10 Minutes To Ahhh....

A couple of little projects that will make a huge difference in my mental state.

No "before" picture, but this drawer was a wreck. A bunch of utensils had collected there that didn't belong, a few things that I needed to give away, the drawer needed a new lining, etc...
Finished in about 15 minutes.




This one I timed...

Before 10:55 am


Empty 10:57 am






Done 11:05 am




Seriously... 10 minutes and I can open that drawer and see what I need, don't have to dig through nasty junk, and now Tim has a little pile of odds and ends, that he may or may not decide to keep, but we now know we have them! I found the extra bulbs for the Christmas tree! Win!

Planning- Creating a Timeline - Part 3

In creating a plan you will need to determine your deadline, or the date that you want to have the project finished, and you will then need to do a little math.
You need to divide the time you have until the deadline into periods in which you will be doing the work, keeping in mind the size of the job and the days that you will have to work on it.

Let's say, for example, that your mother is in need of extra help and you have decided that you are going to move her in with you. You have lots of room in the walk-out basement to create a nice apartment, or you will once you remove all the boxes of papers, old toys, cast-off clothing, other flotsam and jetsome that has been accumulating over the past 20 or so years that you have lived in the house.

Your mother doesn't own her house, so you know that she will need to move before the lease is up in three months. You are going to have to get the basement cleaned out, and then do some work to make it ready such as painting, new flooring and repairs. You  will also need to move your mom's belongings into the space, so you really can't count on any of this space for storage. Most of the stuff has to go.

To give yourself time for refurbishing, say a month, your deadline for the cleanout is now two months out. Let's say it's March 1st right now, so you need to be done by May 1st.

Approximately eight weeks.

If you work full time you are realistically looking at having weekends to get the job done, which will be about 16 days, but there are going to be family obligations that need to be taken into account, so let's say you are going to have 10 good work days.

Now we are going to take stock of what is inhabiting the space in the basement and what needs to go.

You have a good idea of what is in the boxes bins and bags, generally, but you are still going to have to open each one, look inside, and see if it is something that you can donate outright or if it is going to have to be sifted through, as in the case of papers.

You can see three big bins that you know are full of old college books and papers. Probably not anything that you want to keep, but you know you need to look.
There are a dozen large black trash bags that took up residence when your daughter went off to college.
There are camping supplies on three shelves of a five shelf unit. Old paint and supplies on the top two. You can see something behind the shelves as well, but you aren't sure what to make of it.
There is broken furniture, chairs and a bed frame. The chairs are antique, so you need to think about whether or not to fix them. In the back room is an assembly of old sports equipment and memorabilia.  Some of that might be worth something.

All in all it is looking like it may indeed take several full days to go through it all, and the kids will have to come over and look through the stuff that they left, so that needs to be factored in.
Calling them and getting it on their radar needs to be one of the first things that you do. Add it to the plan. Set a deadline. If they don't come by that date, out it goes.

With that task out of the way, break the space up and decide where you will start. Now you can work through the space, around the room, corner to corner, or from one side to the other. Whatever seems the most efficient, just be sure that the days you have set aside are  used for the project.

Don't forget to call a hauler if you need to arrange for a large amount of trash hauling, and get donation trucks on the way by calling the charities that you know will send them. At least one per week.

Write down all of these details in a notebook or a document that you can access quickly and easily.
Microsoft OneNote or Google docs are two possibilities.
Note all the contact information and pricing for the haulers and donation trucks and be SURE to keep those donation receipts. They add up at tax time.
Use a calendar, paper or digital, to document the dates that you will be working and the things that need to happen in between.
Make a checklist that you can check off as you go and plan some relaxing activities at the end of the days that you work.

Steady and well planned work will yield the kind of progress that will allow you to welcome Mom home on time!

Planning...Part 2

The thing that naturally comes next is that plan.

Who you are, and what the project is, will determine the kind of plan that you are going to end up with.

Mary Poppins said "Well begun is half done", and in laying out a road map, or an outline, or a set of goals and tasks, you are certainly going to be well begun.

A few questions to get you started might be:

Do I have a deadline?
A hard and fast date on the calendar, such as a date when the house will be listed for sale, a date when renovations will start, or a date that you assign for another reason, will create an end to the project, so that you can divide up the tasks within the time frame.
If you don't have a solid deadline, try to set a pace that will provide consistent progress, so that you don't lose momentum. You might even consider setting a date for an event that will mark the end and serve as a reward at the same time. Maybe Thanksgiving at your house, with guests using that spare room, or a Superbowl party in that newly organized basement. Perhaps you can promise yourself that the car will live in the garage with the coming of winter, and set the first day of the season as the deadline.

Am I going to have help?
How you break down your tasks and the time that you will devote to the project kind of depends on whether or not you are the only person working on it, or whether you are going to have help. If someone is helping, then you will need to work when it's convenient for them, and you will need to schedule time together. Two people can work more quickly, but you may not need to have your helper present for all of the tasks. Talk to the person or people that are offering to help and ask them what works for them. See if you can schedule a weekly or bi-weekly time to work together for several hours, and plan the heavier and more complex tasks for those days. Give yourself "homework" in between. Sorting papers, taking bags or boxes for donation, sorting and purging the random articles that you put into the "do later" bins as you work. These are the tasks that you should try to plan to devote daily attention to.  Add them into the breakdown.


Ask yourself "What is the least amount of time that I will spend everyday?"
 Yes, everyday. You have to commit to doing SOMETHING everyday, so if you can only be sure of 15 minutes, then make that your "at least" amount of time. Don't pressure yourself to set aside an hour a day in the planning phase. You may well build up a head of steam and work for an hour or two when the opportunity presents itself, but you want to set a "chewable" period of time aside for everyday.
As you plan, make this time "non-negotiable". Schedule it into each day with the same priority as brushing your teeth or working out.

How do I think? What do I respond to?
When you are ready to put the plan into words think about the way that you think. That means using a format and a medium that you will respond to, that pulls you in.
Are you a paper person? Do you love taking notes, doodling, using outlines or drawing detailed "Mind-maps"? If you use a method and means that you enjoy and that speaks to you, you will remember it better. The image will stick in your mind. The plan will make sense and you will be able to go from task to task in a methodical manner.
I like outlining everything.
I love using an outline when I write, and I find that using the "5 paragraph essay" format for my projects helps me to "see" the purpose, the steps toward the goal, and the way that it will look and work when I am finished.
Perhaps you are an artist and you need color and context to bring a plan to life.
Drawing, doodling and creating a "work" out of your plan may make it much more engaging.
You might want to find a pretty notebook, or start a digital one, that you keep with you to jot down thoughts as you do your inventory and brainstorming with a friend.
Then organize those thoughts into priorities and goals.
It just depends on what works best for you.
Outlining brings me mental clarity, mindmapping makes me twitch.

So this is the step where you organize your steps!
Find your method, find your friend, and lay out the roadmap.

Some more on planning next time.

A Little Goes A Long Way- Part 1

In the effort to get organized, one of the things that is hardest to overcome is the overwhelming wall of work that needs to be tackled. Maybe it's a room that doesn't get used all that much and so it's a convenient place to toss all the extra stuff while you are "cleaning" the parts of the house that you do use. Maybe it's the garage, or the basement. Both of these areas are out-of-sight-out-of-mind places that can be forgotten with the simple closing of a door. You might have given up on using the garage to actually park a car in years ago. Maybe it's now just an attached storage unit, and that basement, well it can wait until you have to move, right? Someday it will be time, but not now.

The thing is, most of the time we create a much bigger job in our minds than the one that actually exists in the space itself. Our time is valuable and we look at that mountain of stuff and think, "I just don't have an entire day to devote to working on this, so I'm just going to leave the door shut." We are closing our minds, as firmly as we close the door.

Yes, to do the job from start to finish might take a day, or a weekend, or a week. It's true, it would be good to get it done, but if you know that you are just going to keep putting it off until you have time, when why not fit the job into the time you do have? Why not figure out what kind of time you can devote to decluttering that space, every day, every week, or once a month even? You aren't doing anything about it now, so small bites are going to be progress.

What does the clutter in that space consist of? Bins of paperwork? The belongings of children who have moved on? The belongings of relatives who have passed on?
Start by simply going into the space and taking inventory.
What are we dealing with here? What's it going to need down the road; shelf systems? better lighting? Just estimate from what you see. Is this going to be a lot of tossing, donating, passing along to family or creating a more workable storage system? It's probably a combination of all of these, but just going to the stuff and taking a mental picture places the task in a higher priority in your mind. It makes it something you are working on.

There, you have taken the first step. You're done for the day. You've started to put a mental plan together, so the next step is going to be another small one. You'll start to write out your plan, setting managable goals.
You are doing something about it.
A little time, consistantly and faithfully, goes a long way.