Thinking Outside The Box(es)

Last time Julie and David from Five Star Organizing were here, we tackled what I call the storage/staging area. This is a space I hope to hold my things to sell, packaging materials, extra stuff like my vacuum cleaner, etc. What it actually contained was a mystery, as I cleaned and sorted, everything that had no place to live yet got shoved in there. Since it was one of those rare warm, dry spring days, we could set up tables outside and actually see what was in there.  I knew there were a lot of empty boxes, but every time I wanted one I couldn’t find the right size, the lid, or just couldn’t reach it. So we hauled everything out into the bright light of the day.

Like most hoarders, I have a ton of storage materials. I adore organizing stuff. I have spent many happy hours window shopping on the net, following the promises of the Final Perfect Storage Solution. Oh, and storage totes are on sale? Well, that must be the universe telling me I should buy them NOW! I felt so empowered as I happily hauled yet another bunch of totes home.

The magical thinking there is “If I have the right organizers, I will magically be able to clear up this clutter.”  Of course the reality is, it just adds to the clutter because after you fill a box, the ones that are left just get tossed on the piles. “I’ll just finish this tomorrow.” my little hoarder brain would whisper. But tomorrow my brain would say, “You did something about the mess yesterday, good for you! Now let’s go do something else since you have that all handled.”

Some time ago I decided cardboard boxes are good for sorting and putting donations in, but I want all my keeper stuff in plastic totes. This might also be because I lived through a pretty major flood year. Cardboard deteriorates, houses bugs and in general can degrade just plain sitting there if you live in the beautiful and moist Pacific Northwest. Cardboard boxes are also easy to come by. The ladies at the liquor store know me on sight, and I only buy a bottle of booze once every two years or so. Love those sectioned sturdy boxes. They love not having to break them down to be recycled. The only drawback to liquor boxes is when you move, your neighbors think you are a party animal. Even this is not a drawback if you actually ARE a party animal. At any rate, that allowed us to toss a lot of dusty cardboard in the recycling bin.

Once everything was outside, Julie organized it. Drawing on her vast experience as an organizer, she had three main piles. One was damaged or flimsy boxes, one was boxes that were often bought but rarely used in her experience and the third pile were keepers. I agreed with her almost totally on the first pile, donated most of the second pile. I now had a stack of nice sturdy usable boxes with lids I could actually find, organized as to size. Now when I need a container, I know just where to look. Also my needs have changed. At one time big heavy totes were useful. Now they are just something to trip over, since once they are full I can’t move them. I go with multiple smaller boxes these days. One thing to keep in mind while cleaning a hoard…does it suit my purpose NOW. Is it in good shape? That got rid of many things right there.

Then we went through the actual items on the shelves. More discarding, more donating, a lot of “Oh! I was wondering where that went to!” Julie helped me decide which items a local dealer might be interested in and which ones I will sell on line.

David, along with packing everything in and out (a Herculean task!) organized the space for me, moving shelves into a better configuration than I could achieve on my own. He also worked his way down a list I had made of things I couldn’t move/do for myself. This included putting my huge antique steamer trunk I use for sewing on a dolly so I can roll it around, shlepping a small cabinet upstairs and moving heavy things I’ve wanted moved for at least a couple of years, etc. Yes, I think ahead now! I keep a running list of things to ask the team the next time they come.

At the end of the day everything fit back into my staging area. For the first time I have a three foot path through my living room all the way into my kitchen. Nothing to trip on, hook my skirt on as I go by, fall over on, fall over onto me. All the “stuff” is organized and hidden behind my entertainment unit, exactly as I had planned…several years ago.

Now if you aren’t a hoader, this probably doesn’t sound like much to you. That’s because the sheer volume of STUFF kept me from getting a picture of it all. At this point every area in my house has been sorted except my sewing area, and that comes next time.

The main thing for me is, I’m not alone in this. I know Julie and David will be back soon, and  I spend a lot of time thinking about what would be best to do next. We have a planning session at the beginning and end. I’ve gotten much better at this, now my mind isn’t as cluttered with guilt and anxiety by the mess. I know that ultimately I am in charge. Nothing gets thrown out unless I agree to it. If I hit a rough patch, I think about how I’m going to feel at the end of the day…relieved. Every single time. I feel lighter, happer, more able to plan what I want to do next. How I want my life to go. Sure, I still have nightmares. I have flashbacks. But less every time and I know why I get them now, and how to work through them.

This is really about mental progress. Yup, going to harp on that a lot. Because even if you aren’t a physical hoarder, everyone  hoards things between our ears. Old hurts, resentments, fears. Everyone needs to occasionally dust their brain off and decide which of those feelings are still valid, which have served their purpose and which to let go of.

Beyond that, I notice I enjoy things I have never enjoyed before. I doubt I will ever like doing housework, but I actively notice how much easier it is to do everything from cleaning to personal care. How some things I had a tough time dealing with in the past are now second nature. How maybe, just maybe, it might be time to crawl out of my safe shell and enter the world again.

Each time I do this, I look at the fact I am not the same person I was before that session. I am not the same scared woman that stayed in an abusive relationship because I was afraid to be alone. I just plain like myself a little bit better each time. Because this is tough. This is scary. This is uncharted territory for me. But I am winning the fight.

I watch shows with characters I can identify with, that I would like to be like when I grow up. Even though it scares me, I know I can find that way. It might not be a way others go, or even one they can understand. But that’s what makes life interesting.

 

Down To The Nitty Gritty

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Julie and David from Five Star Organizing, my new besties, were back again. Although they made huge strides in my studio last time, there was soooo much to do they tackled it again this time.

Then they finished categorizing my shelves. This helps immensely. Once I can see what I have I can get rid of duplicates and organize my shelves myself. No one can really know what an artist values.

It would probably take more than one lifetime to get to all the projects I want to do, so it’s time to decide which ones to keep and which to discard. Now I can see them all it’s much easier to be realistic. , As it is, I don’t feel I can start anything new because of the mess. The reality is I need to pick the things that give me the most happiness and release the others.  I know I can do it.

Once that was done, we discussed the game plan for the next time. Then they loaded my car for me with the donation boxes. It’s a wonderful feeling to see that area open up. I made sure I dropped them off the next day, otherwise they can stay in the back of my car for much too long.

We decided my homework for this time is to start on the sewing area. Since the kitchen is now clean, I can put my sorting table up on that side and get enough area to work on the sewing side. All my sewing stuff has been gathered from the rest of the house so it’s just a matter of categorizing and putting away. I’ve been hitting Pininterest for ideas and I’m ready to go. Plus it’s nice to know, if it gets too much for me I have Julie and David to back me up. I want to get my pay storage unit emptied and I know there is going to be a lot of vintage fabric in there. I need to make homes for things BEFORE I bring stuff in, even if the plan is to sell most of it.

Life is so much easier now. I have always had trouble making decisions, now it’s easier and I know I am making better choices. I can visualize my goals and see I am making progress towards the person I want to be.

Freedom. That’s a huge word for me. Hoarding keeps us prisoners of our past. I couldn’t live there, but I couldn’t move forward. Now I’m free to visualize who I want to be and work towards it. Freedom.

Less is More

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If you are in full hoarder mode, those words mean nothing to you. By definition that’s a pretty silly expression. I now have a new insight on that saying so stick with me.

I was pretty excited for my next installment with Five Star Organizing. Had a busy in-between time so I hadn’t done much extra, just put away the loosely organized bedroom stuff that was residing on my bathroom counters. Amazing how much faster that goes when you can actually get to the storage places!

I was ready for Julie and David when they came. This time we were tackling my studio, which is the messiest room in the house and also the one with the most triggers. We dove right in. I couldn’t rest on my laurels this time, I was needed to make judgement calls on what things were, what they were used for and if I wanted to keep them.  I hadn’t done much sorting in that room for about a year, after the cats overturned a shelving unit the floor was packed with stuff. I’d try every so often but it just overwhelmed and frustrated me. I couldn’t put anything away in spite of having plenty of shelf space. I’d manage to reach a bin, but putting it back was beyond my capabilities. Because it was so disorganized I didn’t know what I had, or if I knew I had it, where it was.

I knew however, with Julie and David’s help I was going to get through this. At this stage I knew I wasn’t going to break down or give up. Plus they are super supportive about the work I’ve been doing on my own. That helps immensely!

We put up the sorting table on my now clear bedroom floor, and they began hauling things in. David wanted to tackle the closet first. I had put extra shelves up in it but had never gotten around to putting much on them. It had several big totes of fabric, family records and miscellaneous craft stuff.  Whew!

There is another shelf above that I couldn’t get a snap of. All my oversized canvases and art is safely in here now.

Soon piles of stuff mounted up on my table. Julie worked with me and ferried things back and forth. To my amazement at no time did I feel I had to defend my decision to keep something. The only thing that bothered me was being surrounded by so MANY things. A few times I had to cool down, as the weather had turned warm. Once when I knew my blood pressure was rising, Majyk, who had been staying out of the way while we worked, turned up to comfort me. We opened a few more windows and pressed on.

A few things were tough for me. Old photographs I didn’t want to keep but found too difficult to throw away. Crafts and unfinished projects that I would never finish. Two large totes of fabric. I was determined to get it down to one tote of fabric to keep and one tote of fabric to sell. I even managed to throw some of it out.

At one time I had enough fabric for a small store. I sewed professionally and had a small dressmaking shop. I inherited my mother’s huge fabric stash. I love fabric! It was charged with memories.  But I no longer sew that much and it’s time to move that vintage fabric out of my life and find it homes with someone who will love it and use it. I got it down to one tote of keeper fabric and one to be sold. With a few exceptions, I don’t plan to buy much fabric in the future. I’m saving only yardage I know I will use. And if I don’t use it within a year, that will go too.

I must have said “Oh wow! I needed that!” dozens of times as I unearthed treasures. Wide velcro that I needed to make Majyk a new service cat harness for instance. I filled boxes and boxes of donations. After a little time it got easier and easier to let go. I had a few twinges, but I knew it was time to move on and I now have the freedom to do that.

When the session was done, I walked into my new and improved studio. The floor was clear. I could reach every shelf. The closet shelves now held all sorts of goodies that were scattered before. I was shocked to see one shelving unit completely empty! I have no idea how they managed that!

Boxes were labeled. All the excess stuff that had somehow ended up in my studio was gone.  Best yet, the floor was cleared! I’d never had that much floor space before! Only my work table hadn’t been cleared, but that is a small matter. It was miraculous how much they had done in only four hours!

Never seen this much floor in here EVER!

Now back to that saying, Less is More. I now have less STUFF than I have ever had in my life. For the first time I can reach everything in my apartment. I have a good idea of what I have, so I don’t need to keep buying duplicates. Because I have less junk, I can have more life. More time to be creative. Less guilt. I can use all the wonderful things I have collected. Finish projects that I begun years ago. There is MORE of the me that I am today. My past no longer has the controlling edge.

I feel positively euphoric today. Without a house full of junk I’m so light I could float away on one of those lovely spring breezes we had today.  I sleep better. Enjoy my cats even more. I eat better, cook more.

I still have a large storage unit to go through. I’m not intimidated by it any more. I have more faith in my ability to make good decisions to donate and discard. I can let go.

Today I know I am done being a hoarder.

This is a before picture. There aren’t any more because I couldn’t get much further in. Actually it had gotten worse than this!

 

Same area minus the chaos.

Same area above the rolling taboret. Look! Empty shelves! This is the back wall of the studio

Left side of studio. I did have this organized but couldn’t get to it. Now it’s a clear path. Those boxes on the drawers to the right are all empty!!!

Right front. I had these nice bins set up but I couldn’t get to them.

Lovely bins waiting for goodies and labels.

Front of studio. Haven’t done the desk yet

 

Of Trash and Treasure

“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure”

Last night, my first night since I’ve stopped being a hoarder, I was going through my pictures looking for “before” photos. As I went, I deleted any that no longer pertained. I’ve been photo journaling my progress for years now. I used it to keep track of what’s in storage, projects, reminders.  Once I decided to quit being a hoarder I used it to keep track of my progress.

For a few years, back when I had a helper I pulled interesting bits of furniture from the dumpster area. I bought furniture at yard sales to repaint and donate to Friends Of Felines, our local no-kill shelter which has a very good second-hand store. I felt I was making a difference. A little spray paint, some ingenuity and it’s good to go, right?

Like most hoarders I pride myself in seeing treasures in other people’s trash. Since I had a clear destination planned for those treasures, I wasn’t buying into my hoarding right? I did paint and fix. Then I happily took some of my loot to the cat store.

They don’t accept furniture. They don’t have room for it. Back home it came, to sit in one of my many piles.

In looking through the photos I realized just how much stuff I had accumulated back then. I also realized that 98% of those scavenged project had made it back in the dumpster when I got serious about ending my hoarding. A new rule about not leaving furniture outside the dumpsters (I didn’t actually dumpster dive) stopped me from being tempted by seeing the potential. I had even forgotten I had kept that stuff in the first place, so I certainly didn’t miss it.

I no longer feel the urge to “rescue” abused furniture. I go to yard sales armed with a list of specific things I need, along with measurements and a tape. When I’m tempted by some odd or end, I think about where it is actually going to fit in my life NOW. Not in some vague hopeful future. After all, I like going to yard sales, if I find I need that something in that future, I’ll buy it then. Yard sales are now a completely different kind of treasure hunt. More of a challenge. It’s still fun to see other people’s stuff. I just don’t have to bring it home to enjoy it.

Sometimes trash is just, well… trash.

The Second Coming

No, the rapture is not upon us, but I do feel blessed. This is about the second session of mine with Five Star Organizing.

As I mentioned in a previous blog, I was pretty hyped after their first visit. I steam mopped all but one of my floors and gloried in the space, floor-wise and counter-wise. I baked. I organized. I wanted to be ready for their next visit. I had big plans. Then my body decided it wasn’t happy with all that mopping and rebelled, leaving me mostly on my back. I lost momentum, which worried me because this has happened so often in the past. But I took my mental temperature and realized I wasn’t feeling as overwhelmed as I usually do when this happens. For one thing, it took minutes to clean the kitchen. So I didn’t get the livingroom picked up, but it’s not hoarder bad, just has my laundry waiting to be done. My bathroom, which was the one area I had managed to keep clean before I started this was just fine. And best of all, I knew it was just a matter of days before Julie and David came back. Hope on the horizon!

We greeted each other at the door with hugs. It’s been said you get close to people fast when you share a traumatic event and letting strangers into my hoarder house certainly qualified. Now they feel more like friends. I showed off my kitchen homework and got lots of pats on the back for my progress. After a short pow wow we decided to hit the bedroom.

When you are bedridden a lot, your bedroom becomes a mess. Everything that is usually done in the other parts of the house now takes place in the bedroom. Add to that five cats, who are keeping a close watch on me (they are therapy cats). Majyk, my big black buddy is a thief, so food wrappers get stolen and hidden. Things get set beside the bed in neat piles. The piles grow larger and less neat. Within a few days, the bed is in a sea of clutter and I’m so overwhelmed I just want to hide under the covers.  It doesn’t matter how often I clean it up, it’s a mess within days. Add to that a huge, unfinished cat tree project, laundry both clean and dirty, and miscellaneous art supplies that migrate there when I am bedridden, but never migrate back to the studio. Again, the problem is those things don’t have permanent homes. I Marie Kondo’d the heck out of my clothes, so they aren’t bad (because I don’t have many) but I can’t get to the closet to put them away. The foot of the bed has boxes stacked with the cat tree project and odds and ends of bedroom stuff.

Another problem is that in the past, I sorted things out into rooms. If it was going to be used in that room, that’s where you should put it right? Except there isn’t any specific place to put it in that cluttered room, so it gets added to boxes and the pile on the floor. My hoarder brain knows why it gets so messy, but tells me it’s a hopeless mess and it will always be that way because it always HAS been that way, since childhood.

My dream team took the mess by storm. The boxes were gone though, containers were filled and loosely categorized. Even when my engagement picture of my ex and I turned up, it didn’t faze me. I was perfectly happy to tear it up and consign it to the trash, because the woman in that picture no longer exists. The woman I am now is ready to let go of the past and dance headlong into the future. That’s the thing about hoarding. Your brain is telling you to keep the status quo, no matter how bad it is. It keeps you chained to your past, stagnant. It’s scary to let go and move forward. Each item is an excuse to stay put in your unhappiness. Memories, avoidance of traumatic triggers, it’s terrifying to be a hoarder because you are stuck in your own messy mind. Any minute it can tumble down and bury you, much like the stacks of clutter that fill your living space. Notice I didn’t say home. Hoarding makes every day a battle, to get ready for work, cook a simple meal, thinking up excuses to not invite people over. Each year it gets worse. Harder to break free. You need help, but letting someone in is the last thing you want to do. You are filled with the crippling guilt because if you are such a bad housekeeper there must be a fatal flaw in you. Your mind happily provides proof of your guilt by calling up every bad thing that has happened to you and makes you feel guilty that you allowed it to happen in the first place, no matter how unavoidable it was at the time. Hoarding builds walls, it feels like you are staying safe behind them, but really they are prison walls.

By the time my bedroom was sorted out, I figured it was probably close to the end of the session. But no! All that took place in about an hour and a half! On to my studio!

My studio is the most cluttered room in my apartment. It is full of shelves. Anything that could be labeled art or craft had been shoved in there. I had bought shelving units some time back, but cats had knocked things down, other’s  tumbled on their own. Only one shelving unit was actually organized and labeled. The narrow path led to my hopelessly heaped work space, but no further. I’m a mixed media artist and craft person, I have to try my hand at everything. I find possibilities other people’s junk. Even if I am no longer doing that craft I keep the supplies, because I might want to do it again someday. Those are the hardest things for me to let go of. It also holds my office supplies and the printer. Those too are difficult for me to let go, until recently I really wasn’t ready to admit I couldn’t work any more. Just thinking about weeding out my studio makes me feel breathless.

We started by lugging out two large boxes of things that didn’t belong in the studio, but the boxes were too heavy for me to move. I also have a lot of decor things, but no place to display them in a cluttered mess. The boxes were full of odds and ends that really had no specific space to store them in, so they had stayed, taking up precious floor space in my crowded studio. To my surprise, those went fairly fast. I threw a lot out. I found things that I knew I had but couldn’t find before. Things that needed to be sold, donated or just trashed. Since I hadn’t been to the bottom of those boxes in two years, I knew I didn’t need most of it, making it much easier to toss things. I want to donate everything. After all, it once had value to me, someone else might enjoy it. But the donation boxes get other things stuffed in there, I forget what was in the boxes, I buy new, and some of it just isn’t worth saving. Sure, someone somewhere might like it, but the chances are they are never going to see it. Time to toss.

For example, I was poor growing up. Pencils and paper had to be bought. I never really got past my past, so to speak. I probably have over a hundred plain old pencils. Some of them date back to the fifties. I rarely use a regular pencil, I prefer mechanical pencils or art pencils.  Actually, I thought of a use for them as I was typing this. That’s how my brain works. But the reality is I have a lot of other projects that need finishing first, so I will never actually use them. I assume that “normal” people wouldn’t have any problem with throwing them out, they would never accumulate that many in the first place. But being a hoarder, that was a pretty important change to make. The clearer my house gets, the clearer I think. Maybe because I simply don’t have as much stuff to stress over!

In the meantime, I can see my bedroom floor. My own steam mop should arrive tomorrow. My homework this time is to get all that sorted bedroom stuff put away in proper places. Also to toss out anything I won’t use, now I can see what I have.

At random times I have taken pictures of my hoards. That helped me gain perspective, it’s much easier for me to see the clutter I normally can ignore. It also is proof I’m making progress, which I need. Flipping through my files reminded me of how much junk I’ve rid myself of in the last year. I’ve learned that even if something is still useful, I don’t have to be the one who uses it. Sometimes junk is just, well, junk.

Oh look! A kitchen!

I’ve talked about the process of re-wiring my brain so I can actually notice clutter. The downside is that now a mess really BUGS me. Many years of hoarding and being too ill to clean much left me with such a disaster it was impossible to make headway. Years ago I had hired an organizer who had given me tools that started me on this path. Sadly she retired, so I was back on the road finding a new one. I finally trimmed down to one, Julie Hook of Five Star Organizing and Design. This is my journey to clean.

I don’t like people coming into my house for the first time. I think it’s impossible not to judge at least a little bit, when the house is dirty, smelly and disordered. However, Julie was so warm and friendly when I contacted her I knew I would be ok once I got past the first few minutes. I thought of all the things that might be challenging, offsetting them with the benefits I would gain. Would I have a meltdown panic attack? I’m down to the things that mean something special to me, would I end up in a  corner, thumping my head against the wall, crooning over a childhood relic?  I did some visualization, some planning and some serious cat therapy. The underlying feeling though was “Yes! I’m ready to do this!”

When I opened the door to Julie and David it could have been an episode of Hoarders. Almost immediately I felt reassured. These are nice people, so showing them around my apartment wasn’t as traumatic as I feared.  Still embarrassing of course, but not intimidating. We discussed a game plan and decided to focus on the kitchen. And speaking of focus, I had no trouble keeping on track. I really had no problem with letting them take over. Maybe you have to be OCD and a hoarder to understand what a major breakthrough that was.

My kitchen is large, with room for a table, that area is taken up as my sewing area. I couldn’t get into it for boxes and other things in the way. It was filthy. On the kitchen side, the counters were stacked high with dishes and other things. I have a counter top dishwasher and still didn’t know exactly how to operate it. There were boxes of dirty dishes stashed around the house, my solution to passing inspections. I had multiples because it’s so painful for me to stand long enough to wash a bunch of dishes, so I would just pick up a few more at the Dollar Tree. I have never had an uncluttered kitchen in this apartment. I’ve cleaned it many times, but there was always too much stuff to put away, so it got messed up again in no time. When I come home from shopping I’m already tired. I put the perishables away, shove things in cupboards to protect them from Majyk’s thievery, then collapse. Most of the time where they landed was where they stayed until they were used up.

The first thing Julie did was unclutter the doorway and path through the kitchen. This left enough room to put up my folding table. Then they attacked my food cupboards. This alone would have sent me into a tailspin a year ago, but I had steeled myself and decided I would let them make decisions for me. I knew the spice cabinet would be the most challenging for me, so I watched while that one was being gone through. I did well, I think I only rescued three or four things. Heck, I’m not cooking so I figured I wouldn’t need to go out and buy twenty expensive spices to replace them. As they emptied the cabinets and drawers they cleaned them, then organized the space as they refilled the shelves.

Next they hit the dish shelves. Now remember, there are Boxes Of Shame tucked here and there. My main contribution at this point was to ferret them out and give them to David, who was washing every dish in my house. David washed and Julie organized, I’ve seen jugglers with less coordinated acts. I left them to it and wandered off and began to go through some boxes I had trouble with before. I’ve learned that it is much easier to deal with things that trigger me when there is someone else there. I grabbed a handful of beloved learn to read books, walked out the door and handed them to the kids playing outside. Julie saw I was slightly stressed and talked to me until I felt better. Soon I was on to other things.

Maybe you have heard of boxes bigger on the inside than they are on the outside. Julie and David somehow made that happen with my kitchen. All my counters were cleared off. I have no idea how. I have never had such uncluttered kitchen counters. I opened the cupboards and there were all my dishes, clean and waiting for me. There was actually room in my food cupboards. Several small appliances that I thought were gone suddenly showed up. The floor was clean. All the counters sparkled. Something in my brain went kerchunk, as years of hoarding mindset fell away and set me free.

We discussed our next session, I am keeping them to 4 hour chunks so I don’t get exhausted. Julie gave me some homework, to decide what I need to keep out of all the dishes I suddenly have. In four hours my kitchen had turned from disgusting to beautifully functional. I can now reach my sewing area. I find myself remembering things I use to make when my daughter was growing up. I made muffins. Cooked pizza. Thought about how I might want to decorate the kitchen. Remembered that I use to like to bake.

It’s been three days since my kitchen was transformed. Instead of wanting to take to my bed out of exhaustion, I’m riding on a cleaning high. I borrowed a steam mop and my floors are probably cleaner than when I moved in. All my dishes are done. Instead of feeling overwhelmed I’m working as long as I can, taking a break to let my back relax and then right back at it. I marvel at how easy it is to do things when it’s uncluttered. I’m excited to weed out my extra kitchen tools. It’s much easier to visualize how my home will look clean and tidy. I feel light instead of light-headed. I’m more clear minded in general and making better decisions. I’m buying fruit instead of candy bars. I feel fiercely protective of my clean spaces. Even the kitties are happier, more space to play and if I’m happy, they are happy, and I’m positively euphoric.

The hardest part of all this was accepting that I couldn’t do it alone. Accepting that I would have to let strangers into my house. Accepting a major life change. The main part of cleaning up was cleaning the space in my mind that insisted on clutter. I’m realizing more each day how trapped I was by that clutter mindset, how much more room I have in my life to be happy, to be creative, to share my life with others.

Each day is a new adventure.

Update: Usually shortly after an area is cleaned, it fills back up again a few days later. That’s because I basically just moved the junk around (hence, Boxes of Shame) Julie first came on March 28th. It is now April 13th and it’s still clean. I weeded out more more things since I could now see what I already had. I’m eating much healthier. I don’t let the dishes pile up, in fact after I made a cake I washed everything up immediately. So, a yummy strawberry cake AND a clean kitchen. Life is good!