Goals: The February Review and the Rest of March New

Obviously, I am a bit late with this! But, I didn't do it--and I feel like I must do something to feel like my life is my own again. Plus, it is incredibly helpful to get back on track!

Let's review:

Yearly Goals:

1. Weigh less
--no idea.

2. Owe less
--as of today, yes!

3. Exercise
--not doing it.

4. Fix bathrooms
--later

5. Decorate front and back hallway.
--Coming in April!

6. Sell books in garage
--see June and July

7. De-clutter/Organize basement storage area.
--in progress. (see link below)

8. Declutter and Organize basement pantry and laundry room area
--done! 

9. Two new recipes per month.
--I was focused on finding a few vegetarian recipes. Lately, I've been focused on finding recipes I can make ahead and freeze. 

10. Begin the process to wire the house properly.
--um, does putting up a new light--and then taking it down because it interrupted all power to my daughter's room count? 

11. Spend one on one time with each child once a month.
--My son and I made plans but they fell through. 

Goals for February.

1. I enrolled in a life-coaching course called "Re-discovering You." It's a 28 day challenge in self-improvement. My goal is to do all my homework every day.

I did not do my homework everyday. I don't know why, but I just couldn't get into this course at all.


2. Sea Change (Leo Babauta's course) switched focus to healthy eating.

1. I quit drinking diet Coke for the whole month. 
2. I tried to keep a food journal every day. That did not go well. I only managed 10 days.
3. I introduced more fruits and vegetables to my diet and ate fewer potato chips and pie. That was good.


3. A Simple Year, another course I am enrolled in focuses on "Busyness" this month. My goal is to do all the reading--and only those assignments I feel may be of value to me. I do not feel like my life is over-busy. (At least, not right now. It will be a different story starting in May through to September!)

Wow. I have no idea how I did on this. Everything spun out of control so fast.

3. Laundry seems to be a huge problem. I am not sure what it is. Are we not doing laundry frequently enough? (likely) or do we have too many clothes? (also likely).

1. I started doing all the laundry on my days off. That seemed to help.


4. Clean the basement!
The first area I need to address is the laundry room.

1. Yay! I did it.


5. Paperwork.
Ugh. I have been stashing papers in a drawer of my desk for, oh, about a year. I don't mind doing this at all: I know where papers are if I need them. BUT. It is getting full and a lot of them are likely no longer needed. This is good prep for taxes, too.

1. See March.


6. Complete all homework assignments for Joshua Becker's decluttering module in A Simple Year.
  a. declutter car See March
  b. declutter two living areas in your home.
            bedroom's done! Dining room/study is done. (for now).
  c. clear all functional surfaces. done. 
  d. implement a "living with less" experiment.

I removed as close to 29 kitchen utensils as I could.

  e. begin tackling a hard to declutter room or area. (the basement.)

7. Take one small step towards writing my Canadian History curriculum for children.

1. I didn't do this. I won't do this. It is time to get rid of everything I've collected over time related to this, I guess.

The Rest of March:

There are only two weeks left.

1. A Simple Year is focusing on a module called Travel. I am skipping it.


2. Sea Change:

The focus this month is decluttering. I am not doing well at all. The instructions are to declutter ten minutes every day: I have only managed 7/15 days so far. I am so sorry to miss this! I suppose I can always start fresh and aim for 16/16 days remaining.


3. Paperwork.

I started on the drawer. I have to make up some files and then I'll be ready to collect papers for yet another year.


4. Paint Canvas in Dining Room/study.

Yes, I bought one! The plan for the dining room is now to paint the walls Blue-green and paint the canvas an even deeper blue green.

5. Choose colour for walls in Dining room/study.


6. Start new Bullet Journal and transfer items.


7. Begin planning in earnest for ORC challenge, starting April 2nd.


8. Declutter car and have it detailed.


9. Do dishes every evening before bed.

From the Weekend: Decluttering the Basement

The first time I approached this pile, I set my timer for 15 minutes and went in for the easy stuff.

Empty boxes? Break 'em down for recycling. Things that belong somewhere else? Take them there. That was the first fifteen minutes. It didn't look like I'd done a thing.

I waited a few more days--then, it was a day off: Saturday. Another 15 minutes.

I was immediately overwhelmed. I couldn't even reach the items I knew what to do with--so I went round the other side. Bam! I came across two beautiful pillows that used to be in my living room. I had no idea whether they were to stay or go. So, instead of hitting a roadblock right away, I put them aside "for later." Then, I was staring at a pile of fabrics--and, for me, that was easy.

I figured I was done for the day. But later, I had a few minutes before dinner, so I set the timer and headed back down. When the timer went off, I was beginning to see some progress, so I kept going. I continued working past the timer for about another 15 minutes.

There are so many decisions to be made when you're decluttering! It is not cheating to stick with the easy stuff--to ease into it, as it were. (Sorry about that.) It's weird. It's like dealing with a muscle. Once your decluttering brain gets warmed up, it gets easier and easier--even as you begin to wade into the more difficult stuff. I think that's why it's a good thing to do "declutering binges" --like doing  a bag a day for 40 days, or a certain number items per day for a month (The Mins game), or by going through the whole house, category by category, for about 6 months (the Kon-Mari method).

Guys, I don't know what I am going to do once I get to the bottom of this area. I was reading over this article today and realised I have nothing, really nothing I need to get rid of according to a list like this. 

So Good.

It wasn't supposed to happen.

I took all of these "before" pictures on January 29th.

At least not like this. Not today.

I'd vowed to get every single stitch of laundry done by bed-time tonight. (I won't have another day off until Tuesday so today was "prep for the long haul" day). I started up a recording of a webinar I'd missed for the Sea Change course I'm taking from Leo Babauta and away I went.

While my daughter was trying to get laundry done in this mess (and honestly, who can get laundry done in this mess?) the shelf came down and the box of washing soda spilled all over the top. So, it was relatively easy to wash this up once it was cleared off.

It had been one of my goals for February, but I had been working at a snail's pace--not even 15 minutes here and there, more like move one item from here to there, and oh! here look, maybe another.

Meh. I suppose I could put that shirt of my husband's away in his closet some day soon. Then again, he won't be needing it for another 2 1/2 months.

But, on a precious day off, I continued to declutter my laundry room until I found myself sweeping the floor and then clearing and cleaning the surfaces.

Unfortunately, the dryer was covered with spots and blobs of wood stain from projects I'd done last fall. I worked at them with paint thinner--while the dryer was working. Probably not the greatest idea. There was quite the smell.

I even cleared off the little project table!

Yes, I believe that's the same big black garbage bag as before. It could be a different one. Nonetheless, it comes in handy for old shoes and coats and things to worn out to donate and too big to fit in the kitchen garbage can.

Unfortunately, the combined smells of washing soda, bleach and paint thinner have left my stomach feeling a bit odd. And, other things I had planned to do didn't get done.

But the kids can vacuum the stairs and wash the kitchen floor, right? They have a three day weekend.

They'd better.

Goals: The January Review and The February New

Report on progress towards my yearly goals:

Fitness and Physical Appearance:

1. I will weigh less on January 1, 2016 than I do on January 1, 2015 by at least 30 pounds.

No change.

2. I will average at least 70,000 steps per week for every week of 2015. (This may be too low to achieve #1 above, so I'll adjust if necessary.)

According to my fitbit, I missed my goal be several miles. Week 1, I averaged 11,859 steps per day. Week 2: 10,141; Week 3: 6,262, and week 4: 8,308.
I'll need to step it up. (sorry.)

3. I will be stronger and more flexible and more fit.

Nope. But all is not lost. I sill have my legs. I can walk.

You may recall I downloaded a fitness routine "for beginners." Hah. I am low-impact walking (quickly) back to Leslie Sansone.


Finances:

1. We will owe less on January 1, 2016 than we do on January 1, 2015. (I have a specific number in mind, but I'm not comfortable sharing that here.)

Unfortunately, life happened. We will get it under control fairly quickly, though.

2. I will cook two new vegetarian meals a month until we find six we can put into the meal rotation.

Yay, finally, something went right! I made two vegetarian chilis. The second one was awesome and we'll keep it. 

link to recipe. I have to confess, I omitted the jalapenos and added corn and sweet potatoes. (or yams, whichever one is orange.) And yes, I ate mine over pasta. So good.

House:

1. I will declutter and organize the following areas:

a) Christmas and Holiday items. (Under the basement stairs, china cabinet, basement shelves.) I want to get this done this month. I am comitting to spending at least 15 minutes a day on it--except for days when I work more than six hours.

done.

b) Home office: papers, files, office drawers, command centre.
see February goals

c) Basement storage and recyclable area.
see February goals

d) Sell/Donate the boxes of books in the garage.
not yet. In the Spring.

2. Decorate the front and back hallway and the stairwell. (ORC Challenge starts April 2nd)
Talk to me in April.

3. Fix the bathrooms!
Not yet.

4. Begin the process to wire the house properly.
Not yet.

5. Spend one on one time with each child once a month.
My daughter and I went shopping for jeans and then out for hamburgers.
I didn't do anything specific with my son. 

Goals for February.

1. I just enrolled in a life-coaching course called "Re-discovering You." It's a 28 day challenge in self-improvement. My goal is to do all my homework every day.

2. Sea Change (Leo Babauta's course) switches focus from Meditation (from which I bailed completely, by the way) to healthy eating. I will come up with a plan for that, shortly. The first thing I'm going to do is stop drinking Diet Coke for the month. (Good thing it is a short month!)

3. A Simple Year, another course I am enrolled in focuses on "Busyness" this month. My goal is to do all the reading--and only those assignments I feel may be of value to me. I do not feel like my life is over-busy. (At least, not right now. It will be a different story starting in May through to September!)

3. Laundry seems to be a huge problem. I am not sure what it is. Are we not doing laundry frequently enough? (likely) or do we have too many clothes? (also likely)

sorry for the weird blur

So, I think I need to tackle the frequency problem before I can assess the second problem. I know that my clothing situation is under control: and I am pretty sure that my husband also has a reasonable number. So, the goal is for me to put one load into the wash every morning and have it transferred over at supper and folded and put away in the evening. Something like that.

4. Clean the basement!
The first area I need to address is the laundry room.

5. Paperwork.
Ugh. I have been stashing papers in a drawer of my desk for, oh, about a year. I don't mind doing this at all: I know where papers are if I need them. BUT. It is getting full and a lot of them are likely no longer needed. This is good prep for taxes, too.

6. Complete all homework assignments for Joshua Becker's decluttering module in A Simple Year.
  a. declutter car
  b. declutter two living areas in your home.
            bedroom's done!
  c. clear all functional surfaces.
  d. implement a "living with less" experiment.
  e. begin tackling a hard to declutter room or area. (see basement, above.)

7. Take one small step towards writing my Canadian History curriculum for children.

Whew. That's a lot. Almost too much for such a short little month!

Christmas Decorations Tidied.

I got rid of that red, gold and green chain garland. It just seemed loud and obnoxious to me.

I read Marie Kondo's book, The Magic of Tidying last week.

Ignoring all the odd bits (like objects have feelings and desires), her process for decluttering is helpful.

I decided to keep the Christmas cds with the tree as putting up the tree is the first time we want them.

Pick the object up, ask yourself, "Does this bring me joy?" Then, pay attention. How do you feel? Put it down in the keep pile or the toss pile, depending on your reaction.

The first page in this, my Christmas planner, tells me to buy Christmas cards and wrapping paper.

That is it in a nutshell. There's a procedure for going through your home (Kondo recommends starting with your clothes and then moving on to books and then other things. For obvious reasons, Christmas decorations are not a category.) She also advises you to dump everything you are considering out on the floor in order to force yourself pick up each and every item.

I didn't do that.

The newly emptied outbox is getting filled back up again.

But, I did go through each and every box.

I asked the question.

I got rid of two boxes worth of stuff.

And when I got everything back to its home under the basement stairs, I wondered how they had ever fit in the first place!

Goals for 2015

I wanted to do a "Goals 2014 review" post to send off the old year--but my last goals post was in March. I only lasted three months! Hopefully, I will do better this year.

For the first time ever, I'm going to make some goals for the whole year. There aren't many.

Fitness and Physical Appearance:

1. I will weigh less on January 1, 2016 than I do on January 1, 2015 by at least 30 pounds.
2. I will average at least 70,000 steps per week for every week of 2015. (This may be too low to achieve #1 above, so I'll adjust if necessary.)
3. I will be stronger and more flexible and more fit.

So what does that look like in January?

For better or worse, I've downloaded a low impact work out guide for beginners from fitnessblender. I've done the first day and it was a fitness test. Ugh. I knew I was inflexible: now I really know! I am taking this just one day at a time.

Finances:

1. We will owe less on January 1, 2016 than we do on January 1, 2015. (I have a specific number in mind, but I'm not comfortable sharing that here.)

Right now, I put 70% of my pay cheque directly onto the debt. For this month, I am going to up that to 80% and see how that goes.

2. I will cook two new vegetarian meals a month until we find six we can put into the meal rotation.

House:

1. I will declutter and organize the following areas:

a) Christmas and Holiday items. (Under the basement stairs, china cabinet, basement shelves.) I want to get this done this month. I am comitting to spending at least 15 minutes a day on it--except for days when I work more than six hours.

b) Home office: papers, files, office drawers, command centre.
c) Basement storage and recyclable area.
d) Sell/Donate the boxes of books in the garage.

2. Decorate the front and back hallway and the stairwell. (ORC Challenge starts April 2nd)

3. Fix the bathrooms!

4. Begin the process to wire the house properly.

5. Spend one on one time with each child once a month.

Does this seem boring? It seems boring. No big travel pans, no big novel writing plans, no start a new business, buy a tiny house and ride off into the sunset plans.

Either I am unimaginative--or I'm pretty much content with my life.

Let's go with that.

May Goals

I have been utterly consumed with making over my Mom's bedroom.

Whatever goals I had for April completely succumbed to the One Room Challenge.

I haven't done a thing towards getting the April goals accomplished since the last progress report except pick up the rejects from the consignment store and drop some of them off for donation.

Last month was absolutely crazy. Between that and work (and work is only going to get more demanding as the busy summer season gets going) I have felt as though my life is spinning out of control.

Dishes are piled as high as skyscrapers and creating urban sprawl.

All of my rooms are like jammed up freeways. Clutter like cars idling everywhere. Can't move. At all.

(I would include some of the pictures I took, but it's too depressing to call them up onto the screen, edit and post. Also--time consuming. You know what a messy house looks like, I'm sure!)

It is more than past time to get back to basics.

What are they?

1) Grocery plan once a week.
2) Record expenses once a week.

These two things are essential to my sanity and to achieving our goal of becoming debt free as soon as possible. Both took a back seat this month. I have almost no food in the house--and we're flling into the trap of stopping at the grocery store each day and buying ingredients for supper. Time consuming. Wasteful.

A messy house is somewhat OK, just annoying and unpleasant. Messy finances are just not OK, ever. Of course, having let most of April go by without recording anything, I'll need to spend a specific amount of time to catch up before I can keep up.

3) Household Chores:

Daily:
make my bed
pick up bedroom
laundry (wash one, dry one, fold one, put one away)
swish and swipe both bathrooms
pick up and put away items on the min floor
wash dishes.

Weekly:
stock bathrooms with toilet paper
clean toilets
clean out purse and wallet
vacuum
wash kitchen floor
wash bathroom floors
clean microwave

Looking at the list like this, it seems so easy!

The daily routine can't take more than half an hour--and though the weekly chores are all over the place in terms of how long they would take (stocking the bathroom isn't anywhere as time consuming as vacuuming, for instance) it all seems eminently doable.

So why don't I do it?

Feh.

No use going down that road if I am just going to blame myself.

4) Health:

I have noticed a significant drop in my stamina since I stopped working out. Nine hour shifts are killing me. So:

Workout 3 to 4x a week.
Read
Get lots and lots of sleep.

And that's IT.

Of course, I've developed this horrible habit these past few months of making sensible monthly goals and plans--and then being totally distracted just a few days later by some project. Cross your fingers nothing like that will come along and lure me away from this boring but sensible (and oh so necessary) path.

As well, I am still working on My Mom's bedroom--the reveal is May 8th, so I'll be pulling out all the stops until then: so these plans are really only for the last three weeks of the month!

As always, I'll let you know how it goes.

April Goals: Progress Report.

As you can imagine, I am a bit behind my Goals for April. I have been so focused on decorating my Mom's bedroom for the One Room Challenge that I have let things slide.

I have done a little bit, though.

Minimalist March: Follow Up.

1. List the items I can sell myself.

I have managed to list precisely one of three things. No interest at all. The other two items I have listed in the past as well without anyone having noticed.


2. Schlep items to various stores either to sell outright or on consignment.

I got a jump on the month and got rid of two items quickly.




I took a bunch of things to a consignment shop just last week. I have to go and pick up the things they won't accept to sell this week--and then pick up my cheque and what hasn't sold in five or six weeks. I am thinking that I am unlikely to bring the things home in any event. The books are still here, though.


3. Schlep remaining donations to various places.

 I have taken a large load to Value Village and the scrapbook supplies to the store that donates them to the kids' hospital. I've had those supplies set aside, in the basement, for probably a year. So glad that is done.


Overhaul the Laundry Room

The table beside the washing machine was full of items to be taken to the consignment shop. So, packing them up and taking them in has gone a long way to clearing out this space. [] I haven't done much else, though.

It is kind of tough to clean a room I am constantly using!


Keep a Food Diary.

Nope. Haven't even thought about it. I did re-start reading the book which recommended it after a two week hiatus.


Other:

I am still working on a whole house palette. I bought and read through Maria Killiam's e-book, "It's All in the Undertones" this weekend and realised, as always, that I overcomplicate things.

The living room and dining room are currently that french vanilla colour in the middle, (papaya in the States) though I have started painting ithe livin room the same colour as the bedroom (glass of milk.) I have been having second thoughts as it is so very light.

Another, rather more exciting discovery was that green grays will work best with the green and blue colour scheme I want to shift towards. As usual, the woodwork upstairs is causing me fits.

This is a great scheme, but nothing here works with the upstairs hallway.

Though maybe the grassy green (lower right) might. I need to check it out tomorrow, once the sun comes up.

April Goals

Even though I wound up focusing on decluttering and Spring Cleaning, I really didn't take any time to really think about what I wanted to do--or what I should do. And while that worked for last month, I want to take a more deliberate approach to my time this month. 

Minimalist March: Follow Up.

According to the rules of the game, you are supposed to have removed the items by midnight of the day you decluttered. Obviously, this would have been extraordinarily inconvenient and somewhat wasteful of gas and time. But the point is a good one--and one I confronted during this challenge more times than I could count. I discovered many items that I have decided to let go of--but hadn't yet removed--from efforts I've made in the past. Now, from this particular, effort, I have more piles than ever. The majority are things I want to sell. So, selling them will be my first and major priority. To wit:

1. List the items I can sell myself.
2. Schlep items to various stores to either sell outright or on consignment.
3. Schlep remaining donations to various places.

Overhaul the Laundry Room.

I love the idea of an "overhaul." To me, it indicates a thorough assessment of the room and all of its contents to ensure all is working as it should.

1. Clean from top to bottom (including the machines themselves).

2. Assess every item in the room and deal with it. A lot of things slated for --you guessed it-- selling are sitting here waiting for me to get around selling them. By the end of this month, I swear.

3. Do any repair and/or decorative touches waiting for attention.

4. Finish up any projects and/or deal with items lingering related to projects.

Health and Fitness

1. Keep a Food Diary.



This is more complicated than it looks from that simple one line entry above. I am reading The Diet Fix, by Dr. Yoni Freedhof. Apparently, the food diary is one of the most effective tools around for managing one's weight.  Recording what I eat accurately will involve measuring it. Every single time. The best way to approach that--especially when I am working--is to pre-measure--that is, pack up pre-measured portions of snacks and meals. That will be time consuming.

Of course, then, in the evening, I need to sit down and look up the caloric value of what I ate. Grumph. I have never in my life counted calories--just because I hate the idea of doing all this work. The focus here, though, is not to allocate a daily maximum and subtract, no, the idea is to make sure I get both a minimum number of calories at each meal (and snack) as well as a minimum number of grams of protein. It won't be onerous all month, of course--just in the beginning while I get things sorted out. There'll never be a good time to do this, so I might as well just do it now.

There will be other things I'll do this month. One thing on my To Do list (now stored in a Bullet Journal which I'm excited to tell you about) is picking colours for a whole house paint scheme. I was so energised by repainting my bedroom that I'm now anxious to do the whole house! That will take a while, though.

Have you thought about what you'd like to do this month?

Mid-Month Goals Update

Yes, that is the state of my bedroom, right now. I am in the middle of painting it--one of many goals for this month.

I had divided them up into three categories: Home, Health, and Hobby.

As far as the home goals go, I've only managed to start on the painting one, as you can see. But truly? That'll be enough. I've had some lovely weeks with less than twenty hours of work scheduled--but that will come to end rather soon.

My main push has been to establish some healthy habits using the MMEW Jumpstart Class to propel me onward. It's working!

 

 

I'm exercising.

 



Making my bed (ever since I read about the relationship between will-power and tidiness.)

yes, pulling up the covers totally counts

 



keeping a "five minute" journal

--all I have to do is write in it for five minutes before bed. I am finding this oddly comforting. I used to keep a journal....but I found it too cumbersome to keep up once I had kids. It turned into laments and lists. This time, my focus is on small wins.

Isn't it gorgeous? I bought it as a gift for someone--and then decided to give it to myself!

 

 

And, here we are, Day 14 of the Whole30.

 

 



As for my hobby, scrapbooking, I'm a bit taken aback that I haven't accomplished even one thing, yet. I haven't even taken any steps towards accomplishing anything. This is going to get away from me super-quick if I don't do something soon.

So, that's where I'm at, 15 days into January. How are you doing with your goal(s)?

Goals: January 2014

Are we back to normal, yet?

You know I like to set monthly goals. A year seems too big, and though I do hope to weigh fifty or more pounds less at the end of 2014 than I do, now, at its beginning, I am not making that a goal. A number on a scale is not in my control--only my behaviours are--and those I need to address daily, for now.

However, in the spirit of expanding this blog to include other aspects of my life, I am going to include goals for my health and my hobby in addition to my home this time.

Health:

1. Complete every day of the Jumpstart program by the end of the first week of February--and do what comes from it, thereafter.

2. Start the Whole30 on January 2nd and complete it.

3. Begin working out everyday: develop and establish a stretching routine, a strength routine and a cardio regime.

4. Record my efforts daily, looking for those "small wins."

Home:

I made up a list of things to do based on a yearly cleaning and organizing schedule. This is from that list:

1. Take down Christmas decorations and record thoughts about the 2013 season.

2. Paint the master bedroom.

3. Clean and organize the laundry room.

4. Clean oven.

5. Clean Kitchen ceiling


Hobby:

In case it isn't clear: I am a scrap booker. I love putting together photos and stories: perhaps it is the former journalist in me. Anyway, I must organize this year's digital photos and begin again the process of catching up with rating and categorizing my past digital photos. The system I follow is one I learned just this past Spring in the Library of Memories class taught by Stacey Julian.

So, for January, specifically:

1. One layout based on the year long 12 Themes class I'm taking. This month, the theme is Seasons.

2. At least 1 layout based on the Project Life class I am taking (a monthly overview?)

3. Star rate and categorize January to June 2013 pictures (or more.)

4. Finish up Move More Eat Well Layouts for 2013.


As always, I will let you know how it goes.

Have you any goals you're working on?

November: Getting Ready for Christmas

No, November 1st is not too early. Especially when you realise that I'm really getting ready to get ready.

The Living Room: Glitzy or Dusty?

a very messy --and dusty-- living room

I'll be focusing on giving my living room a thorough clean --just so the Christmas glitz doesn't have to fight its way through fields of dust. I am also going to try and tackle a sewing project-- recovering my POANG chair. I am very tired of the very tired green cover. Besides, it's really the dog's chair--and I want a cover that's easy to remove so I can wash it before we invite humans to sit on it.

the ubiquitous IKEA POANG chair in olive green.

The Kitchen: where the party happens

As well, since Christmas actually happens in the kitchen (it just parks it gear in the living room, much like my daughter), I plan to give it a lick and a promise as well. Plus, my new range is coming --and I want the rest of the kitchen to meet it looking its best. I owe it that much, hardworking thing that it is, don't you think?


And in the Christmas Corner:

I will be working on a few things directly related to Christmas, too, of course. I have enrolled in Simplify 101's course: Get Organized for the Holidays. Tonight, the family is going to have a sit down, a rare face to face to talk about what we want out of Christmas this year. Funds are tight, so we all need to have our expectations aligned.

My Holiday Planner. Created in 2009.

Blog News:

I plan to reduce my blogging frequency from every day (yeesh! For a non-money making blog, that 31 Days of Staying Organized series sure was a lot of work!) to twice a week. I am aiming for Tuesdays and Fridays.

What do you think? Is it too early to get organized for Christmas? What are you up to this month?

June: Goals (The Gargantuan List)

In spite of the fact that I wasn't able to finish Anti-procrastination Project month the way I would have liked, I am thrilled I got so much done!

Because of that, I am going to approach June in much the same way. That means I am going to commit to getting a certain number of projects done and blog about them every week. They fall into three broad categories: cleaning, organizing and decorating.

A lot of my annual and semi-annual cleaning chores haven't been done, yet. I usually do them as part of my "Spring Cleaning" but I was too distracted with all the organizing I was doing earlier this year. So, this month I want to catch up.

I've made a huge list of all the things I want to get done: some of them will be done this month, some of them will take longer. Some of them depend on how much extra money we will have.

But, a list is a great way to keep track of my plans, so I am going to share it here and link back when the project is done. I plan to blog about at least one or two projects in each category every week: so I am committing to three posts a week. Posting daily was a real grind, but a regular schedule keeps me chugging along and getting things done. It works for me!

So, here's the gargantuan, throw everything at the wall, big brain dump list.

Cleaning:

Wash windows and window sills, and vacuum screens in the kitchen, downstairs bathroom, living room and dining room. Done: June 6. Cleaning Windows: A Start

Wash curtains in the kitchen. Done!

Clean the oven, oven racks and stove top.
Clean the floor under the oven.

Clean the floor under the fridge.
Vacuum the fridge coils.

Clean the mail box and house numbers.

Clean the screen doors, both front and back.
Clean both exterior doors, front and back.

Clean the tiles in the tub and shower surround.

Dust all the bookshelves. Living room, dining room, upstairs hallway, bedroom.

Vacuum the bedroom floor--especially under the bed and couch! done.
Vacuum our mattress.

Wash the table top in the laundry room.
Wash the shelves.
Clean the machines.

Clean the pantry shelves.

Organizing:

Empty 2 boxes of photos
Empty the memorabilia box.
Re-label scrapbook patterned paper.
Purge and create a home for 8 1/2 x 11 paper.
Create a home for odd sized photos.

Organize the white cabinet in the bathroom.

Organize the linen closet upstairs.

Switch out the summer and winter clothing.
Clear out the nightstands in the master bedroom. Done! June Challenge: Organizing
Clean out my husband's side of the closet.

Find a home for the winter sheets on the shelves in the laundry room.

Organize the pantry into zones.

Decorating:

Kitchen:

Touch up blue chairs with paint. Re-painted in navy. December 2014
Refinish top of kitchen table. (If possible. It may not be.) Done: October 2014

Dining room/Home Office:

Fix the IKEA non lights on top of the shelf. fixed, but not blogged.

Living Room:

Finish sewing white drapes and putting in pleater tape.
Finish sewing couch slip cover.
sew a cover for the Poang chair.
Sew new pillows

All of these projects were finally completed as part of the One Room Challenge in the fall of 2014.

Deal with the footstool done.
Renew the gallery wall. Done, December 2013: Gallery Wall Part Deux.

Back Hallway:

scrape popcorn off of ceiling (transferred to January 2015 House Project List)
paint. (transferred to January 2015 House Project List)

Stairwell:

Hang large mirror (transferred to January 2015 House Project List)
touch up paint on risers. (transferred to January 2015 House Project List)

Upstairs Hallway:

make and install screen. (transferred to January 2015 House Project List)
sew new curtains for window. (transferred to January 2015 House Project List)

Master Bedroom: 

Paint room.
Paint headboard wall with something stencillish.
Buy or make a new duvet cover.

all done, March 2014!

Back Entry:

Hang extra board w/hooks.

done. In fact, the whole place was purty'd up in November.

Laundry Room:

Re-hang curtain.


Whew! There's no way all of this can be done in one month! But I will do all that I can this month.

May Goals: Anti-Procrastination Project Month

The goal: It is June 1st and I am a master of my To Do list, I am calm and content and ready to look forward to the summer with a clean slate.

Several things came together.

Firstly, I found a list of projects I put together in September of 2012. Although decluttering the basement meant I was able to put a check mark beside several of them, many, many more remain.

Secondly, as the Fundamentals class draws to a close, I've been discussing how to capture my on-going projects (make a list) and then how to remember to do them (review that list). I can make lists 'til the cows come home: where the system fails is in my review of the things which need doing. Quite simply, I don't. So, I hauled them all out to see what was what.

I thought I might focus on four projects this month--one a week. Then, I realised that would not be enough. I really need to get out from under all these nagging to-dos.

Thirdly, Tsh of Simple Mom devoted the entire month of April to various projects. Unfortunately, I only found out about it last week or I would have participated more fully.

The last project for the month, is, as she put it, that put-off project. You know, the one you are always putting off. I started looking around for such projects--and I did not have to look far.

My dining room table is sporting at least three projects all by itself.

The dresser in the back hallway? Well, that's the contents of the top drawer all over it. (There's more on the kitchen table.)

I came up with 35 projects that I have been procrastinating--some for a few days, some a few years. One is major (paint the backyard fence) but more than 13 of them can be done in 1/2 hour or less.

Of course, you realise that all of this is in addition to building and insulating a wall in the basement with my husband this week and painting all the shelves.

This:

 

 

is now this:

 

sometimes I think it's a miracle this house is still standing

 



As well, there are other garden related tasks which must be done this month too, if we're to take full advantage of our short growing season.

Oh, and I am already behind in my Clean and Simple Class at Big Picture. I need to catch up and stay caught up with that, too.

So, my plan is to blog every day in May about at least one project done.

Done! Crossed off. Check marked. Completed.

I have forty to choose from. Let's see if I can do it.

Goals for March: Purge and Shuffle.

It's all about the shuffle.

The last week of March is something we call "Spring Break." I think this is pretty common throughout North America (though the actual week may vary). A leftover from our agrarian days, kids get a week off of school in the Spring (It was probably so they could help plant crops).

My husband is taking the week off as well--and we have plans--big plans!

We are going to insulate the walls in the basement! Can I hear a cheer?

Last year, when my husband and son stopped, it was because they ran into this area under the stairs.

 (Yes, the laundry room area of my basement is a catastrophe, again. I have to figure out a storage solution for that hose.)

It is chocker block full of random items:
2 or 3 interior doors.
A drafting board. (I should sell it.)
Leftover mitts and gloves.
Old denim jeans (for patches. I'd love to make a quilt from them, too. I just need to figure out how.)
and all our Christmas decorations.

Of course, all of this needs to be moved somewhere.

Yep. The place where the bike used to be.

Of course, it's full of memorabilia boxes. So, I need to go through those and let go of stuff.

And there are these shelves.

These need to come down to make space for the second chair in my son's new "game room." I desperately need to make room for all the stuff on those shelves. I want to have the equivalent of this entire section gone by the beginning of April.

But that's not all. No. Here is where it all needs to go. (That's not a 1/2 empty shelf. That's the place where the photo boxes currently on the dining room table call home.)

In order to fully complete the insulation project, we need to dismantle these to put up the wall behind them. And, thus, we need to find a temporary "home" for their contents while we work on the wall. (We don't plan to get to the wall until July, though, so I have some time!)

Gah. I have to purge. and shuffle.


1. Move papers in filing boxes on the shelves into the filing cabinet.
a) purge the out-of-date paperwork in the filing boxes
b) ditto for the filing cabinet.
c) Make up new files andput into the filing cabinet.

2. Set up Memorabilia boxes to receive the "keepsies."
a) Go through current unorganized boxes and sort into what to keep and what to toss.
b) Then, I need to organize what I'm keeping by year.

3. Sort Photos.
One entire shelf cubby usually holds all of the photo boxes currently on my dining room table. As part of the Photo Freedom class, I've been going through these and sorting through them. I have a lot of duplicates, fortunately--but it's still going to take some effort to get through these by the end of the month!

4. Go through the homeschooling binders.
Fortunately, I've already cleared out one. In the Photo Freedom course, our instructor Stacy Julian suggests we set up a plastic tote with hanging files labeled with every year our child was (and will be) in school. Into these folders I'll slip a couple of pages from each subject we covered. Other things go in here, too, like school pictures and things like certificates and so on. I am so glad I now have a system to deal with all that stuff!

5. Toss everything I know I will never look at again. (Certain weight-loss materials come to mind as well as a few other things).

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnd, today, just as I was getting ready to post this, my husband announced he would like to move a huge hulking monstrosity out of his workshop into this space: right where I have my corner shelves and the black plastic shelves I just moved in here last weekend. The cabinet is three feet wide. It would mean he could actually cut 8 foot boards inside his workshop instead of depending on the weather to haulthem outside. (The workshop is right behind this wall). That would be useful!

So, more to purge and shuffle!

Other goals:

I am also puging and shuffling books. I want to make room for baskets on the shelves in the dining room/home office/scraproom so that I can keep all my scrapbooking supplies in one space (rather than running down to the basement for something.) That's my hope. Probably unrealistic. Worth a try. So:

1) Make at least four trips to a second hand book shop this month.

2) Figure out where to list homeschooing curriculum books for sale and price and list them.

3) Make at least one trip to Value Village and drop off donations. (I used to go to the Library book sales and pick up books by the bagsful. I don't re-sell those, but donate them.)

4) This is sort of vague, but set up the dining room so that it is easy to scrapbook. This is what the the Organizing Your Creative Space course is all about -- and I need to re-visit the last few lessons with this new goal in mind.

I'm sorry, this is probably all as dull as ditchwater. But it helps me keep track and be accountable.
(Though I have to confess, I did let the paperwork goals from February die rather quietly. But who wants to look at stacks of paper? Not I. Unfortunately, I still am! Oh well.)