Day Fifteen

So one of the things that I have always been good at has been the bills.  They get paid on time, I know exactly what's going on etc.  But lately I've let them slide.  Don't really know why.  Some times I miss the due date by a day so get the late charge, UGH!  


Since Bill has no idea where the money is going, when it needs to be paid or how much we owe on anything I realized that I am more unorganized with the budget than I thought.  After all if we are partners then we both need to have full knowledge of what is going on with OUR money.  (we consider anything either of us gets OUR money, not his and hers but ours.)  We always talk about everything before we purchase things but Bill asks me if we can afford it.  That should not be the way it is. 


So I dug through all my emails and low and behold there is one from Ryan. . . I knew it was there just hadn't done anything with it . . . from about two years ago???? It was a budget program that he had created for himself.  I pulled it up, got on a tutorial about how to use excell to get the formulas etc that I would need and prepared a budget program customized for us.  It's not perfect.  I have a few more things to do like learning more complex formulas to get what I want done.  But the basics are there and we can start to use it.  I think it will open up our eyes a little more to the ways we spend our money and find ways to cut back. 


Thanks Ryan for the template. . . although you won't recognize it when you see what I've done with it.

Day Fourteen

For the last week I have been using the shredder overtime.  I shredded a bag of junkmail today isn't the most exciting thing to report.  Just know that the journey continues on.

The recycling truck came today and took all the shredded documents, unusful items and boxes away.  I've gone through several small piles of endless junkmail and saved receipts that I just don't need to hang on to.  There are some things that I do need though, so now I'm beginning to face the actual problem.  How do I effectively organize the things I do need to keep around. 

I told you this journey started out very slowly a while ago.  One of the things that we did to help with the problem was hire a contractor to build a storage shed under our existing deck.  The idea was to go through the garage and clear out all the yard and gardening equipment.  We were going to inventory everything we had and only keep the things we truly need and use.  The rest was going to get recycled or thrown out.  The shed is half finished, the contractor took far too long so had to stop for the wet winter months, made a ton of mistakes which is adding $$$ to the whole project, our backyard is a mess and now that the weather is warm again the contractor is keeping very silent.  So to try to correct some of the problems created by the poor communication skills of our general contractor Bill and I have gone over the yard and project, decided exactly what we would like done and Bill is having it drawn up professionally.  This way there will be no more misunderstandings of what we want this to be like when it is done.  We are going to CAN the first contractor and go with another to finish the work.  We are going to have to do the electrical, insulation and drywall ourselves.  When all that is done then we can move things into the shed. 

In the meantime we have stuff all over that will eventually be stored in the shed (like the yard and gardening equipment, seasonal stuff for holidays and folding chairs).  So as I'm clearing out the mounds of paperwork that has piled up over the years I really don't have anywhere organized for the things we do need to keep.  So for now a box will have to do.  I still feel good about my progress. 

Two more weeks until the recycling truck comes back around.  I am sure the can will be full to overflowing again.

Day Three

Still working on "organize yourselves".  Before I can really get organized around the house I need to clean up some of the mess.


A few months ago I was visiting Alex and Ryan in Vegas.   While there I was introduced to a show called "Hoarders" that documents people who are compulsive hoarders.  Their houses are over run with possessions and garbage sometimes stacked to the ceiling.  It's embarrassing for those people to have others come into their houses with cameras and go through their things.  Since then I have watched more episodes of this show on Netflicks.  It amazes me as I watch these people going through the process of organizing their stuff.  Sometimes they are so slow you wonder why can't they see that there is no value in that thing and just toss it.  But then I look at the piles of things I have around the house and I feel like I need to go through that stuff before it goes.  Alex has offered to come up and help us go through stuff in the garage.  She says she would love it, and I believe she would.  But I don't think I can do that. . .maybe I'm a little like those people in the show.


Bill and I watch the Biggest Loser.  Bill says it motivates him to loose weight.  I watch it and think that I would never let myself get that out of control.  As I've watch Hoarders and also think I would never let myself get that out of control.  But what I'm thinking today is maybe I have let myself get out of control to the point where I am now uncomfortable with my weight and with my mess.  Don't get me wrong you can come into my home and walk through the house, use the bathroom, eat at the table, sit on the couch and feel good about it.  If you see me on the street you wouldn't think of me as an overweight person, maybe average.  The problem is I do over eat the wrong types of foods and I do fill every flat surface in my house with stuff, usually bills/papers.  And there are now clothes piled up (folded neatly of course) on the cedar chest which I don't have room for in the closet or the drawers.

I have begun this journey without any psychologists or professional organizers to help me.  Maybe there will be a time when I'll ask Alex to help me figure out how to organize what's left.  But for now I will tackle each pile one at a time, going through each item to make sure I don't accidentally grind up a check...I did find one the other day so it is possible.

Today my efforts yielded this garbage bag half filled with shredded documents.  Another bag was taken to recycling with papers that didn't need to be recycled.  So it's not the throwing out that bothers me it is the making sure I don't get rid of something I need.  It's going to go slow, but it is going.

Day Two

I planned on showing you some pictures of a couple of first steps I've taken today.  I had a beautiful picture of the shredder. . .covered with a thick layer of dust, buried under 18 inches of papers waiting patiently for it's services.  I had a beautiful picture of it's new "temporary" home in the kitchen ready to start the job it was bought to do.  And then a picture of the garbage bag full of shredded documents (cross cut at that) ready to be taken to recycling.  But in all my disorganization I have never really learned how to use the camera phone properly and didn't realize the pictures didn't save automatically.  So for now just know I have begun.

The First Day

• Doctrine and Covenants 109:8, 15

  8 Organize yourselves; prepare every needful thing, and establish a house, even a house of prayer, a house of fasting, a house of faith, a house of learning, a house of glory, a house of order, a house of God;
  
• 15 And that they may grow up in thee, and receive a fullness of the Holy Ghost, and be organized according to thy laws, and be prepared to obtain every needful thing.
  
  This has been on my mind, playing like a song, over and over.  Anyone who knows me knows that I am not organized.  I sleep in a "storage" room with a bed.  I get frustrated looking for things that I know I have and then end up having to buy them again because I can't remember where I put them.  I have so much stuff and feel like I'm drowning with things that I don't need and missing out on those needful things. 
  
  So I decided to begin a journey.  I've taken tentative steps in the general direction that I thought would help me but in my unorganized, procrastinative state I haven't really gotten very far.  Then I remembered a woman that I worked with years ago.  She was hired as the mail clerk in a small branch office for CIGNA insurance.  She inherited a mess from the girl before her.  The lady was so slow, it used to drive me crazy, but she never stopped moving.  She would shuffle around the office like she was on a casual walk in the park getting things where they needed to be.  In no time at all EVERYTHING was current.  It was amazing, the rest of us busy bees flying from one thing to another while she quietly went about her business.
  
  Since today is the first day of summer vacation and I have a little discretionary time I thought  I would begin again.  But this time I am adding a new twist, one that will keep me moving, keep me accountable, keep me consistent and on track.  So what is this twist?  Like my friend from long ago I will not stop, each day something will be done to move me forward on this journey of mine.   I will keep this record of my journey to keep me accountable.  I invite you to join me, to help me and to go along for the ride.  
  
  Welcome to "my side of the mountain."   For good or bad. . .let the adventure begin!