Today I sit here in my not so big house and thinking WOW there is so much space in here. After living in mostly small hotel/pensione rooms for four weeks, what seemed like a relatively small home now seems so spacious. I cannot help but think there is an awful lot of floor to be vacuumed and mopped, and a lot of bench tops and sinks to wipe. The tiny two bedroom town houses they have just build around the corner are looking pretty attractive at the moment.
My husband is all the way up stairs at his computer which feels weird because he has hardly left my side in a month. Although I am not a needy person, it was rather nice to spend all that time together. He looked after me very well during our time away. He arranged the whole vacation and kept the ball rolling throughout making sure we were on time for trains, planes and hotels, arranged all the sightseeing outings, took care of all the finances, ordered most of our meals with his less than perfect Italian, did the laundry with me, sat with me for two hours at a hospital in Venice when I had a bit of a health issue…
Now it is back to reality, a house to clean, clothes to wash, food to prepare, vehicles to maintain, jobs to return to and just being surrounded by stuff, whether being used or not will need dusting, storing, charging, cleaning yadda yadda yadda… Well it shouldn’t be a challenge to continue with my decluttering because I was very happy to live without all this stuff for four weeks so how much do I need most of it anyway. That gives me an idea.
Go on a virtual vacation from your stuff. Pick an area of your home and pretend it doesn’t exist for a week. Don’t go near it or use anything from it even if you think you need to, improvise instead Then after the week is up ,declutter that area and just see how much easier it is to be realistic about what you care about or need in that area. Stop and think about the sentimental items and what they represent to you. Was there any loved one you had forgotten about in that week just because you had not been in contact with the sentimental items that relate to this person. Even if so did that have a negative effect on you life for the week. While you are working on the decluttering of this section of your home, segregate another area in the same way and work on that next.
ITEM 270 OF 365 LESS THINGS
Being that I haven’t used this food colouring for at least 3 years it would have to be either not fit for human consumption or just not needed so out it goes
5 Things I am grateful for today
- The ceiling fan – the day is getting a little warm as it wears on.
- An afternoon nap – that jet lag is still hanging around
- Yoghurt – I need to get my stomach back into balance after too many antibiotics
- My laptop – even if it has a few weird quirks
- Pillows – Nothing like a little comfort
Your comment about your husband being upstairs is exactly why I think our house is too big. Our office and my craft room are upstairs but we rarely use them. Why? Because we’d rather spend time together in the living room. When I do want to work on crafts I find it nice that my husband will hang out on the computer at the same time. Some couples may need more “space”, but we enjoy spending time together.
Hi Carmen,
this is the first time we have spent an exteneded time together like that without the kids and I must say we got along beautifully. Maybe that was partly due to the fact that I was so stressed out before we left that he wasn’t game to put of foot out of place in case I freaked out altogether but either way it was lovely. He went back to work yesterday and I missed him.
My husband and I recently moved my desk and computer into the same room as his. It made sense for economical reasons: saving on electricity for lights and A/C and gas in the winter, and also for more intimacy. When we are on our computers and find something interesting, we can just turn around and share that information with the other. So now we enjoy spending our evenings together and wonder why we didn’t make this change sooner.
Hi Di,
I use a laptop so I can wonder around with it and we can choose to be together or not so that is convenient. Moving your two computers together sounds like a wise choice, socially, economically and environmentally. Good for you.