The Queen of KAOS @Home

Do you feel guilty when you brainstorm inexpensive christmas gift ideas? 

Do you think that your kids will be doing with out? That you are a mean mom (or sister, or wife or daughter). 

There is no doubt that much of our Christmas traditions are for kids and family - the presents, the goodies, and the good cheer of the adults who make being a kid a little more fun.

But without the presents and the goodies, can we still have Christmas? Can it still be special?

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Here we are rolling around to another declutter day. What project are you going to work on today?

 I am continuing with my office, as I realized that I am hoarding too much paper - see Helping a Compulsive Hoarder, and my mother in law gave us some really nice little tables, I am going to put one beside my computer and need to clear a few piles. Those got put there when I cleared out my filing cabinet because it is nice looking but cheap and wouldn’t hold the weight!

So, I am back at that today, and also doing some “soft work” in the livingroom, the other two tables are going in there and I have a few things I want to finish up once and for all. So I’m popping on a movie while I do that one and kicking back a bit.

What are you going to do? Let us know!

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The summer slipped by me again and I didn’t get one of the major items accomplished that I had wanted to - painting!

We’ve managed to get the house generally decluttered but in some places it still looks kind of crappy because we need to spruce up the paint here and there.

So I am going to declare the rest of September to be painting month.

I have a bit of decluttering left to do but I don’t want to spend much time on it. I found this book called Declutter Fast that I am going to use to help me speed up the process.

And then I am on to painting - looking forward to spending the winter in a fresh and comforting… colourful house!

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As I mentioned before, I spend last week decluttering and basically getting everything possible, “out of my face”.

I’ve done very well, but looking around, I still need to go on to the next level, dig a little deeper - literally. There are spaces that I didn’t get to that need more work, and some that need refining.

I like to call it combing, it really does feel like combing through knots to get things straightened out. The picture above is one of the spots that need work. There isn’t a lot there, but as you can see, there are things that don’t belong, there are things that can use some sprucing up and general wipe down (and sticker relocation!) I am choosing this spot to start because I don’t have much time today, since it should be quick I will also see an improvement fast. That’s a good way to get yourself going for the bigger things.

Anyway, last week considering the fact that I lost quite a bit of time on unexpected things - familiar story! - I did quite well so I’d like to give it another shot this week to end next Tuesday, I like to include the weekend as that is my house focus time anyway - during the week my DIY natural skin care biz takes a lot of my focus.

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I have talked a lot about the importance of weeding the clutter and junk, it really is the first step.  Moving things from one place to another in your home is just a lesson in futility and frustration, and it never looks better anyway!

Physically removing things that are in your way will give you a sense of mental as well as physical relief. As it turns out, less really is more.

That’s no secret.

The next step is what we’ve all been waiting for - beautification!

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I find that if I can choose a room or floor to concentrate on each week, it really helps to keep me focused and motivated when I have a spare minute to do a thing or two, or gives me a place to focus concentrated effort on for larger chunks of time.

Guess what.

Focused, consistant chunks of time = progress and completion.

And that = happy mom and family!

So, especially being Easter weekend, in some ways it will be busier, but some of you may have a little extra time, is there a room, area or floor of your house that you would like to “make a project” this week.

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I think that if there is one thing that I could point to as the main component of success, it would be to find your focus and do it consistantly. I guess that’s two!

It doesn’t mean that you need to focus on the same thing all day long, you can have various focus points in various areas, but you need to make sure that there aren’t too many, or you won’t be able to devote a consistant time period to them, often enough to see results.

For instance, I have my daily housecleaning circuit that I use to create focus and consistancy in my house, it is the only thing that works for me to keep it presentable.

I have just started using the same concept on my business (finally!) It has enabled me to keep my inbox under control and to stay current on all 3 of my blogs.

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We spent some time over the March break getting things in order around here.

Decluttering - a seemingly never ending job - putting things away etc.

When we where finished, I found myself with a sense of peace over the following days, the mere act of walking in a room was calming and just made me feel good.

It occured to me that I needed to take notice of this feeling, absorb it and be sure to notice it, and my surroundings if I wanted to stay motivated to keep it that way.

All too often things get really nice, only to fall back after a busy spell, a time of illness or any number of road blocks. But if we can fully ingrain the good stuff, feel it so fully that it feels off every time we waver away from it, we will find ourselves doing what it takes, taking that extra step, even when we don’t feel like it, to keep things at the “new normal”. It becomes far too precious to us to loose.

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