The gospel according to this sinner

As if I am the organization expert, here are the rules I decided on tonight in cleaning up the mess I ranted on in the last post.  I say these rules as if they are gospel, but Lord knows I am a sinner.


Rule number 1

Don't leave your bright ideas sitting around.....watching them tarnish as you plan the life out of them.

Here are the several glass containers I recently bought to make terrariums.

I plant to put a little succulent in each glass.....cool huh?

I thought this would a cute terrarium for the kitchen.

Designate a place for them to live until you get to them....yes it is hoarding but at least you don't have to stare at it everyday.  I plan to put a reminder on my calendar for each one as a project for the day. Nerdy? Yes.  Do I care? No.  My "not forever" home for these little ideas will be under my bed.  Did I just recently clean that area out, and get rid of a ton of old bright ideas that never happened?  Yes.  But I didn't use the calendar idea then.  We'll see how this round goes.  So far I have a plan on the calendar for terrarium day.  The fact that I've already bought the succulents and they sit in the yard as we speak will not phase me.

Okay, so terrarium day will be this Saturday.....but you get the point.

Now why it was easy for me to traipse out into the yard in the middle of the night to take the photo but too much work to actually transfer the plants is beyond me.  Maybe it is that "gotta do it now" attitude  that I've taken with the blog to make it happen that I need to take on more in daily life.



Rule number 2

Don't let your failures stare you in the face....get rid of them!  Immediately!

This is a plant that was once beautiful. I've had it for years but recently someone over watered it and I've been too lazy to climb up, take it down and try to save it outside.  It is right in my front door, staring at me in its neglect every day as I walk in.  I feel like a bad mother. I am a bad mother, I am the one that over watered it in a pot with no drainage.  It has been drowning in a puddle of water for months.  Well, it is coming down tonight!  I am putting it out of its misery.

Again, don't let your failures stare you in the face....just let some things go.

Those place-mats are laying there from a recent pantry revamp (an upcoming post) and  were pretty but not functional for what I needed.

Every time I moved an item in the pantry, they shifted.  I used the green ones just like them in the sewing room as a "backsplash" in the shelves.  I could save these for another project but I've been looking at them for a year now.....what is the likelihood I'll want to use them?  Now that thought is lurking in the back of mind of me finding a piece of furniture, fixing it up and selling it....someone else will love these in the back of a cabinet.  OUT you demon, I cast thee out!  I will not continue to hoard, I will not continue to hoard, I will not......my plate IS pretty full right now.  I think I can let these go.  They were only a dollar a piece from the dollar tree.

I am letting those wire baskets go too.  I knocked them off every time I pulled an item too.  If my cabinets were taller they may have worked better for me.  I don' have anywhere else I can use them now.  I could save them for our future home, it will likely have more shelf space.  AHH! I am letting them go!

Rule number 3

Once you decide to let it go, LET IT GO!

As in, get it out of the house immediately.  Don't leave little thrift store piles everywhere.

I've been trying to do this already and I tend to ride my minivan around with a load of thrift store items all the time....either ones I am taking or my recent buys that I hate to bring in until I have home for them.  Well, new home, under bed.  And this stuff that I am getting rid of is out to the van TONIGHT.  If I let it hang out, it is clutter and it will start sprouting new ideas and reasons to keep it.  If I hear it rattling around in the van it will give me incentive.  And if I can't get groceries to fit because of thrift crap.....then I really gain incentive.  It's all about forcing my hand.

Speaking of new items, here are a few I had to unload to make room for the "getting rid of" stuff.

Set of four will look pretty hanging in bathroom, especially when I make that red ruffle curtain.  I still have that planned.

I thought this would make a pretty planter in the garden. Using some of that coconut weave grass to hold the dirt.

 This has drippy chandelier written all over it.  I could use a lamp kit or just use a wad of Christmas lights to light it up.  I could also just use a candle, maybe for outside.

And I grab these every chance I get.  You'll see more like this in the upcoming pantry revamp.

Rule number 4  

If your eyes don't light up, its dull.  Let it go.

I can definitely admit, with the kids I am more "do as I say, not as I do".  They get overwhelmed with clutter too and I've taken the approach of telling them to look at the pile and grab the things that make their eyes light up.  The rest can go.  And it works like a charm.  Now I just have to take the same advice for myself.

I don't have junk drawers, I have junk piles.  Baskets that collect things, laundry hampers where I collected up the miscellaneous in a room, all the papers they bring home from school.  The pile keeps growing and when I finally get the time to put those items away.....well there is the problem. What is all this crap?  Where does it go?  What does this piece go to?  Well, if its been hanging out in the bottom of a basket un-missed for this long, who is going to miss it?  Instead of mulling it over, I should just glance through the basket, grab what makes my eyes light up and let the rest go.

So then tell me why is it so easy for me to let all this go.....

but these curtain tabs I cut off,  I just have to keep in case I need them.  My mind is scary.

Rule number 5  

Put up or shut up.

If the problem is that everything needs a home....then give it a home!   This lovely pile of baskets and containers was my attempt at this.  It was not meant to sit as a bright idea for so long but I bought them to give me a place for some of the items I mentioned before.

Now I have baskets to corral the cords.  A basket for the mail, one for the miscellaneous small toys, rocks, and legos that I find laying around.  A basket for the to be filed.  Now managing those baskets is a different story but a home is a home.  Maybe for the miscellaneous basket, I'll use the "eyes light up" rule with the kids.

Rule number 6  

Touch it once

I've seen this one in tons of self help books and it truly does work when I actually implement it.  Once you pick up an item, decide its fate then and follow through.  This is especially good for mail.  I tend to backslide a lot on this though.  Well, the clean-up tonight utilized it quite a bit.  Of course that means that the piles in here often shifted to a pile in another room, so I'll have to tackle upstairs tomorrow night.  But I did decide to get rid of stuff and took it straight to the van.  Carried up school clothes and shoes.   Weeded through the papers and put bills in a to do basket and filing in another.  Now to really do this right, I should have a filing system set up to file immediately.  A rule on how long to keep school papers.  Should have actually hung the clothes.  And a set night to pay bills......but baby steps are good too.

Rule number 7 

Moving from one pile to another IS progress.

I know that some would disagree, but when one pile is down stairs and the new pile is upstairs.....just getting it upstairs IS progress.  As long as the new pile is tackled fairly quickly.  That is where my problem lays.  I work my magic at night and the family sleeps at night.....so there is a timing issue. Just getting the stuff up there without waking them is a challenge.  Maybe I'll make a fort downstairs tomorrow night and let them sleep in the living room while I tackle upstairs.....sounds like a plan.

I am not done in here but it feels good to accomplish something.  Enough for one night.  I am going to bed.