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/

Is your goal for 2008 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?

You can!!!

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

Go here to check out the 5 valuable bonuses and to see if this is for you!

It’s at times like these that I realise I also need my Organise your Home home study system

This is how I decided what had to go:

1. I hadn’t worn it for two years (!) either because I just didn’t feel like it or it didn’t fit me. Both those lilac suits in the pile don’t fit me yet I hung onto them because when they did, they looked really gorgeous on me *sigh*
2. I didn’t LOVE it. There is a shirt in that pile that I have been keeping because

(a) my MIL bought it for me and I thought that was very kind of her and

(b) it is cool to wear in our blazing hot Jhb summers. BUT I must admit, I don’t love it and it doesn’t even look like me.

So I threw them out. That’s only 6 items of clothing in there but the weight off my shoulders is huge, which brings me to another point:

Sometimes we make a bigger deal of things than they have to be. I’d been procrastinating all of this for 2 – 3 weeks and it took me 10 minutes to throw out

What have you tackled this week?

If you don’t know how to reach your organising goals, join me on a free Skypecast this Thursday. Get all the details and your handout here.

click picture to read more

And the winner is………………………………..ANDREA.

I want to say a big THANK YOU to everyone else for also blogging about it. This e-course is already helping a lot of you and I know that it will help every other overwhelmed person out there!

Andrea, thanks for helping me spread the word! I will email your Stacks and Stacks gift card voucher number to you

Happy shopping!

Have you taken up the decluttering challenge yet? If someone feels kind, it would be great to have a button so that we can spread the decluttering news throughout the blogosphere…

I’ve just launched something to help ANYBODY get their home organised and keep it that way LOL Read about the Organise your Home course here and if you blog about it, you can win a $25 gift card to Stacks and Stacks!

My business and personal goals are all set too – I don’t mind telling you that while I have BIG goals, I’m going to be working less. I absolutely believe in working smarter and not harder

So how are all of you doing? Are you set for 2008? What are some of your goals?

By the way, have you downloaded your Organise your Life e-book yet? It’s free!

This is a static post – please scroll down for new posts! Thank you

I’ve just launched my new Organise your Home e-course – 12 weeks to an organised home – and I’m holding a contest to promote it.

If you want to win a $25 gift certificate to the Stacks and Stacks store, all you have to do is blog about the e-course and link to this page to enter. Then come back here and enter your name and blog in the Mr Linky!

This competition is open for 2 weeks and closes on Friday 11 January.

Happy blogging!

Winner
Remember the organising your craft contest I announced last Friday?

Well, the winner is Laura from Laura Williams’ Musings for her excellent post on using plastic sleeves to organise your scrapping.

I have already emailed Laura her gift code to spend R100 in my store so she can get something to help organise or improve her life!

Well done, Laura

Lovely surprises
I finished writing and putting together a new e-course to help you organise your home, step-by-step, for 12 weeks.

I haven’t launched it yet because I’m waiting for January so imagine what a lovely surprise I got when someone already bought it from the store.

That’s when you know something is needed, isn’t it?

Menu Plan Monday
Well, we are still on holiday in Port Elizabeth.

The weather messed us around yesterday because there is a thing here called Art-in-the-Park. It’s in St. Georges Park next to the cricket grounds where our boys will play the West Indies today. It is lovely and crafty because everything has to be handmade. We love going because we shop and eat lots!

Anyway, we’d planned to go after church but when we exited the church, it was raining buckets and continued in that vein the whole day. Of course, AITP is automatically cancelled and we’re not here next Sunday to go! Grrr – on the bright side, I’ve saved money, right?!

Monday
Roti & curry (my sister made some for us)

Tuesday
Out to eat at Narai Siam – Thai place we went to on Saturday. We loved it so much

Wednesday
Wholewheat pitas with beef & stir-fried veggies

Thursday
Angelo’s – Italian place with the most DIVINE pasta ever!

Friday
Plane food – we’ll be flying back to Jhb around supper time

Prayer request
Please pray for my friend, Elizabeth Hagen‘s daughter, Abby. She is ill in Houston! I told Elizabeth that I’d be praying; will you join me?

Have a great week everybody. Next week is Christmas!!!