Tuesday, June 8, 2010

I know it has been over a week since I last posted on my blog. That was because I decided to take a real break until after the French Open. I have still been working during that time, making gradual changes in the living room, doing research, and trying to keep up with student advisees (an ongoing responsibility). The first pic below shows the results of cleaning the second half of the living room. The carpet is now dry and I have pretty much put things back together, including my new big-screen TV (2nd pic below). The first picture was taken about a week ago when the carpet was still drying.


The second picture shows the big screen television I got about 10 days ago. While it arrived and I have been able to watch it since a week ago Sunday, I had to make a number of adjustments, so it wasn't fully operational until this past Friday. If you ever get a big-screen with HD, you will need to get an HDMI cord to plug in to the TV and the cable box (it cost about $20). I didn't have it at first, and the picture was not as clear as it now is.

I will send another pic of the room after I do some more rearranging--hopefully later today. I have also made a list of all the things I would like to accomplish in the next 10 weeks. I got quite a bit done yesterday--not so much in the way of organizing, but doing errands at school. I will figure out a way to share the list.


Right now, the main thing I need to do is find a way to get a good night's sleep. After getting up around 11 a.m. yesterday, I have not slept at all, which means I am going on 28.5 hours without sleep. And I have taken two 20-mile bike rides in the interim! Hopefully I will still have enough energy to make some progress organizing today!

Saturday, May 22: Living Room

I just finished working in the living room and am preparing to clean the furniture and carpets. This is not necessarily the arrangement I will keep after I get the big-screen television. But it does open things up a lot more than it was. It really helped to have Lori here to help with cleaning and organizing. If I can finish doing the carpet and furniture, I should be ready for a new TV by Monday! The next picture you will see here will feature a new arrangement:-) The only thing I forgot to do today was take a "before" picture. I will be sure to do that for the next room! And oh, by the way, Lori is coming again on Tuesday!!

Let me know what you think!

Friday, May 21: Back in BG

I am back in BG after a brief visit to North Canton. This is a pic of Mom and Dad, after Mom just had a permanent. Although she is standing with some support, she has been using a walker to get around.

While I was in North Canton, I hoped to be able to catch up on reading from one (or both) of Julie Morgenstern's books--Organizing from the inside out, and/or Time management from the inside out. However, I read neither! Instead, I got caught up with Mom and Dad's schedule and ended up on "Mom and Dad Time" (MDT). So, I have returned to BG without having accomplished much of anything that I had hoped to do by the end of the week. And I still do not have a master plan that is written out. I have a "To-do" list but a list is not the same as a plan, as I may have mentioned earlier.

The good thing about this weekend is that tomorrow Lori is coming--she has been doing cleaning every other weekend, so I plan to work during that time as well. My goal is to clear away as much paper work as possible.

I noticed that there are some more comments since the earlier ones so I will go back to the last post and add my replies as well. Thank you all SO MUCH for your support! It really motivates me.

Monday, May 17, 2010: Getting (Re)started

Apparently this is not the first time that I have set about "planning" to organize my time and physical surroundings. In fact, I found a journal that I wrote after my junior year in college. On May 17, 1970, exactly 40 years ago, I wrote the following:

...I need to "just basically GET ORGANIZED!

On May 18, 1970, I elaborated:

"If I want to get really organized, it's going to take more than just a couple hours. It's going to involve sorting through things in the attic, like mail I've gotten for the past 20 years until now, putting it all together, filing and sorting and putting it in a useable system. There's lots of resources there, but it's a matter of organizing (just like with tennis--I have lots of ability but it needs to be put into a workable framework and that takes patience to develop and the ability to determine priorities). Besides correspondence, I have books to sort through and put in shelves in Mary Jo's old room and we could work out a way to fix that up as an extra room. After dinner, we can work out a plan of how we want that room arranged and then if we spend a small time each day we can come up with something satisfactory."

Many things have changed in the past 40 years--I have finished college, played and taught tennis professionally, called lines for the Billie Jean King vs. Bobby Riggs match, lived in Texas, California, Illinois, Michigan, and now back in Ohio, got my Master's and Phd, and rode my bike cross country.

One thing has not changed--I still need to get organized!! Apparently, that has not been the priority that those other things were. It's time to make it a priority. Today it is.

After making a one page list of things that I need to do that are related to school, I came up with the following ideas to start in my living room:

1. Video tapes: need to be cleared out of the living room, labeled and put in a central location.
2. Magazines: sort and store.
3. Bills: file receipts for bills paid.
4. Paperwork: shred what is not needed; sort and organize notes, readings for future reference.
5. Clear out furniture.
6. Vacuum and shampoo carpet.
7. When all of above is completed: Buy a big-screen TV (in time for French Open)!

How does that sound?

Still organizing stuff in kitchen

This is how things looked earlier today. It actually got better and there was a method to my madness. The biggst obstacle today was playing a game on Facebook. I should have never started it! The after pictures will follow. And I am ready to work on classes as soon as I finish doing this.

Cleaning the cupboards

This is where I started today--cleaning out cupboards below kitchen counter--in the hope of putting stuff that was on the counter into the cupboards. Now that everything is out of the cupboards, I just need to figure out where to put everything. Hopefully I will have an "after" shot of this before this evening ends.

The Kitchen Counter

Below (left) is the "Before" picture of my kitchen counter. As you can tell, it was taken earlier in the day, when I had all kinds of high hopes for getting things organized, and before I spent too much time on my other blog. Below (right) is the after, at least for the time being. I obviously need to do more. So, it is "to be continued."

"Where did everything go," you asked?

Mostly into boxes or the trash... but, it's a start!