It’s a process

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The Organizing Junkie has some pretty good ideas about how to organize.  I am going to use many of her hints and suggestions for tackling my project.  First I looked at her PROCESS.

I have created a simple acronym to allow you to break down your organizing project into simple, straightforward steps that will help you stick to your plan and achieve optimal organizing results.

By following the PROCESS steps below anyone can conquer any space of any size. The steps allow you to do one or all at a time depending on the time you have available for the task.

Each letter of PROCESS is a step in organizing.  Hopefully I will see results with this PROCESS and be encouraged to do it again.

First up is P:

Plan of attack – plan your project – which area(s) do you want to address – make a list – evaluate present system, what is working, what isn’t working, devise new system – determine budget – develop timeline

To get this part started she suggests asking the following questions that she found in an article on About.com written by Sarah Aquirre.

1. What do I want the purpose of my room or area to be?

A bedroom for my son, born May 16, 2009, who has been sleeping in a cradle in our room since birth.  I want it to be a place for him to sleep, play, and keep his books, toys, and clothes.

2. What do I need in or near the room to serve that purpose?

Crib, dressers, toy storage, book storage, rug, lights.

3. What can I remove from the room?

All our crap.  CDs, books, luggage, electronics, tools, old linoleum.

4. What problems do I see with the room?

Not enough plugs, no window dressings, ugly wallpaper, holes in the walls, old leak on the ceiling, mess, mess, mess.

5. What organizational tools might solve those problems?

Add more plugs, get room darkening blinds, bookcases, storage boxes, hanging shelves.

6. What habits need to change to solve the organizational problems?

everything

7. What kind of a budget do I have to work with right now for storage solutions?

Not much of one.  We really only still need paint and repair materials for the walls, a rug, a ceiling fan/light, blinds, and bookcases.

8. What kind of a timeline is necessary to organize the room? (28 days!)

We are getting a little bit of a late start in the month, but I hope to have the room cleared out enough to move my little guy’s crib in by the beginning of March.

9. What is my plan of action?

Spend a few days emptying the room.  Sort through the items in the room and make keep, store, donate, and trash piles.

10. Who can I ask to help me with this?  (working with a friend can be fun, productive and encouraging)

My husband will be helping me, but I know my mom and my sister will help me too.

28 Day Organizing Challenge

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I’m participating in Org Junkie’s 28 Day Organizing Challenge with @orgjunkie during the month of Feb.  Wish me luck!  http://tiny.cc/KYtro

My little boy is finally growing too big for his cradle.  Okay, he has been too big for the cradle since Christmas, but you should see “his” room!  It is full of 7 years of our junk.  We have started to hoe it out, but it just gets worse.  So this month we are going to get all our crap out of there and start to work on the walls and ceiling.  Hopefully when we return from our vacation at the end of the month we will be able to move him into his room even if it isn’t done.

OrgJunkieLarge-1

Where I’ve lived

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This is a repost from April 2006 (before the Great Yahoo Blog Disaster of 2007).

I have lived in Brattleboro my whole life.

I went to college in Virginia for 4 years, but I came home every summer and little tiny Sweet Briar was a lot like Brattleboro without the boys my age.

When I was born I went home with my parents to an apartment house they owned. It was (is) right on a main road near downtown. Our downstairs neighbor used to babysit me, and now I teach her great-grandchildren.

When I was 3 my parents bought their present home (27 years now) up the main road, but off the beaten track in a neighborhood. Our street had 3 houses on one side and 4 on the other (now 5). I had a friend across the street and a best friend two blocks up. We played in the road (no traffic then), on the jungle gym my dad built me, and on the tire swing that still hangs in the trees.
When I was 12 my parents added to our house. We spent 16 weeks that summer with no kitchen. The fridge and microwave were in the dining room and we washed dishes in a bathtub. When it was finished we had a hottub, downstairs bathroom, bigger home office, larger open kitchen and giant living space.

When I was in high school, mine was the place where everyone hung out. We had cast parties, afterschool snacks, and dinners before dances, concerts, and events.

I went to college. I came home and went to graduate school. I lived at home. I got a teaching job, I lived at home. Then I got my first apartment.

I moved up the same main road to an apartment in an old milkhouse behind the home of family friends. I now lived 1 mile from where I went home from the hospital with my parents halfway inbetween. I lived there just over 2 years, until my now-husband and I bought a house and moved…

Across town! I am now on the other side of the main road. I have a different trash day. I am in a different school district. I am closer to the grocery store.
But I own my own home. I live in a cute, desirable neighborhood with nice neighbors. We have a big side yard, now complete with a pond and patio. We have a cat and we have love.

Mine is still the place where people come. We are centrally located so we host meetings and parties. People use our porch to drop off and pick up stuff for our theater company.

I may have lived in 4 different homes, but no matter where I reside, Brattleboro is my home.

My hometown

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This a repost from August 2005 (before the Great Yahoo Blog Disaster of 2007). This month’s NaBloPoMo theme is Home.

I have lived in Brattleboro for all 29 of my years (save for college in Virginia).

I adore my small hometown. 12,000 people call Brattleboro home with another 5,000 or so in the surrounding towns.

Brattleboro is unique. I am sure many people say that about their town/city, but it is true in Brattleboro.

We are a very artistic and academic town. We have a fabulous art museum that recently featured a never before seen Andy Warhol collection. We are home to several branches of colleges, and the School for International Training/World Learning, one of the leading schools in language and teacher training.

We are also an agricultural center. Holstein International, the international cow registry, is centered in Brattleboro. We have many dairy farms in our area. For the last 4 years Brattleboro has been home to The Strolling of the Heifers, an annual cow parade and dairy/agricultural festival.

Brattleboro sits in the Southeast corner of the great state of Vermont. People here are as inclined to live in, work in, and travel to New Hampshire and Massachusetts, as the rest of Vermont. People move to Brattleboro for the culture, history, job opportunities, and small town charm.

That is just an introduction to my hometown. I will write more about it over the coming month.