Organizing my home and time

I’ve been on an organizing campaign lately. It began subtly – frustrations with my messy house, getting tired of not being able to find certain things, feeling like I couldn’t ever “get it together.”

I was reading Feminine Appeal a few months ago (an excellent book on Biblical womanhood), and the author recommends “continuing education” for being a wife and mom. So I thought, what should I learn more about. Hmm . . . let’s try organizing and de-cluttering.

I borrowed a couple books from the library, but none of them really helped. But then I heard about Confessions of an Organized Homemaker, and my life has not been the same since. I read this book like it was a novel, and took notes on things I wanted to implement along the way. Then I recommended it to Pam, and she did the same. So now we’re spurring eachother on to greater organization.

Some things I’ve done:

1. I’m using Erik’s old PDA to organize my time – all appointments, etc. go in there with all the details. So for example, instead of keeping a copy of Erik’s trip itenary, I can just put all the info in the PDA and throw the paper away. I check it at least daily to make sure I’m not missing things. I also have my grocery list in there, and am experimenting with having my dinner menu listed as well.
2. I’ve been going through rooms one by one and throwing away, giving away, and reorganizing. And while I’m doing that, I put everything that belongs elsewhere in a pile, and put it away later so I don’t get distracted going to another room (and then start doing stuff there.)
3. I put a book shelf in the garage (on our way out) with a place for stuff to return to others or the store, a place for shoes, a place for my diaper bay and our swim bag.
4. I got a bunch of bins from Target and reorganized my pantry – put like things together, etc.
5. I got some box flats from throw away boxes at BJs and put one on each freezer shelf. Now I have a pull-out “drawer.” One for beef, one for pork, one for veges, etc.
6. I tried spreading my chores out over the week, but I think I do better doing most of my cleaning in one day while I’m “on a roll.”
7. As we’ve been packing for Pam’s move, we’ve been labeling each box (on the top and all 4 sides) with the room it is to go in and it’s general contents.

So anyway, I still have a long way to go, but I feel like I’m making progress towards being more organized and less cluttered. But don’t worry, I don’t think I’ll ever become too organized.