March 18--take 2

Okay, so all is not lost.  I have been busy.  My house is tidy, kitchen is clean, kids are fed and dressed.  My Kuerig is even descaled.  Apparently you're supposed to do that every 3-6 months, this is the first time I've done it since I got it 2 years ago.  I think this is worth bonus points.  It no longer makes crazy noise when it's making coffee. 

I again had to make room for my friend's kids to sleep in the office, so the floor has been cleared again.  I guess I am overwhelmed because I have nowhere to put stuff while I'm "organizing."  I wish this came more naturally to me.  I wish I was not so easily distracted.  BUT, I have other redeeming qualities.  I'm creative and friendly.  Once upon a time I had a friend/life coach who said I was an otter.  It's apparently a kind of person.  Creative, friendly, outgoing.  Things take a backseat to people.  I think that's pretty accurate. 

Before I ramble, I wanted to end on a high note.  So, I commit to doing SOMETHING before this day is over.  Stay tuned for tomorrow's post to see what it is.  :-)

March 18

I'm getting nowhere.  A month is too long, I keep procrastinating.  At the end of the month I'll be scrambling...

A Thought

Day 2

Day 2 is happening about a week late.  I'm a master procrastinator, which also runs in my family.  But, as a result of procrastinating the office, the rest of my house looks pretty good.  It's amazing how motivated I find myself to do other productive things when I feel guilty for not cleaning what I have committed to cleaning.

Well, since the rest of the house is cleanish, I got to work on the office this morning.  I decided the easiest thing to start with is to clear a place on the floor to work in.  This is the room I blow-dry my hair in, and I am 5 months postpartum, so there was a wig's worth of hair on everything.  I vacuumed, and the progress thus far is invigorating. 

A few weeks ago, my husband was looking for something, and I brought out an old trunk of stuff we haven't looked at since before kids were born I think.  I emptied it out, since obviously we didn't need that junk if we didn't miss it all these years.  It made me smile to remember what a great mom I have, as she had lined the trunk with a pretty floral paper for me when I left for college.  She's a pretty organized chick, especially for being quite a hoarder herself. 

The biggest pile of stuff was 18 month boy clothes, so I put those in the trunk.  There was still room, so I also put smaller boy clothes in there too.  There's still room, so I hope to fit 24 month and 2T boy stuff when the time comes. 

I unearthed Elena's school valentines from a month ago, got rid of all the cards (I hope she doesn't find out!) and stashed the candy for rewards for later.  I also pared down some baby clothes that are outgrown.  We have a ton, and a lot of it is not being used this time around, so I've decided to not be emotionally attached and to hopefully bless someone else who needs them.  A couple months ago, I donated a ton of maternity clothes and baby clothes and NB diapers to the local crisis pregnancy center.  They were very thankful, and it felt really good to get that stuff out of my house and hopefully it'll help someone in need.  Plus, it's a tax-deductible donation, so it'll help us out next year on our taxes. 

I threw away a wrecked project that Elena and I put together.  It was a foam castle.  Sherm got a hold of it and smashed it.  Elena was devastated, and I told her we'd fix it, but I really didn't want to.  It doesn't do anything, it's not a toy and it really just takes up space.  But I feel guilty because she loved it, and it represented time we spent together.  It makes me wonder if I'll always feel guilty getting rid of useless stuff. 

Day 1

"You can rid yourself of hoarding habits by trying to hoard open space."

Okay then, that sounds easy enough.  I've got the hoarding tendencies, both my parents and my only living grandma have lots of stuff.  LOTS of stuff.  My grandma has an extra HOUSE full of stuff, along with 4 or 5 sheds.  My dad bought a trailer house to keep stuff in.  I'm going to try to utilize this tendency and hoard space. 

Previously, I hoarded baby clothes, craft stuff (knitting, crocheting, yarn, beads, sewing material, jewelry making supplies, scrapbooking junk), and anything I MIGHT need in the future.  Even boxes!!  I have a crapload of empty boxes. 

In the beginning...

While browsing my Facebook feed yesterday, I stumbled upon an organizing challenge from Organizing Junkie.  I looked around and got a little excited.  My once beautiful office has turned into the mom cave/craft room/storage room/junk room. 

Step one of the challenge is to post "before" pictures.  Hopefully at the end of the 30-day challenge, I'll be proud to show you the "after" pictures.  So, here goes.

The first picture is the doorway into the room.  To the right is an infrequently used garbage can.  Forward is a dresser and a chest of drawers.  And boxes, empty and full.  And a carseat that would be better used in a car...

This second picture is the floor in the middle of the room.  I'm actually kind of proud because, this looks better than it used to, simply because we had friends over the other night and their kids needed someplace to sleep, so I cleared some stuff out of the way.  There's no motivator like people coming over.

 

 

 Thirdly, the desk to the right of my desk.  Yes, two desks.  One for junk, obviously.

 



 A view of the desk and some "storage" to the left.  Is that Pinterest open on my computer?  Whoops.  I guess looking at people's organizing pins got me somewhat motivated too.  On the right is the computer that doesn't work anymore.

Last, this is the jumbled mess from another angle.  The clothes on the dresser are outgrown clothes of my 6 year old girl child, 3 year old boy child and 5 month old girl baby.

This pretty much sums up my brain at this point.  Lots of thoughts of growing children, work, crafty ideas and wannabe hostess with the mostess.

A thought jumbling around in the mess of my mind is that today I want to start being the person I want to be. No more procrastinating being a better person.  My children and husband deserve a peaceful environment and I deserve it too.  I would love for my younger daughter to never know what it's like to live in a disorganized pile of stuff.  I know that's a pretty high hope, but pretty much any step I take is a step up from where I am.