Tuesday, April 16, 2013

10 X 10 Challange

The stress has subsided a bit finally.  I'll let you guys in on a big decision I made last week as soon as the smoke clears. I'm still being all superstitious about it lol. Spring is a time for change!!

But during times of stress all things clutter, mess, and disorder encroach on what free space is left in my mind.  Unfortunately my old PJ ways still have my dresser and pantry looking like a fully stocked store shelf.  Even worse, I have enough clothes to fill two dressers and 1.5 good sized closets.  I just keep wearing them - more and more clothes - and laundry day sneaks back to 3 weeks instead of one.  Then clothes don't get put away. Then I have a dresser full of products and a chair, bed and hamper full of clothes in various states of having been worn.  Blegh!  Chaos!

I'd long been eying ideas regarding living small, such as tiny houses, wardrobe stripping, multifunctional furniture and housewares. This stems less from trying to be tidy then from my desire to be less of a mindless consumer.  But this past week I really wished I'd already implemented some of those ideas so I wouldn't have to look at clutter when I already have a cluttered mind. 

So I'm going to do something about it!

One of the challenges I saw that was most promising was the 333 challenge.  You have to knock your wardrobe down to 33 items you swap out 3 times a year.  It's not so much based on donating or throwing things away as it is about clearing your actual living space to something sustainable and manageable. 

Now... I don't think I could possibly get down to 33 things (and not even including shoes and accessories for me). nope. no way! lol. So I tried to wrap my privileged mind around a number that was feasible for me, and not likely to cause even more stress.  I got to 100.  10 of  10 things.

My list looks like:

10 jeans
10 pants
10 skirts
10 dresses
10 tanks
10 Ts
10 blouses
etc...

I am also going to go down to 10 hair products. 

1 shampoo/cleanser
1 oil - castor! 
2 gels
2 leave ins
2 conditioners
2 special products (I'm thinking a style putty and maybe a light shiny oil or a setting lotion)

These 10X10 items are the ones that will be allowed to live in my space with me.  In my closets, drawers, cabinets and on my dresser. The rest have to go into storage.  I can swap things out, but not add things or have things co-exist. 

I think what makes this sound fun and feasible is that rather than cull out the duds I have to cherry pick my favorites.  Then I take everything that didn't get picked and pack it up. and put the goodies back.

So far I bought the bins to store the clothes I won't be wearing.  They are purple :-) And going in the basement. womp womp lol.

I'm taking the week to do this after work and I'll keep you guys posted!

Does anyone want to join me? Spring cleaning?

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Stress

STRESS.  This has been a stressful past two weeks for me.  I don't know why I stress out about things I can't control and things I am in complete control of alike.  I got out of the habit of journaling.  That used to help me a lot when I was younger.  handwriting on paper got me to put the thoughts and fears out physically and artistically.   Maybe it's all this technology? The pen to paper thing isn't so second nature as it once was.  Shame.

But I have been taking pictures, as usal, intending to expand on what I was doing with my hair etc.  Instead, these picts all read like a pictogram of worry itself.  Let's see if I can remember what I was even worried about...

This was over the weekend. The morning after I went to a concert with my BF I believe.  Had a great time at the show and I had the next day off.  I was worried about my income, and considering renting out a room in my house again. I had someone coming to look a room and was hoping she liked it, and hoping my BFs concerns about re-renting a room would be unfounded.

It was such a beautiful day though.  And my yard is covered with beautiful weeds like so.  These do not concern me, though my neighbors be like -_____- 
"you gonna cut that?" lol
SO here I am on my back patio. beautiful early spring day. finally.  But why does my face look like this in all the pictures I took?? I don't even remember...

So this is another weekend shot of me on the patio. trying to take a pic of my hair. but look at my PJs and socks lol. Imma need for myself to put some real clothes on and stop with the selfie crazyness.
This was the previous weekend. I did the whole big hair don't care thing and went to see one of my girls up the street.  I actually didn't go much of anywhere else.  I was worried about my ortho appt coming up on Tuesday.  It was my 19 month check in and I wanted them OFF, but was at least hoping for news of them coming off SOON.










Ortho waiting room. I may not look worried but I was sleep deprived from fretting all night, and the situation was indeed out of my control.
ALAS, I get the bottom brackets off in early may and the tops of probably in June. Say goodbye to the braces soon guys!

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