New year, new goals

My husband noted yesterday that his blog roll on his blog changes order, depending on which blog has been updated most frequently. My other blogs, Every Day Is a Miracle and Marie's Book Garden, are often at the top of the list, but One Year to an Organized Life is always at the bottom. Touche. It seems I haven't been very organized lately.

In fact, we madly cleaned the house for my mother-in-law's extended visit over the holidays, and we've cleaned it again a couple of times for some holiday gatherings. (Even though cleaning can be a pain in the neck, entertaining is one fine incentive to get your house cleaned!) The study is in passable shape, but it still hasn't been completely marked "organized" so I haven't posted photos yet.

Here are my plans for 2011--I know I made some similar goals at the beginning of 2010, but you can't fault me for trying!

1. Finish renovating our bathroom. It still looks like we're in the middle of painting--because we hired painters and they did a shoddy job, so we have begun prep work to do it over but haven't finished--for 4 years. Yes, isn't that scandalous? I'm airing all my dirty laundry now. The tiles have never been properly sealed, we need a new bathroom vanity, and the trim hasn't been painted (even for the first time). This is the top priority for my life in 2011.

And shortly after that, paint the remaining pink walls in this house. I despise pastel pink, and these walls are not even pastel any more. They are more of a dirty pink because of the kids. Our house would look so much nicer if we were to paint a number of the rooms, including the ones we've already painted but years ago. In order: bathroom, downstairs hallway, upstairs hallway, upstairs bathroom. Then tackle the kitchen. I'll be lucky if I get half of those accomplished, at the speed I go!

2. Write down everything I eat and spend. I've finished January 1 by tracking my food on "Lose It" (an iPhone app) but am off to a bad start at the spending. I ran to Fred Meyer to buy some fish and other groceries before dinner, and after going through the self-serve checkout, I neglected to grab my receipt. I will have to pull it off our credit card bill and backtrack. The ultimate goal, of course, is to be more deliberate about how we are spending our money and save more. And of course, eat less and more healthily.

3. Write more personal notes and birthday cards. As a child, I collected stationery and wrote a lot of letters. In the days of e-mail, people rarely send snail mail any more, but I know how much it is appreciated. So this is one of my goals, although not as high of a priority as #2 and #3.

How will I do? Wait and see. And maybe, while I'm at it, I'll actually start One Year to An Organized Life all over again! At least, three years in, it won't be as bad as the first time around. Haha!