Lists, Lists, and more Lists

I have been a list makin' machine this week.  I've made a enormous list of all the work tasks I need to complete before I leave and I also created a moving checklist which I broke down into "Phases" so that it didn't seem so overwhelming. (the list is 3 pages long..typed)  I think I see all the things I have to accomplish in just a few short months and it's sort of sending me into a small panic.  I have spent my entire week (this week) trying to organize my thoughts, my ideas, my plans, and my sanity.  Thank goodness for Organize Now! by Jennifer Ford Berry.  Girl, you're amazing!

With help from her book, I've been able to organize my mind, my schedule, my cleaning schedule, and my priorities.  This leaves me room to organize other things, which are very important - especially when you have a cross country move fastly approaching.

I organized my crazy mind - basically by coming up with a plan to get rid of CLUTTER!  Clutter drives me insane, and causes me to be very unproductive.  Clutter also just takes up too much space.  I have come up with a 6 Phase Plan (again with the Phases) to get rid of all the clutter in my house.  I know you're probably thinking, "Geez.. a freakin' 6 Phase Plan?!?"  ha ha - YEP!  If you know anything about me, you'll know this is the craziness I come up with.  Very structured and very organized.  ;-) By writing things down and coming up with these "plans" it helps me clear out my mind.  I've constantly got millions of projects and ideas running around up there.. so anytime I can get it down on paper it's good for me :)  One of the good things about this de-clutter plan, it will help me get rid of all random stuff I don't need to pack when we move! See - I'm killin' two birds with one stone!

I totally revamped my cleaning schedule.  It just wasn't working - and I think i was in denial about it not working.  I wrote down the basic things we do (chore wise) day to day or week to week.  Nothing extra.  I took that list and made my revised, and actually much simpler, cleaning schedule.  I'm quite pleased with it! It's extremely practical and SIMPLE. 

As far as my priorities go, I've never really sat down and wrote them out.  I tried to be very basic - only using one or two words to describe what my priorities are.  For example, My Husband, My Son, My Job, My Family, etc.  Things like that.  After I made my list of priorities (I was supposed to come up with 10, but I have 11.. ha ha) I wrote down the things that motivate me and the things I want to accomplish in my life.  Naturally, it all kinda tied into my list of priorities.  The last thing I did was write down what activities I currently participate in and then I compared it to my list if priorities to see if there were any things that didn't match up.  I can see some areas in which I need to improve in order to give my priorities the attention they deserve, so mission accomplished!

I think Monday I'm gonna start on cleaning out my clutter, getting rid of things we no longer need or use, and start packing the things we don't need right now.  I've basically got my game plan, so now all I have to do is START. 

This week I also updated my resume.  It looks really nice! I found an awesome template and then I just filled in all my information.  Very clean, very crisp, very professional looking.  I have found a few jobs I'd like to apply for, so I think I'm gonna start doing that as well.  I just hope and pray I find a job before we move!!!

Happy Wednesday!

Good Morning!


I'm finally getting settled back into my daily routine, so I thought I'd take a moment to say HEY! :-) We got back into town LATE Sunday night from our Thanksgiving trip to Mississippi. We had a great time and I will post pictures about our trip a little later. Monday I got some errands taken care of around town and cleaned up my house a bit, since we left it a mess when we left for Mississippi. I hate coming home to a dirty house :-(

Today at work I'm just doing some miscellaneous filing and organizing. I've been working hard trying to find out everything we need to know about our next duty station. Things there are very different, which is kinda surprising to me! But, that's OK. :-) I'm making a notebook with all our forms and information, etc. We HAVE to stay organized or we'll go crazy. I REALLY wish I could share where we're going .. but I'm so afraid of making a big announcement and then our orders getting changed. I know that's probably silly, but I do hope you understand! Shelby got word yesterday that we will be in Jacksonville through July 4, so we're going to be staying longer than May. See, things changed already! ;-) We're supposed to get our orders sometime in January or February (such a long span of time, which sucks) but as soon as we find out (FOR SURE) I will share the wonderful news!

This is not my pantry, but this is how I like it to look!

Changing subjects - does anyone like to keep schedules for themselves? I know some of my fellow OCD girls like to make lists religiously. I have a "Cleaning Schedule" that I used to use when we lived in Virginia Beach. It worked great for me! I was so incredibly particular back then that my kitchen towels had to be folded the same way, and the lines on them had to match after they were stacked - the same went for our towels. In my pantry all my cans had to be facing the same way and had to be in line - like at the grocery store. Everything had its place. Since then, and since I've been working full time, my little cleaning habits have started to slowly change. I was in a weird place (within myself) and I really didn't have the motivation to do ANYTHING. Thankfully, I've started to notice that I'm getting back to my insanely particular ways - and honestly, I like it that way. I know its crazy .. but I like it when my shower products are in line and facing the same way, when my pantry is all neat and organized, when Tristan's baby food is organized by type and all facing a certain way, when things are spaced evenly apart on my kitchen/bathroom/any type of counter. I'm the girl who straightens the picture on the wall in a public bathroom. ha ha I'm in no way as bad as I once was, but I can feel myself getting back to those habits.

Anyways - I thought I'd share my "cleaning schedule" with you! I had to update it, since we no longer live in a one bedroom apartment in Virginia Beach. Maybe it will motivate you to make a cleaning schedule of your own! :-)

I pick up every day, so don't think that I only clean my kitchen on Monday! ha ha! This is for the "deep" cleaning that takes a little longer than everyday normal cleaning. Just FYI!!

Monday

Kitchen: Wipe down ALL counters & appliances, Floors, Clean the Sink, Clean out the Fridge

Floors: Throughout the whole house

Weekly Grocery Shopping (not a cleaning item, but it's still part of my "to do" list)

Tuesday

Living Room: Dust all surfaces, Wipe down surfaces, Throw away old magazines, etc

Dining Room: Dust all surfaces, Wipe down surfaces, Gather stray items

Office Area: Organize & Clean desk area, dust and wipe down all surfaces

Wednesday

Master Bedroom: Clean off all surfaces, Dust, Gather stray clothing and other items

Master Bathroom: Dust and Wipe down all surfaces, clean the shower, sinks, and toilet

Tristan's Room: Gather stray things, put things away, and dust

Thursday

Guest Room: If needed

Guest Bathroom: Clean all surfaces, Clean shower, sinks, toilet

Floors: Throughout the whole house

Friday

Organize the Laundry room to prepare for Laundry Day Saturday

Saturday

Laundry: Wash, Dry, Fold, and PUT AWAY

Strip Beds and change sheets

Dust where needed

Clean the floors if needed

Sweep outside and gather stray things outside

Sunday

Clip Coupons

Plan Meals for Following Week

Plan Grocery List for Following Week



What's your cleaning schedule?!?!

Keeping Things REAL SIMPLE

I LOVE to be organized. When I first got married I didn’t work, so my “job” was keeping our house clean and organized and it was SPOTLESS with everything in its place. I had a cleaning schedule for each day of the week as well as a weekly menu planned for what we were going to eat for dinner each night. I was a domestic goddess, a Suzy Homemaker if you will .. and then I got a job. A full time job. And I lost my organizational touch a little bit. I go to bed with dishes in the sink, I will go more than two days without sweeping my floor, I’ve even left the house without making the bed – my life has turned into that of a full time working mother with a baby and a husband to take care of. I guess you could say it’s starting to wear on me a little bit.

When I was in my organizational prime – I kept a few lists.

A TO DO list (which I still do .. I make one every single day!)

A Weekly Menu List

A Cleaning List.

My to do lists can be pretty specific – I not only write down what I need to do, but I list the time as well. If I’m not making a “time scheduled” to do list, I usually write my tasks out in order of importance. I will also catch myself re-writing my To Do list if it doesn’t flow the way I want it to or if my handwriting is messy. Insane, I know – but I can’t help it! Lately I’ve been writing my tasks down and typing them out so that they are always neat and organized on the paper.

To tell you even more about how insane I am, I have made an excel spreadsheet for myself. This spreadsheet is called “Miranda’s Weekly Schedule”. I have a column for each day of the week and then I have the time running along the left side. Ha ha ha! I'm laughing at myself as we speak! Who knew I was this crazy?!

Anyways – One of my favorite magazines is Real Simple. They have a wonderful website that I LOVE because it’s loaded with lists and charts and things on being organized, etc. I have a weekly cleaning schedule, and I made it from looking through information on the website. They have check lists (or to do lists) on cleaning and I just took it from there and made it my own. Here are some of my favorite check lists from Real Simple Magazine:

Complete Office Cleaning Checklist

Complete Kitchen Cleaning Checklist

Complete Laundry Cleaning Checklist

Complete Bathroom Cleaning Checklist

Complete Living Room, Dining Room, and Bedroom Cleaning Checklist

Linen Closet Organization

Pantry Organization

Did you know that Real Simple Magazine has also published some books? I can think of 5 right off the top of my head, but they might have more! I have 4 of them and I really like them. The ones I have are:

Celebrations

Solutions

The Organized Home

Cleaning

The one I don’t have but I think would be really nice to have is:

Meals Made Easy

All of these things I’ve mentioned are just skimming the surface of all that Real Simple has to offer. I could spend HOURS on their website and I LOVE LOVE LOVE their magazines! If you haven’t heard of Real Simple, or if you’ve seen it but didn’t know what it was about – now you do! And, GO CHECK IT OUT for yourself!

Let's ORGANIZE!

Lately I have felt like my life is so unorganized. My house isn’t in order, my office at work is a mess, I forget things because I don’t take the time to prepare them in advance... the list goes on and on. I am the type of person who LOVES organization. I love for things to be in order – to be neat – to be clean. Right now, things aren’t so neat and clean and organized... and it’s starting to take its toll on me. Yes, I know we’re in the middle of moving – but we haven’t got ANYTHING done in the house... so I feel frustrated about that. (maybe that’s what started all of this ... LoL) But nonetheless, I need some ORDER in my life!

I am a list maker – I make several lists every day. That is one way I can keep myself in some sort of control of what’s going on in my life. Before I started this blog, I wrote a list of GOALS. The first item on my list is: Organize my Life! So... here I am.

I’m actually asking for some help. I feel like I need an outside perspective. I need help figuring out how to make things easier day to day... basically, what works for you? How do YOU stay organized? What are your secrets?

I am OPEN TO SUGGESTIONS... and I would love to share ideas!