Getting my act together

Good evening everyone, I hope that the first week of 2011 has been good to you, it has to me and there are still a couple of hours in which I can eat dinner, do some knitting and try to forget it's Monday tomorrow and I have to go back to work.

A key part of my greater plans for 2011 is to be more organised. In my head I am a very organised person, I am addicted to writing lists and making spreadsheets to manage my budgets and managing my life. In reality I start these things then they tail off and I end up in a great big muddle over and over again. NO MORE I SAY! Mr NM says no more too as he is part of the 2011 organisation drive.

Mr NM and I rent a small and far from perfectly formed 1960s semi. In many ways it's lovely, our neighbours and pleasant enough and the street is quite quiet. Where it all falls down is storage space. Sadly both Mr NM and I are hoarders, not in the scary way like in that US TV programme but we do have a habit of hanging onto things and after over 8 years together there is a lot to hang on to! Part of our organisation drive is using the space we have more effectively (and I'll admit some getting rid of stuff) but we're taking it slowly instead of trying to do everything all in one go and at once and getting very disheartened, this is where my organisation drives usually fall down!

I'm happy though as this weekend organisation job 1 was completed and I am very happy with the result. One of the problems with our in many ways lovely house is the kitchen. Most people on the street have knocked the kitchen into the dining room for a open plan type affair or have built our extensions. Whoever owned ours before the landlord never decided to do this leaving the house with a tiny galley style kitchen. When we moved from our old flat into this house I brought a lot of dry goods with us, I'm a Yorkshire girl, I don't throw things away if I have paid for them! Just over 2 years of living here though meant things I thought we'd use got lost in the back of the cupboards as I bought more stuff. This weekend's job was to sort out the big kitchen cupboard and oh boy did we have some past it's best stuff in there!

Before picture of shame and woe:

After picture of joy and delight:

I need not buy baking supplies for some time! I am so happy now though with my lovely, tidy cupboard and together Mr NM and I are going to keep it that way, maybe I should take a monthly photo as proof and as some incentive to keep it like that, I don't want another photo of shame on my blog. Also the stork tub contains dried fruit, I don't keep margarine in the cupboard!

To assist in the organisation I took a backwards step. I used to organise myself with a diary/planner type affair and I really needed it. Last year I got a new mobile phone which syncs with my google calendar and all sorts, very fancy stuff but really to be fully organised I need pen and paper.

I think I've mentioned my fondness for owls before so when I saw this in Paperchase I couldn't resist:

It's wonderfully laid out with the days of the week on one side and gridded paper on the other for all my lists and notes:

I love it and it's helping already. I am also making a note of what I'm eating as I somehow managed to gain a stone last year and I'd rather not gain any more weight, I'd rather like to lose some if I can.

Having an organised kitchen cupboard allowed me to work on another of my 2011 goals, using my many recipe books and actually cooking meals from them instead of occasionally getting them out and drooling over the pictures. On Saturday night we had a curry night, curry and naan made by me, little nibbly side bits courtesy of Tesco (rice is just rice, hardly requiring a recipe!). If you're thinking this photo explains the weight situation this is Mr NM's portion, I didn't have quite as much.

Don't worry, I did manage to fit in some knitting time!