Have you ever had that feeling where you know you are falling into a bad habit and still continue to follow along with the behavior?  I was really developing some bad habits with checking social media. It really was ridiculous how many times a day I was looking at my phone! I really was becoming a slave to my phone. The sad part was that I actually don’t have that kind of time to waste! There were tasks I was avoiding by wasting time away on social media.  I recognized I was using my phone to distract me from making business calls. I was on the phone just not making business calls. It became necessary for me to change my behavior and create some better habits. I decided to see how I could do with 5 days of habit changing behavior.

Day 1

 I put this task on my schedule to really create some accountability. I put facebook, instagram and email on a schedule. This allowed me to take control and create some good habits. I could only check them once in the morning and once in the evenin...

I am not much of a TV watcher so I really don’t know much about Breaking Bad! One of the things I have heard is that people binge watch it. I have other areas of indulgence and binge watching I participate in. This is what brings me to self-awareness of a really bad habit I’ve got to break free of and now! 

I check email and social media excessively to the point of avoidance of important tasks!!!!!Yikes! That makes this a vice for me. I used to be really good at limiting myself and then slowly I got away from it. I am providing my own intervention. I am only going to allow myself one time/day to check email and once/day for social media!!!!!! I know, this sounds EXTREME, however, I know that I must do it this way to reprogram my brain. With a lot of prayer, I hope this reprogram won’t take very long!!

My plan is to tell everyone who is close to me so they can support and hold me accountable. We all need someone to hold us accountable especially when we are starting something new like...

Watch this super short video if you would like to learn how to be more organized!

Everyone has an unmatched sock pile, don’t you? I do. How did we get it? How long do we keep it? The questions for me are endless. I do think there is some secret connection between washing machine manufacturers and sock companies! (Conspiracy 101!) Think about the time it takes to go through that sock pile and try with a positive attitude to match up all the socks to only match a couple! It’s like being on an emotional roller coaster. Let’s face it,  it’s another chore. One we aren’t likely to put on the chore list.  It probably gets attention only when someone is looking for socks, at least that is how it works in our home.

The fad for some is to wear mismatched socks which is a good thing if you are under the age of 18 and a female.  As an adult, I am not sure that is a professional look for the workplace! I actually saw Amazon selling mismatched socks, can you imagine? Who would pay for that? In a short amount of time, you will have your very own pair through the process of doing ...

Can you feel it? The weather is warming up and the robins are hanging out all over the yard. Spring must be here or at least in close proximity. Watching my children play lacrosse in the yard tells me it is here.

For me, this means I no longer have my evenings free or Saturdays and there is lots to coordinate on a daily basis. I am not complaining, just stating the facts. I’ve learned the hard way how to make this less painful on myself. I use to run myself ragged and fed my family junk. This was my situational disorganization. I couldn’t keep up with household tasks not to mention have a social life. Not anymore, I have developed my “ A” game.

The 1st thing I do is get it on the calendar. For example, just today my 7th grader’s schedule for lacrosse came out so I marked the calendar and then added it to my phone. I like a 2 step system. It helps solidify it in my brain!! My high schooler’s schedule I have a rough idea of so I mark off that time on the calendar as well. The only thin...

I have been sick for the last 3 weeks, some days I’ve been more functional than others.

The nasty sinus infection that just wouldn’t leave had really taken a toll on my body. Living with a  foggy head made it tough to be on my “A” game which is what I must be every single day as a wife, mom and business owner. Good thing I have systems in place so I don’t have to worry about it so much.

My family stepped up and proved themselves quite helpful. They followed the systems and life ran smoothly around the Illig house.

Do you have a system in your home? You probably do and really didn’t think about it in that sense.

I’ll share with you some of the systems in place in our home….

1.    A schedule-it’s an outline how the day could go if everything goes as planned. It starts with waking up and goes to bedtime. I make sure we build in time for the unexpected as best we can. Even if the unexpected happens just having a schedule allows us to cope with it in a less stressful way.

2.    Menu- ...

The 1st month of 2017 has gone by, what do you have to show for it?

It’s an honest question. Were you able to stick to your goal(s) for the New Year?

If you haven’t,  no worries! That’s right…I said, NO WORRIES! I am not here to make you feel bad about yourself.

Here’s what I want to tell you…it’s February and not too late for you to make changes, set goals, whatever you need to do to become the Best YOU!

All I want you to think about is WHY…

Why do you want to accomplish that goal?

Why do you need to make this change?

Why haven’t you thought about becoming the BEST you?

Addressing the “why” is the key to success. I learned this myself. I needed to figure out my “why” in my fitness/wellness plan for the New Year. I had already fallen short by the 2nd week of January. It wasn’t looking good. One morning I was reading my daily inspiration and came across something talking about the “why”. A light bulb went on, achieving my daily fitness/wellness plan became a lot easier once I ...

I was recently reflecting on why closets seem to be the most common space people would like organized.

For me, having been a closet clutterer I think the closet is where we hide everything about ourselves. Yep, by closing that door, we’ve hidden it or have we??????

Maybe, you’ve hidden purchases from your significant other? You don’t want them to know you are a “shopper”. “No, it’s not new…I’ve had this a long time.” Sound familiar?

Perhaps you just don’t want to face how much money you’ve spent on shoes or clothes? It’s easy to throw it in the closet and pretend you didn’t buy anything!

Has a weight gain caused you to buy another size to add to that closet? I see clients with a lot of sizes in their closet. This is in hopes of getting back to the smallest size. Now, chances are that if you are carrying more than a 4 size range in your closet you are not going to wear these clothes you’ve hung onto. Of course not…you are going out to buy new stuff to celebrate your weight loss. Mor...

"Help! I'm drowning in here and very overwhelmed!", this is a common statement I hear from so many clients. For many of us a home office doesn't have to be a room all its own. It may be as simple as a space in the kitchen to a larger room devoted to being a home office. As an organizer, I generally see the dysfunctional home office. 

Why is the home office such a challenge????

-It's the perfect storm of paper...

So many categories of paper ending up in this one place creates the perfect storm!

-You may not be alone...

Your office space may be in a high traffic area allowing access to everyone in your house. That's alot of extra paper!

-May have more paper than space...

Sometimes these areas end up overwhelmed by the amount of paper and the limited amount of space! Is a purge in order???

-No system in place...

The method of piling paper on a desk is the only "organizing" there is! How do you find what you are looking for??

Creating a system that works for you is not as hard as...

The nice thing about an organizing retreat is that it creates in you a sense of urgency. I know many people like working with a deadline or shall I say working up to the deadline!

You can even share this with a friend and both of you work on this. It’s easier to have someone hold you accountable and celebrate with. Don’t you agree? 

An organizing retreat is a nice way to get 5 simpler projects done in a concentrated amount of time. For this retreat I recommend picking projects that would take you no longer than 15 minutes. If you’ve never organized your space before you definitely need to start here! For the more advanced, I still recommend 15 minute projects because we all need some maintenance from time to time.

Notify the people you live with so they don’t think you’ve lost your mind! One of the things my family liked was coming home to find what I had done that day. I never told them, I just let them figure it out.

How to pick the projects? Go through your house and find the ar...