Now that we are one month into the new year how are you holding up on your resolutions? January ended up being a pretty busy month around here but I have been making small strides.

We often start off the new year with the best of intentions. The truth is a few weeks into January we start to slip. That perfectionist side tells us if we miss one week or even one day at doing something we have somehow failed.

I see a recurring problem with resolution keeping. We self impose guidelines and rules that we must fill in order for that resolution to be a success. Then we miss a crucial step. We fail to plan how that activity will actually fit into our normal routine!

Perhaps you wanted to eat healthier and didn’t account for the time it takes to prep healthier foods. If more exercise was your goal, don’t feel as though you have to start the new year off with an every day routine!  Did you tell yourself you wanted to get the whole house organized? Start with a simple plan for each room instead of looking at the big picture.

Whatever your resolution may be, don’t give up. Just because January has come and gone doesn’t mean you can’t keep working towards your goal. Feel like you’ve slacked for a few days, and can’t seem to get your motivation back? No worries. Each day is a new day and you have to make the most of it. You get a clean slate every single day so wake up and hit the floor running!

If you were to chart your resolution progress you would surely have some ups and downs, feel free to share a few and let’s help each other find ways to keep that motivation going!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year! Our family enjoyed Christmas festivities in New York this year which included an extended stay due to a wintry snow storm that canceled our flight home for several days. We thoroughly enjoyed sledding and it was great to have the extra time visiting family, but it is definitely good to be home!

While I am catching up after our vacation I am also finishing up last minute arrangements and packing for my trip to Haiti on Wednesday. I am thrilled to say the least and so happy that the new year is beginning with this trip. It is truly a dream come true.

I am blessed to have such wonderful family and friends and ever amazed at my growing business. I look forward to much success this year and living life to it’s fullest. Today on twitter a friend shared the following quote…

Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire. ~ Arnold H.

Success is an outcome of your efforts not something that happens while we sit on the couch watching television. What will success look like for you this year?

Mandi at Life Your Way shared a great list of 111 resolutions and tools to make them a reality. Which of those resolutions are on your list for 2011? This year I plan on getting fit, working on a healthy work/life balance and getting my house completely organized. That’s right, I want to get even more organized! I have a few areas of my house that are truly organized and stay that way with very little effort and I want the rest of the house to work that way as well. We will continue working on our home improvement projects but I also plan on tackling each room one by one and organizing it to the max!

Is organizing one of your resolutions this year? If so, I have two giveaways for you!

GIVEAWAY #1 – My fellow organizational friends at Mabel’s Labels is offering up $200 WORTH OF LABELS to one of my readers! Fabulous! Label your kids, their stuff, your pantry or your sock drawer! If you can give it a name you can label it!

How to enter: To enter this giveaway I want to hear what your resolutions are! Let’s hold each other accountable. If you make it known you are more likely to stick to it. Share your resolutions in the comments for your chance to win $200 worth of Mabel’s Labels!

GIVEAWAY #2 – I owe my success in part to my readers that continue to come here and offer kind words of encouragement when something I have written helps them in some way. It brightens my day to hear from each of you. So to one of you I am offering a VIRTUAL ROOM MAKEOVER! It doesn’t matter where you live, you chose the space you need help with and I will help you strategize and organize! If you are chosen, you simply email me photos of your room and I will come up with an organizing plan that you can easily implement on your own!

How to enter: Simply leave a comment telling me which room you want help organizing and why. Have you tried to organize the space before and it didn’t work? Are you looking to transform your space into something new? How do you envision this organized space?

* You can enter both giveaways with separate comments!

Both giveaways are open until JANUARY 9th at 12pm central time, the day I arrive back from Haiti. I cannot wait to share the trip with you and return to all of your comments. I look forward to organizing with you in 2011 and here’s to a happy and successful new year! Let’s get that fire lit!

We just had our first snow here in Tennessee and oh what a mess. I love watching the kids get all excited about playing in the snow but a small part of me dreads getting them bundled up and then un-bundled again. And then there is the wet sloshy, muddy mess they bring in. Blech. I could do without. See, here we get very few snow days, in fact last year the schools closed one day because it was supposed to snow. We may get one or two days of snow at a time but it amounts to mere inches. Some of you are in it feet deep by now and I wonder how you manage all of the snow stuff!

We have a specific place for hats and gloves that works great. We hang our coats in the laundry room which is my attempt at a mudroom but really not the amount of space I desire. When the kids do go out in the snow I have them come in and take things off right at the door instead of tracking the mud through the kitchen to the laundry room.

Here is my makeshift attempt to have a spot where the kids can come in and drop all of their wet stuff. Usually it flops in a great big pile for me to sort though and find a place to dry. This time I put up a few Command hooks to hang jackets and snow pants. My kids love hooks and the next time they came in they actually hung their stuff up…Surprise! It worked.

But this was just one day…. the snow was pretty much gone the next day and the kids were done with being outside. They went out twice the day it snowed and things had time to dry off in between.

I mentioned this topic on Twitter and Molly Gold of Go Mom, Inc. replied saying that she uses a drying rack in the garage and rotates things that are wet with things in the dryer. Which brings me to a question for all you…

For those of you in snowier climates.. how do you manage the wet stuff? The muddy stuff? Do you have a true mudroom, or wish you had one? Do you have multiples of everything so one set can be dried while the other is worn? Please share your best snow time tips!

This season don’t forget to add one more thing to your list… batteries are not included for many gifts!

Last week on Penelope Loves Lists, Meredith posted about battery organization and I thought this would be a great time to show you my battery drawer! We just stocked up in time for Christmas. There are always new toys or gadgets and gizmos that need batteries and what a bummer to realize there are none in the house!

In our battery drawer we keep two sizes of screwdrivers, a battery tester and a bag to hold dead batteries to be recycled.

I suggest keeping two sizes of small screwdrivers on hand for different toys and electronics. It seems that most things have a cover that is screwed shut. Great for safety but causes havoc if you have to go hunting for a screwdriver!

Sometimes a toy just dies and we tend to change the batteries multiple times thinking that is the problem. That is where the battery tester comes in handy. I test all of the batteries before they go in the recycle bag to make sure I am not getting rid of a good battery.

Our county has a time each year that you can go drop off household hazardous waste, electronics and batteries. You can check Earth911.org to see if you have a battery recycling location near you.

I would love to get a battery organizer like this, but I often have way more of one battery size than the other. So for me, these little nifty battery containers would make a great stocking stuffer!

How do you organize your batteries? Are they here, there and everywhere or do you store them all in a nifty container?

I recently overheard two women complaining about chores, then the conversation went something like this, “How about you come to my house and help me clean, then we can go clean your house!” It was said half jokingly but really what better way to get things done! Organizing, like cleaning,  is much more fun when you have someone to help!

Get Organized With A Friend

Grab your best girlfriend and tackle that clutter! Your trusted confidant can help you work through some of those tough questions. This is especially fun when tackling the closet.  Have fun trying on clothes and getting  an honest opinion. Mix, match and try to come up with new outfits and don’t forget to have a good laugh at some of those pieces you should probably let go of!

Team Up With Family

Hire A Professional Organizer