It wasn’t great when I left to visit family, and then the mail and other detritus crawled on top and died right there. It was an avalanche waiting to happen, and I’m pretty sure if it fell it would take us 3 days to dig out.

So I cleared it off. Everything. Yes, everything. No, seriously. It filled up a big reusable Ikea bag. Have you seen how huge those things are? Yeah. To the brim. Now, admittedly I did also clear out a shelf that hangs over my desk, and I left a few small items. But I just wanted to see my desk top again.

And I do! Yay!

Here comes the hard part. What do I do with all of that stuff?

I’m tempted to leave it in the bag for a week and see what I really need out of it. Things that I need will get dug out and placed back on the desk. And after a week, the other stuff gets stored or tossed.

I already went through the bag once, throwing out any junk, old flyers, expired coupons, unnecessary receipts. But there’s still a lot in there.

I’ve decided that I’ll only keep a couple of current projects handy. An art journal, a couple of books I’m planning to read and review. Everything else can go… elsewhere. I don’t need 10 books on my desk when I’m only currently looking at two of them. It just adds clutter.

I still have some receipts and paperwork to file. Others to shred.

It feels so nice. I’m really going to see if I can get by like this. I look around at it and go “Ahhhhhh.” It’s so much more serene. I highly recommend this. Take everything you possibly can off of your desk and only put back the essentials. Not what’s convenient — just essentials. See if it can work for you.

I bet you won’t even miss most of it. I probably won’t either. I’ll let you know what I discovered that I needed most.

image credit: morgueFile

Well, that’s exactly what we did last week. Sister-in-law came over to babysit so we could go out. We spent the day cleaning. We had been planning to anyway, but her arrival gave us a deadline.

No matter how hard I try, I don’t always find the self-motivation I need. Like I may set myself a deadline for a task, but deep down I know it’s a deadline that I have set. And I apparently don’t care so much about my own deadlines. But if someone else needs something, or I have company, or some other outside deadline, I will plan out my time to meet it.

So why do we have so much trouble with our own deadlines and motivation? I’m not sure, but I’m working on it.

In the meantime, I may just need a babysitter every week so hubby and I will attack the house together prior to their arrival.

I fight the battle every day, just like you do. Some days I win, and some days I don’t. But if there’s one thing I am, it’s stubborn. I refuse to let this stuff get the best of me and my business.

We’re all trying to make our way keep our households running smoothly. There’s so much to do: kids, meals, school, laundry, bills, chores … the list grows every day, doesn’t it?

What do you struggle to get control of? Is it your stack of bills that you need to pay or file? How about that e-mail – are you buried and are considering e-mail bankruptcy? Does your desk threaten to topple under the weight of the papers that are taking it over? Are piles of laundry threatening to take over your floors? Maybe the kids’ toys are out of control? Hate doing dishes?

I want to know what you struggle with, so we can talk about ways to solve your most common problems. Sure, I can expound on what I’ve seen, what new stuff — or tried-and-true — can help you. And I will, at times. But what I really want to know is what’s giving you the most trouble. Let’s tackle them together, shall we?

Tell me what you’d like to see this site be. How will it best work for you?