January Wrap-Up

Long-term Goal: 27 / 31 Days, or 87%

Short-term Goals: 61 total, averaging 2.23 per day

Daily Goals: 448 / 607, which is 74% and not too shabby for the first month

My long-term goal for January was to unpack all art, craft, and Lego items and set up and organize my office/craft space.

This month taught me to be more specific, especially with big goals. Or I needed to be more realistic. 1) I didn’t realize how many art and craft supplies I owned, namely fabric. 2) I didn’t realize how much space my Lego buildings would require. 

I did have a realistic view of the small dimensions of my craft space. With enough ingenuity, I can make this work. I can build more janky cardboard storage. The Mister can build the Lego display shelves I planned to have by the end of this month once the weather warms.

One significant change that was out of my control was just how bitterly cold it was this month. It was so cold that even with three heaters running in an insulated workshop, The Mister could not warm the space enough to work on build projects. 

I had to shift my expectations. I couldn’t put my buildings on the wall, and they would have to take up the bookshelf and entertainment center space temporarily. The entertainment center space wasn’t such a big deal. Those boxes aren’t unpacked and won’t be until The Mister completes the entertainment closet build project. However, the shelf space had a more significant negative impact. Lego occupies five to six linear feet of art/craft storage.

Losing those feet means I cannot complete my fabric storage as planned. Boxes of fabric clog up my would-be neater view. And since there’s no way I’ll ask The Mister to haul those boxes back to the basement after he so kindly brought them up, I will just have to accept the unanticipated mess.

Let’s discuss my janky cardboard builds. They have caused me to become a bit of a cardboard box hoarder. I want to finish two builds that are in progress. However, I ran out of packing tape. I’ve used packing and painter's tape to hold things together while the more permanent glue dries. I will purchase more on one of my next forays to town. Completing these two projects won’t fix my storage issues by a long shot, but they’ll help.

There is a great need to throw away building materials. Cardboard. I need to throw away the cardboard. I can’t throw away cardboard until I finish the last two projects I have in mind, but I can’t complete those without tape. My cardboard hoard also occupies space in my office/craft space.

Beginning February 1st, I will have a new long-term goal. I will work on these organizational projects as short-term goals, secondary to February’s goal. 

Overall, I am immensely pleased with myself. I made a goal, stuck to it, and worked on it nearly every day for a month, and I believe I would have completed it had there not been a few roadblocks. Oh, and I will call myself out and admit there were times I became too bogged down in the little things, and it took a lot of time away from my big picture.

Taking my achievements and lessons learned with me, bring on February!