Before i became a Professional Organizer.

When you hear Professional Organizer what do you think?

1.       Helps Hoarders only

2.       All my stuff will be tossed

3.       Oh I bet her house is perfect.

4.       Oh what if she judges me

5.       I need to organize before they come over

The list can get long but none of it is true. We POs don’t just work with hoarders, we don’t toss ALL your stuff, our homes are not perfect, we do not judge you in any means of life and you do not have to organize before we come over.

The tv I feel has made us out to be only for the severe cases but in reality we are for anyone that need some order.  Some people have adult ADD and that is hard to move though things specially if you were just diagnosed. We help families with kids that are struggling in school and the home is stressing everyone out, kids don’t do well in clutter.

I feel POs need a new name.  We are clutter coaches or productivity coach or a family chore specialist. We can be anything but I feel the name Professional Organizer narrows people’s minds down to a clinical idea like a therapist. But if you needed a Doctor or a plumber you would want a professional.  

Organizers also don’t just put things in beautiful bins and hope that it works.  Yes bins help to contain things but they can also create their own kind of clutter.  When I started out on my own path to a more organized life I was a crazy bin lady, I still am. You know there is a whole store in the USA just for containers. It’s on my bucket list to go there lol, bucket list.  Oh boy see bin crazy lady.  Anyway  I use to have that mentality that if I put it in a bin then it was organized well then I could not remember what bin it was in and have to look though all the bins or give up and go buy the idem again. That is not organized.  

In my growth as a PO I have seen myself grow in my organization journey. My husband found our old hard drives with 1000s of pictures on them and WOW I should have hired me 5 years ago.  I didn’t think it was that bad but yes I was deep into my hoarding creative mind set.  Let’s look back at my organizational journey for a min.

This room was to many things. It was my main office area. It was the hardest room to keep clean.

This was the play room where I think it was just a game of  how many bins can we toss before mom finds out.

 

This in the middle of my attempt at organizing this crazy space. I had the mentality like most the more storage the better, not in this case.

This was my "creative" space. I did not enjoy working in this space at all. I need sunlight.

 

This was our basement landing area it always drove me crazy.

 

Thankfully my home has changed a lot in the past 5 years. I keep things that add value to us and our lifestyle but not everything. I love looking back and seeing how far we have come in making this home ours. I guess I wanted to show you all that even though I am a professional organizer now I totally get where you are coming from when I come into your home. I have been there and I want to help anyone that feels they cant move past the clutter. I hope to be the helping hand you need to reach your true potential.

Till next time, have fun and be a little crazy.

How I have grown up.

As I sit in my wonderful office and write this post. I am in aww of how much I have changed over the years. I feel I am an organized person, to a point. I feel I could be better but I also have a life. I work and have kids and a husband and they all demand my attention. I have given so much to everyone in the past that I am left empty, tired and totally drained. The past few months I have been scheduling ME into my very busy life and I am seeing how I have let the boundaries blur on all aspects of my life. I let people control my calendar, sometimes that is ok. kids get sick, friend need some extra support. That is what I am here for, but I have left ME behind burned out and sick.

Don't get me wrong I love all my family and friends but sometimes I just need me time. It may sound selfish to some but I am finding it very important to take care of myself. My kids are getting older and can make there own lunch and do chores in the house. Its important to show and teach them how this stuff gets done, its not magic or a house fairy, even though I would love one.

All I ever wanted in life was to be a mom and a wife. That is it, nothing else. Then  I found the world of professional organizing and fell deeply in love with the idea that I could live a life of order and less chaos. On my journey to order I found this whole new world of less stress or better yet better stress management. I feel life is always stressful its just how to recognise this stress and how you process it.

In the past I would stress about when the kids would get sick, they where not sick but I would stress over and pre plan what to do if they got sick. My son was sick a lot with GURD and other things. I would stress about what was for dinner, if the food was healthy enough for Red. I would stress going grocery shopping. Then I started to look at myself I was a mess, my kids where anxious a lot and stressing over things as well. I had to stop the cycle and find some balance.

First was gratitude. this small thing changed EVERYTHNG. Anytime I felt stressed I would say "nope I am grateful for money to go buy healthy food for my kids to help them grow". "I am grateful I can stay home with my kids so when they do get under the weather I can stay with them". "I am grateful for takeout for days that I just didn't have time to make dinner".

This little shift in my consciousness is what makes me a better mom, wife and friend. I am more aware of my own needs and how I need to give my business and my personal life boundaries true black and white boundaries. Its hard some days, they get a little grey but that is happening less and less the more trained I get in setting them.

The other thing I feel has made me a better version of me, is that I am more open to other peoples schedules. For example in the past if someone didn't message back right away I would be worried that they were mad at me. I would stew and wonder what I did wrong how can I make it better. I was really self conscious and concerned on what others thought about me and how they saw me. In my growth I have learned, one people have a life and if its a important message to just call them. I have also learned other people have there own boundaries and that is not a bad thing and to respect them.

I have let people say I am not good at things and things have to be perfect and just right but I am learning to live this life I have wanted for a very long time. I am done letting others block my light and say its not good. The world need me, I am the only me and all I can do is be the me God created. So go out and find what you want to do and just do it, if you loose people, they are just the stepping stones in your life.

 

How i want to live in 2017

I am ready to say good bye to 2016 and hello to 2017.  In 2016 I have grown so much spiritually. We have opened our hearts to the universe and have received so many blessing. I have been feeling in my heart the phrase " give us this day our daily bread". This just sits so heavy in my heart more then ever. I feel what will be will be and god wants me to live less anxious and to just be who I am and not worry so much of what people think of me in the physical but what people think of me in the spiritual.

• am I giving,
• am I nurturing,
• am I caring towards others.
• do I respect others journey.

 We worry so much about how we look, how we dress and not how we treat others. A lot of the time I worry that what I give is not enough so I don't give anything. I am viewing it all different now. Giving is not subject to how much you give its why you are giving it. Are you giving it to spread joy or boost your own ego or self esteem.  Give to spread joy and love in return you will feel joy and love. This as a mother is important to me. There are enough critics out there to make us feel down on our self so don't do it to for them. Reach above that and just be you. Do what you feel in your heart.

This new year is just that, a new year and fresh start. I will grieve and move though 2016 with a grateful heart. Grateful that we are where we are. Grateful that I get to be home with my kids and that my husband has a great job with a great company. Grateful I get to do the jobs I love even if at times I feel like giving up. I am living life with a grateful heart in 2017. Hope you find joy and love and gratitude in the coming year.

How do you build your own house with your words?

"Comparison is the death of my soul"

The definition of "compare" is a simple one but man do we use it a lot, sometimes without even knowing it. (Compare- .estimate, measure, or note the similarity or dissimilarity between)

This thought came into my head tonight after I have been at 2 different conferences and noticed a very bad trend between lots of the women I had been meeting. I was shocked at some ladies that I had never met before on how they talked about themselves and I thought "wow if that is what they are telling a stranger what are they telling themselves". I heard "I am not good enough" ”oh you are way better at that then I" “oh I wish I was more like you".  Don't get me wrong I have days were its like uhggg I just can’t get it together and it has taken ALOT of self-awareness to get to where I am now. 

As a Professional Organizer we are deemed the "organized" people. Granted yes we have a trait that a lot of people struggle with. I think everyone has a small part of them that is an organized person. I also feel being organized is more about how well you can get rid of things that don't fit in your space.  So for a while know I have been picturing my thoughts in my head as a house. Would you want to build a foundation with dark and bad materials, no. would you like strong and supportive walls, yes. Would you like a roof that is made with negative repelling components, YES!!!!

So why do we build our "mind" house with such bad materials? Why do we think such horrible things about ourselves?  Most of us are raising children and if our kids came and told us the same things we tell ourselves we would be so sad and crushed. So for the sake of rising our self and our families up, let’s build our house without comparing each other and saying horrible things to our self. Let’s take down that bad foundation and flimsy walls and worn out roof, and make a better house for our self. YOU ARE THE ARCHITECT!!!

 

"Failing to plan is planning to fail"

 

 

 

 

 

I am a planner, list maker and rule follower. I feel that if you don't write out your goals and in vision what you want for your life, you will not see the path. Sometimes I look back at my goals from a few years ago and they have changed and some are the same. I like seeing how far I have come.

 

With our new health goals I need a plan. Yes planning takes time but saves so much more time in the end.  If you have never heard of Happy Planner you can get the lowdown here. Well of course I would not be a Happy Planner addict if I did not get the Happy Fitness Planner with my 50% off at Michaels, got this kit for only 25.00. Such a great deal with all the motivation stickers and a new pen and a page flag.  Of course I had to go back and grab another coupon for the sticker pack.

The 21 day fix is a color coded system that keeps you on track and then each day there is an exercise to do.  I made my own stickers and may makes some smaller ones for next week I had a lot fun setting this baby up but you totally do not have to have it so fancy but to me fancy is motivating.  I am so excited for this to start and start feeling better physically and mentally.  

 

 

 

How I got ready to change our life.

So you start a diet lifestyle change, you plan out the week and you are ready to do this BUT……

Your kitchens a mess, you are behind on housework ,you can’t find the measly 30 minutes a day to work out so…. You fail.

What if we didn’t focus so much on the diet but the time management aspect?

I was able to take a week before we started our lifestyle change and look at how I “waste” my time. Instead of being on the internet all day, I have now scheduled that out for 1-2hrs a day. I run my companies so I still need to be available but not that available.

I really looked at how we will be using our small kitchen to make the most of the space. We will be doing the shakeology so I needed easy access to my blender. I also needed room to store the veggies and fruit that don’t get in the fridge.

                     

 

First order of business was to clean out all the junk food in our pantry. I took it all out and cleaned off the shelves I moved a lot down to our other pantry downstairs. I still kept the cereal at kid level with other breakfast items. Oats and peanut butter stuff like that. The next shelf up from that are the lunch items. My son still would like his not so healthy snacks and stuff. The other shelf is for veggies that don’t get refrigerated. Tomatoes, peppers, avocados, limes and lemons. Beside that is where all out measured out snacks will go.

 

Next was the fridge and freezers, I love an organized fridge. It just makes for relaxed cooking and no guess work on how old something is. I clean the fridge out every Thursday; garbage day is Friday mornings so it works well. I meal plan and shop Fridays or Saturdays and prep Sundays. The fridge is laid out with one of the drawers as a kid’s lunch drawer. It holds juice boxes, yogurt, cheese strings and fruit cups, stuff the kids can grab and toss in the lunch bags. I use to sell Tupperware and with that came a lot of free stuff yayaya. I love the fridge smarts. I don’t wash anything that is stored in them. I like to use a dry-Erase marker on them so I don’t forget what’s in them; I have a very bad memory. The top shelves will be for prepped meals and snacks.

I feel the trick with this lifestyle change is to be a bit organized and planned out. It will pay off 10 folds when the craziness of daily life is trying to get you off track.

 

Next post is how I plan out the meals and what I use to keep it all straight.

A new life

So let me start by saying I hate the word DIET. I really feel it’s like a bad word and I tend to rebel a lot. I am changing the word to LIFESTYLE.

I am a mother of 2 children; Red is 10 and MM is 7. We live in a small community in Alberta. My Husband and I are not the “small” people and our children have inherited our bad eating habits, granted we have a 10 year old that is 5’2”. She will be taller than me, I totally can see that happening and mm will be fast approaching her. The basketball coach already has eyes on her for next year’s team.

Our Lifestyle change came up when my husband and I woke up to reality that our daughter is very heavy . She always has been bigger than her peers. We also have parents that are getting sick at a very young age. My father was diagnosed with colon cancer 9 months ago. Thankfully he is on his way back on the road to health. This made us really open our eyes to the fact we need to take care of ourselves. I always tell clients if you want your kids to keep their rooms clean you need to clean yours first. You need to hold the same standards you have for your kids to yourself and they will follow.  With that in mind we can’t put Red on a diet lifestyle change and not do it ourselves.

I have never been on a lifestyle change before so I am very nervous of failing but I feel wisdom comes from frailer. I also feel we will do well because it’s the whole family doing it. We will learn new foods and new ways to have fun. We will grow as a family and shrink in size.

We have signed up with one of our friends. She is a beach body coach and I am so pumped to see what we can do together.

BRING IT ON!

 

Living in liminal space

The last few months we have been living in a unknown world. I feel so out of control with what to do next? Where do we take our family?  How do we live off the little money we get from EI? Do we sell the house? Do I quit my company to get a more steady job?.  This is a lot to think of, a lot to worry about. This season has most defiantly put a strain on our relationship and finances. With my hubby home with us it had been so nice to parent together and enjoy our kids.

I was listening to my favorite podcast the other day and it was on seasons and how to navigate though them. We feel overwhelmed and stuck waiting for a job to call us back. We are in a strange place that I could not think of a good word for. Then Rob Bell said that this space is liminal space.

“Participants "stand at the threshold" between their previous way of structuring their identity, time, or community, and a new way. Continuity of tradition may become uncertain, and future outcomes once taken for granted may be thrown into doubt. - Wikipedia 

This is 100% how my husband and I feel. We are at the threshold of old and new.  We still don't know what and where we will go and that is ok. We have some changes coming that will be good for us. I hope to share them here with my peeps.

Embrace the liminal space and don't stress and hurry to a space that may not be where you need to go. In this space breath, find peace you will figure it out and the universe will guide your heart to a new way of life you just need to be patient.

Till next time my friends

 

 

 

 

My Planner that keeps me sane.

Good Morning,
I have a secret of how I stay organized. I love planners and love lists. I have never been diagnosed with ADHD but I feel sometimes I just don't have the greatest memory and a little forgetful. It is my biggest anxiety trigger that I will forget something.
I carry a Happy Planner. There is a lot of different planners out there. I feel you need to find what will work with your life. I love Happy Planner for a few reasons.

1. I love the pages are removable. The disc bound system is awesome and strong. 
2. 100% customizable. They have a lot of things that can be added to the planner. They have fitness, meal planning, todo lists and budget planners.
3. lets me be creative.
4. fits my whole life in one book.

look at there site for some awesome stuff.

http://www.meandmybigideas.com/

Some of the Happy Planner candy that I am in love with.

My Motivation page

A busy week.

Cleaning schedule

Goals for the coming month

Lists Lists and more Lists

I am in love with the stickers that they have.

love that I can be creative and useful at the same time

I am not being compensated to talk about this planner. I just love it so much and I feel that if you are a busy lady this is the book for you. I just love how it keeps me on track of my goals and keeps my home and 3 jobs all in one area and I don't over book myself.
Have fun and wing it.

sometimes plan but somtimes wing it

MY FAVOURITE COFFEE CUP

Good Morning, life here in the crazy house is.... crazy. In this season we are in its hard and so unknown. We don't know where we need to go. Its like that song "should I stay or go now". As of right now we are trying our best to stay in our home. I am working on a awesome clients home. Hubby is filling in at a other company. Praying he can find a job soon. For now life is kind of nice having him around helping with the kids well I am working.

With us staying in our home we have been really looking at what we own and how much you really need. I am thinking on sharing some of my tricks on how to live on EI.  We can plan but sometimes you have to wing it. We are totally winging life right now and that is ok.

I think I will make a schedule to blog more. I also have become a planner baby. Wel I have always loved planners since high school but now I love it even more. I will share more another day but here is a little sample of it.

hold it together with some duct tape

Good Day.

Life is still crazy busy but I love it. I had some time and some duct tape. I know right a bad combination for me. My office is working out great for me and the kids love coming and hanging out in here with me well I work. I love my space to. Would love to find some time to paint the walls but it will come soon.

Ok on with today small project. I got these drawers a few years ago off our local buy and sell. I loved them they get around a lot in this office. For a while they held all my office computer paper. Now they hold all my office stuff i.e. pens, stapler, stuff like that. Well of course I love duct tape and I was as the dolor tree here and found some awesome duct tape, like clear the shelves out kind of stuff.

I few months ago I coved my magazine holders with some tape and I loved it. It makes them look great and adds to the strength of the holder. You can read it here.

Back to the drawers. I simple took the old hardware off and stuck on the tape. Super easy.

 

 

I had some knobs kicking around and for now they work good but you know there will be super cute ones coming.  The bag and basket are for my planner crap as my hubby calls it, But that is for another day. Yes I have jumped on the planner addict train hard core. That is another post or 2 for sure.
Till then be crazy and live life.

Good morning blog world!
I figured I  had a few spare minutes to update you all on our progress. Well we had our first showing last night. The couple is so sweet and so excited to move forward. We still have to deal with all that bank stuff still so the house is still for sale as of right now. I am getting more and more excited and nervous but I do see the end results and that is debt free and a small farm house.
The past week we took 9 bags of clothes, 3 boxes of house hold stuff to the thrift shop and 2 truck loads of garbage to the dump. Still have about 1 more load to take to the dump as well. Removing all this stuff feels so good. Its crazy how much stuff can hide in a 920 sq house. I have worked in large homes and its shocking how much stuff just accumulates. We are on a tight budget so its not like I buy anything.
So we are now one step closer to moving into our travel trailer. The kids are getting excited. I hope I can keep my emotions together on this journey and pray lots, for guidance well we are on this crazy path.  Pray we can find the honey a job soon.

Buy for now.

Office Progress

Well it has been I while since I blogged. I have been supper busy making a life and somedays just surviving. I am working as a designer’s assistant and I am so happy doing it. It has its stresses but I still love it. I also became a partner in a paint company and now sell American Paint Company brand chalk paint and I am enjoying working on that as well. I still do HR for my parents company and I also still am organizing for a lovely lady a couple times a month.  I can see why I have not a lot of time to blog and do house projects.

I think today I am going to share my office in progress. I love it, it’s getting there slowly, but it will be the best office ever soon. If you want you can see my thoughts on the office here. I got the cabinets in and realized they were not regular height. They are more desk height and I was more excited cause then I didn’t need to get new chairs and then my office really became free.

My amazing hubby helped me so much with this. I think he really wanted me to get a nice office so I would stay in it and not drag all of it to the living room.  We got to work right away. We started with the closet. It was not a bad closet but if you know me I love a good closet organizing system.

 

Some of the drawers needed to be fixed so I did that well hubby cut the 10foot counter top. Yes 10 feet of awesomeness. I can stretch out all my paper work and it’s awesome. As you can tell I love my office.  

 

We grabbed an other counter from my dad. He had it in storage for a long time. It fit like it was meant to go in this room.

 

Oh it came a long really well. I was a bit worried it was going to be to big but I don't think so at all.

Then I filled I filled it all back up with all my goodies.

Needs a bit of work but it holds a tone of stuff.

 

 

 

For now it looks a bit busy for me but I am still loving it and I do stay in here with my work now. The best part of the office is the window. It lets so much light in and I can hear the birds singing away. 

 Well that is all for today. Thanks for reading my free office makeover. Stay tuned, you know it will change again.

 

 

Big Dreams

Well a lot is going on in our life so why not dream bigger. So if you are a reader of mine you know that I love moving my home around and have more home commitment issues then I do with my husband. He was easy; knowing if that is where the dresser will stay is so hard. Thankfully he still loves me. I started full time organizing for clients and am now an assistant to a local interior designer and loving it like crazy. With more work means my office is in need of a rethink.  I know my office moves more then I work in it. So in order for me to make a plan I figured why not write a blog to get my ideas out of my head. So here is goes.

I love my office up in our old master bedroom. I love how the kids can come and work on homework in here and not over take my dining room. I love how much natural light comes in, and I just love the size.  Now that is where it goes downhill from. I just am asking a lot from a 9’11” x 11’ room, but I have faith that I will get it to where I want it soon.

I am a feeling person, I gravitate to things I like because I like the way they feel. If it gives me joy I go right to it. So I have a mish mash of cheap well-loved things in my office that don’t really spark joy it was just a good deal or free. With my business taking off I want my office to reflect me as an organizer and a creative person. I want to feel joy when I come in here to work. Right know it is busy you can see everything and is a lot of little pieces of furniture.  My goal is peace and joy now how do you make an office and craft room give you peace and joy. You plan!!

So I got my hands on a kitchen cabinet and counter from a client’s home and I am so excited to get to work after my payed work gets done. As always I am cheap and I don’t want to spend a lot of money right off the bat so for now we will just brain storm today.

 

This is were we are now I love the feel of this lay out, not crazy about everything out on display. So here is the plan. I have 3 cabinet units coming today. They will go on the long wall under the window, just like this.

 

EEEEK!!! Can you feel my excitement. Well of course I am crazy and if you give me cabinets I will want to paint. It will be a few weeks before I have time to paint maybe on spring break. I am gravitating to a light color.

  

I LOVE teal so doing a light grey makes for a good back drop for what ever I pick but on the other hand I love color and this room is one I spend a lot of time in. I cant wait to get started on this project and get my dream office to go with my dream job.

 

Please comment and let me know what you think. Has anyone else over taken there small master for a awesome craft room/ office ?