Just do it - week 2 update!

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(One of my completed projects this week!!)

Last week I posted about my Just do it plan to get my house tidied sorted and organised over the next 10 weeks.

I've finally reached breaking point with the mess and decided enough is enough.

Just today my daughter smashed her little snowglobe when trying to tidy up her bedside cabinet - due to the fact that there is so much stuff on there and really not enough space, and well, it is a mess.

I know accidents happen and things break - but things like this are far more likely to happen when things are piled up on top of each other and heaped in a mess!

So - how am I going with my plan?

GREAT!

Now I am a great list maker - I write lists for everything.

I have started countless lists of things to do around the house - organising, sorting etc....  But clearly this tactic hasn't worked.

One of my favourite quotes is:

"Success comes from doing things differently"

So, I figured for me to be successful in my organisational quest, then I need to NOT do what I've done before. Out does the list!

I've been just tackling jobs as I see them and when I have a minute.

First up this week was fixing our letterbox.  Since we moved into this house I've wanted to replace the letterbox with a nicer one. It's been leaning on it's small dodgy post at an angle and the box itself was very rusty.  Then a few weeks ago someone running past the box at night managed to knock it off it's post completely!

So - this week I pulled out the old post - got my husband to cut a section off an old fence post we had; dug a big hole, set the post in concrete, repainted the letterbox itself and fixed it to the new post!

Now every time I come home - I see the nice new, upright letterbox and feel happy and motivated to do more things!

Lesson learnt:  do something visible first, so this serves as a reminder of how good it is to get things done!!

Then while I had the drill out from fixing the box to the post, I did a few other small jobs around the house that needed a drill - another ribbon board for the girls medal wall, a few hooks here and there and fixed up some loose hooks! - all things that had needed doing for a long time. 

I also did HEAPS of weeding and tidying in the garden.  Living up here in the tropics, everything grows very fast and can get out of control very quickly.  I keep saying that if only I could get the garden under control, then it would only take me a little time regularly each week to maintain it.  A large portion of the garden is now at this stage and ready to implement my 'maintain' plan.  Still a few sections to tidy up - but it's a good start!

Again this is something very visible - that I see every day and feel proud that I'm getting things done - again motivating me to keep on with my masterplan!

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After school yesterday, my eldest daughter was finishing off her homework.  She gets her homework a week in advance and we're trying to encourage her to do it straight away - generally over the weekend, and not leave it until the last minute. Yesterday however, she left it and left it until the last minute then was fed up and rushed the last part.  

I asked her, "Why didn't you do this part with the rest of your homework at the weekend?"

"Because I couldn't be bothered," she replied. 

"And could you be bothered to do it tonight?" I asked.

"No," she replied.

I tried to explain to her that when it comes to things that you don't want to do, or things that are tricky - it doesn't help to put them off to later because you don't want to do them any more another day, or they don't magically any easier or fun.  The best thing to do is to do them straight away and get them over with.

Taking some of my own medicine yesterday, I cleaned the ceiling of our patio.  Every year it needs wiped down, but it's a horrible job - reaching up high to wipe, up and down the stepladder to rinse the cloth out, sore neck muscles the next day from looking upwards and backwards.... 

So yesterday I'd planned to just do it, motivated by a patio party we're having this weekend.  My husband suggested that I could just use the water pressure cleaner instead - that would be much easier! Fabulous I thought - it will be done in minutes and sparkling clean without too much effort.

WRONG!! I got soaked - with all that water spraying up above my head, and it just didn't work at all cleaning the dirt/dust off!

My first thought was that I'd spent all that time getting the water blaster out, setting it up and trying to use it, that I was now tired and couldn't be bothered so I'd just leave the ceiling.

I went inside, sat down with a cup of tea and watched part of a movie I'm watching in bits, feeling fed up that this easy way out plan hadn't worked!

Then after a while, I started to think that really, I should just get up and wipe the ceiling while the patio was clear. (My husband helped me move all the furniture off the patio so it was easier to clean).

I knew the job had to be done sometime, and also knew that it would be there - literally hanging over me until it was done.

So - just as I told my daughter about her homework - I got on and did the job I couldn't be bothered to do there and then. It wasn't going to get any more attractive as a job in a few days or weeks time, and it wasn't going to go away and not need doing anymore.

So I just did it!

I don't know if you can see here the difference - cleaned on the right side of the fan, still dirty and dusty on the left.

But now it's all done!

Phew!! So I'm pleased with how much I got done this week.  

And I learned 3 things:

1. If you have an ongoing problem with tidying and organisation (or anything else really) - try something different.  For me this was to stop writing a list of what to do, and just to launch into doing things I could see!

2. Do something that is visible every day. This will make you feel good to see something you have achieved and motivated you to continue doing things!

3. Putting things off until another time doesn't make them any easier. It feels good to just suck it up and do it straight away - getting the painful process out of the way once and for all, then you can move on!

So on to next week - I'm going to show you a shameful photo - so that I know I will have to sort this out by next Friday and show you all a photo of how super organised and tidy it is then!

This is the desks I set up for my girls to do their homework and drawing etc on. In the middle are all their stationery and drawing things. But just now - they never want to use the areas because it is such a mess!  Too much stuff, not enough space.

Something needs to be done!

Come back next week to see what I've managed to achieve!

So how about you?  Are you joining in and getting a bit of tidying and organisation done in your home?

I hope you've all had a productive week!  

Thanks for reading! :)