This really isn't a deep post. It's not a zenish, karmaesque guru advice-giving dissertation. It's just an observation. If your physical life outside of you is cluttered, disorganized, and chaotic, then your life is cloudy. Your mind is not clear. I cannot relax or feel content if there is a mess around me.
Yesterday, I spent all of about 1/2 hour while the girls were playing up in their playroom in front of the mirror going through their dresser drawers and a few other piles of their smaller clothes to determine what will stay and what will get packed away. I put little piles of 3, 6 and 9 month clothes together in order to put them into diaper boxes for the next up-and-coming moms to go through, and I put back all the 12 and 18 month clothes for Fall and Winter back into their drawers.
MAN, that felt good. I can't tell you. And yes, I still have a LOT more to do, but there's really no better feeling than getting organized, is there? It's soooooo greeeeeeaaat!
What else have I been doing? FINALLY getting to the last few thank you cards I STILL have hanging over my head from the girls' birth. It's absolutely nuts that I still have these to do, but I really haven't even been able to count just how many people have generously given gifts to the girls. It's amazing, but it's also a lot of time and effort to say a proper thank you. And I just can't bring myself to resort to email or just a verbal thank you. If someone goes through the trouble to buy you a gift, you send them a proper thank you card. So. I think I counted and have 6 more left (before you know, the 1 yr. gifts start coming....!!!) and WILL get them done before Friday. Once done, a huge weight will be lifted from my shoulders and mind. I mean, think about it...every. single. night. the idea that I should be writing thank yous has hung over my head while moving, medical appointments, workouts, and other events have also intruded into our lives.
It's mental baggage, and it sucks.
So yes. I need to bottle the feeling you get - a high almost - from getting something sorted, cleaned and organized. Do you get what I mean? Do you feel the same way?
Showing posts with label organization. Show all posts
Showing posts with label organization. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
Creepy reality
It's happening. Slowly but surely reality is creeping back into my daily life.
The day I return to work (albeit part-time) approaches, and certain arrangements are necessary to make. Other professional opportunities are surfacing, bringing this creaky, underused mind back out of park and into first, second gear. And daily life, although mostly still centred on the babies, is also starting to be about other tasks, such as arranging moving details, packing and slowly but surely taking care of Mommy as well as the twins.
I'm pleased about this, but a little wary as well. I know how tiring professional work can be. I also know how tiring being a mommy to twins is. And I think to myself...BOTH? Hmmmm....Good in a lot of ways for me, but also, likely, tiring. And still I wonder how I am going to consistently fit in time for Mommy to work on herself and her needs into what is likely to be a bit of a crazy schedule.
Now, I must insert here that I am WELL aware that this situation? Is not unique or new. Most modern Canadian Moms juggle all the above, every day. I'm just looking at the view from where I am now, and realizing that the short-lived luxury of time off work with a focus solely on the babies is quickly falling away to be replaced by all the above in addition to a heavy focus on the babies.
How do you all do it? What are your tips and secrets? Where do you feel you compromise and what generally gets the short end of the stick, in your mind?
And finally, let's all say it again in unison; "life is just one big adventure"...ain't it?
The day I return to work (albeit part-time) approaches, and certain arrangements are necessary to make. Other professional opportunities are surfacing, bringing this creaky, underused mind back out of park and into first, second gear. And daily life, although mostly still centred on the babies, is also starting to be about other tasks, such as arranging moving details, packing and slowly but surely taking care of Mommy as well as the twins.
I'm pleased about this, but a little wary as well. I know how tiring professional work can be. I also know how tiring being a mommy to twins is. And I think to myself...BOTH? Hmmmm....Good in a lot of ways for me, but also, likely, tiring. And still I wonder how I am going to consistently fit in time for Mommy to work on herself and her needs into what is likely to be a bit of a crazy schedule.
Now, I must insert here that I am WELL aware that this situation? Is not unique or new. Most modern Canadian Moms juggle all the above, every day. I'm just looking at the view from where I am now, and realizing that the short-lived luxury of time off work with a focus solely on the babies is quickly falling away to be replaced by all the above in addition to a heavy focus on the babies.
How do you all do it? What are your tips and secrets? Where do you feel you compromise and what generally gets the short end of the stick, in your mind?
And finally, let's all say it again in unison; "life is just one big adventure"...ain't it?
Monday, May 30, 2011
3 months, 6 months, 12 months...
Here's one of those New Mom Advice posts for you...
As a new Mom, you will have too many clothes for your baby/babies! New, gently used, splurges and consignment or hand-me-down, I have learned the hard way that you NEED to 'manage' your babies' wardrobes!!! Month after month, day after day I unearth outfits that the girls never wore, but that are now too small for them, or are too wintery, or whatever! And it's upsetting that I didn't have a chance to put these cute and lovely little pieces on the girls!
So. Here's what I have to offer, that I did wrong on the first go-around.
1. I decided to fold and place a LOT of clothes into the dresser drawers I had, sometimes placing up to 5 outfits, tops, bottoms or whatever on top of each other inside each drawer, eventually stuffing each drawer with clothes. For obvious reasons, the clothes at the bottom were usually forgotten.
2. I decided to fold and place clothes of varying ages into the drawers, with (what seemed a good idea at the time) the littlest clothes in the top drawers, the 3 month clothes in the middle ones and 9-12 month clothes in the bottom. Again...too stuffed, and why have clothes in drawers that don't fit the girls? Pack those away, and spread out only the clothes that fit them NOW. If you see them, they will end up wearing them!
3. Here's a GREAT tip. In my quest to organize this little house for the arrival of the twins, I did a LOT of packing up of anything that we didn't immediately or often need. Bin after bin got packed. Bin after bin got loaded into a newly-created mezzanine in the garage (fancy word for overhead storage area). Ultimately? I have no bins left to pack up clothes that don't fit the girls anymore! So what's the tip, that I got from a girlfriend of mine who has way too many baby clothes to deal with herself? Take your diaper boxes (or other small boxes, but these make the most sense) and pack up the overflow clothes into them, labeling them by the age of the clothes inside them. That way it's easy to ID the baby clothes boxes, and when you have friends looking for clothes, you can pull them out and take them over, and when you are ready to consign, they are also ready to go.
Oh, and just as an aside, have you seen the closet we created in the nursery for the girls? If not, take a look:
We took off our closet doors (those crappy cheap slidy things) and made some custom curtains. Bought the rods at Home Depot, and the shelving solution at IKEA. We connected the shelves to each other and then the wall, and used three small rods for clothes hanging, with the idea that when the girls grow, you can remove the middle rod to hang the bigger clothes. I will be sad to leave all this behind, but the new house already has custom inserts and so this stays with the house. But. It's been a great and practical organizational solution!
What do you do to stay organized? What are you doing with the superfluous little pieces of clothing? And where do you consign with the best payout and purchasing history?
As a new Mom, you will have too many clothes for your baby/babies! New, gently used, splurges and consignment or hand-me-down, I have learned the hard way that you NEED to 'manage' your babies' wardrobes!!! Month after month, day after day I unearth outfits that the girls never wore, but that are now too small for them, or are too wintery, or whatever! And it's upsetting that I didn't have a chance to put these cute and lovely little pieces on the girls!
So. Here's what I have to offer, that I did wrong on the first go-around.
1. I decided to fold and place a LOT of clothes into the dresser drawers I had, sometimes placing up to 5 outfits, tops, bottoms or whatever on top of each other inside each drawer, eventually stuffing each drawer with clothes. For obvious reasons, the clothes at the bottom were usually forgotten.
2. I decided to fold and place clothes of varying ages into the drawers, with (what seemed a good idea at the time) the littlest clothes in the top drawers, the 3 month clothes in the middle ones and 9-12 month clothes in the bottom. Again...too stuffed, and why have clothes in drawers that don't fit the girls? Pack those away, and spread out only the clothes that fit them NOW. If you see them, they will end up wearing them!
3. Here's a GREAT tip. In my quest to organize this little house for the arrival of the twins, I did a LOT of packing up of anything that we didn't immediately or often need. Bin after bin got packed. Bin after bin got loaded into a newly-created mezzanine in the garage (fancy word for overhead storage area). Ultimately? I have no bins left to pack up clothes that don't fit the girls anymore! So what's the tip, that I got from a girlfriend of mine who has way too many baby clothes to deal with herself? Take your diaper boxes (or other small boxes, but these make the most sense) and pack up the overflow clothes into them, labeling them by the age of the clothes inside them. That way it's easy to ID the baby clothes boxes, and when you have friends looking for clothes, you can pull them out and take them over, and when you are ready to consign, they are also ready to go.
Oh, and just as an aside, have you seen the closet we created in the nursery for the girls? If not, take a look:
We took off our closet doors (those crappy cheap slidy things) and made some custom curtains. Bought the rods at Home Depot, and the shelving solution at IKEA. We connected the shelves to each other and then the wall, and used three small rods for clothes hanging, with the idea that when the girls grow, you can remove the middle rod to hang the bigger clothes. I will be sad to leave all this behind, but the new house already has custom inserts and so this stays with the house. But. It's been a great and practical organizational solution!
What do you do to stay organized? What are you doing with the superfluous little pieces of clothing? And where do you consign with the best payout and purchasing history?
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