Fall has not technically arrived yet, although in some ways it feels like it since Starbucks has released its every year eagerly awaited Pumpkin drinks. With this weekend being the last holiday of the summer season and most students already back in school, it will soon be time to get into a Fall mindset. Also, once Labor Day weekend has passed, there are only a few weeks until several holidays are upon us. September allows us to ease into all of that while enjoying the beauty of the Fall foliage. What can we do to prepare for the busyness that will soon be upon us?

Let’s ease into fall. Let’s give ourselves the time and space to relax and enjoy the beauty all around us before we prepare for winter. Even so, there are some things that we can do and do leisurely. We can make lists of the things we want to accomplish in September. If I do not write it down, it often does not get done. I sometimes think I can keep enough in my head, but that does not work as well as making a list, making sure to check it often, and crossing off tasks once they are completed. It is so easy for the days, months, and even years to slip away, and for us to not have a good sense of what was accomplished. Let’s change that in September. Now, for some specifics.

We can begin to change out our clothes, putting away the summer clothes that will not be needed for a while. In doing so, we should decide what we did not wear enough to justify keeping, repair what needs to be repaired, and inventory what we need before doing any shopping. It is possible that we already have enough clothes that we do not need to purchase any more. Once we are in stores, however, if we have not inventoried our clothes, we can forget what we have.

Another worthwhile task is to clean out our kitchen cabinets, getting rid of what we do not use, or that we have too much of. I am not a good example of this. I have so many multiples of kitchen items and have a hard time letting go of any. I actually do use a lot of what I have, but not nearly as much as my cabinets house. Bowls are a good example. I have more bowls than I could use if I entertained weekly or even daily, and of course, I don’t do either! I have some bowls that I have never used, yet I have given them prime real estate, and continue to pile more things in the cabinets around them. It is time to purge.

There is also the issue of linen closets. I have bed and bath linens that I never use yet keep stacked in closets. We, all of us, really only need two sets of bed linens per bed and two sets of bath linens per person. Since we have family that lives out of town and comes to visit several times a year, I need to keep more bath linens for those times, but not all that I have. Some of our excess comes from beach property we no longer own, so it is time to let go of those.

A worthwhile task for me is to clean out my attics. I do not know most of what is really stored in them, but it is time to find out. Now, this will be emotional, and harder for me than cleaning out the kitchen cabinets and linen closets. I know there will be items from our children’s early years there in them that I do not want to part with, and that the almost 45 and 47-year-old “children” do not want. Not the Madame Alexander dolls, not the schoolwork papers, not the toys. Some of you have already been through this, and I should have as well. Any words of wisdom that you have for this will be appreciated.

Well, if I do all of this in September, September will not be relaxing at all! I am tired just thinking about it!

How about you? What do you want your September to include? At the end of the month, what would you like to have done? What will success feel like and look like for you?