The one piece of advice that I would give my 20-year-old self is to learn to love your space despite your circumstances. As I mentioned in my recent podcast on May 7 of 2023 that I didn’t love my space.
It didn’t help ADHD/ADD was affecting my organizational skills. People made judgments saying I was lazy, and I didn’t care. Dealing with RA (rheumatoid arthritis) flared up that almost crippled me. So, I had a lot of resentment towards my space because I thought there was a major flaw with me.
The never-ending cycle of purging items, which I thought was cleaning. Then in a few weeks, the cluttered would return, adding to my resentment.
I didn’t understand was how the RA was impacting my life during a flare-up. Just doing the necessary chores, that was it. What I needed in those times was help and compassion.
Instead, I blamed myself for circumstances that were out of my control. Resentment continued to build towards my space as hopelessness settled in.
I wasn’t flawed.
I had the wrong ideas about clutter and organization.
Then one day, I realized that people who had organized homes and kept them maintained; actually, loved the space that they lived in and wanted the best for them and their families.
By loving my space that I admitted I deserved a clean, welcoming environment, and a peaceful sanctuary from the rest of the world. And that I needed to create a system that functioned for my lifestyle.
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year. It is that time of year for resolutions. I have been asking myself what I want to accomplish in 2023.
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year. It is that time of year for resolutions. I have been asking myself what I want to accomplish in 2023. What is important to me? Creating routines, writing, exercising, and creating more content for my social media are on top of my list.
MY SEVEN 2023’s GOALS:
Creating Routines – to help me stay focused on what is a priority and allow me to achieve my other goals by getting my household chores done. Organizing my home to create an inviting and relaxing environment for me and my family.
To schedule time for my writing during the day – 2022 has taught me, that I need to set time aside, during the day for my writing projects and articles. This was an eye-opening revelation for me. If I want to write, I need to make time for my writing.
Exercising – 2022 has also taught me, if I want to keep my mobility and maintain a healthy weight, I must exercise. Whether I like it or not, I must exercise. To be honest, I’m unsure how this will be incorporated into my routines. I’m determined to discover the way.
Keeping my relationship with the Lord healthy – I need to nourish my spiritual life. I must put the Lord first and spend time with Him by reading His Word and praying.
Creating music – composing music is my happy place where my mind can unwind and relax. I need to spend more time working on my compositions.
Reading – I fell short of my goal for 2022. To be honest, I know I can do better.
To create more content for my social media platforms – not sure how I’m going to accomplish this goal. Working on a plan, I’m determined to come up with an idea.
What are your goals for 2023? Please let me know, in the comment section.
Did I accomplish my goal of keeping Christmas Chaos away? Last week, I discussed my goal of preventing chaos in my kitchen by washing my dishes regularly.
Did I accomplish my goal of keeping Christmas Chaos away? Last week, I discussed my goal of preventing chaos in my kitchen by washing my dishes regularly.
Yes, I did for the first week.
On Christmas weekend, it was bitter cold and blizzard conditions slammed into my area changing my Christmas plans. This year, I am blessed to have two Christmas celebrations. We had a nice Christmas dinner and enjoyed watching Christmas movies on Christmas Day. It wasn’t stressful and drama free.
Before Christmas weekend; it was a hectic week for my household. With a blizzard, running last minutes errands, me dealing with low iron, and extra appointments. It was chaotic. I found the strength to persevere.
By the end of the day, I was exhausted. When I looked at the counter, my dirty glasses taunted me. In ADD fashion. I ignored them. Oblivious to their existence. So, I chose to focus on working on a hot spot, the kitchen table. I sorted through items, and mail, and put things back in their designated places.
I had already decided if the dishes weren’t done by Friday. Friday was the deadline for the dirty dishes and the main priority that day.
Friday came along with the blizzard and there was nothing else for me to do. And so that morning, I decided to wash dishes. Because I didn’t want to wash a whole bunch of dishes on Christmas Eve.
Once I got the dishes all caught up, I was able to stay on top of the dishes during Christmas weekend. And that created a stress-free, drama-free environment. I enjoyed Christmas with my family which was wonderful. And today, waking up to a nice clean kitchen was a tremendous feeling.
Now, I’ll just stay on top of things, by staying in my routine with the dishes, when there’s a pile, and monitoring the hot zone, my kitchen table. the main celebration for Christmas is this weekend, which is New Year’s weekend.
How did you manage Christmas Chaos this year? I would love to read about it in the comment section below.
My goal is to enjoy Christmas and not get stressed out from the chaos of clutter. That is my plan.
Christmas Chaos…
My goal is to enjoy Christmas and not get stressed out from the chaos of clutter. That is my plan.
Christmas chaos is all the stress from extra activities that can produce chaos. Falling behind in routines and having clutter to build very quickly in hot zones, this time of year that can be overwhelming.
This time of year there are a lot more activities, like people getting together, holiday parties, and other events I find that create Christmas chaos. For me, it’s procrastinating on chores I need to get done to keep my home clean and organized.
This year I’m trying something new, I am prioritizing the kitchen by keeping it clean and free of clutter to the best of my ability. So I’m making sure the hot zones like the kitchen table don’t have massive clutter buildup of junk mail and bills. And the other items that need to be put back in their designated place.
My task on my list is keeping up with the dishes. I don’t want a huge pile of dirty dishes on Christmas Eve to wash. So it is my main priority this week is to keep my dirty dishes from piling up.
What are you doing to avoid the Christmas Chaos this year?
I would love to hear your thoughts, so leave a comment below,
I will be giving an update about my recovery, discussing exercise and rheumatoid arthritis. I will be talking about decluttering and organizing, and what I have learned.
• Limit your distractions like your cellphone and staying off of social media..
• What is your purpose for the space?
• When cleaning or purging items, prepare yourself that you are making a bigger mess to downsize.
• Giving yourself enough time to complete your task.
• Allowing enough breaks to avoid being overwhelmed by decisions.
• Make sure you have a plan for your meals for your cleaning day.
• Have a deadline when you want to finish your task. Procrastination is a hindrance and prevents you from finishing.
• Having four categories: Trash, Donate, Keep, and I don’t know. “I don’t know pile” is for items you can’t make a quick decision on. So, you don’t get overwhelmed and get distracted. When cleaning is done, start looking at those items and determine what category they belong to. Once the stress of cleaning is gone, you will have an easier time deciding.
Have you ever wondered why some people are born with organizational skills and others have to learn those same skills? Or have you wondered why people allow clutter to build? I have been thinking about those questions lately, dealing with my war on clutter.
There are people born with minds that can easily organize items and if they grew up in a family with an organizational plan, and learned it. Organizing items becomes easy and painless for those individuals, maintaining a clean home and clutter-free is very easy for them.
Then are people like me who battle with clutter, and the war does not end. Ugh! Why do I struggle with clutter building in my home? Lately, I have been asking myself that question a lot. And I have come up with some answers to that question.
When a person gets used to clutter, it becomes normal. Until an unexpected visitor stops by, reminding that person having a cluttered home is unhealthy.
Yes, I said it, having clutter around you all the time is unhealthy. It can affect your mood, your health, and your mental state. Clutter can cause you to fall or hurt yourself. The main reason, why I keep fighting against the war on clutter is because I want my home to be safe and productive for me. I don’t want to worry about an unexpected visitor coming to my door.
People who can spot clutter in their homes need to understand people who live with clutter have a difficult time spotting it. When we do, dealing with clutter is so overwhelming that we don’t know where to begin. We walk away. Ugh! Our homes are a huge mess!
I don’t know how many times that I have walked away from clutter! Because I was frustrated and angry at myself, for letting it get out of control in the first place. I did not have the skills to deal with clutter or the understanding, that when you spot a small clutter pile starting, that’s when you nip it in the butt!
I never understood when I was staying in a place that was well organized and I had no trouble following the system. I could keep my space clean and tidy without any issues. Once I return home, my old habits arose again, and soon my place was out of control. It never dawned on me that the reason why I would return to my old habits; that I never had an organization plan that fitted my needs for my home.
People who are born organizers understand the need to have a organization plan within their homes to keep their homes clutter-free. This is what I desperately need for my home, but my problem is I don’t know how to develop a plan.
After watching my hand therapist and her team in their workspace, I am very impressed with how they keep their work area clutter-free and very tidy. I noticed they always get the items from the cabinets and when they are done. They put those items in their designated space to be used by the team member.
I explain to my hand therapist that I was impressed with how well organized they were and how clean the work area was. So, my therapist explained when she started working there that the place was a huge mess and unorganized. That it took her and the other therapist almost ten months to get it organized. I found that statement enlightening because I was always under the impression that people who had those organizational skills could get things done very quickly. I never thought that they also have their own struggles, when designing an organizational plan. She and her coworker stayed committed to getting their workplace organized, and their dedication shows how clean their work area is.
I understand why I had failed all these years to keep my home organized and clutter-free. I gave up too soon, in my war because I became overwhelmed and frustrated with the process. Organizing isn’t easy, for ones that have organized skills they can see their outcome and stay committed to their task. All I can see is the clutter instead of my goal.
Now, I must be committed to my plan of organization and remember to do what I can by using baby steps. Clutter didn’t happen overnight in my home and getting my home cleaned won’t happen overnight, either. If I stay committed and create a system that works for me, then I will achieve my goal.
I am very proud of myself, I finally decluttered my desk! After I released Wednesday’ Topic, and I cleaned my desk by getting rid of things that I didn’t need. It is nice to see that area looking nice and organized too.
When having Rheumatoid Arthritis can make it difficult to clean. For me, I find it easier to do my deep cleaning into sections and then do a maintenance clean, like doing laundry, picking up trash, and putting things away.
After being sick, and dealing with a flare-up, and now, I am behind in my chores. I refused to do the catch-up game, so, I just start where I am at. That helps me not to feel stressed out.
Another, thing that I am doing, if there are items that I no longer need or want I am getting rid of them. That helps me to reduce on the clutter.
It also helps to have realistic expectations of what I can get done in a short time period or during a good day when I have energy.
Alexandra Mars 