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!

Spending less (and differently) makes people happier

I've been off track in my organizing and not keeping this blog up to speed. Vacations and life craziness have gotten in the way, and I need to get back on the wagon.

The house and mess in it are getting out of control. Kids' junk piled up everywhere, the little boys' room is a disaster zone, and remnants of my organizing efforts (bags ready for storage or donation) are piled in hallways.

Recently I got an iPhone that has enough memory to house all my music. I downloaded as much as I could onto iTunes and am planning to offload tons of CDs. I've posted many of them on swapacd.com, and others I will donate. But that needs to be finished.

We have taken three vacations this summer: (1) 20th anniversary trip for the two of us to San Francisco, (2) trip to Orlando, and (3) trip to Vancouver BC. What we had in savings has now been depleted, and we're dipping into our home equity line of credit.

A friend posted this article on Facebook: it's about how people are much happier when they change their lifestyles to spend less. In a recent study, researchers found that spending money on "experiences" makes people happier, longer, than buying stuff. "‘It’s better to go on a vacation than buy a new couch’ is basically the idea,” according to Professor Elizabeth Dunn (from the University of British Columbia), citing the research done by her colleagues, Leaf Van Boven and Thomas Gilovich. The theory is that vacations and other experiences offer longer-lasting memories than new stuff, which eventually becomes old stuff.

This is timely information for us, as we have always spent a great deal of our expendable income on vacations and entertainment. It also reflects our lifestyle, in which we drive old cars and do not spend very much money on our house.

Our plan for the fall is to HALT THE SPENDING! I've started taking this very seriously as we have cut back dramatically on eating out, and I am trying to stay away from shopping. I will try to confine most of my shopping for clothing and personal items to my favorite consignment shop, where I can get credit for what I consign. Last Sunday Portland had an event I was looking forward to attending, Bargain Hunting PDX, where local craftspeople and vendors have a summer bazaar of sorts. Even though I had planned to attend, I decided not to in the end. However, this weekend is our neighborhood festival, and I love their annual sidewalk sale. I think I will inventory everything in my "gift box" before I go to avoid buying lots more gifts for Christmas--that tends to be one of my downfalls!

I continue to observe that most of what we own does not get used. And I need to remember that to avoid buying more things we are not going to use.