Yesterday, we had the kickoff meeting for the spring soccer season, which just happened to be right across the street from Southern Thrift, my new favorite thrift store. So after the meeting, we popped in to the store to find some track pants for my daughter. She had found a pair there last week, black Adidas with a pink stripe down the side in excellent condition, but the price was missing. They only reprice during the week, so we decided to check back and see if they had put them back out on the floor yet. And they had! $6 – score!
While we were there, I decided to check for a new bathmat. For several years, since our last bathmat died, we have just been using one of our many beach towels on the floor, like so:
However, I found this really pretty pale blue one with a popcorn texture in great condition for $4. So it came home with us! After a good washing and drying, we now have this:
It’s all soft to walk on and doesn’t slip around like a towel. The picture doesn’t do it justice. I also found a cobalt blue soap dish for the bathroom, to hold my homemade soap – 69 cents. It was the half-off color so I got it for 34.5 cents. Hurray!
Since the weather has been sunny this weekend, and it looks like Spring is finally springing, I have been doing laundry and hanging it on the line to dry. I threw away our old clothes hamper last week, as it was falling part, and we have just been using a laundry basket since then. Therefore, when the basket is full, the laundry needs to be done. This is working out well, because it is a much more manageable amount of laundry to do at one time.
However, when I went to hang out the first load this morning, I saw this …
… our sweet kitty Isabella having a nap on the back deck. Notice how she is holding back the shadows so that she gets the most warm sun possible! The weather has been so cold this winter that she has barely been outside, so I was happy to see her sunning herself.
My main plan for today is to declutter the small bookcase in the dining room. But rather than just jumping in and then get overwhelmed or discouraged, I sat down with my Passion Planner. I am loving my Passion Planner. I use it every morning to reflect on what I want to accomplish for the day, and lay out a plan for how to accomplish it. The planner lets me organize my thoughts, and somehow helps me center myself as well.
The first thing I did was refer to the mind-map of the dining room that I made the other day.
I looked at the different areas that I had defined, and selected the “small bookcase” area to focus on first. I figured that it was a well-defined space, with very few sentimental decisions involved. I then created a mind-map just for the small bookcase.
I defined all the different types of items that are currently being stored on this bookcase. Then, I considered what should be done with each type of item. As you can see, there is an incredible hodgepodge of stuff on the bookcase, including:
- miscellaneous papers
- photographs
- old phone chargers
- motorcycle gear
- old music books
- video games
- board games
- Girl Scout supplies
- a whole bunch of mailing labels
- other odds and ends
My long-term goal is to get rid of this bookcase completely, as it partially blocks the entrance to the kitchen. However, some of the items that are stored here currently have no place else to go. I highlighted in purple on the mind-map those things that will eventually be relocated to the coat closet under the stairs (once it’s finished), and in pink those things that should be relocated to the linen closet upstairs (once it’s finished). The green highlighting indicates photographs. We have several boxes of photographs upstairs, which I will eventually go through and catalog once everything else is done (that is a project all by itself!). The photographs on the bookshelf can go with those for now, so that all the photographs will be together.
You might ask, “Why do you make a mind-map when it would be quicker to just dive in and do the work?” Well, there are three reasons. First, if I create a mind-map, it allows me to work through what I want to do with each of the items. Before I ever get started, I have already made the decisions about what I will sell, what I will donate, what I will throw out, what I will relocate, and what I will keep. By using the mind-map, most of the decisions have already been made and it will make the actually decluttering process much quicker.
The other two reasons that I create a mind-map first are 1) I like to create mind-maps, and 2) I can procrastinate but still get something accomplished. Hey, I’m just being honest!
So later today, I will be using my mind-map to quickly and efficiently declutter the small bookcase in my dining room. Don’t worry – there will be lots of photos of the during process for you to enjoy!
Other than decluttering the bookcase, my plans today include:
- Doing some laundry to hang on the line
- Helping my daughter with her Spanish
- Going for a nice long run and enjoying the extra hour of daylight
- Hanging out and doing nothing this morning, except watching Pawn Stars on Netflix