Hello everyone,
Long time, no post. Been busy with internship, family and reorganizing my home.
A few weeks ago I got in the mail a book called Organize Now!: A Week-by-Week Guide to Simplify Your Space and Your Life by Jennifer Ford Berry. It´s a colorful modern looking book that looks like a little organizer on the cover and is much like the size of the average organizer except for the fast amount of pages that are full of information on how to tackle your home and your life and organize it so that you can be proud to have people over and in your closets.
This book is split into 56 weeks of organization where each week you do something new and keep up with what you have already done. The first 4 weeks are about Organizing Yourself, The next 8 weeks are spent organizing your papers, the 7 weeks after that are organizing your things, the 11 weeks after that are spent organizing your High-Traffic Areas such as your living room, the entryway and so fourth, the next 7 weeks are spent on Personal Spaces like closets and jewelery boxes, the next 6 weeks are spent organizing your Storage Areas like your garage and your basement, the next 9 are for special events such as birthdays and the families safety plan, and then the last 4 are your routines such as your meal planing and grocery shopping. Note that some of these won't apply to you like organizing your pet if you don't have any but then you can just jump on over to the next week of organizing.
Jennifer is big on the fact that less is more. She is not going to tell you to just throw everything away but if you don't love it and use it then it is time to part with it in one way or another like selling it on eBay or craigs list. She also talks about how going green can lower you electric bill and has lot of tips on how to go about this.
I love how this book is put into weekly projects and how she tells you how to stay decluttered. The book is beautiful and the great part is when you finish all the weeks then you can restart the book and keep up with it all. There is no guilt trip given just because you have been messy and unorganized up until now, there is just positive regard and even the goals have little places where you can check off what you have accomplished that week.
The only down side to this book is that it is spiral bound. I have had bad results on this type of binding on books I use much. Usually the cover at some point just comes off because the spiral rips out of the cover. Also sometimes the once a year and once every 3-4 months things on the check list don't fit into what you are doing that week but that might just be the way I see these things. Other than that I recommend this book to anybody that is trying to take control of the modern home that is filled with things we believe that we have to have. Join me in my effort of owning less junk and more money because when you are organized then you don't have to buy double of something because you can't find it and you buy less stuff that you don't love or need because when you do go shopping you will ask yourself those hard questions before spending your precious hard earned money.
Long time, no post. Been busy with internship, family and reorganizing my home.
A few weeks ago I got in the mail a book called Organize Now!: A Week-by-Week Guide to Simplify Your Space and Your Life
by Jennifer Ford Berry. It´s a colorful modern looking book that looks like a little organizer on the cover and is much like the size of the average organizer except for the fast amount of pages that are full of information on how to tackle your home and your life and organize it so that you can be proud to have people over and in your closets.This book is split into 56 weeks of organization where each week you do something new and keep up with what you have already done. The first 4 weeks are about Organizing Yourself, The next 8 weeks are spent organizing your papers, the 7 weeks after that are organizing your things, the 11 weeks after that are spent organizing your High-Traffic Areas such as your living room, the entryway and so fourth, the next 7 weeks are spent on Personal Spaces like closets and jewelery boxes, the next 6 weeks are spent organizing your Storage Areas like your garage and your basement, the next 9 are for special events such as birthdays and the families safety plan, and then the last 4 are your routines such as your meal planing and grocery shopping. Note that some of these won't apply to you like organizing your pet if you don't have any but then you can just jump on over to the next week of organizing.
Jennifer is big on the fact that less is more. She is not going to tell you to just throw everything away but if you don't love it and use it then it is time to part with it in one way or another like selling it on eBay or craigs list. She also talks about how going green can lower you electric bill and has lot of tips on how to go about this.
I love how this book is put into weekly projects and how she tells you how to stay decluttered. The book is beautiful and the great part is when you finish all the weeks then you can restart the book and keep up with it all. There is no guilt trip given just because you have been messy and unorganized up until now, there is just positive regard and even the goals have little places where you can check off what you have accomplished that week.
The only down side to this book is that it is spiral bound. I have had bad results on this type of binding on books I use much. Usually the cover at some point just comes off because the spiral rips out of the cover. Also sometimes the once a year and once every 3-4 months things on the check list don't fit into what you are doing that week but that might just be the way I see these things. Other than that I recommend this book to anybody that is trying to take control of the modern home that is filled with things we believe that we have to have. Join me in my effort of owning less junk and more money because when you are organized then you don't have to buy double of something because you can't find it and you buy less stuff that you don't love or need because when you do go shopping you will ask yourself those hard questions before spending your precious hard earned money.
