Monthly Goals: January 2015

Happy New Year! It's hard to believe it's already January 1, especially as the end of 2014 seemed to just fly by this year. We were still regrouping from the Christmas rush when New Year's Eve seemed to sneak up on us yesterday. We spent the night at home, just the four of us, which was really what we needed and appreciated the most last night.

Now that the big night has come and gone it's that time of year where many people are making "resolutions;" I remember in my senior year of high school writing at least 20 of them. Did they get accomplished? Probably not when I wrote so many of them. In the past few years, I've tried thinking about just one or two but even those often fade a bit by spring time.

That's why I was excited when I learned about the Monthly Goals linky. I've always been better at meeting goals when I can do it within a social situation. I lost weight after Big Brother was born by attending meetings and weigh-ins. I always did better with group projects in school. I work out two times harder when I can make it to boot camp class rather than when I do it at home. By setting monthly goals things seem much more achievable, and bigger ideas can be chunked into more manageable pieces. By sharing these goals here I know I'll feel more motivated to do them.

My Two Themes for January are: Declutter and Reorganize

I've already spent several days of this past week working on these two goals, but they're too big to limit to one week. (I'm guessing they may even spread into several months.)

This week's bags and boxes of items heading off to our local donation/thrift store.
How many more boxes can we fill by the end of the month? 

Personal/Family
1. Continue to work on decluttering and "deowning" stuff.
This is an ongoing issue, and not a new goal or project but one I'm often working towards. This week I worked on tackling the closet my husband and I share, as well as the boys' playroom. But it's not even close to enough. Our house is small, about 950 square feet, and it's definitely cluttered. I'd like to blame it on two small children only, but the truth is I'm just as much to blame. My whole life (just ask my mom) I've over collected things and held on to too many things for sentimental reasons. For many reasons, I'm feeling the clutter this year and I want to see bigger than usual changes. My goal for January is to tackle all the upstairs rooms and really sort through them. (I'm saving the basement for another month though, and you won't be getting to see any pictures of that space for a while.)

2. Create new routines and reorganize plans.
This is a biggie for us, but as of this coming Monday morning my husband is working a whole new shift. After almost two years of working the second shift he's moving onto first shift. This comes with many blessings and challenges, but we're focusing on the fact we'll be getting back family time during the week. However, it means for the first time in two years I need to get two children out the door before 7 am so that I can single handedly get them to two different schools. It can be done, mothers do it all the time, but it's definitely going to mean changing our routine. (And helping Little Brother go from almost full time home to five mornings a week of childcare will also be key in the new routines.)

3. Reorganize household spaces that are not working.
I've created a lot of different organizational systems in our home, and it's an ever evolving process. As I declutter I plan to look at what's working and what's not and make changes. Again, my goal is to tackle the upstairs spaces.

In the middle of reorganizing and decluttering the playroom space.
It doesn't usually look this bad, but it always looks worse before it looks better, right?!

Financial
4. Find a better system for the bills, which will mean reorganizing how we store and pay them, as well as decluttering what we do with the slips afterwards.

Work
5. This goal is really about finding a better home/work balance, but I've noticed that since taking on my new teaching position I have a harder time transitioning home during the middle of the day. I've realized what I need to do is "declutter my brain" from the work stuff so I can spend time focusing on my kids in the afternoon, which is the whole point of working a reduced schedule to begin with. My goal is to spend a few minutes before leaving work to check work emails (not checking them when I get home) and making a list of the tasks I need to accomplish that evening and the tasks which can wait until the next day. That way hopefully my brain is ready to play, read, and create with the boys well before the busy dinner hour/bedtime routine starts.

Blog
6. Reorganize a few places so it's easier for people to find some key content, including adding a few pages I've been thinking about for a while now.

7. In an effort to declutter, I'm going to try to not buy any craft materials for the month of January for all our projects. We have a whole shelf full of supplies just waiting for us to use.

So now that they're out in the open, I know I'll be more motivated to work on them. What about you? Are you setting monthly goals or creating yearly goals this year? Have any you want to share below?