Assignment 3: Declutter the living room, the car, and one other shared space.
The car was easy--and fun. I emptied out the glove compartment and that "box" between the seats. Didn't find anything useful. It was mostly filled with stuff my Mother had had there before she gave me the car two years ago. (shhhh). I returned some things and got a $24 gift card from Home Depot--nice! I have a few things which I want to return to my mother left in it: but soon it will be empty and clear for my groceries which will be fabulous.
The living room, on the other hand, was not fun.
I went through the boxes on the TV stand
and came up with a few CDs and DVDs.
(Yes, LOST! I don't think I'll want them in the nursing home--the next time I think I'd actually watch it. I put them up for sale. And a toy flip phone. I've hung onto that for years. The kids loved it.)
Mostly, the room just needed some tidying and a whole lot of straightening.
But these shelves, flanking the fireplace, are causing me a bit of grief.
I mean, they aren't the sort of thing that belongs in a minimalist household, now are they? There are meaningful things --and things which are not--but I still like them immensely and think they add a lot to the coziness of the room.
And it occurred to me, not for the first time, to wonder why I am in this course. First, I am really enjoying all the energy from my fellow participants--it's so positive and encouraging. But, as I listened to our Webinar Thursday night, it occurred to me that perhaps I am taking this course to settle in my mind, once and for all, that perhaps I really am done minimizing-- (at least as far as our living spaces re concerned. I don't think the basement will ever be "done.") and I can move on with my life, in some other way. I don't know. I am going to continue to mull it over.
For my third communal area, I decided to tidy up the area immediately outside the bathroom.(Which is coming along, by the way. The toilet tank is giving us a great deal of trouble with leaks and such. The mirror is also on hold for a bit.)
We were not able to access the only two closets we have on this floor for all this stuff piled in front of them. Again, it was a case of taking the time to truck everything down to the basement and just put things away. I also got about two small shopping bags of garbage. I kept back the supplies we need for the last few projects.
I've signed up for Joshua Becker's 12 week course Uncluttered.
I am not entirely sure why.
I've been decluttering the house, off and on, for years. I am fairly satisfied with the decisions I've made and the amount of stuff we have--on the main floors, at least. The basement is a whole 'nother beast.
I still do not have the tidying and cleaning routines I want in place to help me keep the house looking its best. I think the course deals with that, somewhat.
One of the things Becker --and other minimalists-- say is that decluttering is not the goal. Having fewer possessions is not the goal. Owning less is merely the means to something else--and it is that something else which is your "why", your reason for decluttering.
But, honestly? I think there's a good case to be made for decluttering for its own sake:
Fewer things means a house that is easier to clean and tidy. I want a house that is easier to tidy and clean.
Apparently, getting rid of clutter would eliminate 40% of housework. (source) It stands to reason,
I want to be able to find things, easily.
That's intuitive, right? If I only have three sheets of sandpaper, say, it is easier to see whether I have that 220 grit I need --rather than trying to go through two large boxes of scraps. Right? (Of course, as my husband would argue, it reduces the likelihood that I'll actually have it, necessitating a gas guzzling and time consuming trip to the store, so....there's that.) But I certainly do not need two can openers. Or a food processor that doesn't work....
I want my mind clear.
Princeton scientists discovered that
When your environment is cluttered, the chaos restricts your ability to focus. The clutter also limits your brain’s ability to process information. source
As Erin Doland says, clutter is like a toddler standing at your side,
Most of all, I want to unstick my life. At the moment, I just feel stuck. Nothing is happening. (Well, OK, we are doing a mini-renovation of the main bathroom, but other than that...) With Chris' lay off "sometime this summer" looming over us, so much is uncertain that I feel paralyzed.
All that other stuff-- less debt, better relationships, more time for whatever I want to do (including service to others) --that's all good. Nothing wrong with that. But this promised la-la land after decluttering may manifest--and it may not. It reminds me a lot of the promises of weight loss. And, like weight loss, there's no reason to put off having the kind of life you want because your body--or your house--isn't quite what it could be. Unless, of course, you want to run a marathon or host a wedding. Then losing the extra weight whether from the the body or the house is an excellent plan. Respectively speaking, of course.
*these photos were taken just before dear blog reader Marie came by for a too short visit. She was passing through town, on her way to visit friends.
It was supposed to be a 30 minute job. It took me 50.
I am a bit surprised it took me that long.
It is a pretty straight forward closet--awkward to photograph, though.
It is, first and foremost, our coat closet.
But it is also our games closet,
and the broom/cleaning tool closet.
it's like those pegs fell out just so I could put that space to better use! The orange Miele bag holds the vacuum cleaner attachments and various mop heads.
oh and it is also our access hatch to the bathroom tub and shower taps and water supply lines.
It took me nearly an hour to clear out some games,
that black bag holds our picnic/backyard snuggle under while there's a firepit going blanket
relocate a few coats, clean the lint off my husband's coat, and vacuum and clean the floor,
and, oh yeah, hang the Ikea bag holder. As you can see, it was hit or miss (and mostly miss) getting the bags into that thing at the back of the closet where I was anxious it would tip through the hole into the basement.
I've been wanting to put a piece of wood up at the back of the closet ever since we enlarged the hole to get access to the pipes when we did the bathroom in the winter of, ahem, 2011-12. I am adding it to the project list.
Just for fun, I looked back through to see what closets I tackled in past cures. In 2015, it was the linen closet. In 2016, it was the closet adjacent to this, the cleaning closet. Other than the closet in each of our bedrooms, these are the only closets we have. Nice that each have had a turn!
In other news, I continued with the floor assignment.
I borrowed my Mom's Steam vac to clean my living room carpet.
It arrived with an abundance of cleaners.
I watched a you tube video...which wasn't all that terribly helpful so I tried to watch another one. But man, it is boring watching people push a machine back and forth and back and forth and back and....what was I saying? Oh yeah. So I just called my mother.
I vacuumed. Twice.
There were all sorts of stains.
I think this is from hot chocolate? Or maybe coffee?
General dinginess.
see how the white bits of the carpet are actually white over there on the right? They get greyer and dingier as you go left. Same thing happens at the other end, only in reverse.
I used one of the bottles to pretreat the various spots.
I went over the rug about four times with the steam vac. The first time, I didn't pull the trigger. The second time, I pulled the trigger but didn't use the "spot clean/clean surge" button. The third time, I pulled the trigger and used the spot clean/surge clean button, both, at the same time. The fourth I just went over it without the trigger, again.
This was the waste water.
One of the videos advised me to empty all the water out of the machine, turn off the brushes and go over the carpet one more time. He said that would draw water out of the carpet and help dry it. When I talked to my Mom, she said she didn't bother.
I am so glad I did. This is what the water looked like after being sucked out of the carpet.
Imagine if I'd left that!
I think the rug looks really good--but not as good as new. The specific spots are gone, it's true, but that fade to dinge is still there--though its much less noticeable, to be sure. (At this end of the carpet it goes left, white, to right, grey.) Now that I know how it's done--I want to do it again before the week is over.
I cannot tell you how happy I am to have found a solution to keeping this carpet clean. I love me a good looking rug...and a good sized is next to impossible to find here for what I can afford. This was purchased at Target in 2014 when they were here. The rug conundrum is one of the reasons I was so upset they left.
Tomorrow is the media fast, so catch you on the 12th, I hope.
I spent most of the summer working on launching a new blog and website all about design and decor. I was busy accumulating ideas. researching names, buying a domain and then, settling on a web site design and getting someone to install it for me.
Until it wasn't. My arthritic hips began bothering me so much I couldn't sleep. I began to unravel just a bit--and a friend stopped me and asked me to take care of myself. So, I put my baby business venture on hold and started a tiny little blog on taking care of myself. I didn't research the name. I didn't buy a domain. I just started a wordpress (dot) com blog and began to write My Body and Me Blog.
So, I started out wanting to write a blog on decorating and decor and offer consulting and courses, the whole shebang. Instead, I started a weight loss and fitness blog --well, let's say, more accurately, a blog on getting healthier, hopefully fit and we'll have to cross our fingers on that weight loss thing--at least for a while!
I don't think I will be posting much here in the future unless it is to announce the official launch of The Joy of Home. I am looking forward to that. I wish it was up and running already, but I have to remind myself there's really no rush.
No, of course I do. I just got impossibly, overwhelmingly busy last fall and didn't finish. The living room is the very last installment in a series I started last fall to celebrate my blog's eighth anniversary.
In this series, we travel back in time to see at all the changes I made (or didn't make) to the rooms in my humble little house. The last room we looked at was The Kitchen, 2007-2014.If you'd like to start at the beginning, go here: The Front and Back Yards, 2007-2014. You can also catch all the retrospective posts under the Prairie Home Tour tab, above. So. The Living Room. Err. No, scratch that. It's The Parlour. That is what my husband calls it. It doesn't look like much of a parlour here! Please click through to read through.
I'm sorry, I don't remember where I found this word art. It was perfect for my colour scheme.
I've been feeling terribly inadequate lately. As a blogger with a blog, I mean, not as a person. (As a person, I'm feeling pretty awesome right now, actually, thankyouverymuch.) But geesh. As a blogger with a home decor blog?
Definitely lacking.
It all started with Fall, actually.
I planned to do a Fall House Tour and it was important for the living room to be just so. I figured I finally had the decorating chops and I was going to prove it to you all.
That pouf has sure lost its poufiness. But look at that fake cotton! The scale! the drama!
At the same time, I began to think I wanted to expand my readership. I started looking into what it might take to grow my blog.
The first week of September I started looking at houses decorated for Fall. Um, seriously folks? The first week of September? I remember one or two blogs from Texas saying the temps were still far too warm "to get in the mood." But that's also when I started to get an inkling that this blog will never be like those blogs. I will never have my living room decorated for Fall by the first week of September. (Never mind styled, photographed and written up!)
I loved this mantle. I took photos of it soon after I created it, I liked it that much.
So, my blog will obviously never be a trendsetting home decor blog. That's not going to be my focus. I'm not even sure I want this to be a home decor blog. But the blog does need a focus, apparently. Moreover it needs a narrow focus. As one blogger advises, "The narrower your focus the broader your audience." Harumph.
And s we all know, I do love to decorate.
Yep, I bought a role of burlap and hot glued it to a mason jar for a vase.
So, I started to decorate the living room--as I also planned and executed my decluttering series (because a well decorated home is also an intentional home and while that doesn't mean one needs to be a minimalist, it does mean one needs to decrapify regularly--and boy oh boy did my house need decrapification!)
The living room was ready at Thanksgiving (Canadian Thanksgiving, mid-October)-- well, it was as ready as it was ever going to be.
The day before Canadian Thanksgiving I drove to a store in a snow storm to exchange the pillow covers I'd bought for a different pair. But the store was out of the ones I wanted, so, after wandering around the store for twenty minutes or so, I stood still and racked my brain --and remembered a throw I'd seen at a store across town that might work. If they had any in stock. Twenty minutes before closing, I drove across town --in that snowstorm-- to buy a throw that just might pull it all together for me.
yep, that's the throw. I'm not sure it can do all I want it to do.
And on that horribly stressful drive, I thought about how simplicity is one of the things I value--and how this decorating business --especially seasonal decorating--and decorating to a deadline-- is not -- absolutely not "simple."
I spray painted some sticky dots from Staples with gold and stuck them on fake cream pumpkins --and wound up with spotty pumpkins.
So, simplicity is a touchstone for me and my blog--but I'm still figuring out what that actually means. Among other things. Figuring things out, I mean.
I'm still figuring things out: like why the living room didn't gel like I'd hoped.
The sofa strikes me as too white for "fall" but lots of others managed to create the cosyness of fall with their white sofas. I think it's the cushions: one set in particular.
See the orange one tucked back there behind the grey one and the throw? It's from H&M and looks lovely in person--it is orange--but not a burnt or rusty orange--and I think it needs to be. Or maybe a clearer stronger orange? Just not this orange. The orange and the white together actually read as coral more than orange. I had orange velour pillows. I decluttered them a few months ago. Oh well. They were solid and I had wanted a pattern--but I had no idea the perfect orange patterned pillows would be so hard to find!
I wasn't all that happy with this corner, either. The Ikea blanket just didn't do enough for me, somehow.
The truth is, after Thanksgiving, I put the living room out of my mind. Working on my Mom's dressing room took every single minute I had after that. There was no thought to spare for it--and, certainly, no time to take pictures.
Then, I finished the dressing room. I rested.
That's when I took a course on blogging--on photography and styling, specifically. From the course, (and a bit of other reading) I learned that a successful blog should have a pithy tagline. Every post should contain stunning pictures and styling. Apparently, the blog needs to be a recognizable brand --and I need to be on social media pushing every post and instagramming on a schedule. (Good people, I don't have a cell phone--not even a flip phone).
I would totally instagram this awesome photo of the river valley if I did instagram, though.
I don't know if any of that will ever happen. I'm still figuring it out.
I'm all about making life more pleasant--and that means making my house pretty and functional--or at least trying to. Figuring it out. Housekeeping, as you all know, is a struggle for our family. But I want this blog to be about more than just that struggle--but I feel like I need to include it, too.
I've figured out this much:
The blog is my diary, my record of what I do to make this house of ours a home for us. I like to figure out what home is, wht that means to us--and then create it. What I do at home drives the content of my blog --always. This living room was so stressful, in part, I think, because for the first time I let the blog (and my aspirations for it) drive the content.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing--but I don't think it's my thing.
Like the pillows. In person, they aren't that bad.
But I was happy to notice they were starting to pill a bit, already. I can let them go.
But I am not sure I want to let go of wanting to grow the blog.
I'm afraid any plans I had of doing a fall home tour are now kaput. My husband has already put up our tree. But that's OK. I am feeling the urge to decorate for Christmas.
A little bit. Just as soon as I get over being intimidated by all those beautifully decorated kitchens. living rooms, and bathrooms (!) out there in blogland.
PS. If you don't mind my asking--why do you read this blog? What would make it more valuable to you?
