Hi guys

• access to a special webpage with a whole load of organising forms to help you plan your projects (wor.th $37)
• a special call with me on Thursday 25 June where you get to ask me all your organising questions for 75 whole minutes (if you can’t make the call live for whatever reason, you’re very welcome to email your questions and I’ll answer them on the call) (wo.rth $127)

Everything is broken down for you in about 15 – 30 minute segments four times a week. That’s it.

So you don’t have to give up your summer – you can get organised AND enjoy your summer.

Until Wednesday’s post, thanks for reading and stay organised!

Today we’re decluttering and organising our pants and jeans.

Don’t get cross with me when I say this to you… but if you’ve been saving a pair of jeans hoping that you’ll fit into them one day, don’t.

Release them and reward yourself when you get to your goal weight.

It’s much nicer to buy a sassy pair of jeans when you’re lighter than having to wear older, less fashionable jeans.

Over to you! Let me know how you do in the comments.

The Organise your Home ecourse is a step-by-step system delivered in bite-sized pieces so you will NEVER feel overwhelmed. You even get an audio of me teaching you how to organise your space.

Tons of people have been through this system; are you next?

Since I was about 6 – 7 weeks’ pregnant, I have had NO energy whatsoever.

Which is bad because I’m used to being really productive but it’s also good because I know that when I do have a sudden burst of energy, I need to focus and get whatever done.

I decided to sort out the fridge on one of those occasions and thought I’d time myself to see exactly how long it took, so you’d see it’s not that overwhelming.

Main section – after

– grotty carrots were thrown away
- everything was put back in its section
- I also moved some things to smaller containers
- I moved food that we have to eat so that it’s clearly visible

- threw away expired medicine
- moved all the spreads to the correct shelf
- moved bigger bottles of water to the door

By the way, the whole organising project took me just 8 minutes.

How often do you have to organise your fridge?

We’ve been decluttering and organising in our KITCHENS this entire month and this week, we’re decluttering our baking pans and cooking stuff.

If you missed out, here are the posts.

1. Tupperware and plastics
2. Mugs and glasses
3. Plates and bowls
4. Cutlery and utensils

(if you don’t want to post on the theme, go right ahead and post on whatever you felt like decluttering, or other wise, just show us how you store your baking and cooking things

I’ve posted before about how I learned this tip from one of my organising clients. I worked with her nearly two years ago and my stuff is still neatly organised.

And this is how I store the rest – rolling pin on the side, mixing bowls at the back (I have one I use 90% of the time with my other plastic bowls), measuring cups and spoons in the left basket and the hand beater in the yellow basket on the right.

The more observant among you will see that the usual beater attachments are currently in the wash because I made these pumpkin muffins

Now tell me, did you declutter anything today?

Have a look at the Organise your Home e-course and get your entire home organised in just 12 weeks.

Now for this week’s challenge

Please link to the post on your blog where you show off your pictures and talk about what you decluttered. If you don’t have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you decluttered this week.

It can be anything – physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism!

What did you declutter this week?

This is the third week of decluttering and organising in our KITCHENS and this week, we’re decluttering cutlery and utensils.

(Remember if you don’t want to post on the theme, go right ahead and post on whatever you felt like decluttering, or otherwise, just show us how you store your cutlery

The last time I decluttered this drawer was about two years ago and it’s still working for me, so I thought I’d point out a few things.

See the elastic bands on the top right? Very useful for closing bags in the freezer (those freezer tags drive me nuts because they’re too fiddly).

Then, at the bottom, I keep my scissors and the box on the left has a calculator (for when I’m doubling recipes, etc.), a post-it pad, a permanent marker and masking tape.

This is my second drawer. The closed container on the left has extra serving spoons, etc. that I use when entertaining and on the right you’ll see all my everyday utensils, also neatly containerised.

On the right there are drinking straws and some markers for our calendar. In the front I have all my sandwich bags that I actually don’t use for sandwiches. I use them like this and this. And to the left of the sandwich bags are Ziplocs I want to re-use.

Did you declutter any cutlery or utensils this week?

Have a look at the Organise your Home e-course and get your entire home organised in just 12 weeks.
Remember you can win an Organise your home e-course right here!

Now for this week’s challenge

Please link to your Friday Declutter Challenge post on your own blog and post a link back here. If you don’t have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you decluttered this week.

It can be anything – physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism!

What did you declutter this week?

If you’ve come by from the Bloggy Giveaways carnival, a BIG WELCOME to you.

This giveaway is now closed – thanks for playing along

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Is your goal for 2009 to get your home organised, once and for all?

You are not alone!

This is one of the top 3 things on most people’s wish lists Every Single Year.

What would you say if I told you you could have your home completely organised in just 12 weeks?

Yes, you can!!! I couldn’t resist

I’ve taken your entire house and broken it down into itsy-bitsy sections so even the most overwhelmed person won’t get distracted!

Have a look at the Organise your Home e-course and get your entire home organised in just 12 weeks.

Remember we’re decluttering and organising in our KITCHENS this month and this week, we’re decluttering plates and bowls.

One of our challengers last week donated her surplus mugs and glasses to charity – what an excellent idea!

(if you don’t want to post on the theme, go right ahead and post on whatever you felt like decluttering, or other wise, just show us how you store your plates and bowls

There are some bowls I’d dearly love to declutter because I think they’re ugly. In fact, I’ve been trying to get rid of them for years.

The problem is my husband loves them. Apparently they’re just the right size for his 2 1/2 Weetbix!

As a side note, there’s not much he cares about in the kitchen so I let him have his ugly bowls and a purple mug I also don’t care for but is again “the perfect size for coffee”

So I haven’t decluttered anything but before you get cross, here are some pictures of how I store my plates and bowls.

Now tell me, did you declutter any mugs or glasses?

Have a look at the Organise your Home e-course and get your entire home organised in just 12 weeks.

Now for this week’s challenge

Please link to the post on your blog where you show off your pictures and talk about what you decluttered. If you don’t have a blog, tell me in the comments about ANYTHING you decluttered this week.

It can be anything – physical, electronic, mental clutter or even the need to be a certain way. Like perfectionism!

What did you declutter this week?

I could use strategies for how to get an overwhelmingly disorganized house under control with two small kids.

I often comment that when I got into one room and get some things organized, I come out to find they’ve trashed a different room. I have fantasies of ordering a dumpster, parking it in the driveway, and just tossing everything but the furniture out the window to be carted away by my friendly garbage man.

Shannon from Ohio, USA.

Shannon, believe it or not, before I got organised, I used to feel the same way. Especially about my wardrobe. I’d hope that we’d get burgled so it would all go and I could just start afresh.

I still feel like that in small areas of my life – like before I did a major wardrobe declutter last year and when I see all the babies’ clothes!

But here are my suggestions for you and the kids:

Have a toy basket in each room
Even if there are things that technically don’t belong, they’ll be contained.

Enlist the children
They made the mess, they can tidy up. Start getting tough with them and make sure they understand that when we’re done playing, we tidy up.

Even though my babies are so small, I already make them tidy up. Joking! But I do drape one baby over my one arm and tidy up with the other hand. While I’m doing this I tell them, “now we’re putting your toys away and we’re taking the glasses back to the kitchen” because the minute they can start doing it themselves, they’re going to do so (children as young as 1 can throw toys into a basket).

Have consequences for not tidying up
They “lose” the toys for a certain period of time if you find them where they don’t belong.

As for the whole house being disorganised, start with a master plan by using a master to-do list or a mind map.

With the Organise your Home ecourse, we do just that – tackle one room at a time until your whole home is organised and we set up routines so that you won’t have to ever completely organise everything.

Usually people see big results even after week 1.

Just one of your ideas has been worth the price of the e-course alone! Everyone in the family is so excited by it.

Thank you so much – this has really been money well spent, and I really look forward to the rest of your emails every week!

Fran Kerrigan Hartford, WI

How do you keep your house organised if you have small children?

When things start going a little bit crazy, the first thing I do is go back to basics. Like when I feel overwhelmed with the business, I drag out one of my master to-do lists and start writing down everything.

In the same way, when if feels like things are too busy in my life at home, I get back to basics with a few things. I:

1. write EVERYTHING down on our kitchen calendar
2. clean my kitchen (I like an uncluttered working space so this helps me feel centred; a friend likes doing laundry – ugh!!!)
3. menu plan

Last week, I was on a course for 4 of the 5 days so things were wild at home. One of the first things I did when I got home on Friday evening is I did the shopping list and I wrote out my menu plan.

This week, things should be back to normal again. But if you’re having a crazy busy time, grab a menu planning form and write down a few meals. It doesn’t have to stifle your spontaneity or creativity – you can mix it up and have Thursday’s meal on Monday if that’s what you feel like, etc.

Make the plan work for you.

So, this week’s menu is as follows:

Monday
Out with a friend

Tuesday
Baked potatoes and apricot chicken

Wednesday
Pasta with kidney bean sauce

Thursday
Chicken curry, pumpkin and rice

Friday
Chicken burgers and weigh-less chips

Visit Laura for a gazillion more menus. The last time I checked there were over 300!

And don’t forget to visit on Friday to show off what you declutter this week.

Kilbrittain, Ireland

Hi everybody

I don’t even live in the Northern Hemisphere but I’ve been getting SO EXCITED about summer, just from reading the blogs. As you know, I’m a winter gal (just look at those gorgeous skies in the picture above) so am in my element right now with our cold weather in Johannesburg. If I could only have an insulated house like they do in the UK, I’d be as happy as a clam (anyone know if clams are actually happy?)!

So I decided in honour of your summer and our winter, we should do something fun together.

TA DA DA DUM…

Announcing … THE HOME/ OFFICE ORGANISING CHALLENGE

Here’s how it’s going to work:

STEP 1

Decide what you want to tackle for the next 10 weeks. It doesn’t have to take you 10 weeks but you have 10 weeks to get it all done so there’s no pressure. See? Still lots of time to laze at the pool, reading, or in my case to laze under my blanket with hot chocolate

I suggest you choose a specific room (s) in your HOME or your OFFICE. There’s enough in most offices to keep you busy for 10 weeks!

STEP 2

Set a deadline. Depending on the size of the project, choose your date of completion.

STEP 3

Decide on a reward for completing your project. Will you buy some pillows for your home? Do you want a new desk for the office?

STEP 4

Map out your “how to” steps. I suggest that you take a big piece of paper for each room and break your BIG project down into MINI projects. E.g. in the bedroom, there might be hanging clothes, shelves, bedside table, etc.

If you’re not sure about the “how to”, please get the Organise your Home system (http://www.takechargesolutions.org/?page_id=21) or 7 Easy Steps to Organise your Office (http://www.takechargesolutions.org/?page_id=17).

STEP 5

Make yourself accountable to someone. Tell your family, a friend, your coach, or better still, post it on your blog and make yourself accountable to the internet!

With any project, it’s always more fun when you do it together with other people so here’s the thing – I’m hosting TWO Question & Answer calls over the course of the ORGANISING CHALLENGE. These calls are f-r-e-e for anyone who owns ORGANISE YOUR HOME or 7 EASY STEPS (and all clients).

Call 1 Thursday 26 June 8PM South Africa time/ 2PM Eastern Standard Time
Call 2 Thursday 24 July 8PM South Africa time/ 2PM Eastern Standard Time

During this time, you get 1:1 coaching and can ask me anything that you’re battling with, tips and ideas about your organising project, etc, etc. Or you can just come listen in and get ideas from the others. Don’t worry if you can’t make the times – you can email your questions and I’ll answer them on the call. Both calls will be recorded and the links will be put up on the password-protected site for all who have registered.

SO ARE YOU UP FOR THE ORGANISING CHALLENGE?

1. Leave a comment here if you’re up for it.
2. Email me if you’re a previous purchaser of the HOME (http://www.takechargesolutions.org/?page_id=21) or OFFICE (http://www.takechargesolutions.org/?page_id=17) product.
3. When you buy the product, in the comments section, please put “organising challenge” and I’ll add you to the list for all the call-in information.

This is only going to take about 60 minutes every week.

Won’t it be WONDERFUL to have a FUNCTIONAL and ORGANISED space at the end of August?

P.S. If anyone’s a Photoshop whiz and can help out, please contact me – I need a button for this challenge to put on the blog

P.P.S. If you want to see some travel pics, check out the travel blog at http://francoisfamily.blogspot.com/