I've tried so many different cleaning and organizational systems over time! I know there is really no perfect system, and that the system isn't really the problem, the problem is me not doing what I intend to to. Or not even having a plan for what I want to do, just having some vague "oh, I should do that" thoughts that flitter through my mind occassionally.
The girls and I were so proud of ourselves this summer. We made a plan, and we stuck with it! Our vehicle kept getting really gross last year, like gross to the point of "I should go park in the corner of the parking lot because I don't want people to see inside when I open the doors or look in my windows!" kind of gross. And I can't blame the girls entirely, there was a lot of stuff tossed on the front seat too, and that's my territory! We are usually so tired when we get home that we were just lazy about taking our stuff in the house and getting rid of trash.
Well, at the start of the summer, we spent an afternoon of really cleaning the car out well. And we decided that we WOULD keep it clean. Guess, what, we did! For most of the summer, about three months! Bathing suits/towels/books etc all came inside when we got home. I stopped giving them snacks in the car, that helped a lot with trash. The girls both kept noticing and commenting, "Mommy, our car is STILL CLEAN!" We were pretty impressed with ourselves!
There's a sad end to this tale... things got messy/gross again. Still not sure why, but I think we need to revisit that goal again, because I know we can do it! And they know it, too. It's not always fun or easy, but boy it feels better to ride around in a not-nasty car. We're not going to impress anyone with our snazzy 14 year old (yep) Ford Explorer, but at least when it's clean we won't be grossing anyone out!
Three months seems to be a nice chunk of time, to me. A season, really. And there are different levels of activity that I can manage in different seasons. I think that this winter will be a good time for me to focus on getting some projects done around the house, since we are home more and outside less. Here's some tentative plans for some bigger projects I'd like to tackle. If I get any of them done, maybe I'll blog about them here!
January goals:
Recipe/menu planning: Reorganize current menu binder to hold only those recipes that I really use, and put in a bigger binder. Come up with a list of family favorite meals and where I find the recipes (in binder or cookbook- I can't be bothered to copy recipes that I have in a cookbook, unless I decide to get rid of the cookbook!) Make it pretty and useful. (Wish I could do something like Sarah from Memories on Clover Lane did and make an actual cookbook, but that's a bit much for me right now!)
Bill/Budget organization: I've looked at a couple of different systems, and I'm intrigued by this binder method of filing bills and planning for bills, seen here... and I like Sarah at Clover Lanes simple approach to tracking spending in her budget notebook, too. (These are really two different things, and I should start doing both!)
February goals:
Painting: I have lots of painting projects... two bathrooms upstairs need to be painted, and also both girls have furniture that could use a coat of paint. This would probably keep me busy the whole month! Not sure if it would be bad to paint when it's cold outside, hope not!
March goals:
Pictures: I have never tackled organizing our old photos, and need to research how I want to handle this. Also, I don't regularly print photos for us to enjoy, or the scrapbook pages I've created over the years, so I need to come up with a plan or routine for doing this. And I would like to put some pictures in the frames I've purchased and never filled!
Purging: Revisit closets, drawers and spaces that haven't been addressed for a while in preparation for spring cleaning in April/May. I tend to regularly do this with some parts of my house (kids' toys, drawers in kitchen) but I need to do this in my attic and bonus room as well.
Okay, I think that's plenty to keep me busy for a few months! I have other projects that I don't want to assign to a particular month, though...
Other projects to fit in:
-Create a canopy to go over my oldest's bed, out of tulle- something sweet and girly, a DIY project. Also would like to create a bulletin board (cover with fabric?) for her, and change out some artwork in her room and update photos. (Probably good projects for February and March!)
-Encourage my husband to organize tools and such in the garage- it's a mess out there!
-Thrift and search for better dressers to replace ones falling apart in our bedroom and for additional storage in other parts of the house. Maybe paint them, so possibly do this in February.
I'll be thrilled if I do even some of these things within this time-frame. They all should be done, but I am usually a lot slower to tackle projects than I'd like to be. Maybe this will be the kick in the pants I need!
