What if I first put away everything that already has a place and then evaluate what's remaining that needs attention? I am realizing that in the past I grabbed everything off the floor and then sorted through it, putting things where they belonged. But because of the massive amount of stuff on the floor, I often run out of time or energy while in that process. Then I have to go back to it and feels like I'm doing that twice (or more) which is draining and discouraging. So in doing this new way today, I am gaining a sense of HOPE! And I'm identifying a "first step" to attacking the mess...a step that I can do over and over with each room in my house which makes it the beginning of a method. This is so cool to see this developing-thank YOU Lord!I'm naming this first step "WDIS" which stands for "What Do I See" and the step involves writing down what I see and taking four photos. Here's the photos of real life where I am today. Not a pretty sight. Next, I'm writing down what I see (thanks Barbie!):
-shoes
-toys
-playing cards
-garbage/papers
-colored pencils
-stuff from our weekend trip
-tote with stuff in it
-stacks of library books
-plastic grocery bags
-puzzle
-books the kids are reading
Thoughts that came up for me:
-since I store the library books in neat stacks on the floor and I want to clean the floor, could I make some shelf space on which to put library books? This would protect them, make them accessible and give us all a place to PUT them away and find them easily when they're due
-colored pencils...we need a place for art supplies...I had a revelation about this today. In the past, I've always bought two of everything...two sets of crayons, two sets of markers...but recently I invested in a set of Prismacolor colored pencils just for me after reading tons about how great they are...and THEY ARE! They are very creamy but not too soft and you can easily do dark and light shading, they aren't too hard and the pigments are rich. I love them! So I have these in a special spot and my daughter wanted to use them...all this to explain that I'm going to clear a drawer for art supplies but instead of everyone having their own set-we are going to SHARE! (done) There are several benefits to sharing our art supplies...we can focus on taking care of our belongings, not having as much stuff and putting them away not to mention the cost savings in only have one set of everything. I put the colored pencils in a sweet little box in the cleaned out drawer. Now the pencils can be brought to the table and easily PUT AWAY after use. WOW, all this today! :) (Daniel used them later in the day and put them away!)
-when we come home from a trip, two special things need to happen: 1) since John unloads the car into the dining room, I need to PUT AWAY all those things on Monday and 2) we need to have some kind of plan for Monday dinners...I come home to an empty frig and shopping day is Wed (need to brainstorm about this)
-PIA stands for "Put It Away"
-plastic grocery bags seem to be the bane of my existence, they are everywhere! After we empty the plastic bags when grocery shopping is done, they end up inside one bag to be taken to the special recycling depository back at the store. In the meantime, they don't have a place where they can be PUT AWAY. Ah ha! Today I hung a large 13 gallon garbage bag near where I keep the other plastic trash bags and put the random plastic grocery bags that were on the dining room floor inside this big bag! Now I have a place for these bags AND they are near the other plastic trash bags.
-PIA stands for "Put It Away"
-plastic grocery bags seem to be the bane of my existence, they are everywhere! After we empty the plastic bags when grocery shopping is done, they end up inside one bag to be taken to the special recycling depository back at the store. In the meantime, they don't have a place where they can be PUT AWAY. Ah ha! Today I hung a large 13 gallon garbage bag near where I keep the other plastic trash bags and put the random plastic grocery bags that were on the dining room floor inside this big bag! Now I have a place for these bags AND they are near the other plastic trash bags.
-in addition to the above, I realized I like to have a little trash depository on the kitchen counter since my main garbage can is a little ways away from the sink. Now every morning, I'll be able to easily grab one of these random plastic grocery bags from the big sack where they now live! This will help keep the kitchen clean as I'll toss the bag at the end of the day in the larger trash can when I run the dishwasher each night! WOW!
-there are TWO PARTS to every action...1)get it out and 2)put it away! I've even been sharing this with the kids today...it makes sense! We played cards and later I realized we didn't put them away...so because each action has two parts and we did the "get it out" part I realized the "put it away" part needed to be done, so I did it! Just that little thing is exhilarating-I'm actually ENJOYING this putting away thing! Thank You Lord!
-along with this new truth is that reality that my tasks have now doubled (because not only do I have the action of getting things out, but now I have a second part of putting them away). Theoretically it should take me twice as long to do life because now I'll be doing the second half of each action by putting things away. Ironically, this will actually SAVE me time because it is so much easier to put things away after using them versus letting things pile up and having to dig out!
One of the most interesting things I've learned today is that my flesh does not want to do the work of cleaning up! I'm having to do some battle over governing my flesh to do what I my mind wants it to do. What clarity I have about this! I'm not wondering about what I should be doing...I'm doing it! But in small chunks today because I've wanted to blog this to capture it to encourage me and show this process as it unfolds (reality blogging)! I'll take another step in the dining room tomorrow by finishing step 1 (picking up things can already have a home).
I've NEVER had any of these thoughts before now! The Lord has been speaking to my conscience about PUTTING AWAY items as I get them out throughout the day! I have a set of 8 new undies so I'm tossing the old, holey ones and all the swimsuits are going to be stored in one place, all together since we do our swimming together now. This will simplify our packing when we get away for a weekend or go on a hike (we always take swimsuits just in case). Today has been AMAZING! What a contrast in being ME-led to being Spirit-led! And I've been SO productive today in contrast to the very little I was getting done prior to today! WOW!
Wow, I've been able to identify a first step...a step that I can do over and over with each room in my house which makes it the beginning of a method. This is so cool to see this developing-thank YOU Lord! This is the "View and Do" method...spend some time viewing the room, evaluating and then DOING the work!
I sense the Lord is releasing me to publish the blogs I've authored (and saved as drafts) along with this new post. I'm so excited because I see some movement forward! He orders my steps!
-there are TWO PARTS to every action...1)get it out and 2)put it away! I've even been sharing this with the kids today...it makes sense! We played cards and later I realized we didn't put them away...so because each action has two parts and we did the "get it out" part I realized the "put it away" part needed to be done, so I did it! Just that little thing is exhilarating-I'm actually ENJOYING this putting away thing! Thank You Lord!
-along with this new truth is that reality that my tasks have now doubled (because not only do I have the action of getting things out, but now I have a second part of putting them away). Theoretically it should take me twice as long to do life because now I'll be doing the second half of each action by putting things away. Ironically, this will actually SAVE me time because it is so much easier to put things away after using them versus letting things pile up and having to dig out!
One of the most interesting things I've learned today is that my flesh does not want to do the work of cleaning up! I'm having to do some battle over governing my flesh to do what I my mind wants it to do. What clarity I have about this! I'm not wondering about what I should be doing...I'm doing it! But in small chunks today because I've wanted to blog this to capture it to encourage me and show this process as it unfolds (reality blogging)! I'll take another step in the dining room tomorrow by finishing step 1 (picking up things can already have a home).
I've NEVER had any of these thoughts before now! The Lord has been speaking to my conscience about PUTTING AWAY items as I get them out throughout the day! I have a set of 8 new undies so I'm tossing the old, holey ones and all the swimsuits are going to be stored in one place, all together since we do our swimming together now. This will simplify our packing when we get away for a weekend or go on a hike (we always take swimsuits just in case). Today has been AMAZING! What a contrast in being ME-led to being Spirit-led! And I've been SO productive today in contrast to the very little I was getting done prior to today! WOW!
Wow, I've been able to identify a first step...a step that I can do over and over with each room in my house which makes it the beginning of a method. This is so cool to see this developing-thank YOU Lord! This is the "View and Do" method...spend some time viewing the room, evaluating and then DOING the work!
I sense the Lord is releasing me to publish the blogs I've authored (and saved as drafts) along with this new post. I'm so excited because I see some movement forward! He orders my steps!
0 comments:
Post a Comment