Monthly Archives: September 2021

A New Reason To Do Big Cleaning Projects (or Putting Other Projects On Hold For Now)

Posted on September 2, 2021 | Comments Off on A New Reason To Do Big Cleaning Projects (or Putting Other Projects On Hold For Now)

Over the past year and a half, I feel like I’ve done a lot of projects around my house. Sometimes I was doing them because I was getting bored while I was out of work and sometimes I was doing them because they were things I was bothered by in my house and I knew that with a small project I could fix it. And my project list seemed like it never ended because there were always little improvements I’d like to make. But because of budget, I often have to just keep them on the list and not actually do them.

But there have been a few projects lately that I was starting to get ready to do and I was doing some comparison shopping online to figure out the best thing for me. But as soon as I found out that my place was being sold, I put a stop to all the projects on my list. I know that I’m not moving out right now or even in the next month or two, but I don’t want to do improvements around my place if I’m going to be moving soon. A lot of these things would be removing something that I would have to put back when I eventually move out, such as finding a new curved shower curtain rod so things didn’t feel as cramped in my shower or bathroom. I don’t want to do things that I might have put back again soon when they aren’t urgent projects to do. And other things on the list were about buying things to fit into a specific space, mainly to provide more storage for me. But because this might not be my space that much longer, I don’t want to spend money on something that might not fit into whatever place I move into next.

All the projects I had planned were taken off my list and one big one was added on. I need to do a big clean of my stuff in my house. I used to joke about how annoying it will be when I eventually move out because I have collected so much stuff and I know that I don’t need to move it all with me. Well, that time is upon me, and now is the time to start working on seeing what I really have and what I really need. And a lot of this is stuff that I know I’ve needed to do and have just put off. For example, my filing cabinets have things that I really don’t need anymore but it’s easy enough to keep since they are in a folder. But when I will have to take that folder into a new place, I don’t know if I’ll want everything in there. Same with stuff in my closet. I know I have shoes and bags that I don’t use and there is no point in me eventually moving stuff that I don’t have a use for.

I’m glad that I will probably have a while before I’m moving because I know cleaning out a lot of stuff will take more than an afternoon or a weekend. I really need to evaluate what I have and what I use and make sure that when I move I only move things that I want to have with me, not stuff that I feel like I should keep for one reason or another.

I have made cleaning different parts of my house monthly challenges from time to time. And while I haven’t always succeeded at those challenges, I have always made at least a dent in what I was hoping to do. But now, I have a new motivation to get this done because I know when I start packing up my place it will be easier if I’m not sorting and cleaning then. Getting it out of the way now when I’m not stressing about a lot of other things will be best for me. And allowing myself lots of time to go through things will be good too. And maybe this will stress me out a bit, but I know I have to do it. And I know I will feel much better about things once I know I’ve removed things I’ve been holding on to just because it was easy to do that.

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Default ThumbnailStill Doing More House Projects (or Just Trying To Find Busy Work) Default ThumbnailSlowly Spring Cleaning (or Tidying Up My Way) Default ThumbnailA Big Cleaning Week (or An Excuse to Organize) Default ThumbnailWorking On Cleaning (or Time To Declutter) Default ThumbnailDoing A Lot Of Spring Cleaning (or Trying To Fill My Day) Default ThumbnailAlways Cleaning (or At Least The Pandemic Helped Create This Habit)

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Celebrating And Future Planning (or Preparing For What Comes Next For Me)

Posted on September 1, 2021 | Comments Off on Celebrating And Future Planning (or Preparing For What Comes Next For Me)

Last month, my challenge was to celebrate what I could in my life. I knew I needed to do this. I have been focused on a lot of negative things lately and I wanted to change that. Things are still not normal or feeling really safe, but there are still good things happening in my life even if they are silly. And celebrating the silly things was kind of what this challenge was about.

There were the obvious things to celebrate like my birthday and how I celebrated my birthday. I didn’t celebrate my birthday as much as I would have liked to, but I still celebrated. And seeing friends and going out for a meal are really things to celebrate these days. I celebrated little victories I had in work like when I got good news or figured out something that will make my work better. And I celebrated anything I could think of. I still use grocery delivery a lot (I have to admit it’s pretty convenient), and I would celebrate if I got everything I ordered without a substitution or something being out of stock. I celebrated when I found a good deal on things I was looking at buying. I celebrated when I felt like I accomplished everything I wanted to within a day.

I really did notice a change in my mindset as I celebrated things. I have been doing gratitude lists every day as I’m getting ready for bed, so I usually take some time each day to focus on the good things that happened to me. But I usually don’t think about it all day, just when it’s the end of the day and I’m reflecting on things. But this past month, I did keep it in mind as I went about my day. Even taking a moment to recognize something to celebrate put me in a better mood for whatever I wanted to do next. I don’t know if I’ll continue to celebrate everything I can the way that I did this past month, but I want to continue at least some of this habit because it did help me each day.

And this month, in a way my challenge is a bit of the same thing but also a bit of the opposite. I know a lot of people do this in different situations, but I tend to think way ahead in the future whether it is good or bad. If I have an amazing audition, I think about how my life might be if I booked the job. If there is something that worries me that may be happening in the future, I start thinking about all the bad things that might come. I was doing that recently when I found out about my landlord selling where I live. I dream of what the future might look like, whether it is good or bad, and I get myself either worried or excited about things that might not happen. So I want to work on curtailing that.

I know that I can’t prevent it completely nor do I think that would be smart. I do want to plan ahead, both good and bad. I do want to celebrate if a good thing could happen and imagine some great things. But I don’t want that to be a big focus for me. I want to maybe spend a little time on that future planning and then move on to things that I can work on at that time. For example, when I was panicking about my place being sold, I spent a lot of time wondering what I would do and where I would go. I started to stress out about a lot of things that may not happen for months depending on how quickly my landlord finds a buyer. Instead of worrying about all the things that might be coming, I refocused on what I could change. I started looking at options for where I could move instead of just imagining a plan. I started to make a plan that I think will be a really great thing (but more to come on that when I have more information). I can’t change how quickly some things might happen, but I can be prepared for what I have ready at that time. And that’s how I want to manage my future planning.

The same idea can work for when my future planning is about good things. Using my union election as an example, I can imagine how great it would be if the people I want to be elected win and what it might be like if I am elected to the local board. But right now, I can focus on the work I was doing to get out the vote and help other candidates campaign by what I post on our social media. Planning for the future with tangible things and not just daydreaming.

I’m curious how this will work out for me this month. It might be a great thing or it might feel stifling. I’m not sure yet. But that’s why it’s a challenge I’m going to try out and see how I feel in a month. And if I love it, I’ll keep doing it. If I don’t, I’ll adjust as I feel necessary and maybe try again. And maybe in a month, I’ll be writing about something new I learned about myself or how I manage things that come my way. That’s what these challenges are all about. Pushing myself to try something and see if it benefits my life and if I want to keep doing it.

I guess we’ll have to see in a month what happens!

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