DrDeClutterBlog.com

Losses throughout the year of any kind, human, animal, health, wealth or of spirit can take an extra toll during the holiday weeks. Here are a few steps to take care of yourself during this time.

1. Make time to grieve.

Set aside time to really feel your feelings, cry your tears and let it all go where it needs to. Your body needs to mourn your loss or change all the way through.

2. Get support from others.

It’s not always easy to ask for help. Being “strong” isn’t smart. Being “human” is. Whether you talk to family or friends or see a counselor or minister, you will find layers of grief just waiting to spring forth when you talk to someone else and tell your story once more.

3. Develop skills that help you remember you are a worthwhile person.

You can let grief control you and fall into a deep depression or illness, chipping away at your self worth; you can ignore and deny it and stay busy, keeping your “mind off of it”; or, you can gain knowledge of how to embrace your pain and grow positively from it.

4. Create a physical environment that supports rather than stresses you.

During the mourning process stress levels increase. You need to create a space where you feel safe, comfortable, quiet when you need it and nurtured, even if only by yourself.

5. Take care of yourself.

There are physical as well as emotional aspects of grief. Exercise increases your strength and stamina and reduces your stress. Healthy eating gives your body the good nourishment it needs. Find quiet time. Schedule a massage to stay connected with your body.

Bottom line, grief is hard. Make sure to take the time to face it and deal with it, otherwise it will affect you for years to come.

“I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round, as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.” 
~ Charles Dickens, author of “A Christmas Carol”

Merry Christmas to you and yours,

Kim

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Oh, those fun people over the pond! We need more of this, pronto!What cool and creative thing can you create in your home, community or area?

Are you too old to be messing around, playing and having too much fun?

NEVER!!

Make sure to have fun on vacation, on holiday, down the street and in your back yard! People who play and laugh more are healthier, friendlier and live longer!

Here’s my friend Jan up in Rochester, MN. She’s sitting pretty in a really big chair on display in front of a store. Jan is going to be a grandma again pretty soon! Go grandma!

“We are driven by five genetic needs:
survival, love and belonging, power, freedom, and fun.”
~ William Glasser, M.D.,  American psychiatrist
The developer of reality therapy and choice theory

Life’s short! Organize around fun!

No matter your age, play today! Take a photo and share your fun in the sun!

 A continuously organized closet is a happy closet! REWARD!

When you “practice organizing” and get a rhythm to decluttering and bringing order and (almost) continuous joy to your space, it actually is very rewarding.

Like everything else in life, organizing is a habit. A bad habit = clutter, messes, frustration and no organizing. A good habit = organized and decluttered areas of the house by doing it on an ongoing basis to keep up and enjoy your space.

Let’s focus on the good habit!

1. One way to start your good organizer habit is to start with one zone or area and keep it decluttered all the time. Maybe just the kitchen counter or a coffee table. As you get this down pat, choose another area and reclaim control over it. Take a week or two for each area to really see the incoming and outgoing traffic. As you do this one by one, you will be in charge of your environment again (or for the first time!) REWARD!

2. Another good way to stay on top of incoming and stagnant stuff and things, is to plan a weekly go round with a large garbage bag the day before trash day. Be ruthless! Check every room for anything to throw out. These are really things that have no HOME in your HOME (bah-bye) aaaand, they can’t be donated or recycled, they’re really trash. REWARD!

3. If it’s donatable, have a second bag or box that you sort for these items. Go round again if you don’t want to carry it with you the first time. Feels great to release things for others to use. REWARD!

4. If it’s recyclable, do another walk through. REWARD!

TIP: If you have kids have them help you as they’ll start seeing how they contribute to the mess! Discuss as you go how there are things you keep finding that are tossed that maybe they don’t need more of! There’s a concept!! REWARD! REWARD! REWARD! REWARD!

BONUS: Think of all the good exercise you’ll get doing this in a couple trips around your castle, as well and really finding things you were missing and remembering where things are when you do need them. REWARD! again!

All good!

Whoa! It’s Halloween time again! When did that happen!!

If you have kids that want Halloween to be fun, it’s time to plan ahead.

1. What will your kids be wearing? What do they want to dress up as?

2. Can you create it out of what you already have or will you be purchasing, renting or barrowing a costume and accessories?

3.  Where are they going?

4 . Who are they going with?

5. What’s happening in your neighborhood or area for trick-or-treating?

6. Safety is a must of course. Safety in regards to their costume for walking, skipping and running (because they will!) and safety if they are out and about on their own or with other little ones.

Help your kids have memorable fun this year!

7. Take lots of pictures.

8. Scrapbook those photos immediately!

DONE! Have a great Halloween!

Happy Furlough Day, Government Employees! Yipppeeeee!

I have a friend who works for the State of Colorado, she and several of her co-workers are making today, their Government Furlough Day (day off without pay) a great day! They’re calling it Craft Camp! They’re getting together and knitting, scrapbooking, painting and generally having a wonderful day of it.

What will you do?

Organize your “day off” around fun too!

It’s said that we don’t plan to fail, we fail to plan. Plan your fun, make it functional (not over-the-top and easily costly or disappointing) and see how much more you’ll enjoy it as something wonderful to share and remember when it’s over.

It’s not something normal to think that fun should be functional, or planned and thought through.

Fun should just happen, right? If you’re 2, maybe!

But as adults, it doesn’t matter what you do for the Labor Day Weekend, or any other holiday or “day off,” just make sure you’re taking the time to really “be here now” in it!

Why? Because it’s too easy to let holidays and time away from brain-crunching or back-breaking work go by and wish you’d had it to do over again, that somehow you missed it.

To “be here now” and have fun need some conscious planning and functional decision making to be what we truly want it to be.

Get out the calendar, and everyone involved in your upcoming weekend, and pre-plan everything with enough free time and fudge-room to change your mind too.

Need more help for the holidays? If you’ve had chaotic, unhappy, disappointing and frustrating holidays, big or small, I’d highly recommend my ebook Simplify Your Holidays: Your Guide to Coping with Holiday (and everyday) Stress ~ or ~ The Complete Self-Help Guide for Those with Less than Perfect Holiday Experiences. You’ll get ten times the help for the easy cost of this jam-packed full book of check lists, questions, creative options, thought inspiring stories and more.