In Johannesburg, there’s no middle ground. It’s either ice-cold or blazing hot.

During the last week of August I was still wearing corduroys, boots and thick, winter jackets. On 1 September exactly, it was blazing hot (high 20′s) and it hasn’t let up at all.

Last week we had temperatures of 28 and 29 degrees the entire week.

Which is why it became really urgent to swop my winter and summer clothes around because I hate wasting time in the mornings.

I keep the clothes I need to access a lot on the right side of the wardrobe because my side of the wardrobe is on the left of our bedroom, and the ones for the other season in plastic bags on the left side. I know I shouldn’t keep them in plastic but quite honestly, it’s worked for me ALL these years and I’m happy like that, okay?

I have a double rail to maximise space and it really works because everything fits (except the thick winter coats).

I had to

1. throw out any old clothes, clothes that I no longer loved or those that don’t fit
2. move the clothes around
3. sort out the colours
4. sort out the sleeve lengths

before – bottom
Before you get really worried, I have tackled all those handbags too. Those 3 were only thrown in during the last couple of days in total frustration. That will be posted as next week’s tackle. It’s a big one!

I can still declutter some more – this will happen as I wear things and find they don’t look so great any more

and I present – my beautifully organised wardrobe

I sat on my bed and just gazed at it for a few minutes afterwards

If I had to change to spring/ summer clothes, then I’m guessing that you US guys have to change to autumn/ winter clothes.

That’s my challenge to you – tackle those wardrobes (closets) and link back here so I can come have a look.

My tackle (actually since Friday) has been to fix my sidebar. As you can see —>>> it is gone. It has slipped to the bottom. This used to happen in the old Blogger quite a lot but is the first time since switching that it’s happened here.

Internet Explorer some versions can view – I am also on IE and I can’t see. Safari (Karen-pediascribe) can’t see either.

So far I have:
1. removed the Organise your Wardrobe section, and added it back
2. gone into the Timer post (that I suspected resulted in the sidebar issue) and
3. compressed the pictures further
4. removed all links (in case it was a long link)
5. deleted the post

Nothing worked!

Then when I was reading some help forums some people said it fixed itself when they changed templates, so last night I tried to change to each of the other templates and …nothing. But while I was tinkering around, I changed it to bright spring colours – let’s see how long this lasts

And that’s where I’m at.

My last resort is Annie (my life as annie) who has offered to look at the HTML code. Annie, thank you – I am sending it to you via Jenny (isn’t this ridiculous?)

Any clever ideas will be welcome!!!!

I am so late posting this but hey, it was my tackle, right?! I have this list of computer work that I have to do. It’s a running list, meaning I just add anything I’m thinking of and then I choose which tasks I want to do in a particular week (I like weekly planning).

My tackle this week was to blog about these two products for women. This item has been on my list for about 2 – 3 weeks and time is running out so I had to do it this week before Aug runs out I’ll tell you why later!

Self-confidence handbook

A 16-page handbook working through self-esteem, self-confidence, assertiveness and setting healthy boundaries
Price: $ 9.95

Women’s health and wellness manual

A 26-page manual covering healthy eating habits, women’s health issues, stress management, work-life balance and self-care.
Price: $ 19.95

Women’s makeover pack

Both the Self-Confidence Handbook & the Women’s Health & Wellness Manual

**buy both and save $4
Price:$ 25.90

Now the reason why I had to get this done before end Aug?

I am giving a further 20% off any of these products if you’re a subscriber to my weekly tips newsletter. Just because it was my birthday this month. See the purple box over there —>>>

I am sending out the weekly mailing tomorrow and the discount code is in that email. For subscribers only!!! Go sign up now.

If you don’t want the newsletter, go directly to the shopping page

Last weekend I had the wonderful idea to go to 3 bookshops (they’re all the same, just different franchises within about a 2km radius) to check out the latest stuff. Clearly I am soooo led by God because there was a HUGE SALE!!!!

No time to do the happy dance because the biggest store was about to close so I had about 7 minutes to grab everything and pay. Now I am a champion shopper so I grabbed a basket, focussed and got on with the job at hand

We then went to the other two stores and got some more stuff at the one place.

And came home with this…

The two baskets on the right have things I picked up at Clicks – again, led by God – some great gift sets for rock-bottom prices.

This is my good deed of the day – we detoured at Pick & Pay and these stationery sets were going for R10 each ($US1.43), marked down from R39.99 ($US5.71) which is still dirt cheap. Anyway… I decided to pick some up and give them away.

You might be wondering why the photos above are in black and white – it’s because the pile of shopping doesn’t look so bad that way! But here is a smaller photo, in colour.

Anyway, I tackled both those surfaces this week and I’m very happy to say all that stuff is put away or has been given away.

1. Gave a stationery set to my cleaning lady for her 3 sons and another to an underprivileged school.
2. The books I bought purely for gifts have been put away on my gift shelf (which now overflows to a second shelf).
3. The books for me have been put on my bookshelf. I must say, it felt like I was working in a library because my bookshelf is sorted by topic, so I filed under job/work, family, life balance and novels.
4. Also moved some books to my bedside table to start reading soon.

What did you tackle today?

(don’t forget to check my main blog for my giveaway)

1. outlining my talk

I am doing a talk on 8 August and while I’ve spoken on the topic “Empowering women” many times before, I need to condense some things, do a proper outline and decide exactly what I want to cover this time. I also customise to the specific group so that needs to be also taken into account.

2. writing one chapter of my new e-book

I have done only 1 out of 5 chapters and I need to get cracking. As with everything else, it is the starting. Once I sit still and write the first 15 – 20 mins, I’m hooked and I can write for hours.

When I get a bit stuck, I tell myself, “what would I do if I were coaching myself?“

So today, I am going to (1) reward myself with reading blogs for 10 minutes AFTER I have written at least 30 minutes, and I will keep doing that until the chapter is done. Then (2) I am blogging it for accountability.

Those two things usually work for me!

Go visit 5 minutes for mom for more great tackles. And while you’re surfing, say hi to a blogger today!

1. This week, I decided to tackle a sub-folder that has been in my Blogging folder for months – photos to blog! When I download, I immediately sort and make separate folders and if I have time, I compress them all to website size. I’d done this already.

So I published all the photos on our personal blog (there were 3 posts and now there are 9) and I made lots of draft posts for this blog and the other one (check tomorrow for some Wordless Wed posts on both blogs).

2. While the photos were uploading to Blogger, I decided to use the time constructively by doing some filing. Some good multi-tasking going on. Upload 2 – 3 photos, punch papers, file, take file back to cupboard, rearrange photos and type captions, publish.

Before

What did you tackle today, or what do you need to tackle?

Share in the comments!

If you’ve been reading my tackles regularly, you’ll know that I’ve been tackling a lot of e-clutter and computer stuff. To read more, click the Tackle it Tuesday label at the bottom of this post.

This week, I decided to spring-clean the blogs.

1. First, I changed my description in my profile. Have you noticed?

2. Then I tackled my Take Charge blog.

• I changed the template (yet again – what is this, the 4th this month) and colours. I’m actually quite happy with it now. You see, I’m quite fussy. While I don’t like boring, I also don’t like too busy a look, which will detract from my message. I think my look now is simple but happy – I’m going for that abundant, technicolour look because that’s what I want in life, and what I want for you.
• I also tidied up each and every section of my sidebar. I eliminated the MANY categories I had and simplified them to about 10 – 12 (too lazy to go count).

3. I’m very aware that this blog is an organising blog and as such, I want it to have a simple, uncluttered feel. It should be pleasing on the eye but still reflect my minimalist style. If you’ve worked with me, you know I’m all about quick, easy, simple solutions and the blog should be the same. Yes???

• So on this blog, I also went through each and every sidebar element, checked if I was happy with the order of the links, descriptions, etc.
• I also made separate sections for organising your finances, organising your desk, organising your inbox, resource lists, etc. As I feel the need, I’ll add more.
• And I added my badge of honour

So that’s it for this week.

What do you think?

Go visit 5 minutes for mom for more great tackles.

This week I tackled some business functions I’ve needed to do for a while:

1. Fixed up my article organiser spreadsheet to make updating it easier
2. Adapted two blog posts into articles
3. Emailed 5 articles to my virtual assistant to submit to article directories
4. Wrote a brochure for tonight’s function – nothing fancy – put some testimonials in place, added my logo and picture, put some of my winter specials and my services on the back and voila! all done.
5. Organised my blogging for the week document so it’s all neat and tidy again.

And now, I need to start working on this week’s weekly tips!

Go visit 5 minutes for mom for more great tackles.

Do stop and say hi – I love to hear from you!

This week I tackled some web stuff and e-clutter that I needed to do:

1. I did some website changes – added the client testimonial and the booking sheet for my next workshop.
2. I deleted lots of documents and photos that I no longer needed (that I’d already blogged or read) from my hard drive and flash drive.
3. And this is a biggie. I wrote my weekly mailing already. This usually goes out on a Wednesday. I write weekly tips that help busy people have more time, less stress and a more organised and fulfilled life.

Every week, I think that it will just take me 30 – 45 minutes to send out and I end up spending hours sending it out. So this week I had to do something different.

It’s not the writing that’s the issue. It’s all the HTML detail – making sure that all the correct words are bold and that all the links are in the right places.

I’m a bit perfectionistic with this so I check everything obsessively before I send out. Sometimes simply because I left it too late, I don’t pick up everything I should. Now something like the hyperlink underlining a space after the word might not really matter, but if I have the time, then I’d like it to be correct.

This is a bit of perfectionism I’m working hard to overcome because I mean really! If my subscribers are looking that hard, then they’re probably missing my message, right?

Anyway, this feels really good because now I can relax and do easier business work the rest of the week. I suppose it’s a matter of eating my frog but on a weekly basis.

If you want to sign up for my weekly tips, there is a box in the top right corner —-> where you can enter your details. You also get a free Organise your Home e-book as a thank-you when you join.