Peace of Mind Organizing

Knitting Olympics update

22 July 2008

I’ve chosen my project for the Ravelympics 2008 (on Ravelry), which I posted about last Thursday. According to the rules, you can actually work on completing a project you started in the past, one that’s been hibernating awhile. That Event is called WIP Wrestling. I’ll be playing on Team St. Louis.

I’ve decided that during the Olympics this year, I will work on completing the lace portion of Barbara Walker’s Learn-to-Knit Afghan that I’ve been working on literally for years. I started it in February 2006.

This afghan, which I’ve blogged about before, is a bit of genius designed to expose the knitter to a wide variety of knitting techniques. It’s comprised of 63 individual 8-inch x 8-inch squares, each one a different stitch pattern. The squares are divided into eight sections in the book, in ascending order of difficulty: Knit-Purl Combinations, Mosaic Patterns, Slip-Stitch Patterns, Twist-Stitch Patterns, Cables, Increase-and-Decrease Patterns, Lace, and Special Techniques.

I’ve finished, in order, Squares 1 to 50. That includes the first two squares in the lace section, but I found the lace really frustrating and my progress came to a screeching halt. I haven’t worked on the afghan at all in 2008 and it appears that I took a ten-month hiatus between Squares 46 (completed November 28, 2006) and 47 (completed September 23, 2007).

I do want to finish the darn thing and I’d like to lose my annoyance and incompetence when it comes to lace. So my Ravelympics goal is to complete Squares 51 through 56. When that’s finished, it should be a breezy ride through Section 8: Special Techniques, which actually look like fun. Then I have to figure out (a) how to sew the darn thing together and (b) what to do with it!

I intend to post pictures of some of the lace squares as I complete them and I’ll also post pix of some of my favorite squares completed in previous years. But for the moment, here you can see the individual squares of Timothy Hunt’s afghan.

Just a few minutes

21 July 2008

Some days I look around my home or office and say to myself, “I really need to xxxxx” and it’s a general task like, “get organized” or “reorganize my closet.” Sometimes it’s just “create some order around here” when things have gotten out of hand.

Often, though, when faced with a general task it takes on larger-than-life proportions and I feel as though if I don’t have a whole day or afternoon to deal with it, there’s no point in even getting started.

This morning I was perusing Unclutterer, which I do on a regular basis. As I scanned their a year ago on Unclutterer feature, one of the items, Ten things to do in 10 minutes caught my eye. It really speaks to power of focusing your efforts for just a few minutes.

According to the article, among the 10 things you can accomplish in 10 minutes are organizing your sock drawer, gathering up your pet’s toys, and cleaning out your cupboard under your kitchen sink (talk about a high-impact 10 minutes).

I have some big rocks I need to accomplish this week, but I think I’m going to make a list of these 10- to 15-minute tasks that I can treat as small pebbles throughout the week and really get things whipped into shape around here.

Thank you Unclutterer!

Olympic knitting

17 July 2008

Two years ago, during the 2006 Winter Olympics, the Yarn Harlot organized the Knitting Olympics, in which participants cast on for a new knitting project during the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Medal winners finished their project by the closing ceremonies.

It’s happening again this year, but the official Knitting Olympics is a winter event, so over at Ravelry, they’re calling it the Ravelympics 2008. Same concept. And I’m going for it. During the 2006 Knitting Olympics, I’d only been knitting (as an adult) for about a year and it seemed more than I wanted to take on. But this year I’m totally into having an excuse to devote some intensive time to knitting.

Now comes the fun part, figuring out what project I’m going to take on during the Olympics. The rules state that it has to be something that’s a challenge to knit in 17 days (cast on is August 8th and bind off is August 24th)—and only the participant can make the judgment call about what constitutes a challenge.

I’m going to register for it at Ravelry (deadline: August 6) and also with one of my local yarn shops, Knitty Couture, which is hosting the event by staying open late during opening and closing ceremonies and having knit-ins throughout the month—and handing out medals to all participants.

If you’re a knitter up for a little challenge, I encourage you to go for it. You can read the rules on Knitty Couture’s blog. Or go over to Ravelry to register for an event and join a team.

Not a member of Ravelry yet? I strongly recommend you join the 150,000 knitters and other fiber enthusiasts who are making Ravelry an amazing social-networking site for people who love yarn. It’s still in beta testing, so you have to register for an invitation, which you should receive within a couple of days of registering.

The Clutter Diet Blog: Blog of the Week

16 July 2008

This week’s BOTW is Lorie Marrero’s The Clutter Diet Blog. I admire Lorie a lot—she’s a true innovator. In the Clutter Diet, Lorie has created a program that helps those who can’t afford the one-one-one help of a professional organizer. Modeled after Weight Watchers, participants in the Clutter Diet, for a small fee, have access to help and support to declutter and get organized. Lorie employs professional organizers to monitor and respond to members-only forum questions, so Clutter Diet members get expert help. I love people who think outside the box!

With her blog, Lorie provides loads of free information on organizing. She has great ideas and great resources. I love that she uses video technology to capture ideas from people she comes in contact with or share video or audio content that appeared elsewhere.

Self-care

15 July 2008

I’m always struck how clutter gets in the way of life. I have many clients who constantly feel an obligation to deal with their clutter. They plan to devote a weekend to decluttering, then they start to feel overwhelmed, so they don’t actually deal with it. (Until they call me.)

So for weeks, months, even years, they decline invitations to do fun stuff on their off hours because they should stay home and “get organized.” They don’t treat themselves to a movie, a vacation, or a bike ride because they feel an obligation to stay home and tackle what’s become for them a giant burden.

It breaks my heart.

I’m a big believer in self-care. Maybe because I don’t have kids and therefore have more free time than many women, I have no qualms about taking time away from the “shoulds” and enjoying myself. It happens that I’m easy to amuse—I’m thrilled to sit in front of a DVD of a favorite TV series and knit. That’s my idea of a great time. And I consider that self-care.

Last Sunday I spent the afternoon with some great women, chatting, laughing and doing crafts. Does my bathroom closet need sorting and purging? Oh yeah. It’ll get done some day. But I don’t let it get in the way of the very important hours in the day where I relax and enjoy myself. Getting together with my “craft sisters” nurtures me. And that’s really important.

If you’re reading organizing blogs because you’re feeling disorganized or frustrated by clutter, please don’t let it take over your life. If necessary, seek help (you can find a great organizer via NAPO’s website), and set aside time to work on your organizing project. The key is to actually do the work, rather than intending to do the work and being paralyzed in the process.

And then, please, find time to take care of yourself, rejuvenate your spirits and do something fun. Your idea of fun might be climb a mountain, like my amazing friend Shannon Wilkinson or it might be to take a bubble bath. Maybe you can make a list of things you’d love to do if you only finished getting organized. Then use the items on your list for rewards for the progress you make.

Don’t let clutter get in the way of life. Chip away at it, 15 minutes at a time. Then focus on some self-care. You’re worth it!

Easy furniture transformation

14 July 2008

About 15 years ago, my husband and I became a two-computer household, so we bought a computer stand at Office Depot or somewhere. At the time it didn’t seem too ugly (or maybe there was no such thing as pretty computer furniture back then).

We expanded our space and our furniture through a couple of moves and now both computers are on desks. (My husband has two computers on his desk, actually.) We still have that ugly computer stand, which currently houses a laser printer, an inkjet printer, a fax machine and a three-tray inbox for stationery.

When we moved back to St. Louis from New York in 2001, I just couldn’t stand looking at it any more. But is truly a functional piece of furniture. So even though I’m not so crafty (except with yarn), I went to the fabric store with my creative friend, Sally, and picked out some fabric to cover for the stand.

When I repainted the office a couple of years ago, I made a new cover. But the way I’d decided to piece together the cover didn’t work well with my new laser printer. So in the Great Home Office Makeover of June 2008, I fashioned a new cover for it.

I’m inordinately proud of it. We do own a sewing machine, but it’s still in its box. I made the whole thing using Steam-A-Seam fusible tape and a steam iron.

I have to show off some pictures. The new cover comes over the top and reaches to the floor.

If it weren’t for the cover, the contents of the printer stand would be revealed for everyone to see:

Before making this new cover, I had a similar (but different) fabric that covered the sides and top (up one side, across the top, and down the other), like a runner. The front panel was attached with velcro along the front edge. The problem was that when I pulled out the printer paper tray, it would catch on the edge of the top runner. So brilliant Sally suggested I drape the whole top with this new fabric.

The result is that I have two complementary fabrics working together on one piece of furniture, which is way more stylin’ than I usually am. Here’s a photo of a corner, where the two fabrics meet:

If someone as uncrafty as me can fashion something out of fabric to make an ugly but functional piece of furniture usable and even sort of pretty, then anyone can. Next time you’re tempted to toss something because of its looks, think about ways you might be able to gussy it up and enjoy its functionality again.

My punctuality solution

11 July 2008

Being on time to client appointments has been a challenge for me. I blogged about this three months ago, at which time I vowed to make some changes to my morning routine, including implementing some checklists, so that I’d be on time instead of rushing like a mad woman in the morning.

I’m happy to say that, for the most part, my morning’s have become more calm and I’m arriving on time to clients’ homes. (Yesterday there was a road closure, which made me late, but I would have been on time!)

I did create some checklists, which have helped. I’ve been better about putting together the supplies I need for the next day’s client appointments the night before. And I have these great checklists so I can make sure I didn’t forget anything. And, of course, it helps that I have my new second home office which houses supplies that go to clients’ homes so I’m not searching for anything.

But the key to my punctuality success has been this: Each night, I figure out what time I need to leave in the morning to get to my client on time (and I pad that a little), then I work backwards and set times for when I need to leave to walk my dogs, when I need to go upstairs, when I need to get in the shower, and when I need to get up—always padding each step by about 15 minutes. That means I get up pretty darn early, but that’s okay, because I like to have plenty of time in the morning.

The end result is that I usually have 15 to 30 minutes to spare after I finish walking the dogs, which is a wonderful luxury and means my head and body aren’t speeding along as I walk out the door. It allows me to be more centered and more focused on my client.

It’s not rocket science and if I weren’t a morning person, it probably wouldn’t work. But it’s made a big difference in the quality of my mornings and in my ability to fulfill my clients’ expectations that I’ll be on time to their appointments!