This Blog May Be Quiet for a While...

We have just received some not so good news and I will be leaving the country to visit family as soon as I could arrange. If I manage to report some progress before then, I will certainly do. But it is not my priority right now. If I did not report within the week, this blog is likely to be quiet for a month or so... 

Just want to let you know ahead of time. 

I will be back.

Report: How much clothes does a 2-year-old girl need?

Seriously.

Clutter and Debt 4: Debt Snowball

In Dave Ramsey's plan, he uses a debt snowball plan to get out of debt. The plan suggests to pay off the smallest debt first. The reason is to build momentum without feeling overwhelmed. Simply put, getting $1000 off a $10000 debt would not make one feel as good as checking a piece of $800 debt completely off the list. Once you see results, it is easier to move on.

For those of us who participated in Project Simplify, didn't we feel the same way? Once the first project is down, it is easier to get started with the next.

Report on My Time Budget

The fact that I publish my post late in the day on Monday shows that I did not properly budget my time for that day!

Without a plan, it is so easy for me to slide off and do something else, thinking in the 2 hours that my little girl nap, I could finish the post, prepare dinner, and check out Facebook, Twitter and new cases for my up coming new phone...

What hinders you?

As you know I was not doing so good with my 15-minutes desk de-cluttering task. (See here and here). What do you think I often find myself doing? Going on the internet! Just like Elizabeth @ Ready.Set.Simplify commented, there is just so much to learn...

Recently, I  has been consumed by the information on Unschooling and Home-schooling and whether or not we are doing the right thing by sending them to public schools.

A little earlier, I occupied myself with TED Talks.

When my little girl was smaller, it was cloth diapering that I tried to look into and later started. I also spent a lot of time reading up on Elimination Communication. Any blogs on green, environmental friendly and natural living information will get my attention. Blogs on Leadership was also very interesting.

The list go on and on.

Not to mention the occasional shopping bug that itch me to go on Amazon.com and the likes.

Clutter and Debt 2: Budget

Another piece of advice I learn from Dave Ramsey's getting started guide is to set a budget. In an article, they wrote, "budget is just spending your money with intention" He also said in his podcast that money just disappear if you don't tell them where to go. How true that is also for our use of time!

From my last week's experience, I found myself not being able to do the dishes right after breakfast because I need to drive the kids to school. If only I had the morning starts 15 minutes earlier, I could have dishes done leisurely without the kids being late for school.

Clutter and Debt 1: Stop Using Credit Report

[If you stopped by here because you have real debt issues, 
you may want to visit http://www.DaveRamsey.com for real debt help. 
This post is about decluttering by applying Dave Ramsey's debt help method]

It is Friday again. Time for me to report my progress. Last post, I listed the following action items:

1. Get a load a laundry done when there enough dirty clothes for one
2. Get the dishes done after each meal
3. Putting away grocery immediately unless little girl need to potty
4. Do not check mailbox unless I have the time to look it over
5. Check the boys' school paperwork when I signed their binder
6. Go to bed before mid-night...

Let's go through the list one by one:

Clutter and Debt 1: Stop Using Credit

Photo Credit: PublicDomainPictures.net

Only after I announced this series last week, I thought of checking if the topic had already been discussed. I was shocked to find that Google found 2,700,000+ pages on "debt clutter". So, I guess I do not need to explain why I believe clutter and debt are cousins! But in order to apply the debt-free lessons to help get out of clutter, I dug a bit deeper to find out their relationships.