KonMari: Hitting the wall, then climbing the wall, then...

falling off the wall...

If you are considering jumping into Kondo's book and method, there's a few things I think you should know.

1. It's going to get worse before it gets better.

Perhaps this is why she offers the advice that you should fully discard before you organize.  And I tried, I really really did. But there's some obstacles!  For example my garbage cans can only hold so much garbage (same holds for the trash cans at the pocket park, not that I would desperately take anything there ever...)  Also, there were LOADS of things to be taken for donation. (Hmm, come to think of it, she may have told me to identify that ahead of time, too...) And there were things I was pretending to sell by posting witty captions on my moms sale group and people would fail to pick them up and my entry way filled up with weird things.  The short version: It's going to get worse before it gets better.

2. You're going to need a sanctuary, and possibly wine.

For me, it was my closet.  I followed her instructions and started with clothes and my closet was as close to a magazine spread as I care to get (no one is getting between me and my Princess Leia footy PJs,)  Anyway, I am very lucky to have a large and now insanely clean and organized closet.  Multiple times during the process I'd retreat from a lumbering pile of towels (every towel?? Are you SURE?  Geeze that's a lot of towels.)  with a cup of tea or glass of wine to remind myself this is why I'm doing this.  Once I got started I desperately wanted (want) to finish.  So things not only got messier, I got a bit frantic about it.  Sanctuary was necessary.  I am lucky I work so I had to leave the house and work, God help the Stay at Home parent who lives in their self imposed prison of purging 24 hours a day.  

3. This might actually change your life

I didn't really expect life changing to happen.  I mean, every book I read changes my life in some way, but although I was excited to 'tidy' I didn't really anticipate magic.  But there is some magic!  For me, the magic was the insanely simple sounding idea that my belongs should be taken care of.  This is literally so easy I try to teach it to my 3 year old every single day.  Yet for some reason it was out of my reach.  I actually laughed when I first read that "Every thing should have a home."  But guess what?  EVERYTHING SHOULD HAVE A HOME!  Because then it can go there.  And when you need it, it will be there. Everything.  And since we've started working on this the amount of times my husband and I have asked "Hey, where is the___?" or "Do we have any ____?" has dropped dramatically.  

I'm not done, but I can see the start of the light at the end of the tunnel.  And as promised, the process gets easier and more automatic as I go along.  I'm still dreading sentimental items, particularly photos, but I firmly believe in the principles and the process.

Books, books, books.

I hadn't yet asked Gavin to read my current project book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing when I asked him what he thought abuot the idea that childrens literacy was directly proportional to the number of books in their home.

His thought process was simliar to mine.  "Seems reasonable."

But we also agreed that it's likely that the actual causation is that people who like to read have a lot of books and are more likely to teach their children to read.  Or people who are better educated have more books and are more likely to teach their children to read.

We concluded that, with the exception of having available age appropriate material, the addition or removal of books with no other changes to a household shoulnd't have an effect on a literacy.

But Mom Guilt is real so I had to do some pretty dedicated logical thinking to overcome the following thoughts.

"Oh no! I've ruined my children by reading digital books!"
and more relevant to my current project
"I can't declutter my books! How will my kids ever get into College??"

After my rallying against ever folding my clothes, getting rid of books was my next biggest complaint.

But once again Kondo won me over. "Imagine a book shelf with only books you REALLY love." And that made me realize that deep down I don't really LOVE books.  I love reading, but I honestly prefer digitial books both for ease of use and not having to touch paper.  I know I've offended book lovers everywhere, but it was an entirely new realization I made about myself.  I love to visit bookstores.  I have very found memories of visiting a used bookstore regularly with my mom, and I can enjoy both of those while still letting go of objects that are cluttering my space.

Then it was time for the kids books.  My primary goal was to get all of the books in one place.  On one hand, I love having books all over mt house. I love that the kids can pick up a book in almost any room.  On the other hand, they frequently can't find their favorite books.  So I decided to combine all of the books.

Well almost, I decided both boys should be able to keep some books in their room.  My goal is 10.  I will almost certianly fail as my son is a major book hoarder.  I'm fairly certian he will continue to collect books from the cabinet and his brothers room until he once again is drowning in them. Time will tell!

We have a lot of books.  And I'm almost certain we will continue to collect more and we will have to evaluate the space for them and method for them.  But for now, at least the books are (mostly) in the same place.  (I also forgot about the piles in the car!)

I've also come to realize that almost everything is better shared.  The books we are done with (or more likely were duplicates) I passed on to my friends and neighbors to use and enjoy.

Goal Setting

I've always set goals. When it was just me, it was pretty simple: I'd sit down with a notebook, usually at the end of the year, and sketch out a 1, 5, 10 year plan and some major goals and see how I was doing against the previous years goals. 

Now I have a husband and kids who also have unique goals and dreams. We want our family to grow and thrive together, so every year at our family summit we sit down and review our goals together.

I started off this year having a really difficult time establishing my goals. I have a wonderful husband, two healthy kids, and a job I sometimes love and usually like.  

I recently read Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People." I highly recommend it and it gave me some great perspective for creating some goals for myself.




I have weekly benchmarks for most of my goals.  I also made a cheat sheet to remind me of my goals throughout the week.

This year my goals include propelling myself 500 miles (via running, biking, etc); reading 50 books, keeping in contact with extended family and professional contacts, and writing.

We also have family goals, including monthly date nights, dedicated time with our children, trying a new food and activity each month.

The beginning of the year is too frantic of a time to sit down and set goals.  Although I love the freshenss of a new year and new goals, I've convinced myself that I prefer the few month head start and less pressured timeframe!

Does anyone else set their goals mid year? 

The G's Google Calendar

My schedule is my life line.  I use calendars as much as I use lists and for the same reason: I can't keep any of this stuff in my head.

Over the years my calendar has moved from a pocket notebook, to a wall, to a Palm Pilot and now, Google.  I thought I'd summarize some of the ways I use google calendar to make my life and family easier to manage.

1. Using my Google Calendar.

I use my google calendar to plan and remember.  I input all of my appointments, obligations, meetings, and time dependent activities.  Then at the end of the day or week, I adjust the schedule to more accurately reflect what happened.  

Some of the things I keep track of in my google calendar:

• Work Schedule
• Classes
• Holidays
• Birthdays
• Bill Due Dates
• Work our schedule
• Chores
• Journals
• Typical Routines
• Kids classes/play dates/appointments
• Street Sweeping Schedule

It sounds kind of overwhelming when I type it all out, but nearly so much so as keeping it in my head.

2.  Syncing my Facebook Calendar

There was a time when this wouldn't have been necessary, but since so many of my friends set up birthday parties, play dates, and activities on facebook, this has been a huge time saver, not to mention it prevents me accidental putting in the wrong time or place.  Facebook has a section on the events page on how to export calendars.  

3.  Syncing my Call Log.

There are probably some industries where this is even more helpful than mine, but being able to quickly see who I called when has saved me time and energy more than once.  I use an app called CallTrack.  It's easy to set up and runs unobtrusively in the background.

4. Keeping our Family Organized.

Both of my husband and I have flexibility in our work, but because of that it is critically important that we have up to date information on the other's schedule.  We share all of our calendar so that either of us can easily make appointments, set up meetings, or make plans.  We also have a separate calendar for each of our kids that helps us make sure we get them where they need to go on time.

5. Staying Organized Across Devices

We are not an apple family, but we do have an iPad.  There was no way I was going to try to sync google calendar with the apple calendar (I know some people have done it, but I still have nightmares for events recreated a zillion times when Outlook and google would fight, so I didn't want to mess with it).  Instead, I bought the app Calengoo to use on the iPad.  It's been a few years since I researched options, but it works great for my needs.    

6. Keeping up to date with relevant Public Calendars

Google has a cool feature where you can sync public calendars.   Things like sports teams schedules, etc.  I use quite a few public calendars

• Disneyland Season Pass Black out Dates
• My HOA's events
• My MOPS groups events
• Unusual American Holidays
• Catholic Holidays
• Phases of the Moon
• Sunset times
• Weather

7. Making sure my calendar works for me

As my life has gotten busier, my google calendar has gotten more and more complicated.  Over time, I've had to organize and color code it to make sure I can effectively use it.  By creating custom calendars for things like my call logs, my bill due dates, or my work schedule I can easily turn calendars on and off depending how what information I need at any given time.

8.  Keeping my Calendar up to date

Obviously a calendar is only as good as the information in it.  Even more than my lists, I use my calendar as my immediate and automatic storage place for information.  I add things immediately and we take time at our family meeting each week to update and reconnect with our calendars.

I'm always looking for ways to make my calendar more efficient, please share any tips you use to keep your family organized.

One Room Challenge: The Boys Bathroom.

My boys are not yet one and almost two and a half and I'm already terrified of what will eventualy become of the Jack and Jill bathroom between their bedrooms.  I have nighmares about the messes and smells associated with teenaged boys and a room accessible only via their bedrooms.  I've warned by husband that I might just abandon the room altogether someday...

But thankfully, that day isn't today!  To date, the boys bathroom is the least utilized room in our house.  For years, before children, it say completed unused, except to be cleaned.

But with one child approaching potty training, things are changing rapidly for this space!

I decided to tackle this room because it doesn't need any great overall, and joining this challenge was a last minute decision.  I think with a little bit of time and energy, I can give this room a little bit of freshing and address some of it's recently added uses.

My primary goal for this room is to make it easier to use for little people: step stools, child accessible towel racks, toy storage, etc.

Week 1: Finalize Plan, Choose Colors, Choose Paint and Theme

Week 2:  Complete Paint, Address Mirrors, Choose Curtain and Towels

Week 3:  Chose and purchase stools, hooks & Decor

Week 4: Complete Step Stools, additions, and address organization

Week 5: Completion!

In the meantime, I'm hoping the challenge will keep me moving along and I can steal borrow lots of great ideas from the other participants on Calling it Home!

The biggest challenge I anticipate in this room is time.  Because it's located between my kids rooms, my prime 'project time' (naps and after bedtime) won't work very well.

My current challenge is that my camera lens broke!  I'm currently shooting with a fixed 50 mm lens, so I apologize for the photos as I get used to it and decide what to do about the broken lens.