Organization, time management, space management, householdery

[azurelunatic]

shadesong posted a link to an article on time management for those with few spoons, and I recommend it.

I get credit for all kinds of scary time-management and space-management know-how, just because I wind up organizing stuff and getting a lot of stuff done. I used to be a lot more efficient than I am now, of course, because somewhere along the way, I collected an existence that didn't require a metric ton of pre-planning to carry out, and I lost the manic energy that used to drive me through everything. But I still have the skills somewhere in there.

Right now I'm preparing my closet for the massive reorganization that is to result sometime between today and the end of tomorrow. The cabinets are not yet fully functional, as the glue needs to dry. But I definitely can haul the things I want to put in them out of where they've been stashed and onto the counter, and that means I can clear out space in the closet to put the things I want to put where I want to put them! Things like this make me happy.

There are boxes that I still have yet to unpack. I have discovered a large amount of fabric. I have discovered far too many plastic containers for anyone's sanity. I have discovered cooking appliances. I have discovered shelf-stable bulk milk for coffee and bread-making. I am currently unloading a collection of booze that would lead almost anyone to declare me an alcoholic except for the fact that I maybe have a drink containing alcohol twice a month on a month of heavy drinking, these days. I have found both my popcorn popper and the popcorn associated with it.

Proper storage space is crucial to the functionality of a place. If I didn't have the plastic pantry shelves, this would be a mess, and I wouldn't be able to keep the amount of household supplies I'm accustomed to having on hand. I grew up in Alaska, and you pretty much needed to have at least a week's, if not a month's, or a winter's, worth of food for the whole household on hand, in case of nasty weather conditions, before the place became all civilized with regularly plowed roads and suburbia spreading around Fairbanks, with manicured lawns and cookie-cutter houses. I never learned how to shop for the moment like a city bachelor. I learned how to shop for the month, the season, the year, and I shop like a head of a busy household still.