Overwhelming!
That has been what my life has been the last two weeks hence my lack of posts.
Let me tell you a little story....
When I was pregnant in Bugalugs last year Hubby and I got into panic mode about "getting things done to the house". I needed to change the BIG junk room to a SMALLER junk room so that the baby could have somewhere to sleep. We had also ripped up every shred of carpet as they were disgusting from the renters who had lived here before we bought our house and one day (after vacuuming and realising it had made no difference) I told Hubby I would rather walk on concrete than the carpet. We hired a skip the next day and Hubby ripped the lot up.
Then I panicked that we needed flooring because of Bugalugs imminent arrival plus the house was so dusty with concrete floors and Grotbag couldn't play very well on his playroom floor! The only place in the house which didn't have carpet was the kitchen/family/dining room plus the bathrooms and laundry. Yes, that meant that all the bedrooms, the junk room and the playroom didn't have carpet. Which also meant that to lay new flooring (not carpet, dog hair and carpet don't mix, we have commercial wood look vinyl) EVERYTHING had to come out of the rooms before it could be laid. Remember I am 7 months pregnant at this point.
We called in family to help and by the time the flooring guy came all that was left in the rooms were the beds. Everything else was on and in my dining room. I wish I had taken a picture because it was like a huge mountain of crap. Most of it was from the Junk room and as storage is a problem in our house, there was no where to put it. There was also lots and lots and lots of baby stuff, the cot, change table, baby bath - all that had been stored in the junk room from when it had been used by Grotbag. This was all done TWO WEEKS before the flooring guy came because of Hubby's work pattern. Hubby came home the week the floors were being laid and then flew back before there was a chance to move everything back. So for another week I sat with the contents of most of my home in my dining room.
Then one night after a wonder baby shower, my waters broke and I went into early labour.
I was having a planned C Section at my OB/GYN insistence because of previous procedures and it wasn't supposed to be for 3 weeks. Yeah, Bugalugs wanted out and wasn't going to wait. Hubby was away and couldn't believe he was going to miss it (he couldn't fly out till the next night as there were not planes!) and so Mum was called in and Bling too and Bugalugs made his safe arrival into the world.
With all the contents of my home still in my dining room.
I was not bringing a new baby home from hospital with the pile of crap from hell staring at me. So from the hospital bed I gave instructions that Hubby was to go get many of those large plastic storage tubs. The my mum and Auntie B rallied round and put all contents in the dining room into the boxes, labelled them and stacked them in the new 'spare room'. I had visions of pulling out a box at a time, sorting through it while Bugalugs slept and it would all be sorted in a few weeks.
HA! They haven't been touched in 9 months and what was a lovely stacked orderly room is now again a huge junk pile dumping ground and I can barely walk in the room.
So the biggest over whelming factor in my home is the clutter that needs to just GO. Time is obviously against me - I just have none and all this was really getting me down. My head was swimming with things that needed to be done, especially with Christmas coming up, me going to Melbourne, Lay-bys to pick up - well it is never ending.
I started waking in the morning dreading my day not knowing what to tackle first. I was moody and felt like I had no control. I couldn't see the woods for the trees if you know what I mean.
How did this happen? When I was in paid work I was soooooo organised. Everything had it's place, tasks were done to deadline and I never panicked about anything. I loved being busy.
Then one of my best friend V gave me the advice I had been looking for. I told her how I had been feeling and she said that she had felt that way too a couple of months ago. And then one day she just sat down and wrote a list. One huge mother of a list of everything that she needed or wanted to do. Small things and big things. Then she just planned her days around different tasks on the list.
OMG! Really, could it be that easy? I used to make lists all the time in my paid working life and I loved the pleasure and sense of accomplishment when I ticked a task off my list.
V brought the biggest smile to my face, and the next day that is exactly what I did. I wrote everything I wanted or needed to do. Appointments I needed to make, organisation tasks, big tasks like painting the playroom and small tasks like email friend cupcake recipe.
So far The List is 2.5 lined A4 pages long and I have been adding too it everyday. I have already marked quite a few tasks off. Everyday I check The List and make a mini list of what I want to accomplish that day. It may only be one thing but once done, it's off the list. I can't believe I ever thought I would remember everything in my head that is now on The List. I must have been delusional.
I can't tell you how much better I feel. It really is quite amazing. I am not constantly trying to remember tasks as they are all on paper and out of my head. I can prioritise tasks. I can concentrate on one task at a time without worrying whether I should be doing something else instead. I can plan certain tasks for when Hubby is home and he can also work from the list.
So unfortunately Blogging has taken to "scorching it's butt on my back burner" this week while I prioritise some tasks from the list. One of today's tasks was to blog about The List (yay anothere task I can cross off) and so addicted to blogging and telling you about my life, I couldn't complete some of my tasks without documenting the ones I felt were good blog fodder!!! So stay tuned!
And V thanks, you saved my sanity, my kids and Hubby from a very grumpy mum/wife!
Do you keep A List? How do you keep on top of everything in your life? Is your house about to burst at the seams from clutter? Do you have any clutter buster tips for me? What's your best organisational tip? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!
