Every time someone asks me how the new house is coming along, I say the same thing. I’m ready to be settled. I’m ready for boxes to be unpacked and things to be pretty. I had coffee with my assistant, the lovely Taylor McCarty,  recently (for her to tell me she’s leaving me…boooo) and I told her the same thing. I’m tired of boxes and the sheer number of things left to do overwhelms me.

Honestly, this tends to be the case with everything for me. When the project feels too much or too overwhelming, I tend to avoid it altogether. Rather than chip away at it a little at a time, I just don’t bother with it. I put it on the bottom of my to-do list and then it nags away at me forever. I even have this approach to cleaning sometimes. Unless I have time to clean the entire bathroom, I won’t even do one thing like wipe down the sink. Reality is, I seldom have time to clean the entire house in one sitting, and I’ll likely not have time to unpack all of the boxes at once.

During our meeting, Taylor suggested that I unpack just one box a day. While I’ve had that idea before, it just sounds dreadful! However, I finally realized that this is really the only way that I’ll make sense of my new home, so I decided to give it a shot. In addition to unpacking just one box a day, I decided that I’d also do one “thing” a day. The list of “things” that need to be done in this house is simply astounding. It feels like it could go on forever. Instead of avoiding all of the things like I have been doing, I’ll do one “thing” a day and unpack one box a day. It’ll likely be painful at first, but I’m hoping that I’ll adjust to the new approach quickly. I decided that I’ll unpack one box and then wipe down the door, hang the shower curtain rod, or clean a set of windows, etc.

After a week or so of using this method, I realize just how helpful it has been. I’ve certainly not enjoyed teaching myself to be okay with not accomplishing everything at once, but I’ve seen progress in my home and that makes it worth it.

As a matter of fact, things are really coming together around the new house. With the exception of the dining room/kitchen/entry way, I don’t feel like the boxes are taking over. We’ve also hung some art on the walls which was one of my September goals. I’ve done quite a bit of moving things around and then moving them again, but nonetheless, I feel like we’re making progress. I suppose I’ll keep unpacking one box and doing one thing until this house of ours is squared away. For my sanity’s sake, let’s all pretend that day is right around the corner!