Clutter Therapy Soothes My Soul

I've been wearing my Clutter Therapist hat the last few weeks, working with a client whose husband is working temporarily in another state. She's very pregnant and they are scheduled to move across the country in two months. We have been going through each room of her house streamlining and decluttering, sorting, packing and throwing away. She wants to be organized before she packs everything up so when she unpacks in her new house with her new baby, everything will already be grouped together and hopefully settling in will be less stressful for them. We worked in her bedroom today and I was as pleased with the beautiful finished product as she was. Organizing is good therapy for my clients but it makes my heart happy too!

Another Shower Organizer Down the Drain

I cleaned my shower the other day (yes, it's newsworthy sometimes!) and was frustrated by all our large salon-size shampoo bottles in the floor. Buying large is a better deal financially but a headache organizationally speaking because they don't fit in the standard shower organizers. The baskets that stick to the wall collect soap scum and look disgusting after a while. Yesterday we bought an adjustable one from Bed Bath & Beyond but by the time you work around the shower head and the size of the bottles and try to leave room for the soap, the thing just couldn't snap into place. When we slid the shelves to one side, the suction cup at the bottom wasn't strong enough to keep the rack in position. When I find one that works, I'll let you know!

Santa Is a Genius!

Happy New Year! Can you believe I'm actually blogging again? Amazing I know, but here's something so wonderful I had to share the news.

We splurged this year and bought a prelit tree on 75% off clearance at Target. I wanted one because now that my kids are "grown" no one wants to cheerfully help put the tree up. Since the actual tree assembly and hanging lights is the worst part of Christmas, this will make things smoother next year. However, I wanted an easy way to keep this tree intact during the year, so we found an upright tree storage bag that compresses the tree for you.

Grant just helped me bag up our tree and it took about 10 minutes! Next year we bring the tree into the house, unzip the bag and pull it down, puddle the bag around the base of the tree like a skirt, and the tree is ready to plug in and decorate! For now our tree is standing in a corner of our garage but the bag is designed with many handles for hanging or carrying. Ours might live in the garage all year.

I ordered Santa's Tree Bag from HomeMarketplace.com for around $40. Check it out!http://www.thehomemarketplace.com/HomeMarketPlace/Shopping/ProductDetail.aspx?CID=Christmas+Holiday&SCID=Trim+the+Tree&CollectionID=DC0000637&num=230

Clutter Therapist Now Making House Calls

To fund my workout/fitness routine and gym membership, I am starting a home organizing business. "If you're sick and tired of feeling disorganized, call the Clutter Therapist!" Hopefully the website will be up soon.
On a more "delightful" note, Kathy and I will be teaching the entire Delight in Real Life course this summer on Wednesday nights at Faith Baptist Church in Bartlett, TN. I will also be teaching an organization segment in the "Designing a Home" program on Friday mornings this summer at FBC Cabot.

Fall Greetings!

Kathy had a great time speaking to the Germantown Homeschool group this morning. So sorry I couldn't be there as well. It's always fun to tell others what we've learned about fighting chaos at home.

For all of you out there who wonder why I haven't blogged in a while, it's because I've been practicing what we preach! Since this is my daughter's senior year in high school, my husband and I cleared my calendar for the year so I could focus on providing her with a happy home (and mom!) during her final year with us. Believe it or not, when I stay home all day, there actually IS time to clean house, do the laundry and cook dinner. God has reminded me these past few months what a privilege it is to (1) have a home, and (2) work in it every day instead of heading off to another job. When we are thankful for the many ways God has blessed us, we add delight to our lives instead of filling our hearts and minds with complaints and resentment.

So, as we enter the 2009 holiday season, our challenge to you is to review your family's priorities. Resist the urge to rush through the malls and spend too much on stuff. Value time shared with loved ones and focus more on people than on presents this year.

Easy Tax Prep Tips

After filing taxes for how many years now (?), I think I finally have a system down for getting all the paperwork together. In addition to our regular taxes, we also have to keep up with housing allowance expenses and my business tax information, so our piles can easily grow into very unmanageable stacks. The best solution? Notebooks! 3-Ring binders continue to prove themselves as my most indispensable organizational tools.

As I separated our tax information into various categories for our accountant, I made a list of all these categories. For my business tax notebook, for example, I have website expenses, receipts for supplies, sales tax records, mileage, etc., so each of these categories became a tab in the notebook. Now whenever I process an order or pay a business-related bill, I just hole-punch the paperwork and file it. This way it's easy to keep the numbers current on a monthly basis, so at the end of the year I only have to tie up loose ends, not hunt/sort/add everything all up.

To keep an accurate record of receipts, I copy them and file the copy in the notebook (with the originals stapled to the copy). This allows me to keep up with which receipts have been accounted for instead of working with piles all the time. Also, many receipts are printed on slick paper, so the ink rubs off or evaporates, leaving me with lots of small pieces of paper but no real evidence. Copying the receipts keeps them legible and again makes things easier for me to keep on top of things month by month.

Then I made a checklist of all my tabs/categories to guide me as I gathered all the stuff to hand over to our accountant. This way I don't waste time looking for stuff I don't need, I can tell where I left off if I have to come back to it, and I have an organized record to hand to someone else (just in case he doesn't understand how my mind works!).

Hope this helps--I'd love to hear any tips from readers about how you tamed your tax paperwork monster.

Helpful Bargain Stories with Happy Endings

Before grocery shopping at Kroger yesterday, I had flipped through all my coupons so they would be fresh in my mind in case I ran across something on sale that wasn't on my list. (I try to save my coupons until items are already on sale, so the discount is even bigger!) One coupon was for a free bag (12 oz or larger) of frozen meatballs. Kroger puts them on sale often, so evidently I had purchased enough bags for them to send me a coupon. Anyway, I grabbed the biggest bag--which was $16.95. When I handed over the coupon to the lady at checkout, she said it probably wouldn't let me have that expensive of an item, but it went through and we were both surprised. That made me smile the rest of the day! The moral of this story is always read the fine print on coupons, then go for the biggest size. By the way, these are great for family and company. To prepare, mix together grape jelly and chili sauce (sounds gross, but it's good!) and pour over meatballs; use enough sauce to generously cover. Cook them in microwave, crockpot or on stovetop. Makes a very quick, tasty, easy dish!

Later I called Dillards to check on a clearance recliner (for $189) we happened upon over the weekend. Greg had taken a picture of it on his phone to show our son. Grant had just rearranged his room to maximize his reading space and wanted a comfy chair. This recliner was a small but funky design in the exact gray color of Grant's bedroom walls. He liked the picture, so I called yesterday to see if it was still there. The salesman found the chair and offered us tomorrow's extra discount off clearance items if I went ahead and bought it over the phone. Tomorrow I'll go pick it up and post a picture of it for you to see. The moral of this story is to check out all the sale racks at Dillard's tomorrow and get an extra 30% off their clearance prices store-wide. Or, go today and see if they'll let you pre-buy!