Organized Home Challenge

I have not been frequenting the internet as much as I used to, but one place I have been going to is The Well Trained Mind board. Mostly, I lurk but occasionally I respond to a thread. Anyway, I noticed that they have a 52 Weeks to an Organized Home Challenge going on. I haven't really read the thread, but at some point I got curious and googled for it. Here's the link: http://www.home-storage-solutions-101.com/organized-home.html

I went to the site and as usual it didn't really fit my needs. Some of the weeks are of no use to me and others are terribly optimistic. For instance one week dedicated to organizing my cosmetics? No thanks. In other weeks they think you can organize bedrooms in 7 short days. That would take a month around here! Anyway, what about a week or two for vacation? Or allotting a week for sickness? It just didn't seem very practical. So I decided to rewrite my own 52 Weeks. Since I seem to do so well with the Read 52 Books habit, maybe organizing things by having a concrete goal each week fits my ADD style. I can hold one concrete goal in my head, like finish this book by Saturday or perhaps (I am being optimistic here!) I can have one concrete household organizational goal in my mind and find a corner of time in which to do it each week. In addition to this organizational task each week, there are always the constant tidying, vacuuming, bathrooms, washing, laundry and cooking, and recycling (and lawn mowing in the summer which is a big chore).

I decided to conduct a little experiment. My upstairs hall has been horrible for a couple of years now. It had become a major dumping ground. Things were stacked along the walls; things that I wanted to give away, things that should go back up in the attic for storage but nobody bothered to do it, things that people didn't want in their rooms any more but were too lazy to go put them back where they belonged and which they had shoved out into the hall in boxes. It had gotten so you only had this narrow path to walk through to get to the bedrooms and bathroom. Anyway, I decided for some reason that I suddenly couldn't bear it anymore. Stuff like this weighs on me for months and even years and takes up so much unnecessary mental energy. So I determined that while Will was home I would ask him to help me clean up the hall. Well, Friday got here and I still hadn't done it, so this a.m. I asked him and Josh to help me. It only took about 30 minutes or so and it looks so much better! Why, why, why do I wait so long and build up such mental blocks. I have such destructive thinking habits!

So here is my stab at my 52 Weeks to an Organized Home. What I did is figured out what needed to be done seasonally and when I would need to deep clean (as opposed to weekly maintenance cleaning), etc.

Week of Task

3/17 Dejunk upstairs hall (Hurrah! Accomplished!)
3/24 Thorough cleaning of main floor in prep for Passover/Easter (also prep for guest)
3/31 Get items collected from upstairs hall and main floor to Good Will, etc
4/7 Mulch yard
4/14 Organize books throughout house
4/21 Finish book project/check/buy summer clothes
4/28 Clean screen porch thoroughly
5/5 Clean study/prep for guest
5/12 Get ready for confirmation/vacation
5/19 Hannah's graduation and vacation
5/26 Clean mud room
6/2 Master bedroom
6/9 Master bedroom
6/16 End of year testing/Clean garage/Josh's graduation
6/23 Weed yard
6/30 Organize cds/dvds
7/7 Organize kitchenette section of basement
7/14 Circe Institute Conference
7/21 Prep for Goshen/clean windows
7/28 AHG camp at Goshen with Becky
8/4 Weed yard and prep for beach
8/11 Week at beach!!!
8/18 Prep for beginning of academic year
8/25 Prep for beginning of academic year
9/1 Weed yard
9/8 Check or buy fall/winter clothes
9/15 Organize for Adler/call chimney sweep
9/22 Bedrooms (clean carpet)
9/29 Bedrooms (clean carpet)
10/6 Weed yard
10/13 Dejunk/declutter whatever needs it most
10/20 Organize linens and deep clean nooks and crannies
10/27 Clean out medicine cabinets
11/3 Prep yard for winter
11/10 Thorough cleaning of main floor in prep for Thanksgiving
11/17 Prep for Thanksgiving
11/24 (Actually weekend after Thanksgiving) Clean through closets and give away clothes to clothing drive
12/1 Assess Christmas decorations/get out Advent calendar and wreath/put up front door wreath
12/8 Christmas cookies and gifts
12/15 Christmas prep and shopping
12/22 Christmas week - get tree and decorate
12/29 Clean and tidy house from holidays/check smoke alarms, etc
1/5 Master bedroom
1/12 Basement
1/19 A week off! (in case of illness - this week can float around!)
1/26 Kitchen organization
2/2 Focus on hot spot
2/9 Check/buy spring clothes
2/16 papers/mail/calendar organization
2/23 Dejunk or declutter whatever needs it most
3/2 Clean under sinks
3/9 Books
3/16 Back pantry/mud room