A Drastic Change To Conquer My Oldest Goal

The time has finally come. 

I started this blog in 2018 after a comment from my mom at my son’s baseball game. My two kids were 7 and 5 and I was deep into busy working mom life. 

I had arrived at the game, looking forward to a fun evening of baseball, until my heart sank. I had forgotten his cleats. I tend to take moments like this very badly, as I usually see it as a huge mom-fail, and feel really terrible about it for probably much longer than necessary (if at all).

Luckily, at the last moment, I realized the cleats were actually still in my car from a previous night. Yes! Win! Sometimes it pays to not clean up the car every time you arrive home.

It was at that moment my mom, whom I know meant nothing of it and probably to this day doesn’t remember any of this, said something that has stuck with me all these years. 

“You gotta get organized, girl!”  

From that moment until now, I have been working to get myself organized.  

At least, I thought I was. I’ve tried to do lists, apps, calendars, project management tools. I’ve tried so many different household management and organizing tools and frameworks including FlyLady, zone cleaning, Clean Mama, A Slob Comes Clean, Getting Things Done (GTD). I’ve read books, listened to podcasts, followed blogs, and taken pages and pages (we’re talking 30+ notebooks) worth of notes. I feel like I’ve tried it all, but yet not fully tried anything. Reading without doing. But I’ve kept at it.

I spent close to two years trying everything I could, and then it all turned itself upside down in 2020. We went on lock down for “two weeks” and didn’t come out of it for almost two years. 

During that time, I switched from a full time office job to a fully remote job. I moved my office to our home and worked that way for over three years. My dreams of working remote had come true, but I quickly learned that getting all the things done was not made easier by working from home. 

Not only that, but I saw that after over a year of “staying at home”, I had not even come close to having my house in the state I wanted. None of my big home projects like decorating and buying long overdue furniture were accomplished during all those months staying in and hunkering down. 

Ugh. 

Then, just when I thought I would turn this blog into an exploration into working remote and how to get organized and be productive in that context, life shifted again, as it’s apt to do. 

In the summer of 2023, we were required to return to the office for three days a week. 

Double ugh. 

Now, I’m in this completely new place. I’ve been working this hybrid schedule for almost 9 months and it has its new challenges. My kids are older now, gaining their independence. The sports and related travel are more challenging, the schoolwork extensive. 

I no longer need the best way to remember bottles for daycare, but I need the best way to let my kids learn their independence while I’m still there to catch them when they fall. I don’t need to organize puzzle pieces, but I need to organize and balance my life (and new found free time) with my kids’ lives (okay and maybe some puzzle pieces).

I’ve had a few moments the last few months that have told me it’s time for a total reset. Working from both the office and from home is stable now. There was a time we moved four times in three years. This is now our forever home and I can relax.  

Now for the depressing confession. For the last six years, I have written my goals at least weekly and usually daily as part of my Miracle Morning routine. Every single goal list I have made has one goal on it that has never been crossed off: 

“My home is completely decluttered, decorated, organized, and always company ready.” 

This goal has haunted me for so many years and I’m just…done. Done repeating it over and over and never coming close to achieving it.

I’m going to unpack it more in the next few weeks and months, but this is what I’m aiming for with this reset. I am going to track it, because you can’t achieve a goal that isn’t specific and measurable. I’m going to post about it for “mass accountability” (as Chris Guillebeau has called it). I need to get this goal off my list. I’m so damn tired of it. So, SO damn tired.

I feel like my life is a fucking mess and I’m going to try all the tactics, hacks and systems I can find until I discover what works and finally get completely organized, decluttered, decorated and always company ready. I am ready to stop letting my house steal my peace. There must be a way and I’m determined to find it.