Speed Up Your Cleaning

Posted on May 20, 2012 by Angela


It’s usually a major surprise to clients that once the clutter is removed and order returned, cleaning becomes less of a chore and usually done faster once maintained regularly.

6 key reasons why regular cleaning is important:

1) Dusting: good for maintaining health, especially those who suffer asthma or respiratory problems. It helps treasured items maintain their appearance & function. Why spend heaps of money on an object or medications if you neglect your stuff or yourself?

2) Wiping up spills: again, obviously important to everyone’s health. Clean up spills as soon as they occur and they are easier to remove. Left spills and empty food containers around the house attract vermin, bacteria and odours. Sticky dry messes and build-ups of cooking oil create a bigger chore if left too long.

3) Vacuuming: essential to assist in dust and dirt removal, but also reduces the traffic of things off feet and shoes being transported through the house into areas such as into bed linen. It also protects the life of your carpet. Remember the attachments! Clean under lounge cushions, ceiling fan blades, door tracks, skirting boards and frames. Remember to replace vacuum cleaner bags often so that the cleaner suction is maintained.

4) Bathroom hygiene: maintain regular cleaning of toilets and bathroom surfaces to reduce odours, bacteria, mould and stain build-ups. Keep the toilet brush near the toilet, consider others and yourself and scrub accidents straight after they occur. Keep a window squeegee in the shower and do the glass panels after showering to maintain reduction of soap scum build-up.

5) Psychological: Build-ups of dirt, stains and clutter has a psychological impact. You gradually feel overwhelmed, some may even feel a sense of failure or left open to judgment and criticism. When embarrassment sets in, you’re less likely to bring people home, in turn limiting your enjoyment and sharing of your surroundings and the things you have bought with your hard earned cash.

6) Fitness: Cleaning burns calories and keeps you flexible! Put on your favourite music or a recorded book and get moving! Make cleaning enjoyable.

So how does removing clutter speed all of this up?

• By removing clutter from floors, dust and dirt can’t accumulate – vacuuming is faster.
• By removing clutter from surfaces, wipe downs (especially in bathrooms) become
much quicker.
• Try and put groups of cosmetics, bottles etc. into decorative trays, bowls and baskets
if you don’t have the drawers or cupboards to put them in.
• Remove less used appliances from kitchen bench tops.
• Have a bowl for spare change, another for keys, have a jewellery box for jewellery.
• Have 2 baskets in the laundry, one for collected items out of pockets and another for
odd socks.
• Put CD’s, DVD’s into their cases to protect them, that is what they’re for.
• Return all medications to the medicine cabinet. Leaving them around is dangerous as
children or pets may accidentally consume it or you may miss a dose. Medication
should be private.
• Handle paperwork once, read, assign, action, put in pending, file or toss.
• Cover unused heaters or portable fans with a cover to reduce dust build-up when stored.
• Lastly, untangle and streamline those electrical cables. Jumbles of cables are not only
dangerous but attract dust which grows into ugly balls of fluff that are unsightly
and unhealthy.

Posted in De-cluttering, Random Topics, Time Management | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Wake Up to Your Make-up!

Posted on May 18, 2012 by Angela

OK ladies this one is for you. When did you really take a good look at what is in your make-up bag? There may be some things in there you actually forgot about, and I don’t mean products.

When it comes to looking into your make-up collection sometimes your best friend could be your worst enemy. One word could be all the motivation you need to have a good de-clutter of your make-up. That word is ‘bacteria’.

I’ve personally never been one to hoard make-up, when I run out of something I replace it – simple, but make-up does expire and although all cosmetics should have their shelf life written on the packet, once you have discarded that packet it can be hard to monitor.

On some products you may find a picture of a lid with a code inside it e.g. 12M means twelve months, but as only we know when we started using the product, it’s up to us to keep track. There are a few ways to do this. You could keep a note in your diary, e.g. on the date 6 months from purchase write “dump Blush Rose lipstick” (but that’s far too organised for even me!). I think the easiest way is to keep a piece of paper in a tiny clip-lock bag in with your makeup for easy referral. On this you can note down the product alongside the purchase date. It can also be handy to write down place of purchase just in case a few months down the line you have trouble replacing a favourite colour lippy. The clip-lock bag is basically to protect the list from dirt & wear.

So how long should we keep our make-up? Well here is a guide via some online research I’ve done based on shelf life after opening. Of course every brand has it’s own set of chemicals and this can cause variations in shelf life. Make-up with natural ingredients may expire quicker due to having natural or no preservatives. Rule of thumb, if in doubt – contact the manufacturer.

• Blusher Powders: 18 months
• Compact Powders: 18 months – 2 years
• Concealer: 12 months
• Eye Pencils: 18 months – 3 years
• Foundation: Water based up to 1 year after opening, Oil based up to 18 months
• Lip Liner: Up to 3 years
• Lipstick: 1- 4 years (will last longer if kept in the fridge)
• Liquid eyeliners: 3 months
• Mascara: 3 months, and never mix with water or saliva to help stretch it (blah!)
• Nail Polish: up to 12 months depending on how many times you open the bottle.
• Powder eye shadows: up to18 months

Also it’s worth remembering that brushes should be washed every 2-3 months and that sponges should be washed weekly and thrown out monthly. All can be washed in a mild detergent. Lip and eye pencils should be sharpened regularly to prevent bacteria build-up. All of this will help to keep make-up and faces germ free. Common sense should also tell us that if make-up changes in appearance or smells odd, let it go.

Posted in De-cluttering, Organising | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Shed Life

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Angela

For some there is no greater joy in the world than spending hours in the backyard shed creating. But what if you have created a mess, rather than a place of creativity?

Need a project for the weekend? Let’s have a little look at some basic guidelines for organising the smaller castle called the backyard shed.

When it comes to organising the shed the principles remain the same as de-cluttering and organising any other room in the house. Divide and conquer!

It’s about looking at the space and creating zones. You may think you know the zones you need, however, sometimes a good de-clutter can reveal activities you don’t do anymore or may want to do again that you had totally forgotten about.

Step 1:  Remove everything. Make sure it is a dry day and use the space outside to lie out all the contents of the shed. Give the shed a good sweep, get rid of cobwebs and mould and do any necessary repairs to the building itself.

Step 2:  Categorise. Create some sort piles on the lawn or driveway to help you to group items.

Here are some to get you started:

  • gardening equipment
  • automotive supplies
  • sports equipment
  • electrical tools
  • carpentry tools
  • pool maintenance
  • plumbing supplies
  • painting equipment
  • home maintenance general
  • outdoor play equipment
  • picnic, beach and camping gear
  • cleaning equipment and supplies
  • christmas décor and lights
  • miscellaneous storage

Step 3:  De-clutter. Consider what can be donated and have some spare boxes and bags to transport these items. One note on donations, most do not accept electrical goods for the obvious risks associated. You may also  want to have a look at what could be sold or given to family or friends. If you do need to throw things away,  please remember your environmental impact when discarding chemicals and other dangerous objects.  Also consider exactly what can go into your council bin. Contact your local council for advice if unsure. The rest will have to have a home in the shed and be stored correctly.

Step 4:  Re-house what is left. Now you can assess what containers, hooks and shelves etc. you will need to effectively store everything. Try and recycle containers you already have to house some items where possible. If you need to make a list of items to purchase, take measurements before you leave. When putting things back, consider things such as object weight, safe reachable heights, ergonomics and safety and where possible keep items in their zones and label for easy retrieval.

Step 5:  Plan your next project from your great new shed!

Posted in De-cluttering, Organising | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Tidy Your Room!

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Angela

“No TV, no computer, no playing until you TIDY YOUR ROOM!” … Ahh the dulcet tones of parenting.

When approached by parents who are at their wits end on how to get a child to tidy their room, there is often an expectation that kids should know how to do this, and yet sadly sometimes the case is that there could be some contributing factors sabotaging a child’s effort. There could be an undiagnosed learning difficulty, no role model to learn from or no ‘scaffolding’ to help guide them or make the process easy.

Regardless of age, organising is a skill, and because it is a skill it can be taught and therefore learned. The key is to ‘win’ cooperation and the best way to do that is to allow them to ‘own’ their space. Kids need to feel that they are part of the solution, therefore create a positive atmosphere; have a discussion; get their ideas and consider their suggestions. You may be surprised at what you learn and what they come up with. You may even learn what is difficult for them.

With younger children, make tidying up a game! “Who can find all the yellow blocks, before I count to 10?” “Lets refuel the toy cars before we garage them”. “Dolly can’t be ready for the next tea party if she doesn’t have her things put together for next time”. And so it goes. Older kids may need a checklist and a chore contract. Here are a few other tips:

Kids need visual cues. Things can’t be put away if kids don’t know where to put them. Label storage boxes with pictures or word labels and get the kids to help make them. For safety make shelves and storage containers height accessible. Put heavy or large containers on lower shelves.

Don’t blur categories, i.e. don’t have one box that everything goes into haphazard. Pieces get lost, toys get broken and the skill of organisation fails. Use lunch boxes and clip lock bags for grouping small pieces. Keep small pieces away from toddlers in containers higher up the shelves.

Have a general quick tidy away box or basket, but ensure there is a routine time each day or week it is.emptied and toys are correctly distributed to their rightful places.

If possible zones within a room are useful, e.g. the reading corner, the dress-up corner, construction table, art and craft zone, homework area to name a few. Have a look at your child’s pre-school or school room set up for a way to imitate this idea at home with what you have available.

Rotate toys, and teach the golden rule to clean up one activity before starting another. And yes rewards charts have their place, just make them age appropriate. You may however want to look at another system …

Toy Jail, is a system where toys that are repeatedly not put away or left lying around. Toys go to toy jail, and a ‘make-up’ chore needs to be done to release them from jail. You may need to create some ‘get out of jail’ chore cards to go with the toy jail.

Kids of all ages are used to working in structured environments and routines at school, so keep the consistency at home. Set real expectations and put the scaffolding in place and hopefully the battle zones shall soon become tidy fun zones!

Posted in Kids & Teens, Organising | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Costs Of Being Disorganised

Posted on May 9, 2012 by Angela

 

Now more than ever we should be assessing how being disorganised can cost each and every one of us. It’s really worth thinking about.

If we break it down being disorganised can cost us in 1 of 6 ways, being:

  • Financially
  • Our relationships
  • Our time
  • Our employment, career and course of study opportunities
  • Psychologically; and
  • Our health and well-being

Let’s assess these more closely.

Financially: If we budget and plan we save. If we know where things are we won’t double up by buying more. We won’t waste petrol by traveling more to get replacements. If we plan our trips carefully we won’t waste petrol doing several trips.  Most importantly, we won’t get hit with overdue fees, overdrawn accounts or affect our credit ratings.

Our Relationships: Stress amongst family and friends can be due to our own unreliability and mess. Being disorganised leads to instances of blame and excuses. You’ll be a better parent and role model if you are less stressed and have more time for your kids, your partner and yourself.

Our Time: Looking for things and replacing things wastes time. It also robs you of time spent on more worthwhile and enjoyable pursuits. This can also waste other people’s time. Work becomes easier when our time in the workplace is managed better. Prioritising can make the difference between time at work and time at home. Organised homes are often faster to clean and tidy. Having an organised calendar ensures you don’t miss important dates and events.

Employment, Study & Career: Fail to plan, plan to fail. All eyes are on you. The disorganised rarely progress or advance to where they’d like to be. You will make a better impression and improve your status at work when you look pulled together with an organised wardrobe and approach your work in the same way. You won’t be looked at as unreliable or unable to bring a task to completion. You may also be considered for a promotion, and less likely to be retrenched.

Psychologically: It will improve your mental health as you will feel a sense of peace and experience an uncluttered mind. It will increase your self-confidence. “Yes, I have my act together, I am in control’. You won’t feel useless, guilty, judged or criticized.

Health & Well Being: Health improves. You’ll lower your stress and have a cleaner home and work environment. Clean and ordered homes also equal less dust mites, mould and mildew due to them being better aired, and easier to clean. You will eat better due to planning your meals and grocery shopping and because your kitchen is organised, you’ll enjoy cooking healthy meals.

So get organised and enjoy more time for yourself and run your home and work life more efficiently. It’ll pay you back with interest.

Posted in Lifestyle Management, Organising, Time Management | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Photographic Memories

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Angela

Whether handed down to you in sepia tones from generations past, or accumulated over the years in printed or digital form, photos can prove to be an organising challenge.

Without getting too technical on the safest ways to store your precious memories, today I will briefly focus on how to ‘sort’ photos cohesively. I’m also not going to get into the world of scrapbooking either physical or digital as I believe this is a topic unto itself, and so I will choose to revisit scrapbooking at another time.

Time and Place: Set aside a time to commit to this project i.e. 1-2 hours, one night a week, but try to be consistent, you are making a date with your ‘elephant’, and as we know there is only one way to eat an elephant, and that’s one bite at a time. Involve the kids. They will love the trip down memory lane and try and do this at a desk or table where you can spread things out. But make sure you don’t leave them spread out before you get back to them again. Leaving photo sorting projects scattered out and about the place equates to damage, dust accumulation and loss.

Edit & Reduce: Be ruthless. Only keep the good photos, remove (shred any too personal), blurred or unflattering ones; duplicates; or people and places you either can’t (or don’t want to) remember.

Tools & Tips: Gather together index cards, sticky notes (or removable masking tape), paper envelopes, clear clip-lock bags, and either old shoeboxes or photo boxes. These are to help you ‘sort’ your photos into categories. Big tip, don’t use ink! Use pencils. If you use a pencil on envelopes they can be reused. Again, using post-it’s or masking tape on clip-lock bags instead of ink means they can be reused after sorting. It’s about speed and saving money in the process. Get the boring job done first, revisit and get pretty with labelling when the boring job is out of the way. Another thing, often is the case that ink can get on your fingers and then on your precious photos. Also, resist writing on the backs of photos with ink as often this can transfer onto the face of photos behind others in a box. If you want to put notes onto an actual photo. Use a post-it note and stick it on the back, and again write with pencil onto the post-it note.

Chronological Markers: Categories should work as close to chronological as possible for each member of the family. Mum and Dads individual lives before they met. The life they’ve lived together. Within these times, use year/event markers, e.g. school days, sports events, holidays, reunions, birthdays, Christmas etc., engagement, wedding, honeymoon, birth of each child etc. Write the title of the category on the post-it and attach to the envelope, pop the envelope into the box, the most recent event to the front. Eventually envelopes can be removed and replaced with labeled dividers, although if you want to keep the sets together keep the envelopes and write the title and any notes on it.

Events: If chronological becomes too taxing, think of grouping by event, and if you want to get more detailed, event per family member, or family group.

Merging of Media Types: CD’s of other photos belonging to an event can also be included in with printed photos. Oversized photos can be noted onto an index card with a locator reference to note its existence and where it can be located, e.g. in larger photo box or an album.

Digital photo frames or computer storage: are great if used properly. Ensure creation of chronological folders with group titles and make sure you also back them up onto an external disk or drive. Scanning of printed photos can be time consuming, but worth the effort if you’re committed.

Online or ‘Cloud’ Storage: Nowadays there is also the option of saving your photo library to a ‘Cloud’, such as Dropbox; Skydrive; and for Mac,  iCloud’s Photostream. I’ve been advised that  some such as Photostream are not recommended for an entire library unless you are prepared to pay for additional data. Some also give you trial periods, some are good for documents and photos and others also for business storage. Again, some are ‘public’ and not ‘private’. So, because I’m no expert on all that’s out there, to help sort this out for you, I’ve found a very comprehensive and fairly current review by Kevin Ekland on ToMuse.com who has personally investigated and reviewed each giving his pros and cons and costs. Check it out here: Ultimate Review List of Best Free Online Storage and Backup Application Services.

*Another note on digital storage: As technology is constantly changing some photo archiving companies still recommend clients keep original photos and negatives. This is because the original quality is still always best reproduced. The steps involved in scanning a photo then saving to say a CD or USB stick back-up and then to something else equals two or more degradations of the original image.

Example: If you would like to see an example of some photo sorting I have done for a client visit my Facebook page, hit the Like Button, and look in the photo album there! Photo sorting is a specialty of mine, so if the task you have seems overwhelming and you’d like a professional job, book a session via the Less Equals More ‘Contact’ page, and as Mother’s Day is around the corner, maybe this could be a wonderful Gift Certificate idea for Mum?

Posted in Organising, Random Topics, Tech Blog | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Beating The Clock

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Angela

Everyday we run for our lives through responsibilities and seemingly never-ending
‘to-do’ lists.

Not enough can be said about having starting blocks. Seriously, think about it.

When an athlete is about to run that 200M sprint, he’s hyped up yet focused on the task ahead and he gets his start from well-placed blocks on which to start his run to glory. So too must we. Preparation is key, and having the tools to get you on your way are critical to yours and your family’s success.

We all know we must have a good breakfast, but how many of us actually have time to sit and enjoy it? How many of us eat on the run?

This is where a little preparation the night before can always help us to get off the blocks smoother in the morning. Role model these tips for your kids, get them to follow your lead and then everyone will be running in the right direction, instead of tripping all over each other like in a 3-legged race.

The night before (straight after dinner, during the ad breaks on telly), lay out your clothes the night before, iron that shirt, shine those shoes, make that lunch and put it in the fridge. Make your to do list for the next day and remember to aim for completing at least 3 items on it. Check and update your diary and your daily running file for any items you need to have with you the next day; whether it be items for errands, work or school and pack it in your bag so you aren’t scrambling around looking for them in the morning when the unexpected could put a spanner in the works.

Checklists don’t have an age limit and are a tool not a weakness (yes even a child can use them!). If kids can’t read, use pictures or photos of them doing the steps and stick them on a chart. Establish a ‘Family Command Centre’ near the door and you will have your ‘Starter Block’ to push off from. Make sure everything is there at your fingertips before you go. Keys, sunglasses, wallet/purse, directions, mobile and sports gear etc. Don’t put off till tomorrow what you can get off your list today, dry-cleaning won’t clean itself, so if you value that jacket clean it now or give it away.

Remember too, that you are role modeling for your kids. If you look disorganised and frantic don’t be surprised if they act in the same way. Manage your time better and they will manage theirs better. Have everyone follow the same rules and everyone will eat breakfast without stress and get out the door and through their day far better. Lastly, change the inner dialogue – and remember the Less Equals More mantra “routines are not straight jackets, they’re life jackets!”

Posted in Lifestyle Management, Time Management, uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Valuing ‘The Really Good Stuff’ Over Just ‘Stuff’

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Angela

As it said on the big board out the front of a local school recently … ”Predict your own future by creating it in your present.”

What a cool thought! It gives us permission to take back control of our lives. Sure, there will always be things that are beyond our control, but for the majority, our decisions and choices are ours.

Sometimes clutter can feel like one of those uncontrollable forces. Some days we think we’re on top of it only to fall behind again. Yet the reality is that we are allowing the clutter to control us. It’s true, stuff can be powerful, but it is us who give stuff power.

That too small pair of jeans aren’t grabbing you by your leg begging you to allow them to stay in your wardrobe. The china tea-set in the back of the cupboard (which Auntie May left to you) can’t feel neglected. Objects can’t project emotions of guilt onto you, yet isn’t it odd how we unknowingly project human emotions onto inanimate objects in order to somehow protect ourselves from the pain of letting go?

Over 6 years ago now, Mum, my sister and I had to go through the difficult task of letting go of my late father’s clothing. Allowing our emotions to flow, we’d still smell the familiar scent of his after-shave clinging to warm but now empty jumper sleeves, and it would be easy to reminisce, but I knew it was still an empty wooly sleeve I hugged and it wouldn’t bring my Dad back. We had photos of Dad happy in that jumper and the memories of that day, but the truth was that the emotion of the moment lived on in my heart. Logic tells me no one can take this away from me because that kind of stuff is accessible at any time I choose. I’m in control of that moment and the happy emotions attached to it, where an empty sleeve only served to remind me further of my loss.

Of course I have kept a few physical mementoes of my Dad, and out of tribute to him they are kept in a very special box and not just stuffed into plastic bags willy nilly throughout my home. I go to that box on special days to remember and celebrate his life on Father’s Day, his Birthday, Christmas and just days when I ‘need’ to be close to him, if only to remember his hugs when I was feeling lost. Having those few things and feeling lost in the memory of the relationship, the connection, the love, is the ‘really good stuff’.

This is what helps you decide what is really valuable to you and what isn’t.  

So live in your present, let go of your empty sleeves and your clutter and don’t be afraid to take control back from the stuff! Remember, ‘stuff’ can’t talk back or complain if you give it its marching orders. So lovingly tell it to leave home so it can create some happy memories or comfort for someone else who needs it now.

Posted in De-cluttering, Random Topics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

D is for Downsizing (Without Moving)

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Angela

Sad to say my terrific neighbour is moving out today, and while he is in the process of moving to a place with more room for his changing circumstances, I am reminded that when I moved here, my situation was just the reverse, I had to do a massive ‘down-sizing’.

Truth is moving or not, it is healthy to do a yearly assessment of what your life has become in terms of day to day living and whether you are just keeping stuff because you’ve always had it, or whether or not you are brave enough to do the assessment of what you need for who you are now. I do this a lot with clients who are parents of growing children in terms of what ‘clothing’ fits now and will still get wear in another year and what ‘toys’ suit the child’s age in terms of development. As adults we too can benefit from periodically looking at what we have outgrown and who we are in terms of our ‘things’ and what our stuff is saying about us. It’s healthy to do, and often better than welcoming in the new year because fresh starts can begin whenever. OK, so you’re wanting to get going but how to motivate oneself to do such an overwhelming task. Where to begin?

As they say, it’s all about learning how to eat an elephant. One bite at a time. Start small, use a technique called ‘flashlight focussing’. Use a flashlight (torch), and shine it on one area and only deal with the items that are literally in the spotlight and give yourself a time limit. Even if it’s just 15-30mins. If you don’t have a flashlight, then use a bed sheet, or a towel. Throw it over one area of the space you plan to work on, and memorise sheet borders.

Start in one room only, and make it your favourite room (once conquered it will encourage you to tackle another and then another). Ask yourself:

  • What do you love about it.
  • What you can’t stand about it .
  • What you need in it.
  • What you don’t need in it.
  • What you’d like to improve about it.
  • How it makes you feel when you are in it.
  • What you actually ‘do’ in there.
  • Also think about the colours in it and whether they are working for you in terms of positive emotions. Look also at which objects have the colours you want to keep.
  • Pretend, – if you were going to move, what ‘wouldn’t’ you want to put in your new life?

Next, work your flashlight clockwise around the room, and at each stage, take note of how your emotions feel as you go through each of the following steps. Don’t be dictated by the dollar value of items, we are interested in first the practical and secondly the emotional value. Now …

  • First remove any clearly visible objects you wish were not there, (note ‘gut’ response).
  • Only leave objects that clearly have a purpose and function and must remain, followed by truly loved objects (not ‘kinda’ loved objects). If not totally satisfactory think of how you could improve them.
  • Make a note of any dumping grounds, look at what has been dumped there; how long this stuff has been there; why this stuff doesn’t have a place; and how often it gets dumped there. Should that area be converted to an area with purpose to prevent ‘dumping’. In other words does each object have a ‘home?’ Does it deserve the real estate position you have given it?
  • Assess the volume of space needed for kept objects, and any practical storage functions of these items. Also look for objects that could be used for storage (e.g. an old shoebox may be able to contain socks or stationery within a drawer.
  • Look at each area in the room in terms of zones, e.g. do you or could you dress in this area? do you put make-up on here? do you watch television? do you prepare food? This will dictate the necessity items that need to be kept in that immediate space, counter-top, drawer etc. For example a tray could house coffee/tea making items atop a microwave and relieve pantry space, while keeping everything neatly together near the kettle.
  • Look at what is purely decorative, and give them a rating. This will help you decide which items to keep, store and rotate or let go of. You may find that only 5 items will work on sideboard, keep the best five that work together to tell a story.
  • Think seasonal, are the objects lingering better stowed away until winter? Is the colour scheme keeping you too warm during the summer? Do you really need that throw blanket?
  • If you are choosing to let go of items, decide on how. Will you donate? offer to family and friends? have a garage sale? sell through the classifieds,? or dispose, whatever you decide commit to a date on the calendar, and follow through. Don’t leave them in new ‘piles’.
  • If you are going to store some things seasonally, do it properly and make sure you have the room to store them without creating problems elsewhere in your home.

Incidentally the flashlight focussing technique can be applied to other areas of your life as well. I have often used it to help my son with schoolwork as often he would look at a page in a textbook or on a worksheet and be totally overwhelmed by the sheer volume of reading or questions. Simply use sheets of plain paper to cover the areas of the page that aren’t being read or worked on and slowly reveal more text or exercises. This can also be applied to work ‘to-do’ lists and ‘meeting agendas’ to keep you focussed on topic.

Posted in De-cluttering, Lifestyle Management, Organising | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Your Carbon Footprint & 10 Benefits of Home Schooling

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Angela

While home schooling is not an option for most – others may find this next question a tad controversial. Have you ever thought about the impact mainstream education has on your carbon footprint?

A few years ago I worked my business around home-schooling my son, and at the time while looking at the topic of global warming, we did a comparison exercise.

  1. I saved on petrol and car wear and tear and thus pollution, by not having to get to school every day (whether by car or public transport). I also didn’t have to travel to school for teacher meetings. I didn’t have to waste their electricity providing me a meeting room. All correspondence was done via email or phone.
  2. I didn’t have to buy school uniforms or bags etc. or replace those that went missing. Imagine the saving on our carbon footprint by cutting out the need for production of such items.
  3. I didn’t have to buy school lunches – either to pack or to purchase at the school tuck shop. This reduced my need for packaging, my need for freezing ice-bricks to keep lunches cool. It reduced the amount of food being brought home ‘un-eaten’ due to the ice bricks not doing their job, or because my child didn’t eat the food. Making lunch at home ensured a healthy diet and nothing was wasted. Scraps were put straight into the compost or worm farm.
  4. The vegie patch, compost bin and worm farm became part of our ‘home schooling’ curriculum. My child saw a direct correlation, and he loved being involved.
  5. Paper wasn’t wasted, it’s was re-used or shredded immediately. Shredded paper was then either taken to the pet shop (for use in cages), put in the compost, worm farm or mouse cage, or used to pack fragile parcels for posting.
  6. I didn’t need to wrap school books in plastic or contact to preserve their life. Our resources were sent to us via mailed workbooks – as were resource library books and audio/visual materials, which were then returned after use for re-use for future students. We saved space. We saved money. We didn’t need to ‘re-sell’ anything at the end of the year, or feel dreadful if we were unable to ‘re-sell’ those items and then consequently have to send such items to landfill because no one, (not even a charity), could use them (ditto for uniforms). Over time more and more work was able to be done ‘on-line’, saving even more paper, postage, freight costs, petrol, fumes and time.
  7. We had our school day and no further homework, thus we didn’t need the power at night to light our ‘homework battle’. (Could the lack of negative energy for homework battles count as a saving?) If it got too hot in the house we’d go and work at the local library where we could use the library’s air-conditioner and not hike up our power bill. We didn’t have an air-con in those days, but if we had, this would also have meant one ‘less’ air-con was being used in the neighbourhood that day. The library environment ensured work got done and it was close enough to catch a bus and leave the car at home.
  8. The school had one less child using their water supply, sewerage, and power. And one less child contributing to the school rubbish ending up in landfill.
  9. We saved on doctor’s bills and were healthier, both physically (because we were exposed to less school yard bugs) and mentally (because we didn’t have to deal with school room or school yard stress). We didn’t need as many medicines to get through a school year nor visit the doctor as often (nor need head lice treatments!). If you think of the footprint required to make medicines and head lice treatments, including their packaging, together with the amount used to run doctor’s surgeries – it soon adds up, and of course again we didn’t have to ‘drive’ to buy or use any of these things.
  10.  Lastly, we chose to use a brand of computer, which, with each new year, used more and more eco-friendly components.

So, as you can see, home-schooling reduced our consumption, and our carbon footprint and of course provided us with other benefits as well.

Regardless of whether you’re home schooling or not, and you’ve found this article enlightening if only for the simple reason that it makes you think about your own carbon footprint and the desire to reduce it (and you’re female). Why not visit 1 Million Women? Their goal is to empower 1 Million Women to collectively cut 1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas pollutant triggering climate change. Even if you don’t want to join, you may pick up some great tips and ideas on their ‘Get Involved‘ page to not only help save the planet, but your pocket too!

Posted in Community & Environment, Home Schooling, Kids & Teens, Lifestyle Management, Random Topics, Thoughtful Incentives | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment