Happy Blogiversary! (and a year of lessons learned)

I’ve never been into major fanfare (a nice dinner suits me just fine); but a blogiversary is the perfect time to reflect, channel David Letterman’s famous top ten, and yes, to celebrate!

So without further ado…

The Top 10 Things I Learned after One year of Blogging

1. I can write about organizing for a full year and still have plenty more things to say! Who knew it was possible? (It helps that it is one of my most favorite topics.)

via Mike Lichet

2. If you don’t set boundaries, blogging can quickly take over all of your free time and push out housework and family time. It took me a few months to find the balance and decide to only post on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I also love to read blogs, and though there’s never enough time for all of the ones I’d like to frequent, I do try to carve out some reading time too!

3. You can’t do it alone! I have a friend behind-the-scenes who is my “blogging-guru” as I like to call her. She encouraged me to start a blog and has always been there to bounce ideas off of, keep me motivated, and basically be an all out cheerleader.

4.  The blogosphere can be a friendly place! For the most part, bloggers and blog readers are amazingly helpful, creative and super nice. I’m also so happy to have found such great teachers out there in blog land.

5. Blogging is a lot more work than I thought. Sure, I’ve heard that a lot, but I guess I didn’t realize just how much work it was until I dived in with my own blog. I am in awe of bloggers who post every day of the week, link up to parties, and keep active on social media sites! How do you do it!?

via antigone

6. I wish I had paid more attention to my English teachers! At some point I decided I wouldn’t really need all of those pesky grammar rules since I hate writing and would be avoiding it whenever possible. Who knew my passion for organizing would convince me to write (and share it publicly)!

7. It only takes about a year of 10 minute Tuesday projects to get most of your home in order. For a while there I didn’t think I would ever run out of places to spend 10 minutes on. But I gotta admit, even my hidden corners of clutter are in better shape than they’ve ever been. Does anyone else have a place that could use 10 minutes of organizing TLC? I need some new spaces to tackle!

8. I have a much greater respect for photographers. It is hard to take a good picture! I pay attention to photos more now than ever before. My photography skills have definitely made improvements since I started, but I have a long way to go. Anyone want to trade photography lessons for organizing services?

9. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Not that I think I am building Rome, oh no, I just like using cliches. But when it comes to building a blog and a business, it takes time to a) know what you want, b) how to do it (Google and I are besties) and c) work out all of the kinks that inevitably happen while trying to do something technical that you just Google’d your way through. I’m practicing patience, and reminding myself that not everything can or needs to be done by tomorrow.

10. Helping others (and myself along the way) to simplify and create efficient systems in their life and home is a true passion of mine. No matter how many more blogiversary’s are yet to come, I know organizing and creating space for living is always something I will strive to do in some form or another.

Thanks for reading along and joining me on this journey!