It's On.....

January 18, 2023

It started with a "I need to do this" and started with one area and it just expanded.  I realized that I had never truly cleaned out my desk drawers in my office!  We moved in 2009 by taking the drawers out, moving the desk over here, then putting them back in.  I didn't empty those drawers at all.  That is only the crux of it.  So I had a bunch of stuff on top of the desk that I wanted to put away, but too much stuff in the drawers prevented it.  That has been the cornerstone of my organization quest.

"I want to put everything away but there is too much stuff in the drawers/cabinets for me to do so."

That has been my downfall for decades.  The realization took a while to set in, really, but it has now and it has brought me to this rule:

Central Rule:  If I have to dig through stuff to get to what you need to use and use on a regular basis, the stuff needs to go.

This led me to walking around and looking at various trinkets that are on my mantle.  I realized, with horror, that 75% of it was what I call "obligatory stuff" that I don't really have any feelings about, and it will need to go.  The stuff I really like and want to display is lost in the clutter of the "obligatory" items.  This is going to really make my next wave a big one...

I'm also making a bunch of notes.  I see people selling their decluttering/organization programs online, but none address artists.  I'm an artist.  Every artist I know has a cluttered house as we see things differently - we collect things and make them into other things - or, we collect them with future plans.  I've taught myself that if a year goes by and the future plan hasn't even begun, it must go.  Even an artist I discovered while taking classes recently has piles of this in his home (I have seen photos).  His studio resembles mine - organized chaos.  His work is simply brilliant and I understand how his studio works.  I may be writing my own program when my initial process has concluded.

Concluded has been my downfall in the past when it comes to staying organized.  It's like weight loss - you can lose the weight and gain it all back and then some.  In that same cadence, you can clean your house and organize it - then get more stuff and it turns to a big mess again.  Maintenance is the key!

Finally, I have a whiteboard in my kitchen - it is a combination white board, cork board and calendar.  I wrote "This kitchen has been tidy for ___ days" in big letters, and each day I happily add to that number.  I plan on having something similar in my entry way for the whole house.  It might take a couple of months to get there, but I am going to do it. 

Getting the husband on board has been difficult, but I think he's there.  I still have a way to go, many hot spots to go, but the big ones are almost behind me now.  The big ones were the kitchen, my office and the dreaded hall closet.  Then onto the living and family room - the first wave is all about our living space.  The hall bathroom is good and minimal.  These are the spaces that everyone sees when they come over.

The next areas are the bedroom (my half, at least - my husband is impossible), the bathroom which is not much - drawers mostly, and after that - my studio.  My studio is pretty crazy but organized crazy; not that far from my favorite artist's studio, just much smaller. 

The garage is another animal.  My husband and I are working on this together, but 3/4 of it is his.  As he cleans stuff away, I tackle whatever I can physically get to that is "mine" and in most cases, I grab trash bags and go at it. 

This is my goal:  Old friends are in town unexpectedly, call to say "we'd love to visit" and my husband and I don't have to turn into "Flight of the Bumblebee" with speed cleaning....(speed cleaning - throw everything into my studio and close the door).

As I said...

It's on....