Organisation in a busy household

Trying to share out the jobs!

As you have probably seen from previous posts I am a bit of a list writer and a schedule maker. I find it helps me keep some level of sanity in our extremely busy life as a family of five.

As I embarked on a full time job at the beginning of the year I was fairly naive in thinking that mentioning to my family that I would be needing help with the cooking, shopping, cleaning and washing would be enough to  spur them into action. 

I couldn't have been more wrong.

The assumption is that woman can cope with whatever life throws at her .

In other words for the first 6 weeks of my full time job I could measure the amount of help I was given in single figures.

OH did put a load of washing on ( once)  and warm up a meal ( I think he was dirty and hungry). 

The kids revelled in their new found freedom not to complete homework and let their bedrooms descend into unrecognisable hovels.

I have learnt my lesson.

Easter has been spent not only resting, but creating a few schedules and rotas to ensure everyone does their bit. We have a cleaner coming to help out and the rest of the chores are being shared out. 

I shall have help.

Or they shan't eat.


I know just how the Little Red Hen felt now.


Some of my favourite advice and printables come from the blog I heart organizing , but be careful, you can lose a couple of hours at a time in her blog!

Organising your Monika cupboard

or in this case, drawer!

The Monika cupboard. I have a few of these if I'm honest. Maybe not quite on this scale , but you get my drift - As soon as I organise one, another appears! 

My kitchen is probably the most organised room in the house. I was able to squash in loads of drawers and cupboards when we designed it so there is enough room for all my pots, pans and kitchen things. In some of the drawers  I had wood dividers put in to keep things organised , but my largest drawer quickly became like this.

A jumble of everything we dump in the kitchen - half of which is of no use at all. I am trying to reorganise some of my Monika spaces and get rid of the clutter. It is a constant battle, esepcially with a little girl who just loves bits and pieces.

I always have a 3 way plan - keep, throw and donate, when I sort through our things. If it is clothes I am sorting I add an e.bay pile also.

So my first step was to totally empty the drawer and see what there was lurking in there.

I got rid of about half of this stuff by putting it back where it should be in other areas of the house and throwing the junk. The things that we use and are useful I divided into sections using the ever multi purpose Birchboxes.

What was left was put back into some sort of order.

 I have kept to hand the useful items like clothes labels for the kids, parking money pot, spare window keys, tape measure,hand creams and nail scissors, spare sunglasses for gardening, tape measures and torches, pens etc

Come on 'fess up - do you have a Monika cupboard lurking in your dark corners!?

Stylus Pens

Organisation and The HexStyli 6 in 1 Stylus Pen

The ipad and the stylus - sounds like a fairytale!

Ok so lists and rotas and schedules that is what is has been for me the last week . I always knew going back to work full time would need to be a highly planned operation and one of the pleasures in this for me was always going to be the possibility of new stationery and accessories! Ok, Ok I know, humour me here if stationary does not rock your boat.

I have more pretty notebooks that a girl needs, but I find that I write lists even though I keep records on my ipad and phone as well. Belt and braces you know. I always write my christmas cards in a nice ink pen, but that isn't so practical for carrying around to school, so I had been looking at these hard working, multipurpose stylus pens. Mobile Fun kindly sent me this Hexstyli pen to review and it suits me down to the ground - I love it! Unfortunately my geek of an oldest son is now trying to prise it off me as it works on all his gadgets too so I am not sure how long it will be in my possession. He is trying the "it will help me with my school work" line. Hmmmm. Mobile Fun have a range of pens that are worth a look.

The omnidirectional stylus tip works beautifully on my ipad and iphone and also on my son's Samsung ( which I know some pens won't) and  the pen writes beautifully which is important to me - no ink splodges. There is a metric and imperial measure and a little spirit level. Under the stylus You will find a mini screwdriver - phillips and flat head tip. Perfect for those small jobs that are always needing to be done to re fit batteries!

You can buy the pen and refills from Mobile Fun here. I think it is on Pre Order at the moment as it has been so popular! I think I shall put an order in for another one before I lose this one to my son!

My conclusion is if you are a writer and a user of technology - at £11.99 this is a great , non expensive gadget. 

Comes in a great presentation box

Writes beautifully

Stylish

Multitasking

Love this pen!

The note left for my OH most days!

Are you a stationery collector, a list maker or a gadget geek?




Note: No reply bloggers who leave links or unsavoury replies, however helpful they feel they are being, will be published at my discretion. I like stationery pEns and stationary cars by the way...my spell check doesn't. Oh and capitals in the middle of words ? ;(

Cable Tidy Review

Organisation

The privilege of being organised has well and truly gone out the window for me at the moment.

I have a hamster living in my hallway.

My larder is on my lounge floor.

I can hand the builders their tea through a hole in the wall.

However, it won't last forever and this little gadget sent to me by Mobile Fun is rather ingenious.

Cable Tidy by Mobile Fun

I fully intend on creating a "charge station" where we can keep all gadgets that need charging together in one place when the building work is finished. This "Cable Tidy" will be a great addition to keep wires out of the way and gadgets off the surface while they charge. It has many uses . You can use it as a stand too and keep headphones tucked neatly away at the same time. So simple, yet so effective, it was a best seller at The Gadget Show Live 2103. It retails at a reasonable £4.99 at Mobile Fun.

Design ©2012 Another New Day

www.takingachanceinlife.blogspot.uk 2012 - 2013

All personal images are owned by Another New Day

unless stated otherwise.

Images may not be downloaded,manipulated or reproduced without prior written permission. All rights are reserved.

Commercial or Private use without explicit written consent is prohibited and action will be taken through UK and worldwide copyright laws.

Organisation - De-Clutter your Life

A room at a time.

Although I didn't set out to write a series of posts on organisation it appears that is where I have been heading the last few weeks so here's another one! It must be the stage we are in preparing for the building works that is making me focus on this aspect of life.

We have a seemingly insurmountable task of de cluttering our house and living in it whilst a pretty major , 6 month building project goes on. Then and only then will the new kitchen  go in. I received the first draft plan of it today......

Beyond excited!

During this time we will have rooms out of action, services cut off and at some point the whole roof will be removed and replaced - please, please not another wet summer...please.

We have to empty two very full garages completely, move an office whilst working, clear out a utility room entirely - I have still not worked out where, oh where can I plumb in a temporary washing machine . Having cold sweats about that. 

We have to brick up half of our existing kitchen so the table, sideboard, fish tank and hamster have to be re homed - oh I could go on and on and on.

The lesson I have learnt is....

WHY DO WE HAVE ALL THIS STUFF?

We don't need most of it. 

I don't want most of it.

We don't use half of it.

It just seems to get collected over the years and clogs up our house.

Now I am a constant de clutterer. I thought I didn't hoard. 

Think again Mrs A. 

I am on a mission.

Ruthless doesn't come into it.

Fear has struck in the heart of my hubby. He has seen the crazed look in my eye and knows STUFF is going.

I am going through each room bit by bit making quick decisions. I have four piles:

KEEP

SELL

CHUCK

DONATE

I am chanting these words in my sleep . 

I am singing them to my kids. 

I have turned into the crazy, singing bag lady I was probably always destined to be, BUT

Slowly ......

There is space.

I can open drawers and find only things in there that I NEED.

I look at a shelf and only see things that PLEASE me.

I can fit my children's clothes in their drawers AND shut them ALL the way .

The food in my larder is all IN DATE

I have shelves that are EMPTY in my cupboards

IT IS HAPPENING. I FEEL I AM WAKING UP FROM THE FOG OF HAVING YOUNG CHILDREN AND FINDING A LIFE AGAIN.

BRING IT ON!

Design ©2012 Another New Day

www.takingachanceinlife.blogspot.uk 2012 - 2013

All personal images are owned by Another New Day

unless stated otherwise.

Images may not be downloaded,manipulated or reproduced without prior written permission. All rights are reserved.

Commercial or Private use without explicit written consent is prohibited and action will be taken through UK and worldwide copyright laws.

Organisation and Your Ipad.

 Ipad cases

In my recent post on Organisation, I mentioned my use of my ipad's calendar app to keep me on track each month . I carry it around with me constantly and as a result am increasingly conscious of the need to protect it. 

So courtesy of Mobilefun I now have in my possession a very attractive black and white polka dot case.

This case fits the bill and the ipad perfectly......and fulfills my requirement of  

"organisation needs to be pretty."

In fact the whole service from Mobile Fun was outstanding. 

If you read the reviews on their site, time and time again people comment on the excellent service and delivery in particular. 

I ordered this one day and it arrived, first thing the next morning.

This iPad case is beautifully made with neat and precise detailing and stitching.

The ipad is held securely and compactly in place and includes the correct holes for all the ports and features.

The front smart style cover folds back in a pyramid to form a typing or viewing stand for the ipad to rest on at an angle. 

This is ideal for working on .

The soft front cover closes with a magnetic closure which protects the ipads screen.

This ipad case retails at £17.95. 

 Mobile Fun have a great selection of reasonably priced products that you can look at here. If you use the code PROMOCLOTH when placing your order you will receive a free cleaning cloth .

I am absolutely delighted with , not only the look of this product, but it's quality too and wouldn't hesitate to recommend the product and company. 

I have also used Mobile Fun in the past for phone accessories and covers and every time have found their service, customer care and products to be of good value and quality. 

* This product was very kindly given to me to review.  The opinions were thought up all on my own.

Design ©2012 Another New Day

www.takingachanceinlife.blogspot.uk 2012 - 2013

All personal images are owned by Another New Day

unless stated otherwise.

Images may not be downloaded,manipulated or reproduced without prior written permission. All rights are reserved.

Commercial or Private use without explicit written consent is prohibited and action will be taken through UK and worldwide copyright laws.