The Mess is Getting Worse

I am currently rearranging my living area to incorporate some new shelves and to move some older shelving to my office areas at work. This is due to the fact that I've already had an inquiry about an intern placement, so I am feeling some pressure to be ready for intern #24 at any moment. That was the impetus I needed to get off my chair and start being proactive. As a result, my living area is more of a mess than usual.

At the moment, the far wall of (what is supposed to be) the dining area is looking pretty good. I have the new shelving over there, and the shelves are filling up with books and boxes and trinkets of various origins. I have some of my personal instruments along the top of the shelving. I have some new canvas boxes that will store various things. I am making shelves for music therapy texts and for songbooks. There are shelves for visual aid making materials and for instruments. I still have three more shelving units to put together, so I have some additional planning to do about where things will go and how things will be put together. 

I enjoy the idea of being more organized, but the actual process is something that defeats me on a regular basis. At this point, the shelves are looking pretty good, but everything else is horrible! The couch is covered with stuff, the coffee table is covered with other stuff, and don't even get me started on my kitchen.

Anyway, the purpose of writing about all of this is that I am very surprised at how much music therapy stuff I actually have. 24 years of being a professional, a student, and a human makes for lots of stuff. It's time to purge much of the stuff, and I am going to do it!

For a couple of years now, I've had to downsize my work environment due to an extremely small space. Lots of my materials and tools had to come home for storage because there wasn't space in my music therapy clinic. Now, I have space to take things to work. I just need to find the stuff, sort it, and take it down to my new clinic area.

The first step in my process? Taking the now empty crates that I have at home to work to put together some storage for materials I already have at work. I can store things like the parachutes and the body band in a crate above the cabinet so clients can access them when I am gone. I can store my visual aids in crates in the cabinets so I can access them when I need them. I have many visual aids and need a different way to contain them.

This afternoon is one of my plan/prep times, so I'll start with the materials I already have at work - sorting and storing materials in the cabinets. I will also take an inventory as I go. It's time to start this process.

My hope is that I will have enough energy to continue the process of sorting and purging when I get home this afternoon. There is significantly more work to do here at home than there is at work. If I can spend some time working at home the same way I organize at work, things will clear up well. I also have a self-imposed deadline for another edition of sing about songs, so I will do my 30 minute rotation pattern to help me focus and finish. That's the theme for this week - focus and finish.

Focus and finish.

Have a good week, reader. I certainly hope to!!

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