Tidied dressing table

Ok maybe I'm not quite ready to hang up my blogging.... erm, things that you hang up when you give something up

The last few weeks have been a bit mad. I've been going for interviews. Being turned down. Struggling with being a stay at home mum (okay not full time but more than I did when I was working 3 full days a week). Struggling with the organising and to be honest, a lot of the time just down right giving up on being organised altogether. Cos, whats the point? The house is going to be messy again the next day, right? The kids will get up and throw all their toys on the floor again. There will be more clothes to wash tomorrow and all I'll have to do tomorrow is more housework. 

I've been aching to get back to work. As much as I never thought I would say that. I also never thought I would want to go to work full time but the more I stay at home the more I want to go back to work. Some people may not like that (I know some people don't) but you know what, being a stay at home mum does not work for everyone. I'm going to try working full time for while. If it doesn't work for me, I can always change it. Personally I think I'll take to it (given the right job, which I hope I have found) like a duck to water. 

So now my head is spinning with all the things that I need to get organised so that Monday morning (when I start my new job - did I forget to mention that I have a new job starting monday) is not such a mad rush of terror. I am going to list said things just so that they can maybe stop whirling around my poor little brain:

• Pack kids bags in advance
• Keeping on top of daily chores like cleaning kitchen
• Sort out childcare (mostly done but a few things to iron out)
• Work out cost of childcare
• Work out proportion of new income (vs hubby's income) so we know who pays how much - long story but basically we pay bill proportionally
• Planning what I need to wear
• Planning budget
• Reading up on tips to be the best office manager I can be (that's what I'm going to be doing)
• Decide what systems I will use to stay organised in new job - check if its ok to install Evernote
• Maybe buy a pretty new notebook at work - although am such a techy would probably only use 3 pages and then lose interest! 

Well, maybe the list isn't that long then. I'm sure I'll think of more. 



Um. In the meantime, here is something creative I did that actually only took me a couple of hours. 

I took this table:

 Painted it with blackboard paint, then drew stuff on it with chalk pens:

This is the final table in action with all my daughter's new Peppa Pig stuff on it:

 

Update on how things are going

OK, the time has been passing by and I don't feel nearly as productive as I think I should have been. I haven't written a single blog post. I've done a bit of organising here and there but I haven't taken before photos (its been one of those "I'll make a start on this and see where it takes me" moments where before you know it you've redone the whole cupboard/drawer/whatever & have no documentation whatsoever).

I've been looking for a job. I've applied to many, been for one interview, been turned down to that job. Applied to more jobs. There isn't much about and its starting to worry me. I honestly thought I would at least have had a few interviews by now if not any offers. I can only hope it improves.

I've been neglecting my blog. Its not that I've had nothing to write about, its that my thoughts and my days and my tasks have been all higgledypiggledy and not at all structured. I'm desperate to get back to some form of routine. I'm really looking forward to getting back to work. I guess that's what my focus has been. Not the blog, and not really organising. My heart's not been in it.

I still want to persue the personal organiser route at some point in the future but we can't afford to make it happen now. So I guess I will just continue to keep this blog ticking over. Hopefully I won't let it grind to a standstill as I was so enjoying it.

I think this is just a blip in my organising-career.

Please bare with me.

Last day at work

I am being made redundant and today is my last day.

I'm not asking for sympathy. I'm actually pretty pleased about it. I have not always been happy working here and I have occassionally looked for something else while wondering if I was doing the right thing (good hours, good pay, comfortable environment) and yet something was never quite right for me.

I'm seeing this as an opportunity to move onto something better suited to me, to move closer towards my goal of starting my own business (this may still not happen until my kids are in school but at least I will soon have a bit of time to think about it, to work on my projects, write my blog etc).

It doesn't quite feel real for me just yet as I sit at my desk (with not a lot to do, if I'm honest). And my mind is swirling with ideas of what I will do. I want to feel like I have a purpose and not just meander from one day to the next, watching daytime TV and doing housework. So I've decided that the best thing is to make a list of things I want to achieve while I'm off, how I want to spend my time. I will have no children on Monday and Wednesday mornings and all day Friday.

When I have the children at home with me I want to:

• Have more structure in the day
• Plan trips out, playdates & fun things to do
• Spend more time in the garden (weather allowing)

When I don't have them with me or when they are being quiet (yeah right!!), I want to:

• Look for another job (ok, "want" probably isn't the right word - "have to" would be more appropriate!)
• Write my blog more regularly
• Work on organising projects (I will elaborate later when I've thought about what jobs in particular I want to do)
• Do creative things (card-making and suchlike)
• Become better at staying on top of the housework
• Organise my digital photo archives (put all on ThisLife website - I'll be posting a review on here when I finally get around to that)
• Organise "hardcopy" versions of photos - order photobooks and prints and put them in scrapbooks and albums.....

That's all I have for now.

Card-making

Here are some cards that I made while I was off work a month or so ago:

Crafty Project: Decorated Picture Frame

This is a project I did back in June for my mum's birthday present but never got around to posting about it:

Here is the only picture I could find of the frame before I started working on it. I'm gutted I didn't take proper before pictures. This is a habit I'm struggling to get into.

Before:

Here are the after photos. I first painted the frame. Pale blue on one side and pale pink on the other side. Then I used some of my endless supplies of craft supplies to decorate it. Here are the after shots:

I really enjoyed doing this. It was like therapy for my mind. And my mum was really pleased to get something so personal.

FlyLady Fail / Bag Packing score!

OK, I admit it. I've completely fallen off the FlyLady wagon. I haven't even LOOKED at my Babysteps pages. I don't even know what day I'm supposed to be on.

One thing I did do over this weekend though was to pre-pack the kids bags for the whole week ahead. I put the stuff into plastic bags - orange Sainsbury's bags for my daughter and white and blue Tesco bags for my son. I work Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays so I just needed 3 bags for each child. I used the HomeRoutines app to track what each bag had in it. I would put a screen shot up but my on/off button on my iPhone is not working.

So in the morning (or the night before if I get round to it) I can just get the bags and fill them up from the plastic bags (which I labelled with post it note stapled to the bags so I can use them again).

I've always wanted to be more organised when it comes to getting the kids ready in the morning. And this feels like a much better way than repacking the bags (running round the house 3 times a week packing spare pants, nappies, etc). Now I only have to do it once per week. Much more manageable. I guess that's what organising is all about. Finding a system that works for you. Now if I can just STAY on top of the laundry.....