That's the nice way of putting it. I think my husband could classify it as obsessive-compulsive. I've been like a whirlwind around here the last two or three months (which is why I've been absent in my plans of chronicling my journey to self-improvement here. I do have a few dozen blog posts drafted in my head that I'll have to sit down and actually type out someday soon, to clear the mental clutter from my brain). I've been doing a ton of reading and research into, this order: veganism, feng shui, and Buddhism. More in-depth posts on what I've learned and done as a result of learning to come. For now, it will suffice to list the self-improvement things I've done over the last few months:
-Bought house plants to purify the air and energize the chi in our apartment (the first concern is the primary...as far as I can tell about myself, I don't think I really pick up on the flow of chi, but I do feel sooo much better in a pretty, neat, organized space). We have a corn cane plant, a Sansevieria (snake plant, or mother-in-law's tongue), two hanging golden pothos (only one nearly died because I was over-zealous in watering it, and it's rebounded nicely), and a golden ivy from Lowe's that apparently didn't get enough light in the kids' room, or it was just a really crappy plant to begin with. I put it outside, with my non-fruiting, gigantic tomato plants and my empty pot that used to have my barely-producing bean plants. It's like a graveyard of horticultural disappointments. I should clear them out, because, even if stagnating plants don't affect my basic life force, the irritation I feel when I see them does. Oh, except for my herb baskets, half of the stuff I planted in them is doing really well. The important part is, the plants in the house are alive and thriving, and it's been two months, so that's pretty cool indeed.
-Organized like a mother.
I spent a ton of time decluttering and purging. Inspirational excerpt from a feng shui book to follow.
I made a magnetic spice rack out of baby food jars that's on the side of the fridge. It's so pretty.
I rearranged the kids' room (again, for the 14th time) and made some fabric drawers out of cardboard boxes from 1/2 Price Boxes here in Houston (I'll be so sad when we move, that place is AMAZING) to put in the massive shelves under the built-in changing table on B's crib. They look SO GOOD.
I organized their closet with some 1/2 Price Boxes boxes on the top shelf that are covered with scrapbook paper and sporting velcro fastening and chalkboard paint labels. I also (unfortunately) bought a closet-doubler to hang from their rod to make the clothes on the bottom accessible as Ez learns to dress himself. He's a champ at undressing himself, as we'll collect him after his nap/quiet time stripped down to his diaper. He's also very good at taking off his diaper and putting it in the diaper pail. So responsible of him. Anyway, I say it's unfortunate that I used the closet doubler because now the clothes are accessible to him. And he spends all of his time when he should be napping taking the clothes off the rod and strewing them about his room. Then he'll take the doubler down and smack the walls with it, and put it back in. I'm actually pretty impressed with his dexterity. I'm not impressed by the fact that he's so enthralled with redoing his closet that he hasn't had a proper nap in about 3 weeks.
I made toy bins, again with 1/2 Price Boxes boxes, scrap book paper, and chalkboard paint labels (spray adhesive, my glue gun, and I all became the very best of friends) for the small bookshelf out here in the living room. We'd been using baskets, but they didn't fit well and looked messy and ugly. These look awesome...from the front, when they're pushed in on the shelves, which is the whole point. I didn't want to buy paper to cover all the way around the box, lol.
Organized the laundry closet. That's where all the old toy baskets went.
Redid my recipe book (my binder with page protected sheets and sheets and sheets of recipes). Since I haven't cooked with meat in about two months, my cookbook needed some serious upgrading.
Stocked and inventoried a first aid kit to keep in the car, as well as a car emergency kit, and 72 hour kits for all four of us. I'm also working on home management binders, from cleaning, to important documents, to setting up an allowance/chore system (we'll have to start that sooner than I think I'll realize), and household spending/receipt recording for our super-amazing budget spreadsheets. For some reason, I feel this impressive urge to get my "house in order." It's either a presage that I'm about to die, or it's just manic-obsessive-compulsive energy. If I die, it must be through some violent, freak accident, because I just had my yearly MRI and bloodwork done and I'm as healthy as a healthy person. (Post on accepting lifelong diseases to come.)
-Beautified our home in non-organizational ways:
Finally bought lamps for our beside dressers. Now we each have a lamp. I feel very officially-married-couple, with us both having control over our own light source. I did feel a little sad when I packed up my trusty college bendy-neck lamp. That thing is 9 years old, was used every day, and it's only ever needed the lightbulb changed when I accidentally knocked it off my dresser 3 or 4 years ago. I secretly think it must somehow be magical or have a soul or something. Oh, crap, but if it does, it's going to be resentful about being replaced...
FINISHED PAINTING OUR APARTMENT. The whole place was this depressing gray-purple when we moved in, so we painted the kids' room a soft green, the bathroom a light gray, our room a pale peach, and the rest of the place (dining room, living room, hallway) dusty yellow. We finally just finished the whole place by painting the kitchen counter wall and the wall in the kitchen and the laundry room doors polar white to match the work we did on all. of. the. trim. baseboards. doors. and. doorframes. in the WHOLE. PLACE. The kitchen cabinets were super chipped and the cabinets in the vanity looked like crap, so we painted them sarsaparilla brown and they look SO AMAZING.
I can't think of anything else right now and Suits is about to come on, so I'll copy-paste my documents on decluttering, home management/maintenance, etc, next time, for your pleasure and employment. And so I can kind of brag about how much work I've done and how organized and awesome I am. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment