When I was a teacher I lived by the saying, “Failing to plan is planning to fail,” and I’ve tried to apply that idea to my project. But more pressing, immediate things are always popping up. For example, the main bathroom in the house had never been a huge problem, and it still isn’t. Early in the project I decluttered and reorganized the vanity and it’s stayed pretty neat.

But on Thursday, I realized I need to reorganize once again, but in our other bathroom. Bob and I now get ready for work at the same time, which we have never done in over ten years of marriage.

I’ve watched shows on HGTV where couples and small families insisted they needed multiple bathrooms. And I’d feel smug and superior, because I grew up in a family of 5 in a house with one bathroom, and we made it work. Some of our success can probably be attributed to the fact that I was the only girl among the children; three or even two girls in the family may have led to my dad using his well-honed building skills to tack on another bathroom.

So our house, with one full bath and one half bath, felt like a little splurge to me. But I still wouldn’t have called the second bath a necessity because I always got ready for work way before he did. Now, it’s a different story. I relocated my hair dryer and my cosmetics to the half bathroom so we won’t make each other late. For the moment I just dropped my stuff in there, but I need to organize it better. I usually shower at night, a habit I acquired when I lived in my first apartment and had no control over the thermostat. Mornings were always a little chilly and I often went to the gym after work, and the habit stuck. Bob showers in the morning so it made more sense to leave the full bath for him.

That was the first deviation from my plan. (I’m supposed to be purging the attic.)  I did make a big dent in the mess I left on the library couch, but it’s not a complete success because all I really did was relocate all the toys to another spot. I still need to deal with them.

My current philosophy is, “Deal with anything that’s really getting on my nerves.”

For example, I went grocery shopping on Friday morning and when I was putting everything away I decided I was tired of my disorganized baking cabinet. So I took everything out, tossed a couple expired things and put it back together.

Keeping the flour in the freezer helps it last longer and frees up space in the cabinet.

It’s inspired me to deal with a couple other spaces in the kitchen. It makes me a little sad to have to deal with this cabinet again, because I reorganized all my food storage items back in January. But it’s devolved.

I didn’t donate any food storage containers, but maybe I need to.

This closet, where we keep towels, sheets, toiletries, first aid items and odds and ends, was also decluttered in January. I carefully pared down our towel collection, and donated them along with sheets from our old queen bed. I also committed to not buying toiletries until we used up what we already have, which I’ve stuck to.

In need of a reorganization…again!

Unfortunately it’s become a mess again and I’m the main culprit as I tend to go looking for things and am careless about shifting stuff around.

And that’s where I am this week. I have a lot on my plate over the next couple of weeks, which is probably why I’m gravitating towards these smaller projects I can do quickly.