Organization

This last week, we had an enrichment night on how to stay organized. 4 women presented on different aspects of the home that need to stay organized: keeping the clutter organized, the paper organized, time management and family relationships. They were all very good.

The things I gathered from the first 2 that I liked were these. The first lady said that she saved all of her first daughters clothes. All. of. them. So did I. Then when she found out she was having a boy with the 2nd, she went through all those girl clothes and handed them down. She said why save them? If....she has another girl, they will probably be out of style, yucky, the wrong season ect. When weeding them out, she would ask herself 3 questions: do I love it? Will I need it? When will I use it again? So I went through the Babe's clothes the other day and I am giving away a ton of them! It's hard. Those clothes were expensive and I love them all. It's weird because I'm not a sentimental person but I got sentimental with his clothes. It's gotta be the hormones (or lack of or something). The paper lady just said to open the mail over the trash can. Good idea! And to take artwork from your kids that they are "attached" to and put it in a pile for a week or so then if they ask for it you have it then throw it away.

The 3rd lady was by far the best. But also the most interesting. She was time management (and also the person who set up the whole evening). She showed us a schedule of her week and gave a handout of a posted schedule she has with her kids (3 boys ages 10-14). At first, I thought who she is a freak. But I honestly am giving it an effort this week to try her schedule and I'm liking it. The schedule goes like this:
Monday Home Blessing Day (it's no longer house cleaning but home blessing)
This is where you do all your surface cleaning for example, vacuum, sweep ect. She also cleans one bathroom and does 1 set of sheets every monday. This one was a stretch for me because my little ones need so much attention. But I got a lot done. Also on Monday she meal plans for the week. This is the part I was most excited about! She also cleans out the fridge so she can be ready for tomorrow (not like deep cleaning but just gets rid of the moldy stuff to make room for groceries)
Tuesday Errand Day
You do all the errands you need to get done. These include going to the library, dry cleaners, grocery shopping, ect. Yesterday we went grocery shopping, had the oil changed in our car and washed it. That was enough for my little family.
Wednesday Pamper Day I call this my day off.
She said she does something for herself this day. She gets her nails done or her hair cut. She also gets in the bathtub. I'm writing in my blog (because that's a luxury these days lol). This is the day I hire a babysitter so I can get the stuff done that I didn't do on Monday and Tuesday. lol.
Thursday Office Day
This is the day she does her bills, schedules appointments, does calendaring ect. I have a list full of things that needs to get done and fall into this category for tomorrow.
Friday Romance
She goes on a date with her husband every friday night. Of course her kids are old enough to not need a babysitter. We go out every other Tuesday and last night we went to the best Italian restaurant.
Saturday Family Day
She spends the entire morning until noon working as a family. They don't sleep in. They get up and work. Whether they need to do lawn work, house work, whatever. Her kids know they are going to work and hard. Then they play. She said they usually do something as a family then they eat out that night.
Sunday Spiritual Renewal
This day of course is reserved for the Lord.

Interestingly, she says that she only cooks 5 nights a week. They eat out twice a week. That's all she can do. So we're trying it this week. We'll see how it goes. The other schedule she passed out was way way over the top. Like scheduling out every minute. Drive me crazy scheduling. But I can do this week thing. I think.