Back in my SLOB days I answered "yes" to each of those questions, but I changed! In fact, I’m Flylady’s mentor and if you’ve followed her you know our connection, for she openly shares the fact that it was my sister’s and my books that changed her life. 

The zones in her flight plan were created by my sister and me and they were what ultimately gave us clarity and focus. Flylady and I have worked together and helped each other over the years with our main goal to help you get organized just enough to please you.

We’ve often talked about the primary purpose of our work, which is to help you love the miracle you are and secondarily show you the basics to be organized.

Which brings me to the question I posed in the title of my blog; would you rather be organized or be happy?

What I realized is thinking I don’t like change is a lot of hooey! I do too like change! I love clean sheets, fresh towels, and the change in seasons. I like the time when day turns to night, night turns to day, each different day of the week, the growth in goodness of my children and grandchildren, new stuff like cars, shoes, books and such. I love a change of scenery, a vacation, and even “the change of life” had its very good qualities.

During your day, find as many ways as you can to get things done so that you can stop work at 6:00 pm. Consider it quitting time. Of course your little Snuggle Bunnies will need your love and attention after six, but I’m talking about the household workload.

If you tend to be frazzled in the evening, you’ll love my 4 tips for making guilt-free couch time a reality. 

4 Steps to Win

Are you always arguing with your mate over a messy house?
Do you think clutter control would help? Would you stop arguing if this problem were solved?

If you answered yes to these questions, I might be able to help! I must warn you I’m not a marriage counselor and I am on my second marriage, but I have learned some successful spatting skills in the 41 years I’ve been married and you just might find them helpful.

My ideas will work for many fights, but to illustrate my strategies, I decided to pick a fight that’s common among couples; clutter control conflicts. (Wow that’s a tongue twister: couple’s common clutter control conflicts. I dare you to try and say it five times without screwing up.) The underlying cause of this conflict is stuff. It’s the, my-stuff vs your-stuff which is the most common cause of a bout about clutter. One sees his stuff as his stuff and the other guy’s stuff as clutter and it works the other way around. It’s a blame game and couples have been playing it since Adam and Eve argued about whose leaf was whose that got tossed on the ground.

The other common clutter clashes ignite when stuff gets lost, stuff gets left out, stuff gets thrown out, stuff gets wrecked, stuff gets dirty and stuff gets stuffed just to get it out of the way.

When I get worried, one of the best things I can do is sing. I belong to a fabulous chorus and once a week on rehearsal nights I sing for five hours straight. I’ve noticed that if anything was bothering me before I start singing, by the time I get back home I have no worries! I think much of our worry is habit and it’s good to find ways to curb unnecessary worry and know all is well. 

Aside from doing something you love to do, I learned a valuable lesson when worry crops up. A few years ago on a beautiful Sunday morning, I decided to visit a new church near Portland, Oregon. I got the address and Terry, my husband, went out to the car and programmed it into our new GPS for me. Back then I didn’t quite trust the thing. (Once it got me going in circles and I’d have circled for hours if I hadn’t recognized the same barn, for the third time.) 

Do it NOW

With graduations and weddings soon upon us, it occurred to me to write about the dreaded “Thank You Note.” I know we’re all grateful people and so are our kids, but somehow writing thank you notes can loom over us. One survey revealed that writing thank you notes was number seven on the top ten things we tend to put off doing. For me, it’s number three on my list of put-offs.

My best advice is to keep a good supply of Thank You Notes on hand. It’d be a good idea to put a few in a Zip-Lock bag along with some stamps in your purse for those times you end up having to wait, like in the dentist’s office, on a flight or while you wait at the beauty salon. (Just think how thankful you could be when at a standstill in a traffic jam!) I found that The Dollar Store has a wonderful supply of Thank You Notes for; you guessed it, a dollar!

When I was a little girl, my mom was relentless about making me send my grandparents thank you notes after Christmas and birthdays. Grandma Dot and Grandpa Buddy’s checks came faithfully on those occasions and every day until I’d finally sit down and write the card, mom was on my case. I remember hating those nagging words, “Have you written your thank you note yet?”

I asked my friend Marci who is an exemplar mother with two adorable adult children, “Did you hound your kids to write thank you notes after Christmas, birthdays and graduations?”

“Nope.”

“Really? You mean they just did it without being badgered?”

“Well, not exactly. I just said, ‘You wanna play with that toy, read that new book spend that money? Write your thank you notes first and then you can.’”

“You mean they had to write thank you notes BEFORE they got to have the gift?”

“Yep.”