Extra Organized

Extra Organized expert tip: Minimizing children's clothing

In her wonderful book, Planning with Kids: A Guide to Organising the Chaos and Making Time for Family Fun, mother-of-five Nicole Avery highlights an important idea that I have only just managed to grasp myself. When it comes to children’s clothing, even if something fits and is in good condition, it doesn’t need to remain in their wardrobe!

Generous gifts and hand-me-down clothing has meant that my children’s wardrobes are overflowing with suitable pieces to wear. It is overwhelming for them to make choices, and for me to keep tidy. They also tend to wear the same few items over and over again.

Nicole says, “It’s taken me about 10 years to work out that when it comes to clothes for a pre-schooler less is definitely better. Even if clothing items are in good condition and still fit him, I remove as much as possible to limit his choices and to keep the drawers sparsely filled for easier access” (p. 127).

I have now sorted and removed all but the best and most versatile clothing, and have boxed the rest and stored it in the top of their cupboards. It feels counterintuitive to remove things that fit and look nice, however I realized that a pile of twenty T-shirts, especially when my children wear school uniform five days a week, were never going to be regularly worn!

Do you have any tips for streamlining clothing, either in your own, or in your children's wardrobes?

Mindful shopping

One reason we impulse buy is because these items avoid the same scrutiny we give to planned purchases.

None of the usual steps apply: we don’t think about the item ahead of time, we haven’t comparison shopped for it, and it’s definitely not on our list! Especially when pressured by a time limit, or shopping for multiple things (such as groceries), an impulse buy is likely to slip through the checkout without much thought.

Because of this, the item is more likely to be a want rather than a need. But that’s not to say we shouldn’t go ahead and buy it.

Instead, we need a way of making a conscious, deliberate decision. We need to separate impulse buys and give them our attention so they don’t enter our homes largely undetected. Here are a few ways to do this:

• Decide upfront to stick to your list. Speed your shopping, and save money, by deciding that you will adhere to your list precisely. Enter the store with brisk purpose, go straight to the section you need, and don’t let your eyes wander. You will get as much satisfaction from successfully completing your mission as you will from a bag of impulse buys, minus the guilt and regret.
• Don’t shop to relax. Marketing is designed to lull you into a meditative shopping zone. When you let your guard down, and daydream about what your life would be like with a particular product, you are more likely to spend. Instead, stay engaged and look at all the ways the marketers are attempting to pull you in to a purchase. You could also notice how busy and noisy the store is, how long the queues are, or how low the quality is.
• Compartmentalize your trolley. Reserve a section for products not on your list. Before you approach the checkout, pause in a quiet part of the store, and review each item.
• Add it to next week’s list. If you spot something you’d like to buy, add it to your next shopping list. By shopping once a week (or less), you give unnecessary items the chance to drop off your list.
• Get a second opinion. If it’s an expensive item, ring your partner or a friend and convince them of the necessity of the purchase. If you hesitate to make the call, you should probably put it back on the shelf.
• Know your weakness. Mine is books and clothes. I am better off bypassing these stores altogether, as I can almost guarantee at least one impulse buy. For books, I like to buy online as I can go straight to the titles on my list without browsing, or I visit the library where I can "impulse borrow" for free.
• Have a backup plan. For those occasions when an impulse buy slips through, isolate the item at home. Keep your receipt, and leave the packaging and tags intact until you make a final decision.

How do you organize your shopping to avoid impulse buys?

Organized homework

I wanted to show you how I organize my children' homework and supplies. We spend about half an hour on homework a day for each child, and that's only early primary!

Because homework is done at the dining table, I converted the nearby buffet to hold homework and activity books, along with pens, pencils, textas, crayons, oil pastels, glue, scissors, and so on.

Timber trays hold homework for each child. The divided holder stores the current book I'm reading to the kids (at the moment, the gorgeous fantasy Wishing Chair Adventures by Enid Blyton), along with library books and our family quote book.

The shelves and drawers hold extra resources and other creative paraphernalia.

Do you have a space set up for completing homework? How do you organize the supplies, or your children's homework schedule?

Today's organizing bliss

Over the years, I've slowly been upgrading the quality of items in our home as things have worn out and I've had to replace them. One simple upgrade I'm really pleased with is pure cotton covers for the set of guest pillows. I keep spare pillows at the top of the linen cupboard, and recently got rid of the poor-quality, static-y nylon covers, and replaced them with crisp, thick zipped cotton covers. It's a nice way to help make guests comfortable.

Life as meditation

I’ve just finished reading a book on mindfulness meditation— Happiness and How it Happens: Finding Contentment Through Mindfulness, by The Happy Buddha, Suryacitta Malcolm Smith. Normally books I read are still in pristine condition afterward, but this one ended up thoroughly underlined.

Mindfulness meditation is a practice that crosses boundaries including religion, and can be taken up by anyone, no matter what their resources or knowledge—it doesn’t require years of study. Its importance is in helping us find fulfilment internally, rather than externally, so we can better cope with both the buffeting of life, and of our own minds, as well as loosening our grip on acquisition. It helps us live in the present.

At a practical level, to meditate mindfully is to take an observer’s perspective, and be aware that our minds are generating a stream of thoughts, and our bodies are experiencing feelings and sensations, yet we are more than these. Beyond our “self”, which we construct throughout life, fed by the stories our minds tell us, we have an eternal unchanging presence which we share with everyone else.

This awareness—observing from a distance—is key to accepting ourselves as we are without having to add anything, and a way to “heal and dissolve” our pain. When we realize that our thoughts are almost continuously and automatically generated by our mind, we can choose not to unconsciously believe or act on them.

Although the author talks about mindfulness meditation ideally being a sitting practice, he also points out that it is a practice that can be done anytime, anywhere. “Everything is meditation, there is nothing outside meditation, and we don’t have to be in a certain state of mind before we can meditate. Whatever is in our awareness—that’s it! That is meditation.” (p. 38)

What a revelation—we can make a daily activity our mindfulness meditation practice!

Whatever you choose, immerse yourself in the experience. When you notice you’re caught up in your thoughts or feelings, gently return to the present moment, again and again. Make room for both the comfortable and the uncomfortable. Experience what it’s like to be you, in this moment.

Here are some activities I’m using as my meditation practice:

• A conversation with my children.
• A run.
• Listening to a piece of music.
• A guitar lesson.
• Driving to work.

What activity could you use as meditation?

 

Organizing for adventure

Anyone who's spent a lifetime dreaming of owning their very own horse could understand my overwhelming excitement at going horse riding recently for the first time in many years. Not only was it a trail ride, there were only two of us, we rode for two hours, along a beach, into the surf, and back through the bush. Absolute bliss!

Where does organizing fit into this, you might be wondering? My definition of organizing is to make room for what is important and to make it happen: the people and adventurous experiences that really make you feel alive.

Although I rarely get to spend time around horses, just spotting that trail riding sign on a holiday recently, and organizing the ride—instead of passing on the opportunity which can be so easy to do—has resulted in a wonderful memory.

Are there any neglected dreams or passions you'd like to make time for?

Life purpose, simplified

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by the concept of purpose? Do you feel like you need an ultimate "reason for being" that can direct all your decisions and actions? This instinctual desire for meaning is easy to overcomplicate. Yes, we have purpose, but it cannot be summed up in a finite statement, and we contribute to life and to each other in many profound ways during the course of one day, let alone over a lifetime.

In traditional organizing, it is fashionable to draft a mission statement to condense this meaning into a paragraph or a page. Language, however, can frustrate our experience by attempting to define that which is impossible to contain in words. Yes, we can create a short guiding statement to remind us of what is important at this point in our lives, but our purpose can only ever be lived in the present moment.

In his book, A New Earth: Create a Better Life (2009), the philosopher Eckhart Tolle writes that our purpose is in the moment we are in right now, and it is uncomplicated. He uses the example of walking across a room to pick up a book: our secondary purpose is to pick up the book; while our primary purpose is simply to walk.

What a relief! We can throw ourselves into our lives just as they are now—without thinking we need to be more, have more, do more. Regardless of whether we are considering inner (spiritual) or outer (worldly) purpose, we can get on with life, content that we will discover and live our purpose as we go; by simply living each moment.

Today's organizing bliss

Airing the house.

It's such a great way to cleanse and refresh a home. One of the first things I like to do on a day I'm at home is to open the windows in the bedrooms, bathrooms, and living areas and let the breeze in.

Research shows that ventilating a house helps to keep dust mite numbers down, particularly by reducing humidity levels, and clearing the air after vacuuming.

Of course, it does depend on the weather, and security considerations.

This time of year—late Summer in Australia—provides perfect airing conditions!

Write a "to stop" list

Most of us are well practiced at writing to do lists, which is great. It would be difficult to keep track of the multitude of commitments and things we need and want to do without writing them down.

By writing an item onto a list, we make a statement about what we intend to do, and this helps to draw it into reality. Likewise, we can more easily clear some of the activity and task clutter from our lives by identifying what we don't want or no longer want to do.

So, for a refreshing change, let's compile a list of things we could stop doing.

Imagine how it might feel to unburden yourself of some of the following "life clutter":

• time-wasting habits;
• postponed decisions;
• tasks that don't add value to your life or anyone else's;
• performing a task more often, or to a higher standard, than necessary;
• commitments that are expected of you, rather than a priority to you;
• routines that used to serve a purpose but are not relevant to your life now;
• old hobbies or interests (and their equipment);
• anxiety about things you think you should be doing; and
• guilt or regret about mistakes and lost opportunities. [In an overall view of your life, are there even any such things as mistakes or missed opportunities? Sure, you might judge or label them as such, but if you can allow yourself to see them from a different perspective—life events that simply "are as they are", that led to learning, growth and often to better things—you might also be able to take a gentler, more embracing view.]

What would be on your to stop list?

Today's organizing bliss

Sleeping bags. Not only are they great for camping, but they’re a fast bedding alternative at home. One of our children’s bedrooms has bunk beds. When we have guests to stay, either our kids share the bunks, or visiting children like to sleep there. Instead of making the top bunk with sheets and covers, which is tricky, I toss up a sleeping bag and pillow. The kids love it, and will sometimes ask to sleep in the top bunk with a sleeping bag just for fun.