by Blair Massey

The garage is a great place to put things that just don’t belong in the house. It’s the place to store bicycles, gardening supplies, tools, sports equipment, the kiddie pool, the lawn mower and of course the car.

Sometimes, though, the garage becomes a dumping ground for things we don’t know what to do with. We tend to stash things there thinking that we will eventually find a home for them later. Unfortunately, unless the garage is properly organized, once something ends up there it tends to stay there, never to be seen again.

In some cases there is so much stuff in the garage that we have to park our car on the street. If this is how your garage looks, it’s time to grab a broom and follow these steps to cleaning and organizing your garage.

Supplies: 2 or 3 large kitchen trash bags, 4 or 5 large sturdy boxes and a broom.

STEPS

1. Remove everything that is on the floor (including the car).

2. Sweep out the garage. Don’t forget to clean any cob webs from the windows.

3. Next, sort through everything. As you go through each item, decide if you need to throw it away, put it in another location, give it away or store it.

If it is broken, worn out, used up or useless, toss it in a garbage bag. Discard any old paint, pesticides, and fertilizers. Call your local disposal company or county for locations that take paint and other toxic materials.

If it is an item to be given away, mark one of the boxes “Give Away” and put the item in that box. One way to decide whether you need to keep something is to ask yourself if you used it at least once last year. If you didn’t, give it to a charity or someone who can use it. Don’t be sentimental. Only keep what you are really going to use. Of course you should keep items that are rarely used if they are for an emergency, such as jumper cables or if they are used once a year as with tree pruners and artificial Christmas trees.

If you have items that you would like to sell, mark a box “Sell” and put the items in that box. I want to caution you that unless you are really going to follow through with having a garage sale or selling these items online, you might want to just donate them. Many people have good intentions when they save things for a garage sale, however most people never get around to doing what it takes to have a sale. Don’t hang onto things you that you might sell “someday”. That someday will probably never come. Be generous and bless those that can use your unwanted items by giving them away.

If you have items that will go back into the house or borrowed items that need to be returned, mark one of the boxes “Return” and the other “House”, then put the items into one of these boxes. You can drop them off when you are done with this organizing project.

Put all the items you want to keep in a separate area of the garage. If you are storing items to be reused at a later date such as baby clothes, then you might want to consider relocating them to an indoor location that is dry and pest free.

When you are finished with this step, put the “give away” items in your car and take them to the nearest donation center. Put the “return” items in your car and return them.

Take the “house” items into the house and find a place for them. Don’t put the box in a closet or room thinking that you will get to it sometime. You know that won’t happen. Find homes for each item now. If you can’t find a home for something, you may want to donate it or give it away.

Put the garbage bags in the trash can and take toxic material to the proper disposal facility.

4. Getting Organized.

This is the step where you put back everything you are keeping. The only difference is that this time you will be organizing your garage into the following functional stations. These stations are groupings of related items.

Gardening and Paint

Make sure that children do not have access to weed killers, pesticides and other toxic chemicals locking them up or storing them up high.

Store small gardening tools on peg boards.

Store potting soil in a five-gallon plastic bucket with a lid.

Store pots, grouped by size on shelves.

Fill a large plastic garbage can 1/3 full with sand mixed with one quart of clean car oil. Place the metal end of your shovel, hoe and pitch fork in this container. The oil will keep them from rusting. Keep a wire brush nearby for cleaning off stubborn dirt.

Secure the lids to paint cans then store them upside down to prevent the paint from drying out. Clearly label them with the room where the paint was used, the color name and a dab of the paint color.

Tools

Hang up as many tools as possible on a peg board. The more you get off the floor the more room you will have.

If you have a work bench but not enough space to hold tools, consider mounting your tools on a peg board just above your work bench. You can also install a shelf above your work bench to hold drills, and other small equipment. To store very small items, try nailing the lids to jars under a shelf and then screw the jars into the lids. These make great places to store nails, screws, nut, bolts, washers, tacks, and staples.

Wall mounted paper towel holders are a great way to store rolls of tape. Just place your tape on a dowel and put the dowel into the holder.

Place car care items and miscellaneous items on shelves in clearly labeled boxes or bins.

Equipment

This area is where you store your lawn mower, weed trimmer, hand tiller and other pieces of equipment. Use peg boards with heavy duty hooks and bike racks to hang smaller equipment and ladders.

Sports

Store skis, golf clubs, and other tall pieces of equipment in a tall plastic trash container or hang horizontally on the wall.

Put balls in a mesh bag and hang on the wall.

Cleaning and organizing the garage takes time and effort but the rewards are great. Once you are done, you will have a space that is functional and easy to maintain. Best of all you will be able to open your garage door with pride. No more feeling embarrassed when the neighbors walk by!

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include the entire following resource information at the end of the article and make the link back to our site live:

© 2002 – 2009 Blair Massey

Christian Lifestyle expert Blair Massey is devoted to helping Christian women around the world organize and manage their home, family and life. If you’re tired of struggling to keep up at home, Blair will show you how to unlock your God-given organizing ability so that you can start living the amazing life that God created you to enjoy! To learn how, sign up for her FREE newsletter now at www.christian-homemaking.com

“… to be made new in the attitude of your minds…” (Ephesians 4:23)

Last week was a challenging week. No matter what I did, situations that were beyond my control kept preventing me from getting things done around the house. At first I reacted faithfully. I prayed and trusted that God would handle all the details. As time went on and more obstacles cropped up, I began to think that I would never dig my way out of the mountain of work that was piling up.

My wonderful husband came up with several helpful ideas which I promptly shot down.

Finally my husband said to me, “You know, lately you have become very negative.” I gave him a bewildered look and said, “I have?” He replied, “Yes you have.”

“How?” I asked.

“Well for example, whenever I offer a solution you respond with all kinds of reasons why it won’t work. You are not solution oriented, you are problem focused.”

His comments made me stop and think. He was right. I had become negative and problem focused and now it was beginning to affect my faith. I needed an attitude adjustment and I needed it fast.

A Change of Mind

“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2)

Negative thoughts, if left unchecked, can easily take over our mind and the result is a negative, worldly mindset. The Apostle Paul taught that we can fight worldly thinking by renewing our mind. In other words, retraining ourselves to think the way God wants us to think.

So my first step toward changing my attitude was to renew my mind with God’s way of thinking. But that led me to my next question—what exactly did God want me to start thinking about?

A Change of Focus

“Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” (Philippians 4:8)

Paul once again showed me the direction I needed to take. I learned from the scripture above that I must focus my thoughts on things that are positive, righteous and godly. This is the way God wants me to think.

How I view things shapes how I respond to my circumstances. If I constantly think negative thoughts I will react to my circumstances in a negative way. Eventually my negativity gives way to pessimism and pessimism gives way to unbelief. The end result is that I view my circumstances as insurmountable and my faith spirals down into a pit of despair. But godly thinking leads to a faithful attitude, which in turn leads to faithful reactions.

A Change of Strategy

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:5)

How do you keep negative thoughts from attacking your mind? As the scripture above says, take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ. That is the power we have in Christ. Instead of giving into negative thinking, fight back with positive, godly thoughts. For every negative thought that comes to mind think of a positive thought to counteract it. This takes practice if you have a history of negative thinking. You’ll need to retrain yourself.

I decided to use this scripture to fight my negative thoughts.

Romans 8:31-32 says, “What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?”

We live in a fallen world. Negative circumstances are a fact of life. It is our choice how we will react. We can give into negative thinking or we can change the way we think by fighting back with godly thoughts. If you find that negative thoughts have started to affect your attitude, don’t let it get you down. Fight back. Then you too can say, “I’ve Got a New Attitude.”

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include the entire following resource information at the end of the article and make the link back to our site live:

© 2002 – 2009 Blair Massey

Christian Lifestyle expert Blair Massey is devoted to helping Christian women around the world organize and manage their home, family and life. If you’re tired of struggling to keep up at home, Blair will show you how to unlock your God-given organizing ability so that you can start living the amazing life that God created you to enjoy! To learn how, sign up for her FREE newsletter now at www.christian-homemaking.com

by Blair Massey

Does your family struggle with being on time in the morning?  Are you tired of nagging, yelling, policing and rushing?  Imagine how enjoyable your mornings would be if everyone was ready on time?   Maybe you’re thinking to yourself, “That will never happen with my family”.  Take heart, there is hope!  You can banish the chaos in your morning routine by following these eight simple strategies.

1. Adjust Your Departure Time

By backing up your departure time a few minutes, you can avoid any persistent morning delays.  For example, let’s say that every morning right before you head out the door your 14 year old daughter decides she hates what she’s wearing and runs to change her outfit.  Her daily wardrobe change consistently puts your departure time fifteen minutes behind schedule.  Instead of being late every day, be proactive by setting your departure time back by fifteen minutes.  That way when she heads back to her room to change her outfit, you’ll still be on time with a fifteen minute cushion built into your schedule.

2. Make an Adjustment to Your “Sleepyhead’s” Wake-up Time

If you have a child that is constantly late because he likes to hit the snooze button, try setting his alarm to go off 15 minutes earlier.  That way he will wake up at the proper time.  This also works very well for adults!

3. Make a Get Ready Chart

Help your children know exactly what they need to do to get ready by making a chart that lists all the necessary steps.  If you have very young children, make a chart with pictures.  When my son was five, I had him make pictures of each thing he had to do to get ready in the morning: get dressed, make bed, eat breakfast, comb hair, brush teeth, get lunch and backpack.  Then we cut them out and put them in order on a piece of construction paper which I laminated and put on the refrigerator.  Every morning he would look at his chart to see if he had completed his steps.

4. Set up a Bathroom Schedule

If your family fights every morning over access to the bathroom, try setting up a schedule that designates specific times for each person to use the bathroom. You can eliminate these squabbles altogether if you have your children take a shower or bath the night before.

5. Train Them to Be Ready Early

Being on time is great but that doesn’t leave you with any cushion if there is a last minute snag.  Without a cushion there is no time to spare and everyone is stressed and rushed.  Why not train your children to be early?  You can do this by motivating them with a reward.  Make it a rule that if they are completely ready and it is still early, they can watch a cartoon or play for the remaining time they have left.  This has worked beautifully with our son.

6. Prepare the Night Before.

Instead of trying to do all your preparations in the morning, get as much done possible the night before.   Preparing the night before will greatly reduce the stress in your morning routine because you will have completed most of your work in advance.

Below is a general list of things to prepare the night before.  Have your children take responsibility for as many of these as possible, according to their age and ability.

• Pack up backpacks (school books, library books, homework, permission slips, etc.).
• Pack lunches.  Don’t forget to include water bottles and midmorning snacks.
• Set the table with plates, bowls, cups and utensils for tomorrows breakfast.  Set out the cereal or breakfast bars.  Adults or older children can portion out vitamins for each child.
• Everyone should lay out their clothes, including underwear, socks, shoes and accessories.  Help little ones to learn this skill by doing it with them.
• Round up sports equipment, gym bags and other things needed for after school and after work activities.
• Adults can round up things for work such as their briefcase, work files, laptop and equipment.

Have each person set their things by the door they leave through in the morning.  In the morning all they need to do is to grab their lunch, backpack and other stuff, and off they go.

7. Send Them as They Are.

If I catch my son dawdling I remind him that I will take him to school in whatever state of readiness he is in at the time.  That means if he is still in his pajamas, or his hair is not combed, that is how he will go to school.  When I first explained this to him, he thought I was joking.  One day he decided to test me to see if I was serious.  I gave him a ten minute warning to finish getting ready.  When it was time to go he was still in his pajamas.  I packed his clothes, tooth brush, toothpaste and comb in a paper bag and herded him out the door.  He was stunned that I had actually done what I said I was going to do.  Once in the car he quickly changed his clothes.  When we arrived at school he brushed his teeth and combed his hair in the bathroom.  From them on, when I would remind him what would happen if he wasn’t ready on time, he would jump up and get ready.  In fact, you never saw a little boy get ready for school so fast!

8. Set Your Clocks Ahead

If all else fails, try setting all your clocks ahead by however many minutes your crew is consistently late.  Now you can smile knowing that when they think they are late, they are really on time.

Getting your family out of the house on time is not as unattainable as it may seem.  By implement these eight simple strategies you can turn a stressful morning into a peaceful and smooth exit out the door.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include the entire following resource information at the end of the article and make the link back to our site live:

© 2002 – 2009 Blair Massey

Christian Lifestyle expert Blair Massey is devoted to helping Christian women around the world organize and manage their home, family and life. If you’re tired of struggling to keep up at home, Blair will show you how to unlock your God-given organizing ability so that you can start living the amazing life that God created you to enjoy! To learn how, sign up for her FREE newsletter now at www.christian-homemaking.com

by Blair Massey

Have you ever had a day when you felt overwhelmed by the number of tasks on your “to do” list?  Maybe you feel like this every day.  It can be a real challenge to get things done when you are faced with a long “to do” list.  Here are three spiritual principals that will help you be victorious on those tough days.

1. Pray First

“It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand on the heights.” Psalm 18:32-33 (NIV)

Prayer tends to be the first thing we let slide when we feel overwhelmed.  Can you relate?  Yet, it is the thing we need the most.

It has been my experience that whenever I don’t pray, I inevitably have an unproductive day.  I find myself spinning my wheels on frivolous things that prevent me from my accomplishing my goals.  Conversely, when I pray first the Lord provides the wind I need to sail though my tasks.

2. Have a Plan of Action

Proverbs 21:5 “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” (NIV)

You won’t get far if you don’t have a plan of action.  My daily plan of action includes a list of tasks, appointments and phone calls that I need to make.  Each item is prioritized.  As I finish each task I mark it off my list.  If I have not completed an item at the end of the day, I transfer it to the next day’s agenda or reschedule it for a more suitable time.

3. Don’t Give Up

Galatians 6:9 “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”

Being the Manager of your home is a great responsibility.  Sometimes the weight of that responsibility can feel very heavy.  If you are having a difficult day, stop and recite Galatians 6:9.  This is the scripture I lean on when I am having a challenging day.  I think about how God is watching me as I work to complete all my tasks.  I picture Him saying to me, “My dear daughter, I am so pleased that you are not giving up.  Your hard work will reap a great harvest.”

Knowing that I am pleasing the Lord by not giving up gives me the extra energy I need to make it to the end of the day.  It can do the same for you.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include the entire following resource information at the end of the article and make the link back to our site live:

© 2002 – 2009 Blair Massey

Christian Lifestyle expert Blair Massey is devoted to helping Christian women around the world organize and manage their home, family and life. If you’re tired of struggling to keep up at home, Blair will show you how to unlock your God-given organizing ability so that you can start living the amazing life that God created you to enjoy! To learn how, sign up for her FREE newsletter now at www.christian-homemaking.com

by Blair Massey

Anyone who carries a purse will tell you that keeping it organized and free of clutter is a challenge. In addition, it can be a big pain in your neck, shoulder or back when it gets too heavy to carry.

If you’re tired of the hassle of rummaging through your purse to find things, try these six simple steps for achieving an organized, clutter free purse.

1. Clean It

Remove all the contents from your purse. Remove any crumbs and garbage. Next, vacuum out your purse using your vacuum’s crevice attachment. If the suction from your vacuum is too strong, try using a hand-held vacuum.

If your purse is leather, give is a shine with leather cleaner.

2. Identify It

Identify the essential items that you use on a daily basis. An easy way to do this is to put a large zip-top plastic bag into your purse. When you are done using an item from your purse, instead of putting it back into your purse, put it into the plastic bag. Do this for two weeks. At the end of the two week period you will have identified exactly what you use on a regular basis. These are the items you keep in your purse.

Here is my top ten list of essential purse items:

• wallet (ID, cash, credit cards, library card, pictures, etc.)
• keys
• sun glasses
• cell phone or PDA
• comb or brush
• hand cream
• hand sanitizer
• band-aid
• feminine products
• small pack of tissues

If you need to touch up your appearance on the go, add a compact mirror, lipstick, powder, mascara, blush, travel size hairspray and an emery board.

3. Purge It

Once you have identified your essentials, everything else should be removed. If you still think you will need something from the items you just purged, put them into the plastic bag and place them back in your purse. If you use anything from the plastic bag, put it back into your purse when you are done with it. At the end of one week whatever is still in the bag should be removed.

4. Organize It

Organizing the inside of your purse can be difficult. Unless you have built-in compartments, everything ends up in a big heap at the bottom of your purse. Try finding your ringing cell phone in that mess! You dig and dig, trying to find it. Then when you finally do find it, it stops ringing. Frustrating!

Here is my answer to this annoying problem. Consider purchasing a purse organizer like the ones made by Pursket. You can put everything you need into the convenient compartments in the organizer. All your things, including your ringing cell phone are easy to find because there is a place for each item. And the best part is that when you want to change purses you just take out your organizer and pop it into whatever purse you want to use. Nothing is forgotten.

5. Tote It

There will be times when you need to take along items that you don’t use on a regular basis. Things such as books and videos to be returned, shopping lists, dry cleaning tickets, coupons, lists of clothing sizes for your family, reading material or paperwork, and toys and snacks to keep your children occupied during appointments. These supplementary items can go into a tote that you use for errands. Keep your tote in the hall closet for easy access or next to your purse so that you don’t forget to take it with you when you need it.

If you are tempted to put something in your purse that you don’t use on a regular basis, stop and think if it would be better to keep it in your tote.

6. Maintain It

To maintain your newly organized purse, clean it out once a month. That way you’ll keep on top of any clutter that accumulates. You can use the plastic bag method again if you are uncertain about what to keep in your purse.

If you do this every month, you’ll lighten your load, have less stress when you need to find something and you’ll be able to finally find your ringing cell phone.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include the entire following resource information at the end of the article and make the link back to our site live:

© 2002 – 2009 Blair Massey

Christian Lifestyle expert Blair Massey is devoted to helping Christian women around the world organize and manage their home, family and life. If you’re tired of struggling to keep up at home, Blair will show you how to unlock your God-given organizing ability so that you can start living the amazing life that God created you to enjoy! To learn how, sign up for her FREE newsletter now at www.christian-homemaking.com