A Woman Can Never Have Too Many Shoes, Handbags or Tupperware

Well The List is having tasks crossed off and added to it all the time and I am loving the feeling of accomplishment every day. While having breakfast I write a mini list of the tasks that hope to get completed that day plus incidentals like washing, unloading dishwasher, getting something out the freezer for dinner etc. It keeps me on track and I am loving it!

Anywhoo, one of the first tasks I tackled after I wrote The List was clearing out my Tupperware cupboards - yes plural - I actually have one full kitchen corner cabinet, two dish drawers and a smaller draw all allocated to my plastic obsession (yeah, I know I can see your OMG expressions now!)

Hubby has no patience when it comes to putting dishes away, especially the plastic fantastic and so they just get thrown in and the door quickly shut hoping that they don't fall out the next time the draw is open. Which they usually do...the day after he has flown out again to work....so I have no one to swear at. This manifests into me doing the same thing having no time to neatly stack everything and so a jumbled mix of bowls and lids are left to their own devices.

At my Pink Ribbon Breakfast I had Tupperware come and show their wares as they donate 10% of all sales to the NBCF and also gave some great donations to the raffle. And of course I had to buy some so the day came when the delivery arrived and I literally had no where to put it. So this was number one of The List .

Well I even surprised myself with how much I had. Below is a picture of all the Tupperware that was in my cupboards.

This picture did NOT include:

• The myriad of inferior plastic that I also own (Decor anyone?)
  
• The kiddie plastic taking up one whole draw (IKEA, Take & Toss)
  
• The 32 (yes I counted) Tupperware containers that were in use in the pantry, fridge and freezers.
  
• My Tupperware Picnic set
  
• The new Tupperware that had been delivered including a 9 piece 'Outdoor Kitchen' set of funky black Tupperware.
  

Ahem....Addiction Anyone?

This is the part where I get all defensive and justify it all. I'm good at it...I do it to Hubby all the time...

There are only a few things in that picture I do not use and after this clean out am donating to friends - they are the Fridge Smarts (the rectangle thingies with the breather holes) - never could get the hang of them, they take up too much room in my fridge and I go through my veggies too quickly for them to be any use.

That means that EVERYTHING else in that picture does actually get used. Especially my Illusion Bowls (left of the picture, blue lids with the salad servers sitting on them). In summer they are never in the cupboard but are full of salad. They are used at every BBQ and would have to be the best Tupperware purchase EVER.

My newest fabulous piece is the Rice Cooker (round red thingy front left) BEST RICE EVER and I can tell will be getting a lot of use.

Everything has now been put back, within easy reach and not just piled on top of each other so Hubby won't be bothered to put it back properly. I gave a few older bowls and lids to my mum for the holiday house as well as some inferior plastic and odds and ends as well. Everything now has a place and is easy to find and put away and gets used.

Many people have asked me over the years why don't I become a demonstrator. Well for one I don't have the kitchen space! And two, I don't want my love to be tainted which I think it might. Plus party plan income is really only good if you can have a lot of parties and with Hubby working away I would constantly have to get babysitters.

I have been to many parties over the years and can usually tell a new demonstrator what she needs to know and there are not many things left for me to buy. But it never stops me buying - I call it investment shopping! Hey there are worse things I could be doing right?

Well I am just happy this little task is off my list now and I can enjoy my fantastic plastic in all its glory sitting proudly in my cupboards. Now, where did I put that latest catalogue.......

Do you have a Tupperware addiction? What is your favourite piece? Is yours neatly stacked or a jumble of lids and bowls crammed into a draw? Let me know your plastic secret!!

The List.

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!