I’m taking a break right now from researching some genealogy to make a quick post. I got my DNA results back from Ancestry which is why I am researching. I plan on making a separate post for that this week.
This weekend the weather was glorious. So beautiful and spring-like I could almost believe that winter was over but since it is still only February I know that we are still in for cold and snow. It was nice to only have to wear a sweater out though and leave the windows open. I love spring and wish that it lasted longer. Its seems to go from cold to hot rather quickly without much in between so I am thankful for these nice couple of days. I even enjoy the mud and slush from the rapid melting even though I had to play hopscotch over the puddles.
Tom’s at Value Village right now (Sunday morning) , and he always sends texts of things he finds on his solo shopping trips to see if he should get it. He just sent me a picture of an amazing pair of red Puma’s and I was so excited, but they ended up being too big for me when you convert from men to women’s sizes 🙁 Now I’m super bummed and want to search online for a pair of Puma’s in that colour, even though they won’t be the $5 they were at VV.
Something that I am looking forward to as winter starts to wrap up and summer gear floods the stores is a new pair of sandals. I have no idea what style I am looking for this year (I think it’s been 3 years since I bought a new pair) so I am excited to see what styles are out there. I usually only have one pair of sandals that I wear through the summer since I also wear my Vans slip-ons a lot and/or sneakers and flats. One or two pairs is all I need. I can’t imagine having so many shoes that I needed to dedicate an entire closet to them. I’d have no place to put them, and I’d rather save the money for a vacation anyway 😉
I’m going to premise this by saying that this is a generalization. This in no way applies to everyone, but I found it was relevant to my personal experience which is why I am talking about it. This totally makes it seem like a big deal topic buts it not, it’s just about clutter 😉
I was sitting around my condo yesterday trying to clean and organize it but it felt like no matter how much I seemed to do there was no progress being made because there was just so much stuff. It made me think of something I read recently about how there is a correlation between lower-income people (or people who have experienced substantial periods of being low income) tending to be more “hoarders” than people who grew up well off. People who have lived their lives comfortable without any financial worries are able to embrace and instil very minimalistic living space with a lot less effort or personal conflict. They say this is because if you don’t have much you tend to hold on to things. You hold on to stacks of old books, linens, dishes, have emergency food supplies just in case money gets low, keep broken things because you can “repair” them (even though we all know how often you actually repair something when you say you will). It’s harder to let things go because this is the sum of your wealth, your assets. The physical evidence of where your money has gone. It is hard to part from them because of the sacrifices you made to buy them. The sense of accomplishment or success you might have felt after saving for them. They were goals, aspirations, and achievements and the thought of getting rid of something with such emotional ties when you are used to instability is frightening.
This kind of resonated with me. I truly believe that growing up lower-income and really struggling financially for the first 10 years of our marriage makes it hard for us to get rid of things. I am constantly overwhelmed by the amount of stuff that we have sitting around and would love to just load up a truck to get rid of it all (or move and bring nothing so we can start over) out it’s easier said than done. When it comes down to it I find myself second guessing my choices. Refolding and placing back on a shelf the items that I so easily tossed into our donation bag we keep by the door just a few days earlier. Things that have worn out their usefulness are now just hanging around adding to the clutter in case the find another use. I have caught Tom more than once buying things for the girls because he can and not because they need it and I think it’s because there were so many times we had to say no because we couldn’t afford it. There has been only one area in my life that I have successfully been able to pare down and that has been with my wardrobe. Even that took a long time and many separate culls because I still had/have difficulty letting things go. Everything else is a constant work in progress. I can go open a drawer in any room of the house and find things that can easily be tossed and no one would be the wiser but I find myself just slowly shutting the drawer because “you never know”.
I have read several books on decluttering and cleaning and they all make sense. I just find myself having difficulty applying them to my life. I visit the unf*ck your habitat website often, have their app (which is called Unfilth Your Habitat. I guess the F word isn’t as marketable) and they have book now.
Here is the book description from their page:
Unf*ck Your Habitat: You’re Better than Your Mess is the housekeeping and organizational system developed for those of us who’d describe our current living situation as a “f*cking mess” that we’re desperate to fix. Unf*ck Your Habitat is for anyone who has been left behind by traditional aspirational systems: The ones that ignore single people with full-time jobs; people without kids but living with roommates; and people with mental illnesses or physical limitations, among many others. Most organizational books are aimed at traditional homemakers, DIYers, and people who seem to have unimaginable amounts of free time. They assume we all iron our sheets, have linen napkins to match our table runners, and can keep plants alive for longer than a week. Basically, they ignore most of us living here in the real world.
Now that sounds right up my alley. In fact I am ordering the Kindle edition right now. No need to add more book clutter 😉
*There really wasn’t much point to this post than me realizing that our struggles with clutter might be directly linked to our past financial struggles and I had a light bulb moment. Now that I made the connection I am consciously trying to work through those issues.
Another week down and it felt like it passed and was very unproductive. My firsty first illness in a while took me down hard and things seemed to fall to the wayside this week. Today I have no voice which I guess the kids are rejoicing in but it’s frustrating not being able to talk loud if need be. I have two massive piles of laundry on either side of me right now waiting to be folded. I hate folding laundry although I would rather do that than clean a bathroom (anyone want trade?). I don’t even want to get in to the rest of the place. It’s amazing how quick things go downhill when you aren’t consistently maintaining them. And to top it off I can’t take a lot of medicines because of weird reactions/side effects like hyperactivity at night, but drowsiness during the day, jumpy legs, and just overall sketchiness, so I have to take children’s cough medicine to lessen the effects even though it is much less potent. Here’s to a healthier week.
My package from Mango arrived late last week and I am really happy with all the pieces. The cropped jeans are actually cropped on my 5’3″ frame without needing any other shortening (the aren’t as cropped looking as they are on the model but they don’t look like I am trying on kids pants). There is zero snow on the ground at the moment which is so unusual for us but I have taken advantage of that and wearing a lot of seasonally inappropriate clothes as my rebellion against winter 😉 I’m sure it’s going to come back and hit us full force in no time but I am enjoying it while I can. Currently it is windy and raining and is more reminiscent of October weather than January.
I’m on a British drama show kick at the moment. Do you have any good ones that can recommend?
When it’s Sunday night and your husband has been away working on site all week. You glance around with your outsider eyes and notice how bad the kids have kicked the shit out of the apartment. The apartment that you let slide because it is/was the last few days of Christmas vacation and you really didn’t feel like constantly cleaning while on holidays. With him due home any time you cringe, maybe weave some swear words together, then rally the troops (ie. the kids) who may or may not be very helpful. They have the tendency to start strong and then fizzle out to nothing when they get side tracked with missing toys, or are suddenly starving and perishing of thirst. Cleaning brings out the drama in everyone.
So I just cleaned the shit out of the place and now have to prep for school tomorrow. The girls are going to be pissed but I am amping up the work load since Roo is getting so close to high school age (I can’t believe it) shit is starting to get serious. I found 14 pencils when I vacuumed out the couch so we are off to a good start 😉
You know how you get sucked down holes when you are looking online? Like, you start searching something and then end up in a completely different universe? That happens to me on Wikipedia a lot, but today I started looking up slider recipes because I remember seeing one of those Facebook cooking videos that was “Sliders 4 Ways” which I neglected to save and couldn’t find, and somehow I ended up discovering a really cool fashion book. It is called The Fashion Sketchbook by Atsuko Kikuchi, and is written in Japanese. I kind of want it in the original language, but I found a French Version. It’s called Mon Fashion Sketchbook which will be easier for me too muddle through since I am studying French (no matter if I still suck). The writer/artist is on Instagram under the name oookickooo where she posts pages/art from the book. I jet spent a hour scrolling though and clicking on everything. I searched all over online trying to find a copy with a decent price and shipping which I found at bookdepository.com for $19 (Canadian) and free worldwide shipping. I buy from there a lot and I recommend them.
Side Note: My Ancestry DNA sample arrived at the lab so my mailing worries were for naught. Now to wait 6-8 weeks for my results 🙁
When I was young I thought at this age I would have it all figured out. I would have my shit together, confidence, and a mental maturity that seems like the epitome of grown up. What no adult tells you is that while physically you age, mentally you will still retain that 18-year-old self to an extent. While I may not give as many fucks anymore, I still hate making doctors appointments, ordering pizza, and entertaining(my small talk skills suck). They make me nervous and I literally have to write down what I am going to say so I don’t mess it up. For 2017 I want to try to get out of my comfort zone a bit. Maybe join a class, or a book club. I’d really like to take some college classes as well. We shall see.
While I am still learning French, it’s not as much or as focused as I would like so I want to change that. I also want to throw another language in to the mix. I’m thinking either Dutch, Swedish, or Danish. Rosetta Stone keeps sending holiday sale emails and it’s really hard not to order one. When it comes down to it there are so many other affordable or free programs that work just as well if not better but Rosetta Stone has a “fun” factor. Damn that user-friendly and fun interface 😉
My last area I would like to work on is my health and wellness. I need to smarten up and realize that I have reached an age where I have to seriously start taking care of myself. Self neglect is a bad habit to break and I have to try to find a workout regime that actually works for me. Any suggestion for someone who has to workout from home?
Do you have any goals or resolutions for this year?
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