The Organizing Jouney Day 18

Day 18 – Quit Being So Hard On Yourself

Okay, first off, you may have noticed I’m NOT posting every day.  That’s just not feasible for me and rather than bury myself in an “all-or-nothing” game, I’ve decided… YES, I’m still organizing my life… and NO, I can’t do it full time… and YES, I still want you to be a part of it.  So there it is… I’ll do it as I can, just like I do everything else in my life.

Which has been (my life, I’m talking about) a bit chaotic lately.  And the mess and chaos and STUFF is stressful and depressing.  So I plow on, taking time here and there to organize even though other parts of me are screaming, “You need to make jewelry for your upcoming show!”  “You need to list jewelry on your website… it currently looks like bat barf!”  “You need to list some workshops because you have students who are waiting for projects!”  “You need to make a video tutorial because you have people waiting for that!” You need, you need, YOU NEED!!!

Chronic over-thinker.   

Critical + over-thinking = much unhappiness.

Yes, I am very hard on myself.  Something I need to work on.  So here’s an interesting conundrum…

What if *I* am the negative person?  How do I not “hang out” with myself?  Obviously, this is not an option.  So… I truly, truly have to work on being less critical of myself.  How shall I start?  Okay, I always tell others, here’s the order of things:

• Know what you want to change
• Start noticing when you “blow it”.  Obviously at first you’re going to notice AFTER you blow it… that’s fine.  That’s what this step is.  No need to beat yourself up… just say, “Ah, there was an opportunity to change that habit/thing/behavior.  I recognize it and eventually I will catch myself BEFORE I act.”
• You will eventually catch yourself before you do the behavior… or even in the middle of it.  You may not CHANGE the behavior or you may not do a great job of it, but catching yourself before the deed is done is important.  Super important.
• As you start catching yourself in the moment of and/or before a potential bad habit, you will begin to have a chance to change your behavior.  Now is when your training comes in.  Training?  What training?  Well, have you been reading articles or going to therapy?  There are lots of techniques out there.  Do some research.  I can share some of my ideas with you (at a later date). 
•  Eventually, you will catch yourself more and more often.  You will “fake it ‘til you make it”.  And someday you will find that it has not only become a habit, but that your new reactions are sincere and genuine and you are a changing (or changed) person.

Anyway, I did something amazing today (truth: totally not amazing).  When the mail came, I immediately took it over to the kitchen table, opened each envelope and package, threw most of it in the garbage, and put the rest where it belonged (supplies in the studio, coupons in the coupon file, etc).

Why was this amazing?  Because I normally do any of the following:

·         Leave it all in a pile to look at later

·         Open important looking things and leave the packaging AND the contents in a pile

·         Throw the garbage away and toss the important stuff in an “important stuff” pile to sort later

Of course, the only reason I could do this is because the kitchen table was clean.  Ha ha ha!  But really, these stupid little things (daily mail) add up… fast.  I have a laundry basket of “crap” that I’ve pulled from my car. 

I would bet 90% of the contents of that laundry basket is trash.  But I didn’t feel like “sorting it” or “dealing with it” right away so I put it aside for later.  Ugh! 

As a matter of fact, let’s do this.  Let’s see just how much of that laundry basket full of car contents is trash that has been taking up valuable real estate in my house for the past month.

So left to right and then clockwise I’ve got:

• A pile of trash 
• Things that need to go somewhere specific (back into the car, into my studio, returned to a friend, etc) 
• Paper and plastic bags for re-using
• Newspaper recycling 
• Cardboard recycling 
• Papers to file 
• Papers to deal with this week

Done and done.

Today I also decided I needed to get rid of “high-maintenance” items in my house.  One of which is little water fountains.  I love them… the humidity they add to the air and the sound they make and how they look… but they are too much work.  I have to clean them often and constantly fill them with water… oh, and I have to be very careful where I put them (spills).

So they go.  Sigh…

In their place, I am purchasing these less aesthetically pleasing, but more practical humidifier/diffusers.

I bought that one on Amazon Prime Day.  Next one I’ll have to pay regular price.  I do like the mist that comes out, the auto-shutoff, the optional cycling lights, and the essential oils diffuser part of it.  We’ll see how long it lasts with our well water.  I can’t be bothered to use distilled water.  Hm… maybe I should.  Maybe I should keep a gallon of distilled water under the kitchen sink and… well, let’s see how it goes with well water.  If it ends up being a problem, then I can switch to distilled water.

Oh and there was one more little moment in the studio (remember, those little things add up!).  I needed some E6000.  I use E6000 about five times a year, if that.  Remember the earbud holder I made?  That’s what I need it for.

So here’s the E6000 I have in my regular glue place.

This is SO not working for me.  I use only a teeny tiny bit each year and the stuff just hardens up and is really hard to get out of the tube, etc.  It also takes up more space than I need for such a seldom-used product.

So I bought some of these (they come 4 to a pack).

More expensive, absolutely.  Er…. Maybe.  I mean, if the larger tube ends up being unusable, then no, it’s not more expensive to pay more for the little ones that actually last longer for me and my usage than one large tube. 

I tossed the large tube in the garbage and put one of the tiny new tubes in my “glue place”.  The remaining three unopened little tubes will store well in my “studio supplies” box that stays in storage until I run out of a staple. 

See, that’s how it works.  I keep a certain amount of “things” in my studio (glue, tape, latex gloves, etc) and I keep more of those things in a box (or five) in my storage shed.  When I run low of something in the studio, I know I have more in the storage shed.  And when I take the penultimate of any item from the storage shed, I order more immediately.  I will show images of the storage shed when we get to that area.  I do a once a year purging/cleaning every summer so it’s coming up pretty soon.

Thanks for all the wonderful comments and feedback.  It’s great hearing from you all and finding out that I’m not alone in this journey.  :-)  Share your tips, tricks, ideas and experiences too, in the comments section.

To see the beginning of this journey, click here.