Tag Archives: Purging

Getting Over Overwhelm!

Good morning!
I know that I do not normally post in the morning, but I had some free time this morning, and decided to not procrastinate any longer! I know that I have been MIA for a few days, and I have to confess I have just really let myself get overwhelmed with my normal daily life.

Let me back up a little bit:

The other day when I was so worried that I was going to have our place flooded, I sat at work with that thought in my head for almost 8 hours. Over and over, I kept making a mental note of what things I HAD to have saved from the first floor of the house. What both surprised, and disturbed me to know is that there isn’t much that I care about losing down here. Besides my sweetie and my two dogs, I have a chest that belonged to my grandpa – he was an artist, and it is where he kept his art pens, that I would want saved, and the other thing would be my books that live downstairs. Not all of those, but a few that I consider “friends”, I would feel sick if I lost those too.

What does that mean in the big scheme of things???

Well, what kept going through my mind as I was thinking of these “HAD TO HAVE” items, is that maybe I have surrounded myself with things that I thought were bringing me happiness, when in reality, they might just be taking up space in both my home and in my life. I don’t want things that just take up space, I want things that add joy and value to my life. Even in saying that I know that things will never really do that, only people and experiences will bring me joy and value, but I live here. This is the place that should rise up to meet me when I get home. I started to wonder if that was what was making me feel run down and overwhelmed in my life.

I literally spent all weekend wallowing about this, and pining for the life I might have been if I would have not been focusing on unimportant “things” (yes, it was a very deep weekend for me!)  This morning I woke up and decided I was done wallowing. Today is that day that I start taking some kind of action to clean it all out, clear it all out, and decide what I am going to surround myself with from now on. No more unconscious living for me, thank you very much.

So, this morning as I sit in my living room, writing all of this down, I am surrounded by all of our Christmas containers, both old and new. I am working on getting all of the Christmas decorations cleaned out and re-organized into new, un-mangled bins/drawers  so that I can help make Christmas decorating more fun, less chore. It may take me all week to get this all put away, but as in all things baby steps, baby steps.

In the meantime, I have also created a daily chore list for my sweetie and I, so we can get make the cleaning of this place a little more manageable as well. No ladies, chore charts are not just for your children any longer!! 😉 Before I zip off to work this morning, I just thought I would share this new chore chart with you!! 😉

Daily:

  • Make the bed
  • Cycle the dishes through the dishwasher
  • Wipe down stove top, counters, and microwave, if needed
  • Take the garbage out, if needed
  • Wipe down the dining room table
  • Straighten the sofa
  • Clean the dog’s water bowl, if needed
  • Fill the dog’s water bowl
  • Pack lunches
  • Empty lunch bags as soon as get home so it is ready for next days’ lunch
  • Cycle laundry, if needed
  • Remove garbage from car if needed
  • 15 minutes picking up after ourselves before heading up to bed

Whew!! between the two of us, we should be able to manage that pretty well!! and I bet it will make a nice difference on how well this place looks. I will keep you posted!!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS day! :-)

Motivated!

Good evening!

This morning I stumbled across this quote that I haven’t been able to get out of my mind all day.

“What you can do or dream you can do, begin it, boldness has genius, power and magic in it.”
~Johann von Goethe

There are so many odd projects laying around the house that seriously need my attention, and I know that I need to spend time crossing each one off of my list! But, right now, the big project is Jason and I are participating in a large garage sale this Saturday. This is the perfect opportunity to clear out a lot of the miscellaneous stuff that in all honesty Jason and I haven’t seen in years!! We spent a few hours this evening going through boxes, and it was so energizing to let go of all of that old stuff. It is true what they say about stuff literally weighing you down, mentally! I am learning to believe that is true.

Ok, confession time!! I might be just a bit of a shop-a-holic (ok, Jay, stop laughing!!). Ok, I’ve said it!! I don’t think I go too crazy money-wise because I pay myself first, pay all of my bills, I have a nice retirement fund and a savings account, but where I think it is really starting to hurt me is in my living space. We live in such a small condo, and it seems that no matter how much stuff I have leaving this place, I just seem to fill the new space with almost twice as much stuff! (That might be a slight exaggeration, but I am sure not by much!)

My biggest areas I have problems with this is books, and fashion!! I can’t pass up a good book, ESPECIALLY if I can find it for a FABULOUS price! and ANYTIME I find a cute dress, or other clothing item that makes me feel good, I just snatch it up – and sometimes in multiple colors!!! This is really starting to become a problem! I would like to tell you that I could stop anytime I want too, but I find that I use shopping to sometimes fill a void that I can sometimes feel in myself. Like something I am needing and I am hoping a certain book, or a certain top will somehow fill it. Crazy, I know! I hear myself saying it, and just think,

“SNAP OUT OF IT GIRL!!!”

Sad, I know!! I am hoping that our garage sale this weekend will really help me make a serious dent in all of the “STUFF”!! I am a little nervous that I am going to be making my hubbies head spin by how fast and how much stuff is leaving this house! I am being seriously RUTHLESS in what goes and what stays!! If we haven’t even seen in since we moved in here 5 years ago, why the heck do we have it still!! Now, there are some memorabilia that I have a different set of rules for, but for the most part, that only pertains to things like cards, and photos, which don’t take up a lot of room in this house!! Thankfully!!

And, if my sweetie and I are going to stay in this condo a few more years, then I owe it to the both of us to make every effort to turn it into our home, and not just a stopping point – like a sad hotel!! Now, a GLAMOROUS HOTEL??? I am SOOO there for that, but not what we have been living in up to this point!!

Also, I have realized today, that I have so much extra home decor and what nots that I could actually start an online home boutique. Don’t think I am not seriously contemplating that either!! That has always been one of my dreams, and this quote above is making me thinking that I just need to get brave, and open my own boutique!! How cool would that be??!!

Oh to dream out loud!!

That would be BLISS!!!

Anyway, I am going to head up to bed for the night, and dream of my new clutter free home!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

A New Evening!!

Good evening!

For most of the day today, I have been frantic whirlwind of cleaning, organizing and purging!! My art studio/office is starting to look better, but it seems that as soon as I clean up one pile, two more show themselves!! Those sneaky little pests!!! 😉 I did not take any pictures this evening, however, I’m confident that I will be able to in a few days, and the room will be completely done!!! WHEW!!

In the process of cleaning, purging and organizing my office/art studio, I am learning to realize just how important a safe place to create is for me. This is ABSOLUTELY priceless!! I am excited to see where my imagination can take me, and I know that having a clean, organized, clutter free space that truly represents my personality is something that EVERY GIRL should have! Especially, if one is trying to tap into one’s inner artist! I can honestly tell you that I don’t know where I will end up in 1 year, 5 years, 10 or 20, but I CAN tell you, that it is GOING TO BE GOOD!!

I want to give a shout out to my husband, Jason!! There were many times today, and this whole weekend, where I have been completely overwhelmed and needed either some moral support, cheerleading, or just someone with a stronger will then I to physically remove some items from our place that just needed to get donated or recycled!! Jason has done that for me, as he has on many occasions!! I love you, Sweetie, and I could not have gotten nearly as far as I have without your help! YOU ARE MY ROCK! You make my life so much better, and I still thank God that you are in my life. I TRULY am one lucky girl, and I OWE YOU SOOOOO BIG TIME!!! Thank you, Jay!

As for this week! I am not sure exactly what to expect yet, but priority number one is to get this art studio/office finished!!! Mamma needs a place to create!!

Work will be busy, but really, when is it not?? I also need to make sure that I get a couple of weeks on the calendar for our vacation! We are planning on camping with my sister’s family at the end of the month, but even that time has not been approved just yet! So, I will have to do some negotiating with some of my co-workers on that!

I am wanting to take a Zumbe class! I was planning on starting that next week, but I was burning my candle at both ends, still am, and that is going to have to wait a little while longer!! 😉 That is part of the reason for uncluttering my home so that I have more time and energy for doing the things I want to do – like Zumba!!

Have I told you that I am still doing my Artist’s Way morning pages, and weekly artist’s date with myself. I am, and I am still loving it! I was surprised to see that I was on week 9 of that process!!  The old Christina really never did very well with following through on things like this. This new Christina can’t imagine never not doing it!! They have radically changed the way that I look at my life, which in turn has changed me!! For the better!! I am so much happier than I was in the past, and I have reconnected with my creator, and now have hope for a different future than the dismal one I was settling for!! now, if only this new Christina could just lose some weight, and figure out world peace, all would be DIVINE wouldn’t it??? LOL! 😉

Until I speak with all tomorrow…

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

 

Slowly But Surely!

Good evening!

I know that these pics may not look like I am making much headway in my art studio/office clean, up but I feel like I am doing A LOT!!!

My sweetie helped me locate, and assembled this perfect little bookshelf to put on top of my craft dresser, My new motto is storage, storage, storage!! I have spent a good portion of my day sorting supplies and putting all like items together. Tomorrow will be more about getting things out of there for donating to charity, recycling old magazines, and papers, putting everything into their new homes, and decorating like a banshee!! That is my FAVORITE part!!! 😉

I am loving the green on the walls, I had dabbled with the idea of changing it, but to be honest with you – it is just too much work!! So, I am sticking with my gut and just working with it! I am adding baby pink, silver, and baby blue into the mix!!  Also adding the cubicle bookcase on top of the dresser and some lovely white curtains, is making this place feel so much nicer – even though there is still sooooooo much left to do!!! I think the room is taking on a much softer  girlier-glam feel! I know that is hard to believe when looking at these pics, but it really took me 5 years to get it into the state that it was in, so it is going to take me a little while to get it back to ship-shape!! 😉

I must confess, that I was so overwhelmed when I went in there to start this morning, that I decided to go shopping instead! Nice, right??? I bought some replacement essentials like bed pillows, and towels, which we were in desperate need of new ones!! Then when I got home, Jason helped me first thing, and I was still sooooo overwhelmed!! WHERE THE HECK DO I START??? Well, when I had taken Linda and GG’s craft class, they started with a meditation, so I thought I would give that a try! It TOTALLY worked!! I realized I had to stop feeling guilty and forgive myself for letting the room get to be such a disaster. I then made the decision to open my eyes, find one thing to toss, and one thing to put away. That seemed easy enough to commit to, so I did it, and then did again, and before I knew it I was on a roll!!

Anyway, I have a lot of work ahead of me for tomorrow, but I am excited to see what I can get done!!

TO-WANDA!!!!
(a la Fired Green Tomatoes, for those who are not in the know!)

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

Art Studio Reality Check!

Good evening!!

Wow! Where do I start??? I have a lot going on, right now, but I wanted to share about an EMBARRASSING secret that I have been living with, that is becoming a bigger and bigger obstacle on my path to to my creative self!!!

This evening I spent a little time in my “Art Studio”. I say art studio in quotes because my space that can become my dedicated art space AKA Art Studio! Well, let me show you some pics:

I am ABSOLUTELY MORTIFIED of this CATASTROPHIC MESS!!!

(Click to enlarge)

and just take a gander at my work table!

(Click to enlarge)

How the heck am I supposed to get any CREATING done in this HEAP of a room!!

AAAAAAAACK!!

My craft room has become a problem for me, as you can see from the ATROCIOUS pics above!! So, I have decided to host my own makeover intervention with myself!! This whole transformation is being brought on because I have been spending some time reading the latest publication of Where Women Create. I want to have a room comparable to one of these women’s FABULOUS art studios!! With interesting and fun storage idas, everything organized with their own style stamp on their spaces!! I just know it will make any art I create that much sweeter!! Ok, that might be wishful thinking on my part, but it really would make it be a space that I would LOVE to spend time in, and not a space that I cringe to!!!

So, more to come! I will definitely keep you all posted!! 😉 Over the next week or few, depending on how long it takes I am going to be taking some progress pics to show you what progress I am making on turning this room into a place of BEAUTY and CREATIVITY!!! This may take a while!! 😉

In the meantime,

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉