Another (fun) audit

No really, this audit is a fun one.

Kent had a great idea while I was gone this weekend visiting some family in Philadelphia. He’s completely bought into the home organizational audit and he took it a step further. We are new to New England and we’ve talked about all the places we’d like to visit, but we haven't gone anywhere yet. So he started making a day trip audit. That way we won’t forget to include the fun stuff, and can do these trips in a day. That helps keep the expenses down and should let us see a lot of fun interesting things this summer. Here's a partial list:

Boston Light Tower climbing tours. The National Historic Landmark, Fort Warren, a 19th-century granite stronghold built to defend Boston, is on Georges Island. I've seen it as I've flown in and out of Boston and I'd love to go there.

Astors Beechwood Mansion tours. One site listed the tours here as expensive ($$$) but I think we'll get our $15/person's worth when we go.

Marblehead, MA. The author of this guide obviously loves Marblehead and I want to see it now after reading her description and recommendations.

Restaurant deals for the recession. We do like to eat out, and this list will help us do it while maintaining control of our budget!

Zen Habits, Organizing Audits and me

I am a semi-regular reader of Zen Habits and have bookmarked more than a few of the columns because they're worth a second or third look. Earlier this week I read a column about how and why I should do a home organizing audit (article here). In a nutshell, the writer believes that we tend to overlook or ignore that which we see daily. So any unfinished project like pictures not yet hung or books not yet sorted and stored tend linger because we don’t really see them any more. Then other messes accumulate there, which also go unnoticed. Auditing each room takes the blinders off so all messes, unfinished projects or trouble spots can be identified and prioritized for fixing or what have you.

I see this happen with my sewing. I’ll leave my sewing machine out in our living space as I’m working on a project because it’s either out to be used or else it’s stored in a closet. Then the ironing board stays out as well. Add to that the iron itself plus the little spray bottle I use to dampen the material, and of course let’s not forget my sewing box and button box. Pretty soon I’ve taken over the corner by the pass through, which is also where we sit to eat. Then we can’t sit together to eat dinner but end up eating at our desks. You get the picture.

So today I’ve been working on that organizing audit. I’ve already captured two pages of things to be done. They range from very, very minor (reorganize a closet) to fairly major and/or tedious (re-grout the tub).

Kent’s traveling this week. I shared the article with him, and then today told him I was doing this audit. He’s afraid, he’s very afraid. After looking at this list, I can see why.