Springing into Action...

Another day... oops, another month! How do they fly by so fast? Not enough hours in a day? I suppose. There is always more to do and more to get done... and the next thing I know, it's tomorrow already. I think I really need to grab hold of my time management skills and really get them in shape! And soon!

Most recently, I've been in the process of getting my study/office/computer-room cleaned up and organized. That's quite the job, let me tell you! When I first moved into my house, a tad over 3 years ago, that ended up being my "catch-all" room. And boy did it ever catch all! But the good news is... I have never stuffed my garage full with boxes -- and I've been able to park my car in my garage from day-one! My dining room however, took the initial brunt of boxes. Fortunately, I got those gone-through and cleared out within ONE month!

The trick with clearing the boxes out of my dining room in a timely fashion was that I scheduled a Pampered Chef party at my house, for one month after moving in. You see, the wisdom in this was that people were going to be coming over and would need a place to sit. They would want to see my new house and I'd want it to be clean and in order! And my friend, the Pampered Chef consultant, would need use of my kitchen. So I forced myself to make room for that event, as I'd be humiliated to cancel!! haha A case of "social responsibility," of sorts. Once committed to hosting the event, I'd be too embarrassed not to go through with it! I freed my dining room of the boxes in just under a month! That's pretty good for me... who really hates going through boxes. What I didn't need right then, or didn't have a place for right then... you guessed it, that stuff went into the study. When the party happened, I just didn't show anyone that room. I think I told them I keep my Boa Constrictor in there, and they stayed out of there! ;-)

But there came a time when I HAD to get that room under control and organized! It was a bit overwhelming. I'd walk in there, and turn around and walk back out... shaking my head at the disarray. For a while, I just couldn't face it. Silly I know, as it just kept getting worse. That is... until I began tackling it, a couple of weeks ago. The "FlyLady" helped!

About year or so ago, my mom told me of a web site about managing one's clutter and getting your house in order. The author calls herself "The FlyLady." I'm not sure why that title, but whatever. You can find her at http://www.flylady.net/ She has a lot of great tips on wrangling the clutter out of your life... getting organized, or at least getting started. One thing she advocates is tackling stuff just 5 minutes at a time, if that's all the time you have. Or 10 minutes at a time... just something every day or so, to start getting a handle on things. I have begun that process. Some days I have an hour or two to wrangle with it, and other days, only 10 minutes. It feels good to see some progress, finally! And I can now actually use my roll top desk... as opposed to just looking at it from over some boxes. I can actually roll my office chair right in there an sit at that desk! How nice!

Being able to sit at that desk is important now, because I recently sent for a correspondence course and I need a desk space to sit and work on the course. Now I can do that. I still need to wrangle the space around my radio desk (mostly just tossing papers and organizing magazines). And I still need to tackle my drafting table area. But progress is being made. Of course my computer desk... well that is always an ongoing re-organization process!

My hope is that I will eventually get the office/study room mostly organized, and as I finish my correspondence course, I can begin doing more writing from that space... and maybe (just maybe) I can start earning part of my living with the writing I do. I'd eventually like to earn all of my living that way, but we shall see how it goes. Baby steps, at least for now.

That's all the news that is fit to print, for now.
~Paulena