RISK!

     What is the risk in Risk? It's just a board game. Although some people take winning very seriously, it's just a game that soon after game night is over no one remembers who wins and who loses. Technically it's the same for life, right? But that is a little too deep a subject for this blog. I just want to talk about the strategy I learned from playing the game of Risk. Of course, that was years before it was HALO WARS Risk but things haven't changed much. The Risk of not using the Risk Strategy is to remain in chaos and miss out on the freedom from stress that conquering the clutter in your life at home can bring.

     Instead of conquering the purple continent of Australia in the lower right hand corner on the original Risk board, my new strategy would
choose the red sector in the upper left hand corner on the Halo Wars Risk board. Although both are the smallest on the boards, both have the least amount of units given for occupying them, only 2 units compared to 5 and 7 for the others, but the big advantage is that they both only have one connection to defend. Another advantage because they are small you only have to conquer 4 territories to occupy them and you can sit back and fortify while everyone else continues to spread themselves too thin trying to conquer larger territories. After you build up your forces you ease out and begin conquering and fortifying before your opponents realize what happened. 

   So who needs a strategy if no one is going to remember if you won or lost the game anyway. Okay, I admit it. It is fun to go home the winner. However, the reason I went into great detail about the Risk Strategy is because this strategy is very helpful when we are tackling other challenges, some with much greater risks, in our lives. If you have ever tried to maintain a home that seems to explode and you feel like you've lost control of it, this strategy is for you.  Maybe your in the middle of a home improvement project in one room of your house that has somehow taken over the entire house. It could be you were sick or working overtime and let's just say your helpers aren't as much help as you had hoped. One day you wake up, you can't keep your eyes closed forever, and there before you is a mess too big to humanely tackle in one lifetime. 

    This is where the Risk Strategy comes in to claim the victory. All you have to do is conquer one small continent  with limited access and defend it. It's like your retreat. It's that one room of the house that you have control over and is clean and organized and can give you peace. It's that one room that you tackle because you know it's a small enough space that you can. Once it is done, you can move out and begin working in other areas always retreating when things seem too overwhelming. The 30 Day Home Management Project takes you through one home management area at a time. You can choose the home management area that is causing you the most stress right now and start there. The book is designed to help you conquer one small sector at a time, defend it, and move on to the next. 

    Our new floor project took over the house with dust and excess furniture in every other room of the house. There was an obstacle course to get anywhere in the house. A small path led to the kitchen which was now home to the exercise equipment that blocked the cabinets and made it difficult to put dishes away. The path to the trash compactor was blocked and no one could figure out where the new trash can was. By the end of the project there were piles of mail, papers, and trash everywhere. We lived in the front room with all the family room furniture and two dining room tables. We snuggled together to watch a small television that we brought in from our camper to get us by. So it seems a little sad but the floor project stretched on longer than anticipated and by the time they had pulled the new floor out to redo it again, I was quite overwhelmed with the chaos in the house. 

   I retreated to my bedroom. I made a command decision that this room would no longer store overflow or clutter that had been squeezed out from other rooms no longer able to contain them. So I took all the objects and clutter that had found their way in there to the basement storage. I redid the drapes, bought a new bedspread, and overhauled the bedroom. It was fresh and airy and made for a wonderful retreat from all the chaos that was going on in the rest of the house. From there I branched out with a new found energy I could gain no where else as my home closed in around me. Since I didn't have much to say about the rest of the house until the floors were finally complete, I started working on the basement storage area. I overhauled the basement storage system. When it was finally time to start putting furniture back into the family room with its new floors and reclaim my kitchen space, I was prepared with a great storage system to handle anything excessive that might otherwise clutter the "new" room and I had a wonderful retreat to relax in at the end of a long day of rearranging. On a brighter note, since the family room had to be emptied to put in new floors it started off fresh and organized. By the end of the never-ending floor project I had three rooms chaos free. From there it was only a matter of time and the house started becoming functional again- one room at a time. 

   No matter where you are in your home's functionality and organization, the Risk Strategy can help you. Pick a small area and just get started. Choose a place that is small enough to conquer quickly, a place you can defend easily, and where you can retreat to relax and recharge. Then go there, renew your strength before you set out to tackle another sector. Just like the game of Risk, you can only conquer the world one sector at a time.