Clutter Free Gift Giving

There are many considerations when trying to purchase the perfect present. Sometimes the person has everything.  Some people may feel that they have enough stuff and they don’t want to have to decide how to store more items. Some people feel that they need to keep everything they are given whether they need it or like it or can use it. They are afraid of hurting the giver’s feelings.  It may feel like an impossible mission.  Consider the idea of a gift that self destructs

Give tickets to an event:

Sporting, theatre, art gallery exhibit, musical event.  Give them tickets so it won’t be a gift card that they file or lose.  Most performances will allow tickets to be exchanged for a different date. Try giving tickets to a Toronto Rock Lacrosse game.  It is an experience, reasonably prices and you get to see the Air Canada Center. You can support your local community by purchasing tickets to a little theatre production, hockey tickets.  Give them the gift of entertainment.

Rent a sports venue

It can be an hour of ice time, indoor soccer, indoor tennis and indoor golf.  This type of gift usually gets people together to socialize and be active.  It is a gift of physical and emotional health.

Lessons

You can give lessons to a person.  Art lessons, wine tasting, golfing, scuba diving, music, craft, beading, the ideas are limitless.  It can be one lesson or a group of lessons. Give the gift of a new experience.

Food

Give a gift of a meal, prepared by you for them on a mutually agreed date.  You may want to give them a batch of muffins every month or whatever their favourite food is.  People enjoy receiving homemade Christmas cookies or a fruit plate.  You can go on line and search COOKIES in a Jar.  The recipient of the cookie mix adds water or milk and bakes the cookies. Give the gift of sharing your time with others.

A service

Someone may enjoy being relieved of performing a tedious job.  Arrange for a cleaning service, professional organizer, snow removal, lawn care.  Give them the gift of time for themselves.

Professional Organizing Services

Charities

There are many charities that can benefits from donations.  Select a charity and make a donation in the name of the person.    Look at one aspect of the person’s life and try to find a charity that represents their interests. Give them the gift of generosity.

Give the gift of Fun

One year a group of us rented a hot tub for a week and shared the use of it. Another year I bought rocket kits for everyone, we built the kits and shot off the rockets

Don’t let your gift giving be an omnishambles this year.  Here are a few gifts that are clutter free, personal and thoughtful but the ideas are endless.


7 Habits of Very Organized People

So you want to get organized? Achieving order in your life doesn’t mean being perfect. That’s not realistic. Getting organized is not an event; it’s a process that happens over time. Like changing your eating or exercising habits, it sometimes involves behavioral changes and routines.

Perfectionism is being unrealistic by spending so much time on a task that it deprives other important tasks of sufficient time. Excellence is doing the best job you can with the time and resources at your disposal.
What is organization?  Being organized has less to do with the way an environment looks rather than how effectively it functions. If a person can find what they need when they need it, feels unencumbered in achieving his or her goals, and is happy in his or her space, then that person is well organized.

Myth #1 Organization is a born talent.

  • Organization is a skill. If the right resources or support are available it is easy to learn.

Myth #2: It’s impossible to stay organized.

  • Organizing is sustainable, if systems are built around the way the person thinks and designed to grow and adapt to new information.

 

The 7 Habits of Very Organized People

1. They have a place for everything

  • 25% of business documents are misplaced and will never be located so those documents must be recreated.They put things back

2. They put things back

  • Executives waste six weeks per year searching items

3. They write things down

  • From a master list of things to do determine the priorities for the next day.  This may include planning the most effect routine to use  to accomplish the tasksthe route driven to  see a client or considering  high and low energy cycles in the day and planning tasks accordingly

4. They don’t allow papers/ e-mail to pile up.

  • The average worker sends and receives over 190 messages each day.  Approximately 60 e-mails can be processed each hour.  Learn how to use e-mail effectively in order to limit the number of e-mails received and sent each day.

5. They don’t procrastinate

  • Procrastinating causes people to spend more time and energy on avoiding the task than completing it.  Once it is accomplished it is out of sight and out of mind.

6. They set goals and assign deadlines

  • Schedule a time for each task in the project to be complete, so deadlines can be met easily.

7. They only keep what they use and enjoy.

  • Clutter is usually the “extra” that is kept on hand just in case it is needed.  About 20% of items are used 80% of the time,  so 80% of items are hardly used at all.  Find the important 20% and let go of the unimportant 80%.

 

  1. They have a place for everything                                                   
  2. They put things back
  3. They write things down
  4. They don’t allow papers/e-mails to pile up.
  5. They don’t procrastinate
  6. They set goals and assign deadlines
  7. They only keep what they use and enjoy.

Does your technology interfere with your sleep?

Are you having trouble getting a good night’s sleep?  Is the light from your tablet interfering with your sleep patterns?  Listen to this great interview about how technology may be affecting you sleep patterns and causing insomnia.

 

Can't Sleep?

http://www.cbc.ca/spark/episodes/2012/11/09/196-sound-security-sleep/

 


Help Your Local Food Banks

Kraft Foods and many local food banks across Canada are working together to raise funds for food banks.  During the Holiday Season they are many way we can help our local food banks supply food to the many that need food.  

Please visit www.kraftfoodforfamilies.ca  and sign your name! For each name added, Kraft will donate 0.50 cents to FBWR. You may do this once per day until December 31st.

Each time you add your name and select a food bank location, a $0.50 donation will go to 1 of 100 local food banks in five different regions across Canada.   $20,000 is available in each region for a total of $100,000.

 At the end of December the food bank in each region with the most names will receive a bonus donation of $5,000.The donations made by the Kraft Food for Families program not only help to put food on the table, they help food banks to keep their trucks on the road and help with many other operational costs.

 

Food Bank in St Catharines

Help out your local food bank


Take A Break from Work this Summer

Kingston, ON

Give Your Mind a Vacation

On Wednesday June 27, 2012 CBC Metro morning radio show had a short interview with a doctor telling us why we should take a break and give ourselves time way.  If you can’t go away there are some excellent ideas on how to mentally take a break and come back refreshed.

http://www.cbc.ca/metromorning/episodes/2012/06/27/working-on-vacation/


Lack Abundance

When you are operating a business there can be a number of stumbling blocks to becoming successful.  Some we may not have any control over.  One of the biggest stumbling blocks can be our own attitude.  This short video gives you an insight into how to examine your attitude.

http://www.audioacrobat.com/playv/W05rXmFs


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