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neadodsI'm reading Heath & Heath's Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard and on pages 11-12 I hit a paragraph that really kicked me where I live:
"The bigger the change you're suggesting, the more it will sap people's self-control. And when people exhaust their self-control, what they're exhausting are the mental muscles needed to think creatively, to focus, to inhibit their impulses, and to persist in the face of frustration or failure. In other words, they're exhausting precisely the mental muscles needed to make a big change.... Change is hard because people wear themselves out. And that's the second surprise about change: What looks like laziness is often exhaustion."
And I thought, "Wow, that's my problem with dealing with the pantry." Not that there's too much work, but that I look at the amount of work and the (completely voluntary and self-selected) deadline and get wiped out and panicky before I've done a thing.
Objectively, even with adding in the rest of the kitchen renovation, I've got a finite series of tasks:
The pantry is an area roughly 66 deep x 45 wide x 95 high. I need to:
- Peel off the wallpaper that covers roughly half the area
- Remove 4 doors
- Remove the contents
- Remove the hardware for four things - sliding shelves, a bolted-on spice rack
- Physically break out the pantry itself (M will probably help with this; she has enjoyed dismantling other built-ins already this year)
- Paint the area
- Hang whatever shelving I pick*
- Replace and reorganize the contents
Depending on the linoleum situation under the built-in, I may have to pull up an edging strip, lay down about 10 peel-and-stick tiles, and hammer down the edging strip again. (My plan for this weekend, for the three of you who read this, is to get steps 1-4 done and start on #5, to be completed the rest of the week.)
Laid out like that it's harder work than I like doing, but it's all relatively do-able, and do-able in a couple of days, with time for the paint to dry. 66 x 45 is hardly a big space!
Adding in the kitchen, I'll be painting 10 cabinets, 10 drawers, and their facings. I intend to do that work in waves - empty and scuff a couple of cabinets/drawers, prime, paint, refill. If I do the emptying and scuffing at the rate of a couple cabinets/drawers a night, I could do the priming and painting in a big task on the weekend.
If I look at the list like this, I start calming down again. It makes it... finite is the best word I can think of. It makes it manageable, so that I can look at it as a series of tasks and not AAAAHHHHH I HAVE TO DO ALL THIS STUFF AND I CAN'T EVEN AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!
*A note on shelving. I didn't want to use the Container store stuff because their prices were way out of line - $26 per shelf while Lowes only cost $6 for the same and Ikea's equivalent was around $10. But to be honest - I've been tugging and rattling everyone's shelving and Lowes is cheap crap that wouldn't hold 10 lb of flour, while Ikea's isn't very nice looking and doesn't have the versatility. So it's back to the Container Store... although I'll be buying a much different and hopefully much less expensive configuration.
Even so, this and the new kitchen hardware (hinges and pulls and paint) mean that I'm going to have to readjust the rest of the redecorating budget. I'm going to have to do more work than I wanted to elsewhere rather than hire help, and I'm probably going to have to change carpet rather than rip it up and refinish the floors. If I must have carpet, I can at least make sure it isn't fucking BEIGE!
"The bigger the change you're suggesting, the more it will sap people's self-control. And when people exhaust their self-control, what they're exhausting are the mental muscles needed to think creatively, to focus, to inhibit their impulses, and to persist in the face of frustration or failure. In other words, they're exhausting precisely the mental muscles needed to make a big change.... Change is hard because people wear themselves out. And that's the second surprise about change: What looks like laziness is often exhaustion."
And I thought, "Wow, that's my problem with dealing with the pantry." Not that there's too much work, but that I look at the amount of work and the (completely voluntary and self-selected) deadline and get wiped out and panicky before I've done a thing.
Objectively, even with adding in the rest of the kitchen renovation, I've got a finite series of tasks:
The pantry is an area roughly 66 deep x 45 wide x 95 high. I need to:
- Peel off the wallpaper that covers roughly half the area
- Remove 4 doors
- Remove the contents
- Remove the hardware for four things - sliding shelves, a bolted-on spice rack
- Physically break out the pantry itself (M will probably help with this; she has enjoyed dismantling other built-ins already this year)
- Paint the area
- Hang whatever shelving I pick*
- Replace and reorganize the contents
Depending on the linoleum situation under the built-in, I may have to pull up an edging strip, lay down about 10 peel-and-stick tiles, and hammer down the edging strip again. (My plan for this weekend, for the three of you who read this, is to get steps 1-4 done and start on #5, to be completed the rest of the week.)
Laid out like that it's harder work than I like doing, but it's all relatively do-able, and do-able in a couple of days, with time for the paint to dry. 66 x 45 is hardly a big space!
Adding in the kitchen, I'll be painting 10 cabinets, 10 drawers, and their facings. I intend to do that work in waves - empty and scuff a couple of cabinets/drawers, prime, paint, refill. If I do the emptying and scuffing at the rate of a couple cabinets/drawers a night, I could do the priming and painting in a big task on the weekend.
If I look at the list like this, I start calming down again. It makes it... finite is the best word I can think of. It makes it manageable, so that I can look at it as a series of tasks and not AAAAHHHHH I HAVE TO DO ALL THIS STUFF AND I CAN'T EVEN AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!
*A note on shelving. I didn't want to use the Container store stuff because their prices were way out of line - $26 per shelf while Lowes only cost $6 for the same and Ikea's equivalent was around $10. But to be honest - I've been tugging and rattling everyone's shelving and Lowes is cheap crap that wouldn't hold 10 lb of flour, while Ikea's isn't very nice looking and doesn't have the versatility. So it's back to the Container Store... although I'll be buying a much different and hopefully much less expensive configuration.
Even so, this and the new kitchen hardware (hinges and pulls and paint) mean that I'm going to have to readjust the rest of the redecorating budget. I'm going to have to do more work than I wanted to elsewhere rather than hire help, and I'm probably going to have to change carpet rather than rip it up and refinish the floors. If I must have carpet, I can at least make sure it isn't fucking BEIGE!
