Things I Did Today

That people who don't live with toddlers don't do nearly enough of.

bought perfectly good play shoes at Goodwill
read picture books
colored in a coloring book
pretended to go "nite-nite" on the living room floor
watched a-coon-ah (cartoons)
danced in the living room to the music at the end of the cartoons
ate yummy strawberries for lunch (and nothing else)
sang the clean up song


Ok, if you don't live with a toddler, some of those things might not interest you. For example, I would skip the pretend sleeping and just go for the real thing. But coloring and picture books? These are keepers.

Before and After

Thanks for the comments. Regarding Walsh's books: It think he is fantastic in general. He is one of the few big time professional organizers that I have seen/heard be very aware of the fact that it's not about the stuff. We can rearrange our stuff until the cows come home but we must address why we have the extra to begin with or it'll all just come back. With a vengeance. Kind of like yo-yo dieting. You lose lots of weight but then you stop the fad diet because it's silly and not sustainable and you gain back weight, more than before.

My experience in reading and dealing with these books is that they encourage me to be really brutal about what I want out of life. Walsh asks us to consider, "what do I want my life to look like?" In my ideal life, there's no clutter on the kitchen counter. So, because I know where I'm headed, I'm willing to clean off the counter. It's not about cleaning the counter, it's about having the life I want to live. And, sometimes to give away things that don't fit in the cupboards. He's very helpful about how to think about possessions in terms of "this is the space I have, does this item fit?"

Also, these photos amuse me because they are actually from two years ago, just before Easter. Since then we have painted this particular room and rearranged. Just before this Easter, I had to completely clean out the hutch again! It had reacquired MORE stuff. So, obviously, this is a process, not a destination.