Scrub & Clean
Jan. 1st, 2019 10:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pshaw_raven I know a lot of people are probably doing their "new year, new me!" posts, whether here or on more frenetic social platforms and this post is kinda more of the same. But, I am also chiefly making this post for my own reference (hence the 2019 minimalism tag). If you see something here that interests you or you want to do something similar you're obviously welcome to comment! Anyway, I think I mentioned my overarching goal for 2019, the Year of the Boar, this particular span of days ahead of us, is decluttering and minimizing. So I'm going to take this post to discuss my definitions, specific goals, and give a general lay of the land.
While I like aesthetic minimalism, it's not really a reasonable goal for me. A. I have cats. B. I like colors. C. I have cats. Having a monstra plant, all white walls, and a few strategically placed books on architecture would make me feel like I live in someone's Pinterest board. So when I say "minimalism," I don't mean that. I also don't mean the types of radical minimalism that have been rightly criticized for their classist and other problematic standards - like that guy who says since you can only write with one pen at a time you should only own one pen? Dude. I like multitasking devices, I like being able to digitize and reduce the amount of things I'd need to carry for, say, a weekend out of town, but I don't want to slash my items down that much. Besides, I'm an artist, so having "only one pen" is heresy to me, LOL. What I DO mean is that I want to assess the material items I own and find a way to donate, repurpose, or dispose of things I don't actually need, want, use, or like.
I already tend not to accumulate knick-knacks, but we do have a lot of "little things" around. Fox, for example, has a lot of little porcelain and other types of fox figurines. These aren't slated for disposal. But I do tend to acquire books, which need to routinely be thinned out. I also have a fondness for t-shirts so I'll either be turning old, too-big ones into cleaning cloths or possibly having a quilt made, etc. I do have a lot of clothing I can sort through - since I've maintained my weight for a year now (officially!) I think I can safely get rid of "what if I get fat again" clothes. And since I have a very raven-ish brain I pick up interesting shiny objects, but then a month later can't remember why I liked it, where it is, or in some cases, what it is.
In a week, we head to Disney for the race weekend, so I'm spending this week mainly planning. I'll be assembling a cleaning schedule, a decluttering schedule (room by room) and looking up places to donate or dispose of items locally. I will be doing SOME picking up and tossing out this week but we're not officially ready to start yet. But the general idea is to start by decluttering, then set a cleaning schedule for each day of the week in place so that I can spend a little time each day on the house and easily keep everything clean and tidy. I'll start in the exercise room, declutter it, then move on to the master bathroom the next week. I'm giving myself a whole week in each room to make sure the job is thoroughly done. And I'm also making sure I am not pushing myself to cleaning burnout, decision fatigue, or the other pitfalls that plague large-scale projects like this.
I kind of hate to say it but I think Kitty was a hoarder. With Fox and I around it didn't get too out of hand, but she didn't seem capable of parting with anything. I forget who originally said that if you need things to organize your things you have too many things, but that was Kitty. She was always trying to organize her stuff, when it seemed to me it would be a lot simpler to just get rid of it. But, it wasn't my stuff and wasn't my decision. Well, it is now, but I think it's highly unlikely she's going to come back and haunt me because I got rid of her crochet stuff. I never managed to learn to crochet, I didn't like or enjoy it, and I have exactly zero reasons to keep any of it.
Today's plan is to do my usual weekly floor cleaning, pick up around in the exercise room, break down the old weight bench to store it, and set up a "Household" digital notebook with schedules and stuff saved to it that I can change to suit my home and goals. I'm considering whether to break up my kagami mochi and grilling it up or leaving it until the weekend when I can make a pot of soup to go with it.
While I like aesthetic minimalism, it's not really a reasonable goal for me. A. I have cats. B. I like colors. C. I have cats. Having a monstra plant, all white walls, and a few strategically placed books on architecture would make me feel like I live in someone's Pinterest board. So when I say "minimalism," I don't mean that. I also don't mean the types of radical minimalism that have been rightly criticized for their classist and other problematic standards - like that guy who says since you can only write with one pen at a time you should only own one pen? Dude. I like multitasking devices, I like being able to digitize and reduce the amount of things I'd need to carry for, say, a weekend out of town, but I don't want to slash my items down that much. Besides, I'm an artist, so having "only one pen" is heresy to me, LOL. What I DO mean is that I want to assess the material items I own and find a way to donate, repurpose, or dispose of things I don't actually need, want, use, or like.
I already tend not to accumulate knick-knacks, but we do have a lot of "little things" around. Fox, for example, has a lot of little porcelain and other types of fox figurines. These aren't slated for disposal. But I do tend to acquire books, which need to routinely be thinned out. I also have a fondness for t-shirts so I'll either be turning old, too-big ones into cleaning cloths or possibly having a quilt made, etc. I do have a lot of clothing I can sort through - since I've maintained my weight for a year now (officially!) I think I can safely get rid of "what if I get fat again" clothes. And since I have a very raven-ish brain I pick up interesting shiny objects, but then a month later can't remember why I liked it, where it is, or in some cases, what it is.
In a week, we head to Disney for the race weekend, so I'm spending this week mainly planning. I'll be assembling a cleaning schedule, a decluttering schedule (room by room) and looking up places to donate or dispose of items locally. I will be doing SOME picking up and tossing out this week but we're not officially ready to start yet. But the general idea is to start by decluttering, then set a cleaning schedule for each day of the week in place so that I can spend a little time each day on the house and easily keep everything clean and tidy. I'll start in the exercise room, declutter it, then move on to the master bathroom the next week. I'm giving myself a whole week in each room to make sure the job is thoroughly done. And I'm also making sure I am not pushing myself to cleaning burnout, decision fatigue, or the other pitfalls that plague large-scale projects like this.
I kind of hate to say it but I think Kitty was a hoarder. With Fox and I around it didn't get too out of hand, but she didn't seem capable of parting with anything. I forget who originally said that if you need things to organize your things you have too many things, but that was Kitty. She was always trying to organize her stuff, when it seemed to me it would be a lot simpler to just get rid of it. But, it wasn't my stuff and wasn't my decision. Well, it is now, but I think it's highly unlikely she's going to come back and haunt me because I got rid of her crochet stuff. I never managed to learn to crochet, I didn't like or enjoy it, and I have exactly zero reasons to keep any of it.
Today's plan is to do my usual weekly floor cleaning, pick up around in the exercise room, break down the old weight bench to store it, and set up a "Household" digital notebook with schedules and stuff saved to it that I can change to suit my home and goals. I'm considering whether to break up my kagami mochi and grilling it up or leaving it until the weekend when I can make a pot of soup to go with it.
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Date: 2019-01-01 07:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-01 08:14 pm (UTC)