Simple Ways To Start Decluttering

Let's get real, tackling your whole house is WAY too overwhelming so start in just one place. For me, it's the kitchen table. The table is the catch-all for everything Partak including school work, mail, glove business, consulting work notes, and anything else that comes in from outside.

When I start to feel my clutter closing in on me, I start by putting away things on the table, if they don't have a home, I make the choice to keep it or toss it. Next any paper that I can throw away (or recycle as is appropriate) gets tossed. Everything else gets put in one pile and I go through it piece by piece. Right then, I put it where it goes (file, bills to-pay, sign for school or to mail, etc.), and in just minutes I'm done! I wipe the table off, push the chairs in and I already feel like I am more in control and ready to tackle the next space! You can do it, too...just start!

Quotes That Resonate

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary
so that the necessary may speak." ~Hans Hoffman

I love this! As I stay on top of keeping our home free of clutter and our life simplified, I can enjoy the beings that are my family!

Happy Earth Day!

Mason wanted to make cookies for Earth Day to take to school, so we did!

We love planet earth cookies! The heart in the cookie is actually "stained glass" by using melted Jolly Ranchers! Yummy!

Happy Earth Day!

Time To Refresh

The major decluttering project last year set me up to feel free of the weight hanging on to stuff put on me, but as time has passed, things have started to pile up again. It's not anything other than living, but it needs attention and intention to be beat!

Just yesterday I pulled a bag out of the pantry and went through the house and easily collected more than 10 things (remember, Give Away Ten A Day?). After I put the stuff that was easy to part with, I walked through again and grabbed three more things, one being a pair of boots that I haven't worn in more than two years but couldn't part with last year. Gone!

I'm going to take you on my refresher and would love it if you would join me and declutter your space a little, too. Call it Spring Cleaning with a twist and Give Away Ten A Day!

Wanting Less! It's Working.

Mason seems to have resigned himself to the fact that I am not buying him anything (at all). He has not stopped asking completely, but he is asking less and when I say no, he is not pitching a fit! Hooray! I don't think I am out of the woods just yet, but it's working. I know this because he is playing with the stuff he has now, dusting off toys he hasn't played with in months and get this, we are reading more. He has come to me to ask me to read books we haven't shared in a while and he is playing outside in the back yard.

I have to admit, I've had some serious doubts about whether or not I could reach a six year old about materialism and consumerism, but I believe it's working! The secret seems to be consistency, the say what I mean, mean what I say approach. I've outlasted him and he knows I'm not giving in. For me, the bottom line is that I want Mason to build a strong character based on good moral values and who he is as a person, not what he has.

This will be something we will work together on as long as he is learning and growing, but it is a wonderful thing to work on!

So Get This!

I'm in this unfamiliar space where I'm being completely accepting of my body and my weight. I truly have committed to never diet again, and the last month or so (I made this decision well before I posted for all of you to read) I've eaten whatever I wanted. Have I gained any weight? I don't know, don't care. What I do know is I've enjoyed every bite.

So here's the thing, I'm craving raw food. I want vegetables, cabbage salad, cucumbers, and more! I'm going to go with what my body is asking for...salad, marinated vegetables, and more! I'm lucky, I love fruits, vegetables, and salads. I'm not big on lots of dressing and I'm completely satisfied with a salad as a meal. All of this works in my favor to feed my body for health. Next it would be great if I could start craving rigorous exercise! I'll keep you posted!

Quotes That Resonate

"Trust yourself and stop asking so many questions. You will find your own answers as you go through the process." - Richard Schulze

No More Dieting, Ever!

I've been on a diet for 35 years! 35 years. I will never diet again and here's why. I have made my weight and body image the focus of my entire life, as a child all the way through adulthood.

It has never mattered how much I have to give to others, how much I donate of material or myself to charity, give of my time to our community, worthy causes I've started from nothing or simply participated in some way, I've always managed to focus on the one area of my life where I fell I fail everyday, my weight/body size. Is it really a failure to be twenty pounds overweight?

Yep, twenty. I weigh 175 and somehow believe I should weigh 155. Why? Because some Body Mass Index (BMI) chart says so? No, because I have never felt like I am pretty enough, thin enough, or good enough as long as I don't weigh 155 or wear a size 8 or 10. Pretty, thin, or good enough for what? For whom? For me, I'm the only one who stands in judgement on this issue and I'm done.

This state of enlightenment comes from my one regret in my life. I have never lived with regrets choosing instead to see every experience as a lesson. In March 2008 while in Vietnam with friends, we found ourselves in a French restaurant that was the most amazing place I've ever seen. It displayed a buffet of gorgeous food, immaculate works of art made from food, hand stirred ice cream in bowls made of ice, and so much more. The cost for the buffet was $15.00. Our group was in awe not only at the visual stimulation all around us, but this was amazing food! So they said, I didn't eat with my friends. They did everything they could to talk me into it, even offering to buy my lunch! Here's why I didn't eat. I was on a diet, the Usana program of liquid meals and meal replacement bars. Dave and I started this diet before our trip and it was important to me to lose some weight because I was traveling to Arizona immediately after returning from Vietnam. I had an event to attend and a special dress I wanted to wear. I was committed to dropping the pounds and a few dress sizes prior to the event in Arizona. We also invested $800 for the two of us to lose our unwanted pounds. I lost the weight, wore the dress at the event, and felt like I had succeeded.

Here I am two years later and that lunch buffet in Vietnam still haunts me. I regret not sharing that experience with my friends and enjoying that meal because I am the same weight now that I was that day. So what was it really all for? Nothing. I will never have that experience with my friends and I can guarantee you that I will never pass another one up again. I'm done dieting, no more deprivation, self loathing, and negative self-talk because of a ridiculous twenty pounds.

Instead of the angst of a diet, I vow to make more healthy food choices than not, exercise for the feel-good effects and a long life, and focus more on all the good I have to give! All the good I've already given! As Stuart Smalley would say, "I'm good enough. I'm pretty enough. And doggone it, people like me!" Laughing!

What do you think? Can you not diet and really feel good about yourself right where you are, here and now? Share with me, I want to know how you see this.

It's Monday! Really?

It's Monday but it doesn't feel like Monday. What exactly does Monday feel like? Well, it feels like we are back in a routine of getting up with an alarm, moving faster than maybe we really want to, and the day typically comes at us full force.

School is out for spring break one more day and work isn't feeling the manic-ness of a typical Monday. So with that, we'll take it, enjoy it, and hopefully Tuesday won't feel like our Monday's usually do!

I'm Restless!

This time last year I was in the midst of a major de-cluttering project, it covered a full two months. Well a year later I'm happy to say, it's mostly still in good shape. The thing with decluttering is it only stays completely crisp and clean if you are not living in the space! We live here and not only do we live here, I work here so needless to say, there is still work to do.

I do a pretty good job of getting rid of things when new things come in, but it's not always immediate. I'm going to be working on my "Give Away 10 A Day" program again and blogging about some of it. I think it's important to recognize the success but also acknowledge the maintenance that is needed to keep up the good work!

Needing to tidy my living space is not all that is making me feel restless. I have something else brewing and I'll share that next week. I think I my girl friends will identify with what I am feeling and how I am taking action. Have a great weekend and welcome to April!