Its All About Time......

It's All About Time

There's not enough time in the day!

Belief: I just don't have the time to do all the things I want.

Reality: Time is not the issue. The issue is deciding what you can do given the time you have and delegating the rest!

As you may already know,not managing your time can be detrimental to your personal and business life. We all have the same 24 hours, so the issue isn't managing time,it's managing what you can do with the time you have. You can't do everything, but you can do anything, as long as it fits into your calendar, and you learn to delegate the rest.

If you keep your to-do lists in multiple locations,in e-mail, on a calendar, on paper, in an Excel spreadsheet, a list in your head, and notepad paper, you might want to consider centralizing this list, with the help of a Personal Assistant. This will make it easier to centralize and prioritize this list. Then, you need to schedule your tasks , synchronizing them with the task list of your PA so you will know what you can and can not do.

I am running into this more and more, people's lives are simplified, and the chaos stops when you utilize the skills of a Personal Assistant.
Posted by The Venus Group at 9:21 AM
Labels: Organization, Pre-Planning, Time Management

Fall Colorize Your Home

Fall for Your Home With the Latest Fall Trends
by William, Home Product Design & Development for Target

Everywhere we look we’re seeing rich plums and deep teals and we’re so excited to bring them both to your home at Target.

Teals and aquas have been big colors for the home for a couple of years now, and for fall they take on a deeper, richer tone. Paired with the newest (and hottest) color for fall—plum—it makes a gorgeous color statement. What we love about Target’s exclusive Home™ fall trend collection is that it speaks to one of the biggest trends in home décor: mix and match. Have fun with patterned linens and solid dinnerware. Buy complimentary colors that create a unique and colorful setting, or mix with the white dinnerware you already have. The important thing is to make it yours. Create a stylish table every day using our casual solids, or dress it up with our hand-painted prints and patterns.

Plaids and Jacobean florals are the key patterns to freshen up your home, and in our unique color stories they have life well beyond fall. Finish off your décor with pillows, throws and rugs all in rich textural fabrics combining our signature checkered accents and 17th-century-inspired designs. Mix it up and pair velvet pillows with embroidered cottons—your home is about creating your own style with things you like.

Before the leaves change and the air starts to get crisp, look to Target’s exclusive Home collection for trend-right ways to revitalize your home. From tabletop and bedding to our home décor collections, it’s easy to bring the season’s colors, patterns and textures home.
Fall Trends Product Gallery

Clear The Clutter to Find Peace In Your Home

Say Goodbye to Clutter and Hello to Peace in Your Home


12 years ago I moved with my family from England to California. My 3 boys were 1, 3 and 5. We had a lot of stuff and a seemingly endless amount of toys and baby items. But when you are moving you look at your stuff differently. We had to pay a lot to move stuff across the Atlantic Ocean, so I determined we were only moving what was absolutely necessary. I had 6 weeks’ notice to get myself and my household ready for the move. I planned on getting rid of half the toys, half the books and half the clothes. In reality I think I got rid of more than that.

We gave our stuff to the moving company, took 2 suitcases and 3 children and arrived in the US with the amount you’d take on vacation. We rented a house and lived in it with not much stuff for 8 weeks before the things that we’d shipped arrived. Those 8 weeks were bliss. The children played even though they didn’t have any toys. I did do laundry frequently and we did have to share plates, but I didn’t spend hours tidying the house and so we had a life. I learned that we don’t need to have a lot of stuff. In fact, too much stuff can stop us from enjoying life. I’ve been a minimalist ever since.


Clutter can make us stay home to deal with it, or it can make us leave the house so we don’t see it. It can certainly stop us inviting friends over.

What is clutter?

Clutter is when we have too much in too small a place. It is a crowded and untidy collection of things, it is things that don’t bring you joy, that you don’t love and don’t need.

Clutter can be anywhere, mostly we see clutter, but sometimes we hide it in our closets. We can have cluttered cars and even cluttered days. It is something that we don’t want and don’t need and the only solution is to get rid of it, let it leave the house. Clutter in the house is like weeds in the garden, it gradually grows until you suddenly realize that it’s taking over.

With too much clutter we can’t find things, and so we buy extra, thus adding to the current situation of mess. It’s hard to think clearly when surrounded with a house full of clutter.

Where do I start?

Flat surfaces gain clutter. We put something on a flat surface, thinking it’s temporary, but it stays there. Suddenly it’s surrounded by other things we think are temporary and we have a clutter spot. Without even trying more and more places become spots of clutter and soon the whole house is cluttered.

What do we do about it?

Have a time, preferably at the same time every day, when you attack your clutter. Reduce your clutter for 15 or 30 minutes a day. For some it will be first thing in the morning or last thing at night. For me it’s 4pm and just before I make dinner. If you do this every day for a month, you and your family will notice a difference.

How do we deal with it?

You will need 3 boxes labeled, “Give Away", "Throw Away", and "Put Away". When your 15 or 30 minutes are over, put your “Throw Away” box in the garbage bin, put your “Give Away” box in your car for the next time you are near a thrift store and go round the house with your “Put Away” box and put things in their right places. Don’t leave the boxes lying around and add to the clutter.

Just attack a small area each day, don’t attempt a big project, do a small one every day.

Ask yourself if you really want to keep it, if you love it and if you use it. If you don’t use it and don’t want it, let it leave the house.

What room do I start in?

Start in the kitchen and your bedroom. If you have a messy kitchen you won’t cook decent meals. If you have a messy bedroom you won’t sleep well at night. With good food and good rest, you’ll be more productive in the other rooms.

Don’t ask yourself what you want to get rid of, ask yourself what you want to keep. If you have too many of one thing, get rid of the excess.

You can’t organize clutter, it has to leave the house.

The Blessings of Less

With less stuff you won’t lose things so often, you’ll be able to find lost things and you won’t have much to tidy away. When you start other family members will often join in. You’ll be able to invite your friends over without crisis cleaning.

How do I get rid of stuff?

Firstly, is it worth selling? Can you get someone to sell it for you on consignment? You could donate it, or give it to friends, give it to a thrift store or freecycle it.

Make getting rid of things a habit. Have a place where you put things you don’t want, such as box in the garage.

Don’t stop Keep decluttering, you won’t regret it. The advantage? Peace in your home.

The Venus Group will be more than happy to help you on this journey of Peace, we are skilled, trained professionals that get joy out of seeing our client's life improved.

GIVE US A CALL-----678-656-6386

addititional resources: David Damron, Tina's treasures

Are You A Hoarder?

Quiz: Are You a Hoarder?
Take This Quiz to Find Out

Print this up and circle each answer that you feel represents you. This is not a diagnostic tool. It is designed to help you understand the differences between hoarders and collectors. The more questions you have answered true to in each category, the more likely you fall into that category.
Source: Overcoming Compulsive Hoarding. Fugen Neziroglu, Jerome Bubrick, Jose A. Yaryura-Tobias. New Harbinger Publications Inc. 2004, 150 pages.

Collectors

• True / False: I feel proud of my possessions.

• True / False: I keep my possessions organized and well maintained.

• True / False: I find joy in my possessions and willingly display them to others.

• True / False: I attend meetings or conferences with others who share my interest.

• True / False: I enjoy conversations about my possessions.

• True / False: I budget my time and money around my possessions.

• True / False: I feel satisfaction when making additions to my collection.

Hoarders

• True / False: I feel embarrassed by my possessions.

• True / False: I have my possessions scattered randomly, often without functional organization.

• True / False: I have clutter, often resulting in the loss of functional living space.

• True / False: I feel uncomfortable with others seeing my possessions or outright refuse to let others view my possessions.

• True / False: I often have debt, sometimes extreme.

• True / False: I feel ashamed, sad or depressed after acquiring additional items.


More True's than False's?....Give us a call...we can help!

Your Loved One may Need Help!

In the many years that I have spent in the Elder-Care business, there are always certain signs that many children or loved ones are missing. I am often perplexed and overwhelmed when I walk into a client's homes for the first time for the meet and greet. The family member(s) are often there to ask questions, give their concerns and the likes, and I often hear..."I don't know when all this started"...I on the other hand am looking around at for sure signs of neglect on the homeowners part, and...it is usually NOT their fault, they have been needing assistance for a while and it has gone unnoticed. As our aging loved ones grow older there are a number of reasons why things can go awry....Here are some signs to look for:

1. Changes in house keeping patterns:
Has your parent or elder always maintained a certain house keeping pattern that is beginning to change? This change could be happening for a variety of reasons, but it is important to raise your level of awareness if you see this happening.

2. Finances:
Are bills not being paid on time? Are there issues with the primary backing accounts (overdrafts, bounced checks, etc).

3. Weight Loss:
Is there noticeable weight loss? Can it be because your aging parent or loved one can not cook or shop on their own? Do you notice that the food in the house is outdated or close to spoiling?

4. Burns & Bruises:
Does your aging parent or elder have unusual black and blue bruises on their body? This could be an indication that they may have fallen or have trouble moving from place to place in the home. Any burns may indicate that your elders may have problems cooking.

5. Poor hygiene:
Do you notice changes in the bathing, dressing and grooming or toileting habits of your elder or aging parent? Are they wearing the same clothes often or even wearing clothing that may be inappropriate?

6. Moving from place to place:
Does your aging parent have problems moving from one room to the other or navigating the kitchen? Are they having problems walking and doing normal tasks like checking the mail?

7. Forgetfulness:
Is your aging parent forgetting appointments? Are your elders forgetting things like returning calls, what trash day is, are they frequently misplacing things, can't recall names of familiar people or objects, etc?

8. Depression:
Does your parent or elder seem sad or withdrawn more than usual? Do you notice a lack of motivation?

9. Physical or Verbal Abuse:
Does you aging parent seem uncharacteristically volatile? Do you notice sudden verbal or physical outbursts?

10. Physical Signs:
Do you notice that the car has dents and scratches or that there are stains in the carpet from spills? Do you smell a urine odor in the house (which could be a sign of incontinence)? Are there stacks of unopened mail, unfilled prescriptions or is the grass growing higher than normal?

Additional info provided by: JM Jackson-E-zine articles

Organized Closets

Your Closet could look like this!

Embrace the New Year with an Organized Life, starting with your closet.

1. Items used most frequently should be on shelves at eye level.
2. Break alike items down into baskets.
3. Hang all like clothes together, i.e., skirts in one area, blouses in another.
4. Put shoes in boxes that are labeled or a rack where they can be easily viewed.
5. If you haven’t worn it in a year, either move to a less used closet, or give away.

It's All About Time

There's not enough time in the day!

Belief: I just don't have the time to do all the things I want.

Reality: Time is not the issue. The issue is deciding what you can do given the time you have and delegating the rest!

As you may already know,not managing your time can be detrimental to your personal and business life. We all have the same 24 hours, so the issue isn't managing time,it's managing what you can do with the time you have. You can't do everything, but you can do anything, as long as it fits into your calendar, and you learn to delegate the rest.

If you keep your to-do lists in multiple locations,in e-mail, on a calendar, on paper, in an Excel spreadsheet, a list in your head, and notepad paper, you might want to consider centralizing this list, with the help of a Personal Assistant. This will make it easier to centralize and prioritize this list. Then, you need to schedule your tasks , synchronizing them with the task list of your PA so you will know what you can and can not do.

I am running into this more and more, people's lives are simplified, and the chaos stops when you utilize the skills of a Personal Assistant.