Last week, we began with Pam and Peggy's first dictum: GET UP BEFORE THE FAMILY, SHOWER and DRESS!

This week? We need to take a look at our situation and our motivation. While P&P don't mention these techniques in their books, I learned them from one of their seminars, and these two concepts serve you well.

The task is simple. First, our situation. Take a 3-by-5 card and turn it on end, long-ways. Date the top. Then list five things in your life that are bugging you.

No rules here! They can be as simple (ha!) as a full ironing basket or as complex as a nagging desire to go back to school; as straight-forward as a heaped-up desktop or counter, or as daunting as "every single closet in our house is stuffed full of JUNK!" Just five things, though--our generous and energetic S.H.E.™ imaginations sometimes lead us astray! No, just make your list, with a little thought, then put it to one side.

The second half of the analysis is not really a P&P technique, but something of value, nonetheless. Make another list on another 3-by-5; this time, list five reasons/things/hopes/dreams that you want to achieve by getting organized.

Some of mine?

1. No more hour-long searches through stacks of paper looking for that one form our accountant needs.
2. Actually being able to wear my summer clothes during the summer--freeing them from the ironing basket in time to keep from wearing the same few things.
3. Not being faced with dirty dishes and a trashed family room first thing in the morning before I've had my coffee.
4. Ending time-eating daily store runs, errand runs, bank runs, cleaning runs or office supply runs; I want to consolidate out-of-house trips during the summer heat.
5. MORE TIME FOR ME.

I want to repeat number five: MORE TIME FOR ME!!!! That is the bottom line!

Think about it. If you invested ten minutes per week in a menu plan, you'd save about 3 hours a week of defrost madness. If ironing was in control, there wouldn't be anymore desperate evenings (like mine last night) spending 30 minutes searching desperately through my closet for something to wear out to dinner.

But this is my motivator. Time. Time to write, to learn new computer skills, to work on teddy bears, to sew, to read, to idle with my husband.

Your motivator may be entirely different, but you must identify it. Perhaps it's to "show" a critical mother or shove a snooty sister's "neener-neener" up her nose sideways! You may want a more serene, happy home environment. Is hospitality your special interest--but the clean-up effort undercuts your good intentions?

Whatever the reason, get it on that card, and use it to shore up your new resolve to . . . get organized!