A Light Purge

This is from Friday March 19th.

Every week, I like to focus and write about simple ways that help lift us into better mood, that doesn’t require much energy or money. I call it Feel Good Fridays. I like to think that can help others.

This week I suggest that you purge a small area in your house, whether it is a drawer, a countertop, or a night table, or something that you have been wanting to go through for a little while now. It doesn’t have to be a big area in the house. This is just something to help you spark your motivation if you wish to continue going through more areas of your house.

Really ask yourself if you have used any of those objects in the last three months. And if the answer is no, then ask yourself if you plan on using it in the next three months. If the answer is still no, then those object(s) need to get donated, or thrown out/recycled if it is beyond repair. Then reorganize the area, if needed.

This mission will help you feel so much better. Living with less things has many benefits, such as less anxiety, less stress, and more money are just a few of the many benefits of living with less. You will be able to see more clearly of what makes you happy, and what doesn’t.

Of course, minimalism can done at your pace. You can spend a few days to purge through everything, or you can spend 15 minutes every day until you are satisfied with your work. So you can keep on going to clean the room, or take a break after your small area. Whatever you decide to do, be sure to take a rest after your hard work! You earned it.

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Day 67

I finally got all caught up with my blog posts! I couldn’t be more happy about that!

I started this week on a grind. I was determined to finish everything (my blog posts, put away the laundry, and my other to-do items). I feel so proud of myself. I feel so proud of all the women in my life, and around the world, too. I was able to do my yoga practices, and my meditation. I did some light cleaning around the house, as well.

Be sure to start your week off on a grind. Remember to work hard. Your goals are on the horizon, and you are so close to achieving them. Keep on going!

Today, I will begin my week with stamina. I will recognize that my goals are on the horizon, and that I am so close to achieve them. I just need to keep on pushing myself forward. I will remind myself of how proud I become when I accomplish anything that I wish to achieve. Learn to leave no stone unturned.

March Resolutions 2021

As part of My Happiness Project, each month I focus on different aspects and areas of my life. This is about my journey of how I incorporate new habits, and a thought process into every day. For March, I have decided to focus on my possessions, and how I declutter through more of my things. I plan on putting my energy into ways I can create space in my life. I am really excited to go through my belongings, and finally see what I need and no longer need. I picked the month of March to go through my possessions, which also includes a digital clutter because spring begins in March. I have always viewed March for a fresh start, and new beginnings. On the first day of every month, I will discuss my goals, and resolutions, and how I will be making these changes. Then on the last day of the month, I will talk about how I made these changes, and to discuss on how these habits helped me experience more happiness.

My Resolutions

1. Be cautious on bringing in more clutter into my house and life.
2. Purge through items every day
3. Create a no dumping areas
4. Spend 15 minutes every day deleting emails, duplicates of photos

Be Cautious

I want to have a better relationship when it comes to owning things. I would think more clearly when I make any purchases. I feel like I have done a pretty job when it comes to this. This is something that I want to continue. I am comfortable with having less things in my life. I also like saving the money I have been saving because I’m not going out of my way to buy something new. I also refrain from taking gifts, or other things with me. Normally my Grandma will find something for me, like a new shirt, or something else, I politely decline because I have reached the point in my life, where I am happy living with less.

Purge Items Daily

I have been playing this neat game, every one is welcome to join. Although I am a bit behind in posting everything. The objective of the game is simple, on the first day, you donate, throw away, or sell one item from your house, then on the second day, you remove two items, and so on and so forth. You can either stop at the end of the month, or you whenever you are comfortable with your work. It is okay if you stop before the end of the month. I recently did a Daily Decluttering Challenge last year, where I began by removing one item a day, for 192 days. Any items that you have gotten rid of is more than what you would have gotten rid if you didn’t participate in this challenge.

Create No Dumping Areas

I have mentioned this before, but that’s okay. I feel like everyone has a zone in their house, whether it’s their dresser, dining room table, or kitchen countertop, or a bookshelf. It’s basically an area where people just “dump” everything, because they don’t have a place for them, or just don’t want to deal with any of it. My boyfriend likes to treat our bookshelf like this. It’s his dumping zone. I’ve been trying to tell him to handle and deal with his things instead of just dumping it all on the bookshelves.

Digital Declutter

I would love to go through all of my photos that I have taken for the past few years, and organize them into photo albums. I plan on getting some of them developed. My boyfriend and I have a couple of photo albums already, although we just need to get our photos developed and place them. I know it’s kind of ironic, but to me, I grew up on photo albums, and to me, they spark joy. I feel like if it sparks joy, then it isn’t really clutter. I feel like clutter is anything that holds you back, or adds stress. Another characteristic of clutter is something that no longer adds any value to your life.

I feel like these resolutions are going to make things easier and better in my life. I have been working on these goals already. I can’t wait to update you with my progress. I would love to hear about your journey if you wish to partake in any of these challenges.

Day 60

This lesson was learned on Monday.

Since Monday was the first day of the new month, it is important to realize that we are granted a new start. With the month of March, comes spring cleaning, and getting more organized with your house, and your life. It’s time to plant your seeds, and blossom into the beautiful flower you hope to be.

I have been working and thinking of ways I can organize my room. To me, the best way to organize anything is by getting a lot of things. It’s easier because then you have less things to worry about, and organize. Even though spring isn’t going to arrive for another few weeks, it is never too early to start spring cleaning. I am currently working on going through my clothes that I haven’t worn in awhile. Especially since I will be making the transition from my winter clothes to my spring and summer clothes within the upcoming weeks. I love the feeling of things being clean and organized. I love this time of year. Although I do a lot of cleaning and organizing throughout the year, too.

Today, I will try my best to get a jump start on organizing for Spring Cleaning. It is never too early to start, and you don’t have to wait for the arrival of spring to want to organize your things, and household. All I need is some good music, and delicious snacks to get me through the organization process.

Day 41

I got to watch my niece twice this week, which was really exciting! I like to follow the superstitions for the Lunar New Year, which is to not clean, especially not to sweep, as they believe you are “sweeping” away your luck. I knew that I was going to be watching her on the Thursday, and I knew I was going to stay at my sister’s late. So I made sure on the Wednesday that my house was relatively clean. I cleaned my bathroom, and kitchen, and then tidied my room. I was all ready for the Lunar New Year!

I spent the whole day on Wednesday freshening up my place. What helped was that I have a chore/cleaning schedule already in placed. Having a cleaning schedule is really useful, and helpful. I find it so much easier to set aside 15-20 minutes a day, then it is setting aside four hours in one day. I feel like it’s less stressful, as well.

Today, I will try to eliminate stress by organizing and planning my chores every day, instead of finding one day throughout the week to do all of my chores. I can now use the day that I would spend my time cleaning, as a day of rest instead.

Day 22

I was helping my mom move out of her place. I knew that she has a lot of stuff, but when I saw it looking really disorganized especially for someone who is supposed to be ready for their move. My mom has a lot of dishes, and other things as well.

But from what I have learnt over the years is that it isn’t really a good thing that a single person has 20 dishes, and cups. Which is something that my mom has. All of her houses that she has stayed at are too small to have family over. So it’s not like all of those dishes were for us. It normally means that there is some underlining situation or a problem with this individual. There is research that shows a correlation between depression, and clutter. Clutter can also stem from trauma, or any traumatic experiences at some point in your lives.

My hearts go out to anyone who has experienced anything traumatic and heart wrenching. We may not be able to change anything from the past, but we can change our future. It’s up to us to make things better.

It took me some time to realize that part of the reason why she holds on to all of these things is because she lives alone now. So she holds on to these pieces as a way of holding on to the people that no longer live with her, like my dad, myself, and my sister. We all used to live together. But what I have learned is, that we don’t need to hold onto to things to remember people by, we remember things by keeping them in our hearts.

We can help our loved ones, or ourselves, if we are the ones who are suffering. We should not have to suffer in silence, call up a friend or a family member to help you. Although this mission can get done on its own. But if you prefer help, that’s okay, too. Slowly start removing clutter from your life. One of the easiest ways to stop having clutter is by stop having it come in your house and life, in the first place. Stop shopping for clutter. Stop agreeing to take things from loved ones. Another healthy solution is to work on ways you safely talk about things that has happened in your life.

I can identify the reasons and the whys my mom has had so many various things in her life. In a way, those reasons have made me collect clutter in high school. My parents were going through a separation at the time. But I have realized that I have collected so much, I was tired of it. So a few years later, I started being more cautious of my things. I started with my clothes. My closet used to be jam packed of clothes. I finally got rid of a ton of things. I was started to feel really good about myself. I was happy for myself.

Today, I will realize that clutter, and holding onto things don’t really make us happy. What makes us happy is being able to free from our clutter. We can’t hold onto every single memory throughout our lives. Our memories live inside of our brains and our hearts. If you see a family member or friend hold on to a lot of stuff, ask them if they need any help. Be sure to lend them a helping hand.

Thankful Thursday #30 – January 21st, 2021

I feel so honoured to be apart of the blog community. I love reading about people’s lives, success, and what they have learnt from their missteps. Even though we might hate to admit when things went wrong, but that’s where we learn the most things about ourselves.

I would love to read all of the things you are thankful for throughout the week. Here is my list.

1. The motivation of wanting to write a story. Although finding the time, is another issue. I am thankful that I have the desire to write a story. I have been really wanting to get back into writing. Hopefully when my schedule becomes less busy, I can get back into writing again.
2. I am thankful for the time I spent cleaning and tidying my room, so I am able to enjoy spending it in a clean environment.
3. I am glad that I got to spend an extra day with my boyfriend, he took a day off throughout the week. We got to spend more time than we would have.
4. I am grateful for being able to talk to my friends and family members via text messages since we live far away, and can’t travel to see each other.
5. I am grateful that I am able to stay true to reading 30 minutes a day despite how busy some of my days have been.

Day 16

I will learn to dedicate “no dumping zones” to help reduce clutter in my house. Let’s say for instance you love filling up your coffee table, or dining room table with mail, laundry, books, etc. to the point where it just keeps on collecting clutter, to the point the table cannot be used. Once you begin placing clutter on any surface, it begins to attract more clutter. It’s like a magnet.

When you vow to stop clutter from being placed on these spaces, then you might just start appreciating the beauty of simplicity. I love seeing a clear and clean coffee table. It truly is a lovely practice to start.

Since I have gotten rid of a lot of things throughout last year, it’s time to do a bit of rearranging and organizing. Toss, restore and organizing is part of my resolution for January. I am starting to feel quite proud of myself to do engage in this project. It has been really helpful.

Today, I will declare no dumping zones in my house. Instead of simply just dumping items on counter tops, or tables, I will learn to put things in their place.

Day Ten

I will understand the importance of making a to-do list for the day, or for tomorrow. I will make sure that I keep it to a list of a maximum of four things. That way it is an easier to accomplish your list. And when you schedule yourself to do too much, you often feel overwhelmed, and thus, setting yourself up for failure, or for procrastination. Normally, whenever you see a long, daunting list of errands, and chores, you don’t really feel motivated to get things done, but when you see only three items, you feel more motivated to actually want to accomplish those chores.

For instance, on my to-do list for tomorrow, I have this planned for my day…

1. Go grocery shopping
2. Clean the bathroom
3. Cook dinner

These tasks shouldn’t take up too much of my time, probably no more than two hours. And the bonus part is that I’ll be able to get my walk in to the store. Getting my exercise in is important. I’m starting to exercise more which has been fun.

Today, I will learn to make to-do lists with no more than three items. This will ensure that I prioritize my most important tasks. By only having three things each day, I am able to focus on things that actually matter, and that they will get done.

Holidaze

How to clean up from Christmas. Every year we find ourselves all stressed out, in a mess from all of the extra stuff we got. And sometimes, not to sound ungrateful, we don’t need all of these things.

But here are some simple solutions to help you out. Although some of these tips would have been helpful last week. But that’s okay, we can still fix this. And some of these tips help out with every day lives.

These tasks may seem daunting at first, but it really shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes, which is probably the length of your TV show.

Clean Your House as Much as You Can Before Leaving

Whenever you leave the house to go to a family gathering, especially those where you know you will be accepting gifts.

Sort Each Gift Bag

Once you come back from the event, you can bring to go through each bag. Perhaps you have gotten a duplicate, you can always give it back to another person, where you know they would appreciate it, too. Although please don’t give it back to the person who originally got it for you. Or perhaps you don’t like a gift. You can always donate it, too.

Assign a Home For Every Object

Keep like items together. Put books on the bookshelf, or on a coffee table, or a desk, because maybe you want to read it right away.

Sweep and Mop

Once you have finished a good sweep and mop will be a good idea. Or even a vacuum for all of the glitter from the gift bags.

Relax

Sit back and relax, reward yourself with a book, or a TV show.