by CS Team
Let’s take a look at your Bedroom. Is it time for a change?
Is your bedroom a sanctuary or a dumping ground? As professional organizers we are often asked, “where should I start organizing in my home? There is clutter and chaos everywhere.” Your bedroom is the place to start!
The bedroom often becomes the landing zone for homeless items, or the make shift home office, the TV room, or even a place where a person can’t sleep anymore because there is so much clutter. This breaks my heart.
Your bedroom is meant to be a place of rest, relaxation, intimacy and healing. You spend more time here than anywhere else. It can be a favorite room in the early morning and late evening. One of the best gifts you can give yourself, especially in the cold months of winter, is creating a bedroom that is a sanctuary.
So here is a true story from Marla’s past – I asked my talented friend, Jeanine Mallory of Fresh Space Organizing, to help with a client’s bedroom. The woman had moved in months before, but her bedroom was boring and plain. She is a talented artist, loves color, fabric and unusual things. So we needed a makeover. By following the steps below and working together we transformed her bedroom in a day. We went shopping at Ikea! We hung purple curtains on the wall behind her bed along with sparkly lights. We brought in bright colors and candles. We used things she already had and found perfect homes for them. She now loves being in her bedroom. She is reading, journaling and sleeping so much better. How about you? Is it time for a makeover of your bedroom?
SEE IT – take a look at where you’ve been and where you are
Be brave. We invite you to take a look in your bedroom today and pretend you are a stranger. Just notice what is there and how it feels. Are there items that don’t belong in your room and that drain you when you look at them? What patterns do you notice? What do you notice that you love? Take it all in.
MAP IT – make a plan for where you want to go
How do you want your bedroom to look, feel and function? Do you want color or neutral shades or a combination? Do you want busy or simple? Do you want to add something like a reading or meditation chair? What you do want to take out or change? Take 5-10 minutes and write down what you want.
DO IT – take the actions to get what you want
Choose an hour or a day to transform your space. Give yourself this gift. Here is a super simple solution:
Set the timer for an hour and remove the following things from your bedroom:
1 – Anything that doesn’t belong in this space.
2 – Anything that is now past time or no longer relevant, like old clothes or broken furniture.
3 – Anything that doesn’t support your vision of how you want your bedroom to be.
Then set the timer for one more hour and ask what you can add or move or change so that the room feels fabulous to you!
Please let us know what you do!
Marla, Kate & Team
SEE IT. MAP IT. DO IT. © Copyright of Clear & SIMPLE, LLC. All rights reserved
by CS Team
Simple ways to give thanks each & every day.
Gratitude is one of the most powerful tools for creating peace and happiness in our lives. It can can also support us on the days we feel low and in moving through tough times. So why is it so easy to forget and get caught up in the struggles or busyness of life? We have found that making gratitude a daily practice keeps it happening easily.
Make gratitude a daily practice
Here are 3 simple ways you can create a joyful ritual of celebrating all that you have each and every day. Whatever way you choose, commit to 21 days to create the new habit. You can choose one or mix them up!
1 – Get the Attitude for Gratitude APP
On-the-go with you at all time- Set daily reminders
- Many of them give you an inspirational tidbit after each entry
2 – Write it down
- Keep a little gratitude notebook, journal or use your planner. You can even use 3×5 cards or post-it notes.
- The easiest practice is to start or end your day writing down 3 things you are grateful for. Let them come to you easily and you might get surprised.
(more…)
by CS Team
Love lists? Dread lists? Try this cool tool!!
We are on fire about Wunderlist and we just have to share it!! We have known about it for some time, dabbled with it a bitand then got totally hooked. Because it is available across most devices, we always have our lists with us. We are able to MAP easily. We can share lists with other people through the app or by emailing them. We can also print and carry them around when needed.
A feature that we have just begun to use, but are very excited about is Emailing to Wunderlist. You simply forward the email to Wunderlist and it becomes a To Do. The subject is the Task Name and the body of the email gets put into the Notes. Even attachments are included on the To Do. Seriously? Thank you Wunderlist for giving us a way to clean out our inboxes!!
We are now running our whole business and our personal lives using this cool tool. We loves that it reminds us what to do and when to do it, having one place to dump everything that we need to remember, and knowing can access it everywhere we go.
You can have lists for…
- Places to visit
- Personal To Do’s
- Work To Do’s
- Personal Projects
- Work Projects
- Books to read
- Groceries – with sub categories for each store she shops at.
Check out Wunderlist on iTunes and Google Play. Go to the Wunderlist Website to download for other devices.
Wunderlist helps millions of people around the world capture their ideas, things to do and places to see. Whether you’re sharing a grocery list with a loved one, working on a project, or planning a vacation, Wunderlist makes it easy to share your lists and collaborate with everyone in your life. Wunderlist instantly syncs between your phone, tablet and computer, so you can access your lists from anywhere. Take a look at the possibilities in the picture below! All of this possible in the FREE version, but they do offer a PAID version with even more options.
We hope you embrace this fun and simple way to manage your lists! Let us know what you think.
Marla
Creators of the Clear & SIMPLE Way to get & stay organized!
by CS Team
We are FREE of stuff that was dragging us down and keeping us stuck!
We are deeply honored, humbled and inspired by everyone who joined our 30 Day Clutter Clear Out this year. Wow. Thank you for showing up, taking action and sharing your wonderful stories with us! We now want to share a little with you about how our lives were changed.
Marla’s story
Where does all the stuff come from? How does it keep piling up? Why do I still have that? These were some of my questions as I wandered around my home each day looking for something to release. What surprised me was that I found old stuff in every room. I couldn’t believe it. I have been practicing living simply for years now.
Yet, I still found stuff! Stuff that was homeless, stuff from years ago still taking up space, stuff I had forgotten. It was little things and big things. It was singular things that held deep meaning. The most loaded items for me were the ones that tied into my kid’s childhood. I have been an empty nester for only 7 months now. After 30 years of creating a home for my children and caring for their things, I am on my own. My daily life is different without my kids and their stuff. It is not simple or easy to trust this change. It is a daily journey. The 30 day group has been a big gift to me. I don’t want to do this alone. Hearing others share about going through their drawers, magazines, emails and kids stuff was the strength I needed to go through mine.
Here was
a story of mine from day 3. These awesome Pooh ABC foam puzzle pieces are from Jessica’s 1st birthday. She is now 20. My grandson used them but he just turned 10. Both my kids say let them go. Seems like it would be easy but I have such resistance. I realize they came from a special friend that I miss. Also, I want to make sure they go to someone who will really enjoy them.
I get to trust the Universe here. I get to practice what I preach.
To close, I am compelled to share that I saved the toughest stuff for the end – the digital and calendar clutter. I am now seeing the light at the end of my email nightmare tunnel. Kate is teaching me how to use Wunderlist to handle all my to do’s and keep them organized in one place. And I have released giving time and energy to work that doesn’t serve my soul’s purpose. More coming on these insights…
Kate’s story
Since relocating to Los Angeles in June of 2013, my little family and I have been radically shifting our lives and home. What started as just wanting to greatly simplify turned into minimalism. For us that means having only things that we use and/or support us in living truly soul-inspired lives. We’ve discovered that we want to spend as much time as possible playing, loving, learning and adventuring…and we now know it is possible with less stuff taking up time, energy and money.
Through about 25 layers we have released somewhere around 75% of what we moved with. Our drawers, closets and cupboards are organized and everything has a home. Sure our day-to-day activities bring the stuff out and we end up with piles of things that sit, often longer than I would like (I even sometimes let the kitchen stay messy and play games instead of cleaning), but homeostasis is easily reinstated. It is the most liberating experience of my life. (more…)
by CS Team
Get our most simple, yet powerful, TIPS for time!
We’ve walked you through SEE IT, MAP IT, and DO IT for Time, which each include one of our top tips. If you missed the earlier blogs, read them now. We’d like to offer you one more fabulous tip and an offer for getting even more…
- Write a VISION for your day, week or year.
Many people think they are just too busy to make plans so we are offering the simplest of tips that can really make a difference in your life. Take 2-3 minutes and just write down your vision for the day or week. Let it be 5 words or less. Here are some examples –
- Today I will be hopeful
- Today I choose action
- I know what matters most
- This week is about family
- This week I celebrate me
- I am moving slowly
- I am grateful for life
Then try the same thing for your year! The most powerful time of the year is your birthday! Write a simple phrase of 5 words or less that encompasses what you most want in the next year. Make it visual and keep it with you throughout the year.
For a powerful and life changing vision recorded in your own voice see Ideal Life Vision. This tool will transform your life.
If you have found these tips to be helpful we’d like to invite you to purchase the whole collection along with our best tips for paper in our great little ebook TOP TEN TIPS for Paper & Time for only $10.
Let’s honor our life by honoring our our time!
Marla, Kate & Team
SEE IT. MAP IT. DO IT. © and S.T.A.C.K.S. © are property of Clear & Simple, LLC. All Rights Reserved
