Happy New Year-A Time for Resolutions

It’s been five years. Five years since I’ve posted a single thing on this blog. My head is all over the place with where to start. I apologize as this will turn into a mind dump. The writing may be poor. But I mostly see this blog for myself now. If you’re reading this I’m honored but no longer anticipate much of an audience.

I considered starting a new one (blog). There are plenty of services out there and I could run afresh. But that wouldn’t be true to myself. This blog is sort of a history. Sometimes I’ve referred back to it for a certain recipe, or found a sweet memory that takes me back. All too often the internet, and I believe even our society is quick to discard and start new. I grow nostalgic wanting to look back on my old, forgotten accounts. 43 things. Oh how I miss you. I was saddened to find last year my list was gone. Perhaps that means I don’t need it. Life goes on. Since that service is gone, a new one has taken its place and sure I’ll give it a try, but where did my list go? What did I plan to do years ago and how many of those goals have I since met? I probably got an email about it’s shutdown on an old address I don’t have access to anymore. This reminds me of Xanga. I had an account. I would love to look back on my teenage self and find how far I’ve come. But alas, I don’t know what my account whould have been and certainly even which old email address I would have used.

This brings me to the point of this post...New Years revolutions. Im not one for resolutions on the new year. I generally set goals constantly. Whether or not I achieve them is a different story. This year, or at least starting right now, even though it’s not technically the new year yet...I’m going to try the KonMari method again. It’s not supposed to be something that you have to do more than once, so I must have missed something along the way. I didn’t do it right before. I did, admittedly, skip some things here and there.

It has since changed my vision though. I now find it much easier to donate or discard things now that I consider whether they bring me joy, and how I want my home to be. My home is in no way shape or form where I want it to be yet, but I really try to consider the lessons Marie Kondo teaches. Why would you keep anything in your home that you don't either love or that doesn't at the very least bring you utility?

I'll confess, I love to shop. I'm also a bit of a hoarder in that I keep things thinking I'll use them "someday." A challenge area for example is my craft supply hoard. In all honesty, this time of my life is not one for many crafts to be done. I have an 8 year old and a 1 year old and work full time. Crafts bring me joy, in that I love making and sharing them, but do I have much time to do them? No. Will I someday? Yes. And that's ok. But I often find when I do actually get an opportunity to craft, I don't want to use a certain paper, certain material, because maybe I'll want it another time. After reading and (halfway) adopting the KonMari method, I realized this was sort of nonsense.

If I'm not going to use it now, why have it? I love shopping--this is the key--I can always buy more paper. I'm fortunate enough to be in a financial position where I can go buy something else if I do find I need it. I've stopped buying paper because I have too much. That right there tells me I need to use what I have, without guilt, and enjoy it.

I love how nice my closet can look with things sorted by color. I still hang my shirts--I don't have that kind of drawer space to fold like Marie suggests. But it's an improvement.

I folded the grocery bags for a while. I still like when I find time to do it, but often my husband comes through and wads them up before I get the chance to fold them. It's a little extreme, and he laughs at me for good reason when I try folding.

So why did my last attempt fail?

Where did I go wrong?

Maybe it was because I skipped some steps? (Craft materials, never got to toys, didn't exactly collect every single pen from the whole house to go through them...)

Maybe it was because Marie didn't offer any real solutions for life with kids and all the stuff they bring.

Maybe it's partly because I didn't completely change my way of thinking while shopping and bringing more of this stuff in.

I'm not sure. But I'm going to try again. As I mentioned, it has at least changed my thinking a bit. But I'm going to try again. That's all I can hope for.

Something that trips me up is timing. I know Marie says to do it all within a short span of time...but really? I'm supposed to sort through four bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, a living, family, dining room, kitchen, basement, and all sorts of other nooks and crannies in a "short span of time"...what kind of time are we talking here? I don't recall exactly but I believe she says not to worry about how long it actually takes? It's more important to really focus and get through everything.

Maybe it's brought on by the Christmas influx of stuff. I'm sure that's part of it, but I've been considering this for a while--going through the house again. The older kid no longer plays with most of what's in the playroom. We've been talking about moving his video games and NERF guns upstairs to his bedroom. This can make way for the little kid to bring all her dolls and baby safe toys to the playroom. I've been working little by little on getting things how I really want them--two of our kitchen drawers have been rebuilt (by me 😊) and I'm working on tweaks here and there. My head, much like my stuff, is all over the place.

So, my "resolution" is to clean out the stuff, and work on making this home just what we want it to be, while realizing that may take more than just 2018, the cleaning out can certainly start right now. I already did my tops, now I have to revisit the rest of the closet and keep it going. I'm also hoping to spend less money or be more careful with what I spend money on this year.

Here's to making this really work this time. Let's hope...