Overwhelming Dining Room is Overwhelming!

Dear Nony,

I'll be honest. I haven't been checking your most recent postings lately. I've been reading through your Year One in E-Book Form, and listening to your podcasts while getting my daily step count, but new stuff? It's just going to have to wait until I get caught up!

Except for your post the other day. You know, the one about tackling an overwhelming task? (Actual title: Working Through The Feeling of Being Overwhelmed) I even commented on the Facebook post about it (and you liked my comment! Squee!!!!). Here's a little more background about WHY I was looking at your Facebook page, and why your "Overwhelmed" blog post was so timely.

You see, in 7 days I have in-laws coming to stay for a few days. The reason for their visit? My youngest son's 1 year birthday. Which means I need to clean, organize (still way too much clutter to get it all decluttered, but I can at least organize/hide what's still out in the open), AND plan for a birthday party. All in about a week. OY VEY! (Well, just under two weeks from last Wednesday, which was just as scary to think about.)

So, last Wednesday I was feeling VERY overwhelmed, especially by the dining room. Finally, about 1:50 pm I decided to just start. On this table:

Dining room table, from two angles

Looks lovely, doesn't it?

So, over the next hour or hour-and-a-half, I did some sorting, some putting-things-away, found a treasure, had some help from an eager baby, coo'd over a sleeping toddler, and by the time he woke up, I was feeling much better about things! About halfway through this sorting-and-dealing is when I really started to feel overwhelmed, and that's when I took a break and found your most recent blog post. So timely!

Scarf = treasure, right?
Who can resist help from that little cutie?
Sleeping toddler was my timer. When he woke up, I called it done!

By the time I was done, I had gone from mess to...less of a mess.

What was left on the table:

• 2 bags and a box I've needed to sort through for ages.
• A train that G'Ma (grandma) got for Kyle.
• And empty shoe box.
• A box with stuff to be donated.
• A pile of reusable shopping bags and stroller attachments I need to put back into the van.
• And a Star Wars backpack G'Ma got for Kyle.

Items that were put away or otherwise taken care of:

• Took 4 bags full of gift bags upstairs to put with the other gift bags.
• Put a box of Christmas decorations into the tornado closet (I'll deal with it later).
• Some coloring books found a home on the back of the piano for the time being.
• A shawl and blanket stuffed into one closet to be used when I get cold.
• Two scarves (including the one I was wearing in the picture above) and 3 coats hung up in the coat closet.
• Various stuff thrown away.

Since it's been a week since that day, I feel it's also worth noting:

• The train has been a BIG hit with Kyle. He plays with it daily.
• The box was sorted (it turns out it was mostly full of toddler-sized clothing, so it was labeled as such and taken upstairs to be put with the other boxes of toddler-sized clothing).
• The two bags have been examined and I decided nothing needs to be dealt with before next week (so they have been hidden inside a hardly-used and mostly-empty cabinet in the entertainment center).
• I found a few books that immediately found homes in the living room book cases
• The shoe box (and other boxes that were stashed around the room) have been broken down and added to the recycle bin.

Granted, I haven't done anything with the pile of stuff to be donated (although I did add 3 grocery bags worth of clothing to THAT pile), and I've added a rather large pile of items that need to be returned to a local store (as soon as I find the receipts), but over all, the table at least is moments away from being ready to serve dinner, instead of hours.

Of course, I couldn't limit my attention to just the table. That first day, when I finished with the table, I turned around to see this:

But that's a story for another blog post.

To anyone else reading, have you met Nony yet? You should definitely check her out at A Slob Comes Clean. Roam around, click a few links, and then go here if you want to read through her blog the way she recommends.