For those who are curious if I have given up on my adventure to being a more organized person: fear not! I have a happy update. Time for a “hot mess” mom’s update on organization. January did not happen quite the way I planned. Not long after I wrote the last article, my entire family had the dreaded Virus for the first time. We were blessed that no one was super sick, but it did rule out much out-of-the-house productivity for about two weeks. The library also put all of their activities on pause, so I had to cross out all of the fun things I had written in green on my calendar.
One benefit of having more time at home was that I started tackling an organizational black hole: our homeschool room/ office.
I had met with a professional organizer, Jerusha Caple, for help making sense of my space and all our books. I had gone into the room several times, stared at the piles for a while, gotten overwhelmed, and then just closed the door. She looked at the chaos for less than a minute, asked me a few questions, and made sense of what I had and what I wanted. She even sat down on the floor and started the process with me. It was so helpful to have a professional, but non-judgmental eye look at the mess and make sense of my attempts at organization. She created a manageable plan that could be accomplished gradually-one that could be done as a process rather than feel like a pass/fail test. I can actually find the picture books, poetry anthology, or encyclopedia I need without a lot of time combing through shelves and boxes. The room is not finished yet, but I know what I am doing when I walk in there now. I’ve made it a habit of putting one thing in its new home whenever I go downstairs, even if it just to switch over the laundry or ask the kids to turn down the television.
As someone who gets discouraged quickly when things are not done perfectly, I also find it a helpful exercise to focus on and celebrate the small victories while pursuing a goal. When I sat down at the beginning of February, I looked back at my January small goals and realized that the month had been much more productive than I realized. I had deep cleaned our kitchen, taken all of the kids on special dates, and we attended several educational events that I would have probably forgotten about if they were not written down. We even finished one of our read-aloud books earlier than planned because we had miraculously found extra reading time during the weeks. It was a good month!
So, now I have started the habit of working with my planner and checklists, and I will continue to work with the professional organizer as I complete each project she advises. Project number three is to figure out what in the world to do about meal planning and our food budget!
As many families realize over school vacations or during periods of virtual schooling, kids can eat A LOT! In a homeschooling family, this is even more of an issue. Someone at my house is always “staaaaaaaaaarving”. Eating the same things repeatedly becomes really unpleasant, but when a family has a tight budget, a predictable bill is very helpful when food prices are always rising. Something you may not know is that the Louisville libraries have cookbooks. I had no idea until recently. I found two recently that have been really inspiring for meal and snack planning. A few of those recipes have already been copied into my home cookbook and added to my list of meal rotation ideas.
A cookbook makes creating an interesting meal plan around budget friendly ingredients much easier. If I know that a particular meat is going to be a good buy, I can quickly find many ways to cook that meat without our meals feeling like the same dish over and over. I’ve purchased several spices in the last month that I had never used before, but now don’t know how I ever enjoyed cooking without. My plan is to find a new cookbook every month so that by the end of the year I can compile a full list of varied dishes for us to enjoy throughout 2023.
In all, this “glass half empty” girl is feeling pretty optimistic about what the rest of the year has in store for our family. I am already waking each day with a much better picture of what has been done, and what is left for me to accomplish. So, this is the update: learning how to not only organize, but to keep our spaces organized.
What tips do you have for someone who might be interested in becoming more organized?
