This SAHM's getting organized! January '05 - Page 2

[AvalonDaughter]

My goal this week. Slow down to pause and take a moment each day to yourself and make a list of what my goals are to get more organized.

[leomom]

I want to join..although you're probably about to start a thread for the next week.

My goal: take the pantry challenge!!! I'm going to try to not go to the store (except for milk) for the next 2 weeks!!! Can I make it??? It'll be TOUGH! Anyone want to take the challenge with me?

[Breathe]

Welcome leomom! (no WAY I could do the pantry challenge -- our diet is so resctricted . . . but I bet someone else could come to my house and live off the food in there that we're allergic to! )

I vote for staying here and not starting a new thread until February. Easier to follow, IMO. Thoughts?

[mamabutterfly]

That sounds good to me to keep this thread thru January (can Meli edit the thread title possibly?)

Well we're snowed in here pretty seriously in PA, so I think we're taking the pantry challenge by default, lol, since I didn't really stock up on much fresh stuff at all - even though I knew this storm was coming. The upshot is I may do some baking this afternoon as a reward after a bit of shoveling!

[hee hee - i just went to find that lip-licking smilie and it's in a category called "mouth-related" :LOL]

[my2girlsmama]

Great thread! Subscribing (the only way I can remain active at MDC due to insanity of life as sahm, two girls, a cat and DH!!) but hoping I don't miss the newest one...........

Well, we've been down a loooooooooooooooooong year, just coming out of it...bankruptcy and now rebuilding....I am a huge declutterer by nature and so randomly take stock of home and hearth so things don't get away from us.....recently done so again.

My plan is to take extras not worn or used by kids to consignment and use credit to buy new clothes there for them.

We recently switched our mortgage to bi weekly in the hopes that a smaller payment every other week will allow for more cash flow to pay bills on time and catch up...we're almost : there! I can almost taste the bettering of our daily lives approaching

As for grocery, I also learned to buy less more often rather than once a month as in the past. Due to money constraints currently in setting up new ways budgeting and mortage-wise, it's been harder and I reply on my own family to help out (my mama is a dream!) but soon..........back to basics. I live for store flyers for grocery and only buy majority on sales. Get alot that way.

And cleaning the house-we strive for daily basics (Dh is the bathroom cleaning king) and then a big swing clean monthly. This works best for us, as I can live with dust and crumbs on the floor :

Longer term goals: Possible back to part time work, a local rec centre has left it open for me to return (worked there over 8 years ago and they asked me back) 15 horus a week...more for sanity than money. Will decide in spring.

Paying off last few hundred of old old old student loan so I can reapply to begin my Bachelor's degree in English-a dream of mine!

And I too am trying to write more and get published again as I used to...........trying to organize thoughts, words and work on this.
Started a Blog to get myself going.

Love this thread!!!!

[Breathe]

Hey Mamas,

Just wanted to say Hi and let you know I've been thinking of you. Sorry this thread pooped out . . . I am just in survival mode, trying to cope with a new baby, constant colds, and a 3.5 yr old who desperately needs more than I can offer him! I do still do my meal planning and have been really good about shopping at the beginning of each week, but nothing else has happened . . . no deep cleaning, no exercising, no lesson plans for ds. sigh. It'll come, I know. I think right now I just need to hang on until Spring!

No need to drag this thread out if people have moved on . . . guess I just wanted to offer some closure in case we don't revisit this.

Hope you're all well!
E.

[TwinMom]

Let's get the party started!

Are we all finished with this? I had to take a brief hiatus due to a newborn, but Joe will be 5 weeks tomorrow and I'm ready to get this house into shape. My life, actually, as much as my house. I feel like I'm drowning in clutter and things. I know I'll need moral support as I work my way through the house. However slow I am, I will get it done! I'll be nursing every ten minutes, but eventually it'll happen.

Is anyone else still here?

[kathleenE]

Is anyone else still here?[/QUOTE]

Hi everyone,

Maybe the others have faded away; but I just discovered this thread tonight and I love it! Can't we revive it? We are moving in four weeks--CT to CA--and let me tell you, there's nothing like a cross country move combined with selling a house to get you motivated to declutter. After looking like a Toys R Us hit by a hurricane for several years, our home now looks like Martha Stewart just stepped out to trim the roses.....(not quite, but close: when we enter the house, it's so empty we hear our footsteps echoing on the kitchen floor!) Dh and my three ds's are the real clutter culprits, as I'm something of a neat freak; but four against one is a tough fight. We've had three tag sales and I have taken countless trips to the dump and Salvation Army. Yay! Now if only I can keep our new place clean.... doesn't seem too hopeful, since it looks like I'll be taking care of my 2 yr old all day every day. But getting rid of all that stuff has been so liberating.

I even finally admitted that I'll never take up rug hooking again, and gave my bag of half finished projects to my neighbor.

I have a hard time with meal planning and budgeting, still. It's going to be even harder after we move.

So *is* anyone still out there?

Kathleen E.

[ekblad9]

I would love to join the discussion! I've been on a mission for a couple of years now. Had to take most of last year off due to pregnancy and a newborn but he's 4 months old now and I'm blazing through! I reorganized the board games and the arts and craft supplies today. Got rid of a few things too. The play room has been re done again this week! My big thing is that within the last couple of weeks I have really decluttered the books and gotten rid of our old school books that we don't need/use anymore. Our toy "lot" isn't too bad anymore. Used to be out of control but I've become ruthless. I'm bad with money, though, and meal planning too. I used to have it all written out. I do manage to only grocery shop once/week save running in for milk and fresh fruits/veggies.

[TwinMom]

I'm glad to see this thread is being revived! In the last few weeks I have taken about 300 books to Half-Price Books, getting rid of most of my fiction books. If I need to read them again I can get them from the library, right? I have five overflowing bags of clothes out on the front porch, waiting for a charity to pick them up tomorrow morning. Oh, and an old car seat. I need to go through the game closet, but am overwhelmed at the thought of it. We have probably at *least* 100 board games, most of which don't get played. The room that Alec will eventually be using needs to be cleaned out but I can't do that until the storage closet is cleared out so that I can put all my stamping stuff in there (his room was my stamp room which morphed into a junk room but now I'm ready for him to move into his own room). Added to all this is that dh can't help at all right now; he just had surgery on a ruptured Achille's tendon so can't even move without crutches.

I keep reminding myself that it's a slow process and that's okay. Things got left stagnant while I was pregnancy because I was so sick, so it might take a full 9 months to get things back to where they were last year, not even to where they *should* be at this point.

How has everyone else been doing?

[ekblad9]

I have this dream that if I can "just" get organized things will be good and run more smoothly. I'm really hoping this can happen so I can enjoy the kids as much as possible!

[Meli65]

Things fell apart on my end -- I had sciatica for the last six weeks of my pregnancy so I couldn't do much of anything ... I had to walk with a cane! So dh has been in charge all this time -- our baby was born June 18th and I am still off-duty but I am SO anxious to get back on my feet and put my house in order. You all can inspire me ....

[kathleenE]

catching up after tough pregnancy

Hi Meli65!

I had to smile (in sympathy) about your sciatica during the last of your pregnancy and having to use a cane, because that's exactly what I went through in my 2nd pregnancy, in 1996. Except for my sciatica started about 5 months into the pregnancy! I was teaching at the time and had to limp into my classroom with my cane like an old lady. It continued afterwards too, but many visits to the acupuncturist really helped, especially when she heated the needles. AAAAh--the relief. I don't think I actually caught up with the cleaning up and decluttering until just a few weeks ago, with this move. Took me 9 years. It's weird that I had no sciatica at all with my third pregnancy at age 41. (it only returned after he was born and I was carrying him around all the time).

Happy decluttering, everyone! Now I have to go and pack some more boxes!

Kathleen E, soon to be back in my home state of CA!

[eminer]

Organization without a strong routine?

I'm still here! ekblad, I was thinking that if you could do it, I would definitely be inspired to do it with my 2 kids, when I glanced at your signature and thought, "Hey - February? But I thought she was due right before me..." And then realized OH, she WAS, and my baby is 3 months old!!!

I guess after all these months reflecting on why I still haven't gotten organized, I've figured out that the crux of the matter is that I really can't do regularity. Every time I decide to "get organized", I make a daily or weekly schedule. A minimalistic one, but still, a schedule. With a day-by-day, meal-by-meal meal plan. Then an unexpected work project comes up, or an outing takes much longer than planned, or the laundry needs doing 2 days before Laundry Day, or I just feel oppressed by the Structure, and regularity ends up not happening, and the organization attempt falls apart. So my question for you all is... Has anyone managed to get and feel organized without using a schedule? If so, how?

[ekblad9]

I, too, fail if I have to try and stick to a schedule. I was at a homeschool conference recently and heard this wonderful talk by a mother of 12! Anyway, she said to just do what needs to be done when it needs to be done. I already do laundry daily. Kids bring it down in the a.m after breakfast and I work on it throughout the day. If there's "free" time one afternoon and the bathroom needs cleaning, I do it (or ask one of the kids to do it). If baby is ultra "needy" one day and I don't put him down at all and even the sling isn't working out that day then I do nothing that day. I do try to always make sure my dishes are done when we go to bed b/c I hate waking up to dirty dishes. Some days (like once every month or so) I may get a burst of energy and the oppurtunity to do some deep cleaning or a chance to reorganize a cupboard or closet. That's a good day! The main thing is to *try* to get things as cleaned out, decluttered, and organized as possible and then go from there. Things are much easier that way.

That said, when you have a toddler or a preschooler and a new baby managing to shower on a daily basis can be tough so DON'T be hard on yourself! This won't last forever. Our dishes and dirt will always be there but our babies that are changing every minute of the day will not. Enjoy it while it lasts. I have to remind myself of that daily as well!

Good luck! Threads like this keep me going!

[Momtwice]

My mom was a sahm of nine kids and kept a very tidy house, with dinner always on the table at 5:30 and clothes always washed and folded on Mondays and Wednesdays. She never seemed to have her own idnetitiy or interests.
I think this caused resentment in me, and I have fought it.

This hit a nerve....I'm subbing too. Not that my mom was neat. She was NOT. But I resent the idea that because I'm a SAHM of older kids my own many interests don't count as much as the housework. You know the stereotype "I don't stay home because I hate to clean toilets too much" Well I am home and I hate that too! :LOL

[ekblad9]

I'm guessing that by the time you have 9 kids any "interests" you once had are on the back burner at the house next door :LOL Everything that I do revolves around my children in some way, shape, or form. It wasn't really that way until I had four or five children. I do not resent it, though. I have chosen it and am very happy with our decision. I don't think, however, when you have two to four children (and they're older than say, one year) you can't enjoy your pre child interests. I definately think it's doable and necessary.

[SandyBeachBums]

Here's a good tip for the games!

Go buy a couple of boxes of various sizes of good freezer zip type bags. You know those cool ones with the little button thing on the top. It's easy for kids to move back and forth.

The go through the games and remove them one at a time from the boxes. Make a pile of the boards. Take a sharpie and write the name of the game on the bag and then put all pieces and the cut out directions in the bag. Then put all the bags in a storage container. The first time I did this I was able to fit all our games in the place of just a few games. Ugh..how much wasted space.

We keep all our card games in the coffee table because it has drawers.

Since, the boys are getting older now we are going to start having a time for games once a week. We always forget how much fun we have playing them.

[ekblad9]

Great idea! I've done that with a few things but need to do it with more. Thank you!