And Now It Is Arctic, But My Home Is Cozy

While it was a personally productive fall for me, the blogging and the garden had to take a back seat. I made good on decades of promises to de-clutter and come to grips with the pile of life’s detritus and accumulation.

You see, I come from a line of “collectors” on my mother’s side. My dad was spare in his living and his spending, but I inherited the idea that everything is good for something… someday from my mother.

Then the fact that I had ten children kind of caught up with me. The economics of those days meant saving old clothes as “pass me downs”.  I believe I was a bit over optimistic in what actually constituted a worthwhile saved item. And was worse when it came to my own clothing.

I finally got rid of all the size 6-8 apparel of my thirties and forties. A certain realistic attitude must take hold. I hauled excess sheets, and perfectly good clothes to the nearest thrift center.  Baby clothes? Out.

Boxes

While we had some warm, lovely gardening weeks, I was delving into the dusty innards of old boxes. Washing and sorting the bric a brac of a lifetime in the same old house. A roomy house, inviting storage of the most unnecessary, never-to-be tackled mending, repairing, and crafting projects. I don’t even have that many years in me, if I started tomorrow.

Yet, I still couldn’t give up at least one attic box of “craft doodads”, just in case the muse and the time should magically appear together. Not totally reformed, I still must be able to find that thing that “I know I have somewhere”. At least, now, I know where to find it.

 The Awakening

I am finally seeing my way through this tunnel of clutter, The light, free feeling is worth the sacrifice of a season of bulb planting, and putting off the pyracantha pruning.

It Was A Long Time Coming

How did I arrive at the place where action finally caught up with good intent? I was like a slow train. Making resolutions about two to three years ago, in which I made tiny steps of progress, helped. Teaming with my husband to finally finish off the last couple remodeling projects inspired and motivated. After all, I had to clear the attic and the “junk room” to get started with those.

Ceiling of the junkroom removed and replaced; view of attic above.

The outside needed new siding, added the upper window for good measure (a project that had waited, oh, about 15 to 20 years)

Perhaps you will forgive me for not writing, not posting, not taking photographs, or making video (although I find it hard to forgive myself- why can’t I do more?) However, I do not regret the progress I have made (though at this late date) in life, despite those pesky guilt trips.

Next year, though, If still in the land of the living, I hope to find myself happily puttering around in the garden.  Writing the musings such pursuits inspire, and maybe even rationalizing buying a new camera, or at least making some of the planned garden videos that didn’t materialize yet.

Until then my family and I will enjoy the simplified spaces that allow me to think and actually use and enjoy the things that I own. …Ahhhh… such peace of mind.

My cluttered, disorganized life always interfered with that endeavor. It feels so good to take something from the dimension of wishful thinking and bring it into the now of experience. It cost sweat equity, a little blood, and yes, some tears here and there, but after months of steady determination to be “at it”, the end is now in sight.

Thank You

• I have a list of thankful mentions in this… God, who daily gives me strength,
•  the encouragement of husband and children, their hands-on, down and dirty, physical help in the work;
• the many organizational self-help books I read through the years,
• Target, IKEA, and other stores that had containers and bookcases and boxes…magazine holders…well, you get the idea.

Then there is the inspiration of people who organize and get a handle on this part of life who made role models for me.

The philosophical takeaway is that everything is so inter-related and we can’t do everything on our own. And maybe, too, that we don’t need as much stuff as we think we do.

I Recently Posted a Decluttering Video