What new habit?

Here I am at the beginning of a new month, and my calendar and to do list are telling me I wanted to post a new habit for the new month.  Since I have been revamping the way I am writing and posting things my "Habit of the Month" series has moved to my new blog, Simplicity And Inspiration.  (Go ahead and check it out on side bar and let me know what you think.)  

Here are some of the my thoughts as I processed what to writing and what habit to select for the new month. 

Book Review: Survival for Busy Women

Survival For Busy Women:  Establishing Efficient Home Management by Emlie Barnes is a good resource of advice and ideas for helping any woman learn how to better manage her home and life.

Life can be very busy or stressful and the suggestions and guidelines through out this book are practical how to's for those seeking guidance and help for life management.   Lists and charts, project ideas, and organizational suggestions are scattered through out the book. 

I enjoyed the easy reading of Emlie's writing and the format of this book.  The ideas presented, though not new to me, where done simply and in some cases differently than I have seen previously. 

The edition of this book I read was published over twenty-five years ago and that fact could be seen in several of the tools she referenced.  The ideas are still applicable, though.  The concepts of life management do not change over time.   An update of to this book is available, and I am looking forward to reading it to see if and how the author incorporates the tools technology has made available.   I am curious to see if she has an new ideas or suggestions after twenty plus years.  

Survival for Busy Women is a good primer for those seeking to be more efficient in their home management.  Whether for a young person or a lady with much experience, I would recommend this book for the basic ideas, suggestions, and charts presented by the author.  

Book Review: Large Family Logistics

Large Family Logistics: The Art and Science of Managing the Large Family by Kim Brenneman is an easy, enjoyable  read.  Kim's ideas are encouraging and practical.  She starts with the reality of where we may be as women and systematically presents principles and ideas that will help us grow.

Kim, mother of nine, and her husband run a farm and micro-dairy in Iowa.  She home-schools her children and enjoys a variety of gardening and sewing activities.   She offers a variety of ideas and suggestions for household, personal, and learning management. 

Kim starts her book with a section presenting principles that can help you be the women, wife, mother, and manager that is God-honoring.  Her premise that we need to be grounded in Scripture helps to bring the focus back to the reality that all we do is for God - even the care of ourselves and our home.   The second section of her book focuses on presenting ideas and plans for the organization and running of your home.  She approaches everything with the idea that we are to be working together as a family and, as a mom, we have the responsibility to teach our children the maintenance of a home and family and allow them the opportunity to "practice" by working with their siblings to help mom and dad run the house.  

 

I enjoyed the easy reading of Kim's writing.  She wrote in a way that is very familiar and it was almost as if she was having a conversation with you.  The chapters are fairly short, some only a couple of pages, which makes fitting a moment of reading in easy amidst everything else of life.  She has excellent ideas and lays them out in a very understandable and easy to implement way.  

There are a few times where Kim's strong feelings about how something should be done, came across very clearly.  It is important to remember in everything we read to measure it against the Truth and our own priorities.  What she says is great! but if you are not sure of where you stand you could be lead to feel badly about where you currently are and choices your family has made.  

I would recommend Large Family Logistics to most any wife and mother who is seeking to improve the management and function of her household.  It is especially helpful to those who have a large number of family members and/or a variety of responsibilities.  Her ideas can easily be translated and modified to apply in a smaller family setting as well.  

 

Book Review

I enjoy reading and learning . . . probably the most of any of the more casual pastimes I have.  Almost as much, I enjoy telling others what I am learning and sharing the ideas I read.  So, here is the first of what I am hoping will be many reviews of the books I have or am reading.

My first review venture is Regina Leed's, One Year to An Organized Life.  My sister-in-law gave it to me for my birthday last year and we have been reading it together.

This book is an excellent guide to organization and de-cluttering for those who want to act but are not sure where to start.  

Regina Leeds is a professional organizer from Los Angeles area. She lays out an unique monthly and weekly plan to help the reader develop routines and break down tasks so that the organization of one's life is not so overwhelming.  

There are very few areas left untouched by the habits and methods taught in this book. Regina works through questions and journal writing to help the reader get to the core of why you do things the way your do. She systematically lays out an organization plan to help you see what you are doing that works well, discover where and why things are not working, and assist you in organizing more in line with what helps you function best. 

The sections of the book are broken down by month and each month is divided into four weeks of chapters.  Each month's reading included some reflection or examination questions, ideas of how to organize or develop routines, and an assignment with a project that deals directly with the area being worked on that month. 

This book is enjoyable to read.  There is a lot of ideas to learn and implement. The projects can be big or little depending on your current situation and the area. Regina gives you much to think about as she encourages you to address some deeper reasons to why your organization is the way it is.  If you read the book cover to cover it can be very overwhelming.  I have chosen to approach this book like a class. Each week I read the appropriate chapter and do the assignment whether it is the journal questions, a quick purge, or a massive organization.  

My sister-in-law and I have been working through the book for almost nine months now. Doing it together has helped keep me on track and we have been able to help each other with a project or two.    As a mom with young children I found some of the project assignments very challenging and overwhelming.  Time does not always allow me to stop everything for a complete day in order to focus on an effective overhaul of an area.  However, there has always been some aspect of the assigned project I have been able to accomplish.  Any step forward, no matter how big or small, is good.  

I recommend One Year to an Organized Life to most anyone looking to make changes in their organization.  As for myself, this book is going on my bookshelf for future reference when I am done with it, and I am sure I will be rereading and revisiting aspects of it for years to come.  

Habit of the Month Follow-up: March

This month's habit has been to find a home for the stray items laying around our home.  Overall I have done well.  Definitely not perfect, but steps of progress have been made.  More importantly than seeing the progress around me, the development of the habit has been good.  Just establishing the habit of finding homes for things in our home or letting them go if they are not something we use and love has been a wonderful exercise.

Now on with a new month and the establishment of a new habit.  Of course, not forgetting to continue to find homes for the loose items I find around our house.  

Habit of the Month: March

This month, as I seek to help my home be a bit more organized, I am tackling the hidden or not so hidden areas of our house: our storage locker, the extra closet in the baby's room, and the top of the large closet in the master bedroom.  I may even attack the boxes in our bedroom - the ones that have become invisible because of their long time residence along the walls.  

Regina Leeds' recommendation for this month's habit is to watch for the following comments: "I don't know where this goes.  I'll just put it here for now;" then acting to find a home for those things.*  When I find myself thinking or saying this (or hearing it from someone else in my family), I will find it a home or seriously consider letting the item go.  If it does not have a place in our home, why is it here?

How about you?  Do you have a habit you would like to solidify in your life this month?  Is there a new habit you have been wanting to develop?  Make this month the month to start.  Maybe you would join me in seeking to find homes for the stray or orphaned objects in our homes?  

*One Year to an Organized Life, Leeds, p. 119.  

Habit of the Month Follow-up: February

February's habit of wiping off the bathroom counters each day has been challenging to implement.  Mid-month I almost gave up . . . Enter the mental image of me standing at the mirror yelling, "I quit"; them calm me responding, "No, I don't" and heading back to do my best to establish this habit . . . .

I have a large container of disinfecting wipes left over from a pack of three I bought for my daughter's class last fall.  Actually, I have two left (why I bought a pack of three very large wipe containers when I only needed one, still escapes the logic side of my brain).  Two containers - perfect - one for each of our bathrooms.  I moved the containers under the sinks for easy access and started wiping what of the counter I could see.  In the master bathroom this was the space of about the size of a dessert plate at first.  Yikes!  

I needed to consistently have the counter cleared enough to access it with the wipes.  So, last week I moved the items I use each morning into a portable container and stashed it under the sink.  This freed up some space.  After adding things from my bathroom drawers to my "morning container" I was able to move most of what lived on my counter out of sight.  NICE!  What a difference!  Now I can actually get at the counter consistently enough to wipe it off.  

This habit has mostly affected  just "my" side of the counter in our master bath.  I didn't even try to touch my husband's side of the counter.  The main bathroom has also benefited a bit.  I didn't get it wiped everyday, but even that counter has been cleared a bit more and there appears to be some improvement.  I even caught my five year old wiping the counter the other day.  Her comment, "It needed it, Mommy"  Wow!  Habits really do wear off on those around you.  I am so thankful this one was a good one.  

Habit of the Month: February

Here it is, the end of February and I have yet to write about the habit I have been working on developing this month.  February's habit is wiping off the bathroom counters everyday.  As I read and work through Regna Leeds book, One Year to An Organized Life, I am working in the bathroom this month.  She advocates wiping the counter each time you are in the room.  I am going for at least once everyday.  

So . . . I guess this means I need to be able to access the counter.  The clutter and "necessary" items that usually live on the counter top will need to be pared down and assigned a new home.  

So I am seeking to have a clear counter able to be wiped off each day.  

Habit of the Month Follow-up: January

Well, it is new month (really, already?).  As I seek to establish a new habit each month, this means on to the next.  Before I do that, how did I do with last month's habit?  As I sought to deal with all the paper we have in our home, not necessarily in piles, just a lot of it in files and notebooks and cabinets, I was trying to deal with it all more efficiently as it enters our home.  This initially translated into dealing with the postal mail as it came into the house.  The idea grew as the month progressed.

So, since all the papers (mail, school worksheets, newsletters and bulletins, fliers from our neighborhood, and things for Mom to deal with) were being piled on my desk, that became monster to attack this month. When I wanted to sit at my desk to do any work or writing or even just check my e-mail, I had to do it around the piles of papers or deal with them first.  Yuck!  My solution: an inbox.  I bought an inexpensive tray and placed it at the corner of my desk.  All things that Mom needs to see or do something with go there, then at the end of the day when I check my e-mail for the last time, I look at and deal with what is in my inbox.  

Overall it has worked well.  I think that I am the one that uses it the most. There are so many times during the day when I need to do something with but am not in a position to stop what I am doing to do it.  In my inbox it goes, and I know that before the day ends I will take the opportunity to review the papers and then do what is needed: file, recycle, or place in my action files.  (I am still working on how the action file idea will look and function for me.)  

My goal going forward is that at the end of each day, I'll have an empty inbox to greet me the next morning when I sit down at my desk.  I have yet to be consistent with that aspect of the habit, but just having it there is making a big difference in corralling the papers and keeping them from taking over my desk.  

Habit of the Month: January

I drafted this several weeks ago, and I as I was reviewing posts to write my monthly habit follow-up I realized I never posted this article.  Yikes!  So, here is what I wrote about the habit of the month for January.  Tomorrow I'll post my follow-up and then on to the new month's habit.  

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As the Holiday Season fades and the New Year is bright with all the possibilities and freshness of a new beginning, I turn again to my organizing book and return to the routine of reading, learning and organizing.  

This month's organizing area is the paper!  It seems to be everywhere and self reproducing.  I don't necessary sense I am drowning in it as some might, so I'd like to say it is reasonably under control.  However, it is everywhere!  In the era of more and more paperless options and so many things available electronically, I am struck by the irony of even electronic paper clutter.  As I weed through all the files in my filing cabinet, the miscellaneous boxes around my home, and on my computer I will be seeking to cull it down to the necessary and important items.  

To assist me in maintaining what I am seeking to set up, my habit for this month is to deal with the paper once when it comes in to our home.  This would be the postal mail, my e-mail, the papers the kids bring home from school, the newsletter and bulletins from different events or groups.  Papers seem to easily overtake my desk, so should assist with controlling that very messy monster.   

Maybe this simple habit, will help manage what some may classify as a necessary evil in the business of life.