This is the STUFF...that drives ME crazy!

One of my favorite singing groups of the past are The Carpenter's. I just love Karen Carpenter and her deep lovely voice. One song she sings that continues to be a favorite  in my life is Rainy Days and Mondays.  The song is actually a bit on the depressing side, but it sure rings truth on those days (like today) when a Monday is A MONDAY. And on top of it...it's raining! But if you are an allergy sufferer like myself, you are actually breathing a little deeper today. So there IS blessing in the rainy Monday. A new song on the top Christian charts that I love is by a young sweet mom named Francesca Battistelli. It's called, This Is The Stuff...and it's about  all the "little things" that seem to pile up into bigger things.  The little things that are really just that....little. But depending on the day of the week (Monday), and the condition of the day (Raining), and the hurried and harried YOU that is trying desperately to get through it, those little things can ofter seem monstrous.  Amen?

However, when we look at the little things that keep tripping us up as blessings and lessons in disguise from our Creator, we can dance in rain and we CAN make it through our Mondays. What can you eliminate today from your home, your calendar, or your thought process to make your Monday a blessing and not a curse?  Think about it! Let's be intentional about living The Simple Life this week.  I've attached this fabulous song for your enjoyment.  Don't take yourself quite so seriously today. 

It's all just stuff...and most of it...is little. 

Happy Rainy Monday!



Clutter Free Gifts

I don't know about you, but I'm always looking for ways to "give" to others without adding more things to the mess of their lives. We all love stuff.  And we all love getting and giving gifts. But do we honestly need one more tchotchke (pronounced & defined: CHOCH-kuh\, noun:(a trinket; a knickknack)?  I think not. 

As we approach Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Mothers Day, and a load of birthdays in between, let's think about some CLUTTER FREE Gift Giving Ideas that will bless the socks off the people we love.

Here are some hot ideas for your gift receivers!

Clutter Free Gifts:

1. Acts of Service:  One of my favorite gifts to give to new moms for Mothers Day (or birthday) is a dinner out and free babysitting.  You could also help a friend with an organizing project that they keep dragging their feet on or don't have the skills to do.
Landscaping is much friendlier with two...give someone a day of yard work help.

2. Charitable donations: Give a gift (money, food or clothing) to your friend or family members favorite charitable organization in their name.

3. Entertainment: Movie passes/theater tickets, or a year's subscription to Netflix or Blockbuster.

4. Spa Treats: Manicures, pedicures, massages and facials are always a big hit for the women AND men in your life!

5. Gift Cards: Who doesn't love to have money burning a hole in their wallet? Gift cards are a great way to get the people on your list exactly what they want.

6. Restaurant Gift Certificates: Do your friends and family members have a favorite restaurant that they frequent? This will save them money and you can be sure if it's a favorite spot, it will be used up.

7. Special Outings - Take the people on your list on a picnic that you prepared or go boating, or skydiving, or to the theater! Do you have entertainment parks in your area? Treat them to a day of fun!

8. Homemade Goodies: If you like to bake, make something yummy along with a homemade card. Every birthday and holiday my daddy says to me..."Ahhh, just make me a card. That's all I really need." Who doesn't love receiving something made with love?

9. Ready Made Items: Gift packages from Harry & David or Honey-Baked Ham or a basket of coffees are wonderful store bought items that are consumable and delicious!

10. The Gift of Organization:  In a world spilling over with clutter, giving the gift of organization to help the people you love find peace and order in their lives. This is the the gift that keeps on giving!  And I think I know a Professional Organizer who can help : )  Gift cards are available.

Let's spend less money this year on things that may never be used or will probably be re-gifted later, and let's find creative ways to give the people we love, gifts that bless and relieve and encourage.

Got Avery Labels?

Daily Affirmations

There are some days you just need a little reminder that YOU CAN. 

After my second week of being down and out from upper respiratory invasion, I made a choice today to draw a line in the sand and stop the madness of my own discouragement.  You know how it is....you feel terrible, your plans get interrupted because you feel terrible, you can't think straight, you wander around in circles getting nowhere fast, and well...., you just FEEL TERRIBLE. 

Sometimes when we face a mountain of clutter in our lives it makes us feel terrible and we aren't sure where to begin or how to face the madness. The best medicine to change our perspective and to gain a little courage to begin is some daily affirmations of the things we LOVE.  This always helps motivate me to tackle the messes in my life with confidence and perseverance. This video I have attached is one of my favorites.  Everybody needs a little Jessica in their lives!  

After praying through some frustrating strongholds, I found myself late this afternoon, sweeping my carport and saying OUT LOUD...."I love my dog....I love my family...I love my house...I love my car....I love my book bag.....I love my Bible...I love organizing...I love my Jesus....I love my friends....I LOVE EVERYTHING!  And then I felt so much better.

Check out this fabulous reminder and remember that YOU CAN love your house and face the madness with determination after you've given your heart a little affirmation.

Cleaning for a Reason!

We all need a little help now and then, just to manage the every day tasks, to-do's, and people in our lives. But if you, like a number of my friends, are currently undergoing cancer treatments,  not feeling very productive or energetic to get it all done, then this is a resource for YOU! 

Personally, I have 11 women on my prayer list who are battling cancer that I pray for weekly.  Women of Courage...Women of Faith...Women on the front line of the battlefield. They are my hero's.
But there are many days that I know they just don't feel good...period.

If you have a loved one that needs a little help from their friends, physically and financially, please check out Cleaning for a Reason.  Here's a little info about who they are and what they offer.

Cleaning for a Reason

If you know of any woman currently undergoing chemotherapy, please pass the word to her that there is a cleaning service that provides FREE housecleaning - once per month for 4 months while she is in treatment. All she has to do is sign up and have her doctor fax a note confirming the treatment. Cleaning for a Reason will have a

participating maid service in her zip code area arrange for the service.

This organization serves the entire USA and currently has 547 partners to help these women. It's our job to pass the word and let them know that there are people out there that care. Be a blessing to someone and pass this information along.

Here the link ! Pass this information along to anyone you know who could use a little help from their friends!

 http://www.cleaningforareason.org/

What do I do with ALL these Photo's??

Memories...we love them. 

We want to frame every single one we possibly can. We get snap happy at every birthday party, every graduation, every trip around the world, and every "first everything"! And before we know it, we are knee deep in pictures, copies of pictures, doubles, triples, and boxes spilling out with all of those wonderful MEMORIES!

If I hear it once a week with a client, I hear it 10 times...."What do I do with ALL these photo's?"  Stop taking pictures?  No...  That's not possible. We love to capture life too much.  Photography is one of my favorite hobbies and I know the value in the 150 you take to get that ONE perfect shot! Thankfully today, we live in the world of Digital.  This is much more manageable than the old world of film and negatives and really really bad shots that we have to pay for. Life is improving in the department of photo memorabilia, but there are still all those pictures you took prior to the era of digital.

As I was perusing my own spilling over stash of old and new pics, I thought I'd share with y'all some of the ways I keep my photo memories organized, stored and pared down to a workable amount. 

1. Find a large space (dining room table, card table, utility room counter tops, etc.) where you can spread all those memories out before you to begin your project.

2. Go through each box and purge out ALL bad out of focus shots, old negatives (when was the last time you searched for an old pic on a negative?) and duplicates.

3. Once you have shaved off a layer of photos that are not necessary, begin sorting by category.  You can sort by year if you have labeled them well enough to know what year it is, or if you have a general idea of the time frame. Or,you can sort by groups (Travel, Family, Kids, Grand kids, Holidays, Archives, etc.).

4. Buy photo boxes or clear large shoe box size containers to store your photo's by category.

5. Label your boxes so that when you need that one specific photo for a project or to frame, you will know exactly where to find it.

6. Designate a closet in your house that is just for photo memorabilia. This will help keep those pictures in ONE PLACE and not stuffed here there and everywhere!

7. Set some goals for your pictures for the new year.  What do you want to do with all those memories?  Put them in an album?  Begin Creative Memories cropping parties? Organize them into cool photo boxes and use to decorate bookshelves? Frame and decorate a "Wall of Fame" of pictures old and new? Or simply have them all together, sorted and organized for the occasional project, family reunion, etc.? 

Something I like to do with my pictures is have a basket or a barrel or an old antique suitcase that sits in the family room full of random photos for family and friends to look through for fun. We have all these memories, but how often to we sit down and look back and have a laugh or two? 

The skies the limit on what you can do with all those pictures. But the hardest part is just to BEGIN.  Now that you have some direction, get out your calendar and set a date to stroll down memory lane! 

Let's make 2011 the year that we don't make "Making Memories" just another way to clutter up our lives.  Your pictures need a home too : )

Happy Organizing!

  

A Spacious Place

He is wooing you from the jaws of distress to a spacious place free from restriction, to the comfort of your table laden with choice food.”

                                                           Job 36:16

We live in a world full of clutter. We fill our homes with stuff; we fill the hours of our day with activity, noise and stress. More always seems to be better and enough is never enough. Our good intentions of “simplifying” are quickly snuffed out by waves of distractions. Distractions that wage a war within us, distractions the world presents as important and cool and necessary for survival. Before we know it, we are stuffed to the max, worn to the bone, and often left wondering if anything we are doing is seriously making an impact on this world.

It truly is a problem that quickly becomes a vicious cycle...Simplify…Need more stuff…Simplify…Shop…Let it Go…Do more things… I see it every single day in my job. I see it in my own life. Some people are called to the mission field in Africa. Others are called to inner city missions for children and women. For the past 10 years I have been called to the mission field of homes and offices. Called to bring peace in the midst of the chaos and clutter! Try to picture if you will the mountains of clutter I have climbed in 10 years. Don’t think about it too long, it’s a scary thought indeed. In fact, my waistline should be a heck of a lot slimmer than it is for all the mountains I’ve climbed! But we won’t talk about THAT clutter today.

Years ago I had a client say to me very honestly…”Kim, the clutter in my head is as bad as the clutter in my home.” Can anyone relate? If we are honest with ourselves, I think we can all relate in some capacity of our busy lives. Sometimes we just need a break in the routine of life to just…breathe. When was the last time you stopped the madness and just inhaled deeply and then exhaled? Go ahead, stop reading and do it right now! Ahhhhhhh...sweet relief, huh? Why is it we fill our plates so full, we stuff ourselves to the point of exploding (heart, house and time), and we think it’s good? I don’t know about y’all, but there are days that I just need some space! Space to think, space to take inventory of all my activities, and space to BREATHE.

The past few weeks I have been on a word search through the Scriptures. Over and over and over again the Lord has led me to a particular verse that says…”He brought me out into a spacious place…”

Fascinated by this phrase, particularly because He keeps speaking it to my heart, over and over again, I did a little research to understand it more clearly. This is what I discovered. The Hebrew word for “spacious place” is merchab, which means a broad or roomy place, an expansive place, or a wide place. One of the verses in
2 Samuel 22:20 states…” He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.”

Doing a little further investigation, I found these parallel translations of the same phrase.

“He led me to a place of safety…” (New Living Translation)

“He brought me out into a broad place...” (English Standard Version)

“He brought me forth also into a large place…” (King James Version)

And my favorite version by Eugene Peterson’s (The Message) says…

…“you gave me room to breathe.” How often do you give yourself room to breathe? This spacious place is a provision from the Lord. It’s a stopping place for our hearts and our minds to get off the fast track of cluttered living and just rest. He brings us to this place because He delights in us! He truly has our best interest at heart. When we bring our “stuff” out into a WIDE OPEN place, we can inventory what truly is important verses what seems urgent in our own eyes. We are able to breathe deeper and most importantly, we are able to see and hear the One that is calling us to a life of peace in the midst of a busy world.

I don’t know about you, but I am so thankful to the Lord for the spacious places He provides for me. A place to get off the treadmill of life to breathe, a place to say “no” with confidence, remembering that “no” is a complete sentence. And a place to walk around barefoot in the grass with Jesus, just because He delights in me. Today let’s embrace that large place of safety and relief, free from the restrictions and burdens of this world. Your clutter does not define you. But how quickly it does take over our lives when we don’t take time to stop off in the “spacious place” to be refreshed and renewed in the Spirit.

I’m camping out in these verses for the next few weeks until the Lord and I are walking in step with one another in the grass of His priorities for me.

Breathing deep sighs of relief for us all!

In Him,

Kim B.