Saturday Spot : The To-Do List…

In the Spirit of BackRooms and Getting Things Done… I know I need to get to The Lab which has to be sorted before school begins again, into some sort of order. This is a little room off our kitchen, which no matter how hard we try always ends up as the dumping zone. It is called The Lab because when we moved into our home it was be the “computer lab” here we kept all our computer goodies… Turns out in the world of lap tops that this is the room where all things computorish get dumped… We also keep all sorts of school paraphenalia: science stuff, workbooks, and so on. And that’s just the stuff that is meant to be there… then there is the stuff that doesn’t fit around the house… that gets plonked there and before you have it there is a room where we cannot move around in… Gotta get to it!!!

This past week our car was in for repairs (another whole long story) so I decided to tackle every household project I could… Let’s just say that the rust was um so significant that we could no longer open the boot and if you own a Volkswagen kombi you will know if you can’t get to the boot then you can’t add water and oil and …. lets just say the time had come for repairs and we were literally at home the whole week while repairs were done. I envisioned huge amounts of house hold tasks being done. HUGE I say. By day one my mental To-Do list was totally out of control!!!

So I figured I should write a to-do list… I never write lists, I just start jobs and keep going but to be honest I was a bit overpowered by the work load. I realized as the week progressed I ought to write a to do list – always good if you have done a heap of jobs already and you can tick things off as you go!!! I should have known to just let it go when I couldn’t actually write the list – who knew that pens come with a tiny little cap on them… where have I been!!!

For me it is not about getting going I can do that! It is about all the other jobs that have to be done before you tackle the job you are intending: I want to clear a surface to work on, and I have to repair a pile of books on the surface first. Not to mention jobs beget jobs: Clear out the paper barrel and discover the ancient birthday list… time to write up the new one. And so it goes.

Now every application on my computer has a “help” button but much as I cry out for help these buttons are of absolutely no help when it comes to huge household chores. Sometimes you just have to get on with things…

This is what our TO DO List looked like this past week:

1. Kitchen Cupboards: This was easy, got the kids to unpack them one by one, clean everything out and pack it back!!! Took a morning and every kitchen surface. We had to eat, so had to pack it back!!!



Look at the junk drawer… room for more junk, but I won’t tell anyone!!!


2. Entrance drawers: These are fatal, they look great, in fact they are great and I keep all the crafty materials and things in there that we don’t use everyday… but they are also conveniently placed for stuffing: Stuffing when we need a quick tidy up… and as a drawer gets packed so we pack the next one… Until they are totally jammed. The time had come!!!
   

   

3. The hedge: Needed a haircut all around the house. I got some help!!!



4. The dresser:I have written about the dresser before and it was time for a total revamp. It had stopped working as an exciting spot for us and I realized that while I like perfect order to be creative my kids prefer a bit of chaos…

   

   So Revamped it was and I will write a whole post about it another time… but for now the task is done!!!



5. The book Mending: Same old favorites mended again and again and…!!!

6. The paper barrel: Now this was full of crafty project potential… I just looked at it jammed packed and couldn’t face it – now it’s sorted!!!



7. The laces: I always leave this project forever and it isn’t that hard to teach… make a tree, the rabbit runs round and into the hole, repeat… repeat… Done!!!

So I have a few To-Do’s for this week:

1. The Bougainvillea: This seriously needs the chop.



2. These cupboards doors: I have had a plan for them forever… We cleaned all the artwork off and scraped and cleaned all the tape and so on and everything is ready I just have to do it!!!



3. The Birthday Calendar: Our old one was crushed in the bottom of the paper barrel – I was elated to find it… and if you are a dear friend of ours and I have missed your birthday for the last three years… well I just found the calendar and I have a new one to mark up… And my very tardy birthday situation should be remedied.




4. The noticeboard: Well our family calendar is stuck in September… hmmm back when Hood #8 arrived – haven’t turned a page since!!! Time to get a fresh calendar up!!! And just generally update our noticeboard to a little more than just a corkboard.



5. The Mending: This is not mind blowing mountains of complicated stitching… it is a button on a perfectly good shirts and so on… wish I could do it while blogging, while nursing, well while anything else!!!

6. Gaming: I have in my head to play a game of choice with everyone this week, seriously it can be done… A few folk are madly into battleships right now and I would prefer it to Snakes and Ladders. Let’s just hope they all ask for UNO!!!
   
7. The Dolly: When your three year old gets a nighty for Christmas and it comes with a matching one for her dolly, trust me on this you need to make a dolly pronto and I have to do this this week… She is desperately patient!!!

Notice that cleaning out The Lab is not apparently on the To Do list… this week or last week… Interesting!!! And most of our tasks have nothing to do with declutter, my continuous fifteen minutes a day attack is finally paying off – I had only about five things to move along from the whole kitchen clean-out!!! So we are are beginning to win the clutter war!!! Never thought I would say that or write it down!!!

Our car is still in the repair shop this week and we are still “stuck” at home. Our school books are ordered and on a ship somewhere. Hopefully they will stay afloat a little bit longer because I just cannot face The Lab. Aspects of it, yes and whittling it down bit by little but might help… but this room needs a bit of a bigger boost than a little at a time!! And I have more important things to do: Stories to read, dreams to encourage, plots and plans to pursue, feasts to figure out… Bigger more important things to do than sort out The Lab!!!

The Sunday Snippet and a Fabulous GiveAway will be posted next…