Simplifying life. Or, What was my point again?

After a quick review of my last few posts, it dawned on me that I've strayed from the whole point of my blog. Sure, I've made updates on how I'm doing on some of my peripheral goals this year, but this blog is about my one word year. This blog is supposed to be about how I'm finding ways to simplify things in life.

So how am I simplifying my life? I think there are many areas of life that would benefit from some clean up but the easiest thing to tackle is the physical stuff. I've always had a weird obsession interest in organization, decluttering, storage solutions, and anything related.

Having said that, it's easy enough to be interested in having a less cluttered house and simplify life with fewer material possessions, but it's not that easy to put into place sometimes. I've amassed so much information about organizing the home and how to store things beautifully, but I've always been overwhelmed with the idea of doing anything about it.

Exhibit A: The junk room.

Last year, I thought I had figured out the answer to my troubles. I read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. If you're not up to speed on this decluttering phenomena, then here's my explanation in a nutshell. You tackle your clutter in one big effort, in a methodical and systematic way by going after item-type, not by room, one item at a time, one type after the other. (I.e. Clothes, books, etc.) The simple criteria is you keep the item if it "sparks joy" in you. (I'm definitely not doing justice to Kondo's process so it's better you read up on it yourself.)

Unfortunately, I never implemented the "KonMari" method of tidying up. However, one thing that I've taken away from the book is the concept of items sparking joy. As I attempt to declutter my house one item at a time or one room at at time (totally against Kondo's concept!), I decide if the item gives me joy. It sounds easier than it is since you really have to decide if you're feeling joy or maybe something else (sentimentality? ambivalence?). I've managed to clean up a lot of things using this strategy though.

Another strategy that has helped me comes from my happiness guru, Gretchen Rubin. The first of her Twelve Personal Commandments is "Be Gretchen". Granted, this is her personal list and she's referring to herself, but the idea still resonates with me. I have to accept my likes and dislikes and know my limitations. I have to "Be Kim". That means I have to accept that I won't be a scrapbooker or make my own beaded jewelry. I've gotten rid of lots of things after I really made myself dig deep and decide if those items were contributing to me being authentic and genuine.

Our home is still a work in progress and I definitely still have trouble with getting rid of certain stuff, but in general, I've been decluttering away. I've cleared space on counter tops, I've donated or sold unwanted items, and I'm figuring out how to store the stuff we are keeping in more aesthetically pleasing containers. 

In the meantime, everything else goes into the junk room until I can deal with it.

March Madness! Or, How I Can't Get My Act Together

Well, with all good-intentioned resolutions will eventually come stumbling blocks. I will call my stumbling block "March 2016". I've been pretty mediocre, and maybe downright pathetic, at following through with some of my goals this month. Sure, I could make up a laundry list of reasons but I'm not really here to air out said dirty laundry. Actually, it's more like gently worn and might require a sniff test. J/k*. I'm just lazy.

Here's what's up... I haven't posted a damn thing this entire month. I've drafted a few ideas but nothing's been catching my interest for me to bother beefing up and posting to the interwebiverse (patent pending... well, no... not really). I was doing pretty well on my photo challenge for the first half of the month but hit a creativity block (which resembles me not checking my challenge topic list on a daily basis) so nothing's been going up on Instagram except pictures I've taken of food. Mmmm, food.

But check it out, here's what I've been doing in the meanwhile, since I haven't been posting here:

Every year, I fill out a NCAA March Madness bracket, much like thousands upon thousands of Americans. Except I know squat about college basketball, also like many other thousands of Americans. My method is simple. I select teams using an arbitrary algorithm I've created and which resides solely in my brain that factors in the school's name, the mascot, the team colors, and the ranking. Essentially, I guess and hope for the best. All of this (lack of) effort is pretty much to see if I can beat my husband at something he takes rather seriously. Turns out though, my pick to win the whole thing was a bust early on. So Hubs and I are counting how many teams we chose correctly overall and tallying it up. Whoever made the most correct picks wins! Grand prize: an ice cream sundae!! Hubs says the whole thing is wrapping up soon (like I'd know, heh) so I'll get to find out shortly if I win or not. (I'm one pick behind him and hoping beyond all hope that I get my sundae, dammit!) 

I also celebrated my wedding anniversary this month. It's been 6 years of marriage and 8 years together. We had a long-overdue day date to the movies and lunch since it's been awhile that we've gone anywhere in daylight without our Baby G. So why didn't we have a romantic dinner date instead? Glad you asked! Because I had a very important date to see Nick Carter in concert that night... without Hubs! That's why!

"Hi, my name is Kim. I'm 31 years old. I've been a die-hard Backstreet Boys fan for more than half my life. Nick Carter is my favorite."

"Hi, Kim!"

Something (else?) cool happened this month. I won a free book giveaway on Goodreads! It's The Dream Lover by Elizabeth Berg. This is actually the 5th book I've won over the last several years. I'm really looking forward to reading this one! As for the past books, I only read 2 of the 4 that I got. Though, I have every intention to read the other 2 this year, finally!

Also book related, I finally finished the Chronicles of Narnia series. It's taken most of my adult life before I ever bothered to look into the series, and took over the past 2 years to get through all seven books. I feel very accomplished now, and I've been basking in my own self-approval. *smug smile*

As far as my other goals go, I haven't been very good at recording moments I want to remember with my daughter. She's a toddler now and at an age when she's constantly surprising us with the new things she's learned or picked up. It's quite difficult to keep up with, honestly. My heart breaks a little for my future-self who may not remember little things like when Baby G started using certain words correctly or when she figured out how to do something new, but my present-self is very much enjoying the moments and soaking it all in. In that respect, my heart fills up a little more and sometimes I think it will burst with love and pride when I just sit and observe my little girl. (You know, when she's not throwing a tantrum or something).

So, there you have it. A month later, I finally checked back in to my blog. I'm hoping to do better next month. Until next time (whenever that is....)!!

* "Just kidding"