How to tell when it's time to do housework.

I cleaned off my trestle table and my ironing board so I could use them to surround my Sew-ezi table.  I decided to spend some time quilting my big blue and white quilt and I need to support the mammoth  weight of the quilt while I'm working on it.

I put all the bits and pieces that were on my ironing board and trestle table onto my chest freezer, which doubles as my cutting table.  But now I want to make some soup and I need to get into that freezer.  Where can I put that junk highly important bits and pieces?

On the laundry bench?  Nope, that's my ironing space (see previously mentioned repurposed ironing board), a repository for washing-needing-to-be-folded and storage for art stuff that hasn't made it back to the cupboards.

I know, I'll put it on the studio chair aka cat bed.  Oh shoot, that's being used to store quilts, zip pouches, patterns I'm writing and fabrics I'm auditioning.

Maybe I don't want to make soup.

But there are kids to be fed.

Sigh.

It's time to do some housework, isn't it?

(and how, oh how, am I going to work in the smaller space of a boat?)

Paperwork ongoing .... the home office reorganisation.

Thanks for your comments everyone.  It's nice to know I'm not alone in the paperwork war!!  In fact, if you type something like "paperwork organisation tips" into Dr Google, you'll soon find there are a heap of other people in the same boat!

So, in an attempt to kickstart my new, organised life, I moved my desk.  Nothing major, it just faces the other side of the corner.  A change around of furniture always gets me in a cleaning, decluttering, organising mood.  And I've splashed out on some new stationery supplies too.

I've been thinking long and hard about what I do and don't like about the way I do things now and I realise that I don't like hanging or accordion files much but when I have things in ring binders they stay in order better.  Four new co-ordinated ring binders and some divider tabs later, I'm on my way.

Ahhh, paper junk!  It's so comfy!

The first tip that everyone seems to say is centralise your paperwork.  Keep it all in one area.  I realise I have a bad habit of opening mail, putting it on the dining table, shifting it to the hutch dresser when it's dinner time and then burying it with handbags/books/school stuff.  So now I'm going to put it on my desk unopened and open it in the evening when I have a chance to action it and then file it/biff it straight away.  I declare the hutch dresser is a PAPER FREE ZONE!

The next big thing is: figure out what you actually need to keep (and then biff the rest).  After chatting to lovely Suz yesterday, she has me taking a hard look at what I should and shouldn't be holding on to.

So I've started - I'm analysing my bad habits and I'm going to try and make new, more efficient ones and I'm sorting out my systems.  The hard thing is going to be putting my stuff that I already have into those new systems!  But I'm done with procrastination, I'm going to put on some music and get to it......after a fortifying  cup of tea ;)

Need Help! Paperwork Crisis!

My house used to be a constant mess. Ok, it still is a constant mess, but it’s a tidiable (is that a word?) mess with an organised undercurrent. Having kids was probably the making of me in that department. I got so bogged and frustrated and upset that I went looking for help. I found FLYlady and did a lot of journaling and soul-searching about the role of a stay-at-home Mum (not all cupcakes and day-time television). I began to go to bed with a cleared kitchen, make my bed straight after getting up, clean something in the bathroom while waiting for the shower to warm, empty the dishwasher whilst the jug was boiling for my cup-of-tea and use a calendar….just those little things that some people know instinctively how to do to stay on top of life and some people (me!) need to learn.

In the spirit of full disclosure - here are my fugly bits.  Piles of paper everywhere!  And  there are other piles hiding in other spots around the house!

But I haven’t ever really got on top of my paperwork. Yuck. I hate it. But crunch time has come. Why? Because, for the life of me, I can’t find the kids birth certificates and I need them. That’s not good. I could order new ones (at $25 a pop) but that’s not really solving the problem, is it?

I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that being organised with paperwork can save you time, help you be frugal, and keep on top of life in general.

I’m thinking of making goals – they seem to work for me. Do I dare ration my quilting time? For example: no quilting until I've done 15 minutes filing? Argh! It would probably work, but I think I have deeper issues, which are hijacking my attempts to stay on-top of paperwork. I don’t think I have a proper filing system sorted. Bits go here and bits go there and I have a big pile of ‘miscellaneous’! I don’t know how to sort stuff and how to store it.

So, tell me, how do you do it? What categories do you file stuff under? What techniques have worked for you (or not!)? Please! Anything you think will help me out. We’ve upgraded our computer after eeking out our current one for eight + years and I’ve decided I’m not allowed to open the box until my desk is clear!

The Next Deadline

One more self-imposed deadline to meet.  This is the beginning of the quilt I am making for my Father-in-Law for Christmas.  This is the easy bit - drawing, cutting and ironing the shapes.  Now I have to make a start on appliqueing the shapes on or I end up with a pile at the end and it becomes just a little monotonous.

Today is one of my kid-free days.  I planted tomato, lettuce, silverbeet, cabbage and onion seedlings in my garden and seeds of salsify, onions, yarrow and dandelions (great chook and rabbit fodder).  I manged to climb to the summit of Mt. Washmore and do a load or two and the weather obliged by being sunny and drying it for me.  I can see my lounge floor again.  I finally feel like I'm catching up after my week on non-housework.  Funny how these little things are so fulfilling.