I work better from a list!

Old post from January 11th that I never posted ...
One of the greatest things I learned from working at Jupiter Christian School over the years is that I work better from a list. Making a list isn't something that comes naturally to me, even though I've watched my mother make lists for years. I usually "rediscover" list-making after I've fallen flat on my face. Yesterday was one of those days.

The first thing I did after breakfast was clean the kitchen. I was done in a matter of minutes; off to a good start! The next task on my list was to start going through the stacks of Christmas stuff scattered all over the living room. This isn't like every other year - I can't just stick them back in the 5 large tubs that they've always been stored in. These days everything has to be sorted. The now familiar sorting process that I have adopted goes something like this:

·       Quickly go through and pull out what I absolutely love and don't want to part with

·       Throw away obvious junk

·       Make piles of things to give away (to family, friends, and charitable organizations) 

I had already started sorting through the Christmas things but it was in piles that needed to be packed away and distributed to various family members; doesn't sound like such a big deal but here is my problem. I went out to the garage to get the bag that Melissa stores her Christmas things in and remember that I stripped the bed to wash the sheets. Better go get the sheets. I go get the sheets but before taking them back out to the garage I stop to hang up the sweater and jacket that I brought in from the car the night before. My once sorted closet is a mess again but I refrain from doing anything with it, "I need to stay on track," I tell myself. Okay - sheets in the washing machine - where was I. Oh yeah, Christmas decorations. 

I start putting ornaments, mugs, and household decorations in various boxes for the kids and discover that one of the boxes isn't big enough. Back out to the garage ... what a disaster area ... and I can't reach the box with all the boxes in it so I better sort through this stuff. 

Why in the world was I keeping a bucket of sand? 

I take it out back to dump in the yard and see the wind chime that I've spent the past couple of days refinishing. The only step I have left is to clear-coat it. I grab the wind chime pieces and take them to the garage to spray them since it's too windy out back. I start the clear-coat process, which involves a number of trips back to the garage every 10-15 minutes. Finally the wind chime has the necessary coats, done in sections so that nothing sticks together. In between these trips, I have spent some time checking and responding to email and looking through Facebook. In my defense, my whole purpose for going on the computer was to email some pictures of items I need to get rid of but now I'm feeling like I've gotten off track and am more determined then ever to get back to the Christmas stuff. That’s when I remember that I had started sorting through the stuff in the garage. I walk out to the garage, look around and decide to finish the Christmas stuff and THEN finish the garage.

Finally, the Christmas stuff is in boxes, bins and bags and ready to be distributed or stored. I go to the office where we are collecting all our storage containers and see that I have a couple of bins of gift wrap and craft supplies that I need to go through so I pull those out. But before I can go through those, I stop to fold up the air mattress the kids used when they were here over Christmas that was left on the floor. Oh, and I also need to fold up and put away the sleeping bags that have been airing out back.

The phone rings so I go to answer it and as I'm talking, I look around at the absolute chaos that I have created in the process of trying to “organize” the house. Thankfully, by the end of the day all the Christmas decorations were put away, the gift wrap and craft supplies have been whittled down to one small container to take and one to store, the wind chime is ready to be reassembled and the garage is in good shape!

I think from here on out, I need to work from a list!