(Sidebar: Gretchen Rubin, one of my favourite authors, invented the Power Hour to tackle annoying tasks that could be done at any time and therefore she kept putting off. In theory, I should probably use this time to do tasks like addressing cards and de-cluttering closets. But in this very chaotic stage of life, basic house-tidying is probably more necessary.)
But you know, God forbid I learned from that and KEPT IT UP.
I, of course, missed my Thursday Power Hour. But! I kept the following Tuesday Power Hour and even took a couple actual photos to document one of the (many) messes I cleaned up.
I’d done a sewing marathon on Sunday afternoon, kind-of-not-really tidied it up so we could eat dinner there on Sunday evening, and then resumed the mess on Monday while I sewed a new dress for C to wear to her special day at preschool on Tuesday.
So by Tuesday morning, this is exactly what our dining room looked like. It was bad.
I whipped around making piles and then ran up and down both flights of stairs putting everything away. That’s essentially tidying up in a nutshell: piles + running.
Here’s how it looked when I was done …
Ahhhhhh.
Not only did I get rid of all of the crap that didn’t belong (like my frigging serger, which really NEVER belongs in a dining room — even in this house), but I also removed some of the decor. With all of the Christmas stuff right next-door in the living room, it was just … too … much.
I tucked photo frames away and even removed my cool “Give us this day our daily bread” platter that I bought at the thrift store recently because it reminded me of my beloved LIW (Laura Ingalls Wilder). With all of the Christmas chaos, it feels good to have an empty-ish space.
(I also tidied the kitchen and the stairs — mounts of crap waiting to find its home — during Tuesday’s Power Hour, but didn’t stop for photos).
As always, I feel super inspired after a Power Hour but then lose steam, so I’m hoping actually posting about it makes me follow through with regular ones. By scheduling specific times to run around like a maniac doing quick-tidies and putting crap away that would otherwise sit around, I suppose the idea is that I’ll be less chicken-with-my-head-cut-off the rest of the time.
At least, that would be nice!
Tell me! Do you Power Hour? If you want to start, what kinds of tasks would you like to tackle?