A new season has begun. You feel grateful to have another opportunity to change your life. You declare you will lose weight, exercise regularly, change your diet and, of course, get organised

You probably think that you need to start with those pesky piles on your desk. You know, the ones that grow and multiply when your back is turned. Or, perhaps you are overwhelmed by the chaos in your wardrobe.

Feel like the bathroom is low on the priority totem pole?

Let's think again, shall we?

• Does your bathroom welcome you and help you relax?


• Does the current state of this room add to your stress?

Next week is WEEK ONE of a month-long workshop designed to organise your master bathroom. Here's a preparatory exercise: please take a minute to answer the following in your Get Organised Journal. If you don't have a journal now should be the time for you to get one. You need a place where you are comfortable sorting out your thoughts.

• What do I like about my bathroom?
• What would I most like to change?
• Why am I willing to join this challenge? What will be the payoff when I have an organised bathroom?
• If my bathroom is in chaos, do I unconsciously reap any rewards from its current state?

Please take this week to peruse magazines and find some images for bathrooms you love. We may not be able to re-create these images exactly, but we can create the feeling!

One last thought: The bathroom is simply a metaphor for the entire house. What you do in one room, you do in EVERY room. The magic formula is to eliminate, categorise and organise!

So, let's say that next week while we are eliminating unwanted stuff from the bathroom you find yourself sitting back with nothing to throw out. Fantastic. Instead, tackle the hall cupboard! Or the attic! Or the guest bathroom! Even on the moon, the first step would be to eliminate. After all, it is the acquisition of the skill of elimination that matters, not the location where it is practiced.