'O' for organising, that is!!
At last, the blue moon has arrived and Hubby has a bee in his bonnet..bless his cotton socks. He is fidgety this weekend and he decided to bite the bullet and continue setting up his little office in our bedroom.
Poor thing can't do it by himself though.. He needs me to hold his hand to get him through the ordeal! This teamwork idea of tackling domestic tasks TOGETHER makes it all a little more bearable for both of us, particularly when it's a job we don't like doing.
For me, that is hanging clothes on the line and folding. What a massive waste of time! If electricity wasn't so costly and I could use renewable energy I would use the dryer ALL the time. As for the folding, well, that one is less of an issue. Catching up on recorded TV shows or listening to music is how I endure the ordeal. Delegating the job to children also helps out there!
Hubby's Achilles heel is tidying, purging and reorganizing. I am REALLY impressed that he is starting to 'let go' of the clutter that has was almost getting bigger than Ben Hur.
I USED to let papers, wardrobes, pantries etc get out of control up to a certain point for a *little* while before having a major clean up fit and mercilessly start to dispose of unnecessary stuff.. Until I once inadvertently threw a medicare cheque in the bin thinking that it was only the cheque butt left in the envelope.. oops!
So that led to piling stuff together and putting it away. Problem: In my cleaning frenzy I would forget where on Earth I stashed it, resulting in great anxiety when said object was needed... STAT!
Being together for so long, there has had to be some compromise with our usual patterns. We have both had to find a suitable middle ground on handling papers and possessions. There's a Bible verse in Ephesians 4:2 that everyone needs to take on board, especially in married life:
"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love."
Patience is definitely essential as you try to navigate domestic stuff. It can be overwhelming when you have to move house a number of times and you get tired of carting stuff that hasn't been used because it is tucked away out of sight and you say to yourself "I'll sort that out later"
Problem is, later never arrives. 'Life' always seems to get in the way. Children, housework, downtime..
Confession: sometimes life can also mean having a weekend snooze to try and recharge and return to the coal face for another week.
So, we are moving towards a better, more organised household, slowly, but surely. It's a bit like weight loss I reckon. Too fast and it won't stick, or you burn out after one maniacal session that dragged out for a whole day.
Little bits at a time, focussing on one thing and getting that right is the only way to do it. The joint focus right now is to set up and maintain a space to manage important paperwork.
My individual goal right now is to retrain my habit of shoving stuff into my handbag to clear the bench. I've seen lots of super cool 'household control centres'. I'm hoping to set up one of my own. I've made SOME progress there, assigning one kitchen area (including the fridge as a magnetic pin board) designated for newsletters, recipes, junk mail, pens, scissors, glue and sticky tape. It has a long way to go- but at least I know the general zone to concentrate on when a search and rescue mission has been declared!
Our success stories so far.. I've corralled a 'go to' spot for medication. It's actually the baby wipes box that I revamped last year. *happy clap*
Years ago I also repurposed a wonky shelf to store ALL the board games in. It's now chock full, but it's kept one group of items well organised for years. *another happy clap*
It's really important to celebrate successes also, motivating one to keep going with it. See how organising sounds like weight loss??
Watch this space.. We have heaps of stuff coming up in my holiday break.. Will post progress reports as we tackle another chunk of the Planet Gees Organising Project!!
TGBTG
Anje xx
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