Sign of progress

I bought some pansies and violas Sat. and it's finally dry enough 
to plant them. It's a testimony to my improved sorting that I went 
right to the correct cupboard under the sink, and there were my 
gardening gloves and trowel, sensibly put away where I could 
find them. ~ Much better than last year! :)


And it's important to notice where we've improved, and give 
ourselves credit for our progress.

Remember, recycling counts!

I've been measuring my progress by full bins of trash taken to the curb and hauled
away. But this week, the bin is not quite so full as last time. Though it would be,
if I were throwing out the old, horribly heavy, bulky PC and monitor that I just got
rid of. Instead, my friend Dave, bless him, packed it into his car and hauled it to the
Y recycling center for me. We transferred the data to my new, lighter machine, and
it was such a relief to give the old boat anchor the deep six. I feel ever so much
lighter when I look at the space it used to occupy.

The same goes for the 3 heavy boards that my friend Roddy took away for me.
They were a foot wide, an inch thick each, and about 5 feet long. I'd kept them for
six years, in case of needing to block a window in a bad storm. But I've aged, my
arm strength has declined, and the odds of me nailing those boards across a window,
now? Virtually nil. (I have some lighter weight ones I can reasonably manage, in the
rare event that we get such a storm.)

Meanwhile, Roddy needed some good sturdy boards to make a walkway across a
stream. So he gets the boards for his footbridge, and I get more space by my back
door. Win-win.

So even without a full trash bin this time, it's still been a good week for lightening
up!

More changes - dejunking the junk drawer

I have saved random misc. stuff and carted it from dwelling to dwelling for decades.
But today, I challenged that.

I took on the junk drawer. It's time to practice some of the new viewpoints.

Take thumbtacks. The last 3 times I tried to use one, simply trying to press it into the
wall made it fold unusably flat. Thumb tacks are probably really only meant for use
on cork boards. But I do not like cork boards because they get crumbly with use. I
threw away the last one I owned about a decade, and six moves ago.

So why did I still have dozens of thumbtacks? Habit. Even after they proved unusable.
(And I put up the decoration with a pushpin instead, since those are sturdier.) But today,
that changed. The thumbtacks are disposed of. As are the screws. When I thought about
it, I cannot recall one single thing I've needed one of those for, in at least the past three
years. Yet during that time, I often wound up spilling containers of them and picking
them up. No more of that! Now, when I find them, out they go.

And twist ties by the dozen - away with those! Keep a few, as I sometimes use some
in craft projects. But I will never ever need 170 extra. All those extra are now trashed.

Dozens of old scraps of paper are now tossed or recycled. Corroded batteries? Away!

Pens are tested, ones that don't write are tossed. Usable ones are now all together in
one drawer divider. Dead, dried up glue stick? Pitched it.

So with all the useless things removed, I now have a tidy drawer full of small useful
items, like pens and markers, rubber bands, functional batteries, candle and matches,
solar flashlight, trash bags and such, all where I can find them easily.

I like this ever so much better than having a junk drawer!

Changing behavior patterns - releasing unfinished projects

Several years ago, I bought a scrapbook at the thrift shop. I saved newspaper articles
into it, about the Olympics, and President Obama's election, because I wanted to to
remember those events. (I have ADD and did not trust my memory, because my
memory can have gaps in it.)

But then I realized - those events have made an impression on my life, in good
ways. I truly do not need some yellowing pieces of newsprint to remember them
by. And if I need a memory prompt, I can go online, Google search Barak Obama,
or the Olympics, and get thousands of articles, and images in crisp, clear colors,
with no blurs or fading from aging ink.

So I gave myself permission to let it go. I took out the plastic posts that held the pages
together, and recycled the inside papers and the cardboard covers. That thing was
heavy! I will not miss the weight of it.

Changes in behavior that this took, for me to accomplish -
1) I gave myself the go-ahead to release old newspapers and clippings
2) I let go of guilt over not finishing this project
3) I stopped storing it, to finish it "Some Day"

I changed my mind. I do not want to complete this scrap book now. And that's OK. I'm
allowed to do that. It's my right to rethink, and choose differently. New point of view -
if it does not enrich my life, let it go.

I'd also kept a single drawer storage unit to keep the scrap book in. Don Aslett, author of
Clutter's Last Stand, (a wonderfully funny and also useful decluttering book) calls those
storage spaces "junk bunkers", and rightly so. Good news - I'm tossing that old partially
broken storage unit as well.

Here's a link to Don's books on cleaning and decluttering:
http://www.cleanreport.com/Books-by-Don-Aslett-c2.html
His book, Clutter's Last Stand, remains my go-to book for practical, humane advice
written in a laugh-out-loud humorous style. I highly recommend it!

So I'm off to a good start, today. Let's see what else I can find to let go of, next.

letting go of old habits, as well as objects

My Mom taught me to save buttons. A shirt, with very ordinary buttons, might wear out,
and there she would be, cutting the buttons off and saving them "for later." I picked up
the habit without questioning it, decades ago.

Fast forward to today. I am finding random loose ordinary buttons that I saved, because
of that habit. And now, I'm throwing them away. Why? Because I am now questioning
what I once did, without thinking about it. So I noticed, the vast majority of my clothing
now is pullover, and does not even have buttons on it at all!

So away with those needless buttons - I'm one bit closer to fine, without them!

Tip of the day: releasing sentimental attachments to old fliers

In the early 90s I went to the Bridge of Flowers in Shellburne, MA. It was a cool
conversion from a disused trolley bridge to a scenic floral walkway. I wanted to
remember it. So for years, I kept the information handout I got there, even though
it was outdated and worn.

Until today. Today, I looked it up online, and bookmarked the page:
http://www.bridgeofflowersmass.org/

I admired the many beautiful photos of the gardens there, and shared the link with
my friends.

Then, best of all, I put the old ragged handout in the recycling! Because I've found
a way, now, to both cherish the memory, and release the clutter. I will be doing this
more often, as other old handouts resurface.

Dealing with feelings

I did very well last week - threw out an entire large trash can full of discards,
got rid of two full tubs of recycling, and donated books to the library book sale.

When I think about that trash can full being gone, I feel lighter. Yet when I think
about staying on task this week, I feel nervous. I've already stayed on task better
than other attempts. But there's still a long way to go. Can I keep it up for the long
haul? I hope so. Have to take it a day at a time, and see.

I have already filled one of the recycling tubs full of discarded paper again. So
that's progress. Yet I notice that sometimes, I have a tendency to discount my
efforts, when they have not yet matched last week. I need to pace myself, though,
and not push myself too hard. Being pushed brings up strong overwhelmed
feelings. If instead, I can coax myself along, I can usually keep the level of anxiety
mild enough to keep on making modest progress, and not get so stressed out that I
stop altogether. So I write this to remind me of what is working for me.

A thing to change is, let myself value each stage of progress. A full recycling tub is
one more step in the right direction. I need to notice that it is *in addition* to last
week, not less than last week. I need to keep a clear and positive perspective.

When I begin to feel stuck, it is helping me to take a short break, and do something
fun. I have some one minute solitaire games I play online, and playing one or two
rounds is relaxing, yet short enough not to completely sidetrack me.

When I return from the break, I look for something small and simple to do, that
builds on my previous success. When I'm making good progress in the living
room, clearing another section adds to what's already ben accomplished, for
example. This gets me back into the flow of the releasing process.

I need to keep finding more ways to lighten the anxiety. Like listening to instrumental
music that calms me, while I work. That's something that helped me stay on task,
last Friday.

Anxiety is a big derailing emotion, so anything I can do to reduce it boosts progress.
I will keep working on that, and post anything I find helpful.