Two More Days

I'm talking about April 15th, but I'm not talking taxes. I'm talking about a different office-related deadline for "filing." It's a deadline (I prefer the term "goal date") for filing not just family business documents and legal homeschool stuff, but also for storing my printed photos, scrapbook papers, craft supplies, soldier mailings-in-waiting, and Paul's guitars with all their accessories.

A while back I set a goal to transform the little nook in our basement into an efficient, attractive, shared office/hobby space by April 15th. I would say 90% of the time I'm the one who uses it; Paul 8%, and the kids 2% combined. (The computer down here is slower. They prefer laptops anyway. There is no TV in this room, and thus no opportunity for the male version of multi-tasking.) Truth be told, I'm glad they don't gravitate here. No draw, no competition! It's my little sanctuary. And now that I'm organizing and decorating it to my tastes (without overfeminizing it with flowers, for Paul's sake) I hope it becomes a place of much more creativity and productivity as I work and play.

I have really enjoyed this challenge and will show it with pictures ASAP! I must say that it will be a tribute to God's ongoing transformation of an area in my life I've always struggled with--unsustained organization. More deeply, procrastination and hoarding. Reading books on the psychology of organization (i.e. why we hoard or save things that others would throw out) has been really beneficial. Criticizing myself has NOT been beneficial. This journey has been about changing the way I think, not just about my personal environment. It's proving so liberating that I want to keep going, one room at a time. God has given me a "can do" attitude. And I can honestly say, since maintaining order is not my natural tendency, all positive results will be because of Him. I won't be able to say, "Oh, no big deal. It's just the way I am."

What key points have really helped organizationally?
1. Throwing out the thing a person gave me does not mean I'm getting rid of the person.
2. Saving something I might need someday? Well, truth is I usually forget about it or I lose it. In such cases, I buy a new whatever.
3. I don't miss clothes I haven't worn in a year. If I lose weight, I'll celebrate and buy new clothes.
4. A charity, not I, can spend time deciding on how to use my bulk give-aways. (I used to drive myself nuts thinking, "Well, so-and-so's boy will be this size next summer," or "That college grad just got a new apartment, I'll offer this to her," and then realize, "Hey, we have a huge church. I'll bet she's got lots of friends and family offering her stuff most likely or she wants new stuff," just give it to AmVets and fuhgettabout it. It's more important to free up space in our home than to spend hours playing realtor for our hand-me-downs. I was into eBay, feeling it was a monetary contribution to the family, but Paul asked me to step back from that because it was so time-consuming. I did step back--reluctantly, but God has been dealing with me on the whole thing of feeling like I'm not contributing much because I'm not making money.
5. Files are about easy retrieval, not about fancy names. Being a word bird, I always tried to make a file name longer or more "professional sounding" than it needed to be. The result? I'd wonder,"What did I call that file?" Now I've labeled them with the first word I'd think of when I want to find the document. (Thus, our dog's vet papers are filed under "Molly," not "vet" or "dog." ) Some of you are saying, "Duh, Zo. Duh!" But I'm telling you, it's as big a challenge for me to do some of these "simple" organizational things as it is for you to use an apostrophe correctly. You would have thrown out my piles like I throw out stray punctuation marks.
6. Going through kids' old school portfolios (still in progress), hindsight made me glad I had the kids write so much. Their personalities show best through their writing. That's what I kept.


Decorating:
1. I put up a large piece of sheer and shiny terra cotta fabric that I had on hand. (Bought it in October for lining kitchen curtains and realized it's really hard to work with, and it shows smudges terribly . But I love the color and sheen.) So it's been tacked to the big wall in this office to help me decide if I can live with a dark color in a small space. Yes! I really like it. When Paul is ready to paint and throw open the basement door and windows for ventilation, I will color match this fabric and let my expert handyman do the honors. Not sure the other walls, but it won't be robin's egg blue. I asked Paul, "What about robin's egg blue don't you like?" He answered, "The color."
2. I like whimsy but not cutesy stuff.
3. Renoir will be on display in here. So will my dad's painting of a winter scene. But Daddy's will go up first.
4. I haven't spent more than $15 to redo the space. I've been content to use what I have and it's just fine.