Robby and I had our weekly date night last week and chose to go to dinner and a movie, thanks to the gift cards we received to AMC and to Chili's from our sweet families! Since Robby chose our last movie, Star Wars, I got this next pick. I thought about choosing Star Wars again (it was just SO freaking good!), but instead I opted for the movie Joy starring Jennifer Lawrence, Robert de Niro, and Bradley Cooper. 

Joy did not disappoint. I am a fan of obscure, independent, and independent-like movies - especially those that are about love, hardships, family, heartbreak, and challenging journeys. I go weak in the knees for Like Crazy, Short Term 12, Away We Go, and Ruby Sparks. Not to mention, I love Silver Lining's Playbook and American Hustle, both also directed by David O. Russell, who directed Joy. 

This movie was the story of Joy Mangano, a woman who faced serious challenges before becoming an accomplished and well-respected inventor. It was a picture of her life, her family, her grit, and her determination as she defied expectations set before her and became a proud success. 

Joy, played by Lawrence, was crushed as a girl by the divorce of her parents, weighed down by the care-giving roles she played for each of her family members, and worked herself to the bones in order to make ends meet. She was smart and successful growing up and in school, but set her dreams to the side in order to take care of everything and everyone around her. Finally, she had enough, and decided it was her time to make something of herself that she could be proud of and went on a long journey to become a success. 

It was easy to see parts of myself in Joy, and to be inspired by her attitude and accomplishments. I walked away from the movie wanting to move mountains. As a young, married 20-something whose husband is now in the Army, it's easy to set aside the goals I've been dreaming up since I was a girl in order to make our life work right now. It's easy to say, "I don't have time to take this class, spend this hour writing, volunteer with this organization, fill out this application to speak at this conference." It's easy to think "I'll do that when Robby's gone, when Robby's back, after we move here or there." It's easy to get caught up in the daily mundane tasks and become completely exhausted doing so. 

Truly, there has to be a balance. You have to do what you have to do, but you can't forget to grow. You can't forget to use what you've been given. You can't forget to achieve your goals. 

Small steps of procrastination for one reason or the other makes it easy to give up on your dreams and talents and passions and goals. But I'm in a season of flexibility right now. I'm not working, Robby will be leaving in a month for BCT, I'll be moving in April... What better time than now to cultivate my crafts and sharpen my skills?

Every day my desires change. Today I want to be a writer, an inventor, a speaker, a photographer, blogger, curator, a minimalist, a poet, and a maker of beautiful things. Today, I'm going to work on that.

Does your life feel cluttered? Are you too busy to organize? Are you simply unmotivated?

What in your life needs organization? You may be quick to say “everything,” but try to narrow down on the areas in your life that are more cluttered than others. Are you disorganized in making plans? Cleaning the house? Running errands? Maintaining technology? Think about the way you interact with your friends, your work, your family. Think even about the way your mind processes.

Below are 7 principles to organize your life, home, mind, calendar, car… everything!
 

1. Write Everything Down

For me, what this looks like is a small, fit-in-my-purse-sized notebook that I literally write everything in. It’s full of all my to do lists, my grocery lists, my holiday Christmas shopping lists, my list of goals for the day/month/year, my list of blog topics I can write about… Everything! It doesn’t necessarily sound organized, but it helps my memory.

Not only will it help your memory, but writing down your thoughts will remove them from your mind (and thus declutter it). Additionally, writing everything down keeps all of your thoughts in a place that you can return back to later without forgetting. One of my favorite bloggers refers to this as his “ubiquitous capture device.” It might not be the same device for every location (maybe you use a notebook at work, but your iPhone  for inspiration on the go) but just being able to write stuff down when you think about it is key.

2. Make Schedules and Deadlines

Fill out a calendar. This can be a Google Calendar, iPhone calendar, planner, big family calendar… whatever works for you. If you are a human, you have a schedule, so get a calendar of some sort and place it somewhere you will see it on a regular basis. This could be near your keys, on the fridge, or in your home office. Take a few minutes to fill out the entire calendar with important dates and events coming up.

Next, get a good planner. The step up from the calendar is the handheld planner - something you can keep with you at all times; an ultra organized list of daily activities. Although the thought of a planner may seem silly or remind you of grade school when you were required to purchase one and carry it around with you so you wouldn’t forget your homework... it is consistently used by organized people. Whenever you are invited to an event, schedule a dinner with your mom, are assigned a project for work, or need to keep track of chores, tasks, and errands - mark them in your planner.

3. Give Everything a Home

Go through your home right now and go see what is not "put away." Gather it together in one space or in one box and survey what you have there. Do all of those things have a home? Chances are, some do not. If everything is assigned a home, everything has a proper place to be put away.

As my grandmother would say, “A place for everything and everything in its place." So the first step is to see what is “homeless” and take care of putting those away.

4. Practice Putting Things Away Immediately

The second step is the preventative measure in order to keep this from happening again. When you’re shopping, ask yourself where in your home that piece will go. Do you have a specific location for it, where it can stay permanently? When you get home from shopping, put everything away immediately and give everything a place to go!

All your hard work creating a dedicated space for your stuff will be wasted if you don’t actually implement it. Things can pile up quickly, so keep the calm and organized ambiance of your home (and life) in tact by putting things away immediately. This practice only takes a few minutes but it’ll save you a lot of frustrating and draining cleaning time later on.

5. Declutter Regularly & Keep Only What You Need

Find time each week to organize, even if that’s only a few minutes. Highly organized people make sure they find time every week, or more, to organize their things. Stuff does not stay organized on its own -- it needs to be reorganized continuously and consistently. For me, I go through my house for about 10 or 15 minutes each day and clean up the clutter. Things may be in their home, but still be in disarray. A lot of times, I’ve found, the reason for that is because there is too much stuff in the one place!

William Morris once said, “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” Do you use it? Do you love it? Does it bring you happiness and joy? If not, it’s time to get rid of it. If it serves no useful purpose or add to the beauty, life, and character of your home, then it simply has no place!

6. Know Where to Discard Items

Less stuff means less clutter. When you have things you don’t want or need any more, get rid of them! But know where to discard these items. You can... donate to thrift stores, sell on Craigslist or OfferUp, take a trip to the nearest homeless shelter,, visit a consignment store, etc. I visited this website which gave me a list of charities that would come to my house and pick up my donations!

Whatever you do, make sure to find a place to get rid of your things. Otherwise, they’ll sit next by the front door, in your closet, in your car, wherever, taking up space and cluttering you life more! And just think, someone else could be using and loving your gently used toys, books, clothes, furniture, and home goods.

7. Keep The Hotspots Clean

Every home has a hotspot for clutter. When you took inventory of what didn’t have a home, did you notice any popular areas in your house that kept these things? Usual suspects are the sink, dining table, desk, night stand, and “junk drawers.” Take note of these places and carve out quick spurts of time to tidy them up daily.

Even if your house isn’t perfectly organized, keeping those hotspots clutter-free on a daily basis will make your home feel cleaner and look better. Plus, it relieves the stress or guilt you probably feel right now when you look at these common hotspots and see a cluttered, dirty, disorganized mess.
 

Once you’ve done all of this, don’t bring in more unnecessary items! Don’t defeat the process of organizing your life by bringing in new things that you don’t need.

Getting organized takes patience, time and the ability to throw things away. It also takes practice, so that you don’t continue to live in the same disorganized pattern. But once you get started, you'll feel so much better!

Declutter space by space. Don’t be a perfectionist. Do something. Feel better!

Before we start, would you mind watching this video for me? It's what got me thinking about feminism this week.

Feminism is a confusing topic. Maybe it shouldn't be, but it is. It has a strong connotation, that word. Often times, it carries a negative connotation. (Perhaps it's similar to the word "Christian" - a lot of people have a lot of negative feelings when they hear that word because a lot of people have said and done a lot of ignorant things in the name of Christianity.)

To be completely and totally honest, when I hear "feminist" I sometimes think that means "man-hater." Or I think of someone who denounces or looks down upon those who believe in "traditional family constructs". I think women growing their armpit hair out, tweeting about tampons being oppressive, and calling Father's Day a celebration of male dominance and patriarchal society. Go do a Google image search of "feminism" and you'll see what stereotypes I'm referring to.

At the same time, a part of me thinks about the times I haven't been taken seriously at work because of my strong sense of empathy towards my co-workers. I think about the many female stereotypes in the media, portraying women mostly as "crazy," "over-dramatic," and "psychotic". I think of my least favorite line in The Office that makes me cringe every time I hear it, when Todd Packer tells Michael to "hike up [his] skirt and pull out [his] tampon, borrow some balls, and come meet [him]!" I think about the over-sexualization of women in our society. I think about rape culture and the things I do to protect myself from sexual harassment every day. I think about women being misrepresented in leadership positions. I think about statistically proven economic inequality in the workplace. 

I'm not the only one that struggles with this word. Just last week on Huffington Post, an article was posted on Emma Watson's use of the word "feminism" in a speech she recently gave. She was quoted as saying, "I was encouraged not to use the word 'feminism' because people felt that it was alienating and separating and the whole idea of the speech was to include as many people as possible... But I thought long and hard and ultimately felt that it was just the right thing to do. If women are terrified to use the word, how on earth are men supposed to start using it?"

Feminism is defined as "the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men." And the simple truth is, I'm a feminist. And I'm a Christian. And I'm a homemaker. And I'm thankful I live in a day and age where I can challenge norms, speak my mind, seek out truth, and post publicly on my own platform.

I think this word "feminism" needs to be redeemed. What about you? What do you think?

This week, I’ve got a challenge for you. I’ve come up with 5 relatively simple tasks for you to accomplish this week to organize your home, your mind, and your life. We’re on a mission to minimize and organize, and it starts with these easy steps...

Monday: Check The Expiration Dates

Start in your medicine cabinet. Go through all of your medicines and start sorting. Have some cold & flu tablets in there that you used 6 years ago? Throw them out. Have two nose spray bottles that you don’t even remember acquiring but you know you’ve never used them? Throw them out. Have a bunch of leftover orange pill bottles full of antibiotics and steroids that you never actually finished? Throw them out. Expired medicines are unsafe, unnecessary, and can clutter up a cabinet quickly. Get rid of them!

Next, go over to your kitchen and pantry. It’s time to inventory your canned goods, tupperware full of food in the fridge, freezer foods, etc. Check every expiration date. And when in doubt, throw it out. Make a clean sweep through your foods and reward yourself with a trip to the grocery store. (Or order some groceries online! Have you seen my post on easy organic nourishment?)

Tuesday: Create A Centralized Information Center

It’s time to create a central station to keep up with schedules and tasks for you, your family, co-workers, etc. This can mean a number of things: an app, a giant calendar, a whiteboard, whatever.

I suggest using a synchronized calendar app, where every member of your team or family can enter new updates, schedules, and tasks that every member can see (CalenMob, Google Calendar, and iCal are useful tools).

I also suggest having a physical command center somewhere in the home. We have a beautiful giant calendar from Paper Source that hangs in our home office where we can add different dates, events, birthdays, and so on. This area is also where we keep our bills, mailing supplies, important paperwork, etc. so it truly is our “Command Central”!

Wednesday: Clean Out Your Closet

First - Inventory. Ask yourself these questions: Does it fit? Have I worn it in the last year? Would I buy this today? Is it damaged? Do I feel good when I wear it? Is this even my style?

Now - Sort. Make a pile of all of the clothes you don’t need anymore, and sort them out. Is it damaged? Irreparable? Undergarments? Throw them away. Is it nice, but not your size, not your style, or not something you like wearing? Give it away, donate it, or sell it. Actually, there are about a million things you can do with the clothes you don’t want (clothes swap with your friends, donate to a homeless shelter down the street, give it to your neighbor, sell it on Poshmark/OfferUp/Craigslist, take it to a consignment store like Plato’s closet, take it to your sister, throw it in the trash…) but the most important thing to do is take care of it NOW. Don’t wait. Don’t let it sit at your front door or in your car. Do something with it. Isn’t that the theme of this week?

Finally - Organize. Buy ultra-thin hangers. Hang your clothes (maybe even in color-order, if you love that sort of thing like I do). Get an organizing system of canvas bins or wicker baskets or plastic drawers. Come up with a system that works for you and readjust as necessary.

Thursday: Set Up a Recycling Bin  

Hopefully, you’ve boarded the paperless train. If not, no worries, you can read about how to do that here. Regardless, you probably have paper in your home and I can almost guarantee you that paper is going to continue accumulating. That’s why it’s important to set up a recycling system for yourself.

When you get junk mail - recycle bin. You’ve read a catalog - recycle bin. Found an old binders full of math class notes from college, birthday cards from 3 years ago, receipts, grocery lists, post-its, instruction manuals, clothing tags, WHATEVER! Recycle bin, baby!!

This $15 white metal trash can with a lid is what I use to as our receptacle. It’s tucked away under my desk in our home office. When it’s full, I just take it to the recycle center in our apartment. We’re getting rid of clutter, one step at a time and we’re being environmentally responsible while we’re at it!

Friday: Create a Weekend Bucket List

When you are bored, unproductive, tired, lazy, whatever… when you’re not doing anything, it’s easy to feel mentally disorganized. A good way to combat this is to create an ongoing list of activities that you want to do when you’ve got down-time. This way, you always have ideas on hand that you can use instead of wasting your time figuring out what to do or just giving up and watching TV.

We have an actual see-through paint bucket looking container that we’ve created that’s full of colorful pieces of paper. Each piece of paper has a date or outing idea on it with a list of supplies needed and a good budget. When Robby and I need to stop watching Netflix and need to get up and do something, we just reach into the bucket and go! Some of the ideas take us out of the house (to a restaurant, the theatre, a park) and some of them are at-home activities (reading marathon, baking night, indoor camping). This simple project helps us feel productive, which helps us feel mentally-organized.

That’s it. Do you think you can handle it? Let me know how it goes for you! I’d love to see some before and after pictures!

A few weeks ago, I had the incredible pleasure of diving into the beautifully inspiring story of Stephanie May Wilson, as told in her book debut, The Lipstick Gospel. I literally could not put the book down until I had soaked up every word on every page. I took in the whole story in only a day and the only negative feedback I have is that I wish there was more to read. I couldn't get enough!

Stephanie writes a blog that I have been following for the past couple of years, and through it, she has changed my life. Her storytelling ability, along with her sweet spirit and heartwarming hope, makes for a very honest and insightful experience for anyone who stumbles upon her blog. I'm not even sure anymore how I became turned on to her, but I know that for as long as she's writing, I'll be reading.

In The Lipstick Gospel, Stephanie shares her struggles, triumphs, doubts, revelations, and her journey to find God all over the world. The first pages recount her party-filled days as a atheistic sorority girl caught up in the confusion the world had offered her. She then takes the reader along with her through her Colorado college experience -- a heart-wrenching breakup, an inspiring study abroad trip, her adjustment once back home in "the real world" and her first (and accidental) mission trip. 

She's found God in the brushstrokes of Michelangelo, in rich cups of Spanish coffee, on Costa Rican mountain tops, and in the wild worship of Ghanians. I invite you to pour a warm cup of coffee, wrap yourself up in a blanket, and crack open her book so you can get to know her precious heart's testimony of God's faithfulness in her life. I promise you won't be disappointed.

You can get the Lipstick Gospel here at Stephanie's store. BONUS: It's Cyber Monday and there's a huge sale going on! So pick up a few goodies for you and your girlfriends! And while you're at it, go ahead and visit her blog here.

*This post originally appeared on my former blog, Nothing But Nash, on December 19, 2014 and has been republished here to bring all of my thoughts into on consolidated place.

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