My Little Happiness

I have an obsession with colors. I love them. Seeing bright colors as a regular thing keeps me, in a way, sane. And in my quest to become more organized, I realized I could incorporate this love of mine!

So,I went to Office Depot with the intent of finding ways to be more organized. I realized I wanted paper clips, magnets, push pins, etc - normal "office supplies" - and then I saw their assortment of brightly multi-colored things. I just about died. Seriously. And they sell these boxes - Really Useful Boxes, to be exact - that are just perfect for organization.

So now I have what I've been thinking of as my boxes of happiness and my shelves of happiness.

I have three types of pens - some really nice multicolored ones that I got a few years ago and fell in love with, some multicolored gel pens, and my typical go-to pen (all in black). I have more Sharpies than I know what to do with. I have lots of dry erase markers.

I have piles of sticky notes. I have office supplies in all colors of the rainbow!

Just glancing at my shelf makes me happy and giggly; partially because I know where everything is, and partially because it's just so darn colorful!

This was something so simple, but it's impacted me so much already. I wonder what else a little color and organization will improve in my life?

Everything Has A Home

For January my over-arching resolution is simple: Cleanliness.
There are two types of cleanliness I want to work on: Personal Cleanliness and Environmental Cleanliness.

The easier of the two is going to be Environmental. I already know what I want to accomplish, and it has a pretty well laid-out path for me to follow.

• Declutter: Throw out, give away, sell, or otherwise remove items from my home that I no longer use, have never used, or I'm keeping for no reason.
• Organize: With what belongings I decide to keep - find a home for them. No more free-floaters (Yes: This means I might be spending more on housewares and the like this month than before. It will be worth it).
• Everything Has A Home 
• Maintain: Each day I have a specific chore to attend to, and I've had such a system in place for months now. I need to make certain that I do these chores on their assigned days, as well as spending 15-30 minutes each night making a run-through of the apartment and cleaning up. Maintenance is easier than pure cleaning - if the apartment is maintained, deep cleaning will take, at most, an hour.
• Schedule: My Daily Domestic Schedule (Chore Chart) is as follows:
  
  • Monday: Errands - bank runs, food shopping, pay bills, etc. Inventory fridge.
  • Tuesday: Laundry
    
    • Although there is one day for laundry I plan on it being an ongoing task (much like I won't only do dishes on Friday, when I do a deep cleaning of the kitchen). Tuesday is for the more awkward laundry to be done - laundry that I have to leave home to do (drycleaning, things that should be taken to a laundromat) or that are a bit more time consuming (handwashing).
  • Wednesday: Bedroom and work room need to be cleaned - vacuumed and picked up as necessary. Also deep cleaning the cage.
  • Thursday: Bathrooms need to be cleaned.
  • Friday: Kitchen needs to be cleaned.
  • Saturday: Menu planned for the coming week, any outstanding tasks completed. Light cleaning of the cage.
  • Sunday: Down day.

For Personal I'm planning on starting a personal hygiene routine. This isn't to say that my personal hygiene is horrible, but it is less than perfect. I'm sort of reaching for some of the low-hanging fruits here.

• Make Habits: Make a habit of basic grooming. Shower every day or every other day, brush and floss teeth every morning and night and use mouthwash at night, brush through hair and try to style it most days.
• Declutter: When something comes to mind, write it down as soon as possible. Spend as long as needed to empty out everything that's been weighing me down - all the "I need to .... " and "I should ... " type thoughts that have a tendency to creep up on me in the middle of the night. Write down everything.
• Track My Time: Keep a daily track of what I do and when I do it. Try to cut down on time spent idle when I have something to do - time spent procrastinating or avoiding work.
• Work When Working, Relax When Relaxing: When I'm working, then focus on my work. When I'm relaxing - unless it's to write down or record something that comes to mind - then I should focus on relaxing. No more cross contamination.