From Dana:
With the help of my small group friends and their "Goals Program" they do, I have taken some baby steps to set some goals for myself. Well, actually, I was getting overwhelmed and stuck coming up with three Banner Goals, so they encouraged me to just start with one. So, I have a goal, written down, with a plan in place, to get my house in order before the baby comes in late October. I have asked myself multiple times, "Why didn't I do this when I had all that time before kids?" I think it's probably my biggest regret from my non-kid years, but I have seen a lot of improvement just in the 6 or so weeks I've been working on it.
I started with our bedroom, the oft forgotten room, the place where everything gets stashed when company comes over because "no one sees it but us". It had gotten pretty out of control. There were, like the rest of the house, quite a few ill-used spaces that had just been "maintained" since I moved in. I hadn't given them a second thought, really, as to how to use the space better or to ask if these sort of things should even be here, etc. I just kept it "picked up".
The plan: To set my timer and spend 15 minutes 5 days a week working on reorganizing, decluttering, getting rid of stuff/junk. I won't allow myself to do much more time than that, unless it involves cleaning up a mess I've made, but I won't start a new project after the 15 mins - in hopes to avoid burnout and to avoid the rest of the house/my responsibilities going to pot while I do this project. It's easy to tell myself, "You can do this for 15 minutes." And it's amazing how much you can get done.
The second part of my plan involves using my friends as resources to see what they do - what works for them. I try to meet with two ladies a month to hear what they do at their house to keep it up. I interviewed Whitney first. I wanted to pick her brain about getting rid of stuff because she is just really good at it. You can just tell when you walk into their house that they don't have a lot of extra stuff. She had some great insight, that just comes natural to her, but was good for me to hear. I also interviewed Haley to learn about what do with all these different sizes of kid clothes! I'm so grateful for them but feeling like I'm getting buried in them. She has four boys, so had some good thoughts.
The last part of the plan is to research and read up on blogs that feed this kind of thinking. I've just done that a little bit, but have found it's good to fill your mind with "minimalist" type thinking when you're trying to do what I'm doing.
Overall, it's been a good few weeks. The bedroom is all but done. Now on to the bathroom and hall closet before tackling the kitchen...a BIG project. In the process, I have made almost $200 selling stuff on eBay. Not bad but not super easy either. Glad I liked checking the auctions every day. That made it more fun.
Here's to an organized, clutter-free-ish house come October 2015!
