Braving the Basement (Clutter Comedy)

January 25, 2015 · Write a comment · Categories: Musings · Tags:

Yup, I have to admit it, I’ve got one of those clutter horrors of modern life—an extra room in the basement that ended up as a junk room. When my family first moved into our house, we weren’t quite sure what we were going to do with that space. Then we decided that it would make a good exercise room, with a treadmill and an elliptical machine. But we never got around to buying them, and slowly the junk buildup started…
 

Extra room in my basement full of boxes and other stuff. 

It all seemed so harmless at first—some old Halloween costumes in the closet, and a small desk that I moved from the children’s study area because my son had outgrown it while my daughter could still use it. As the years went by, junk got put on the desk, around the desk, and in other parts of the room. The closet ended up full of old linens and old clothes. Then my kids graduated from college and put all the stuff they brought home in that room. At that point the closet became unusable, with boxes and suitcases and lots of other things blocking the doors.

Instead of dealing with it at that time, I put off the chore, thinking I’d wait until my daughter moved out. But she is still here, along with all her stuff, and doesn’t yet have a definite move-out date. So this week I decided to start working on that room a little at a time. Because the small desk was the catalyst for all the mess, getting rid of it first seemed appropriate. I also disposed of two worn-out desk chairs and moved some stuff that wasn’t junk away from the closet doors.

Then I opened the closet and got a strong whiff of mildew. The culprit turned out to be a pair of my son’s wrestling shoes from high school. Ew! Thankfully, my husband volunteered to bag up those moldering shoes and take them out to the trash can. To show my appreciation, I got some tasty steaks for dinner and made sure he was well fed!

About Clutter Comedy: Every Sunday (which I envision as a day of rest after a productive week of de-cluttering) I post a Clutter Comedy article describing my most memorable clutter discovery of the week. Other bloggers who wish to join in are welcome—just post a link in the comments! There’s no need to publish any “before” photos of your clutter, if they are too embarrassing. The idea is simply to get motivated to clean it up, while having a bit of fun too!

Picking Up Toys (Nurturing Thursday)

January 22, 2015 · 8 comments · Categories: Musings · Tags:

Because my daughter has been here longer than expected since she graduated from college last May, we’ve all been stepping on her dog’s toys for months. So we decided it was about time to start training the dog to pick up those toys. In addition to playing with the usual chew toys, the dog gleefully nabs stuffed animals from my daughter’s room whenever the opportunity arises. We put the toys in a laundry basket, with a blanket at the bottom to raise them up high enough for a small dog to reach easily.
 

Laundry basket full of dog toys and stuffed animals. 

I don’t know if the dog will actually learn how to put away the toys and start doing it consistently before my daughter moves to an apartment. But even if we do more of the picking up than the dog does, it’s worthwhile because the house is much more comfortable without dog toys scattered all over the place. There’s a useful lesson in that, I’d say. Just a little effort to get things better organized can go a long way toward a more pleasant environment, no matter whose toys are in need of picking up!

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

Proper Disposal (Clutter Comedy)

January 18, 2015 · 8 comments · Categories: Musings · Tags:

Some books are classic works that get better with age, like a bottle of good wine. Others, sadly, just get obsolete and end up as clutter. I discovered one of the latter variety while tidying my bookshelf recently—an etiquette book I’ve had since 1984, with a copyright date of 1978. With all the cultural changes since then, and the fact that this book long predates the Internet and many other modern technologies, it’s not the most useful resource to keep around.
 

The Amy Vanderbilt Complete Book of Etiquette, 1978 edition. 

I also threw away some tattered paperbacks and put a new Bible on my bookshelf to replace one that was worn out. Then I started to wonder if there was any ceremony for proper disposal of an old Bible, as with an old flag. I consulted the etiquette book to find out whether it had anything to say on that topic, but there was nothing. So, naturally, I went to the Internet for an answer. I found that although some people prefer to ceremoniously bury an old Bible, no particular method of disposal is required. Looking that up took only a few minutes, so I don’t think I’ll miss having an etiquette book on the shelf!

About Clutter Comedy: Every Sunday (which I envision as a day of rest after a productive week of de-cluttering) I post a Clutter Comedy article describing my most memorable clutter discovery of the week. Other bloggers who wish to join in are welcome—just post a link in the comments! There’s no need to publish any “before” photos of your clutter, if they are too embarrassing. The idea is simply to get motivated to clean it up, while having a bit of fun too!

Trust vs. Hoarding (Nurturing Thursday)

January 15, 2015 · 4 comments · Categories: Musings · Tags:

When I wrote my previous entry on Tuesday about cultivating creative energy, just before posting it I found myself thinking: Should I save it for Thursday? It fits the self-nurturing theme, and what if I can’t think of anything better for my Nurturing Thursday post?

Then I realized a “what if I can’t” attitude like that was very far from nurturing! Blogs are meant to be full of fresh new entries; and a blog author needs to trust that a good flow of creative inspiration will be forthcoming, instead of hoarding ideas like a greedy dragon jealously perched on a treasure chest.
 

Figurine of a green dragon on a treasure chest.

(Dragon figurine bought from StealStreet via Amazon.com)
 

Hoarding, whatever its object, never comes from a place of healthy self-nurturing. It always grows out of fear and doubt. The underlying script is, “If I let this go, I might not be able to get anything new to replace it, and then I’ll just have to do without.” The more hoarding that people do, the more their subconscious narrative of never getting anything new becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The converse also is true—when we regularly let things go and trust that our lives always will be full of abundance, lots of good new things are likely to show up! Just as soon as I decided to go ahead and post Tuesday’s entry, the idea for this post came to mind. If I had hoarded that entry instead, I’d never have thought of this one!

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

Cultivating Creative Energy

January 13, 2015 · 6 comments · Categories: Musings · Tags:

Generally, leaving tasks undone sucks up a lot more mental energy than taking care of them promptly. But this time of year, when the days are cold and the nights are long, sometimes a lack of energy feels as if it comes from the season instead. That can lead to excusing procrastination with an internal narrative along the lines of, “I’m too tired to do a good job on that now, but I’ll work on it later when I feel more refreshed.” Too much of that, and the tiredness persists while the more refreshed feeling never comes. Creative projects, in particular, end up getting stalled.

So I’ve decided to give myself an attitude adjustment whenever I catch myself thinking like that, by changing my self-talk to convince myself that I have plenty of creative energy. Even if I don’t feel energetic, I take a few minutes to imagine myself working on the project and zipping easily through it. I tell myself something like, “I have lots of creative energy to put toward this, and it’s going to be so much fun and turn out great! I’m feeling fresh as a field of daisies!”
 

Field of white daisies.

(Creative Commons image via flickr)
 

Of course, there are days when I haven’t gotten enough sleep and honestly can’t focus on a creative project enough to do much with it. I’m certainly not suggesting that we should all force ourselves to check off tasks on the to-do list when we’re half asleep! But even on days when going to bed early is the best choice, we can cultivate creative energy by picturing how things ideally would go, instead of reinforcing a lack of energy with thoughts of feeling tired.

If we’re always telling ourselves that we feel too tired to do anything, sure enough that’s what happens! But when our self-image shifts to having lots of joyful energy, then we’re likely to feel more inspired the next day and get much more accomplished, after catching up on sleep.

Checking Out (Clutter Comedy)

January 11, 2015 · 4 comments · Categories: Musings · Tags:

I was replacing some worn-out file folders when I started to wonder why I still had folders with checking account statements dating back to 1987, from a bank that no longer exists because it got acquired in the recession five years ago. All the information on the statements has been saved in Quicken since my husband bought an early version of that software program in 1990 for our first computer, which means the paper has been entirely useless for the past quarter-century!
 

Five old file folders with bank statements in them. 

All these years, I kept folder after folder of monthly statements that I never looked at again after reconciling them, for no better reason than because that was how I got in the habit of keeping financial information before we had computers. Sometimes it seems like the more clutter I get rid of, the more I realize is still around here lurking! Oh, well, at least I have a good robust shredder. It got such a workout that my husband made sure to oil it promptly after we shredded all those old bank statements!

About Clutter Comedy: Every Sunday (which I envision as a day of rest after a productive week of de-cluttering) I post a Clutter Comedy article describing my most memorable clutter discovery of the week. Other bloggers who wish to join in are welcome—just post a link in the comments! There’s no need to publish any “before” photos of your clutter, if they are too embarrassing. The idea is simply to get motivated to clean it up, while having a bit of fun too!

Not Personal (Nurturing Thursday)

January 8, 2015 · 14 comments · Categories: Musings · Tags:

When I set up the follow box in my sidebar, I decided not to display the number of followers because I didn’t want to feel that I was competing with other bloggers for popularity. I do glance at that statistic occasionally, though, while doing administrative tasks on the blog. A few days ago, I noticed that I was down one follower since the last time I looked, and my first reaction was to feel put out—not necessarily with a nice warm coat like my daughter’s puppy got for Christmas, either!
 

Puppy sitting on the porch on a snowy day, wearing a coat. 

I found myself worrying that people didn’t like my blog, that I might carelessly have offended a reader without knowing it, et cetera. Of course, when I stopped to think about it, I realized that I was being very silly! Lots of people go through their blog subscriptions at the start of the new year and remove blogs they haven’t visited recently, without making any judgments as to merit. In fact, I had done that myself just the day before!

In our competitive modern society, it can be hard to remember that most of what happens is not about us. The decisions people make about how to spend their time generally are not driven by harsh value judgments; it’s simply a matter of managing a huge number of choices and a limited amount of time. So when people decide not to stay subscribed to a blog or otherwise not to stay in contact, they probably haven’t even thought much about it, but are just trying to simplify a busy life. It’s not personal.

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

Stitches in Time (Clutter Comedy)

January 4, 2015 · 4 comments · Categories: Musings · Tags:

When I was a teenager, I made a needlepoint pillow from a kit. My mom kept it while I was away at college, but after that she cleaned house and gave it back to me. Although I expected that I would find a nice place to put it someday, it never seemed to match anything in my house quite right. So it ended up sitting at the back of my closet for over 25 years, even after I moved from one house to another.
 

Needlepoint pillow in shades of brown and gold. 

I thought of it as something I should keep because of all the time and effort I had put into making it. But this week when I considered it, I realized that no matter how I might decorate my house in the future, I still wouldn’t want to display the pillow because it’s so full of stagnant energy. It doesn’t fit the person I am now—I haven’t done any needlepoint in ages! Even if I bought something new and the pillow matched, it wouldn’t feel like a cherished possession, but would remind me of old stuff sitting around in the closet. So it’s just got to go!

About Clutter Comedy: Every Sunday (which I envision as a day of rest after a productive week of de-cluttering) I post a Clutter Comedy article describing my most memorable clutter discovery of the week. Other bloggers who wish to join in are welcome—just post a link in the comments! There’s no need to publish any “before” photos of your clutter, if they are too embarrassing. The idea is simply to get motivated to clean it up, while having a bit of fun too!

Yay! (Nurturing Thursday)

January 1, 2015 · 8 comments · Categories: Musings · Tags: ,

A very happy New Year to everyone, full of wonderful wishes that come true! I began setting my intentions for 2015 way back in October, when I bought a fairy figurine (shown in this post) as a symbol of releasing my dreams to fly free in beauty. I didn’t have a word or a New Year’s resolution in mind until Christmas, though, when one of my presents turned out to be a new toaster.

New red toaster with display screen.

A toaster certainly doesn’t need to have bright red side panels and a display screen that shows the settings and the time remaining. It’s just more fun that way! And the plain old toaster it replaced was still working just fine, as good as new—but “new” was 1986, when loaves of bread were narrower and people wouldn’t even have thought about putting a bagel in a toaster. I had been putting slices of wide bread in the old one sideways and toasting bagels in the oven.

So I decided that the new toaster would be my visual reminder that the world is full of fun stuff to enjoy, and that it’s perfectly fine to replace things even if they are not worn out! My New Year’s resolution is simply to say “Yay!” every morning when I go into the kitchen and see the toaster. (Not out loud though, as that would be a bit much to expect my husband to deal with!)

Because saying “Yay!” to a toaster is so silly, it will make me smile and laugh, which is a good healthy way to start the day. And my word of intention for 2015, meant to bring positive energy and to celebrate abundance, is also Yay!

Nurturing Thursday was started by Becca Givens and seeks to “give this planet a much needed shot of fun, support and positive energy.” Visit her site to find more Nurturing Thursday posts and a list of frequent contributors.

A Year of Discovery

December 31, 2014 · 6 comments · Categories: Musings · Tags: , , ,

Last December I set myself an ambitious task for 2014—to find and comment on a positive blog every day. I had been wanting to read more uplifting and inspirational material online, but hadn’t known where to find it. My site was less than two years old, and I hadn’t yet written many entries or commented much on other blogs. I wanted to do more, building connections and broadening my perspective. My goal was to improve myself while having a positive impact on the culture with my writing.

I had a conversation with a friend (as described in this post) about setting small changes in motion that radiate out to the world, simply by brightening one’s own life. That gave me the idea of going on a virtual quest to find positive blogs, while keeping a chronicle of my discoveries for the benefit of both myself and my readers. I named this project the Random Kindness Blog Tour because I didn’t know what I might find, which made it random, and also because bloggers enjoy unexpected kind comments. I chose Kindness and Positivity as my words of intention for 2014.

To give myself impetus to follow through, I publicly committed to it on my blog as a New Year’s resolution. That felt scary at first because of the unknown time requirements—I had no way of knowing how long it might take to find a positive blog on any given day! What if I got overwhelmed and couldn’t keep up the pace, or if it took so much time that I couldn’t do anything else all year? But I decided to look at it in a playful way (as discussed here) just like going on an adventure.

After the project got underway, I found that it wasn’t nearly as difficult or time-consuming as my worries had made it out to be. Positive bloggers naturally attract commenters who have an optimistic mindset, plus they often include positive sites in their blogroll. So I always had plenty of links to follow and new sites to investigate. Even if I got busy and missed a day’s entry, I always managed to find two positive blogs the next day to catch up. As the page of links got longer, it became a powerful visual reminder that the world is full of good people—all one has to do is look! That in itself helped to banish gloomy thoughts.

I found many inspiring sites and made new friends, including the Nurturing Thursday bloggers—I’ve started thinking of them like an online support group. Their encouraging words have helped me to deal better with disruptions, work on getting clutter under control, arrange my house more comfortably, and remember to appreciate the moment. As a result, I’ve had more mental energy to put toward my writing this year, along with reading and commenting on more blogs.

I’ve also been reminding myself that not everything needs to be done right away, on a schedule, or perhaps even at all. Today’s world is so full of possibilities, it can be hard to decide what to do. Having so many options leads to anxiety about making wrong choices, wasting time, and not getting things done. Usually it’s needless anxiety because nothing calamitous would happen anyway. Mistakes are more likely to be useful learning experiences than disasters, and neglected tasks may not matter much as circumstances change.

Although the fast pace of modern society can make it seem like a constant rush to keep up, there’s really no need to let life get so hectic. Incremental changes can have powerful, far-reaching effects without consuming huge amounts of time. Persistence is what’s needed, along with setting clear intentions and allowing enough quiet, unhurried moments to notice the beauty and abundance all around.

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