Organization Queen
So, I decided to take holidays for these next two weeks, but not to go to Ontario for Christmas. I mean, I really enjoy seeing my family at Christmas, but trips to Ontario are *exhausting* because I have so many people to see and it ends up being a lot of scheduling, running around to see people, entertaining, more running around and I end up coming home 10x more exhausted than when I left on “vacation.” Don’t get me wrong, I love my family and friends, but knowing that I’m about to start school in January, I decided it that it made a lot more sense to spend my time off at home getting rested and organized for what is definitely going to be a busy new year ((Happily, Devon has offered to share his family with me this Christmas, so I will still get to enjoy family festivities!)).
So, what is it that I plan to do with my time off?
My first priority is to organize my apartment. For example, I need to turn my desk from its current state as a piece of furniture buried under a giant pile of papers that “I’ll file later” to an actual functioning workspace. As I see it, my organizational tasks this week are:
- sort through massive piles of paper:
- all unnecessary papers thrown in the recycling (I’m looking at you, research articles from my PhD that I completed 5+ years ago)
- all necessary papers filed in the appropriate file folder
- organize my bookshelves, donating any books that I no longer need/want
- fix clothes that need fixing ((I have a few items of clothing with loose buttons or ripped seams that I can easily put back into the rotation with a few stitches.)), purge clothes that don’t fit me ((By donating them to a thrift store.)) and shoes that are worn out (to the landfill, sadly.)
- review and update my budget
- planning out my outfits on Sunday night for the the following week – it’s unbelievable how much trouble I have deciding what to wear in the morning!
- cooking for the week on the weekend – I love having leftovers for lunch and especially for weekends when I have classes, I’m going to need to have prepared food on hand so that I don’t end up spending a fortune on, and gaining 50 lbs from, restaurants
- going to bed at a decent hour – I am really bad for getting too little sleep during the week and then sleeping in on the weekends ((And yes, I know that you can’t truly “catch up” on missed sleep, but I do at least “recover” from the sleep deprivation of the previous week.)). This won’t be an option on weeks that I have class at 8 am on Saturday and Sunday!
I’m sure this sounds like the worst. vacation. ever. to most of you. But my nerdy nature is actually a bit thrilled to have some time to remove the clutter from both my apartment and my mind! Also, there will be plenty of time for fun – as I mentioned above, I’ll be spending Christmas with Devon and his family on the Island, so there will be family festivities, plus a chance to visit the Bard & Banker which has the beer that is so delicious that I want to marry it. I also hope to get to La Belle Patate, a Montreal-style deli where I can enjoy a Montreal smoked meat sandwich and, if their Facebook page tells the truth, a spruce beer!!!
This shaping up to be quite a nice vacation!
when you’re doing your closet/clothes stuff, think about putting all the kinds of outfits into the order you’d need them. For example, instead of “all the shirts here” organization system, combine and hang them in ready made outfits so you just grab a “set”. 🙂
I love love love this post… maybe because we’re both twins, we are both nerdy in nature, and I love taking the time to organize my life. 🙂 You do sound busy in the new year, which makes me want to step up my game! I’m thinking: study for (and pass) the SAS advanced certification, complete my relational databases certificate, train for a half marathon, complete P90X2, and maintain a social life as well. Let’s do this!
I don’t understand the difficulty in choosing an outfit! Granted, you must look pretty and professional, but don’t you have certain go-to combinations that you’ve worn before? Is it OK wear the same outfit more than once in a month? Will people notice?
My office is very casual, making attire at cinch. Is it clean? Does it make me look like a hobo? If ‘yes’ and ‘no’, respectively, I’m done!
@Colleen – That’s why I set up my outfits for the week – so that I can just grab a set and go. I can’t just store everything as sets though, as I have a lot of stuff that I mix & match in different combinations.
@Rick – OMG, that sounds like a lot!
@Troll – I think my problem is that I have *too much* choice (You’ve seen my closets, right?). I have so many clothing options and can mix and match them in so many different ways. And people will totally notice if I wear the same thing too often!