Have been having a couple of low days. Not for any particular reason except general stress and work, I think. Also was staying at a friend's Sat/Sun and after being in a lovely clutter-free environment coming back to the usual mess and clutter of home was extra stressful. I didn't do any work yesterday, but did reorganise almost all my bedroom storage and my desk - I think this is the first time ever that all the storage has been used properly. And it's only taken 19 months ... mind you, when I'm only home for holidays it's easy not to organise things properly. Everything becomes a bit haphazard.
I think I'm slowly starting to accept that I'm allowed to have bad days. I still don't quite believe it, though.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Decluttering ... it's a state of mind
Decluttering is something I've been thinking about a fair bit since getting home - mainly as the more of it I do the better I feel. This is always the way - if I look at something everyday, I don't think about whether it's necessary or not, but if I come back to it after a couple of months of not noticing it for some reason (such as being away at University) I think "hey, do I really need that?". And fairly often, the answer is no.
Decluttering things I've done so far:
-Donated assorted things to a charity shop - a few pieces of clothing that seemed like a good idea at the time, but just don't suit ... e.g. a pair of skinny jeans that I think look lovely, but unfortunately were quite constricting and didn't quite sit in the right place on my hips ... for a long time I'd kept them because they looked nice, but hey, if I'm not going to wear them then what's the point?
-Sorted out two small bags of things to take to a textile recycling bin - clothes that aren't good enough to charity shop.
-Put away some winter shoes / scarves in a box on top of our wardrobe - it makes me feel more organised having those out of sight when I know they won't be wanted for quite a while.
-Been working on using up toiletries - I'm really not bad at this, but finishing things still makes me happy :)
-Not buying stuff I don't need! What have I bought this holiday ... makeup stuff mostly: new kabuki face brush, new double-ended Ruby and Millie Eyeshadow brush (which is really good - it's got a liner-y one on one end and a small "deepening" brush on the other), undereye concealer, blemish treatment concealer and mascara - all of those were things I needed / was running out of except the mascara (which was £1 instead of about £5.50 with a voucher so I've bought it to leave at the back of a drawer for a while).
-Using my planner to make to-do lists - this definitely works as a sort of mental decluttering. It sorts things into 'things I have to deal with today' and 'everything else', and allows me to put the blinkers on and get things done.
-I've been scrapbooking - this gets stuff out of random piles of "stuff to scrapbook one day" and into a nice neat format. Which is lovely.
Things I have still to do:
-Actually take the stuff to a textile recycling bin.
-I've decided to get rid of another skirt - it's lovely, kind of A line stone coloured corduroy, but it is only an okay colour for me, not an amazing one, and I don't think it goes with enough of what I usually wear now (teal / purple / dark pink / black / grey / white / denim / dark brown / sometimes blue). Mostly because it doesn't look good with white , black or grey, and a fair amount of my other clothing has some of those colours in it even if it's predominantly, say, purple. So that needs to go to a charity shop donation bin.
-Recycle some glasses - I've got 2 pairs (same prescription) I wear mostly at the moment. I also have a pair of prescription sunglasses which don't really suit my face, and a pair of old glasses where the prescription is way out of date - I should get the latter two pairs to one of those "We'll send your old glasses to a 3rd world country" schemes. I think our local opticians do that.
-Continue not buying things I don't need. I think I have virtually everything now - as in, there's nothing I'm running out of that I need to replace, so I might try not to spend anything except essentials (where essentials basically = transport + stationary if I need it (but I shouldn't need much of it)) until the end of the vacation.
-Give my Eldar stuff to Chris to put on Ebay - I'm going to keep an Autarch on Jetbike as he's cool and will make a good display model one day, but the rest of it (a unit of dire avengers, a unit of swooping hawks, the book) can go.
Decluttering things I've done so far:
-Donated assorted things to a charity shop - a few pieces of clothing that seemed like a good idea at the time, but just don't suit ... e.g. a pair of skinny jeans that I think look lovely, but unfortunately were quite constricting and didn't quite sit in the right place on my hips ... for a long time I'd kept them because they looked nice, but hey, if I'm not going to wear them then what's the point?
-Sorted out two small bags of things to take to a textile recycling bin - clothes that aren't good enough to charity shop.
-Put away some winter shoes / scarves in a box on top of our wardrobe - it makes me feel more organised having those out of sight when I know they won't be wanted for quite a while.
-Been working on using up toiletries - I'm really not bad at this, but finishing things still makes me happy :)
-Not buying stuff I don't need! What have I bought this holiday ... makeup stuff mostly: new kabuki face brush, new double-ended Ruby and Millie Eyeshadow brush (which is really good - it's got a liner-y one on one end and a small "deepening" brush on the other), undereye concealer, blemish treatment concealer and mascara - all of those were things I needed / was running out of except the mascara (which was £1 instead of about £5.50 with a voucher so I've bought it to leave at the back of a drawer for a while).
-Using my planner to make to-do lists - this definitely works as a sort of mental decluttering. It sorts things into 'things I have to deal with today' and 'everything else', and allows me to put the blinkers on and get things done.
-I've been scrapbooking - this gets stuff out of random piles of "stuff to scrapbook one day" and into a nice neat format. Which is lovely.
Things I have still to do:
-Actually take the stuff to a textile recycling bin.
-I've decided to get rid of another skirt - it's lovely, kind of A line stone coloured corduroy, but it is only an okay colour for me, not an amazing one, and I don't think it goes with enough of what I usually wear now (teal / purple / dark pink / black / grey / white / denim / dark brown / sometimes blue). Mostly because it doesn't look good with white , black or grey, and a fair amount of my other clothing has some of those colours in it even if it's predominantly, say, purple. So that needs to go to a charity shop donation bin.
-Recycle some glasses - I've got 2 pairs (same prescription) I wear mostly at the moment. I also have a pair of prescription sunglasses which don't really suit my face, and a pair of old glasses where the prescription is way out of date - I should get the latter two pairs to one of those "We'll send your old glasses to a 3rd world country" schemes. I think our local opticians do that.
-Continue not buying things I don't need. I think I have virtually everything now - as in, there's nothing I'm running out of that I need to replace, so I might try not to spend anything except essentials (where essentials basically = transport + stationary if I need it (but I shouldn't need much of it)) until the end of the vacation.
-Give my Eldar stuff to Chris to put on Ebay - I'm going to keep an Autarch on Jetbike as he's cool and will make a good display model one day, but the rest of it (a unit of dire avengers, a unit of swooping hawks, the book) can go.
Monday, March 23, 2009
Therapy
LUSH's Flying Fox shower gel
Earl Grey with n sugars, n being a natural number as defined by logicians
Skillet (unfortunately I can't find my MP3 player at the moment ... where could it be?)
Friends
What works for you?
Earl Grey with n sugars, n being a natural number as defined by logicians
Skillet (unfortunately I can't find my MP3 player at the moment ... where could it be?)
Friends
What works for you?
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Thoughts on Scrapbooking
I've been doing bits and pieces of scrapbooking recently ... I think I've found where it fits into my life, now, which is nice. It's something I quite like, but I am definitely not going to be defining myself as a scrapbooker / scrapper any time soon. Might upload photos of some of my stuff to facebook though, that would be nice.
Scrapbooking is fun because it's a bit creative and artistic ... although I don't think I'm a particularly arty person, I'd like to think I have a bit of an eye for colour and balance, and I enjoy trying to put together pages that look right to me. I'm also a person who likes keeping souvenirs, ticket stubs, cocktail stirrers, clothing tags, that sort of thing - so having somewhere to put them and somethinig to do with them is useful. It's why I don't think I'd ever get into digital scrapping - I can see the appeal of it, but I think I spend enough time on my computer as it is, I like the tactile nature of actual bits and pieces, and if I scrapped digitally I'd still end up with little boxes of random crap in the backs of cupboards and that sort of thing.
Scrapbooking is fun because it's a bit creative and artistic ... although I don't think I'm a particularly arty person, I'd like to think I have a bit of an eye for colour and balance, and I enjoy trying to put together pages that look right to me. I'm also a person who likes keeping souvenirs, ticket stubs, cocktail stirrers, clothing tags, that sort of thing - so having somewhere to put them and somethinig to do with them is useful. It's why I don't think I'd ever get into digital scrapping - I can see the appeal of it, but I think I spend enough time on my computer as it is, I like the tactile nature of actual bits and pieces, and if I scrapped digitally I'd still end up with little boxes of random crap in the backs of cupboards and that sort of thing.
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Up-Down-Sideways
Somewhat inspired by the up/down method of updating things ...
Things I like / am enjoying at the moment:
1) Complex Analysis. Being a holomorphic function is such a cool property!
2) Managing to successfully install python and create a Hello World program that saves to the right place (after some angst)
3) Shoe shopping - my sister needs help with such tomorrow, it's going to be fun.
4) Sunshine! It's so beautiful and springy now. I need to buy some daffodils - I love daffodils.
5) Catching up with people.
6) Awesome books of awesome - I'm currently about 1/3 of the way through A Game of Thrones, which isn't bad considering I started it yesterday.
7) Really, really amusing pictures of people. If you know me on facebook ... go see.
8) Finding myself playing "Glorious things of thee are spoken" on the tin whistle. Amount of time spent trying to play it so far: less than one hour. Huzzah!
9) Stationery shopping. Bought 6 x 4 record cards (for revision - am going to put theorems and proofs on them) and an expandable folder thingy today.
10) The new facebook. It's easy to find everything.
Things I don't like / am *not* enjoying at the moment:
1) Mysteriously needing to sleep all the time. I've had plenty of rest; why am I tired?
2) Being drained by scrapbooking. I'm glad I've got some done; I'm annoyed it's taken a lot out of me.
3) Tin whistle screeching. Control of the higher notes will come with practice ...
4) Wanting to shop all the time (which isn't very much like me but seems to be happening) but having limited money - though this is probably a good thing; it means I spent more time working and less time shopping.
I think it's a good thing that my likes outnumber my dislikes by more than 2:1 :)
Things I like / am enjoying at the moment:
1) Complex Analysis. Being a holomorphic function is such a cool property!
2) Managing to successfully install python and create a Hello World program that saves to the right place (after some angst)
3) Shoe shopping - my sister needs help with such tomorrow, it's going to be fun.
4) Sunshine! It's so beautiful and springy now. I need to buy some daffodils - I love daffodils.
5) Catching up with people.
6) Awesome books of awesome - I'm currently about 1/3 of the way through A Game of Thrones, which isn't bad considering I started it yesterday.
7) Really, really amusing pictures of people. If you know me on facebook ... go see.
8) Finding myself playing "Glorious things of thee are spoken" on the tin whistle. Amount of time spent trying to play it so far: less than one hour. Huzzah!
9) Stationery shopping. Bought 6 x 4 record cards (for revision - am going to put theorems and proofs on them) and an expandable folder thingy today.
10) The new facebook. It's easy to find everything.
Things I don't like / am *not* enjoying at the moment:
1) Mysteriously needing to sleep all the time. I've had plenty of rest; why am I tired?
2) Being drained by scrapbooking. I'm glad I've got some done; I'm annoyed it's taken a lot out of me.
3) Tin whistle screeching. Control of the higher notes will come with practice ...
4) Wanting to shop all the time (which isn't very much like me but seems to be happening) but having limited money - though this is probably a good thing; it means I spent more time working and less time shopping.
I think it's a good thing that my likes outnumber my dislikes by more than 2:1 :)
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