Every New Year’s Day I say that I’m going to get organized – that I’m finally going to conquer the clutter. So I dutifully take out books on home organization from the library and I subscribe to organization blogs and come up with decluttering plans.
“This is going to be the year,” I tell myself. “I’m going to set up systems and we are going to love them. We will all put our shoes in the right places and my keys will never be lost again. No one will mistake my kitchen floor for a laundry hamper and our hallway closet will be fully stocked with matching pairs of mittens, just waiting to warm up those chilly hands! Take that, house!! Yeah! YEAH!” Then I emphatically pump my fists in the air while my kids slowly back away, unsure of what to make of a woman gesturing wildly at a pile of papers on the breakfast bar.
This year though? I’m not feeling it.
Maybe I’ve given up. Maybe I’m just too tired to try yet again. Or maybe trying to get organized is such a part of everyday life now that stating it as a goal just seems redundant. Who knows?
So this year there are other possible resolutions floating around in my head.
For example, I could try being more disciplined this year – to not be distracted by Facebook or blogging or even an intricate knitting pattern when I should be preparing meals or reading with my kids. I want to have the discipline to get up early and write. I want to have the willpower to spend time each day in prayer. I want the strength to have supper on the table each night at the same time and the stamina to get my kids in bed on schedule, no matter how much they fight it. No matter how good my current Netflix addiction is.
Yeah, I suspect it will be a boring year.
On the other hand, I could try creatively working on my home for a year. I want to add colour – lot’s of colour. I want to add little knitted striped socks to my table legs and yellow patterned seat covers to the chair cushions. I want to throw brightly coloured blankets over my couch and I want to paint the old white dresser with six different colours of chalk paint. I want to learn how to quilt.
I foresee at least one future post about successfully getting supper on the table by 5:00, only to discover that it is still wet with paint.
Maybe this will be the year I get in shape. Maybe this will be the year that we spend time outside each day. Maybe this will be the year that we overhaul our backyard and grow a ton of our own food.
But right now, I don’t have the energy for any of that, for self-discipline or creativity or anything else. Right now I’m sitting on the couch in my bathrobe with a bag of chips. And what? It’s after 6:00? It’s looking less and less likely that a random stranger is going to drop by to feed my kids. I should probably quit blogging and make supper…
I’ll have to think more about New Year’s resolutions over the week and decide where to put my efforts this year. Though I suppose I could just default to the organization theme, right? I mean, check out the new label maker I spontaneously bought yesterday, in all it’s labelled glory:
Maybe I need to give the organization thing one more shot. I’m going to nail it one of these years, right?
*fistpump*
Leave a Reply to Karen Cancel reply