Sandra Felton - Organizing Magic: 40 Days to a Well-Ordered Home and Life

organizing magic

Other books by Sandra Felton

Living Organized
Messie No More
Organizing Your Home & Family
Smart Organizing
The Messies Manual
When You Live with a Messie

2006 by Sandra Felton

Published by Fleming H. Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Felton, Sandra.

Organizing magic : 40 days to a well-ordered home and life / Sandra Felton.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 10: 0-8007-3099-2 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-8007-3099-4 (pbk.)

1. Home economics. 2. Organization. 3 WomenTime managment.

I. Title.

TX147.F35 2006

640dc22 2006004839

The authors of any unattributed quotations are unknown.

Contents

Thanks to the following for making this book a reality:

As always, to Ivan, supporter extraordinaire at home and in life. Kisses to you!

To Nanette Holt, remarkable editor and hard worker who strengthened the book with her outlook and experience. Wonderful guidance!

To Lonnie Hull DuPont for her faith and encouragement in moving this book into being at Revell. Many thanks!

To Fleming H. Revell, my publisher for the past quarter of a century. Wow!

I have loved magic since childhood. And I know Im not alone.

Many of us have vivid memories of watching Cinderella, sitting in ashes, sad and in disarray. She never had fun and always worked hard. Even so, she was powerless to improve her condition. (Sounded like me when I looked around my messy house.)

But then we rejoiced when she found the prince who whisked her off to a beautiful castle, where she never had to turn her hand to work again. Wow! Cant beat that!

And who brought about the wonderful transformation? Why, the fairy godmother, of course!

For years I waited for my fairy godmother to show up, wave her magic wand over me, and magically change my mess into glorious order, my frustration into joy.

It never happened. The fairy godmother never came to my house. Nor did the elves who worked for the shoemaker while he slept. Nor did the prince, with the reviving kiss, or any of those other magic, fairy-tale people on whom I had subliminally pinned my hopes.

Then I learned where the magic really isand it changed my life.

In this book I share with you the organizing basics I learned after long ignoring them, waiting for outside help. The information in each chapter contains a little magic dust. Rightly used, you will find your house being slowlybut surely! changed into the neat, orderly, elegant, comfortable castle of your dreams. And you will be the princess, more relaxed and unhurried, finally able to enjoy your domain.

But you must wave the wand. You must sprinkle the magic dust. Dont worryIll tell you how, step-by-step, walking you through the transformation that will change your life.

Heres your part: Read each chapter carefully. Zero in on how each can help you improve your situation. Note the steps you need to take to create the solutions that apply to you. Then start waving that wand, your treasure trove of solutions. And watch. The magic will come.

Often in fairy tales, like those about Snow White or Sleeping Beauty, a kiss awakens the princess to her new life. So it is with us.

As you follow the hints, tips, suggestions, and encouragements in these pages, always remember to apply them using the magical kiss of organization:

Say it to yourself, when youre tempted to make things more complicated than they need to be. Whisper it again and again. Its an endless source of organizing magic.

Focus on the few changes that work well for you and do those consistently. Youll be surprised at the change that happens. Now get ready for an enchanting journey with me. Our coach awaits

A few useful ideas rightly applied can make a significant change in your life. But it is easy to lose track of them. They tend to drift away unless nailed down on the spot as you read. Here are some suggestions on how to hold on to those ideas that relate to your interests and needs.

1. Underline and write notes in the margin when you see or get an interesting idea. (Unless, of course, this is a borrowed book.)

2. Mark important places you want to remember with a small annotated sticky note so you can find it again easily. This works better than turning down corners.

3. Immediately do the easy step that will make a significant improvement in your life, like calling the phone number that will take you off the calling list of telemarketers.

4. Commit to long-term change where you see the need, such as working to change one bad habit or unproductive behavior. Work on one at a time.

5. Keep a running list of things you need to buy on a sticky note attached to the book so it wont get lost while you read. You can then easily take the note to the store later.

6. Write a to-do list in the back of the book (projects and such) as action ideas occur to you.

When I was younger, I embraced many ideas I gleaned from tip bookseven the ones that werent very good. Why? I thought the expert who wrote the book was smarter than I was and surely wouldnt lead me wrong. But if I had stuck with all those suggestions, youd see the following when visiting my house:

Salmon poached in the dishwasher. It may work, but is it really a good idea to go that quirky route? (Unless your stove is out of order, of course, in which case using this method might make you look like a genius.)

Nail polish and pantyhose stored in the fridge. Theyll keep fresh longer there, but do we really want to dress out of our appliances?

Homemade soap-on-a-rope, created with soap slivers stuffed into the toes of pantyhose.

Onions kept fresh by suspending them in legs of pantyhose straddling a door.

Still more discarded pantyhose, recycled as pillow stuffing. (Pantyhose, for some reason, seemed the solution to nearly any household problem.)

I Wised Up

It took me some time to wise up a tad. Now Ive learned to avoid introducing things into my life that are far out of the pattern that already exists. If a new idea is not easy to incorporate and easy to follow as a regular part of my life, I reject it. What a relief to have finally found that I dont have to integrate all great ideas into my lifeI need only the ones that will make my life easier.

Smart Thinking!

How you think affects how organized you areand how organized you will become.Try reprogramming yourself to become more organized by meditating for a few minutes daily on these positive statements:

1. I am too smart to create a mess. Therefore, I put things where they belong immediately after using them.

2. I am too smart to let the kids make a mess.Therefore, I spend the time and energy to train them to keep things orderly.

3. I am too smart to do everything myself.Therefore, I create a team of family, friends, and hired help to call on when I need assistance.

Organizing is not nearly as important as many other things in life. But what it delivers often is priceless.

Sandra Felton,