Planning an Organised New Year

Happy 2016!  I truly hope that this year brings health, happiness and peace to one and all.

We spent a lovely New Year's Eve together, as a family.  We had a nice dinner with a set table, candles, and some of our leftover Christmas crackers.  Dinner is always more fun when wearing silly paper crowns!  After dinner, we played by the Christmas tree for a while, and did a countdown at 7pm.  Then, off to bed!  I'm glad we called it an early night since Little Smiling Man had a rough night, so every minute of sleep was precious!

Looking back, 2015 has been a very busy and fantastic year.  On the family front, of course the biggest change was the addition of Little Smiling Man to our family in March.  We are so blessed.  2015 also saw Mini Muffin turn two, and really grow into her own little person.  It saw me begin my maternity leave, and grow into being a mother of two.  We had three family getaways; a trip to Vancouver to visit my in-laws, some cottage time in the summer, and finally our trip  to Niagara and a water park just before Christmas.  2015 was also the year that my sister got engaged, and my cousin got married.  On the home front, we started and finished a basement renovation (which straddled Little Smiling Man's arrival).  It was a full and fulfilling year to be sure.

Looking forward, 2016 is shaping up to be pretty amazing too.  My sister's bridal shower and wedding are coming up.  I was honoured to be asked to be Matron of Honour, and look forward to helping make her special day perfect.  Mini Muffin will be Flower Girl, and Little Smiling Man will be the Ring Bearer.  It promises to be a wonderful occasion.  2016 will also see Little Smiling Man learn to walk, turn one, and develop some language skills.  Mini Muffin will turn three, and continue to be awesome.  We're undecided on family getaways, but I'm sure we'll figure something out.  And, I'm sure there's more exciting stuff coming in 2016, so stay tuned!

As part of looking forward, so many of us think about resolutions.  My resolution is to continue the organisational progress I made in 2015.  When our renovation suddenly started in late February (mere weeks before Little Smiling Man was due to join us), the house got turned upside down.  The large, messy, 'stick it in the basement' storage area needed to be fully emptied.  Most of our 'storage' (e.g. junk) space was lost, and everything needed to find a new home either in our home, the recycling center, the dump, or an appropriate charity.  It was a major undertaking!  I developed an overall vision of what would be stored where, and began the jigsaw puzzle of making it happen.  One closet needed to be cleared out to make room for another item, which in turn made space for something else, and so on.  In the weeks leading up to our new arrival, I made a point of cleaning out and organizing one thing a day - a closet, dresser, cabinet, etc.  A couple of months after Little Smiling Man joined us, I finally finished.  I can happily say that in 2015 I went through and organised every single storage space in our house.  It was very rewarding; clutter was reduced, we realised we had things we'd forgotten about and could make use of them, and I learned about more local charities to help me rehome quality goods.

Therefore, for 2016 (and each year going forward), my goal is to clear out and organise every storage space in the house at least annually.  One of the great things is that the more clutter I get rid of, the easier the task becomes!  In order to make my goal realistic, I decided to spread out my organisational endeavours over the course of the year.  This, led me to... organise my organisational plans!

So, in preparation for the New Year, I set about getting organised.  I started by listing every storage space in the house.  Then, clarified how many times I wanted to go through it.  The vast majority of spaces I plan to go through once a year, but there are exceptions.  For example, the front hall closet and bedroom closets need to be gone through twice a year as part of the seasonal clothing switchover.  And, I've committed to clean out my pantry once every three months to help minimize food wastage. 

With these details included, I defined which spaces would be small, medium, or large jobs.  And, finally started assigning them each a month during which to be completed.  I also front end loaded 'the plan', since I expect the fall will be a busy time for us.

My last step, was to transfer my plans onto the family calendar.  Rather than assigning a day or even week to the task, I listed them by month to give myself maximum flexibility.  I also added monthly tasks of catching up on filing (something I am so woefully behind on at the moment that I'm afraid to start), and cleaning out the snack containers, art projects, mittens and toys that seem to accumulate in my van at an alarming rate.

"The Plan"

And with that, my resolution was set.  I feel ready to tackle the New Year in an organised fashion, and hope to be able to report back on my progress!