Category Archives: Housekeeping

The wrench, the garage, and nails.

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The wrench, the garage and nails

 

Today is day 3 of Labor Day weekend and for the first time in months, I feel like I actually have a day off. Does it ever happen to you? It sounds quite funny coming from myself, as sometimes I feel like my whole life is one long day off.

 

Working from home, homeschooling my kids and being home for the majority of the week kind of instills this idea that my life is a vacation. Only today I suddenly realized that I need a day off of my days off.

 

I have noticed that I am in the “what else can I do” mode a lot more often than I realize. I am multitasking all the time. Working in the office while my oldest is working on his school at the desk right across from mine. Folding laundry while he is doing school at the dinner table (one of the commodities of homeschooling is that you can bring school with you). Cooking several meals at a time so I can freeze some for future crazy days, and sometimes video recording them for my youtube channel. Oh, snap, you didn’t know I have a YouTube channel? Well, here is the link: WonderCloset Warrior YouTube Channel.

 

What makes today different? Is it the fact that I took time for myself to do my nails and couldn’t do anything while waiting for them to dry? Is it taking the hubs truck to get the tires changed and being stuck a bit waiting for the call? Is it him fixing the bikes this morning?

 

I got to tell you summers get really hot here in Texas. We survive by visiting our neighborhood pool in the mornings and staying in air-conditioned space for the rest of the day. When the fall arrives we spend as much time outside as we can. I dig in my garden. We take bike rides. We go to parks… Rewind to bike rides. I don’t know what it is about the bikes. It’s either the bikes are shrinking or my boys are growing. Either way, the bikes needed adjustments and since the dear husband was home I asked him to do that right away.

 

He showed the boys how to use a wrench and adjust their seats. Then he told me I completely capable of doing it myself and I didn’t have to wait for him to do that.

 

You know what? He is right.

 

I am completely capable.

 

And I am sort of handy. I’ve been fixing lights, outlets, mowing and edging the lawn, I know how to use a drill and how to find a stud. If there is something I don’t know how to do yet, I can find a tutorial and figure out.

 

The question is, though, why would I want to do it all by myself?

 

Why would you want to do it all by yourself?

 

Why would anyone want to do it all by themselves?

 

The truth is that you don’t have to. Unless you live alone on an island. Which is probably not the case if you are reading this.

 

We get caught into the “I can do it myself” so much , that we cause ourselves loneliness and overwhelm.

 

We start to feel like nothing gets done right unless we do it. Nothing ever changes unless we apply our energy to it. As we apply the energy to get things going, the same energy of pushing is being applied  to the people closest to us. They may start feeling unneeded and unwanted. We all know and understand what happens to a relationship when one party constantly feels unneeded.

 

I believe every person has this urge to be needed and to be useful in the group they belong to. If they don’t feel that way they tend to flake off and join a different group.

 

I said,

“ I know I am totally capable of using the wrench and pumping bikes’ tires. But that puts me in a spot where if i can do everything I must do everything. And I feel like I am doing enough already and don’t need yet another thing on my plate. I am blessed with a handy husband who knows how to fix things and I will be asking you to do them.”

 

I do have a handy husband who has turned our garage into a woodworking shop. So if the garage door open and you would take a peek inside you would never in life think a professional organizer lives here. We have huge tools sitting in the middle and an unfinished project waiting for the hands to be placed on it. My dear husband is building a king size bed for us and he agreed to put pull out drawers underneath for me. It has been too hot to work there in the summer so… we are waiting. I may be getting a new bed by Thanksgiving, the drawers are already done. He wanted to organize it today for it to be ready to work, but I had my nails appointment.

 

I am trying the J..y nail wraps, and no, I am not going to be selling them. I just kind of got really curious when I saw people being able to keep them on for  weeks and sometimes all I want is a finished manicure. The truth is that I won’t do a manicure at a salon, I am never happy with the results. And paying $25 for something that is going  to chip off in two or three days just doesn’t make sense to me. So I went to see me neighbor who happens to be a consultant and I am trying them on. I’ll let you know how it goes, because if it works, it is a huge time saver to me.

 

This is how the wrench, the garage, and the nails come together this cloudy morning.

 

Be a blessing and let others be a blessing, too.

Be a blessing and let other be a blessing to you

Be a blessing and let others be a blessing to you

How do you deal with a do-it-all-myself attitude? Do you find it advantageous? What works best for you in your relationships?

 

Superwoman No More!

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If you look at my profile on Facebook or my website online you will probably learn I am a professional organizer. If you read deeper into my posts online and my blog, you will learne I had owned a business before this one, I was a teacher, and I love to cook and entertain. I am a fanatic of Pinterest and all things streamlined to make my life easier so I can have time to do things I love, like sewing and painting. I homeschool my kids because I don’t believe public schools are meant for everybody and I really enjoy seeing my boys growing up every day.

 

I own a business, I have a blog, I run a support group on Facebook, I homeschool, and housekeep every day of the week. I take my kids to practices, I teach Russian at the homeschool co-op, I was promoted to an intermediate level at the dance class I am taking. I served chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting for dessert last night and have a Mississippi pot  roast in my crock pot as I am writing this.

 

If you are reading this and thinking, is this woman even real, I have to say Yes, I am real.

 

I am so real, that I have a load of laundry in the dryer and no desire to get onto it. I have the roast in the crockpot  thanks to my freezer meal club friend Mandy. If not for that, I would have been working my butt off in the kitchen instead of writing this.

 

My youngest has just climbed onto my lap as I am writing this and is refusing to go, so I am working on my laptop sitting in his lap. He wants his cuddles and he will get them no matter what.

 

I have a lot on my plate and becoming a professional organizer was a very logical step for me to take. How else can I help others to get the crap load of stuff done and enjoy their loved ones and their lives? I help by  coming to their homes and streamlining their kitchens and pantries and closets. I speak at events. I have a blog.

 

What I had recently realized, though, is that it’s not what I am really doing.

 

I am not Martha Stewart, the Flylady, or Marie Kondo.  And I don’t want to be like them. Don’t get me wrong, they all are doing unbelievably incredible work, but that is not what I am.

 

I am a real woman. Some may say I am mature, others may suggest there are areas in my life that need some work. There is always room for improvement, you know?

 

Well, so you know, he hasn’t left and this is how the majority of this blog post has been written.

blogging with a toddler

blogging with a toddler

 

I haven’t cropped that picture on purpose. Because crumbs on the floor happen a lot more often than the vacuum. And I had made peace with that. There will be dishes in my not so shiny sink and there will be wet laundry forgotten to be moved into the dryer. Because I am a real woman, there will be pizza for dinner. And I will get so tired and touched out that all I would want is to run off and sit in Target’s parking listening to my own thoughts.

 

I have lived a Superwoman lifestyle for seven years. My kitchen always sparkling, my laundry was done and my vacuum ran. I ran a daycare out of my home, working 70 hours a week. I was in high demand, business thriving and yet somehow I felt I was failing. I know now it happened because I was taking care of everything and everyone but myself.

 

You see, I failed to recognize that I was in the center of pretty much everything happening in my life, the lives of my family, my household, and my business. I took it all for granted not realizing I put so much strain on myself, I gave out. I quit the business. I focused on myself and my family.Thankfully, I was able to do that.

 

I failed to recognize that I was in the center of pretty much everything…  I took it all for granted not realizing I put so much strain on myself, I gave out.

 

I could say there won’t be a Superwoman anymore. I chose to be me instead of being her.

 

But, just as before, others would ask me how do you manage it all? How is your home clean, meals are prepped and laundry folded, you have time to run a business, homeschool, be a part of a freezer meal club, speak at events and love on your husband and kids.

 

There is only one answer. I am not a superwoman, not anymore anyway. I listen to my system and to my body. If it tells me I need to slow down, I do so. It won’t cause the world to end if my laundry piles don’t get done tonight. The world won’t collapse because my sink isn’t as shiny as a new diamond ring.

 

NO MORE!

 

On the other hand, my family might collapse if I am overtired and extra cranky. If they need my support and my attention and all I can think about is that the bed didn’t get made this morning.  I chose to be there for them and put them in as my priority.

 

I believe your life can be much easier and much more enjoyable if you have your things organized in a manner that works for your lifestyle. I do not believe the quality of your life can be influenced by owning a closet system from California Closets, or being able to afford the best baskets ever for your pantry. Those are merely things and they exist to make your life easier not to make you happy. What makes you happy is the relationships with your loved ones at the time saved with the help of those systems.

 

No, I am not a superwoman. Not anymore.

 

I have created systems in my life to support my lifestyle.

 

I have accepted the fact that I can not have it all at all times but at the certain time, I can truly have it AND enjoy it all.

 

Do you feel like that sometimes?

 

Do you feel the pressure of modern America have it all picture worthy and Pinterest-like?

 

Are you ready to step down, take off the cape, and just live your life?

 

If you said yes to the questions above, please, join us at the Superwoman Anonymous, a Facebook support group I created to support real life women like you and me who sometimes just want a minute of quiet in order to hear our own thoughts.

 

And yes, if you are wondering, I am for hire. I can and I will help you change your life. One closet at a time.  But that is something we can discuss in private, over here.

 

How a Thrift Store Find Helped Me to De-Jam My Kitchen Drawer and Get to Sleep In on Saturday Morning

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One of the first shopping addictions I ever got since I moved to the U.S. was thrift store shopping.

 

Having moved countries with one suitcase that held clothing not very suitable for the American culture, I had to get my wardrobe and I was on a budget. My soon to be husband at that point lived a bachelor’s life with a kitchen that needed to become a cook’s kitchen and a desk being used for a dinner table. So, yes, I learned to love thrift stores really fast.

 

Later on, moving states, switching from an apartment to a house, moving states again… What can I say? Thrift stores, craigslist, neighborhood garage sales had saved us lots of funds that would be used on something else.

 

Why am I telling you all this? Because I just got done thrift store shopping and found some awesome items, of course!

 

Usually, when I come home from that kind of shopping and he sees my glowing eyes, he says, “Look , boys, mama is back with some treasures”!

 

But not this time. This time, when I showed him my finds and told him what I was going to do with them, my dear husband said, “Thanks, God!”

 

Would you like to know what I told him? I said,

 

“This will help us to de-jam our kitchen drawers”.

 

Being a person who is into creating systems and making things work for my family, I have been struggling with this particular drawer for way too long. We have lived in this same house for five years and this is the most hard-working drawer in my kitchen. It holds my spatulas, and whisks, and ladles, and the potato masher. I cook a lot and I love to cook. I also multitask when I cook, meaning I can be making soup, dicing veggies for a freezer meal, and baking cupcakes at the very same time.  It requires clear counter space and LOTS of cutting boards and utensils to avoid cross-contamination. And HAND WASHING. But that’s for a different post.

 

Having decluttered that particular drawer more than once I have come to a conclusion that I need a better solution. I didn’t want to just go online and buy a fancy crock that would probably cost anywhere from 30 to 60 dollars depending on the brand. Most likely I won’t love it. It would just be a piece I use in my kitchen.

 

A couple of days ago I had to run to Walgreens to pick up a couple of thing for the presentation I was doing next morning and I had a free hour. And a thrift store is right there. How could I resist?

 

This place I went to has two aisles with shelves full of knick-knacks, glass, plates, bowls, cups, holders… You name it. There is so much stuff, that it is hard to see anything. I literally spent an hour in those two aisles. Slowly moving from one shelf to another, scanning the contents and picking things up.

 

My tip for thrift store shopping is completely opposite to what I recommend when you are decluttering your house. When decluttering, you want to detach from your belonging, so I ask that you don’t touch and hold them.

 

While thrift store shopping, do not grab a cart. If you see something you like, pick it up and carry it around with you (given we are talking small-ish items, not bookshelves or coffee tables, yes?). Keep looking around. Found something different? Put the first item dow, it’s not going anywhere, and pick up the next thing. Listen to yourself. Is there a bond being created between yourself and this item?

 

Why is this bond so important? Because the last thing I want you to do is to get more clutter into your home. If something is going to make its way in, I want it to bring value and joy and be functional.

 

I had picked up and carried around three different items at that time. But after I held them for about ten minutes I could tell I wasn’t that thrilled about bringing them to my home and adding them to my life. I put them back.

 

If it doesn’t thrill you, leave it where you found it.

 

As I was ready to leave empty handed, I saw IT. Sitting in the back of the highest shelf (yay to being 6 feet tall, it does have its advantages sometimes). Sporting of white color and round shape. Hand drawn flowers. A nicely shaped spout.

pitcher1

It is heavy. No nicks or scratches. A bit dirty, but nothing baking soda wouldn’t take care of. Made in Italy. Three dollars.

pitcher2

I am thrilled. I am happy for I have found this one item I didn’t know I was looking for. It will hold my utensils so it is functional. It will please my eyes. It will make my husband’s kitchen adventures a lot more pleasant. He makes breakfasts on the weekends to let me sleep in. How dear is that?

 

Woo hoo! This is how I know this little pitcher has found a new home in my kitchen.

 

I brought it home, gave it a good wash, re-arranged some spatulas and used a bigger tray underneath all of that to corral it all in one spot. DONE!

pitcher3

 

Do you like thrift shopping?

What is your perfect?

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Perfectionism. Perfect. Perfecto. Can’t stop until it’s perfect. I will never get it to be perfect, so why even bother? Does this sound familiar?
I am a perfectionist. The things listed above are often the ones that prevent me from achieving my goals.It is so easy to let the perfect become the enemy of good. We get caught in the trap of perfect so often, we may not even realize it. Did you know that one of the reasons why we do not get things done is because we know we can not make it perfect?
But we don’t have to. Whatever it is you are working on, if your goal is perfection, I suggest you slow down and do this small exercise.
Get out a sheet of paper and a pen, and describe your “perfect” in detail. It can be written in a form of a short essay, a note to self, or just a bullet point list. Once you have a full picture, think what steps you need to take to achieve that.
For example, if your “perfect goal” is to have a house with no clutter in clear view, what would the steps be to achieve that? I normally start with my kitchen counters, and once they are clear I move on to other tasks. What is your point of beginning?
Next step would be to keep up and not mess up the area I worked on. This is where a rotating schedule comes in. I have a kitchen cleaning scheduled on Monday mornings. I have this luxury since we homeschool and while the kids are working on their school at the kitchen table I can supervise and help as needed as well as get some work done myself. Once you go through the same rotation several times, you will notice how your hands automatically clear the counters on the go even not on a scheduled day. It becomes a habit, something that is done on the regular basis and doesn’t take that much time anymore.
Now, here is a short disclaimer. Before I moved my kitchen into rotating schedule, I made it a point to declutter. So, for my perfect kitchen I needed:
Step 1 Declutter.
Step 2 Think really hard before bringing a new piece in, no matter if it’s a new coffee mug or another appliance.
Step 3 Deep clean.
Step 4 Add deep cleaning and clearing to my rotation.
Step 5 Stick to the rotation schedule and make it work.
Step 6 Enjoy my fabulous and perfect kitchen!