Catching Up the Little Things

As you know, Ryan and I pretty much lost our own schedules from the beginning of October, 2018 until the end of June 2019. Those months were devoted to helping his family (mom and dad) in their times of need, and while we were thankful we had the time available to offer, things in our own life began slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwly piling up, because we had no time to tend to any of it.

We tried to stay caught up on the things that mattered most, like mowing the yard (before the city "helped") and taking showers and such. :) 

Once the busy season slowed down, what we needed more than anything was rest. We were just so very, very tired, physically and emotionally. So during the majority of July, we heavily protected our schedule so we could have time at home to do some projects and get some rest. We accomplished both those things - on the big scales.

We completed the big projects, like ripping out the fence around our patio, planting the tree in Nita's memory, finishing up a handful of scrapbooks, painting the deck, and a few other odds and ends. 

But the little things...those have remained. One of my big goals for August is to get through the little things and catch them up so they're done. In the grand scheme, they may not matter, but it really does amaze me how much simplicity we've found in beginning to accomplish the easily-forgotten tasks.

Here's what I've done so far:

* Maybe I'm the only person who does this, but I have a TERIBLE habit of failing to enter contact information for people who text me for the first time. Drives Ryan nuts to see all these random numbers in my text list. So one day last week, while I waited for chicken to boil (without boiling over, so I had to babysit it) I scrolled through all my old texts, deleted ones that are just mysterious to me, and added names to the ones I could identify. Took about ten minutes, tops, but my text feed looks so pretty now! 

* For several months, we've had a stash of pictures and art prints awaiting a permanent home in our hallway. Some were gifts given to use when Nita passed away, and some were ones we had and just hadn't hung up. So a few days ago, I arranged them all just the way I wanted them, and Ryan (who is much safer wielding a hammer and nails than I am) put them in their permanent new home. I love that wall so much now!

* Though I regularly back up my computer files, I am not always that great about organizing things into file folders (so my lists are shorter) or cleaning off things I no longer need. That is especially true of all our podcast files. I had dozens of little unedited segments sitting around, so one day, after editing the podcast, I cleaned out all the old segments and now the desktop is so pretty!

* I refilled all my spice jars, so I could throw out extra mismatched storage jars in the cabinet AND so my shelf looked prettier.

* This one falls more under the category of "in process" than done, but I'm working on making more carefully organized archive of my blog posts. I've blogged for many years, so this will take a while, but at least I've started, right? I'm hoping to make them easier to search when I need to find something I've blogged about before, as well as serving as a better backup than what I have now. 

Here's what I want to accomplish:

* About four years ago, both Ryan and I heavily weeded our closet and went down to a pretty basic capsule wardrobe. For the last few years, Ryan has actually had more clothes than I do! But both of us have reached a point where we need to go through our closet again, get rid of anything we don't like/never wear/don't fit in anymore and make a list of things to watch for as we see sales. My goal is to never again let our clothing amounts get to where they were when we first got married. We definitely don't need that many clothes. I also want to reorganize the closet to make sure we know where everything is.

* I also need to go through the kitchen cabinets/buffet cabinet/pantry/overstock cabinets and clear out all the things we never use or maybe some perishables that have...well...perished. I really don't think it will take all that long to actually do this, but it's just doing it, you know? While I'm at it, I might need to also add the coat closet and guest room closet to this same list.

* I need to reorganize our office again. I do this about once a year. Being an office, it easily clutters up and needs a healthy sifting and sorting. I think this past year, it's ended up being the landing zone for things I've cleaned out from other locations, so it may be a little worse than usual this time. That may also explain why it hasn't been done yet. :) 

There are more projects, I'm sure, but I feel like this is a fine start!