The Back to School Bugs.

Its that time of year again.
The house has been quiet for a week or so – yes the kids went back to school!
BUT- a couple of weeks in and those nasty back to school bugs have taken a hold. Summer is not too bad – the weather is nice. So ok, the weather is not too bad and there may be a spot of hay fever around, but come September/October the cough, cold and sickness bugs are on a role! They can spread around a classroom like wild fire – which then gets into your home and eventually some one in your household will be sick.
If you have kids you know exactly what I mean.
If you don’t have kids those bugs will still find a way back to you!

So I thought the one thing you really need to have ready this time of year is a good medicine box. Because when you feel ill the last thing you want to be doing is hunting down pain killers and hot water bottles.

Now I have a son with a physical disability so our medicine box is more Holby City or House than you really need.
But there are a few good essentials you need to have easily at hand – in a box way out of any kiddies reach.

1. Good painkillers – In our house we really rely on Paracetamol and that’ll do it. Unless my son needs morphine which is only kept on an as need basis, and strictly not for any one else to use.

2. Decongestant – coughs and colds are bound to make an appearance so get in some of those hot decongestant drinks. They do already contain pain killers though, so be careful not to overdose by accident.

3. Olbas oil – for kiddies blocked noses at night.  Gentle versions are out there for babies and always good to have.

4. Plasters – if you have kids no more needs to be said! And if you get the long rolls of plaster don’t forget scissors.

5. Hot water bottle – ok maybe not in the medicine box but know where it is for earache, tummy ache, period pains. A wheat bag is just as good and no risk of scalding yourself if the bottle pops (it happened to me as a kid and was really not a nice feeling!)

6. Thermometer – sometimes you feel hot and your temp is actually fine. So get a thermometer so you can better judge if you or your child really needs the medicine or not. I have one of those forehead ones which is probably not the most accurate kind but does give an idea of what your temp is and doesn’t run out of batteries when you really need it!

7. A secret stash of tissues – oh yes! I have a box or two hidden away because you can guarantee some one will really need them and none will be around. Just the empty box that no one bothered to throw away or inform you that it was empty!

I’m sure there’s more medical stuff you can do with as each family is different – but thats just the basics. Creams, antiseptic – its all down to what you prefer. 

And what made me think of this today?  I have a poorly 8 yr old off school with a nasty cold and fever – so it is only a matter of time before we all come down with it!

Technology – a help or a hindrance?

Technology is a wonderful thing. We all use it every day.  From twitter, facebook, whatsapp and google.
Technology can be used in our organisational skills as well.
Calendars,  to do lists, schedules, timelines and timers – there’ll be an app for it somewhere.

BUT – (you just knew that was coming! )

How many times have you grabbed your mobile to check your schedule and seen a notification – then spent the next 30 mins texting or whatsapping or calling family and friends?
How many times have you ‘just popped into facebook’ for a few moments and lost an hour of your time. And don’t get me started on candy crush (those who play it will know exactly what I mean).

I’m not saying don’t use facebook or whatsapp or candy crush.
But I am saying be careful with how you use technology in your day.

A pen and paper,  believe it or not is still the best way to record notes and telephone calls etc.
And when you do go on the phone/tablet/pc to check on something be really strict with yourself and just do what you set out to do. Organise your time – set a time for facebook and other stuff. Remember when you went to school and there was a set break time when you could not study and relax? Use the same method for your internet.

Set a time in the day for the things that will otherwise  cut into your work.
It does work – honest!

Want something done? Don’t rush!

Ever noticed when you want something done and you rush around like crazy, nothing seems to go right? Well, that’s because rushing around doesn’t work.
When we rush we make mistakes.
When we make mistakes we have to go back and correct our mistakes.
So in a word, rushing doesn’t work.

Lets take an example.
And I tend to always use laundry as an example – but we are a household of nine so laundry is pretty much a constant.

Now you put your laundry in the machine.
You could rush it and shove everything in – but what happens?
Well, you could get lucky and it all works out fine

OR

You got your red undies mixed in the load that you didn’t notice while you shoved it all in, so you fave white t-shirt is now an uneven dirty pink.
Not to mention the tissue that you missed, so everything is covered in lovely snowy flakes that you are gonna have to wash again in an attempt to get rid of.

It would have saved time to check all the pockets while loading the machine and check no sneaky red undies could slip in there.

So washing done , lets hang it out to dry.

Lets rush it shall we? So we’ll squish it all on the line in record time – taa daa!
Lets take a closer look shall we?

In our rush to get the job done we have put shirts on the line with arms hanging half inside out – they will take longer to dry. Twice as long to be exact.
The trousers haven’t been hung out by the hems so the waist and pockets will take longer to dry.
Not to mention the pegs aren’t carefully placed on there so the next big gust of wind and you’ll be chasing those red undies down the street as they blow away.

Phew – the laundry is dry – lets bring it all in.

We could take our time and fold it up to cut down on our ironing time – or we could grab it off the line as quick as we can and drop it in a basket unfolded. Ironing will take twice as long to do. Or you could be in such a rush you miss the basket and its back to the machine to get the grass stains out.

Do you get the picture?
What seems to be saving us time by rushing is actually making more work for us in the long run.

Some things you may have to rush to get done properly,  but on the whole take your time. It will get done and it will save you time in the long run.

So until next time…..

Don’t forget any comments or suggestions gratefully received.
You can always find me on twitter @organisedmama

The Myth Of Decluttering.

Decluttering – we’ve all done it. Raced through the house like a screaming banshee,  bin bag in hand,  throwing away our clutter willy nilly! In the hope of what?
In the hope that our decluttered house will suddenly be ship shape, sparkly clean and a haven of bliss. Didn’t happen though did it!

There are a few things I can  argue with.
1. You can’t organise clutter. – well you kind of can. What you can’t organise is junk.  And I think we all have gotten a bit too carried away with the de clutter bug. There is a difference between clutter and junk.

2. A decluttered home is a happy home – NO! A decluttered home belongs in an ikea show room or on a magazine cover. If you actually have kids, or a life for that matter you want a lived in house. Not a show room.

3. Decluttering makes cleaning easier – NO! If you have a mucky home before you declutter then you will not magically have a sparkly home by decluttering.

Now I’m not talking about the homes featured on tv with piles of magazines so high you can’t get in the room,  or the homes where you could quite easily lose a toddler under a mountain of junk. I’m talking about our average  homes.  That would be homes not houses.

Homes are where we grow great memories,  where  we nuture our kids.  Ok,  so it’s not always like The Waltons and we may sometimes wonder why it can’t be that way – but our homes are for living in. 

I love having so many pictures stuck on the fridge that my 5 yr old has painted for me that you forget what colour the fridge really is.  If you take them all off,  then yes it looks decluttered and clear,  but it won’t make me smile when I go grab some cheese or milk.

Sometimes you may have to declutter like a banshee,  for example if you are selling your house and want to create a blank canvas for your potential buyers. But for our day to day lives- how many of us want to live in a blank canvas? ?

So go ahead and toss out the junk.  The crap. But lets keep it in perspective.  We want homes not show room houses. 

Until next time,  any comments gratefully received. You can always catch me on Twitter @organisedmama

Happiness is…..

OK –

Lets look at why we want to be organised.

We want things to go smoothly.

We don’t like stress.

We want to be HAPPY!

 

One of the first things we need to do to be organised is to relax, to be calm and to be happy.

Why do you think we had to write down everything down in our notebook? To free up our mind so we have the room in there to think.

If you have a million things whizzing around in there, calm and happy doesn’t have much space to flourish!

 

So, after we have got our notebooks going, and have gotten into the routine of writing things down, we are going to look after OURSELVES.

You remember the old emergency routine in the airplane? You breath in the oxygen before you give it to your child or try help anyone else? This is the same sort of thing.

If you don’t as a mama look after yourself, there will come a time where you are unable to look after anyone else in your family because you are too ill, too run down or too stressed to be of any use to anyone.

 

So lets look after you.

– Spend at least 30 mins a day doing something you enjoy. Reading, cooking, blogging, writing, whatever it is just do it.

– Eat good food. Susan Powter had a point when she said if you eat crap, you’ll feel like crap. Eat good stuff that will help you get healthier.

-Move for at least 30 mins a day. Move as in exercise. And if you say I can’t spend that much time moving, you’re wrong. You can walk instead of taking the car. Or have you ever tried a race to see how much hovering, ironing or cleaning you can do in 30 mins? Trust me, that is as good as any gym work out!

– Sleep! Get to bed on time and quit burning the midnight oil in the belief that you will get more done – you wont.  A good nights sleep and you will be ready to tackle whatever the next day brings. Imagine something huge hitting the fan and you alone have to deal with it. Now you on 8 hours sleep will do so much better than you on 4 or 5 hours sleep.

 

So that’s it for now.

You wanting to be organised is all about YOU. So you need to look after yourself as much as anyone else.

 

Until next time –  any comments or subjects you want me to tackle?

Don’t forget you can always catch me on twitter @organisedmama

 

It’s been a while.

What was I said in the last post? Life has it’s ups and downs, and that is ok. That is just life.

Well, I have not been able to get to my computer and do another post since February – a huge down! But hey ho – no one got hurt, no one suffered any injustice, so lets not worry about it.

Well, organised mum is back, and hopefully will resume where we left off a few months ago, in the next few days. Until then any comments or questions gratefully received.

Starting Off – Step 1.

We are all organised. We really are.

Just think what you have had to do to get here – you had to open up your laptop/computer/mobile app. So you had to wake up and make a start on your day.

You have had to find the time to be here – you prioritised this over something else you could have done.

In short, there was SOME level of organisation going on.

 

But what we all want is to be BETTER organised than we are now.

 

WHY??

Well, let me answer that one for you!

People want to be better organised for a number of reasons –

1) They think being better organised will make life better. – Life is full of ups and downs. Being organised will not stop those ups and downs happening. But it will make the ups easier to enjoy, and the downs easier to cope with.  If you get in trouble for being unorganised, then it definately will get rid of some of the downs. But life is life, let’s not forget that.

 

2) People want to be less stressed – The human body was made for stress! We are made to have those short bursts of stress that get us pumped up, increase our blood pressure and give us that sharper focus – but not all the time. We are not meant to have that high stress level every day.  This where we run into health problems, insomnia, permanently high BP – look at any number of medical studies that link stress to bad health.

So lets get you started on being more or better organised.

 

Remember that diary and notebook we talked about? Well, now you need to start to use them.

Put any upcoming appointments in your diary – absolutely everything. Do kids have afterschool clubs? Put it in the diary. Once you stop trying to store all that information in your mind, you will be free to think about other things.

Every Sunday, sit down and look whats coming up for the next week. And then get that notebook.

You need to write in your notebook the date it is, and then list everything you need to do for the next week. Try to put as much as you can on paper to free your mind. And throughout the week, use your notebook.

You’re  washing up and realise you are nearly out of liquid -write it down.

You get a call from school that your child has not paid dinner money that week – write it down.

You go to school and pay the dinner money – write it down!

You call the estate agents and speak to Emma about your house -write it down.

You pay a bill over the phone and they give you a reference number -write it down.

 

Before you know it, everything is in one place. If you need to find anything about a call, or what groceries you’re low on, it’s in the notebook.

 

And just before I go – a hint about the notebook. Always date your pages. It’s easier to find things, but keeps all the day to day stuff away from the diary. And never tear out a page. Keep everything – even that flower you doodled while the gas company put you on hold because if you start throwing out pages, something will get trashed by accident.

Once your notebook is full, stick it in a designated place on your bookcase and on the cover write the dates from and to on there. For example, Feb2013 – May 2013 – you will have a permanent record of everything you had to remember in that time period – and trust me. Have you ever seen the lady at the counter smugly say they have no record of your calls – then BANG – you go in and can produce details of every phone call you made, what was discussed and reference numbers for the past three years? I have – and trust me, it feels great!!

 

So until next time – Any comments greatly appreciated!

Getting started – what you need.

So, here we go! Lets jump right in and kill the biggest common myths about being organised.
1- It’s not difficult to be organised -it really isn’t! Being organised is actually very simple. The tricky thing is finding a system that works for YOU! So if you’re one of the mums who thinks it is impossible to be organised and stress free, you just haven’t found the right system that does it for you.
If you are thirty something with seven kids, one having the same disability as my seven yr old, and your house is the same layout and size as mine, and your school run takes as long as mine does, and you have the same energy levels as me, then my system will be perfect for you!! If not (and I’m guessing not) then you have to tweak things, swap things around and make it yours.

2- It’s not expensive – You don’t have to buy any special equipment, or a special calendar with glitzy stickers on. You don’t need a £15 planner with pretty pictures in. You don’t even need to buy any of the books in the stores about organising. Everything you will need, you probably already have. And if not a couple of pounds will do just fine.

Ok, so there are the two biggest myths busted. So what do you actually need??
Honestly, all you need is a diary and a notebook. That’s it.
The size of your diary is up to you. Do you have lots of appointments? Do you need to be able to put it in your bag and take it about with you or do you want to leave it at home. Would you rather use a paper diary or use your phone/computer diary? It’s all about what is best for you.
Personally I have an a5 size diary I can fit in my bag when I go out to meetings. I used to use my phone as a diary but when people call me and I’m speaking to them, I can’t check my diary at the same time. I have used both google and yahoo calendars on the PC, and lost my data with both of them twice – so I’m back to old fashioned paper now.
Again your notebook is personal choice to. I have a small notebook, again I can fit it in my bag. You could use scatterbrain or notes+ apps if you really want, and I must admit I love scatterbrain, but I find paper much easier.

I think that’s enough for now.
But have a think – what do you need to be organised for? What diary/notebook works best for you? And don’t splash out a small fortune on stuff. A £2 diary and £1 notebook is enough until you figure if it works for you.

Until next time – any comments greatly appreciated!

Me – the organised mum!

What qualifies me to blog on organisational skills and being a mum??
Well, I am a mum of seven, and wife to a hubby who loves stuff being in the right place at the right time. One of my children has autism, and routines and organising is key to his life.
I hate drama, I hate panic, I hate losing my stuff – and trust me, I have done it all!! I have been so rushed and stressed I have forgotten where my kids are, I have near killed myself and had panic attacks over OTHER people’s lists of stuff for me to do while they have sat back and relaxed.
I have looked high and low for a system that works and found some that have come pretty close.
I’m not saying my house is perfectly organised, but I am getting there day by day.
I have tried and failed and picked myself up and tried again. And you know what – I’m not afraid to try something new tomorrow.
So feel free to leave any comments, ideas, or requests for topics.
And I hope to hear from some of you soon!

Stay tuned then, for organisational ideas from theorganisedmum.

What is it all about?

Well, hi there!

Welcome to The Organised Mum Blog.

Hopefully this will be a regular blog about organising family life. Exploring some of the myths and realities about organisation and how to make it actually work