Rediscovering my organizational skills

I've always prided myself for my organizational skills.  I loved being able to find what I wanted easily.  To do so, I used a lot of color coding, and didn't let things accumulate until it was a mountain I didn't want to attack.

Lately, I've been having trouble finding motivation to getting re-organized.  Quite honestly, I don't know when I allowed myself to get so disorganized.  Years...  It frustrates me, and though I've wanted to be much more organized for a long time, I haven't known where to begin.  Too many projects, and not knowing where to start.

Well, I put a stop to that a couple weekends ago.  And while I can't get everything done overnight (which is a frustrating fact), I've acknowledged that I have to start small.  So I did.

I made a list of 8 things I want to get done before the end of 2015.  I know that it may not be realistic, but accepting that this is what I want and need to do, was a big step.  And should I only get 5 things done, then I will complete the other 3 next year.

After making this list, I placed them in order of importance, and also, in order of what can be accomplished that wouldn't be such a daunting task.  From there, I added steps for the first 3 on the list.

1. Clean up the basement
1. Separate basement into 3 areas - "Keep", "Throw Away" and "Sell/Giveaway"
2. Go through 5 boxes every weekend until everything is in one of these areas
2. Meal planning
1. Create a list of meals we like and/or want to try
2. Separate them into categories (chicken, beef, pasta, salad, etc.)
3. Each Saturday select a few meals to make
4. Create grocery list
5. Create meal calendar (keeping a couple days for left-overs)
3. Inventory baby things
1. Go through what we have to determine what we need and/or want

The basement has been something I've wanted to do for years.  We have so many boxes that we haven't unpacked, which tells me, there's a lot of stuff down there that we don't need.  It's just been so daunting because there's soooo much stuff!  I'll go through 1 box and get discouraged.  However, I think with this plan in place, I can do it over the course of a month or two without it being so time consuming.  And without it just feeling like a never ending task.  Seeing the piles go from one corner to 3 corners, should assist in getting that perception of accomplishment.

I wanted to start a couple weekends ago, but that's at the same time the contractor started working on the roof and new staircase for our patio.  Since the basement door goes to the backyard, they've used part of it for storing tools, and have also had to place some supports in the wall.  So the basement is a mess, and kind of unworkable.  Instead of feeling defeated, I started working on the meal planning project.

I made a list of over 80 meals that I know we like, but also went through my magazines and found several things that I've wanted to try.  For the 3rd week in a row, from this list, I've created my meal calendar for the upcoming week.  This has also helped me create a grocery list instead of just going down each aisle, one at a time grabbing what I "think" we'll need.  

How well has it worked?  It's worked great actually!  I know what I'm making for dinner when I get home from work instead of spending time trying to make a decision and landing on something easy, and not necessarily healthy.  Best of all, it worked fantastically in being organized for the party we had here on Saturday.

For the 5th time, I think, we hosted a fantasy draft at our house.  We've done this for our baseball and football leagues (though I don't play in the football one).  I planned my menu a week prior to the event, I created my grocery list from the menu, and everything was absolutely ready 15 minutes after our first guests arrived.  Basically, I just needed to empty and re-fill the dishwasher.  Not bad right?? :).  See pictures below - perhaps you'll want to join us for our next draft!

Next on my list is doing an inventory of what baby things we have, as we prepare for Samantha's arrival.  For sure, this won't be the easiest task.  It will probably mean going through Preston's room...  which #4 on the list is cleaning up his room :(.  Maybe early October, we'll be ready to do this.  I think we've landed on placing a lot of his things into a chest.  It'll allow us to access them when we want, and make us feel like we haven't just written him off, replaced him.  He is and always will be our special little guy.

One day, maybe we'll have a special place in the house to display our favorite Preston things.  At this point in time, it's still too painful to look at every day.  Don't get me wrong, there are reminders of him everywhere - a picture of the quilt square I made is in the living room, a photo book of his best pictures is in our front room, many of his things are still on display in our bedroom, his sonogram pictures are still on the fridge.  These things, make us feel like he's with us every day, and at the same time, hopefully aren't overwhelming to our visitors.

Rediscovering my organizational skills comes at a great time.  I'm finally feeling ready to tackle the many projects that have been crowding my mind.  And as with everything, one day at a time.  No reason to feel overwhelmed even if the list is long, because only so much can be accomplished in a day.  And the more organized I feel, the less I feel like these things aren't going to get done.  Imagine that?

What are your favorite organizational tools?