RSS Feed

Author Archives: KMB

My 31Days2GetOrganized challenge

Posted on February 26, 2017 by KMB

I had a brain wave at the start of the year and thought that it would be a good idea to do a declutter/organising challenge. There was method to my madness as I wanted to experience what it is like to actually complete one of these organising challenges, especially as I plan to run these challenges as my audience grows. So how did I go and what did I learn?

No More “Later”

set the new year off with his 31Days2GetOrganized challenge and so I jumped right in, thinking it’s only for a month and hey I am already pretty organised.

Each day Peter would post a link on his page with a short intro and the challenge of the day.

I loved his videos, short and funny and ended with the challenge of the day. In his very first video he used the phrase “no more later”, explained that to maintain an organised and tidy home you have to stop saying “I`ll put that away later, I`ll do that later…” so his first challenge was to stop saying “Later” I actually found that advise, up front, really helpful and I did reflect and realised that I would often put things down with the intention to put away later. I realised that I was wasting time by not putting things away straight away, it’s actually a lot less work to put away immediately. So learnings #1 you need a mission mantra to make the mind shift. So I now find that I actually put things away first time. And yes the house is tidier more of the time now. Can`t say the same for my son’s room though!!!! That is a challenge for another day, well actually just wait until he moves out, it’s probably a lot easier.

The Challenges

Over the 31 days we tidied and decluttered most areas of the house. Started off with a small and “ease us into’ challenge, clearing the dining table of any unwanted papers and items that have collected on the table, followed by 30 more daily challenges as below;

Set up two bins by the door for Hospice (donations) and Recycle
Decluttering the Christmas papers and bags
Purging the freezer
Sorting out under the Laundry sink
Declutter the paperwork in the study
Purge your Shoes
Sorting the electronic cords
Purging the underwear draw
Declutter and sort Luggage storage
Taking time out to chat with someone
Clear and sort the utensil drawer
Manage the snail mail
Clear out cleaning products
Clear out under beds
Purge magazines
Pens and pencils
Brooms and mops
Recipes n Cookbooks
Clothes closet
Tackling the hidden messy place
Clearing Kitchen bench tops
The Pantry
The Linen Closet
The car
Managing receipts
Cups and Mugs
Sort boxes in the garage
Medicine Cabinet
Books
Kitchen Containers

It was really good to be part of the challenge, sharing your efforts and challenges with others, in fact to share was a good motivation to keep on task.

Generally most of the challenges were not time consuming for me because I already have an organised home and systems in place to keep on top of “stuff” that accumulates in the house. There were a couple that I did really enjoy, simply because they have been a “I must sort that out” problem, but I never took the time to actually do it. It was very satisfying to finally kick those to the curb. One in particular was the boxes in the garage. We have two boxes that had been following us around through 5 house moves……ridiculous really. Boy did it feel good to finally sort and get rid of those boxes. Most of the content we donated to the hospice and I actually found the lid of one of my favourite tea tins which I lost about a year ago.

The Challenging Challenges

Sorting the electronics cords turned out to be a mission, only because I had to involve my son and husband. On the day of the challenge, I wanted to just get it all sorted and done, however Pete was 1) not ready 2) not keen and 3) “could use them one day”. So there was no way that I was going to achieve that challenge that day. However it did need to be done, so Pete was happy to sort them out another time. This actually meant in his world …..never!…but in my mind that was actually a step forward. I continue to mention that we should sort them out and then on a certain weekend (which I had planned in my head) I just said hey babe lets sort out the cords. So we did, and guess what it only took about about 30 mins and we were done. Most of the gear going to technical recycling and some to donation as they still worked and are useful.

The Pantry was the other challenging challenge mainly because how we were using it had changed slightly and I needed to make some changes to the storage. See my explaining the issues. Again it was not something that I could quickly do on the day, had to plan out another weekend to tackle that one, which by the way has now been done!

What I Learnt

This challenge was a really great experience and it gave me a lot of things to ensure that I consider and incorporate into any challenges that I what to lead with my audience, the main learnings for me were;

You can`t rush it- may take several goes – little steps at a time
Motivation and accountability is very helpful and works
Sharing ideas and inspiration helps with motivation
It’s a continuous process, needs and use change over time
Change of habits – identify things that distract you from your goal and eliminate, like saying “Later”
Celebrate wins – always give yourself a little reward after each accomplishment
Be realistic with challenge – it can take time and you should only take little bites at a time.

If you do have an area that you do want to tackle it’s a good idea to break the job into steps to help you complete the task. I have a previous post on how I tackle my secret messy space, here, which will give you helpful steps to get you on your way…

Have you done an organising challenge?, would love to hear from you, how did you find it?, what worked for you?

Until next time my friends

Are you following me on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram? Why not? Just connect to my social media channels below

Continue reading →

Posted in Blogroll, Uncategorized | Comments Off

The Elijah Syndrome

Posted on February 25, 2017 by KMB

I am suffering from this today. I know I am. So one would think if I knew that I was it would be easy to shake it off. I am trying to.

Elijah Syndrome = Where one experiences a great high in life/ministry, a great break through in ones life…. Where one spends ALL of ones energy that one comes to a screeching halt and spirals down quickly after said high. You spiral down and then you are attacked by the enemy. You down play what has been accomplished, doubt and fear creep in. You just want to curl up and sleep, cry, and eat…possibly all at once. (This is my own definition of course.)

This is me…right now. Just like Elijah ran away and hid when he found out that he was being chased down by Jezebel who was wanting to kill him. After he had killed 400 prophets of Baal and then prophesied and witnessed rain coming after a severe drought, all this among other things. He got depressed, feared, had a pity party and hid. He hid.

Please don’t be mistaken for thinking that I am comparing myself to Elijah, to what he accomplished for the Lord. I am just a mere dot compared to him.

“Ahab told his wife Jezebel what Elijah had done and that he had killed the prophets. 2 She
sent a message to Elijah: “You killed my prophets. Now I’m going to kill you! I pray that the gods will punish me even more severely if I don’t do it by this time tomorrow.”

3 Elijah was afraid when he got her message, and he ran to the town of Beersheba in Judah. He left his servant there, 4 then walked another whole day into the desert. Finally, he came to a large bush and sat down in its shade. He begged the Lord, “I’ve had enough. Just let me die! I’m no better off than my ancestors.” 5 Then he lay down in the shade and fell asleep.” – 1 King 19:1 – 5

You see, Elijah was spent. Emotionally, Spiritually, Physically (look how far he ran and walked) and Mentally. When you are spent you are very much susceptible to what Leena Tankersley calls ‘soul bullies’. And in times like these ‘soul bullies’ come out to play and have a field day. They certainly had a field day with Elijah so much so he was hugely afraid of Jezebel, even though he had just accomplished all that he had done for God….he failed to see and to trust the Lord to help him overcome this particular problem. All he wanted to do was curl up and begging the Lord to let him die.

OK so I am not begging God for that….but I am spent. Today we had the Loving Arms ‘Walk of Fun’ and while it was a great day, and it was certainly fun and we absolutely raised a great amount of money for a worthy cause. I am glad it is over. I have spent hours upon hours, days and days planning and organising this event. Its nearly all I have thought about at night because I can’t sleep. It has got me out of my comfort zone having to ask people and businesses to help, to support or to donate. I hated doing that but I did it. I forced me to talk ‘bras’ with complete strangers (some of them men which was very awkward) and why they were needed. Oh so awkward. I know I certainly haven’t pulled this off on my own. I owe a lot to other people doing things for me but its been tough going. I enjoyed the day immensely, I enjoyed seeing people have a great time, people dressing up, people giving, people laughing, people eating. I LOVED seeing the kids come through the finish line like they had run a marathon. I loved watching people mingle with each other and talking. I LOVED giving out spot prizes to people and seeing their excitement over winning something. I am blessed. I AM so proud of our generous community of people that captured my vision and saw the importance of what we were raising money for. I cannot wait to present the amount to our recipients and just knowing that this will help many a new mother makes it all worth it.

But in all that I am tired. I became very emotional this afternoon and cried. I cry all the time I know this but I cried out of frustration and tiredness. Do you know why? Because I looked in the mirror and saw a fat person, because I know that the scales are showing me unfavorable numbers which means we aren’t on talking terms. I felt so defeated and worthless. Now I know I aren’t obese or even hugely overweight, I know this. But I can do and be better. My doctor told me that I have had seven children and to give myself a break. But my screeching halt, my attack of the ‘soul bullies’ came in the form of a full force, all out war against the way I saw myself and how worthless I am because I can’t lose the 5kg that I want to. The enemy hit me where he knew I would hurt the most. Talk about rude! I went from the huge high to a huge low in a matter of hours. Not cool.

But God whispered to me “Elijah Syndrome”. These words aren’t in the bible anywhere but I knew exactly what He meant. Pray and pray hard. Rest and rest hard. Nurture yourself. Be kind to yourself. So for the next few days I will rest, and nurture myself. I will immerse myself in His Word and surround myself with good people. And I will heal.

I hope that you too will now recognise your ‘soul bullies’ and recognise when they come out to play. Your may be different to mine. Recognise when they come out to play, recognise their voices, their words and deal with them. You are worth it.

“He makes me to lie down in green pastures;

He leads me beside the still waters.

3

He restores my soul;” – Ps 23:2-3a