Get ‘ere Done: Have a Plan

So my closet case type A personality has immersed today…yikes.  Most of the time I’m totally go with the flow, then I get streaks of control freak type A that come out in waves.  Today I had a moment, and I put it to good use.  I came up with a plan for dealing with one of the biggest contributors to the chaos in my house.  Now I would love to just go out and do all the things in my plan, but cash is tight after my pantry redo, so this may have to be a baby step plan, or wait for another month.  Either way I wanted to share the process I came up with today.  I also have to give a shout out to a youtuber AtHomeWithNikki.  We never work in a vacuum, as I always tell my students about writing, and after seeing her video on her home project binder I really got inspired to start planning my own project binder and here’s where I started.  Here’s the link if your interested…she does some fabulous things:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffKMB594RvY

I guess it really  all started when I was making my weekend to do list…yes I’m a lister.  If I don’t list, I don’t do.  I really need to do some laundry.  Then I saw the laundry mess.  I have dirty laundry in three distinct places in my house.  A pile on the floor of the bathroom, a pile in the bedroom next to the bed and another pile in the living room.  Yes I said the living room, Steve and I work such different hours that most of the time I get dressed in the living room so I don’t disturb him.  Then I thought about the two loads of laundry I have waiting to be folded down stairs…needless to say I’m sort of dreading doing laundry.  So I went and meet one of my co-teachers to work on lesson plan and we started talking about processes, and figuring out what we needed to teach before our students are able to write an essay.  When I got home I started to apply some of the same techniques to my laundry problem and this is what I came up with…

I started with a four column table.  I asked myself a guiding question…What is the process for doing laundry?  After I figured out the steps for doing laundry, I wrote down all the problems associated with each step in the next column.  The last column I thought of specific solutions to the problems listed.

Guiding Question	Processes	Problems	Solution
What is the process for doing laundry?	Gather laundry Put it in the machine Put in soap Wash Put it in the dryer Put in dryer sheet Dry Pull it out of the dryer Fold Put away	Laundry is scattered through the house, usually on the floor or scattered through a room.  I have to put it into a bag or basket, and there are multiple trips up and down the stairs.  I miss laundry, because I keep finding stuff in different places.  No place to store laundry waiting to be washed. Empty soap bottles don’t get thrown away.  No place to store supplies. Junk in pockets gets tossed around washer. No place to put stuff coming out of the dryer. No place to store supplies, place to put trash is not easy to find. No issue No place to put stuff out of dryer, waiting to be folded. Folding doesn’t get done right away, so I get confused as to what is clean, what is dirty and things get wrinkly. No system to get things upstairs and put away.  They build up, get knocked off onto the floor and get dirty again.  There is not enough storage for our stuff.	2 centralized places for laundry collection.  One upstairs and one down stairs.  Carts with pull out bins/bags that can be taken out and put back.  Schedule a specific time so Steve can help me.  A cart for things in process.  Changeable labels for things to be washed and things to be folded.  Something mobile that I can move from washer and dryer to a folding area. Specific Trash and storage solution for supplies.  These could be simple cheap cubbies, maybe those Closetmaid shelving units. Central place to empty out pockets.  Hooks to hang clothing that can be worn again, like Steve’s work pants. See number 2 See number 3 N/A See number 2 Setup a specific schedule for washing.  So I have folding time planned. Setting up a specific area as an upstairs and downstairs landing pad.  Look at the landing pad before I go up or down stairs and take what I need to take.  Enlist Steve’s help with this project to make it a household habit.   Household purge needs to take place.  Clothing that is damaged, stained, not worn, or don’t fit need to be purged. Enlist Steve to purge his own clothes.

I, know pretty concise list, and it only took me about twenty minutes to identify and address all our laundry concerns.  Then I needed an Action Plan.  It’s all well and dandy to write down problems and solutions, but if you don’t take action, it all stays theoretical.

So I created another table and this time I labeled it each column:  Buy, Create, Schedule/Plan, and Habits…I did a bit of research and found what I wanted and just figured out a rough price range and voila, I’m ready to start assembling stuff when I have the cash flow at hand.

Buy	Create	Schedule/Plan	Habits
2 laundry sorter with removable bins, bags, baskets that can be taken   up and down stairs.Wal-Mart and Target have some cool ones with removable bags starting   at $25.00 eachStorage for soap, dryer sheets and whatever… Closetmaid cubby   starting at $15.00Hooks to hang up work pants.    Starting around $5.00	Some sort of tag for designating clean vs. dirty clothes.  Maybe something with clothes pins????Space to drop off stuff in pockets.	One or two days a week to do laundry.Tuesday?Thursday?Clear out space for sorter, cubby, put up hooks. Purging “Drop station” for things to go up or down stairs.	Putting   clothes in the same place every day. Taking   stuff out of pockets before it goes into the laundry sorter. Regular   wash and folding schedule. Checking   up and down stairs drop station before you go up or down stairs.
Total Cost:Low end: $70.00High end:  $150.00

Vignettes made easy…

So what the heck is a vignette, and why do I want one.  A vignette is simply a collection of your crap that looks pretty.  So there are plenty of websites that tell you specific rules…use odd numbers of items…various heights…incorporate specific color…blah, blah, blah.  I figured I’d just walk you through how this vignette came to be, and why I like it.  Mostly it’s a happy accident.

Here’s my blank canvas.  We found this light at a thrift store, originally I wasn’t thrilled with the lamp.  It’s sort of reminded me of a western restaurant decor, but it’s grown on me.  Not a bad buy for $35.  This is a spot next to our entertainment center where we keep the dogs food and water bowls.  Pretty boring right now.

While it may be easy to leave this space blank, it could do with a little dressing up

I thought the scale was right to put up our wedding photo.  Rather than getting a sign in book, we used a matte for people to write down messages to us.  I think it looks great.

Now I could have stopped here, but it still was a bit on the boring side.

On our honeymoon we went to New Orleans and picked up a set of Mardi Gras masks that I just didn’t know what to do with. Inspiration hit me, why not add them to the wall.  I played with a few different ways to hang them up, and finally decided to hang them on the wedding photo.  I definitely like the look.  To give more visual interest I hung them at different levels.  This draws they eye into the picture.

I could have stopped there, but I felt like I was missing balance.  While symmetry can be pretty, asymmetrical vignettes are more interesting to look at, but they need to be balanced.  Have you ever walked into a room were all the furniture was on one wall?  It feel sort of off some how, like your tilting to one direction.  That’s because it lacks balance.  When you evenly distribute the furniture it feels more cohesive.  So to achieve some balance I added a smaller piece of framed art to counter act the weight of the lamp. While it’s not a perfect balance, it’s enough to make the vignette appealing.

Again this looks pretty nice right now, it’s balanced, the pieces are interesting…but it was missing something. All the pieces are very white and black. Its missing some color. While most of the time you want your pictures to be at eye level for viewing, don’t forget that sometimes you can hang things lower. This wall has very tall furniture on it, so it looked a bit sad with so much open space at the bottom. So to give it a touch of whimsy, a bit of color and drama I put up this poster. I love the irony of the Tournee Du Chat Noir, behind the dogs food dishes.

The final touches are the functional side of this. A dollar store bin to hold the dogs toys, and its short enough that they can help themselves. A scale my husband insists on leaving in the living rooom…I don’t know why, and a simple magazine storage box for catalogues and store inserts help to keep us organized. Now its interesting, and functional…which always important.

Pretty and functional…what do you think? So the key here was creating balance. Balancing asymmetrical items in a way that draws your eye up the wall and around to each item. Balance doesn’t need things to be the same size to balance each other out, but they need to create a similar visual impact. This can work with color, stark white on a dark background; or groups of similar smaller items to make a larger image, like hanging several smaller framed pieces together or a group of wall decals in one area. Remember if you’re using a lot of vertical space on a wall, keep going with it. Pictures can go down as low as you like them if they are balanced right.

The total cost for this was $0.  I reused stuff we already had.  The smaller framed art and poster were from friends, the wedding photo was a gift from my parents, the masks were souvenirs from a trip and everything else I had lying around the house or being used for other things.  I love this sort of rearranging.  Look through your stuff, and see what kind of cool treasures you have, you’ll be surprised by what you can do if you just play with things a bit.  While I know a little about visual aesthetics from learning to paint, I’m not an expert, and most of the time I just try putting various things together to see how they look.  If you have a variety of things you can try tons of different combinations to get the right look.  With a little practice you’ll know what you need and where, and be able to find something to work.

Getting the urge to purge…

Finding the motivation to purge can be hard, frankly I’d much rather just curl up with a good book, than ransack my closet for things to get rid of.  Granted, I always feel like I have more breathing room after I’ve unloaded a ton of stuff out of my life, but I just can’t always find the get up and go to do it.  How do I get the mood?  Here’s a few tips…

Watch an Episode or Two of Hoarders

Nothing gets me so in the mood to throw away crap as watching an episode of Hoarders.  Frankly, I’m a bit paranoid by nature.  All I have to see is some crazy cat lady living utter squalor and I’m ready to back up the dump truck and fill it.

Setting Up a Purging Goal

Whether it’s a daily goal, weekly goal, or monthly goal, there’s nothing like a little incentive to get the job done.  One of my favorite YouTube vloggers, Malitose79, gives herself a goal for getting rid of 21 items in a go.  She literally runs around her house with bags over her arms and ditches at least 21 items in five minutes.

YouTube Can be Your Friend

Watching a vlog on organization can get you in the mood to do some much-needed purging.  I’ve already mentioned my favorite vlogger, Malitose79, but I also like TheGreenAppleHome, and I occasionally get good tips from TheClutterDiet.  If you feel like your house is too small, check out the website FairCompanies.com.  They have a bunch of different videos on anything from creating environmentally friendly houses, sustainable living, and people living well with less.  Check out the videos of people living in less than a 100 square feet.  It really puts things into perspective.

One In/One Out

Get rid of something old to get something new.  When we bought our new couch and chair, we got rid of the old sectional first.  You can use this with small purchases too, when you plan on getting a new tube of lipstick or pair of curtains, be sure to ditch one before you get something new.

Keep a Bag Handy

I like to keep a bag or two handy to toss in donatable items or trash as you clean.  This works fantastically.  When I have a bag ready to goit easy to just drop things in and get on with life.  When the bags full, I take it out to the car and start a new one.  When I’m in the neighborhood I just drop the bags off at goodwill or where ever and I’m done.  If I don’t have a bag handy, things get piled up or just ignored.

Have a Plan

When I have a plan for a room, or want to do something special with an area, its much easier to let go of things that don’t fit into the plan.  For example when I was building a new work area in an old closet, I was able to pitch a lot of things that didn’t work for the space.  When you’re not sure what function you want a room to serve, it becomes a catch-all for things you don’t really need.  My second point is our spare bedroom.  It started out as an office, and at first it was fairly clean.  Then we moved the office, and that room just became extra space, a place to throw anything I didn’t know what to do with, and I’m still digging it out.  With no forseeable plan, I may never dig the damn thing out.  Once I figure out what I’m going to do with it, then it gets much easier to let things go.

Hope those help you get rid of some things you don’t need today.  Just remember, what good is a house you can’t live in, frankly it’s just a museum for crap no one wants anymore.