You Spoke and I'm Listening! | From Overwhelmed to Organized: You Spoke and I'm Listening!

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

You Spoke and I'm Listening!




Thank you all so much for taking time to complete my blog survey last week!  I've had a lot of fun reading your responses and seeing the patterns and trends.

Before we get to that though, it's time to see who won the giveaway! 



a Rafflecopter giveaway

Congratulations Alli!  I'll be emailing you your copy of A Simpler Season today!

By the way, there were a lot more people who completed the survey than entered the giveaway.  Maybe you forgot to come back and fill in the Rafflecopter form.  Or maybe you don't need tips to have a simpler season :)

Whatever the reason, if anyone would like a copy of A Simpler Season, it's currently on sale.  I highly recommend this ebook. With over 200 pages of ideas, recipes, and printables, A Simpler Season provides you with practically everything you need to get from Thanksgiving to New Years in a calm, cool, collected manner.




Here's what you'll get in A Simpler Season:
  • creative ideas for celebrating Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's
  • over 150 pages of content: ideas, recipes, and inspiration for planning a special holiday season with your family
  • 70+ printable pages: calendars, to do sheets, inventories, and planning pages
  • games and activities to do with the kids
  • 24+ family activity cards to print and do over the month of December
  • printable recipe and gift cards to help make edible gifts
  • a variety of family devotional ideas to explore with your family
  • a list of children's books to enjoy as well as extension activities to do with your children after reading
  • family-friendly recipes for each of the winter holidays
  • questions to get your thinking about how you really want to spend your time this year
  • easy downloadable format in pdf or on kindle

The ideas in A Simpler Season are varied and wide in scope.  What might make you feel overwhelmed is very doable since all the work is done for you.  Well, almost all.  You get to bake the cookies.

A Simpler Season does "the heavy lifting" for you, so that you can just enjoy the holiday with your family.


Survey Results



OK, on the results!  The first question was an open comment question, asking why you read my blog.  These responses were very enlightening.  Most of you said you come for ideas, tips, and advice.  Many of you said you're looking for motivation or accountability to get organized.  Some of you said you were on your way to becoming less overwhelmed or were hoping to one day be more organized.

All those comments fit right in with why I write this blog, so I'm really pleased that what I'm doing is in line with what you're looking for.  And I'm so happy to be helping you go from overwhelmed to organized!!

With any survey there are going to be trends in the results.  And there will be contradictory opinions.  I was expecting that.  But I was overall really pleased with how many of you agreed on what you liked about From Overwhelmed To Organized!

Here are a few examples.



I'm absolutely thrilled that so many of you read my blog so regularly!  Thank you for that.  Your faithfulness and support hold me accountable to write consistently.  And you keep me motivated to write when I'm tired or busy!



Wow!  Nearly everyone likes the organizing tips, and decluttering tips are not far behind.  That's good, because I plan to keep sharing lots of both!  I'm a little surprised that "my own organizing projects" came in essentially last, since that was pretty much all I shared initially.  But it reaffirms to me that I need to always be writing things that will help YOU get organized.  I'll still be sharing some of my projects, but when I do I'll be even more mindful of including tips to help you organize too.



The responses to this question were enlightening to me.  There are a variety of obstacles that stand in your way when organizing, but motivation tops the list.  I can't change your circumstances, but I will do my best to help you overcome these obstacles.  Based on the answers you gave for why you read my blog, I know many of you find my posts motivating, so I'm glad I'm helping in that regard.  I will keep working on that, as well as sharing ways to get organized without having to spend a lot of time or money.



{Sorry this pic is harder to read... I had to zoom in to be able to capture the whole image.}  Quite a variety of responses for this question.  But a few definitely stand out... storage, garage, office/paperwork, and kitchen.  I've shared some tips for organizing each of these, but as I'm planning ahead for 2015 posts, I will make sure I'm including lots of tips to help you with these most overwhelming areas.



I was eager to see the responses to this question, after spending a lot of time and money on the redesign last month.  I'm so happy that most of you said it is easy to find what you're looking for on the blog (or had no opinion on the subject)!  For the 6% of you who said you disagree, I'd love it if you told me why.  All the comments on this question were positive, and I'd really like to know what else I can do to make it easier for you to navigate the site and find what you need.  Please send me an email {organizerhilda at gmail dot com} so we can figure this out together.  Thanks!

That brings us to the last question, what improvements you think I should make.  There was a WIDE variety of responses, and the most contradictory statements of the whole survey.  I love that!  Here's a sampling:

  • Less links to other blogs / I love the posts with links to other blogs
  • More pictures & less info / Less pictures & more info
  • More of your home projects (which contradicts the results from the earlier question)

You get the idea!  It's hard to keep everyone happy all the time, and I would become completely overwhelmed if I tried to do that.  But I hope with the variety of posts I write, most of you are happy most of the time!   And since there were also lots of comments to keep doing what I'm doing and not change anything, it looks like that's the case.  And that makes my heart smile :)

Once again, thank you for taking part in this survey!  Your opinions really affirmed that what I'm doing is helpful.  I won't be making any major changes to the blog, but I will definitely apply your suggestions and feedback as I plan for 2015.

Congratulations again to Alli for winning a copy of A Simpler Season!  Don't forget to buy your copy while it's on sale if you'd like to have a less overwhelming holiday season :)  

And most importantly, thank you for reading my blog!  I am so grateful for each and every one of you.  I love sharing this journey from overwhelmed to organized with you!

Happy organizing!



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