There’s a reason the title of this blog starts with “documenting the journey”.  I’m nowhere near an expert on any of the things listed there.  I decided to take a tally of where I am now, beginning this process, so later I can look back and see where I’ve come from.  I warn you, the details are gruesome!

Here in part 1, I’ll talk about simplicity.  Where I am now, and where I want to be.

Simple

Where am I?

My house is a mess.  Not “Hoarders” worthy, but cluttered and not particularly clean.  Which doesn’t help our dust allergies.  I have too much crap, and not enough house to put it in.  I need to seriously declutter.  I need to really stick to creating routines and cleaning.  When I do it, it does make amazing dents.  My craft room is a huge pile, I can’t even get to my craft table and my husband’s drafting/art table has so much stuff on it he can’t use it.   Piles of dusty stuff all over my house are just in the way, I don’t even know where anything is anymore.  There’s lots of stuff I just need to get rid of, to simplify and minimize so cleaning isn’t such a giant task.  My mother came to visit for a month twice two years ago, to help clean my house while I was ill with cancer.  To be honest, I think she’d be sad to see it’s gone back to such a dirty state.  I’m sad too.  Never in my life have I been able to keep a room clean.  It’s just not a skill I ever managed to learn.

Five years ago I found Flylady.  I love flylady’s upbeat attitude, and simple babysteps approach.  If I could manage to stick to it, this post would be about how I’d simplified, not how far I had to go.  I’ll get onboard for a while, get things looking good, then I’ll get sick or sidetracked or busy with some other must-do and my routines go out the window and the clutter creeps right back in.  With everything else that’s going on in my life, it just seems like too much to clean sometimes.  Right now the only thing I’ve managed to do on a regular basis is make my bed.  In flylady terms, it’s my “shiny sink“.  I’ll admit, seeing that made-up bed when I go into the bedroom at night is actually a thing of quiet joy to me.  At least one thing in my house is clean.

Where do I want to be?

• Decluttered: so the house is easier to clean and dust, and I am free of all this crap.
• In a routine: so the whole house get cleaned on a regular basis.
• Minimalized: not bringing new things into the house.
• Freed up from having to play catch-up on housework so much so I can have time for things that give me joy, or at least for doing home improvement tasks.

Next: Sustainable/Green.