Organize It Mom December 2010

Living Life

What's New at www.LifeOrganizeIt.com
This months organizing tip - Getting Ready for Christmas

Living Life

Okay, it's been a while and I do apologize for not writing this news letter for a while. If I could put up an embarrassed symbol face thingy I would.

Life has been crazy, as I'm sure your's has too. Last time I left you I was embarking on my journey to lose those last 10 - 15 pounds.

Well, I lost them and lost half my hair, and gained back the weight too. My doctor had put me on phentremine (fat burner/appetite suppressant), and me being the sensitive type, I suffered one of the side effects (hair loss). So, I'm now growing my hair back... thank God!!!! What a nightmare! But, I learned, as we all know... "There's no magic pill, or quick route to weight loss." I'm smirking as I type this.

The good news is I lost the weight again and now maintaining the loss. How did I lose it? Jenny Craig. It's expensive, it's good, it's convenient,and no I'm not selling the program... it just worked for my crazy life. I eat regular food now and have Jenny food every once in a while, they have cheesecake that's phenomenal!

I'm no longer obsessive about exercise. I can't be, my kids are demanding of my time.

I do some sort of strength training every other and my cardio is a walk with my chatty toddler in the stroller everyday along with my sanity runs.

I think the biggest thing for me this weight loss time around has been a change in mindset. Last time I mentioned the book, the Beck Solution, and a few of you wrote to tell me it worked for you and to stick w/it. Well, I stuck w/it and now maintaining my weight loss. Every time I want to eat something extra, I just think, "If I eat that, then I won't feel good, look good, or fit into my clothes." It wasn't easy, but there's no more struggling with cravings!

In this Issue - What's New at Life Organize It

I continue to re-work the top ten pages and will post them for you to check. Obviously that hasn't happened in a while, or you'd see a page below.

I added an 'Ask a Question Page' in addition to the 'Need Some Help' page under Organizing Around the House and have been receiving some questions that are posted below:

How to Decorate/Arrange a Kitchen Counter

Organize a Multipurpose

room(bedroom/office/junk room)

Dorm Room Organization

How do I store clothes that need ironing?

Organize my schedule to allow time for exercise and studying.

Why declutter my computer files?

Help a Second Grade Teacher Get Organized

Organize Spiral Bound Notebooks

Please feel free to get some help with your organizing questions. Just ask!

This Month's Organizing Tip - Getting Ready for the Holidays.

As I thought about what to write for this month's tip, it suddenly occurred to me, why don't I talk about what I'm doing to get ready for the holidays and the new year? Sorry if this is a bit long, but it's what's going on right now.

So, here goes. Our December so far has been tough with two rounds of colds and a nasty tummy bug that just finished it's rounds in our family of six, but we're back to health now.

Despite being sick and busy, I'm done and ready for Christmas.

I like to be done with all the Christmas preparations early so I can enjoy our family traditions of baking, making gingerbread houses, reading daily Advent scripture, and walking/driving the neighborhoods to look at the Christmas decorations and lights.

Here's how I do it:

Gifts - yes, I'm one of those sick ones that finishes Christmas shopping by Thanksgiving. I pick up gifts during weekly shopping trips to Target and Walmart. I tend to concentrate on the kids and give the adults framed school pictures of the kids (while ordering school pictures, I check how many to buy from the list of family members in my day planner). My husband and I don't buy gifts for each other unless we have the money. When the economy was good, I'd hint about a piece of jewelry I wanted and since it was usually pricey, that was my gift for the whole year (birthday, mothers day, Christmas, etc.)

Christmas cards literally take me thirty minutes from crafting them to mailing out. I make our cards on shutterfly.com, purchase pre-printed return address labels, and personalize stamps w/a cute picture of one of our kids from Stamps.com. The mailing labels are saved on my computer and I update them based on who's newly married, divorced, moved, or died over the past year. All I have to do is stuff the cards, press on labels and stamps and mail.

I clear out the old to make room for the new. It's important to declutter and organize kid's toys before Christmas, that way you'll have room for new toys and gifts. Today I went through everyone's toys and threw out all the broken ones and donated all outgrown ones. This doesn't take me too long as I do it every six months. I don't need to go through clothes as I do that every change in season.

I took stock of what's left over and what I know my kids will be getting for Christmas and planned storage needs accordingly. My son needed a book case, but I wanted something sturdy and cheap that would grow with him, so I bought a wire storage rack like this one shown below right.
I paid a little over fifty dollars for it at Target. I also picked up plastic lidded bins and baskets in assorted sizes and matching colors to store his legos, blocks, Transformers, etc. Just so I won't go crazy when I put his clothes away and find legos and lincoln logs scattered all over the floor for me to step on!

An added benefit to keeping my kid's toys organized is that they can find what they want, when they want, and actually play with their toys.

I wrapped packages last night using one of those fun little Scotch gift wrap cutters (they cut a clean edge and save time). And, that's it, I'm done!

Last but not least, don't forget.... tax time is around the corner. Since this is the last month of the year, as I pay the bills this month, I go back over yearly expenditures/income to make sure I have everything accounted for and ready for my accountant. I know, I know, you're thinking, "Big deal, you don't need to spend a lot of time because you have an accountant!" But gathering and organizing tax files for personal and business expenditures and income is a lot of work and very time consuming. Since I have an organized system, gathering the info for my him literally takes me less than fifteen minutes.

I offer tips on how you can set up a time-saving system of organization for your taxes here, https://www.lifeorganizeit.com/income-tax-records.html.

Good luck and have a wonderful month!

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I'll see you soon.

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