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| Okay, my counter doesn't look this good...yet. Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash |
...has a counter!
I already knew that, of course, but my poor counter seems to be a catch-all for, well, everything. Yesterday, I noticed that one section consisted mostly of a stack of file folders. Since that implied items that had previously been organized, it seemed like a good place to start today.
Well, right after I got rid of a stack of three plastic tubs I'd set there temporarily much too long ago. But that meant going into the cabinet above the counter to get rid of the old tubs that the new ones would replace (one in, one out), which led to my wondering why I had two small bins labeled notepads...which led to a brief trip down memory lane as I went through the notebooks and discovered drawings and scribbles my daughter had made over decade ago....which of course I had to take pictures of and send to my daughter....
But the clock was ticking. And I didn't want all of my accomplishments to be behind closed doors, nor did I want to devote more than an hour to this task. So, I consolidated the notebooks and vowed (once again) to stop buying notebooks. I got rid of what wasn't usable, emptied out a container with obsolete items, set aside a box of crayons to put with my coloring books and returned my attention to the counter.
By the end of my hour, I'd gone through nearly the entire pile and found logical homes for everything...kinda. As I sort, I'm discovering some categories of things (hard copy pages of a novel I'm working on) that will expand to need a storage spot of their own. For now, I can put them with similar items but I know, in time, they're going to need a their own solution.
Two days in a row, I've been reminded of how easy it is to get sidetracked when we dig into a long-awaited project. Though my primary personal style is I need to see it, I'm sentimental enough that I have to fight the urge to keep items that have outlived their usefulness (I love stuff) -- items which inevitably surface when I start sorting. Taking pictures of the drawings and sending them to my daughter wasn't just fun, nor was it a waste of time. It was strategic -- a way to create a memento that allowed me to electronically store drawings that are, I'm sure, duplicates of what we have in bins in the basement. Then, I could more easily part with the originals. In addition, I made a connection with my family when I texted them to my husband and daughter.
I'm extremely excited by what I've been able to accomplish in a little over two hours in a room that was beginning to seem hopeless. This excitement is fueled by emerging clear space in some areas. Others, unfortunately (my desk, most notably) have taken a temporary hit.
Still, I'm intentionally starting out with tasks that will give me visible evidence of the work I've done. I could just as easily have started with cabinets and drawers, clearing out space to store the items piled on the counter, but that would have been much less satisfying. For one thing, all of my hard work would have been hidden. In addition, a quick scan of the contents of the cabinets tells me that much of that stuff isn't going anywhere.
So, at the end of day two, there's still a lot of work to do, but I'm making progress. Fewer real world issues intervened today, as I'm home alone and not pressed for time. Today's scorecard:
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| wokandapix via Pixabay |
Empty space where there once was clutter? Yes
Extraneous stuff eliminated? Yes
Improvement in at least one area? Yes
Some idea of where to begin next time? Yes
Lesson learned: Set a timer and make active decisions about how to spend my time.
"Onward" will get a little tougher with no gifts of time (a.k.a. snow days) in the foreseeable future, but there's something about the momentum created by success that will, I hope, provide the nudge I need to keep at it. I might have to adjust my time frame, and my scorecards might be a little less perfect, but...
It's a process.
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