Tag: cleaning

Clearing

The Random Decluttering Method

Mary C

 

If you know anything about decluttering, it might be that it is not easy and it’s not for wafflers. There are many, many sources of information to guide you through, whether you go with Marie Kondo (I’ve read the books The Life Changing Magic and Spark Joy), Swedish Death (I’ve not read this one) or watch videos by the innumerable guru’s on YouTube (done this too). One method that’s recommended over and over is that you should tackle room by room or category by category. I’m throwing caution to the wind and going with my own method which is randomly picking an area and tossing anything that looks like it hasn’t been used in a while. Mercilessly.

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Life

It’s Tuesday!

Mary C

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Yesterday was a lost day for me which is too bad because I had planned to get sooooo much cleaning and decluttering done. I found a new minimalist vlogger on YouTube and I binged her videos over the weekend (this is like the non-cook compulsively watching cooking shows!) and was ready to go. But then I realized our internet wasn’t working. Of course you don’t really need internet to clean, do you now? But I have a streak going on daily meditation and I use Headspace which says they need internet to proceed…

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Getting things done

Organization!

Mary C

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If there is anything I’ve ever wanted to excel at in life, it’s organization. I often fall short but that’s okay because it means there’s going to be more organizing in my future. The theme for this week is organizing for multiple trips while also deep cleaning the house. I’m not sure this is such a good idea because I’ll probably arrive at Friday, which is the go date for trip one, feeling overwhelmed that I still have things to prepare.

I’ve also been obsessed with “what to pack” videos on YouTube despite the fact I’ve been packing for years on my own. It’s just that I’m curious how other people do it so I’ve (wasted?) spent many hours on this (for entertainment purposes only). Whenever you watch videos on YouTube, they also kindly offer up other videos you might be interested in and so my second favorite genre has been Amazon travel purchase videos. This has been very dangerous! There were so many things I didn’t know I needed to have for my travels.

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Life, Uncategorized

Books over Christmas

Mary C

Christmas is coming but you wouldn’t know it if you walked into our house today. I have been procrastinating about cleaning the dining and living rooms which hold the remnant mess of our summer kitchen remodel. There are always better things to do (reading, reading, reading) with my free time! I kept telling myself I would get to it and even this week when I knew time was running out, I couldn’t ignore the siren song of my Kindle. I recently finished I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara and then I became obsessed about anything else I could find out about the rapist and murderer who terrorized California in the 70’s and 80’s. And then I said to myself let me just start another book before I jump into cleaning.

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Life

What to do on a snow day

Mary C

snow

Our corner of the world is having a snow day today! This is also about the time of year we all start grumbling about the cold and the endlessness of winter but I’m pretty happy about it because it will mean much better ski conditions this weekend. We’re at mid-winter and I’ve been wondering whether getting a season pass to ski is a good idea due to the unpredictability of the forecast. So far we’ve only used them twice but my friend assures me we’ll be skiing well into spring because the mountain is north of us in Vermont.

Snow days are a mixed bag around here especially when all of us are home (because I’m no fun and expect everyone to be doing chores since we have an unexpected day free and a messy house!). I worked in the morning but when I came home, Jim and Liam had not moved much (reading and watching TV). I whipped into a frenzy cleaning the kitchen and then announced there would be no more TV today. From there Liam inundated me with “what can I do’s”. He decided to use his wheelies around the house (which I’ve asked him not to do sooooo many times) and I’m running around with bare feet thinking he’s going to run over my toes.

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