1. Its always good to get them in to have a haircut a few weeks before hand, for us its usually two weeks prior, as it allows my partners hair to settle and then I can tidy it up just before his presentation I.E the night before.  Get them to check their nails and facial hair, yes guys that ear and nose hair included!  Girls that means eyebrows and yes some of you have other facial hair that needs attending to!  You just look better if you are clean shaven and well presented.
   
2. Wives, husbands, partners if you are going to be there helping e.g making appointments for people to see your significant other, make sure you have a good diary, that you can write in standing and not have to continually find a table to lean on.  People that are wanting to make appointments don’t want to be running around after you, as you attempt to find something solid to write on. Also have a reasonable amount of knowledge of when you are allowed to make appointments around the event! If your Husband, wife, partner are speaking at an event where there are more speakers, you will probably have to make those meetings either early in the morning before the event starts, in the lunch break or in the evening after the event. You need to be courteous to the other speakers.
3. I can not stress this one enough…. Make sure you have a decent amount of business cards at hand and always take more in your diary or purse.  Even though you don’t think you will need more, you will be amazed what you get through!
4. If you know it is going to be an event that starts at 8am and doesn’t finish till 7pm, take simple easy to eat snacks i.e muesli bars, energy lollies etc so that at least if you are busy all day and don’t get a chance to eat, you won’t get to the middle of the afternoon and feel famished. That will only make you sleepy and not interested in communicating.  Also, most events will provide a bottle of water up on stage for you partner, but always have one in your bag just in case.
5. Lastly and most importantly, make sure that the day before the clothes you are wearing are all clean and ironed, make sure the shoes are polished. A good suggestion is to hang what you and your partner are wearing on the door the night before, so if you are getting up early the next day, you don’t have to mess around with where your clothes are.

To finish, remember to be calm and centered for your partner. They are the ones getting up on stage and if they feel you are nervous, it will rub off on them.

When people use the words declutter and organize, we think of our home, or the office. Sometimes we need to organize the way we think to, to keep us on the right track in life. Below are 5 ways you can make your life easier and make your week flow, so you don’t feel so stressed or overwhelmed.

1. Take control…
Start the moment you wake in the morning, we are all in control of how we decide our day is going to go. We all get bothered by the little things from time to time, and what we need to learn is that if we let these things bottle up, they become big things. So if your partner (husband, boyfriend, wife, girlfriend) has not done something, not said something, upset you…take a deep breath and suggest you talk it over. Believe me it works… No one reads minds and the myth that we can, well it may work for some, but mostly… its better to be upfront and honest… It will save you and those around you a lot of stress if they know what is going on. If its something that you have no control over, then think about the outcome you want to see and let it go.

2. Lessen your list of “things to do”
If you have a page long list of what you need to get done and its looking daunting, make a cup of tea/coffee and sit down with the list. Start by taking out anything that is not urgent. If you have appointments or meetings that you really don’t need to be at, make your apologies and free up some space in your day. Think to yourself, do I really need to do this today, maybe you can do something once a week instead of every other day? Do you have something on the list that you always do, but your not sure why? Take it off and try something new….a cup of coffee, a walk in the park. If you get up in the morning thinking of what needs to be done, STOP… Give yourself a break and think, I will do what time allows and enjoy a moment for myself! You are important to…

3. Put pen to paper!
If you have just done number 2, then this is a step further…..

Maybe get a weekly planner, only let the important things on this list and make sure you spread them through the week, with the breaks for you too in between. Its also great at times, if you have a lot on your mind get a pen and paper and note it down. It helps. It leads you to read over it and see how you feel. If you feel you are not in control, this can actually help you see what you can change, and what you can deal out to others to do or help with.

4. Do you feel like you are always being interrupted.
Does your phone ring when you are in the middle of something? Try putting the answer phone on, or take the phone off the hook for an hour. You will be amazed what you can get done in that hour! If you work in an office and have the glory of having an assistant or receptionist, as them to take your calls and messages. If you have children and they go to school or preschool, take an hour out of that time that they are away to do some of the things that you need to. To you mums out there, make sure that one day a week you take an hour out of the day for you….be it getting your hair cut, a coffee with a friend(or by yourself) anything that is not related to the home or your family…. It may not seem like it at times, but remember you decide what you are doing!

5. Make it easy!
Take the stress out of your life! Put the steps above into place and take a step back. You deserve to have some time to be. If things are planned well, life won’t seem so crazy and you will feel like you are a different person! Remember to go easy on what you think too! Don’t over think things. Don’t over stress. If you think something is wrong in some way or place, make moves to sort through it and move forward and then let it go. Remember that if its something you don’t have the power to change, then leave it to the world around to deal with.

You are important, and deserve a little more time in your day!

Get armed and ready with your three boxes, to keep, to give away and to throw away. Make sure the things that you keep are worth keeping.  And don’t keep things for the sake of keeping things….Just because you got it for free, doesn’t mean you need to keep it.

With the items that you give away, you have a couple of choices.  First, you could simply donate to places like Salvation Army, Oxfam, or Purple Heart. If things are in good condition, you could consider trying to sell it at a consignment shop, have a  garage sale or put it on E bay.

In the “to keep” box  should be quality items that you will use and have use for. Don’t just save something for the memories, (There is always going to be that exception to this rule) an item that your mother, grandmother, or a dear friend gave to you. And if you decide to give the items away, take a photo of it somewhere in the house and put it in an album as a memory.

Once you’ve got everything into the boxes, get rid of the gear that you have decided not to keep.  Label the items from the give away pile and call a place that accepts donations. If you’ve decided to sell or swap things, arrange that as well.  Try to get this done in the following week or so, as if it stays around the house, there is the chance that it will end up back in the house again, cluttering things again.

Now all you should have is the box of gear you are keeping.  You will still have to organize what is in the box so don’t just put it in a cupboard, or  where you found them. Organize things into drawers, cupboards, closets, or containers. Similar things should go together.  Put all office and school supplies in one closet, put tools in another. Buying clear containers is the best because you will be able to see what’s inside. If you can’t, don’t despair, just label the box, you’ll save yourself a lot of time and effort looking for things in the future.

Try to go to work through your home at least once a year to 18 months to keep things at bay and well organized.

Now that you have done a fantastic job, you can admire your work!  

1.  Start by collecting all your craft supplies into one room, I mean everything!  If you have the space then at the same time, put like with like ie Paint brushes with your paints and canvases.  Wool and needles together with patterns.  Card, cutting pads, embellishment’s and the like for card making all together and like wise with scrap booking supplies and any other craft that you par take in. Whilst doing this, take time to get rid of things that you don’t use anymore.  If you haven’t used it in six months, out it goes.  If you have a lot of magazines on crafts that you enjoy, keep them together as well.
2. Now that you have all your craft supplies in one room and organized into piles, its time to look at what you have around the house to tidy them into.  If you can afford it, then maybe its time to go and have a look at Target or Walmart for some storage containers.  If your like me and have a lot of little embellishment’s then a lot of small plastic containers is perfect.  What you can do is put all like small supplies into these containers and then keep them together in a larger container (this can be a shoe box). Keep all your scrap booking papers together (I have an open file that I keep all of mine it, makes it easy to see what you have too) The other option is if you have a filing cabinet, you can use one draw for papers, patterns, cutting pads, and even canvases and another for all the other more bulky supplies.  The idea is to keep it simple, but all together and easy to access. You don’t need to spend a lot of money doing this, you can even cover a few boxes with pretty paper and keep supplies in these.
3. Lastly, make sure you keep your craft supplies where you can access it easily. After all, its really not worth it to put these things that you use at least once or twice a week on the top shelf of a storage cupboard.  If you are lucky enough to have a room that has space then make the most of it.  I have a desk in the spare room, and under it I have a plastic wheelie bin, with the things I use lest often, on top of that I have my canvases so they are easier to get hold of.  Next to the desk I have a set of plastic coated baskets, which hold all my main craft supplies in shoe size boxes, and a few other containers I found around the house.  It really does work, because you come to learn where everything is.  It also means that if you run out of something its easy to see that its not there….you don’t find yourself running around looking for the particular item for days on end, swearing you had it the other day.

Good luck with sorting out your supplies.

Firstly lets look at getting the present lists and card lists ready.

Okay so the card list, how often do you get your Christmas cards and find come January they are still sitting in the office, on the dinning table or in a draw? I’m here to say that this can be changed! Lets start by making a list of all those that you want to send a card to. Start with Oversea’s friends, if you can remember who you got a card from last year, add those. Now count the names on the list and you have the amount of cards you require for this Christmas.

Since its only late October, I suggest you start writing a few a week from now on and that way by Dec you will have a lot of the cards done. Start with the ones that you need to post oversea’s. And then work down the list. Once you have the cards written and ready to go, address and stamp them and so they are ready to go. Remember not to post till early December, otherwise if they arrive to early people put them aside and forget they are there when they are putting their other Christmas cards around.

Now the seriousness of Christmas present shopping! We all have our thoughts on what to spend and what to buy. What I’m going to help you with is how to create a brilliant list, that will help you be more proactive with getting things done early or on time so you don’t have the huge panic.

Start by making a list of your Children, and immediate family, then add friends and members of your community that you buy gifts for. Its a time of year when a lot of us thank those around us for all that they have done for us.

Leave enough room especially below you children’s names and partners. These will be the ones that you buy the most for. Work out what will suit each one, and the things that they would like. A great bit of advice is to actually start this list earlier in the year, as it means if you spot something in a sale that will suit, you can cross it off the list and put it away.

Now try to organize a day each week that you can spend a few hours or half a day at the shops to get through the list. Aim to work through similar parts of the list in each trip. So one day for the Children, one for your husband or partner, one for family and then friends. Leave yourself with enough time to pick up last bits etc. Oh and by the way, Don’t Forget the Wrapping paper and ribbons.

In the next post I will put some links to wrapping ideas. Some simple ways of making things look amazing without a lot of work.

Now life is back to normal again and I have more time on hand to help you all out.

Thanks for your patience over the past 3 weeks.

As promised the next article on Christmas preparations is on its way.

How organized is everyone?

Over the coming weeks, I’m going to start going through the different parts of preparing for Christmas.

Here is an out lay of what I will cover…..

Lists for presents and cards.

Things you need to book, or make reservations for.

Planning your Christmas dinner (and thanksgiving)

Doing a quick tidy up around the house before it gets to busy with work dinners, School concerts etc

A plan of attack for shopping.

What you need to decorate the table.

If you are going away, then what needs to be organized.

If any of you have something in particular that you would like covered, please leave a comment and I will see what I can do!

Be prepared that this sort out may take a while and I suggest you either spend a whole afternoon doing it, or set aside an hour a day to relax and work out which ones you want to keep and which you are going to give away. ( a great thing to do is to give the ones you no longer want to your local Doctors clinic,pre school or charity) If you find (as I do) that there are recipes, pictures of furniture or other that you want to keep, carefully tear them out and then trim the rough edge with scissors.

I suggest you settle yourself on the floor or set up on a large table and marry them all up, for example like with like.

Now put the ones you are giving away in a box or a solid plastic bag and either in the boot of the car or by the door ready to go out.

If you have a large book shelf and there is space put a group of them there.

I have a few rectangular baskets that work really well for storing magazines, I stand them up with the spine up, so that I can see the issue. And sometimes if the measurements work you can slide the baskets onto a shelf on your shelf unit.

A spare room is also a brilliant place to store them, gives your guests something to read when they visit, and are easily accessible when you need to find that article you read last month.

There are number of places to have magazines, if you subscribe to a home magazine some people like having them on a coffee table.

Right, those of you that like me cut articles, Pictures etc from magazines, I suggest you purchase a few flip files with the clear sleeves. Means you can keep the clipping tidy, but easy to find. Or you can buy a scrap book and stick them in there, then label or decorate the front cover so that you know what is in it.

I hope you are all enjoying the tips on Home Organizing. More soon….

I hope this has helped you sort through your wardrobe and its many contents…..

Have a great day!