Organised and Happy
As I am getting older (potentially wiser) and more introspective. I think about the things that I value they are quirky things:
· A clean house
· A comfortable house / warm / comfy furniture
· An ever-increasing bank account balance (and the counting of said balance)
· A job that challenges me
· Continuous learning
· Being a nice person (most days)
· Sharing memories and fun activities with my family and friends
· Chocolate / coffee and a cup of tea
· Silence (I am an introvert)
· Reading time
· Writing time
· Thinking time
· Health / exercise
· Good healthy food
· Seeing new places
Organising based on your values
When I started doing some research on my values I found this website. It allows you to compare values that are close together and see what comes to the top. For around $10,- you can have a summary of your values downloaded and flesh them out a bit more.
Visually see your dream life
When you Organise try and tap into the world of your imagination. You’ll still need to do the work but visualising what makes your space Organised and Happy helps!
Use your values to design and organise your life
After I figured out my values, the question then becomes how do I fit all these things I value in my life? How do I essentially organise, even design my life so I hit all these things very regularly?
Clearly, I need to spend time cleaning and organising my house, investing in good furniture. Let’s be honest I want to live in a comfortable house (mould, rust, cold, unfinished stuff is not my thing). In order to do all the above, I need to be organised with my finances, without a clear financial plan I won’t have the resources to do these things.
And yes, a nice house is pricey but the rest can be very affordable, I love my Ikea lounge, chocolate can be bought on discount, food can be made at home etc.
Note what is not on the list
The next thing you can do is look what is not on the list. For example; I really don’t care about a fancy car, if it is safe and reliable (4 wheels, a break and steering wheel) it will get me there. I actually take a bit of guilty pleasure of people seeing my very basic car (which is perfect to teach teenagers to drive in as a first manual), we got this as an upgrade on my 9 year old car for a $3000,- difference. It is 7 years old, with 50.000 km less than my own car. I own it outright; it is a tool for the kids and now I am getting reacquainted to manual driving again, it makes me a more “skilled” driver. Plus, when I rent a car that is manual, hybrid and has cruise control I feel like I have won the lottery for a few days.
Even though I am pedantic about a clean, neat organised home – I don’t care about the size of the house as much. A smaller house is less cleaning and generates less of an ability to collect junk.
I love good clothes but don’t need many, I probably have 1/5th of the wardrobe most women my age have but generally I love everything that is in there. Twice a year I declutter the wardrobe, if something is unrepairable I will toss is and replace it but overall I am a strong advocate for the casual wardrobe which makes you organised. You invest in good quality clothes (or super comfy clothes, my $5,- kmart shirts and $50,- summer dresses are unbeatable sometimes) and reuse them very often.
I don’t care about showing off again I much prefer to be a bit of an underdog, not flashy, more under the radar, rich, well fed and happy.
So, there you have it.
If you want to be organised and happy have a look at your values and see whether what you spend your time and money on is in line with your values.
If not make some simple changes see your happiness, bank balance and sense of worthwhile living increase.
Your next step is to start organising your days in line with your values.
