Search where?

This Portfolio (abbidabbi)

All of Writing.Com

◄ April ► 2019
S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30
Archive				RSS

Create New Item

Read & Review

Community

Browse By Type

Browse By Genre

Writing Resources

Tue, Jan 13, 2026

12:16am EST

Members: 634

Guests: 6,170

Total Online: 6,804

View from Down Under

by Rosemary

Rated: 13+ · Book · Biographical · #2181121

The world from a short person's POV - not Australia or New Zealand.

Random thoughts, pointed comments, and whatever else crosses my mind

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Cubby~On the road again!

Apr 2, 2020 at 6:59pm
In response to "Invalid Entry"

Wish I could port myself there right now!

Cubby~On the road again!

Mar 22, 2020 at 10:06pm
In response to "Invalid Entry"

Sounds like a dreamy vacation, Robin! Enjoy!

Cubby~On the road again!

Mar 22, 2020 at 10:03pm
In response to "Invalid Entry"

Fire dancers!!! Wow! What fun! You really are in Paradise! So happy you for you!

Cubby~On the road again!

Mar 22, 2020 at 9:58pm
In response to "Invalid Entry"

It sounds heavenly!!! Other than your travel delays, that is. Seems like nothing ever starts out smoothly.

Schnujo

Oct 15, 2019 at 11:12am
In response to "Invalid Entry"

Oh, we've already decluttered and cleaned the whole house? Obviously I'm not keeping up. lol

On thing I'm finding is self-talk can help. It seems that you might enjoy cleaning or at least don't hate it. I hate it.

But I wish I loved it. That would be SO HANDY! So, I've been working on positive self-talk regarding cleaning. I smile when I say these things and I say them out loud if I'm alone or in my head if I'm not. I say things like, "I love to clean. Cleaning is fun. Cleaning makes me happy. I enjoy a tidy space." Blah, blah, blah...

I also sing songs with cleaning words replacing the regular lyrics. For example, for Row, Row, Row Your Boat, I sometimes sing, "Clean, clean, clean your house, gently down the stream. (It doesn't have to make sense. lol) Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily cleaning is a dream."

Sure, it's dumb, but if it works, it doesn't matter.

And if I even sort of want to clean something, I praise myself, even if I don't follow through. I always try to keep it positive. If I do clean, even if it's just a little bit, I praise myself like I'm a little kid who just used the potty.

Admittedly, It took me almost 2 weeks of doing positive self-talk before I noticed any change and if I quit for a couple of days, I had to start all over again. I've been doing it (more or less, as I remember to) for about a month. My place is still a wreck, but not AS bad as it was.

1 Like

Carol St.Ann

Sep 25, 2019 at 1:13pm
In response to "Invalid Entry"

A lot of good advice here, m'dear.

I've always been organized and maniacally tidy, (annoyingly so, I'm told

).

I lost my mojo when my wonderful hub and I purchased a very large Victorian Mansion back in '97, because I'd always dreamed of owning and running a successful B&B. The timing, price, and location were beyond perfect, and I thought this was the sign I wanted it to be. Once it was ours, we set about furnishing it. And boy-howdy, did we ever have fun with that. I can't remember when I've had that much f... well, you get the picture.

And that's how I got into the mess I got into with STUFF.

The dream was brilliant and fulfilled. Everything I'd ever hoped it could be. And then life dealt a nasty blow and I was on my own. The B&B was too much for me all by myself, and the new owners wanted to actually live in it. The nerve of those little pishers!

So, I moved into a tiny studio apartment with my mattress and some favorite clothes and purchased a contract for several storage units for the furnishings (and all the memories of finding and buying and refinishing and designing...oye!) See, I figured that, once the worst of the grieving was past, I'd be able to let it all go and I might as well get the best prices I can for all of it, right? Best way to do it would be to open up a shop. Sounds reasonably doable, doesn't it? I thought so, but ... No.

Here's what happened. I continued to shop furniture and furnishings because I seriously LOVE to do this. Garage sales, yard sales, flea markets, and auctions ... are actually what heaven is made of, and - because I was smart enough to make a rule (whenever I buy something I must get rid of something), I started flipping
furniture and furnishings. And got hooked. Utterly. (I honestly think I was using these activities like a drug, to keep him alive, ya know?)

I did get a hold of myself about a year ago, and started selling the B&B furnishings, but it was slow going, because, as I stated, every diggity-dang item had a memory attached to it. Um, actually, it was more than that; I really liked all that stuff. Decisions on what to keep for myself and what to let go were difficult, and I allowed them to become more stressful than they ever should have been. My greatest success was selling the final item from one of the units and shutting it down. It was a big day for me. Empowering. A good look at the monthly budget without that added expenditure encouraged an inventory of what the remaining three units had to offer. (Hey, It was a 10 bedroom house) And started marketing that shit with dedicated intent. Cha-Ching!

I closed the last unit this past March.

I live comfortably clutter-free again, rapidly approaching what I would consider minimalist if not for the paintings ... and the books. I need to get rid of all those books. Dear God in heaven!

All that said, I love reading your support group blog because I like knowing I'm not alone in the situation - or I should say: process. And it really is like an addiction. I mean, just this morning, I passed a sign that read AUCTION THIS SUNDAY and there were six or seven gigantic white tents... And I checked my calendar before I even realized what I was ding.

And that's why they call me
Calamity Carol
XO

[Visit the entry for more...]

1 Like

Carol St.Ann

Sep 17, 2019 at 10:45am
In response to "Invalid Entry"

Oh, Girl! I just read your post on the QOTD forum and swooshed over here to read your minimalist blog. I've embraced the lifestyle after a lifetime of decorating and redecorating with antiques. Not that I've stopped loving it; I'm really good at it and love the buying and selling... you get the picture. But last summer, (2018) I had a mini disaster in the house and needed to quickly move everything out while repairs were underway. Almost immediately, I became hypnotized by the emptiness; the space.

I never realized how much I would like it. The look of it. The ease of cleaning (Oh my goodness!) Even breathing feels different. In no time, I sold all my antiques and when I would normally be buying more, well, I simply didn't.

I'm quite sure I'll never go back.

Fanning your blog and thrilled I'm not the only one. Woohoo!

Carol
aka Bookmenster

Cubby~On the road again!

Aug 22, 2019 at 9:53am
In response to "Invalid Entry"

As always, great blog entry! I love reading all your great suggestions! I'm now at the point where I have several bins of photos and boxes of drawings and notes from the grandkids.

Hubby is anxious for me to go through these bins and downsize while I am resisting the task, which equals friction.

QPdoll

Aug 22, 2019 at 6:37am
In response to "Invalid Entry"

Excellent recommendations of how to declutter. That's what I need to do, find a box for each room and put anything that doesn't belong or have a home in it. It's such a great idea. Now to find the motivation!

1 Like

Cubby~On the road again!

Jun 22, 2019 at 9:38am
In response to "Invalid Entry"

As always, great advice!

I'd like to comment about what not to do when someone is a new mommy or grandma. Don't save every single scribble, and especially don't date it.

I've got boxes of drawings and colorbook pages with names and dates that I saved over the years.

Even the colorbook pages "I" colored with the kids, and with my name and date colored.

What the... ??? I haven't started weeding through these boxes yet, but probably will in the near future. I've been thinking about blogging about this later on... things not to do.

I'm the prime example of someone who needed her own advice over 40 years ago.

I think I'll tear wallpaper off the bedroom wall upstairs first. Much easier task!

~Cubby ")

April 25, 2019 at 12:02pm

#957517

Getting Control of Pschological Obstacles

Wat you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals. Zig Ziglar

So now we have an idea of what psychological obstacles may be holding us back, but what do we do about them? Identifying a problem is necessarily the first step but then comes the need to find an appropriate solution, one that works for us. Otherwise, the problem just sits there causing us stress or giving us an excuse not to move to the next step in our search for an organized life.

For example, if you think you can only function in crisis mode, try re-directing some of your energy outside yourself. Once you have overcome the challenge of creating an organized home and/or work life move on to learning a new skill, helping others create solutions to community needs, develop ways to help others in immediate crisis. Take what you have learned about organizing and use it to help others. You can always tweak your system from time to time if needed.

For those of you who tend to be collectors, start by focusing on consolidating and organizing what you have, rather than beat yourself up over all your stuff. In the process, you may discover you really don't need all those shoes or handbags or seasonal decorations to be happy. This will help you determine what is really important to you; how you want to see yourself.

If you often feel like you are a ship without a rudder consider taking a good look at what you are doing on a daily basis. and what activities make you feel fulfilled and happy, what gives you energy. Hopefully, you will see a pattern emerge. Put your thoughts down on paper, make connections, give definition to the general categories that develop. You can use this information to start to define your priorities and then you can start to set some goals. You can start small and build on your successes. It is best to develop short, medium and long-range goals whether it is redecorating you house, designing a garden or changing your life style.

Sometimes we project so much personality and emotion on our things based on where we got them or who give them to us that we think letting them go will be letting a part of who we are go or who the person was to us. You need to remember your identity comes from inside, not outside. I have been quilty of holding on to research materials, books and worksheets from when I lead workshops. I told myself that maybe someday I would need them to do more workshops. I carried them around from house to house trying to find a place to keep them. Then I did some soul searching and determined that the knowledge I had gained was still a part of me and that shuold I ever want to do similar work again, I could take what I knew and add to it, make it a new project. I kept an outline and summary of resources and let go of everything else. Now that I have only this one folder, I no longer think about where to find extra storage for those materials or feel guilty for keeping all of it and not doing workshops. I am free to move on to other interest, other opportunities.

By identifying the actual causes of you cluttered or disorganized life you can start to look for effective solutions that will free up time to be more creative or get involved in an activity or hobby you've been wanting to try. Every psychological obstacle should be handled in order to sustain any organizing system.

Comment • View 1 comment

Printed from https://www.writing.com/main/books/item_id/2181121-View-from-Down-Under/day/4-25-2019