365 Items in 365 Days Challenge: May & June Update

How are you doing in the 365 Items in 365 Days Declutter Challenge?  It's the 177th day of the year today so if you started in January, your target is to have purged 177 items by now.  But don't worry if you're behind ... there's still lots of time to declutter!  And with summer upon us, it's a good time to declutter so you can feel relaxed in your home instead of overwhelmed.

We have over 500 people in the 365 Items in 365 Days Facebook group!  I wasn't even sure we'd get than many by the end of the year, and we did it in less than 6 months.  It's a wonderful, encouraging, and motivating group of people who are all committed to decluttering.  If you haven't joined yet, click here.

Today it's my turn to share what I've been decluttering since my last update.  My hope in doing this is to give you ideas on items you can declutter too.  With my vacation in May I didn't get to update my progress, but I did do some decluttering before I left and since I've been back. 

How To Have A Great Family Road Trip Part 2: Driving Through the Night

Have you ever done a drive-through-the-night road trip?  Or does the thought make you want to run to the nearest travel agent and book a flight right away?

Driving through the night doesn't have to be scary.  It can actually be kind of fun!  It gets you to your destination quicker. And saves you the cost and hassle of getting a hotel room.  And sharing a bed with your kids who kick you all night long :)

We often drive through the night at least one way on our road trips.  My hubby and I take turns driving and sleeping.  When the kids were younger we found we could cover a lot of ground during the night because we didn't have to stop as often or as long.  Now we do it so we can save the cost of a hotel and be able to spend more time at our destination.  And the traffic is much lighter at night so we have less delays.

Last week I shared tips for how to have a great family road trip.  If you missed them, you can read them here. 

Today I want to give you a few more road trip tips, specifically for driving-through-the-night trips. 

Organizing Ideas for the Weekend: Packing for Day Trips

Happy Friday!  Time for another organizing idea for your weekend!

This weekend marks the official start of summer!  And that means day trips to amusement parks, pools, beaches, and parks.  Sometimes day trips are planned in advance and sometimes they are spontaneous.  Either way, it's good to be prepared ahead of time, so you're not rushing around gathering everything you need (and risking forgetting something!).

In today's post I'm sharing some great ways to get organized for summer day trips.  I hope they help you have a fabulous time!

How to Have a Great Family Road Trip!

Do you take road trips with your family?  Or do you avoid them because the thought of being cooped up in a vehicle for hours on end overwhelms you?

I have great memories of family road trips.  We flew for some vacations, but many of our family trips when I was growing up involved driving to our destination.  Often the journey was a big part of the vacation itself.  Of course back then we were bouncing around in the back seat with no seat belts and could just lay down on the seat to sleep (maybe I'm showing my age a little now!). I'm glad some things have changed.  Safety first :)

Early in our marriage I shared my love for road trips with my hubby.  He'd never traveled very far by car so it took a bit of getting used to.  But it's MUCH more economical than flying and since having our kids we've only taken road trip vacations.  Our kids don't know any other way of traveling.

Road trips can be great.  Or not.  I've heard plenty of horror stories of road trips gone bad.  Sometimes those make for great shared memories... years later anyway!  Like the time my parents' car got tired of pulling a trailer through the mountains.  We were already hot because we didn't have A/C, but when the car started overheating, we had to turn the heater on full blast.  Not fun at the time, but funny to look back on now.

You can't control everything on a road trip, but over the years I've learned a few tricks to help make road trips great.  I'm sharing them with you so you can plan a great family road trip too!

We Did It! So Can You!

Do you have clutter in your home but don't know where to start purging?  Do you feel like you don't have enough time to declutter?  Have you seen all the 365 Items in 365 Days posts and thought "I really should do that", but you keep putting it off?

You're not alone!  But you also don't need to stay in your paralyzed state.  You CAN declutter!  And to prove it I want to share some stories of people Just. Like. You. 

Welcome to the "We Did It! So Can You!" series.  This series is about real people decluttering their homes, one day at a time!  Busy people, with too much stuff, who decided to take the plunge and purge.

Ready to be inspired?!  

How to Return From Vacation and Still Feel Refreshed!

Do you ever come back from a vacation and then within a day or two you feel like you were never away?  It's hard to come back to mountains of laundry, piles of mail, an overflowing email inbox, and then have to hit the ground running at school and work.

Is there a way to avoid this?  To keep those refreshed feelings last more than a couple of hours?

I'm not always the best at this, but over the years I've tried several things to help make the transition from vacation to daily life easier.  I hope they help you too!

Organizing Ideas for the Weekend: Summer Organizing Ideas

Happy Friday!  Time for another organizing idea for your weekend!

Summer has unofficially started!  My kids are in school until the end of June, but I know many of you are already in full summer mode with your kids home for the summer.  Either way, it's good to be thinking about what you'll be doing this summer.

So, this weekend's organizing idea is to start planning your summer!  Here are a few ideas to get you going :)

But before that, I wanted to announce the winner of the Blogiversary Giveaway!  Congratulations to Dara G on winning the $25 Target gift card and the 2 organizing ebooks!  Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate 2 great years on the blog :)

OK, back to the post!

Why Simplifying Is More Powerful than Organizing

I mentioned a few weeks ago that May and early June are going to be really busy for me with my hubby away, a "limited screen-time" family vacation, and preparing for the Trained Professional Organizer exam.  

I asked a few of my fellow organizing bloggers to guest post so I won't be completely overwhelmed and you can still benefit from some great organizing tips!  I'm so happy to be able to introduce these friends of mine to you.  Please make them feel welcome here :)

Here's a guest post from my friend Leslie!

June Family Goals {Free Printable}

It's the beginning of a new month and that means a new Monthly Family Goals printable for you!

Hurray for June being here!  It's the end of the school year, warmer weather, the official start of summer, and a time of winding down some of the "school year" activities.  I especially like the warmer weather part :)  I'm a summer gal and try to soak up every ounce of summer I can.

Blogiversary Week: 5th Flashback Post {And Giveaway Extended!}

Last week marked my second anniversary of blogging here on From Overwhelmed To Organized!  It's been an exciting year!

All week I shared last year's favourite and popular posts.  And to thank you for your support all year, I'm giving away 2 great organizing ebooks and a $25 gift card to Target (for US or Canada only).  Make sure you enter in the Rafflecopter form at the end of this post!

If you missed the other posts this week here they are:

Happy Blogiversary to me and a Giveaway for You!
Blogiversary Week:  2nd Flashback Post
Blogiversary Week:  3rd Flashback Post
Blogiversary Week:  4th Flashback Post

If you read the last post on Thursday, you saw my confession... how I'd planned to finish all these posts before I left for vacation and schedule them to publish while I was away... which didn't happen.  And at the time I published that post (nearly a day late) I said the next one was coming right away... and that didn't happen either.

Friday was a whirlwind of getting every last memory made that we could while we were at Disney World, packing all our stuff, loading up the van, and beginning the long drive back home (through the night!).  I don't know when I thought I was going to publish the 5th Flashback post in there, but obviously I didn't get it done.  We arrived back late on Saturday, exhausted, and fell right into bed after unpacking the van and a few necessities.  {Is it possible I'm getting too old for all-nighters?!}  Yesterday was filled with more unpacking, several family gatherings, and another early bedtime.  So here we are... with the 5th Flashback post... on Monday!

The good news for you is that I'm going to extend the giveaway!  Instead of having it finish tonight, I'm going to extend it to Thursday night, so more of you can enter.

OK, so here's today's flashback post.