I’ve finally decided to commit to a specific plan for getting my life organized, and IT’S ABOUT TIME. I can’t tell you how many meltdowns I’ve had over my lack of housekeeping skills; I would bet that 75% of my Ugly Cry Talks with Joe have been about my inability to keep a clean house and my cluelessness as to how we can fix it without Joe having to feel like a nagging mother.
Enter Katherine and Stephany, who have joined up to create an initiative called 12 Changes, 12 Months. They’ve been talking about this since December and I’ve been stubbornly pretending I didn’t need to be a part of it because I have all my crap together. This probably isn’t a newsflash to ANYONE, but hi! I do not have all my crap together.
A lot of people seem to be focusing on making healthy changes like eating better, exercising more, drinking water and so on. And I think my initial resistance to joining 12 Changes was probably because I don’t feel like I am really off-track with that stuff, seeing as how I’m pursuing a career in physical fitness and all. Sure, I’ve got room for progress, but it’s not something that is affecting my everyday life or well-being.
But then the other day, I had one of those Ugly Cry Talks with Joe and suddenly that light bulb in my brain (which was apparently catching dust from lack of use) lit up and I realized, hey! I need a measurable plan. I need something I can work at gradually rather than trying to make it all happen at once — because clearly I have failed at that approach countless times over the last, like, 20 years of my life.
Plus, I never regret opening myself up to a community of supportive people willing to keep me in check when I go on a growing journey like this. (I’m looking at you, Weigh-in Wednesdays. I seriously don’t think I could’ve lost those 15 pounds without promising my readers I’d tell them what the scale said each week.)
So here we go. I’ve made a list of twelve changes, one to focus on during each month of the year. My hope is that I will be able to set my mind on each month’s change and really solidify it as a habit, so that it’ll be easy to continue doing it the next month when I start working toward the next change. I’m going to describe each change thoroughly here so that I’ll have a good road map to follow at the start of each month.
These are the changes I hope to turn into habits this year:
Keep clothes put away daily. This means putting away all of my clothes as soon as laundry is done, rather than leaving them in piles for days or weeks or forever. It means putting dirty clothes in the hamper as soon as they come off, rather than leaving them on the bathroom floor, bedroom floor, living room floor, etc. It means putting worn-but-still-wearable clothes away as well, rather than draping them over chairs or stacking them on top of my dresser.
***
Organize surface clutter. This means creating specific homes for everything that usually gets scattered across my dining room table, kitchen counters and my desk. I’ve been pinning tons of organizational how-to posts, which I’ll check out to come up with the best way to sort and store paperwork, hair accessories, electronics and cords, and all that jazz. The main goal for this month will be to create a system that works, which will probably require some tweaking as things progress.
***
Keep counters and tabletop clear. This means putting into effect the system I have just spent February perfecting. I want to see my dining room table used to actually eat meals rather than to hold endless crap that can easily be put away as soon as I walk in the door.
***
Put away bathroom stuff daily. This means that once I’m done getting ready in the morning, my makeup, brushes, hair dryer and such don’t get left on the counter. It means putting that stuff in its specified place, not just throwing it in a drawer or cabinet, either. Fortunately I already have the system for where things should go pretty well established; I just need to stick to it. Since putting stuff away will hopefully be a fairly easy task now that I’ve been working on it in the other rooms for a while, I also want to spend April getting the bathroom cleaning supplies more efficiently organized.
***
Organize pantry and cupboards. This means purging excess cooking supplies (like, do I really need FOUR cupcake baking sheets?) and outdated canned foods, and then coming up with a solid organizational system for all of it. I’m thinking I may even take photos of each area so I can reference it in the future to make sure stuff stays where it belongs.
***
Organize fridge and freezer. This means a thorough cleaning (which hasn’t been done in probably a year and a half — eek!) and deciding where stuff is going to go rather than just shoving it wherever it fits. Perhaps food won’t go bad as often if I can actually see it? If this proves to be a super easy goal this month, I’ll take the extra time to evaluate the first five months’ goals and make sure I’m still doing well with them.
***
Sort through and organize recipes. This means getting rid of some of the cookbooks we received as gifts, if it’s pretty clear they have never ever been touched. (Sorry, gift-givers!) It means gathering loose recipes and transcribing them onto the pretty cards I had custom made from an etsy seller and then promptly did not use at all. It means creating a more user-friendly system for tracking recipes I’ve tried and liked, ones I want to try, etc.
***
Start using my nice, organized recipe system for meal planning. This means utilizing some of the tips I’ve pinned on storing leftovers, cooking in bulk for freezing and defrosting later, and trying out new recipes so I can add to my very tiny collection of Things I Don’t Suck at Making. It means learning to prepare fresher foods so we can cut back on processed foods, which will not only help make us healthier, but will also help me feel like less of a cooking moron. I’d like to come up with a weekly plan that includes at cooking least one “real” meal and work my way up from there.
***
Email purge. This means go through my ENTIRE Gmail account and get it — THE HECK — together. This task is overdue to the max, people. I’ve gotta trash the crap I don’t need, make folders for stuff I want to keep, and reply to emails I’ve been “saving” for ages and ages. This will also be the time to work at staying on top of emails from now on — the folders, the prompt replying, and the not holding on to pointless trash.
***
Organize computer files. This means everything I just did for Gmail, applied to all other electronic aspects of my life. It means sorting out digital photos and creating a system by year, month, date and event. Probably I should also have a folder to stick extra special or awesome photos for potential printing or creative projects. It means cleaning up my Google Docs for better navigation. AND it means updating my resume (if, by October, I’m not already working an awesome job as a personal trainer).
***
Make a cleaning schedule. This means sitting down with Joe and mapping out daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly chores. I want to be WAY more on top of keeping the bathroom and kitchen clean especially, but also we need to pinpoint those oft-forgotten things like dusting the blinds, pulling out the fridge to clean the floor underneath, and washing our guest comforters, to name a few. I also want to investigate some of the cleaning solutions I’ve pinned like how to keep the tub/shower clean (especially in a very moist environment like our cozy beach condo).
***
Budget overhaul. If we haven’t sorted out our bank accounts by now, it is MAJORLY about time. This means getting a joint savings account; figuring out the best plan for retirement savings; looking at our total take-home income after bills, payments, etc. and planning monthly grocery, gas, and other spending budgets; setting up direct deposits into our savings account(s) and making specific savings goals for things like Babies, Cars, a New House, and so on. Basically, by December I will hopefully have the rest of my domestic life relatively under control, and then we can get serious about planning for our future. Or something responsible like that.
***
I really hope this helps me get my life in even SLIGHTLY better order than it is now, although I have a feeling the change will be a lot more than slight. The one thing I’m just a little nervous about is how this will affect the parts of my life that are currently pretty a-okay, like my workout routine and relatively healthy eating habits, and the development of good friendships and regular girlfriend get-togethers. But the plan, at least as it’s materializing in my head, is to keep up with all that stuff and allow these twelve changes to slowly become integrated in with everything else.
Anyway, wish me luck! And if you made it to the end of this post, have some cookies!