i'm so blue-hoo-hoo

It's mid-winter and most of us are housebound and feeling a bit cabin-feverish. One coping mechanism is to take advantage of those great post-holiday sales at the mall. Even better, after your little rascals are tucked in to bed, sit down with a glass of wine in front of the old computer screen and on-line shop until you drop off to sleep at your desk (or right there in your bed if you've taken your laptop with you).

Of course, I'm (half) joking here. Anyone who knows me understands that I enjoy procurement as much, or more, as the next person and I HAVE actually made a few such purchases in the last few weeks. (Let the records show that I was definitely NOT under the influence of any mind-altering substance when I did it.)

However, like one of my favorite Veggietales characters, Madame Blueberry, I understand that a trip to the Stuffmart doesn't produce a heart of real contentment and certainly isn't the real cure for wintertime blues. 

Right now I am working with a client who has hired me to finish decorating her house, after several stops and starts over the last few years. She's unhappy that not a single room is complete, so she feels unsettled and unhappy there. But before we can add, we must subtract, organize and take inventory of what she truly loves that should be kept. Like some of you, perhaps, my client is discouraged and overwhelmed by the many piles that have taken up residence in her home. Therefore, she is frozen, with no idea where to start. It's a little like sitting on the front row at the movies. The picture is SO huge and out of focus that it's impossible to take it all in without getting a headache.

Maybe you don't have the need, desire and/or the resources to tackle a "whole house" project like this. But I feel certain that everyone has SOMETHING that's bugging them at home and these dark and dreary days of winter provide us with a perfect opportunity to make some progress. So, here are some ideas to get you started on some bite-sized projects of your own. Little "wins" are empowering and can often spur you on to bigger things. Maybe start with something from my list and then add your own items.

• Magazines and catalogs - Gather up every single one of them from every part of your house and put them into one ginormous pile. (My client had accumulated 200-300 of them over the last 5 years. Don't judge. It could happen to you, I promise......) IMMEDIATELY get rid of the catalogs, unless you know there's something you want to buy from a current issue. I do occasionally save pictures from catalogs for inspiration but there is rarely any good reason to save an entire catalog for more than a month. With the magazines, force yourself to go through very quickly and reduce them by at least 50%. Then commit to making your way through the rest of the pile over the next week or two. Flip through quickly, maybe tear out a few pages that you want to keep, and then get them OUT of your house. I try to find someone who wants them before I recycle, but that's just me.
• Your closet - If the whole thing is just too much to handle, then tackle it one element at a time. Take an hour to go through your shoes, for example. Force yourself to purge what you haven't worn and will likely never wear. If they're out of style or they hurt your feet, get RID of them. Now is not the time to wallow in the guilt of buyer's remorse. Find a friend who can wear them, donate them or, if they're high-end and in great shape, and you're really ambitious you can try to consign them. Set a goal to reduce the total number by maybe 30%. Then come back a day or two later and do it again.
• The dreaded family photos - When we moved here to the condo, I brought all our photos thinking that this would be a great project to tackle and, believe it or not, I have made huge progress. I have sorted through 1,000+ and have them organized in 3 Tupperware photo tubs by date, or at least as close to that as I can get. I purchased a Groupon for one of the "scan your photos" places and got 500 of them put on a CD. Some of you may want to take it a step further but for me at this point, and after so many years, I say forget the romantic notion of photo albums!! Who really looks at them anyway? Now, if I want to find an old picture from a particular event, it's pretty easy because I at least have them fairly ordered.
• The dreaded digital photos - Yeah, now that I rarely print a photo, I just stick them into iPhoto and forget about it. And the grand total over the last few years comes in at almost 10,000. TEN FREAKIN' THOUSAND!!! That's messed up. So for the last couple of months I've taken 30 minutes here and there to wade through that disaster. At last count, I had it whittled down to about 8,000. Still embarrassing so I will continue my efforts. And now I'm committed to to process of editing each time I download a new batch of photos. 
• If you have 15-20 minutes of dead time in your day, open up a drawer or a cupboard in any room and get rid of something. Commit to reducing first and then go back and organize later.
• Alterations - I have a stack of clothes that need some sort of adjustment. A few items have been in that pile for a year or more. I'm fortunate enough to know how to sew and can do much of it myself but the the bad news is that I really don't LIKE to do it! But recently, I made myself drag out the old sewing machine and my goal is to finish them all by the end of February or to take what I realistically cannot do myself to my alterations guy, Mike. Or, get rid of it and forget about it.

So, go forth and conquer!

change is gonna do you good

Once I overcame my holiday decorating ambivalence and put up the tree, I managed to drain every drop of pleasure from it's fake plastic branches. Each morning I looked forward with great anticipation to the ceremonial re-lighting and kept it lit untiI I stumbled into the bed at night. My face lit up brighter than the tree itself when it greeted me with a sparkly "welcome home" every time I walked through the front door and, for the first time since moving, I felt literally drawn in to that room by the tree's magnetic force.

I grew so attached to it's magical presence that I couldn't bring myself to take it down, and I was beginning to wonder if I might become one of those eccentric old ladies who mixes gaudy tinsel and garland with the sound of summer cicadas? (I have cats in multiples, so it's already a short walk to Crazytown, according to the general population.)

On January 5th, the day before I summoned the emotional fortitude to finally pull the plug and say my goodbyes, I had my own mini-epiphany. It was about familiarity and change. HUH?

In some ways, I'm piggy-backing on my last post about tradition and such. The sight of our own pretty ornaments nestled in the branches of that familiar fake tree gave me such comfort and connection to a real sense of home there in that beautiful room filled with someone else's furniture. And, while familiarity can sometimes breed contempt, boredom or laziness, in this case it was calming to me and actually became fertile soil for hope. 

And that same room with someone else's furniture became my creative playground. My inner-decorator doesn't get to come out and play much right now, so tweaking the tree to make it fit with the style and color scheme (see my last post) was enough to scratch my itch without spending a penny.

January can create the perfect storm, if you're bored with your present surroundings but your post-Christmas pocketbook won't allow you to tackle a total "torch-it-and-transform-it" makeover. A couple gallons of paint or a couple of new throw pillows can sometimes get you past this winter slump. Or how about simply removing everything in a room that you don't really like (as long as it doesn't actually serve any real function)? 

I think I'm on to something. Maybe in my next post I'll throw out some simple transformation ideas to get you blooming from the inside out. Then before you know it, all of creation will follow your lead and you'll be surrounded by the sweet smell of spring.