Living in a room and how it is organized

Hi and welcome to another organization blog. At the moment due to Covid 19 and because I have now split from my husband, I am more or less living in a room.

It can easily get quite cluttered but with simple and cheap storage ideas it can be organized and maintained before it needs tidying again.

Here below is a image of a storage basket I got from TK Maxx and a really good price of £1.80, and have used this to store my toiletries, multivitamins and hair care products.

I have a small sized closet, so there are some clothes in there and at the moment my bags, which I am also using as storage. These are at the foot of my bed, until I can put together a better organized storage system.

I also have some clothes inside the storage basket you see some clothing on top of the black basket storage unit. Well I have tidied this up now. See image below:

and the white unit is where I am using for storing my spare bra and underwear.

It is amazing how you can still even with a small room, how you can still make space so there is no clutter.

There is more I want to use, for example bring over some of my storage boxes from where I lived in Epsom that I can store under my bed for items I have, to help create more space, and I will keep you posted of the upkeep of my room I am currently living in.

Anyway stay safe and many thanks for reading,

Carrie X

Living in utter chaos

So this blog is all about being organized but I am going to tell the truth. Some days I can be very disorganized and like today well more this morning, my son was supposed to be in his P.E kit but part of it was in his rucksack which was at school.

Thankfully we did have some alternative shorts that he could get away with as they were navy blue but just about fit him.

That's why I would always say have a back up plan just in case. Being a qualified football coach and parent who has learned the hard way since becoming one, I soon learnt that having a plan B could come in handy, as you just never know what would happen on some days.

Please check out my weekly newsletter blog in the link below, as today was not a good day.

https://newsletterthoughtsandadvicefortheweek.blogspot.com/2020/06/when-days-arent-so-good.html

I felt I needed to share my day as I am sure there are parents or even those without kids can  identify with the day, and glad that today is nearly over.

I just hope tomorrow it is better, but what happens when living in utter chaos as trust me with kids especially, you are bound to have those days, honestly it comes with territory well it does for me anyway, and I am not afraid to say so either, you just have to crack on and do the best you can under the circumstances.

There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day to tidy up all the time, but when you do get some free time then I know it will be tidied eventually. Some days you just have to give in and make do.

Life is full of ups and downs, taking the rough with the smooth, but in the end the important thing no one got hurt in the chaos and can make up for lost hours on other days.

Could the day get any worse? 




Well it almost did as my bastard computer interrupted and decided to shut itself down, many thanks computer you almost pile of shite.

What would we do without modern technically christ knows but sometimes I want to punch it black and blue, but knowing my luck it will more than likely punch me back if it grew a fist.

Anyway as I try to crack on my hayfever seems to be on full force now, will try and make up for lost time and have a good night's sleep, I hope and be ready for a new day.

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X

Organizing my time

Hello and welcome it is Monday again, which means it will soon be school pick up again.
Thankfully Henry's dad takes him to school on Mondays, and then we, my mum and I pick him at the end. 

At the moment he is only doing half days, and so it means that I have to get my skates on do some work, as much as I can before I have to pick him up.

Not saying that I am not looking forward to it, I am its just the time from when Henry is taken to school to when we pick him up goes so quickly.

Organizing my time is a must and so the first thing I will do is have breakfast, and work whilst I am having it on some days, I slept in until 10am this morning which is very unlike me, I will often wake up anytime before 7am and then be awake for the rest of the day.

The next thing I will have my shower and get dressed for the day.

Even in the afternoon and evenings I will organize my time, by looking after Henry, have dinner and then get him ready for bed and then myself, and often means doing some work in the evenings.

I do enjoy my television time as it is my time to switch off from writing and doing something else.

Me and Henry will often play countdown, which he does have a game for with the actual cards and board to put the cards on, but this rarely gets used and he will use his Thomas the Tank Engine cards instead, mmmm.... I know confusion right? But that's kids for you.

So it is essential that I organize my time and make the most of each hour of the day. How do you organize your time? Please leave a comment below.

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X

Life Work Balance

Hello and welcome to another blog about organization. In this post I am writing about Life Work Balance, because it can be tricky especially when becoming a parent, we are often pealing our face off the floor with tiredness and frustration that we can feel weighed down. 

When you first begin working you can have the honeymoon period where you are getting up on time, embrace the travelling and then socializing with colleagues afterwards, then four week later you feel utterly drained and needing a well earned break.

My tip 1 is don't weigh yourself down, and stop working through your breaks. They have been set for a reason, and that is to stop to recharge your batteries. I used to not take my breaks and that's when I would begin to make mistakes because my concentration would go.

You have to refill and gain some more energy.

When having a child we can get lost within the parenthood life that we can feel like death and that getting out of bed is more trouble than what it is worth, and so if you and I will keep adding this to my blogs, need to delegate some duties to someone who has offered to help even if it is making you a cup of tea, take them up on it.

Be flexible with your daily schedule as sometimes the unexpected can happen especially with kids. For example you are out having some play time with your children and they end up having a pooh explosion, never panic as it has happened to many including myself, just remember spare clothes, wipes and nappy at all times, then if this happens you have some back up.

Once you can have a balance then you'll find that things just fit into place and that the routine you have found works and you are not getting so bogged down.

I make sure I have days like I wrote about yesterday on one of my other blog sites:

https://everyonecanbuildacastle.com/2020/06/08/bloody-mondays/

It just nice to do something other than what you have scheduled and made some time to catch up on TV, very therapeutic.

So lets stay safe and I will be back with another organization blog next week.

Many thanks for reading,


Carrie X

How I organize my blogs

Hello and welcome to another blogpost.

Since the lockdown and living with my mum I have been more focused on creating blogs and books.

So to keep these organised I use my excel spreadsheet to organise what I want to achieve each day, check out my blog called Take Control of your life, where I have added in this document for downloading and printing off.

I also use these stationary pads to help keep tabs on my writing.

I would always recommend to organise your writing to keep tabs on what you have written and can spend a day or 10-15 minutes to edit what you have written.

I don't concentrate on how many words I have written as much as I see it that quality is better than quantity, but with writing you find your own system that works for you anyway.

There are blogs where I do tend to write everyday and others than I post 2-3 times a week on.

Here are links to all my sites below:

https://everyonecanbuildacastle.com 
https://theparentingadventurestipsandtricks.wordpress.com 
https://carrieseverydayliving.wordpress.com
https://thewestlondongirl.com
https://buildingselfconfidencetud.blogspot.com/
https://newsletterthoughtsandadvicefortheweek.blogspot.com/

Many thanks for reading,


Carrie X

Dealing with paperwork

Before I begin this blog I just want to ask how many of you get bombarded with paperwork?

I don't know why, but even though I have opted to go paper free, I still get bogged down with paper. 

So what I have done is put it all into a divided file system or I put it into a box folder. 

I will then start sorting it out into category, Finance, health and wellbeing, coupons, to be shredded or household, etc

Then I will sort it out again, separating different statements and companies.

I was at one point scanning them all and saving them all on my computer but doing it that way, means the memory gets used up.

I keep those that are 5 years old, any earlier than that gets disposed of and shredded. 

All things like old bank statements, council tax bills etc should be shredded because of identity fraud. 

I would invest in a filing cabinet system, because it is important to keep all paper work together filed should need to go through it. 

So I hope you have found this blog to be useful and I will blog again next week.

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X 

Organizing your life

It is so important as writer, football coach and mum to be organized, as you can become overwhelmed and have unfinished jobs. 

I live by planning and scheduling it is how I keep going.

The easiest way to organizing your life is by doing a Block Schedule, check out this video by Jordan Paige who talks in details about creating a block schedule:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BKuSlstIBM

Then the other schedule I go by is my weekly schedule where I jot down what time I will start my writing, housework, lunch etc, example I start work from about 5am, and so I will write down "Blog writing from 05:00 to 05:30" and schedule other bits in as I go through the day that I didn't write down or the day before.

I would encourage everyone to brain storm or brain dump at the end of the day or in the morning, and then break the tasks up into groups.

There are some really good templates on Excel and Microsoft Word that you can use or use these as a guide to design your own.

When it comes to organizing your life to also do an Action Plan of what tasks really need doing.

Prioritize, the best way to do that if you do brain storm or brain dump, circle the tasks that need to be done first and then have them separated into A, B and C.
A being top priority, B Not so important and C Not important.

What you don't get done, rewrite a new list for the next day.

So lets get organized and use the Lockdown as an excuse to get bits done that would necessarily be put on hold.

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X