Lists, Schedules and Routines

I am fascinated by organized people.  I want to be someone who is organized and maybe someone who has a clean house.  Since cleaning out my closet last week and re-organizing a few cupboards.  I have started reading more and more organizing blogs.

The pictures are so beautiful and neat.  I love all the neat baskets and clean spaces.  I have always enjoyed clutter and feel that it is also a part of who I am.  But now I am wondering if that is really true?  Could I be one of those people who has a spot for everything? 

As I am typing and thinking about what I want my house and life to be like.  The clutter doesn't really bother me but it what is bothersome is that it doesn't just stop at too many nicknacks.  I can handle nicknacks, but what bugs me and eventually overwhelms me is the amount of stuff that just becomes a huge mess. 

Mess is what overwhems me and weighs me down.  It also exhausts me and I get to the point where having people over is stressful and I don't invite people over.  I love having people over and it is a shame that I let a messy house take that away.

I am going to try and follow the steps on I'm an Organizing Junkie each week and from reading Shannon's blog and a few others....I am going to attempt to set up a House book.  With routines and schedules and lists...Oh My!  Now I must admit I am excellent at making all that stuff up and I love it.  The hard part is sticking to it. 

Closet

I didn't get to my closet on Friday but I did reorganize some of my kitchen cupboards and hutch.  I had been storing all our craft supplies in my lazy susan.  I liked that cupboard because for the longest time the girls couldn't open it, well now they can and we have so much stuff that it is a huge mess.  I moved some of my entertaining dishes around in my hutch and found that there was lots of room for the crafts supplies and I could lock it up too. 

Today I did my closet.  My closet wasn't really bad as far as being organized but it was over run with clothes that either didn't fit or I didn't like.  I now have three garbage bags full of clothes to give to the Thrift store.  The next goal on my organizing check list is to actually take the clothes there this month!

Organizing

My friend Shannon introduced me to this blog I'm an Organizing junkie.  It has only been a few days but so far I am enjoying it.  I have been doing a lot more organizing lately because of Tupperware and I have really fallen in love with it.  Let me explain...I really have no sense of organization, it has to simple and easy for me to do it and get it right.  I once organized my mother's cupboards, and I labled the shelves.  I thought I was doing a great job until my Mom came and looked and laughed at me.  I had labled 3 of the shelves other.  She still tells that story. 

So I have re-organized a few of my kitchen cupboards and I have fallen in love with nice clean cupboards. 

They went from this:

To This:

Since becoming a stay at home mom, I have found that a messy house really weighs on me and it affects my mood.  I hate having a messy house but I still hate having to clean it.  But I do find the organizing I do to help with the cleaning.

I actually organized the girls toys and put pictures of everything so that they could put the stuff away.  They still like to just dump the containers but one day....

So the reason I started this post was because I have been bitten by the organizing bug and I am going to follow along as much as I can with Shannon and I'm an organizing junkie.  It will be interesting to see how I can minimize clutter or at least make it look pretty.

My hope is that I will become a great organizer so that I will have a cleaner house or at least one that takes less time to clean.  Seriously, I won't invite people over if my house is messy and I get stressed before people come to the point of wanting to cancel.  But on the other hand I often need that motivation and enjoy the house afterwards.

For today - my closet!  I wonder if Mike will let me do his...



Guest Post

I wrote another post for Get Fit Chicks.  Check it out here  http://www.getfitchicks.com/index.php/2011/02/guest-post-letting-yourself-go/

Counting

On Monday I decided to start counting my calories again.  I did Weight Watchers before my wedding so I am familiar with counting.  I like the flexibility and it helps that 'there's an app for that'....lame...I know!  I found that the goals that I set at the beginning of the month has become unrealistic.  My desire for sweets and the instant boost would derail my good intentions and then I would allow it to throw my whole day.  Counting calories allows me to have candy or chocolate as long as I write it down.  And by writing it down and knowing my calorie limit it motivates me to only have one.

I have done well all this week by counting calories and so far, I think the scale may be down on Monday.  I am also focusing on high protein meals and one trick I discovered was to put protein powder in my coffee.  You can barely taste it...once you cover it with splenda and creamer it is delicious!

Wish me luck to count over the weekend...I have a hard time on the weekends.

Sorry

I apologize for my last depressing post.  I ended up having a wonderful birthday thanks to my sister and my bestie.

Hehe...bestie...that word makes me giggle.

This weekend I went and stayed at my sisters house.  Her husband was nice enough to sleep on a deflating air mattress so that Georgia, Danielle and I could stay up all night talking.  Well...I actually hoped Georgia would sleep...oh well.

Then I went out with my friends for dinner, I indulged in some delicious drinks and cheesecake.  It was a great night!

Twenty - Eight

Yesterday was my birthday.  I turned 28....this is a weird age for me because back when I was 16 or younger and planning my life, 28 is when it all started.  I planned that I would be in school for about 10 years; I was going to get my phd in psychology.  Then get married, then children were to follow.  Strange how things change.

For the most part I love how things have turned out.  It is weird how completely different my plan was from the choices I made to get here. 

Honestly, this year and I think the last couple of years, my birthday has really depressed me.  I don't know why, I used to love my birthday.  I would count down from the beginning of December, I would celebrate my birth moment (2:10pm).  I am sure I was quite annoying. 

I am in a funk right now and I don't know why.  I am still processing things.