Where I began....

There are lots of resources out there to help someone get organized and achieve a balanced, peaceful lifestyle. They are chock full of incredible, creative ideas and motivating testimonials. I've read them and I love them all. In fact, they are what inspired me to come up with my own.

I was having a hard time implementing ideas that were generally geared toward families that consisted of children with stay at home moms. Granted, the role of stay at home mom has to be the hardest, yet most rewarding, job there is and I can completely understand it's need for structure. I just found that most of the ideas and routines that can be so helpful to those families were not as easily adapted in my own life. And I thought, "Surely I am not the only one with this problem!"

I work a full time job in retail and have a small part time business on the side, which I do at my own pace,but devote several hours a week to. My husband travels often for his job, which leaves most of the housework, bill-paying, organizing, meal planning, and shopping to me. With a demanding retail schedule, I rarely have the same days off each week and work a few nights during the week. This ever-changing schedule madeit hard for me to assign tasks to certain days...because the days I would schedule things (like shopping and errands) always change!

Forming new productive habits generally involves doing things at the same time over and over until you are on automatic pilot. Without a set schedule to do things, it became difficult for me to form those new habits. So I came up with some ways to make it work.

About a year ago, I was drowning. I had a house that was in total chaos. I just couldn't get on top of things. I felt really helpless and just overwhelmed by it all. It seemed that I just never had time to do everything that needed to be done. Our financial situation was ok, but not great, and it took a lot to manage it. It began to cause stress between my husband and me. When he was home, he was too tired to help me with things, which made me angry and resentful toward him. And I put all the blame on myself for things being so out of control.

Not good.

Not good at all.

Something had to change. I had to figure out a way to make things better.

So I did.

This working girl found a way to get it all done.