LOUNGE WEAR

I have always been a fan of lounge wear. You might have noticed that a lot of "get-organized-people" condemn it. At least for everyday wear. They also propose that you get nice lounge wear and not just use up clothing that you can't wear in public anymore.

I understood and yet I did not understand that concept. Personally I am far more perceptible to the color I am wearing than to the actual item I thought. I gave it a try and I hate to admit that came to the conclusion these people might be on to something. 

Being a true hoarder I decide to wear my current lounge wear until it falls apart or until I am too skinny to wear it and then get new stuff.

I was chatting with my friend, for once wearing decent things, a pair of jeans and my favorite t-shirt, when Holly brought up that once again she noticed that she doesn't get much done in lounge wear, That her outfit felt more like pyjamas and that she had been wasting away her morning. Her conclusion was that if she wanted to get anything done that day she better get dressed.

15 min later I found myself in the bedroom with a bag. I put all my clothes on the bed (tiny pile, I have no clothes) and only put things back into the wardrobe that I wear on the street or to sleep (reduced those to 2 sets). I have 2 sets of yoga pants for sports and that is it now. It was just a small bag, yet I hope, that it will make a big difference in my life! 

BUT I HAVE MORE

My sister once told me that in a sentence that is split by a "BUT", according to research the part before the but is usually a lie. Like:"I am sorry we are late, but we missed the bus."Actually I am not sorry at all it was not important enough for me to leave on time. At first I didn't believe her. I felt the "BUT" had every right to be there. I started watching myself and realized that most of the time the part in front of the "BUT" usually was either just a polite phrase, or something to cushion the blow that was to follow:"I love her dearly BUT she can be a royal pain in the rear!"

I also used to say:"I want to donate these clothe, BUT I have more." I claimed that I couldn't donate anything unless I got it all there in one place to be donated. Tomorrow is another curb pick up for clothes and shoes. I know I have one more pair of shoes I want to donate. Unfortunately I am not sure where the second one is and I am too tired to search for it. Yes, I am sure I have more clothes to donate. This is all I have selected so far and the tiny bag with about 10 items will have to do for today.

I am glad there is no more "BUT". It never got me anywhere.

A NEAT STACK

How do you like that? I AM A ROCKSTAR! I am not sure how I ended up with 22 empty boxes. I had 4 full ones left. Maybe I just can't count. You count them! I did have one left over from box #2 but, hey who cares!

I can't tell you just how great this feels! I got rid of so much! I did keep my wedding dress. So what. I am still happily married to the guy I took it to the alter with so I have EVERY RIGHT IN THE WORLD to keep it.

I let go of so much stuff. A lot was easy. I really have made progress. My thinking patterns are changing . Slowly but steadily. I gave up a few things that I would have rather kept. But now as I am typing this. I can't even remember what they were.

James say the attic looks so much better already. I still don't dare to venture up their. I am scared it might ruin it all as I know it can'T be that much better upstairs. 

THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA

The great wall of China might have been a more fitting title for yesterday's post. Or better yet. Katja's wailing wall. Well. Fear not. I conquered. At least mostly. I made it through 16 boxes that night in a little more than 1 hour. Yes. I really did well. I was also very smart. I have learned from past mistake. Instead of sorting into heaps, things went into labeled bags right away. The second a bag was full it was tied up and piled up by the front door, or in the basement. Depending of where it was supposed to got. So when I quite because it was time to go to bed, I didn't have much of a mess left. More boxes to go through, yes, but no mess. I am afraid those last few boxes might take em a while. 

BOX #3

I am crazy. But you knew that. This is what it looks like when I get too excited about a project. As James is off playing basketball Monday nights and I wanted to sort clothes I decided he should bring more than one box. Bring down all the boxes with clothes in them I said. Oh well. I was about to send him back with the box of sheets but then remembered that someone asked for bedding. So it all came down. As long as there was fabric in it, it was allowed to come down. The boys had to help bring them downstairs. I had a sinking feeling that grew worse with every box that came down from the attic. Don't bother counting them, I already counted them for you. 22. Yes. Twenty-two boxes. As you can tell, not all of them are completely full. But hey. Spell crazy. K-A-T-J-A. Good job! Wish me luck. 

DEAR RACHEL!

2 years ago you taught me how important it is to "make time for action".  I can't stress this enough. It seems to be one of the key elements of succeeding with decluttering. Over the last couple of weeks I got bags of clothing together that I wanted to pass on to different people "someday". Well guess what. "Someday" just like "tomorrow" never comes. In the end I had a pile of bags in the hall that were constantly in the way and I was too tired to pick them apart. Especially cause picking  them apart resulted in taking things out again.
I decided that I will just forget about getting them to their "proper destination" as one person moved, and the other is really picky about what she wants anyway. They will all go in the donation box at the end of the street.
Next problem was that I refuse to drive such a short distance, but that I can't really take them all at once.

Solution: Bring a bag every time I go for school pick up or drop off!

Thanks to you I know I need to make time for action!

ON MY OWN

Once again I am on my own. James is on a 12 day business trip to China. I can't believe I said it would be just fine if he went. Truth be said "Oh sure. Go ahead," was meant to have a sarcastic twinge, but that doesn't carry too well via email. Things started of well. 20 of the 272 hours are over already. It might not be obvious to outsiders, but I can tell my stress levels are up.

Living up to my word to take the clothes to the donation box only happened, because I put them in the hall and they took up so much room that I could not get by with the stroller. Otherwise I would have forgotten about them again, even though they were in plain sight. 

I manged to take 3 bags with me. On the way there I passed the glass collection boxes. And wouldn't you know it. One contained drinking glasses. Just on Sunday I talked to a friend of mine who is a student, that she needed more drinking glasses. I resisted the urge to pick them out. The fact that they were bulky and ugly made it easier, but it was a conscious effort. 

I heard the collection truck on the way back (falling glass makes an awful lot of noise especially when it lands on top of more glass) and thought I was safe. Once I realized they had not been to that street yet, I crossed over to the other side to stay as far away from those glasses as possible. I must admit that I did longingly stare at the box. I didn't see the glasses, but I knew they were there. 

A clip in my head started rolling, me, saving the glasses from the box, getting them out of the dishwasher. all sparkly to present to the new owner, AAAAAHHHHH! I picked up speed to get away from there. 

Fortunately a few steps further down the road a bag of clothes with a flyer attached to it caught my attention. Curb side collection! Yeah! I checked the flyer. TODAY! Sure enough I had one in my mailbox, too, that I had never bothered to get out. 

5 min later the clothes from the car and the ones still in the house were out on the curb with the flyer attached. 

ALL the clothes gone AND I RESISTED the urge to acquire! I am AWESOME!

MARIE KONDO

What do I know about Marie Kondo? Not much to be honest. I know she is a japanese decluttring specialist and of what I understand you can sum up her philosophy as  follows:

If it doesn't spark joy, out it goes!

I have not read her book, I just got a little summery so far from my friend  Minerva who is totally hooked. She got me to get started, too. 

You are to:

• start with easy first (clothes in her opinion)
• do hard stuff last (emotional stuff like photos)
• thank the stuff you part with for the joy it oncsubcatee brought you
• handle each item individually
• go by categories (clothes, books, etc.)
• get it all out at once
• divide into subcategories if necesarry(e.g.: tops, pants)
• take about 6 months to go through it all

You don't:

• buy new storage containers
• rush through it

So. With that in mind, I went through the first category. Clothes. More to come about that. Minerva introduced me to the concept over the holidays, when I was visiting family. That is why I could only go through it mentally. I started going through my stuff in my head. It was pretty easy. Even without handling it. I just pretended to be picking stuff to get dressed and thought how I felt about putting it on. Way to many tops that didn't spark joy. 2 of the tops even had to stay behind!

surface of the day: boys's clothes transfered to their new room

5 a day: 1 bra, 1 pair of underpants 1 kitchen utensil, a toothbrush, the bumper of a (toy) car,

THE CARDBOARD BOX

Today I threw away a card board box. Why do I fell the need to tell you about this? Well, because it is a huge accomplishment. I got the box from a friend, with children's clothes in it. It was emptied in the sorting process and has a new owner. Now the box sat in my house, empty. For days I have been telling myself that I should throw it away. But what if I needed it? To store things? ARGH! Guess what. I  will not need the box. Because I don't have anything that I will put in a box. Especially not anything that will go into a card bard box that used to have diapers in them. I had to tear up the box to go through with throwing it out. But I did. And if felt like the sensible thing to do. I can and I will do it. 

7 a day: my cardboard box, paper, lots of clothing items

surface of the day: 2 boxes out of my brand new hoard room

1 BAG OUT

I got one of the 2 bags out, that I shouldn't have in the first place. But hey. The receiver was happy and so was I! I've noticed that some of the measures I have taken to improve my life are working well. Like my folder where I put things for school. Each child has his/her own section and anything of importance, like address lists, instructions for school projects or anything else goes in there. It might all be in there helter skelter, but at least I only have to look in one place (the folder) and don't even have to look through all of it, as each kid's section is divided from the rest. I used to search the whole house (and every single box) for phone numbers and things like that. These days, I get the info, punch 2 holes (the hole punch is right next to the folder) and file it. And when I need it I know where it is. Maybe one day I will fulfill my need of perfectionism and sort the individual sections, but until then I will be happy, that my system works and that it makes life easier. And that I have more time to help myself get the rest of the mes taken care of!

I JUST KEPT WORKING

A couple of weeks ago a friend and I talked about just how stressful that first week was with 27 million different other things to take care of, family visiting and orientations to attend. Getting the kids to do homework and starting all the extracurricular activities again. She told me of all the things she had to do and then she said:"But  I simply kept working day after day and I got it all done." I am not sure I wanted to hear that. But lets face it. It boils down to work. I can spend years blogging about all the things I plan to do, but unless I actually get to work, nothing will ever get done. 

I am taking life one day at a time. I refuse to get upset about things that are left undone. And I focus on accomplishments. One of my biggest accomplishments today was taking care of 2 little things. Putting the laminating machine away and taping a  squished puzzle box into shape. It took less then 5 min but those are the little things I like to do "tomorrow". Eventually "tomorrow's" things are so overwhelming that I want to stay in bed. 

My hope is that focusing on the little tasks right in front of me will help me stay on track and not let little jobs pile up again until you need a month to work of your to do list. 

My neighbour went through her children's closets and dumped her stuff on me. I was stupid enough to take it, but I already found takers for it. I will be fine. And one day I might simply refuse to have stuff dumped on me. 

5 a day: do clothes that I got yesterday count? A pair of socks (extra dirty with a hole), paper, paper and more paper

surface of the day: I started a few, but didn't finish a single one.

DAY 2 - 1 ROOM DOWN

The end of day 2 finds my busy and exhausted. The repairman called early this morning to ask if he could come in the morning instead of the afternoon. First I was worried, that this would mess up my whole day. After thinking about it for a moment I realized it could be to my advantage.I had planned to be running errands in the morning and to clean up in the afternoon. I know myself well enough that I would have been too tired, and probably had skipped cleaning up all together.

So I cleaned up in the morning. I was kind of frantic as I had hoped to have the laundry room clean by the time the guy showed up. I more or less managed to do just that. I evacuated the hoard, a total of 4 boxes and baskets. After that I cleaned the kitchen and the hall.

I finally managed to check off my first room. Quite the achievement, isn't it. Ah well. On the other hand, maybe not. It is only the little room behind the front door. It has one little white chest in it. It contains sweaters, gloves and scarfs. Everything was still in perfect order. 

Funny thing is that when I took the picture I realized there was still a pencil under the chest! So I got it out. I am not sure if I can consider myself on track as I have been all over the place so far, but crossing even this tiny room off is a start. 

I think the reason for my not being able to focus is that I am simply scared of having a real life. That I am not sure what I would do with myself if I really got a grip on things after all these years. I guess I could always go back to hoarding if a real life doesn't suit me! 

Surface of the day:top of the freezer and the dryer

7 a day: box of kid's clothes

SKINNY CLOTHES

Today I went up into the attic and packed up my "skinny clothes". I had mentally prepared for this all week long. I decided if I can find out why I am still hanging on to them I might be able to let go. I think I finally know why.

It always felt like letting go of my "skinny clothes" means that I admit defeat. That I tell the world and myself that my skinny days are over. That I will stay "fat" for the rest of my life. That I gave up hope. Realizing that helped. Obviously the size of  clothes I store in my attic has no direct influence on the size my body. If it did, I would be skinny by now. Right? I pulled them out one by one, mostly tops, I had gotten rid of the pants a while ago. Not that I had many pants. Most of them I had worn until they fell of my legs. I must admit, that I kept about 15% percent. At least I hope it wasn't more.

I did share a few tears. Not really because I parted with my clothes. It was more of a general feeling of overwhelm. Sitting in the full attic. Barely making a dent into the amount of things stacked up there. Being reminded of my weight problem and how useless it seems to fight it..

It's all good. Life is change. Let me tell you. If I am ever skinny enough to fit into those clothes again I deserve a whole new wardrobe full of clothes. And maybe, in a few weeks I can let the rest of it go