For the most part we keep our house straightened up. On any given day a person could drop by unannounced and we would not have too much to be embarrassed about. However, there are exceptions, rooms we hope visitors avoid. To make matters worse, for the past year we have been working on finishing our basement. During that time everything we would normally store has been living among us. Being smothered by my own stuff has made me extremely motivated to get rid of all of it. We had a major garage sale in the summer and donated whatever we couldn’t sell. How in the world, then, do we still have so much stuff?

I do have kitchen cabinets that stay organized all the time. I never lose a tupperware lid. Canned foods and spices are always in order and my refrigerator is always clean. But there is another side of the kitchen more indicative of my former self.

To the left is the giant utensil drawer. You cannot tell from the photo but it is 3 feet wide and almost 2 feet deep. It is packed front to back. I really have no idea what all is in there. I probably have some great utensils buried in it but I am not sure.

On the right is another junk drawer in which I found an oven mitt, a cat brush, deck of cards, a network cable, plant food, scotch tape, and a straw from Sonic. I can barely find two items in here that should be in the same room much less the same drawer. I love to cook and I love my kitchen. If I could get this half to work like the other half I would be in kitchen heaven. So I guess that’s the goal.

Let’s start with the kitchen. In college it never occurred to me to do dishes until I didn’t have anything to eat with. Later, I started to notice that every time my family gets together for a big meal, the aunts and uncles practically race each other over who gets to help clean the dishes. At first I assumed they just liked doing it. But it finally sunk in that they just like having it done. Big difference.

Now I take the same approach in my own house. Get it over with. The big key for me was having organized cabinets. A person might look in that cabinet think ‘Wow! So organized!’ What they don’t realize is that it only represents half of what my kitchen is like behind closed doors.

Tomorrow I will introduce you to the other half…

People who are naturally organized don’t seem to have to work as hard to keep their lives in order. I would love to be one of those people. I have no idea how someone like me ended up being a Quality Assurance Engineer. Strangely enough, I am pretty organized at work. I plan well, follow through, and pay very close attention to details. Using those phrases to describe me at home would be more like the punch line of a joke. Without the key hook by the door I would never know where my car keys are. Without automated payments I would most certainly forget to pay my bills on time. I keep a folder for emails from co-workers that say things like ‘You are so organized!’ because it is so highly ironic and strange to hear myself described that way. Don’t get me wrong. I am nothing like I was in college. More on that tomorrow…

TODAY’S CHALLENGE was to do something creative to kick off the project. Unfortunately, a dry throat and aching muscles kept me up last night and I woke up too sick to do much.

However, my suffering inspired my husband Todd and I to buy a new bed. We dragged ourselves to Select Comfort and laid around in Sleep Number beds all afternoon. The result was the perfect complement to the “Change Myself” phase of the project – the promise of a better night’s sleep. It should arrive in two weeks!