Take It On Tuesday! - Karina Whisnant

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I hope this week you are starting to recognize how great it can be to just think about progress not perfection in the area of making our homes a peaceful place to be! This might be harder to just keep to a few minutes but keep in mind that this particular journey is not a complete overhaul.  All of us have bookcases of some sort in our home.  Today, I want you to look at just ONE shelf on ONE of your bookcases.  Look at the items on that one shelf and decide if anything needs to be given away, thrown away, or put somewhere else.  If that one shelf didn’t take you to long, tackle just one more!

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Emergency Fund

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In a recent post we dealt with being prepared for a crisis. You can also do this with money.

It's important to have some sort of emergency fund. You should make it a priority to put one together, even if it is $500 or so.

I also recommend you diversify where you keep it. You might want to keep some cash in a safe place, and spread out the rest among more than one account, and possibly more than one financial institution. If you keep some money in an online account, be sure to also have other places to get to funds. In the event of a loss of electricity, you may not be able to withdraw funds for awhile.

We're not suggesting panic with these ideas. Instead, put your mind at ease by being appropriately prepared, knowing that God is the One in Whom we put our first trust and hope.

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Take It On Tuesday with Karina Whisnant

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I hope none of you got lost in the paper stacks last week!  If you are reading this blog, it must mean you are ready to tackle another task!  You have light switches in every room of your house and use them quite frequently.  We don’t often take time to clean off those germs and dirt, but you are going to take those few minutes today.  I would be fascinated to know how many light switches you can get to in just 5 to 10 minutes.  I bet some of you overachievers will get to all of them in your house.

NOTE: Just wanted to let our subscribers know that the Abundant Health Online Summit begins tonight with great speakers for several days. Organizing from the Heart with Beth Beutler will be on Wednesday. It's free and you can register here:  http://www.mcssl.com/app/?af=1532732  (affiliate link)

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Prepping

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The concept of prepping is gaining in popularity and you can really get into it. No matter what degree of interest you have, it is a good idea to have some things on hand in case you experience extreme weather, a national emergency, or a shut down of basic services.

Think about things you should keep in your car, at work, and at home and keep them in handy places, preferably bags or backpacks that you can grab easily.

Bags should include safety items like flashlights and emergency blankets; non perishable food, extra medicines, etc.; clothing; waterproof matches/fire starters; and equipment such as filtration bottles and/or water purifier tablets so that you can maintain a safe water supply.

One of our authors uses spread sheet worksheets to keep a list of items kept in each of their "Go Bags." She notes the expiration date of any food items so she can replace ones that go out of date simply by checking the sheet.

You might also read the following item from Domestic CEO about documenting your possessions which makes it easier to get a fair settlement from an insurance company if  you experience fire or flooding.

What sort of things have you done to prepare for a crisis?

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Take It On Tuesday! - Paper!

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You knew it was coming; yes you did!  It is time to think about paper!  Somewhere in your lovely house, you have a stack of magazines, unopened mail, school papers, so on and so on.  You need to choose one paper stack to go through today.  Don’t try to go through every stack, but maybe choose one that has been bugging you the most.  Now, we need some good encouragement on this one. Post before and after pictures of the paper stack. - Karina

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Bag Lady

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One way you can get more organized is to have certain tote bags for certain purposes, ready to grab and go. Here are some examples. The assumption is that when you use something in the bag, you replenish or wash it and immediately return it to the bag.

• A gym bag with its own set of towels, toiletries, etc for workouts/swims
• A snack bag with non-perishable snacks
• A recreational bag with a book, puzzle book, coloring book, etc for relaxing
• Sports bag for items needed for days your kids have games
• Portable office bag if you tend to work at coffee shops, etc.
• Cosmetic/toiletry bag for traveling, one you don't use at home but save, already packed for trips.
• Picnic bag with paper goods, table cloth, etc.

What kind of pre-packed bags do you use?

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Take It On Tuesday! - Medicine Cabinet

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Where do you keep your medicine?  That is where you are headed this Tuesday.  My guess is that a lot of you keep it in a drawer of a bathroom or maybe even in a kitchen cabinet.  You may have it in several places depending on what kind of medicine it is.  For today, just pick one particular area and clean it out.  As you are cleaning out that cabinet, you may even want to reconsider what you are keeping the medicine in and if there is a better way to store it or a better place to store it.* You can return expired medicines to your local pharmacist for safe disposal. Do not flush medicines as they can impact water systems.

I would love for several of you to post and let us all know the oldest expiration date on one of the medicines you cleared out! Comment below. 

-Karina

*Here's a way Beth stores medicines within a kitchen cabinet:

Organizer drawer from a place like a hardware store

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Lack of Follow Through

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Have you ever established a system, but then have trouble following through with it? If you are a creative person, you tend to have more fun coming up with solutions and tackling challenges, and may become bored when it comes to maintaining it. But this can cause you more stress.

For example, I have a system in place that I call my "transition time." It's the few minutes after I get home for the day that I use to transition into my home life. Because most of my commutes are 30-40 minutes each way, I tend to piggy back errands and stops. Thus I can end the day with a load of stuff in the truck to take into the house.

When I do my system well, I unload everything, tidying up the truck. Then I put everything away to a proper place for later use (i.e. paperwork onto the desk, keys onto the same hook inside the mud room, etc.) Then stuff is cleaned up before I even look at mail or messages from the day or I change into lounging clothes.

But sometimes because of fatigue or boredom, I dump things without sorting and putting away and jump into conversation or other projects that may interest me more. Trouble is, later, I'll feel stress as I try to get out the door and can't find my keys. So in the long run, the trade off of a few minutes of boredom for a few minutes of stress isn't worth it.

So when you come up with a system, and you feel bored with maintaining it, ask yourself, would I rather be briefly bored, or stressed out? Let that motivate you to stick with it.

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Take It On Tuesday!

Task 2

How long has it been since you really looked at the bottom of that trash can you empty each week?  I bet you don’t want to look!  Today, clean out at least one trash or garbage can in from your home.  If you are feeling inspired, I bet you could clean several trash cans from several rooms and not even spend 15 minutes doing it!  If you get it too clean, you may not want to throw anything away in the trash can today. (Hint: this is why liners are a great idea. Plastic shopping bags from the grocery store can be re-used as liners for small wastebaskets.)

Let us know how it goes in the comments below.

© 2013 Jupiterimages Corporation

© 2013 Jupiterimages Corporation

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