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     Last Sunday was Organize Your Home Day, which seems like an appropriate day for the month of January.  When you put away all of the Christmas trappings and new gifts, it is the perfect time to organize your goals and your home at the same time.  It takes me more than one day to do all of this.  January should be Organize Your Home Month! 
     The 4 of us here at 3 Winks Design are all in different stages of life that require various different types of focus when it comes to organizing our homes.  Alicia and her husband and 2 children live in a tiny little apartment in the expensive Bay Area in California.  Lindsey and her PH have a brand new baby in a new home.  Maddy lives at home with my husband and I in a small bedroom with millions of clothes and shoes.  Plus she eats vegan, so she has different food items that need to be stored in our pantry.  My husband and I are about to have a home with only 3 people in it. (My son and his family are soon re-locating to his new job!) We are going to be re-purposing some of our rooms in our house.  Because of all of these needs, we have decided that, for today's Friday Faves, to share with you our current favorite  tools and products that we are using to help us be more organized.

Helen's Faves

     If you have been following along with me at all, you know that one of my goals for this year is to go through all of the books in the house and weed them out and organize them.  I have always wanted to have a library area in my home.  To help me with this, I have purchased 2 new bookcases.  I love them! They are the Target Threshold brand and they look so nice.  They come in a variety of colors, they do require assembly, and they are sturdy and budget friendly.

     Another tool I use for organizing is something I made for my pantry.  It is an inventory method that I use to help me know what I have in my food storage and to keep my pantry stocked with the basics.  I used word strip charts that I purchased at the Target One Spot to make them. I don't see those available right now, but they are usually there at the beginning of the school year.  Many people have asked me to share my method and I will on another post in the near future.  In the meantime, here is what it looks like.  It hangs on the peg board wall of my pantry.

Lindsey's Fave

      Lindsey and Austin are furnishing their new house from scratch! They have of course spent a lot of time and effort in the nursery, getting it ready for Baby Emily. It was really nice when they received some Target Gift Cards as wedding gifts and were able to purchase this beautiful dresser with them for her.  Their crib is also grey so this goes so nicely with it and goes so well with the Where the Wild Things Are theme.  (I talked about that here, as well as her adorable letters of her name!)  The 6 drawers give lots of space to hold all of a baby's many article of clothing and supplies.  It is a dresser that will grow nicely with her over the next few years.

     This one isn't currently on their website, but there are similar ones here and here. 

Alicia's Faves

     When I tell you that Alicia lives in a really tiny place, I mean really tiny.  They actually rent a 2 bedroom, 1 bath guest house that just had a kitchen added.  (For awhile, they lived with a hot plate, microwave and mini fridge.  Their only sink was in the bathroom!) It is super cute, though and is helping them to save money for the future.  Alicia has worked really hard to make it as organized as possible and to use as much wall space as possible to make it work for their family.  
     Recently, Alicia shared how she made a hanging diaper stacker from a t-shirt.  It has been extremely popular, which leads me to believe that many young mothers are needing some of her space saving tips.

     There are some other clever ideas that Alicia has used as well.  
     She ordered these plastic containers from Dollar Tree.  When you order them online, you get 24 of them! At first, she thought that was going to be way too many.  But, surprisingly she started using them at a very quick rate!  They are perfect for nuts, crackers, cereal and other dry goods.  When her kitchen was added to her apartment, they put in a nice long pantry cupboard.  Look how organized she is making it with her plastic containers! 

     Another great buy from Dollar Tree are these cloth boxes for organizing shelves.  Baby Sofia has a cabinet instead of drawers for her clothing.  Alicia uses these fabric boxes to hold her clothes. 

     There are a couple of kinds of these boxes.  There are these with grommet handles, and these collapsible cubes.  When you order the grommet handled ones, they come in units of 24.  When you order the cubes, they come in units of 4! These boxes also look great on shelves and bookcases to keep things tucked away neatly.

     One last thing that Alicia loves are her library style bookends.  They work very well to hold up a lot of books and although they are plain, they are very hard working! Alicia has ideas for decorating them if you would like to to that.  But, in the meantime, they fulfill her need to keep her shelves neat. 

​Madalynn's Faves

     Maddy also uses the fabric cubes for storage in her room.  As I mentioned before, she has a ton of shoes.  One of the best ways to keep them organized is by using a shoe rack.  Here are some choices from Target.      

     Maddy also uses some Dollar Tree items to store some of the grains and things that she uses in her healthy diet. We love the decorative glass storage jars for storing chia seeds or other grains.  (Do you know that chia seeds never seem to run out!) 

    Dollar Tree also has these nice canisters! When you order them online, you can get 4 to a unit! That is perfect for flour, sugar, brown sugar, marshmallows, rice or any other thing you may want to store! 

    So, those are our suggestions for storage and organization around the house! We hope you can use some of our ideas.  Is there a product you love that you couldn't be organized without? Let us know down in the comments! We'd love to to try them out.   
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This post contains affiliate links.  If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you.  All opinions expressed are our own.  Thank you for your support.

     I know that sometimes it seems cliche to make resolutions at the New Year.  I mean, you can set goals anytime of the year and keep them.  But, I think the reason I actually use the New Year to make my resolutions is because after the holidays and I have put away all of those trappings and the house is cleaned up and fresh again, it seems like an appropriate time to make a fresh start with many things.  Not only that, it feels good to look ahead to an entire year that is full of promise and already divided into times and seasons to use as incremental deadlines to keep myself on track. It is easy to remember that I began something in January.  If I begin a new goal in May, I may not recall when I started it.  That is just me.  Finally, It is nice to reach the holiday season and look back over the year and feel peace about what was accomplished during the past year.  That adds to my feelings of thankfulness.
      Last week, on this post, I told you about the great calendar/planner that Maddy gave me for Christmas and how I was going to use it to help me keep my goals for 2018.  (That link is to the customizeable planners at Minted.  There are other choices listed on that other post.)  I also promised to share my goals with you when I had them all decided upon.  Soooo.....
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Happy New Year! 

Here are my 2018 goals and how I plan to actually keep them this year! If you haven't made any resolutions for yourself this year, maybe my ideas will jog your brain to come up with some of your own. :)  I hope that by recording them here, it will make me more accountable for them as well.

     As I mentioned in my original post, I took the time to reflect and ponder on the things that I wanted to improve on in the coming year.  I divided my goals into 5 categories: 

• Personal
• Spiritual
• Preparedness
• Home Improvement
• Blogging

I came up with a total of 12 goals for the year.  That sounds like a lot, but some of them will be on going goals that become habits and don't require a lot of effort.  Other goals are ones that I don't really need to start immediately, but I can schedule them into my planner to do as the year progresses.  I will explain that better as I tell you about the goals.

Personal Goals:

1.     Journaling-This is one of the things I mentioned that I was pretty sure I would do when I wrote my planning post. I have decided to journal at least once per month and I have set the day to be the fourth Sunday of every month.  I chose to journal because I want to use it as a way to be able to record my successes and improvements as I work on my goals.
2.      Eat healthier by adding more plant based foods and less meat to my meals.  I plan to make sure my plate is 3/4 plant based.  Also, I am revamping some recipes to be meatless.
3.      Start reading again! I love to read but since I have been working so hard on my blog, I find that I have less and less time to read.  I have already made a start by picking up a book by Alice Hoffman called, The Rules of Magic, which is already sucking me in.  I'll be sure to review it when I am finished.  I have considered using Audible and listening to books.  I might try the 30 day free trial and see how I like it.
   

Spiritual Goals:
​     I only set one goal in this category because I feel like many of my other goals will ultimately help me spiritually as well. (Such as journaling and healthy eating.) 
     1.  Scripture Study-I used to always read my scriptures in the morning.  Now, that just isn't working for me.  Since my children are all going different directions and my husbands work hours are changed, I am finding many things changing in my life and I have to change old habits to fit these changes.  I need to carve out 30 minutes a day for scripture study and I am going to try for the early evening.  If that doesn't work well, I will try something else until I find what works.  ​
     Another part of making my scripture study more successful is remembering to pray before and after I read. This goal is very important to me.  I will be sure to journal about my progress and insights as I work on this goal.

Preparedness Goals:

     It is very important to my husband and I to try to be self sufficient.  In the event of a job loss or some other emergency, we want to be prepared.  This can lead to needing financial goals and preparedness skills.  Financial goals are something we have together and work on all of the time.  This year I have included some skills goals that I need to work on.

1. ​Put in a garden.  We haven't done one for a couple of years.  I really love fresh veggies from the garden, and here in Arizona, you have to plan ahead because of our hot summers.  I need to start preparing my garden spot in January and have the tomatoes in by the end of February.
2. Continue sprouting wheat for flour and come up with new recipes.  I love this healthy way of baking.  (This is a goal I can't really do in the summer because of the heat!)
3. Can more vegetables! Hopefully from my garden! (This is an example of a goal I won't be able to work on immediately, but will schedule in when the vegetables start coming in.)
4. Re-organize my pantry and food storage areas.  I have to wait to start this until my oldest son and his family are gone. They are staying with us for awhile as he finds his first law job, so I probably won't begin this process for a couple of months. (Please don't judge my mess above! I may have to turn to Clearissa's Command Center for advice when I begin this project!)

Home Improvement Goals:

    This is one of those areas where I have continued to make the same goals year after year and I always get side tracked and never get as much done as I hope to.  This is also an area that will have to wait until my son and his family are gone in order to accomplish them.  Although, we did get somewhat of a start in organizing rooms in order to make room for my grandchildren to sleep! There is always a silver lining!  

1. Go through all of the books in my house and keep what I love and donate the rest! I promised to do this last year and never got to it.  I have purchased two new bookcases though, so I am on the right track! This should help me with my reading goal above because I am sure to come across books that I will want to read again! 
2. Redecorate my bedroom.  I won a gift card from Minted over a year ago and I chose to purchase curtains for my bedroom with it.  They are still stored away waiting to be used.  I am determined to get it done this year.  Of course, once again it will have to wait, but that is okay because when it is too hot to work outside, I will work inside and get things done then.

Blogging Goals:

     There are so many goals that I could make for my blog, and I know that there are things that the girls and I will do over the year on the blog that I am not even listing.  But, here are two goals that I really want to be sure to do! 

1. Research and address topics that will be of benefit to our readers.  Watch for a poll and questions asking for your input! 
2. I want to make a pitch kit to companies whose products I love to see if I can write sponsored posts for them and promote them on my blog. This could be beneficial to them, to us and to our readers.

    Those are my 2018 goals! Surprisingly, I do not feel overwhelmed, but I feel excited.  I just discovered yesterday that my new planner came with stickers that I can use as I plan and journal in it.  One of the stickers that I just put on my goal page says, "Don't Call it a Dream, call it a Plan!" That is how I feel about it! Please let me know if you have any suggestions or if you want to share any of your resolutions for this year!  Here is wishing everyone great success in the coming year! 

Helen

This post contains affiliate links.  If you make a purchase after clicking them, we will be compensated, but there is no additional cost to you.  All opinions expressed are our own.  Thank you for your support.

     Are you a goal setter and a planner? I try to be.  But, unfortunately all too often my determination for self improvement begins to fizzle after a couple of weeks (or days) and my goals are all but forgotten. This leads to me setting some of the same goals year after year and feelings of frustration.
     I know, I know, goals need to be written down or they are only wishes. But where do I write them down?  I have used charts and notebooks with varying degrees of success. What usually happens is that I either misplace the notebook, or it gets re-purposed as time goes by.  Charts are just in my way. As you can see, I need a solution and one of my goals for this year is to find one! 

     Madalynn came to my rescue this Christmas when she gave me this beautiful calendar and planner! 

 I love it because it has a daily and monthly calendar, and a place for my yearly goals.  It also has tabs and for each month and copious note pages at the back. And finally, a pouch to hold pens and pockets to tuck in little note cards.  I have decided to use this planner (similar style here) to help me to succeed at my goals this year! Here is my strategy:
    

Review and Reflect 

    This week, before the beginning of the New Year, I am taking some time to review and reflect upon the different areas of my life where I would like to see growth or change.  All of us have so many aspects of ourselves.  I am considering my blogging life, my spiritual life, my physical self and my personal growth and personal preparedness.  Of course, many of these layers overlap. But, I am hoping to come up with a goal or two in each area.  I will let you know what my final decisions are in a later post.

Make Specific Goals

     Too often I have made goals that are too general.  For example, Lose weight, or Do more canning.  Those goals are much too general and overwhelming. That makes me feel defeated before I even start. I need to set goals that are more achievable and specific.  Instead of Lose weight, I could say Cut out processed sugars, or stop drinking sodas or make 2/3 of my dinner plate plant based. or walk 3 miles per day.  Those all seem like goals I could achieve and get the result I am looking for.

Write the Goals Down

     I know it really is important to write my goals down.  If not for any other reason than to help me remember them! My new planner has a page for recording my yearly goals.  I will record them bullet journal style with ideas to help me reach those goals.  If my goal is to can more meat for food storage, I might write watch for sales on beef to can, or purchase extra chicken, or get more wide mouthed canning jars. In other words, plan ahead to succeed! I will be able to write specific dates to do things towards my goals in my calendar.

Journaling

     I used to be really good at keeping a journal.  As I had more children and life got busier, I have become terrible at it.  I am pretty sure that one of my goals this year is going to be about journaling.  That goal is going to help me reach my other goals.  My planner, as I mentioned before, has a nice amount of note pages.  Having my calendar and goals and journal pages all in the same book will make my life so much easier! I may not journal daily, but even if I only do it monthly, I will be able to reflect on my monthly progress and stay on track.  I hope to be able to record many successes! 

Don't Give Up!

      There will be months when the goals will fall by the wayside and I will mess up.  We all will have moments when things just don't come together.  It is so important to just carry on from where you are at! Just because you make a mistake doesn't mean you can never try again until next year! Never give up! Never Surrender! (Famous line from Galaxy Quest).

     If you don't have a planner ready, here are a few to check out! Click the pictures to purchase them.

Etsy has so many choices in so many styles and prices to choose from when it comes to planners! Some are ready made and some are printable. There are personal planners, wedding planners, financial planners, you name it! The two above caught my eye. 

     I will reveal my goal decisions at the New Year! I wish you all success with your goals in this coming year.  If you have any tips and tricks when it comes to achieving your New Year's goals, please let me know in the comments.