Tuesday 6 March 2012

Best Laid Plans

I had this awesome plan, of how I was going to declutter and organise one room a week. According to my plan, I should be over half way through the house by now. It's totally fallen apart. That's not to say that I'm not organising and decluttering, it's just I'm no longer really following my plan.
This is due to a few factors.
One, my husband is home all the time with a concussion, he has been for 6 weeks. On the upside, we're finally starting to see improvement there. Due to noise sensitivity he's not been able to help much at all with looking after our 6 month old daughter. This means I'm looking after her pretty much all the time.
Two, our daughter is currently doing some attachment 'stuff'. This means if I'm out of the room, she starts grizzling. Sometimes she's happy and fine to play on the floor with her toys, some of the time she needs/wants me there, not actively playing with her but talking to her while I'm within close proximity, sometimes I have to be actively playing with her. I think it's an equal split currently. It also means that when she naps I try to do things like have a little time to myself and organise dinner plus standard housework. She's a little too heavy now to have her in the Moby wrap when bending, as I get a sore back. Combined with reason one above, it makes it hard to get stuck in, and I have to do little bits where I can, which aren't always noticeable.
Three, I've been borderline depressed for awhile, I still am. Everything above isn't helping, but I'm not getting any worse, so I'm good with that. I'm taking more time to myself, trying hard not to feel guilty over it. While the house isn't improving, I'm stable.
Four, we are realising our currently layout isn't optimal, mainly I think with my crafting, which is now causing clutter in most rooms of the house. I did have a decent sized craft room, but it got turned into a computer room when my brother lived her and I got the little room, which is now our daughter's room. My sewing desk is in the lounge and crafting supplies are spread through every room in the house. So we're working out a plan to turn Guinevere's room back into a computer room, the spare room into a project room/craft storage, which must be tidy enough to be a spare bedroom on very short notice, and the computer room into  Guinevere's bedroom and playroom. I know for now she'll still mostly be in whatever room we are in (including sleeping in our bedroom), but planning for the near future is a good thing, and saves me having to rearrange in a few months time. As well as freeing up space downstairs from larger toys (rocking horse) that are stored down there.

I've realised that plans need to be flexible. Life, especially with small children, is prone to changes. A plan gives me an idea of where I want to go, provides me with steps I can follow to get there, but if it's fixed in stone I'm just going to stress myself out.
I'm still working through it, the lounge is nearly done, the kitchen is partially done, the old dining room is done and the area at the top of the stairs is definitely in progress. I also have a better idea of where I'm going.

Life, even with it's hiccups, is good.

1 comment:

  1. If there's one thing I've learnt since having kids, it's to have very open-ended, flexible plans with loooong time frames!
    Stuff will get done, but never when you expect it to. Mostly it will take longer, sometimes it actually happens sooner (strange, but true!)
    However, saying "On this day, I will do 'x'" is a pretty surefire way of inviting Murphy, the chicken pox and one or more of those gastro bugs to visit your home until you stop trying to over-achieve :-)
    P.S. The rearrangement sounds like a good way to go. Good luck with getting everything shifted.

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