I think that there are many reasons why I’m not feeling stressed about the mess…

• I have a plan so I know what is happening
• I know where most ‘out of place things lying around’ are going to go. They are only there because of the work being done. It’s just about getting the time to go through it all
• I am more motivated when I’m working towards a deadline
• I’ve been listening to Your Spacious Self by Stephanie Bennett Vodt again and her words of advice always make me feel calm. She says not to identify with the clutter. I am starting to feel that connection loosen a bit.
• I feel clear minded enough to know that I can turn a mess into something organised pretty quickly when I feel motivated
• I now have a system going so that I can regularly donate stuff which keeps me focused
• I have booked a couple of days off so that I can have a long weekend
• I go to sleep listening to my relaxation program every night
• I have me-time once or twice a day.

This afternoon I sat in the conservatory surrounded by bits and bobs that I’d stored in here when the bedrooms were being plastered.

I’d sort of ignored the mess because the builders have been here, and it feels like an excuse for me to be messy and leave things out (not a good habit). I also have my back to the stuff when I’m working in the conservatory. I wasn’t working this afternoon, so I took some time out, made myself a cup of tea and lit my candle.

I started thinking about how and when we were going to make a decision about the carpets with the opposing views on colour, and then my mind wandered to the clutter around me. Without feeling any stress or worry, I looked at each item and decided in my head where it needed to go. It made me realise that a lot of this clutter can be planned and organised in our heads; it’s just doing something with it that takes the time and effort.

So, in a nutshell…

1. If it has a place then put it there
2. If it doesn’t have a place then there are a few choices to make

I got my sketch pad out and drew a little diagram (to be added into the post later). I thought that there would be a lot more branches on it but it’s actually quite a simple concept really.

Into the garage

After the me-time, I was really looking forward to spending some time in my cluttered hideaway. I wanted to see how much of an impact I’d made by getting rid of the bags yesterday. It had made a small difference and I was able to shift things back a bit creating more space in the middle again.

To help motivate me, I called my mum for a chat whilst I was in there. My mum and dad have been going through some boxes in their house and garage recently so she could empathise with me about finding things that you’ve had for ages and not knowing what to do with them. We usually have a laugh about it and I think we encourage each other to just get rid of stuff that we don’t use.

It started to get cold in the garage so I went back into the house to cook dinner. I kept feeling drawn back to the garage though. Even sitting here now, I can visualise how much of a difference I could make in there if I just had a large chunk of time. The good thing is that I have booked Friday and Monday off to do some clearing. I should be able to spend a good portion of that in the garage.

Bath time now! Even though I do love my new bath salts, I think I’ll go back to the bubble bath for this evening.

Until tomorrow…

Sandra