Jul 11

The Perfect Staycation – 6 Local Ideas This Summer

By Sherry Borsheim Blog, Inspiration, Simple Living No Comments

Happy Summer!!

With all this lovely sunshine ☀️, I’m right in the mood to plan some adventures – and where better to begin than in my own backyard?

Let’s get right into it!

What IS a Staycation?

A staycation is an alternative to the traditional vacation. Staycation quite literally means a stay-in, vacation!

This allows you to be fully present without the many additional stresses of travel, and to spend quality time alone, or the people that really matter in your life 🤍

It can be easy to take your most important relationships in life for granted, including the one with yourself. When you’re caught up in work and life tensions, you can often overlook the small joys in life with those you love.

These kinds of vacations are great because they are totally customizable. You can make it an expensive, pampering, luxury stay, or as different and unique as you like!

A vacation often requires an extensive plan and a long journey. If you’re headed to a more remote place, sometimes you’ll need to plan even multiple methods of travel. And maybe learn a little of another language! 😵‍💫 This can easily turn overwhelming. With that being said…

Welcome to the staycation!

Benefits of a Staycation

Planning this type of vacation usually involves staying at home and visiting local attractions. Some people may also choose to stay at a local hotel.

With a staycation, you won’t have to worry about catching a tour bus or flight on time. And you will save several thousands of dollars. Even more ideal if you have a large family! 💸

You will be able to enjoy more time with yourself. There isn’t any packing to do, just relaxing, and you can forget about the extra suitcases needed for babies, toddlers, or multiple kids to manage.

What to Consider, and How to Plan

Are you going to go for more of a family setting, a romantic couples-oriented stay, or do you relish some solace alone? Tropical or home-style oasis? Do you want to decorate, or just declutter and relax in your newly calmed space? Decide on the purpose, and you can create any theme imaginable!

You also have the option to stay in your own city or visit a nearby one. Your stay-in vacation can really be that – staying in – or you can plan to visit some local attractions and events.

Be a tourist in your own city!

6 Ideas for the Perfect Staycation

1. Get Outside

A great way to soak up the sunshine and connect with those you love is to plan a local hiking trip with your sibling or best friend. If you’re not a rigorous hiker, you could also go walking around a new neighborhood to see some different sights!

Planning a picnic with family or friends is always fun too! 🧺 Each person can bring a different dish potluck-style or you can create your own charcuterie boards.

It’s also super trendy right now to decorate your picnic blanket with pillows, a small communal table, flowers, and the like 🌼

Being influenced by new recipes will also help you improve your own cooking skills. And who doesn’t love to be surrounded by delicious food, favourite people, and beautiful scenery?

2. Restyle your Home

Curtains are an easy decor change, but one that makes a lot of impact! Consider swapping to something more light and fresh, or if you’re going for a tropical theme, colorful and citrusy!

You can also rearrange your furniture (I love this!) to create small conversation nooks. Make sure to allot plenty of walking space in between pieces. Move furniture away from the windows to let in more natural light and create a sense of “breezability.”

3. Declutter to Reduce Stress

Staying inside when your house is cluttered and cramped with “stuff” – not relaxing.

Putting on some jazzy music, pouring a glass of wine (this is vacation right?😉), and sorting that procrastinated mountain of mail – verrrry relaxing.

Sort through the pieces of decor you feel need a refresher and set them aside to be replaced or moved to another location in your home. Also sift through your miscellaneous everyday items and your closets for linens, board games, and storage.

Think of a lovely resort – it’s not filled with clutter and unused items. It highlights complimentary decor pieces that have a relaxing, inspiring feel. And gives you plenty of open space.

While you’re relaxing at home, work on creating that sense of lightness and openness you’re craving – so you can keep it all year long.

4. Host a Wine Tasting

A really fun, social idea!

Invite some friends over and have each couple bring one bottle of wine that is cheaper, and one more expensive. Place them in paper bags (to hide the labels), then everyone can try them and choose favourites, before revealing which was the finer wine 😄

This event needs a couple pre-event materials like a corkscrew, two decanters, wine glasses, simple palate-cleansing snacks, and if you’re feeling crafty, wine glass charms! These charms would even be an extra little fun activity to make.

Want to host an even more memorable night? Make a charcuterie board or appetizer plate.

Alternatively, if you live near some wineries, most tour companies offer a package for a guided (optionally romantic🌹) “Staycation-Themed” wine tour.

5. Indoor Oasis at Home

Do you have a spare room at home?

This could be a blank canvas for you to create a fun, tropical indoor oasis – all year round. This is also a great activity to get the kids and whole family involved!

Some great additions could be hammocks, tropical plants, a misting machine, painting patterns or using wall stickers. And for reading materials, travel magazines and books!

A great spot to decompress from work and it will help you feel like you’re a million miles away.

6. Try Out a New Restaurant

What about checking out that new place on the corner you see every day on your drive home from work? The one that is always busy, full of people laughing, and pumping out great music!

This is a fantastic (and delicious!) way to support a local small business and try something new at the same time.

Or head out appy-hopping on a downtown street with yummy tapas-style restaurants.

Try a few dishes at each place!

So What Will Your Staycation Plans Be?

Start planning your staycation now while the ideas are flowing! You deserve it 😌

Make a list of all the local attractions that you have always wanted to enjoy. Search up the new restaurants and entertainment venues in your area. Check your city’s local events calendar!

And savour going easy on your mind and body.

Comment below to share your relaxing summer plans!

And which staycation tip will YOU try out?

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You’ll love this one Style & Declutter Your Home for Spring

Jun 06

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Reduce Stress and Mind Clutter: Minding Your Mind

By Sherry Borsheim Blog, Quick Organizing Tips, Simple Living No Comments

“Hey Sherry,

Could you write about how to free mind clutter?”

Have you ever gone to bed at the end of a stressful day, only to lay there for hours thinking of all the things you need to do the next day?

You stress over all the things you need to do and try not to forget when you get up in the morning. Things like calls, emails, and texts to reply to. Kids’ school papers to sign, groceries to buy, what to cook for dinner, and a birthday party to plan. Oh, and don’t forget all the errands, too!😮‍💨

Next thing you know you’re waking up exhausted in the morning with a major lack of sleep from all the mental notes to remember.

This is called mind clutter.

These are stress signs from your brain that you need to slow down your mental pace and reduce mind clutter.

You could organize your house a hundred times over but when it comes down to it – your headspace follows you everywhere in life. You need to declutter your mind in order to really take care of your personal well-being.

No amount of reading quotes online or thinking “I need to get back to myself” is going to transform your mind to a state of peace. You just simply have to do the work.

Which brings us to the question…how can we reduce stress and mental clutter? As a Professional Organizer, I have had a ton of experience teaching how to organize both physically and mentally.

I see firsthand every day what works and what doesn’t. These habits are what I incorporate into my everyday routine and I now reap the benefits of my mind clutter being off my mind.

Saying Goodbye to Mind Clutter Anxiety:

✍️ Write it down:

Do a “brain dump” and get your thoughts onto something visual like a notebook or your phone. Write down all the tasks, reminders, errands, dreams, and goals that are cluttering your mind and keeping you awake at night. Don’t evaluate or try to organize this list, just let it flow onto the paper. This exercise alone will remove most of the mind clutter causing you stress, anxiety, frustration, and sleepless nights!

Download "Brain Dump" Exercise

📝 Prioritize Your List:

Look at the list you just made from the mind clutter brain dump and highlight or circle the most important tasks that you want to accomplish next week. This will make the biggest impact on cutting your list down! Sometimes completing one task will take care of many other small tasks, kind of like a domino effect.

🧘🏽Meditate:

The goal of meditation can fluctuate. It doesn’t always need to be a deep experience or take a lot of time. Allotting yourself time throughout the day to focus on yourself is highly rewarding. The length can be flexible; maybe some days you have a good hour, some days only five minutes. It can be however best fits your lifestyle and however often you feel will give you the benefits you desire. Try asking yourself what you really need in the moment and allow any feelings, words, or images to flow.

Listen to your body and notice how you feel after just these few exercises. Are your shoulders more relaxed and not up at your ears? Are you breathing more calmly? Do you feel more in control and confident that your reminders aren’t slipping through the cracks?🤔

All these emotions and feelings are mind clutter. Let’s uncover some more on how to reduce stress and mind clutter:

📆 Use a Calendar System:

Pick your tool and stick to it! I can’t stress this enough. Use a digital calendar or a hybrid of a paper planner, daily task list, and/or digital planner. Digital lets you capture appointments and reminders within the moment no matter where you are. Writing down in a traditional paper planner to plan the next day works for others who are more hands-on. Personally, I use a paper planner and a digital planner and I like to plan my day the night before. This sets my mind at ease – which means I get better sleep and I’ve already put my plan in motion for the next day.

🕐 Batch and Block Time:

This is the secret sauce to being highly productive. When you batch time to do specific tasks, you reduce the mind clutter of switching back and forth between different tasks. Batching also saves you time as you’re not multi-tasking and unfocused. Things to batch are; calls to make, checking your email twice a day, content creation, errands, organizing your computer photos, family time, meal prep, and the like.

In conclusion, the more we can consciously manage our to-do lists, the more we are able to unpack our stresses. When a weekly schedule is organized it leaves us with more time to relax and enjoy that time with our loved ones – and who doesn’t need more of that?❤️

If this article reminds you of someone who needs to declutter their mind, pass along the tips!

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You’ll love this one👉 3 Tips for Making the Most of Your Time

Mar 11

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Keeping Things Organized in Your Bathroom

By Sherry Borsheim Blog, Home Organizing, Quick Organizing Tips No Comments

Quick – think of the room that gets the most use in your home!

Everyone uses it at one time or another during the day… and just about everyone living in the house has stuff stored there!

Did you say the bathroom? If you did, you know just how important it is to keep this room organized and clean.

Since there are so many washroom organizational ideas out there, I’ve compiled my favorites that are useful for everyone! These inexpensive tips are especially handy for teenagers and university students.

Here are my ideas to help you keep things simple, organized, and easy to use in your bathroom:

Tip # 1: Makeup and Magnets

If you use cosmetics, one of the worst things is to waste time rummaging through your bag in the morning trying to find your blush, eye shadow, or that always-disappearing eyebrow pencil.

I went over to a friend’s house recently, and she introduced me to the idea of putting small magnets on the back of your most used cosmetics! You can go to your local craft store to buy some super glue and small magnets, and secure them to the back of your individual makeup items.

That way, you can easily store your make up to the back of your medicine cabinet door, or any other metal surface in your bathroom! This makes them easy to reach, out of the way, and most importantly – easy to use.

Tip # 2: Hooks and Baskets

Everyone has their own favorites when it comes to cleaning their body.

Some swear by all-natural organics, while others prefer on the latest-and-greatest in aromatic science.

Whatever the case, keeping things separate is a good idea. And one of the easiest ways to do just that is to place hooks on the wall near the shower stall, with hanging baskets for each household member.

This way, you are freeing up valuable counter real estate for other things!

Tip # 3: Making Shelves Out of Nothing at All

Let’s face it – often storage space for such things as towels, toilet paper, and cleaning supplies is in short supply in many bathrooms.

It seems as if most bathroom designers don’t realize that these spaces are to be routinely used at some point!

If you find your bathroom woefully inadequate when it comes to storage space, consider using one of your empty walls instead. It’s simple enough to put up some brackets and a shelf, and you can easily make it look exactly the way you want.

Plus, what you need can be always within easy reach, instead of hidden away in some cupboard down the hall.

Tip # 4: Use Mason Jars

Worried about keeping smaller things organized and within easy reach? Things like tooth brushes, shaving materials, cotton swabs…

Consider using simple mason jars to keep things organized on your bathroom sink counter. The glass is easy to clean, they are inexpensive, and can be decorated in any manner.

Simply put one out for toothbrushes and toothpaste, one for shaving, one for cotton swabs, etc.

And if you want a little cleaner storage, you can use the lids to keep the contents safe from airborne irritants.