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Professional organisers and declutterers love rising to a challenge but this was a whole new ball (or rather, quiz?) game for 4 members of APDO Association of Professional Declutterers & Organisers
Catch today's replay on Channel 5 to see how "The Legends of Stuff" fared taking on the UKs quizzing champions, the Eggheads with the welcoming The Jeremy Vine
What a blast! ♥️
www.channel5.com/show/eggheads/season-1/episode-31-88f683f2-870a-4751-96c3-363d7a8de735
When I think about #sustainability, it's not just sustaining the #environment. We need to look at our lives and how we can conserve our own energy and resources. Reflecting on our lifestyles and identifying our priorities helps us check that we're living within our means (whether that's financially, materially or energetically).
In turn, this helps us be the best humans we can each be and we can add most value to those around us.
Stephen Covey's analogy of the activities in our lives being ‘rocks in a jar’ can be a useful visual aide to help identify what's important in your life and therefore what you need to organise, in what order. He stresses we need to make sure there's enough space for your ‘big rocks’ (the important things) in your life before we fill our time up with the little bitty things (pebbles and sand) which can quickly fill up the jar.
So to round off National Organising Week and the theme of "Organising your Home for Sustainable Living", I invite you to check whether all the #busyness and commitments in your life are truly necessary. Are there things in your diary and responsibilities that no longer bring the enjoyment they once did? Are there things you do because you assume people expect you to (but maybe you've not challenged that assumption)? Are there any areas where you can simplify things to have a clearer head?
This is my own #achillesheel so I don't expect anyone to transform overnight. I find dealing with and changing the mental and emotional elements of our lives significantly harder than sorting out the physical objects that we surround ourselves with. But let's keep considering what's important and what perhaps, is not!
#sayno #nothankyou
#NationalOrganisingWeek
#NOW2021
#sustainableliving
#apdo
#apdohomeorganisation
Love your leftovers!
Research in 2018 by WRAP (the Waste and Resources Action Programme) showed we threw away 6.6 Mt of household #foodwaste in the UK. Whilst it's all too easy to blame the big corporations for this wastage, we can each do our part to minimise waste within our own households. As a further incentive, WRAP estimate the average UK household can save £500 each year by cutting food waste so it’s not just about positively contributing to the UK's waste reduction targets.
Top tips
1. Add any leftover vegetables to a sealed tub in the fridge until you can blitz with stock into a #luckydip soup. Solo household? Keep the tub in freezer til there's enough!
2. Organise the contents of your cupboards corralling like-with-like into containers that can be easily pulled down to the countertop in one manoeuvre. This helps you keep track of what's lurking at the back of the cupboard and prevents food from perishing.
3. Do a stocktake of all the food that is currently in your cupboards, freezer and fridge.
Draw up a meal plan for the coming week (or weeks) that start to use up existing ingredients to stay on top of perishable items.
#foodwaste
#NationalOrganisingWeek
#NOW2021
#sustainableliving
#apdohomeorganisation
Washing is one of those repetitive tasks we can’t avoid but let’s see if we can do our bit to help the environment by adding some organisational hacks into our laundry routines!
1. Don’t wash as often! Most modern clothing release plastic particles each time they’re washed so see what you can do to lighten the load. It’ll help you and Mother Earth!
Allocating everything a specific place to live reduces the chance of you using the #floordrobe as a filing system and then hastily clearing everything automatically into the washing machine to avoid making decisions (yes. we've all done it!)
Also create a zone within your bedroom or wardrobe for items of clothing that have been worn but aren't dirty enough to launder yet. You might not want these items muddled in with your totally clean clothes. Storing them clearly between wears means they won’t end up in the laundry basket as default.
2. Dry naturally: Factor in enough time for things to dry on a clothes airer or the outside line rather than automatically resorting to the tumble dryer. Reward yourself with something fun each time you successfully plan ahead to avoid using more energy and you're more likely to keep up the good habits.
3. Consider your laundry products' packaging: Try using eco eggs, refillable bottles of laundry detergent or washing to reduce the plastic generated dealing with our dirty clothes.
#NationalOrganisingWeek
#NOW2021
#sustainableliving
#apdo
#apdohomeorganisation
Today’s tip is more of a shift in mindset than making a physical adjustment to your home….
To get, and stay, organised you need to have a manageable amount of stuff to look after. That varies from person to person and depends on what makes them tick! It’s not our role as professional organisers to tell you to have just x CDs, y pairs of jeans or z books etc. And #minimalism isn’t meant to be an endurance test either leaving you feeling that you’re missing out. It’s about finding the #sweetspot for you.
And to find that, we will challenge you to reframe how you interact with your belongings such as:
Whenever you're tempted with something new, ask yourself if you really do need / want it?
Would you buy it if it wasn’t on sale?
Can you challenge yourself to sleep on it for a few nights… and if you still want it in 3 days time it might be worth the investment (you be amazed how much we immediately forget about after leaving the store!)
And finally, remember that when it comes to #freebies, there's still a cost to it. You need the space to store it and you're responsible for disposing of it once you've taken it from the retailer or exhibitor.
#sayno #nothankyou #mindfulconsumpton
#consumerhabits #shopping
#NationalOrganisingWeek
#NOW2021
#sustainableliving
#apdo