Truth.
My life has been pretty busy the last few years.
We moved to another state to start a creative church from scratch, and this weekend we’re launching a concert house. Yawn. Hardly anything exciting around here.
So. What would life be like without a little crazy-eyed insanity mixed in? I don’t know, but I’d like to find out someday.
For now, along with the crazy I need some organization. With everything going on, there hasn’t been much time for actually getting organized. It’s a catch-22: we’ve been juggling daily tasks and trying not to drop too many balls.
Because January feels like a good time to turn over a new leaf, I decided to launch an organization intervention. Also, people have started looking at us funny, like we might be disorganized or something. Meh.
One thing that holds me back from organizing is having grand ideas of what “organized” should look like. I’ve long dreamed of a Command Center. I’ve plotted how to reorganize and makeover my office, and I plan to tackle that in the coming weeks. I also dream about big mudrooms and wide back halls while in reality we have tiny halls and a small laundry room. Blast.
In my head, all my organization ideas look perfect, pretty and finished — you know, like Pinterest.
Or like The House of Smiths.
They made that beauty from radiator metal cover things — the same suggestion many of you made for my mantel!
That pretty much explains why I don’t have a command center yet. I want it to look like that.
I want a door like that too. Picture-perfect.
I want a before picture and a perfect after — now.
But I don’t have the ideal space or enough time right now for a Pinterest-worthy command center. There are other projects ahead of this one. My husband helps when he can, but he’s not keen on staying up late for DIY projects. So sometimes my busy schedule and big dreams derail before they start. We stall and stay disorganized, even though I know it’s time to act.
Then this week I went to Costco for groceries — because yes, my family sometimes needs to eat — and while heading for the spinach I spotted THIS.
HELLO GIANT FOUR-FOOT MAGNETIC CHALKBOARD!
Behold: the start of Command Central at my house.
Was it exactly what I pictured? No.
Is it functional for what I needed? Yes. I prefer the smooth writing surface to chalkboard paint.
Could I paint the frame or add more organizational items later? Absolutely.
Did it come with a giant mudroom? No.
Was there a better solution? Maybe, but sometimes you just have to START somewhere or you’ll never start at all.
Was it the deal of the century? Not really.
Was it a time-saver? YES.
After wrestling with options in the Costco aisle I decided DONE would be good enough this time. I’m on a mission to make our home work better for us, and nothing is going to stop me.
I yanked the box from its display, balanced it awkwardly on my small cart (this chalkboard is huge: four feet across and three feet tall), and steered past books and the backs of a few unsuspecting shoppers toward the checkout. Oops!
I even left without the spinach because I was afraid of dropping the box. Home goals trump eating, apparently.
What I Wore to Costco
{don’t you think that would be an awesome linky party?}
While Pinterest is fantastic for dreaming, sometimes good-enough ideas come from Costco when you’re wearing jeans and Chucks instead of a ruffled red coat and polka-dot shoes like the cool moms on Instagram.
Anyhoo…this is my real life. Not super Pinterest-worthy. I’m learning to accept a Costco-inspired life for now.
In my real life:
I’m okay that my command center is going in the tiny hall by the kitchen for now, not the perfect spot.
I don’t have a stenciled wall ready to make it extra cute.
I’ve accepted that my calendar gridlines aren’t perfectly taped yet. They can wait.
I don’t have the cutest magnets to clip papers with. What I have works fine.
I’m okay that this picture was taken at 10 PM and doesn’t have perfect natural light.
I’m content being somewhere between the BEFORE and the AFTER.
The important thing: I finally have a command center, and we can feel a little less crazy. I’m good with that.
Carry on. Maybe next time I show this off I’ll have stenciled walls. Ha — probably not.
So what is holding you back from getting organized?
If you struggle with discontentment or need a little more courage to focus on what matters, that honest, real post I read recently resonated with me.