Unfuck Your Habitat

eqbonum:

So when did my house get away from me?  Let’s see, it was the start of the restatement project at work and the 60-80 work weeks.  Combined with the starting of meds for fibro, which also made me realize that my CDO* tendencies were rooted in anxiety.  So not only did my pain levels get depressed on an antidepressant, so did my give-a-damn.

Basically, we are talking, um, years. Like 2008.  So 2 years of work hell followed by career path change which meant full-time to eventual part time work while in school full times, and then hello, new baby on top of all of that.

When I say my life/house/everything is fucked, I mean it.

And it has bothered me.  But that just made me freeze more.  Add exhaustion of the physical and mental variety, and I’m sorry, but I am not getting out of my comfy green chair.  Internets, entertain me!  Distract me from the pit that is supposed to be my home.  Lalalalala, I can’t see you.

So I must finally be feeling better.  Because, shit, I can see this crap.  Big time.  But omg, where do I begin.

I figured a little light reading of the humorous variety: one year to an organized life.  I’m still laughing.  Only, whoa, maybe it isn’t so overwhelming.  If you pace yourself, think about organizing, think about your spaces and what you want them to be, you can take it on, bit by bit.  This is what I need.  And, she wants you to journal the process.  Journal what you want to accomplish (hey, this tumblr will actually get used!), where is the disorganization coming from (hello, depression and illness!), and what can you do to shift your thinking, your habits.

Works wonderfully with the humorous and yet encouraging unfuckyourhabit.tumblr.com.  Oh, yeah.  Thank you Stephanie for giving the internets that link one Sunday.  I mean, the smalls burst of 20 minutes one/10 minutes off is nothing new, but the pictures, the stories, and the creeping sense of motivation that began to fill me, that’s what I needed.

Last week, before I brushed my teeth, the disaster of a bookshelf next to my bed was cleaned and organized so I now longer feel the hovering doom of I’m-A-Lazy-Slob watching me as I sleep.  And in the same burst, the tile in the shower got scrubbed.  I can now keep my eyes open when I step in there.

So here I am on a 10 minute break in the middle of overhauling the mudroom/laundry area.  Because seriously, do I have to store paper towels and toilet paper down stairs?  Can’t I keep it up where I can get it quickly (as I chase a toddler) and yo, that shelf above the washer is just a mess.  As is the utility closet opposite it.  Chop, chop!  Take some bites out of the project.  Think of how awesome it will be to walk into your house and be faced with Clean and Pretty and Neat! 

I won’t get it all done overnight, but I now know that small bites are okay.  After all, how do you eat and elephant but one bite at a time.

(and yes, I totally did not do before pics.  But I will do after pics, because this is gonna be purdy!)

 

*OCD for those not afflicted to the point of keeping the damn letters in alphabetical order