AM I CRAZY?

I've become enthused with this organizing stuff but I'm not sure I'm getting anywhere.  I clean up one pile and then make another.  Quilting and sewing projects are helping me to create piles of fabric and stuff everywhere.  I need to get a handle on this.  I can't clean up something and then make a mess at the same time.

I have three areas of concern; personal, business, and quilting.  Since I work from home, my work takes over the house as boxes of lamps and accessories and bolts of fabric arrive at the front door daily.  As soon as I empty one box, another one shows up.  I'm making a little progress because of Cassandra's help and also because I'm a member of Sparkpeople.

If you're not family with Sparkpeople, it's a free site for weight loss and other things and there are thousands of members around the world.  I talk regularly with a woman from England and there is another in New Zealand and members from all across the states and Canada.  Sparkpeople also has oodles of teams for weight loss, crafting and sewing, exercise, and yes, organizing.  I found the Organized Life team and promptly joined a couple of weeks ago.  I was so excited about it that I set up the AAPT Club as a subgroup.  Attack A Pile Today!  I set it up initially to help myself and thought maybe others would join me in cleaning up a pile or two daily.  This has really mushroomed into many people jumping on the bandwagon and today, the leader of the group has asked me to be a co-leader!

Me?  A Co-leader of a team to help others get organized?  I said yes but I'm wondering why on earth?  Maybe it will help me to continue the path to organization.  I don't know.  If it takes any time, I'll have to give it up.  I enjoy scouting around on Sparkpeople and have perfect attendance for more than a year.  I sign in everyday and peruse through my teams and check my mail etc.  I write a blog as well, most days.  But I certainly don't try to keep up with too many people or want to be in charge of anything.  So we will see.  If it keeps me cleaning up the piles of stuff, I'll continue on.  Later. 

MOVING RIGHT ALONG!

Cassandra and I met last week and we sat in my office, tore things off the bookcase and threw out a lot of old catalogs and price lists.  That is my problem.  When I put things away, I forget about them.  I need to work on that.  This entire week I have worked on some sort of organization project daily.  Yesterday, it rained and thundered and we lost our electricity.  Since my desk is by the window, I was able to get the light so I sat there and went through all of the piles of papers on my desk.  Then I cleared out part of of the bookcase hutch and can actually see the back of it.  Feels good to dump and clean out things.

I'm a member of Sparkpeople which is a free weight loss site but there is a wealth of information and teams that you can learn about anything.  I am a member of the organized life team and one of the members offered her services to help others organize their lives.  So I volunteered. 

She had a good suggestion.  Ask yourself the five whys.  Why do I leave piles on my desk?  Because I am bored with organizing them. 
Why are you bored?  Filing the piles away is a mundane task and I'd rather do something more interesting.  I am too quick to want to go onto something more fun so I just drop things on top of the pile. 
Why are you quick to make a mess instead of dealing with it now?  Because I don't have a good organized system set up.
Why don't you set up a good system?  I have a file cabinet with old files that need to be moved to the garage in order to make space for the new system.
Why don't you move them.  It requires hubby's assistance and he's not too keen on that.  However, if I got all prepared with the box to put the files in, he would be more helpful.
So I've solved one of my problems.  Get a box, put the files in the box, and then ask hubby to help.  This all makes sense to me.

Now I think I'll go take a nap and do this later. 

PROGRESS!

Cassandra and I have managed to motivate each other so that we are off doing things to organize and decorate our homes!  You can't really decorate without organizing so it's hard for me to figure why I can help others but not myself.  It's a well known fact that we decorators often have trouble decorating our own homes.  I had that problem in my previous home.  But when we moved into this house, in 1997, it was a blank pallet, completely white, with uninteresting window treatments.  Also, I wasn't close to the home, it wasn't mine yet so I could do things to it that weren't difficult to select.  Trouble with us decorators is that we have so much available to us and we like everything that we just have trouble making the decision.  Sounds like a client doesn't it! 

Usually, when I do window treatments or something to my own home, its with leftover fabric or something that didn't work out!   Once I prescribed a paint color for a client and wrote the number down for her so she could buy it.  It turned out to be a shade of blue instead of beige that I prescribed so I had to buy the paint as it wasn't her mistake.  Then when I decided to paint my master bedroom, I took the blue back to the store and had them convert it into an aqua color with their major ingredients!  As illustrated below! 

Carol's master bedroom!

I wish I could say it looked as neat and orderly every day as it does in that photograph but hey, that is why I've hired Cassandra.  She's going to help me fix that!   In fact, I've been so encouraged, I've gone through several piles of things and thrown out a lot and  created a pile for donations!  This is becoming fun instead of a chore!                          

When I first talk to folks that are looking to hire a decorator, I have to explain to them how I work.  One of the things I tell them is that "I know people".  In other words, if I don't do it myself, I know someone who does!  If it goes in a house, I can help   you with it.  Even today, I sent Cassandra an e-mail concerning organizers for her kitchen. She has a beautiful new kitchen with only 2 drawers.  Kitchen Innovations in Fort Walton Beach has a wide assortment of organizer type drawers and other things that can be installed into cabinets like that for added storage.  Hey, I'm helping Cassandra with organizing!  How about that?  

Until next time!                       

                



ORGANIZE AND DECORATE!: LIVING AT THE BEACH!

ORGANIZE AND DECORATE!: LIVING AT THE BEACH!: Today I received a blog from Cassandra and a picture of our beautiful beach! She was walking and thinking about our mutual project and her...

LIVING AT THE BEACH!

Today I received a blog from Cassandra and a picture of our beautiful beach!  She was walking and thinking about our mutual project and her words were so eloquent!

"So I went to the beach the other day.  It was a beautiful day and as I walked along the beach I was thinking about organizing and decorating and I looked around at the sky and the water and beach and the sand dunes and all that nature had placed in an organized, orderly, and beautifully decorated way. Wow, that was easy! I could see the little seashells lined up that the waves had brought in the day before. As I looked around I noticed how well the colors of the sky and the clouds and the Gulf waters and the sand dunes and grasses and the driftwood complemented each other in such a beautiful way. It’s so peaceful, walking on the beach, giving me such a tranquil feeling.

 And then there was the clutter -- the plastic bottles, the pieces of Styrofoam, the broken sandal, the T-shirt left behind, more plastic bottles, beer cans, and various other pieces of junk left to disintegrate in several hundred years. What is it that  gets us to this place of clutter, of this dis-organization, of chaos? If we knew we could live 200 or 300 years, and that every time we walked on the beach we saw that same plastic bottle in some form of disintegration, would we pay more attention? If we knew our great-grandchildren would be walking on the same beach would we pick up that bottle so that they did not have to see our clutter?

Wouldn’t it be nice if every time we walked into our homes,  we could feel the same nurturance that we feel walking on the beach or in the woods?  Would we work harder to keep the clutter away?" 

Wow, Cassandra I couldn't have said it better!  When I went to your lovely home today I wondered why you thought you needed me!  It was so beautiful and comfortable but after talking with you about your decorating needs, I understand where you are coming from!  You want color and I can help you find it!  This journey we've embarked upon together has created some excitement in our minds!  You are setting out to look for and find things that will fit into your home.  I am going through piles of clutter and throwing things away.  When you come next time, we need to determine a plan for organization of where to put things!  To store things so I can easily find them. 

When I left your home, my mind instantly starting churning as it always does.  I start thinking and remembering what I've seen or have that will work for you!  I've already found 2 fabulous pillows and a throw and have artwork in mind!  Looking forward to next time! 

A CLUTTER MAGNET

        I'm a clutter magnet!  All of this discussion with Cassandra about organizing has made me more aware of the piles of clutter sitting around the house!  I'm embarrassed to admit it but isn't that the first step to curing the disease?  Admitting you have one? 
I've discovered that I create piles everyday and didn't even know it.  No wonder I can't keep up.  I can put something away and then leave 2 somethings out on the counter in the vacant spot I just created! 
        Last night I cooked pot roast for dinner and it was delicious!  This morning when I went out to the kitchen and there was the cookbook, open to pot roast and I didn't even know I had left it there.  A new pile of clutter, just like that!  So I put it away and vowed that I would become more aware of what I was doing, or wasn't doing. 
        I have several goals today, actually do some design work and attack a clutter pile and put it away! 

THE EAGLE AND THE MOUSE!

Okay, I admit it, I'm a slob!  I'm a very talented and award winning interior decorator capable of turning my clients homes into dreams as illustrated in my clients sunroom at right!    But for myself, my home is average.  The foyer is a stopping off point for new fabric books, bolts of fabrics and drapery hardware and they tend to stay there until  I clear a space for them in another room or the fabrics go off to the workroom! 

My friend Cassandra is a professional

organizer and she can find a place for every piece of paper and bolt of fabric that is out of place!  But she's not a decorator!

So Cassandra and I have decided to pair up and create a blog to help each other organize and decorate!  

We met at my home and defined each others goals.  Cassandra determined that we are exact opposites.  I am very visual and she is audial!.  She said that the only thing she could visualize were the backs of her eyelids!  I thought that was hilarious!  To further illustrate the difference between a visual person and an audial person, Cassandra used the analogy of the eagle and the mouse, which goes something like this in Cassandra's words:

"You (Carol) are a big picture kind of person and I (Cassandra) am a detail oriented person. If you think about the big picture you can visualize a giant bird like an eagle flying in the sky overlooking the entire countryside,  noticing what's going on everywhere and seeing how all the trees are placed in the grasses and also seeing the potential mice that might make a good dinner. The mouse on the other hand is really good at looking at details on the ground noticing what is important, where the nuts and  seeds are, and she is great at organizing and storing and getting ready for the winter. But the mouse cannot see the eagle flying overhead and has no idea what potential danger lies in those claws. The eagle on the other hand doesn't make a lot of preparation for winter except maybe fly to a warmer climate. So Carol,  being an eagle, and myself being a mouse, hopefully we will be able to see the big picture and the details and put them together!"

So together, we have devised a plan to help each other, to get me organized and to help Cassandra have a beautiful home!   We'll get together weekly and blog about it, baring our souls and our homes to the outside world!

"So what do you want?", Cassandra asks.   "What do you want your living space to look and feel like and even sound like? How do you want your office to look? Do you want all of your tasks to be out in the open or filed in such a manner that it's easy to get to and know where it is?"

She reminds me that the universe is expanding!  Sometimes it seems our bodies are expanding, the clutter in our homes is expanding, the stress on our lives is expanding.  We need to take a moment, reevaluate, and make a list of what we want our space to be.  We'll have to start at the beginning, one space at a time, one pile at a time, until we get what we want to nurture our bodies and souls.  And then its my turn.  I get to go to her home and see whats up with those pictures that are leaning against the wall! 

Until next time, I'll be working on my own list and maybe you can start working on yours!  Are we ready to change?  I think I am!