Resolve to be organized...

I love January for the clean slate that it is. Once Christmas is tucked away in boxes, I go to town on my to-do/project list. I am probably more productive in January and February than all the rest of the months combined.

At the start of every year I make so many lists it gets confusing. I make lists for how I want to improve in myself personally and the relationships I have, what I hope to accomplish in training my young children, what furniture I want to build, what house projects I want to complete, what needs to be organized, and many many more.

Each list is overflowing with different ideas that come to me. From all my crazy lists I'm able to formulate several areas I want to focus on and make those my year-long resolutions. Many are personal enough that I choose not to share and I'm sure the rest of the list I share with a large percentage of people making resolutions.

Through the process of making these resolutions I realized there was one thing that stayed with me: organize. I'm an average organizer. There are some things in my life that are perfectly organized, there are other things that are not. I feel like organization plays such a large roll in my life and I lose patience and get frustrated when there is chaos.

I want dinner time/grocery shopping more organized. I used to make a new recipe every week - which seems oddly out of reach right now. Every time I walk through the grocery store I ask myself why have I not created a master list in the order in which I walk by items at the grocery store. (My sister-in-law at one time had such a list and it was brilliant) Dinner time is so busy, I've got to be better at prepping earlier in the day. My recipe was once updated but years have come and gone and I feel like I'm always rushing off to my pinterest account to find that recipe that I've made 10 times and never printed it off. I need to better organized.

I already mentioned earlier this month that I was purging digital files, this was due to my organization kick. But digital files are but a small dent. I have filing cabinets full of who knows what. I feel like that paper that hangs around the house keeps multiplying and I've got to regain control. There's so much on the internet now, I think I can do away with most the paper.

Home projects in general I need a better handle on. I have so many projects going on and some sit for a while for one reason or another by the time I come back to them I'm missing materials or have to run to home depot for the fourth time in the same week. Meanwhile I have piles and piles of things that were purchased that we didn't need that need to make their way back to the store. I've got to figure out a better system.

Keeping my kids organized is a full-time job. Put that here, don't leave that there, where in the world is that shoe. I'm shoveling while it's still snowing and the only way I can keep up is if I train them well enough that they can handle some responsibility.

I think the most important area I'm looking to organize is my mind and thoughts. Steve gives me a hard time, but my brain doesn't stop. Ever. If I recounted all the things that ran through my head in a three minute period it would be staggering. Because there's so many thoughts/ideas swirling around, I find it hard to keep it all organized. (Hence, I'm a list maker) Sometimes a thought will come to my head and I become fixated on it and I can't focus on other things until I take care of it. Most of the time it is absolutely trivial. And because I had to take care of it in the middle of folding the laundry- I will realize hours later that I never finished the laundry. This happens all the time! I've got to figure out my mental filing system and keep it organized.

The list of things I want to organize is extensive. I don't even think it's possible to complete it all in a year. And even if I did, I'm sure I would feel the need to reorganize a year later and refine my processes. I know that it's never ending and it will always evolve. But today, I'm working on the things I believe will bring more peace and harmony to our home. Even if part of that harmony is a four-year-old yelling at me that I can't make him hang up his clothes. I suppose harmony comes in many shapes and sizes!