Moving In Checklist

Congratulations on finding your new residence! Now comes the fun part; making it your home. Before unloading all of your boxes make a quick trip to the store and get: cleaning supplies, dish soap, laundry supplies, a broom, a mop/Swiffer, a vacuum, hand soap, toilet paper, paper towels, some flowers, and a treat for yourself. Take this opportunity to clean the floors, doors, windows, drawers, and shelves/closets before you put all your stuff away.

You can tackle the next step one of two ways: distributing the boxes to their rooms or filling one room with all the boxes. If you've labeled all of your boxes take them straight from the vehicle to the room they will go in. If you havent labeled all of your boxes, drop them all off in the living room.

After all of your boxes are unloaded open them all! Every single one. This will prevent not being able to find something and therefore buying things we don't need. Moving is expensive enough! After you open a box, take everything out of it and pick one place to put your boxes. Go ahead and break them down so you don't accumulate a pile of cardboard. You can take a picture and post them on Facebook marketplace or craigslist and guaranteed someone will come pick them up shortly.

Now that the boxes are out of the way, start putting like items away. Start a list of small items you notice need like a paper towel holder, a utensil organizer, hangers, a shoe rack, a basket for towels, etc. If you don't know where something goes yet, try to group it with similar items and after grouping all the items consider if you would like a piece of furniture to house them, a basket or a shelf and add this to your list. When you start putting things away, really consider where you will need them. You may reshuffle things a few times but that's okay!

Don't know where to start? First, put your flowers on full display-nothing says welcome home like a fresh bouque Put your kitchen items away so you can eat-youll be hungry soon(thank goodness you got yourself a treat)! Then put your bathroom/shower items away because you're going to feel like you need a shower. Next, make your bed because you'll be tired tonight!

The first day is a big day so you probably won't get everything done in one day unless you have help. If you use anything that hasn't been put away yet, put it in its new place immediately after using it. You'll have all your things in their new place in no time.

Enjoy your home!

How to Influence Change

Everyone has something they want to change. The ultimate goal is clear, it’s just the steps to initiate the change that seem blurry. There’s no roadmap with the ultimate goal as the destination so how do we draw a map? One direction instruction at a time. Just like every other map. Envision your goal: someone treating you differently, the addition of a new habit, the subtraction of an old habit, a change in lifestyle. Think of it as clearly as possible, how it would make you feel, how you would know it has been accomplished, what other people would say about it, what it would mean to your life. Go into detail and resonate with your goal for a moment. Now, what are you doing that doesn’t fit with that goal? What is the first step that you can take today that aligns with your goal? Lasting change doesn’t happen overnight. It develops slowly over time. You’ll know when you’ve created a lasting change because you won’t have to think about it, it will be thoughtless because it will be your reality. When we make sudden changes that aren’t true to ourselves it feels like a constant nag, like a “have to”, and it doesn’t last. Change is influenced, not enforced.

If your change is to be treated differently then you, not the other person, must behave differently. You cannot change another person, only that person can change themselves. So, begin to examine your interactions more closely. Hold your head higher, be more direct, speak with clarity, see how the world’s response to you changes. Envision the person that is treated how you want to be treated. Emulate that version of yourself and your reward will be a changed response. People who have become accustomed to treating you a certain way may need boundaries established. What you will and won’t accept must be communicated. People can accept this or they can become accustomed to a distance from you, initiated by you. You control your environment maybe not completely in what happens to you but completely in your responses and the direction you emit your energy.

If your change is a habit, for example, to keep the house more tidy, begin with your response to your house. Think of your home and understand the feeling that comes with your home. If you feel overwhelmed, begin to take control of your home one area at a time. Go you your closet and set it up exactly how you would like it to be and the next time you do your laundry, you will be encouraged to put things away how they were before because you chose that. You are responsible for the way your closet looks, you chose how it looks, and you make the decisions for the items that are there. For other people in your home, lead by example and guide them through the same process you went through. If your children throw their clothes on the ground, maybe it’s because they haven’t taken ownership of where their clothes go. If they are holding a shirt, do they know where they want to put it? Some people like to hang things and some people like to fold things. Which does your child prefer? Do they understand categories? These are not lessons we learn all at once, but over time. We develop our sense of what works for us and what does not work for us, what we like and what we don’t like.

Change your mindset by understanding why you choose an action. Why do we choose to leave a plate on the table? We walk away from the table anyways, why don’t we take the plate? We either put the plate in the sink/dishwasher now or later, why don’t we put it there now? Are we waiting for someone else to take the plate? If they haven’t established that habit before, why would they start now? Our expectation for others cannot be cultivated in our own mind without including the other person. If we reach a conclusion on our own and then hold another person responsible, that’s not fair to the other person because they didn’t come to the conclusion with us so they simply don’t understand the expectation we have reached. Once you understand your own actions, then you can begin understanding the actions of other people without blame. Start by establishing an expectation for yourself. Start by understanding why you choose an action without including others. Then, you will begin to understand your home more. If you find the answer is “I don’t take the plate because I just don’t want to deal with it right now”, you have just uncovered the first step in changing how you feel about your home; to reaching the ultimate goal of loving your home.

Psychology of Organizing

Organizing makes us feel good, we know this; but why? I believe that organizing is tied to our neurological process called “pruning”. Pruning is the process by which our brain clips off pathways to retrieving information we don’t use. The more we use information, the faster our mind can access the pathway that it is stored with. The less we use information, the less our mind attempts to maintain the pathway to that information. Think of a nature trail: the more a trail is used, the wider and easier it is to travel. The trail that is used infrequently starts to become overgrown and you have to push your way through the trail. Eventually, the trail becomes completely overgrown and is no longer able to be used. In our mind, each trail ends with information. Our minds are constantly evolving according to the information we use.

I believe that if we do not update our environment to match where our minds are that we actually hold ourselves back, to an outdated version of ourselves. Visually seeing something strengthens a pathway. Subconsciously, everything in our environment is tied to something. If we look at a photo that reminds us of a sad memory, we strengthen that memory and everything that goes along with it. If we switch that photo out for a photo of a happy memory or something aspirational, we are strengthening that pathway in our mind. Set yourself up for success by aligning you environment with the best version of yourself.

Look around your room. Check in with yourself and how you feel while in your room. Now, begin to think of how you would like to feel while in your room. Begin to identify objects that do not align with how you would like to feel. You’ve begun the process of organizing. Organizing allows us to go through our items and actively choose if we would like to keep them, how we would like to display them, or if they do not serve our purpose, we have the power to replace them with something ideal for our needs. This, I believe, is why organizing makes us feel better. Your environment is powerful and so are you. Ensure that your environment fuels your power and does not drain it.