Sunday 25 October 2009

House building Tips to Stay Organized and keep Stress Levels Down

I felt the need to write a slightly more positive post about building your own house after my recent ‘overwhelmed’ house building post!! Apart from genuinely feeling overwhelmed by all the choices and house decisions I had to make, I was actually premenstrual at the time of writing!!, which tipped me over the ‘this is all to hard’ edge!

Well, I’m no longer feeling pre-menstrual and thought it may help to add some constructive comments about what you can do if you are building your own home to make it less stressful.

So here are some house building tips to stay sane and be organized in the process –or as organized as you can be – normal organizing rules seem to go out the window for a while – with Mess being and almost constant on the building site!!:-


Using good old Manilla folders to ‘house’ all the magazine clippings; Tradie quotes etc.

It also helps to use the one BIG note pad, so that you can always refer to that when you need to check notes you have made when talking to anyone to do with building your house. This keeps paperwork mess and clutter to a minimum –or at least all in the one place so it is a bit better organized.

Keeping a folder for all your receipts is also a good idea – and a big envelope for smaller receipts to keep track of costs/outgoings/progress payments etc.

Money Tip when building your own home:- Wherever possible pay by credit card to save on extra interest on your loan – which will even keep you ahead if a 2-3% surcharge is added by the company you are dealing with.

Take photos of your new and progressing house semi-regularly - some from the same spot for future reference. They are great to look back on. Sometimes when you are in the thick of the ‘build’ it’s easy not to bother as you are so busy and focused on the job at hand, but it is worth it.

If you have kids, to get them to feel some sense of ownership of the 'build' by sometimes helping where possible –even if it just sweeping out their ‘new’ room or helping get rid of rubbish into your trailer/skip bin etc

Another good thing to do with the kids when it comes to building a new house and be organized about it, is to have a look online for different ‘looks’ your kids may like to use for their rooms – colours of walls, curtains, carpet, light fittings etc - Reminding them that all good things must wait!! It makes us appreciate them more when we save to purchase new things.

We are now almost lock up with the Front and Back doors having just been hung – I’m surprised at how excited we all were by this latest milestone. Plaster is now starting to go up left, right and centre, which also makes a huge difference to the feel of the place and being able to visualize the house finished…...still can’t imagine living in it yet! But bring it on!!

Happy Organizing
Claire McFee
Organize Your Life Organizers

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi!Thanks for following me! I am following you 2. As for your question.....I have no idea!LOL. I am totally new to this as well and just went through the settings trying different things until I was happy with it. I am still changing things all over the place. :) MBC is a great place to get followers and find great blogs to follow!

Buckeroomama said...

Please drop by my blog to pick up a couple of awards. :)

JaelCustomDesigns said...

Popping in from MBC!
Now following you...

I'll be taking notes more than you know, I need some serious organization in my life.

Night Owl Mama said...

coming by from mom bloggers club to follow and comment

wish we could afford to build or even move for that matter enjoy your new home

Liz Mays said...

I'm following back now! You have some great tips here!

Theta Mom said...

That's so exciting! And you're right, good things ar worth waiting for! Thanks for the comment/follow. For the past few days, I keep getting a google server message when I sign in to a new blog (not just yours). I'm not the only one experiencing this issue, but the Blogger admins are not helping. :( I'm even having trouble commenting on blogs that are blogger profile only. As soon as I can get on, I'll be following!

The Working Mama said...

Excellent tips. Thanks for the well-wishes and the follow. Following you now too! :-)

Veronica Lee said...

Hi, I'm following your lovely blog now but I wonder why my avatar doesn't appear as the latest one on your button.

Hope you'll follow mine too!!

The Little Miss said...

your blog has so many great tips!!! Just love it!If you would like come check out my blog and enter my current giveaway at littlemissheirlooms.blogspot.com
I hope you decided to follow me because I try to bring my readers a new and AMAZING giveaway every Monday!
Xo
Priscila

Charlene said...

Hi there! Thanks for your comment and for following my blog! As it turns out I was already following you and really love your site! Thanks again!!

Charlene
Life Balance Strategist
www.beamingbalance.com

Wonderfully Chaotic said...

Also following you! :)

Your blog sounds great - I know I definitely could use organizational help!

Xenia said...

Thanks for coming by, I'm following you back! Good tips, I'm sure everyone can use a little help keeping stress levels down!

Angela said...

You're an organized girl. I almost fainted just imagining having to organize all my papers. lol

I'm following from the MBC followers club. You can find me at http://thesuburbanjungle.blogspot.com