Momcafe

On Friday, March 14, a full house of moms received great tips on “Getting Organized” from Rowena List of Getting It Together and Sarah Dakin of Baby Steps Life Coaching. They shared tips and strategies on how to de-clutter our lives and provided tools ranging from how to sort the piles of paper to the importance of scheduling in the important stuff first.

Speakers’ Key Points

Rowena List, Getting It Together

Rowena’s key message was to “Live with faith, not fear”.

Clutter makes your life more difficult. If you can’t find something in 19 seconds or less, you are a clutterbug!

How does clutter affect you?

• stress
• time waster
• guilt
• shame
• embarrassment
• costs money – e.g. purchasing something you can’t find like a flashlight or another pair of black pants
• loss of productivity – studies show that employees lose a ½ hour everyday trying to find things in the workplace

Nothing takes on value unless it is being used.

Key: Live with faith not fear. You will be okay if you get rid of stuff. For example, you can get rid of baby stuff because if you have another, people will give you their stuff. Have faith that the stuff you give away will not be needed again.

Key: Live with the mindset of prosperity not poverty. We do not have to save everything. Our parents who went through the depression years live with the mindset that they need to keep everything. We luckily do not have to do that as we live in prosperous times. Things will come to us if we need them.

Key: Become a conscious consumer. We react to too much marketing and advertising, and trying to keep up with the Jones. Make wise decisions about what you want to purchase.

Tips:

• Give yourself some slack; let your home look lived in.
• Kids need stations; toys all over the house is not a good idea. Designate areas as play, dress, eat, sleep – this means less clutter in your kids’ minds too.
• Lessen the clutter in your mind - get rid of mental clutter.
• Take 15 minutes a day to organize something – a spice cabinet (put them in order) or kitchen cabinets (take out chipped and broken plates).
• What to do with paper? Rowena showed her Get Organized binder that holds everything. It should not leave your desk, should be used to track phone calls, hold event tickets, etc.
• Shop consignment, especially for baby things, as it is better for the environment.

Key: You need to purge first, before buying storage tubs. Be ruthless.

Sarah Dakin, Baby Steps Life Coaching

“If we did have more time, we would just fill it.” The key to time management is make sure what fills up your time is the most important stuff.

Key 1: Get back on track – success is not about being perfect

Sarah used an airplane analogy to exemplify this key. Airplanes do not fly in a perfectly straight line - 98% of a plane’s flight path is off track. When a pilot goes off course, she just corrects the course and gets back on track. She does not say “oh boy, I am bad at this, I quit!” Success is in the turning points. Be gentle with yourself when you get off track. Just like a pilot has a dashboard of instruments to give feedback, set up your own instruments and structures to get back on track, e.g. work with a life coach or join a women’s group (like Mama Renew - www.mamarenew.ca) or use the tips below.

Key 2: Get clear about what is important to you

Set aside a regular time to clear your head, so you can tap into your intuition and your own inner wisdom. Get rest, eat well, but also do something like knitting, running, enjoying a cup of tea, or commuting without the music that allows you to clear your head to get in touch with what is important.

Use a time management system like Stephen Covey’s grid on important and non important vs urgent and non urgent.

• Q1: Important / Urgent
• Q2: Important / Non Urgent
• Q3: Non Important / Urgent
• Q4: Non Important / Non Urgent

The ideal is to have as many tasks as possible fall into Q2. If you are organized, you will be able to put more things in this quadrant.

Key 3: Schedule important things first

Sarah asked Jennifer, a mom from the audience, to demonstrate how to fit “big rock” items like health, kids, spiritual life, and exercise into a fish bowl already more than ½ full of little rocks (the non important “little stuff” tasks). The exercise only worked when Jennifer put the big rocks in first. It was very obvious that if you put the big rocks into your schedule first, the little rocks will fit in around them and in the end, you can fit it all in.

Sarah then did an individual exercise where she asked everyone to identify weekly goals and the actions that accompany those goals. On the Roles and Goals sheet, she asked everyone to think of the key roles in their lives. Then for each role, to think about the two or three things that would have the biggest impact in that area during the next week. These tasks need to be written down as specific actions, for example, “Call Mary about going for a run together”, as opposed to loosely written ones like “Lose weight”. Once the list of actions is created, the really important step is to write down when you are going to do each thing.

Questions and Answers

Q1. What can I do help someone who is a hoarder?

Most people don’t want to live like that. A family can “intervene” with the hoarder. Make gentle and tactful suggestions to help them get organized. Sometimes hiring someone to come in and help is needed.

Q2. How do you get rid of stuff with sentimental stuff?

A. People don’t gift things with the wish to burden you. Find a way to capture the memory and then pass the item on. For example, write a story about the item, take a picture, keep a journal, or make a quilt out of baby clothes. Look at your collections. Did someone start this for you or is it your collection? Do you need to keep this collection?

Tip: Gifts to moms should be consumables so that they do not add to someone’s clutter.

Q3. You are working, tired, have financial issues, etc. How do you get organized with your kids?

Get your kids involved. Declutter with your kids by creating a consignment/donating bag. Each child has to find 1 toy and 1 stuffy to donate. The more you get organized, the less tired you will be and more time you will have.

Q4. Where do you sell or get rid of baby things?

To sell items, there are good consignment stores, Craigslist, and baby swaps. To donate items, consider the Eastside Women’s Shelter, Crabtree Corner in the Downtown East Side, Richmond’s Family Place or the many thrift stores locally.