January

Why IS it  that January always seems to spark some organizational fire in me?  Through the past few years, I almost always seem to get in a "sort out, clean up, and organize" kind of a mood in January and this year is no exception.  However, I do see that THIS year, I have had some"triggers".

The first impetus is the finalization of my husband's "man cave", which has freed up some space in the Utility room... also called the dog room/old laundry room.  In this room we have built an indoor kennel space where the dogs can spend time when we are away from home all day.. it has a dog door so that they can get outside to another enclosed space for air and exercise.   It is also the space where I bathe the dogs; which when you have an Afghan Hound means there is also the paraphernalia for brushing and drying, as well. It also still has our original laundry area - but I rarely use that now, except for the dog's laundry. We had installed a countertop and cabinets from a discarded set at Husband's work, several years ago, and this is where I have done my garden seed starting.  I also used the cabinets to store old blankets and towels for the dogs.  There was also a workbench from a previous owner, and Husband did use this for tools and small projects.

The second impetus has been the program on Netflix called Tidying Up with Marie Kondo.  WHY is it that I am fascinated watching other people work at cleaning and organizing their spaces?  But I do... love to watch, that is. I also like to read books on housekeeping and organizing, and a couple of years ago I found all kids of cleaning up videos on YouTube. so more recently THAT has been my trigger and I have done a lot to sort through things in the house.... all kinds of closets and cabinets have been sorted out!

But this year, it is this room in the basement that is calling out to me... And now that Husband's Man Cave is finished, he has removed all of his tools etc. and I can now expand my Garden Seedling area to that old workbench... and at the same time, have a good old sort through of all the stuff I have stuck away in there, as well.  However much I might want to accomplish this transformation of another handy workspace for ME (like I don't' already have workspaces all over the house), it is a dark, dingy, dusty, dirty space and I have been dragging my heels to get started.  Yesterday, I bit the bullet and set my timer... Thank you Flylady for instituting the habit of setting a timer to get started on an unpleasant job! Here is my starting point:

UGH...what a mess!

It looks bad enough from this view, but there are two full cabinets that need going through, my dog grooming supplies to sort, and all the seed starting supplies have to be organized, as well.

After two days of short sessions of WORK, I have made visible AND INvisible progress. I started with a good sweep and vacuum, then  moved on to sorting. The cupboards are cleaned out, discarded items are out in the trash, items to keep are laundered and replaced. All my grooming tools are sorted and the rolling toolbox that I keep everything in is cleaned and everything is neatly organized. I have one small corner left to tidy, but that is all for now!

Dog grooming supplies.

Workbench, now for seed starting.