The Joy of Decluttering

Fear not, I am not going for another career change and stepping into the wonderful world of professional decluttering.  As a life long hoarder, I know my limitations.  That said at the beginning of this year when we were just starting into our third and most severe lockdown I had a burst of energy in early January and swept through the apartment stripping the shelves of books that I had either read or knew I would never read and boxed them up along with DVDs, ornaments and some ‘token’ clothes – the clothes I knew, were going to be a whole project in themselves…  

Where did this sudden need to declutter come from?  Well aside from the usual new year rush of blood to the head, I had decided in November I should move to Lisbon and see out the pandemic from there.  All my yoga, Pilates and fitness classes were fully online and I love Lisbon and airbnb rentals were hugely discounted.   Why not?  That was it.  Decision made.  I was doing it.  Anyone I mentioned it to thought it was a wonderful idea and were mad with envy.  Yay, go me.   So what stopped me?  Well I hadn’t quite figured out all the details but the thought of what I would do with all my STUFF put a stop to my gallop. 

All this stuff I had accumulated over the years was completely weighing me down.  The stress of figuring out what I was going to do with it was keeping me awake at night.  The Lisbon idea got put on ice and I got back to sleep, but the need to declutter seed had been planted.  

After my initial January purge the apartment looked much neater and I was very pleased with my work, but because the charity shops were closed even though all the items were boxed up, they were still taking up space in the apartment and kind of in my head as well.  With the cold grey days of January and the least fun of all the lockdowns, my motivation to sweep the decks went from 60 to zero.

Although my de-cluttering had come to a grinding halt, I figured I would augment my efforts slightly by listening to Marie Kondo’s book ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up’.  This was interesting and I definitely picked up some useful tips but in places it sounds like her constant need to create order was almost a disorder.

I also watched The Minimalists documentary on Netflix, which reported the fact that the average American household has more than 300,000 items and maintain that the reason we accumulate all this ‘stuff’ is because we think it will make us happy.  These two guys got rid of most of their worldly goods and felt their lives improved exponentially because of it.  

As May drew closer, the restriction I was most excited about being lifted was essential retail – which would allow me access to the charity shops.  As serendipity would have it the week prior to that, I received an email from Rhoda of Designer Rooms who was offering wardrobe edits, an opportunity to de-clutter and rethink your wardrobe.  This was a no brainer for me.  Within minutes I had booked a session.  I had met Rhoda a few years and subsequently rented a designer dress from Designer Rooms for a wedding.  This woman knew her way around a wardrobe and was the epitome of patience and I also figured it’d be a bit of craic.

We discussed beforehand what my goal was for my wardrobe and I sent her a picture of my wardrobe(s)which were exploding with clothes.  In spite of the pictures, she still showed up.  We methodically went through everything in the wardrobes until there was a giant clothes mountain on my bed. With care and diplomacy and just the right degree of firmness (from Rhoda) we started to eliminate.  There were so many items that I had held onto for years some for sentimental reasons, others because I really liked them but they were verging toward tatty or had gone passed that point and moved on to raggy. 

Four sacks of clothes and a big box of shoes and boots later we were done.  Rhoda had completely re-organised the wardrobes so they no longer looked like TK maxx’s sale rails and more like a boutique – with actual space between the hangers.

This all took around 4 hours.  But I didn’t stop there. When Rhoda left I continued on my roll.  With new eyes I realised there was so much more stuff around the apartment that I had missed the first time around that could go.  What started at 10.00 on a Saturday morning finished at 8.30 that night. 

The following muggy May Monday morning I skipped along to the charity shops – or as much as you could skip while carrying heaving boxes and bags.  I had cleared out various pots and pans and along with other items these went to the recycling on the way home.  I got back to my apartment a sweaty mess but most definitely feeling lighter and liberated.

Rhoda followed up with an email and wardrobe moodboard about how I could consider putting existing items together as outfits and l have definitely put more thought into this in the last couple of months.

 The apartment declutter continues in spurts, but my bedroom has stayed mostly neat and tidy since Rhoda’s visit and I no longer spend a large part of time trying to find things that I have mindlessly mislaid.  One of the benefits of the declutter apart from more space is just more awareness about where I’m putting things but also because I appreciate that space I’m much more mindful about maintaining it and not replacing it with more clothes/clutter or automatically saying yes when someone offers me something e.g. the yogurt maker that they bought but have never used.

I heard on the radio today that ‘maxilism’ in home decor is now becoming a trend, which I’m kind of surprised about. For me, I have found the great clear out of 2021 a way of simplifying my life which I want to continue with, being kinder int he long run to the environment and without a doubt it has a positive effect on my mental health.

By the way would anyone like a yogurt maker that has never been used?

Where’s My Focus Gone?

I thought I was suffering from hormone-related brain fogginess (hormones are pretty much always my first stop when I’m looking for something to blame), but I have spoken to some friends, both female and male and they agreed that their focus had also taken a swan dive, before we got distracted and started talking about something else.

At the beginning of January, I felt like I was going gangbusters, powering through and getting things done. Cut to the last couple of weeks and it’s like somebody turned the ‘focus’ tap off and there’s just an occasional lonely drip. The only time I’m really focused is when I’m teaching a class (had to get that in there) and of course that’s not counting when I say ‘knee’ instead of ‘elbow’ or lose count of repetitions – that’s all normal.

Now clearly I’m not a psychologist and to be honest I haven’t even googled this, but my take on it is as we are constantly in more or less the same routine and at this stage words like ‘boring’ and ‘mundane’ are completely applicable, there’s no chance to get away, properly re-boot and come back feeling refreshed and ready to pounce. It's like when your computer starts to slow down / hum and it just needs maybe to be shut down for the night or even just a case of 'have you tried turning it on and off again?' and bingo it's back up and running again.

Anyone else out there been feeling that lack of focus?

I'm testing out a few ways to re-boot under lockdown, I'll report back to you with my findings!

Time To Stress Less

I think we’re all a little blue in the face from either being stressed or hearing about how to cope with stress.  Well here’s more of it, but with the suggestion of a very simple stress reducing solution. 

 I’ve managed to reduce my stress levels significantly in the last few years. Changing my job helped greatly, but there was another far simpler change I made, and that was to my timekeeping. For anyone who is reading this and is a paragon of punctuality you might aswell skip on to the next blog, you’re already singing from this hymn sheet, for the tardy types read on.

 For a long time I was a ferocious timekeeper.  Always a few minutes,  occasionally more than just a few minutes late. I was late for appointments with friends mostly, rather than business meetings.  The dread of discommoding a client far outweighed the fear of annoying my friends, whom I clearly took for granted, selfishly valuing my time above theirs.

Part of my issue was trying to pack as much as possible in before finally getting myself out the door.  Also I think I hated the idea of getting to a place too early for fear of actually having to wait for someone – imagine.

About three years ago when I started ‘Grá For Fitness’, this all changed.  I simply could not be late for classes that I was teaching.  I’m not sure if it was a conscious decision but I started applying this new found approach across the board.

I simply gave myself more time.  If I couldn’t get my ‘to do’ list done before I left the house, then so what?  One thing I noticed immediately is the difference it made to my stress levels.   When it came to driving places I drove slower and had more patience with people on the roads.  The level of road rage and related profanities decreased greatly, I was able to find a parking space with a bit of time left over to prepare for whatever the occasion was.   

Google maps is a fantastic timekeeping tool whether walking, cycling or driving.  I nerdily check out timings in advance, eliminating the question of how long it’s going to take for me to get somewhere.

 Another thing I’ve realized is, if you’re driving and running late, you’re far more likely to use your phone to send a sneaky text or call ahead with your ETA (if there are any gards reading obviously I have never done this).  

With regards to meeting friends, my new found promptness was also making my (and their) life easier.  I realized that I had been turning up to appointments late – irritated with myself, on the back foot, and sometimes a little irritated with them because I knew they were irritated at me.  That’s a lot of unnecessary irritation.  These days I even take a little pleasure in getting to my destination early and enjoying that slightly smug feeling of getting there first. 

I still have occasional times including the other day when I was late to an appointment. Instead of using my driving trip to the location to mentally prepare, all I could do was worry about how far away I was, road-raging like a loon and arriving proffering apologies which is never a good place to start.  It served as a reminder.

Of course there are times when being late due to unforeseen circumstances is unavoidable.   I realise ‘first thing in the morning tantrums’ related to issues such as not wanting to eat breakfast or wear your chosen / proposed outfit, refusing to be strapped into the car can cause serious delays, and then of course there are parents dealing with small children.  In the unavoidable cases where it really isn’t your fault, you just have to let the stress go.

If you’re already a top time keeper and kept reading – good on ya, think of all the stress you’re avoiding.

If you’re a habitual johnny or joanie come lately, I suggest giving this punctuality thing a go and enjoying those reduced stress levels.

And to all my friends I’ve kept waiting; thank you, I appreciate your time.