Organize Lists for Shire / Council Dealings to stay sane!

A friend is in the process of trying to get a permit to build on a block of land here and has been coming up against countless red tape, delays and frustrating hold ups. I really feel for her as we had some really long delays in our planning and building permits.

I was happy to be able to pass on some good tips and contacts we made through the process we went through - who compared to the majority of people we were trying to get help from - -were brilliant.

This reminded me of how important it was at the time that we went through this stressful experience with our local shire / council to keep detailed, organized and accurate records of each and every conversation I had with the various Shire staff and other related professionals. I used the self explanatory title Shire / Council Dealings Record List"" from my organizer to keep these records.

There were numerous times I needed to refer back to them to be able to say "Hang on a minute Joe bloe said on the 12/3 ...., contradicting what you are now saying..."
It gave us the ability to highlight the frustrations we had gone through to those higher up the chain and the mistakes that had been made on the Shires part in countless areas. In fact they were unaware of a by law which prohibited them from trying to get us to install a $40,000 storm water drain instead of a $10,000 one, causing us to waste 6 months!! Thankfully at least in part being able to refer to our details Lists during the saga, we eventual won out. It would have been so much more stressful without a record of all the conversations we had.

So if you are in a similar situation the best thing you can do for yourself is get some paper or a pad if need be - to keep it all in the one place and save your sanity -it definitely helped ours!

Happy Organizing,

Claire McFee Creator Organize Your Life Organizers

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

building a new house can be stressful - hang in there you can do it!!

For our regular readers you know my husband and I are building our own house at the moment. I wanted to share my thoughts on the whole building process. As we are still in the thick of the whole process, my view is probably tainted with the overwhelming nature of building your own home. To build or to buy a house ready made?? At the moment I would say buy don't build!!

If my husband wasn’t a builder I can tell you we wouldn’t be building ourselves that’s for sure. Don’t get me wrong – building is great for lots of people – those that thrive on the pressure and the constant decisions that have to be made, but I think many people go into building their own place not realizing what they are in for.

I am sooo over choosing things and making decisions and cleaning up mess and hardly seeing my husband due to the long, long hours he has been working for well over a year and I really don’t want to do it again. I think I was smart way back when I was 21 and first met Neil and he was about to start building the home we lived in for almost 10 years. We were young and falling in love and kiddie free and I hadn’t started Organize Your Life yet, so it was a VERY different scenario to now. But I said to Neil at the time I would only go through the building process twice – that’s it. I can tell you now we are onto our second that it is definitely my limit – a small reno maybe down the track but building our own house again from scratch – No way. It’s a huge undertaking when you are already a busy person. So think about ti carefully if you are considering this option.

Anyway that’s my 2 cents – if you feel overwhelmed with your life at times as it is, without the stress of adding more to the mix then choose the easier option by buying a ready made house.

There are of course many things my husband and kids for that matter have learnt from the process - you can find good in most all situations. I just feel like I have had enough lessons for now -can you tell!! I am also grateful that I am as organized as I am. For dis-organized people who take on building their own place I do not not envy - it can make the difference between nervous break down or not!!

Have you built your own house? How did you find the experience?

Happy Organizing
Claire McFee
Organize Your Life Organizers