That is FlyLady's acronym for "can't have anyone over syndrome," and BOY-O do I have it. I'm having sort of a psychological kafluey right now (did YOU know that Seasonal Affective Disorder does wacky stuff to you in the summer too? Crazy, racing thoughts, energy to burn, but somehow never productively, and irritability/weepiness like crazy, in my case. Fun, eh?), and the house is just making me INSANE.
I have SO fallen off the Partners in Clean wagon that it just ain't funny. I actually just sat here and read all of FlyLady's wisdom, and, while I really like some of her ideas, others just won't stick to me (her FLY paper ain't that good), so I'm not going to set myself up for failure by trying to fit myself and mylife into her mold (moisturizer every day? Polishing? Great if that is your life, but it is NOT mine.)
I AM taking her up on somethings though, and crafting them to fit my own style, so I am more likely to work them out. I don't do my surface a day/15 minutes a day because I haven't set myself any systems or routines for actually doing them. Heck, I often don't even manage to pump breast milk until lunchtime, and my little kaflooeys don't help any.
Biggest thing I am noticing though? I don't have a waste basket by my desk. Time to comandeer one...
Also, I can do my 15 minutes (more time delinated than my one surface rule) during morning Sesame Street time, when my girls are fed, clean and not likely to be fighting over anything (don't get me started on the wonders of twins....) Then, if I am *reallly* organized, I can pump during Mr Rogers. (Yes, I am still pumping. Yes, they are almost 13 months old. Yes, they eat 'real' food too. They have had a total of three sniffles between them in their entire lives to date. 'Nuff said.)
One thing that I am being very organized about is getting ready for our first SCA camping event as a four-some. This weekend (K is off!) is our TRY IT OUT weekend - get the back 'lawn' under control enough to pitch our tent on it, and try sleeping out there with the girls, just to get all of us used to it, and our bedtime routines (one place where I actually have some!) down, so, hopefully, we will actually get to camp for all three nights over Memorial Day weekend. I also have to sew (K does the laundry) and pack about a billion little outfits for the girls (K and I have some, obviously) between now and then, and get ready for the classes I am teaching (one on tapestry weaving - don't ask about the mini-warp weighted loom I made this week when I have so much else to do - one on my new A&S challenge, and one on pregancy, nursing, and baby garb).
Good thing I have energy to burn. Now if only I can learn to channel it!
Showing posts with label Partners in Clean. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Partners in Clean. Show all posts
5.11.2007
3.16.2007
The Cusp
I'm about to turn 35. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I know that '40 is the new 20' and all that jazz, but I feel like I am really leaving my youth behind. Someone asked me if I felt this way because of my kids, and I really don't think that is it; more like I feel like this is my BODY leaving my youth behind - just starting to begin my midlife now instead.
I actually LIKE my white hairs, and the girls are already starting to get me into better shape than I have been in a while, and that is just going to continue as they (and I with them) get more active. My skin hasn't bounced back from my stretch marks like it might have a decade ago, but I am happy to have them since they brought me my girls. So maybe that isn't it...
My lifestyle is pretty juvenile - post-c0llege furniture hodge podge, and no organized way of dealing with the running of our home. I think I am feeling like a) I should be better at this part of my life by now, and b) that I WANT to be better at this part of my life now, so my girls can grow up in a home that doesn't look like the Goodwill exploded in it.
An older friend of mine has a pin that says "if you haven't had to grow up by the time you are 35, you obviously don't have to." Dangling verb aside, I agree. We both have more education to get for impending career changes, but many of our generation do that. I like the time we spend together, and, mostly, how we spend it. Our communication skills and involvement in our communities are good - better than most, actually. I can still play like a kid, and live in my yoga pants, but I CAN do the whole dressed for success thing, and DO so when I am in a professional environment. I feel like we are pretty well adjusted - outside of our property boundary.
Inside? Not so much. Chores happen when our superegos nag us into compliance. In our professional lives we ususally do more than asked, but at home, where it impacts our girls' every waking moment? They are my biggest motivators to change in this department.
I said over a year ago that this is my decade to get organized and start running my home like an adult. My girls are almost one year old, and I am really starting to feel better. I have carved out some time for me to take the girls out, and for me to have time for myself and my creative work. Now it is time for me to get serious about improving my daily life. This kind of chaos is a pattern that I grew up with, and thus repeated. I need to model better for my girls, and I will.
Meanwhile, my disappointment at not having a party apparently made an impression on my husband, and I am actually getting a birthday party. :) Did I mention that I still know how to play like a kid?
I actually LIKE my white hairs, and the girls are already starting to get me into better shape than I have been in a while, and that is just going to continue as they (and I with them) get more active. My skin hasn't bounced back from my stretch marks like it might have a decade ago, but I am happy to have them since they brought me my girls. So maybe that isn't it...
My lifestyle is pretty juvenile - post-c0llege furniture hodge podge, and no organized way of dealing with the running of our home. I think I am feeling like a) I should be better at this part of my life by now, and b) that I WANT to be better at this part of my life now, so my girls can grow up in a home that doesn't look like the Goodwill exploded in it.
An older friend of mine has a pin that says "if you haven't had to grow up by the time you are 35, you obviously don't have to." Dangling verb aside, I agree. We both have more education to get for impending career changes, but many of our generation do that. I like the time we spend together, and, mostly, how we spend it. Our communication skills and involvement in our communities are good - better than most, actually. I can still play like a kid, and live in my yoga pants, but I CAN do the whole dressed for success thing, and DO so when I am in a professional environment. I feel like we are pretty well adjusted - outside of our property boundary.
Inside? Not so much. Chores happen when our superegos nag us into compliance. In our professional lives we ususally do more than asked, but at home, where it impacts our girls' every waking moment? They are my biggest motivators to change in this department.
I said over a year ago that this is my decade to get organized and start running my home like an adult. My girls are almost one year old, and I am really starting to feel better. I have carved out some time for me to take the girls out, and for me to have time for myself and my creative work. Now it is time for me to get serious about improving my daily life. This kind of chaos is a pattern that I grew up with, and thus repeated. I need to model better for my girls, and I will.
Meanwhile, my disappointment at not having a party apparently made an impression on my husband, and I am actually getting a birthday party. :) Did I mention that I still know how to play like a kid?
3.07.2007
Neurodiversity and Silver Linings
Ever have a *great NEW* idea only to hear that someone has just published a BOOK on it? I'm sure that we have all had that experience at one time or another. I'm tired of trying to keep up with being fresh. In fact, I am feeling downright STALE.
And I'm working on being ok with it. Being out of the loop, and only having ever presumed to hover *near* it to begin with, I can't hope to be cutting edge in my design. In fact, I think that my need to be new - either in relation to the Jones' (or the Johnson's) or to myself and yesterday - is part of my problem, and my success. UFOs, mess, my hummingbird mind, my cobblestone career; all of it. The first two I strive to deal with, the latter two enrich my life in innumerable ways.
I have heretofore called my hummingbird mind my butterfly brain, and the change is due to Susanne Antonetta. In her 2005 book A Mind Apart, she talks about neurodiversity, and the richness it brings to our culture. She feels that the varied ways of thinking and perceiving the world done by those with various neurological states (ie autism and mental illness) should be preserved, even while we are helping those with said conditions to deal with the less desirable aspects of their neurological states.
I would have to add to her list of states those deliberately induced; those created by trancework and meditation, as well as those produced by various pharmacopias, the latter having been studied extensively in the American 1960's. My foray into said is strictly prescription, and even my current work could be said to spring from this neurodiversity; my mind on antidepressants for my post-partum depression. I have also meditated for years, and the state I can bring myself to is a very creative one; I often enter it by doing my artwork itself, in fact.
Her book is very interesting for two reasons; she describes the thought processes and lives of the neurodiverse (her definition, not mine), and also demonstrates it through her own writing as someone with Bipolar I. (Bipolar I is the classic manic-drepressive illness, while Bipolar II is better known as Seasonal Affective Disorder, or, insultingly, the Winter Blues.) The writing aptly (and sometimes TOO aptly) shows the 'hummingbird mind' she describes. Chapters (I am only about 1/3 through it) range from the sublimely collected and freshly relevant to the disturbingly disjointed.
I can relate. I have Bipolar II, have been dealing with Post-partum depression for going on a year, and have dealt with other episodes of depression my whole life. I also have Fibromyalgia, CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome), and sequelae from a Herpes VI brain infection in the late 1990's. My brain proves to me every day that I am among the 'neurodiverse'.
Manic-depression has long been known to the artistic community - the moody darks of the depressions, the up all night working in the studio for days on end manias. I didn't even KNOW that Seasonal Affective Disorder HAD a hypomanic component (not as severe as a true manic episode) in the dog days of July and August. I have spent my share of long nights in the studio and around the campfire during that season, but I have also had most of my interpersonal relationships fall apart at that time of year. I've never done anything fully *rash*, but have obviously acted or thought differently enough to enact change in my life (or have it acted upon me) at that time of year on occaision.
And that is a good thing, mostly. Even finally getting diagnosed with SAD back in college helped, as I didn't understand before that why I always got off to such a bad start on second semester, why I lived in bed, or why I craved the sun more than the rest of us here in New England do in winter. Just *knowing* these things helped me. When my now husband and I went medieval camping in August several years ago (to Pennsic, for the SCA initiated out there), an event that no relationship of mine had *ever* survived intact before, we knew better what we were in for. Getting through it, and having fun doing so, was a joyous event for us; we even got handfasted!
Speaking of disjointed, I was reminded today of the tradition of breaking a glass at Jewish weddings, that we should show our acceptance and understanding that joy is always tempered by loss and sorrow. Such is the life of many of the neurodiverse. Those with organic changes to their brains or neurochemistry often know this - the warm love given by those with Down's, the artistic genius and focus often seen in those with Autism Sprectrum Disorders, the new appreciation for life and those we love felt by many who have dealt with spinal cord injuries or traumatic brain injuries. The rush of energy found in mania, the high and/or feeling better of pharmaceuticals, the peace and insight brought about by meditation. These 'upsides' we know, but - wow - we also know the downsides, obviously. No one wants to lose function or family, no one wants to be an addict or a recluse. That said, thank heavens for the silver lining some of us manage to find.
I wish more of us could find it. Many drugs given as 'treatments' for organic conditions leave a plethora of side effects, often leave some of the symptoms of the illness itself unmitigated, and usually steal that silver lining, if any had been found, completely away. Many folks with Bipolar conditions deliberately stop taking their meds so that they may have their manic moments, and the euphoria and perceived productivity that accompany them. (Bipolar II's hypomania can actually become a problem for the first time if antidepressants are continued during the summer months. Speak to your Doctor before changing ANY medications you are currently taking, obviously!) Functionality is certainly the paramount goal of treatment, but I can see where it would sometimes be desirable to trade a small amount of function to be able to enjoy some of the few benefits that living with these conditions can provide. Perhaps, in the future, treatments will be devised that will allow one to keep the positive 'symptoms' while getting rid of the less pleasant ones.
I think this comes back to my feeling stale. My antidepressants are working well on my post-partum depression, even though it is winter here in Vermont, and my SAD should still be in full force. I am feeling more functional than I have since my second trimester, and I am certainly getting more done than I have in months. One thing though, is SHOT. I am managing to do all sorts of mundane tasks; cleaning, finishing UFOs, etc, but one could never call them *creative.* Even my woodblock was an exercise in technique, and I just grabbed a quilt block pattern to have something to carve.
I am (and my house *certainly* is) at a point where mundane task completion is a GOOD thing, but I have to say that I am missing my *spark.* Maybe that is still to come - depression can kill creativity too, and maybe I just need to continue with my treatment more to be able to recover it; motivation THEN function THEN creativity. I certainly hope so, but I wonder if maybe my meds haven't 'treated' my creativity too, as I remember getting through many of my early days as a mother daydreaming when I couldn't move, and I can't seem to do that now, even as I move with relative ease.
So, for the present, part of the silver lining of my mind is seemingly gone, perhaps in favor of the movement of my body. I'm just going to have to work with this, obviously. I've gotten pretty good at just taking the hand that the day has dealt me as a person with Fibromyalgia; I never know what symptoms I'm going to wake up with, especially when I haven't gotten a full and restful night of sleep (ha!)
Thank heavens the sun is shining... and, believe it or not, but thank heavens that I have a messy house and UFOs to put my hands to while my brain continues to heal.
And I'm working on being ok with it. Being out of the loop, and only having ever presumed to hover *near* it to begin with, I can't hope to be cutting edge in my design. In fact, I think that my need to be new - either in relation to the Jones' (or the Johnson's) or to myself and yesterday - is part of my problem, and my success. UFOs, mess, my hummingbird mind, my cobblestone career; all of it. The first two I strive to deal with, the latter two enrich my life in innumerable ways.
I have heretofore called my hummingbird mind my butterfly brain, and the change is due to Susanne Antonetta. In her 2005 book A Mind Apart, she talks about neurodiversity, and the richness it brings to our culture. She feels that the varied ways of thinking and perceiving the world done by those with various neurological states (ie autism and mental illness) should be preserved, even while we are helping those with said conditions to deal with the less desirable aspects of their neurological states.
I would have to add to her list of states those deliberately induced; those created by trancework and meditation, as well as those produced by various pharmacopias, the latter having been studied extensively in the American 1960's. My foray into said is strictly prescription, and even my current work could be said to spring from this neurodiversity; my mind on antidepressants for my post-partum depression. I have also meditated for years, and the state I can bring myself to is a very creative one; I often enter it by doing my artwork itself, in fact.
Her book is very interesting for two reasons; she describes the thought processes and lives of the neurodiverse (her definition, not mine), and also demonstrates it through her own writing as someone with Bipolar I. (Bipolar I is the classic manic-drepressive illness, while Bipolar II is better known as Seasonal Affective Disorder, or, insultingly, the Winter Blues.) The writing aptly (and sometimes TOO aptly) shows the 'hummingbird mind' she describes. Chapters (I am only about 1/3 through it) range from the sublimely collected and freshly relevant to the disturbingly disjointed.
I can relate. I have Bipolar II, have been dealing with Post-partum depression for going on a year, and have dealt with other episodes of depression my whole life. I also have Fibromyalgia, CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome), and sequelae from a Herpes VI brain infection in the late 1990's. My brain proves to me every day that I am among the 'neurodiverse'.
Manic-depression has long been known to the artistic community - the moody darks of the depressions, the up all night working in the studio for days on end manias. I didn't even KNOW that Seasonal Affective Disorder HAD a hypomanic component (not as severe as a true manic episode) in the dog days of July and August. I have spent my share of long nights in the studio and around the campfire during that season, but I have also had most of my interpersonal relationships fall apart at that time of year. I've never done anything fully *rash*, but have obviously acted or thought differently enough to enact change in my life (or have it acted upon me) at that time of year on occaision.
And that is a good thing, mostly. Even finally getting diagnosed with SAD back in college helped, as I didn't understand before that why I always got off to such a bad start on second semester, why I lived in bed, or why I craved the sun more than the rest of us here in New England do in winter. Just *knowing* these things helped me. When my now husband and I went medieval camping in August several years ago (to Pennsic, for the SCA initiated out there), an event that no relationship of mine had *ever* survived intact before, we knew better what we were in for. Getting through it, and having fun doing so, was a joyous event for us; we even got handfasted!
Speaking of disjointed, I was reminded today of the tradition of breaking a glass at Jewish weddings, that we should show our acceptance and understanding that joy is always tempered by loss and sorrow. Such is the life of many of the neurodiverse. Those with organic changes to their brains or neurochemistry often know this - the warm love given by those with Down's, the artistic genius and focus often seen in those with Autism Sprectrum Disorders, the new appreciation for life and those we love felt by many who have dealt with spinal cord injuries or traumatic brain injuries. The rush of energy found in mania, the high and/or feeling better of pharmaceuticals, the peace and insight brought about by meditation. These 'upsides' we know, but - wow - we also know the downsides, obviously. No one wants to lose function or family, no one wants to be an addict or a recluse. That said, thank heavens for the silver lining some of us manage to find.
I wish more of us could find it. Many drugs given as 'treatments' for organic conditions leave a plethora of side effects, often leave some of the symptoms of the illness itself unmitigated, and usually steal that silver lining, if any had been found, completely away. Many folks with Bipolar conditions deliberately stop taking their meds so that they may have their manic moments, and the euphoria and perceived productivity that accompany them. (Bipolar II's hypomania can actually become a problem for the first time if antidepressants are continued during the summer months. Speak to your Doctor before changing ANY medications you are currently taking, obviously!) Functionality is certainly the paramount goal of treatment, but I can see where it would sometimes be desirable to trade a small amount of function to be able to enjoy some of the few benefits that living with these conditions can provide. Perhaps, in the future, treatments will be devised that will allow one to keep the positive 'symptoms' while getting rid of the less pleasant ones.
I think this comes back to my feeling stale. My antidepressants are working well on my post-partum depression, even though it is winter here in Vermont, and my SAD should still be in full force. I am feeling more functional than I have since my second trimester, and I am certainly getting more done than I have in months. One thing though, is SHOT. I am managing to do all sorts of mundane tasks; cleaning, finishing UFOs, etc, but one could never call them *creative.* Even my woodblock was an exercise in technique, and I just grabbed a quilt block pattern to have something to carve.
I am (and my house *certainly* is) at a point where mundane task completion is a GOOD thing, but I have to say that I am missing my *spark.* Maybe that is still to come - depression can kill creativity too, and maybe I just need to continue with my treatment more to be able to recover it; motivation THEN function THEN creativity. I certainly hope so, but I wonder if maybe my meds haven't 'treated' my creativity too, as I remember getting through many of my early days as a mother daydreaming when I couldn't move, and I can't seem to do that now, even as I move with relative ease.
So, for the present, part of the silver lining of my mind is seemingly gone, perhaps in favor of the movement of my body. I'm just going to have to work with this, obviously. I've gotten pretty good at just taking the hand that the day has dealt me as a person with Fibromyalgia; I never know what symptoms I'm going to wake up with, especially when I haven't gotten a full and restful night of sleep (ha!)
Thank heavens the sun is shining... and, believe it or not, but thank heavens that I have a messy house and UFOs to put my hands to while my brain continues to heal.
2.21.2007
Jia - Taming my house and making a home
In the book "Shelter for the Spirit" by Victoria Moran, she refers to the Chinese word for home and family - Jia. One word, both/same meaning.
My house is a complete STY. Any of my old Partners in Clean out there can just hang their heads in discouragement of my predicament, but, honestly, I'm not all that surprised. Twins and post-partum depression will do that to a girl!
Anyway, here I am. I am seriously in need of not only getting to where I can just keep up with things, but with purging BIGTIME. Why you may ask? Just general clutter? Alas - no. We need to move. (I can't carry kids up the stairs, and that is where the other bedrooms are - all four of us in one room is getting OLD FAST, especially since we only have a queen size bed, otherwise, I'd be all for it.)
So - I need to get moving, and I thought that I'd use this space to motivate myself, and maybe you too! If I can find time with MY energy and kids, you can too! (Stories? Share them if you've got 'em!)
The only way I have *ever* had success with cleaning/organizing? Doing one small space/project at a time, and stopping there, savouring my success. One desktop. One drawer. One cupboard. Whatever I want, but only ONE of them. For crazier projects, like raking or whatever, where there is no point at which one is 'done,' (not that I rake, mind you - in Vermont that is just an exercise in stupidity,) I give myself a set period of time which I feel that I can stomach, and then go for it, no ifs and or buts. By the time I run out my clock, I am usually doing so well that I CHOOSE to do more. Bizarre, eh?
Anyway, I am going to try for one space/timespan per day. I am nervous that I'm not going to find time/energy EVERY day, but I am also aware that the entropy generated by two almost-toddlers and my beloved but organization impaired husband (and me, if I'm honest with myself) would keep my house a complete shambles with anything less than an everyday effort. No point in half-*ssing it and not getting anywhere with my efforts! So - it might be a really really small space each day, but it WILL happen.
Watch this space for how badly I mess this up. Yeah, I'm being a pessimist, and that is a LOUSY way to start a new endeavor, but I am just *sooooo tired* of never getting anywhere with this - dirty dishes and laundry just keep reappearing, and I never get below the surface clutter to the real purging that needs to happen.
I know some of the things that keep me from succeeding, aside from not staying with it - my frugal streak is too wide, for one, and I never *actually* get rid of the stuff that I say I am going to get rid of. My husband and mother have been known to eventually drop my bags of clothes at the Goodwill, but that is about all. (I think I got negative about donations when I took a HUGE bunch of books to my local library, only to be told that they don't take non-fiction. They only take stories. Don't get me started on the rant I gave them about access to information and priorities - I'm sure it would have been the same one you would have delivered!)
My frugal streak means that I hold onto anything a) of monetary value, b) anything of sentimental or inspirational value, or c) anything that might be difficult or expensive to reacquire (ie old movies, music, books, etc). Needless to say, unless something is 6 sizes too small and all my friends of my friends are gargantuan, I never get rid of anything. (I DID get rid of my clothes under size 14 when I got pregnant - I figured that if got down to a size 12 that I *deserved* to go shopping for new clothes, and, miracles never cease - I may actually get down to that this summer, pumping breast milk and running after twins providing!)
So - major space-taking categories that need to be purged include:
My house is a complete STY. Any of my old Partners in Clean out there can just hang their heads in discouragement of my predicament, but, honestly, I'm not all that surprised. Twins and post-partum depression will do that to a girl!
Anyway, here I am. I am seriously in need of not only getting to where I can just keep up with things, but with purging BIGTIME. Why you may ask? Just general clutter? Alas - no. We need to move. (I can't carry kids up the stairs, and that is where the other bedrooms are - all four of us in one room is getting OLD FAST, especially since we only have a queen size bed, otherwise, I'd be all for it.)
So - I need to get moving, and I thought that I'd use this space to motivate myself, and maybe you too! If I can find time with MY energy and kids, you can too! (Stories? Share them if you've got 'em!)
The only way I have *ever* had success with cleaning/organizing? Doing one small space/project at a time, and stopping there, savouring my success. One desktop. One drawer. One cupboard. Whatever I want, but only ONE of them. For crazier projects, like raking or whatever, where there is no point at which one is 'done,' (not that I rake, mind you - in Vermont that is just an exercise in stupidity,) I give myself a set period of time which I feel that I can stomach, and then go for it, no ifs and or buts. By the time I run out my clock, I am usually doing so well that I CHOOSE to do more. Bizarre, eh?
Anyway, I am going to try for one space/timespan per day. I am nervous that I'm not going to find time/energy EVERY day, but I am also aware that the entropy generated by two almost-toddlers and my beloved but organization impaired husband (and me, if I'm honest with myself) would keep my house a complete shambles with anything less than an everyday effort. No point in half-*ssing it and not getting anywhere with my efforts! So - it might be a really really small space each day, but it WILL happen.
Watch this space for how badly I mess this up. Yeah, I'm being a pessimist, and that is a LOUSY way to start a new endeavor, but I am just *sooooo tired* of never getting anywhere with this - dirty dishes and laundry just keep reappearing, and I never get below the surface clutter to the real purging that needs to happen.
I know some of the things that keep me from succeeding, aside from not staying with it - my frugal streak is too wide, for one, and I never *actually* get rid of the stuff that I say I am going to get rid of. My husband and mother have been known to eventually drop my bags of clothes at the Goodwill, but that is about all. (I think I got negative about donations when I took a HUGE bunch of books to my local library, only to be told that they don't take non-fiction. They only take stories. Don't get me started on the rant I gave them about access to information and priorities - I'm sure it would have been the same one you would have delivered!)
My frugal streak means that I hold onto anything a) of monetary value, b) anything of sentimental or inspirational value, or c) anything that might be difficult or expensive to reacquire (ie old movies, music, books, etc). Needless to say, unless something is 6 sizes too small and all my friends of my friends are gargantuan, I never get rid of anything. (I DID get rid of my clothes under size 14 when I got pregnant - I figured that if got down to a size 12 that I *deserved* to go shopping for new clothes, and, miracles never cease - I may actually get down to that this summer, pumping breast milk and running after twins providing!)
So - major space-taking categories that need to be purged include:
- Clothes- mine and the girls (stuff that they have grown out of at their completely crazy rate of growth)
- Books/magazines/videos/CDs/software - if I haven't looked at it or leant it out in the last three years, and if would cry if the girls couldn't enjoy it someday, out it goes
- Fabric, art and craft stuff - easy to get rid of - schools and charities love this stuff - but *getting rid of fabric!?!?!??** Yes, I AM crazy, but I also have some stuff that I am unlikely to use, and which takes up HUGE quantities of space... garb fabric from the SCA and calicoes from when I tried making baby quilts to sell (not so much, but that is another, not *completely* depressing story - ask me another time).
- Paper - this one is genetic folks - my Dad makes copies of everything he deems needful, and then 'files' them. More like he 'piles' them - on every flat surface available, including the floor. Sigh. I honestly think that this one will be the easiest to deal with, once I get my filing cabinet up to snuff.
I also need to get some moving and storage boxes so that I pack some stuff as I go - no point moving it twice, eh?
Yikes this is a big project. Breathe, Susan... One space at a time. One space at a time. One space at at time. Do it so my girls don't grow up in the same chaos that *I* did!!!
7.18.2005
Partners in Clean: Week One!!!
Ok, ok, the bills didn't get paid yet. Tuesday's mail, I promise. Really. Strange but true, we spent our six month anniversary visiting my parents. We even had fun! But, bills didn't get paid, since I napped in the car both ways. Ah well...
That said, I didn't get any suggestions for a kick in the butt for this week either. So - I figured that I would give us all three choices/tasks for the week.
You can do several things from one category, or one thing each from the three categories, or, for the seriously-lacking-in-willpower and/or time, try and do one thing from one of the categories! We'll be tackling habits next week, so keep your thinking caps on this week as you work on: Finances, Magazines, and Counters!
FINANCES:
*Pay bills - hopefully without late charges!
*Actually *read* bills to make sure they accurately reflect the services you have received.
*Balance checkbook.
*Make an extra payment against debt, if you can.
*Look into consildating student loans before the rules change and you can't anymore.
*Check on how your investments are performing, if you have any!
*Check the assessed value of your home/rent amount against other homes of the same type in your area.
*Start an IRA, especially if your company offers matching funds - free money is GOOD!
*Check around for better insurance rates and make sure that you have the coverage you need, ie is your fancy sewing machine covered?!
*Work out a payment plans with a creditor - local folks might take barter, but value of said is still taxable...
*Start a savings account (even just in a jar in your dresser if it doesn't add up to much yet) - and make it for something specific if that helps motivate you!
*Read a personal finance magazine. Money is good for starters, or Bottom Line or Kiplinger's if you are more advanced...
*Suggest something equally financially savvy to the group!
MAGAZINES:
*Check expiration dates, and decide if you want to re-up.
*Organize them for easier retrieval or just to get them out of the way. *Donate/recycle issues you no longer need.
*Actually photocopy or rip out articles/images you *really* need and then file them or do something with them, other than just pile them up!
*Check the magazine section at your local bookstore and read them over lunch to save money (NZ Quilter anyone?), or see if you can find one that would be a special treat for yourself if you want to bribe yourself with goodies or have a title ready to provide the next time someone asks what you want for your next gift giving celebration! You might even find one with useful info for your organizing or business needs, like the Craft Report!
COUNTERS:
*Do dishes so you can actually see them!
*Bleach nasty stains out if needed.
*Check out if you really need all that stuff OUT instead of IN cabinets!
*Buy yourself a new sponge. They hold germs like you wouldn't believe.
*Get a lid/mug/tea/other rack to keep things less cluttered.
*Put dirty cutlery all in one bowl or jar for easy loading/washing later.
*Actually wash the drying rack. Otherwise, why bother washing *anything?*
*Wash and refill storage containers. Trust me - whatever was in them is NASTY by now.
*Make sure that your dyeing and painting equipment is NO WHERE NEAR FOOD or anything that will ever touch food again. That includes not rinsing brushes in a sink with eating stuff in it! Hint: I tied yarn around the handles of the measuring spoons and cups that I use for dyeing, so I know never to use them for food again...
For my part, I will tend to:
-Finances: Pay bills (really!), read Money Mag (done already), put mad money Mom gave me into savings towards new bolts and upgraded sewing machine.
-Magazines: Recycle remaining Time Mags, buy more holders and continue magazine avalanche prevention project, get renewal notice to Dad so he can re-up me AND save money with pre-expiration rates (done)!
-Counters: Do the blessed dishes (it is a wonder the cats didn't shatter them all over the weekend!), bleach counters, break out new sponge, keep pans out of the sink for easier disposal of paint-polluted water.
Not too bad for a plan for the week. BTW - I am going to start putting up PICtures (pictures with a Partners In Clean spin to them). Who wants to see my dirty dishes and counters, before and after shots! (we'll save dirty laundry for another week - yikes!) Sounds scary, but it will motivate me, and you all can feel really good about yourselves looking at my messes! BUT, if you want to put up your OWN PICtures, go right ahead! I don't know if you can put them in comments or not, but you can a) put them in your own blog and give us a link, or b) send them to me and I'll put them up here for all of our motivational pleasure.
So, get working folks, and let us know how it is going for you!
That said, I didn't get any suggestions for a kick in the butt for this week either. So - I figured that I would give us all three choices/tasks for the week.
You can do several things from one category, or one thing each from the three categories, or, for the seriously-lacking-in-willpower and/or time, try and do one thing from one of the categories! We'll be tackling habits next week, so keep your thinking caps on this week as you work on: Finances, Magazines, and Counters!
FINANCES:
*Pay bills - hopefully without late charges!
*Actually *read* bills to make sure they accurately reflect the services you have received.
*Balance checkbook.
*Make an extra payment against debt, if you can.
*Look into consildating student loans before the rules change and you can't anymore.
*Check on how your investments are performing, if you have any!
*Check the assessed value of your home/rent amount against other homes of the same type in your area.
*Start an IRA, especially if your company offers matching funds - free money is GOOD!
*Check around for better insurance rates and make sure that you have the coverage you need, ie is your fancy sewing machine covered?!
*Work out a payment plans with a creditor - local folks might take barter, but value of said is still taxable...
*Start a savings account (even just in a jar in your dresser if it doesn't add up to much yet) - and make it for something specific if that helps motivate you!
*Read a personal finance magazine. Money is good for starters, or Bottom Line or Kiplinger's if you are more advanced...
*Suggest something equally financially savvy to the group!
MAGAZINES:
*Check expiration dates, and decide if you want to re-up.
*Organize them for easier retrieval or just to get them out of the way. *Donate/recycle issues you no longer need.
*Actually photocopy or rip out articles/images you *really* need and then file them or do something with them, other than just pile them up!
*Check the magazine section at your local bookstore and read them over lunch to save money (NZ Quilter anyone?), or see if you can find one that would be a special treat for yourself if you want to bribe yourself with goodies or have a title ready to provide the next time someone asks what you want for your next gift giving celebration! You might even find one with useful info for your organizing or business needs, like the Craft Report!
COUNTERS:
*Do dishes so you can actually see them!
*Bleach nasty stains out if needed.
*Check out if you really need all that stuff OUT instead of IN cabinets!
*Buy yourself a new sponge. They hold germs like you wouldn't believe.
*Get a lid/mug/tea/other rack to keep things less cluttered.
*Put dirty cutlery all in one bowl or jar for easy loading/washing later.
*Actually wash the drying rack. Otherwise, why bother washing *anything?*
*Wash and refill storage containers. Trust me - whatever was in them is NASTY by now.
*Make sure that your dyeing and painting equipment is NO WHERE NEAR FOOD or anything that will ever touch food again. That includes not rinsing brushes in a sink with eating stuff in it! Hint: I tied yarn around the handles of the measuring spoons and cups that I use for dyeing, so I know never to use them for food again...
For my part, I will tend to:
-Finances: Pay bills (really!), read Money Mag (done already), put mad money Mom gave me into savings towards new bolts and upgraded sewing machine.
-Magazines: Recycle remaining Time Mags, buy more holders and continue magazine avalanche prevention project, get renewal notice to Dad so he can re-up me AND save money with pre-expiration rates (done)!
-Counters: Do the blessed dishes (it is a wonder the cats didn't shatter them all over the weekend!), bleach counters, break out new sponge, keep pans out of the sink for easier disposal of paint-polluted water.
Not too bad for a plan for the week. BTW - I am going to start putting up PICtures (pictures with a Partners In Clean spin to them). Who wants to see my dirty dishes and counters, before and after shots! (we'll save dirty laundry for another week - yikes!) Sounds scary, but it will motivate me, and you all can feel really good about yourselves looking at my messes! BUT, if you want to put up your OWN PICtures, go right ahead! I don't know if you can put them in comments or not, but you can a) put them in your own blog and give us a link, or b) send them to me and I'll put them up here for all of our motivational pleasure.
So, get working folks, and let us know how it is going for you!
7.14.2005
WANTED: Partner in Clean
"Hello, my name is Susan, and I am a slob."
With 8 years of disability, countless roommates having moved in and out, fiber stuff in every available space, and packrat, dysfunctionally disorganized parents who didn't teach me how to be anything else, I am a mess, and my house shows it.
When I was 12, I decided to stop being violent when my pricipal said 'knock it off, or its going on your transcript.'
When I was about 23, I decided to stop being late when my best friend admitted to fudging about what time events started so I would show up on time.
So, here I am, 33 years old, and my objective for this decade is to stop being a slob. Not as easy to start in on cold turkey as the other two were, but I am older, so maybe it *should* get more challenging.
I've read every organizing book out there, and it *has* helped, but I have a long way to go. As of last week, I now make my bed every morning when I get out of it. Since I often go back for a nap or to read, it never seemed worth it, but now I just pull it together (about 10 seconds worth of work) and it looks much better all day long. Plus, since that is where I fold laundry, I am getting that chore done much more regularly now too.
My studio is VERY organized, as are my books. My stuff is actually pretty well organized, but it still 'overflows'. I just read the book "How not to be a Messy" by Sandra Felton, and, if you can get around the constant Christian quotes, it is a really useful book. I had never before looked at the psychological reasons why I keep so much stuff.
My mother grew up in WW2 England, with ration books and all that. She still keeps every piece of string, every rubber band, and hordes brown paper like she may never see it again. Likewise, my dad grew up in depression era Boston, and does much the same, with old tools especially.
The running gag in their house is that if they were illiterate their home would be immaculate: magazines, books, business records going back to the 60's - you name it. Plus, Dad has to keep all of his unread newspapers (in brown paper bags) until he has a chance to go through them and take cuttings. He needs a photocopy of every document conceivably related to business or money before it leaves his posession. Needless to say, their home is a MAJOR fire trap.
So, growing up with all that, I do what I learned (to some extent!) Plus, I keep all of my books - especially the heavy tomes from my college days - as a way of proving that I am a bright, educated person. Without books on neuroscience lying around the house, how is anyone ever going to know that I am a scientist!?!?!?
Yeah, I have issues. I think the same applies with some of my fiber stuff. For years, I figured that no one would take my work seriously, unless it looked like I had a serious amount of stuff. As a result, I have two HUGE bags of dyed locks crammed into my linen cupboard, and no access to a drum carder to actually be able to use it!
I have an entire shelf of pregnancy and baby books (not including magazines!), which I use like a fetish to hope that I will one day actually get to use them!!! Pretty stupid waste of money, too, since they pretty much all say the same thing...
SO - My husband is going along with my new resolve (kind of like the smoker who quits every week) to make this place habitable!!! If for NO other reason, than that when I DO actually have a child, my home in its current condition would take a dumpster to babyproof.
But, in order to make this resolve less of a flash in the pan prospect, I thought I'd ask if any other quilters out there (since so much of my anarchy is studio stuff) might want to join me as my Partners in Clean! We can cheer each other on, keep the momentum going, and chat about quilt art while we are at it!
Any takers????????????
With 8 years of disability, countless roommates having moved in and out, fiber stuff in every available space, and packrat, dysfunctionally disorganized parents who didn't teach me how to be anything else, I am a mess, and my house shows it.
When I was 12, I decided to stop being violent when my pricipal said 'knock it off, or its going on your transcript.'
When I was about 23, I decided to stop being late when my best friend admitted to fudging about what time events started so I would show up on time.
So, here I am, 33 years old, and my objective for this decade is to stop being a slob. Not as easy to start in on cold turkey as the other two were, but I am older, so maybe it *should* get more challenging.
I've read every organizing book out there, and it *has* helped, but I have a long way to go. As of last week, I now make my bed every morning when I get out of it. Since I often go back for a nap or to read, it never seemed worth it, but now I just pull it together (about 10 seconds worth of work) and it looks much better all day long. Plus, since that is where I fold laundry, I am getting that chore done much more regularly now too.
My studio is VERY organized, as are my books. My stuff is actually pretty well organized, but it still 'overflows'. I just read the book "How not to be a Messy" by Sandra Felton, and, if you can get around the constant Christian quotes, it is a really useful book. I had never before looked at the psychological reasons why I keep so much stuff.
My mother grew up in WW2 England, with ration books and all that. She still keeps every piece of string, every rubber band, and hordes brown paper like she may never see it again. Likewise, my dad grew up in depression era Boston, and does much the same, with old tools especially.
The running gag in their house is that if they were illiterate their home would be immaculate: magazines, books, business records going back to the 60's - you name it. Plus, Dad has to keep all of his unread newspapers (in brown paper bags) until he has a chance to go through them and take cuttings. He needs a photocopy of every document conceivably related to business or money before it leaves his posession. Needless to say, their home is a MAJOR fire trap.
So, growing up with all that, I do what I learned (to some extent!) Plus, I keep all of my books - especially the heavy tomes from my college days - as a way of proving that I am a bright, educated person. Without books on neuroscience lying around the house, how is anyone ever going to know that I am a scientist!?!?!?
Yeah, I have issues. I think the same applies with some of my fiber stuff. For years, I figured that no one would take my work seriously, unless it looked like I had a serious amount of stuff. As a result, I have two HUGE bags of dyed locks crammed into my linen cupboard, and no access to a drum carder to actually be able to use it!
I have an entire shelf of pregnancy and baby books (not including magazines!), which I use like a fetish to hope that I will one day actually get to use them!!! Pretty stupid waste of money, too, since they pretty much all say the same thing...
SO - My husband is going along with my new resolve (kind of like the smoker who quits every week) to make this place habitable!!! If for NO other reason, than that when I DO actually have a child, my home in its current condition would take a dumpster to babyproof.
But, in order to make this resolve less of a flash in the pan prospect, I thought I'd ask if any other quilters out there (since so much of my anarchy is studio stuff) might want to join me as my Partners in Clean! We can cheer each other on, keep the momentum going, and chat about quilt art while we are at it!
Any takers????????????
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