So Sew Organized

As part of my Cooking and Saving for One series, I'd like to share with you my #1 tip for saving money as a single gal. This one tip has helped me SO much over the years! It is radical and strange, but it has given me a totally different approach to both shopping and saving. It isn't always easy, but worth it in the long run! Ready for the tip? Just don't spend. It is a no-brainer, really. The less I spend the more I save. It seems so simple, but really it requires an evaluation of your spending and a bit of a change in your thinking when you go to the store. I'm not against buying myself a treat or a splurge purchase once in a while...in fact I even have a small amount of my weekly budget set aside for treats and snacks. But I really, really try to think through each purchase and talk myself out of things I don't need. Sometimes the item is something I would use or eat eventually, but I put it back and save that purchase for a week when there is ...

I have to say, I never, ever thought I'd be writing this post. But here we go. The goal of these quick tips is to simplify. Because really, isn't that the goal of every organizing project? We find a system that isn't working - something that aggravates our daily routine, and frankly, aggravates us! And we tear it apart and make an even bigger mess than before so we can find a better system that simplifies life. These quick projects do the same thing, with the added benefit of being, well, quick! These are quick fixes that take little or no time but have a big impact. Today's quick tip? Just stop with all the Facebook. Now hear me out. I am not getting rid of Facebook. It is one of the main ways I communicate with not only my immediate family in Canada, but my extended family and close friends that live all across the globe. And one day I realized...I'm spending a lot of time on Facebook NOT doing those things. Instead, I was scrolling through a lot of ...

In every area of life, it is good to evaluate your current habits and systems every so often and see if there is a better way you could be accomplishing things. What once worked might not be the best situation for you any more! Things change and circumstances change...and sometimes the great ideas and plans that we had need to change to something better as well. This holds true in the organizing department. Really, this is one of the fun parts of organizing. When something isn't working so well, you get to organize all over again! I love the challenge of separating things and finding a place for everything. It is one of the reasons I have never worked or studied well in my room...I look up and see more things I could organize! :) But sometimes it needs to be done, so I challenge you: what is an area that needs to be re-evaluated? What about that area isn't working for you, and how could it be better? Take it apart, and try putting it back together a few different ways...

Here is a new feature for the new blog: Quick Tip Tuesdays! Most Tuesdays I will post a quick tip in the area of organizing, healthy living, sewing, or maybe something random. This is something that has worked for me, made my life simpler, and now I want to pass it along to you! Today's quick tip is the inbox. I was getting so many marketing emails each day, my inbox was becoming a place that I dreaded. All I did was open it every day and delete dozens of emails without even opening them. What a waste of time and energy! I finally tackled it one night. It took me a half hour or so to unsubscribe from all the ones I no longer wanted. On others that still held my occasional interest, I changed the settings so I wasn't receiving emails every day, but one lump email per week instead. 30 minutes. That is all the time it took! And now I've saved myself several minutes each day, plus the dread I felt each time I opened my inbox. So worth it! Want to take this action yo...