We want to get organized for several reasons. We think that if we get organized, we’ll save time, money and energy. That’s true. Disorganization causes us to spend time looking for our stuff, more money because we buy stuff we already have but can’t find and energy just being overwhelmed, discouraged, and angry with ourselves.

By establishing just a few simple habits, we can train ourselves out of many of our messes and save time, money and energy. Our brains were wired for establishing habits, and when we have a healthy brain, it takes about 21 days to establish a habit. So I think it’s logical we should take care of our brains first.

That’s why I chose these 3 important habits to establish, because they’ll lead to health and a healthy body makes for a healthy brain and a healthy brain leads to well-being.

A Magical Date Night 

I pulled this blog out of my archives because as I read it, it inspired me to make date night special whenever I can. This particular night was in late summer and as I read about that night it melted the foggy, dreary, rainy day we have today and I hope it'll inspire plans in you for your next date.

Have you noticed that your married, women, friends who are organized, schedule a weekly date night? A weekly date is essential so you can remember why you married the guy in the first place. We're like computers and a date night is like re-booting and receiving updates.  

If you don't schedule it, you won't do it and you know what happens to a computer that isn't rebooted regularly. It bogs down.

A Magical Night

Our son gave us a gift certificate to Andina, a restaurant in Portland, Oregon. We used it for our weekly date night. 

Because we'd never heard of the place, we had no expectations. Turns out it’s rated as the best restaurant in Portland! Since we didn’t make reservations, we felt lucky to get a table for two even if it was in the bar and squished in between two other tables for two. The place was crowded and bursting with gaiety. The aroma of good food was pleasant torture as we salivated over dishes being brought to various tables around us as we tried to figure out the words on the big menu in Peruvian. There were descriptions of the dishes in English, but they didn’t really help that much. I chose:

ATÚN CON TACU TACU Y AGUAYMANTO

Seared yellow tuna sprinkled with black pepper and orange zest, (I was tracking so far) served with traditional lima bean tacu tacu, (I had to ask our waiter what tacu tacu was and he said it was smooshed lima beans; no wonder they decided to go with the tacu tacu verbiage) orange wedges, endive spears and salsa criolla, (I figured the criolla part meant hot and spicy and I was delightfully right about that) drizzled with a cape gooseberry-ají amarillo sauce (I was impressed that the gooseberries came from some cape maybe Cod or Canaveral, and I was pretty sure Amarillo was a liqueur I remember liking in my liqueur drinking days). The tuna was scrumptious and the mashed up lima beans were close to addictive.

What is it really with us women and our appearance? Do we want to look younger or just not look older? When we were children we wanted to be older, that’s why we’d answer, “I’m seven and a half.” But we didn’t think about wanting to look older. I remember being carded in my twenties because I looked younger than 21, but I didn’t have a desire to be or look older, because drinking wasn’t my thing and age really didn’t concern me.

However, at about 35, I started seeing the first signs of looking older, as daring, stray, gray hairs began sprouting at my temples. I paid the kids a penny a hair to pull them. By the time I was 55 my offspring had moved on to better paying jobs and besides if they’d still been willing to work for me, I’d be 2/3s bald.

At 60, I dyed my hair for the first time in my life, but after about four years I let my real color grow out and the gray took over. I also got tired of hearing a wolf whistle, turning around and shocking the life out of some young guy who thought he was going to get the attention of a young chickie only to find an old lady glaring at him. I actually prefer being a “Q-Tip” (that's an appropriate name to describe a person with white hair) because the wolf whistles have stopped and I am officially invisible to the wolves. It’s a good thing. 

One thing we all learn, as we age, is that life changes and we don’t see it happen, because it happens so gradually. The older we get, we realize how important it is to enjoy every single day to the max. When we were growing up, we were too busy raising our families to think much about savoring each day. Most of our younger years are a blur of hard work, chaos, fatigue and a lot of noise. Gratitude is the major aspect to enjoying each day.

We notice the changes when we look back on photos taken when we were younger, and can think, ‘I looked good. I looked young then, so why did I think I looked old? Why was I so hard on myself?’ Most of the younger women I know are so hard on themselves and I wish I could hug them and remind them that they look just fine. You young moms, be easy with yourselves. Everything’s okay.

Here’s a thought. No matter how old you are, if you want to look ten years younger instantly, the next time you get into a discussion about age, say that you're ten years older than you are and watch the compliments flow to you! If you laughed at my joke, think about what you do to get people to think you are younger than you are. My "real" advice is next.

ONE THING

Have you learned the valuable lesson that when you get treated poorly, it never has anything to do with you? It’s not a real easy lesson because it's so easy to take unkindness personally, especially when it’s directed right at you. Those who have this lesson learned are happier than those who don’t. They are able to let unkindness roll off like they’d be if they’d been through the “wax” part in a car wash. Just think about the times you've gotten mad at your kid or your husband and you did it in a mean way. Do you feel bad after that? None of us wants to be mean spirited but sometimes it comes out that way because we're off. Our natural state is wellbeing but when we don't take care of ourselves and get enough sleep, food, water, fresh air and exercise, we can wonk out on our natural state of goodness.

Let's say you have been primarily responsible for doing the laundry in your home and you haven't been doing it in an organized manner, wash, dry, fold, put-away. So while there may be a clean pile somewhere (probably on the couch or in a big chair) and perhaps a load that's been washed but is still in the washer and needs to be dried, you can count on inevitable chaos at dressing time for you and members of your family.

It's far more important to get laundry organized than it is to make your bed or dust. So maybe it's time to nail this once and for all.

Author of Get Organized Books runs out of Gas! 

If you're a SHE (Sidetracked Home Executive) you can understand how easy it could be to run out of gas and how logical it could be to blame it on a bunch of baby goats! So here's my story.

I can't tell you where we went because I'm sworn to secrecy, but I'll get to tell you some time down the road. For now it's a secret. What I can tell you is what happened at this secret location.

The day started out early in the morning as we drove to Oregon and then up I-84 which goes through the Columbia River Gorge. My heart was broken as we drove through the huge expanse of hillsides once covered in lush old-growth evergreen trees, now scorched and devastated by the wildfire that was started by a teenager last summer.

We live 50 miles from the fire and yet we had to stay inside many days because of the smoke. The skeletons of huge cedars, furs and pines stretched for miles-upon -miles. I cried as it seemed to never end.   

Once out of the forest we headed south on some little two-laner and promptly lost our GPS which was our planned source of direction. The next three hours Terry (my husband) drove and I prayed we were going the right way. We saw the word gulch at least ten times, but I can't remember their specific names. They were like, Frog Gulch, Big Thumb Gulch, Little Indian Gulch, names like that. 

When we arrived at our destination we were invited to lunch at the owner of the "secret" ranch's home. It was a very interesting home, huge and elegant, yet ranchy. For example we sat at a dining table for 20 and one whole wall was floor to ceiling windows looking out over, you guessed it, a horse room as big as a football field.

...you're ready to have one. If you don't live in an organized home, it means one thing, you weren't ready to get organized. Most of us want an organized home, but many struggle with disorganization because we can tend to build it up in our minds that it's a huge undertaking. It's really not. 

When every room is HOURS or DAYS away from "company ready" and I HAVE BEEN THERE, it can easily be overwhelming and in that state of mind we can freeze, bust out of the place or retreat under the covers. All those actions make things worse.

I’ve thought a lot about that feeling of being overwhelmed and I know it’s a state of mind based on true facts and circumstances. But the good news is states of mind can be changed even when the true facts and circumstances haven't. In fact if you’re overwhelmed by a messy house, obesity, indebtedness, an inharmonious marriage, whatever, you have the power to change your mind right now. In fact that’s what needs to happen. But how do you change your mind when you're in the middle of a huge mess, not just in one room but every room?

Very frequently I hear from SHEs (Sidetracked Home Executive) lamenting that they wish they'd used the SHE 3x5 get organized system for home and family earlier. My answer is always the same, you weren't ready and until you're ready you won't use it. It's interesting to find out how much these precious women have achieved in spite of their disorder! It's testimony to how talented we SHEs really are. Here's an excerpt from "The Joy of Being Disorganized" that conveys this thought.