The Grand Plan

I had it all planned out ahead of time. The weekend before Thanksgiving, my husband and son were to get all of the Christmas decorations down from the attic.  For once, my house was going to be that house where it was completely decorated and ready for the holidays by the time people were arguing over who gets to eat the turkey drumstick on Thanksgiving day.

In my mind I could see the beautiful Christmas tree in my front window, bright lights hung on the eaves of the house, and our Santa Claus yard sculpture lit up with a spotlight in the yard.  This year I even bought extra twinkle lights to string along the top of our fence.

Oh yes, my intentions were good and my hopes ran high.  Two weeks before Thanksgiving I sat my family down and explained the game plan. I wanted all  of the Christmas decorations brought down from the attic and for "Project Stun Santa" to commence.

"This year, we are going to be the house that's celebrating Thanksmas.  We aren't going to be the house where the boxes of Christmas decorations sit untouched in the living room until New Year's Day, when they are hauled back up into the attic.

No one will be complaining about stubbed toes from boxes sitting around helter-skelter or stockings not hung by the chimney with care.  For once, Santa isn't going to slide down the chimney, think we are moving and leave us packing paper and bubble wrap in our stockings.

No sir!  This year, Santa is going to be dazzled by our Christmas spirit and the amazing handcrafted decorations we replicate from "pins" we saw on Pinterest."

Oh what a grand plan!  And then........ life happened.  My husband got hurt and required surgery.  One kid came down with the flu, then another kid dropped to a tummy bug.  Then I came down with the flu.

The grand plan fell by the wayside and became the yearly pile of unopened plastic tubs full of Christmas decorations.  I think Santa finally figured out we aren't moving because this year he didn't leave packing paper and bubble wrap in our stockings........... he left Clorox sanitizing wipes and disinfecting spray.

Now, as I sit here with the new year staring me in the face, and new year's resolution ideas whirling around in my head, I have decided to make a New Year's Grand Plan.  I think I'll start with putting all of the Christmas decorations back in the attic......... it shouldn't take long since the only thing decorated is the tree.

Written by Christie Bielss

Moving Beyond Procrastination

I saw a post recently titled "10 Tips To Stop Procrastinating Right Now".  I decided that article sounded very interesting given my great propensity for that particular behavior trait, so I saved it to read later.  2 months later..........it's still saved.

 

 

When it comes to procrastination, I think I should be given an honorary PhD.  I have perfected the art and made it into an artform.  Not only have I just avoided doing things I didn't want to do, but I have even gone so far as to spend hours trying to figure out a way how not to do something.

Unfortunately, when I'm done pondering, that pesky task is still sitting there waiting patiently.  Lately this trait has really started to get on my nerves, so much so that I have been researching organizational strategies to try to help make my life easier, if not simpler.  The thought of not having paperwork laying around my house for days..... ok weeks........ oh, who am I kidding, years.... actually excites me to the point of perusing The Container Store.

Of course, once I get into looking at all of the various items to organize my life, I then become so overwhelmed that I retreat back into my comfortable little world, surrounded by...... paper.  With the dawning of a new year, I again got invigorated to organize my little corner of the world and, if nothing else, make it presentable.  Ok, I'll be happy if I achieve the level of not being embarrassed when someone stops by.

In an effort to gain momentum, I decided I need my own little area of the house where I can write my blog, as well as other contracted writing jobs I've been getting, and edit images when I do photo shoots (from my part-time photography business).  I also realized that while my computer area was quite "functional", it was also extremely uninspiring and, to be quite honest, claustrophobic.

I don't like being boxed in and it actually overwhelms me when I started seeing even just a few papers laying around my computer.  Once I felt overwhelmed, then I'd just leave the stuff there, which then seemed to have allowed the paper to breed and create more piles of paper.

So, having figured this all out, my husband and I have decided to transform our guest room into my office/guest room.  First thing to get this wave of momentum going was to sell the computer armoire.  Thanks to Craigslist it now has a new home.  Second to go was our queen sized bed in the guest room.  Again, thank you Craigslist.  It was sold in less than 3 hours.

I'm now in shopping mode for a new desk.  You may have heard of the HGTV show "Design on a Dime" which redecorates a room in under $1,000.  With all of the renovations our house needs due to it having been a foreclosure property, I'm going for the "Knock-off on a Nickel" budget. 

And thanks to Pinterest and Houzz, I now have a bit of a design plan and am "happily" moving forward.  The photo above is my "before" picture.....ok, but the bed has already been sold, so it's not truly a before picture.  As you can see, we have done nothing to the room since moving in, so it just looks like a disorganized storage area right now.  But! I have a dream!...... and I have my photos from Pinterest and Houzz to keep me focused.

So stay tuned.  I am working hard to create my "working retreat area" as I'm now calling it, and will post an after picture when we get it complete.  I'm thinking the hardest part is going to be moving all this cr.......errrr..........junk out.  If you all are interested, I may even post some "sneak peeks" along the way...... I am truly looking forward to having a pretty area to go to, but mainly one that doesn't look like a hoarder lives here.

Christie Bielss