How do you motivate yourself to tidy up?

Posted on May 6, 2019 by Sandra Madeira

At first I didn’t think that I would be able to relate to the title of this blog. After all, who could possibly need to be motivated to tidy up? I used to think that I would always feel like tidying up if I just had the time.

As the children are getting older I am finding myself with just a tiny bit more time on my hands, but this doesn’t appear to be enough to motivate me, because I see all the clutter as such a big job. Every room needs decluttering making it difficult to do a quick tidy up. Every corner; every drawer; every surface. I have to find a trigger to motivate me…

So, what did I do…

I didn’t wait for the right moment.

I didn’t say ‘I’m going to tidy up later’.

I just started decluttering, but I started small.

I set a timer for 2 minutes…. and something triggered inside me within that time, and i was motivated to come back and carry on for another short spell.

A 2-5 minute pick up, or clear up of your desk can really energise your home and clear your mind.

Look around you and pick some easy wins… bundle like things with like things. Put all books in a pile, or place all carrier bags in one bag. Throw all bits and bobs into an old shoe box for later sorting, if you really don’t know what to do with them.

Tiny steps is what it takes.

I’ve been doing this over the last week. With a few minutes to spare, I just pop into the spare room and take something out or put something in its place. It wasn’t noticeable at first, but this has spiralled over the week, to me spending quite a few hours on the space over the last couple of days. Later pictures to follow…

I’m now sitting down to write, because I all of a sudden I felt the urge to jot down my thoughts… to inspire others to just get started.

Until I write again…

Sandra

Posted in decluttering, Getting organised, Inspiration, Toys, mess and clutter | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

What happened to me?

Posted on April 28, 2019 by Sandra Madeira

I’ve almost finished listing to Mel Robbin’s audio book ‘Take Control of your Life’ and one of the questions that she asks her clients to ask themselves is ‘What happened to me?’ instead of ‘What am I going to do?’ The former question resonated with me particularly in the clutter area of my life.

I used to (and think I still do) want a tidy, decluttered and clean house, but this question made me think that maybe I like talking about the clutter or doing the decluttering more than I actually want to finish it. It got me thinking… what if the thought of decluttering energises me more than sitting in a tidy and organised house with nothing left to do? This surely can’t be the case, because I’ve always wanted to live in a decluttered house; however, I have never totally got there, so how do I know how it feels? The clutter is alway there somewhere in other rooms. Am I keeping it there so that I have something to do?

This morning (just like yesterday) I got up early and started re-decluttering the surfaces and cupboards in the kitchen. Yet again, I moved things into the bin, by the front door to go to the recycling bins later, or to another room in the house, and the sentence ‘What happened to me?’ popped into my head again. I stopped to write, knowing that somehow by writing or researching I might get the answer.

Maybe my family are right, unelsss I throw it all away, I will never shift it all out of my life. The stuff in the garage, in the spare room, lurking in the cupboards… it’s all been there in some shape or form for many years waiting for the day that I do something permanent with it. I do have phases where I get a lot done, but then it piles up again.

I turned 50 a couple of weeks ago and it’s made me think a lot more about life and how long we all have to do the things we want to do. I’ve always envisaged living until I’m 100, so I’m not planning on going anywhere just yet; however, I don’t want to leave this world with a cluttered house. So, the question is, when in my plan will my house be the way I want it to be? What happened to the ‘me’ that wanted it so badly that I’d do anything?

I haven’t got all the answers today, so please watch out for further updates. I’m going to try my best to change the way I am. This won’t just be for me, but for my family who have been living with (and helping me contribute to) the clutter for years and listening to me saying that I am going to do something about it.

They would throw it all away if they had the chance, and maybe they’re onto something. It worked for a client that Mel Robbin’s was coaching in the book mentioned the beginning of this blog. When she questioned her client during coaching, and pushed her to move forward with her ‘stuff’, I reacted the same way that she did. It was like she was coaching me; however, her client eventually did something about it by facing her fears instead of turning away from them or hiding them somewhere.

Until I write again…

Sandra

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Waking up feeling energised

Posted on April 27, 2019 by Sandra Madeira

After a tiring day yesterday, I had a relaxing evening and then a perfect night’s sleep. I woke up thinking that it was a week day and had to go to work. When I realised that it was Saturday I put on my gym clothes and crept downstairs to do a 14 minute interval training program on the Bowflex Max Trainer machine.

Now, this machine sits near the TV and next to the conservatory. All the time I was exercising I was imagining how I could reorganise the furniture in the conservatory so that it looked more inviting from the lounge.

By the time it was 8.30am, I was eating my breakfast looking at the newly arranged conservatory feeling very pleased with my achievements and motivated to do further decluttering.

I have a good feeling about the rest of today, as I have since cleared the kitchen of clutter and am walking around the rest of the house with a bin bag!

Until next time…

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Exercising before cleaning

Posted on January 12, 2019 by Sandra Madeira

Christmas came and went, and my job before and after that seemed to take over my life in the evenings and weekends. So much so, that I’ve neglected the house. Today I am faced with 2-3 hours to myself (as the others are out having a family haircut) and I want (and desperately need) to tidy up.

I first put some washing on and then walked from room to room wondering where to actually start. Every room needed decluttering and cleaning, and Christmas decorations needed boxing up properly and putting in the loft.

Trouble is, I didn’t feel quite as motivated as I thought I would have done. I actually felt more like sitting down with a cup of tea and watching a rom com. Knowing that this was the only opportunity that I was going to get to make a dent in this massive task, I had to find a way of motivating myself.

Our new Max Trainer sprang to mind. I bought it for my partner for Christmas and so far we have only used it for a few minutes here and there to get used to it. I thought that if pushed myself to do the 14 minutes built in ‘Max Trainer’ interval training program, this might motivate me to spring into cleaning mode.

M5 Bowflex Max Trainer

…and it did! I actually managed to do the fast 25 second interval training every 90 seconds which wasn’t as bad as I thought and I’m feeling much more motivated.

And now I’ve treated myself to a 5 minute sit down to write this blog before I tackle the kitchen/dining room!

Until next time…

Sandra

Posted in decluttering, Health and wellness, Household chores, Inspiration, Toys, mess and clutter | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Take the true parts of criticism and work on that

Posted on November 15, 2018 by Sandra Madeira

When someone complains to you about something, for example, “I’ve only seen you for 10 minutes today because you were so busy doing other things…” don’t become defensive and come up with lots of reasons why they shouldn’t have felt like that. Also, don’t try and justify why it was so important that you had to do those ‘other things’.

Instead, say “Sorry, I’ll make the effort to spend more time with you tomorrow”.

Even though no one likes criticism, it’s good to break it down and understand why the other person has said it. Yes, some of the time it will be an exaggeration, and other times it could be ninety percent true. Whatever it is, try and bite your lip and respond in a positive and calm way.

People say things for a reason and it’s a good job they do otherwise you wouldn’t know what they were thinking and how they were feeling. Agree to the portion of the criticism that is true and work on that.

Look at it as an opportunity to work on yourself which in turn can help you grow as a person.

Until next time…

Sandra

Posted in Inspiration, Learning, Life, Miscellaneous | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Emptying the dishwasher to the beat of the music

Posted on November 9, 2018 by Sandra Madeira

I got in from work this evening faced with kitchen duties and dinner. I asked Alexa to play some music and the first track was ‘Jump’ by The Pointer Sisters. I then poured a glass of wine and emptied the dishwasher to the beat of the music!

Happy weekend everyone!

Enjoy

Posted in Fun and relaxation, Household chores, Inspiration | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

TV Area Decluttered in the Spare Room

Posted on November 6, 2018 by Sandra Madeira

We now have our ‘TV watching area’ decluttered in the spare room. You may remember yesterday that I posted a blog about decluttering the desk and then waited for my daughters to come home from school and help me move it across the room. Well, here it is the newly cleared space where the desk used to be…

It’s such a nice thought that I can come into this room whenever I want to relax, and I actually did that today.

The desk is set up over the other side of the room and pictures of that will follow once the bookshelves are organised and papers/folders tidied. Having said that, the desk is clear for me to write so that’s exactly where I am now.

It feels so good to have a clear space for writing and another area for relaxing whenever I need to take a break.

Until next time…

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Desk Decluttering Achieved

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Sandra Madeira

Whilst my daughters have been at school today, I’ve decluttered the whole desk including drawers. Even though we were given the desk second hand, I’d forgotten what good condition it was in and how grand it looked.

I was drawn to sit at the desk and write… even before it has made its way across the room.

Now, some of my stuff will have to go back on the top of the desk and in the drawers, but hopefully only what I need as I’m going for a more minimalistic look. I’m feeling so excited about the new layout of the room.

You may remember my messy desk from my previous blog. I don’t think I’ll ever let it get like that again!

BEFORE: There was a desk somewhere…

Check in with me later, once my daughters are home and we’ve moved the desk across the room and organised our TV area.

Until then…

Posted in decluttering, Getting organised, Inspiration, Toys, mess and clutter | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Almost tried to reorganise whilst decluttering

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Sandra Madeira

I forgot about my blog Decluttering vs. Organising when faced with my messy desk yesterday. I was trying to organise the layout of the room and then suddenly remembered that my focus should have been on decluttering. Shame on me.

Whilst I’ve been tidying the spare room over the last few weeks, everything seems to have found its way onto and around the desk making it impossible to use. My mind felt cluttered and I couldn’t think straight.

There is a desk here somewhere…

I asked my daughter what I could do with the whole room to make it better. At just fourteen, she has such a good eye for design. She started talking about colour schemes and a new settee. There was even mention of a new carpet. “Whoa”, I said, starting to feel stresssed amongst my clutter. “I can’t think that far ahead. Decluttering needs to be done first, but I need something to motivate me. What shall I do?”

Her suggestion was to make one side of the room a socialising and TV area and the other half of the room for working at the desk. I envisaged it instantly and in my mind saw a comfortable chair for reading as well – one of those nice swivel ones that have a separate foot rest. So excited :-).

Remaining in decluttering mode

So, the overall plan was that the desk needed to make its way to the other side of the room which wasn’t going to be an easy job as the rest of the room has already got stuff there. I began decluttering and felt proud of the 4 charity bags and 1 rubbish bag that I filled yesterday.

Desk decluttering next.

Until then…

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Recharging Batteries before Getting Organised

Posted on November 3, 2018 by Sandra Madeira

Herne Bay

Sometimes the best use of our time is doing nothing and sometimes we just need to get organised. Sometimes the former needs to be done before you are in the right fame of mind to do the latter. No one can tell you what the best thing is for you, you just need to work it out for yourself from how you are feeling.

Feeling out of control

I felt really stressed and overwhelmed a couple of days ago and I put it down to not being organised. Now, if you’ve been following my blogs you will know that I’ve been trying really hard to keep on top of the clutter and also the daily routines. However, being school half term, the routines have been different and I’ve missed my walks, visits to the gym and the odd hour to myself.

I could quite easily have fitted all of that in but for some reason I’ve been attending to everyone else’s needs and thought I’d be fine. But then it caught up with me and all I wanted to do was get everything around me sorted out and in its place. Everthing started to feel too much and I didn’t know where to start. You see, if I’m improving the space around me, it makes me feel better. When I’m doing other things, I feel behind.

When I get that feeling I wish I could separate out my stress from reality. I need to be able to flex what I’m doing. I need to be able to ask for what I want. I need to book time off for myself when I need it…

…. and that’s exactly what I did. I booked a couple of days off from work next week to get on top of things. These were the days that I’d cancelled last week because I thought that I didn’t need them. I should have trusted myself.

But before getting stuck into improving the way things are around the house, the girls and I stayed overnight at my mum and dad’s in Herne Bay and I recharged my batteries. We went for a lovely walk in the autumn sunshine and stopped at an ice cream parlour.

Herne Bay Beach

Delicious Kinder Flavour Ice Cream

Last night my mum cooked us meat pie… yum. My brother and nephew came round and we watched an old funny video with all of us in it from 1990. We laughed so much and my girls said how different I was back then.

Positively recharged

Over the last few days, I’ve learnt that I must…

… think more positively when things don’t go my way.

… learn to be more flexible with my time when things feel out of control.

… appreciate that others around me need my time as well, and by spending time with them, it might take my mind off everything else.

… take time out when I need it.

I’m home now and feel ready to tackle the house… after this blog has been posted of course, and I’ve had a cup of tea.

By the time I go back to work I just know that I’m going to feel more organised and in control again.

I would be interested to hear how you deal with overwhelming and out of control feelings when they creep up on you.

Until next time…

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