Lately, my key to simplifying has been to stay out of the car. I swear, running errands in the car just sucks my day out the window. Instead I set aside certain days for running errands and, other than transporting DD to and from school, that is all the time I spend in the car. That gives me so much more time at home - where those projects are staring me in the face and I am more likely to get them done.

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"I've been rich and I've been poor but independently wealthy is where it is at."

Try cleaning/decluttering/simplifying in LAYERS. This is something I've really realized and come to enjoy doing just recently. I was getting overwhelmed with not being able to really delve into a project whole-heartedly and get it done from top to bottom, start to finish, with DS (2) "helping" me. So I started doing things in layers. I make sure my house is public-presentable each day, and then if I have time, I tackle a layer in one room. To determine what my "layers" were, I sat down for a short time and typed off everything I wanted to do in each room of my house, from decluttering the desk to adding storage in the closet, weeding through our books to shampooing the carpets and painting the walls. Then I grouped things together that seemed similiar and equal in time-spent on the collective tasks. As I go through each layer, I simplify and declutter within it. But since I'm not tackling a whole room all day instead of dividing my time among all my housework, it doesn't look like a bomb went off in the whole house by the end of the day. If I can't get to my layer for the day, then at least my house still gets clean (as it can in it's current state of clutter and confusion ) and I don't feel so discouraged and down about it all (and continuing the quest the next day).

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Lists! I LOVE lists! I am a visual person and get great satisfaction from being able to check things off! Try it...make a list for each room of what you want to accomplish and then pick a list...Don't do it all at once,baby steps are very important.

Good luck! And relax...you'll get it done!

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