if i could save time in a bottle: organizing resources

I'll be honest. In theory, I am super organized, I have an idea of exactly how everything should be organized and I love to buy bins and organization paraphernalia. But, in execution, I stumble. Sometimes I get the system in place, but then get swamped for one reason or another and it falls apart until I have a lull in my commitments and can devote time solely to getting reorganized. Sometimes I get the tools and never quite implement them and sometimes my nascent hoarder tendencies plus my current lack of space (though I can't blame it only on my current living situation) combine to create a stress-induced paralysis where I feel the job is too big and so I don't start. 

I feel so much better when others share their moments of disorganization. I can't tell you how happy this picture of Jessica Alba's full sink made me. Cleaning is another thing I struggle with, though most of our issues are paper and toy piles, okay, and the dishes. I think about cleaning and try to come up with a plan, like wash sort Mail on Monday, Dust on WeDnesday, vacUum on TUesday, but inevitably something comes up, or I get tired, or the kids refuse to sleep and I just give up. And as they say, something has to give, and for me, it's the cleaning up. When it comes to spending time with my kids or cleaning/organizing, well, I'm always going to choose my kids. And I don't apologize for that, but I definitely need to come up with some plan that I can actually stick to.  

I also have the additional problem of working from home. My husband is great, and he really does pull his own weight, but sometimes, whether he means to or not, I get that sort of "you were home all day, why didn't you clean anything" type of comment. So I started saying, "I was working all day. Did you clean anything while you were at work?" A few times of that and he got where I was coming from, but I think he would really like to come home and find that I've accomplished some household project. I'm sure other freelancers, bloggers, and people who work from home can relate to where I'm coming from.  And to be fair, it's mainly my personal life that suffers because I put home stuff aside to make sure my professional deadlines are always met. I recently took on a new part time job on top of my freelancing, and now that both kids are out of the house all day, I'm hoping that I can use some of the time on work-from-home days to clean/organize. January has been a rotating schedule of sickness for our family, so I already feel behind, but I'm trying to not let those feelings overwhelm me.

I originally wanted to make last year my year to get organized but I totally underestimated how exhausted I would be after having my second child. So, I'm hoping that I can regroup and make this the year that I get it under control, at least more than I have been in the past couple years. So with that in mind, I've come across a few organizing resources that I'm going to try: 

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• New Year's resolutions for your home - broken down by months, everything seems a little more manageable rather than thinking about it all at once
• Paper pile makeover - as I said, I'm a piler, but I'd prefer to get back to being a filer. The criterion she used to determine what to keep and toss was interesting to me; I'm so sentimental though, I wonder how much I can actually let go of.
• Apartment Therapy's January Cure - so I'm already a month behind, but it's really more about getting something done each day, right? 
• 10 ways to declutter your life - some great tips here; I'd like to try the app, and I think the over-the-door storage is smart, too
• 10 tips for better meal planning - we do so much better during weeks when we meal plan, but sitting down to plan the meals and grocery shop is what we keep putting off

Do you struggle with any of these areas? What works for you? 

P.S. Don't watch a bunch of Friends reruns while trying to blog about getting organized or thinking about time-management. It's really antithetical. Oops.

images via small notebook, lonny - instagram/jessica alba

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