Heading into a season of rituals, some perhaps scary and others merry, I’m prompted to think about my own rituals, particularly around monthly creative housekeeping. What on earth is creative housekeeping? That just sounds like extra work – wait, hear me out. As a recovering perfectionist who struggles with procrastination and feeling lost, monthly creative housekeeping has given me so much grounding over the past year. Creative housekeeping includes two basic pillars: reflection and planning. At the end of every month, I sit down to think about these two things as they relate to my creative life. What did I do that month? And how will I spend my time in the month ahead?
Grab a notebook and your favourite pen or open a fresh word document, let’s start with reflection. This requires a bit of memory work and perhaps looking at the past month’s schedule to see what you did and when – it’s a quick recap – I like to list how many things I made and what they were, even works-in-progress.
Then I look at my creative goals – I have three main goals: sewing bags, exploring illustration and creating surface pattern designs. I don’t recommend having more than three at one time and that amount might even be pushing it for some folks. Having one or two creative goals is totally fine. Look at each goal and list what the successes were for each goal – what did you do to meet your goal for that month? It can be the tiniest thing – like you went to a drawing class or a workshop. Maybe you spent a rainy Sunday on a craft with your kids. And then think about the opportunities – what can you do to take the next step in that goal? Don’t think of it as a to-do list yet, but rather a list of possibilities for now.
What were your overall highlights for that month? These can be more personal in nature or totally about what you accomplished with your creativity. You can be super broad here. Create your own criteria. What were your favourite life experiences that month? Think about opportunities for growth here – what are some burning things that you can’t seem to stop thinking about – maybe there is a way to loop them into your goals? Feel free to also list your successes that month – maybe you scored a commission or made a big sale on a marketplace. And one more thing – what are you proud of at this moment? This can also be a small thing – like you didn’t give up on a drawing and kept going even when it was in the ugly phase.
Going forward is what the next pillar is all about – planning your focus for the next month. You might want to consider a mantra or vibe for the month ahead. Or call it a mission statement – it’s your flavour of the month.
Think back to some of those growth opportunities in the reflection pillar – are any of them time-sensitive, like a course or workshop? Would you regret not taking advantage of them? Then make them a priority!
When looking back at your goals, are the next steps to take clear to you? If so, list those steps as action items under your individual goal(s) and again, don’t go overboard, just keep it to a few small achievable steps for the month. My goal with this style of creative housekeeping is not to overwhelm you but keep you engaged and invested in the process. If things aren’t so clear – step back and think about the opportunities you listed in the reflection pillar – what stands out as the most interesting to you? To move forward, I find it helpful to lean into my curiosity.
It’s also possible you might need some more exploration time in the previous step of that goal. This happens to me too, I will re-list action items month-to-month if something just isn’t sticking for me. It’s all part of the process and nothing to feel bad about. But if you find yourself consistently re-listing the same steps over and over – then it might be time to re-examine that goal entirely (I’ll save that discussion for another blog post).
And finally, feel free to wrap things up with some general notes – I usually theme my notes around discoveries or specific processes I’d like to remember. Or maybe over the month you came across a cool company that you’d like to work with – I would list things like that here. And that’s pretty much it. Upon seeing it all down on the page, you will finish creative housekeeping feeling optimistic about the month ahead and grateful you were able to explore or accomplish as much as you did the previous month.
In keeping with this month’s theme of housekeeping, I dug into the archive and have put original artwork, prints and note cards from 2020 on sale until the end of this year. This time capsule includes original watercolours, now 25% off, some of which were painted during my travels in Vietnam and in the early months of lockdown. If you ever wanted to add some beautiful botanical prints or original paintings to your collection, now is the time!
Super cute So Very Merry Holiday card sets are now available in very limited quantities. Inspired by my travels to Paris, France, you can show off your chic taste when you send these holiday cards to your friends and neighbours this season. Cards are available in sets of five in two colour versions, for cat lovers and dog lovers!
P.S. If you’d like to share your thoughts about creative housekeeping or anything else here – don’t be a stranger and hit the button below, I’d love to hear from you!
