Reflecting on goal setting in the New Year

My resolution this year boiled down to setting better goals during the year.

The first two weeks were pretty rough--I bottomed out, one of my euphemisms for saying that my depression triggered badly. I was stressed, and there was the usual letdown of my stepdaughters heading back to their mom's home and the holidays being done.

So I was sluggish. I got off my cleaning schedule. I wasn't setting goals. I wasn't doing much of anything besides Netflix marathoning.

This week, I've gotten back on the horse. I'm tweaking my cleaning schedule to match up a little better with the rhythms of my weeks and what needs to be done when. I updated my planner pages and some weekly worksheets I use for organizing.

I've even worked on my novel some, which I hadn't done in a long time.

Overall, the goal setting process has worked out well. I'm setting personal, professional, parenting and home goals. So far, so good.

I've worked on getting a little more specific as I go. I added home goals to separate out personal growth from things I want to do around the house.

How's your New Year's resolution going?

January Cure 2016: Another closet

I actually did take just a half hour to do this one. I'm not going to do much in the way of explanation, but here's the before:

The light is terrible. I promise eventually to get better at taking pictures. Bear with me.

Most of the issue with this closet was that top shelf, which had, wonder of wonders, a variety of empty boxes. WTAF, Kay?

Anyway, after I got into the process, here's what the closet looked like:

Naturally, it got a good sweeping and mopping.

And here's what the area around the closet looked like....

Yikes.

But, it all turned out okay:

Still hard to see, but I removed all of the boxes (and all of them went in the recycling...) and used two small organizers to hold umbrellas and our outdoor sitting blanket.

I already had Command hooks set up on the sides. They keep the kids' coats and jackets at their height.

So a few notes for myself to improve this closet:

• I'd like two wicker baskets for the top, the size of the canvas crates that I have used elsewhere.
• I'd like to add another command hook on either side for the kids' coats and jackets (they're cramming these hooks full).

Anybody else tackling closets? I'm enjoying it.

Habit Helpers: Apply what you learn.

This week's habit is applying what I learn.

I am going to have to think on this one a little bit, because in some ways, I do already do this. I love to blog about things that I have learned and apply them to other situations and circumstances.

However, I don't know that I always make that translation well to my own life. So I did some googling, and I ran across this advice: Acknowledge the payoffs and losses in doing things the way you always had.

I'd never thought of it, but every habit, good or bad, is a habit for a reason--usually because of some payoff, small or large, that we experience by holding onto it. Why do my kids throw their socks on the floor? Because the payoff is that they save the effort to put them away. Why do I avoid pitching pieces to websites? Because the payoff is avoiding rejection. It works in the practical and the abstract.

Acknowledging the losses is interesting too. What do my kids lose in that? Well, they don't have clean socks when they need them, and their favorite spot to drop them (the entry way) is a tripping hazard. What do I lose in my example? I lose the chance to do something I really enjoy.

It's kind of a risk/benefit analysis in some ways. You way the payoff against the loss and determine whether a habit would be worth holding onto or if it would be better to do something else.

Pretty cool.

You can read the whole post that I found here. I recommend it.

January Cure 2016: 30 Minute Closet Tidy (Except I cheated)

Recently, I flipped things around. I started doing the Kids' Space on Thursdays along with my Guest Bathroom, and doing the Laundry Room, Porch, and Patio on Sundays.

This worked out well for me this weekend, because one of the things the January Cure suggested doing was a thirty minute closet clean up. This was a task last week, but I started it this weekend. So sue me.

So, I decided to do our laundry room linen closet. There's a reason for that, and that reason is...

Yeah........

This closet has kind of become master bedroom linens (towels and sheets)...some random supplies...the pictures we are trying to find spaces for around the house...etc.

Want to see the horror story up close? Here ya go...

It's okay, you can scream. This is a no-judgement zone.

Anyway, the task is to take 30 minutes, but after I completely emptied this closet, it took a bit longer. I didn't take any pictures during the process because I was trying to get as much done as possible during the time period.

But, I have an after for you:

So, I added some bins, cleaned up the floor, did some purging, and put most everything back.

Here's another closeup:

I don't really have any advice that isn't already out there on the web, but here's a rundown of my process for this space in particular:

• I dumped everything, swept, mopped and dusted.
• I created a toss, keep, move, and donate pile.
• I added bins because the wire shelves are a pain to balance some things on.
• I refolded our extra master sheets set and put them in their pillow case, thus keeping everything together a little tighter.

I have a few notes for myself:

• I'd like matching bins.
• Labels...I need to get labels.
• Hang the damn pictures so that they won't linger in the closet and can be enjoyed.

And that's really it. I did another closet today, so I'm sure I'll share that sometime this week! ;-)

January Cure 2016: Clean out a drawer.

So, to be fair, this assignment was another one that I only just got around to although it was supposed to take place a few days ago. But no biggie--I'm not stressing it.

And also to be fair, I don't have that many drawers to choose from right now. This was about my only option. But, I had two purposes for this project:

1. I wanted to clean out the drawer that was looking a li'l jumbled.
2. I wanted to see if I could empty the utensil crocks (vases, as my spouse reminds me) from my counter top into the drawer to give me more counter space and less to move when I cleaned.

I think it turned out alright, although I'll add a few notes at the end. First! Some obligatory before photos.

Here's the countertop I want to free up:

So those three vases are roughly organized as spatulas, spoons, and everything else. They're the ones I'd like to get rid of. We don't have much on our countertops (the other side of the stove is totally bare, and along the other side of the wall I have our coffee station and nada else). This one little corner was starting to feel cramped, though.

And this is the drawer that was my target:

Not a lot of stuff, but definitely some wasted space, and again, pretty jumbled together.

Step One was, naturally, to empty said drawer and wipe it down:

Not bad. I was grateful to have had the contact paper because it made it easy to wipe down.

And then, of course, everything has to find a home again:

I opted to remove the bits of appliance thing (those things in the silvery basket in the bottom right corner of my before picture), and to consolidate my cookie cutters in one basket. I shifted some other things around, and that left space for all of the utensils from my vases, which made me mucho happy, because now that countertop looks like this:

Plenty of space. Since this corner sees a lot of action because of the stand mixer, it made sense to try to parse down what did and didn't need to be on the countertop.

So I'm pretty pleased with this, but it's definitely not done by any means. I really need some kind of dividers in there to keep things in place even when stuff is removed to be used. I also am toying with the idea of flipping this drawer and the one on the other side of the stove. The other side of the stove has a lot of stuff that I use when baking, so it kind of makes sense to switch 'em out and have that stuff closer to the mixer. We'll see. Dividers, definitely. Switcheroo, maybe.

In the mean time, though, I'm glad with the short term solution and the countertop.

January 2016 Cure: Make a project list.

I'm going to bounce around for a minute and step back to last week's cure.

The second assignment in the Cure was to generate a list of projects around the house. At first, I found this pretty difficult, but I've been thinking about it for the past week, and I think I've generated a pretty good list to focus on over the next few months.

Living Room

• Window treatments
• Refinish dresser for turtle habitat
• Hide cords around telephone stand somehow

Office

• Desk drawer
• Catch alls
• Reorganize drawers
• Window treatments

Entry

• Coat closet
• Plant

Kitchen

• Can I fit utensils in the drawer instead of on the countertop in crocks??
• Pantry: longterm storage solutions
• Under sink

Dining

• Trash can
• Wall art
• Window treatment

Guest Bath

• Under sink
• Wall art

Master Bedroom

• Window treatments
• Reading corner

Master Bathroom

• Master closet
• Under sink

Playroom

• Long term storage
• Window treatments

Boys' Room

• Dressers
• Closet

Girls' Room

• Paint

Kids Hall

• Linen Closet
• Wall Art

Laundry Room

• Linen closet

Garage

• Storage shelves
• Purge leftover crap
• Donate the donate boxes

Window treatments are high up on the list pretty much everywhere. The bedrooms have blinds, but the rest of the windows are open, and as I sit here and type this with the dark outside...man, it'd just be nice not to give the neighbors a play by play of pretty much our every movement.

Other than that, it's a good mix of organizing and decorating. Maybe slightly heavier on the decorating side because we nearly doubled our square footage when we moved--we just don't have enough stuff to fill up all of the space, and a lot of our small space solutions for our former abode have translated well. Plus...I'm a hack-and-burn kinda gal. I'm sentimental, but not about things, which makes it easy to toss or donate.

Anyway, today's assignment was supposed to be clean out a closet, but I got distracted. I will probably wind up doing a handful of them altogether on Friday, because the kiddo doesn't have school. Yay.

I'm still enjoying the process. I highly recommend following along.

Habit Helpers: Share what you learn with other people.

This week's habit is "Share what you learn with other people."

To be honest, this is another one of those gimmes for me, because we do this anyway. It's something I have done throughout my life. I can remember rattling off horse facts around the dinner table when I was young for so long that my mother finally said if I couldn't contain myself, I'd have to stand up and sing "I'm a happy happy hippo" the next time I said, "Did you know...?"

It hasn't abated as an adult, but my spouse--lovely person that he is--has that same curiosity about the world. He doesn't just listen; he encourages. I love it when we are coming at an issue from opposite ends, because I learn so much more than I do just by reading up on things myself.

And, unsurprisingly, we've passed down our love of random facts to our kids.

Back in the fall, I discovered Hamilton: An American Musical. We've been on a roll ever since. It's on in the car, around the house while I'm cleaning, we're singing along to it all the time. And the kids are obsessed with learning more information about the American Revolution. They want to know everything there is to know about anyone, everyone, and anything related to the story of Alexander Hamilton.

So we're googling. We've found kid friendly biographies on Thomas Jefferson and George Washington.

Sharing what we learn with other people? It's not just easy; it's fun.