101 Ways To Live Better: Organize Your Space

Welcome to my 101 series, which explores 101 little things you can do to improve your day to day life, and the world, just a little bit.

Our fifth post is: ORGANIZE YOUR SPACE

Everything you own should have a home, somewhere in your house where it belongs. That includes your handbag or wallet, incoming and outgoing mail, your remote controls, your keys, your shoes and all those other miscellaneous things that end up lying around on the dining table and kitchen bench. After all, its very hard to tidy your house and put things away if they don’t have anywhere to go!

I am a firm believer in the KonMari method of cleaning out clutter, which boils down to clearing your home of everything you don’t use and don’t love. Paperwork that must be kept can be scanned and stored digitally, but for a few vital documents like birth certificates. Clothes that don’t fit, that you don’t love, that don’t suit you, should all be donated. You don’t need as many clothes as you think. I have two dresses, about ten shirts and five pairs of pants. I don’t own any skirts. I also have three jackets and two pairs of shoes. That, for me, is plenty for all seasons and all occasions. Buying new clothes is a big deal for me and I only buy good quality things I can wear most days.

Even if you don’t like the KonMari method, it still helps a lot to have places to put everything, to make life more manageable.

If you are like most people, you will struggle to find homes for everything simply because there is not enough space in your house. However, it will be easy if you have cleaned out all those hundreds of items you don’t like, don’t need and never use.

I am someone who can’t tolerate what is referred to as ‘visual noise’. Remember when you were a teenager and you put up a collage of your favourite bands and actors on your wall? Or maybe you have a displace case full of trinkets. Or stacks of books everywhere.

I find that stressful. I like empty spaces and clean lines. So, my workspace is quite sparse with one or two focal items that I love.

Yours doesn’t have to be. Some people love visual noise and having collections and art all around them in a riot of colour and shapes. That’s great too, but make sure all the things around you are things you have chosen. There is a huge difference between posters and figurines from your favourite movies and a pile of dirty washing you haven’t put away.

It is also important a space be functional to you and what you want to use it for. Before decorating and arranging a space, write down how you would like to spend your time in it, what its function is going to be.

If you want your dining room to be a place where the family connects, don’t situate the table in a way everyone can still see the TV. If you want your office to be where you work, don’t store the kids’ toys, or set up your Xbox in there.

Sitting down and really thinking about how you want to use your spaces, will probably lead to you thinking about what is most important to you in life, how you wish you were spending your time. You might decide to get rid of your TV completely! Or at least put it in a cupboard you can close, so it’s not always there—a huge unblinking void in the middle of your space.

Not me though, I love my TV. Mine pivots so I can see it while I am cooking and while I am on the treadmill, but I also use it for audio books and music.

Organize your space and take pride in it, it’s your space, organized for your needs, not just a dumping ground for your stuff.

101 Ways To Live Better: Make One Healthy Decision Every Day

Welcome to my 101 series, which explores 101 little things you can do to improve your day to day life, and the world, just a little bit.

Our second post is: MAKE ONE HEALTHY DECISION EVERY DAY

Our lives are made up of thousands of little decisions, most of which are subconscious. Our brain is a pro at saving energy and it often does that at the expense of what’s best for us.

That means driving instead of biking, eating quick, high calorie foods instead of preparing something healthy, watching TV instead of playing with the dog and browsing online instead of reading a book.

It doesn’t help that our decision-making capacity is limited. Like our energy levels, it is a resource that is depleted during the day and requires sleep to renew. So, you’ll find it easier to make good decisions in the morning and more challenging at night.

This week I am challenging you to take back some of those decisions from your hind brain. At least once a day, change a bad decision to a good one. Have the apple instead of the chocolate bar. Drink more water. Eat more fibre. By the cruelty free bacon. Go for a walk in your lunch break. Chew gum instead of smoking a cigarette.

Maybe you can’t make a radical change in your diet or go to the gym every day or quit smoking, but every healthy decision you make is an unhealthy one you didn’t make. It improves your health just a tiny bit.

When you get the hang of making one healthy decision every day, you can step up and make two healthy decisions every day. Then you’re eating fruit for breakfast and going for a walk. Or drinking water instead of soda and smoking one less cigarette a day.

Slowly, these healthy choices can become more frequent. Good habits can replace bad habits if you are patient and diligent in making a change. Even one small thing a day is better than nothing.

Just remember not to reward good habits with bad habits. Don’t eat a cake to reward yourself for saying no to a cookie. Reward good habits with more good habits instead. Skipped a soda with lunch? Reward yourself with funky neon laces for your sneakers. Smoking less? Reward yourself by borrowing some audio books from the library to listen to while you’re exercising.

One healthy decision every single day is really going to mount up in a year. So what is your healthy decision going to be today?

For more ideas on healthy rewards, have a look at this article with 100+ fun rewards on Fitness for Weight Loss:

http://www.fitnessforweightloss.com/reward-ideas-for-your-weight-loss-journey/

Romance 101 – Week 8

Romance Tip 08

- Do your partner’s chores.

Dating? I hope that all partners who live together have divided the household chores in a sensible and fair way. Interestingly, studies show that in households where men do 50% of the household chores, both partners are happier and the relationship is more likely to last. It’s important for relationship health that everyone does their part to keep the household running. However there is nothing nicer than dragging yourself into the kitchen to do the dishes and seeing they have already been done and that the kitchen is spotless!

Simple gestures like this can really show our partner we love them. It seems mundane, but there are plenty of women out there who tell you cleaning up and cooking dinner the sexist thing a man can do. And guys always appreciate the opportunity to sit down and relax... particularly if they would otherwise be sweeping out the garage.

Single? It doesn’t matter who you live with, the theory is the same. Clean up for someone, wash the dog or do some dishes. Mop the floors. I am sure there are endless things you can do that will really make the day of your family or housemates. If you live alone, this is a little trickier. If you have a friend who is sick, disabled or has a new baby, offer to come over and cook them dinner—then clean up afterward! It will be deeply appreciated and they’ll love you all the more for the gesture.

Remember! Some tasks require special skills, or at least, a basic knowledge of how things work. If you’ve never done washing before, your kind gesture may turn into a fight when you throw her jeans in with her $100 bra, or your red cap in with her whites. My housemate never checks if the arms in the dishwasher can spin, and as a result I have to re-load the dishwasher and wash the dishes again 50% of the time.

If you are going to do someone’s chores, do them properly.