Wanna see one of my favorite tools in this whole world?

My Timex Marathon watch.  I have been wearing this little number for years and years.  Every time one breaks, dies, drowns… I get all panicky until I have a replacement on my wrist.  I haven’t seen them in stores for a while, but Ebay has come through for me with the last two replacements.  (Thank you, Ebay!)  So, why is this little guy so handy?  First of all, I love the timer.  It easily sets the time in 1, 3, 5, 10, (you get the idea) minute increments.  So great for, “You have 5 minutes to get your pj’s on and brush your teeth.” or  “Time for a 10 minute tidy”, or “15 more minutes on the computer, then it is your brother’s turn”… I could go on all day.  My watch becomes the” bad guy” and I’m just the enforcer:  “Sorry, guys.  The watch has spoken.”.

Timex also encourages me to get chores done that I have no desire to start.  I set the timer for 3 minutes to get my dishwasher emptied and try to beat the beep-beep-beep.  Another function that I use regularly is the stopwatch feature.  I  like to time myself doing projects just to prove to myself that many dreaded projects really don’t take as long as we think they will take.   That is is exactly what I did this morning.  See that 13.07.09?  It is significant for a shoe organizing project that I did this morning.

This morning I looked at my shoe storage unit and was quite underwhelmed.

Pretty boring, cluttered and the unit is flimsy.  I decided to be on the lookout for shoe organizing ideas.  Then, thought dismissed, I went about my day. Later, I happened upon a small rummage sale and found this little number

…for this little price

That’s 3 bucks if you can’t read the fine print!

At first I had grand ideas of painting, distressing it a bit, then staining the piece, but then I decided that I really like the color, and it is just going in a closet anyway. Done! Here is where Timex Marathon came in.  I decided to time the whole project with my stopwatch.  In 11 minutes, 28 seconds (11.28) I had cleaned the piece, pulled out my existing shoe organizing unit plus shoes and replaced it with the” new” one, and added the shoes.

I rarely wear some of those high-heeled shoes and they topple over so easily, so I decided to grab some Dollar Tree bins (which I already had) to toss them in.  Of course I turned on my stopwatch to continue to keep track of the time.

Gorgeous?  Nah.  Magazine worthy?  Heck no!  But, I just close the closet door and walk away, knowing that in just 13 minutes, 7.09 seconds I have finished another project.  Done!   At least until the boots come out of the bin in the garage and the sandals go “bye-bye” for the winter.  That ought to take me, what… about 5 minutes.

What project are YOU going to find time to do today?