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Organized

Tidying Up

February 14, 2019 by Elizabeth Drake

A co-worker recommended I check out the show Tidying Up with Marie Kondo. It’s on Netflix, so I have access to it, and it’s something the kids can watch even if they don’t want to.

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So all of our kids’ rooms can look like this.

So, I popped it on one Friday night when I was feeling stressed and not really up to anything too gripping, but I also wanted a bit of something on while I went about the evening.

It was an interesting take on tidying.

This isn’t the kind of show you watch for hugely dramatic results. But it does have some interesting lessons.

If you aren’t already familiar, the concept starts with piling like things together then deciding what to keep based on what “sparks joy”.

This is supposed to be done mostly alone so family biases don’t sway your perception of joy. Also, you are supposed to touch things, to let yourself feel the joy.

Deceptively simple.

This forces people to often confront mountains of possessions, particularly clothes, as you round up all like things in the entire house and pile them together. Makes me cringe a little as I know I also own too many clothes.

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Good thing my books are on my Kindle or my house would look like this.

It also addresses the concept of sunk cost and helps people get past it.

I deal with this from time to time in my day job. For example, a machine we bought is operating sub optimally. When we evaluate replacing it, we do not look at the purchase price of that machine. We look at the cost of the new alternatives before us and what each of those alternatives will give us for the cost of the alternative.

If we put this into practice in our personal life, we should ignore the $500 price tag on the pair of shoes that hurt our feet and we never wear. Instead, we should be asking ourselves if those shoes “spark joy”. If they don’t (and it’s highly doubtful they do), out they go!

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Because those were never comfortable.

Perhaps more interesting is how the tidying process deals with the way we value our possessions as part of ourselves. This manifests in a difficult to get rid of things because they mean more to us simply because they are our things. For example, there have been  studies done showing that if there are two identical mugs, and one mug is ours, we put more value on that mug.

This method deals with overcoming that value so we can part with things in a beautiful and graceful way.

Rather than simply tossing the things out, you tell them goodbye and thank them for their service. You then wish them well on their journey.

Maybe it sounds a little hokey written down here, but I watched her tell people to be gentle with things that were meaningful. To say their goodbyes. It felt kind and accepting of the emotion attached.

Overall, the show is interesting, but I don’t have the six months recommended to tidy my home, not with everything else going on. Still, the show did inspire me to tackle a small corner of my closet. I have a feeling if you are good at thrifting, now would be a spectacular time to be shopping!

I never thought of myself as much of a saver, but I will say that thanking something and saying goodbye, then carefully folding it up to send it on its journey made it easier to say goodbye to the next item and the next item after that.

I didn’t need the emotional fortitude to part part with half my dress pants after the dress code change at work six months ago, but I still had the bathrobes I’d worn when I had infants to nurse. I haven’t worn them in over five years, but for some reason, it was still hard to say goodbye.

But I thanked them and wished them well on their way.

And I feel better for it.

Filed Under: Organizing Tagged With: Books, clothes, Goodbye, grateful, Kids, Organized, Sparks joy, Stressed, Sunk cost, Tidying, Tidying Up

10 Steps to My Home Improvement Plan

May 1, 2018 by Elizabeth Drake

As we start this project, I have a plan for my daughter’s room. Of course I do. I have a plan for all things except the books I write. Still haven’t figured that one out!

MasterPlan.png
So karma can laugh at it

My 10 Step Plan

  1. Paint Trim White

    While the trim is in reasonably good shape for being over forty years old, it is dated. We’re hoping a fresh coat of paint will help with that.

  2. Paint Room Light Purple

    We figure a nice soft purple will keep the room bright and open. Purple has been her favorite color for three years, and I have painted her room “recently”.

  3. Closet

    Take off the Doors – You lose the middle third of the closet as a door is always covering this. We’ll keep the doors in the basement, but we want to open it up so the whole thing is useable

    Organizing System – I am researching this now, but closet space in 1970s home is a premium. She has a standard six foot reach in closet. I want to use all the space. We have an inexpensive system in there now, but it doesn’t use the space well. I’d prefer a system where if we move we can take it with us. This is where the lion’s share of the budget is going.

    Curtains over Closet and Attach Hyrule symbols to the rods

ClothesComeBack
If that’s even possible.

4. Make an easy canopy

a. Put up curtain rods over bed and attach Hyrule symbols to the rod.

b. Drape inexpensive fabric over the rods

5. Wall sticker symbol of Hyrule on the wall over her bed but under the canopy

6. Hyrule pillow for her bed.

7. New Curtain rod for her window

a. Trade out the dark curtain for sheers

b. Attach hyrule symbols

c. Honeycomb fabric light blocking shade

8. Hyrule light switch plate

9. New vent cover

10. New Rug

Contemplating hiring an electrician to come put a ceiling light in the room. Currently, there is no overhead lighting at all

I had originally budgeted $500 for the whole project. Okay, stop laughing. Seriously. It’s really not funny!

I have since learned the closet system will probably cost more than that. I’ve thought long and hard about it, but a good closet system will last us forever, especially if it’s one we can take with us when/if we move. I’m reassessing the budget, especially if I also want to bring in an electrician.

Of course, the electrician could wait a few months. The clothes all over the floor? Those need to find a home in the closet!

What do you think? Anything you’d add? Anything I’m missing?

Filed Under: Home Update, Uncategorized Tagged With: canopy, closet, Clothing, home project, Home Renovation, Hyrule, Not according to plan, Organized, paint, project

It'll Be Fun, They Said

February 15, 2017 by Elizabeth Drake

Ah, the family vacation. We didn’t take these much as kids as our family simply couldn’t afford it. Family vacations in my childhood primarily consisted of me being sent off with grandparents so our parents could get some time away.

family2

DH and I didn’t take too many vacations when our first child was small, partially because of the restrictions I was on as we tried to have a second.

Now that both children are older, we thought it would be fun to try a quick three-day vacation. We all were excited, and I had high-hopes.

I’d done my research, having both searched the internet and talked to lots of other people as to where a good place would be to go with a toddler and pre-schooler in the winter. I wanted to be close enough to home we could come back if we needed to, but far enough away that we’d test out the over-night thing.

family3

After selecting where we were going, then came all of the planning. Making sure we had snacks in the car and in the room. Enough  drinks. Enough clothes to get us through. Toiletries. Entertainment for in the car.  I felt like I was planning a military assault. Perhaps that should have been a clue.

And yes, the vacation was as horrible as some of you are imagining

They had all kinds of up-charges for different things to add to your room, but none of them including giving you a “toddler proof” room. You forget what it means for your toddler to have access to every cord, every cable, and every outlet in a typical hotel room. There are no toddler gates barring off stairs, no toddler locks on doors.

There is no safe place in the room where she can play for ten minutes while you catch your breath. And if you try to make a play area anyway, there were will be tissues scattered across the carpet and you’ll find yourself sprinting across to room to stop her just as she attempts to figure out how to unplug the lamp.

family4

Vacation also meant being subjected to kids out of their comfort zone. Out of their comfort zone and over-tired, cranky and irritable. Everyone’s favorite kind of child!

The biggest issue to my having fun of any sort was my expectations. I went into the long weekend wanting a vacation. Time to relax, unwind, and recharge. This was anything but that.

They were kids at a water park. They needed constant supervision. I knew that going into it, but what I didn’t understand was how much work this was with none of the fun.

See, my oldest child is big enough to do a lot of stuff at a water park. I figured DH and I would switch-off going on the slides and rides with the oldest, and then spending time in the toddler zone with the little one.

What I didn’t anticipate was that my oldest child would want to do nothing but play in the baby area with her sister. No water slides, no fun rides. We literally spent hours in water up to our ankles. Our knees when the oldest finally got a little braver.

Yeah, fabulous way to spend our time at the water park.

Our issues were compounded by DD1 being an early riser. She’s up at 6am and ready to go. The park doesn’t open until 9am. This means her having to wait and me having to listen to her ask “if it’s time to go yet” for three hours. By the time we got the water park, I was ready to leave.

Let’s also remember that I’m an introvert.  Being stuck in a huge crowd of people I don’t know, wearing only a swimsuit, is already not my idea of fun. I thought this was going to be tempered with the excitement of water slides. I was wrong.

But it did teach me some valuable lessons. One of them is that we’re just not ready for a family vacation yet. None of us.

I work full time and so does DH. If we’re going to do a vacation, it has to be a vacation for the whole family. Something we’re all going to enjoy.

I know DD1 had a blast. She will be talking about it for weeks.

I’m just glad to be home, book in hand, and iPad waiting.

 

How about you? Did you go on family vacations as a child? Did you like them? Do you go on family vacations now? How are they?  Where did/do you go on vacation? A favorite place come to mind? Something you really loved?

Filed Under: Uncategorized, Vacation Tagged With: Family, Family Vacation, Organized, research, Toddler, Water Park

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