Completing a DIY Project with Your Partner is Easier Than You Think

We are going on ten months, friends. Ten months of this pandemic affecting our daily lives.

I know we all want this to end. I know that time feels fast and slow, all at once. I also know that we are resilient, full of ingenuity and determination. If we weren’t, our species may have very well gone extinct some time ago. 

I think masks are going to be a part of our lives for quite some time. I am dreaming of a time when heading out for a Friday night drink with my love, meetups with our friends, and my kiddos connecting with their friends is a normal part of our week. 

As I sit with the hope for different social situations to come forward and for this pandemic to end, I find myself leaning into the knowing that being at home will continue to be a constant this year. 

With the onset of the pandemic, I needed to make changes to my home to accommodate working from home and distance learning from home.

The realization that we are going to continue spending tons of time in our house has caused that need to morph into a desire to make small adjustments to areas of my family's collective space.

Like most of you, I have been looking at the same walls everyday for over ten months. 

At first, all I saw were the flaws, the lack, the defects. 

That has been wholly replaced with a motivation to create a space that is supportive, healing and inspiring for me and my family. 

I was grateful to be introduced to a design consultant that helped me clarify the things that I wanted to do and to get my wheels in my brain turning. 

I am ready to create the home I want for my family

This past month, Rick and I had a plan. We were excited to give our room some well deserved and ever needed attention. 

We turned to Small Changes for Big Shifts and created a mini-task list to accomplish our goal, all while having our two kiddos on winter break.  

Here’s what it looked like:

• We made a list together of all the tasks we want to complete in our home

• I want to do them all right now, but Rick gently reminded me that we can’t do everything at once.

• We took some time and reflected and talked about what we could realistically do, what we had time to do, what we needed to do to make it feel good to both of us.

•  We decided after doing many projects for the kids and the whole house, it was time to devote to our bedroom.  We’ve needed a new mattress for a while and after 3 moves together over the last 17 years, our furniture needed an upgrade for our space.

•  We did not do it all at once.  I originally met with Elizabeth Hall to talk about what would look good and feel good in our space.  After her wonderful suggestions, Rick and I talked about what we liked and didn’t like. 

•  We went furniture shopping online and then went to check it out in person to make sure it was what we saw online. In early December, I picked up the paint and paint supplies and we planned to paint the following weekend, which because of life with kids got postponed another two weeks.  

• We then finally painted before the New Year when I took a week off of work. What I thought would take a day and a half actually took 3 days, because of life with kids. 

I can’t wait to see our wholly transformed room once the furniture arrives. 

While the rest of my home doesn’t need a makeover, I look forward to implementing the easy and actionable revisions that will result in a more homey home to be in, come what may. 

So you have a goal staring you in the face, and try as you might, you aren’t quite sure how to get started. 

Maybe you have a goal that you started with gusto and it all fell flat very quickly. 

Slow down, take a deep breath, pull out a pen and paper or your preferred method of writing and head over to Small Changes for Big Shifts and follow the prompts. 

If after you have attempted the mini-task list exercise from Small Changes for Big Shifts, you still find yourself stuck, contact me directly and I will happily help you out.