I want to organize my home so that it is a place of peace and comfort.

I wrote 7 months ago that I was knitting a pair of socks. They turned out real nice, a lovely manycolored yarn, I have used them a lot and I am wearing them right now. This time I managed to finish a project, that feels really good!!

Quite good clothes actually, but too small for my children.

I have started to knit a pair of socks for myself, the process of knitting makes my mind calm and peaceful, it is the first time I ever knitted a sock since I left school. I had to start over one time, because my knitting was not tight enough, but the second try was good. I am so proud that I managed to finish it. (with the help of a collegue who taught me how to do it) Now I have started to knit sock number 2.

I have this slight problem, that I am always very eager to learn new techiques and do new things, it is not so much fun to do the same thing over and over again. Therefore I have quite a few “UFO’s” (unfinished objects) lying in a basket. I have not given them up completely, but it takes quite a lot of energy to go on with one of the old, half-finished projects. For instance a knitted pillow, which I thought looked very nice on the picture. Not as nice in real life, unfortunately. But I think I will feel very satisfied and free if a can mangage to empty that basket.

My earrings used to be strewn all around the house, but now they are hanging in the bathroom, where the door of a cupboard is a metal grid, a close to perfect place for hanging earrings. The door with the grid has been there all the time, I have been seeing it every day for many years, but I just had to get the right idea into my head. Maybe that is the key to success, to be able to see new possibilities!
I have also freed some nice brass-pegs on the wall in my bedroom, where some bags used to hang. Now I have put away the bags that are not in use, and my necklaces are hanging on the pegs. It is practical, and it also looks nice.

When I came home from work today, my 17 year old daughter had been organizing and sorting all our DVD’s and lots of other stuff. She had also been cleaning.

Every room was tidy, it was almost magical, as if a fairy had visited us.
It was a complete surprise. A wonderful surprise.

I wil spend parts of the evening sorting the small pile of papers which was left on the desk. A small and easy task, which I will enjoy.

I feel we are on the right track, there is a lot less clutter around the house now than only 1 week ago.

I will keep on working toward my goal – making my home a place of peace and comfort. The formulation of this goal was not my own invention, I borrowed it from another person on www.43things.com, it was just the right words for what I felt was important.

Books, clothes, documents, bags, craft-projects, more books, clothes that should be repaired… There were just to many things lying around in our bedroom. We kind of got used to that being the way things were. But last weekend, because of the bad weather, we got the inspiration to clear and clean the bedroom.

It is so much nicer to be here now. The small desk in the corner is no longer overfilled, the books beside my bed are standing on a shelf, not lying in heaps. No clothes are strewn around, i feel that the energy in the room is much better, and I also sleep better now.

Our main problem is that there are too many things all over the house, we are not very good at getting rid of things that we no longer need.

I am “weeding” out my childrens clothes. Two large plastic bags was the result. The clothes are quite nice and usable, but much too small for my children now, so I will donate them to the Salvation Army’s shop.

Also I managed to throw away a chipped plate and a chippped serving bowl.

If I can manage to make a small positive effort every day, I hope I can manage to raise the standards.

But right now, it is far from well organized. It is not only a question of organizing, but I think we just have too many things. Why is it so difficult to part with old things? For instance, I have two plates and a serving dish, which once belonged to my parents. The rest of the plates have been broken sometime in my childhood, but for some reason I still keep these plates (which are not especially valuable, just ordinary blue and white plates)in my already full kitchen cupboard. This is just one example, I could give many similar.

The refinishing and the texturized painting of all of the interior walls, not including bedrooms, is finished! The baseboards need to be permanently placed, only a couple need to be replaced after waiting around so long they were damaged. Next, the cover plates, electrical outlets, odd boxes with capped wires that I don’t know what they used to do, phone outlets; I think I can afford 1-2 covers a week. The brushed nickel finish will go well with the new lighting in the kitchen and with the new wall colors. Now, I just need to make myself buy 1 or 2 covers a week and INSTALL THEM, or the half finished walls will start to echo my bedroom’s almost-finished look.

My paper mess is out of control. While relaxing, my mind continually races to what I “should be doing” instead of relaxing, playing PS2 with my son, reading, whatever. There’s no real rest in this. Clothes piled to take pictures of for eBay, totes lined up (and falling over) next to the bed. Paper mess on the kitchen table; shoved to the side for meals, topples back over after. Paper mess on all end tables in living room. Paper mess on the floor by my bed; I step over it to get into/out of bed; my dog lays on it at night as if his personal dog bed. My daughter’s room has become its own eco system; I’m a horrible example for her in this area….