Day 5: Starting Over After Re-organizing Your Home

  Every January I make a new list of resolutions. Then, I re-organize things in my house, like:

1. Cleaning out expired prescriptions
2. Discard cosmetics that are not being used.
3. Look through books and magazines, tossing or donating those I’ve finished or never intend to read.
4. Check supplies of batteries, light bulbs and vacuum cleaner bags.
5. Make a list from my birthday calendar of those coming up in the next 6 months.
6. Quickly scan my closet for any “backward hangers” to see what I didn’t wear last year. I donate, consign or discard any of those items.
7. Then I turn all my hangers backwards again, to see what I don’t wear next year.

And then in exasperation, I wonder how to keep it this way for the next year. Here is a list to help us all feel like we are staying better organized after we’ve attempted to get that way.

1. Set timers to help manage time.  With each item on my to-do list in the morning, I will set a timer to accomplish some of the items on my list. (i.e.. 15 minutes for making bed, unloading dishwasher, 1 hour for writing and so on.) This helps me stay focused and not jump from project to project.

1. I will use the apps on my phone as “remindears”.  The word dear at the end just seems a little sweeter to me.
2. One app that I love is Home Routine.  I’ve set up zones to work in everyday so that I don’t have to spend a whole day and a half cleaning my house.  I attempt to work for 15-30 minutes in each zone – 6 days a week.  It feels like my house is clean all the time.
3. When I see something that needs doing and I can’t do it NOW, I add it to my remindears.
4. After reading Stephen Covey’s, 7 Habits, years ago, I believe it is important to realize what our roles are and then designate time to each.

• For instance, I have 9 roles to fulfill in my life.

1. Wife
2. Mother
3. Daughter/in-law
4. Sister/in-law
5. Friend
6. Christian
7. Writer/Wanna be Photographer
8. Decorator
9. Maid, Cook and Gardner

Just listing them makes me tired and brings up feelings of inadequacy, failure and panic. Perhaps by incorporating Covey’s 7 Habits we can get the most important things accomplished.

1. Be proactive.  I am trying daily to overcome my procrastination tendency.
2. Begin with the end in mind.  What is most important to me? People, things, or a clean house?  As Covey says, think of what you want said in your eulogy, and live it.  Your hearse will not come with a luggage rack and Heaven will not need a maid.
3. Put first things first.  My family roles are most important to me. Contact with each family member on a regular basis is #1.  As they grow up, move away, get busy with their lives, it may only be through a text message, but at least I know what’s going on in their lives.

   

4. The next four habits are for our public life.  Think win/win.  As a firstborn, I recognize my need for control in my life.  I don’t really want to control others, but I DO want control in my personal space and in areas that affect me personally. It’s been a steady battle to remind myself that others want the same thing. And thinking of ways we can all win helps us to “keep calm and carry on.”
5. Be a better listener.  It’s ok to be quiet and let others talk.  I learn more this way.  Also, I had THE BEST TEACHER.  My daddy is the best listener in my life.
6. Keep an open heart and open mind to new possibilities.  When others offer suggestions that might solve a problem, don’t remain dogmatic and end up wallowing in your own pig mire.
7. Remain Active in 4 separate dimensions.

• Physical exercise – minimum of 30 min/day.
• Spiritual exercise – This is our reference point for our whole life.  It is where the “end in mind” comes into play.  Prayer and meditation of the scriptures are two I suggest.
• Mental exercise – Read, read, read and then read some more.  Play games that strengthen your cognitive skills, take classes to learn something new. Take up a new hobby.  Write a blog…hehehe, and as this whole post is about – do some planning and organizing.  It cleans out the cobwebs and gives us something to focus on.
• Social exercise – Peoples faces are important.  Why do you think Facebook and FaceTime were created?  However, those two “faces” don’t do as much for our emotional well-being as sitting across the table from someone. I try to schedule at least one visit per week with someone I love, or in building a new friendship.  Then, if travel permits, I attempt at least one gathering in my home per year, where all of these important people can feed each others emotional needs ~ especially mine!

If with each day, we begin with the end in mind, perhaps we can get more accomplished and stay organized a little more than the day before.  It’s a worthy goal if it keeps life simple and loved one close.