Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Day Two Hundred Thirty Seven

I have a friend who served as my original inspiration for clearing my house of all the unneeded, unused and unloved things.  In the sixteen or so years I've known her she has reorganized her house from top to bottom many times.  Or maybe she has just been doing it one time and it has taken years and years, hard to say.  However, today she told me that by the weekend she should be finished!  So, congratulations to you my friend.  I know how much effort you've put into this.  So, how did she finally do it?  Whose system did she use?  She has been responsible for inspiring me to purchase a slew of books about organizing over the years.  Here's how my typical thought process worked for years:


1.  Become inspired by actions of others.
2.  Figure out what I can buy that will make me as successful as they are.
3.  Buy the book, cd, dvd or whatever.
4.  Thumb through the book, listen to the first ten minutes of the cd to 'get a feel for it'.
5.  Leave it out on top of a pile of things that needs clearing for inspiration.
6.  Forget about it until I get to that particular pile, at which point I....
7.  Put it away having decided it wasn't a very good system for me.  (After all, if it didn't DO the work for me then it wasn't going to get done.)


So as I sit here and look around me at a space cleared of clutter with a very neat pile of just completed work ready to be put away in a space perfectly organized and sized for the purpose, I realize that I've come pretty close to finishing.  I still have plenty of blog items, that isn't what I mean.  Lot's to still get rid of.  What I know that I've done is that I've learned what works for me.  My friend made the comment that she had finally figured out how she uses things and how she works.  That, my readers, is key.  I have learned that I work best by breaking down tasks that don't excite me into very little bites.  Now the finish line is only a matter of time because there isn't a doubt in my mind that I will do it.  I have the attention span of a gnat when it comes to doing things that I don't enjoy.  When I am working on something that I love I will do it for hours on end.  I remember when I was building my landscape that I'd go outside in the morning after a cup of coffee and the first time I'd look up and notice the time it would be 2:00 in the afternoon and I'd be outside in sweaty pajamas.  Implementing the timer system I've described before keeps me from sitting and working until my back seizes up but I will often work for 10 or 12 hours because I love what I do.  Same with an art project....incredible stamina there as well.


Moral of the story?  Don't buy the book.


Here are today's five items:
1.  Muffin tin I keep thinking I'm going to use to sort art supplies - not gonna happen.
2.  Blue vase with red flowers on it.  I've basically settled on three vases that I LOVE and the rest go.
3.  Baseball
4.  Baseball bat
5.  Another racquetball racket lurking at the back of the "sport" closet.  



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