Tag: organization

Organization Tip #3 – Create a Plan to Create More Freedom Within your Day

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As someone who has always loved planning, I’ve seen the difference it makes in my day. One time I tried unplanned Sundays and my day felt like a chaotic mess. But, I’ve heard from people who don’t plan that they feel it takes away the freedom within their day. It is a common belief that having a plan, structure, or routine that governs your day limits your own personal freedom to just do what you want, when you want. I disagree with this.

I’ve been reading “Atomic Habits” with my Crunchi team and he talks about this in regards to habits. He mentions that people wonder if habits and routine will make their life dull, restrict their freedom, and take away the spontaneity of life. He writes that it does the opposite, it creates freedom.

Having a plan, structure, or routine for your day actually opens up more freedom for you. It allows you to live your life proactively rather than reactively. You know what you need to get done that day, so you don’t waste precious time and energy on less important tasks or wander aimlessly, unsure of your priorities. It allows you to spend time doing the things you want to do rather reacting to the needs and wants of others all day long. It can completely change the way you live your day to day life.

I’ve talked about a few different ways to plan your day in previous posts, but below I’ll list some tools you can use for planning.

🌿 Google calendar, I LOVE to color code mine

🌿 Paper planner, keep it basic or go all out with the fun planner stickers

🌿 Desk weekly calendar to be able to easily glance at important tasks or events for the week

🌿 Shared family calendar with the app Cozi

🌿 White board daily, weekly, or monthly calendar

🌿 A simple to do list on a blank piece of paper

I encourage you to try something for at least a week to see how you like it and how it makes your day run differently! Remember, you don’t have to plan out each minute if that isn’t your jam, you can have a loose plan, a general idea for your day, certain blocks of time for certain things, or just a simple list, but having some sort of plan will create more calm within your days,

Which one are you going to try or do you already use?!

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Organization Tip # 2 – Focusing your Mind

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I’ve always been known to be an over-thinker, perfectionist, control freak. My mind never wants to slow down. Since having my daughter, I’ve really wanted to work on being more present and not constantly in my head. I’m going to share some things that have worked to organize my own mind and my thoughts. Feel free to try some and leave some. None of this is a one size fits all.

🌿 Start your day for YOU. Do not check social media. Do not check email. Do not cater to the kids or the partner. Take care of you first to set your mind up for success for the rest of the day. This may be an hour long morning routine filled with reading, journaling, meditating, etc or it may be a 30 second gratitude list before you get out of bed if that’s all you have time for. Just find what works for you and be consistent with it.

🌿 Have some kind of plan for your day before you wake up in the morning. I’m a crazy planner, so I have my entire day planned out in color coded blocks in my google calendar. Some people would find that insane. You can write out a to do list each night. You can just write down the 3 things that if you complete that day, you’re winning at life. Whatever the top 3 priorities are that day. You can have a loose routine for the kids such as when meal times are and when they independently play so you can get stuff done. Again, this is trial and error and sometimes it takes a while to find what works best for you.

🌿 Practice mindfulness. I do this with yoga, meditation, and deep breathing. I love to start my day with a 10 minute meditation and I do yoga when I’m able to. This helps me in times when I need to try harder to be present or stay calm because I know I can focus on my breath even if just for one minute and it helps recenter my mind.

🌿 Do brain dumps. When we have a million things running through our minds, it can be helpful to get it out and on paper. I think this is particularly helpful before bed to quiet your mind or in the morning to set your mind up for the day. Sit down in a quiet place and just write every single thing in your mind. No filter, no worrying, just get it all out on paper. Sometimes you can even then use that to create to do lists because you’ll see if there are certain things weighing heavily on your mind that you need to get done.

🌿 Take quiet time. The world is loud. We are constantly surrounded by noise and distractions. Taking sometime to just sit with your own thoughts can be amazing. I love to do this after Addie goes to bed on the porch with some tea or while taking walks. Just be alone with your thoughts every now and then.

I truly think these things work wonders for organizing your mind and your thoughts.

Which one(s) are you going to try? And do you have something else that works well for you?!

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Organization Tip # 1 – A Place for Everything and Everything in it’s Place

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One thing I’ve noticed is that my mind is more cluttered when my environment is more cluttered. So, this tip not only will help you have more of a clear, organized mind, but of course an organized home as well.

I will say this is something I have to actively work at, it does not come naturally to me. I am actually an incredibly lazy “active” person. I love to be active, I love to workout, but when I’m not being active, I’m super lazy 😆. This means, I often will remove a hoodie and lay it on the couch, leave a tea mug by my bed, things like that. If every single thing in my home doesn’t have a place and I’m not mindful to make sure I put it back in its place when I’m done with it, my home can become cluttered real quick.

It takes an extra minute or two to put something back when finished with it (as long as you know exactly where it belongs) and it makes a massive difference in keeping clutter away. This is something that can be taught to the little ones. We’ve taught our daughter to put her toys back when done since she was one. Now that she’s three, she’s usually good about putting toys away as she finishes with them, but of course she doesn’t always do it. In that case, we start bedtime routine a little early and work together to put the toys away. If she doesn’t know where they go, however, that would be impossible for her little self to navigate.

I’ve also found that being able to see everything works tremendously well for us. We got rid of our kitchen cabinets for open shelving and keep things in clear containers. We store a lot of kitchen appliances on an open shelf in our dining area. I also use the Marie Kondo method for folding my clothes, and my hanging clothes are color coded. All of these things are not only esthetically pleasing, but they keep things organized, easy to find, and therefore easy to put back.

Some other quick tips for clothes since this was a highly wanted topic:

  • Each person in the home as one solid color of socks, never waste time matching up socks again.
  • Opt for a capsule wardrobe or a more minimal wardrobe.
  • To help you purge some clothes, try the hanger method where all hangers are facing one direction and after you wear something turn the hanger the other direction so you know which clothes are getting worn and which aren’t. I personally do this and the first day of each month I remove a couple of pieces that I haven’t worn and put in the donate bin.

I hope this is helpful! Happy organizing 🥰

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Organization Series

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For those of you who don’t know me yet, my name is Jessica DeRico. I’m a hippy-ish mama to one 3 year old girl and another baby on the way, I’m into all things clean living, holistic health, and I’ve always thrived with structure, routines, systems, and organization. Like most of you, I’m just trying to get the most out of my day so I can be productive, present, happy, and healthy. Staying organized helps me do that!

This blog is typically about all things toxin free, but in honor of Spring cleaning time, I thought we could chat organization. I was recently asked to do a short series on this topic for someone else’s business group and everyone really enjoyed it. I do consider this a kind of “detoxing” because you’re detoxing your mind and environment to allow you to live healthier!

I’ve always been picked on (in a friendly way) by family and friends because of my strict schedules and organization techniques and I know what I do won’t work for everyone, but if I can help you organize your day/life at all, that would bring me joy!

I’LL START DROPPING TIPS SHORTLY, BUT TONIGHT I’D LOVE TO KNOW WHAT IS HARDEST FOR YOU:

🧥 Organizing Clothes/Household Items

🤯 Organizing Your Mind

📅 Organizing Your Day

Looking forward to getting to know you all better ❤ Feel free to share your struggles in the comment section. I’m sure every person struggles in some way with organization (I’ve been working on it my whole life and still have struggles).

Like what you read on this blog? You’ll LOVE the Raising Clean Facebook Community -> https://www.facebook.com/groups/raisingclean