'm very excited that my scale shows progress every week.  I know 13 pounds has to have come from somewhere!

I read that it takes 21 days to break a habit but 15 months to really change your life.  I have no idea where I heard that...I have no proof and no research to back me up but I'll go ahead and give my philosophy on the idea anyway! :) 

Here it is:

In order to really change your life you have to have been through all of the seasons of the year and figured out how you are going to react to the way a year changes you day to day and week to week. 

In order to stick to what you're doing through the cider mill donuts in the fall, the trick-or-treat candy at Halloween, Thanksgiving dinner, the entire month of December with parties and good food at every festivity of the holiday season, the sometimes dreary month of January, candy for breakfast at Valentine's, spring when strawberry shortcake is irresistible, and the summer when there is a whole new schedule for your kids and for you and vacations and ice cream that tastes really good everyday for at least 3 months.

You have to get through all of that and really be on the path to doing it all over again to truly be able to say you've made a change...a life change.

That's my plan.  A life change. 

I'm already thinking ahead.  I've got a great schedule now.  I take it day to day.  I make one healthy decision at a time.  When I don't want to exercise, I go anyway and tell myself I'm ony going for 20 minutes.  Once I get out there I talk myself into doing at the very least what I did the day before.

Then, there's the summer...when I won't be taking Gracie to preschool anymore and that's going to mess up my perfect routine I've got going.  Right now, I'm thinking that I need to start considering what I'll do when I get to that point because it's going to come...that day.  A plan will help me to not miss that day. 

Life is always changing.

If you're not exercising...get out today.  Get up from your computer.  Right now.  Go walk around your house or your office or your studio...up your street and back...down the hallway...up the stairs.  It makes a difference...not just on your body...but on everything.

change. LIFE.