What happened to the house diet, you may ask? Well, no one is asking, but I'll tell you anyway.
I fell off the house diet awhile ago. Got to my craft room and man, it's still not right. That room needs a forklift or something more and it derailed me. But...I didn't stop doing stuff. I decided that what was really needed was to simplify my life, my house.
Clothes Cull
I read a book about Elegance and how you shouldn't keep clothes that didn't suit you, didn't make you look good. Although I'm not planning on buying Chanel or Hermes anytime soon, I was able to do a huge cull of my closet. I had thought after I was done that I needed then to go shopping to fill up the holes in my wardrobe. But you know what? I have less than 2 weeks of outfits now and it's working just fine. It's easier to do laundry, to choose what to wear and it's less clutter in my mind.
A few years ago I heard a lady say that she had streamlined her wardrobe by only wearing one color - cream. Because of that, she only needed a couple pairs of shoes, and everything matched. That inspired me to cut out different colors of pants such as navy or red, etc. I've gone another step further now, and am cutting out brown. I am now only going with black, cream and khaki for pants/skirts and letting my shirts be the color. This is going to help when I buy shoes and accessories as well.
And lastly, I've streamlined my jewelry. I've been wearing the same pair of earrings for the last couple of months! I remembered a lady I worked for did that. Of course hers were gold and diamond, but hey, we work with what we got. I wear the same bracelet as well. Sometimes I'll change my necklace if I want to wear one. So someday soon, I'll be culling my jewelry. I really don't need a drawerful when all I really need is one or two of each.
Quality, not quantity.
In Other News
This summer, I've started to run, which you can read about here. In a way, it's a form of simplifying. It's causing me to get up early in the mornings and my schedule is different now.
I've also started to FLY with the FLYLady. There's a bit more of stuff to talk about there, so I'll save it for a new post.
In summary, I'm continuing to go forward with my life; decluttering, better health, simplifying. I was emailing a couple friends about why this is happening now. For many years, I've wanted to make these changes but haven't. And now they're happening and it's not such a struggle.
The reason why I think this is happening now is simple. In the last couple of years, I've truly been able to see a better picture of how God sees me. Just as I am, overweight, disorganized, sinful...he loves me. I can't do ANYTHING that could increase that love. All he really desires right now is me to just BE with him. Not DO something for Him. It doesn't matter if I go to church, Sunday School, Bible Studies, humanitarian efforts, etc. What he really wants is me to just sit with him and enjoy my company. (This is a bit simplified, but you get the picture.)
I've been able to accept this truth. For years, I've KNOWN it, but couldn't experience it. Now that the truth has become a part of who I am, I am able to really accept myself the same way. And in really accepting myself where I am right now (not where I'd like to be or what I'd like to look like), I am able to make the changes that I want to. I am so darn comfortable in my skin now, that there's less head baggage. There's now room to just go ahead and make changes just becase I want to.
I make the changes not because I want to be the person on the other side of the changes, but because I am taking the person that I totally love and accept now on that journey.
Ufdah, that's a mouthful! But it's a mouthful of truth.
I fell off the house diet awhile ago. Got to my craft room and man, it's still not right. That room needs a forklift or something more and it derailed me. But...I didn't stop doing stuff. I decided that what was really needed was to simplify my life, my house.
Clothes Cull
I read a book about Elegance and how you shouldn't keep clothes that didn't suit you, didn't make you look good. Although I'm not planning on buying Chanel or Hermes anytime soon, I was able to do a huge cull of my closet. I had thought after I was done that I needed then to go shopping to fill up the holes in my wardrobe. But you know what? I have less than 2 weeks of outfits now and it's working just fine. It's easier to do laundry, to choose what to wear and it's less clutter in my mind.
A few years ago I heard a lady say that she had streamlined her wardrobe by only wearing one color - cream. Because of that, she only needed a couple pairs of shoes, and everything matched. That inspired me to cut out different colors of pants such as navy or red, etc. I've gone another step further now, and am cutting out brown. I am now only going with black, cream and khaki for pants/skirts and letting my shirts be the color. This is going to help when I buy shoes and accessories as well.
And lastly, I've streamlined my jewelry. I've been wearing the same pair of earrings for the last couple of months! I remembered a lady I worked for did that. Of course hers were gold and diamond, but hey, we work with what we got. I wear the same bracelet as well. Sometimes I'll change my necklace if I want to wear one. So someday soon, I'll be culling my jewelry. I really don't need a drawerful when all I really need is one or two of each.
Quality, not quantity.
In Other News
This summer, I've started to run, which you can read about here. In a way, it's a form of simplifying. It's causing me to get up early in the mornings and my schedule is different now.
I've also started to FLY with the FLYLady. There's a bit more of stuff to talk about there, so I'll save it for a new post.
In summary, I'm continuing to go forward with my life; decluttering, better health, simplifying. I was emailing a couple friends about why this is happening now. For many years, I've wanted to make these changes but haven't. And now they're happening and it's not such a struggle.
The reason why I think this is happening now is simple. In the last couple of years, I've truly been able to see a better picture of how God sees me. Just as I am, overweight, disorganized, sinful...he loves me. I can't do ANYTHING that could increase that love. All he really desires right now is me to just BE with him. Not DO something for Him. It doesn't matter if I go to church, Sunday School, Bible Studies, humanitarian efforts, etc. What he really wants is me to just sit with him and enjoy my company. (This is a bit simplified, but you get the picture.)
I've been able to accept this truth. For years, I've KNOWN it, but couldn't experience it. Now that the truth has become a part of who I am, I am able to really accept myself the same way. And in really accepting myself where I am right now (not where I'd like to be or what I'd like to look like), I am able to make the changes that I want to. I am so darn comfortable in my skin now, that there's less head baggage. There's now room to just go ahead and make changes just becase I want to.
I make the changes not because I want to be the person on the other side of the changes, but because I am taking the person that I totally love and accept now on that journey.
Ufdah, that's a mouthful! But it's a mouthful of truth.
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