Clutter in the Kitchen!
Cartons in the Corners!
I know that January is the month when we are supposed to get our homes and lives organized. Every magazine bursts with ideas about what to do with the excess paper in your life and how to rearrange your pantry cupboard and your closets. Plastic bins of every size are on sale. This is the time to redo your address book and line up all the receipts and statements you need to pay taxes. My father, for example, told me the other day that he had put everything together for his accountant on New Year's Day while he was watching the football games.
It's a New Year, after all, so let's get organized.
Delayed Organization
Well, friends, it is going to be awhile before that is a reality in my life.
Organizing and being organized normally is not particularly challenging for me. I love figuring out new systems and reworking the ones I already have. Happiness for me in the years I was working full-time was getting new Franklin Planner pages and filling them in on New Year's Day. Also on New Year's Day I would reread the Christmas cards and write follow up notes. I would make lists of areas in the house that needed an organizational redo or upgrade. With the new year has always come energy to cut the clutter and freshen my surroundings with greater efficiency and ease.
Not this year! As I said, there are boxes in the bathtub, and clutter in the kitchen and cartons in the corners--every corner!
Eventually, I will feel more organized. Soon I will be unpacking boxes and finding just the right spot for everything. Even though we are downsizing --really downsizing--I am confident I will get our new home comfortable and functional and organized. Some day.
Right now, however, the challenge is to endure the chaos, to keep the Big Picture in view. And living in such disorder is not easy for me. While my husband tends to get a bit manic, I tend to slow down and get even more methodical. Thank heaven, we balance each other and understand which parts of the process we are each best suited for. And somehow it evens out, and we know eventually we will accomplish what needs to be done and soon contentment in our new surroundings will be ours. At times, however, it has been hard to see it through the Great Wall of Containers!
Delayed New Year's Day
As I write this, moving day is almost here. I woke this morning thinking for perhaps the first time that everything we need to do before the moving truck pulls up will, in fact, be accomplished. We have worked hard and occasionally been tested, but kept our eyes on the prize, and have not faltered in our plan, our dream, even when it was taking so long to come true. Waiting now to get organized in the new year doesn't seem so bad.
I have written in year's past about my intentions for the new year, but I am not going to do that yet--maybe February. After all, a new year can begin in a moment, any moment you choose or the universe says, "Now!", and that may not be on New Year's Day.
Right now my intention is take one step at a time, fill bags for donations to St Vincent de Paul, empty the refrigerator, and begin cleaning the house for the new owners.
An Invitation
What is inviting to be organized in your life? Perhaps it is a desk drawer or a closet or two, but maybe something inside feels cluttered and needs to be cleared away? What new year thoughts are you having today? I await your thoughts.
I marvel at your ability to keep focused. There is, and has been, so much for you to do - and, all at once. I would love to help, but it is best to keep out of the way of such progress. I will be thinking of you as I work at Macy's tomorrow. Shirley
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