The Great Magazine Cull

I still remember exactly when I bought my first 'Real Living' magazine.  We had just driven seven hours down to Esperance where Paul had to work for the week.  In need of some good reading material to keep me occupied, I wandered into town and made a stop at the local newsagent where I discovered issue number two on the shelves for the first time.  I curled up on the couch and read every word of it from cover to cover, returning home inspired and with a whole heap of ideas to try around our home.

Since then, I have religiously bought every issue of the magazine (for the past two years I’ve had a subscription) and have bookmarked many a page for future inspiration.  My pile of magazines on the coffee table beside our lounge gradually grew and grew into two and then three piles, weighing the room down visually with its clutter and creating a hoarder-like corner in our home.

Not one to usually hang on to unnecessary items, my collection was one area I was happy to overlook…

Until recently. 

Firstly, my magazine tower was a stark contrast to my simple living mantra.  Secondly, I have chosen not to renew my 'Real Living' magazine subscription. I’ve recently found myself drawn to other magazines with less of a focus on trends and style and more of an emphasis on lifestyle and homemaking articles.  Last year, I discovered 'The Simple Things' magazine. Stumbling upon it was like discovering a publication that had been written specifically for me.

As part of my beginning of the year de-clutter, I’ve decided it’s time to tackle and pare back my stash.  The pile has since been moved to our bedroom where I am gradually working through each issue,         re-reading and tearing out favourite pages and stories to be added to a ‘file of favourites’ and keeping only cut-outs that I really and truly want to refer to again.  I have a feeling this will be an on-going task for at least the next little while...

Is there a magazine you buy without fail each month?  Do you have a hoarder’s stash or do simply tear out pages which are ‘keepers’?

Organising Kept Simple

Every Boxing Day, it's become a bit of a tradition for me to sit down with my new diary while Paul watches the cricket, planning out my year ahead, adding in birthdays and anniversaries and reminders.  I remember doing just that last year and Paul jokingly teasing that paper diaries were so old-fashioned and that I was well behind the times.

Back in my teaching days, my diary was always filled with excursions, due dates of projects, notes from staff meetings, to-do lists and appointments with parents.  When I became a Mum, I still carried one around with me (albeit a considerably smaller style) but the jottings in it became few and far between. Last year, it had barely any entries apart from my four hair appointments for the year. I tended to use and refer to our family calendar more and so this year, I've ditched the diary.

I've decided to use a simple format to keep me organised ... a family calendar and my iPhone.  I finally have my dismal mobile phone situation sorted out thanks to a very generous Christmas present from Paul (goodbye ancient Nokia with a pitiful camera and non-existent history of text messages... hello iPhone5!)  I am hoping to jot down any dates if need be on my phone's calendar function when I'm out and about but will use our family calendar as the 'hub' of our happenings.

I've never been one for elaborate organisational systems. I know that these days, I can sync this to that and have everything I need delivered straight to me on my phone.  Only I don't need to be checking my email more than once each day and when I'm out and about with my little ones, I don't pick up my phone all that often anyway.  While I like to keep on top of things, a simple method paired with simple technology seems to suit my needs best.

Do you still use a paper based diary or has your phone eliminated the need for one?

The calendar I'm using this year is The Elli Blog  free printable version

Priorities And Projects

I used to be quite an organised person.  Cupboards and drawers were neatly arranged, my car was spotless without a speck of dirt or sand and paperwork was promptly filed away.  However, circumstances here lately have led me to feel extremely disorganised.  Around the time of Grace’s party, when the girls were also unwell, I felt as though I was struggling to stay on top of things.   My to-do list contained far too many items to ever be achievable, sorting out tea each night was becoming a mammoth task and as far as the housework, I was falling further and further behind.  More time consuming projects such as organising or craft were WAY down the bottom of my list.

Over the past few weeks, I have changed my mindset and tried to be less of a perfectionist.  I have accepted that I can’t do it all.  That my life has changed and I can’t be that once super organised person I was.  My standards have dropped.  And that’s okay.   I have decided to focus on one word – prioritising and made a list of the top things I need to take care of daily in my role as a stay at home Mum and displayed it on the fridge where I can see it often and remind myself of what’s really important.  

I've also decided to focus on one major area of home life that is bothering me each week.  I sat down and made a big list of all the areas I feel aren’t running as smoothly as I’d like, that need to be better organised and that need time allocated to them in order to be remedied.  Things like having a decent supply of home-cooked frozen meals , listing some unwanted items on Gumtree, sorting through the contents of our wardrobes, editing and deleting photos and coming up with a better system for managing and responding to emails (our inbox currently has 2537 emails sitting there) will all have ‘their week’. 

Last week’s focus was ‘Operation Baby Food’.  I made a whole range of dishes and pureed and froze them all ready for the coming months for Sophie. Hopefully they should take us through to her starting on finger foods.  This week’s focus is ‘Operation Stock-Up’.  Running out of things lately has really been annoying me (and Paul who I am constantly asking to stop at the local supermarket on his way home from work).  I used to have a good system in place for my grocery shopping and ensuring I had ‘back-ups’ of frequently used pantry items and toiletries.  Now I have no idea what it is I'm running low on.  

I’m finding myself more productive with my focus for the week as I’ve tended to flit from project to project, ending up with lots of things half done.  Having a weekly priority and knowing that I have one thing I’d really like to accomplish come Sunday is actually achievable for me. 

How do you deal with things when you are feeling overwhelmed and disorganised?  I’d love for you to share your strategies…

Cute notebook above available from Fresh Words Market on Etsy