21 January 2011

Bring out your dead

I'm not dead yet.

Despite my absence, I'm really not dead yet. (I'm feeling much better).

I used to consider myself an organized person. Almost overly organized. Spreadsheets and lists are a compulsion. But sometimes it takes me a while to get into that mode. Take our house for example. No finished rooms = no proper place for anything = big disorganized heaps everywhere. As a result, every project takes much longer than it ought because of the time I spend wandering around the house muttering, "I know I just saw that hammer somewhere."

So, basta. Like everybody else in the world, I've made organization a priority for the new year. I've come up with separate lists (I wasn't kidding about the lists!) of things to do while Clara's asleep and for when she's awake. Lest you think I abandon her completely all day long, know that I still spend the vast majority of her waking hours playing with and loving on the little rugrat.

I've been working on the foyer/front hallway area the past couple of days. The biggest improvement was to get rid of the bags of aluminum cans piled by the door. We used to leave a bag of cans on our front steps for whoever to take and recycle for cash, but we found out that our church collects aluminum cans to help fund their food pantry. I could never find any information about dropping them off, so they just accumulated. I finally got the necessary info and got rid of an entire trunkful of cans within the hour. It felt good! All of the holiday decorations I bought (on clearance, naturally) and plunked down in the hallway have been relegated to the attic crawlspace. I now have a relatively clear space where I can place a workbench and embrace my inner OCD tendencies to organize the hundreds of screwdrivers I can never find. At least it doesn't look like an episode of Hoarders anymore.

Not our entryway.

Baby steps.