has anyone gone from completely disorganized

[iona]

behind the ball, always late, surrounded by chaos to more or less organized, on top of things, on time and living in peaceful surroundings?

 

...oh, and stayed there for more than a few weeks or months?

 

if you exist and care to respond, please share what helped you?

 

:bigear:

[SweetMissMagnolia]

trying to get there LOL a friend shared with me how she organized her studies using weekly folders and a planner (THE WELL PLANNED DAY) and it's made the studies they are doing this year more efficient.....i'm still trying to get there LOL so far all that's done for me is to show me how far behind "my schedule" we are LOL ha ha ha ahem....seriously,am trying to get there just hasn't happened yet....... :glare:

[Jean in Newcastle]

Flylady says that she will get you there. Flylady

 

[joannqn]

I've gone the other way. :lol:

[rootsnwings]

I don't think I will ever reach nirvana but I have to say there has been a HUGE improvement since I started homeschooling 3 years ago! I worked full-time for 7+ years in a stressful corporate position and we just had YEARS of clutter and meyhem. My first year off I got rid of soooooooo much stuff. Just random junk we had NO need for. I chunked it, donated, whatever I could do to get it OUT. I just couldn't think in all that clutter! We live in a VERY small space (for 5 people) with VERY small living space (huge bedrooms which aren't really all that great!) My point being, EVERYTHING must have a place to go or we have to get rid of something to make room. I've had to stop buying (easy, since I have no money now, lol!)

 

As for the time management, I implemented the family calendar and have REALLY gotten good at using it and thus managing my time (somewhat) efficiently. I at least REMEMBER events now, where when I was working I would just completely flake out & forget something super important!

 

I think getting rid of the clutter & STRESS in my life has made a HUGE improvement in the other areas I was struggling with. I am 100% ADD and these are the things that help me stay afloat when my mind gets foggy! I seem to be swimming more than sinking here lately but it is a struggle most every day!

 

Hope you can find some things to help you through! :grouphug:

[Peela]

I think I fit into that category. 7 or 8 years ago I was a mess, always overwhelmed, a slob, and life was just always chaotic. My dh used to get very upset with me as he is naturally neat and organised (opposites attract, apparently).

It was Flylady that did it for me, but it has taken years and is an ongoing journey...nowadays I am taking a walk into Minimalism (cutting back to minimal possessions and simplifying my life radically), though I am a far way from there yet.

No, my home is not spotless but it is in order, and my life is not chaotic or disorganised.

Regular decluttering has been a big factor.

Making routines that appeal to me and that work for me is another. I do not like rigid routines- in fact, its a bet that if I write it down I will immediately feel imprisoned by it and specifically NOT do it- so I have had to form habits instead of schedules.

Not beating myself up about any of it is another.

And...I have enjoyed playing with organisational systems for years now, ever since finding Flylady. I love making schedules for the kids, and for housework- there is something about just making a schedule, even if I dont stick to it for long, that helps. I love having an organised, neat desk.

My latest wave of refining my organisational habits has been inspired by the Zen Habits website (zenhabits.net) as well as the book Getting Things Done which has some great ideas in it. The tickler file concept has revolutionaised my desk and filing system (and therefore paying bills, checking my calendar and To Do list, and generally staying on top of things).

I found underneath my inner (and outer) slob was a person who loves to be organised and I am still excavating and finding parts of her that surprise me!

The thing is...if its not fun and doesn't inspire...it probably wont happen. I dont use guilt or a whip to motivate myself. I am motivated by the feeling of lightness, of satisfaction, of really getting joy out of a clean kitchen or uncluttered drawer...or cleaning out my wardrobe to 1/4 of it's previous size (I really did this recently).

I also in the last months got onto teh Dave Ramsey plan and got my credit card spending in control and a budget happening. The thing is...I find these things FUN when the time is right.

Perfectionism was my enemy, and Flylady- over years- helped cure me of that. I certainly never did her system perfectly!

I learned that I didnt have to clean the whole kitchen. I could just unpack the dishwasher. If I wanted to stop there, I could....something is bettter than nothing. But..once I had done that, it didnt seem like much to pack it with dirty dishes, wash the couple of pots and wipe the surfaces.

I learned that writing things down stopped me forgetting them.

I learned to use a calendar.

I learned that if school was going to get done, it had to be done first thing in the morning, nothing else booked in the mornings, and we had to follow a loose schedule and just do it. Every day.

I learned to make time for fun, and for myself, every day.

Anyway...the only way to start is baby steps...and it's still baby steps, years later. Even if you only take one thing away from the Flylady system, it would be worth reading it.

Edited October 14, 2010 by Peela

[anneofalamo]

I was a hoarder, not tv reality, but just in case one day I might need it hoarder.

I had stacks of magazines, books, notebooks, papers

I would rearrange them like midas and his gold!

 

So many plates, glasses, silverware, utensils, my drawers were full to the brim.

 

I read this book-I got it from the library.

Scaling down : living large in a smaller space / Judi Culbertson and Marj Decker

 

she went on a vacation to a home, that had just what she needed, the whole family! The house stayed clean everything got put away, and she loved it. She vowed to do the same when she got home. It took one year!!

I took that same challenge!

Life is so much easier to keep organize when there isn't so much to organize!!

Good luck!!

[happyhomemaker25]

Nope, just added a new baby and I am having to rearrange my whole thinking. We live in a fairly decent size house, over 1800 sq feet. But, it's obvious this house was meant for about 4 people to sleep and eat in, not really live in. KWIM? The fact that we have crammed 8 people in with all of our "stuff" just is not working out. I am learning to "let it go". If we can't use it right now then we don't need to save it for someday. The only exception is kids clothing that I am putting neatly in one box per size and sex and labeling neatly. Some how someway I will find a way to replace whatever I "need" later when I need it.

One big thing that has helped so much lately is our new calender system.

Last year I went to an office supply store and bought a dry erase two month calender with BIG boxes. I assigned everyone a dry erase color and placed it in our living room. I write every little thing down on that calender so we can all see what's going on for the next two months. There is space at the bottom where I can write in important dates for the next months coming up if I have to. It's been a life safer.

[Renee in NC]

behind the ball, always late, surrounded by chaos to more or less organized, on top of things, on time and living in peaceful surroundings?

 

...oh, and stayed there for more than a few weeks or months?

 

if you exist and care to respond, please share what helped you?

 

:bigear:

 

Yes. Google "Vyvanse" :lol:

 

ETA: Oops - I have only been here a few weeks.:tongue_smilie:

[mom2denj]

This has been my goal this year! I am proud to say that I have been pretty successful, YEA!!! My secret is......Getting up really early. For the last 18 years, I have been getting up at 5:15 with my dh. I make his breakfast and lunch then I would go back to bed until about 7 or 8. Now, I get up and STAY UP. It is amazing how much I can get done when nobody else is up making messes. I can get all the dishes done, laundry started, house picked up, computer time, a shower and eat breakfast all before anyone gets up. The best part of it all is that I lay down and take a nap with my preschooler when she lays down. So, I can get everything done and still get plenty of sleep in!!!! I guess the early bird really does catch the worm.:D

[Closeacademy]

I have periods like that. But it is getting better as I learn techniques. This week would normally be one for breakdowns and letting things go but I've kept on top of all we had to do and continued to keep the house up.

 

What do I do?

 

I have my days and week divided up into segments. Each day has a task assigned to it so that I don't feel overwhelmed trying to get it all done on a single day or every day.

 

Each part of the day has its own things that we do:

 

morning chores

school

lunch

chores

outings

dinner

family time

 

I schedule appointments during chores/outings time then school stays on track and we have that important time at the end of the day where we all reconnect and charge as a family.

 

You can read more about what I do here. I am also working on organization and decluttering. You can read about my efforts here.

 

:001_smile:

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

I've become much more organized over the years, but it has taken awhile to get there. I spent quite a bit of time coming up with the organization systems that work for ME. You have to figure out things that will be easy for you to do on a regular basis. For example, I used to have piles of paper that I needed to file and dozen of labeled file folders. I pared down the folders so that instead of having a file for each individual bill I paid each month, I now have one big folder labeled PAID BILLS, and I put all my receipts and paid bills in it. I rarely need to find a paid bill for reference, so I didn't really need a separate folder for the phone bill, the gas bill, MIL's rent, etc. It is so much easier to just stick the whole stack of papers in the folder after I finish paying bills than to sort them into individual folders. Then at the end of the year, I put them all into a big manilla envelope and put them in storage. Another example- my coat closet is tiny, and I kept trying to find storage solutions that would fit in the closet to hold all the hats, scarves, gloves, etc. Everything I tried just got messy. So, I widened my horizons, and got a cube shelf from Target that holds those fabric storage cubes and put it in my living room. It looks nice and those fabric things hold quite a bit of stuff and they are much easier to deal with than the other storage things I tried to fit into the closet. Easy is the key, because then you will actually do it.

 

For keeping up with the housework, I forced myself to make a schedule and stick to it. I forced the rest of the family to get in on it, too. It began with whining and complaining from kids and dh, but I really stuck to my guns, and now they are used to it and do their chores with only minimal complaining, and my house stays much cleaner and neater than it used to.

[fairfarmhand]

Sort of....I'm still a work in progress, but I have come a long way in the past few years.

 

It took me a long time to get here.

 

I started with something small....filing papers immediately. Then I progressed to never going to bed with dishes in the sink. Here lately because of some financial pressure, I've redone my shopping habits (shopping once a month except for perishables) and organized my pantry.

 

What has helped most?

1. My baby is almost 3 years old. It helps when they are bigger and I'm sleeping more.

2. I started having a set time to do certain chores. For instance, each day around 9 I can be found in the laundry room processing laundry. I don't sit down after supper till the dishes are done. I don't stack papers to be filed, I file them as I pay them.

3. I bought a purse calendar. Now instead of remembering engagements to write on the calendar at home, I can immediately write them in wherever I happen to be.

 

ETA: Also for huge jobs like swapping out winter/summer clothes, organizing the kids' rooms, cleaning the garage, I either do it on a Saturday, or wait till we have a day off from school. I used to try to squeeze it in in the afternoon, but it would end up taking a couple days, since it was such a big job. I now try to get it all done in "one fell swoop" so I don't have big jobs facing me when I get up i nthe morning.

Edited October 14, 2010 by fairfarmhand

[Giraffe]

I've gone the other way. :lol:

 

Me too. Husband and kid really messed with my simple single life routine. :lol::lol::lol:

[iona]

thanks for your responses :001_smile: would love to hear more.

 

*bump*