Simplicity at it's Best!

Awesome and I mean *AWESOME* article on Yahoo! today.  This is definitely one to print out and have readily available.

Clean Your House In Less Than An Hour

Trip Planning

Starting my simplicity challenge, the thought of preparing and planning for trips never entered my mind.  But why not?  Everyone wants their trips to be simple and stress free.  I know I do!  This is going to be interesting...

I wonder if when you have everything household-wise simplified and organized, preparing for trips naturally becomes easier.  Or maybe it's just the kind of thing that will always be stressful, especially when you have small children.  I'm not stress free right now.  Things are not as simple as I want them to be.  I am avoiding tackling today's list (obviously, or else I wouldn't be blogging right now) because I get overwhelmed thinking about this entire week.  I expect to be absolutely looney with stress by Friday.  But I don't want to be.  So here's the goal for this week:  

Focus on the tasks that HAVE to be done and don't worry about the extras.

I want to come home to a perfectly clean house, but does it really matter if the downstairs bookshelf has a few DVDs out of place?  No, so I need to not worry about that.  I will take a look at my to-do list for the week and see if there's anything from Friday (a very busy day) that I can move to Wednesday or Thursday, just to ease up on last minute tasks.

So I need to knock this expectation of being stressed out right out of my head and decide that I WANT to be calm and prepared this week.  My children deserve a mom who isn't raising her voice every five minutes, my husband deserves a wife who welcomes his hugs instead brushing them off because there's still something that needs to be done, and I deserve to start my trip with a clear mind.  I wanted a challenge and now I've really got one!

Home Storage Solutions 101

I'm really throwing myself into this simplicity thing right now.  Maybe it's because I felt like I was lagging a bit during October, or maybe I just really want to get through the holidays and start a new year feeling like life is fantastic.  So, I'm now doing this along with everything else:

It's week two (or week 45, since she's looping the weeks through next year as well) and I feel awesome about my progress.  Seriously, I've spent maybe three hours total and my boys' bedroom is so much more organized.  I didn't even buy any new storage containers (although I plan to buy a new laundry hamper for their closet and a set of three Rubbermaid (or similar) drawers for my six year old's Legos).

Every little bit of new cleaning, organizing, or planning routine that I'm taking part in is saving me countless hours each week.  Yes, it's scheduled cleaning, etc, but I'm not having to spend a full day working on something like I was before.  I can spend an hour or two in the morning or late afternoon while the boys are otherwise engaged, make a big difference in our household, and then go about the rest of my business.  I'm getting in so much more playtime with my kids since I've started all this.  And to me, that makes it all worth it.