Eating The Elephant

One of the recommendations in Shopping For Time is to take small steps in completing a major project or "eating the elephant." I will admit that this is a hard step for me. My desire is to complete a project in one sitting, but with two small children who need my constant attention that is not possible. Let me clarify: it isn't possible with a two-year-old who is curious about everything and always wants to "help." Lately, instead of tackling a daunting task, I have put it off because it can't be done at one time.

I was encouraged after reading the book to begin doing a little each day to complete a project that I have put off. We have a bookshelf in our office/playroom area that is very disorganized because I'm not sure what to do with everything. We have another huge bookshelf in Thomas' room that covers an outside door and while it is somewhat organized, many of the books/picture albums need to be moved or rearranged. See what I mean by not wanting to tackle this task?

After sitting down and thinking about it, I realized that before I began rearranging and organizing, I have to find something to do with my many Southern Living magazines (have I ever mentioned how much I love that magazine?). I looked online for magazine holders, but I never could find anything I liked. Finally, I got the brilliant idea to look through all the magazines and cut out the articles I want to keep and recycle the rest of the magazine. I'm sure many of you would have come to that conclusion way before I did!

Right now I'm in the midst of sorting through magazines and it has been a lot of fun. The great thing about cutting out the articles is I might actually cook some of the yummy recipes instead of reading the magazine and saying, "Oh, I'll have to cook that some day," and never looking at it again. Now I have to find a place to store all the recipes, house decorating tips, and fun places to travel.

This elephant (organizing bookshelves) is going to take a long time to eat, but it will be done someday...actually, I'm setting a goal for completion by the end of January. Here is a before look at the bookshelf in the office/play area.

I wasn't exaggerating when I said it was a daunting task! And just a side note: that plant on top of the bookshelf is the only one in my house and it was given to me when Josiah was born - 5 months! If you know me, then you know I have a very brown thumb; I kill everything. One time I even killed a tree by drowning it in water, but that is another story!