Category Archives: Organization

Be a Successful Quitter

November 2, 2010 – 12:07 am

As I continue my journey toward a more organized house (and, lo, it is a long journey, strewn with many piles of laundry), I have been looking at cutting down on my hobbies. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines hobby as something that one likes to do in one’s spare time. Well, I guess my lack of spare time should cut out hobbies entirely, but I’m just paring them down. Here are my reasons.

When the joy is gone- I found counted cross-stitch enjoyable at one time, but it required quite a bit of concentration. After having a baby, my concentration was out the window. I spent more time taking stitches out that putting them in. It was frustrating and more a burden than an enjoyable pastime. I just didn’t like it anymore. I finally took all of the kits out of my closet and donated them. Now they can gaze down judgmentally on some other poor soul.

When it isn’t feasible- Let me tell you something running and quilting have in common: I don’t do much of either anymore.

Quilting, the way I was doing it, required a lot of space. I would take over a majority of the living room for a while, then I would take it all down, only to have to take it all back out the next time I wanted to work on it. The last quilt I finished was for my mom and it took me over a year to finish it. There were spurts of working on it, followed by months of self-loathing while it sat in the closet. The fact that I found the pattern for it in a book named Super Quick Colorful Quilts didn’t help. It was nice to get it done just so I didn’t have to think about it anymore. Instead of laying it nicely over the end of a bed, I think Mom should carry it with her, accosting strangers, “Look at it! My daughter made this! It almost broke her spirit! Admire it!”

Running, on the other hand, was taking up a lot of time. When I was training for last year’s marathon, the long runs were taking 4+ hours on Saturdays, not to mention the runs during the week. Now I spend my Saturdays sitting on my butt watching the kids play soccer and it’s nice. One day, I will run in earnest again but right now I’d rather watch other people do it.

Quitting a hobby means you’ll have more of something, whether it’s closet space, time, or a clear conscience.

I still have a lot of hobbies: reading, blogging, knitting, photography… but now most of them are portable, don’t take up much space, and I still enjoy them all.

This post is part of Steady Mom’s 30-minute Blog Challenge.

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Family Humor Organization

The Best Laid Plans of Moms and Dads

October 4, 2010 – 7:11 am

Yesterday morning, I decided to get up early and get some things done before the kids got up. I would have the first-thing-in-the-morning energy and the solitude to get some things done. Oh, it would be glorious.

About five minutes after my feet hit the floor, I heard the thump-thump-thump of Gracie’s feet heading towards our room. Brother wasn’t far behind and they sat on my bed chattering to each other while I was trying to fold laundry around them.

Finally, I gave up and shooed them downstairs for breakfast (which they chattered through), so I could get a shower.

I told Paul how my high hopes had been dashed and he said, “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.”

How have your plans been changed?

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Home Improvement Organization

Organizing by Unshopping

September 22, 2010 – 12:07 pm

I’m one of those women who hates to shop. Whatever measurements designers use to make clothes are certainly not my measurements, so shopping has never been easy for me.

I’m thin with long legs and a butt, so pants shopping is a huge pain in my big butt. I also prefer that my pants not be so tight that they cut off the blood flow to my lady bits when I sit down. Apparently that’s not the style these days. If I wanted to show off some cleavage, I’d have to draw it in with a Sharpie, so these low-cut V-necks don’t do anything but make me agoraphobic. ”Fitting room” is the laughable title of a place where I find out I don’t fit in.

This nut didn’t fall far from the tree, so if you want to hear a lot of snark and complaining, come with me and my mom to a clothing store. (Actually we do that anywhere, but it gets worse in clothing stores.)

It seemed that I was good at finding things that would look nice if they only fit or things that fit but looked wretched. I decided to take that talent home and found that it really helped me organize my closet and my dresser. I dubbed it “unshopping.” Anything that didn’t fit or I didn’t like was bagged up. With some things, it was hard to imagine why I bought them in the first place. With others, I have no idea why I kept them so long.

Gone are the pants that could never hope for more than a long-distance relationship with my ankles. Gone is the size 5 dress that I wore when Paul and I were dating. (That dress led to marriage and two pregnancies that spread my hips out so far my skeleton wouldn’t even fit into a size 5.) Gone are the in-between shirts I wore when maternity clothes were too big but I still couldn’t fit into my regular clothes, the button-up shirts that looked so nice as long as I didn’t move my arms, anything that had to be ironed or dry cleaned.

It felt good to be standing there finding so many things “right off the rack.” I now have plenty of room in my closet and a completely empty drawer in my dresser. Luckily, my severe aversion to shopping means I won’t soon be filling them up again.

What has been haunting your closet?

Pic by becaberry

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Organization

Finding what works for you

September 15, 2010 – 9:41 am

I tried Flylady about six years ago, but I immediately had a problem with the first step. She wants a clean sink. That clean sink will be a jumping off point for the rest of the house. I have about 2 square feet of counter space. If I have a clean sink all the time, things would have to be set on the floor. Her methods don’t work for me. That doesn’t mean they don’t work, they just don’t work for me.

I had to find out what was right for me. My mom likes to have a laundry day once a week and get all of the laundry done at once. That would be very daunting to me. I’d spend all week thinking, “I have sooo much laundry to do on Friday,” and it would get put off. I might as well buy barrels with suspenders for everyone because we’d be out of clean clothes. If I do one load of laundry a day, I can keep up and it doesn’t seem like that big of a deal. Mom says that if she did it my way, she would feel like it was a never ending job.

Some people can spend all day cleaning while I am better at cleaning in fits and starts. I get a lot more done that way. All this to say, if it doesn’t work for you, try something else because there is something out there that works.

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Family Home Improvement Humor Organization

Procrastination Station: My story

August 23, 2010 – 1:21 pm

See Part 1 here.

Dictionary.com defines “procrastinate” as “to put off or defer (an action) until a later time; delay.” That is definitely an oversimplification. My definition of procrastination is the messy house, the lack of planning, the stress of trying to finish something at the last minute, the simple projects that sit unfinished for so long that I could have done them three times over. By the time Wesley was born it wasn’t something I did every once in a while, it was a lifestyle. On top of that I was overwhelmed with a new baby and an apartment that I never could get the hang of.

As if the sleep deprivation and dirty diapers weren’t enough, there was laundry, housecleaning, washing dishes, buying groceries and fixing dinner. Hobbies were nonexistent. I could almost hear the half-finished quilt in the closet whispering with my cross-stitch and knitting, bemoaning its existence in craft purgatory.

By the time Wesley was crawling, we bought a house. It was a foreclosure that had old, nasty carpet and, as far as we could tell, all the rooms had been painted by an old lady on a bad acid trip. We were able to get a lot done before moving in. Mom watched Wesley for us while we painted all the rooms and tore the carpet out of the downstairs. It was a fixer upper that needed a lot of touching up, but I would be home all day. I could do it with all my “spare time.”

Needless to say, our remodeling screeched to a halt once we were moved in. I think the main reason was that we didn’t see why we had three bedrooms and only one kid. Gracie came along soon after and added to the melee.

I always dreamed of this unknown time in the future when my house would be perfect and I would be prepared for everything. I would try so hard to get to that point. I would get a week’s worth of groceries with every meal planned, but we would be out of clean plates. I would be basking in the glow of an organized kitchen when Paul would ask me if we really were completely out of clean towels and I would realize that I was fighting a losing battle.

Allie at Hyperbole and a Half describes my tendencies so well that I thought she was stalking me. Check out this comic.

Tomorrow: Procrastination and Perfection

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Adults Books Home Improvement Organization

Procrastination: My Tools

August 23, 2010 – 7:30 am

These three books reside happily in my bookcase and are thoroughly underlined and highlighted. I bought them in reverse order, but the organization book couldn’t help me until I figured out time management and time management was worthless until I could get a handle on my procrastination. All three are excellent resources, but if you have to choose just one, get The Now Habit. It has fantastic insights on why people procrastinate and how to overcome it. It even has a section on dealing with the procrastinator in your life, if you are a person who tries to get some semblance of consistent productivity out of someone who tends puts things off.

The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play

Time Management from the Inside Out, Second Edition: The Foolproof System for Taking Control of Your Schedule — and Your Life

Organizing from the Inside Out, Second Edition: The Foolproof System For Organizing Your Home, Your Office and Your Life

I have taken all the great advice from these books and figured out what works best for me. I’ll give you a crash course over the course of the week. Coming up this afternoon: What procrastination meant for me.

I’ll be interspersing these posts with my usual random, silly and interesting bits so as not to bore those of you who are completely in control of your lives. No, no, don’t raise your hands; you might get something thrown at you.

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Home & Family Home Improvement Organization

Procrastination Plug

August 20, 2010 – 7:31 am

It’s something quite a few of my friends have been discussing lately and something I have struggled with for a long time. It has just been in the last year that I have gotten to the point where I feel I have it under control. So next week I’m going to do a series of posts detailing my own quest to be an anticrastinator. And yes, my fellow smart asses, I am putting off the procrastination series until next week. Laugh it up.

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Family Organization Parenting

Good Medicine

June 25, 2010 – 12:12 pm

I just went through the medicine cabinet and threw away everything that had expired. I kept the bottle of Caladryl that Mom gave me last year for the kids’ mosquito bites, even though it had expired in ’93. You can’t give someone crap about something if you throw away the proof.

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