The Manini Project – 2014

It’s that time of year again, when I can just barely feel the very beginnings of spring and start to get antsy. We’re finally starting to move forward on some house projects, too, and that has me wanting to make deliberate progress on some little things around the house and in my life that have been lingering far too long. Thus, behold: the 2014 Manini Project, which will be taking place in March and April this year.

What is the Manini Project? The Manini Project is when I pick a month, make a list of little things that have been on my to-do list for too long (one for each day), and tackle them. (“Manini” is Hawaiian slang for “little, annoying, irritating.” Like gnats.) Last year, I tackled things like paint touch-ups, framing paintings, cord management — lots of stuff in my office, where I spend the majority of my days, but elsewhere around the house, too. Much of the list was made up of physical projects, but some were things like making put-off doctor’s appointments and data entry on the computer.

Rules? Nothing is written in stone, except list as many things as there are days in the month and aim to be done with them all by the end of the month. I try for a thing a day, but it doesn’t always work out that way, and that’s okay. I try to keep each item to under an hour, but many are much less and some are a bit longer, and that’s okay, too. Order doesn’t matter; the numbering is just to make sure I get the right number of things. I pick and choose which to do based on the time and energy I have available on a given day.

This year, I was so slammed with work at the beginning of March that I wasn’t able to start then, but why wait until the beginning of the next month? I’m starting on March 10 and aim to be finished on April 9. It’s still a month, even if it doesn’t neatly coincide with the months on the calendar.

So, what’s on the list this year?

1. Post Mom’s lamp for sale on eBay (take pictures, edit, research, etc.).
2. Purge hanging stuff in closet, vacuum around edges.
3. Purge folded stuff in closet, clean shelves.
4. Clean insides of drawers in dark cabinet. (3/10)
5. Cut and install drawer backs in dark cabinet.
6. Line drawer bottoms in new cabinets.
7. Wax dark cabinet. (3/10)
8. Sew carrying bags for display boards.
9. Order new Alchemary sign. (3/12)
10. Scan family photos from Papa’s album.
11. Clean up project shelves. (3/13)
12. Scan necessary vintage paperwork on project shelves.
13. Sew cover for bench.
14. Create fundraising order form.
15. Consolidate info in little notebooks.
16. Purge, trim, and rearrange plants.
17. Purge software drawer; consolidate and move to storage.
18. Purge linen closet.
19. Clean out and rearrange guest room closet.
20. Treat and seal top of library card catalog.
21. Make labels for new studio drawers; redo existing that need to be fixed.
22. Strip glue off dining room floor in front of windows.
23. Clean & organize deskside drawers.
24. Purge CDS, put keepers in new cases.
25. New banner for Etsy site. (3/15)
26. Order new business cards & hang tags for Alchemary; order new business cards for freelance business. (3/19)
27. Shoe purge.
28. Bead purge.
29. Purge old jewelry pieces from inventory, deconstruct.
30. Set up sewing station in Lilyroom.
31. Hang painting in entryway. (3/14)

Want to play along? I’d love to follow your project, too. Just leave a note in the comments with a link to your project. (Comments automatically close after 14 days — damn spammers made me make that change around here — so if you’re coming in after that, just leave a comment on one of the later posts; I’ll still see it.)