Organization

I don't know what it is about January that puts me in an organizing mood. Maybe after the chaos of the holidays, I want order back in my life. Maybe because it's too cold and miserable to be outside, I find projects inside to keep me busy. I usually don't have any knitting projects in January (I try to give myself a little bit of a break after the holiday frenzy).

Every year, once I get the Christmas decorations put away and the house back to it's non-Christmas state, I start thinking of things I need to do in the house. This year, I have quite a list, and have already accomplished so much in just two weekends. Last weekend, I organized my health insurance paperwork for 2010, cleaned out both freezers, and organized our tea bags. I know, that one sounds a little odd. I was tired of the boxes of tea falling off the shelf. I found a neat basket I wasn't using, and it holds the tea in a very nice manner. I still want one of those nifty wooden tea chests, but at least now we aren't getting attacked by flying tea bags!

This weekend I tackled photos. I love pictures. I have photos in frames throughout the house, and I have about 15 photo albums of various sizes. Most of them are full, or soon to be full. I am already on my sixth photo album of just Sydney, and she's a little over four years old. I had been keeping the photo albums in the small bookcase that serves as our TV stand, but it was full, with no room for more albums. So I moved the photo albums to the six foot tall bookcase next to the TV (and the albums now take up three shelves of the unit). I moved all of the kid friendly videos and DVDs into the TV stand. This way they are easily accessible for Sydney. I went through DVDs and videos, getting rid of duplicates, ones I didn't like or saw no reason to keep. I was able to make a huge dent in the collection. The shelves are now neat and orderly.

I also decided it was time to update my photo frames. I still had my sister's Senior picture from high school in a 5x7 frame, as well as pictures from our college graduations. My sister will have her 15th high school reunion this spring, so I think it was time to change everything. I threw out the frames that were falling apart, or that were really cheap and could not be opened easily (the kind with just staples holding the back on, and you have to bend the staples up to open the frame). I changed most of the pictures, and the few I didn't change were moved to a new location in the house. In some ways, it seems like a different house. Changing your pictures around makes a big difference in your decor!

I had also planned to get all my photos into albums. I placed a big order with Snapfish last weekend, and the photos arrived on Friday. Unfortunately, most of the order was very poor quality and I've had to reorder them, so I wasn't able to get all the photos into albums. Maybe next weekend.

I still have so many more projects to do! With any luck, I'll get them all done this winter. Once it starts getting nicer, I want to either be outside, or I go places after work. When it's cold and dark, I just want to be inside. I like getting so much done, and it leaves me with a big sense of accomplishment for the weekend. That's always a bonus!