Wednesday, January 2, 2013

100 Days of A New Year Review and Giveaway

I used to be organized. Truly. When I had six kids in the house, it was a necessity. There's no way to keep track of games, doctor's appointments, birthdays and school programs without a Day Planner. Not just a Day Planner, but a DAY PLANNER. Those big ones in binders with sticky notes and color codes and bookmarks sticking out all over the place? Yeah, that's what I used to carry.

Not to mention clothes, toys, and various other belongings that six kids accumulate over time. You know how it goes. Going from one child to two seem to multiply the amount of kids stuff in your home by five. If you're a larger family, there's a whole other dynamic there that I can't seem to fathom.

But I did it. Dinner was served on time. Fresh-from-the-dryer clothes got folded, routed to their proper owners, and put away as part of afternoon chores. I was on time for every school event, from award ceremonies to ice cream socials to parent teacher conferences.

And then we moved.

I'm still not sure exactly what happened. Because we had our own land, and I was usually in jeans and on my knees picking weeds or moving fence posts, I started carrying most of my stuff around in my pockets. Because I usually had everything in my pockets, and I no longer needed to carry around extra changes of clothes because, for the first time in years, all of my kids that were out of diapers (except Pull-Ups at night), I stopped carrying a purse. Out with the purse went the giant day planner. And, conversely, by some weird cosmic coincidence, everything else became unorganized as well. I'm sure part of it can be blamed on the multitude of chores that owning land piles on, and my hesitancy to unpack when it was 100 degrees outside and not much cooler in our not yet air conditioned house. Not only was there unpacking, but renovation. We've had to redo wiring, rebuild the laundry room, replace most of the fixtures in the bathroom, and are now in the process of replacing flooring. In fact, there's still sub-floor exposed in my kitchen-almost two years after we moved in.

I began arriving late to school events. This one tore my heart out. Upset kids as I "just missed" them getting their awards or their part in the play. While we did make it to the Christmas play and concert on time, it was by the skin of our teeth, and I decided then, that it was time to get organized again. Not DAY PLANNER organized, but organized.  I just needed a game plan.

Then Jennifer Tankersley from ListPlanIt asked me to review her newest eBook, 100 Days of A New Year. I was thrilled with the opportunity to get the chance to take a sneak peek at her book, and get a head start on my new goal of being organized.

Photo Credit: balanced.crafts
Not only does 100 Days of a New Year give you a game plan to get organized, there's awesome tools available on ListPlanIt, and there's a Facebook group for support! You can interact with hundreds of other people who are trying to get their own organization goals set, and met!

The game plan is simple. Each day you do something. Some days, the tasks are small, and there's even catch up days, so that if you miss a day, you don't need to worry. Just save it for the catch up day! The best part of Jennifer's book is that it's not too late to start. The days are noted as "Day 1" not "January 1." So while Day 5 may not be a Saturday for you, you can still do whatever task is noted for that day.

But wait. This is a blog about deals, and saving money. Why am I talking about getting organized? I'll tell you. I was going to show you a not so neat picture of the disconnect notice for my water bill, but there's zero natural light in my house, so it was either unreadable, or just a big flash. The point is, I got one of those not so neat little notices that said "Pay up, or find another way to do your laundry!" Now, the bill got paid, but I also paid a $10 late charge. Just on my water bill, if I pay late every month, I'm out $120 per year. That's almost a week's worth of groceries for my family. Now throw in the house payment, electric bill, satellite bill, internet bill, and on and on. By not paying bills on time, I could be throwing away hundreds of dollars.

There's another issue here. Have you ever been sure that you bought something, and then not been able to find it later? So what did you do? Bought another one, usually. If your home is more organized, you'll minimize this kind of loss.

I'm very excited to be able to give two lucky winners a copy of this eBook! Entries to this giveaway will close 1/18/12 at 12:00 am EST. The winners will be announced on 1/18/12. Please make sure that you check out my Giveaway Rules prior to entry! This giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere! The ARV of this eBook is $5.00.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received a free copy of 100 Days to a New Year for review purposes. Jennifer Tankersley is providing 2 copies as giveaway prizes. I was not otherwise compensated for this post.

55 comments:

  1. I need to be more organized in housecleaning.

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  2. I would love for my almost finished basement to be fully organized this year.

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  3. I need my storage in my basement organized!

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  4. I'd like to organize my kitchen. It might be tiny, but there is a lot in there.

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  5. My husband would tell you there is no one in more need of this kind of help!

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  6. I homeschool and really need to get organized in that area. I always have piles of papers, books, games, and lists all over the place.

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  7. my closet needs help!!

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  8. i want to be more organized with my step daughters homeschooling stuff

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  9. Oh man did I connect with your statement about buying a second item because I can't find the first one. This happens mostly in my office/crafts room (I'm pretty good in the kitchen). I just set up a new printer and can't find the CD-ROM to make it work!!!!!!

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  10. BTW the URL listed for your newsletter no longer works. I guess they had some trouble with shortened URLs

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  11. michelle gilliland mcafeeJanuary 6, 2013 at 8:22 PM

    My garage for starters

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  12. I would like to be more organized when it comes to filing.

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  13. I really need to organize my sewing/quilting closet!

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  14. I would love to have a plan for getting rid of clutter, as well as keeping stuff clean. And organizing the bills so they are less of a surprise!

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  15. with the storage closet or our personal closet
    snugles4433@hotmail.com

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  16. I'd like to organize my storage better. Lately, if it fits, it goes there and I don't really know what I have stored.

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  17. My time allotment/management needs a HUGE overhaul. Between a business, parttime job, fulltime school, husband, and kids I lose my brain more often than anything else.

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  18. My food - We sometimes open 2 or 3 of the same thing.

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  19. I have lived in my house for almost a year and we still have boxes that aren't unpacked because I can't figure out where to put it all!

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  20. My closet!
    hschonrock at yahoo dot com

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  21. I need my desk to be much more organized, however my closet is a close second
    love_jellybean_love at hotmail dot com

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  22. My bedroom! OMG you would get lost.

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  23. Keeping my house clean with two little kids - ash_wheeler@hotmail.com

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  24. My office area! I used to have everything in its place, but then we moved and it's like I just can't get it together!

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  25. My garage is driving me nuts, it is such a mess.

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  26. I just need to organize my papers, all of them! Home, insurance, health, kids all the important stuff.

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  27. I really need to organize my clothes closet

    Cynthia.Richardson@azbar.org

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  28. My clothes need to be organized.

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  29. I need to be organized in a lot more ways...meal planning and papers (homework, bills, mail, medical, school, etc) are two of the biggest!

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  30. I need to be more organized in the laundry room and the dressers!!

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  31. Our toys need to be more organized. I have already sprained my ankle on one.

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  32. I need to be organized in the kitchen

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  33. My whole house needs to be organized.

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  34. My office and my computer desktop need to be WAY more organized!

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  35. I need a complete organization redo. My house is a mess, my closet is a mess, my life is a mess.Thanks for this giveaway
    jsritz@windstream.net

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  36. I would love to organize my spar bedroom

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  37. I want to be more organized with all of the Projects that I want to work on. I just have too much stuff that I want to do - something has to give!

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  38. my craft room needs seriously organised

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  39. I need to be organized on when my bills come in to pay them and not just put them in a pile of papers or magazines and forget to pay them.

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  40. I need to organize our closets and the kitchen. (Corey Olomon)(CoreyOlomon at gmail dot com)

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  41. I refer to my garage as my 'dirty little secret'... I need help.

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  42. I am an organizaional freak and I can't seem to get my classroom organized. I would love to get this done :D

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