The Revamp Experience - Revamp Professional Organisers - Brisbane - Office Organising . Paperwork Organising . Time Management . Energy Management

Be Discerning and Learn How to Say No

Louise D'Allura — Fri, 09 Jun 2017 16:00:00 +0000

Are you able to look at all of your competing demands and easily work out what is the best use of your time? Can you do this equally at work and at home? If you’re struggling don’t worry, you’re not alone.

Where do you start? Start by brainstorming the home and work tasks / grab your to do list and use this structured approach to get things that probably shouldn’t be on there, off your to do list.

Take a moment to read the FULL article in the Women's Network Australia magazine "Working Women" by clicking here: https://www.womensnetwork.com.au/Learn_To_%20Say_No

Do You Need to Declutter Your Brain?

Louise D'Allura — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 14:13:08 +0000

Do you know how clutter and your lifestyle practices could be undermining the decisions you make in your life and business?

Take a moment to read the FULL article in the Women's Network Australia magazine "Working Women" by clicking here. You'll discover five tips to help you make better decisions and decrease your stress levels.

https://www.womensnetwork.com.au/Brain_clutter

Get Organised for Christmas

Louise D'Allura — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 11:57:43 +0000

Even though I'm a professional organiser I'm always surprised at how quickly Christmas comes around. To make it easy for myself I thought I'd share the questions I'm asking myself as I enter the XMAS Countdown!

1) WHERE do you need to be and on what days?
Start to sus out where you need to be on Christmas Eve? Christmas Day? Boxing Day? Knowing which days your dance card is full, helps a lot!

2) WHAT do you need to do for each Christmas event?
Are you hosting or just bringing a dish?
Knowing this helps you to work out your tasks for the next few weeks! Do you need to pick a dish or plan a whole menu and work out who can bring what and which rooms of the house you must absolutely positively get organised vs which you can leave locked!!!!! Remember I am an organiser for the real world - we need to prioritise ;)

If you’ve started to plan your Christmas Menu check out the ideas we’ve put together on our dedicated food blog www.MealPlanningYourWay.com - you'll find lots of ideas to simplify your Christmas Menu (making it healthier to boot).

Be sure to look at these posts on Revamps - it is a strategy for using up those Christmas Leftovers - and it will help you with meal planning all year! Click here to learn more.

3) Presents - WHO!?
WHO needs to go on your list of naughty or nice? First part is just sort out WHO (and if you need to POST any gifts - these are the ones we want to get CRACKING WITH ASAP!!!!).

4) Presents - WHAT?
What can you give? Is it possible to suggest food/ alcohol, setting up a secret santa style gift for the adults or request gift cards if your house can't cope with any more stuff? Don't add clutter to people's lives!!! Do what you can to resist it - or be a kill joy and ask them outright "I was thinking of getting you this..... Would this be something you'd actually like?"

Don't forget to brainstorm experience gift ideas. These don't have to be expensive and might be the gift of time (eg babysitting vouchers)?

5) Christmas Cards - To card or not to card - that is the question?
If you do write cards work out who and where do they live - overseas/ interstate/ locally. This way you know which cards you need to write first. Next week you might start looking around for gorgeous cards to buy. If on the other hand you are a crafty chick or guy, no doubt you are on the ball getting your stash of cards prepared!

So these are the questions I'm working through. What about you? What other questions are on your list? I'd love to hear!!

I hope you have a great Christmas with your loved ones!
Take care

Take Time to Make Time

Louise D'Allura — Sat, 19 Sep 2015 12:54:00 +0000

Have you ever had one of those weeks when some days you are in the 'zone' - highly productive, focused and efficient, only to then experience the complete opposite the next day? Take a moment to read the FULL article in the Women's Network Australia magazine "Working Women" by clicking here. You'll discover a host of ideas to help you get back on track to boost your productivity!

You'll discover what to consider when you:

What and when to Plan
What Planning tools to use
What you need to commit to
What boundaries you need to consider

I would love to hear from you! In the comments below, tell me what are your strategies to help you get back on track when you've felt a dip in your productivity? I would love hear them!

If you’ve found this article of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share.

Get Organised for A New Financial Year

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 09 Jul 2015 08:18:24 +0000

The start of a new Financial Year is a great opportunity to formulate some new resolutions!

I often see it as the perfect time of year to take advantage of the NEW FINANCIAL YEAR energy, and Get Your Office and Paperwork Organised!

I have to confess, I really do LOVE this time of year. Getting my financial folders in order for the new year makes me feel calm for the entire financial year! This year I'm so grateful to be setting up my 7th year of financial records.

Every July I set up both my electronic and paper based systems. Every year I've implemented the same process (with refinements of course) and I can honestly say having that structure in place makes the every day tasks so much easier. I know that my records have a "home" to go to and it makes dealing with the day to day finances so much easier.

To get you started check out these posts on the blog:

Tips on Creating a Filing System:
http://www.therevampexperience.com.au/blog/2014/04/06/what-makes-a-filing-system-great

Declutter Your Office:
http://www.therevampexperience.com.au/blog/2013/08/21/declutter-your-office

If you want to feel calmer about the day to day aspects of your paperwork, please reach out!

No Time to Cook?

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 07 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Are you like most of my clients who find that their struggles are

a. Finding time to plan
b. Making a shopping list
c. Fitting cooking into my working week

If this sounds like you, you are not alone! Keep reading this series of blog posts from our Meal Planning Your Way Blog and check out the guides in the shop to see how I suggest you approach this for your Meal Planning Personality®:

a. Finding time to plan
http://www.mealplanningyourway.com/?p=3596

b. Making a shopping list http://www.mealplanningyourway.com/?p=3599

c. Fitting cooking into my working week
http://www.mealplanningyourway.com/?p=3614

Now I'd love to hear from you = what do you find a struggle with dinner time?

Life is a Game Strategy Guide

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 00:00:00 +0000

As we now have finished the first quarter of the year, I decided to share this post - it is an old one but it is great. Written by Oliver Emberton who has a background in web software development, the article is called "Life is a game. This is your strategy guide" It has been shared a stupid number of times. Chances are you've seen it, but I stumbled across it again and thought I must share it in case you've not seen it.

Either way it is a great reminder to TAKE STOCK of where we are at!

I like so many aspects of this article. Firstly It reminds us that life actually is a game that we are ALL playing - there are highs, lows you name it! The article starts out at the 'childhood' phase and goes through every main phase of our life. The point that Oliver stresses throughout this article (note it is long) is the key to "winning" this game is:

manage our resources,
put time into the right things and
always be mastering where your time goes.

Simple and a great read, I think it will appeal to many different ages!

Click here to read it: http://oliveremberton.com/2014/life-is-a-game-this-is-your-strategy-guide/

Now, I would love to hear from you! In the comments below, tell me what else would you add to the Strategy Guide? I would love hear it!

If you’ve found this article of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share.

8 No Brainer Things to Declutter

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I came across this great article on Apartment Therapy the other day and thought you might enjoy it too! It is all about decluttering just 8 things that you won't even know they are gone!

The article suggests it is a great way to get started on a declutter project and I would have to agree. You just want to get some momentum happening!

Some of my favourites on the list are coffee mugs, old medications and food storage containers!

It can be a great discrete project to just tackle each of these in your space. They will make a massive difference to the start of your day in your:

kitchen - with less crappy coffee mugs, it will be easier to find your favourite cup for your first cuppa of the day! BLISS!
health - with less crappy food containers, you'll find making and packing your own lunch and snacks will be easier because you'll ALWAYS be able to find just the right size you need!
bathroom = with no old meds in your way you won't have to experience the frustration of trying to find what you want quickly when you're trying to make yourself look even more fabulous!!

I hope by unpacking these three "little" project areas you got to see just how much of a difference they can make to the start of your day? Great aren't they?!

Click to keep reading the full article for the other 5 items: http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/worryfree-decluttering-8-things-to-get-rid-of-that-youll-never-even-know-are-gone-212860

Now, I would love to hear from you! In the comments below, tell me the difference decluttering the other five items would have on your life/ day? I would love hear them!

If you’ve found this article of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share.

Declutter Your Wardrobe for a Cause

Louise D'Allura — Sat, 14 Mar 2015 17:11:49 +0000

This month I've been having so much fun working with clients to make their mornings easier - all by Decluttering their Wardrobe!

As one of my Wardrobe Kickstart clients said - it's about creating "Peace and the perfect start to the day because everything is in its place."

How true is that!? If the rest of your life is crazy and chaotic you can invest in your own sanity by getting that area organised!

Where to start?
Before you even open your wardrobe take a moment to answer these questions:

How do you need your wardrobe to function first thing in the morning?
How do you put outfits together - is it by colour/ style/ type of clothing?
What type of clothes match your lifestyle NOW vs five years ago?
Where will you donate the items that don’t make you look absolutely positively fabulous?

If you're going to struggle:

get help (see our kickstart by clicking here)! AND
get decluttering for a CAUSE!!

The Corporate Clothing Pop-up hosted by Women’s Legal Service Queensland and Women Lawyers Association of Queensland is on at the historic Historic Hanworth House on Friday 22 May 2015 in Brisbane. Brisbane author and fashion blogger, Nikki Parkinson will be providing style tips, while I'll be conducting Wardrobe Clinics! Just bring a photo of your problematic wardrobe and I'll share lots of tips and tricks!

There are a few ways you can support this event - the first is decluttering your wardrobe of fantastic quality corporate gear you've barely worn (if at all!!)

When you know the charity you’re going to donate to, it gives you new-found motivation. You don’t hesitate on the decision to keep or donate. I've been collecting client's clothes for this event - which is great because I know what some clients no longer love, they will find something they love MORE at the event!!

If you're in Brisbane clothes can be dropped off before Friday 8 May at:
• Women’s Legal Service Annerley office - 387 Ipswich Road, Brisbane (corner of Ponsonby Street. Entry via Ponsonby Street)
• The College of Law Queensland - Level 5 Wesley House, 140 Ann Street, Brisbane
• Griffith Chambers, care of Kylie Hillard - Level 18, 239 George Street, Brisbane
• Robbins Watson Solicitors - Suite 12, 2 Executive Drive Burleigh Heads, Gold Coast

The good news is once you declutter, you know what you have, making it easier to be decisive about what buying the corporate attire and designer fashion bargains at the Corporate Clothing Pop Up.

Visit this website for details: http://wlaq.com.au/event-registration/?ee=42

Check out the event page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1403144349989581/

5 Strategies to Super Charge Your Day

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 12 Mar 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Do you struggle to keep focused? In this article for the fantastic Working Women's Magazine published by Women's Network Australia, I share five strategies to keep your day on track.

If you know things need to change but you’re not sure where to start read the FULL article in the Women's Network Australia magazine by clicking here.

I would love to hear from you! In the comments below, tell me what are your strategies to help you get unstuck and supercharge your efforts? I would love hear them!

If you’ve found this article of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share.

SMART Goals vs DUMB Goals

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I saw this video months ago and LOVED IT! While I am a planner I have often struggled and resisted SMART Goals!!!!!! You know the drill - Goals should be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. But to be honest I think I had SMART Goal FATIGUE!!!!!!!!

While they are great in theory they lack a lot of the energy behind them - you know dreams and other rocket fuel to keep going, so that is why when I watched this 12 minute video with Brendon Buchard a few months ago I was absolutely thrilled. It explains how to get the ENERGY into a goal. I really resonated with this and hope you do too.

I was introduced to the work of Brendon Burchard a few years ago when a mentor gave me a copy of his book "THE MILLIONAIRE MESSENGER." It was fantastic and I have enjoyed watching and reading his work over the years. Brendon's story is amazing - in a nutshell he had a car accident at 19 years of age and decided to follow his dreams - he's a New York Times bestselling author and has dedicated his life to helping others find their 'charge' and share their voice with the world. He's a pretty exciteable dude so I totally get him from that perspective ;)

In summary Brendon defines DUMB goals like this:

D = Dream/ Destiny Driven
U = Uplifting
M = Method friendly (practices that are repeatable)
B = Behaviour Driven

It is worth taking the time to watch it to learn more about these DUMB goals because I think they are BRILLIANT!

What do you think? I would love to hear from you! In the comments below, tell me what you think of SMART goals? Do you love them or are you open to the idea of DUMB goals to get the fire going? I would love hear!

If you’ve found this article of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share.

Comfort Zones and Finding Balance

Louise D'Allura — Sun, 15 Feb 2015 10:41:40 +0000

If you're struggling with something do you rely on your will power and internal resources to help you push through or just avoid it?

Do you think WILLPOWER is what you need to accomplish your goals? Well I don't know about you, but, I find willpower depletes quickly!! Especially if it is something we feel is HARD TO CHANGE! When I work with clients I see this and - I experience this myself!

I've been revisiting my own PRODUCTIVITY strategies. A lot of this has been around balance, my routines and the way I work. I don’t know about you, but I often think most of us don’t feel like we truly have it together!

Even though I was NERVOUS initially, I have to say getting that fresh perspective by working with an AMAZING expert has moved me forward in leaps and bounds! It is worth pushing yourself outside your comfort zone to achieve your goals.

The thing is when someone else holds us accountable, we can do more than we ever thought we could!

So go on – take time to learn more and find the RIGHT person to get involved in your goals.

You’ll see it makes a massive difference and improves your chance of success!

If you’re wanting to tackle the area of balance too, because you feel overworked, overwhelmed and exhausted, get along to the "The Business of Balance" in Brisbane on 10th March.

What I continue to discover day in day out is it's all about redefining what ‘having it all’ looks like for you, and the handy tips, hints and tricks that make life easier for you.

If you know all of your energy is going towards keeping too many balls in the air then The Business of Balance on 10th March is perfect for you! Also be sure to let me know if you're coming as Revampers get a discount code ;)

Grab more info here: CLICK HERE

Is it time to DECLUTTER Fear?

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I was so thrilled to see this article in The Huffington Post by Hay House author Susan Pearse - one half of Mind Gardener and a fellow Swagger Chick (part of Alli and Co's The Swagger Project)!

I have mentioned before how much I LOVE their book Wired for Life - it encourages us to literally WAKE UP and THINK DIFFERENTLY!

In this article published on The Huffington Post website, Susan shares a great example of FEAR - and how really we do need to 'declutter' it. This is a fantastic, quick and easy to read article. If you've not read their book Wired for Life - SERIOUSLY do yourself a favour and get it.

As many of you will know my biggest area of clutter is the habit of worrying! This article shares a simple strategy that explains how to acknowledge that fear / worry and let go. The new year is a GREAT time to really refocus so I am working hard on this year being the year I don't let my mind get carried away with What If's.

It is a curse of having worked in health and safety for years - you're constantly scanning the environment looking for problems to solve - and I still do that in helping people to get organised! I've been known to quote a line from the lyrical genius Vanillia Ice's Song - Ice Ice Baby - "Give me a problem and yo I'll solve it!" (hahaha) SAD but TRUE!

Ok being serious for a moment - one of the great things I noticed from reading their book Wired for Life was it allowed me to NOTICE WHICH FEARS where coming up for me. That book is a GAME CHANGER and it has been helping me to declutter some of those unnecessary worries and fears!

I do hope you enjoy the article. It is one that really resonated with me as I embark on 2015 - learning to let go - feeling the fear and doing it anyway!

I hope you enjoy it too!

You can read the full article here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/susan-pearse/fear-is-a-gift_b_6143036.html

Peter Walsh's 7 Secrets to an Organised Home

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

In this article for O, The Oprah Magazine the AMAZING Peter Walsh shows us behind the scenes - the 'rules' that are in place at his holiday home! It's great to see these tips as they really do show how to get more out of every corner of your house!

Some of my favourite tips from Pete are:

it's all about volume control and systems
make your rooms multi-task
sort your fridge
de-junk your junk draw
standardise food storage containers

Click here to check out full article. It's a great one to read and implement!

Now, I'd love to hear from YOU! Which tips do you rate as your favourites?

Themes for 2015

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Isn't this time of year rather exciting? It's the calm before the storm and we are all wondering the same thing - what will 2015 hold for us?

One of the things I LOVE doing is reading around the themes for the year ahead and what the general feeling is for the coming year. I read a variety of sources - yes some of them are from woo woo sources (Chinese New Year, Numerology, Astrology etc), but from all accounts 2015 it is rather interesting and it looks like a GREAT year!

Regardless of what you believe though - or don't believe, at the start of every year, and in fact everyDAY, and every MOMENT we ALL have a choice.

That choice is to make this YEAR, DAY or MOMENT different from the last.

Have you heard that amusing definition of insanity? "Doing the SAME thing and expecting a DIFFERENT result." Well I just love it! It is a reminder that we need to be aware and conscious of what we are choosing to do - and not choosing to do.

So, let's get into what I've read about the themes for 2015:

Balance
- including balancing the head and heart/ our masculine and feminine sides/ fear and love
Balancing our wellbeing
- physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellbeing
Letting go and decluttering the habits and things that de-energise us.
- This in itself requires honest assessment of our choices and actions. When we know more we can do more, so gaining clarity and awareness and noticing what we are doing on auto pilot is going to be essential.
Doing more of what energises us
Honouring boundaries
- Standing strong, being honest and clear on who you are and where you are
Focus is on going after what supports our life purpose - dreaming big, and taking ACTION.
It's a YIN year* which is all about "feminine" energy (for both men and women), so that means showing compassion, love and kindness to yourself first then to others (* vs YANG year = masculine energy)
It's also the Chinese year of the Green Wooden Sheep (AKA goat/ ram).
- The good news is "sheep" is a symbol of peace and harmony! I figure if we focus on achieving peace and harmony within ourselves, then our family, and broader community we are onto a good thing this year!

What do you think?
I'm rather excited by this list and know that in 2015 it is going to be about taking an honest assessment of our priorities, having faith in ourselves to find our own definition of balance and putting our attention to what matters most. Taking the right small actions, over and over will see this year make a big difference to how we experience 2015.

PS contact me if you want to know my favourite sources on the 2015 themes!

Elizabeth Gilbert on Super Soul Sunday

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 01 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

If you haven't had a chance to watch these videos - watch these in the New Year. I promise you this is a GOOD use of your time!

There are two episodes that feature the lovely author - Elizabeth Gilbert. If you haven't read her 2006 memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, STOP AND GET IT RIGHT NOW - then come back and watch these two episodes! Basically through sharing her own story in Eat, Pray, Love Liz Gilbert gives us courage to think about what it means to find and fulfill your life's purpose - the whole messy shebang of it! Knowing there are obstacles in your way, that are part of your journey makes it a bit easier! They are there for a reason - we all know stories need a bit of drama! While it can be exhausting - they are necessary for a character's growth - OUR growth!

In these two interviews with Oprah on Super Soul Sunday Liz talks about a lot of things:

lessons she learned from her year long quest around the world,
the stages of the "hero's journey" and that we are all hero's of our own story.
following your passion - or at least those things that you're curious about expect to be challenged!
Taking the small steps that can lead to big transformations
Perfectionism
Soul mates

Enough from me - watch and enjoy!! I know you will LOVE IT! Once you've watched it I want you to write a little action plan!

What steps can you take everyday to be more courageous?
What can you do to incorporate fun size adventures in your life - you don't need to take a year off for your own quest (what a relief!)?

The videos are done in snippets so you can watch a little at a time:

http://www.oprah.com/own-super-soul-sunday/Elizabeth-Gilbert

Now, I would love to hear from you after you've watched them! If you’ve found this video of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share.

Getting Unstuck from the Every Day

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 11 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Type your new text here.

Do you only find the time to get the essentials get done? In this article for the fantastic Working Women's Magazine published by Women's Network Australia, I share how creating order around key aspects of your work and home life will help you feel more energetic and able to cope with what life throws at you.

If you know things need to change but you’re not sure where to start read the FULL article in the Women's Network Australia magazine by clicking here.

Now, I would love to hear from you! In the comments below, tell me what are your strategies to help you get unstuck? I would love hear them!

If you’ve found this article of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share.

How do you start every day?

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 27 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I found this 8 minute video the other day featuring 8 fantastic questions to ask yourself every day. I thought they were absolutely brilliant and wanted to share them with you. These are questions Roger James Hamilton - a futurist, social entrepreneur and New York Times Bestselling Author and the creator of the Wealth Dynamics Profiling Tool, asks every day.

Roger created my favourite profiling tool - Wealth Dynamics, and I have been a fan ever since I took the test 5 years ago! It makes SO much sense and helps you accept and focus on what you do best.

If you're a busy professional or business owner knowing what is NOT in your genius zone is GOLD. This tool helps you see what you are best at so you don't have to feel bad like "I should be doing this or that". Once you know what YOU do best - you can DELEGATE the rest! Check out Wealth Dynamics here*:

Ok enough about Roger's background - back to the QUESTIONS!!! Roger suggests starting the day by asking these questions to get in the right mindset. I'd love to hear your thoughts on these too. Do you do something similiar?

Here is a summary of the questions Roger encourages us to ASK OURSELVES everyday:

The first three are about showing up:

Question 1. What am I grateful for?

Roger says that asking this helps us to be 'present' to the world. It helps us to not take things for granted. Being open and grateful means new things show up every day too.

Question 2. Who do I love?

Who are the people you love most? What he suggests is it isn't the person you expect. Ie it might be someone you had an argument with and they help you to see the world in a new way - which is great!

Question 3. Why am I so happy?

Roger suggests you focus on this question when things are especially tough because you'll ALWAYS come up with something, and these are the things that will provide the fuel and energy to supercharge your day.

These next two are about stepping up:

Question 4. What am I committed to?

Through thinking about this you take stock. It is a question because it gets us thinking about the things we haven't been doing that are vitally important - so clearly the usual - exercise, health goals. This is NOT focused on ploughing through your to do list. It is about identifying if you're committed to health - whatever it is - you're just trying to find that one thing amongst it all that is the most important.

Question 5. How committed am I?

This is a powerful question because it keeps us focused and noticing what is NOT in flow in our day. Sometimes you'll see the same thing will show up - and it is about recognising that we might be committed to something that we think we SHOULD. What are the things you are constantly pushing? If you're committed that's great - but you might not have to give it all up yet.

The next few questions are 'giving back' questions:

Question 6. What is my intention?

The classic line about getting your attention and intention aligned is key to create a day of inspiration! Truely BEING in our day with clarity Roger says allows amazing things to happen during the day. And we actually notice it!

Question 7. What is my wish that I am ready for now?

Oh just like a Genie - with wishes - ask yourself this - and think about IF it was ANYTHING what would it be?

The goal might be "today I want to find a person to help me with the thing I've been struggling with?" Or something as great as "today is the day I have an amazing moment with my family"

It is about setting the expectation that we want the right things to appear at the right time!

Question 8. Why am I here?

Pretty profound question first in the morning but Roger says this brings meaning to everything. Why are we here - in the here in now - in this time, place and with these people in our life? We get to choose our energy and mood every single day, so we might as well be focused on making a difference.

I hope you love these questions as much as I do - I made the image and have it by my bed so that I can remember to ask these every day. I've put in a link for you below too if you want to print it out too! I think Roger really helps us with these questions to bring ourselves into our present moment and get ourselves self up for success.

Download the graphic to put by your bed by clicking here.

This link and the one below to Wealth Dynamics is an affiliate link - so if you prefer not to use it, just google "Wealth Dynamics"

12 Days of Organising for Christmas

Louise D'Allura — Fri, 14 Nov 2014 08:34:28 +0000

In this article Oprah's Organising Guru Peter Walsh shares some great tips to getting the house ready for the holidays.

It is a bit reminiscent of the 12 days of christmas - it is like the 12 days of organising! SO CLEVER!

In this article from O, The Oprah Magazine my favourite tips/ days include:

Day 1: Tackle the kitchen or dining room table - couldn't agree more!!!

Day 5: Don't Throw in the Towel—Hang It Up! If your guests will be sharing bathrooms, provide a thick wood hanger for each person's towel. SO Simple but SPOT ON!

Day 10: Create Space in Your Kitchen

Day 12: Turn Your Guests into Tourists - LOVE it that Peter says: "It's wonderful to have houseguests, it's also wonderful to not have them in the house 100 percent of the time." Haha - they get decluttered too! LOVE THAT!

So that was just a snippet of the pearls of wisdom - to keep reading the full article and see the pictures check out the article by clicking here.

Moving Home? 3 Tips for a smooth move

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

The end of the year signifies a common time for many families to embark on moving house.

Moving is one of the most stressful and nerve-wracking experiences. When I help clients prepare for a move the first piece of advice I give is plan ahead! By thinking ahead it can make the process go a whole lot smoother! Here are my top tips to prepare for your move and will make living in your new home A LOT easier!

1) Create Room Function Charts for your new home

Too often when we move home we get overwhelmed by the packing, and then at the other end unpacking is the exhausting task we just want finished yesterday! Thinking ahead is the best strategy to making setting up your new home easier and quicker.

BEFORE YOU MOVE IN - decide what you want from your home. Think about how you want each room to feel. Take photos of each room in your new home to help you remember the features and space you have available.

Thinking about how you want to live in that space will help you evaluate how much stuff you really need.

As you think through each room in your future home it makes it easier to work out what you need to keep based on what you actually have room for.

Some key questions to ask yourself (if you haven’t already):

What’s the purpose of the space?
Who will use it?
How will it be used?
What needs to be put into this room (and layout)?

In every room look at how you can set up the items you use most in the most logical locations. In every room this will look a little different, but the fundamentals are the same – items you use most often need to be within easy reach – items you don’t use often can be kept up high or down low.

Fundamental to any new home move is picking out a location for a landing zone. Knowing this location early on will help you centralise your in and out going clutter into one area. The spot (near front/ back door) needs to have space to keep backpacks, lunch bags, homework, school permission slips, your handbag, car keys, mobile. This might be a shelving system or old TV cabinet with baskets!

2) Declutter before you move
Now you know what you want to have in each space you can declutter much more easily BEFORE you pack. The goal is to only take those items that deserve to be in your life. One bonus to doing a pre-move purge is that if you have a weekend garage sale you can earn money to offset the cost of moving and may even be able to use the money you make to buy furnishings for your new place.

See our articles where we introduce you to the R-E-V-A-M-P process.

3) Pack for the new rooms
When packing, attach a basic inventory list on the outside of the box (not the top) so you can easily locate specific items quickly, even when boxes are stacked. Attaching an inventory instead of writing on the box means that if you’re moving again or want to recycle the box for friends you just tear off the paper.

Sell heavy items that you can replace for the same cost as moving them. Why pay to move an old washing machine or lawn mower when you can sell it and buy a new one when you arrive?

4) BONUS TIP:
If you have a move coming up, start clearing your clutter now AND get professional help to do it! Don't wait until you've only got days before your moving deadline. The processes I've outlined help clients clear more clutter than they've been able to clear by themselves because we use the right approach - thinking about your new home, your goals and vision for that new life.

Now, I would love to hear from you! In the comments below, tell me what are your top tips for moving?

If you’ve found this article of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share.

6 Ways to Remember Your To Do's

Louise D'Allura — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 17:54:42 +0000

If you’re finding it a struggle to remember all the things you’ve got to do, here are some tips to help:

1) Write it down
Have too much to remember in any given day? As soon as you remember something needs to be done, write it down.

2) Keep your to do's in one place
We recommend writing things down in your diary or planner. Brainstorming is good - so long as these to do's end up in your diary. As much as possible - batch your to do's so it is like with like

3) Rest and Relaxation
Like any organ, to keep functioning your brain needs YOU to eat healthy; get plenty of rest and lots of good exercise/ activity. This year my goal is focusing on activity.......

4) Call yourself
When I first heard this tip I laughed - but actually really like it! When want to do something when you arrive back home/ at the office, call ahead to your answering machine and leave yourself a message. As soon as you get home you can listen to your message and remember exactly what you wanted to do. How cool is that!

5) Visual Reminders
A well positioned Post-It Note near the inside of your door ill be great to catch your eye as you are leaving, or if you need to make an urgent call first thing in the morning - put a note on your phone.

6) Timers and Alarms
This is one I have to admit to using too because I can get so absorbed in whatever it is I am doing! Alarm clocks and timers are great memory joggers - especially for remembering to take clothes out of the washing machine, or to remind me when I need to get ready so I can leave on time!

Now, I would love to hear from you! In the comments below, tell me what other ways to do you use to keep track of your to do list? I would love hear it !!

If you’ve found this article of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share.

Ordinary to you: Amazing to someone else

Louise D'Allura — Sat, 11 Oct 2014 13:06:34 +0000

I recently read a blog post written by James Clear on the story of Nichelle Nichols, an African American actress who played the role of Lieutenant Uhura, the Chief Communications Officer for over 40 years on television and movie episodes of 'Star Trek'. In the article he shares how a chance conversation with her 'greatest fan' Dr Martin Luther King Jr changed the way she perceived her TV role that was 'going no where'.

It was such an inspiring article and I was moved to share it with you because literally after reading that article I met friends for lunch at a local Gluten Free Grain Free - cafe on Queensland's Sunshine Coast - Husk and Honey and I kid you not - staring at me on the wall was an article about Dr Martin Luther King Jr's Walk on Washington!!!!!!! (see photo below!)

I took that as a sign I had to write and share this wonderful article about this amazing actress.

I found it so encouraging and a wonderful reminder that what's most important is our attitude and the way we show up every day. So often we have no idea of the ripple effect that we cause just by going about our work and day. We have no clue if we are inspiring people or making a difference in their day just by doing what we always do. We might THINK it is insignificant - to someone else the smallest action might be significant!!!!

This was my favourite line from James' blog post about Nichelle Nichols - Exhaust Your Gifts: Lessons on Living a Meaningful Life from Nichelle Nichols.

In Nichelle's mind the 'Star Trek' role was going no where - having been largely written out of the script during the first season. So convinced of this she had even written her letter of resignation the day before attending a fundraiser for the Civil Rights Movement in Beverly Hills, California, where she met her "greatest fan" - Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. Each week his family loved watching the show!

When she told him she was leaving the show he helped her see that her role was more than what she thought it was - in her mind - just as a 'simple cast member, as an actress with little impact and even fewer lines.' Dr Martin Luther King Jr explained:

"You have changed the face of television forever. This is not a black role. This is not a female role. It can be filled by a woman of any color, a man of any color. This is a unique role and a unique point in time that breathes the life of what we are marching for: equality. This is why we are marching. We never thought we’d see this on TV.”

Years later Whoopi Goldberg shared with Nichelle Nichols that when she was 9 years old and saw Nichelle on 'Star Trek' she knew from that moment that she could become anything she wanted to be.

So often we don't realise just by doing what we do, we inspire others. It doesn't matter what role you're playing - worker/ business owner/ friend/ kind stranger!

Now, I would love to hear from you! In the comments below, tell me what you think about how simply being ourselves can inspire others? I would love hear it!

If you’ve found this article of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share ;)

Click here to keep reading the article by James Clear:
Exhaust Your Gifts: Lessons on Living a Meaningful Life from Nichelle Nichols.

Top Five Spring Cleaning Tips: Spring clean your life

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I was recently interviewed by the team at Mr Gifts (http://www.mrgift.com.au/) for Tips to Spring Clean your Life!

In this guest post I share:

the top 3 'hot spot' areas of the home or office that give the most 'bang-for-buck' results the people should tackle first.
how to avoid getting overwhelmed by your list of spring cleaning jobs.
how to avoid getting distracted when organising
advice on managing clutter on a daily basis
tips to try out this spring to get their home, office, wardrobe or kitchen organized

Check out the tips here: http://blog.mrgift.com.au/2014/09/spring-clean-your-life-louise-dalluras.html

Seven tips to procrastinate less

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

If you love wasting time and energy - please DO NOT get Organised!!!!!

Just kidding! I know too well what it is like to be drowning amongst your ‘to dos.’

One of the things that I struggle with is analysis paralysis - which task to go to next when it is ALL important. I get stuck tackling low priority tasks and procrastinating on the ‘tougher’ high priority tasks. Of course I know that the key to being MORE productive is to power through the low priority tasks and Procrastinate LESS on the high priority tasks.

If you struggle with this too sometimes check out this article I had published in the fantastic Working Women's Magazine published by Women's Network Australia.

In it I share seven tips will help on your way to procrastinating less and getting more of the right things done.

You can read the FULL article on the Women's Network Australia blog by clicking here.

Now, I would love to hear from you! In the comments below, tell me what are your strategies when you get stuck? I would love hear them!

If you’ve found this article of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share.

Lessons from Oprah's Organiser: Peter Walsh

Louise D'Allura — Wed, 13 Aug 2014 23:32:02 +0000

As many of you know I was super proud that our food division - Meal Planning Your Way was a sponsor of the event “An Evening with Peter Walsh” featuring Oprah’s Organising Guru.

Joining Peter Walsh for this evening was Barry DuBois, Master Builder/ design aficionado from Channel 10′s The Living Room.

What a privilege to get to know Peter Walsh for the #aapo14 conference and event An Evening with Peter Walsh. When we (the conference speaker team) first met Peter to begin those conversations all those months ago I was so touched and inspired by what he gave us - the gift of his presence and attention. There are few times in your life when you 'experience' people that truly are present - and Peter was one of them.

What I loved most about Peter and Barry’s philosophies to designing our life and spaces in a conscious manner - was to understand what we truly want from our spaces and infusing it with our personality and vision.

I was also touched by their ability to truly listen to what was going on for people in the Q&A component. They offered real and amazing solutions that supported what people were facing in that moment.

I enjoyed hearing both Peter and Barry talk about how our spaces need to support our life – for today. To live our best life we have to get clear on the vision we have. Peter spoke about this at length – simple things like having the dining room and kitchen clear were paramount to eating well and living well.

Peter challenged us to ask ourselves what do you want FROM the space? So for example what do you want FROM your kitchen? You need to dig deep for your answers. What is it you truly want – is it connected family time, conversations, happy and healthy family? Whatever it is you have to ask – does what I have in this space support our vision? How healthy can you make those meals if you have sporting gear and school notes in an already cluttered kitchen?

Peter Walsh encouraged us to focus on making small changes by doing just little things at a time – like setting a timer for 10 minutes then ‘hunting’ with the family for Trash (using one garbage bag) and Donations (using another). Get everyone involved and by the end of the week you have at least 5 or 25 bags of things GONE!

The simplicity of doing one thing on a regular basis really spoke to me as that is what I encourage my clients to do!

And if it wasn’t enough to see Peter again and meet Barry – it was so fantastic to see organising bloggers at the event too – including the wonderful Kat from The Organised Housewife. She really is so lovely and I can’t wait to catch up with her again!

Now, I would love to hear from you! In the comments below, tell me what do you want FROM your home/ work spaces?

If you’ve found this article of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share.

12 Steps to Thrive: Arianna Huffington

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

In this video brilliant business guru Marie Forleo interviews The Huffington Post’s Arianna Huffington about her new book Thrive.

It's a 17 minute interview but filled with loads of gems. Uber successful Ariana talks about how a health crisis was the catalyst to revisit definitions of success. What did it really mean? Her time turning inwards and thinking of the lessons her mother taught her she shares the wisdom in Thrive.

She talks about how in modern society we only seem to identify two metrics of success - money and power, but like a two legged chair this will never work!!! She introduces a thrid metric - helping us to THRIVE.

In this interview with Marie Forleo she talks about the importance of:

Sleep - getting a bit more each night - just 30 minutes more can make a massive difference.
Time famine - we all feel it - that we are running out of time and it impacts our sense of wellbeing.
Prioritising what really matters - Everything changed in her life the day she realized she had time for all the important things in life. Sometimes we feel the slaves of email – we feel we have to do everything perfectly.
Stop answering emails an hour before sleep. Read books instead!
Completing a project by dropping it!!! Yes we need to be giving ourselves permission to let things go!
Perfectionism - Comes at a cost - robbing us of joy!
Creativity comes from the depths of our soul so when we tap into the joy, wisdom and intuition we come up with our best ideas.
Not missing the moment - being present to what is going on
"Changing the channel" when we are worrying too much, obsessing and getting anxious over a situation.
Acknowledging every human being we come into contact with - striving for a genuine connection, making eye contact and saying hello! Lucky my friend and Inspiring Professional Speaker Kerrie Phipps is writing a book on this topic - Do Talk to Strangers!

This great artwork was from Mindvalley Acadamey - you can grab yours free from their website. I'm putting it on my wall and phone to remind me!!!

The full resolution image is available for download -
http://mindvalleyacademy.com/featured/12-steps-to-thrive-according-to-arianna- huffington

Now, I would love to hear from you! In the comments below, tell me what steps you can take to Thrive more? I would love hear it !!

If you’ve found this article of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share.

Bulging Inbox? Time to Unroll.me !

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 24 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Do you have a bulging in box but you're reluctant to unsubscribe from email lists because every now and then one of these will include something really interesting?

Well if you are reluctant to hit unsubscribe – you’re not alone!

Thanks to my fellow Swagger Project Expert – Tech Chick Michaela Clark I have been introduced to Unroll.me and I think you’ll love it too.

Unroll.me is an amazing FREE service that makes it easier to manage your inbox that is bulging from email subscriptions.

Now there are some technical requirements – in that it supports only certain mail programs. As I’m not tech literate – I encourage you to go to their website and find out all about it.

But if you are lucky enough you’ll be able to enter your email address into the Unroll.me website, and just like magic it will find all the email lists you’re subscribed to! Talk about scary!! I had over 300 email newsletter subscriptions!!

Once you get to see all the subscriptions, you start making some decisions:

Which email subscriptions you will unsubscribe from
Which ones you want your ‘rolled up’ and when you want them delivered (I choose at the end of the day).
Which ones you don’t want rolled up – so they just arrive in your inbox like normal.

The trick is to make sure you don’t have your email on throughout the day or you will hear the ding and wonder where that email went. Thanks to Unroll.me as soon as your email arrives it zips it off and out of your inbox and into a dedicated Unroll.me folder in your mail system. SO ORGANISED!!!

I can’t thank Michaela enough for introducing me to this super cool FREE service.
Check out Unroll.me

Be sure to check out Michaela too at Tradies VA.

Now, I would love to hear from you! In the comments below, tell me how did you go? Were you able to use it and how many subscriptions did you have? I would love to know!

If you’ve found this article of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share.

How Brave are you?

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

As you may know I am super proud to be one of The Swagger Project Chicks and I love our live events. There is so much energy that comes from a room of women on a mission - to make their lives, homes and businesses as amazing as they can.

This event will be no different. In fact it will be even more so - a FULL day of real life learnings from a line up of women - showing us that we do have what it takes to make it work in business:

Lisa Messenger: Being Fearless in Business and the story of her own path to success.

Julie Cross: The Braver You Are, The Braver You Will Need To Be - no more excuses, it's time to make friends with failure!

Alli Grant: "Business Bravado: - Taking risks, facing fears, embracing innovation and creating revenue streams.

Monique Parker: Roar! Fierce and fabulous marketing strategies to make more money doing what you love!

Kylie Patchett: How to fearlessly be the CEO (and not the slave) of your business.

Now I have to admit - am I brave in business? I didn't think so - until one day this year in a phone conversation with my Dad. He said - "you have so much courage to run your own business - you have so much get up and go! You just get out there and keep going. I'm so proud of you." Of course that made me cry!!!!

I am blessed to have great parents who are proud of me, and remind me to stop and see how far I have come! I didn't think of myself as brave until that conversation. I'm just trying to run a business - and like us all I get bogged down in the doing. Crazy but true isn't it?!

I've recognised running a business is hard work, working not just in the business, but on your mindset, your marketing, and keeping that "sprkle" going. You learn so much about yourself - stretched in good ways and not so good ways. All of it makes you a better and more determined, strong and also compassionate person. I am positive of that!

I am so looking forward to this event - to continue my professional development, to learn, to be inspired and to meet a room full of awesome people! At $84 for the day this is the cheapest professional development you will ever do!!!!

I can't wait to see you there!! Click here to get your tickets.

Elizabeth Gilbert on success and failure

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Each month I take time out to watch at least two TED talks because I love the perspective, inspiration, learning and ideas they provide – far more interesting than TV!

I wanted to share with you this TED talk featuring one of my favourite authors Elizabeth Gilbert – author of Eat Pray Love and The Signature of All Things.

In this TED Talk - "Success, failure and the drive to keep creating" filmed in March 2014 she talks about how success can be just as disorienting as failure.

After the phenomenal success of the book 'Eat, Pray, Love,' she thought about quitting - worrying about how she would ever produce that level of success again. She found herself feeling more aligned to the version of herself 20 years prior - as an unpublished author getting rejection letters on a daily basis for 6 years!!!!!!

In this TED talk she gives advice on being BRAVE - face success and failure - that they aren't that different and to get back on track when you’re stuck, and lacking in motivation.

She talks about finding your way back “home” again to that thing you love to do - dedicating your energy to – regardless of the “random hurricane of outcomes.”

That's brave and inspiring!! It will only take 7 minutes and you will love it.

By the way - here is the link to the video:
http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_success_failure_and_the_drive_to_keep_creating

If you're inspired by it too - you might want to also check out The Swagger Project Event -Fearless in Business on Friday 22 August in Brisbane with Lisa Messenger and our Swagger Project Chicks - Julie Cross, Alli Grant, Monique Parker, and Kylie Patchett.

Click here for more info!

Buried in Clutter?

Louise D'Allura — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 18:58:42 +0000

Ever ‘tidied’ your office or home to find it a mess again within the week?

When you spend most of your time noticing where people’s time and organisation systems fall down, you discover something very curious. It is never about the ‘stuff’.

The ‘stuff’ is only ever a symptom of what’s really going on in your life – delayed decisions, multitasking, accumulating way too much for the space or too many to do’s for the time you have.

In this article, published in the fantastic Working Women's Magazine published by Women's Network Australia, I shine the spotlight on why we end up back at square one!

You can read the FULL article in the Women's Network Australia Winter 2014 edition:

Keep reading the article by clicking here.

I also include an amazing quote from Oprah's Organiser Peter Walsh.

Don't forget you can see Oprah's Organiser Peter Walsh LIVE on the Gold Coast on Friday 25 July at 7pm! I am super proud as our food division Meal Planning Your Way is a Sponsor!!
Click here for details and to grab group tickets.

Meal Planning for Low Additive Eating

Louise D'Allura — Sat, 14 Jun 2014 15:08:47 +0000

I’m super excited to announce our new program over at our sister site Meal Planning Your Way.

The program Meal Planning for Low Additive Eating kicks off on Monday 18th August 2014.

In this program I’ll take you through the jungle that is food additives and help you get organised with meal planning, product swaps and guides! Delivered all online you’ll be able to work through it at your own pace.

The program is perfect for busy women who have sneaking suspicions about food additives being a culprit in health and learning issues in their kids – but you’re not sure where or how to begin!?

The program includes:

Electronic copy of our Ebook – Too Busy to Eat Well (RRP $9.80)
A video recording of “The Dirty Dozen Food Additives to Avoid.” In this 90 minute presentation as the Authorised Additive Alert Presenter I outline the key facts about how our food has changed and which additives to avoid. (Accessed online only) (RRP $16)
4 weeks of E-classes with videos and downloadable PDF documents sent to your inbox each week.
Each week you’ll get the relevant templates and planners you need PLUS I’ll be including a few extra audio recordings and interviews to help you on your way with getting organised and meal planning.
Click here read more detail about each week and some great feedback on the approach we are advocating!

If you want to ditch the additives and get meal planning but you’re finding it hard to know where to start, Our Online Meal Planning for Low Additive Eating program is for you!

Come join me now – at $19.95 this program is super affordable!

Be sure to read the feedback on the approach we are advocating too - just click here to go to our sister site to learn more!

An unexpected gift

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 15 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Each month I take time out to watch at least two TED talks because I love the perspective, inspiration, learning and ideas they provide – far more interesting than TV!

I wanted to share with you a brilliant TED video – you can watch in under 5 minutes featuring Stacey Kramer. It is only 3:15 minutes long and it is brilliant.

Stacey is co-founder of Brandplay, a brand strategy firm. In her TED talk she doesn’t share how to create a brand/ strategy for business. Rather she shares the lessons that a ‘gift’ had on her life.

I found it so powerful and moving and a great reminder when we get stuck in the day to day and overwhelmed how sometimes our troubles force us to stop and take notice of what's going on around us.

She shows us that the next time we face something that's unexpected, unwanted, and uncertain, to consider that it just may be a gift – one that has the power to change our life.

I hope you love it too.

Here is the link to the video incase it doesn't play below.
http://www.ted.com/talks/stacey_kramer_the_best_gift_i_ever_survived

Cultivate Your Energy and Get More Done

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 01 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Did you know that by becoming just a little more organised it can help to increase your energy?

This is an article I had published in the fantastic Working Women's Magazine published by Women's Network Australia.

You can read the FULL article on the Women's Network Australia blog by clicking here.

In it I share tips for clearing the mental clutter so we can allow our brain to do what it does best, problem solve and come up with creative and innovative solutions, plus how to stop being surprised by routine events!

Keep reading more - just click here

How Gritty are You: secret to your success

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 24 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Each month I take time out to watch at least two TED talks because I love the perspective, inspiration, learning and ideas they provide – far more interesting than TV!

I wanted to share with you a brilliant video featuring Angela Lee Duckworth. She uncovered “GRIT” was a predictor of success. The way Angela discovered this was rather by chance!

She left a demanding job as a management consultant to teach maths in public schools and it was during this time teaching seventh graders that she noticed “IQ” was NOT the biggest thing that separated the successful students from those who struggled. She discovered so much that after five years of teaching she went back to do her PhD and explored the concepts across business and the military too.

So what is GRIT?

Angela describes “grit” as a passion and perseverance for long term goals. It is having the stamina to do things day in and day out not just for the day, week or month – but for years.

It is about focus on a goal and working toward it - to make that future a reality. Knowing that stuff might happen on the way and that is ok – because reaching a goal is sometimes like a marathon – not a sprint!

The video should play below but in case there are any issues here is the link:
http://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_the_key_to_success_grit

What was really fascinating about grit was that across multiple sectors, ages and groups “talent” became almost irrelevant!!!!!! Success was more related to our passion and perseverance to keep going! It is about testing our gut instincts and be willing to be wr.. wr… wrong. (flash back to Happy Days and Fonzie trying to say I was wrong…)

Grit seems to be determined by what they call the GROWTH MINDSET – ie a belief that the ability to learn (whatever it is you’re doing) is not fixed, and it can change with effort.

They found when kids understood how the brain works ie that it CAN change/ grow in response to a challenge, they were more likely to persevere. Knowing that failure is not seen as a permanent condition – but as an opportunity almost to test a hypothesis to know we are on the right or wrong track - made success more likely!

So what how can we apply that to our daily life?

They found that *following through on commitments* was key. Given that grit is about doing the stuff day in day out it makes perfect sense that following through on your commitments it just like applying ourselves to our daily habits.

You know - those little things we need to do – daily, weekly and monthly, that move us closer to our goals. And yes – doing those little things that will keep us going and on track in the long term!!! Remember the magic is in the maintenance.

James Clear (who writes about using behaviour science to master your habits and improve your mental and physical health), highlights this point also:

“The ability to show up everyday, stick to the schedule, and do the work — especially when you don’t feel like it — is so valuable that it is literally all you need to become better 99% of the time.

Professionals stick to the schedule, amateurs let life get in the way. Professionals know what is important to them and work towards it with purpose”

That sounds a lot like grit to me! Keep reading here:

Now, I would love to hear from you! In the comments below, tell me do you think GRIT is the difference? I would love hear it !!

If you’ve found this article of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share.

See Oprah's Organiser Peter Walsh

Louise D'Allura — Mon, 07 Apr 2014 09:08:52 +0000

I'm willing to bet you've heard of Oprah and perhaps seen her organiser - Peter Walsh.

Well if you love him too, book out FRIDAY 25th July to spend an Evening with Peter Walsh on the Gold Coast. This event is going to be AMAZING! You can get general admission or have a fantastic night out with VIP Tickets!

I had the privilege of meeting and lunching with Peter and my fellow organising committee to talk about this night and our Professional Association Conference. And can I just say he is just SO LOVELY!

There will be lots of laughter, maybe some tears, some MINDBLOWING 'take-aways' and lots of great give-aways. PLUS An Evening with Peter Walsh will be proudly supporting one of the world’s most empowering charities, Dress for Success.

Not only will you have an inspiring night out but you will be assisting disadvantaged women find jobs and access career support to help them thrive in work and life.

So grab some friends and I would love you to spend an Evening with you, the wonderful Peter Walsh, our special Guest Barry Du Bois from The Living Room.

For all the details on the show visit the aapo website http://www.aapo.org.au/special-events.php.

To buy tickets http://aapopresentsaneveningwithpeterwalsh.eventbee.com/

What makes a filing system great?

Louise D'Allura — Sun, 06 Apr 2014 19:06:04 +0000

When we work with a client the goal is to create something completely tailored that works for how they think and work... that said there are a few things you need to make sure your system does.

Answer these questions to see how your system compares:

Can you find what you want when you want it?
Are your paper/ files organised by categories that make sense - ie categories are not too entirely obscure for you to remember? Goal here is to focus on retrieval! For example: if you needed to look for your insurance documents for your house would you think House or Insurance - depending on how you answer this will help you work out whether you'd need a big category called HOUSE and smaller categories under it, OR if you need a big category called INSURANCE and you'd put in all the insurances like - house, car, contents, etc. ALSO CONSIDER if you were sick/ out of action could someone else come in and be able to work out where to find things?
Does your current system have a logical process - somewhere for incoming paper/ tasks to land, somewhere for them to go to be 'processed' and somewhere for them to go once they have been processed/ attended to? Is it an easy system for you to use or do you procrastinate with any part of it?
Is it easy to maintain your systems or are you chopping and changing or tweaking??
Can your system allow for new items to be added - and do you know what to do with things/ paper/ tasks

Now, I would love to hear from you! In the comments below, tell me do you have a system - take a moment to think because I know you do have something. What makes your system work or not work? I would love hear it !!

If you’ve found this article of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share.

A Dr Seuss Inspired Strategy for Getting Things Done

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

If you have trouble motivating that inner routine rebel too, this article by James Clear (who writes about using behaviour science to master your habits and improve your mental and physical health), puts a positive spin on constraints for helping us to get stuff done – James shares the example that the Dr Seuss book Green Eggs and Ham was written for a $50 bet - to write a book using only 50 words. Those constraints produced a best seller!

How often though do we resent our constraints? I know I do – which is why I LOVED this article. It shows us that:

Constraints can inspire us
Focus on ‘lack’ as a positive vs a negative. Any time you hear yourself saying “I only have 30 minutes/ dollars/ etc whatever – look at it as a positive. How can I do THIS with only 30 minutes/ dollars/ whatever
When you’re tempted to ditch your routine, KEEP IT and use the constraints to help you get things done (time/ resources)

In the article James gives the example of his routine for writing articles is on Monday and Thursday – he does it regardless – convenient or not and just uses the ‘constraints’ of his situation to stimulate/ inspire the activity – location or time helps to inspire the task.

I know I can relate and much of it has to do with sticking to the committment of the higher purpose. It's now the third month of the year and I can think of things I have wanted to get done and have been putting off. Really it is all about prorities - and putting our attention, shining the light as it were on those LITTLE things we need to do - or just create a space in our schedule for the 'next' step of a project. Be it daily/ weekly/ monthly. Whatever it has to be in our schedule.

Over the years I thought we must FEEL motivated or inspired to do something. This is no longer the case - I've since discovered it is about putting the things into your schedule and you do it - I am training myself to do it without entering into a discussion with myself about all the reasons not to do a task. For me this has usually been about excercise. When I related my values to the tasks that represent how I live by those values (walking everyday, doing weekly practice of yoga, dancing) getting in motion is not a struggle. I don't think - I just be and do it. AND I now do it in whatever time I have - 10 - 15 - 20 minutes. Constraints are now not a limiting factor, but I see it as still committing to do something for myself and my health - regardless of whatever is going on. I don't enter into a discussion about why it's NOT possible. I do what I can and when I am IN the moment/ after the walk I routinely THANK myself for it. Even 10 or 15 minutes is enough to remind me how nice it is, and puts that inner routine rebel who says "but I don't WAAAANT to!" back in her place!!!

James describes it further in the article:

“The ability to show up everyday, stick to the schedule, and do the work — especially when you don’t feel like it — is so valuable that it is literally all you need to become better 99% of the time.

Professionals stick to the schedule, amateurs let life get in the way. Professionals know what is important to them and work towards it with purpose, amateurs get pulled off course by the urgencies of life.”

Now when James talks about the urgencies of life – he does acknowledge life happens, but it is our commitment to get right back into our priorities that will help us live an important life – not just an urgent one.

I could really relate to this article and know a lot of my clients can too. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Now, I would love to hear from you! In the comments below, tell me what you think about using 'constraints' - either external or self imposed as a way to get things done? I would love hear it!

If you’ve found this article of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share ;)

Click here to keep reading the article:
http://jamesclear.com/dr-seuss

Want to walk an extra 20 miles a week?

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 13 Mar 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Each month I take time out to watch at least two TED talks because I love the perspective, inspiration, learning and ideas they provide – far more interesting than TV!

This month I wanted to share with you a brilliant video featuring business innovator Nilofer Merchant. Got a meeting? Take a walk only takes 3:29 minutes to watch - and you'll discover how she now easily walks 20-30 miles a week!!!!!!!

Nilofer talks how sitting has become the smoking of our generation – the health consquences of our lack of physical inactivity are startling - loads of diet related diseases diabetes, cancer, heart disease are all related to stress and lack of physical activity. In fact we sit 9.3 hours a day which is MORE than we sleep (7.3 hours)!

What I love about this video is it helps us see easy hacks to implement whether you work at home or in an office.

Now an advocate for walking meetings, Nilofer was asked to meet with someone while they walked their dog as that was the only time they could fit it in. While it was very strange to her at the time, it has now become an ingrained style of meeting for her - after several hundred walking meetings.

What was great was the mindset shift she was able to achieve around health and work. Previously she felt you had to choose between taking care of your health or take care of obligations (going to meetings and the like). I totally understand that crazy mindset!

The good news is she has seen that you can combine the two! Instead of going for coffee meetings she invites people she wants to meet with for a "Walking Meeting" and in the process clocks up between 20-30 miles a week!!!!!!!!!!!

Watch the video below - or click on this link if the video has issues:
http://www.ted.com/talks/nilofer_merchant_got_a_meeting_take_a_walk.html

Clearly there are practical benefits – increasing exercise, makes meetings go quicker, but besides that it encourages out of the box thinking. Fresh air drives fresh thinking and new ideas.

Now I’d love to hear from you – In the comments below, tell me would this be something you’d be keen to try next time you have a one-on-one meeting? I’d I would love hear it if you’ve been able to let your ideas flow while you walk and talk!

If you’ve found this article of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share.

Feeling Ovewhelmed? Use Systems to Get Organised

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Statistics show that being disorganised can have a huge impact on our bottom line and stress levels.

This is an article I had published in the fantastic Working Women's Magazine published by Women's Network Australia all about helping you get and stay on top of it all by using systems!

You can read the FULL article on the Women's Network Australia blog by clicking here

Remember any system you set up needs to:

allow you to find what you are looking for quickly
have ‘things’ grouped and sorted into categories that make logical sense to you so you can find what you want, when you want it
be easily understood by someone else if you are unavailable (i.e. labels and instructions!)
be easy and simple to maintain so you can keep on top of things
easily allow you to add new things into the system

To see a System in Action visit the website: http://www.womensnetwork.com.au/get_Organised

Making friends with Stress

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 13 Feb 2014 14:04:25 +0000

Each month I take time out to watch at least two TED talks because I love the perspective, inspiration, learning and ideas they provide! This month I wanted to share with you a brilliant video featuring Kelly McGonigal, a Psychologist who urges us to see stress as a positive because the biological impact may only be bad for us!

Kelly also talks about another biological mechanism that automatically happens that leads to stress reduction: reaching out to others! Yep we are programmed to do that!

It is fantastic viewing given we are all so acutely attuned to stress and how it makes us feel. It takes only 15 minutes! Now if you're super pressed for time start watching at 4:20 as Kelly issues a challenge ... that elicits a stress response.

She then goes on to explain how the way we interpret our stress response (pounding heart, anxiety, breathing quicker and making your forehead sweat) can actually be our body becoming “energised to meet challenges”. Kelly talks about a research program where participants were told to view stress response as ‘helpful’. By changing their thinking from stress as a negative to something more helpful the stress response becomes healthier. i.e. “this is my body helping me rise to this challenge”

Watch the video below or click on this link if you have any issues:
http://www.ted.com/talks/kelly_mcgonigal_how_to_make_stress_your_friend.html

In this video Kelly also talks about how the stress response also makes us social!

When we are stressed our body releases oxytocin a neurohormone that is a stress hormone – which is as much a part of the stress response as adrennaline! The big difference though is this hormone makes us CRAVE human contact. It literally is encouraging us to seek support and be surrounded by others.

All in all the research shows we create the biology of courage plus when we connect with others understress, we create resilience.

Our body is helping us and we didn’t even know it! We really can trust ourselves to handle life’s challenges - knowing we aren’t meant to face them on our own!

Now, I would love to hear from you! In the comments below, tell me do you deal with stress and convert it from di-stress to a positive stress? I would love hear it !!

If you’ve found this article of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share.

What to do when everything is URGENT

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 23 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Do you find you never get to those IMPORTANT TASKS because you're always taken off track by the URGENT?

You're not alone! Much of what I do as a Professional Organiser is help my clients get to those IMPORTANT but NOT URGENT TASKS - those things we put off - though incredibly important - we just don't seem to get around to them unless we are working with someone to either design the system, or keep ourselves accountable.

We know working on these IMPORTANT TASKS would make a huge difference in our day to day - life would be easier, systems would be simpler.

For one reason or another it is often the ‘urgent’ things that pop up and take us off course. We forget about the important tasks – or put them on the pile of other to do’s – wondering if we will EVER get to it.

One of my worst habits is never making enough time to write. I’ve not put enough priority on it and kept to my schedule regardless. It has meant that I don’t write anywhere near as often as I like. When I don’t keep to my schedule or let other urgent things in – I don’t keep to the routine and don’t to it. I am guilty of ignoring the important.

This is why I loved this article by James Creal, who writes about using behaviour science to master your habits and improve your mental and physical health.

In this article he challenges the thinking around Urgent and Important, and that while emergencies will come up, we MUST:

1) set up our routines
2) keep to the routine as much as possible to focus and cultivate on the important.

Here’s James’ take on it:

“We all have urgent tasks each day — a phone call we have to take, an email we need to respond to, a sick friend we have to help — but having a clear purpose and a specific goal allows you to get right back to what is important after you respond to the everyday emergencies. A specific goal gives you direction and prevents you from being sucked into a whirlwind of time–consuming, unimportant tasks.”

So clearly - we need to organise our lives around accomplishing our specific, important goals by breaking them down into tasks - AND LOCK them into our life through creating routines.

In my case I’m keeping to my writing schedule damn it! That's why I am locking it in first thing in the morning. It means that the night before I need to get to bed early - even if I get home late after a talk, I need to not sit in front of the TV and vegetate! Sleep is what I need so I can get up the next morning nice and early and WRITE!

What about you? What are those important tasks that you let slide?

Click here to read the article:
http://jamesclear.com/are-you-living-an-urgent-life-or-an-important-one

8 Factors for Success in Your Career and Business

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Each month I take time out to watch at least two TED talks because I love the perspective, inspiration, learning and ideas they provide – far more interesting than TV!

I wanted to share with you this 3:55 minute TED Talk - Success is a continuous journey - by Richard St. John.

Perfect for business owners, or anyone with career aspirations, he shares his journey – both the rise and fall, including the impact on his own mental health.

He shares his model of success – emphasising it is not a linear process rather a constant flow of 8 factors that we need to keep an eye on. If we don’t, we fail. It took him 7 years to get back to making his business successful again.

The 8 factors Richard outlines are:
1.     passion
2.     hard work
3.     focus
4.     pushing yourself and others
5.     having great ideas
6.     making constant improvements
7.     serving others
8.     persistence

Just in case the video doesn't work, here is the link:
http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_st_john_success_is_a_continuous_journey.html

I think these are relevant if you’re passionate about your career or in your own business.

One of the points that really sticks out from Richard’s comments is ideas – if these dry up you’re stuffed! Talking with clients and customers he explains is key to keep ‘hearing ideas’ what’s needed.

Now one area he didn’t mention in a lot of detail but I feel needs to be in there is the element of self care. Over the years this has been something I have neglected and he eludes to it with his feelings of not being happy and suffering depression.

Really finding those things that we do OUTSIDE of work that make our heart sing is key. I love what I do for a living so I have to constantly keep a watch on - what am I doing right in this minute? Am I taking any time out or am I pushing myself too hard? I can literally work all day otherwise!

If you’re a bit too business or career minded too ensuring we take time out means are fresh to keep that flow of ideas coming. Without it we get stuck!

What else would you add to that list? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Arriving Just In Time? Get More Done in 15 Minutes

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 19 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Have you ever found that when you arrive early no one is there to appreciate it?

As many Revampers would know I've been upfront about my awesome skills in space organisation, and my learned skills around time organisation - I've struggled with time personally (you can read that post here).

Because it doesn't come naturally I have been a student of it so I can learn and keep learning to share with clients that are like me! It's a continuous process and I am always improving.

One thing I have to admit is I have a bad habit of arriving everywhere JUST ON TIME. Now it would be fine if I felt relaxed about it, but I am stressing the entire time...

Before you give me the advice of just leaving 10 minutes earlier, I've been reading a great book (The 3 Secrets to Effective Time Investment by Elizabeth Grace Saunders) that has been super fascinating in putting context around the real reasons that change doesn't happen - You've got look at how my VALUES, and the ordering of those values play a role in my thinking and behaviour, and unless I address THAT things won't change.

For me:

I VALUE completion above a lot
I think I can finish or do one more thing before I go, and still get there "just in time."
It is a bit of an adrenaline rush - beating a deadline....!
I spent about 9 years working in OHS learning the concepts in manufacturing circles of "just in time" and lean manufacturing WAITING is one of the 7 deadly wastes!

Unpacking my thinking and values helped me to map out what I needed to consider in a NEW RITUAL: addressing my value of COMPLETION so that I lessen my resistance to getting out of the house earlier so that I don't see arriving early is "wasting time" waiting.

So here's what I've come up with:

boost up the VALUE of SELF CARE = FEELING CALM and RELAXED up the priority order of values
Create a few new routines
- get reminders going so I am conscious of time
- be more realistic about the tasks I start before I go somewhere
Create options around about the things can I do when I arrive somewhere early
- Checking email doesn't help me achieve my bigger goals, nor does drinking caffeine!

So in my ongoing quest to find things I can do in under 15 -10 - 5 minutes to fire up that energy around 'YAY I have arrived so early I can do xyz', I was delighted to find a clever article on FOUND TIME by Jason W Womack.

In his article The 15-Minute Strategy to Get More Done Everyday, he talks about some of the strategies I'm using - keeping a list of tasks handy - (in my trusty purple project and to do book - projects back; to do's in the front), and using tools like Evernote to store things. For me the time, I'm using the time to read an article that I've saved on Evernote that will inspire a blog post. While these things may be on my to do list, these will help me achieve my big picture goals of cultivating regular writing practice. See the article here for full details: The 15-Minute Strategy to Get More Done Everyday

Now, I would love to hear from you! In the comments below, tell me do you struggle with time too or are you super duper at it? PLUS what are those tasks you fit into the 5-10 or 15 minute slots that you have when you arrive early? I would love hear it !!

If you’ve found this article of interest, please share it with your friends! I really do appreciate you taking the time to read and share.

Productivity Booster: Making time to do the GUNNA projects

Louise D'Allura — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 20:35:03 +0000

Each month I take time out to watch at least two TED talks because I love the perspective, inspiration, learning and ideas they provide. Far more interesting than TV!

This TED talk below - THE POWER OF TIME OFF - gives some insights into those GUNNA projects and how to get them done - you know the ones I mean – I’m going to do this – when I have more time.

My takeaway after watching this talk was there is no better time than today to get started… and that we don’t HAVE to wait until we can do what Stefan in the TED talk did….

So, meet Stefan Sagmeister - a New York based designer – who shares his innovative approach of taking 5 years off his retirement and inter dispersing a 1 year ‘sabbatical’ every 7 years in his ‘working years’!

When you boil it down, in my book a sabbatical is just another way to get those GUNNA projects done! He shares examples of others who had gone on sabbatical to write a book or others who build it into taking a few months out of every year to do the R&D work/ those projects that are important to move you forward.

In the 17 minute TED talk he shares:

the value that planning his daily routine had to his results during his sabbatical (this works in daily life too!)
how a ‘going with the flow’ approach didn’t work (true in daily life too)
how he mapped out a schedule to different types of thinking work/ work!
how his sabbatical gave him an opportunity to do different sorts of work – not just the everyday tasks - i.e. thinking work, learning to meditate and different design work.

What was MOST impressive was hearing that everything he designed in the seven years AFTER the first sabbatical in some way came from THAT year!   Amazing isn’t it?

Here is the link incase the video has issues! http://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_time_off.html

Watching this video really got me thinking about:
1)    What are my GUNNA projects I KEEP PUTTING off ?
2)    What THINKING WORK do I need to do that will make a difference in my daily life?
3)    How can I DO a ‘sabbatical’ too? I really love the idea of two months of project work every year or saving up for 7 years to take a year out!
4)    How can I INTRODUCE elements of a sabbatical into my life so I don’t have to wait 7 years to get something done?

This TED talk really got me thinking - I was motivated to think about how to integrate some practices into the 6 week driving holiday we are currently on (December 2013). Before we went away I had some goals of what I wanted to do - away from the day to day and when I was going to focus on these tasks (wee hours of the morning):

Explore and reflect on some truths and hard lessons on the state of my own balance
Habits and routines I wanted to re-introduce/ cultivate.
Cultivate a regular habit of writing. (It is one of those tasks I procrastinate on).

Here is a strategy I came up with to integrate it a bit more of the Gunna Projects in the day to day. Not ground breaking, but I am still sharing it!

1) Take yourself out of the day-to-day to think on the things you really would love to do (e.g. use brainstorming/ vision boarding). If you know already go to #2

2) What can you do in your everyday / month to work towards it? For example, Is it allocating some time every day to achieve something e.g. 500 words on a page for your book?

What values and priorities do you need to elevate to achieve what you want?
What do you need to cut out? What do you need to ask for help with? Who do you need to get to step up? Who do you need to become to do this? How do you need to behave to keep true to your big picture?

3) Do you need to get a mentor, coach or buddy to help you map out the steps or help you keep accountable to your dream?

I get stuck on the HOW so this is helpful for me
If limited time is a factor, I’ve found investing in advice makes a huge difference to get unstuck and moving forward – for me anyhow!

I’d love to know what project you’re wanting to tackle and how you’re thinking about tackling it?

Too Stressed to Meditate?

Louise D'Allura — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 17:16:02 +0000

One of the things I know about me is I struggle to sit and meditate.

I know all the science and theory behind the benefits of it. I have a few awesome CDs by leading gurus in the area - Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn and Brisbane based Kirsty O'Callaghan, who is a relationships guru (counsellor/ trainer) and a meditation and relaxation teacher for well over 14 years. I can listen to one of the 20 minute guided relaxations, but without adult supervision, my limit is about 5 minutes. Any longer than that and my mind goes walkabout, I am uncomfortable or I fall asleep!

The good news is though I have discovered there is another way to meditate - Active Meditation and thought you might enjoy it too.

A friend of mine went to a Meditation retreat in Western Australia at the Dhammaloka Buddhist Centre. Influenced by the Forest Meditation Tradition of northeast Thailand, they put emphasis on "walking meditation".

Apparently the Buddha stressed the importance of developing mindfulness in all postures, from standing, sitting, lying down, to walking!! In many cases monks and nuns attained various stages of enlightenment while doing walking meditation. Today many monks still walk for long hours as a way of developing concentration – up to ten or fifteen hours a day! WHO KNEW?!?!

Now the approach to Active Meditation that I practice is my own interpretation developed a few years ago when we went on a camping holiday to Carnarvon Gorge in Western Queensland. One of the wonderful things about the gorge is the walks.

I knew for months that a 22km walk (in a day) was on the cards, and even though the longest walks I had done was about 5km, I was still “way too busy” to do any preparation! I was more worried about what we’d take to EAT on the walk. Within the first 15 minutes of the 22km walk I was starting to stress, beating myself up over the how the heck I was going to be able to walk 22km when I could barely do 5km!

Now the great thing was I had to be a kinaesthetic learner and learn by doing it, because in those first 15 minutes when I remembered this handy piece of information about" Walking Meditation" there was no phone or internet coverage. The perfectionist in me couldn't google it to make sure I was "doing it right."

Lucky for me I remembered all I needed to know: Focus on one foot at a time, be present in your body. Honestly that is all I remembered, and it was all I needed!

I learned lessons immediately - be present to the thoughts in my head! I had no idea if I could walk that far – I had never tested it, and already I was beating myself – not helpful! Over the course of those 22km I was fascinated to discover that every time I went into my head and started mulling things over I lost energy; the moment I went back into my body, thanked my legs and thighs for being the powerhouses to keep me walking, noticing nature, sensing things, I had more energy!

As a kinesthetic learner the insights from this 22km walk have been invaluable. Not only has walking has now cemented itself as my kind of meditation - active meditation, I began to notice the rhythms of my body over those hours. I noticed what kept me going – alternating my focus between big picture and the detail, stopping to rest every 90 minutes to 2 hours and eating, and being organised with great shoes, water and good food!

Each morning that I go for a walk and engage in my kind of Active Meditation when I am fully present on my walk I notice how every tree is different, the colour of the sky, shape of the clouds, how the breeze feels on my skin, the strength in my legs to keep me moving. If I walk in a busy state of mind, however I notice NO details and feel like I wasted my effort! I missed the trees and feel bummed! This was really brought home when I read the amazing book Wired for Life by the Mindgardener team - Martina Sheehan and Susan Pearse.

I also apply these principles of Active Meditation when I go to dance classes. Being mindful and present and not thinking anything else other than doing what I am doing is helping me to get out of the busy and just be mindful.

I encourage you to have a go at some type of Active Meditation - whether it is swimming or running! If you struggle to sit still too, you might focus on your breath, your stroke and counting. It might be just the type of practice you're looking for to give you some quiet mind time, and move into other forms of 'formal' meditation.

Click here to read more from Dhammaloka Buddhist Centre on Walking meditation in the Thai Forest Tradition.

Office Organising: Are you the Bottleneck?

Louise D'Allura — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

When you are too busy trying to be all things to everyone, it’s time to take a step back and get yourself unstuck from the day to day!

When you spend more time working in your business than on it, it can be extremely hard to take yourself out of the daily grind. Here are four simple strategies you can implement to focus on your long-term vision and stop being the bottleneck (especially when it’s only you in the business).

Click here to read more (at Women't Network Australia)

Get Organised: The Urge to Purge

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

One of the things clients start noticing immediately when we are organising a space - any space - is duplication, that is items are stored in multiple locations making it very tricky to know where ANYTHING lives.

You probably notice every time you want to put something away or find something. It can be impossible and really hard work!!

During the Value phase (in the REVAMP process - see below + video), we are grouping and sorting before we buy anything so we can get a full appreciation of the VOLUME of stuff we are dealing with.

I say it so often that it might sound like I am non-committal but it is true !!! Until we know what we are dealing with, we don't know what solution to throw at the 'problem'.

If you've ever bought containers first, you'll know this isn't the best way to go because you need to make sense of the chaos around you, get clear on what is truly important and what you need to have close at hand, vs what doesn't need to be in your space. When you know what needs to be corralled, and the volume you're dealing with it is so much easier to move forward.

Once you go through that initial hard slog to identify what you have, what you want to keep and you can SEE the volume, you can then declutter again what you need to and re-organise items in your preferred 'go to' spots. When you know what you have, where you need it to be, it is easier to set up and maintain your system - saving you a lot of mental energy and time in the long run.

Where to you start?

1. Put Pen to Paper Before you tackle any organising project, be sure to put pen to paper to note down these aspects of a space that are really frustrating. Grab a pen and paper and note down:

R - remember the purpose of the space - ie how do you want this space to be?
E - evaluate - what you love and hate!
V - value - what items do you need to create zones for?
A - assign - what items need to live where based on the flow?
M - maintain - how will you keep things in check and orderly?
P - party - how will you celebrate when you're done?

Watch the video below

2. Group and sort during the VALUE Phase
As you enter the VALUE phase you'll start grouping and sorting what you love vs hate. It is important to group first then declutter. Make life easier by using tubs or green recycling shopping bags so you can label them and leave them on the floor in the room you’re trying to declutter.

3. Set up zones and flow during the ASSIGN Phase
As you enter the ASSIGN phase set areas up based on how you use them and need them to work.

4. Focus on how to make things EASY during the MAINTAIN Phase
Once you've got the space sorted we need to make sure you've got systems set up to MAINTAIN things in an orderly manner. For example, set aside 40 minutes once a month to purge your files and office. We accumulate a lot of documents both in our file cabinet and on our hard drive that we no longer need. Try to purge your files once a quarter or at least at tax time.

Let me know how you go!

Procrastination: a different perspective

Louise D'Allura — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 23:14:21 +0000

One of the things I know about myself is I procrastinate. Yes shock horror!

I wanted to share with you my thinking around it and you may think I am denial - BUT - hear me out!

I am happy to do stuff - I have no problem getting through stuff. I love work and I feel like I do a lot. Heck I keep on adding things to my to do list....!!! (That's a topic for another day!)

So when does procrastination pop up for me?
When I am deciding what to move forward with. Sounds pretty normal right?

While there are theories galore, I think the most important and helpful thing I have done - is to understand WHY I do it. Yep - each and everyone of us. I've read a lot about procrastination and that was the most useful thing I did. Actually notice - and get present to when and why I procrastinate. I wanted to know - am I selective about what I procrastinate on? Is it hard stuff? Is it stuff that is more fun?

Well, here is what I found
For me - it's selective procrastination, and in part, it helps me connect with my intuition. I don't quite hear my intuition, but I've worked out for ME - this positive elements of procrastination -is my intuition showing up in life.

It helps me work out which are those unnecessary tasks that I've packed onto my to do list. If I am procrastinating it is a sign to check in - that perhaps moving forward is not the right thing to do or I need to rethink my plan.

The tasks that stay on the list and don't move forward are ones that I am HESITATING on. I can be hesitating for a host of reasons:

something doesn't feel right
I don't have enough information
I said yes when I really wanted to say no
I am unsure of how to move the idea/ project forward
I'm not convinced the way I've chosen is the right way to go about it
I need to talk to someone to sound it out
I don't have the skill set to do the job - if I am really honest with myself!
I have to outsource the task but I'm either not sure who or I haven't let myself relinquish control just yet - which means I've not documented the process clearly so I am NOT confident it will be done how I want/ need it to be done.

So this is what I've worked out for ME when I noticed and got present to where all of this was coming from. Sure there are perfectionist tendencies at play. But hey, I'm recovering!!

So once I notice that's what's going on, I focus on identifying what aspect of the project or task I am struggling with. I work out what's the very next thing I could do to get MOVING.

I've got this tattooed on my brain - WHAT'S THE VERY NEXT THING I COULD DO TO GET MOVING? and sometimes it is getting quiet and admitting - heck I really don't want to do this after all!?! If this sounds like the type of procrastination you're struggling with I'd love to hear what you've noticed - when does it hit you?

Online and Live Workshops: September and October

Louise D'Allura — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 11:29:00 +0000

Do you need to relax? Do you need to eat better? Do you need to find more balance in your life? Do you need to know more about what you're feeding your kids?

We have teamed up with a number of experts to offer a few fantastic ONLINE and LIVE events over the next few months.

In all our workshops or webinars we aim to share simple and effective techniques that will help you deal with the day to day. Whether that's cutting your stress levels to transform your health, pantry and energy to get you back on track, or introducing a new formula for finding balance, they are all designed to getting you to take action!

I'd love to see you at one of our events:

SEPTEMBER 2013

Saturday 7 September – MALENY

Meal Planning Tips and Tricks Workshop
Hosted by Real Food Festival
12:30 – 1:15
Click here for full program

Wednesday 18 September – WEBINAR

Who has time to Relax, let alone Eat Well??
This Webinar is a collaboration with Unity-Qld’s Kirsty O’Callaghan. We will lead you to a place of simple and effective techniques that transform your health, pantry and energy to get you back on track.

7:00 pm – 8:00 pm (Brisbane Australia time)
Bookings are essential: Click here

OCTOBER 2013

Thursday 3 October – CABOOLTURE

Balance? What Balance?
This LIVE workshop is a collaboration with Unity-Qld’s Kirsty O’Callaghan. We will share with you practical secrets to help busy parents and professionals successfully balance life in todays full on environment!
Bookings are essential: Click here
5.30pm – 7.00pm

Wednesday 9 October – GOLD COAST

What’s Food Got to Do with It?
Hosted by Nourish Me, Meal Planning Your Way, Literate Kids, Cooking4K
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Bookings are essential: Click here

Wednesday 16 October – BRISBANE

Food Additives Seminar – Indooroopilly
Hosted by Goodstart Indooroopilly
6:30 pm

Saturday 19 October – CABOOLTURE

Who has time to Relax, let alone Eat Well??
This LIVE workshop is a collaboration with Unity-Qld’s Kirsty O’Callaghan. We will lead you to a place of simple and effective techniques that transform your health, pantry and energy to get you back on track.
10:00 am – 11:30 am
Bookings are essential: Click here

Tuesday 29 October – GATTON

Food Additives Seminar – Gatton Cultural centre
Hosted by Life Without Barriers
10 am – 12 pm

Hope to see you at one of our events!

Too Busy Working IN Your Business?

Louise D'Allura — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Busyness in business is a double-edged sword. There are some common barriers that stop many business owners from ever working on their business.

This is an article I had published in the fantastic Working Women's Magazine published by Women's Network Australia all about getting your working ON your business - not just IN IT.

You can read the FULL article on the Women's Network Australia blog by clicking here:

Have you ever sat at a café and found yourself identifying ways they could improve their business, whether it’s the customer experience or processes? Did you shake your head wondering ‘how could they have missed these obvious things?’

Read more ..........

CLICK HERE to keep reading

Finding the Flow for Your Week

Louise D'Allura — Wed, 04 Sep 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Creating a healthier and more productive work pattern is one of the top secrets used by successful business owners.

There is a lot of research that showcases the benefits of creating a flow to your week so you can boost your daily productivity and get the most out of your working week!

Take a look at this article I had published in the fantastic Working Women's Magazine published by Women's Network Australia - all about finding your flow for your work week.

You can read the FULL article on the Women's Network Australia blog - just CLICK HERE to read more....

Declutter Your Office

Louise D'Allura — Wed, 21 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Whether you work from home all the time or some of the time, it is important to get that space working well for you!

This is an article I had published in the fantastic Working Women's Magazine published by Women's Network Australia all about getting your office organised. You can read the FULL article on the Women's Network Australia blog by clicking here:

According to the Journal of Neuroscience, clutter actually inhibits the brain’s ability to focus and process information. Researchers monitored task performance while mapping the brain’s responses to organised and disorganised stimuli. The results showed that when your environment is cluttered, your brain’s processing power decreases, as it has to vie for your energy and attention.

If you want to be more productive and think clearer, get your office organised! .........

Keep reading the full article: CLICK HERE

Declutter Your Mind: Be a Mind Gardener!

Louise D'Allura — Wed, 24 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Hey Revampers! Just HAD to share that I went to the most amazing workshop in Brisbane this month - Wired for Life with the amazing Martina and Susan from Mind Gardener.

It was held at the beautiful Brisbane Powerhouse at New Farm - and I was really inspired to take this photo!! How appropriate ;)

Now I have the book Wired for Life so I had an inkling that the session was going to be brilliant - and it was!

It brought so many of the concepts richly to life - hearing things - using different sense really helped bring to life the content and meaning of the book. The book is an awesome resource that provides additional areas that I will now go back and re-read.

The workshop really helped to highlight the how to stop being on autopilot. Quite simply the Mind Gardener girls are all about helping us to literally WAKE UP and THINK DIFFERENTLY!

And Wake Us Up they did. I went to the session with another Professional Organiser buddy and we both felt how relevant this information is to the process of decluttering.
So often we JUMP TO ACTION - ie buy containers because we think that is what will make us be organised. If you've worked with us before - or have worked through our R-E-V-A-M-P process before, you will know that we always encourage you to STOP AND NOTICE! Why do you do what you do. Be fully present and NOTICE - in essence WAKE UP!!!

This is the key also when we are trying to embed new habits. The Mind Gardener girls talked a lot about this and how creating new habits requires us to be even more disciplined in our thinking - why??? Because as we know we LOVE BEING ON AUTO PILOT.... do I really have to THINK? YES - if you want to create new habits.

As many of you will know (as I often share this with Revampers) my biggest area of clutter is habit clutter - ie the habit of worrying! The strategies I learnt in the workshop really are so brilliant to help with this. AND that is only ONE - application. If you can get to a workshop in your area (throughout Australia and NZ) you really need to GO!!! It was worth every cent and more!!

It will literally set you up well to WAKE UP, Think Differently and GROW!!

Check out the details for other Australian and NZ locations here

How to Organise Paper Clutter

Louise D'Allura — Wed, 17 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This is a guest post I wrote for the Australian based website Family Capers on Offices and Organisation:

Statistics show that being disorganised has a huge impact.

The Wall Street Journal reported on a survey of 1000 middle managers of large companies in the U.S. and U.K found that 59% miss important information almost every day because it exists within the company but they cannot find it.

Another survey of 2,600 executives found they waste six weeks per year searching for lost documents (FastCompany Magazine, 2004)! To help you on your way, here are some tips to revamp your paperwork processes:..........

Click here to keep reading the article on the Family Capers website.

Upcoming Events July and August 2013

Louise D'Allura — Sun, 14 Jul 2013 10:59:51 +0000

While it may seem counterintuitive but looking after your health and wellbeing is key if you want to have more time and energy!

After working in nutrition/ health promotion, corporate health and OHS for over 16 years I've gleaned that the way we organise our lives has a big impact upon our health, stress and energy levels - at home and at work.

So to help you, I thought I'd share details of the health events I am delivering via our sister Company - Meal Planning Your Way as well!

JULY 2013

{Tuesday 23 July} MANSFIELD STATE SCHOOL
Food for a Happy and Calm Household (Food Additives)
Hosted by Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program
7 pm – 9 pm
Bookings Essential – Call Helen on 0412 788 298 or email helen_john@optusnet.com.au

{Tuesday 30 July} CABOOLTURE
Dirty Dozen Food Additives to Avoid
Hosted by Caboolture Hub
6:30 pm – 8 pm
Bookings Essential: Click Here

AUGUST 2013

{Thursday 1 August} MAROOCHYDORE
Food for a Happy and Calm Household
Hosted by Gluten Free For Me (GFFM)
9:30 am Arrival for 10AM (11AM finish)
Bookings are essential (seats are limited) call Gluten Free For Me Ph 5443 4343
Visit GFFM at 20 Aerodrome Road Maroochydore to book and pay to confirm your seat.
Tickets $15 (INCLUDES REGULAR COFFEE AND CAKE)

{Friday 2 August} BRISBANE (Gaythorne)
SPECIAL EVENT: What's the GO with GMO?
Genetically Modified Foods Seminar hosted by Meal Planning Your Way - with Fran Murrell (MADGE) and Robert Pekin (Food Connect Brisbane)
Bookings Essential: Click here

SEPTEMBER 2013

{Wednesday 18 September} Webinar:
Relax? Who has time to relax, let alone cook!
Webinars with 'Kirsty and Louise'
7pm – 8pm EST (see world clock for other time zones)

Do you need to relax? Are your stress levels too high? Would you like more calm in your life? Does your immune system need a boost? Do you struggle to get the evening meal on the table every night? Have you lost interest in food preparation? Do you know what is in your pantry and use it? Learn simple and effective techniques that transform your health, pantry and energy to get you back on track.

Bookings essential: Click here

I would love to see you at one of these events!

Top 10 Tips for Managing Distractions in your Workplace

Louise D'Allura — Wed, 10 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I was delighted to provide comment for this article on managing distractions at work.

Let's face it - we all experience and juggle distraction on a daily basis. Distractions have the ability to draw us in, take us off track and cause us to lose hours of our time, as they affect our ability to concentrate, and get the job done!!

Keep reading the full article for the top 10 tips to help you manage distractions:

1. Establish what your role is and what you want to achieve
2. Plan your time
3. Manage meetings and avoid being “the go-to problem-solver”
4. Manage distractions from work colleagues and employees
5. Work from a different location
6. Tips for working from home
7. Disconnect from Social Media
8. Disconnect from email
9. “If I don’t do this task now, I’ll forget about it”
10. Take a break

After you read the full article for the tips I'd love to hear what are your favourite ideas?

To read the tips CLICK HERE

Getting Organised: When you're the guinea pig

Louise D'Allura — Sun, 07 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I totally know how my clients feel - July is going to be a big month for me - I will be the guinea pig to test out *new* organising systems and services.

Of course I am the guinea pig because I want to be totally confident in how it can make MY life easier and in turn YOUR life easier and simpler!

That said, I have to CONFESS - I'm anxious about the process!!! Will the person I work with be judging me, will they be thinking I 'should' be more organised than I am?

This process has helped me to identify what I have always known - these 'worries' are habitual worries and are amongst the first things I need to declutter even before I begin my journey at the start of the new financial year!

That time sucking habit of worry, and those bits of perfectionism that raise their head on a regular basis..... I KNOW being the guinea pig will make a massive difference to my day and ultimately my client's day... I'm 'decluttering' for both of us.

Wish me luck!!

Relax?! Who has time to relax let alone cook!

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 04 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

If you got along to our first WEBINAR WITH 'KIRSTY AND LOUISE' in May with the amazing Kirsty O'Callaghan from Unity Qld you'll know our second WEBINAR WITH 'KIRSTY AND LOUISE' webinar 'Relax?! Who has time to relax let alone cook?!' is on Wednesday 28 August.

If you feel like your stress levels are too high and you would like more calm in your life you'll love our August Webinar. Not only will we be sharing strategies to help you relax and manage stress, we'll also be talking about how to give your immune system a boost by eating well.

So it's time to join Kirsty and I for our second webinar: "Relax?! Who has time to relax let alone cook!?"

As many Revampers would know, I'm a big fan of Kirsty and admire what she has achieved both personally and professionally. She began her business over a decade ago to help people live more positively, less stressfully and with more health and happiness. She certainly inspires me and no doubt will inspire you too!

Join us on Wednesday 28 August 2013 for the one hour webinar (7 - 8pm AUST EST).
The webinar is only $21.00 per person.

To book your tickets go to
http://www.trybooking.com/Booking/BookingEventSummary.aspx?eid=40568

What paperwork do you keep and what do you throw?

Louise D'Allura — Mon, 06 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I'm often asked what paperwork needs to be kept and what can be tossed. Of course it depends on the nature of the paperwork!

But, to help you get started, here is a list of questions to start with when you're 'weeding' to help you distinguish between what's worth saving and what you don't need.

• Do you need to keep it for legal or tax purposes? (always ask your ACCOUNTANT/ ATO!)
• How long has it been since you looked at it/ referred to it?
• Is it likely you will be using it in the near future (not just some day...)
• Do you REALLY have the TIME to do anything with this information (this includes do you have time to read it/ act on it)?
• Can you get this info by doing a quick internet search/ is it on your computer?
• Would your work be affected if you didn't have this paperwork?

What other questions do you ask yourself when you're going through your paperwork?
Put in your questions below and share with the other Revampers!

When your schedule doesn't match your priorities

Louise D'Allura — Sun, 05 May 2013 01:18:30 +0000

We received a question from one of our Revampers via our Facebook page. I know they aren't the only ones to experience it so I am sharing it with you here.

"What do you do if your schedule doesn't match your priorities yet you feel stuck and not able to change it?"

Without knowing nuts and bolts, I'd have to say work out what your priorities are. Your time and how you use it ultimately tells us WHAT our priorities are - there is that saying we ARE what we repeatedly do. If our priority/ value is health, yet our schedule doesn't allow us to fit in some time to undertake those practices we consider important and essential for health, then we have to CHANGE that schedule. We have to look at what the priorities are and put in those things in FIRST into your schedule.

We have to look at everything that consumes time in your life and work out if and how it deserves to be there. We describe clutter as anything that you are holding onto which is no longer relevant or useful - and it can be any obsolete object, space, commitment or behaviour that weighs you down, distracts you or depletes you! It can be in
your space, schedule or habits.

So if there are commitments that take up a lot of your time, work out if you REALLY need to DO the task? If you're doing it out of obligation - really work out what's the pay off - WHY WHY WHY are you doing it? If you can work out that you don't need to do it - DELETE IT - get it off your list of commitments.

If you still need to do it - work out are you REALLY the best person to do that task? If someone else could do it quicker, better, faster etc then DELEGATE it - or swap a task with someone!!

If you have to do the task - ask do you have to do it now/ soon/ yesterday?? Sometimes we take on tasks and THINK when it needs to be done but we can actually DELAY it.

Lastly if you REALLY STILL DO have to do it - can you DIMINISH it - ie do you have to go to the degree you were planning to do it, or could you do a quick and dirty version that gets the job done?? Sometimes you just need to get a concept or commitment right, or you might need to adjust HIGH STANDARDS.

So these are just some initial ideas - the crucial thing is your schedule and priorities have to be tweaked on a daily, hourly and minute by minute basis. As we get in new information throughout our day sometimes we have to TOSS all our plans out the window.

I'd love to hear where you can have flexibility in your schedule and where you need structure to perform some set things? Put your comments in the comments box below.

Creating Habits

Louise D'Allura — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This year I am delving a lot into the science and psychology of habits and mindfulness. I am interested in the research and exploring how the habits we have already created can act as a springboard for new ones. Habits are always tricky in the beginning because we have to remember to do them! This is where mindfulness can help us be more organised - we can recall things better when we're being fully present.

The Ultimate Habit Tip: Start smaller than small and create an anchor
There is some interesting research coming out of Stanford university that is showing it’s all the teeny tiny steps you do everyday that help you get the big things done. Focus on doing one teeny tiny action towards your goal. As for when to do the task, they are investigating if you anchor a new habit to immediately AFTER you complete an ingrained habit, your chances of remembering to do it improves dramatically.

The example they gave was if you want to start jogging in the morning, find a task you do every day that is completely ingrained/ you do on auto pilot (e.g. putting the kettle on), and just start one thing you need to do to make your walk possible - ie put your sandshoes on! So immediately after you put the kettle on - put your shoes on. You don't need to actually jog just yet - you're just trying to create teeny tiny stepping stones.

Organising is a lot like this too. If you start small and anchor a new habit to an ingrained one, you're on your way!

Organising Question: Bathroom Clutter

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

"I have no space in my bathroom and it is driving me mad!"

This wouldn't be the first time we have encountered this!

Really look at what you need to keep in the bathroom - who uses it - what height are they?

Always go through and toss any empty containers - I promise you'll be surprised how much space you have once you've done this. My clients are always shocked when we do this!

Then look at grouping and sorting your supplies by categories - you may find grouping them by person is also helpful!

Look for the right size containers and how to use that space you have. We have found some clever products to repurpose in the bathroom - really look around you to see what space you have - walls, screens - EVERYTHING is up for grabs in these tiny spaces that are like grand central station!

Organising Question: I have no space!

Louise D'Allura — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A statement I hear often is "I have NO SPACE! How can I fit in everything??"

First really look at the volume of what you own - do you use and love everything you have? Be sure that anything in your space DESERVES to share its life with you!! Take a look at our R-E-V-A-M-P process to help you (see our website/ you tube video below). Remember LESS is MORE

ONCE you have clarity over what you REALLY want to keep - really look at what STORAGE you currently have. The goal in any space really look at what you need it that space and how you can get every wall and piece of furniture helping you to create SPACE for what you want to keep in the room.

The goal is to be CLEAR ON WHAT YOU WANT TO KEEP in this space. Once you know that then you can notice what you need and how you can use it - if you have a blank wall can you add storage cubes, hooks, racks. For furniture can it be dual purpose coffee table with draws/ storage etc? Go from room to room and look at what you want to do in that space and what you need space for.

That's what I like about Ikea - it's great for inspiration and getting that furniture to mulit-task!! In my home the 'TV cabinet' is a BESTA cupboard combo from Ikea - it comes with space for all the usual TV electronic bits PLUS other items I want to have easy access to while watching TV/ keep in that space: blankets, videos, magazines - ALL behind closed doors. I didn't want a conventional TV unit because it didn't meet my storage needs for what I WANT to store in my living room!

Time Realist or Time Optimist?

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Every one of us has 168 hours in a week - no more, no less. Why is it that some people seem to get so much done, while some of us struggle to do the basics?

Depending on which side of the spectrum you sit, your either a time realist or a time optimist.

Time optimists are prone to under estimating the amount of time tasks really take, and can take on way too much, why? Because we are Time Optimists we can do it all!

Time realists on the other hand know how much time they have and they have worked out what is manageable in that space. Where the task is big, they’ve broken it down into smaller tasks and allocate time for each one. They know it makes the job manageable and achievable, so they don’t set themselves up for failure! They’ve scheduled it into their day (diary) and they stick to it. If an emergency comes up, they reschedule the task/ activity into another time. They are also ok with saying no to requests that don’t align to their priorities. Time realists have got it together!

So how do we grow our time management muscles? We exercise them of course! This exercise will help you get better at estimating so we can become Time Realists:

Choose 3 tasks/ activities to do this week
Estimate how long you think it might take
Time the activity + Note the % difference

Balance?! What Balance!

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:03:15 +0000

I'm so delighted to share that I have teamed up with the amazing Kirsty O'Callaghan from Unity Qld to deliver two WEBINARS WITH 'KIRSTY AND LOUISE' in 2013.

I'm a big fan of Kirsty and admire how she has continued to work with thousands of Australians over the past ten years.

If you're feeling overwhelmed and like it's all too much, it's time to join Kirsty and I for our first fun WEBINAR WITH 'KIRSTY AND LOUISE': BALANCE? WHAT BALANCE?

If you're too busy, can never get on top of ‘stuff', and feel like it's all work and no play?
If you're feeling low on energy and consumed by your to do lists with scattered thinking we will share with you the secrets to successfully balancing and decluttering you life today.

Join us on Wednesday 29 May 2013 for the one hour webinar (7 - 8pm AUST EST).
The webinar is only $21.00 per person (or join us for the Balance Webinar PLUS "Relax?! Who has time to Relax let alone cook?!" webinar on Wednesday 28 August 2013).

To book your tickets go to www.unity-qld.com.au

Webinars with 'Kirsty and Louise'

Louise D'Allura — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 00:30:57 +0000

I'm so delighted to announce that I have teamed up with the amazing Kirsty O'Callaghan from Unity Qld to deliver two WEBINARS WITH 'KIRSTY AND LOUISE' in 2013.

I'm a big fan of Kirsty and admire what she has achieved both personally and professionally. She began her business over a decade ago to help people live more positively, less stressfully and with more health and happiness. Her philosophies, transformational tools and strategies have been developed from years of study, her own personal and professional challenges and working with thousands of Australians.

We have two Webinars with 'Kirsty and Louise' - one in May and August:

Balance?! What Balance
Work/life Balance and 6 steps to DeClutter Anything
Wednesday 29th May 2013 7 - 8pm EST (see world clock for other time zones)

Relax?! Who has time to relax let alone cook!?
Relaxation Techniques and Too Busy to Eat Well.
Wednesday 28 August 2013 7 – 8pm EST (see world clock for other time zones)

You can attend these sessions from the comfort of your own home for one session for $21.00 or come to both for $35 for 2.

I'd love to see you online! To book your tickets go to www.unity-qld.com.au

Time Management: Where does your time go?

Louise D'Allura — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 12:57:49 +0000

We are so used to the routine of our days that we don’t notice how we could be using our time in a better way. Routine has a habit of allowing us to function on auto pilot. We assume we’re doing things the best way because that is the way they have always been done!

I don't know about you but time is one of the resources I am not a natural at 'organising' - so I really do understand my client's struggles with time.

There are a few strategies that you can use to help get on top of time - and that is routines. Having routines is the only way I find that life can run - not like clock work, but it does help me keep on track, so I know where I need to be and what I need to be doing.

There are two simple questions I want you to ask yourself. I have asked myself these (and I share that with you below):

1) What do I wish you had more time for?
You won't have to think hard on this question - the answers will come flooding in!

For me it has always been exercise, and my excuses were around I can't afford it (ie as a combination of time and money). Now that I am working on my routines I go for a walk at least 4 days a week, dance class once a week and yoga once a week. I realised it was me that was getting in the way.

2) What do I spend WAY too much time on?
Work out what it is for you - and it is likely to be habits that aren't particularly helpful - TV? Perfectionism? Procrastination?

For me it is perfectionism, and procrastination and working! I love what I do - helping my clients simplify everyday life is a joy - I truly love it. But perfectionism kicks in and then I procrastinate because it won't be perfect even thought it is 99% done.....! This means I work a lot more than I need to! NOT SMART at all. So I've got help on board for key discrete projects, and there are more tasks I'm yet to streamline. I know doing this in other areas will make a huge difference to my feelings of keeping on top of it all!

What are your struggle areas?

Upcoming Events: What's in our Food?

Louise D'Allura — Sun, 24 Feb 2013 11:34:25 +0000

As you may know in Queensland I'm the Additive Alert Community Talks Presenter. This year to co-incide with the new school year I'm running sessions in the following South East Queensland locations to help parents, teachers and childcare staff learn what the numbers on food products mean - and which are worth avoiding! Would love to see you there and make sure you come up and say hello!!!

Maroochydore:
Food for a Happy and Calm Household
Wednesday 6 March 2013, 7pm-9pm (with Special Guest Tania Hubbard from Gluten Free Grain Free Company)
Tickets: $20 each or Online deal: $49.50 for 3 (includes the Additives to Avoid wallet card).

Toowoomba:
Food for a Happy and Calm Household
Wednesday 20 March 2013, 7pm-9pm
Tickets:$20 each or Online deal: $49.50 for 3 (includes the Additives to Avoid wallet card).
(rescheduled from Wed 27 February due to localised flooding and inclement weather)

Brisbane:
Food for a Happy and Calm Household
Thursday 21 March 2013, 7pm-9pm
Cooparoo Bowls Club
Tickets: $20 each or Online deal: $49.50 for 3 (includes the Additives to Avoid wallet card).

Bookings are essential for all talks and can be made via our sister site: Meal Planning Your Way - Click here to book for the events.

I resolve to LITTLE resolves

Louise D'Allura — Sun, 10 Feb 2013 11:30:00 +0000

The start of a new year presents us with a host of opportunities to do something different. This year I'm focusing on doing simple things on a consist basis that make me feel better. I'm resolving to make LITTLE changes because I know sometimes LITTLE equals BIG results.

And I am not going to get obsessive about it – 100% isn’t the only option – I'm going to do what I can in key areas and make a commitment to just - keep - doing. You might have seen our new facebook timeline image with the quote from Jim Rohen: Motivation is what gets you started – Habit is what keeps you going. This really is the focus for this year!

This year I’m playing with the concept of getting things done with fun, ease and grace. Ok maybe more awkward than grace sometimes! I know I have a tendency of being like a sumo wrestler – just keep moving and pushing forward to get things done. Fun, ease and grace means stopping when I get tired. I don't have to do everything in a day! In 2013 I’m sticking with a few themes only. I'd love to hear what little resolves/ pledges you're considering in 2013.

Remember LITTLE changes = BIG results!

Are you struggling to meal plan and get healthy food on the table?

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 11:42:00 +0000

We're delighted to announce our new guide - Too Busy to Eat Well - is available on our sister site - Meal Planning Your Way!

If thinking about dinner, or creating a ‘Meal Plan’ is stressful and exhausting and can’t find the time or space to cook in your kitchen - YOU ARE NOT ALONE! You might have seen our brand new guide being sold through the shop on the fabulous Stay at Home Mums website - we are super excited!

This guide reveals how easy it is to get healthy, have more energy and feel great by getting back to basics and simplify dinner time, save dollars and all that mental energy tied up with Solving the What’s for Dinner Challenge!

In this 32 page guide you’ll discover:

The 6 steps to master when you want to eat well, but feel you’re too busy to cook healthy foods
How to identify and tackle the obstacles that will stop you in your tracks to eating better
If the food you are eating is healthy
How to get organised in the kitchen and in your pantry
How to organise your dinnertime recipes and
Master the Art of Creative Cooking to save you loads of time in the kitchen while eating a whole lot better.

If you want to reduce the amount of food, money and time you’re wasting, this guide shares easy strategies and resources for meal planning, solving the what’s for dinner challenge and how to reclaim your kitchen from the clutter of everyday life. Click here to check it out!

Organise Your Home Office for Better Productivity

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 18:05:00 +0000

This Guest post was written for Natalie Alaimo International

When you started your business did you first sit down and plan out what you needed from your office? I’m willing to bet NO right? Usually when we start a business we repurpose or borrow furniture, and commandeer a spare bedroom or corner of one and get started! It’s only after being in business a while that we start to ‘notice’ how chaotic our office feels, how frustrated we are with our equipment and how the layout stopped working years ago! When frustration hits that’s the perfect time to review your office. By this stage you can clearly articulate what’s working and what’s not. Getting this insight alone, will boost your productivity enormously!

Click here to keep reading

Working From Home: How to Stay Healthy and Productive

Louise D'Allura — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 20:48:39 +0000

This Guest post was written for Natalie Alaimo International

When I worked in the corporate world I could power through the work. I honestly thought not much would change when I decided to start my own business and run my office from home. Little did I know, I would need to explore my own productivity habits.

If you work from home you know just how hard it can be to stay on task, so I’m sharing some of the habits my clients and I use to boost our productivity and wellbeing when we work from home.

Click here to keep reading the full guest post.

Want to Save Time and Eat better?

Louise D'Allura — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 16:49:42 +0000

What your Meal Planning Personality says about your Time Management?

As you know our Meal Planning Personalities recognize we each have a dominant Meal Planning Personality that influences how we approach meals and menu planning. Identifying your Meal Planning Personality allows you to get organized around food in a way that is right for you, so you eat healthy and save time.

This is also true for how you manage your time!
I recently bit the bullet and discovered my Time Management Style by taking the Pink Shoe Power Profiler. I was a little unsure at first as to how helpful or accurate it would be, but I was amazed at how spot on it was for me. I love knowing my Time Management Style because it just makes so much sense (I’m a Last Minute Lucy and Driven Diana – quite the combo!!).

I have been able to re-evaluate my current time management habits and make sure I am doing only what WORKS! It was great to get that advice specific for ME and Time Management Style so I know the strategies I need to be using to help keep me on track and get the most out of my time. If you really want to get more things done AND have more time for you, then knowing your Time Management Style is a great step forward!

What I also discovered was when you know your Time Management Style, it adds an extra dimension to your Meal Planning Personality and where you need to be careful so you don’t trip yourself up! For example, my Menu Planning Personality is Intuitive and as my Time Management Style is a Last Minute Lucy, I know I’m likely to give myself too little time for food shopping or preparation, and combine that with being a Driven Diana - doing everything I said I would do, I will get so absorbed I’ll forget to go shopping! So as an Intuitive (in the Meal Planning Personality Profile) who never knows what I will feel like eating, having the ingredients on hand to create quick and easy meals is CRUICIAL! Days when I’m not up against a deadline are perfect for preparing meals in advance and freezing them so I have them on hand when I’m under pressure. Otherwise it is way too easy for this Personality/Style combination to reach for junk food or call for takeaway!

If you want to find out your Time Management Style, here’s a link that will take you to the Pink Shoe Power profiling tool to identify your Time Management Style or combination of Styles! I highly recommend it and use it myself!

I love the personalized report with all the details about your Style (or Styles if you’re a combination like me): your strengths and challenges and some of the best strategies for your Style to help you get in control of your time. I have found that the advice is spot on and very valuable because it helps you to know what are the best strategies for YOU based on HOW you think and approach time. It SAVES time because you know what you need to do so it will work for you.

I highly recommend their book, Time Management Styles: What they Mean for your Success in Business and Life. It gives you an overview of the 5 Time Styles, their strengths and challenges and includes clever strategies for your Style or combination of Styles. Here’s a link if you want to get a copy or find out more.

Once you’ve taken the Pink Shoe Profiler, be sure to let me know what your Time Management Style is, as well as what you are in the Meal Planning Personality Profile!

Changing Spaces - It’s Time to Declutter!

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 20:56:00 +0000

This article was written for Women's Network Australia.

According to the Journal of Neuroscience, clutter actually inhibits the brain’s ability to focus and process information. Researchers monitored task performance while mapping the brain’s responses to organised and disorganised stimuli. The results showed that when your environment is cluttered, your brain’s processing power decreases, as it has to vie for your energy and attention.

If you want to be more productive and think clearer, get your office organised!

Click here to keep reading

Retreating Indoors for the Winter? Quick - Let's Get Organised

Louise D'Allura — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 18:00:00 +0000

As we begin to enjoy the winter months and we start to retreat indoors, it’s around this time when we become acutely aware of just how much or how little living space we have!!! It’s also around this time that thoughts around moving “because you’ve run out of space!” might be popping up. You’ll be happy to know you’re not alone! According to an Australia Institute survey one in eight people moved house so they could accommodate their ‘stuff’.

When you're retreating indoors for the winter, you want your space to be so much more FUNCTIONAL and spacious!! So why not take advantage of the time you're indoors and start getting organised.

If you're not sure where to begin, it’s always best to stop and take stock!

There are a few common organisational challenges we see which and the good news is there are strategies to address it.

Grab pen and paper and ............ keep reading our article in Mathilda's Magazine on page 40 (click here)

Next Workshop: Food for a Happy and Calm Household

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 11:30:06 +0000

As a Home Economist, I spend a lot of time in people's kitchens and pantries - either helping them uncover their Meal Planning Personality to make solving the what's for dinner challenge easier, or creating order in their kitchen so cooking is a whole lot easier!

Every time you do a pantry declutter with a client it's hard NOT to chat about the food you find - you are afterall checking dates....

Some of the most common questions I'm asked are:

Is the food any good?
Are there better options I could be buying?

As many Revampers know I am completely passionate about raising awareness of what’s in our food as Queensland's Additive Alert Community Talks presenter. I think it is important that we all know a little bit about food additives, just as we need to know a little bit about fat, fibre, salt and sugar if we truly want to be healthy. If you want to find out more, our next session is on in a few weeks!

Date
19 July 2012
Time
5.30pm - 7.30pm
Location
Caboolture Hub, Learning & Business Centre, Level 1, 4 Hasking Street, Caboolture Qld 4510
Cost
$15.00 per person.
Visit the Moreton Bay Regional Council Website to book: Click here
Need more info?
Contact Caboolture Hub's wonderful Venue Manager Bronwyn Dickinson on Ph: (07) 5433 3700

It's our 3rd Birthday!

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 11:19:04 +0000

Yesterday (2nd July) we turned 3!

We had a great day of planning and refocusing on what makes Revamp so special - YOU!!!

Revamp exists to SERVE YOU - our fabulous Revampers.

We love helping you clarify what is truly important and meaningful to you, then guiding and inspiring you to change your life for the better.

As many of you know I have spent my entire working life identifying a range strategies and tools that improve health, boost productivity and reduce stress in our working lives and home lives. In all the areas and organisations I have worked (nutrition, health promotion in corporate settings and workplace health) there are consistent strategies that really do help to make life healthier, happier and simpler.

THANK YOU for letting me share these lessons in your life, and my personal learnings with you too. It means a lot that we can help you feel on top of things, and get that reassurance that we ALL need from time to time - that YOU are completely and utterly - NORMAL :)

Your Birthday Thank You
If you haven't signed up to our newsletter click here so you can grab a copy of our new little guide The Art of Stress Free Living: Steps to achieve a healthier, happier and simpler life.

It really cements our focus and committment to help you live a happier, healthier and simpler life.

Disorganisation CAN get you into trouble

Louise D'Allura — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 16:09:32 +0000

Recent events in Queensland this week go to show just how disorganisation can get you into trouble! Queensland Premier Campbell Newman dumped Gympie MP David Gibson as Police Minister over allegations he drove while suspended.

Now I'm the first to admit I've missed paying a bill, but what's interesting is according to reports in The Courier Mail Gympie MP David Gibson would have received at least FIVE letters of warning about a speeding fine incurred in May or June 2011, and he admitted to be in receipt of at least ONE of those.

So while we might all be guilty of missing a bill once in a while, missing FIVE notifications is a whole other story!!!  It is a sign that his current system – or lack of paperwork system has let him down - BIG TIME!!!!

Statistics show that being disorganised has a huge impact.   The Wall Street Journal reported on a survey of 1000 middle managers of large companies in the U.S. and U.K found that 59% miss important information almost every day because it exists within the company but they cannot find it.  Another survey of 2,600 executives found they waste six weeks per year searching for lost documents (FastCompany Magazine, 8/2004)
 
Recent events highlight just how much of an impact overlooking your paperwork can have on your career.

So here are some tips to revamp your paperwork processes and keep out of trouble:

Create an Arrivals Lounge – in your usual drop/ dumping spot get yourself a tray, basket, shelf or drawer. Don’t worry about opening your mail – or making a decision on it just yet. Then again if you see something that looks like official Government corresspondence you might want to open it....
Set aside regular times so you can see what the paper needs you to do. This is really important because if we waited until we felt like it, we’d never do it!!
Learn the ART of Paper. Now you have your allocated paperwork time – you’re now ready to send that paper on it’s way based on the ART of paper

Act file (subcategories for your regular ACTION files are really good e.g. Bills to pay would be a handy one)
Reference files (subcategories such as Home – with insurance, Car – registration, repairs, paid fines) or
Toss into Archive or Shred/bin.

The trick is you do have to make time to create some order to your paperwork but I think recent events really go to show that it can have a HUGE impact on your career.

Well I think it does anyway - what do you think? Is it a case of disorganisation impacting upon a career?

How to create a clutter free kitchen/ dining room table

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 15:39:00 +0000

One of the things I love to do is help people reinvent their homes and create functional spaces - formerly known as 'Dumping Grounds.'

One of the areas I commonly see clutter accumulating in a lot is the kitchen and/or dining room table.

Regardless of whether my client is a busy professional that lives on their own or a family - the situation is the SAME!?! Without fail these are the things I discover:

Mail - opened and unopened – including Bills
Work/ school books/ notes
car keys
stationery
catalogues
recent purchases
receipts

[Pinned from Better Homes and Gardens]

By the end of the day everything gets stacked up into a single large pile, and day after day it accumulates, only moving from table to a nearby corner or shelf and back again....

This year I've been helping my clients focus on the order and systems to put in place as soon as you walk in the door. To help you in your efforts I thought I would run through a few questions to ask yourself when designing these vitally important areas, AND share some inspiring images to get the creative juices flowing!!

As always we start with the R-E-V-A-M-P Process!

Remember: What’s the purpose of the arrivals area? When you get home from being out all day what is it that you desperately need to ‘dump’ e.g. Mail; school notes, bags? You'll also need to think about do you want some items to be here in a Holding Pattern or is it going to be where some items live (e.g. handbag?)

What do you dream this space could look like?

[Entry Way organisation - Pinned from Better Homes and Gardens]

ok, now let's get back to reality..........

Evaluate: What is it that is really irritating you about this area? No home for anything? Stuff just gets dumped into a pile? Hard to find a letter or document? Write down everything that works and doesn’t work! Be honest!!

Value: What items are really important? What do you need to find quickly? What things only need to be in this area temporarily? E.g. is it handbags, mail, vs temporary space for bills, school notes, receipts. Don’t worry about where to put them (that’s the next step), for now you just need to know what has got to stay here vs go elsewhere?

Assign: Now it's time to think about Assigning homes! Do you need a temporary holding spot for items to go into (eg an Arrivals basket for when you are too tired to think?!). Work out where you will keep handbags/ backpacks, and where you will keep or process mail/ notes etc? Is it here near the kitchen or in an office? Get clear on the volume that will be in this space vs elsewhere!

If your kitchen/ dining room table has to multitask as an office/ homework area, we need to look at the furniture beside the kitchen/ dining table. The trick is to make sure the unit/ furniture has adequate spaces to create dedicated homes for things that need to be housed there while the table is in use. Do you actually need a shelf with clearly labeled baskets for each member of the family, or grouping things by items (e.g. to read). You might start thinking about units in your kitchen/ dining space and if you can commandeer them with beautiful containers to conceal what was formerly known as the dumping ground, or is part of the problem you don't HAVE storage?

As much as possible make sure that your furniture can multitask - so look for extra sneaky storage that allows you to grab items off the table and quickly pop items into their relevant categories and keep the table clear until you need to use it for another purpose (e.g. laptop, craft supplies, etc). Make life easy by having items within easy reach for when you want them!

More images and solutions to inspire (note DO NOT jump to this step – start at R = Remember!)

[Craft Space - Pinned from Better Homes and Garden]

[Lounge Room - Pinned from Better Homes and Garden]

Maintain: The habit creation phase is where we often get stuck. Take time to think through what is happening now, so you can avoid this in your new system/ or introduce tricky strategies to make it easier!

Are items not migrating 'home'? Maybe it's because there is nowhere these items belong? or maybe there isn’t enough room for them to go into their new ‘home’ because the area is packed already or putting them away is difficult and awkward, so you don’t even bother! Now that you’ve thought through this space, look at what you can do to keep it that way? What can you do everyday/ evening/ week? A little bit of maintenance makes it easier in the long run.

Party: The last step in the process, and the most important – what will you do to celebrate!? Make it worthwhile!

I hope our strategies and inspiration help you to have a clutter free kitchen/ dining room table! If you get stuck, feel free to drop me a line!

My favourite office organising tool

Louise D'Allura — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:31:00 +0000

I'm sure I've said it before, but just incase I haven't declared it enough - I LOVE magazine holders (AKA magazine files) - just like this gorgeous purple one from Smiggle. They are perfect for paper pilers like me. Even though I am a professional organiser I have a natural inclination to pile papers!

One of the best organising tools I have found to tackle paperwork in my office are magazine holders. It suits me perfectly because it means I can PILE WITH PURPOSE, and it gives me my space back! Instead of having piles on every flat surface ALL the time, I can pop the paper (or book) into it's dedicated home! When I want it, I can grab it.

I think this snippet from the kikki.K website sums it up perfectly: "Removing unsightly piles of magazines and papers in your space improves the flow of energy leading to greater piece of mind and feelings of control. With the clutter gone, you'll be more creative and productive." AND guess what - It's all TRUE! Well, ok it is true for me that is.

I find that my desk can sometimes get out of control with a few piles of discrete projects. When that happens it is a reminder to me to create a new home for this project if I don't have one (ie get a new magazine holder!) OR put the items back into their dedicated file.

If your a paper piler you might like the idea of using Magazine Holders to create a more productive and creative office space. I find it so handy - if I find something that could be useful for a project I can just pop the document/ book or note to self into the file for when I want to work on that project, vs letting papers pile up on my desk. I keep all the magazine holders on bookshelves and just call them forth when I want to work on them.

Every so often thought I do need to make sure I go through my Project files (AKA The Buffet) and weed out unnecessary or out of date paper.

Magazine holders really can add a bit of style or colour and personality to any space. Here are some fab looking magazine holders that I think the paper pilers out there just might like!

Stylish as Always:
kikki.K from $14.95

Organising Brightly:
Smiggle from $6.95
Typo from $6.95

Options galore:
Officeworks Philosophy range from $10

I'd love to know how you go!!

Image from Smiggle

Keeping lunches cold

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:26:00 +0000

The Australian Food Safety Information Council released a national survey that shows on warm days 8% of workers who take a packed lunch make no attempt to keep their packed lunches cool.

What was worse - 20% of those with children who take a packed lunch to school don’t provide their children with a frozen drink or ice brick to help keep their packed lunch cool.

For more info check out the Australian Food Safety Information Council media release (click here) which has some great ideas. One of the easiest options - freeze some water in a drink bottle and keep it near your food.

Be sure to check out Kidspot's summary of some really fab looking lunch products - click here

So how do you keep lunch cold on hot days when a fridge isn't handy?

Kids Meals and Local Ingredients

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:11:00 +0000

Healthful Kids’ Meals and Locally Sourced Ingredients are the hottest restaurant menu trends we can expect to see in 2012 - well in the US officially anyhow!

The annual National Restaurant Association survey of American Culinary Federation member chefs (more than 1,800) revealed some interesting restaurant trends that are totally applicable in the Australian culinary environment.

As you look at the top 20 trends you’ll notice the recurring themes amongst the top 10 - healthy options for kids and locally sourced ingredients. In Australia I think we acknowledge where our food comes from really well – definitely in some of the better restaurants. I love it that many places take such pride in telling you which local farmers and food producers the food comes from. I think we have a long way to go, but at least we are seeing this also with our supermarkets!

Ok so, here are the top 20 menu trends for 2012 as reported:

Locally sourced meats and seafood;
Locally grown produce;
Healthful kids’ meals;
Hyper-local items;
Sustainability as a culinary theme;
Children’s nutrition as a culinary theme;
Gluten-free/food allergy-conscious items;
Locally produced wine and beer;
Sustainable seafood; and
Whole grain items in kids’ meals.
Newly fabricated cuts of meat;
Farm/estate-branded items;
Food trucks/street food;
Artisan spirits;
House-made/artisan ice cream;
Health/nutrition as a culinary theme;
Non-traditional fish;
Fruit/vegetable kids’ side items;
Children’s mini-meals (i.e. smaller versions of adult menu items); and
Culinary cocktails.

What was also really cool was that technology rated a mention too, though there was a bit of debate about the TOP trend! Basically technology trends involve social media and smart phone apps, tablets (ie iPads for menus and wine lists) and wireless pay at the table options. I’m thinking there are no real surprises there?

What WAS really interesting though was 61% of chefs said they would consider launching a food truck as an entrepreneurial business venture. I wonder if that would be true here in Australia?

For complete What’s Hot in 2012 survey results visit www.restaurant.org/foodtrends.

Are you on the RIGHT track?

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:26:00 +0000

I don't know about you but I do a lot of planning at this time of year - business plans, action plans, you name it.

I am careful to make sure I include goals that relate to how I want to live and work too.

While I look back over 2011, I achieved quite a few goals, including achieving Accreditation as an EXPERT Professional Organiser. I'm incredibly proud of this achievement that you all supported!!

Now while I didn't quite achieve some of the standards I set and I'm not further down the track of where I wanted to be in some areas (classic over achiever...), at least I know I'm on the RIGHT track! What a relief. And quite honestly, I can say I am where I am and I'm ok with that!

If you're planning for 2012 too, and want to get on the RIGHT track, you'll be delighted to know about a program we are kicking off later this year with Australian Author and Coach Kerrie Phipps - Revamp and Create the Life YOU Want!

Last year we hosted a call to help you kick start your thinking about 2012 and let you know about the program.

Please let me know ASAP if you’d like a free mp3 recording of the call because it was incredible! Kerrie asked such insightful questions to get us thinking, and it was so inspiring to hear of the success clients on Kerries recent program had (including Lea from Christchurch!!!!).

Lea completed Kerrie’s recent Success With Confidence coaching program (I supported it with learning calls). Lea inspired us all with her comeback from the devastating earthquakes in Christchurch. Lea wasn’t alone – each of Kerrie’s clients made significant changes - new jobs, great new clients, amazing office spaces, increased confidence and clarity.

About the Revamp and Create the Life Program
I’m really excited about the unique 3 month coaching program we’re launching as it has been specifically designed to help you over a three month period to declutter your thinking, your time and your space, to make room for what really matters most.

We work together over 3 months starting with:

a one on one session with Kerrie to clarify your goals, then
Group Coaching calls to declutter your thinking
Group Learning calls to declutter your space and time. We'll give you the tools and strategies you need to get organised, save time and boost your health and your productivity.
Loads of practical resources to help you declutter your thinking, your time and your space! and
Creative Focus Sessions to help you when you get stuck!

Don’t forget just contact us if you want the recording so you can plan for 2012 and find out about the program.

Lunchbox foods and behaviour?

Louise D'Allura — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 13:06:00 +0000

A UK Government-funded study confirms what many parents have long suspected - some of the chemicals put into everyday foods and drinks can cause temper tantrums, sleep disturbance and disruptive behaviour.
.
How much do you really know about what’s actually in the foods you eat?

I am very excited to announce I am running our very popular Food for a Happy and Calm Household seminar where parents and educators discover some alarming surprises in everyday healthy food choices.

I really love this session and I keep it fun and informative - over the 2 hour seminar. I really do appreicate that your investing your time to come and learn about better options for your family.

We cover lots in the two hours:

Which food additives are linked to health, learning and behaviour problems (including asthma and hyperactivity).
How easy it is to shop smarter and still stay sane.
How to read and interpret food labels so you know which additives are worth avoiding.

We will also have Lucky Door Prizes and light refreshments (on arrival). Another really important tool that everyone loves to take away is the handy Additives to Avoid card. It really does help to make shopping easier!

We've got a great deal going if you'd like to buy your tickets online! Be sure to check out the event page for full details. I really look forward to seeing you there!

The Art of Masterful Delegation

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 21:29:00 +0000

I recently spent time with one of my office organising clients providing some Masterful Delegation Coaching.

Delegation is one of those skills that can be done really well or really poorly. Delegation can provide an excellent opportunity for staff or children to feel valued and learn new skills. It can also be a brilliant time management tool for you!

Unfortunately my client had a not-so-great experience exercising their delegation muscles. As I listened I got an idea of the challenges they were facing, what they could control and what opportunities they had. When the time was right we gained some insights and I shared loads of tips to try and tools to use which would make the whole delegation process so much easier in the future.

One of the things we talked about was how delegation is one of the most effective time management tools for managers and leaders. According to a survey of 1400 Chief Financial Officers delegation was reported as the most effective time management tool.

Done right Masterful Delegation can save your time and your life from being lived at work, in your business and doing everything yourself!! Learning how to delegate either to staff or children is a terrific way to share the workload at home and at the office!

No matter who you're trying to delegate to, there are three simple steps to consider. The PCS approach (with accompanying Masterful Delegation Checklist) is only one of many tools we teach clients - and a great place to start getting better results immediately.

Each phase of the PCS approach has a series of questions I've summarised it into two questions per stage!

P - Preparation - take some time to think and gather what the delegatee will need to know about the task
C - Communicate - the outcomes you're looking for, how often you'll need to meet.
S - Supervision - what will you do to keep track of the task you've delegated so you can get the result your looking for and provide a learning opportunity

After running through these steps plus a host of other strategies they felt much better prepared to stretch that delegation muscle once again!

Top 3 Tips to deal with Laundry Chaos!

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:11:00 +0000

As many of my clients know I have a background in occupational health and safety. This might seem an odd combination with being a professional organiser - but it is actually quite perfect!

When I learnt about the improvement strategies that manufacturing and mining companies implemented I immediately knew elements of these productivity improvement strategies could equally apply to office processes and even the laundry!!

At Revamp we pride ourselves in looking at how we can reduce the wasted time, effort and money that often happens in everyday tasks! Washing is a great example of how we can think about everyday tasks as a production process. Watch our latest video to discover....

Click here to view the video.

Create a delicious Christmas Menu on a budget!

Louise D'Allura — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 16:19:00 +0000

Have you noticed the Christmas Decorations in stores already? A friend of mine posted a photo on facebook the moment he saw them – in SEPTEMBER! Strange isn’t it?!

As many Revampers would know, Christmas for me is all about the food (ie the FEASTive Season) and being with the people I love. Last week I was interviewed by a Journalist for my top tips on how to create a delicious Christmas Menu on a budget.

When I was being interviewed even I was astounded at just how much you can SAVE at Christmas by being organised with your Christmas Menu. So I thought I’d share two tips to help you get ahead.

Start growing some of your vegetables now for Christmas!

If you get in early you’ll be able to harvest some of your vegetables for your Christmas dinner. Easy growers include Lebanese cucumbers and eggplant. I remember one year for Christmas I gave everyone a beautiful home grown eggplant because I grew so many! They were so beautiful wrapped simply with a red ribbon. Yes rather random but grown with love!

Introduce more vegetarian dishes
Our Christmas menus can often be heavy on the meat with ham, turkey, chicken, roasts! Look for ways to prepare vegetables in season before the day so it saves you heaps of time and money too!

Zucchini and asparagus are both in season so why not make a Zucchini Slice as well as an Asparagus Quiche. My favourite Asparagus Quiche recipe has no pastry! The best thing is you can make these the day or night before and serve them cold – so easy and delicious!

If you’d like our favourite Asparagus Quiche Recipe, just drop us a line and we will send it to you!

How to declutter your Spare Room

Louise D'Allura — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 15:47:00 +0000

With an Australia Institute survey revealing that 88 per cent of homes have at least one cluttered room (usually the spare room), and the average home has three or more cluttered rooms, we thought we'd take the time to ask - what is your dream spare room like?

If you want to convert it from cluttered and out of control to Purposeful and Fabulous we've got some special tips just for you!

Our brand new video gives you some tips and tricks on how to approach organising it!

Click here to watch the video.

Don't forget to look at the R-E-V-A-M-P process to help guide your efforts first on paper.

Less stuff, more happiness: Making room for the good stuff

Louise D'Allura — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 15:43:00 +0000

It's well-known that Australian homes have grown massively in size. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, they have leapt from 150 square metres in 1984-1985 to 206 square metres by 2002-2003.

While many of us need a bigger property as our families expand and our lifestyles change, an Australia Institute survey also reveals some reasons for our moves:

88 per cent of homes have at least one cluttered room (usually the spare room)
The average home has three or more cluttered rooms,
One in five respondents had built a shed or garage to keep or store things,
One in eight had moved house to accommodate their superfluous ‘stuff’
More than a quarter of respondents had an average of seven unpacked boxes in the home from their last move.

This week a Revamper from the UK shared with me this brilliant video featuring Graham Hill – it is sensational and I thought you might like to see it too! It only takes 6 minutes to watch and presents wonderful insight on those important boxes we take with us on every move….

Graham Hill, writer, designer and founder of TreeHugger.com asks “Can having less stuff, in less room, lead to more happiness?” He showcases some great innovations, and lays out three rules for editing your life. It’s great!!!!!

How to declutter your wardrobe

Louise D'Allura — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 17:52:00 +0000

Where to start?
Before you even open your wardrobe take a moment to answer these questions:

What type of clothes match your lifestyle NOW vs five years ago?
How do you need your wardrobe to function first thing in the morning?
What clothes/ outfits do you wear that everyone compliments you on?
Where will you donate or sell the items that don’t make you look absolutely positively fabulous?

Ok, now you’re ready to open the door!

How to declutter your wardrobe
Take each item out and if you know instantly it doesn’t belong in your life anymore, send it packing!

If you still like and wear the item, work out what it is and group like with like, colour with colour – and winter items together. The aim is to be able to see if you have 15 black short sleeve turtle neck tops, so you can pick the best ones to stay. When the going gets tough - remember to focus on your chosen charity to make the “donate” decision easier!

Once you know what stays you’ve got a better idea of how much stuff you really have and what sort of storage you need.

At this point the aim is to look at the way you store your clothes to get better access to them as it is said we only wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time.

Clever storage solutions
Check out our You Tube video on clever storage solutions for wardrobes to find out the organising tools we recommend to all our clients.

How to keep your wardrobe organised
Use a system to monitor the items you aren’t ready to let go!

One of the simplest is to hang all of your coat hangers facing one way (e.g. backwards). As you return an item put the hanger facing the opposite way (e.g. forwards). You’ll be able to see quickly which items are taking up precious real estate in your wardrobe because the items you don’t use will have their hangers facing backwards.

Set some rules around the inflow of clothes. For every new item you bring in one thing has got to go! If you want to challenge yourself try one in, FIVE out.

Have fun with this!!

Tips for storing winter clothes

Louise D'Allura — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 17:45:00 +0000

Taking the time to sort through your winter clothes now and store them properly means that come next winter, your clothes will be ready to go back into your wardrobe and closet.

Here are our tips to help you on your way:

Collect all your winter clothes and place them together in one place so you can see how many items you have. This will also help you work out the style and number of storage containers you will need.
Empty the pockets of each item of clothing and check for rips, tears, and stains.
Toss any clothes that have seen better days.
Wash the clothes you are going to store so they are in great condition.
Pack your clothes in a dry, cool location. Consider investing in quality storage containers that can roll under your bed or be stored on a high shelf in your wardrobe.
If you have suits or coats that are not suitable for folding, consider hanging vaccum bags. They will seal the clothes and reduce the space they take up.

Time Management from the Inside Out

Louise D'Allura — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 17:26:00 +0000

We recently completed training with New York Times best selling author of "Time Management from the Inside Out" Julie Morgenstern to become a Time Management Coach.

What was so amazing about Julie was just how normal and down to earth she was – despite the incredible success she has!! Julie Morgenstern has been dubbed the "queen of putting people's lives in order" by USA Today, has over 22 years experience as a professional organiser and productivity expert. She has been a regular on The Oprah Winfrey Show and Columnist for O, The Oprah Magazine.

It was also a joy to meet so many wonderful other Professional Organisers from around the world. My biggest highlight was getting advice and support on directly from Julie - she has an incredible wealth of knowledge and instinct about people and what will work to help them with their time management and organising challenges.

Revamp Professional Organisers Pty Ltd is proud to now deliver Julie Morgenstern's trademarked G.P.S.™ system to clients in person and virtually via skype.

If you want to discover hidden inefficiencies in your schedule and create time for what’s missing in your life, then the G.P.S.™ Time Management Coaching Program is for you!

If you need a hand to great a healthy and balanced lifestyle that supports your personal priorities and professional/ business goals, give us a call.

Victoria Beckham's secret to lose the baby weight

Louise D'Allura — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 07:21:00 +0000

I recently saw in the media some commentary around Victoria Beckham’s diet – rumoured to be a diet called the ‘Five Hands’ diet. Finding anything legitimate about it is proving to be a challenge.

According to Grazia Magazine she is following it to taper her figure in time for a grand unveiling at New York Fashion Week from September 8-15.

Now what I’ve found interesting in all this is reading the comments on websites and noticing what is being talked about. Now I’ve never really taken notice of what Ms Beckham has been doing (other than her incredible brand extension strategies post Spice Girls!)..... but I have to admit I’m a little intrigued by all the interest in it!

“A source told the magazine that she has cut out sugar and has been snacking on miniscule portions of smoked salmon, prawns with chilli, yellow-fin tuna sushi and scrambled eggs.”

“Five days after giving birth, she started eating five high-protein meals a day accompanied by green vegetables, drinking gallons of water, and only snacking on goji berries and nuts.”

Now most of the comments I’ve read on websites in response to these reports have focused on “she’s only snacking on goji berries and nuts” and unfortunately and ignoring the potential positive aspects of what she IS doing. While there are lots of questions about it and there is little to no info on it, I'm wondering if the five hands refers to the size of the protein or the whole meal? If it is the size of the protein serve then she is actually eating an appropriate sized serving of lean protein i.e. hand/ palm size (if you look at Trudy William’s This = That you’ll see what I mean – a palm size serving is all you need of lean protein). This combined with green vegetables. Sounds reasonable too. It is also reported that she has included loads of water, and is eating nuts and berries as snacks. Again that sounds reasonable. What’s even better - cutting out sugar (=unnecessary calories!) and salt - doesn’t sound too outlandish does it?

Now while there are some big questions over the alleged diet's nutritional adequacy (e.g. calcium) especially if she is breastfeeding, I guess I was just shocked at how shocked the people commenting were that her diet was "ridiculous". Maybe interms of portion size if it is 5 handfuls all up - but if it just refers to portion size of protein, I think it is a better than average effort by a celebrity to eat well.

Anyhow reading these comments really got me thinking about what does mainstream thinking consider a ‘healthy’ diet to be? Should we be shocked by what Victoria Beckham is eating - no sugar and no salt!? Or applauding her for eating 5 smaller meals of fish, eggs, with lots of green vegetables and snacking on nuts and berries?

Does disorganisation cause havoc in your life - at work and at home?

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 10:45:00 +0000

One thing I know for sure as a home economist and having worked in workplace health - is this - clutter and disorganisation impacts upon your health and wellbeing in a very, very real way.

It adds stress to your already busy life. It saps your energy and it can be really difficult to find the motivation to tackle other important jobs.

Have you ever noticed as soon as you put something down - anywhere - it's like a silent signal gets emitted into the universe and before you know it, a stack of all sorts of other random items have accumulated around it too?! How crazy is that?!

Feng Shui experts say that clutter has a really sticky energy to it and I can absolutely vouch for that. Chances are if you've ever been into a space and you felt too overwhelmed by the clutter, it means you've felt that stuck sticky energy that hangs around clutter.

What is disorganisation/ clutter stopping you from getting to at home (cooking healthy meals, hobbies) or for your business (marketing, strategic planning)?

To help you tackle this, here are some of our tips to get you on your way:

Everything in your home or office needs to have a home -- a place that is logical and close to where you use/ or look for an item. If it is an item you use for every day, you need it to be within easy reach and readily accessible for everyday use. Other stuff like archive documents or kitchen appliances you use occasionaly are best stored in an out-of-the-way area.
It is a good habit to train your ITEMS to return home ;) When an object strays from its 'home,' it can easily be lost, and these items build-up in random locations.
Pick one area that if you worked on would make LIFE SIMPLE - in your WORK life or your HOME life. Choose ONE AREA that you rely on daily. This might be your pantry; your incoming mail zone; your paperwork flow. It might even be your time. Whatever is causing you the biggest grief - stop wasting your precious time, your energy and your money tolerating a really really inefficient system. Don't waste another day - pick an area and allocate 30 minutes to PLAN how you will tackle it - break it down into little jobs and schedule it in. Focus on one thing at a time instead of cluttering your mind with multiple tasks. Multi-tasking is overrated!!
Once you've achieved a win - set aside a regular time to do a quick straighten up - 10 minutes is often enough to do a quick mad dash to pop things away - get the family and your staff (at the office) involved and responsible for their own items.

If it seems too hard - supercharge your efforts and call us! So many of my clients tell me they should have called us years ago. We focus specifically on creating systems around your kitchen and meal planning and streamlining and simplifying your paperwork and office.

Busy Gals Guide to Taking Your Lunch

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:49:00 +0000

I’m often asked what do I take for lunch when I’m working with clients. My clients can tell you I do practice what I preach about healthy eating and avoiding food additives!

If you’re a gal on the go too, you might like some of these ideas too!

fresh fruit – I pre-peel my mandarins and pop them into a container. I’ll add chopped fruit too if I have time in the morning (e.g. sliced kiwi fruit, rockmelon)
whole fruit (e.g. Apple)
Vegetables (carrot, celery, zucchini, cucumber) in slices/sticks
trail mix - organic sulphate free dried fruit and nut packs (raisins, currants, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds)
reduced fat cheese sticks/cubes/slices
Cheese and crackers (or rice cakes/corn cakes)
Small dinner rolls with tomato and reduced fat cheese
Home made savoury cheese and vegetable muffins
Home made sweet muffins
If possible – Sandwich with cheese and salad (egg)
Chopped Sushi

I keep everything cold with a freezer brick and UHT milk or Juice.

Drop me a line and share any other ideas you have?

Lists to get and stay Organised

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:42:00 +0000

Checklists are great tools to help simplify everyday life. A shopping list is a great example of how they help us in everyday life - it keeps us accountable as well as a reminder of what we went into the shop to buy!

I don't know about you but I love lists - I find these really help my efficiency especially because my memory is shocking!! If you're not sure how a checklist would help, take a minute to identify those times you keep asking the same question but forget the answer.....

Here are our top picks to get started with:

Leaving the House Checklist
Make your mornings easy by knowing you’ve got everything you need. Jot down the essentials and blutac it near your front door. If you have to be organised and take gym gear or the kids have sport on set days – make a 7 day leave the house list.

Checklist for the week
Start your week by making a list of all the things that you need to accomplish this week by breaking it down into each day. Carry it with you and mark each item off when completed. This will give a great feeling of accomplishment and closure.

Easy Lunches Checklist
Make a list of all the easy lunches and snacks that you could have. Keep it in the kitchen so you can stop wasting time wondering what should I have for lunch today. It also helps you when you are preparing your shopping list – you can look at your easy lunches list and add on a few items to make sure you’ve got lunch and snack items all week.

Camping Checklist
If you love camping, make your life easier by having a list of things you need to pack and when. Breaking it down into when to pack means you don’t have to do everything at once. Work out what you can pack a week before vs two days before vs on the day. Packing a little at a time is so much easier and less stressful!!

If the thought of creating your own list sends you into a spin click here for cool lists from List Plan It! They've done all the hard work for you!!!

Discriminate what you say YES to

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 21:32:00 +0000

What are you doing with your time?

Often people assume that just because I'm a professional organiser I must be uber organised and was born with the ability and skill to be organised and manage my time perfectly. The truth is organising space is easy for me - looking for systems is like breathing! Helping OTHERS find pockets of time and managing it - easy. Dealing with my own time? Let's just say I've had my struggles of using and abusing time. I think I'm getting more relaxed about sharing my story in the hope it helps others - because I am afterall, human.

I'm sure you've heard it before but time is the ONLY resource that once used - is used forever. I'm painfully reminded of this when I think to the things I wish I had done with friends and family when I had the chance.

The lesson I want to share with you is simple..... Discriminate what you say YES to

I know I know - you've heard it all before! Just say no! Oh it can be so annoying to hear - As if it is that simple?! And you know what - it isn't simple. It requires work to really change that habit. It is so ingrained that you have to really WANT to do things differently.

Doing it IS hard - but WORTH IT! Believe me I know!! If you're the person who says yes to every request for help, you're not alone. This was me: "Of course I can! I can do that - oh and do you need someone to do this too? Sign me up!"

If this sounds familiar it won’t surprise you to know that a lot of people who struggle with managing their time, hate to let others down by saying no - even if it leads to them being overwhelmed by work/ committments and no time for family. So much of my working life I felt I had to prove myself. I'd take on more and more to show how competent I was and not wanting to disappoint others. In the end all I ever did was dissappoint myself and feel like I wasn't working hard enough and efficient enough because I just couldn't seem to get through it all. And so started a vicious cycle.

Constantly helping others work on their priorities while my tasks got behind. I needed to work long hours to complete tasks. I wasn't able to finish the things I needed to in a normal business day and they built up and up and up. Add to the mix being a perfectionist - and I was wondering what was wrong with me because everything took so long! I was stuck in a tower of ‘stuff’ and struggling to get out while everyone else seems to be going on with their lives.

An Aha Moment.... Lived out out loud... very loud
I had an aha moment where I discovered I was not taking responsiblity for what I was doing to myself. I was at a workshop on looking at Your Mindset and the facilitator needed someone to work with - on stage. The perfectionist in me wanted to keep sitting quietly (you won't know what you're doing - you'll look silly) - but the people pleaser in noticed "not too many people have their hands up and I'd hate for the facilitator to feel that no-one was there for them." The people pleaser in me won out - and up went my hand. oh dear....

Let's just say that people pleaser part of me got the shock of its life - once the light was shone on that part of myself - you can not take back what you've learnt - I was being a "people pleaser" in the wrong parts of my life and allowing it to run my life in cahoots with my "perfectionist". What a gift - an opportunity if you like, to do something different! I grabbed that with both hands and I haven't looked back. I know WHY I am saying yes and saying no - simply because I take the time to hear myself think!

Do you feel guilty when you say no?
Now the thing is - that people pleaser is still in me. I'm just more willing to question my automatic response to say YES to everything. I'm discriminating - is this for my higher good and the good of my family, what about the business? Am I REALLY the only person who can do this? Who else had the knowledge or skill to do this? By saying YES what opportunities am I depriving someone else from learning?

Instead of doing things out of habit or tradition, I've learnt to think it through. Unfortunately we are trained so early in our lives to be helpful that it can be to our detriment. This secret is about identifying your automatic habits.

Some of these might be:

Saying yes too quickly to invitations and requests.
Constantly helping others work on their priorities while your tasks get behind. If you need to work long hours to complete your tasks this might be something that you're doing.

Most of us have ‘triggers’ that flick us into ‘yes’ mode.
It could be specific people who flick your switch or perhaps there is something deeper inside that you need to track down and identify. When you take on all this extra work there will be a payoff for you, even if you don’t realise it.

What might the payoff be for you? Feeling needed, appearing reliable and even indispensible? I know that is what it was for me and without realizing it I had trained people to come to me to solve every little problem for them!

It’s OK to say no. It’s healthy to say no. You have the right to say no. You aren’t responsible for other people’s problems. A great little story I once heard from a Buddhist monk was "Just because someone drops elephant dung on your doorstep - does not mean you need to be the one pick it up." How cool is that?!

One of the things that will help you accept your right to say ‘no’ is to understand what triggers your switch. When you know what they are, you can deal with them and prepare for them.

How to Get Started: Find Your Triggers

Pull out a notebook and:

Ask yourself “What or who do you always say yes to?”
Describe the situation you tend to be in. e.g. In front of others, in a meeting, it’s your mum/ mother in law asking…….
Describe how it makes you feel? What emotions run through you? E.g. guilt, pride, panic…

By working out whether there is a place or time that really puts you under pressure to accept the work you can start to build some strategies to manage the situation.

So, in your notebook, for each situation you described as a trigger I want you to write down some answers to this question:

Instead of saying yes, what else could I say or do?

By working this way through each of your trigger points, you will have some alternate strategies in place for the next time someone wants to flick that switch.

When you are able to say no, you're on your way to reduce the chaos in your life. Believe me I really do know what it is like!

Could you be eating 5kg of food additives a year?

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 14:33:00 +0000

Did you know it has been estimated that every year Australian’s consume at least 5kg of food additives each? Now this wouldn't bother us so much if all of the additives in our food were 100% safe with no questions. What we are disapointed about is while our food regulatory body permits approximately 300 additives in our food, there is evidence that at least 60 of these additives are questionable in terms of safety and some are even BANNED in many European countries.

This is among the many mind boggling things you'll discover at the Additive Alert Community Talks based on Julie Eady's best selling book Additive Alert.

Additive Alert Pty Ltd was founded by Julie Eady in 2004 to promote better consumer awareness of food additives and their effects on health, and to advocate for better labeling of Australian foods. Since then Additive Alert has delivered over 200 information sessions to educational, community and corporate groups locally and interstate. As demand for the workshops has grown steadily, Additive Alert have a team of trained, passionate presenters available to deliver the workshops and information sessions within the community.

We are delighted to announce to Revampers that we are now part of the Additive Alert team as Queensland's authorised Community Talks presenter!

Every year, Julie receives letters and emails from consumers all over the country detailing how food additives are having a serious impact on the health and wellbeing of their families. These letters often detail startling improvements to health and behavioural issues and confirm just how important it is that Australian consumers, especially parents, find out the facts about which food additives can cause harm.

If you'd like to find out which additives to avoid and why, contact us today to book in the very low cost Additive Alert Community Talk for Childcare, Community Groups and schools - starting from a tiny $100.

What to choose for lunch?

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 14:31:00 +0000

Choose foods that help you to maximise your energy throughout the day. This will also help managing your body weight. Here are some quick tips you might like to try!

Lunches

Use wholegrain breads
Add beans or lentils to your salads and sandwiches — 3 bean mix is an easy choice!
Add a variety of vinegars (apple cider, balsamic, red wine, white wine) to your salads
Make a pita with falafel and hummus
Try different salads such as pasta salads, brown rice salads, chickpea salads
Baked beans on wholegrain toast or bread

Snacks

low fat yoghurts
avocado dip and pita bread chips
fruit - apples, pears, peaches, summer stone fruit
home made popcorn (watch the butter and salt!)

Get Organised and Return the Gift of Unwanted Holiday Weight Gain

Louise D'Allura — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 13:14:00 +0000

Did Santa leave some extra kilos under the tree this year for you too? If you’re like the average person, chances are you gained between 1-3 kilos during the feast-ive season!

If you want to get off the FEASTive eating and drinking roller coaster, treat each meal in its own right. At this time of year your goal needs to be make healthy food choices when you can. Some nights you might just end up eating a handful of tiny quiches for dinner. The goal is to make sure you eat healthy breakfasts, lunches and snacks and don’t forget to look at portion sizes.

With New Year’s on the way, do what you can in the days leading up to it to focus on eating healthy foods at every meal you can. So instead of eating left over cheesecake for breakfast, eat your normal cereal and fresh stone fruit.

If you’ve started thinking about your resolutions for 2011 why not add ‘get organised for healthy eating’ to your list?

Getting organised is one of the proven methods for losing weight. We don’t often realise it but the way we organise our lives has a big impact upon our health. In an Australian survey on obesity, one in five experts ranked time pressure as the single most important social trend underlying the rising rates of obesity.

If you need a hand, why not sign up for our online Get Organised for Healthy Eating in 21 Days Program?

It kicks off with a one-on-one phone consultation with Home Economist/ Nutritionist and Accomplished Professional Organiser Louise D’Allura to get you in the right headspace so we can uncover the stumbling blocks, and allows Louise to strategise and prioritise the 6 fundamentals she wants you to focus on during the 21 day program. Over the 3 weeks you'll get an e-class that takes you through each fundamental and how to integrate your learnings into your life! Here’s a sneak peak of the 6 fundamentals you’ll learn:

Fundamental 1: Know your food philosophy.
Knowing this unlocks why you are eating in the first place!

Fundamental 2: Get knowledgeable about your food and how to cook it.
This is really about cutting the clutter and get back to basics!

Fundamental 3: Get your kitchen and pantry organised
Get started just by looking for items out of date, and what healthy grab and go snacks you have on hand?

Fundamental 4: Menu planning your way.
This is all about stop fighting who you are! If you have a hard time with meal planning, take the free quiz to uncover your menu planning personality.

Fundamental 5: Eat well, often, mindfully and being a conscious cook
We tend to eat out of habit. If you’ve ever gone a party and eaten snacks constantly or eaten popcorn during the movies, you know what mindless eating is all about.

Fundamental 6: Move more!
At this time of year we feel pulled in different directions and unfortunately the thing that tends to drop off our list of priorities is ‘me’ time or workouts. Do what you can to keep moving.

Visit our website for full details but for only $97 it is a bargain!

Christmas Party Games for Families

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 08:47:00 +0000

If you're hosting Christmas and don't want it all to be about the food, why not add some games to the mix?

We've taken some inspiration from all places including our favourite show Spicks and Specks! We've tried to pick games that will work for kids, some that will work for the adults and some that will work for both! Have fun!!

Timed Guessing Games
This includes naming the gifts on each of the 12 days of Christmas, naming as many Christmas carols as you can, taking a word and making as many words as you can from it, and a Christmas word scramble. You can have little stocking stuffers for the winners. Kids and adults are good for this one.

Family Trivia
Who knows the most about their relatives? Let each relative write down something that happened to them and give them to the person in charge of the game. Everyone else gets a piece of paper. After each question is read, all players write down whom in the room each is referring to. The one with the most correct answers at the end of the list wins!

Charades
This is a tried and true party game. Mix it up so some of the guesses relate to Christmas and popular cartoons, movie, book, song, or even event. The team with the most correct answers wins. Just like on Spicks and Specks you could make this a drawing game - perfect way to recycle big sheets of Christmas wrapping paper!

Name that Christmas Carol
Just like on Spicks and Specks grab about 6 books - really dull or interesting ones (that you or your Christmas guests bring) and write the names of Christmas carols on a card. Stick one in each book and each family member has to sing the Christmas Carol using the words in the book, but to the melody of the Christmas Carol. Whoever guesses the tune first wins a prize!! Start off with easy carols and progress to harder ones!

How to Get Organised, 10 minutes at a time!

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 08:33:00 +0000

Have you noticed how more chaotic life seems to get as soon as we start the count down to Christmas?

If you're feeling like there is no chance to get an organised life because you just can't find the time, here are 10 ideas you can do in 10 minutes to help you keep organised and feel a little bit in control.

Don't forget now is a good time to book in your free one hour consultation for January! Drop us a line via our website or give me a call on 0408 723 559.

Disorganised Folders?

Set aside one minute per folder and recycle any papers you no longer need

Junk Draw Power Purge

Set your oven timer for ten minutes, grab a garbage bag, open the junk drawer, pick through anything no longer needed and toss it in the garbage. When the timer ends, you stop and take your bag of unwanted items to the bin.

I just don't love you anymore

Go through your wardrobe and choose five articles of clothing you never wear. Yes - only five!!! No more no less! Put them in a donation bag, to be given to your favourite charity.

Toys reunited

This is one you and the kids can do. Set the timer on your oven and walk around your home with a box/ green shopping bags and put in any stray toys. Once the timer goes - STOP!! Putting them away is tomorrow's 10-minute organising project!

Get ahead

Ok can I confess I get behind in birthdays if I haven't done this. Write out all of your birthday, anniversary and other greeting cards for one month. Address them, stamp them and send them out.

Book it in!

Set aside a regular 10 minutes a week as your book it in time. Whether you've been meaning to make an appointment with a doctor, your accountant, a repairman or a friend, taking a regular 10 minutes to do this helps you keep organised.
You might also want to add call Louise at Revamp to book in a free one consult after Christmas/ in January to get organised in 2011.

Crazy Cluttered Inbox full of Emails!

I struggle with this one too, so set an alarm on your phone for 10 minutes for a power purge of your cluttered inbox to delete emails you no longer need.

I'm sure there was a flat surface here...

Whether the surface is a table, a dresser, a desk or an ottoman, remove any clutter so you can actually see the surface again! File any papers needing filing, return any stray items to their rightful homes and toss any junk.

Bathroom Beauty

This is a great 10 minute job. Take a look and toss out any old makeup and ones you never use, expired prescriptions and anything else you don't need! Clear benchtops are a step towards creating your own day spa!

Surviving the FEASTive Season

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:47:00 +0000

As we stand on the brink of the FEASTive season, are you starting to think about all the weight you might gain? Usually at this time of year we become fantastic at eating with reckless abandon! A more helpful way to think about it, is to look at how to maintain your weight during the season, as well as introducing some healthy eating behaviours for the NON party meals? It takes only 21 days to create a habit so try some of the ideas below everyday for the next 21 days. Before you know you'll be on your way to surviving the season with these tips and in no time you’ll be on your way to making better decisions for your health!

1. Am I hungry?
Eating when we aren’t hungry means we miss our body’s natural cues. Many of us fall into the habit of eating when we’re bored, eating out of convenience or eating because we’ve had a bad day.

At this time of year eating nibblies at a party is something that you can allow yourself. The trick is to think about the other foods or courses to come, portion sizes and mindless eating. If you're going to eat snacks - enjoy them being conscious of how delicious they are, the smell and texture. Use all your senses. Once you've had the opportunity to enjoy and notice how absolutely fabulous they are, move onto the next item or stop. I promise you there is more delicious food coming! Afterall you don't have to follow the lessons of your childhood; no one is telling you you have to eat EVERYTHING on your plate before you can have desert!

2. Water, water, and more water.
Each day we need around 2 litres (8 glasses). Not only is this good for our body, it can actually make you feel full. Also, when you think you're hungry, chances are your body is actually thirsty and dehydrated! Don't wait to drink until you feel thirsty. The easiest way to get that kick start is to drink two glasses of water FIRST THING in the morning - yes before your properly awake!! This is a great habit to start - do it for 21 days!

3. Divert your energy.
What non-eating activities can you do during this time of year? If you're getting ready to out out to a Christmas event, turn the music on and dance around for at least 5 minutes. Our goal is to get in the habit of moving more! It takes only 21 days to create a habit so do something everyday - even something as little as when you’re in front of the TV try knitting, pilates, yoga or if you have one, ride an exercise bike or treadmill. Don't forget to park your car further away from work or the shops, take the stairs instead of the lift - try all sorts of little things to move more!

4. Declutter your pantry.
This is really important to help move your sabotage foods out of the house - especially at this time of year. I bet you don’t even need to open the pantry to tell me what they are. Support your efforts and get them out!

5. Get lunches and healthy snacks organised for everyday eating!
The key to helping you stay on track at this time of year is to have healthy lunches and snacks readily available in your home for everyday eating. For lunches try salads, quiches, boiled eggs, tuna. For snacks carrot and celery sticks, home made popcorn without butter, fruits, or a make-your-own trail mix with raisins, nuts, and dried fruits.

This is a great time of year to balance out the FEASTive season eating by introducing healthy habits so you don't have to feel guilty about enjoying the beautiful foods and celebrations this time of year offers!

Clutter free gift ideas

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:07:00 +0000

With research showing 88 per cent of homes have at least one cluttered room, and the average home having three or more cluttered rooms, where you can, try and choose gifts that don’t add too much clutter to your family, friends or children's teacher’s lives!! Just by thinking outside the box there are some great gift ideas that won’t add clutter!

1. Gift cards
There are lots of giftcards on the market now - everything from donations, through to iTunes, to experiences like hot air balloon rides! Giftcards mean the gift recipient can get exactly what they want vs what you think they want!

2. Gourmet lovers
Do you know someone who loves tea or coffee. Why not put together a little gift basket of a few different types of specialty teas or coffees, with gourmet biscuits? If you can – resist the urge to buy a cup or teapot - unless you know they want one and the style they like!

3. Pampered Kings and Queens
This is a great one! Perfect for overworked family members or your child's favourite teacher! Afterall what teacher wouldn’t appreciate a gift certificate for a massage to melt away the stress of the year?

4. Socially aware
If you or someone you know is passionate about a cause, consider making a donation to a charity on their behalf. If you’re not sure which one, choose a charity that offers unconventional gifts!

At Revamp we choose to support Opportunity International - an organisation that provides microcredit or a micro loan to help people in India, Indonesia and the Phillipines start or grow their own small business. The majority of loans are taken out by women so they can earn an income to afford food, clean water, proper shelter and an education for their children. What's great is as each business grows, loans are paid back and lent out again. With 97% of loans repaid, the cycle continues, year after year. Each successful business feeds a family, employs more people and eventually helps empower a whole community. How good is that?

5. Ecofriendly or Organic Gardeners
If you know a keen gardeners, or wanna be gardener, why not buy them some gardening supplies. This might include packets of vegetable seeds (organic heirloom varieties if you can), and accompanying companion plants and flowers to keep the bugs away!

These ideas are only the tip of the iceberg, once you start thinking the possibilities are endless!

Are you suffering from CHAOS?

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 17:02:00 +0000

That is - Can't have anyone over syndrome! I don’t remember where I first heard that saying, but I love it! As we approach Christmas this Syndrome raises its head and causes a huge amount of anxiety. One family I worked with decided the best way to get their home organised was to host Christmas. It was going to be the first time in five years they had people over. For a whole host of reasons, life got busy and the year slipped away. Before they knew it, it was December and PANIC hit just before Santa started to Ho Ho Ho.

So what can you do if you’re feeling like you’re suffering from the Can’t Have Anyone Over Syndrome? It might be in one room or all your rooms. Either way, take a look at the gift in these lessons from Our Christmas Client:

1) Set yourself a goal.
Our Christmas Client got this part absolutely perfect - they set a date by inviting family and friends over for Christmas lunch. They identified they needed to get the kitchen, family room, toy room, entrance, dining room and spare rooms sorted so they could offer guests a beautiful space to be entertained in, a place to eat and a bed for the night if they had a little too much cheer!

2) Break down the project into small pieces and book it into your and your family member’s daily/ weekly schedule.
This is where Our Christmas Client got stuck – not having that plan meant they didn’t know WHAT they needed to do, HOW or WHEN. If your estimations of how long it will take have you completing it in 6 months time, give us a call. Our clients always tell the difference between working on your own vs working with a Professional Organiser is incredible - it dramatically improves your productivity and you actually feel like you’ve made progress!

3) Declutter.
Our Christmas Client felt they had decluttered all they could, but there was STILL NO ROOM for family and friends to be entertained in. If you have a lot of stuff, you need to evaluate each item if YOU are going to live the same space as IT. We asked the tough questions, and taught Our Christmas Client how to practice Mindful Organising instead of YoYo Organising. YoYo is where you start organising one area, then find something that belongs elsewhere (e.g. tea towel), and before you know it your organising the WHOLE linen press instead of DROPPING OFF THE TEA TOWEL!?! Funny creatures aren’t we!

4) Everything needs a home
A place for everything and everything in its place – wise words from Benjamin Franklin! This is how childcare centres are set up – the children know where things go, because the items live in the SAME spot. Our Christmas Client loved it!

As always it is rarely about the stuff – it is all the feelings, emotions, or busyness of a crazy schedule that led to its accumulation or what the items mean in the bigger picture of life.

Get that kickstart!
Address your CHAOS with our R-E-V-A-M-P Plan! We’ll visit you (in person or virtually), clarify your vision and immediately start creating your Step by Step R-E-V-A-M-P Plan.

We’ll work with you to understand your frustrations, and find organising solutions that suit YOU! Within a week you’ll receive your R-E-V-A-M-P Plan packed with decluttering and organising advice on the priority areas of your home. Find out exactly what to do, how to do it and where to go for supplies.

You’ll also get three follow up calls included with your R-E-V-A-M-P Plan. So, what do you have to lose? ONLY YOUR CLUTTER!! Call us on 0408 723 559 or drop us a line.

Living in Chaos - Lessons from a Renovation

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:05:00 +0000

The month of August has tested my skills as a professional organiser! When you’ve lived through a renovation you know how much it impacts upon your life. This month I thought I’d share the challenges and strategies I used as I faced as our second last instalment of renovations.

1. There is always more than we think
I honestly didn’t expect to do much decluttering – after all it was only bedrooms, a linen press and home office that needed to be moved. And well, I’m a professional organiser - of course I’ve decluttered my belongings, and pared them down to the basics!

Hmm famous last words! As soon as I started taking items out, I became aware of the enormity of it – I felt how many of my clients do – when you begin to wonder when will the end be in sight? Eventually all of our belongings were neatly covering every square inch of our living room and dining room furniture and floor. I found it very confronting as I could see what I have always known – my stuff outweighed my husband’s.

2. Breaks are good
I discovered I needed to stop on a regular basis to keep my energy going. I was so grateful for my wonderful clients who welcomed me into their homes to let me organise them during the last month, and wonderful colleagues who met me for coffee to talk business. Thank you for providing me with respite from MY chaos! I also found my slow cooker was a handy little “power tool” for renovating too.

3. Mindful Organising
Organising by yourself can lead to YoYo organising! YoYo is all about starting in one area, then finding something that belongs elsewhere (e.g. tea towel), and before you know it your organising the whole area that you were just meant to drop something off in e.g. linen press or tea towel draws in the kitchen.

Practicing mindful organising meant I had to keep asking myself WHAT am I doing right NOW – walk away from the linen press and put the tea towel DOWN!!

4. Deadlines are helpful
Having a deadline really made a difference to my schedule and when I needed to have rooms organised and emptied by.

5. Everyone is different and so is their organising style
While the work was done on the house we had the good fortune of being able to house sit for my parents and their beautiful vegetable patch! The interesting thing about house sitting is you get to appreciate how your organising style differs from others. In particular my kitchen, pantry, fridge and freezer is set up to suit my menu planning personality!! The only thing I need to confess is I did re-organise their utensil draw (nothing was tossed - just put like with like).

The other benefit of house sitting is it makes you prioritise your can’t live without clothes and items.

6. Ready for a quick escape?
Years ago I created a dedicated travelling toiletries case! If you travel a lot or go camping a lot you must create yourself one and pop in first aid items that are relevant for travelling needs. I can honestly say this saved me an enourmous amount of time pre and post holidays! All I need to do is pop in new soap and the electric toothbrush and we are ready to go! I do keep a spare toothbrush handy if I don’t want to take the electric toothbrush.

7. Do I really need it and where will it live?
Ok this is when it got really tough. This week we arrived back home to a brand new looking home! Freshly painted and luxurious carpet under our feet! Seeing just how wonderful it was helped me re-evaluate how much of this stuff do I really need?

So, over the last two days I have challenged myself – my husband gently encouraging me by saying he knew this great little organising company that might be able to help! So, here are the questions I found very helpful (funnily enough it is the REVAMP process!):

What is the purpose of this room/ space/ cupboard (R-emember)
What items need to be here/ would I like to have here in this beautiful newly painted and carpeted space? (E-valuate)
When was the last time I used it/ wore it (do I look positively fab in it)? Can it be repurposed e.g. a bedside table is repurposed as a printer stand! Could someone love it more than me? (V-alue)
If I do keep it what will I do to use and honour it and where will it live? Where will I keep the things I need the most? (A-ssign)
What can I do on a regular basis to monitor ‘stuff’ (M-aintain)
What can we do to celebrate our new space? (P-arty)

At times it was really tough – especially with the “emotional clutter” mementos from my beloved Nonna and Nonno’s (grandparents). Asking these questions helped me to evaluate each item and it made the process a lot easier. In some cases I had kept an item because of the emotional attachment I have to a memory or person. I really had to cut through that and look at the item and work out when and how I was going to use it, if it still worked and how could I honour it.

We ended up dropping off about 5 garbage bags of clothes, jackets, towels, sheets, knick knacks, clothes hangers, glass ware, and a dinner set to Lifeline and Red Cross, and tossing/ recycling another 2! Not bad when I though I’d have nothing to donate/ toss.

8. Flexibility
One of the other things I learnt was that it is ok to adjust your priorities. Sometimes I got behind in emails, sometimes because the information I needed was on a different computer, in the box near the dining room table or the back up discs on the other side of town!

What else did I learn?
Having gone through the process of organising our space really did help me to reconnect to what my clients go through when we work together. As always it is rarely about the stuff – it is all the feelings, emotions, or busyness of a crazy schedule that led to its accumulation or what the items mean in the bigger picture of life.

Spring into National Organising Week this Spring!

Louise D'Allura — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:48:25 +0000

Spring is a great time to get in and spring clean your home! Not that you need an excuse but next week, is National Organising Week! Held 6-12 September, there are events being held across Australasia to celebrate everything to do with organising!

Check out http://organisequeensland.com.au/events-and-information.htm for full details, but here is a snippet of what is on:

Officeworks
Professional Organisers will be in store at the Aspley and Southport Officeworks answering questions and solving organising challenges!

Howards Storage World
Professional Organisers across Brisbane will be in store at the Jindalee, Mt Gravatt, Aspley, Valley, Noosa and Maroochydore Howards Storage World stores running workshops and answering any questions you have about organising.

Get along to one of the fabulous Howards VIP Events at Jindalee (Monday 6th September), Mt Gravatt (Tuesday 7th September) and Aspley (Wednesday 8th September) from 6pm - 7.30pm for Exclusive “After Hours” Access, mini workshops, Wine and Cheese, Great Prizes, Giveaways and Discounts!

At only $20 it's a bargain - you'll get a Howards Storage World voucher valued at $20 to spend in-store - which means you basically go for FREE! How cool is that!?

RSVP now in-store or with robyn@entirelyorganised.com.au

I hope to see you, your friends or family at one of these fabulous events (I’ll definitely be at Mt Gravatt!)

Quick and Healthy Breakfast Ideas

Louise D'Allura — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:42:12 +0000

Despite the benefits of breakfast being the most important meal of the day, many of us neglect breakfast. Breakfast literally means break the fast from your previous meal - usually 6-14 hours prior.

After almost 7 years of marriage I have finally convinced my beloved to eat breakfast! He loves telling me that eating the porridge I make doesn't make him feel like vomiting! Lucky I love him! The classic symptoms of low sugars include mild headaches, dizziness, mild nausea and poor concentration. The great news is he now finds that he is hungry at all the 'normal' eating and snack times. He has experienced that our metabolism really does need a ‘kick start’ in the morning so that all our metabolic processes can easily occur throughout the day.

Is your morning routine playing havoc?
Statistics show 22% of Australian parents admit their children often skip breakfast before school. Researchers have found that children who eat breakfast are faster thinkers, get better marks, are more assertive, and are less likely to be fidgety and irritable!!

Do you want to create a less frazzeled morning routine so that you have time to get breakfast in? The good news is – it can happen! It takes preparation, routine, delegation, and a sense of humor! At those times you feel like giving up – just remember you are teaching your children skills that will last a lifetime.

So, our top tips to have less frazzeled mornings (summarised from a two page tip sheet) are summed up as:

Observe your routine
Create a landing zone/ departure lounge for keys and bags (same spot each time)
Start preparing the night before.
Create a routine to streamline your morning keeping timewasters in mind
Delegate any tasks where possible – pick age appropriate tasks.

Our Top Picks for Breaky

Cooked porridge (great for winter and spring)
Natural Muesli and skim milk
Bircher Muesli (add yoghurt and fruit the night before – leave in fridge - great for spring)
Shredded wheat biscuits (e.g. weet-bix) with fruit, milk and yoghurt
Raisin toast - topped with ricotta and chopped banana and strawberries
Wholegrain muffin/ toast with cheese and tomato
Fruit smoothies (can do some prep the night before - cube your fruit and place it into a container). Add a cup of plain yogurt and blend.
Boiled Egg sandwich (can cook eggs the night before and place in a container).
Fruit salad with yogurt
Yoghurt, natural muesli and fruit (keep small bags of muesli and fruit in the fridge next to the yoghurt so you can grab them and run!)

These quick and easy breakfast ideas can be made within minutes and are a much healthier alternative to skipping breakfast or grabbing a high fat alternative.

Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program

Louise D'Allura — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 01:21:00 +0000

The evaluation report prepared by The University of Melbourne and Deakin University on The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program program, which operates in 139 schools around Australia to help primary schools set up a kitchen garden has heralded the program a great success!

The study found that children involved showed clear changes in attitude, knowledge, skills and confidence in relation to cooking and gardening.

Here are some of the key findings of the report:

A significant increase in children’s willingness to try new foods, with 39% of children reporting they would try new foods, compared with 26% at the start of the Program
71% of children in participating schools reported they enjoyed cooking, compared with just 50% at non-participating schools
Children are not the only beneficiaries of the Program, with 41% of parents in the survey claiming their children asked them to cook food they had made at school
The Program was considered by teachers to be particularly effective in engaging ‘non-academic learners’.

Visit the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program Website to look at the Key Findings and Final Report on this fantastic program!!!

What are Australian's top 10 favourite vegetables?

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 25 May 2010 08:01:00 +0000

VEGINSIGHTS is a new quarterly report produced by the Australian vegetable industry (AUSVEG).

Surprisingly this is the first time that the report has been produced but it reveals some interesting data on consumers favourite fresh vegetables!

The top vegies, purchased twice as much as any other vegetable, include carrots, lettuce, potato and tomato!

The data is based on purchasing patterns from the October-December 2009 period and revealed that 58 per cent of households purchased carrots and potatoes in the December quarter, meaning they were in the top four vegetables purchased, with onions following closely behind at 54 per cent.

While lettuce was also purchased by 58 per cent of households, double the amount of females to males purchased lettuce in the December quarter! I am wondering how they know it was female purchasers.... anyhow I can't wait to get my copy of the report from AUSVEG!

Capsicum, mushroom, broccoli, pumpkin and zucchini also made the top 10, however, all were purchased by less than 40 per cent of the households surveyed.

How does this compare to your household? I'd love to hear what you're whipping up in your kitchen with these vegetables?

When was the last time you felt this good?

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 25 May 2010 07:29:00 +0000

Have you ever wondered to yourself “life wasn’t meant to be this exhausting?”

If so, it sounds like you could join us for The Art of Stress Free Living!

In this fabulous one day playshop on Saturday 17 July in Brisbane, Revamp Professional Organisers Pty Ltd has teamed up with Helen Butler from Clutter Rescue and Narelle Todd from Successful Living to show you real simple and easy ways to organise yourself, your home, your meals and your family’s schedule as we dispel the myths of work-life-balance!

You’ll leave the day with a vision board, goodies bag and 9 Breathe-Easy Secrets to help you Get Control of your Home, Family Life and Create a Sanctuary Just for You!

Stop putting it off! Seats are limited for the event, so please go to our website and book your tickets early.

For more details and bookings visit www.TheArtOfStressFreeLiving.com

Do you feel like the only person in the world with a disorganised office?

Louise D'Allura — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:19:00 +0000

Paper paper every where!? Paperwork challenges the best of us (yes Professional Organisers included)! I spent last month working with a successful and busy woman find their way out of years of paperwork in their busy home office. My client realized she couldn’t tackle this big job on her own – and she was right - her paper situation was incredibly complex! For her, dealing with the bare paperwork essentials was the only way to survive.

We don’t often realise it, but the way we organise our lives has a big impact upon our health. We know it when we find ourselves struggling to balance our work, family and social commitments. Creating just a little bit of order helped my fabulous client stop feeling stressed and overwhelmed, and reclaim time to do some of the things she loves (guilt free)!

So, how did we help her get on top of her paperwork? We started with these 3 tips:

1. When paper arrives ask what you need to do with it.
Do you need to: Act; Refer or Toss that piece of paper? Asking questions helps you work out where it needs to go on its journey!

2. Act on it!
Are you finding common themes? Pay bills; claims to make; school notes to sign? Create a spot to deal with this incoming paper and have the tools near by so you can write on it what you need to do with it. Don't waste your energy re-reading it every time you pick it up!

Do you have some projects on the go? This might be revamping your website, planning a business planning session or getting a fence built. Create a file to keep your 'project' paperwork together. Once you've acted on it - you might need to refer to it later, or if you're lucky enough, can you toss it?

What are your peak times? Do you need to tackle your paperwork when you are feeling energetic? Take a look at how often you perform paperwork tasks - is it daily, weekly, twice a month, or once a month? Setting aside regular times to act on it is important because if we waited until we felt like it, we’d never do it!!

3. Refer - Everything needs a home
If you need to refer back to a piece of paper, you need to set up a retrieval system that works for you. There are lots of different ways to organise your files - the categories don't matter, as long as you can find them. If you work from home, keep business and home filing separate. Don’t forget it is said that we only refer to 20% of what we file 80% of the time. Unless you have to keep it for tax or warranties, ask yourself do you really need to keep more than a year’s worth of documentation?

The best thing is my client can now find what she is looking for without the frustrations she used to experience. The next challenge we're going to solve together is What's for Dinner!

When was the last time you felt this good? Need some help to find that balance?

Have you ever wondered to yourself “life wasn’t meant to be this exhausting?” If so, it sounds like you could join us for The Art of Stress Free Living!

In this fabulous one day playshop on Saturday 17 July in Brisbane, Revamp Professional Organisers Pty Ltd has teamed up with Helen Butler from Clutter Rescue and Narelle Todd from Successful Living to show you real simple and easy ways to organise yourself, your home, your meals and your family’s schedule as we dispel the myths of work-life-balance! You’ll leave the day with 9 Breathe-Easy Secrets to help you Get Control of your Home, Family Life and Create a Sanctuary Just for You!

Stop putting it off! Go to The Art of Stress Free Living Website.

Is your home being taken over by toys?

Louise D'Allura — Sun, 09 May 2010 00:20:00 +0000

Toys everywhere! Is this a common problem in your home? I get a lot of enquiries from busy parents looking for tips and tricks to make the toy clutter easier to manage!

The most important weapon in the fight with toys is to set up your toy library!

To set up your toy library you need to do some observation! That's right just like a wildlife watcher! You need to know which are their favourite toys. Watch them for a week and see which toys they hunt out every day.

Once you know that, put everyday toys into smaller easy to access containers at a height suitable for the little hunters!

Now you can have a craft afternoon and create labels for the everyday toys.

So what do you do with the least favourite toys? Put them into a long term library storage - with a view to donate in 12 months time (if there are no other children on the way!) The toys that are used occasionly can be put into a week day toy library. You might take this out once a week or a couple of times a month on a set day just to add a little bit of interest to their play. There aren't any hard and fast rules so, just test out what works and try some of our bonus tips!

That's right - if you are ready for more tips we've put together a little tip book with 15 fabulous tips to help you on your way. Drop us a line and we'll send it out to you!

Now there's a fruity fruit!

Louise D'Allura — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 00:37:00 +0000

Check out this little fruit! The pineberry was close to extinction, but thanks to some Dutch scientists it is being sold in the UK supermarket chain Waitrose over the northern hemisphere summer.

Described as looking like a white strawberry, but tasting like a pineapple, the commercially grown strawberries originate from an 18th century European cross between wild varieties from North and South America.

Click here to check out the fruit and read more!

Food industry tactics: The marketing of the snack

Louise D'Allura — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 01:00:00 +0000

This article provides some interesting insights in how marketers view and address the opportunities of an increase in snacking amongst adults and children. Research from the US shows that between 1977 and 2002, the percent of the American population eating three or more snacks a day increased to 42 percent from 11 percent.

When snacking was less common, the snacking tended to refer to certain kinds of food. Now marketers have recognised the changes in snacking trends, in that it isn't just about the food, rather the way in which that food is consumed. Industry has identified 'at least five distinct snacking occasions' surrounding the three main meals each day, that they can measure and model significant patterned snacking behavior around.

Snacking can have a significant role to play in improving people's nutritional profile by providing opportunities to eat more fruit or dairy products (providing extra fibre and calcium), they can also however provide the opportunity for A LOT of extra energy depending on the food choices we make throughout our entire day.

A National Nutrition Surveys of food intake of U.S. children show large increases in snacking between the 1989–91 to 1994–98 and 1994–98 to 2003–06 survey periods. This research showed more than 27 percent of children’s daily calories are coming from snacks, and the largest increases were seen in the consumption of salty snacks and candy. Desserts and sweetened beverages remain the major sources of calories from snacks.

Check out the article

When things go wrong with food choices

Louise D'Allura — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:21:00 +0000

Let's face it - we all lead busy lives! Sometimes you may be surprised when you realise that sometimes you've let some not so good food behaviours creep into your daily life.

Instead of beating yourself up about it, try to stay on top of the problem and not let your head get the better of you and search for a solution!

The best way to do that is define the problem. What is it that you or your family has started to do? Have you and your family started to eat out a bit too frequently than you'd prefer because you are too busy?

Once you've worked out the problem, it is much easier to develop an action plan to help you get back on track, for example could you create a repertiore of healthy takeaway style meals you can make or learning how to make healthier food choices when you do eat out or get takeaways?

10 Habits of Highly Organized People

Louise D'Allura — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:46:00 +0000

The current edition of O, The Oprah Magazine has a brilliant little list of the 10 Habits of Highly Organized People. This article is great! Totally spot on, and very practical. The one thing I would add - however is get a labeller!!

Check it out at Oprah's website if you can't get hold of a copy of the magazine

Positive Affirmations

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 22:09:00 +0000

In a previous post I shared a positive affirmation I read. Sometimes affirmations can help you clarify what's important to you. Affirmations are generally a concise, positive statement that you say to yourself when you notice you are feeling stressed, challenged by a situation or in a negative headspace.

They really can be a great tool when you are trying to replace negative thoughts with more positive ones. If you are wondering what a positive affirmation could be, they might something as simple as "I give myself permission to be healthy in body, mind, and spirit."

Basically they help you keep on track and moving towards your goal, as both your conscious mind and subconscious mind is thinking that a healthy lifestyle is important to you.

There is no right or wrong formula for an affirmation - it only needs to be worded in a positive way!!

Australians abandon cooking for take-away

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 20:24:00 +0000

This article on Australians abandoning cooking for take-away is interesting with its thought provoking statistics and commentary.

The article highlights a record turnover of $2.9 billion dollars in the Cafes, Restaurants and Takeaway Food services category over the last three months. It suggests that even though there has been an increase in the purchase of household cooking items, TV shows portray every meal as a mouthwatering delight that home cooks cannot live up to. There's no doubt many home cooks do feel an enormous pressure when cooking for others. I always say that one of the biggest hindrances to enjoying cooking is cooking when you have to impress others!!!

Dinner parties are a classic example. Usually your concerns are around the food not turning out like the picture or your guests not enjoying themselves!! Cooking and dinner parties really don't have to be super stressful, and you can make them as complicated or as simple as you like!

When I read articles about how home cooks are feeling the pressure to create restaurant quality meals for their friends it gets me thinking about where and how did I learn to cook and what were the skills I learnt from my family. Growing up in an Italian family meant I had the best education in how to cook mountains of food. It always has to be mountains of food because you wouldn't want anyone to go hungry or feel unloved! No matter what the occasion - birthdays, lunch, dinner or just an afternoon tea – it is always accompanied by lots of food.

Thinking back now we never labeled eating dinner together as a "dinner party" - it was good friends of the family coming over - planned or unplanned. Often you'd whip up food because you were having such a great time, you noticed it was near dinner time! You also didn't have a panic attack because it didn't look like it was plated up by a Michelin star chef. Even if it was something simple, it was the time you spent together that mattered the most.

The dishes created by Julie in the first MasterChef series really summed up the nurturing aspect of sharing food with family and friends that I have grown up with. In our quest for better balance, we end up making more rods for our back thinking we need to be achieving unrealistic standards. After all what makes life easy for a chef can make life hell for the home cook!

The best way to get comfortable with cooking is to cook what you feel comfortable cooking! Why jump straight into hosting a dinner? Why not start with a brunch. Some prep can be done ahead of time, and you can balance the bought items with home made items (e.g. home made muffins vs store bought muffins). And, don't forget the real reason you have a meal together, is to get together.

Benefits of a healthy lifestyle

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 07:24:00 +0000

Today is as good as any day to stop and think about why we do what we do and how our behaviours either support our values, or move us away from our values.

I came across a health focused affirmation this morning and it really got me thinking, so I thought I would share it!!

I am healthy and deserve the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

1. How do I take care of my body?
2. What are some lifestyle changes that I can make in order to be healthier?
3. What is my motivation for being healthy?

6 Tips for Achieving Your Weight Loss Goals

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 06:34:00 +0000

Do you feel like you've tried every diet out there and nothing works? Achieving your goals is easier than you might think!

The thing is sustainable weight loss isn't a quick fix - the trick is recognising that following a two week unrealistic diet might get the weight off but it won't stay off for good. Crash diets have done nothing to alter your lifestyle, and we know the best results happen when you incorporate change into your daily life.

The good news is with a little common sense eating you can still enjoy the foods you love! The best way to get you on the path to sustainable weight loss is to introduce small changes gradually and before you know it your on the path to healthier eating!!!

Here are some easy tips to try:

1) Try low fat milk. It is a great source of calcium, but without extra fat.

2) Cut down soft drinks. These things supply a lot of empty calories, so try replacing at least one soft drink a day with water. This will gradually get you used to less soft drinks and increase your water intake (remember we are aiming for around 2L a day).

3) Look at your portion sizes. Portion sizes seem to be getting bigger and bigger these days, and more often than not we don't even realise we're consuming more than we really need. Aim to fill at least half of your plate with vegetables. If you want to go for a second helping, go for the salads.

4) Have healthy snacks on hand to curb hunger or cravings in between meals. Grab a bottle of water and an apple or little packets of dried fruit whenever you go out.

5) Do you eat desserts everynight? If you do try having fruit instead and enjoying more elaborate desserts once a week.

6) Look for opportunities to start walking. If a regular exercise routine is difficult for you, strive to walk more often. Why not park further from the shopping centre so you have to walk a little distance. take the stairs instead of the elevator. While it is hot and humid take the walking inside and go for a walk with a friend at a shopping centre for an hour, then continue shopping. You can catch up, and exercise all at the same time!

By incorporating these habits one at a time, it is easier to incorporate them into your lifestyle. You don't need to do everything at once, so get used to one before you add another one.

Feed your kids a healthy lunch for under $3

Louise D'Allura — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 18:09:00 +0000

Coles and Nutrition Australia have teamed up to offer a great little back to school brochure showcasing some yummy school lunch ideas!

They offer a good balance and are great if you are looking for inspiration. I love the ideas and think they are perfect for big kids too!

You can get the "Feed your kids a healthy lunch for under $3" brochure at Coles, or by visiting the Coles website.

Australia's Healthy Weight Week

Louise D'Allura — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 19:07:00 +0000

This week is Australia’s Healthy Weight Week. What a great time to think about your goals for 2010 and what you want to achieve!

If you are struggling with your weight why not try creating a falling off the rails food diary and take a forensic approach to your eating?

Whenever you eat something that gets you off the rails, jot down in a notebook what was happening for you at the time, what you ate and where you were. After a few entries you should be able to start looking for triggers or patterns of when your eating goes off the rails.

If you find that you're an emotional eater this falling off the rails diary will help you work out what non-food activities you can introduce into your life when you feel really challenged.

An Australia Day tradition!

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 19:20:00 +0000

One of the things I love about Australia Day - other than the celebration of all things we love about living in such a welcoming and multicultural country is the annual Australia Day Lamb campaign with Sam Kekovich!

If you missed it visit this link to watch. This year's theme is an address to the United Nations.

http://www.themainmeal.com.au/AustraliaDayLamb

Top New Year's Resolutions - Get healthy and get organised

Louise D'Allura — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 09:34:00 +0000

After the busyness of Christmas, the New Year is the perfect time to refocus on your priorities. I just read in the paper that singer and presenter Ricki-Lee Coulter wants to get organised, and do the things she's always wanted to do in her downtime, but then she gets caught up with life.

To me that really sums up two of our most common resolutions and why we find them such a struggle. Getting organised and getting your health back on track are often at the mercy of "life happening" - so much so we tend to forget what our priorities are! No matter what your resolutions might be, getting organised plays an important role in helping you achieve your goals.

What we often don’t realise though is the way we organise our lives has a big impact upon our health. In an Australian survey on obesity, one in five experts ranked time pressure as the single most important social trend underlying the rising rates of obesity. This is such an important point because when you come up with a new year’s resolution, it reminds us to focus on both what needs to change, as well as how to do it.

When it comes to the getting healthy resolution, devoting time to thinking about the barriers you experience that stop you from eating healthy food is just as important! A European survey of some 14 000 people showed that one third of respondents listed lack of time as a major barrier to healthy eating. How true is that?! We all know why we eat ‘fast food’ – and that’s to save time.

So, to help you on your way to get organised for healthy eating try our 10 tips to jump start your way into the next decade:

1. Set time aside to get organised
Plan your week. Have a diary/ calendar and use it religiously to book time out to get started on these tips.
2. View any past attempts as a learning experience!
This is your perfect opportunity to work out what didn’t work for you and why? If you have ever watched accident investigation shows you’ll notice they keep asking “why” until they get to the root cause of what caused a train wreck!
3. Book in a pantry/ kitchen declutter twice a year.
Winter and summer are great times to go through your kitchen and pantry because the food you eat changes dramatically!
It is also important to look for foods that you have in your pantry, fridge and freezer that sabotage your efforts to eat better. Be honest with your self - you probably already know the foods that are a better choice so go through your pantry, fridge and freezer and send the not so healthy foods on their way to a charity, family/ friends or to a new year's eve party!!
Not sure how to declutter? Here's a quick and dirty declutter process to use:

Look for anything that is past its use by date and toss!
Find any food that isn't going to help you keep and stay healthy and pass it on!
Group foods or kitchen items together in categories that make sense to you (e.g. canned foods; oils and sauces; baking stuff; sandwich fillings; bread, pasta, rice, tortillas; lunch supplies; snacks).
Keep items you use often in easy to access places where you use them the most.
If you have a bulging utensils draw or junk draw tip all the items of the draw into a box. Whatever you grab out of the box over 6 months can be returned to the draw, but whatever hasn't should go.

4. Keep your bench tops as clear as you can.
Cooking is so much easier when you have space on your bench tops!
5. Identify three healthy meals to cook a week.
Yes – only three! Start small and work your way up!
6. Add one extra vegetable to your dinner every night of the week
This is an easy way to increase the variety of foods you eat and build your immune system! If you are eating peas, why not also cook up some corn cobs at the same time, if you are having a salad, include an extra vegetable or fruit, or if you are having cooked green beans, mix in some halved cherry tomatoes just before serving and dress with olive oil and your favourite vinegar (balsamic, red wine or apple cider and season to taste).
7. Eat at least one piece of fruit a day.
8. Keep 5 quick and easy healthy recipes in your diary or purse.
When you are completely stuck for ideas and don’t know what’s for dinner, choose something from that list that takes less than 40 minutes to whip up! You’ll save a lot of money on takeaways and your sanity!
9. Always shop with a shopping list.
Get in the habit of using a shopping list and buying only what’s on it. This can help save you money as you aren’t buying things you don’t need, and already have! The trick is to train yourself to write on it as soon as you take something from the fridge, freezer or pantry. You can avoid a lot of impulse purchases by not shopping when you’re hungry or when the kids are tired or hungry.
10. Learn to read food labels
Food labels are a great source of information – but it does take a bit of effort to demystify the jargon! One of the best tips is to look at the ingredients list and ask yourself - does it look like your reading ingredients for a chemistry lesson, and are they in the proportions you’d expect? You’ll also find more foods are including information on the % of Daily Intake provided by that food. In Supermarket School we teach people how to look for items that are high in fibre and calcium, low in fat, sugar and salt.

We hope these tips help you on your quest to get organised for healthy eating!

Sustainability, local sourcing and nutrition - Top restaurant menu trends for 2010

Louise D'Allura — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 07:53:00 +0000

This month in the US the annual National Restaurant Association survey of American Culinary Federation member chefs (more than 1,800) revealed some interesting restaurant trends that are totally applicable in the Australian culinary environment.

The “What’s Hot in 2010″ survey on restaurant menus trends found local sourcing of ingredients, sustainability and nutrition as the top trends amongst the 215 items.

What I was most excited about was the number of nutrition related issues that came up high in the Top 20 (i.e. nutritious kids’ meals, half-portions, gluten-free/food-allergy conscious meals)!

Sustainablity was right up there with local sourcing “farm-to-fork” (or as we say in Australia paddock to plate) as number one. This obviously recognises both restaurant operators and consumers are focusing on freshness, minimal transportation, and supporting local communities and businesses.

On the design side, one of the hottest restaurant concepts in 2010 was restaurants with gardens (I’m thinking The Spirit House in Yandina!!).

So where do they get their inspiration so they can innovate? Television (e.g. Food Network, cooking shows), trade shows/ seminars/ conference and independent restaurants.

Have a look at the American Culinary Federation website for full details and to download the report!

Save your sanity with menu planning

Louise D'Allura — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 16:16:00 +0000

“What’s for dinner?” - it's a question we dread hearing or asking ourselves. It always seems to pop up when we are in the middle of being busy, or the clock catches your eye - how can it be 5pm already!?

You race to the fridge and freezer (mentally if you're at work) only to find you have 3 potential meal options but you’re missing key ingredients in all three. So, now you have to grab the kids, who have just hit the witching hour, fight peak hour traffic to get the shops, or get there on the way home, then hurry back to make the dinner and eat it before bedtime!

Do you say to yourself "If I had more time I'd be able to make healthy food. It's just getting takeaways is quicker and easier - I don’t have time to spend thinking about what to create!"

Take a moment to stop and breathe!
Menu planning can save you a lot of time and energy. There are lots of different systems you can use – when I work with my clients we spend time working out what style suits them best, for example, some like to plan their meals according to what is on sale each week, others like to plan a month ahead, others don’t like to plan at all because they don't know what they will feel like – and yes that is still a plan you can plan for!!

In my experience there are a few things you can do that will make your menu planning easier – even when you don’t like to plan!

1) Start with a kitchen/ pantry declutter
The best time of year to declutter you pantry is at least twice a year - at the begining of winter and summer because the food you prepare at these times of year is so different!

2) Always have a shopping list
As soon as you open it – put it on the shopping list.

3) Have roaming quick and easy healthy recipes
Create a list of healthy recipes that are quick and easy so you can select one in a hurry. Don’t over complicate it – just choose five and keep them in your phone, your diary, or where you can access them anywhere (for example via a web based email system, Google documents or recipe website).

4) Take short-cuts
Cooking doesn’t have to take up a lot of time! There are some pre-prepared foods on the market that are also healthy options. If we were on a shopping tour I'd be able to tell you which ones were better choices than others. In the meantime, why not try a roast chicken and serve it with a fresh salad. Or if you’re looking for ways to include fish in your diet get some frozen fish! While it’s cooking, par-cook potatoes and sweet potatoes in the microwave then finish baking them in the oven, tossed lightly in olive oil. Serve with a garden salad and dinner is on the table in 30 minutes!

5) Make Ahead Meals
Spend time once a month cooking a bulk batch of one or two meals that you can freeze. This is a great idea when items are on special (e.g. mince for bolognese sauce). Don’t forget to label your containers with the date and instructions on how to reheat and what to serve it with. No need to give instructions over the phone anymore!

6) Who’s helping?
You might also like to consider adding into your menu planning chores around cooking, cleaning and washing up/ stacking the dishwasher.

Have fun with your meal planning and remember to celebrate your success by saving the difference between what you currently spend on food and the amount you save by meal planning and put that money towards a “family fun fund” or a holiday.

Confessions of an organiser at Christmas ~ Part 1

Louise D'Allura — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:26:00 +0000

This week I found myself shocked to find Christmas decorations, wraps, lights and trees already set up in shops! Even though I am a professional organiser, it always surprises me how quickly Christmas comes around?!

This year I've decided to dedicate some of my blogs in the lead up to Christmas to focus on the important tasks and decisions that need to be made to help us ALL get ready for Christmas (yes me too - consider it like group therapy)!

So what do we need to work out this week?

The end of October is the perfect time to establish:

1) WHO do you need to book in and on what days?
See if you can start to sus out where you need to be on Christmas Eve? Christmas Day? Boxing Day? Knowing which days your dance card is full helps a lot!

2) What do YOU need to do for each Christmas event? Are you hosting or just bringing a dish?
Knowing this helps you to work out your tasks for the next few weeks! Do you need to pick a dish or plan a whole menu and work out who can bring what and which rooms of the house you must absolutely positively get organised vs which you can leave locked!

3) Presents!?
WHO needs to go on your list of naughty or nice? Why not take the lead from the big bloke in the red suit? If Santa starts out with a list - why don't you?! Don't worry about the WHAT to buy yet - just sort out WHO (and if you need to post any gifts).

The added benefit of getting in early means you can start to make suggestions to your family early instead of being on the back foot! If you all love buying and giving presents - Great! If it is something you absolutely hate, have some suggestions on hand to negotiate your way to a better Christmas present deal! Why not:

suggest the family buys gifts for the children only
set up a secret santa style gift for the adults
suggest a theme! This could be anything from donations to two or three charities that are meaningful to your family (e.g. Diabetes Australia, Anaphylaxis Australia) or gift cards!

4) To card or not to card - that is the question?
If you do write cards work out who and where do they live - overseas/ interstate/ locally. This way you know which cards you need to write first. Next week you might start looking around for gorgeous cards to buy. If on the other hand you are a crafty chick or guy, no doubt you are on the ball getting your stash of cards prepared!

So that's it - these are the four things I'm going to tackle this week!
Let me know how you go!

For the love of food!

Louise D'Allura — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:31:00 +0000

This month I had the privilege of being asked to be a guest expert on one of my favourite topics - food! The lovely Liz Bettles, founder and principal of Natural Order, Gold Coast's leading company in affairs management and better living design, shares my love of food and healthy living. Visit my editorial on the Natural Order website.

www.naturalorder.com.au

Shedding winter wardrobe kilos!

Louise D'Allura — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 19:22:00 +0000

Over winter and spring I have been busy working with Brisbane women to shed their wardrobe kilos. The metamorphosis I have seen in my clients is truly wonderful. Not only have we made it easier for them to find the clothes they love amongst those they didn’t, I honestly believe something magical happens because they always feel so much lighter! Plus they always find mornings are a whole lot easier!!!

One of the things I have enjoyed over the last few months has been delivering good quality donations to my client’s charitable organisation of choice. Before every wardrobe revamp I provide my clients with information about organisations that do amazing work in our community (including the RSPCA, Spiritus and the Salvation Army). For many clients this is the first time they have become aware of the breadth of work done by these brilliant community organisations.

Take the time to have a look and help out however you can.
www.spiritus.org.au
www.rspca.org.au
www.salvos.org.au