Sandra Madeira

I could see the sun peeping through the curtains when I woke up this morning. I knew that a brisk walk would make me feel better and hopefully help my neck and headache that I’ve had for a couple of days. I was out for 45 minutes which certainly blew away a few cobwebs and made me feel good.

I really didn’t feel like sitting around again for another day nursing my head, so after breakfast I popped into the garage to see if I could make some progress. As soon as I walked in, I just knew that I could easily spend most of the day in there getting things done. The mess and lack of space makes it a place that no one else (apart from me) wants to be, so it doubles up as a nice little hideaway.

Music is a motivator

I was listening to an audio book at first, but then I stumbled upon on an old radio. I found a station that mostly had non-stop music. Almost every song was one that I could sing and dance along to. Music is such a great motivator for me so I started getting things done a lot quicker.

Help arrived but not for long

The girls came in after about an hour to see where I was, but they soon got bored as there wasn’t much they could help with apart from breaking up a cathedral made of cardboard that one of them made many years ago for a school project. Although I’ve been trying to keep it safe, it had a got a bit battered and dusty. It suddenly didn’t seem as sentimental to us as it used to. We took a couple of photos before destroying it.

The girls left me to carry on because they knew I’d be more productive without them there. There’s something quite therapeutic about going through boxes of old stuff from different phases of my life. What I didn’t realise until this point was that my headache had completely gone (probably went with the clutter). I spent a few hours bagging things up for charity and throwing other stuff away. I ended up with two bags of rubbish, five charity bags and a whole pile of cardboard and other recycling.

I can’t explain how happy I felt going through boxes, throwing things away and moving things around for later sorting. All very satisfying.

A very productive day all round.

Until tomorrow…

Sandra

Now that my eldest teen has started tidying up more in the kitchen and dining room, I have to be careful what I leave lying around in case she moves it. I’ve always been in charge (control) of the clutter and mess so it’s been all too easy to let things stay where they were until I had time to move them. The only pressure I got was the pressure that I put on myself.

After dinner this evening my daughter got quite annoyed that no one cleared the table and put the plates in the dishwasher. After working all day and cooking dinner all I wanted to do was put my feet up; however, I felt that I owed it to her to help, so that she felt supported with her new process. She was happy and I was very grateful.

Is this new help going to help me (and everyone else) not leave things lying around? I hope so.

This is a strange place for me to be in, as I’ve always tried to do it all without asking for help. It’s certainly making me think twice now when I say to myself ‘I’ll just put that there,’ or ‘I’ll do that later’.

If this help continues consistently, I think we’ll all be in a better place before the end of lockdown and I’ll be able to move towards my goal a lot quicker. I just need to relinquish the control that I have over it all which is the hardest part for me to do.

I still wouldn’t feel comfortable with anyone touching or moving the stuff in the garage or spare room! That’s a whole other story.

One step at a time…

Until tomorrow…

Sandra

My daughter helped me tidy the kitchen last night and then disappeared upstairs saying she had an idea. Half an hour later she came down with this message in a frame which she had created herself on her computer.

My husband and I instantly loved it, as we all do like to be silly and dance around the kitchen. She found the frame in the spare room collecting dust from a shopping spree that we had a couple of years ago. We bought different sizes and never used them.

Clutter castles

This got me looking at the remaining clutter lying around including this clutter castle in the corner and the mess on the dining room table.

After we decluttered, my daughter had an idea how to make the table look nicer and suggested putting some decoration in the centre. She then laid the table to show me how different our dining room could look. She put a plant that was on the breakfast bar in a different pot and we picked up a few candles whilst we were at the supermarket this evening. We were really happy with the final result.

She’s got some great ideas and seems to really want to help just like she did with the kitchen cupboards and drawers the other week.

Until tomorrow…

Sandra