December might be the most challenging month yet, as far as my project goes. I feel like I often read articles about simplifying schedules by saying ‘no’ to commitments, but I never really see any advice for people who find this advice unhelpful.
Unfortunately I don’t have any advice to share, either.
I discovered I don’t have a problem saying no to requests because I work and genuinely don’t have time. But this month’s calendar is packed with things where saying ‘no’ is not an option. For example, there are three half days of school this month, due to parent-teacher conferences and a teacher training day. They pose a definite challenge to me, because Emma’s day ends about halfway through my work day. Many of the mom friends I coordinate child care with also found today tough, so I had no choice but to leave work early. I’m very grateful to have an understanding boss who has walked in my shoes- it makes a huge difference and I know many people don’t have that.
Looking back, I realize I didn’t coordinate my project well with regards to weather. I should have given more attention to the garage and attic during the spring and fall, because now it’s cold. Though one recent commenter suggested bringing items into the house to sort, which is a great idea I didn’t think of. This approach is way more efficient. For one thing, it’s obviously much warmer in the house. But more importantly, the garage is just such a mess it overwhelms me nearly to the point of paralysis. Every time. I wonder how many minutes I’ve spent just staring at it all. But going through everything in the house, where it’s much neater, facilitates the process because I can focus on the items at hand and not all the items left to sort.
This is what my home office/library looks like at the moment, and the reason why I can’t contemplate taking out the Christmas bins even though we’re definitely into the season. As of this moment, none of these boxes are full. Yet.
Props to Chewy.com for saving me a trip to the pet store AND providing great sturdy boxes!
So I’m working on filling these boxes with items from the garage, though I have thrown away and recycled a lot. Until last week the space was an identity thief’s dream because there were two boxes full of old bank and credit card statements and pay stubs. Several months ago we took several bags to a local shredding event, but we must have missed these which is not surprising. There’s a lot but not too much for my home shredder.
This has been the most stressful week I’ve had in a while, only partly because of the holidays, mostly because of the lack of wiggle room in my calendar for this month. On Sunday we’re going to put up the tree and whatever decorations I can get out will be it, I’m not going to make myself nuts!
One thing that we are doing this Christmas season is turning down events. Yup, you read right, we are turning down Christmas events! There was one going on this evening, and we simply did not go. Instead, I got two painting jobs finished, and my husband got half of a half bathroom wall repair finished. And tomorrow he will be able to finish the other half, then I can get the half bath painted before Christmas. We saw that our schedule was getting a bit, no a LOT, out of hand, and decided to take back our time. And I do not even have one speck of guilt, lol!
I am completely with you on not wanting to take out the Christmas decor. I have put it off BC I dont want the extra clutter, but my kids are begging. I am going to keep it very limited. As per your advice in a different post, I’m going to donate any Christmas decor that I dont use.
Here’s to simplicity even at the holidays.
Like you, for many years I made the mistake of thinking I will do the basement and garage in winter when working in the garden is not an option anymore (we have a fairly large garden), except in winter I don’t because it’s cooold in there! So the garage was always a mess! This year though I started tackling the garage in September, and it’s such a relief that it’s a little bit tidier now – but the garden is a mess, and I haven’t got ground to putting my spring bulbs in the ground yet.
Glad you found a way to work on the boxes. I had to do that with our storage room so it wasn’t so overwhelming. Remember, the clutter started one box at a time so it shall go out one box at a time. We started decluttering around 5 years ago. We are at the point where we can tell you the entire contents of every box. It does take time, but you are doing great! I find it helpful to take before, during and after pictures to help motivate me.
For holiday decor, I have decided to wait for someone to ask before anything is brought out. So far, no one has asked. Suspect we may have another week before the kids ask us to put up our tabletop tree (donated the big/huge tree after cursing while taking it down 3 years ago – the kids prefer the small tree they can decorate without adult supervision).
I have Christmas decor up, but skipped Thanksgiving decor this year, because no one asked, and I didn’t want to. We CAN’T skip Christmas activities — my daughter dances in the Nutcracker, and it is consuming!
For your shred-ables: my kids LOVE feeding things into the shredder. Even if it took a couple of sessions, would your daughter want to do that for you?