New Year's Resolution

I had been thinking about this for a few days now. It is not something I actually take lightly. I never resolve to lose weight because I am not feeling ready to give up the good yummy foods I enjoy eating. Plus It's not that I eat a lot, it's just that I only eat about once a day and I don't eat the healthiest foods. Plus I'd have to give up my regular MT Dew and there isn't a force on earth that could make me want to do that.

So I think logically about what I need to do or achieve, and I think about if these things are attainable goals. Therefore my resolution for 2012 is to re-organize. It was going to be simple and small scale however I woke up this morning with an overwhelming urge to purge.

I want to have more space for my creating. See how I use the term creating instead of crafting. That is because I want to get back into building. I'm tired of not being able to have certain things because I cannot find them, afford them, or because these cruddy walls cannot hold them. So I will build or make what I need. I love using power tools and hammers and nails. It fills a void in me.

I have downloaded a wonderful organizing tool from My Simpler Life that I plan to also use in my re-structuring process. It is a monthly calender with different projects to do each day. Although I am planning a complete overhaul, I feel it will help me stay on track, and hopefully motivated. I love calendars and planners and having my to do's in front of me.

Link for the de-clutter calendar here: http://www.mysimplerlife.com/decluttercalendar.htm

This picture here shows something I had done when Kameron was a baby because I was definitely in need of organizing back then. This was a simple way for me to get my shopping done in one trip so I didn't have to lug around a baby all the time to and from the store for things I forgot. I simply went to each "station" in my house (i.e. fridge, cupboards, bathroom, etc) and wrote down what we have on a normally daily/weekly basis.



P.S. I see I spelled breakfast as breekfast



Then I categorized them into sections. For example health and beauty, beverages, meats, baby needs, etc. )I also went onto Safeway's online shopping link and used their shopping lists that are broken into sections for reference/suggestions)

It may seem like a long drawn out process, but really it only took about an hour. Then however pretty you want to make it is up to you based on how long you want to take to do that.

I don't know why this one is highlighted, but what I would do before I went grocery shopping is I would open this list and go down looking to see if I needed to get more or if I had enough to last for at least another week or until I planned to go shop again.

I probably got this idea from my work where we used this kind of lists for ordering our inventory. You have to have an idea of how much you use in the first place to know if you will have enough to carry you for a week or 2. But we are pretty good at that right ladies.

But that is how I created my shopping lists and we pretty much always had what we needed. Other things like flour and special seasonings were written down as we ran out of them, or purchased if I knew I was going to be making a particular meal that week and only had the product for the meal and not everyday. Like kale for my Olive Garden soup, or chicken bullion for my friend chicken.

I am super excited to have found this list last night because I had been thinking about making it again since I've fallen off the organized wagon along time ago. Let's face it when your idea of staying organized is to keep everything piled up on your printer until you need to use it, then you need help!

I look forward to sharing my progress with you. What are your New Year's Resolutions you are looking forward to working on?

Garage Sale Mania!

So last night I decided I had way too much stuff and I wanted to get rid of alot of it. Not that I live in squaller or am a hoarder or anything. My house is fairly neat, except for the few toys my kids have on the floor or the 1 too many knick knacks on my shelves. I just have been feeling claustrophobic lately and tired of getting done going through cleaning everything only to find that once i'm done, it's time to start at the other end and make my way through again. DUSTING ESPECIALLY EEWWW!
So last night as I lay in bed I was so excited about thinking of getting rid of everything, I started mentally planning out my process and going through what I can part with. I was getting so excited that I almost got up to actually start cleaning my garage last night around midnight. Then I thought, well i will be too tired tomorrow morning to finish so i'll stay in bed. 2 hours later I was still mentally preparing myself. I have never been so excited to purge before. I'm wondering if it is a sign that this is exactly what I need right now. Like if I can clear my space, perhaps I will be able to clear my mind. IDK.

And surprisingly enough I am still excited this morning about the whole thing. Even though it is sprinkley outside and my major plan was to pull everything out of the garage, I think I still can get it done. I was going to separate everything into 3 piles. Keep, Sell/donate, and toss. Then put everything I'm keeping back in neatly and organized. Then my garage sale pile will be in boxes in the corner. A couple neighbors have already shown interest in doing a yard sale this summer too, and my mom. So it'll be on June 3rd and 4th. Let's just hope I keep up this enthusiasm long enough to actually get everything done.