Confessions of a List-Maker Gone Maternal

Have I mentioned how much I love to organize with notebooks?  I'm guessing my love of lists permeates this blog.  Many scratched down blogpost ideas involve lists.  It's probably a good thing I don't write all of these blogposts--boredom would underwhelm.

Just before Ramlet was born, I reached the point of needing to replace my primary list notebook.  I knew then my list-making days were about to change.

Non-variety: the consistency of life.

My lists these days are short.  I usually only write a one-page weekly list as opposed to pushing myself to accomplish as much five days out of seven.  And, really, my high priority goals are as follows:

1.  Make the bed.  It gives a day, no matter what hours you're keeping, rhythm.
2.  Take a shower.  Refreshing and relaxing ... and surprisingly hard to plan with a newborn's whimsical schedule.
3.  Do a load of laundry.  Between breastfeeding, cloth diapers, and general infant behavior, laundry piles up quickly.
4.  Get out of the house.  Sitting on the porch: not good enough.  Checking the mail: borderline.  Taking out the trash and recycling: technically accurate, but void of spirit.  Strolling Ramlet around the neighborhood or running an errand (gasp) alone when Husband's watching Ramlet: ideal.
5.  Write something.

#5 is one of three personal objectives I determined will make me a better parent for Ramlet.  The other two?  Well, hopefully, I'll get the chance to share those thoughts before this week is out.  Right now I need to go check on the baby.

Anyone notice the irony of me writing about my overuse of lists and then using one in the same entry?  It's an organizational method I can't avoid.  How do you stay organized?

One Box, Three Uses

Last week an unassuming brown box arrived in the mail.  You’ve probably seen (or been) the child who is just as excited about the box as the present.  This would be my recent childlike joy at receiving a splurge purchase from Vera Bradley’s discontinued sale...

Note: Subject was fully clothed.  :)

Such a standard shipping box on the outside, such deep purple inside.  I was almost too exited to open the “presents” I bought myself.

Sherbet, who decided the box indeed outshone Vera's cloth designs, discovered a second use for the box: a temporary cat bed, complete with inspirations to “be colorful,” “never be uniform,” and “dance to your own tune.”

Sherbet says the box brings out her highlights.

Unable to recycle the box, I came up with another practical reuse: a new home for the gift wrapping supplies.  Now the cheery purple (and over-the-top inspirations) can encourage me to send off presents with style.

Have you ever found extra reasons to reuse “temporary” packaging?

How to Move Without Forgetting to Pack Your Brain

Moving week is upon the Ramsey household.  Flattened boxes emerge from hiding places in the back of closets, tucked behind dressers, and in other boxes.  Husband & I transform 2D cardboard into 3D containers; we add packing tape to the grocery list.

Sherbet takes a break from jumping into every single box we assemble.

This is our sixth move as a couple--fifth without professional help.  To handle the vast amount of labor and details required, I rely on organization.  Here are some of my key survival tips to make sure you don't lose your mind while boxing up everything else.

1. Designate an information/planning spot for important papers and lists.  We use a clipboard and leave it on the dining room table.  Lease information, rental truck contracts, calendars, floor plans, etc. find a temporary home here.
2. Create a daily plan of attack.  Break your home into zones and begin boxing the non-everyday-use stuff first.  For us this means the storage closet and the bookshelves.  Counterintuitively, I leave decorations on the wall until the very end.  This way my messy, box-infested home is a little less warehouse-like during the moving process. Besides, decorations tend to be fragile, and fragile boxes should be on the top of the piles, right?
3. Write a "Change of Address" chart.  Include bills, subscriptions, doctors, etc.  Call a few each day, noting "Date Contacted" and leaving a space to record "Date Verified" when you receive updated information from them at your new address.  When 90% of the address switches are made before your move date, you feel accomplished about something and have more energy to deal with the frustrating ones later (driver's licenses, anyone?).  Also, it's a nice excuse to take a break from filling boxes and prop your feet up while you make some phone calls or send some emails.
4. Get rid of everything you don't use, don't like, and can easily live without.  Lighten your moving load, declutter your new home, and often get a tax-deductible receipt.
5. Implement a strict labeling policy for boxes.  I prefer color coding.  Each room in the new location receives a color (ie: kitchen = green, living room = yellow).  Boxes are tagged with the color of which room they will move into.  On the colored label I list the specific contents.  Since I hang colored labels on walls during move-in anyone helping can easily determine where a box should be placed.  Bonus hint: I usually make one wall in the living room for the living room color and one for the kitchen color--this way I can maneuver in the kitchen when unpacking.
6. Unless this move is permanent (like buying a house) or you're guaranteed professional assistance for your next relocation, save all reusable packing materials.  Standard size boxes expedite packing a truck; packing paper not only protects items, but fills in those odd "what-else-should-we-cram-in-here" spaces that lead to extreme disorganization on the unpacking end.

For even more moving tips.

What moving tips to have you discovered?

Construction Complete

Take a second to test your street (sign) smarts with yesterday's pop quiz.  Solution forthcoming.

It's not every day iPhoto asks you a question like this:

Um, yes, OK!  For the second time actually .... 

Since March, Husband & I weeded the photo collection-- originally @5873 pics plus rediscovered kitten photos (@200) and this Spring's snapshots (@350)--by 53.4%.  It doesn't matter now the digital photo project finished up a month behind my arbitrary deadline.  Our collection looks amazing!  Now only the most meaningful photos await the next step: scrapbook selection.

What accomplishment, little or large, are you celebrating today?

Under Construction

I'm currently remodeling the digital photo collection.  This project started partially because of my own craving for order and partially because of inspiration from one of my favorite blogs (Rachel Meek's Small Notebook).

I hope to finish the overhaul by the end of April, but I've encountered a few road blocks.  First, finding time to sit down with my husband when we both have enough energy to focus (photography is one of his hobbies so I don't want to accidentally delete anything).  Second, correctly dating mislabeled photos which is equally confusing and boring.  And, finally, discovering that a few albums have been lost when the previous computer went into meltdown.  Looks like I'm going to have to cobble together a "Kitten" album via random sources.  

Regardless of the hurdles, I delight in rediscovering our memories each time my husband and I work on this project.  (The above picture is from our trip to the UK a few years ago.)

What's the story of your digital photos once they're downloaded off of your camera?

3 Ways to Process Life

My bag-of-the-day always holds at least one of these notebooks.

I scribble creative thoughts, for ongoing projects and from random insights, into one notebook.  In another I methodically organize life into goals, plans, and endless lists.  The last spiral-bound records my memories and listens to whatever feelings tumble out of me.

I used to want to find a way to meld all three notebooks into just one since it would be less to lug around.  Practicality, however, never won.  When I pick up a specific notebook with pen in hand, I give myself permission to focus on a certain type of thinking: creative, organizational, or reflective.

I like choosing each book for the details of the task ahead.  Wide pages for spur-of-the-moment thoughts; narrow lines for compact lists.  A variety of colors and page widths to add nonessential flavor.  I do gravitate toward spiral-bound.  I find it the easiest way to write in any situation, whether you need an improvised writing surface as you curl up on the couch or if you need a shield from the prying eyes of the passenger next to you.

Since I've been tri-notebooking for a while each book's utility and aesthetic embody the quirks of each mode of thinking.  I'm free to use sloppy handwriting when ideas bubble up or primly print my everyday lists.  I can guard the cursive-scrawled memories with care, but recklessly tear each finished list out of the organization notebook until only two covers and some wire remain.  Juggling the notebooks is a little cumbersome and occasionally frustrating, but sometimes life can be that way too.

Do you have a notebook or e-list you use everyday?  Do you see your thought processes as modes or something else?

Apartment Hunt: Our Worksheet

Having lived at 6 addresses in 4 different states in less than 9 years you would think that apartment hunting would be second nature by now.  It's not.  I'd love to put down deep roots, maybe even buy a house, but the timing isn't right again.  At least I know better than to procrastinate (most days).  Through the long hours searching on craigslist and roaming through potential neighborhoods, I remind myself only one apartment needs to fit.  Maybe this weekend my husband and I will find it....