The thing is, my little man is starting school next year. And for the last 4 years I've envisioned what that will be like, what it will look like....
In my mind, he wakes up in the morning, gets himself dressed, and then comes out to the clean, bright kitchen where he is warmly greeted by me, (I'm already showered and dressed) and getting his breakfast ready. His school bag was packed the night before, (everything we need for the morning was packed the night before) and so after breakfast, we stack the dishes in the dishwasher, ensuring our kitchen is once again, clean and shiny, and set off for school with plenty of time.
We arrive at school, not frazzled and stressed, but calm and happy, ready for the day. We walk up to his classroom and as he greets his friends, I chat to some of the other mothers about a play-date after school. I will have no time between now and after school as im out all day, but this isn't a problem. Because the house is already clean and tidy.
After school, his little friends come over and I have coffee with their mothers. The kiddos all play happily together. I don't feel ashamed nor embarrassed about the state of the house. I'm not making excuses for the mess or trying to justify why we live in our little weatherboard. The house is clean, tidy and stylish (thus justifying my career ambitions!) and we are content living here....(Ok so that sounds alot like the scene of some pine-o-clean ad or something but a girl can dream right!?!)
This is how I imagine life will be when the little man starts school.
This is how I want my life to be when the little man starts school.
I have ten months to make this my life.
My mum says it can't be done. Life isn't like that. Life is messy and unorganised and crazy.
But I really want to try.
I don't know that I have ever been more determined to achieve this elusive state of 'being organised'. I guess there has never been a more important reason than to do it for my children. I don't want them being too embarrassed to ask their friends over to play. I don't want them constantly running late and losing things (like I did and still do!) I don't want them to spend hours agonising over how to get themselves organised, to question why they aren't as prepared as this person and as clean and tidy as that person, I don't want them to ever have to think like this.
Im a procrastinator and this is one of my biggest challenges. I constantly say to myself 'as soon as 'x' is finished, ill have time to get started on 'y' ' but the thing is, there is always another 'x' and so the 'y's' continue to pile up.
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| guilty |
I always, always leave things to the last minute. Like right now, I am supposed to be getting ready to take the kiddos to a birthday party that starts in 20 minutes. But I still have to have a shower, get dressed (decide what im wearing), get Marley to get redressed in to more appropriate clothes (instead of his full body dinosaur costume on a 37 degree day), hang out the washing, find the birthday card that little lady ran off with, feed the dog, pack everything we will need.... {Ok so I left at this point and went to start getting ready. We were 45 minutes late to the party}
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| guilty, again. |
I'm not a hoarder but I am a shopper. Thankfully im not really in the position to do much shopping these days...thank you ginormous bills, I knew you had to be good for something! But I am still left with a lot of random stuff from over the years cramping our little house.
I cant use 'a lack of storage' as an excuse anymore either. In the last three years, we have installed built-in wardrobes into each of the kiddos bedrooms, floor to ceiling laundry cupboards, new shelving and hanging rails in our walk-in-robe and completely renovated the kitchen producing three times as much storage as before. So no, storage isn't the problem, stuff is the problem. Or rather, sorting out what stuff we need and what stuff we don't need, and then working out how and where to store the stuff we need and sell or donate the stuff we don't.
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| EVERY night! |
I stay up way too late every night and then dont want to get out of bed in the morning. I dont get my mojo to clean and tidy until the afternoon but by then, ive left it too late to make any real progress as I need to prepare and make dinner, bath and dress the kids, you know the whole evening routine.
So, it seems I have a few things to work on if I want this whole 'being organised' thing to happen...
Time management seems to be a big issue for me. It results in me being late to everything all the time, procrastinating, staying up too late, never getting anything done...so I'm definitely going to be focusing on this issue.
Clutter or too much crap is the other big one. I have been slowly chipping away at it over the years but I still have a way to go.
Ok so Im going to go away now and find me some tools to tackle these issues and then Im going to come back with a plan. Just you wait and see. Seriously!
Lisa xx
