Week 2 of Organizing the Home: Our First Steps
7February 20, 2014 by Tess
We’ve had some time to look at our workbooks and decide what kind of system might work for us.
What did you choose? How did you choose it?
- A Daily System?
- A System to “Reset”?
- A System for a “Troublespot”?
Was the workbook helpful, or did it make more sense to just go for it? Did you choose a particular area, a particular project?
Your First Steps
You’ve figured out the process or system that will work for you, now prioritize! Make sure what you choose addressed the Top 10 List on page 13 (after all, all that matters is what is important to YOU!). Make your list of steps. Will you address 4 of the 5 things? Are you following a system that will get your 10 things done eventually? Have you chosen a weekend of Spring cleaning? Write it down, and outline the process. How will you begin?
Take and post “before” pictures!
Let’s hold ourselves accountable! Let’s celebrate our progress together.
Category Organizing the Home | Tags:
I have troublespots, or maybe trouble-chores! I’m going to go back to my zones and do those things that are making me crazy!
What I want to accomplish this month:
1. My closet. I’ve been working on this forever and just need to get it handled.
2. My entryway: Has become a collecting point. “Drop-spaces” are good, but eventually you have to put things away!
3. My spice cabinet has become the ‘junk drawer’ of kitchen stuff. I want to clean/purge!
4. My desk. Yes, I run four businesses from my office, but I often struggle to find current work. I’m going to archive some things to have more room for current projects!
I’ll check in as I move along. These four things can make a dramatic difference in my life, and I’m looking forward to getting them done!
What did you choose?
I have three main areas I want to work on:
1) Back door/pantry entrance
2) Patio in back
3) Yard – landscape in front and back
You’ve identified the areas. What’s your plan of attack for each?
What needs to be done is easy for me. I’m with the “how” to do them!
I have three main areas I want to focus on:
1) The back door/pantry area
2) The patio
3) The back yard/landscaping
I am a bit behind, so i will do week two and then reply with my pics on week three. I had to really think about this. The stress in my life tends to expand and cause chaos in so many other areas. As I seem to live with a gaggle of 20-somethings, my house is a daily duty. I straighten up every day. If i don’t, I end up with science experiences everywhere. But what really gets to me and makes me not CARE when I get home is work. If work is incredibly stressful, all of a sudden i can’t even put the new roll of toilet paper on the roll, I’m too busy (it just leans on top of the empty roll….) So my absolute top priority if my office. I know, it isn’t my home, but it is where i started. I cleaned out and shredded a small tree just from one filing drawer alone and all of a sudden, my house if vacuumed.
Each day i go through an inch of papers in one of my numerous piles and either shred or file for 20 minutes. Now my bathroom is clean. My goal is once i finish with the paper at the office, I can work on the paper piles at home. (Yes, they are like gremlins after they have eaten after midnight…or got wet??? whichever, the paper piles are everywhere.
My system is listed in my Week 1 post.
No effective troubleshooting or reset strategy found yet.
My problem areas consisted of 11 items. I’m focusing on 4 at the moment:
1. Shop (which doubles as my office)
2. Carport area
3. Laundry Room
4. Pit Room (this is a home improvement project that has stalled)
Plan of Attack:
1. Carport: Declutter, organize and purge in the carport. This will provide working space for the same thing in the shop.
2. Shop: Declutter and reorganize. Purge.
The shop and carport have the types of things: office/work stuff, tools, toys, incomplete projects, and materials for future projects. Organization will have to make more sense: tools in the shop, clean working surface daily for work (cleaning/straightening this area will be added to my daily routine soon), materials outside on the carport, finished projects someplace specific (thinking carport), and working on those projects to completion (or deciding that some projects aren’t worth the clutter and effort of finishing).
3. Laundry room: 15 minutes/day seem to be doing the trick
4. Pit room: 15 minutes/day (and longer as the specific phase requires) is doing the trick here too.