Houseworks Holiday Plan Week 2 - Calendar and Creativity Week

The first week of Houseworks Holiday Plan went pretty well. I have purged and shredded and freecycled and pitched like crazy. I didn't get my French memo board made, but the office is clean. My Master Gift List is made (and trimmed significantly). I have a few ideas and will add more as time goes on.

Week Two is Calendar and Creativity Week. The highlights for me will be a major clean and purge of my crafting area, an endless task. This includes taking an inventory of UFOs (GULP!) and if there are more than four (IF! HA!) then promising not to take on any new tasks. This is also the week to make a list of "gifts to make" and collect the patterns and materials required. I believe the only thing on that list will be the same as every year for the past umpteen years, which is to finish my mom's quilt. This year I hope to cross it off my list!

The other big job is to organize the calendar. We don't travel out of town for any holidays, but I do use this week to schedule service for the furnace, piano tuning, exterminator, and carpet cleaning.

• Monday - Pull out fabric, dust shelves and bins, and refold/stack.
  
• Tuesday - Schedule appointments and organize calendar through December.
  
• Wednesday - Empty, clean, declutter, and organize kids' art cabinet.
• Thursday - Organize books and notions; make a stack to give away on blog or at guild.
  
• Friday - Go through UFOs and make a list. Decide if any could become PIGs.
  
• Saturday - Decide on gifts to make and bundle supplies and patterns together.

What is your creative space like? Neat as a pin and ready for your next adventure? Or always creatively messy? Do your homemade gifts get done in time or are you searching for a substitute on Christmas Eve? Looking forward to comments.

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Houseworks Holiday Plan Week 1 - Planning and Paperwork

We're kicking off the Houseworks Holiday Plan this week. For me, the two big items on our to do list are to declutter/organize my office, and to set up my Master Gift Plan.

This is also the week where we're supposed to set up our planners, but I am more disappointed by the broken promise of the paperless society than the flying cars, so I do everything on my computer. If anyone would like a clean copy of the Excel document I created to track it all, just email me at JENGGREER AT GMAIL DOT COM and I'll shoot you a copy. So anyway, I just update and resave every year, keeping previous versions as idea generators and to remind myself that I already gave my dear auntie the Fitz & Floyd Santa pitcher (or whatever!).

The chore that will consume my week, however, is this pit of an office. Between the avalanche of paper generated by the start of school, and my efforts to keep the kitchen free of the flotsam and jetsam of daily life as I prepare twenty-seven meals, the office has become a dumping ground. I'm not going to be able to conquer it all in one rainy Sunday afternoon. So:

• Monday - I'll ruthlessly declutter the cabinets and knick-knacks, perhaps even purging some of the books.
• Tuesday - Time to go through the files and stacks of papers and do a major purge and shred.
• Wednesday - Set up new files according to the Houseworks plan and see if that helps keep the avalanche from suffocating me.
• Thursday - Clear, clean, and organize the desktop (if there's still anything left!).
• Friday - Serious dusting/vacuuming, including removing books from shelves and getting out the crevice tool.
• Saturday - fun reward for my efforts. I'm going to make a French Memo Board out of the outdated and cluttered bulletin board behind my computer.
  

By next Sunday I should be blogging from my pristine office and getting ready for Week 2.

What will be your biggest challenge this week? Do you make a master gift list, budget, and plan or shop on impulse as the fancy strikes you? Check out the new poll in the sidebar. I'm curious.

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Healthy Habits Monday

In honor of my 39th birthday, I've decided that I'm going to pick a new "Healthy Habit" each week for the next year. By my 40th birthday I hope to be more organized, healthier, and a better person overall. And maybe I'll have fewer UFOs on my list!

They won't necessarily all be related to physical health, since my spiritual and mental well being are just as important to me and, IMHO, interconnected. If you decide to make this journey with me (or even join me for a week) please link up and share your results.

For my inaugural week, I'd like to start with the obvious and choose exercise; however, the next few days are already shaping up to be a nightmare of logistics. I think I'll table that one until next week. If I rotate through a 4 week cycle of body, home, spirit, and mind, then next on the list would be the house. Let's start this week by digging out of the paper mountain that threatens to bury me on a regular basis and commit to 15 minutes every weekday of Paper Tiger Taming. And don't forget to recycle! Being more "green" is definitely on my list.

What are you going to do this week to improve yourself? Leave a comment and let me know.