Family

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How to decide if you need a command centre in your home

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How to decide if you need a command centre in your home

6 years ago, my son arrived in this world, and I began my new role as a stay-at-home Mum. What an amazing experience! I loved being home full-time with him [most of the time!] and felt extremely blessed to be able to have so much 1-on-1 time with him before returning to part-time work.

Although I was loving life, and felt that I adapted fairly well to our new routines and way of life, one thing that took me quite of bit of getting used to was the fact that I was spending each and every day in my home. Being surrounded by our 'stuff' and constant household chores definitely took some adjusting. And there were certain areas of the home that really began to frustrate me, that I knew I had to do something about, as the mess and clutter was staring me in the face each and every day!

One of those areas was a small section of kitchen bench-top, which had always been used as a 'dumping ground', from the moment we moved into our house. I used to be great at clearing it each day, but a new baby seemed to bring a lot of extra 'stuff' and less time to deal with it all, and this spot quickly became out of control.  

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12 Of The Best Organising Systems For Your Family

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12 Of The Best Organising Systems For Your Family

Do you ever find yourself lying in bed at night, going through all the things you have to do the following day, week or month? I always think of the movie 'I Don't Know How She Does It', where SJP is lying in bed at night going through all of her tasks, and nearly having a nervous breakdown at the very thought!

Having an organised approach to how you run your household can take a bit of work initially to set up, but once you've got great systems and routines in place, it will make life so much easier, I promise! Today I'm detailing 12 of the best organising systems for your family - I use all of these on a daily or weekly basis. These systems help me stay consistent with my organisation, and have all but gotten rid of the nightly listing sessions!

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Why batching your chores is the best approach

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Why batching your chores is the best approach

A friend asked me this question the other day, and today I wanted to put it to you for a bit of fun - if you could choose between having a full-time cleaner or a full-time chef, which would you choose? Tough choice, right? Both would be pretty amazing, and free up so much extra time in the day!

For me, I think I would like to go with a ‘task-master’ - someone who could handle all the tasks that are part and parcel of running a busy household (I know, I know, I’m cheating…). Be it vacuuming, cleaning the bathrooms, emptying the bins, mopping, dusting, or one of the never-ending laundry cycles. Or the ‘chef’ side of life, with nightly dinners, preparing lunch-boxes and snacks, or the daily kitchen clean-up. There really is a lot to maintain when you are raising a family and running a household! Which is why I want to talk to you today about a handy little method called 'batching' - it could be a real game-changer in terms of your consistency with all these tasks.

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23 ways to be more productive each and every day

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23 ways to be more productive each and every day

One of the things most of our struggle with is not having enough time in our day to feel as organised, productive and calm as we'd like to. How can we balance it all? How can we most effectively juggle work, family and home demands? 

In reality, there may not be such thing as having true 'balance' - life is always going to be busy, in some phases more so than others. Whatever your work and family situation, we all have the same amount of hours in the day, it's how we plan and use our time that matters! I've been talking a lot about productivity recently, and today I'm rounding up 23 of the best tips and strategies for creating routines and systems that will encourage you to be as productive as possible each and every day. Let's get into it!

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7 simple ways to be a more organised Mum

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7 simple ways to be a more organised Mum

 

In this video, I'm going to share with you my seven top strategies for being a more organised mum. As busy mums, we all wish there could be more hours in the day to get through that endless list of tasks and chores. But being truly productive is about utilizing some simple organisation strategies to use the time you do have more effectively. 

The 7 strategies I'm sharing today are ones that I personally use, and that have made a huge difference in how focused and productive I am throughout the day. I hope that implementing some (or all!) or these into your own day will have the same effect.

 

The top 5 things I did this year to keep my family organised

The top 5 things I did this year to keep my family organised

If you could use one word to sum up your year, what would you use? 

For me, 2016 has been a year I would simply call 'hectic'!

With our home renovation, having to move out for 4 months, the huge process of moving back in, our continued work on home projects, my husband's long work hours, me working every spare second on moving my business forward, and big changes with the kids, it has been one hectic year for sure! However, although it may sound like it, I am definitely not complaining. Our renovation has been truly life-changing and I am appreciative every day of what we have accomplished. We are extremely blessed to live the life that we do. But I sure am ready for a break over Christmas!

I think everyone starts to feel this way as the year comes to a close, so it's a good time to reflect on the things that are working in your household... and those areas you want to improve on for next year. Here's a list of the top 5 things I did this year to keep my family organised, and the ones I want to improve on for 2017.