Accountability

I need some accountability in my life right now.  Since July my life has been a whirlwind of long days, some 12 hours long and 6 days a week. I want more. I recently finished reading Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project. It took me more than 8 months to finish reading it. I would read some and put it down, then weeks, months later pick it up and read some more. Recently an acquaintance suggested it as a book club read. I think I am going to join the book club.  When I first purchased the book, I thought I would read the book and do my own version of a happiness project. Right now, I don't think that is what I need in my life. I need some accountability. I have a ton of projects to finish and lots of de-cluttering to do. If I did as Gretchen did and started my year long happiness project with a de-cluttering phase, I would feel overwhelmed. I understand the importance of having a deadline, I work really well with deadlines. Not really, I just leave everything until a day or two before the deadline and then stay up late and get really grumpy trying to make the deadline.  Instead I would like to suggest that for me the happiness project is going to be a lifetime undertaking. 

I have lived much of my life with happy moments, but not truly happy. I want to live a life that is full of happy. I know there will be sadness (without sadness there can be no true appreciation of happiness), but I want to strive for a generally happy outlook and life.  To this end I believe I need to complete the projects I have hanging over my head and to completely remove the clutter. I am going to spend some time evaluating the objects in my life and asking myself if they truly serve a purpose, if they add to my happiness or if they are just another something in my life. 

To keep myself on track I plan to use this blog as an accountability tool. I will list 1 outstanding project each week, post a photo of one room/area of clutter, and state one goal for the week. At the end of the week I will give an update on the project stating the progress I have or have not made, post a new photo of the room/area of clutter and give feedback on how I am doing toward reaching my current goal. When the project is done, the area/room is organized and the goal is achieved I will simply move on to the next. 

I am open to the idea of turning some projects over to professionals, but at this moment in time, while I am unemployed those projects will simply be quoted for a price and set aside until I can afford to have someone else finish them for me. 

My first project is my quilt. The quilt was started by my Oma (who passed away) and finished by my mother. The edge of the quilt has come apart and I would like to hand sew it back together. That is my first project. I will let you know what progress I have made come next week. 

My first area/room is my downstairs powder room.  This room has been torn apart for the better half of a decade. It was a poorly designed and barely functioning bathroom. We decided to move the door (done) and to redo the entire bathroom. We have the materials (most of them) to redo the bathroom. Currently it is acting as a store room for my clutter. So I have decided that I will start clearing it out. Eventually I would like it to be a bathroom again. I will probably need to hire out some of the work (laying the tile floor and the plumbing) since I do not possess the skills or tools for those two projects, but none of that can be done until I have cleared it out and gotten it ready for work. 

Everything in that room will be evaluated for its usefulness to myself. Anything that I don't need/want will be sold, tossed or donated. I hope that by selling some of the junk I have collected in the past 15 or so years I can pull together the funds to complete some projects (or to pay others to complete the projects). 

I am currently unemployed and have been since March. I am in school for massage therapy and that full time program leaves me no time to work a $10/hr part time job. My unemployment benefits ran out at the end of September and there are no funds left in savings.  Some of the money I bring in from selling off items I am not using will go toward groceries and other bills, anything above that will go toward finishing one project at a time. 

Part of the reason I choose the quilt as my first project is because it only requires the basic sewing skills I possess. We have plenty of thread, so there is no cost in completing it. There are plenty of projects that will require some money to complete. 

The reason I am choosing to start in the downstairs bathroom, is because I believe it is small enough to make me feel like I am making progress and might bring in a small amount of money. 

My goal is to be less critical, less critical of myself, my family and of people in general. Like most I find myself judging and gossiping. I am going to work at reminding myself that I gain nothing from judging others or from gossiping, but that happiness is found in enjoying the life and things I do have.

This is the room I am starting on:

This is the blanket I am working on: