While this topic may not seem related to fitness and health, I assure you, it is. Having an organized home means having a kitchen you can use, having a peaceful place to get plenty of rest, having a place to store your fitness equipment (and find it easily), and making more time to get to the gym and engage in other self-care rituals.
My grandmother died earlier this year. Even while I was grieving, I knew immediately that I wanted to have some of her things. Not in a greedy way, but because I wanted to feel her presence in my house. Last weekend, I took a truck and a few friends on a road trip and came back with a couch, a love seat, several chairs, end tables, a sewing machine that doubles as a dressing table, and my first real formal dining table and chairs. Fortunately, much of the furniture I had already, what little of it there was, was place holder furniture -- things I can easily pass along to friends or, depending on the condition, set out at the curb for someone to find and rehome.
Having so much new (to me), beautiful furniture has really given me the motivation to continue the process I began when I moved in of finding space for things and developing routines to care for the space. Jay and I have already made a lot of progress to that end: we bought a new microwave that fits on the kitchen shelf and found a friend who wants the old one, thus clearing off a ton of counter space. We bought a nice shower curtain to cover said shelf so that our storage isn't staring us in the face all the time. We also made some decisions, like moving the TV into the newly furnished living room and buying a sturdy cabinet to house the auxiliary electronics. We decided to repurpose half the hallway as a large storage closet for musical instruments and my bike. We bought a really nice coat stand for the front door that Jay refinished. Our best progress has been looking at the way we live and making the house work with it, rather than the other way around.
Still, our two constant issues are dishes and clothes, and we're still working on a functional system for these things. It's a process. Today, I found this article, which I thought was really enlightening, especially the second point. I say this all the time: housework is BORING, especially routine housework like dishes and laundry, cleaning the bathrooms, and swiffering. One time projects, like putting together the TV cabinet, are at least somewhat exciting. Contrariwise, I can't deny that I love coming home to a clean house. Jay knows one way to make my day is to spend 5 minutes making the bed before I come home. The pay off for doing the boring tasks should be enough to motivate me.
So far, it hasn't been. A big part of this is how bad I've let it get. It seems like even when we spend a weekend doing laundry, there's always more. I can't remember the last time that I felt like ALL the dishes and clothes were clean and in their appropriate places. I'd even settle for having a few dirty dishes in the dishwasher and some dirty clothes in our nice, big hamper that we bought.
So, in honor of triathlon training and spring time and all that is holy, I'm declaring this week organization week at the Smith Abbott household. Jay is doing dishes today, and I've made a task list (using the handy feature on my gmail page):
- Clear off dining table
- Straighten living room
- Put back panel on bench
- Store DVD player
- Make bed
- Install hall closet curtain
- Store bike (on hooks)
- Move desks, filing cabinet out to porch
- Gather clean laundry on dining table
- Sort laundry
- Fold and hang
- Put away laundry
One of the biggest changes we're contemplating is getting rid of the dog's crate. Since he's a Great Dane, his crate takes up half of whatever room it's in. Last week, we started spreading out one of his blankets on the bed and putting him in the bedroom. It's working really well, so the crate might be on its way. Which raises another issue. We recently switched the bedroom and the other room (it's a two bedroom house). Since the main closet and my dressing area are in the back of the house, it might not make sense to have the bedroom at the front of the house. Something to ponder.
I'm open to ideas about what to do with that second bedroom. The only feature that's not negotiable is the futon, since it has to function as a guest room. The love seat is something I'd rather keep, but it's not entirely necessary. I worry that without a purpose, the room will become a place to shove crap, which is the opposite of what I want. Any ideas?
All images stolen from this site, which has tons of cute pictures and ideas.
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