16 posts tagged “organization”
I've got my office curtains down and in the wash right now. Tomorrow we'll take the AC out of the living room window, and I'll wash those curtains, and that's the last of them! Clean curtains all around! I know that's really more of a spring chore, but I'm really keen on eliminating as much dust and dirt from this house as possible before we start closing it up for the winter when it's just me and my asthma against a winter's worth of dust.
My office is pretty damn cluttered. I haven't minded having the curtains down on any of the other windows, but I'm feeling a bit exposed right now. What a mess! It's good motivation to get that clutter under control though.
I'm pretty pleased with all the seasonal cleaning I've been doing lately. I just about have the worst of the dusty corners cleaned out, and I have my chores on a manageable weekly schedule that sees everything getting regularly vacuumed and dusted as a matter of maintenance.
I've always been somewhat comfortable in a mess. I like to have the things I'm currently working on laid out within arm's reach, and I like to have the things that need my attention sitting out somewhere to visually nag me. To an extent, I'm more comfortable with that than I am a neat and tidy home. I like the lived-in feel more than the magazine-ready look. The more stuff we pare down though, the easier it is to find a comfortable balance between the two. I still have lots of stuff I want to sell somewhere, but I'm already at the point where no extra house cleaning is necessary if we wanted to have company. That's my ultimate goal: to always have the house guest-ready.
Speaking of which, I'd like to start having people over for dinner once in a while. Yes, I'm still very introverted and I really hate committing to plans, but if the house is clean enough for company, and all I have to do is make dinner, it seems like it would be really nice to entertain once a month or so. I have really awesome friends and the only reason I haven't done more inviting over the years was because cooking AND cleaning AND getting over my introverted self was just too much. Two out of three ain't bad though. :)
So the cleaner house is making me *very* happy. In other happy Jen news, I saw a number on the scale this morning that has been one of my weight-loss goals for TEN YEARS now! It's really not a great number, always meant to be just the first step of many, but it's eluded me in all my many years of false starts at getting in shape, to the point where it was starting to feel impossible. I stepped on the scale this morning though, and VOILA! There it was! After weeks of bouncing around just above it, getting close but never quite there. After feeling like utter shit off and on all week long, wondering if it was allergies or something worse coming on. After not only skipping yesterday's workout, but also having a latte AND sharing a piece of cheesecake! On a day I was the least hopeful, there it was! I did something I almost never do in the morning, and giggled uncontrollably. That feels really frakking awesome!
I'm down two pants sizes from where I was in mid-July when I started this. Two pants sizes in two and a half months is progress I'm quite happy with! It's hard to judge how I look, because I never noticed I was getting fat until I just was, but there are things I'm noticing that make me so very happy. I have room in the sleeves of my t-shirts because my upper arms are shaping up. No more sausage arms! I'm more comfortable in shorts because my legs are more toned. Specifically, I'm not self-conscious about sitting in shorts because my thighs have some firmness and shape now, and don't simply mold to the surface I'm sitting on. *L* The thing that makes me the happiest though is my tummy. Where some girls have a pooch, ...well, I had enough that I was always expecting people to ask if I was pregnant. Bleh! And now I've lost enough that I feel normal. I don't feel like my belly goes before me everywhere. I can actually dress without feeling like I have to camouflage, without needing a long shirt that flares out.
I'm not skinny. I really haven't lost that much, seriously. But I feel 100 times better for the bit I have lost. I don't feel fat any more, and that's freaking awesome. I'd still like to lose about 50 pounds. That will get me to a very healthy weight, one I haven't seen in 15 years or more. And it's my goal to get there before my 40th birthday next year, which shouldn't be too terrible. If I can lose just five pounds a month, which isn't a lofty goal *at all*, I could hit my goal with a month to spare. Honestly, I expect to hit it even sooner. I may even be looking swank in a bikini at the start of next summer, which is something I never thought I'd be able to pull off again. :D It seems very possible right now though, and just to feel the possibilities again, that's better than what the scale or the labels in my clothes or even the image in the mirror has to say. I love the possibilities.
So my house is shaping up and my body is shaping up, even our debt is getting paid down at a nice rate. Next on the list is getting work caught up to the point that I'm working on current issues with the programmers rather than always trying to catch up. Simaltaneously, I want to be working out my artistic skills on a regular basis -that's HUGELY important to me. Less than a year away from 40, and it feels like everything is coming together so nicely. I am one content woman!
What I've learned, what started all of this progress though, was realizing how much easier it is to make improvements when you start out being okay with how things are in the present moment. When I felt bad about myself or my situations, the thought of making things better seemed so huge, so impossible to achieve. But when I took stock of the present moment and said to myself, "This is what I have now, and all things considered, this is really pretty damn good," then suddenly small changes seemed not only possible, but enjoyable. And a small change or two lead to more. It's so much easier to build momentum when you start with your focus just on the tiniest of movements. Before you're even aware of it, those tiny movements are adding up pretty quickly. It's a helluva a trip!
Gods, what a lovely day! I know it's not at all exciting sounding, but I absolutely love a low-key non-work day at home.
Today we finally moved our antique desk downstairs and into the back room for Craig to use as radio central. That frees up a little space in our tiny bedroom *AND* gets his radio cabinet off of the diningroom table! ...I suppose I should get all of my crap off the table now. heh.
I also spent an hour or so cleaning off my desk which has been accumulating piles of "found this" and "file this" and "what's this???" In one of those piles I had about a ream's worth of scrap paper ...from my college years! I'd found it in a box of memorabilia. Yes, I keep *EVERYTHING*, even scrap paper. I flipped through it real quick and found a few invitations from parties I'd thrown, some amusing emails from my old sysadmin job, and college lab reports. I cracked myself up reading through the sysadmin emails and school labs because even though I once knew all that stuff, I have *NO* idea what any of it means now. Use it or lose it! It's true! It was almost like reading a foreign language. I've done a very good job of purging unnecessary knowledge to free up the brain cells. *L*
I spent the rest of the day playing librarian. Craig had a shelf full of books he no longer wanted, so I purged them from my LibraryThing.com account, listed some on half.com, some on BookMooch.com, and made a pile to donate. Then I inventoried the rest of his books, logging the new ones we forgot to put into the database, and purging the missing books he'd already gotten rid of. I *REALLY* LOVE LibraryThing!
For dinner, I cleaned out the fridge, slicing up and seasoning some leftover steak and chicken, and sauteeing it with peppers and onions. It was really just a simple "let's eat up what's there" dinner, and I accidentally made the best frakking fajitas I've ever had in my life!
And, we just got done watching "Vantage Point" on Netflix via instant download. It was a decent movie, "a little dodgie in the middle" (said Craig), but the action in the last part was pretty good.
So it was a completely unplanned day but we got a lot cleaned/organized, had a great dinner and a bit of entertainment. That's a really good day, IMO!
Tomorrow we need to run a few errands, but I'm hoping to get that done early and enjoy another day of just doing stuff around the house and taking it easy. I got just enough organized today that I'm really motivated to do more!
Some people have dreams about forbidden lovers or whirlwind adventures; my hot dreams are about usable space!
I had a dream about a house last night, a house in the woods. At first glance, it was kind of small and the floors were scary uneven. We had to live there though, so I picked a bedroom and started thinking about color for the walls. Then I noticed the closet, which was more like a small hallway. There was another door at the end of the closet/hallway and it opened up on a some strange, high-tech wing of the house. It was old classroom space. The rooms were small, but clean and beautifully decorated. There was a room there for every one of my hobbies, and some of them still had equipment in them. There was a library, and a kitchen. There was an archeology room with many shelves full of tiny bins that once held artifacts, but which would soon be holding beads! There was a chemistry room soon-to-be glass studio with stainless steel tables and an industrial quality fume hood. There was even a home-ec. room with a couple of sewing machines and a serger. And every room had tons cupboards and bins and movable walls and a view of the forest. *le sigh*
I really hated to wake up from that one. I opened my eyes just long enough to realize it was only a dream, and I moaned and pinched my eyes closed again, hoping I could get back there.
Argh. I *really* need to organize something today! We may even be painting a room this weekend. heh.
I should be outside cutting back my roses for the growing season, but I'm just not feeling it. I had a busy week full of hard work, and I think I'm just going to have a quiet day of slack today. Besides, the thing most needed in the modern, working weekday is recess, and this will give me an excuse to take a break, step away from the computer and sneak outside for a little yardwork daily during the week. So, yeah, I'm planning smart *not* being lazy. ;)
What does one do with blank journals? I absolutely adore pretty journals, but I never can decide what to put in them. A pretty journal is something worth keeping, but not much of what I write is worth keeping. So, do I take the chance and write whatever I want at the moment in them, knowing that some day I'll probably just want to burn them, or do I continue to hold onto them waiting for that perfect purpose to come to me, knowing that it never will?
Speaking of burning, might put the fire circle to use tonight. It's good weather for it, and I do have some old journals I want to burn (nothing pretty, just spiral notebooks), not to mention the scrap wood and bundles of twigs from the yard. Might as well get rid of the old twigs and make room for all I'm going to cut out of my roses this week.
My *BIG* project this year is going to be to organize my photos (digital and physical) and memorabilia. I'm having a hard time starting. First I need to dig it out from everywhere I've stashed bits and pieces, and sort it all just to see what's there. I need to come up with some sort of temporary sorting/storage system. Eventually, I want everything in albums, shadow boxes, pretty storage boxes and/or maybe even a small chest of drawers, but I need to see what I have before I can decide how to best store it. The longterm goal is to photograph or scan as much as possible and get rid of most of the physical stuff that takes up room and collects dust. Digital stuff is so much easier to organize, and electrons take up so little space. This is going to be a huge project though, and I'm ready to start, just intimidated. I'm one of the world's most nostalgic and obsessively collecting packrats. It'll be good to free up the energy in all those old, dusty boxes stashed everywhere though. Hmm. Maybe I'll start now.
I want to knit, but I'm between projects. I'm very much looking forward to going to the yarn store tomorrow!
I think we're having shrimp for dinner tonight. I know we're watching Låt den rätte komma in, which I'm REALLY excited to see! I so wanted to see it in the theater, but Toledo is too pedestrian to have an art theater any more. It came from Netflix in today's mail though so, YAY!
Craig got his new Kindle 2 this week. It's much sexier than my Kindle 1, but feature-wise, there's not much there that I feel like I'm missing. I can wait for another version or four before upgrading mine. Still, the Kindle 2 is verra sexeh! And I love that we have them both registered together and can share our books between either Kindle!
Yeah. I think that's everything that was rattling around in my brain pan. I think I'll pull out one of those dusty boxes and start sorting pictures and travel brochures now.
Is it cheating if after weeks of having the contents of old boxes spread out and still not knowing what to do with it all, you smoosh it all into smaller, prettier boxes and find new places to stash them?
Do any of you use Twine.com? I found it yesterday. It's social bookmarking on steroids; they call it "social interesting", I think. It's like Delicious blended with a customizable Digg/Reddit format. I was pretty confused about it until I found a video. This particular video was made as a joke, but it really explains Twine better than anything else I'd read. :)
Cleaning up my Delicious bookmarks was to be part of my spring cleaning this year anyhow, but now I think I'm going to do it while migrating everything into Twine. I started on that yesterday, ...and I'm only about half way through the "a" tags. *sigh*. This will probably take a month or more.
So far I'm very impressed. Twine is very feature-rich and versatile. The biggest feature are the topic-based interest groups called, you'll never guess, ..."twines". I joined a few: "Current Science", "Sustainable Living", "Local Food", "Knitting Purls", "Trawling the 'Net". Whenever someone posts a book, video, bookmark or note to one of those twines/groups, it shows up in my "Interest Feed", thus making it like a custom version of Digg, albeit thankfully so far without all the juvenile pissing contests! I joined a fabulously drool-worthy twine called "Hot Glass" which is all things glass related, though mostly blown glass, artists and exhibit links. I needed a twine specifically for all my bookmarks for the at-home glass studio, beads and lampwork, and a few searches turned up nothing, so I started my own twine called "Lampwork Addicted". It was super easy to start, and as soon as I get a little more content added, I'll start promoting it and hopefully get some more members adding relevant content.
Anyhow, I'm loving it! I don't know if invites are still required, but if anyone wants to try it, I'd be happy to send one.
And speaking of spring cleaning, Craig moved his desk out of his office and into mine today, which is closer to the livingroom. So now he can sit and play work on his computer and still be relatively close to me when I'm in knitting and/or watching tv. This means his office is ready to be transformed into our craft room/second guest room. Part of making space for his desk in my office was moving my craft armoire, which I had to partially empty to move. It's good to get a reminder of everything I've hoarded in there, and I need to put it all back away now. Seeing all of that stuff has renewed my determination to practice "use what you have" crafting though! 'Cause I have stuff! HOOOOOO BOY, do I have stuff!
Toodledo.com is seriously the best thing that's ever happened to my brain. It's taken me a week to tweak my account settings and make it all work for me, but if I weren't already married, I would seriously marry this lovely little organizational tool because I want it in my life forever. *Every* little "I should..." and "Someday..." that crosses my mind can be filed away safely in my toodledo account to be dealt with later so I don't have to mentally juggle it with every other idea I've had and don't want to lose. I love the goal planning too. One of my new favorite rituals is taking some time on Sunday nights to go over my task list and get everything organized for the week ahead. This week will be a real test of Toodledo time management. I have *A LOT* on my schedule, and I'm going to focus solely on working my way down the list each day, letting it dictate what I do next, and checking things off as they're done. We'll see how productive this week is in comparison. I have 43 tasks on my list right now, 22 of which are due today. Oi. We shall see. If nothing else though, it's sweet relief just to have a place to organize all my thoughts so thoroughly!
It's a good thing I'm not in a traveling mood so far this year, because our house wants some expensive attention. We spent a little while yesterday prioritizing our needed home improvement projects for the year (in Toodledo, of course) and our house wants MONEY! Let's just say we'll be doing our share pumping money into the local economy.
- We have an ice dam problem that we've had repaired before, but obviously we need to take more drastic measures. Melting snow and ice on the roof is leaking in and down through some walls, causing a moisture and mold problem indoors. This year we need to have the roof repaired in a major way once and for all, and I'm insisting we hire someone (rather than do it ourselves) to remove the moisture damaged drywall and clean up the mold, someone with the expertise and equipment to clean it completely out and safely.
- Our kitchen is the last "original", un-renovated room in our house, and the floor is *BAD*! I don't just mean it's ugly (it seriously is!!!), but it's so old and weak that you can easily see where the floor joists are through the sagging floor. We can address this issue ourselves for just the cost of materials, but it ain't going to be easy. We're going to have to move appliances, remove the countertop and sink, and rip out cupboards before we can even get to the floor. And I'm nervous about picking the perfect weekend for this job: warm enough that exposed crawlspace doesn't make the house too miserable, yet not so warm that we have spring/summer insects inviting themselves in through the open floor. *shudder* I have to admit I am kind of looking forward to it though. I'm really wanting a pretty kitchen, and Craig and I are really good at the whole fix-it-up thing. It's been a while since our last major home improvement project.
- When we had a plumber in not too long ago to put a whole-house shut-off valve in for us, he warned us that the main water line is looking really bad and we should expect to need to replace it soon. That's going to be expensive, so I definitely want a second opinion, and if it is a needed repair, I want it done before it becomes an emergency situation. :/ We need to get a few quotes, and I'm really hoping one of the companies that offers the "trenchless" line replacement will find the job doable. *crossing all fingers and toes*
- We also want to insulate the mudroom, not only do I want that because that's where I'm setting up my glass studio, but more importantly, to try and prevent the whole freezing and broken pipe thing we dealt with again this year.
Those are the major projects. There are always smaller things in the works, like painting the front door, stripping and staining the porch, painting the mudroom, all the other kitchen improvements we want to do besides the floor, ... There's always a long list of work to do when you're a home owner, but this year there are those expensive and mandatory projects on the list also. *sigh* it still beats the hell out of renting!
Ok. My coffee is done and my task list is calling. Always so much to do!
Our new DVR came today. I'm wondering how long it will take us to fill it up again. I'm also left trying to remember everything that was on the old one. It was pretty full at all times. It's kind of weird but not unexpected how I couldn't bring myself to delete any of those recorded shows, but now I can't even remember what they all are. It's nice to have a fresh start in a way.
Speaking of fresh starts... My inbox is up near 200 messages again. In the spirit of starting over clean on my DVR, I'm declaring digital bankruptcy on my email account too, and this includes old blog comments that I've been hanging on to because I want to respond to them. There's one letter in my inbox right now that I definitely want to reply to, but everything else is getting deleted. I'm sorry if I ever left you hanging with an email or comment, but the mountain in my inbox needs to be wiped away at this point. There's just too much there and I get dragged down every time I see it all. I'm trying to be better about replying immediately, so I hope I won't ever have to do this again, or at least not for many, many years, but it's all I can think to do now. Anyhow, just wanted to throw that heads-up out there. It's not that I don't want to reply, it's just that I tend to set things aside for "later", and "later" quickly becomes "ridiculously late". Spring cleaning starts with my inbox this year.
I call recess. I think, in scheduling my home office hours, I'm going to plan my day out like elementary school. The day will start at 8am with something quiet, reflective and routine. I don't think I'll say the Pledge of Allegiance and take my own attendance, but maybe I'll clean up my desk and set some goals for the day. Then some work until around 10am, when I get recess. i forget how long morning recess was, but 15 minutes at a minimum should do it. Lunch at noon followed by 30 minutes of recess at 12:30. Something light and fluffy in the afternoon at some time too, just to break up those long hours. In grade school it was usually art class. That might work. It sounds kind of stupid, but I don't have coworkers stopping by to chat or office hijinx to break up the day, and things get dull and monotonous really fast around here. I have to do something to make the work days more bearable.
Well, yesterday didn't go quite according to plan. I opened my craft cabinet trying to find some artsy inspiration, and wound up spending the day organizing my craft cabinet. Oh, it *SOOOO* needed it, and I should be in better head space now for future creative ventures because I'm not dealing with that supply chaos, but I didn't do the artsy thing like I promised myself I would. Oh well. Life is dynamic and things happen. I'll try again some day soon.
It's funny the things I found in there though. Apparently there are a few projects I have actually managed to forget over the years. I found some gorgeous, purple champagne flutes I was going to etch as a gift, ...which went immediately up on my stemware rack in the kitchen. I found a stash of yarn for a scarf my husband wanted that I'd forgotten about. I found all sorts of oddities that I've hoarded over the years, many of which will make awesome accents to collages and 3D work! I only got through about 1/4 of the cabinet yesterday, but I think I sorted most of the little bits. I think the vast majority of what's left is fabric and odd containers. (I have a serious container hoarding problem.) (...fabric hoarding problem too, actually.)
In organizing all that stuff, I was able to make better use of the space in there, and get a few boxes of crafting stuff off the floor and into the cabinet, which is great for floor space, sweeping, and less dust accumulation! I should've take some before pictures, dammit! It was really a terrific mess(!) and the change is amazing.
I'm looking forward to finishing the craft-organization project.
But for now, I think recess is over.
So just about a year ago, kitty glampants mentioned this book and gave it a really good review. I've long been collecting clutter, and for almost just as long trying to get myself to part with it all, so I made a note that this book sounded like it might be helpful. It wasn't high on my reading list, but if I ever came across a copy at the library or on sale somewhere, I planned to give it a go.
Last week someone had a copy to offer on bookmooch.com, so I finally snagged it.
WOW! What a great motivator!
I suppose I should start by saying that I don't put much stock in feng shui. I agree that our things become an extension of us, and as such, they affect our emotional and mental well being, but when it comes to the specifics of feng shui, using it like it's some sort of science with universal predictable cause and effect, well they lose me there. So, feng shui, not my thing.
But this book isn't about the specifics of feng shui. It's mostly just about how our stuff affects us, why we collect and what we can do to make paring down a little easier. I've been in a major lifestyle simplification mindset for a while now, and I'd plateaued in my 365 things less plan, but I was still intending to get back to my work in that area. This book gave me just the shot in the arm I needed. I'm seeing so many more areas where I can cut back even more than I'd originally planned, and that excites me! I was seeing so many possibilities for feeling even less burdened as I was reading, that between chapters, as much as I wanted to read on, I was putting the book down to indulge in mini clutter-clearing sessions because I just couldn't help myself.
Today I cleaned off my desk. YAY, work surface! I also cleaned out an old cabinet that could be useful space but which was just serving as long term storage for things I was afraid to part with. Oh, the things I parted with! I even put my shredder to use shredding old records that the niggling OCD voice in my head has long feared it would be dangerous to live without. I laughed while I ran that stuff through the shredder because it just felt so good. It's amazing how things we don't even think about for months can weigh on us constantly. You don't realize that weight is there until it's gone.
In cleaning out that cabinet, I found some really cool things I forgot I had, some really useful things I forgot I had, a couple of things that I expect will fetch me at least $50 on eBay, and a ton of stuff that was just wasting space and weighing on my subconscious mind in so dark a corner of my brain that I forgot it was even a concern. And perhaps the best thing, I now have a ton more storage space for my art supplies! *joy*
It's really stupid how excited I am about digging through all the old boxes and files I've been putting off looking at for *years*. I can't wait to be rid of all that stuff now, and I'm soooo ready to be rid of it. I'm even really excited about going through all the boxes of my memorabilia. I've always wanted/intended to put that stuff in albums and shadow boxes and whatnot, and I'm finally going to start that project. I fully expect I'll actually wind up throwing most of it out now though. I'll probably scan a lot of stuff and keep it digitally, but a lot of it will go. How ridiculous is that that thought makes me almost giddy with relief? *squee*
