project organization

I owe you guys a texture tutorial, but this weekend was CRAZY busy, and I’m just now sitting down at my computer to do fun things.

I will do a processing tutorial for this image tomorrow …

And then a texture for portraits tutorial later in the week. :)

Real quick … my mom emailed me this weekend about my simplifying life post, and she knows me oh so well. She said …

I know you are doing great with your kitchen but I still say the first step y’all should take is getting rid of clutter, everywhere.  It will make everything else so much simpler.

She is so right. I’m all, “Woohoo!! Look at me! I kept the kitchen clean for a week!” but that’s not the heart of the problem.

The heart of the problem is …

• receipts
• fusible interfacing instructions
• knick knacks
• sunglasses
• Emma’s hair clips and elastics (my word, those things are everywhere)
• spare buttons from new winter jackets
• coupons
• an FM transmitter to my iPod
• Emma’s eczema lotion

And that is just the stuff that is on the tall kitchen counter that separates our kitchen from our living room.

ACK!

Of course, it multiplies like bunnies, and I just can’t keep up with it. Another blog that I read said something else that really rang true to me …

organization simply requires a ‘home’ for everything

I know what Ken’s thinking … that I’ll go out and buy more junk to hold junk. But I won’t. I already have places and boxes and buckets and bins to keep the stuff that we need to keep – I just need to USE them. The rest of it is going in the trash or the Goodwill pile or Craigslist. Period.

We just don’t need to keep so much STUFF around that we “may” use one day or “hope” to get around to.

Mom also suggested that I just tackle everything in the morning and then the afternoon can be my computer / picture editing / quietly folding laundry / making supper time. Again, this would work best for me, because I tend to put off a lot of my cleaning when Emma’s napping because I don’t want to wake her up.

So … you may not see me around as much for coffee chat. But just know that I’m working my tail off and making a huge dent in this chaos we call life.

Thanks, mom. And thank all of you for the support and kind words! xo

ps – I’m scheduling this to post first thing in the morning, but I assure you, I am writing it at 9:15pm on Sunday night. ;)

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It’s late, everyone is in bed, and I’m here in front of the computer, as usual. I seem to get most of my work done late at night when the house is quiet and still.

So … project organization is going really well. There are two large bags in the back of my car that will be going to Goodwill tomorrow morning while Emma is in school. I pretty much have to hide it from her, because … well … most of it is her toys. Shhhhhhh!

And also? The kitchen is spotless right now!! And it’s been clean for almost a week! I have a whole routine – I run the dishwasher and get my coffee all ready at night so all I have to do is hit the “on” button when we come downstairs. And  yes, I do have a coffee pot with a timer, but I lost the instruction booklet, and I have NO idea how to set it. It also blinks 12:00 constantly.

Anyway, while Emma is eating her breakfast, I work on my first cup of coffee and unload the dishwasher from the night before so it can be loaded throughout the day.

I know what most of you are thinking … that’s how you’ve been doing it for years. But remember, my mind just doesn’t work that way. However, walking into the kitchen sets up the rest of my day, and if it’s clean, then I have instant balance to get started on the other gajillion things that need to be done every day.

I also cleaned off *most* of my desk, but I still have a few wayward piles that need to be worked on. I plan on leaving my computer off until I get the last of it organized tomorrow morning. I’m too tempted by the dinging of my email. Or Twitter. Or Facebook. Yes, I have a problem.

Already have a gameplan written out for the rest of the week, thanks to my handy dandy MomAgenda planner. I know, I buy a new planner every year and then use it for about three weeks, but this? This thing is serious. It’s an all-in-one planner for moms. It’s got a normal day planning area, but then it has 4 blocks underneath for each kid. Well, since we only have the one, I used the other blocks for cleaning, our business and training for the half-marathon. It also has a little space for dinner, which works just perfectly with my meal plan. It’s for real, yo. And I can tell that it will become my third arm in no time at all.

I think I can get the rest of the house finished this week, and then we’ll have to tackle the garage together. But as much as I hate to say this, because I don’t want to put it off … it will probably have to wait until it’s a bit warmer.

I won’t do this every week or anything, but several of you actually asked me to keep posting about it … and it’s basically free therapy for me. ;) I know many of you said you have the same issues, and I know that I get inspired when I read about others making positive changes around their house, so maybe, just maybe, I am inspiring someone else?

Keep organizing! Keep decluttering! Let’s get it done!

Coming up this week: a new texture tutorial. I’ve also got a long list of emailed questions that I want to cover, so please subscribe so you don’t miss out on anything.

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My dear friend Maegan just wrote a beautiful post about living more simply, and it struck a chord with me. You see, I suffer from depression, it’s no big secret, and if you’ve known me for any time at all, you probably already know this about me. I’m not one to hide behind it or use it as an excuse. I just deal with things a lot differently than other people. It is what it is. The person most affected by it would have to be Ken, because I am 100% real around him – the good and the bad. But he hangs in there through it all, and without him, I would have never accepted it for what it is.

Having said that, I am affected most by my depression when things get out of control. For example, if the house becomes a mess, I can’t wrap my brain around what needs to be done, so I do nothing. Until one day, everything clicks and I clean clean clean until it’s done. I don’t know how to explain it – it just creates an overwhelming grip on me, and I can’t break out of it long enough to figure out what needs to be done.

Or if my desk was messy, I would just brush aside anything that needed to be done. Sometimes, that meant bills. It’s silly to forget to pay your bills, but when you suffer from something like this, it’s like you know they are there, but you can’t even fathom taking three minutes to pay them. Luckily, I’ve never let it get too far, and I’ve been able to keep things paid on time for a long time now. But that’s how I live.

And being the homemaker, I felt like it was my job to do everything around the house. I felt like I couldn’t ask Ken to help … until we had to pay late fees. I always felt so stupid, like I couldn’t even sit down and take care of something simple like paying the bills.

But I realized that if I was organized and if I kept things somewhat clean and clutter-free, things moved along much easier. If I organize the bills when they come in and then sit down every Monday morning and pay them, everything gets paid on time. Or if I set up a little schedule on what to do around the house each day, it stays clean.

This is where simplicity comes in. Clutter = me feeling overwhelmed. The more simple we live, the easier it is for me to function without feeling like I’m drowning. So this month is going to be a serious cleanup month in the Hoskins household. I’m going to be working through each room and getting rid of unnecessary clutter. I’m going to be organizing the garage and linen/coat closets so we have more room to store the clutter that we actually need.

Emma’s toys are going to get a major overhaul, and then we will be enforcing the “one in-one out rule” (1I1O) … anytime she brings one new toy in, one toy must be donated.

Same 1I1O rule goes for any items of clothing that are not necessary (i.e., underwear is a necessity, a new sweater is not).

It’s also time for me to start getting busy making Emma clothes with the huge fabric stash I have right now. I refuse to buy her new dresses when I have so many patterns for cute dresses/skirts and the ability to make them myself. I’m also going to work on making some really cool things for her that won’t cost as much as a new toy will.

Anyway, this is where it starts. Will I blog about everything? Probably not, but I’ll try to update when I can on what’s going on. Maybe take some pictures, too, if I’m brave enough to show you the messy befores. Yikes.

Baby step #1? I’ve kept the kitchen clean for 2 days. Yes, this is a big deal for me. Most of you will think that it’s easy to just unload the dishwasher in the morning and then load it all day, run it at night, and start all over the next day. But little things like that are things that I have to work really hard to do. 2010 is the year to make the positive changes that will hopefully lead to me doing things like that without even thinking twice.

I feel like 2010 is going to bring some big changes for me. And for us as a family.

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