Now that you have learned the 5 laws of success, let’s get into how to eradicate time wasters so that you have more time to apply those laws and achieve success in your life.
I am a mom of a 4 year old and I work part time. Throughout the years I felt I was spending a lot of time cleaning, doing laundry, picking up toys and washing dishes rather than doing the things that are important to me, like spending quality time with my family and working to achieve my goals in life.
There was always some sort of mess in the house that would grab my attention or stress me out and eat up my time. We can’t all hire a maid so something had to change. (This post contains affiliate links.)
Once Upon a Time
One day, as I was scrolling on line, I came across a fellow mom, Allie, who was having the same problem and worked out a way to eradicate time wasters. She has a wonderful Blog about minimalism with Courses, Free resources and challenges to help along the way.
Now I am not referring to having a house with practically no furniture or decorations that is stark and plain. Allie teaches a practical way to apply minimalism in order to get back the time that we are wasting.
Allie is offering my readers, that means you, a discount on her Uncluttered Course using this link but I would recommend you start with one of her free challenges like I did bellow.
Free Challenge
The first thing I did was watch one of her Free Webinars. She has updated her webinars and challenges since then so these links are to her current ones. The webinar I attended included a challenge that covered toys, clothes and the kitchen to get you going. This made a big difference in my life! Keeping my house clean is so much easier and less stressful. Each area had its own challenges but in the end it was worth it.
Confession Time!
I have to admit that in the beginning I did not fully take Allie’s advice as divulged below. I wasn’t ready at that time to completely embrace her challenge and that’s okay. Some wise friends of mine recommend the grocery shopping method. When you are in a grocery store you don’t buy everything that is on the shelf. You take what you need. And the next time you are in the store you might find you need something different. I recommend you apply this to my blog and recommendations as well. You might not agree with everything I write about or recommend but take what you need right now and later you might find other things that you now need as life changes.
First Up…. Toys
In Allie’s Webinar she talked about how she de-cluttered her kids room while they were not in the house and that she wasn’t sure how they would react when they got home. When they arrived and went into their room one of her kids came out with a toy and said that they had been looking for it and were so thankful that she found it.
I kid you not, after I had de-cluttered Emilia’s room she went in and came out with a toy and thanked me for finding it! My jaw dropped. It was so cute.
After following her advice with my daughters toys I found it so much easier to tidy things up and keep things more organized and I found that Emilia would spend more time doing independent play on her own in her room.
The Closet!
Weeding out the clothes that I was holding onto but never wearing for myself and my daughter also made a big difference. Less piles, less searching for my favorite top. And it tied right into another clever idea I stumbled on while surfing the net called a capsule wardrobe. This takes the stress out of figuring out what to wear each day and reduces the piles of laundry to do each week. My capsule wardrobe is still a work in progress but it is coming along.
I Didn’t Listen in the Kitchen…
Here is my confession: I sort of avoided this area in the beginning. Allie talks about only having enough dishes for the number of people in your household. That way you don’t end up with a sink that continues to pile up with dishes until someone decides to tackle it.
I resisted this because when we first moved in I found a giant set of dishes for our place that I was pretty proud of. It had like 8 big plates, 8 small round plates, 8 small square plates, 8 bowls, 8 coffee cups, two serving bowls, a gravy bowl, butter plate, large pitcher… You get the point.
I was ready for a huge dinner party! However in a small apartment and with both of us working, there isn’t a lot of time or space for large dinner parties.
But I didn’t want to break up the set so I did not follow her advice in the kitchen even though my husband was on board. I thought that maybe we could just focus on using only the plates we need and leaving the rest in the cabinet. Nope… Our sink continued to fill up with dishes and stress me out.
Then when we moved into our new apartment last month I decided I wanted to take her advice. As a compromise so that I would not break up the set, when we unpacked the dishes box we only took out what we needed and left the rest in the box and put it in the storage closet out on the patio.
Wow! It really did make a difference and helped eradicate time wasters. It is so much easier to keep the kitchen clean and the sink empty! You have to try it to believe it. Stick your extra dishes in a closet if, like me, you are not brave enough to get rid of them.
Part III
Next in this series we will talk about how to effectively name and organize your goals to give you the best chance at achieving them. Make sure you are subscribed to my Blog so that my weekly posts arrive straight into your inbox.
Until Next Time!
If you are just joining us in this series head over to Part I to learn about the right mindset for success. Also check out an interview I did with my friend and author, Kelley, on her new book Creating the French Metabolism.
Kelley reveals the secrets of how it is that French women stay slender while eating some of the best food in the world.
Let me know how you liked this latest post and any tips you have to eradicate time wasters. Also please let me know what else you would like to read about on my Blog.
XOXO,
Crystal