Arianna Merritt, M.Ed.

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Goal Setting: What I learned from Cleaning my Room

Arianna Merritt

When I was a child, I was interviewed for the local television news.  I was asked on air: "What my favourite activity was to do with my mom."  I responded: "Cleaning my room."One of my personal goals for the coming year and beyond is to keep my bedroom clean.  Perhaps "clean" is not the right word - I would prefer if it was tidy and organized.  My New Year's resolution was to clear out the clutter.  I know that is a general goal which needs to be made into a SMART goal. Therefore, I am breaking down my room into several ways I can tidy up my bedroom.   I learned these from one of my best friends when she came to visit for my birthday; one of the gifts she gave me was to help organize my bedroom.  She is the queen of organization, and we spent the day after my birthday planning, shopping, and organizing my room. Six of my biggest organizational weaknesses are:

1) Earrings and jewelry – She helped me go from putting them in a little box to visually displaying them so I could see exactly what I have.  The board is on the wall now right by the exit, so I can choose my jewelry to go with my outfit for the day.  It is really easy to mak:e you get a cork board and attach chicken wire and push pins onto it.  It makes a beautiful visual display.  Check out the photo.

My new earring board. (c) Arianna's Random Thoughts.

2) Coins – I have so many coins that I have collected over the years.  I usually just put them into one of several containers, or by accident leave them on the counters.  We gathered them and put them into paper rolls to take to the bank.  It pays to save your pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.

3) Books – My book shelves were overflowing because I love to read and have many books for my academics and pleasure. I bought bins to go under my bed for storing extra books and to give my bookshelf a less crowded look.

4) CDs – I have so many CDs; but I now mainly just buy the singles off Itunes that I like. I don’t need all the clutter in my room.

5) Clothes and accessories – We organized my closet to make it tidy and spacious.  Now I have a rule for myself about clothes: if I take something off the hook, I have to put it back on.

6) Papers - I bought a shredder and got rid of any extra pieces of paper I didn't need; I recycled the shredded paper.

From cleaning my room, with my friend's help, I learned first-hand the value of goal-setting.  There are three steps in setting effective goals:

1) Planning (Figuring out how to organize my room)

2) Implementation (Organizing my room)

3) Maintenance (Making sure my room stays organized- this can be tough!)

I'm working on the maintenance part right now.  It can be tough, but it is so worth it.  You can learn a lot from cleaning your room!

What are some tools you use to keep your home organized??? If you have suggestions or photos - I'd love to see them.

Thank you for reading and your presence at this beach retreat. You Rock! I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts in the comment section below.

See you at the beach!

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