Sunday, January 29, 2017

Organizing Upgrade Version 2017

I'm not a resolution girl, and honestly, my "new year" usually starts in September. But I do like the idea of taking a defined date on the calendar, and use it to set some goals. So at the beginning of each month, I usually try to tackle something new.

January: made it my mission to break my bad morning habits (much easier said than done). This is an ongoing process. It's two steps forward, one step back. I get into a good rhythm, and then I break it. I'm working on it.

Now it's time to set the goal for February, and February has an organization theme. In January, we still have too much holiday hangover to be effective. Sure, we have to integrate all the new things, and we have to put away the Christmas things, but adding an organizational project to that feels overly ambitious.


The February goal has two pillars:

The Purge of Stuff (because seriously, we have a lot of stuff and some of it needs to go.)

The Organization of Stuff (because Konmari disciples we are not). 

The Purge has been going decently. The only niggle in this plan is that we get a little too caught up in where things are going. There is good stuff that we don't want and we don't need, but we spent good money on it and it feels wasteful to just drop it in a donation box. Adam's an Ebay guy, and he's had decent success getting rid of some of the nicer junk. All that listing and shipping feels like a giant headache to me, so I'm more of a consignment/online tag sale sort of purger. And he'll hold onto an old briefcase until he gets a "fair price", while I'll stop at the donation bins on the way home because I just want it done.

Despite our own roadblocks, we've gotten a good amount of stuff out of the house, and we've even made a bit on money doing it.

The Organization is always a work in progress because it reaches into every part of our home. I started keeping a laundry basket in the trunk of my car, which cuts down on the multiplying mess that grows no matter how hard I try to prune it. I started baskets for each family member on the stairs to help us get things back to where they belong (although I can't give one to Adam. He fills baskets and leaves them full, so he'd just be moving some things to the stairs. The house is full of baskets intended to hold things like remotes or keys or change that have now become "Adam black holes of crap".)

I'm doing my periodic reorganization of the places that I swear I just organized, even though, looking back, it's been a while. These spots are my nemeses. I hate them. The Pantry. The Laundry Room. The Office Corner. The Basement Food. The Linen Closet. The Coat Closet. The School Boxes.

It's a lot for a short month, but I think it'll get us back to a good place.




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