(I know, blogging gurus, I should be thinking about SEO and meta descriptions and all that “professional blogger” stuff, but this is a reincarnated blog. I’m still cleaning and painting and trying to decide furniture placement, so eff off on that stuff for now.)
So, first of all, Sophie DID have a UTI, and is back on an antibiotic, and (dare I send this out to the Universe?) she seems to be doing quite well. She’s still peeing much more often, but she’s a very, very good girl about using her potty pads while I’m at work. Everybody please cross your fingers that our months of expensive medical drama are over! (Oh shit, I just jinxed it, didn’t I?)
Meanwhile, I woke up on Monday morning – not Saturday or Sunday, when it would have made sense – with an overwhelming urge to declutter and rearrange and organize everything I own. I wanted to first bag stuff for donation, then throw away crap, then organize what’s left by color and then alphabetize it. It was a fever, and I couldn’t indulge it because I had to go to work. The fever didn’t break when I got home and I filled a big blue IKEA bag with clothing which I now realize I will never want to wear again. I’ll drop it at Goodwill on my way home tomorrow.
I am not done with this project. I recall that back on the old blog I started the year with grandiose plans to redo my home office and I’ll confess right now that I’ve accomplished exactly jack shit on that project. Time and money, always the issue/excuse. So the year is half over and I’m not where I want to be, and I know why. It has taken me a lifetime to figure out how to eat an elephant. I would look at this office/rarely used guest room, think of how I wished it looked, feel defeated, and go into another room. The year is half over. I still want a comfortable, functional home office.
So this particular elephant is being consumed in 30 minutes a day increments. I actually do set a timer for 30 minutes, which I’m free to ignore if I’m on a roll – but 30 minutes is set in stone. I’m also being much more ruthless with the “But I paid good money for that!” (I can hear my father’s voice in my head with that crap.) Yes, I did. And I either used it for a while, while it worked for me, or I decided early that it wasn’t right for me and I was too lazy to return it. So why am I hanging on to things like that now? Reminders of bad decisions past? Believe me, I have lots of those in forms that don’t take up physical space.
So my mission: 30 minutes a day. Be ruthless. Donate things that are legitimately still nice/in good shape/someone else would want/use. IKEA bags, downgraded cloth grocery bags, Amazon boxes – keep a few of these things on hand and then send them on their way when they’re full. I’m setting aside clothes that could go to consignment. If you have a neighborhood Facebook or Nextdoor group or other place to post a curb alert for plant stands and flowerpots you don’t need, just send it back into the Universe that way. And if it’s genuinely crap nobody else would ever claim, do everyone a favor and throw it the hell out already!
I’m on a mission. Sophie’s asleep on the couch. Time to start the 30 minutes for today.