The Fifth Quadrant

Recently, before deciding to sell, I looked at all the areas in my house that needed to be sorted and reorganized, I assigned them a degree of difficulty between 1 and 5, with 5 being the most difficult. The attic for instance was a five, my dresser a 1. I then added up all the numbers and divided it by 5, the number of days Sam was taking off for 'staycation'. It was the end of the fiscal year at the company he works for and he had some days off he needed to use up. At this time we had no inclination to go anywhere, so I figured I would let him do the homeschooling and I would reorganize the house and do some pottery. It seemed like a great plan. I would have 7 points of reorganizing difficulty to sort through each day.

Monday rolled around, it was just so great to have him home, I could go to yoga a little later, a leisurely cup of tea, some general hanging with the family, piano lessons etc. and soon it was time to make dinner. I figured I could push the week back into Saturday and I would still have 5 days to tackle 'the five quadrants' as I had begun calling them affectionately. To divide the task into four days would have been ambitious at best, I felt I was being realistic with five days.

Tuesday, I caught up on some emailing and paper work, you know the pre-clean organize. More tea, more hanging with the family and so the week went. By Thursday, Sam and I had been able to spend some quality time together, the kind of time where you get to discuss more than what is for dinner and who is going to what lesson or play date and so on. We talked about our house and the need for more space and another bathroom, and with this on the table there seemed no point in me organizing. If we were going to move, and I was going to have to pack at some point, there was no need for me to agonize over the sorting right away.

Thus began my journey, wrapping my head around the idea, trying to see the positives in the idea of moving. I didn't manage to get any pottery done either, it seemed like everything got put on the back burner as we figured out our next move. Thus shelving my "Fifth Quadrant".

I did lots of yoga that week, took some naps, and spent some great time with the people who mean the most to me. I am back doing pottery and I have cleared alot out of the house, and I free-cycled some of the clutter. I have done alot of soul searching recently and I have now realized, there is alot more than just organization in my fifth quadrant, there are many things I put off for another day, while I do what makes me truly happy. And I think, we all should have a fifth quadrant, somewhere to put the the things that at the end of the day really aren't as important as the everyday.