You’re best laid plans are to reorganize a certain space, or maybe just to tidy up a certain room but the world somehow keeps blocking your time! Sound familiar? “If only I had a whole afternoon of time to sort this space”, “all I need is a big chunk of time”, or “I just need one day, then I could have this done”! Happens to me ALL the time! Don’t beat yourself up.

I was putting off a bunch of organizing projects through January, knowing the kids would eventually return to school. During that time though, we got a new puppy! (I’ll do a random post about that another time.) Then the kids almost immediately went back to school after we brought her home. Now I have to spend all of my day with the new puppy, when I figured I had at least one more week of the kids learning virtually. Not that I am truly complaining, but it’s another pressure on my time, and another block on my organization plans!

Sometimes the best way to organize, is one thing at a time!

The boys have been wanting to do some crafting, but their craft table is a disaster! I have been wanting to go into the craft room with them each weekend and help them come up with some better systems to store the supplies, but each weekend seems to come and go. This morning before school my youngest really wanted me to colour with him. I told him we had no where to colour. He said “well, let’s see what we can tidy in 10 minutes”! I jumped on it! I love it when my kids break down big jobs into little jobs on their own. I told him that we could try to clear the table in 10 minutes. We set a timer, and because he was properly motivated, we got the table cleared off and the floor around the chairs!!

Sometimes we make the decluttering or organizing projects too big in our heads. We turn them into impossible tasks, instead of just deciding to put a bit of time in whenever we are able to find time. I find I am actually most productive if I have less time.

We have been doing what we call ’10-minute speed clean’ challenges on and off with the kids for years, and when we all work together its amazing what we can accomplish!

Next time you are procrastinating something that you keep putting on your to do list, ask yourself how you can break it down. If it’s a cleaning task, ask yourself “what is one thing here that doesn’t belong that I can put away?” If it’s organizing or decluttering, maybe just pick up the garbage, or recycling, or even pick one category of things and put them all in a bin.

You don’t have to do it all at once! Just do something!

You will feel productive and proud of your effort, it will make the impossible seeming task, a little bit easier to handle. Who knows, 10 minutes might actually turn into a whole hour and you may even get the whole thing done!

Now I have to go back to my playful puppy, even though I just want to do more organizing. My time will come!

Thanks for coming home!