If Loving Lists is Wrong (Then I Don't Wanna Be Right)

I am a bad blogger. It seems the more I have going on, the more I have to blog about, BUT the less time I have to blog.

As I have mentioned before, my biggest hurdle to getting organized is the “doing” part. I can plan with the best of them, but getting off my butt to DO something is a bit of a challenge. In my latest attempt to overcome this shortcoming, I took a page from some of the budget making articles I have read. Just as tracking your spending can help you identify where you are over spending, and how much money you really have, I figured that making a schedule could give me a similar insight into my time. In all honesty, this endeavor probably began as yet another way to procrastinate, but in the end it really did help me.

I laid out my schedule in half-hour increments starting at 6 am and ending at 10 pm. I don’t generally get up at 6 am, but is a goal, so I started with that. I made columns for each day of the week. Next, I filled in parts of my day that are regular, like getting the kids off to school, Girl Scout meetings, and such. Once all of that was filled in, I filled in household jobs that should get done on a daily or weekly basis, but usually get neglected like laundry, emptying the dishwasher and tidying the front rooms. Now I had a schedule that accommodated all of the family’s activities and allowed time for general household maintenance. When I saw that there was still a LOT of available time, I filled in slots to work on bigger projects and built in a little “me time.” Now I could really see how much time I had available and how much I had been wasting. In case you haven’t noticed, I am a big fan of lists. I made a checklist for the next day of all the things I wanted to accomplish. Having that visual guide really helped. I managed to check off all the items on my list! I now try to make a checklist everyday. I sometimes skip it and on those days I definitely get less accomplished. Some days I don’t get everything done, either because I got to ambitious with my goals, or I wasted too much time. I just put unfinished tasks onto the next day’s list and move on.

The first week I used it, my new system helped me get 100% caught up on the laundry. Everything was clean, folded and put away. That had never happened before! Usually, if all the laundry is clean, there are 4 or 5 baskets of unfolded laundry on the couch, which then ends up on the floor where it gets mixed back in with the dirty laundry. I have also finally managed to get the linen closet organized. I got tired of risking a towel avalanche every time I took a shower. As it turns out, you can get much more space if the towels and sheets are folded and stacked rather than just crammed in. Pulling out the crib bedding we haven’t had a use for in almost a year didn’t hurt either.

Last week, I had a couple of really productive days. I did 3-4 loads of laundry, made bread, dealt with Girl Scout cookie stuff, mended a bunch of pants, did a couple organizing projects, made laundry soap etc, etc. By the end of the day I was so tired, but really excited about everything I got done. If I keep this up, my house might start looking presentable!

I am almost done boring you now. I just wanted to mention that I got a new e-book on saving money on groceries. That is our biggest budget category after rent, unless you count all the debt payments as one. But unlike rent and debt payments it is possible to lower the grocery bill so I am willing to try anything to knock it down a little. I will let you know how it goes once I get a chance to give it a try.