Little Pretties

I thought I would open with an update. So, UPDATE! It is July, 2008 and Amanda's gettin' organized. See? See how organized I am? Can you see that the slate is clean? See how my desk in my kitchen is tidy?! Well, no matter that these photos were taken in January. Pshaw. No matter that I have sort of already found that my filing system dosen't really work for me--well, not the way they (the book writers of Sidetraked Home Executives) prescribed it, anyway. But doesn't it look tidy? So, here's "The System". I have this split up into days of the week, month and months of the year. On the cards I have written my tasks. Obviously, there are daily tasks ("empty dishwasher", "sweep kitchen floor") and weekly tasks ("put out recycling"). There are monthly tasks ("wash dining room dust boards") and even yearly tasks ("have sprinklers turned off"). Each task is written on a color-coded 3X5 index card and I'm supposed to take them out everyday and as I complete them, file them away again. You can see two yellow daily cards and a blue weekly card out on the desk in that picture.
I say "supposed to", because I quickly found out that while the daily tasks are do-able, the weekly, montlies and yearlies get to be a drag to have to do along with just living my life with two small children. I don't want to be chained to my card file with a clean house while my kids are just watching TV b/c I don't have time to make a mess or start a project or go on a walk. There's got to be a balance here because the idea is good. I think I just have to tweak it.
So, all this happened at the beginning of the new year. I think I stuck with it until the spring when finally I threw the towel in on the file. But not totally. Here are the things I loved about it: 1.) the sense of purpose you get--you don't feel overwhelmed with keeping the whole house cleaned because if you just keep up with the small tasks, it'll all get cleaned at some point. 2.) the sense of order you get. I love the idea of turning the week into, if not a routine, a rhythym. You see, I was forced to sort of map out my week. Monday is preschool day, Tuesday is Laundy day, Wednesday is heavy cleaning day, Thursday is computer/planning day, Friday is cleaning/baking day. I've never thought about my week that way, and not that those days are written in stone, but it gives me a plan.
Another good thing 3.) that came from this is that I really started working on my menu planning. I am convinced menu planning is such a life/time/money saver. It's just a shame not to do it (and yet, that does happen. er hmmm.) What helped me with this is planning out my week in a similiar way. Monday is leftover day, Tuesday is chicken, Wednesday is salad, Thursday is beef , Friday is "family fun day" do that = pizza or pasta. That really has made my meal planning much less overwheming b/c as I'm planning my week out, I just have to focus on chicken recipes for Tuesday and so on. I thoroghly reccommend menu planning. It's the bomb!
Havng said all that, it's now July. These pictures, as I have mentioned, were taken in January. Things have slidden a bit around here. But I'm looking to get back in the saddle again. I want to keep posting and updating this blog because how else am I going to document where all my time goes? I want to show and write about all the projects happening here so I'm rededicating myself to that purpose and to more organized living (within limits, my friends, within limits.)