Tag: organizing

Piles, Packing, and Organizing

by eileentroemel, posted in Life, Writing
I’m not really sure where January and February went.  March is already half done and I don’t know where that went either.  I know I’ve been busy with helping one daughter with health issues and the other daughters with different things.  However, I don’t feel like I’ve been able to catch my breath.  Stuff I intended to have done in January I’m just getting to and it is March.
This morning first thing – before my five day headache had faded to manageable – Ken and I were up and out of the house to run errands for gathering things to take to Vicki.  She sends me a list and gives me money – we go get.  One check mark off my todo list.
We come home and I play on the computer – answer emails, play Bookwork, write in my journal, and tackle piles.  Most of my writing is now organized the way I want it.  I still have some piles that I’m not sure how I want to handle but I’ve gone through several pile and have them labeled and put away.  Things are easily identifiable and accessible. Items I will use often are at hand and others are placed further away. 
Next on my list is some computer work which will take a bit and then I’m off to pack my crafting suitcase for my trip.  I’ve got many of those items ready to go in the suitcase it is just a matter of getting the suitcase out and putting them in.  Although there are a couple of things I want to pull from the craft room. 
When I’m done with these things – providing my headache hasn’t screamed back full force – crocheting will round out my day.  Ken is working in the basement.  The basement guys were here and fixed it last weekend so he can work on getting his workroom set up and the guest room set up.
Tomorrow is a whole different day and I’ll have to figure out what I will be doing then.  Probably more organizing and packing but you never know.  If the headache I’ve had for five days continues I may just spend the day in a dark room doing nothing.  I’ve decided the worst thing about a headache is I can’t crochet while I’m home sick.  It hurts too much.

Productive!

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life
It has been a busy and productive weekend.  Ken and I have knocked off the errands in record time.  My todo list for the weekend is nearly all done.  More sorting and organizing got done in the office.  The weekend is still not done.
My goal this weekend was to get the errands done and prep for a contest which is due next Monday.  This involved sorting through two large stacks of writing paperwork.  I thought it would take me a long time but essentially I sorted into categories and will do the fine tuning once my organizational items get here. 
Ken and I got through all the errands yesterday except grocery shopping which he did this morning.  We went to Shopko, the post office, and Walgreens.  We also prepped the house for Kelly and Dominic coming over.  They called mid-errands and wanted to get together.  This was a wonderful thing as life has been so busy for all of us. 
In prepping the house, I was able to cross off several things from my todo list, like organizing for the few projects I want to get done in the next week.  Everything I need is at hand so I just need crochet time.
This morning I got up and allowed myself one hour of time wasting by playing Bookworm Adventures.  It is addicting and I can’t stop but I allowed myself the fun of playing while I woke up. 
Then I worked on reorganizing things.  Ken helped by taking things off high shelves and putting them where I wanted (like on other high shelves).  I have the items where I want them now – mostly decorative stuff that is good to look at but I don’t need to deal with much.  I sorted through my huge stacks of paperwork.  I also got the doilies a friend made me put on display with some knick knacks (mostly stones) and a bowl I got for a gift.
It is amazing to me how many little details can get taken care of in a matter of just a day or two.  Last night while I watched tv I worked on another kitchen set.  I have two more pot holders to make and some sponges.  After which I will work on bibs for those who requested them. 

The office is coming together.  Lots of things have been organized and arranged.  The living room got cleaned, which involved me clearing off and organizing the stuff on the couch and much of my crocheting stuff.  Shortly, I’m going to take my manuscript and go sit in the recliner to do one more edit before I submit it for the contest.  I think I can officially say it has been a busy and productive weekend!

Distracted

by eileentroemel, posted in Writing
My goal today – work on my office.  I need to finish organizing my stuff in the office so I can move forward with my writing goals.  I got up this morning fully intending to start the day early and attack the piles of paperwork in my office.  I sat down to my computer at 8 figuring it will only take me a couple of minutes to look over my emails and then move on to the next task at hand. 
That was my mistake.  I started reading my emails, one of which was a newsletter with writing leads in it.  I discovered a place I wanted to submit to and here I am two hours later finally done with my emails.  However, I did submit ten poems and two short stories to a place that pays.  Now I just have to wait to hear from them. 
Next I am going to start on organizing and shifting things in my office to get it to a point where I can just come in and write or work on submissions and have things right at hand without having to shift or struggle with trying to find what I need. 

The distraction this morning though, reminded me how much I have missed having an organized space to be able to create and submit my work.  It has reaffirmed the need to finish the project of organizing my office and getting it into working shape again.

My Home Office

by eileentroemel, posted in Life
My husband is amazing.  I grumble about him and how he annoys me as is normal when you’ve been together as long as we have.  However, yesterday he helped me in our office.  He worked on clearing out so we could rearrange.  He did all the moving, lifting, putting together, and all the physical stuff I can’t do.  He helped with sorting and organizing. 
Friday we went to Shopko and got two pieces of furniture – both of which were on sale.  Each one was supposed to be $100 but the two on sale ended up being $90.  We also got canvas boxes to go on the shelves that were on sale for either $4 or $5 instead of $10. 
Ken cleaned out the shelves in the closet and took down two of the shelves.  He moved the two file cabinets into the closet so they were not taking up space in the room but still very accessible.  The closet area got cleared out but we still need to figure out what is going where in the closet – other than the two file cabinets and containers of genealogy stuff. 
Ken assembled the two shelving units we got and I put the baskets in them.  As I was sorting through things in the office I realized I wanted two more small baskets for the smaller shelves and I was going to need the organizational stuff for the cubes.  We went out and got what was needed.  I think we ran out of steam.
Today I’m going to tackle the office again and see how much progress I can make on it.  The file cabinet drawers need a good clearing out as well as organizing all the stuff I want on the shelves.  I think that will be the focus but I’m not going to push too much for doing a lot – afterall it is the weekend.  

Projects

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized

I can’t believe it is almost the end of July.  The summer is flying by and I’ve only gotten about a quarter of what I wanted to done.  There are so many projects on my list right now including crocheting presents, sewing for my daughter, and writing.  Oh and let’s not forget that I still have to clean my office and get organized for school in the fall. 

This weekend we are doing prep for meals this week.  Vicki did the shopping yesterday so today we are going to work on getting things prepped for meals for the week.  She already made trail mix.  I need to start a bag of things to take to work.  She won’t be up for a few hours and then it will be full speed ahead with all the things on the list. 

One of the things I want to do is make a list of the gifts I want to make including to whom they are going and whether I have the yarn for the item or not.  Then I can start checking things off.  I also want to include on the list what projects I have yarn for.  This will hopefully keep me on track for getting things done.   

For my writing projects, I just need to get organized.  All of what I want to do is in my head and I just need to get it down on paper so I have a check list to get things checked off.  It helps keep me focused because too often I get off track as I’m doing one project something else will pull me away.  These forays into other topics and projects are fun but it prevents me from completing a task. 

One last project I have to deal with in the next month is prepping for classes in the fall.  I need to clear up the previous classes stuff and get ready for the new classes.  Lots to do, I need another me.

Back to work tomorrow

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized

It is my last day of vacation and I’ve realized what a great vacation I had.  It was busy to say the least.  I’ve gotten errands and household things done.  I’ve sorted paperwork (still have a pile to go) and I’ve filled out paperwork.  On top of those tasks, I’ve played too.  I’ve read books, watched DVDs, crocheted and just basically relaxed. 

My writing piles are now organized into some semblance of order.  I think it will work as a system but I’ll have to see how things go.  I’ve got my genealogy and personal bills organized as well (or at least slots for them so I have some place to slide things when I get them. 

Today I’m going to attempt to work at my desk.  I don’t know if I’ll actually get to writing things but I’m going to hope so.  I have a little more organizing to do (one more stack of paperwork to get through) and then hopefully I can tap into the creative side and work on writing.

I haven’t thought about work more than for a minute or two while I’ve been on vacation.  It has been a good six days off and I’m glad I took it.  I feel relaxed and ready to return to work tomorrow. 

Corruption!

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized

Yesterday I was on track and getting things done on my list.  I got folders created for projects and categories.  I got paperwork cleared off my desk, organized and put away.  I was on track.  Huge stacks of paperwork have been sorted and dealt with.  I’m down to just a few more.  I thought for sure I was going to complete the tasks at hand. 

Nope… I was corrupted.  First I was drawn away to have breakfast with my daughter.  Then she wanted to watch stuff on the DVR and it was stuff I wanted to watch so I might as well watch with her.  Then the UPS guy brought our new kindles.  After that I was a goner.

My daughter corrupted my determination to get all this stuff done.  She forced me to relax and spend time with her.  She made me cook for her.  She made me play with my kindle.  It was such a hardship… 🙂

In all honesty, I got a lot done even before she rolled out of bed.  However, I was also getting stressed out with each new decision.  Did I categorize these things right?  Oh yeah and I’m pretty sure by 10:30 my stomach was complaining that I’d not put anything of substance in it. 

Today we ran around everywhere.. or so it seemed.  We went to the next town over to pick up our friend and stop at the library.  Then to Madison to go to the doctor, book store, and out to lunch.  Then we came home and all I wanted was a nap. 

Here it is almost 11:30 at night and I’m trying to decide whether to work on my pile of paperwork or go to bed… I’m thinking bed will win out and I’ll hope that tomorrow will get me back on track with the paperwork… wait I think I promised to help the corrupting daughter organize some of her stuff… dang… will I ever finish my lists?

Writing organization

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized

Writing is wonderful for me.  It takes me away from everything that annoys me.  It relaxes me in a way almost nothing else does.  Yet I find myself being annoyed because I’ll come across a good lead for submitting my work but then I can’t find what I want.  Obviously the creative side is struggling with the logical side of me. 

Yesterday I spent a good portion of the morning wading through piles of paperwork.  How is it that so much paper can be accumulated in so short of a time?  I worked my way through bills, filing, taxes, receipts, and a whole lot of junk.  I handled calls, organizing and sorting.  When it came to the ginormous pile of writing stuff I needed to get organized I felt incapable of tackling it. 

Fortunately my stubborn side (not that I’m admitting to being stubborn) took over.  I looked through my office supplies and found things that would help.  I snitched (with his permission) an organizer from Ken’s side of the desk.  I set up the card table and started the sorting process.  I had no idea it would take so much.

My piles were poetry, projects, research, submission guidelines, rejection notices, and other.  On my daughter’s advice I let go the rejection notices.  They all went into the recycling bin.  Then I started working on sorting the other piles into smaller categories.  I got through the research pile and made a start on the submission guidelines pile.  I also made a list of a few places I had guidelines for but that they were outdated so I needed to go look up the new guidelines. 

That took me till 1 am last night.  This morning I’m up (barely), thinking, and almost ready to tackle these piles again.  I’m hoping to finish them off so I can actually work on writing. 

Lately, I feel like I’ve been lax at submitting things for publication.  I’ve been so focused on books (of which I’m neck deep in three or four of them) that I’ve not been submitting my poetry or articles anywhere.  I need a day where I can focus on that. 

Aside from my writing I still have two other bins on my desk to address – school issues and genealogy.  I’m not touching the genealogy until much later in the weekend but I do need to get the school stuff done.

As always I guess I have lots to do and need to just wade right in…

Lists…

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized
I have lists for everything.  I have mental lists and physical lists.  I have lists for writing, housework, weekend tasks, work, and errands.  I even have lists for other people.  Sometimes I think I have too many lists.  Yet without my lists I think I’d be lost.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not obsessed with following these lists.  I’m more than able to go off list and do things completely off any list.  It just seems like I’m constantly making lists.  Some of them I trust to my memory and others I don’t – because they are too important perhaps.
I’m very good at throwing out my lists as I need to.  When I’m done with them or mostly, I can easily toss the list into the recycle bin without a second thought.  This is a good thing because if I couldn’t do this then I’d be buried under my lists.  Instead of being that crazy cat woman on the block, I think I might be the crazy list person on the block. 
My lists help me organize my thoughts and my life.  They help to make me more efficient.  Once I get my errands list in mind I can plan out the most efficient way to run them.  Thus I am using as little gas as possible and not back tracking because I forgot something (usually).
Every now and again, I do something crazy and go off list completely.  I spend time doing whatever I want rather than working from my list.  I guess I can be a bit of a rebel even from my own strictures…

Weekend Work

by eileentroemel, posted in Uncategorized

We work all week to get to the weekend.  You’d think that we’d spend our time relaxing, kicking back and enjoying ourselves.  Nope.  I spent my weekend cleaning closets, going through boxes, writing and editing (okay that is fun), and organizing things.  Ken cleaned the garage and took a truck full of stuff to Goodwill.  He also moved things around for me that I couldn’t lift myself and rearranged furniture as I asked him to. 

Now I have more desk space that is better organized.  I have to go through my pile of writing stuff though and figure out a system for that.  My writing is a constant question of what is the best way to organize it.  At some point I’ll figure out a good system. 

After all the work this weekend, I still don’t have my closets cleaned.  I still have work to do in my office to get it organized.  My brain is still churning on how to best utilize my space and organize my stuff.  It’s just that I need to mull it over for a while before I come up with an idea. 

I need a week of doing nothing more than genealogy to go through the boxes of stuff in my closet.  That doesn’t include my mother’s genealogy stuff that we need to get organized. 

I’ve got five chapters left to get on the computer for edits for my manuscript.  That will be my next task.  I’m hoping to finish that process off so I can have someone else read it and tell me what they think (thanks Vicki).  I’d like to get back to writing but probably by the time I’m done with the edits I’ll move on to something else.

This weekend has been a case of so much to do.  Fortunately we got a lot of it done.  There will be more to do.  There always is.