One.Little.Word

Paper Clutter

Jules — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 02:36:52 +0000

One of the biggest issues we [as in Michael & I both] have is paper clutter. At times there are stacks of paper just waiting for us to go through it. Most of which is junk mail, catalogs, magazines and more junk mail. It drives me insane and if it was just ‘my’ stuff it wouldn’t be that big of a deal. I go through it all about once a week and recycle all of the junk but it’s Michael that is the problem. He would let it sit there for an entire year before going through it – or until I nag him to death about it.

I really need to come up with a better solution for sorting mail and having a system in place to keep the paper clutter to a minimum. Do any of you have any ideas? What do you do with your paper clutter?

Update on My Weekly Chore Schedule:
Things are going well. I am sticking to it and not only tonight did I do 2 loads of laundry, they actually are put away right away too. This is my downfall, my weakness – but I made sure to follow through with it. I hate laundry, better yet it’s more like I detest laundry, lol. I will clean any bathroom or scrub any floor but please don’t make me do the laundry!

Quality Time

Jules — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 03:02:32 +0000

When it truly comes right down to it 5, 10, 15 even 20 years from now, when Shawn looks back he isn’t going to remember the basket of laundry that needed to be folded, that sat there for 2 days or the clutter on the dining room table. He is going to remember the times spent playing, watching movies and enjoying life with his Mom, Dad, Grandparents, Cousins, etc.

So I must remind myself that while I am on a mission to get things organized, what really matters is spending time with my child and my husband. The laundry can wait another day and the stuff on the table, well it will still be there tomorrow so it can wait too. Sure, everything does need to be done but scheduling time to spend with your loved ones is important too.

This is not a new concept for me – I always make time for my family but sometimes you can get caught up with one goal that you forget to make time for yourself. That’s why when it came to me weekly chore schedule, I gave myself 2 [free] days to do whatever. Tonight, I chose to watch TV, play with Shawn and do some brainstorming about some new projects I have in mind.

It felt terrific to just relax for once.

A Secret of Mine

Jules — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:20:34 +0000

I have been scrapbooking for almost 10 years now and while I enjoy it immensely I have a hard time with it. You would think that being a graphic designer and 4 years through art school I would be creating pages like crazy and have a million albums made. WRONG! When it comes to traditional, paper scrapbooking I am so picky about colors, elements, placement, etc. that it takes me a long time to actually glue anything down. [and that's if I am lucky - sometimes that doesn't even happen.]

I have a confession to make and I don’t tell people this very often because I am pretty ashamed of it. I started a set of pages back in 2003 after Michael and I took a vacation to the 1000 Islands and they still aren’t completed. Why? Well because I haven’t found the perfect brown ribbon. What’s even more horrible is that I have a lot of pages like this. I am too picky and want it to be perfect.

Well, my goal this year is to overcome this and start focusing more on what really matters. Is the story a lot less important because the ribbon is not the perfect shade of brown? [I have about 10 different brown ribbons now - I am always on the lookout for the perfect shade] I know that I over complicate scrapbooking and I need to stop worrying so much about making it perfect. I took a class online for 13 weeks and it really opened my eyes to what really is important and I am hoping to apply it all to get past my fears.

So, heres to a year of not worrying about the non important stuff in scrapbooking and to actually getting the pages done and the stories told. Here is to keeping it SIMPLE!

Routines & Schedules

Jules — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 16:26:27 +0000

I love lazy days just as much as the next person but without a routine I tend to fall short on actually getting anything accomplished. That’s not to say that I need a rigid minute-by-minute routine but rather a basic one. Since I work outside of the home I already have my morning routine down pat and everything that pertains to the baby [laundry, bath time, meals, naps, etc.].

Where I do have a problem is the household chores. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t live in a filthy, disgusting house or anything. It’s the ‘not everyday chores’ that get pushed aside and then I have to spend my weekends getting everything caught up.

So I have decided that I need a weekly schedule to make sure that I spread out the household chores and not have to waste a day on the weekends getting it all finished. Since today starts a new week, there is no better time to get the schedule finalized. So here is my weekly schedule…

Sunday: Laundry Day #1
Monday: Vacuum the carpets
Tuesday: Nothing – Time to Relax
Wednesday: Laundry Day #2
Thursday: Scrub Bathroom & Kitchen
Friday: Tidy Bedrooms & Dusting
Saturday: Nothing – Time to Relax

So there is my schedule for the week. The nice thing is also at work I changed my schedule so I will be at home an hour earlier in the evenings, so it gives me a little extra time to get the stuff done and also have time to relax and enjoy being at home with my family. I am really going to try to stick to this schedule. I am thinking of creating a ‘chore chart’ to keep track of everything – if I do I will post it here for you all to use if you would like.

What I Have Done So Far

Jules — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 08:57:09 +0000

Since OLW was started two weeks into the year, I thought I would share with you all the things that I have already done in my efforts to simplify my life. One of the biggest challenges that I (and my family) face is that we don’t have any closets. Literally. Michael had to build one for us in our bedroom and that is the only one in the entire house. This makes it extremely hard to store things easily. Luckily, we have a nice sized attic, basement and part of Michael’s workshop has space too, but it still makes it difficult to store commonly used items – like towels, blankets and bed sheets.

The closet in our bedroom tends to be the catch all for stuff and I go through it every 6 months or so but this time I went through it all! Meaning, I tore every single item out of the closet and went through it. It now looks like we don’t have anything to wear, lol. I have bags of clothes to donate, to get rid of and a bag to go to my sisters to see if they want them. I also put new plastic bins in there for our extra blankets and bed sheets and also [will be getting soon] fabric lined baskets to hold smaller items. I am very pleased with the outcome of the closet and I am hoping that it will stay looking this nice.

Another thing is that I started looking into my scrapbooking “stash”. I have so much stuff and I don’t use a lot of it. I have this habit of when starting a new project, I want to go out and buy stuff to use instead of ‘making do’ with what I have. This is going to be a major thing for me this year, as I want to either get rid of the stuff that I don’t use or to use up the stuff that I have already. I haven’t gotten up enough courage yet to purge anything but I keep looking it at all. I will get there some day.

When the baby arrived, I had to give up my crafting room so all my stuff is now [neatly] stored in our bedroom. However, I still don’t have a dedicated scrapbooking area right now. I am hoping that over the course the year I can manage my supplies a little bit better and regain a small space for it. It is all nicely organized though and I am happy with it all – I just need to go through everything that I have. This I am not in a hurry to do because I know that I will have a hard time parting with it all.

Welcome to One.Little.Word

Jules — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 02:36:16 +0000

I am excited that One.Little.Word [OLW] is up and running. I have been a blogger for many years and I fell off the wagon a few years ago when I first found out that I was pregnant with my 1st child. It just got to be too much with work, the house, my husband, appointments and the list goes on and on. I have wanted to come back to blogland for a while now but I have lacked some serious inspiration. Until now…

OLW is about my journey. It’s about a 365 day look into my life, my struggles and my achievements to allow a single word to make an impact on everything that I do. My word for 2010 is: SIMPLIFY and I have great plans for this word. From clearing out all the unnecessary clutter in our home, to finding the joy in the simple things in life, to realizing that not everything in life needs to be complicated.

I am a perfectionist. I will admit it right here and right now but this year I want to embrace imperfection. I want to look at things from a more simple approach and see what comes of it. I know that it won’t always be easy and I will get frustrated along the way but by the end of the year I am hoping this One.Little.Word will have made an impact not only on my life but also on my family’s life as well.

So, the journey begins…