Time Management Tuesday

Does it ever seem to you that the MORE time you have the LESS you get done? I have always known I worked better under pressure and with a deadline. This is something I would like to change about myself. So I am going to try to keep working on tasks based on the time I have in my day, not based on a deadline. 

This week I was better with my time management. I am STILL not caught up on the dishes, laundry, litter boxes or general housework. I AM making improvements and taking baby steps. For example:

In the past when the dishes would pile up to the point of no return I would spend a hour or more washing ALL the dirty dishes (and drying what I needed to be able to keep washing). Then of course that evening I would wash the dinner dishes so as to avoid the same mess. Then I would find my kitchen ransacked by teenagers and I would feel defeated and give up. NOW my strategy is to not use clean dishes. Instead I use dirty dishes, wash them for my use, and wash them when I am done. As a bonus I use the soap and water I have to wash a few other dishes as well. It is working. My stack of dirty dishes is less day by day and I feel MORE in control of the dish situation. 

The Laundry situation is a little bit trickier. Because I do not have a dryer I cannot just bang out several loads of laundry. I am limited by the space I have to hang laundry and the clothespins I have. (Solution to the clothespins is to purchase more - which I will do today when we walk to the Public Market). The only solution to the laundry situation is to keep up with a single load a day. I do however need to make a run to a laundromat in the near future to wash all the blankets (spring clean), so that would be a good excuse to get completely caught up on my laundry. 

AS for the Litter Boxes? I just have to knuckle down and keep scooping. I have to clean the third box out and get it set back up. Completely cleaning and emptying the boxes is now my Tuesday chore. I do so when I finish my blog post (it inspires me). 

The rest of the house? It is a work in progress. I find myself taking items out of the living room when I leave and finding their temporary or real home. I find myself collecting dust bunnies as I walk up the stairs to the bathroom. I find myself evaluating how I can be better organized and questioning the value of many items in my life.

This was the living room last week when I wrote Time Management Tuesday

The other side of the room last week

This tote of paper is from Christmas, I had plans for it but never got around to them so I did throw it way, the shoes are old and have only been worn a handful of times. I cleared out the shoe cabi behind the tote and put the shoes away.

This is the room when I was finished. I swept and folded the mountain of laundry that was in the chair.

Other side of the room.

This is the room today. Laundry is not out of control but there is a basket of socks and "projects" to deal with

This side actually looks decent.....

 I have cleared out half a dozen small items from my life using the Facebook groups that allow me to sell used items. I will continue to do so until I no longer find myself cluttered. 

Fear is still limiting what I choose to do. I have projects that I think I can tackle, and I gather materials and I make plans, but that sick feeling in my stomach won't go away and I fail to start the project. I am working on changing the way I see myself and being kinder. This includes reminding myself that the ONLY failure is a failure to try. Everything else is a lesson to be learned or a success waiting to happen. 

The chairs and ottoman are one of those projects that I need to tackle. I have been blessed with hand me down furniture (never owned a new anything in my life).  It was all in better shape when I received it 10+ years ago. So now it is time to recover this furniture. Recovering it was ALWAYS the plan. I wanted to make it "Match".  I have an old slip cover that has been torn up by cats (not mine - it came on the one bird chair when I received it). My plan is to start with the brown rocker (because it is the biggest) and use that slip cover to create a pattern, then move on to the bird chair and finally flower chair. This way I can alter the pattern down with each chair. 

The Brown Chair was built by my Opa and covered by my Oma. The fabric is in relatively good condition.  It is soft and velvety, but that is not good with pets as it is a fur magnet and honestly I have NEVER been a big fan of the color. The chair base is broken, so I'll need a trip to the Home Depot or Fabrics and Findings in order to locate Queen Anne legs (to match the other chairs) and then I can recover it. I have pinned a couple of new sew tutorials, and I'll review them and see which is my BEST source and share the photos as I work. 

Next to the massage chair you might have noticed some fabric on the floor. That is a pillow form that no longer matches anyone's style (and it has a stain on it). So my plan is to use the black ripped pants to create a background and then try my hand at a peacock pattern... we'll see how it comes out. Hopefully, by my next Time Management post I'll have some progress on one of those TWO projects to share. 

What are your time management challenges? Do you ever feel paralyzed by the fear of failure? What is on your project list?