My Practical Guide to Life Organization

Photo by: Karolina Grabowska

As Raúl and I are in our final preparations before traveling, I’ve been pondering a lot the role that organization has in my life. As a general disclaimer, I am the oldest of three, so I’ve been responsible for as long as I can remember. I’m also an INFJ with the Myers-Briggs realm, so organization has always come somewhat naturally to me, and I’m usually good about using an intuitive sense to figure out what is coming next or what potential needs could arise and preparing for them. On the Enneagram, I am a 6, so I’m constantly in pursuit of security and stability. This means that when I feel like there is way too much on my plate and in my brain, the first place I usually need to start isn’t actually in doing a task. It’s in making a to do list, writing out my monthly calendar, and planning out my week. When I don’t take the time to organize myself, I tend to be all over the place. I’ll start one task and not finish it before transitioning to something else that I suddenly remember (which means not only shoddy work but neither getting done, usually).


Life in another country can present some unique challenges to organization, and certainly, there are numerous factors outside of one’s control on a daily basis. Thus, the fact that I have developed a lot of systems for myself doesn’t mean that they guarantee productivity or smooth sailing by any means. Rather, they are a way for me to engage in the mandate of the Serenity Prayer to recognize what is within my control and what isn’t. Sometimes, the only thing within my control is my attitude in the midst of everything circumstantially being out of control.


This post is in no way meant to be of a one-size-fits-all kind of design. My beloved ADHD husband would be absolutely miserable partaking in all of my means of organization, and I’m fairly certain he’s not even remotely aware or interested in knowing all of my organizational quirks. But, the bottom line is that finding a way to minimize stress, take good care of your relationships, and manage a healthy life of balance is a good thing. It may look different for every person, but it sure beats experiencing a deterioration in health because your scattered brain is buried under your workload or alienating or disappointing the people you love because of constant forgetfulness. So, if you happen to find any of the things that I do to be helpful, feel free to snag them for yourself. And, if you read and think, “Well, this is insane. I would never do any of this,” feel free to take some cracks at my neuroticism a la Mystery Science Theater 3000. (Side note, that show was one of the random things that made its way into my childhood via my dad’s sense of humor. I’m not necessarily as nerdy as that reference would portray.)


Home


Photo by: Ella Olsson

1) Meal Preparation. 
When I first got married, I was used to my eating not much and also the big meal being at dinner. Here in Honduras, the big meal is at noon. When I first started cooking a big lunch per my husband’s preference, I was miserable because I could not get anything else done. I’d make breakfast, have those dishes, then have to start lunch, then have those dishes, and then before I knew it, it was dinner time. I don’t particularly love doing housewife things. I like to cook, but I don’t like to spend all of my days cooking and washing dishes. So, my solution has been meal preparation. There are obviously lots of different ways of doing this, and everyone can find their own rhythm as it fits. For me it looks like this:

 *I grocery shop on the same day every week. The following day, I meal prep all day.

 *I always make a grocery list. I keep a running list throughout the week that I keep adding to as we run out of things. If I didn’t make a list, there is no way I’d ever remember what all we need.

 *When I shop, because I am on a missionary’s budget, I use a calculator. I wasn’t doing this for quite a while. Then I had a really tight month and had to and found that it keeps any impulse spending in check. So, I’ve continued it.

 *I have been known to put my list in order of where to find it in the grocery store especially if I know I’m going to be pressed for time. A lot of the time, though, it’s kind of nice to just roam the aisles and see if there is anything new that I normally can’t find in Honduras.

 *I plan meals for just a week at a time to give us plenty of room for adjustment so that food will not spoil if we unexpectedly end up eating out with the in-laws or someone has a birthday party.

 *I do as much cook once, eat twice meals as I can. Most of the time, that just means making enough to have leftovers though sometimes it can mean transforming something like a pork tenderloin into pork tacos.

 *I like variety, so we don’t eat the same thing every day…especially since my husband sometimes isn’t even interested in eating dinner, and lunch is the highlight meal of the day.


Photo by: Katie Smith

 *When I meal prep, I batch tasks. So, I will cut up all of the vegetables for the week at once. I will cut up all of the fruit at once. I will food process everything necessary at once. I will cut and cook all of the meat at once. You get the idea.

 *I often cook according to my schedule. The days that I know I’m not going to have time to cook, I have a meal prepared that all I have to do is heat it up. On the days when I’m home and my schedule is flexible, I try to have all of the components of a meal ready so all I have to do is throw it in a pot and cook it.

 *I know that a common trend in meal prep is freezing meals ahead of time. I have found that only somewhat works for me. Raúl has a general aversion to re-heated frozen food. His mom owns a little restaurant, so he grew up with a different approach to food entirely. So, unless it’s something that re-heats very well, I don’t freeze a lot of meals.

 *One of my more neurotic tricks is (sometimes) storing the food in the refrigerator in order of when we’ll be eating it so that I’m not digging around and later finding that I forgot an ingredient.

 *I keep all of Raúl’s breakfasts and snacks in the same place in the refrigerator so that all he has to do is grab them because if we’re honest, he just won’t go looking for anything in the fridge. If it requires a lot of looking and effort, he’ll eat a bag of potato chips instead. (Side note: Most Honduran men are used to their wives fixing their plates and literally putting it in front of them. I’m not necessarily against that, but after growing up with a Dad who happily cooked himself breakfast and searched the fridge to see what was there and heated up his own leftovers, it does grate a bit on my sense of “everyone should be self-sufficient and willing to tend to their own needs—at least in terms of hunger when there is food readily available.”)

 *Lastly, I am flexible because as mentioned, life here can be pretty unpredictable. I can make a meal plan and then not be able to find the one principal ingredient I need. Missionaries and immigrants are often champs at substitutions. And, if by mid-week I’m finding that we have a lot of leftovers, I won’t cook more until we’ve gone through the leftovers. Typically, at the beginning of every week, I clean out the refrigerator and whatever extras we happen to still have goes with Raúl to give away at his business. (There are always extra mouths to feed there.)

 *I hate food waste, so I also try to plan in such a way that makes use of all ingredients as diligently as possible. I often will make chicken stock out of a chicken carcass or bones or a raw chicken and scraps of celery, carrots, and onion from other dishes I’m making.

 *When in doubt, beans, eggs, and avocado to the rescue. The typical Honduran dinner is eggs, beans, plantains, tortillas, avocado, and some kind of dairy product like cheese or cream. Honestly, many people eat this nearly every night, and all of the ingredients are sold in Mom and Pop stores all over our neighborhood. So, when all else fails, we pick up these ingredients and have dinner within 10 minutes, and Raúl never complains about that dinner.


Photo by: Jonathan Francisca

2) Cleaning
Raúl and I live close to a wooded area, so we’re constantly overwhelmed with ants, scorpions, and other critters. And, we live in a very dusty area…aka I can dust in the morning, and it’ll be dusty again in the afternoon especially in the dry season. So, cleanliness takes on a whole different role and meaning here than it does in the States. With that said, our house is pretty small and manageable. Here are some of the things I do:

 *I use minimal cleaning products. Honduran homes aren’t known for having much in the way of hidden storage. I also don’t love spending a ton of money on cleaning products. So, I like to keep it simple. I like to keep baby wipes around because they’re a quick way to wipe up anything. I often use baking soda and vinegar to clean the stove. Other than that, we usually have hand soap, dish soap, Clorox, and a cleaning solution to mop the floors. That’s it. A little soap and water and old newspapers can go a long way in cleaning windows and mirrors.

 *I keep cleaning products in the same place (along with toilet paper), so that Raúl always knows where to find them.

 *I listen to podcasts while cleaning and doing the dishes. I hate the feeling that I am doing something that will only temporarily be done. You do dishes or laundry, and the same day, you already have more to wash. So, because I like to learn, if I can keep my mind engaged with something while I’m doing a mundane task I don’t particularly like, it makes the task more bearable…and enjoyable sometimes.

3) Finances.
Within my life here, I am constantly managing funds for different things. I manage my personal finances from donations that are sent. I manage the finances of the non-profit we run. And I often am managing Raúl’s ongoing information for taxes from his finances and business income. That’s a lot of different funds with different purposes. Plus, as a missionary or even in Raúl’s case as a small business owner, we live, first of all, by faith, and secondly, by flexibility because we never really know how much income we’ll have on a monthly basis. Here are some unique ways that help me handle all of that:

 *I keep a separate wallet for each use that way whenever I have a task to do, I can just grab the wallet and already know that everything I need is in there. I have one for our non-profit account, one for English class funds that only ever get used to buy class materials, and one for my personal use.

 *I balance my checkbook once a week on the same day. I get that this is an old-fashioned practice with the onslaught of online banking. To be fair, I use online banking to do so. But, I’ve already had my identity stolen once, and living overseas means that money that I withdraw or spend from a US account has other fees attached to it. If I didn’t keep regular tabs on those extra fees and on my receipts, my end-of-the-year tax organization would be a nightmare.

 *I pay bills at roughly the same time every month (usually a bit early) to cut down on any chance of forgetting…since we don’t get paper bills for anything except our electricity.

 *I budget by priority. Thankfully, Raúl and I don’t have any debt. So, that is one less worry, but I do have several commitments within the ministry where others are depending on me. So, my personal order of priority is: tithes and offerings, savings (unless it is a crazy tight month, and that’s just not doable…in that case, I usually try to make it up in a month with extra), the areas where others depend on me like for Stef’s university schooling, bills like the house and utilities and setting aside for taxes, groceries and gas (where I can tighten my belt more if need be), and anything else extra.

 *I save monthly for long-term obligations as well as trying to maintain some extra savings for emergencies. It’s usually not a lot, but it has helped out in a major bind from time to time.

 *Overall, I very much believe that God is my Provider, and I’ve seen Him do some miraculous things in my finances. But, I also believe in being the best steward that I can be.


Photo by Plush Design Studio

Personal

1) I use a planner and make a monthly calendar. I’ve used a planner since middle school, and I can’t imagine being able to function without one. I keep telling Raúl how much of a relief it is to write something down on paper to refer back to instead of trying to juggle it all in my head. In my planner, I keep daily to-do lists, weekly notes of things I need to get done within the week, reminders about commitments and special occasions like birthdays. Every month, I also make a list of goals for that month to keep in my planner.

2) I keep an ongoing notebook apart from my planner for grocery lists, idea lists, letter writing, meal plans, and anything else organizational. This may seem to be overkill because I already have a planner. But, I don’t like clutter even in the form of words and scribbles all over the place. Having a fresh, clean page for each individual topic helps me to keep my thoughts straight…and they also serve as a reference when I need it. As in—what was that dish that I made that we liked so well in February? Or, what ideas did I have to celebrate our anniversary?

3) I keep a journal. My journal is for spiritual reflections, quotes from books that are speaking to me, prayers, and Bible study notes. The reason that I keep this separate is so that it remains personal and sacred. If I tried to keep my spiritual reflection notes in my regular notebook or planner, I would quickly get side-tracked by when I need to defrost the chicken or how much I need to deposit on Tuesday. My brain easily strays, so anything I can do to keep my time with God set apart from and more special than the mundane aspects of life, the better.

4) I keep a running monthly and seasonal note on my phone. I know, I know my insanity is showing at this point. But, I actually decided on this practice from the influence of Emily P. Freeman. She places a lot of importance on reflection. She keeps a “These Are the Days of List” that just does bullet notes of little memories and what’s been going on. I do that sometimes too. But, she also keeps seasonal lists of what she’s been learning. These practices help to keep her more mindful of what she is actually experiencing rather than checking out in the busyness of life. So, I keep a seasonal list of what I’m learning, and I also keep a monthly list that later turns into my end-of-the-month recap blogs. That includes favorite things, foods I’ve eaten or made, things I’ve watched, and good things I’ve read.


Photo by: Sharon McCutcheon

5) I read roughly five or six books at a time. For some people, that may sound like a nightmare. But, I’ve found that it’s been the best way to be intentional about reading more. I enjoy counseling books, but I don’t want to read them as I would a novel. I want to digest them. If I read one book at a time, I often find myself getting bored and then avoiding reading altogether. The books I pick to read are usually of different genres or at least different topics. I like to start my day with quiet time reading the Bible and doing a Bible study and then reading the other books I have going. I don’t always get to read every day. But, when I do, I usually try for 6-10 pages in each book.

6) I practice theme days. If you listen to Emily P. Freeman’s podcast, The Next Right Thing, you’ll already know what theme days are. This is something that I’ve naturally done for a long time and didn’t even realize it was a thing until listening to her podcast. For example, Mondays are for administration, preparation for classes, and any other miscellaneous work (usually on the computer). Tuesdays are for going to ladies Bible study and running errands, Friday nights are date nights (even if we don’t actually go anywhere, it’s time we both set aside as dedicated to each other) etc. If you’re interested in learning more about those, I do recommend Emily’s episode about it. Here is the link: https://emilypfreeman.com/podcast/the-next-right-thing/73/

7) When I do errands, I batch them and plan a route. Because my errands take place within the capital city, traffic can get crazy and bank lines can cause lengthy wait times. Maybe it’s because I’m an introvert, but I don’t like having to go out multiple times just for one or two things. Sometimes, it’s inevitable because pressing things come up. But, in general, I like to get it all done on one day, and I like to plan a direct route, so I’m not running back and forth in the city.

8) In true Marie Kondo form, I try to keep like things in the same place. When my husband and I were dating, he lost his keys almost once a day and locked them in the car several times. Since we’ve been married, that issue has been (mostly) curbed by the solution of always keeping our keys in the same place. I also have a set place for receipts and journals and books I have read and books I have yet to read and so on.

9) I use messaging as much as possible. Maybe my inner millennial is showing, but I communicate myself much better in writing, and it’s so much more helpful for me to have information in writing (especially to have a record for when any language mishaps can come up). You know how when you’re on the phone and have to write something down, you tend to grab the closest scrap of paper…and when you need it weeks later, you’ve no idea where you lost it? That doesn’t happen with messaging (unless you don’t feel like scrolling up or searching or have a habit of deleting everything all the time). I’m not afraid of making phone calls and will do so when I need to. But, more and more businesses here in Honduras are actually directing customers to use things like Whatsapp and Facebook Messenger to ask questions or ask for information.

10) I use phone alarms often. If I happen to remember or become aware of something I need to do, but I’m in the middle of something and can’t do it right that second, I set an alarm on my phone for a later time that I know I’ll be able to do it.

11) I do my best to know where to go for specific information. One of the things a missionary friend has talked about as being an important step in missions life has been developing a sort of directory to know where to go in various situations or when in need of certain info. Google and YouTube and the like can obviously be helpful. But, in a country that isn’t always quite as digital, it does make life easier to at least have an idea of who would know where to go. For me, that looks like having a Honduran lawyer, a Honduran accountant, a US immigration lawyer, a Facebook group of missionaries who live in Honduras, a Facebook group of other women married to Hondurans, a jill of all trades (looking at you, Mama Cheryl!), my Mom (my personal, on-call nurse), a community of writers and bloggers, a Dad who is good at lots of stuff, a Honduran husband (for all of those cultural and slang questions) and many others. Without the aid of community, I don’t think Raúl and I ever would have figured out all of the paperwork needed for his immigration process. Yay for friends!

At this point, you’ve gotten a good look at how analytical my brain is, how it groups things together, and how I try to keep some level of sanity in the midst of MANY aspects of cross-cultural living that just. aren’t. logical. My organization doesn’t spare me the headaches of living in an environment that doesn’t usually work in the same way that I am geared to think and live, and if I obsess too much, it can warp to being a sense of perfectionistic stress rather than a means of maintaining stress. But, that is why the best organization has to go hand in hand with both humility and flexibility. Managing my expectations is a huge key in maintaining stress levels as well. In general, how I organize myself is my own personal choice and not something that I can or want to impose on someone else. But, if any of it serves you in some way, great! In the meantime, I’m curious—what organizational tips do you have to offer? I'm always on the look out for more ways to learn.

Tune in next time for a comical list of all of the ways I don’t actually have my life together.