A lot of things are happening here in March. For one thing, I have started the blog this month, which has been a bit of a learning curve, and a new set of to-do items to add to my routine. For another thing, spring is moving along in the Willamette Valley, and I’m tackling big garden tasks before the heat sets in. On top of all of that, we’re on to my least favorite Focus Area- the one I’ve been dreading and procrastinating.

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Procrastination. For me, that looks like finding something else to do. I can’t possibly do my de-cluttering work, because there is so much to do in the garden! I have to make dinner! We’re out of bread! The weekly chores need to be done! I’m going to need to set a daily timer for this one, I think.

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Focus on the Sewing Room In March

Of course your house is laid out differently than mine, and so your focus lists will look different too. This is what I’m working on in March, and in another post I will show you how I use Trello to set up automated to-do lists that everyone in the household can use.

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Like I said In February, we are using the downstairs bed and bath as our primary living space, because there is a lot going on upstairs. When we moved into the Red House in a mad rush two years ago, I had nearly 20 years and two businesses worth of sewing supplies and machines to haul over. In the old place it took up half of a two-car garage and most of a bedroom. At the Red House, we stacked it into a funny hallway under the eaves upstairs, and a tiny storage attic space. At that time both kids were living here. When the first one moved back to college, I set up a sewing room in his bedroom and got rid of the first round of clutter. Now, the second kid has moved out of the other upstairs bedroom, leaving me a nice open space to spread out and sort piles.

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Once I get this done, I am promising myself special treats- I can have a yard sale and sell some of this fabric I’m tired of looking at. Somebody else will love it! I will have a nice, inviting sewing room to get started on making patterns and fabric prints for the house and store. We’ll be able to think about doing the floors upstairs, painting the big room, and moving ourselves in. It is definitely a cluttered hell-hole right now, and it feels like a splinter in my skin that I’m afraid to dig out. Procrastination and dissociation is a real problem for me right now.

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Here is what I *should* be doing. If you have a guest room, craft room or office, you can do your version of these things this month too.

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• Clean ceiling and walls- a slightly damp and wrung-out dust mop works great for this. I’ve got a Libman with washable microfiber covers. Be careful not to dislodge ceiling texture, if you have it.

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• Clean all windows and frames.

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• Clean all light fixtures.

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• Clean all baseboards and molding.

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• Move furniture out of the way and clean underneath.

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• Polish all wood furniture. I like Howard Restore-A-Finish and Feed-N-Wax.

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• Wash any guest room bedding, including pillows, mattress pads, duvets and quilts, and any pet bedding.

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• One at a time or all at once if that works for you, go through drawers, closets, and boxes. Sort through the things, and make a give-away or yard sale pile, a throw-away pile, and a keep pile. Clean out the storage space, and fold everything you want to keep neatly and put it away again.

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• Clear off the tops of any tables and furniture (aka Stuff Collectors) and give it the same treatment. Dust what you are keeping, and arrange it back neatly. Also do any night stand drawers.

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• Take that give-away/ yard sale pile and sort, label, and price it.

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• Clean and service sewing machines.

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Outside Garden Jobs for March

Luckily (or not?) for my impulse to procrastinate by doing something else, March is full of gardening jobs. Since we are putting in lots of trees this year, some of that work is spilling over from last month. We have a giant steel clothesline pole to dig out and move before we can finish tree planting, for one thing.

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• Continue clearing garden beds for spring.

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• Place trellising for peas, beans and squash (I didn’t get to it in February)

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• Start a second round of seeds: peppers, tomatoes, an eggplants under lights.

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• Plant dormant fruit trees, giant steel pole edition.

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• Prune roses when the forscythia blooms.

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• Add compost, mulch, and fertilizer to cleared beds.

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• Consider spraying dormant oil and/ or liquid copper on fruit trees and roses. I think I am going to use whitewash, if I can get a couple of clear days in a row.

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Organization is Self-Care

Wish me luck this month- the struggle is real. I think the biggest problem I’m having with the sewing room clutter is the emotional weight it represents. When my kids were little, I designed and marketed a baby carrier called Calyx, and a lot of the supplies I’m going through remind me of that time in my life. Mixed in are collections of my kids’ childhood artwork, from younger homeschooling days as well as school assignments that I saved for posterity. The nostalgia is fierce. It is a cluttery time capsule of moments I can’t re-visit, and it is bringing up a lot of feelings, both good and heartbreaking

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If this sounds familiar to you, please let me know. Maybe you have a collection of things you have a hard time sorting through, that bring up tangible memories and feelings that aren’t always comfortable. Maybe facing a chore that you don’t want to do is leaving you feeling dissociated and avoidant. What do you do to motivate yourself? What reward will you allow yourself for taking some time to tackle even a small piece of the work?

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I’m going to have to set a timer for myself, maybe 1 hour every other day?

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