Sunday, February 8, 2015

January: De-Cluttering my Life


Matt, the girls, and I were lucky to have a nice long break for Christmas this year. We, emboldened by our success last year, decided to drive to Utah to visit family. The drive there was shockingly pleasant. We left in the evening shortly after I got off work and drove through the night. The girls fell asleep around 9pm, we took a short nap in the car at a rest stop from about 2am-4am and stopped for meals. The trip was a blast. We got to spend a week at my parents and a week at Matt's mom's. While at Isabel's (Matt's mom) I came across the book that I mentioned in my last post, "The Happiness Project" and read most of it on our vacation. I finished it a few days after we got back and started my own project, which I'm calling "The Perfect Year." (Not that I intend to aim for perfection in the same way I do with my perfect months, I just like the sound of it.)

Tina enjoying one of our McDonalds play-place breaks from the long drive.   



Roommates reunited!!!


Cousin Sleepover at Grandma's

The Pinball Wizard


So, I decided that the first month should be something that would motivate me and give me energy. For me, my living environment makes a huge difference to my mood and energy. So, month one was dedicated to 1) De-cluttering the house--I gave away several large grocery bags and boxes full of STUFF that would not pass the "would we take it if we moved" test. and 2) Decluttering my mind. I made lists for the three major areas of my life right now (Home, Work, Church) of all the "nagging tasks" that I've been avoiding. You know the ones, make a dentist appointment, change the oil in the car, etc, etc. and started working my way through them.

I set a goal to get rid of at least one thing a day and to try to cross one nagging item off my list per day. While I failed pretty badly at the "daily" aspect of this goal, we have several empty shelves and extra storage space now and things are easier to find. (And remember, despite my misleading choice of a name for the project, I really don't intend for these to be "perfect" months. I'm just hoping for any positive change).

I don't feel like I ever met my BIG goal of the month of starting the next month with a "fully cleaned" house, but we are stepping on unidentified sticky chunks much less than we were a month ago. I call that a win.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What adorable pictures! And I really liked the idea of starting off with a goal that would bring more energy and vitality to you and your other goals. Awesome.
-Jaime

Anonymous said...

Awesome! Great job Camel!

Tina