It's all in how you look at it.............

Clutter. It is a visual thing as much as a physical one. When you walk into a room is every flat surface covered with nick-knacks and whats-its, books and papers? Things stacked all over can make a room feel and look messy, scattered and well, claustrophobic.

Try to invest in a cabinet to keep your Nick-knack's in and even then keep only the ones that you love and bring you great pleasure. Don't keep things like that because "Sister So-in-So" gave it to you. The memory of her/him will stay, the clutter will go.

A good rule of thumb is to keep the flat surfaces clear as much as possible. Depending on table size, keep the number of items to no more than three or five. An odd number is best.

Books....ah the wonder of books. I adore them. I have hundreds. They are a problem now. I've been slowly but surely paring them down to the must stays, but it is hard! I keep telling myself that I can get it on my ipod or even check it out from my local library should I really decide to read it again. I have only read a few books for a second time. The Parsifal Mosaic (1982), by Robert Ludlum and the Left Behind Series by Tim LaHaye. So, you'd think I'd not have a book problem wouldn't you? Well, I do. In addition to my many different translations of the Holy Bible and commentaries, I have organizing books, cook books, a stack of "to read" books, pattern books for cross stitching and self help books. So many books....so little time. They are stacked here and there. Sound familiar? Now is the time to begin a new habit!

Select a place where you like to sit and read. Invest in a medium sized basket and keep your current and future books in. Be realistic, no more than four books at a time or six magazines at a time. Make sure the basket is large enough to also house your reading glasses, should you be like me and need cheaters now, a throw to snuggle with as you read and a note pad and pen for notes. Keep it on the floor beside your chair or favorite spot on the sofa. Place a pretty pillow on the seat and now you have a lovely reading area. I'm assuming that you already have good lighting! Go through the basket once a month and keep the media moving, don't allow it to stay more than 21 days, if you've not read it by then, you are probably aren't going to read it.

I took a photo of my table in the living room, it now is a place that pleases the eye, rather than reproaches me every time I walk into the room.

God Bless~
Kat

The "Perfect" Bathroom....

Every woman, at least every woman I know, would love to have a bathroom like the picture here. It is in fact, my ideal. But, the reality is that most of us have bathrooms as small as a closet might be in the pictured dream bath.

The fact that most of us have a small to miniscule bathroom makes it hard to keep them orgaized and, dare I say it, clean.

The following is how I do it at my home. Now I'm not putting forth that my bathroom is perfect, but it is much more "user friendly" that it used to be.

A. Go and stand in the bathroom doorway. Look around, what do you see? Empty bottles of shampoos and conditioners, slivers of soap in the dish, ring around the tub top, decorative candles and whats-its on the sides, sound familiar?
If you would like to have a record of what it was to compare with when you finish, take a photo and start a picture file with the title Bath: Before and After.

B. Now, go and gather two boxes or containers and label them, "Trash" and "Keep".

C. I like to begin my clear out as I walk into the room, starting to my left and working my way around the room. Empty the drawers and cabinets one at a time. Toss anything that has a passed expiration date on it, anything that you opened and haven't used and know you won't. Put the items you will be keeping into the "Keep" box.

D. The cosmetics and make up items. Toss expires and items you know you won't use. If it is new and unopened, consider donating them to a women's shelter.

E. After you empty a drawer or cabinet, give it a good cleaning. If you like to use drawer liners, now is the time to replace them. When you begin replacing items into the cabinets and drawers, remember to store like with like and in the order of use or importance. Often used items go into the top drawers or front of the cabinets.

F. Try your level best to keep the counter tops as clear as possible. This will make quick cleans easier and help to keep the area looking neat between clean-ups.

G. Look at the tub, do you have multi-bottles of shampoo and conditioners in various stages of use sitting around the edges? I combined all of them into one bottle and tossed the empty ones. Now all I have sitting on the tub is one medium size shampoo bottle and conditioner bottle with a pump, a soap dish with no slivers or of soap just a single bar, and one pretty candle. Clutter is a visual thing as much as anything and as the saying goes, less is best!

H. Now, after re-organizing your bathroom and cleaning it as you go, stand at the door and look around. What do you see? How do you feel? My guess is you feel lighter and in the mood for a good old fashioned bubble bath! Go for it, you've earned it!

Hello! I'm sorry I'm not posting as often as I should. My computer is going to the "computer hospital" for some much needed service. I will begin posting again as soon as it comes home. Poor thing, shutting down and rebooting continuously is making it crazy and me too!

For now, remember me and my electronic needs in your prayers and I will return soon!

Today's Tip: Treat your well. Find 30 minutes in your day for yourself. Be selfish and make sure that you are undisturbed by anyone or anything. Turn off the cell phone, take the house phone off the hook or turn on the answering machine. Turn on some pleasant music and dance around the living room, read a chapter in a good book, make yourself a cup of flavored coffee (this is my personal favorite) adding a pouch of hot chocolate to it and sit on the deck or front porch (weather permitting) and meditate on what ever is on your mind. I generally find my self just listening to bird song.

God Bless~
Kat

Computer Clutter?

Did you know your computer can be cluttered? Well, it can. Believe me! Now make no mistake about it....I'm a blog junkie. I read many blogs, of all sorts of topics every day. You learn so very much from blog,helpful hints, what not to do about lots of different things and what to do about others.

There is the problem. I read way to many and have even more bookmarked that I read only sometimes. See there is the clutter! I made a decision to clean up all the clutter on my computer and found all sorts of extra time. With my extra time I decided to use studying the scriptures. We have a Tuesday Night Bible Study and the extra study has proved very beneficial.

I highly recommend you open your web browser and go into the bookmarks or favorites menu. What I did was create a couple of new folders. One I labeled "Daily Read Blogs", and another one I labeled, "Blogs on Trial". Then I went through my orignal "Blog" folder and began, one by one, going to the blog and asking myself these questions.
1. When was the last time I visited this blog?
2. How much can I learn from this blog?
3. How often is this blog updated? (tip, if updated daily, chances are I'll read it daily)

So, go to it! You'll be very suprised how much satisfaction you'll get from it, not to mention how much more productive your computer time will be.

Todays Tip: Febreeze is a good thing, but don't over do it! Light spritzes are better than a heavy soaking.

Blessings~
Kat

Ambitions..........

Okay, I think I may have been too ambitious in thinking I would be able to post daily. I will post as I come up with new ideas or when things happen that I think might benefit others to know.

I was reading some postings in a forum that I follow. Someone pointed out that they like to use a methodical way of cleaning their own home. That is great, that is the way it should be. However, there are very few that can do it that way. Even me, yep, the cleaning lady, cannot clean her own home without getting side tracked!

My Mother always told me that you should clean from back to front. Meaning you start in the back of the house and work your way to the front. The idea is that you will be motivated to get it all done as company may come. You don't want company to see your house messy! It works for my Mom, but not for me.

You see, I'm ADD and get side tracked very easily. I also get bored easily. That is why I love my job, no two days are the same! Some of the things are of course, the chores that I do, but the people I get to see are different, things are going on in their lives.

Now I do have a method that I use in my work. I clean "around". That means that I go in the door of a room and start working from left around to right. The human brain tends to go right to left, but I feel that working left to right makes me have just a little more attentive tendencies. I also work, top to bottom. ALWAYS look up! There are little critters that build little cobwebs and like to hang out in corners. Those are the "little" things that can get ya praised for catching or yelled at for missing.

Today's tip: Put an old white sock on a broom handle, lightly spray with a dusting agent and go after the little cobwebs. Be very careful not to push against the wall, this will smear the web and make a mess. Just point up at the web, and when it touches give a little twist. This will remove the web without the smears.

God Bless~
Kat