Quiet week. Took a couple nights off this week from a busy schedule, and that was nice. Got some projects done around the house, decluttered a bit (*whew*) and finally am trying to do the flylady routines as she presents them – not picking and choosing what I feel like doing. (Nicole is trying this as well…. We can do it!)
Wanting to give it a try, I set my timer for 15 minutes and picked up my “hot spots” (I have six of them: the tabletop near the front door, the kitchen table, two dresser tops, a coffee table, and the top of a bookcase), did a few dishes and shined my sink, chose an outfit for today, and then got ready for bed (teeth, contacts & face) and still had over five minutes left on the timer! So I put my laundry away from two hampers I lugged home from the laundromat and finished just as the timer went off. It was nice to wake up this morning to lots of clean, bare spaces. (Clutter both overwhelms and discourages me.)
Next to try will be 15 minutes per day of decluttering. I have two closets filled with “stuff” (items without a home, items that make me put them back in the basket or box and say “later…I’ll deal with it later” and somehow, later never comes and the stuff grows) and will approach them 15 minutes at a time.
I found a basket (thanks, lynne, for posting on your blog about finding layers of paperwork and not feeling great about it – I can relate!) of papers that dated from January to June of this year. I hadn’t noticed because I was working on tossing things into a basket that held June through October items! Little by little, clutter will leave my apartment. I did go through that January-June basket and recycled 90% of it, had 5% to tuck away in files and 5% to post in an inspiration scrapbook (magazine articles and images that caught my eye).
After the clutter has left the building (woo hoo!), I’ll work on bringing more comfort into the flat – rugs, tablecloths, candles, art on the walls, warmer paint colors, and fresh paint in the foyer the closets. I read in one flylady testimonial about a woman who decided to paint her living room, thought she’d never have time, but then did it in 15 minute increments by painting one wall every night when she got home. The project was completed easily in five nights after work without much fuss or stress.
I’ve been inspired by the French Chic yahoo group and French-inspired publications to complete projects entirely and I’ve been thinking of that completion as packaging up a tidy little box and finishing with a bow….. that bow being the final touch to a project. At work it might be preparing a proposal letter, but it’s not complete until the copy of the letter is placed into the proper binder and my stationery put away. As I do those small tasks to complete the proposal, I smile because it’s like tying a pretty bow on a package.
I’ve also been craving making little kits and parcels for home and for work….. an emergency kit to keep at work or a nail kit to keep at home – or a bill paying kit, a mail kit, a “keep in touch” kit (stationery, pretty stamps, colored pens, envelopes, address book – in a pretty basket). I just want to have little objects that contain items with a purpose.
I also think of the FC group/tidy little containers (versus big storage containers) when I order from starbucks. I could get a supersized venti beverage, but I instead choose the Tall beverage (12 oz.) which is nice and small…or so I thought. Discovered there is a “short” version (8 oz.) which I ordered today and stunned the cashier. “no one has ever ordered this before!” but it was just right – not too much caffeine..and I liked the feeling of drinking a bit of something great than a big, overwhelming fat-free beverage (that seems very American to me).
I’ve been inspired lately on the FC group by Clementine (of the Rusty Coast Portland
That’s a side benefit of eating more fresh foods. It’s better for me to choose whole foods, but the taste is amazing. Beats the years of processed foods I thought were great tasting. Little did I know!
Thanks for letting me process my thoughts here… am not sure what the goal is in this search for tidy packages, whole foods, and an orderly home. Maybe just to have surroundings that are soothing to the soul so that when arriving home from a world out there that can jar your senses – you feel peace.
Perhaps that’s the goal: peace.
