Well I don’t know what day of this project it is, all I know is that I only have another 18 days to finish all the things I wanted to do to get my life more organized and efficient, and do my spring cleaning at the same time.

Up to now I have organized the master bedroom (mentioned on previous post) the kids bedrooms are all organized and cleaned from top to bottom. I have changed the decoration of my son’s room, changed the place of his bed to make his room more accessible and organized.

Now the kids know what belongs where, every toy has a place! Which was not like that before; they had some toys that didn’t belong to a specific spot and ended up anywhere. So far so good, I was consistent on asking them to clean up their room before bed (putting everything back in it’s place), well they didn’t like it but did it anyway after a lot of going back and forths. I just have to keep in mind not to miss a day on enforcing this, otherwise I will lose the battle and things will go back the way it was.

Bathroom cabinets and few of the kitchen cabinets are organized as well. Looks like I’m almost there, but there are lots to do and I hope I’ll make it in time. Specially that I’m thinking of baking some traditional cookies like Nokhodchi (chickpea cookie) and Noonberenji (rice cookie) for Nowruz. These will take a good chunk of time to do.

Next stop is the rest of kitchen cabinets, fridge, and the TV stand in family room. Then vacuuming, mopping and washing the windows. Just that, nothing more, or is it! I don’t know I’ll get to it when I get there, just thinking of all of these makes me tired. I had a long day, doing my chores and keeping the children busy and entertained.          Off to bed, thank goodness for nights.

Until later,

Looks like I have more luck doing anything on weekends. So far I was only able to organize kids books. I tried to organize them by putting most popular books in boxes on the bookshelf so they can get them easily without knocking the rest down on the floor.  I also managed to go through 1/3 of the CDs and DVDs to see what is working what is not and organize them in one box. But that’s all and I have a lot to go. Weekdays is all about classes, games, reading and crafts; not cleaning and organizing.

I think I will have a hard time to finish in 38days, most of my work should be on weekends.

Until later,

I started with master bedroom for a change, most of the times this is the last room I clean. Man I keep junk. I thought I won’t have space to organize everything. Turned out that I have more than enough space to organize things, I just had to let go and through away some things that I keep just for the sake of keeping.

I have to explain something, in Chinese calendar I was born in the year of mouse. What mouse does? Collect things!! This is so true, I can’t through away things, I keep them just in case I need them later. Most of the times this later won’t come and I just end up dusting things that I don’t really want to use.

Trash it!! Today was trash day for me; I was in the mood of getting rid of things that are just cluttering my life. This is actually therapeutic, can you believe that. I feel much better now that I de-cluttered. Now I know I have too many sewing and kneading to do. Lots of fabric and yarns waiting to be used and a few unfinished project were hiding under my bed in a container!!! Not that I didn’t know I just ignored them

Tips:

I followed two rules in organizing my room.

1-      Gather all related items at one place, this helps you check your inventory, and cuts the time you have to look for it.

2-      Use all sort of boxes and containers to organize items in. The finished look is more neat and clean that just putting them on the shelf. Moving them is easier as well.

So one room and one washroom done,  the rest of the house to go. I think next stop is family room.

Until later.

I’ve been thinking about this post since Christmas (almost), right after I saw Julie and Julia. (Have to say I loved the movie, it was funny, interesting and inspiring.) What did I think about? Since I saw the movie, I thought I could challenge myself to start a project and write about it. I said challenge because first it’s not easy to write about an ongoing project while you are messing it up, two is that quitting won’t be easy. When you say you’re doing something publicly, you have to deliver it. I’m good at finishing most of my projects, but I quitted before on projects that it was too much for me; mostly in knitting and sewing.

The project

You already guessed it, my project is organization, I’m planning to reorganize our house, rearrange everything in a way that suits our today life better. I’m always after new tips and ideas in organization. The most problem with my organization is that it is easy to get organized but very difficult to stay organized. We have 41 days to Nowruz. (First day of spring Iranian new year) and for that we are supposed to do spring-cleaning. My challenge is to get the whole house cleaned, organized and rearranged by Nowruz.

I need all the help I can get, and the sweetest thing was that just before writing this article I was checking my RSS feed and saw an interesting article on organization in tipjunkie.com. It is very interesting with great tips in homemaking check it out. I sure use it a lot.

I’m starting from my room ( for a change), tell you all about it tomorrow. If you like you can start the project with me I would love to have some company, we can share the tips we come up with.

Until later

I love to have company, but then before they arrive I’m always running around, tidying up. It is exhausting specially if the company is over in the morning and I don’t have my husband’s help.

Couple of weeks ago in the middle of my running around, I decided , Ok I can’t almost do anything about the kids and their toys, but I can eliminate my work by keeping my kitchen ship shape all the time. I asked my friend who was over that how she does it. (Her house is always impeccable)

Here is what she said:

“I don’t bring out too many dishes, the ones I bring out in the morning I use through the day. Each time I wash them quickly and use them again.”

Although I thought this should be time consuming and I would spend all my day in the kitchen washing dishes I decided to keep this in mind and create a step by step plan to tackle this challenge and keep my kitchen clean and tidy all day long all the time.

Here is the list of things I did that helped me:

• Bring out as many dishes as you need just for breakfast
• After each meal time quickly put things away, wash the dishes and wipe the counter
• At each mealtime use the dishes already washed and in the dish rack or put them in place and then bring another set out.
• At cooking time, quickly wash the pots and pans while waiting for something to cook or boil or…
• Every night before bed put all the dishes in the dish rack away and quickly organize the counter tops

These all, seem like very simple steps, that I guess many apply in their daily life.  Well I didn’t; my work and kids were number one priority, I would just leave the kitchen as is and do other stuff until later that I had time for it. The kids still have number one priority but the kitchen is number one too. So while the kids are having a quite time after the meal or when they are doing drawing at the kitchen table I do my kitchen chores.

After trying this method, I figured that my biggest problem was dishwasher. I would bring out dishes for every meal and then load them in the dishwasher. Because I am energy conscious, I didn’t turn it on until it was full, that called for more dishes to take out. Emptying the dishwasher was another time consuming task that is out of the way. I still use dishwasher when I have a company or failed to follow my new technique thoroughly. Then I put the dishes, pots, and pans and whatever I have to wash in the dishwasher and turn in on at a quick or low energy cycle, but I wash them that day to have clean start the next day.

So far so good, it may look like I’m always in the kitchen and cleaning but in reality I’m spending less time in the kitchen and more with my family and on my work.

If you have any tips and like to complete this list please fill free to leave a comment.

Until later,