One Twenty-fourth In....

The making of resolutions tends to get a bad rap this day, but I think the fault lies not in the making of them, but the shaping of them into reachable goals. And that starts with putting them on the calendar in doable chunks. January is more than halfway gone; 2020 is 1/24th used up.

Instead of saying I want to lose 5 pounds this year, (one of my resolutions) I want to lose a pound a month for the next five months. That resolution could easily be accomplished by cutting out one junky thing I'm eating, or poor eating habit I have (like eating candy after dinner because it's sitting there, next to the chair where I watch TV and knit in the evenings.) (Sidenote: my weight is actually more about cholesterol and sugar levels than pants fitting, and my annual physical is in June.)

Move the candy dish out of sight. And weigh once a week. Or month.

Other goals need to be put on the calendar, if they are to stand a chance. One of my goals was to get my act together with the organized clutter around our home.

News flash: just because something is organized doesn't mean it isn't clutter. Going to the Container Store and buying umpteen pretty bins and putting my 'stuff' in them doesn't declutter my house. It just spends money to make it Pinterest worthy.

We're listing our home in Texas in late February or early March, and I don't want to take a single thing with us that we don't need. We moved around / across the country more than once during Cub Sweetheart's career, with someone else doing the packing. While that sounds good, it actually makes it easy to leave it in the box, or maybe put it on the shelf, but still never use it.

Last week, before our realtor came for the first tour of our home (tour sounds high and mighty when the truth is it's under 2000 sq. feet and she went through it in less than ten minutes), I cleaned out the four major closets.

I started with our bedroom's walk in closet, culling through one category of clothing at a time. I pulled out every scarf I have. Then every purse. Then every pair of shoes. Then I began the dreaded trying on of pants and dresses and tops.

Very few women, who are not super models enjoy doing this. I stood in front of a full length mirror and tried on clothes. I put outfits together for specific uses. That's something I learned from a dear friend of mine in Pennsylvania. She has a handful of outfits in her closet, with jewelry attached, so she can dress quickly for any occasion. Church, weddings, dinner with her husband's clients, lunch with girlfriends. When you do that you can easily see how many outfits you have, and honestly, how many do we need?

I tried on every single pair of slacks and jeans and capris, and gave away about half of them. Some were too big (hooray!), some looked grubby and not in a good way. Some actually fit well and I was surprised (again, hooray!). I kept ONE pair of Chico's capris that are a teensy bit too tight. If they don't fit by my June birthday they are going to Goodwill, because I haven't worn them in over three years.

Then I went to my craft closet and gave away all those pieces of fabric I've had for at least ten years. I almost kept the fabric I'd purchased to sew new cushion covers for the outdoor loungers because it was expensive. That is an easy thing for me to do, and I bet many of us struggle with it. If we spent too much money to begin with, we don't want to get rid of it. But keeping it will never put the money back in the bank account, so why do we keep it?

I gave away an enormous bin of fabric and patterns and craft books I will never use. Even as I handed it over to the woman at Goodwill I wanted to grab it back, but I made sure I went to Goodwill the very next day while my resolve was fresh, and a week later I was so glad I'd donated it all. Imagine how tickled someone else will be to buy that beautiful outdoor sunscape fabric to cover her loungers, and likely at a fraction of what I paid?  And I don't have to look at it and feel guilty anymore. I can also maybe be more honest with myself the next time I'm temped to buy something I'll likely never use.

Note to self: Bev, you do NOT need any new hobbies. Hobbies cost money and take up space and have a high probability of being junk your kids will have to sort through someday.

Ten years ago, when I belonged to a quilting group, we'd take turns hosting. The women would haul their sewing machines and projects and spend the afternoon working together. It all sounds lovely, but I remember one woman who had an entire room in her home that was lined with shelves of fabric. She'd make almost perfect quilts, but never did the final step because she told me she couldn't do it perfectly and hiring it out was pretty cost prohibitive. When did our thinking change so that we have an entire craft store at our beck and call within the walls of our homes? I have bins of yarn - they wouldn't line the walls of a room - but there are more than I will ever use, and many were bought on a whim. Maybe I need to look at them with an honest eye and decide what I am more likely to use in the next year or two and donate the rest.

There's much more to go through around here - papers, books, decor. When did decor become such a budget sucker? I am quite certain my mother never had a stash of seasonal decor, other than the bin of Christmas ornaments and a red metal ring to stuff around the base of the fresh tree we bought at a lot. The only decor my mother had was a cardboard box of curtains; back them we called them curtains, not window treatments, because they were used to actually cover a window and block out light, not just hang on each side of a window. She hauled them from house to house as we moved, in hopes some of them would fit the windows and save them money they did not have.

Our new way of living, where anything and everything can be delivered to our home within two days, or even the same day, is not necessarily blessing us. I suspect I'm not alone in feeling like I'm drowning under a bunch of stuff I didn't need in the first place and will never, ever use.

Please don't ask me how long it's been since I made waffles with the waffle iron I had to have two years ago. And waffle iron - you should be afraid. I've got your number and likely your time here is limited. Those two crockpots sitting next to the instapot that was supposed to make it unnecessary to have a crockpot - what about them? Or the food processor I've yet to use?

Has anyone heard of meetings for Appliances Anonymous? Bed, Bath and Beyond would go under if we would only buy appliances we actually used.

Photos are still heavy on my brain, but 1/24th into 2002 I can see some progress, and that's great incentive to keep going. I've got culling on my calendar, twice a week, so it stands a chance of actually happening.

I'll be back soon to tell you about a few books I'm reading, and how other 2020 resolutions are coming along.

P.S. I also got a haircut, chopped off 6" and it's SO much easier. Hooray for easier and Cub Sweetheart loves it!