Distractions

I am easily distracted.  I don't have an OCD brain that gets me cleaning, but I may have ADD where I start to clean/organize and get easily distracted with stuff I find- like here is that project I started, maybe I'll take a break from organizing and finish it -kind of distraction.  I have a solution- I found other distractions that distract me from my distractions - following me???  We'll call them DFD (distraction from distractions).  One of those DFDs are podcasts.  I love me a good podcast. They are great to listen to while I organize because they make it an actual pleasant experience and keep me focused on finishing what I am doing.  I finish what I am doing and I have learned something in the mean time!   

Here are some of my favorites:

This American Life http://www.thisamericanlife.org/ - story telling
Snap Judgment http://snapjudgment.org/- story telling with a beat
The Moth Podcast  http://themoth.org/-  from live events- nonfiction story telling
Car Talk. http://m.cartalk.com/ - just funny to listen to, 2 brothers from Boston with an infectious happy demeanor you can feel over the radio.



What are some of your DFDs? 

Spring Cleaning?!

We have had months of frozen white tundra here in Minnesota, so much that a blade of brown grass sparked some serious excitement from my daughter (I didn’t have the heart to tell her March is one of the snowiest months here in MN).    

If you look hard you can see some grass poking up through that snow.

 

That little bit of brown grass we saw has sparked that feeling of spring cleaning for me.  I think going to Palm Springs for spring break helped too- knowing it is possible to feel warmth from the sun (I was starting to forget that). 

As soon as I got that feeling of wanting to clean I did what any Pinterest loving person would do- went on Pinterest and did a search for organization.  Wowza!  It is amazing what people think of out there.  The one that has helped me get going was where someone had written out a list of all the areas in her house she needed to organize.  Shocker, what I liked had to do with a list…  At first I thought that would be crazy because it would seem too overwhelming to see a long list of what I needed to do.  It actually had the opposite effect- I realized if I took an area each day or every other day (or even once a week) then having a bunch of little jobs wasn’t as bad as seeing the whole house as disorganized. 

Here is my list-

I am starting tomorrow on it…wish me luck.  In looking at my list I noticed I didn’t put my daughter’s closet on there…there is a reason for that.  I can only handle organizing her room once a year and feelings are still too raw from last time we did it (back in August). 

By the time the sun feels warm here in Minnesota maybe I’ll have an organized house!