I'll give you the knitty gritty on getting a 
How about doing 
Present perfect progressive.. that's the verb tense I'm looking for. If I could express organizing and the process of getting organized, it would be expressed as something like this:
While I was in the process of organizing, I remained organized.
While I continued organizing, I realized that I stayed organized.
I was asked a simple question from one of my high-brow readers, Kathy of Bonavita. Really, it was a simple question.
"How long did it take you to transform your house?" It's a logical question--pretty straight-forward. The answer is not. The project is the illustrious craft room, which I already posted here: it is also my entry for the de-clutter challenge for the week.
That project, for example, has been an on-going, never-ending project.
While I attempted to untangle the mess of what to do in that space, I continually changed my mind, moved things around, got rid of things.. and organized it.
Does anyone transform a house? We have to live in it, you know. If I were to stop organizing the space of my house, it would probably mean that
1. Somehow we've reached an equilibrium of movement of things, people and events. (This will never happen)
2. I'm too sick/ or someone else is sick, and we can't keep up with it.. like my high-risk pregnancy three years ago.
3. Or I sell everything and move into a hotel.
As you can see, that's not going to happen willy-nilly. God would have to orchestrate those types of changes.
So, my only options (in my mind) are to get, stay, remain, continue... organizing.
Now, when do I decide to reach a "resting place" in the process and post pictures/ etc.??
When the "organizing bird" can rest in the nest....
1. Is the space used for it's most effective CURRENT purpose? (these change all the time)
2. Are the items used MOST often in the MOST easily accessible space?
3. Are the items that are truly JUNK removed? disposed of?
4. Is it visually appealing to the eye? (Yes, I like beauty and artistic order in my home)
5. Is the space labeled/ marked for easy upkeep of the current system?
There, now the bird can fly somewhere else in the house.
7 comments:
This is really brilliant. I so often fail to be organizED because I am not organizING. This post put that in perspective for me. I always want to be done, but then everything falls apart. I guess the truth is that I will never be done till I'm dead.
Right. We'll never be done, but it can get better. Each sweep through improves things, and little updates take a fraction of the time that the first run takes.
It's definitely an ongoing process. Your room is looking great!
It's 11:00 P.M. and we (all 11 of us)just walked in the house from a day on the lake. Everything is wet, everyone is tired and a bit testy. I bathed and folded my children into bed. I was thinking about the hectic day I will have tomorrow. We have to close up our home (Northern MI), which means making certain everything is clean and ready for the first freeze (which might show up at any time!), pack everything and everyone up to head back to reality, and get ready to drive my son back to college (700 miles away) next Friday. . . I needed a laugh and I must thank you for providing the light moment that came with seeing my blog referred to as High Brow. :-)
I love your list by the way. Thanks again!
I'll never have my living spaces in order unless/until I live alone and am rather infirm. Meanwhile, I'm trying to organize other things...like a message on "How to Organize Your Day," assigned to me for a home schoolers' camp week coming up August 25. I think I've got the message organized, but pray for me, will you?!
You know, what a relief to read this. I am constantly re-organizing, shifting, changing things to work for us in each stage. It feels better when changed to "work for now" but I feel guilty about not being able to leave it alone. Maybe that's because I am not meant to leave it alone. With small kids (1 and 3)and many out-of-town visitors, we have seen a lot of changes in the needs of our home...I love the idea of embracing the process- making the home work for our family versus the guilt of not being perfect all the time. Thank you for your post!
It's never going to be "done". Oh dear me. Oh, dear, dear, me. What a distressing reality!! This is almost as bad as when I realized that as a mother, I will never get back to being carelessly selfish.
While I laughed at some parts of your post (in a nice, I am amused kind of way), the thought of spending the rest of my life trying to make sense of my house is enough to make me weep!
I'm just living for when the children are old enough to decide which clothes still fit from last year, and what they need new each season.
Oh. Well, if it's not going to be over, ever, I'll just have myself a bit more of a look around your blog, and see if I can't find a way to live with the terrible truth you've delivered.
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