January Cure: 10 Mindful Minutes

All those unaware of the January Cure, you can visit the website here. It's never too late to make a fresh start to organization! Even if you don't participate in the January Cure, they have many other helpful resources on their website. I encourage you to check them out! I have committed to liveblogging through the January Cure, so hopefully I will have some progress and pictures to post along the way!

January Cure - Assignment #3

Wait, where did Assignment #1 & #2 go? I came in a little late to the January Cure challenge. The first assignment was to create a project list. I have an ongoing project list constantly of things that I want and need done to my home so that was already taken care of. The second assignment was a good floor scrubbing. I have halfway completed this one and am currently on hold to finish it for two reasons:

1. I don't have a small portable vacuum for the stairs. Because of this I would have to lug my huge heavy vacuum from the stone ages up each individual stair. I have been having pretty terrible back pain so I think plainly pushing through this one would be ill-advised. 

2. I can't vacuum the floors upstairs until there is a floor to vacuum. Currently it is covered with both mine and the sweetness' mid-finished laundry and boxes of clothes to throw away, give away and save for the summer time. I just finished going through all of the clothes before I started the challenge and have yet to wrap that project up. 

So on to Assignment #3: 10 Mindful Minutes

Task #1: Look around the room and try to imagine what it would look like empty. Recall what it was like when you moved in. 

I sat on my stairs by the front door. I saw clutter in the furthest corner from me. Anxiety! Oh, how the anxiety was building! I hate that corner! I remember moving in. I remember loving the layout of the living and dining room. I remember a fresh clean canvas that I could fill with whatever I wanted. Then I remember a swift kick in the gut of reality saying "Hello, you're broke, kid!" So now what graces the corner is some boxes of checks, bills unsorted, a box of toys that need to be donated, some stationary and a good pile of miscellaneous junk that needs to find a home or be thrown away. The table that all the clutter is sitting on was a wonderful blessing from my Aunt Nita. I wont keep the table forever. It will eventually go to bless someone new and I will get something else for myself. Then there's the corner. A medium-grade treadmill wedged in between the wall and the dining room table. Literally wedged so that I have to get on the treadmill by crawling on to it from the front under the display screen in between the side bars. I've already gotten my money's worth of use out of it, but it is still an eye sore to all who walk in my living room.

I also walked upstairs to my bedroom. I see the clutter of the clothes, the mismatching furniture at first. Then like a smack in the face I see wall/corner by the window which screams problem area! It's not quite hoarder status, but it is far more messy than I would like. The biggest eye sore is the sweetness' crib that is half-way taken apart in the corner. At one point I think I had about seven allen wrenches in my house somewhere and they all have disappeared. As if in some manor of mutiny they all convened to refuse to be a part of my project de-clutter. I have been abandoned! As soon as one of them returns to me, or I can borrow one from a helpful friend, my only other option is a sledge hammer. Since the thought of using a sledge hammer brings up horrifying images of Miley Cyrus' Wrecking Ball video, I will wait for an allen wrench. I don't need to bring those nightmares on myself. I'm certain you see my dilemma here. I'm in a bind!

Task #2: Once you have done that, focus on whatever part of the room that you feel is the most problematic and imagine removing the "stuff" from that area - furniture, belongings, everything. Now, start rebuilding that area, adding back in only what feels right and looks good in your minds eye.

Task #3: Make note of what changes you envision and move forward with some additional clarity about how you truly want your home to be; what you need and what you can move forward without.

A short time ago I took a test that based on my answers to several multiple choice questions, showed that I am primarily right brained. I truly was shocked with my results. Through a deep inner reflection and the much needed feedback from my friends of my likes, dislikes, home, office, and other areas that would feed into this result, I realized that I am indeed right-brained the majority of the time. It was just in a different way than I realized. I had always related the right-brain with paint, but anything I paint would end up in a Contemporary Art Museum with the title "Untitled" probably leaving the viewer with a confused look on their face. (What was she thinking? No one knows, reader, no one knows). Drawing the digression back to point, these second and third tasks were difficult for me. If you ask what I don't like, I can easily tell you. When you ask me to picture rebuilding the area I will stare at your blankly and anxiety will immediately begin to swell. What do I want it to look like? I don't know, just better. What changes do I want to make? I don't know, just different than whats there now.

As far as changes in my living room go, there's not a phenomenal amount of changes I actually can make due to budget and space constraints. So for now I have resolved to clear off the clutter and possibly get some sort of nice centerpiece for the table so that it will brighten the corner up a bit. Since the treadmill is over there I think it would be best to keep decorations to a minimum...but then again, I don't know.

The upstairs is a different story. I know exactly what I need/would like to do.

- Night Stands on either side of my bed - I saw something cool on Pinterest and I know my handy Mr. can make it happen. Because he is amazing like that.
- Remove boxes of clothes and any other clutter
- Put shelf that I just bought and the Mr. put together for me under the window so that I have a good place for the sweetness' toys.
- Hang curtains
- Take apart the sweetness' crib and get rid of it

These are tangible things that I can do. The challenge specifically told me not to jump in to do the tasks but to trust the process, so I will just reflect today. It will be done soon enough! I will update again soon!