It seems as if we've used the term "heart of our home," forever. In Sidetracked Home Executives which we wrote twenty years ago, we told homemakers, "You are the heart of your home. You create a climate in your home whether it's one of love or hate, peace or chaos, joy or sorrow, beauty or ugliness, order or confusion, and the choices and combinations go into infinity. Right now if you will take a couple of minutes and look around the room you are sitting in, you will probably be able to rattle off at least five adjectives to describe the climate of your home. You could also let the room pose some interesting questions and declare some obvious truths. Does it tell you that you have a wonderful family? Does it ask you if you could handle money a little better? Does it whisper that you need to let go of the past, insist that you get more organized, or proclaim a great achievment? If you could stop and let your room talk to you for just a few minutes, we think it will help you make a shift in your thinking for 1998.
Did you do it? We left that big space between paragraphs so you would really take the few minutes to look around. So if you didn't do it, do it now.
Okay, now consider this thought: What if, instead of you being the heart of your home, what if your home was a symbol of your heart. If your home was a symbol of your heart, how is your heart doing? Is it broken? Is it in need of minor repair? Are the arteries (hallways and staircases) clogged? Are the chambers able to serve the functions they were created to serve so that you and your family (the life that exists in your home) can thrive? Is the kitchen clean and stocked with healthy food for you and your family? Is your living room a place where family and friends can flow in and out and feel your love? If your heart (home) needs some help think of Sidetracked Home Executives as your cardiology center. 3x5 cardiolgy!
Our help might come in the form of surgical help (our de-junking video). It will help you cut out all the stuff that doesn't belong to you in 1998. Or you might need a prescription for a few 3x5 cards to be memorized, or a monthly injection of humor, inspiration, and practical organizing ideas in our Keeping in Touch Tapes. In those tapes we will be sharing our new insights into helping disorganized homemakers (men and women) beginning with the January tape. And remember, you can always call us in the morning!
THE BASICS FOR 1998
There is something very exciting about being alive just two years from the turn of not just a century, but a millennium. A thousand years!
Wow! Everybody's thinking and talking about it. It's like we are all owners of the same car and the odometer is about to kick over with all those zeroes. What do you want to accomplish in the next two years? Do you feel an urge to insist on some positive changes? Do you want to finish school? Change jobs? Stay home with your children full-time?
Go on a once-in-a-lifetime vacation? Have a baby? Build a new home? What ever you'd like to see happen before the big odometer turns, getting more organized is going to be a basic must.
Pam's son-in-law Tyler is very talented, witty, smart, and absolutely gorgeous, but he happens to be very disorganized. He recently told Peggy (Pam's daughter) who is brilliant and a wonderful mother but also very disorganized, that when he was a wrestler in college he was very good at all the moves once he and his opponent were down on the mat. He had trick twists and clever release moves that always astonished his coaches and opponents. He said he could have been a top wrestler except for one thing, he never mastered the "take down." The "take down" is a basic move that every wrestler has to practice over and over again. Tyler got bored with trying to master it and worked at the floor moves which he found more fun, creative, and exciting. Peggy said that she found the same thing was true with ice skating. In order to master the jumps and spins, there were hours to be spent doing figure eights forwards and backwards. Borrrring.
We know from taking ballet for years when we were young that in order to become even mediocre dancers we had to spend grueling hours doing millions of plies in each position. The bottom line is that the basics are boring, but unless we master them we can't get as far as we can when we do take the time. So no matter what your new years resolutions were, if you don't have some basic organizational skills, you are going to work way harder and achieve less than you will if you go about achieving your goals in an organized way.
Tyler and Peggy have decided to post signs in every room of their home to remind them to do the basics. Tyler's sign says, Master the Take Down. Peggy's reads Master the Figures. What kind of a sign could you post that would remnd you to stay on track?
What are some of the basics you aren't doing that are fouling you up?
Here are some basics we thought of, see if you can add some. Then have this year's resolution be to master the basics and watch what wonderful things will happen in 1998.
Appreciate the home you are in right now.
Pray daily.
Take care of your mail daily.
Don't read junk mail.
Exercise daily.
Drink eight glasses of water daily.
Laugh daily.
Sing daily.
Get a partner who wants to get organized too..
Don't step over it: pick it up and put it away.
Don't put it down to start with, then you won't have to consider picking it up or passing it up.
Don't go to bed with a messy kitchen.
Turn on the dishwasher the last thing at night.
Establish a weekly plan that focuses on specific rooms and activities.
De-junk. Trying to get organized when you have too much stuff, is like trying to water ski under water.
For the rest of January pick one or two items from the above list and MASTER THEM. HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Love, Pam & Peggy