Happy New Year - 2015

Today starts a brand new year! Although most of today will be spend in a state of doing nothing constructive or creative (i.e. lounging on the sofa in my pj's), I have given some thought to what I plan to accomplish in the coming year.

I have set my resolutions up as short term, mid term and year end goals. First, in the short term, I need to clean. I mean, really clean. And purge. I have too much stuff. I need to go through my storage and throw out all the old paint cans from ten years ago. I need to get rid of a lot of old stuff in there like light fixtures that don't work, old shower curtain rods ....useless stuff that once a while back I thought I would need again. Now it's ten years later and I've lived this long without them. They can go.

I need to securely wrap up and move any bolts of fabric that I am not working with into the newly created space in storage. I have too much fabric in my studio. I know, I know....there is no such thing as too much fabric. But it is not a very large studio and it is feeling very cluttered. Cluttered spaces are not productive spaces. So they will need to be relocated. Temporarily, not for ten years.

I have too many mannequins. I have six child and six adult mannequins. I can cut that number down, since I no longer do art shows where I need to display a whole bunch of dresses and such. Twelve mannequins takes up a lot of room. I will photograph them and put them up on craigslist, since they weren't cheap when I bought them and someone can definitely use them.

I will (finally) grout around my fireplace tiles. Doing this will mean I can then give all the tiling equipment and tools back to my parents. The extra grout and supplies can go away (though I will keep a small container of the grout powder for any touch ups I may need to do). This will give me an additional two feet of space along the back of the sofa, where I have been storing these tools and equipment for the past couple years.

I will recover my sectional and either sell it or keep it and sell the sofa. Yes, I have a full sofa plus a full sectional. I live on my own and can seat 12 people in my living room. It's going to be hard to determine which I want to give up, but I do need to choose one or the other. I just want the space back.

This means by April (mid-term goals), I will have my dining room area back. Which means I can host a Birthday Brunch. And diner parties. And Sangria Sundays. I also want to visit Cuba. Or Prague and Vienna. Cuba first, then Prague and Vienna.

I want to redo my kitchen. I would like new counters and will probably need a new refrigerator this year. The one I currently have has started making funny noises with increased frequency. This is not a good thing. I want to remove the dishwasher entirely. The only time I use it is .....never. It leaks, and so about two years ago I stopped using it. I have so few dishes I just do them by hand when I need to. Although, if I start hosting more people, I may reconsider this idea. But it would be nice to turn that area back into a cupboard for baking equipment. I'd keep the hose hook-up for if I ever sell my place and move.

And I need to renovate my main bathroom. Big time. Especially the shower.

So there you have it. I've committed my resolutions by writing them down and making them public.

Have you made any resolutions? Let me know big or small. Remember, start with small steps and build momentum for greater success. The biggest (apparent) reason people fail in keeping their resolutions is that they resolve too much too quickly.

Hope you are having a great start to your new year!


No comments:

Post a Comment