Creatively Organized Spaces
Homing-an act of resistance in a fast-paced world.
What is home?
It a place where we can set our own pace.
What is home?
Homebodies make time and space to create a home through their senses.
What is home?
Home is the objects we carry with us.
What is home?
Ritual creates home-home is a relationship between bodies, spaces, and objects.
A collaborative video project between Heather K Powers & Sarah Kelly, created January 2020, Asheville NC during the MA Critical Craft Residency.
“Where I’m headed is a direct result of the ideas, goals, intentions and plans I create space for in my life.” -Heather K. Powers
I’ve come to love a few tools that I use over and over routinely. I’m including a round up of them below along with some new tools! Planning begins for me by selecting a planner. I went back to paper a few years ago. I’ve used quite a few planners over the years, including the Franklin Covey system, Filofax, Danielle La Port, and more!
I try to keep it simple and don’t go all out Bullet Journal. I use a Moleskin planner and customize it. This includes categories and intentions, goals, tasks, and events on a daily/weekly basis. My regular habit of Journaling helps me get a lot of ideas out of my head and on paper. During that process I can move more concrete ideas to my planner. This works for me. I’m always re-evaluating and making small adjustments. Overall, I’m happy with this and can easily go back through my year to see my accomplishments. If you’re searching for some great planning tools, the first few below are ones I’ve personally used and love! The last couple are new additions. But I deeply trust the sources and can recommend them with full confidence you will find them helpful!
How do you do year ahead planning and reflect on your accomplishments? I’d love to hear your favorite tools and routines in the comments below! I know there are a lot of options out there so I’m only sharing what I know, trust, and have seen results from:) Happy, almost, New Year!
It is time to SPRING open those shutters, let the fresh air in and kick the winter blues out of the house. Spring is upon us, it’s time to welcome the wellness of connecting with nature, both indoors and out!
Spring is such a beautiful time of year, flowers are blooming, the weather is getting warmer and the animals are playful everywhere you turn. While Spring as a season might be beautiful, Spring cleaning is not as glamorous, and for many people can feel like a drag.
But, it’s a perfect time to de-clutter, organize your closets and leave your home with that clean and fresh smell. There are so many cleaners and cleaning products on the market but do you really know what’s in them?
Non-toxic cleaners should be used around your home year around – not only in the Spring, and especially if you have small children. The benefits of greener cleaners include; fewer toxins and chemicals being absorbed into the skin, less damaging to the environment and better air quality in your home and they are less expensive in some cases (DIY cleansers!). If you want to better understand the toxic chemicals to look out for in your cleaners, check out my previous wellness post on the subject.
GreenWorks Multi-Purpose Cleanser is a great cleanser to use for virtually any room in your house. It can be used for a variety of different tasks and is safe for your home and your children. Not only is it made with 97% organic materials, but it also works on those stubborn stains or hard to handle messes.
Method is another cleaner that has the environmental seal of approval. The method product line comes in a var
iety of different cleaners including hand soap, dish soap, laundry detergent, bathroom cleaners, all-purpose cleaners and even a body wash for men and women! They come in a variety of scents and uses all biodegradable materials. They’ve thought of everything!
Mrs. Myers is a wholesome midwest cleaning brand started by Mrs. Thema A. Meyer. She created Mrs. Meyers because of her penchant for keeping things neat and tidy and the scents were inspired by her garden. Her line of cleaning products which range from hand soap, body soap, laundry detergent and air fresheners are all made with natural sce
nts like mint, basil, and lavender. If you want your home smelling like a bouquet of roses this Spring, you better get cleaning with Mrs. Meyers!
For those who want to know EVERYTHING that is in their cleaners, DIY is the way to go! Many homemade cleaners are made with ingredients you probably already have around your home. Vinegar, essential oils, baking soda, olive oil, and water are the key players in most of your homemade cleaners.
Bathroom
Vinegar is a key ingredient to getting rid of bathroom dirt and grime! For tough toilet stains, add ½ baking soda along with 
a few drops of essential oils into your toilet bowl when you’re ready to tackle the toilet add ¼ cup of vinegar and scrub away the mess as it works its magic.
A spritz of pure vinegar can be used in your shower and sink on soap scum and hard water residue. Add it to a spray bottle and spritz it on, letting the vinegar soak for 20-30 minutes before wiping off. If that doesn’t work, add baking soda to the mix and try again in 15 minutes.
Most kitchen surfaces can also be treated with vinegar, but if your surfaces are made from marble, granite or stone stay away from the high acidity and use vodka or rubbing alcohol instead. Mixing equal parts water and vinegar will make a very effective multi-purpose cleaner that can be used on most surfaces including countertops, floors, and walls.
To tackle greasy frying pans just add salt – and give it a good scrub! If you need to clean a cast iron pan add olive oil and a teaspoon of course salt and rinse well with water. The best way to sanitize surfaces is with a lemon, simply cut it in half and run it over the surface you would like to disinfect.
Having the right ingredients is only half of the job, having the right cleaning tool is the other half. Sponges that have a harder edge are good for scrubbing stubborn pots and pans. Rags or microfibre clothes are excellent for disinfecting surfaces and the magic eraser is great for removing soap scum, scuff marks and any other war wounds your child puts into it!
The laundry room is where most people run into trouble with the homemade detergents because if you throw a cup of vinegar in with your 
clothes, they wouldn’t come out smelling very nice. Laundry detergent is a bit tougher to make, only in the sense that you have to add more ingredients. Combine bar soap (chopped and processed), baking soda, essential oils, vinegar and washing soda and you will have created a very effective and pleasant-smelling laundry detergent.
Instead of using dryer sheets that lose their scent after one use, try using laundry ‘scenters’ that will stay fresh for up to 30 loads of laundry, or more! Add your favorite herbs or loose tea to a sachet (one that has holes that the herbs can aerate is best).
Every room in your house has one and floors can be tricky to keep clean. Anyone with hardwood floors can keep it simple by washing (or steam cleaning) with warm water, just be sure not to over soak your mop when washing the floors.
If your floors still aren’t looking as clean as they should, add a bit of dish soap in to bring out the dirt and let those floors shine.
Laminate floors are very delicate and steam mops shouldn’t be used on them. When cleaning a laminate floor clean with a light mop and spray the cleaner onto the mop, not directly onto the floor. Using a mixture of three parts water, one part vinegar and a squirt of dish soap should do the trick.
Most other floors are easy enough to care for and don’t require any special precautions. A typical all-purpose floor cleaner is a cup of water, ½ cup of vinegar and a tbsp of vegetable oil to bring out the floors natural glow.
There are hundreds of different homemade cleaner recipes out there, all have different purposes and work differently for all homeowners and their grime, but the one thing we can all agree on is that they are made from natural ingredients and have a positive impact on your home and the environment. If you have any recipes you’d like to share, please leave them in the comments below!
This is especially true when you spend a ton of time in your car, to and from work, carpool, errands or before you head out for a road trip vacation! Before you hit the road, give your car a quick clean out with these In Car Organizing Tips.
Estimated time needed, 30-45 min’s.
If you can pull it all out and sort it on the driveway, in the garage or even in the street!
Once it’s empty, take your car for a Spa Day! Get it cleaned, detailed, feeling and smelling great before you return only what you need.
What did I miss? Everyone’s different, this list covers the basics for In Car Organizing, including safety but you might need other essentials. If you have tips or questions please share them in the comments below!
Looking for more kid-friendly organizing tips? Check out how to create a Practical Command Center.
We are all born unique and with different personalities. Are you curious to know more about your personality and how it can affect your day-to-day life? If so, the benefits of Personality testing include giving insight into how we think, handle stress, how we process information and make decisions.
Personality tests are very popular, with many employers requesting a candidate take a personality assessment during the job application process. If you were to Google ‘Personality Test’ you would be flooded with many claiming to be the best. I will showcase a few here that I believe are the most accurate and helpful when we want to learn more about ourselves. No personality test is the same, just as no person is the same.
The most popular and well-known Personality Test is Myers Briggs. It gives you insight into many different personality traits and identifies the 16 most distinctive personality types. It is a 15-20 minute assessment that asks you about the way that you 
think, how you process information, how you make decisions, how extroverted (or introverted) you are, and how you perceive information.
Once you have taken the assessment and receive your result you will also be given information on your personality type and how understandings your type can benefit you in your daily life. You can further research your personality type to help you connect you with like-minded individuals or understand those with strikingly different personalities.
Predictive Index – PI Learning Indicator
The Predictive Index, better known as the PI Learning Indicator is the go-to personality test for employers. It gives a fairly accurate insight into your personality and working style focusing on four main elements; dominance, extraversion, patience, and formality.
The PI takes anywhere from 5-25 minutes depending on how thorough you are with the test. The results might look a bit confusing at first 
but there are always professionals for you to speak with and a detailed breakdown on their website.
While the PI is very accurate, it is also important to take it every 6 months to a year, depending on the personal changes you are experiencing in your life. Everyone’s personality changes throughout their lifetime and it is good to recognize these changes and adapt to them.
Kolbe offers a variety of different tests for their users including a youth test, finance test, and a relationship test. Kolbe is also unique as they don’t measure your intelligence or your personality but more how you naturally do things in your life.
Kolbe focuses more on your motive, goals and what drives you to achieve these goals. It is a great test to help you recognize what motivates you, and how to achieve your goals.
This test is also very beneficial for business owner’s outer managers who have lost motivation, direction or are looking for ways to keep their success going. The test dives into your creative instincts and showcases how best to utilize your personality.
These tests take 20 minutes and it gives you an in-depth look at your personality and driving factors to your success. Kolbe offers a lot of information and a clear breakdown of their methods and results on their website.
Different Personalities
There are often misconceptions among people that take personality tests. On the surface, it may seem that if we don’t have the correct personality for a job, relationship or friendship that it will never work. On the contrary, personality tests can be taken to learn more about yourself, your strengths and challenges and how to better relate to others in work and personal life. They should never be considered negative. After all, it’s better to know best to have these helpful insights into future challenges before you begin new relationships or ventures!
There are many criteria that personality tests don’t measure specifically including; work ethic, kindness, interests, and ability to learning style (more on this soon!).
I recommend that everyone take at least one personality test in their lifetime. The Benefits of Personality Testing include not only knowing more about your personality but to learning how you can use it to create success in your life. It takes so little time, less time than a favorite TV show, yet can supply both new and reinforced information about yourself. Please share what personality tests you have tried over in our Facebook group.