Good day

Sunday turned out to be a pretty good day. I hadn’t realized how good until I was writing in my journal last night.

Since Saturday had been one of those days where I couldn’t seem to make a decision, I’d left all the items I’d pulled out from the cabinet lying around the kitchen floor. I hemmed & hawed over the fondue pot and some bowls and platters. I finally made the decision to let go of them, and had even moved them over to the give-away pile.

I was much more clear-headed on Sunday. I took the few things I wanted to keep and put them back in the cabinet. Holy cow! I had tons of room left over. So what did I do? I retrieved the fondue pot and dishes. I’m sure the professional organizers are cringing, but I’m ok with the decision for now. I did realize I need to move the crock pot into this cabinet, and that will take up a bit more room, but I think I’ll still have room for everything to be organized and easy to get to.

I think part of what scared me on Saturday is the sheer amount of stuff in the give-away pile. And it’s only going to continue to grow. I’m a bit worried about getting everything into the car, since I live on the top floor of a walk-up condo. But if I take down 2 or 3 loads a week, I should be able to keep up without having too many boxes lying around.

Oh, and I didn’t procrastinate about changing the bed linens, I finished my loads of laundry, including folding and putting away.  (Well, except for the towels that are still in the dryer.  But they’re dry and they’ll be easy to fold and put away tonight.)  Like I said, it was a good day.

Getting back on track

I just posted at Stream of Conscience about how I’ve been escaping from real life. That includes my decluttering plan.

The problem with the kitchen is that, in addition to decluttering, I need to do maintenance work every day. But I really slacked off this week. While I accomplished some good work last Saturday (Mar 1), I wasted much of Sunday, only getting to the kitchen late in the day. I wasn’t in the mood to tackle a cupboard or cabinet, so I cleaned out the drawer that holds my basic utensils. I didn’t throw away very much, but there were a few odds and ends that made it to the trash can. One item that probably should have gone out was an old fashioned punch-type can opener. You know, the triangular type that we used to use to open soda cans. (And, it turns out, we still need for items such as condensed milk.) I don’t use it anymore because it’s very old and rusty, but it has sentimental value. Maybe I’ll put it in a place of honor, even though it’s really ugly. Or maybe I’ll realize I don’t need an inanimate object to save my memories.

The drawer had some dividers I’d had for over 20 years. I was going to clean them and put them back, even though one was cracked, mainly because I hadn’t thought far ahead enough to buy some new ones. But the dividers were pretty grungy and even after a nice soaking, they were still icky. So out they went. Now I’ve put the utensils back in the drawer in an orderly fashion, but I really do need to buy some new dividers. I wonder if I can find some at the grocery store tonight when I stop this evening for the all important cat food.

After Sunday, I didn’t get back to the decluttering until yesterday. Although, to be fair, I did do some good kitchen maintenance cleaning during the week. I figure that counts for something, since I did clean up some large items that were cluttering the counter.

Last night I decided to tackle one of the cupboards. I didn’t get to all 3 shelves, but I did get 2 cleared out. Now they’re very empty, since a great deal of the food was far beyond its expiration date. I still need to check the salad dressings. They don’t look particuarly bad, but they do need a closer inspection. Maybe I’ll try to finish up that cupboard tonight. Then tomorrow I can tackle one of the other cabinets.

Time to get crackin’

Well, my “amnesty” period is almost up. This past Saturday was my first day not using the boot for my broken foot at all. But I’ve been on my feet a lot the past two days, and it’s quite sore this evening. When I got home from work, I put the boot back on for the evening. And I need to take some more motrin.

March 1 is fast approaching. The problem is, I don’t have that “New Year’s drive” I had in January. And right now I’m exhausted. The other “roadblock” is that I don’t have my Christmas presents mailed. I have them wrapped and in some cases packed, but I haven’t gotten them off to the post office or UPS yet.

I can’t let the lack of progress in one area interfere with my plans to move ahead in another. That kind of thinking is “all or nothing” or even “perfectionism,” which can be a terrible detriment to progress. I don’t want to fall into that trap again. It does me absolutely no good.

I guess I better use the next few days to psyche myself up for the big challenge. I might even hire a professional organizer to help push me through my inertia. I’ll see how the first week or so goes. Or, maybe I’ll call someone tomorrow. After all, I don’t want to have everything charted out. While having a plan is good, sometimes you just need to fly by the seat of your pants.

The “official” progress report for Jan 08

In order to get rid of old habits, you have to get rid of old thinking.

I was doing quite well with my revised January schedule. However, after the progress reported in my last post, I took Wednesday off. And that led to taking Thursday off. So I didn’t get all my packages wrapped and none of them mailed.

Last weekend I was on the verge of getting my bills paid up to date. I’d even tallied up all the credit card expenses. But I guess because I time to spare, I didn’t finish. And now I’m behind the due date for the credit card bill—not by much, but probably enough to warrant an interest fee.

And I’d made great progress with the laundry. Except that I didn’t get the get the last load out to dry. And now I have to do them all over again because they stink.

What held me back? I was out of my comfort zone. I’m not used to making progress, or being on time, or being successful. So I stopped because it didn’t feel “right.”

So now, instead of moving on to the next big task at hand, I have to play catch-up. Hopefully at some point making progress won’t feel so foreign to me and I won’t “feel the need” to backslide.

January progress report

Well, after my very late start, I’m on track to finish my new and improved necessary January goals. I’ve finished wrapping the presents for nibbling #3 (numbered by age), which includes nibbling, nibbling-in-law and great-nibbling. Now I just have to find a box to mail them. Or, I suppose I could take them to the UPS store and let them do the work.

I have only 3 other presents to wrap, but I do need to get a good address for nibbling #2 and send him his gift and a gift card.

Keep it up, kiddo!

Progress, however meager, is progress

Yesterday, I really hadn’t done anything to further my January goal to declutter the kitchen. Then, around 8 p.m., I was a tad bored and decided pick up the kitchen a bit. After the first 5 minutes of cleaning off the counter, I tackled the table. The great news is I found the stickers I was looking for. The other great news is that when my 5 minutes were done, I went for another 5 minutes. Go me!

But one of the problems I’m having is what do I do with things I want to keep but don’t know where to put them? Last year a friend gave me a beautiful poinsettia plant for Christmas. (I felt horribly sorry for the plant, because I knew I would kill it.) I did eventually kill it and threw it out, but the decorative bucket it came in is very cute. I want to keep it and perhaps put some (artificial) flowers in it, but what do I do with it in the meantime? I guess I’ll just transfer it to the “back room” which is currently functioning as the “dumping ground.” But I feel like I’m just transferring the clutter. Maybe by the time I get to the back room I’ll have a little less mental clutter and have a better idea of what I want to do with the bucket and where to put it.