Typically, if I’m going to write, I like to have a 2 to 4 hour block of time. But that hasn’t been possible for a long time and won’t be for the next month either.

So how do you get things done when you’re coming and going and doing three chores at the same time?

Well, it’s not easy. I’ve learned this summer that you’ve got to take the little bits of time that you do have and work with them.

For example, I have a manuscript that I’m getting critiqued at this fall’s ACFW conference. I need to have it done in a couple of weeks, but as of yesterday morning, I had not one word written.

As of today, I have 817 words! All I had was half an hour, but that was enough time to get over three pages written. If over the next week I daily add that amount to it, I’ll have the fifteen page manuscript written and ready for editing. So that’s my goal — fifteen pages in whatever few minutes I can scrounge up.

What about you? Any time tips you can share?

• Next Monday–the winner of Mary DeMuth’s debut novel, Watching the Tree Limbs. Follow this link to learn how to enter.

I said way back when this contest began that I would pick the winner, and I was looking for something I hadn’t heard before, something I’d probably have never thought of on my own.

There were definitely a number of those, but there was one that I thought of over and over–Jennifer’s tip of pre-packing child activity bags. Here it is again, in case you missed it.

Jennifer says, “Organize your tote bag and minimize chaos while in a ‘waiting’ situation with a child (doctor’s office, restaurant, car, etc.) by pre-packing activity packs. Pack bags with small, quiet activities such as crayons, stickers, pad of paper, small cars, deck of cards, snacks, etc.

I suggest making several different packs for each child in your family based on their age and interest. Set all in a basket by the door so that you can grab them and enjoy the peace and quiet that follows.”

So Jennifer is our winner. Thanks so much for the tip, Jennifer!

And thank you to everyone who entered. It was a bit more work than I expected but a lot of fun. Maybe we’ll have to do this again next year.

In the meantime, you have until the end of the month to enter the contest for Rene Gutteridge’s latest book Snitch. If you like comedy and suspense, this book’ll be right up your alley.

Charlotte says, “Drop one mothball into your outside garbage can to keep flies away.”

I currently live in a condo, but I’ll keep this tip in mind whenever we have our own outdoor garbage container. On the other hand, maybe our condo dumpster could use a bunch of mothballs. Wonder if they’ll keep squirrels away?

Holly says to put lots of shelves in the garage.

Yep, let’s keep the garage floor clear for the car! Another thing I dream of having some day. (Okay, bad writing there — I have a car; I dream of having a garage.)

Patricia says to keep small things rubberbanded or in a small container, and Eric suggests rubberbanding shoes together. Put them sole to sole and wrap a rubberband around them.

Joni says, “I save all the rubber bands that come on our daily newspaper and use them for everyday needs around the house. I store them in a zip lock baggie so they all stay in one place.”

My kids’ Sunday School teacher used to paper clip all their papers together each Sunday, and I saved those clips and never had to buy my own. Just one way to save a little money here and there. Good tip, Joni!

Carol says, “I use little clear plastic boxes to keep my cosmetics organized in my bathroom drawers.”

I do this in our bathroom. We have a vanity cabinet with a big open space beneath the sink. In other words, no drawers. So I got the big plastic boxes with clear drawers, and we keep everything there — hair dryer, brushes, toothpaste, cotton balls, all that fun stuff we women can’t live without.

Along those lines, Sarah says, “Use a smaller desk organizer for cosmetics to go in narrow drawers for dressing rooms or bathrooms.”

Shea says, “We have a very tiny full bathroom (the only one!), and there is virtually NO cupboard or shelf space for towels and washcloths. I purchased two of those hanging ‘canvas/vinyl’ sweater organizers. They velcro attach to the shower curtain bar at the far end of the tub, facing outwards, and because they have only the front opening, they stay dry!

Now we have ample storage space for bath towels, washcloths, some other hard-to-place linens like extra toilet lid covers and bathmats, and they really don’t take up that much room at the end of the tub– in addition, being outside the shower curtain, they wind up providing even MORE protection keeping shower water IN the tub and not down the curtain and onto the floor.”

Interesting. For those of you without bathroom storage, this might be a good solution. Thanks, Shea.

One more day of tips, and then the winner of the Container Gift Store will be announced!

• Don’t forget to enter the contest for Rene Gutteridge’s latest book Snitch.

• Velma and Susan both said to put things away as soon as you finish using them. That’s an obvious tip that is too easy to ignore.
• Tamara, Connie, Tiffany, Valerie, and Sylvia all reminded me to label containers. Valerie even added the idea of using a different colored tub for each person’s storage.
• Sandra, Carrie, Miranda, and Betty all said to sort mail right away. Carrie goes through her mail right beside the trash can, and Joan said that she uses three folders to deal with paperwork. One file says to pay, one says to file, one says to do, and when she opens the mail, everything not trash-worthy goes into one of those files. Great idea, Joan.
• Liz Zelie says she and her roommate have a ten-minute clean-up time whenever they feel their place needs to be cleaned up. She says it’s amazing what you can get done in ten minutes. I’d agree.
• Tracy says that everyone in her house has a basket with their name on it, and their items that need to be put away go in it. When they’re watching TV at night, they take a commercial break and put all their things away. Sounds like something I did as a kid!
• Cecilia says that for quick company clean-up, she throws whatever is lying around in a plastic bin and puts it out of sight. When company leaves, everyone takes their stuff out and puts it away. Not a bad idea for those all-too-many times when we forget to put away immediately what we’ve finished using.

So there are all kinds of original ways to get your house picked up. But here’s one more obvious but oh-so-good tip for us.

The Big Woman, Pat, Debbie, Betsy, C, Adhab, and Cynthia, all say THROW THINGS AWAY! They suggest various ways from literally throwing what you no longer use in the trash, to donating it, recycling it, or selling it on E-Bay. I just spent two days going through closets and did this. The rooms I cleaned look so much better, and I feel so much better. Thanks, everyone!

Along those lines, Angela says she makes it her goal to throw away one item every day. There’s a tip I really like! Breaking big items down into little pieces makes it so doable. Great tip, Angela.

Well, 2 more days of tips, and then I’ll announce the winner. But for right now, I need to find something to throw out . . .

Michelle says, “I use plastic containers and/or lazy susans in the fridge to help stop items from getting ‘lost’ in the back. It’s especially helpful for husband who can only find things in the front.”

I like this tip. I’m constantly losing food to the evil back of the fridge where it goes bad and causes me to make nasty noises when I discover it months later. Must try this tip.

Rebecca says, “I’ve found an easy way to utilize the space on that skinny shelf in the middle of the fridge — put down a cookie tray and instead of losing stuff in the back of the fridge, just pull out the tray and everything on that shelf is easily visible and reachable.”

I don’t have a skinny shelf, but if I did, I’d have to try this one, too.

Giana says, “Store all of your pastas, grains, flours and sugars in sealable containers to avoid bugs.”

Ugh. Bugs. Hate bugs. Just as evil as the back of the fridge. Why on earth did God make bugs? Certainly not to get into my food! So this one’s a good tip, too.

Jackie says, “Do you feel like you never see your friends anymore? Once a month get together in somebody’s kitchen and cook — breads, muffins, desserts, nothing hard and something that makes a lot to share. Then we take home a freezer full. Not only does this save me time in the kitchen all month, but I get to spend time with friends I wouldn’t have seen otherwise.”

Now this one is very original. My mom and a friend used to do this at Christmas. They’d go to one person’s house, bring all kinds of baking ingredients and Christmas records and bake Christmas cookies all day while they played music. A great idea!

Anyone else have a kitchen trick? Please feel free. I’m all for anything that makes my life in the kitchen easier.

• On Wednesday–we take a peek into the closet
• Winner announced June 29
  

With school out for the year (yes, that was a real loud YIPPEE!), I am determined to be productive. And the number one reason I am not productive is because I don’t have a schedule or routine. You’d think I’d have this how-to-get-the-most-out-of-24-hours thing down by now, but frankly I don’t. If I don’t get enough sleep (#2 reason I don’t get things done) and I don’t have my day planned ahead of time, then I might as well be wandering the Sahara for as much work as I get done.

I feel busy. Really, I do. But too often, at the end of the day, I look back and think, “What did I do today?”

Sure, raised kids, disciplined kids, disciplined some more, hugged kids, cooked 3.14159 meals, and washed dishes for 5 meals along with numerous other things, but those things don’t take all day.

So, say what you will, but I have come up with a schedule. This may not work for you, but it is oh so necessary for me.

And now, I give you . . . the schedule.

• 5:45-7 –devotions and exercise
• 7-8 — shower, dress, eat
• 8-9 — Flylady my house
• 9-10 — take kids outside to play
• 10-11:30 — e-mails, blog, writing misc.
• 11:30-1 –lunch, clean-up, read to kids
• 1-4 –WRITE!
• 4 — dinner prep

So there it is. I have morning and evening routines I do. And I have daily routines within the Flylady hour. We’ll talk about that at a later date, and regardless of what you think of Flylady, there are some production guaranteed steps there. So far I’ve done a fairly good job of sticking to it. It might need some tweaking, but that’s to be expected. Anyone else have a schedule, a plan, a routine — even if it’s only for part of a day?

One of my goals this summer is to get my next book written before the end of August. I’ve been listening to some writers’ conference MP3s lately, and one reminded me that writing a book doesn’t happen haphazardly. There is much planning, specifically time planning, that goes into that book getting written, and since my kids dropped their naps a few years ago, I’ve been slack about carving out time to write. No more!

I want to be able to lay out my goals and see myself accomplish them. Isn’t that a great feeling? Keeping up with the house, getting rid of clutter, and writing a 90,000 word book — those are the things I’m shooting for with this schedule.

Speaking of schedule, I’m a tad late for breakfast. Happy weekend, and see you Monday.

• Monday, Crime & Clutter and A Bigger Life book winners announced!
• June novel giveaway announced.

Thank you to everyone who sent me tips. I have scads to go through and sort.

And I want to clear something up, just in case there was a bit of confusion. I replied to most of you to say thanks for sending me the tip. Every tip I received will run on the blog, and I’ll do my bestest to let you know ahead of time what day your tip will run.

So stay tuned! The winner will be announced at some time in June. How’s that for vague?

I do not admit this with feigned humility or follow it by polishing my knuckles against my shirt. Being a perfectionist is not all it’s cracked up to be. In fact, it can be downright debilitating.

I’m sure there are perfectionists who actually do things perfect, but I’m not one of them and frankly I don’t know any perfectionists who are perfect. Typically a perfectionist is someone who WANTS everything to be done perfect — but can’t meet their own desires or standards.

See what I mean? Frustrating.

This aspect shows up in our lives in many ways. In college, it showed up as the research paper that freaked me out. Since I didn’t have a clue where to begin, I postponed it until the last possible second.

As a stay-at-home with two small children, it’s manifested itself in frustration that my house DARE get dirty and since it’s going to be a mess no matter how hard I clean, why even bother? There it is, that all or nothing attitude.

For the past year I’ve been telling myself to stop it!

Really, I’ve been on a mission to retrain the way I think. We’ve been told growing up that you have to do things right, that doing things halfway is still all wrong. That’s somewhat true — and somewhat not.

What’s better — a house that’s halfway dusted or a house that isn’t dusted at all? A laundry basket partway folded and put away or neglected all together?

Hm.

I came across this concept in a book that’s helped me get organized, in fact the book I referred to way back in that first Routine Queen post. The book is Sink Reflections by Marla Cilley who is better known as (don’t laugh) Flylady.

Yep, I’m a flybaby.

Before you roll your eyes and say forget it, think back to all the tricks and techniques and routines we’ve been talking about. If any of them have worked for you, then you’ve been doing a bit of Flylady yourself.

And Flylady is the one who showed me that those of us who aren’t Born Organized (BO) aren’t necessarily lazy but are perfectionists who are easily distracted or haven’t a clue where to begin.

Boy, that’s me all over the place.

I look at the cluttered living room and think, I have to clean this whole thing? Why bother when it’ll just get trashed in a day? I stand in my walk-in closet, items ready to pop from the shelves and think, Where do I begin?

Sound familiar?

It’s that perfectionist in us. What if we retrained ourselves to stop thinking, How will I get this all done, and start thinking, I can do part of this in the next 15 minutes or half hour.

Thinking that second way creates interesting results in your home. You do less housework while your house gets cleaner. Really. You know exactly where things are when you need them. Shocking. And your regular chores like laundry and cleaning the kitchen become less time-consuming because you’re keeping up with them.

No kidding.

My goal this summer is to Flylady my house, to go through each room, to organize, throw stuff out, sell it on E-Bay (cha-ching), and cement my routines to the point where I no longer see dirt.

You heard me. No. More. Dirt.

It’s possible. I was close last summer before my routines went bye-bye. And it happened because I let go of my perfectionism.

Instead of staring in frustration at a dirty frig, I picked one day a week to spend 5 minutes cleaning out my frig.

Instead of letting bills and paper and clutter pile up, I spent 15 minutes tops and honestly usually less putting away things that had piled up.

Instead of waking up to a messy kitchen, I spent less than 15 minutes before bed cleaning up any last items in my kitchen and getting my sink to shine.

If you want to make a change in your house, if you’re tired of people popping in when your house is at its worst, go get Sink Reflections.

Now.

Even if you’ve done the e-mails and they haven’t worked for you. They didn’t work for me, either. But the book is a different story. It makes you personalize and own the system. It’s an investment you’ll never regret. I sure don’t.

My goal between today and next Friday is to get my summer routines down on paper. If I do, I’ll share them with you and show you how a few routines and minutes a day will make a drastic difference that everyone in your house will notice!

But if I only get half of my summer routines down, that’s okay, too. I can finish the rest later.

When dinner is over, they don’t get up from the table. Instead, my friend gets out the flashcards (she doesn’t like the boring flashcards, so she has Barbie flashcards for her daughter), and she quizzes the kids on numbers and letters and things like that. For every card they get right, they get a certain amount of dessert — one Skittle per card or one milisecond of chocolate sauce on the ice cream, etc.

I thought this was a great routine. I know one of her children is not yet in school but is reading a little. So I may have to try this trick with C2 (Child Two) who knows her letters and numbers but can’t identify them by sight. And it gives the kids a motivation for the dessert they’ll probably end up eating anyway.

This is exactly the kind of tips I’m looking for, little routines that make something work fast and work well in your life, whether they have to do with laundry, housework, bills, relationship, education. You name it, I’d like to hear it.

And yes, there’s a prize on the line! A gift card to The Container Store where I could spend about as much time as I can in a bookstore (which is all day).

So email your unique routines to me at sallybradleywrites AT gmail DOT com. I’ll start posting them in June and will announce the winner some time during the month.

And I’m giving away a $25 gift card to the Container Store to whoever sends me the best organizational tip! (If you aren’t so blessed to have a Container Store near you, never fear. The gift card is good online and by phone as well.)

So send me your tips! You have until the end of May to get it in. Remember to send it to sallybradleywrites {AT} gmail DOT com. We’ll run the comments on the blog individually throughout the month of June, and I’ll choose one that I think is the best, whether most creative, most effective. I’ll know it when it hits me.

On your mark, get set, start tipping!