November 26, 2008
· Filed under Decluttering & Organising · Tagged clutter, mess, organising
Do you feel overwhelmed at the clutter in your home?
Do you feel hopeless and not sure where to start?
Are you embarrassed when friends or family come to your home?
Don’t worry, we’ve all been there at some stage too.
Here’s some tips on how to start decluttering:
- Allocate yourself about one hour
- Don’t pull too much stuff out that you can’t put back in that hour
- Start with a small corner
- Sort into three piles: ‘Stuff to Keep’, ‘Stuff to Throw’, ‘Stuff to Give’
- ‘Stuff to Keep’: put it away when you’ve finished – find a home for it
- ‘Stuff to Throw’: if you don’t like, love or use it – throw it in the garbage
- ‘Stuff to Give’: give it to somebody or a charity that can use it
- Finish off that one corner and another day pick another section
- Give yourself a pat on your back
- Grab a cuppa
Give it a go…..what have you got to loose?
November 18, 2008
· Filed under Time to Listen · Tagged listen, sit, talk, time
Has anybody heard this saying: “The quickest way to get your child’s attention is to sit down!”.
Sometimes it is ‘unwanted’ and you just need to sit in peace and not be nagged but this time I wanted to engage with my 14 year old child and find out what’s been happening for him over the weekend he was away. Usually you get the typical answers like “good”, “yep”, “ok”, “what?”, ”yeh”….. but because I took the time to sit and listen to him when HE was ready to talk – it helped both of us. I got to hear about his great weekend and he got a listening ear. Win/Win.
Try it….let me know what happens!!!
November 4, 2008
· Filed under behaviours · Tagged attitude, behaviours, language
Ever find yourself reacting a particular way and thinking “oh my gosh, that’s my mum or my dad!”. Before you even get a chance to think about how you are going to react it just comes automatically.
Some behaviours are positive ones that put a smile on your face and then there’s some you wish you never had. How do you deal with that? How do you change behaviours in yourself, you and/or others, may not like? Ever stopped to think about them? Why not take a minute to do it….
How are our behaviours represented?
1. Through our language – how do we speak to people or our children, are the words we use encouraging or damaging?
2. Through our attitude – what do our children, friends, family or even colleagues see when we react to different situations? Would you be pleased with yourself if you stood back and observed your attitude?
3. Through our upbringing – was it a nuturing, loving environment or possibly hostile, distant, abusive or lack of emotional support? What were your family values?
4. Through our education – What was your experience at school – positive/negative, what teachers had an effect on you?
There are about 240 different behaviours (don’t quote me on that number there’s bound to be more!) – which ones are you happy with and which ones do you want to change?
Challenge yourself to see if you are on track with how you what to behave. Your kids will thank you for it!!!
