To-Do, To-Do, To-do-do-doodly-doo

The house we live in now was built in 1973, the same year I was born. So, it’s about 37 years old. It is the first house I have lived in as an adult that was not brand new when I moved in. Everything was used, pre-owned, broken-in, comfortable, and I’m OK with that.

When we moved in, I settled for the color schemes the previous owners had chosen for each room of the house, because it was easier to buy new bathroom rugs to match the bathroom wallpaper border than it was to rip down the border and repaint.

Now that we’ve lived in the house almost 2 years, I’m tired of someone else’s choices. While we debated back and forth about how long we planned on living in this house, I think its a pretty safe bet we’re going to be here for a while.

In my planner, I have a tab marked “HOUSE.” I keep a few blank sheets of paper in there, because I write things down when I think of them. There are scribbles and scraps of things I am thinking about doing to our house, things I know I want to do to the house, and things that we’ll do if we ever win the lottery and maybe decide to still stay in this house.

I keep putting them off, mostly because I don’t have the time to accomplish them, and because when I see the words “Paint” and “Room” in the same sentence, I get hives and start hyperventilating thinking about trying to accomplish anything with two dogs and two kids at home with me.

Since we’re going full steam ahead with this adoption process, I seem to have all of a sudden morphed into a full-boar nesting mode. I feel the need to rearrange, repaint, redecorate, remodel… to many RE’s going on. I just have such a long list of things I want to do, that I simply get worn out from thinking about where to start.

For example, our house is a split level. This basically means that the walls in the living room are the same walls that go up the hallway stairs and down the hall. They are the same walls that go down the stairs to the family room. There’s no easy stopping point for paint colors. This makes me want to get stabby and throw any ideas of painting out the window.

In the utter hopes of ever accomplishing making this house the way we want it to be, I need to stop and BREATHE.

So, in the spirit of the “RE’s” (rearrange, repaint, redecorate, remodel, etc) and based on the well-known fact that I am big on checking things off a list, I am going to RE-write my list. I will start with one room at a time, and write down everything in that room I want to change. I won’t worry about any other room except ONE AT A TIME.

Starting today, I will officially be on a new mission. One room at a time. On a budget. Finding inexpensive ways to re-do the house.

First up: Master Bathroom
Plan:
* Decide on new color scheme
* REMOVE WALLPAPER BORDER
* New paint
* New Shower curtain, hooks, and rod
* New Rugs
* New Artwork

Before and After pictures to come.

Wish me luck.

My Attempt at Looking Like I Know What I Am Doing

In the flurry of the last few weeks, quitting one job, starting another, the kids starting school… I feel like I have lost control of things in my life. Nothing seems normal, nothing seems balanced. My house is in constant disarray. We got rid of the cleaning lady a while back to save money, and not yet have any of us in the house decided to pick up the slack in that department. I include myself in that category, because I feel drained lately. No energy, no ambition to get motivated.

Not wanting to reveal how *ACK* my house is right now, I will mention that in the last week, I think we have done a whole 2 loads of laundry, and I honestly don’t remember the last time my bathroom or kitchen floors got a good mopping. I want to get the housework caught up, I truly do. But I am overwhelmed and tired every day when I get home, and I just don’t know where to start. I don’t make time to blog anymore, and I don’t bother doing much on Facebook anymore. I am struggling to finish up the last few days of this school term—realizing the mistake I made trying to take two college courses in the summertime.

I am fanatical about making lists. I keep a running to-do list with me at all times, yet very rarely am I given the opportunity to cross something off of it. I am unable to check anything off of it as being completed, which makes me feel like a big failure. I get home from work and instead of tackling my list, I sit and think of all the things I should be doing—exercising, planning meals, cleaning, studying… and I just panic. Unable to process all of this in my head at once, I fizzle out and sit on the couch to watch TV.

I’m wavering back and forth on how to keep myself organized. I am riding the fence when it comes to calendars, planning my time and keeping myself (and my family) on track. I’ve switched back and forth between electronic and paper calendars, going from PDA to smartphones to paper planners, and now back again all over in the process. I don’t want to micro-manage myself or my family, so planning out every hour of my day would never work for me. But on the other hand, the current method I have of flying by the seat of my pants is not too successful either.

The advantage of the paper planner is the ability to see weeks or months at a time, and darn it, there’s just something to be said for being able to “pencil something in” on your calendar. Being able to move something around and immediately find certain things on your schedule. The downside with these paper planners is that you actually have to lug them around with you all the time or they become useless. I was addicted to my Day-Timer for years, but it never fit in my purse. I would take it with me to work, but never anywhere. Because I never carried it with me, things fell through the cracks and didn’t get written down.

With PDAs or smartphones, they are light and portable, and have the capability to repeat certain events rather than writing everything down over and over again. Take my daughter’s sports activities, for example. On my paper calendar, I would write every single day “Practice 3:45pm” but on the PDA or smartphone, I only enter it once, and set it to repeat on certain days. The downside to the smart phone is that it really only has the capability to see a day at a time, because the screen is so small. So when I am looking for something in particular, or need to see when I have an available weekend, it is a pain in the rear end.

I know that the perfect method is out there somewhere, just waiting for me.

Only problem is I don’t have the time to find it.

What works best for you? How do you manage your time? How do you manage your family’s schedule and attempt to get everything done?