I’m a Planner Junkie
Attention readers: If you are a naturally organized person, you may want to stop reading right now. You will find nothing of value here. This post is dedicated to those of us who are not lucky enough to be born with the organization gene.
Around this time of the year (or late December) I get to do my favorite kind of shopping. No, it isn’t shoes or purses. It is that one elusive item that will change my life. I go on the hunt for the perfect planner or calendar.
I put a LOT of pressure on my planner/calendar. I believe that if I find just the right one it will finally make me a more organized person.
I’m searching for The One.
I believe that The One will help me to finally remember to send out birthday cards and actually be on time for things.
In my twisted mind, this little book or calendar will single-handedly change my life from chaos to order.
So far, I haven’t found The One. To this day, they have all failed me.
I decided to go outside of my comfort zone and try something completely different this go round. I decided to use the Google Calendar that is linked to my email address. This was my first experience with an electronic organizer. It seemed to work ok at first. I liked being able to set the reminders and get emails nagging me to do things. Everything was going fine and then the unthinkable happened.
I missed my son’s doctor appointment because I entered it on the wrong date on the calendar. I was so humiliated when I had to call and reschedule. I have never done that before. (See, I’m not that disorganized.)
I then realized that I was more of a paper person and that the electronic organizer just wasn’t the right fit for me. I headed off to Target/Walmart/Mass Merchandiser Hell to find The One.
I had several options:
- The dry erase calendar
- The Daytimer Organizer
- The desk calendar
- The monthly or weekly “At a Glance” mini-planners
My original plan was to buy a cork board and get a wall calendar to hang on it. Sadly, I couldn’t find anything that would work. They didn’t stock any July-July wall calendars. Isn’t that odd?
I don’t understand how a dry erase calendar works since you can only see one month at a time. If anyone has had success with these, please let me know your secret. I guess you would have to keep two calendars, but I hate doing that. Remember I’m trying to find The One, not The Two.
Well, to make a long story short, I decided on the mini-planner. It is a month at a glance style and can fit in my purse.
I can already see that it will annoy me. The boxes are too small to write anything in them. I can’t stand when the words go out of the box or the letters have be all scrunched up.
So, the search continues. I know that The One is out there waiting for me to find it and bring it home.
What do you use to keep track of appointments/important dates? Are you a paper or electronic organizer? Have you found The One?
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WFMW: 5 Secrets To A Clean House
Jenny at Absolutely Bananas has asked for some advice about ways people keep their houses clean. She asks this like there is some sort of secret to doing it. You know what? I think there is.
I believe that there is an Ancient Society of Neat People that holds the key to how to properly keep your home tidy. It is an exclusive club that you are born into. Sometimes I think that the members of this society keep this a secret because it makes them feel superior to those of us who are in the Messy Club.
I’m in the Messy Club.
Surprisingly, all of my friends are neat. Every single one of them. And I’ve watched them. Oh yes, when they weren’t looking I’ve picked up on some of their housekeeping ways.
(I also keep thinking that maybe if I hang around with them long enough that some of their neatness will actually rub off on me, but unfortunately this hasn’t happened yet. Yes, it seems only the yucky things like lice, pink eye and the flu are contagious. You can’t catch the cleaning bug.)
I’ve also watched countless hours of Clean House, Clean Sweep, Mission Organization, and Neat (which, by the way, is my third favorite thing to come from Canada after Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams) hoping that maybe they will accidentally leak some of the society’s ancient secrets.
I’ve struggled with this all my life and over the years I have learned a few things from all this observing. These five things have really worked for me when I do them. The key is finding the motivation to actually doing them on a consistent basis. I think that is the real secret. The secret that the members will never give away and the shows will never reveal.
Hopefully these tips will be helpful to Jenny and any other “domestically-challenged” individuals out there:
1. Go on a Cleaning Blitz: I set my timer for as much time as I have or feel like dedicating to a given room. It is usually about 30 minutes. Then I work like a maniac to straighten, dust, vacuum, etc…
2. Make The Job Fun to Get It Done: This could be just putting on some music or maybe listening to a book on cd or a podcast while you clean. (My mom swears by having the tv on, but that has never worked for me. I get too sidetracked and end up sitting down with my feet on the couch. I do better with just listening to something fun or interesting.)
3. Reward Yourself: It is important to reward your efforts. There are many different kinds of treats, but you have to find out what is most motivating to you. Maybe it’s a bubble bath or an hour with a good book after your cleaning blitz. (I’d love to say my treat didn’t involve chocolate, but who am I kidding.) I’ve even set long term goals with bigger and better treats in the past. For example, if I vacuum every day for a week, I might treat myself to going to see a movie or a bottle of red wine. I’ve even thought of trying to reward myself for a month’s worth of progress with something really awesome like a massage, but sadly I haven’t been able to stay focused enough to do that..
4. When In Doubt, Throw it Out: If you haven’t used something in the past year, get rid of it. If you aren’t sure whether you may need it or not, I always lean toward just letting it go. If it’s not something that is used on a regular basis, it is probably a good chance that you don’t need it. It is so much easier to clean if you have less clutter sitting around.
5. There Is No Perfect Time To Clean: Look for small bits of time to do mini-jobs. See a finger print on the wall, grab that Magic Eraser and wipe it off. Crumbs on the floor? How long would it really take to sweep it up? Probably not even five minutes. It’s these little things that really start adding up and keep the house looking great.
Now, if I could only follow my own advice. See I know what to do, but just have trouble actually doing it.
For more great tips, visit Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks in My Dryer.
Edited to add that this post is also part of Jenny’s Housekeeping Tips Carnival.
I am so looking forward to reading all the good tips everyone has to share!
Tackle It Tuesday
One of the very few talents that I have in life is being able to cram as many objects into a container as humanly possible. If there was a world record for stuffing I’d be sure to hold it. I have all these handy dandy baskets that are supposed to help “organize” me, but when you are a piler/stuffer they seem to do just the opposite.
Take this basket that I have on my microwave. This is what I like to call the “in box” . This is where I put papers that I don’t feel like dealing with at the moment. As you can see, I have serious avoidance issues.
Here is another basket that gets its fair share of stuffing. This one hangs on the door at the top of my basement steps to hold stuff that needs to be carried downstairs. As you can see, I also have a some issues with stairclimbing as well.
I have to give a shout out to the 3M company. They have invented one of the most excellent products products ever made called the Adhesive Command Hook. These things are awesome on so many different levels. They don’t do any damage to your wall, but my praise lies in how strong they are. The fact that it can withstand the sheer volume of stuff that I pile in that basket is evidence enough of its greatness. I think the door would fall down before that thing.
My last tackle was the basket of shame that holds my stationary.
To say that this isn’t working is an understatement. Last week I purchased a new container of sorts and went through the awful mess that was in the old basket. There were quite a few things that needed to be thrown away–I mean who needs three pencil sharpeners? We have an electric pencil sharpener now (Best. Purchase. Ever.), so why would we need even one of those dreadful twisty, manual ones anymore, let alone three. They annoy the heck out of me anyway with how they always seem to break the point right before you are done sharpening it.
Also, I had more pens, pencils and notecards than I knew what to do with. Considering I haven’t written a letter since email was invented I doubt that I’ll really have much use for all of this so I got rid of most of them.
Here are the after pictures. First, the new stationary center:
The basket at the top of the stairs and the in box are both empty.
They will remain empty until the barrage of papers that come home with my kids from school. I’m convinced that their goal in life is not educating my children, but deforestation of the entire world.
For more tackles, head on over to 5 Minutes for Mom.
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