Habits II

I said I was going to fold my clothes today.............and I did. Everything was folded and put into drawers. The hallway laundry basket was put into the hallway. It wasn't easy-peasy, but it was manageable. The beauty of that is that I MADE IT be manageable. I'm still a little floored by that.

I was watching an interview with a woman who considers herself a minimalist today. She said that her definition of it is more expansive than most people's. She believes that you should live with only the things that make you happy and are useful to your life. Everything else should be removed.

Her example was how she only used a certain number of plates and bowls over and over again, and yet she had 20 or more plates than that. She just let those set on her shelf as she washed the ones she liked again and again. After a while, she realized she could remove all the other plates (keeping just one or two extra for guests or emergencies) and gain a great deal of space. She did this with everything in her kitchen. She only liked ONE of her frying pans, so she removed the rest. She only cooked soup in ONE soup pan, so she removed the rest. By eliminating all of the stuff she never used, she was able to clean her kitchen easier because there was just so much less to clean.

I feel like this is what I've accomplished in my room. Admittedly, I could probably still get rid of quite a few things, but for the most part, my room is function and amazing now. I feel good when I go in there. I feel accomplished when I go in there. Beyond just weekly maintenance, all I need to finish now is just some artwork. That's it.

This took me a long time. It also took a great deal of help, support, very good suggestions, and patience from my roommate. There are still issues, but ones I can live with.

OH, actually, that's another thing about doing this kind of home improvement. When you're limited by money, skill, and ability, you may start to feel like a difficult house is an impossible house. A lot of problems pile up and it feels like you can't get out from under them. There are things about my room I can't fix by myself. I can't change the flooring. I can't fix my broken windows. HOWEVER, because I fixed the other problems in that room, the carpet and windows feel less annoying. They aren't two items on a list of 10 things I hate about my room. They are the two remaining items, and when you just have two problems, it feels so much easier. It really does.

Yay!!