On the last episode of the podcast, I talked about what living an organized life actually feels like as you move through each stage of life.
In this episode, I want to share how the Sunday Basket 3.0 can help you live that organized life you’ve been striving for.
The first thing you need to know about the Sunday Basket 3.0 is that it’s not a physical product.
Lisa, what do you mean it’s not an actual product? You got me pumped up for nothing!
Hold on! I say it’s not a physical product because it’s an evolution of the original Sunday Basket System you already have.
If you’re not familiar with the Sunday Basket Club or the Sunday Basket System, let me explain real quick…
A Mini Lesson On Sunday Baskets
The Sunday Basket is a system for processing ongoing household projects and developing a weekly routine of collecting, processing, and maintaining it all in one place.
The 2.0 slash pockets are monochromatic and include five pink, five blue, five green, and five purple slash pockets.
With the 2.0 slash pockets, each color represents a category. So, purple is for anything household related, blue is for family members, green is for financial, and pink is for your own hopes, dreams, projects, and goals.
When Sunday rolls around, you take everything out of the basket and sort through what you’ll do this Sunday and what can wait until next Sunday.
Eliminating Things From You Sunday Basket
When your home is organized, you’ll generally have a lot less to do in terms of organizing. Another gift that leading a more organized will give you is TIME.
Time to do a puzzle in the evening, give the dog a second walk around the block, and time for yourself.
But, when you have all this free time, many of you talk about feeling guilty. It’s like if you’re not doing something “proactive” and productive, you’re lazy or even selfish (which is crazy!).
One rule of the Sunday Basket System is if it can wait until next Sunday, it must wait until next Sunday. But, what if something in the basket can always wait until next Sunday? Do you keep it moving onto the following week for months or even years?
Well… you can if you want to. But if you want to get it out of the way, I suggest picking a time during the day or week to work on it and do it then. The more you live an organized life, the fewer things you’ll have in your Sunday Basket.
If you become a seasoned pro like me, you might not even need all the slash pockets in the Sunday Basket anymore. But getting to that stage of eliminating things from your basket will take time. And, as each task is completed and each week you’re organizing more and more, you’ll receive an extra gift of time each week.
So, what does all of this have to do with the Sunday Basket 3.0?
The Sunday Basket 3.0 is about eliminating things out of your Sunday Basket that are no longer serving you or that you just don’t want to do anymore (or ever).
Deciding What To Do With Your Free Time
When you are in the process of eliminating your to-do list and moving to the Sunday Basket, you develop the habit of writing down every idea that you have in your head onto index cards.
You’re also continuing to defer those things until the following Sunday when you can. This process helps you to make the decision if you’re going to do it at all, and if so, when. For the most part though, you can knock out a lot of your index cards on Sunday. You may have to set time aside to do some of the things during the week and then anything that can be put off until later goes into your 2.0 slash pockets, which are for projects.
If you’re in a stage similar to me where your kids are grown up and everything’s pretty much taken care of, you’ll have all this time you don’t know what to do with.
Can you relate?
If so, here’s a little challenge for you…
Think back to when you were a teenager. What did you like doing? How did you spend your free time?
I hope you can come up with something because let me tell you, I can’t. I always wanted to be a mom. I got a teaching degree because I knew it would help me when I did have kids. But, after I got married, we realized we couldn’t have kids. So, we adopted.
My entire life has been about wanting kids and being a mom. And, I did it all. But now the kids are grown up, and my “mommying” is kind of over.
So, now what should I do with my free time?
I have no idea.
Well, that’s not totally true. I like doing puzzles. Yes, I’m like a retired old lady, but you know what? Those guys in the retirement homes are up to their eyeballs in puzzles. They have a library, and they get their dinner made for them each day. Plus, they’re surrounded by their friends, and they don’t even have to go outside if they don’t want to.
To me (a.k.a someone that doesn’t like nature all that much), that sounds like a dream. So, yeah… I guess when “I grow up,” I want to be retired and doing all the puzzles in the world.
The Sunday Basket 3.0
So, when you reach the stage where your house is organized, and you’ve entered the Sunday Basket 3.0 era, it’s okay to have projects in there that you have no intention of doing. Just get rid of them.
You don’t have to stick to the same projects you wanted to do before you got organized. Heck, you don’t have to pick up the same projects you wanted to do yesterday! It’s OKAY.
Just because you had a passion for something before, it doesn’t mean it has to be your passion for the rest of your life. Passions aren’t always forever. Sometimes, a passion hangs around for a season and then it transitions into something new. And, that’s okay!
So, the next time you go through your Sunday Basket, and you sort through your 2.0 slash pockets, ask yourself if you still have the passion and desire to do that thing at all.
If not, it’s time to say goodbye and move on! No guilt necessary!
Any puzzle fans out there?
