What Sarah Kate Says

As with my quest for keeping organised in my life, I have also been striving for as easy a life as possible on the cleaning front.  Whilst I naturally navigate to being a tidy person I confess that I am not a natural when it comes to house cleaning. Don't get me wrong we do not live in filth, but we clearly live in our home.  There are often cups left in bedrooms, washing drying in the spare room, ironing piling up, etc.  Over the years I have come to realise that cleaning is basically a never ending task - you will always need to clean and there are two methods of cleaning house I have used: Do it all in a oner As the name suggests this is where you either designate pretty much a whole day of your week to cleaning house or wait until the mood takes you and blitz, blitz, blitz!  I've practiced this type of cleaning a lot over the years and it has never yielded very satisfying results.  There is a brief moment of euphoria when you finally achieve the whole house bein

Source: Pintrest All my life I have strived to be organised and on top of everything.  Sometimes I succeed, other times...errr...not so much.  So after 20 plus years I feel I have finally found a system that works very well for me.   So I thought I'd share it in the hope it can help others too.  It's actually very simple - aren't the best systems always just that? The System Basically I use 2 types of lists to keep me and my life broadly on the straight and narrow. 1)  A "Master To Do List" , this contains everything I need to do and is in no particular order...just how the tasks came to be known to me. 2)  A daily To Do List where I list out 4 to 5 heavy items I need to get done that day. Items are only checked off the Master To Do list once they are fully completed, that way if a task drags on over several days you don't forget it still needs your attention. How I utilise the system The trick is not trying to cram too much into one day and to

Ever found yourself in a complete food rut or staring at a cupboard full of food, but with no idea what to make?  Well I did and it got to a point where I flung my hands in the air in despair and declared "No more!". The problem: My boyfriend and I found ourselves making and eating pretty much the same meals week in/week out and it was getting a little boring (sorry hon!).  That made us start to rely a bit too much on take-aways and meals out for the variety our palettes craved....not great when you are trying to stick to a budget or trying to shrink that waistline!   The solution: Having got a fantastic calendar from my sister for Christmas we began to plan in what we would eat for dinner each day - it's so convenient as it is hanging right there in our kitchen where we need to see it.  As it's a calendar we can clearly plan for when we won't have much time to cook in the evening, or when one of us is out.  We are then in a great position to write our we

Source: studiostationery.nl Tidy space = tidy mind.   That's certainly the case with me.  If my space is cluttered and messy I can feel anxious and stressed out.  Not to the point where I am rocking in the corner dribbling, but it certainly makes me grumpy (my boyfriend will attest to that).  So this year I am more determined than ever to deal with it rather than moan! My history: I was always a bit of an odd, neat child.  Whenever I'd had toys out I would willingly put them away at the end (and make my friends help me).  However when I became an adult I got kind of lazy.  I'd still blitz my space every now and then when it got unbearable, but generally I began to get used to living in my own squaller and clutter.  Although I never felt truly happy in my space as a result. A change was needed: I think finally buying my own property has led to me wanting to take greater pride in my home environment more than when I rented and nothing felt very permanent.   I also

Source: www.frenchfancy.com via Pintrest Something happened to me when I reached my late Thirties (of which I am still a resident...just).  I kinda woke up one day and took a look at my home and was overwhelmed with a feeling of frustration and disappointment.  I know - drama queen right? I bought my home back in 2010 and had spent several years doing it up and getting it done "to my taste", but no matter what I did to the house I was never happy with the finished look. The reason?  Basically because nothing was ever really "finished" in my view.  Yes the big work was being done (new bathroom suite, plastering and paint on the walls, new furniture, etc.) but no matter what I was doing the rooms would always quickly deteriorate into a bit of a mess. Source: studiostationery.nl via Pintrest For years I have subscribed to the Ideal Homes magazine [ Website ] and love nothing more than to glide through their pages absorbing all the beautiful pictures whi

Back in August 2015 I decided to finally bite the bullet and order myself a Plum Paper Planner.  I've tried many planning systems in the past and none seem to stick with me for very long (low boredom threshold!), so I was a tad apprehensive this could be a big waste of money.  However I'm glad to report 6 months in that I'm still making good use of the planner (ok so not religiously every day, but more than my previous forays into planning thats for sure).... How I decided on this planner I spent frankly an unhealthy amount time watching YouTube reviews/demos of various planners out there and one that came up consistently in the "planning community" was the Erin Condren Life Planner.  Now I could see the appeal of this system and really liked the way people could customise their planners, but the price + shipping tag made me think twice.  What if this was just another failed attempt at planning for me?  So I broadened my search and I started to see the Plu