Settling into new routines

It's been three full weeks of Saturdays. Three weeks of mostly driving M a little crazy as my comings and goings interfere with his regular routine.

I telecommuted for the last 18 years of my work life--first to a Minneapolis office, then to one in New York. Except when traveling for business, I was home. And that was most days. M was retired all of that time, so it might seem that there was a comfortable routine. There was, but working from a home office meant that I was pretty much tied to my desk upstairs most of the day. Except for lunchtime, the downstairs was his.

Now I'm in and out and up and down as I try to impose some sense of order to household items and to my 'stuff." And there is a lot is 'stuff' that was set aside for when I would have the time to pursue those interests. That time is now. Even on days a nap sounds delightful, I rarely am able to mirror his routine and fall asleep in the afternoon--downstairs, of course.

I admit to impatience and some frustration. I want spaces clear of clutter. Realistically, I know that is not possible in three weeks time, but that doesn't mean I don't long for it.

Not today

When I really evaluate my past three weeks since retirement began, I think I've made pretty good progress. But it's never enough for an optimist like me. I am sure that I am overly optimistic--overly optimistic about the size of the job and overly optimistic about my energy to finish it.

I made a master list of what I wanted to accomplish that first week and I must admit that I have definitely made progress. It's just not as much as I had hoped, but it is progress.

Twenty years of squirreling away 'stuff' and not taking time to declutter has created major must-do tasks throughout the house. And one job leads to another. Add to that my inaccurate estimates of time required to complete the jobs on my to-do list. Even with the addition of a 20 percent slop factor, I look back at the week and wonder why I didn't get more done.

My home office, which was command-central during all those years of telecommuting, is more open and less like a woman-cave. I've emptied the file cabinet, purged files, and reorganized the workflow. I've cleaned out two closets, one of which is the linen closet, and a bathroom cabinet. But have plenty more to do.

When I worked, my practice was to touch something once. That's hard to do with projects now under way. Every one of the completed tasks has had a link to another fairly substantial and unfinished task. In reorganizing my office, for example, I consolidated all my family research into one file--but all those papers need organized, too. and that's at least a full day's job.

I still have a lot to do, but if I don't prioritize, I'll only stew in frustration.

My challenge is to focus on the task at hand and leave the related tasks to another day. Maybe next week or the week after, but not today.

Mired down in stuff

How did I accumulate all this ‘stuff?’ I know I needed it at one time. I don’t just bring stuff home for the fun of it. The question now is, ‘do I really need it now?’

And ‘need’ is a very loose term. I ‘might’ need it, but really? I doubt it.

This past week my precious time has been bogged down clearing out 20 plus years of accumulated stuff. We did really well when we were moving every few years. We kept it pretty slim. Now the house is bloated and I can almost hear it burp periodically.

This clearing out is akin to my exercise plan. Slim down. 

But it’s not been easy adhering to the schedule of a closet a week—especially when more than closets need cleared. Take my office file cabinet. I thought I’d pretty well cleared it out a month ago, but there was still a boatload of stuff. And most was either important or essential.

The file cabinet is empty now and ready for a new home, but the floor of my office has a couple piles that must find new homes. Their home can’t be in the closet, as that needs one terrific clean-out. 

Next week, I plan to channel my son: If he doesn’t need it, it goes out. He’s a heavy user of craigslist and eBay as distribution channels. 

I keep saying I’ll follow his example, but that's one more thing to get organized. I'll put it on the list.

One day at a time

Day two dawned cold. Too cold to work in the studio and too cold to take a long walk, even a fast one. It was hard to justify sitting in my upstairs office all day, so I resorted to a day of total and complete laziness that included binge-watching a BBC mystery series and knitting.

Did it feel special? No. As a realist, I know my time is limited and that imposes a special kind of urgency to spend those hours and days well.

Oh, I could think of projects that I could do (another closet, maybe?), but that would put me way ahead of my schedule to clean one per week. And, yes, I am fully aware that I don’t have to do anything.

Spending the time well does not include cleaning closets or garages, but those are must-do’s. We’ve lived in the same house without interruption for nearly 30 years and the time has come for me to declutter. 

Today is Day Three and probably the first order is to impose some order on my overactive mind, which is teeming with new ideas. 

Six Saturdays: Day One

It's Day One of my new six Saturday week and I working on a new daily schedule. Many would consider that ridiculous, considering that I am now officially retired, but I'm serious. I don't consider these newly-free days a time of leisure. Rather, I consider this a time of transition. I've put a lot of things on hold over the past many years--things that I love to do, things I'm itching to do, and things I want to share into the next generation. 

Now is the time. And to temper my habit of drastically underestimating the time it will take for me to complete any given task, I plan to prioritize and schedule upcoming tasks. 

There are some long overdue tasks on the lists that, once completed, can drop to the maintenance list. Think closets and garage.

Completion of organizational projects such as digitizing family photos and household inventories  will gain a big check mark and drop from the list, too.

And then there are the tasks of passion, which I only call 'tasks' in order to assign them high priority. Chief among them is fiber. I want to immerse myself in it. I want to finish that rug that has been on my loom for nearly 20 years and I want to put on a new warp. I want to knit and I want publish my knitting patterns. I want to spin--just for fun.

The schedule must, of necessity, be a relatively relaxed one, but as a deadline-driven person, it will impose some structure on what could easily deteriorate into days of sitting reading or knitting. And given the many years of neglect, the schedule must be broken into manageable chunks

Now to tackle some of the clutter my studio so that I can move closer to those tasks of passion.