In my last email newsletter, I shared a number of small changes I had made recently which were really helping progress towards my goals for the year. (If you don’t receive the newsletter you can read it online here.)
So often we can fall into the trap of thinking we need to “wait until we have the time” to make big changes to things we do. Time that never seems to appear, so we often accept the status quo instead. Or it may be that we want the dream set up, or we want to wait until we can afford to buy the right organisational system to fix the problem. But there is often a way to do something now!
We could tackle one part of the problem or we could try a makeshift set up to see if works and then look at buying something to make it look fancier later on. This is certainly the case with the kids technology set up which you can see in the photo below.
We had been struggling to find a place to store all the kids’ devices. My husband came up with this idea one afternoon, found some paper, a permanent marker and sticky tape and set to it. It is working really well. It isn’t pretty and it is not the perfect solution, but this small change has made a big difference to be able to keep the kids technology use in check.
Readers’ small changes
I asked in the newsletter for readers to send me their small changes, if they would like to share them on the blog and here are just a few changes readers have been making:
From Sharon:
Reading your blog over the last 12 months has prompted me to be more deliberate with some of my decisions. I know that as life is at the moment I am unlikely to stick to bigger, more drastic changes so this has been enough. Some of the small steps I have taken as a result are:
Better menu planning / attempt to lower food bills – we now do a market shop and buy enough meat for one month. Then I just do ad hoc 3-4 day plans knowing I have the major ingredient in stock. It has led to attempting more new recipes.
Major jobs – (that haven’t been done since birth of youngest 12 months ago!) I have set one big job to be achieved each month. Eg sort out photos, set up home office, get things ready to sell on Ebay. This is still probably the area that is the most challenge. I seem to be taking 2 months for each task!
From Lisa:
Laundry – The washing at my house was driving me crazy. The playroom had become the washing room, with a never-ending pile of washing to be folded in the corner. I decided I would spend at least 15 minutes after school folding this while the kids play in the room. I talk to them about their day and the washing gets folded, no more washing mountain!
From Josephine:
Cleaning – I had been meaning to put a caddy in the kids’ bathroom after reading one of your posts ages ago, but never got around to it. I put one in a month ago and I love it. It is so much easier to give the bathroom a quick wipe over because all the things I need are right there. {See this post for more info on a bathroom caddy.}
From Emma:
Exercise – I have started exercising regularly for the first time since I have had kids. Inspired by your recent series, three mornings a week I now get up at 6am and walk for 30 minutes. Things like having my clothes ready the night before have helped get me out the door and I even look forward to the mornings I get up early to walk. {You can find the recent health and fitness series of posts here.}
What about you? Have you been making small changes to make improvements to the way you do things?