Cooler weather is here! I was finally able to open the windows yesterday and it's glorious. It rained on and off all day yesterday and I relished every second of it. Do you enjoy rainy days as much as I do?
Let's get down to the interesting things I found online this week!
*9 Hard Truths About Clutter You Need to Hear*
I had to scroll back in the blog and make sure I hadn't posted this before. Articles about clutter and mess have been following me around lately and I'm okay with that. They've gotten me to the place where I question everything I buy. "Do I really need this? What I am going to use this for? When am I going to use this? Can I use something that I already have instead?" are all questions I ask now before making a purchase. Other than some shirts for my son for Christmas, I'm struggling to think of anything I've bought in the past few months that hasn't been something I'll eat, use up, or give away. 'Everything you own is something you have to take care of' is something that has truly struck a chord with me, especially since I spend SO much of my time taking care of the belongings of my family (who have not embraced this clutter-free philosophy, unfortunately), and 'Eventually someone will have to decide what to do with every item you own' has been a theme this summer, with my mother and her siblings having to go through my grandmother's things. (Not that I expect anyone here to go through my things; they'll probably just let them sit there forever! You remember what my basement looked like, right? The one full of not-my-stuff that I finally broke down and cleaned because no one else would? Point made).
Anyway, clutter is a problem for me. Are you bothered by it as much as I am?
*This Woman's Viral Thread Notes A Never Discussed Symptom of Depression and Absolutely Everyone Needs to Read This*
Show this to everyone you know.
It was a relief to me to read this. Not to know that others struggle, but to know that I'm not alone in struggling exactly this way. While my depression is in check, my anxiety is not, and this is one of the many ways it manifests. For me, it's phone calls. I'm deeply terrified of making phone calls, especially to official things like insurance companies. I'm fine if someone calls me, but calling other places literally fills me with a dread so encompassing that it can move me to tears, and I can put something off for weeks, freaking out about it enough to cause health problems, but still completely unable to make that call.
Is that rational? No. I know that. But anxiety isn't rational, nor is depression. It's not something I can control, nor is it something I understand how to free myself from. I've found certain methods to cope, but I've never truly found a way to rid myself of it, and it's honestly pretty defeating when those close to me roll their eyes and tell me to just get over it, like trying to listen or understand isn't worth the effort. Huffy sighs and eye rolls won't erase my anxiety; it only serves to make me feel worse about something I have zero control over. And that's not fair.
If someone you love suffers from depression or anxiety, read this article. If you suffer, share it with the people you love. Maybe you'll have better luck than I have at gaining a little understanding.
*How to Unclog an Upright Vacuum Cleaner*
One of my next tasks! We have hardwood floors throughout the house and tile in the basement, but we do have a few area rugs, and the one in the kitchen is getting pretty dusty and gross because earlier this summer, I noticed my upright, bagless vacuum cleaner (which isn't very old and has barely seen any use because again, three area rugs total) was basically just spitting whatever I vacuumed up directly out the back. YUCK. So I dug up this link this week and once I get a chance, I'm going to sit down and try to figure out what's going on. Hopefully this link will help me out!
Have you ever repaired your own vacuum cleaner?
*6 Things About Chronic Pain You Didn't Know You Knew*
All.
Of.
These.
Things.
Pain is exhausting. There are so many days where I reach the end of the day and it just feels like I can't move another inch, my body is so worn out. Sleep? HA! If only it were that easy. Far too often, there's just no comfortable position, and sleeping when you're in pain is like trying to fall asleep with someone constantly poking you and going, "Hey. Pay attention to me. HEY! YOU! PAY ATTENTION!"
Pain makes me crankier than I'd like, shorter than I'd like with my daughter (the exhaustion feeds into that as well). It makes me have to consider if I can tolerate certain activities before committing to them (which makes others cranky with me, as I experienced this past weekend). It makes it hard to concentrate- when you're in pain and trying to focus, it's like trying to watch a math lecture and take notes (because there will be a test!), but there's a radio blaring full-force right behind your ear. I once came home from a biology class with pages full of notes but ZERO understanding of any of the material because I'd been in so much pain throughout the class that I was sweating. (Huge thanks to Khan Academy videos for helping me to understand the Krebs cycle!) And it definitely damages my self-esteem. It's hurtful when loved ones don't get it, when they get irritated with me because of my pain. Do people with more visible medical conditions struggle with this? Do people huff and roll their eyes at cancer patients or people who have seizures? I honestly don't know. It's just exhausting to deal with others' indifference or disdain, an exhaustion I don't need because, well, pain. It's one of the reasons I push myself to get so much done so often, because I feel like NOT getting a ton of things done will just cause people to assume I'm lazy, instead of just being in pain.
If you know someone who struggles with chronic pain, a little understanding goes a long way. "What can I do for you? What do you need me to do?" goes a long way (but only if you actually follow through!). I know it's not always easy or fun to deal with someone who is hurting, but it's so, so appreciated when you make the effort.
Jeez, those were a lot of bummer articles, huh? Sorry about that! I haven't had a ton of time this week online again; physical therapy and my son's schedule break my days up in weird ways, so when I'm actually home, I'm usually racing to get everything done that I need to (and usually having to leave at least a few things out because there's just not enough time). This schedule will continue for a while, so I'm just accepting it as my new normal and carrying on. As one does. :)
Have a fantastic weekend! :)
Showing posts with label decluttering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label decluttering. Show all posts
Friday, September 7, 2018
Thursday, August 23, 2018
Completed: Basement clean-up.
So.
Although this blog is only several months old, this is a post 3.5 years in the making.
I explained a little bit of the backstory of this in my post about cleaning up the laundry room. Basically, when we moved in, the movers dumped all the boxes in our basement. I unpacked like a demon over a number of weeks (since I had a baby who never, ever slept and I was seriously delirious with lack of sleep, it took longer than I would have liked), but I left my husband's boxes down there, because, well, they were his boxes. Some of those boxes had been sitting, crammed full of stuff and untouched, since we got married in 2007. At our last house, they were in the attached garage, so I didn't have to look at them, but here? Here they were in the lower level of our house (it's a split level, and the basement is finished, so it's not a true basement, but it's how we think of it) and I passed by the heap every time I did laundry, scooped the litter box, or searched for a book on our shelves or something in my craft area.
As time went on, the heap of boxes grew messier. Stuff got added to the pile, things shifted around as my husband dug through the boxes for items he was searching for, I pushed things around to make room so I could actually see some of my craft area. And still he left those boxes there. "Even if you just go through one item a DAY," I begged him, to no avail. The mess remained.
And all the while, my anxiety grew. Messes and clutter have started making me very anxious, and beyond that, this area of the house was embarrassing. When we had people over and they caught even a glimpse of what that area looked like, I was mortified. Even when the rest of the house was in perfect order, the shame I felt over that basement was gargantuan. I'd been refusing to clean it, because hey, not my stuff...but as time went on, it became more and more obvious that it just wasn't going to get clean unless I did it, and honestly, my anxiety was so bad over that area that something had to be done.
And since part of the reason I started this blog was to leave no task unfinished, I began getting myself into the mindset of cleaning the basement. I started with smaller projects, worked my way up to the laundry room (whose mess was starting to resemble the basement itself!), and then it was time.
Are you ready?
It's bad.
Here it is.
Although this blog is only several months old, this is a post 3.5 years in the making.
I explained a little bit of the backstory of this in my post about cleaning up the laundry room. Basically, when we moved in, the movers dumped all the boxes in our basement. I unpacked like a demon over a number of weeks (since I had a baby who never, ever slept and I was seriously delirious with lack of sleep, it took longer than I would have liked), but I left my husband's boxes down there, because, well, they were his boxes. Some of those boxes had been sitting, crammed full of stuff and untouched, since we got married in 2007. At our last house, they were in the attached garage, so I didn't have to look at them, but here? Here they were in the lower level of our house (it's a split level, and the basement is finished, so it's not a true basement, but it's how we think of it) and I passed by the heap every time I did laundry, scooped the litter box, or searched for a book on our shelves or something in my craft area.
As time went on, the heap of boxes grew messier. Stuff got added to the pile, things shifted around as my husband dug through the boxes for items he was searching for, I pushed things around to make room so I could actually see some of my craft area. And still he left those boxes there. "Even if you just go through one item a DAY," I begged him, to no avail. The mess remained.
And all the while, my anxiety grew. Messes and clutter have started making me very anxious, and beyond that, this area of the house was embarrassing. When we had people over and they caught even a glimpse of what that area looked like, I was mortified. Even when the rest of the house was in perfect order, the shame I felt over that basement was gargantuan. I'd been refusing to clean it, because hey, not my stuff...but as time went on, it became more and more obvious that it just wasn't going to get clean unless I did it, and honestly, my anxiety was so bad over that area that something had to be done.
And since part of the reason I started this blog was to leave no task unfinished, I began getting myself into the mindset of cleaning the basement. I started with smaller projects, worked my way up to the laundry room (whose mess was starting to resemble the basement itself!), and then it was time.
Are you ready?
It's bad.
Here it is.
It's okay to scream. Really.
That's not even the worst of it, to be honest. It's looked even worse at times. Can you see why this set off my clutter-induced anxiety so badly? It was getting to the point where I literally dreaded going down there, and I was getting tired of being afraid of- and being unable to use!!!!- an entire floor of my house. Another glimpse:
Is this worse? It might be.
This one was actually after I had started doing a little bit of cleaning, moving some stuff around and whatnot. On the right hand side, you can see a corner of the dry bar, basically just a large countertop with some open storage underneath. My son and I have cleared this thing off multiple times over the years we've lived here, and my husband keeps dumping stuff on it (he's, uh, got a messiness problem. Good thing I love him!). I stopped cleaning it off and my son gave up similarly, and the mess grew and grew.
But no.
No more.
I desperately needed to Get It Done.
So I did.
It was a Tuesday when I started. I moved things around at first, making enough space for my daughter to play on the SmartCycle someone gave us (but that we've never hooked up to the TV because we don't want to get her started on video games this early! She has no idea it even hooks up to anything and just enjoys riding it like an exercise bike), and then I started going through boxes. I had a huge pile of recycling, a smaller-but-still-huge pile of garbage, and five hard plastic containers for storage in the crawlspace. And methodically, item by item, I began going through the boxes down there.
The things I found!
Bills (paid at the time, but then stashed and for some godawful reason, PACKED AND MOVED. WE PAID TO TRANSPORT THESE, SOME OF THEM MULTIPLE TIMES. YES, I'M SHOUTING; WOULDN'T YOU???), some of them from before 2010. Empty envelopes from cards and mail received years ago. Paperwork from cars and property that we no longer own. Bits and pieces of tools and things to be used with said tools, decorative items, military gear (my husband got out in the mid 2000's), backpacks with broken zippers, and my favorite item of all:
No phone it here; it was just the box.
WE TOTALLY NEEDED TO STORE THIS FOR YEARS AND THEN MOVE THIS THREE TIMES, RIGHT????? (This wasn't mine; mine was orange.) This box went straight into the recycling pile, and I moved on to the next ridiculous item. All in all, I managed to condense the heap of boxes my husband had been moving from place to place into four and a half plastic storage containers. That was it. Those boxes probably filled up an entire moving pod (which is what we used to move back here from Tennessee), but the keepable contents would've only filled a back corner. Not cleaning and organizing your stuff costs you money, people!!!
So yes, it was an exercise in frustration, and it furthered my resolve of being careful as to what I bring in the house these days. I'm not interested in my time being taken up caring for possessions; I want to spend my time doing and creating and making, not cleaning and dealing with STUFF. I don't ever want to have to do this again. And most of this stuff wasn't mine in the first place, but I'm still glad to be in this mindset so that I don't get trapped by my own personal possessions.
The basement really didn't take as long as I thought it would. Two full days of sorting, organizing, and moving stuff around, and then this happened:
I nearly wept at being able to do this!
This was a huge deal for me to be able to do.
I gave away a huge stack of empty boxes on Freecycle to a lady in my neighborhood who is moving- she was like, "Thank you!" and I was like, "No, thank YOU!!!!" I loaded up the car twice with enormous piles of stuff and dropped them off at the thrift store (and I still have at least one more, smaller donation pile). I gave my mom a few things. I organized my bookshelf, which had become a victim of my anxiety where I would just dump stuff on it and run out of the terrible basement, and I organized my craft area, which I'd been ignoring for ages, since I didn't feel like I could use it effectively with all the clutter down there. I organized, pitched, cleaned, decluttered. I. Was. Brutal.
Are you ready?
The difference is huge.
Check this out.
TA DA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It's GLORIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you even? Because I seriously cannot.
Even seeing that picture makes me heave an enormous, satisfied sigh of relief. The amount of times I've gone downstairs this past week, solely to admire the clear, empty space, numbers in the I'm-not-sure-I-can-count-that-high. The last time the basement looked this clean was when we were touring this house when we were looking for a place (the lady that owned it previously had passed away, so the house was empty), so this is an ENORMOUS deal. Everyone I've shown this picture to that knows us and has been to our house has had a reaction like, "OH MY GOD!!!!"
Yeah.
It's that good.
So I'm feeling pretty good about my ability to get at least SOME things done these days. A lot of this summer has been dedicated to getting the house in a more workable condition, and I'm feeeling a lot of relief about the results. I have a few more projects to do- I want to pull the stove out and scrub it down; I want to scrub down my appliances that sit out (my Instant Pot, my rice cooker) and clean off all the dust and yuck that have collected on the sides; I need to clean the two closets in my upstairs hallway (waiting on my husband to put up the missing wall in the shower to do that; it's been down for, uh, six weeks or so now, and the parts of the wall that need to go back up are lying in the hallway. He works long hours and so his time to work on home improvement projects is limited, so we all just live in an ongoing home improvement project, basically).
One box, one item, one old piece of paper at a time, I got the job done.
And I'm feeling pretty proud about it. :)
Have you ever done a major clean-up like this? I'd love to hear your story about it.
Tuesday, August 7, 2018
Completed: Laundry Room Cleanup
Do you have one of those areas in the house that, over time, turned into a dumping ground? One of those areas that the job is SO big, you weren't even sure where to start and so you've been avoiding it?
That's our downstairs.
So.
Story time.
When my daughter was born, she didn't sleep.
Ever.
You go into parenthood expecting some level of sleep deprivation. You expect to yawn, to be bleary-eyed, to maybe hit up whatever caffeinated beverage gets you through the day a little harder than normal. This was what life was like with my son. I was at the level of tiredness where everything was funny when he was young. Not a huge deal.
But my daughter never slept. And when she slept, she woke up constantly, and since my body was her food source, I was awake constantly, too. It wasn't abnormal for her to wake up six times between 11 pm and 6 am, and that was my life for 18 months. 18 months of getting, at most, 3-4 broken-up hours of sleep per day. (And forget naps; she rarely napped decently either, and I was too keyed up to fall asleep, not that it would have mattered, because her naps were 45 minutes tops until she got much older.)
So instead of yawning with bleary eyes, I sobbed uncontrollably, would think something and then have ZERO clue what I had just thought (there were times when I would think, 'Oh, I should get that out of the kitchen,' stand up, and then have NO clue why I was standing up), had joint pain and random aches for no reason, forgot where I was going when I was driving. I wish I were exaggerating; with that last one, my son, who was then 13 years old, had to remind me that I was taking him to school.
Oops.
There's a reason sleep deprivation is used for torture; it does terribly things to your physical and mental health. My daughter is four years old now and sleeps pretty well, but I still feel like my brain is recovering from all that time it spent without restorative sleep.
Anyway.
I struggled pretty badly through that time. I did my best to take care of what needed to be taken care of, but I failed pretty badly at a lot of things, no surprise there. Our basement was where the majority of the boxes were stored from our move (we moved back to our home state when my daughter was 8 months. NOT. EASY), and my husband's boxes, which are full of junk from college and also contain things like Comcast bills (paid, of course) from 2008, are still there. It's a dumping ground, one that I'm planning on tackling next, but the dumping ground had started to bleed over into the laundry room and I hadn't yet found the energy or the fortitude to tackle it. So it got worse and worse and worse, until suddenly, I couldn't take it anymore.
Are you ready?
Seriously. Steady yourselves.
Here's the laundry room.
Are you ready?
That's our downstairs.
So.
Story time.
When my daughter was born, she didn't sleep.
Ever.
You go into parenthood expecting some level of sleep deprivation. You expect to yawn, to be bleary-eyed, to maybe hit up whatever caffeinated beverage gets you through the day a little harder than normal. This was what life was like with my son. I was at the level of tiredness where everything was funny when he was young. Not a huge deal.
But my daughter never slept. And when she slept, she woke up constantly, and since my body was her food source, I was awake constantly, too. It wasn't abnormal for her to wake up six times between 11 pm and 6 am, and that was my life for 18 months. 18 months of getting, at most, 3-4 broken-up hours of sleep per day. (And forget naps; she rarely napped decently either, and I was too keyed up to fall asleep, not that it would have mattered, because her naps were 45 minutes tops until she got much older.)
So instead of yawning with bleary eyes, I sobbed uncontrollably, would think something and then have ZERO clue what I had just thought (there were times when I would think, 'Oh, I should get that out of the kitchen,' stand up, and then have NO clue why I was standing up), had joint pain and random aches for no reason, forgot where I was going when I was driving. I wish I were exaggerating; with that last one, my son, who was then 13 years old, had to remind me that I was taking him to school.
Oops.
There's a reason sleep deprivation is used for torture; it does terribly things to your physical and mental health. My daughter is four years old now and sleeps pretty well, but I still feel like my brain is recovering from all that time it spent without restorative sleep.
Anyway.
I struggled pretty badly through that time. I did my best to take care of what needed to be taken care of, but I failed pretty badly at a lot of things, no surprise there. Our basement was where the majority of the boxes were stored from our move (we moved back to our home state when my daughter was 8 months. NOT. EASY), and my husband's boxes, which are full of junk from college and also contain things like Comcast bills (paid, of course) from 2008, are still there. It's a dumping ground, one that I'm planning on tackling next, but the dumping ground had started to bleed over into the laundry room and I hadn't yet found the energy or the fortitude to tackle it. So it got worse and worse and worse, until suddenly, I couldn't take it anymore.
Are you ready?
Seriously. Steady yourselves.
Here's the laundry room.
*infinite screaming*
That's AFTER I started the cleanup process, as evidenced by the pile of stuff on top of the washer. But the stuff scattered on the floor, that was just...there. The bin of what looks like rolled-up wrapping paper was actually a small trash can full of roller shades (none of which fit any windows in the house) that was there when we moved in (as were the old disgusting mop and the other things leaning by the wall. Yuck). That's the thing about not sleeping- you don't even THINK of easy solutions, like, "Hey, I could throw that out." Never even occurred to me during that time, not even once. It's almost embarrassing to admit that.
But part of starting this blog was to hold myself accountable for all the things I both want and need to do, and this was definitely on my list of absolutely need to do, so I began slowly tackling the room. I started on a set of shelves left here by the previous owner (an older lady who had passed away). I weeded out a bunch of things she had left behind, then reorganized my own belongings and called it a day. The next time I organized, I worked on that large set of shelves you see on the right hand side of the picture, then moved to the space between that and the washer. And so on and so forth. Yesterday, I tackled the dryer, which is across from the washer, and the area to the right of it. And last night, I decided that the job needed to be over and done with, and I tackled the final box down there and swept the entire room.
Are you ready?
It's so much better.
Here we go.
Isn't it lovely? Isn't it woooooooooooonderful???
The amount of relief that picture gives me is enormous. Clutter triggers my anxiety in a bad, bad way, and I keep going downstairs to examine the gorgeous fruits of my labor. Let's look at some more organizational and cleaning fantasticness, shall we?
The area to the right of the washer had been FULL of boxes, clothes, and junk. FIRE HAZARD.
A view from the other direction.
So clean. So clutter free.
This took a LOT of work and a LOT of effort. My back is pretty toasted today; my hips hurt, my pelvis aches, and I was having trouble walking up the stairs last night after finishing all of this. It's going to be like that when I do the tough jobs; that's unfortunately just how my body works these days, and while it does indeed stink, I'm used to it and know to expect it. But the payoff here is really great; I get the satisfaction of both a clean, clutter-free laundry room, I get space to set up my drying racks for the winter so I don't have to use up so much electricity running the dryer, and I get the immense satisfaction of knowing that I completed a project that desperately needed completing.
I bought a small shelf from Menards today; that will go around where the bottles of water are in that last picture. It'll hold my daughter's paints, which are currently languishing where my husband left them, on the super cluttered bar in the basement. I'm sure I'll find other things to be stored on there as well, because up next...
The basement!
Wish me luck, because that place is seriously Nightmare on Elm Street-levels horrifying.
Do you have any major projects that you're tackling?
Friday, August 3, 2018
Friday Thoughts 8/3/2018
Happy Friday! This week has gone by so quickly. Maybe it's because summer is speeding to a close and all the Back-to-School mayhem is in full swing. We've got less than two weeks before my son heads back, but I have friends whose kids have already returned. That was the norm when we lived in Tennessee, but I always thought that was crazy early. Anyway, let's get down to...Friday Thoughts!
*Don't Be Afraid of Robert Munsch's Love You Forever*
Everyone knows Love You Forever, right? The sweet children's book that starts out with the mom rocking her new baby and singing, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be." I first read this when I was twelve and my librarian/teacher grandmother owned a copy. I sat on the floor in front of her bookshelf, turning the pages, and by the end, I had tears streaming down my face. When my son was born, I couldn't even read it to him, the book hit me so hard. My husband, who prides himself on not getting emotional over anything, got halfway through the book and refused to finish, and my teenage son was like, "Why did you make me read that???" after I'd pushed it on him.
This book punches people in the gut. It's the perfect illustration of not only the deep and abiding love a parent feels for a child, but also how deeply young children need their parents. I've seen far too many people write the book off as 'creepy.' 'Why is that mom climbing into her adult son's window and rocking him?' they cry. 'That's just messed up!' But those people are looking at it the wrong way. If you look at it from the perspective of a five year old snuggled up next to their parent, reading this book, they don't see a creepy mom who can't let go. What they hear is the message that even when they're big and grown up (and the idea of being big and grown up is kind of scary!), Mom (or Dad or whoever is raising them) will still love them just as much as she does right now. It's comforting. It's reassuring. It's a promise of security and stability, of support and lifelong unconditional love. It's what every child deserves to hear, and Robert Munsch has framed in perfectly and beautifully.
I'm never going to be able to read this book without crying- heck, I'm tearing up right now. I won't ever flip the page like the author of this article has, and I'm okay with that. :)
*How Decluttering Saves Me Money, Time, and Stress*
This blog post is exactly where I'm at right now. A lot of my time lately has been going to my summer project of organizing, deep cleaning, and weeding out clutter that I don't need. "The more I own, the more I have to clean, the more I have to store, and the more I’m responsible for," Elizabeth Thames writes, and I've come to understand that. The things we own, own us. If we bring an item into the house, we're responsible for maintaining it, for caring for it, for figuring out where it goes and how/when we'll use it, how/when we'll clean it. I've begun to consider deeply before bringing anything permanent into my house (things that will be used up, like food or toiletries, fall in a different category for me). Do I want to be responsible for that item? Do I want to try to find a place to cram it into, in my already-hurting-for-storage home? (Spoiler alert: I usually don't.) For the most part, I have everything I need. There are a few things I would like, things that I've thought about for a while and decided that it would be worth it, but they're not going to make or break me. I really am content with what I have.
If you've read the blog post, you've seen the picture of what the Frugalwoods' basement looked like, pre-decluttering and organizing. That's a close approximation of what my basement looks like, no joke. Mine might be worse. My husband has 4382947329843 boxes from when we moved in, and that's where they were all abandoned and forgotten. Sadly, my laundry room, which is also located in the basement, isn't much better. That room is my next project; I'll be tackling it slowly because it's kind of overwhelming, and then I'm going to move on to the basement. That room might involve buying things like Rubbermaid containers for storage; our crawlspace gets a little moisture in it sometimes and it's safer to store things NOT in cardboard boxes (ask me how I know). So we'll see. It feels SO much better to be decluttered and organized, and I'm smack in the middle of it right now, to the point where other projects are kind of getting pushed to the side. I'm okay with that- who knows when this organization bug will bite again? Might as well run with it. :)
Have you read Meet the Frugalwoods by Elizabeth Willard Thames? I adore her blog. I just finished her book this week and it's great. Full of frugal inspiration and long-term planning and the big payoffs that come with each, and I enjoyed every page of it. Highly recommended!
*Trying to Keep Up With the Kardashians? Here's How to Stop Money Envy*
I don't know that I've ever suffered from money envy, per se. I do see pictures of well-organized homes where everything is coordinated and things are perfectly placed and everything seems so calm and orderly, and I envy that (and am trying to emulate at least the sense of calm and organization in my own home), and when I was younger and money was tight, I distinctly remember lamenting to friends that I didn't want anything super fancy but I just wished we could go into the grocery store and buy a few frivolous things, like cookies and orange juice. Those were luxuries that were unaffordable to us, things we usually had around the house when I was younger, and at the time, it felt like deprivation to not have them.
It took a while, a lot of growth and learning, self-examination and studying of others, but I don't feel deprived of anything these days. While we can afford orange juice, it's not something I normally buy because I don't feel like we need the extra sugar. And cookies? Meh. I can make my own, and they're far superior in taste and ingredients than what I could buy at the store. I've learned to appreciate the process of baking, the way it makes my house smell sweet and feel warm and cozy, and the feeling that I've accomplished something when I pull a tray of something homemade out of the oven. It's a little luxury, one I'm grateful for, and I'm now trying to cultivate that mindset of gratitude in my daughter. She definitely has toy envy; it's hard passing by toys at stores or yard sales because she's immediately thrown into a deep abyss of "That dollhouse is a different color than mine and thus it's SO MUCH BETTER and I WANT IT!" We had a long talk the other night, and I'm very focused on helping her learn to appreciate the things she has and not focusing on what she doesn't. It's a lesson much better learned earlier in life, so I'm hoping I'll get there with her. :)
*Bringing Afternoon Tea*
How gorgeous is this post??? Such lovely baking, and the message is something I need to get better at. I usually have all the ingredients to whip up quite a few things at any given moment, but often I'm too busy or exhausted, especially during the school year when I'm running in twenty different directions after my two very different kids! It's something I'm working on. :)
*Tsundoku: The Practice of Buying More Books Than You Can Read*
Eek! This is something that every reader I know struggles with, and I'm no different, but now that I'm aware of it, I'm actively working to prevent this. While I'm focused on emptying out my Goodreads To Read list right now, I'm reading my own books while I wait for my interlibrary loans, and when my To Read list is down to books I'll have to buy (some of them just aren't available through my library system), I'm going to focus on reading what I own (and then weeding those books out). All these books on my shelves aren't doing me any good if I'm not reading them, and they're taking up space that could be used for other storage or just clear, calm empty space.
'I will allow myself to engage in some tsundoku – besides, it's not actually a waste because of course, I'm going to get to that teetering stack of books someday, really!' the author says. I don't necessarily like that. No more somedays for me: I'm a woman with a plan. If it's not something I'm going to actively use, I no longer want to bring it into my life. I ADORE books, but I want to be the kind of person who reads- and benefits from- the books she owns, not the kind of person who lives among the stacks but never touches them.
So that was what was on my mind this week (which has been a little bit of an odd week around here, but I'll get to that on Monday). What have you been contemplating?
*post contains affiliate links
*Don't Be Afraid of Robert Munsch's Love You Forever*
Everyone knows Love You Forever, right? The sweet children's book that starts out with the mom rocking her new baby and singing, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be." I first read this when I was twelve and my librarian/teacher grandmother owned a copy. I sat on the floor in front of her bookshelf, turning the pages, and by the end, I had tears streaming down my face. When my son was born, I couldn't even read it to him, the book hit me so hard. My husband, who prides himself on not getting emotional over anything, got halfway through the book and refused to finish, and my teenage son was like, "Why did you make me read that???" after I'd pushed it on him.
This book punches people in the gut. It's the perfect illustration of not only the deep and abiding love a parent feels for a child, but also how deeply young children need their parents. I've seen far too many people write the book off as 'creepy.' 'Why is that mom climbing into her adult son's window and rocking him?' they cry. 'That's just messed up!' But those people are looking at it the wrong way. If you look at it from the perspective of a five year old snuggled up next to their parent, reading this book, they don't see a creepy mom who can't let go. What they hear is the message that even when they're big and grown up (and the idea of being big and grown up is kind of scary!), Mom (or Dad or whoever is raising them) will still love them just as much as she does right now. It's comforting. It's reassuring. It's a promise of security and stability, of support and lifelong unconditional love. It's what every child deserves to hear, and Robert Munsch has framed in perfectly and beautifully.
I'm never going to be able to read this book without crying- heck, I'm tearing up right now. I won't ever flip the page like the author of this article has, and I'm okay with that. :)
*How Decluttering Saves Me Money, Time, and Stress*
This blog post is exactly where I'm at right now. A lot of my time lately has been going to my summer project of organizing, deep cleaning, and weeding out clutter that I don't need. "The more I own, the more I have to clean, the more I have to store, and the more I’m responsible for," Elizabeth Thames writes, and I've come to understand that. The things we own, own us. If we bring an item into the house, we're responsible for maintaining it, for caring for it, for figuring out where it goes and how/when we'll use it, how/when we'll clean it. I've begun to consider deeply before bringing anything permanent into my house (things that will be used up, like food or toiletries, fall in a different category for me). Do I want to be responsible for that item? Do I want to try to find a place to cram it into, in my already-hurting-for-storage home? (Spoiler alert: I usually don't.) For the most part, I have everything I need. There are a few things I would like, things that I've thought about for a while and decided that it would be worth it, but they're not going to make or break me. I really am content with what I have.
If you've read the blog post, you've seen the picture of what the Frugalwoods' basement looked like, pre-decluttering and organizing. That's a close approximation of what my basement looks like, no joke. Mine might be worse. My husband has 4382947329843 boxes from when we moved in, and that's where they were all abandoned and forgotten. Sadly, my laundry room, which is also located in the basement, isn't much better. That room is my next project; I'll be tackling it slowly because it's kind of overwhelming, and then I'm going to move on to the basement. That room might involve buying things like Rubbermaid containers for storage; our crawlspace gets a little moisture in it sometimes and it's safer to store things NOT in cardboard boxes (ask me how I know). So we'll see. It feels SO much better to be decluttered and organized, and I'm smack in the middle of it right now, to the point where other projects are kind of getting pushed to the side. I'm okay with that- who knows when this organization bug will bite again? Might as well run with it. :)
Have you read Meet the Frugalwoods by Elizabeth Willard Thames? I adore her blog. I just finished her book this week and it's great. Full of frugal inspiration and long-term planning and the big payoffs that come with each, and I enjoyed every page of it. Highly recommended!
*Trying to Keep Up With the Kardashians? Here's How to Stop Money Envy*
I don't know that I've ever suffered from money envy, per se. I do see pictures of well-organized homes where everything is coordinated and things are perfectly placed and everything seems so calm and orderly, and I envy that (and am trying to emulate at least the sense of calm and organization in my own home), and when I was younger and money was tight, I distinctly remember lamenting to friends that I didn't want anything super fancy but I just wished we could go into the grocery store and buy a few frivolous things, like cookies and orange juice. Those were luxuries that were unaffordable to us, things we usually had around the house when I was younger, and at the time, it felt like deprivation to not have them.
It took a while, a lot of growth and learning, self-examination and studying of others, but I don't feel deprived of anything these days. While we can afford orange juice, it's not something I normally buy because I don't feel like we need the extra sugar. And cookies? Meh. I can make my own, and they're far superior in taste and ingredients than what I could buy at the store. I've learned to appreciate the process of baking, the way it makes my house smell sweet and feel warm and cozy, and the feeling that I've accomplished something when I pull a tray of something homemade out of the oven. It's a little luxury, one I'm grateful for, and I'm now trying to cultivate that mindset of gratitude in my daughter. She definitely has toy envy; it's hard passing by toys at stores or yard sales because she's immediately thrown into a deep abyss of "That dollhouse is a different color than mine and thus it's SO MUCH BETTER and I WANT IT!" We had a long talk the other night, and I'm very focused on helping her learn to appreciate the things she has and not focusing on what she doesn't. It's a lesson much better learned earlier in life, so I'm hoping I'll get there with her. :)
*Bringing Afternoon Tea*
How gorgeous is this post??? Such lovely baking, and the message is something I need to get better at. I usually have all the ingredients to whip up quite a few things at any given moment, but often I'm too busy or exhausted, especially during the school year when I'm running in twenty different directions after my two very different kids! It's something I'm working on. :)
*Tsundoku: The Practice of Buying More Books Than You Can Read*
Eek! This is something that every reader I know struggles with, and I'm no different, but now that I'm aware of it, I'm actively working to prevent this. While I'm focused on emptying out my Goodreads To Read list right now, I'm reading my own books while I wait for my interlibrary loans, and when my To Read list is down to books I'll have to buy (some of them just aren't available through my library system), I'm going to focus on reading what I own (and then weeding those books out). All these books on my shelves aren't doing me any good if I'm not reading them, and they're taking up space that could be used for other storage or just clear, calm empty space.
'I will allow myself to engage in some tsundoku – besides, it's not actually a waste because of course, I'm going to get to that teetering stack of books someday, really!' the author says. I don't necessarily like that. No more somedays for me: I'm a woman with a plan. If it's not something I'm going to actively use, I no longer want to bring it into my life. I ADORE books, but I want to be the kind of person who reads- and benefits from- the books she owns, not the kind of person who lives among the stacks but never touches them.
So that was what was on my mind this week (which has been a little bit of an odd week around here, but I'll get to that on Monday). What have you been contemplating?
*post contains affiliate links
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