Welcome to the web site for the Slob Sisters! We assume that you have decided you need more order in your life. We have been helping people get organized for 20 years and we're here to help you simplify your daily rounds so that you can have peace of mind all the time.
Back in 1977 when we made the awesome trek from pigpen to paradise, we wrote what we called our homemaker's creed: "I am accountable for creating a climate of love, peace, joy, beauty, abundance, health, and order in my home. I am raising responsible citizens of the United States of America. What do you do?" At that time our six little citizens ranged in age from sixteen months to twelve years old.
We are so thankful that we made a decision to get organized, because if we hadn't, our children wouldn't be the successful adults they are today. If you feel the same calling, together we can get your life turned in the right direction. Getting and staying organized is a matter of MIND management, not TIME management. We can learn a lot from those who were born with organized minds. Over the years, we've perked up our ears when organized people speak and we've made it our life's work to glean the wisdom of orderly people, but at the same time appreciate the wonderful traits of flexibility, creativity, and spontenaiety we find in disorganized people. We'd like to start by introducing to you, two friends of ours. They represent these two distinctly different kinds of people.
(Learn more about these two by clicking on their pictures!)
Ordelle Daily is born organized (on her due date) and Iona Hovel is organizationally impaired and although she may never get around to it, she would probably be diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).
Aside from the obvious, outward appearances, if you saw these two people in action, you'd discover even more differences. For example, Ordelle Daily would never throw her coat over the back of the couch. She'd always serve dinner at the same time every night, and her straight-A child would always do the dishes, damp mop the floor, set out his clothes the night before, and he'd never go to bed without doing his homework.
If we could ask Ordelle if she plans menus, this is what we think she'd say:
"Ordelle, do you plan menus?"
"Yes, I do! I always take two hours every Tuesday morning at 7:15 and I jot down the things I need for the week. I consult the advertised specials in the newspaper for the four grocery stores I patronize. I color-code my left-overs, I organize my coupons, I rotate my perishables, and I compile seven menus which are classified by fat content and geared to the productive activity scale of each member of the family on any given day. I---"
"Ordelle?"
"I'm here."
"Do you have that written down anywhere?"
"Frankly, I've never found it necessary."
Organized people think organized thoughts and that's why they use words like always and never. You would not hear an organized person say sometimes, usually, sort of, or 9:30-ish. Organized people have their minds set on just about everything. They don't guess, they don't try, they don't wait, they just do it. Things are cut and dried in the world of the organized. One woman said to us, "With four children I have to be organized." Our response was, "No you don't. There are millions of mothers with four children who aren't organized."
If we asked Iona if she plans her menus, we'd get a very different answer:
"Well, hmmm, it depends. Sometimes I try to plan what we should eat, but with eight kids (disorganized people have more babies than organized people) somebody usually interrupts me. I guess it sort of depends on the mood I'm in too. I don't know, I go in spurts. I guess I just play it by ear depending on what else happens, like around payday when I know there's money in checking, I get the urge to go get groceries. I think of making a list after I'm at the store. Like yesterday--"
"Iona?"
"Huh?"
"Do you have any of this in writing?"
"Uhh, I've never been able to find a pen that works."
In the past twenty years we've spent a lot of time with the Ionas of the world. We have been invited into over a hundred homes across the country to help families get organized. In the course of the next year, we are going to help you apply the techniques we have learned in our very unique in-house experiences. If you like the idea of having meals on time, having a regular washday, getting the people in your family to cooperate and help with the housework, having a place for your keys, purse, glasses or any other moving article you use a lot, but you don't want the rigid lifestyle of somebody like Ordelle Daily, we can teach you how to stay in the middle of the road. You get to decide how you want to be in life and that decision is one you get to make in your mind. But you need to MAKE THE DECISION.
If you are interested in creating a climate of love, peace, joy, beauty, abundance, health and order in your life, here is your assignment. Until next time:
Listen to yourself. It's a key to the way you think and ultimately the way you behave. See if you can catch yourself saying things like "it depends," "somewhere around five-ish," "sort of," "maybe," "sometimes," etc.
Establish a bedtime and a wake-up time. Be sure to give yourself enough sleep.
Establish a place for your purse. It could be a shelf or a hook in your coat closet.
Establish a place for your glasses and your keys. It could be your purse.
Get a calendar, a watch, a pack of 3x5 cards and a pen and you'll be ready for the next time we meet.
