Clearing headspace, Teddie tackles the hard stuff.

[teddie.bare]

I suffered a difficult setback last challenge after being rushed to the hospital for an Emergency Appendectomy. I'm still recovering. I'm still not happy about it. Unfortunately, it triggered other discontentment that I had been holding at bay. I did very good last challenge with one specific de-cluttering goal, and this time I'm going to up it to two. I also need to make myself work on a side venture I am starting, and giving myself some goals in that area should help. I am officially on a really crappy plateau, so I need to figure out something to do about that. Either ride it out, or find a way to shake it up - all while recovering from abdominal surgery. So this should be a good emotional ride.

BADASS WOMAN

• Part of my level 50 involves reducing my consumption. I hesitate to say 'live a minimalist lifestyle' because I am big into hobbies and I come from a long line of hoarders, so I'm not sure I'll ever get to a true minimalist level. My two goals for this challenge are: get my laundry room and study shelves under control. If I get more done in these areas that is great, but for now I need to go through everything on the shelves in both of these rooms, and take care of the stuff there accordingly.
   
• Get my act together with my new pet project. I get so excited about it, and then nothing happens. I've decided on a name. I've figured out the audience, direction, mission, vision, tag lines, etc. DO SOMETHING WITH IT. Logo, website, first blog. Do it. Get a few key products figured out, and start the etsy side.
   
• My plateau is still firmly in place. This blows. Continue to work out a minimum of 4 days a week and track all food. Keep carbs down below 50g net a day (except Saturday), and stick to a slightly lower calorie level for 6 weeks to see what happens instead of eating back most exercise calories. I can vary a little on this, depending, but I need to tighten it up.

SIDE QUESTS

• I need to stuck it up and take care of things that drive me crazy. Step one: spend ten minutes when I first get home in the kitchen. This is mostly to clear the sink, because dirty dishes make me stabby. I have a good routine getting my stuff ready for the next day but I hate waking up to the dirty dishes in the sink!
   
• Get off the scale. Seriously. It is a good for nothing lying bastard. Put it out of sight. If I go to the doctor I can check. If I get my bodpod scan I can see. I can weigh once in December 9th for my monthly tracking, but that's it at home. I need a mental break from it, especially while I'm healing. I'm not going to change any of my awesome routine regardless of what it says. So no more of that controlling crap for awhile.
   
• Spend less time on Facebook in the evenings. I get caught up in scrolling through everyone else's life and I don't want to miss my own. Except for checking my fitness page after work, no wasting brain cells until 8pm during the week.

MOTIVATION

 

PROGRESS
 

 4 Points a week for exercise

 7 Points a week for dealing with dishes

 7 Points a week for staying off the scale (1 freebie, 09 Dec)

 4 Points a week for staying off Facebook until 8pm Mon-Thur

22 Points/week possible for base points.

 

10 Points for dealing with the shelves in my Laundry Room

10 Points for dealing with the shelves in my Study

10 Points for being having my website URL purchased, website started, one blog written, and one product mocked up

 

Week 1: 21/22 Points

Week 2: 21/22 Points

Week 3: 22/22 Points

Week 4: 32/22 Points (+10 for dealing with the shelves in my Laundry Room)

Week 5: 30/22 Points (+10 Points for dealing with the shelves in my Study)

Week 6: 27/22 Points (+ 5/10 for side venture)

Total: 153/162 or 94%

[teddie.bare]

Lord I didn't even finish the title - and I can't easily see how to edit it. Been one of those weeks. I'll mess with it when I have a minute (sigh).

[starsapart]

Following!

 

To edit the title, use the full editor - I think that should work for you!

 

Loving youuuuuuuuuuuu!  Hope this is the challenge we get to meet at last!

[Quill]

one of the ways i declutter is having three boxes in my room. one is for 'does not belong in this room', one is for 'belongs to someone else' (gifts, borrowed items, library books), and one is for 'thrift store'. I also have a bin. And I'll set a timer for ten, twenty minutes, or  music for an hour, and i'll pick a shelf or a drawer. Anything that I do not love, is not the best in its class (I do not need five pairs of scissors, I keep one), or something I can think of an immediate use for, goes into one of the boxes, unless it lives in another room, in which case it goes in the other room box and I will tackle that item when I get to that room.

 

And after that designated time, I stop. And if my thrift store box gets full? I go to the car and empty it into a bag in there. It gets it out fo the house..and that empty box needs filling again! (i find if the box is empty, I put stuff in it. If its full, I don't, so this keeps me going).

 

Hope it helps.

[karinajean]

The decluttering/minimalist/consumption challenge really resonates with me. We are pretty good at not bringing stuff into the house, but we have never cleared the time to make the house really calm and well organized and able to facilitate more creativity. Also with hobby stuff it's a fine line between "hoarding" and saving it for later!

So in, and with you in solidarity.

Sent from my iPhone while riding a unicorn through the cosmos.

[Alexandrite]

Subbed. We live in about 300 sq ft and it has taken us two years and at least six sessions of decluttering to get through everything we owned and fit only what we truly needed into our home. I wholeheartedly agree with Quill's suggestions, and I do it about the same. Donate, keep, and goes someplace else piles. And the timer thing too, because after about 45 minutes you really need to do something else completely or you will get burned out fast!

I reduced all my sewing stuff down to one tote of fabric, one big organizer toolkit for the tools, and my machine. Anything beyond that means I am not conpleting projects like I should and helps remind me to go back and finish stuff.

- Sent from my magic Navi-powered device!

[teddie.bare]

I'm seriously feeling technically challenged this week. I know I posted on here last night and its disappeared. Sigh.

Thank you for all the love! I'm so happy to see you guys. I'm off work until tomorrow, but I'll get caught up on all the new challenges soon!

I'm not doing well from my surgery. I had to see the surgeon yesterday to make sure the severe pain in having isn't something serious. It's just nerve pain from the internal stitch, and he says I'm fine to continue the exercise I've been doing.

I'm slowly updating my challenge, I'll finish it up tomorrow. I have a lot of life stuff to work on, and I feel like I'm in a good place to do so. Last night I hung the shelf I've been wanting to store my lunchbox in my laundry room. My husband hung along shelf over the machines for more storage. I got almost everything off the top of the drier and wiped down both machines pretty good. So that's a start.

Since I'm home today, I started on the study some. I got all of the random envelopes of photos I could find consolidated into a photo box. I can't even remember what I was looking for. So I have my first open spot on the shelves in there. I might go do a few more small things in that's throughout the day. I just don't want to get burnt out.

I keep a donate box in the study and both closets. I've gotten really good about putting things in them as I come across them. I'm just not as good about purposely going through stuff to get rid of things. I tend to not want to make a decision and move stuff around. Ugh. But I'm working on it. I'm going out of my way to get rid of more. But I'm not kidding when I say I was raised a hoarder. I find value in everything. I've gotten rid of a lot, but I have a lot to go yet.

I wiped down and stored my scale. It called to me but I ignored it. My food was OK yesterday but a littler higher in carbs than I wanted. I ended up going out to eat and did the best I could. I'm not gonna be mad about carbs from carrots and seaweed salad

Today should be easy. I'm just mostly trying to rest and calm down this damn nerve that hurts so bad.

[starsapart]

All my for you!  I hope you feel better ASAP!!!

[teddie.bare]

This pretty much sums up where I'm at right now:

 

[Alexandrite]

Hands free revolution for the win!

- Sent from my magic Navi-powered device!

[teddie.bare]

Technically challenged is an understatement, good grief. I had a big old update from this weekend and my firefox crashed. Lets see what I can remember.

 

I have spent the last five days mostly resting. I'm sure it was good for me, but I'm over it now. The lazy is strong in me, so I have to make an effort not to sit around too much or that's all I'll do. I was able to get a lot done, in between my resting. I know that keeping up with clutter is going to be a lifelong thing, at least until I can reduce our possessions. I hate to admit it, but my husband is a lot of the problem. I spent a long time cleaning the kitchen on Saturday, and it's already a disaster. I know the kitchen is my biggest bone of contention, but every time I try to work on it I just get angry because I can't keep ahead of my family. So I am working on the Study and Laundry Room, and I hope that getting a foothold in these areas helps motivate me in other parts of the house. Because I have such a hard time keeping up my motivation, I am going to neurotically list out everything I accomplished this weekend:

 

- Deep cleaned both bathroom sinks, and the spare bathroom toilet

- Cleaned and hid the scale

- Took everything out of my workout clothes drawer and reorganized it

- Put all of my fitness tanks away that were on top of my dresser

- Started a new donation bag of clothes (I recently finishing filling one)

- Hung shelves in my laundry room for detergent and my lunch box

- Kept up with my dishes - I woke up to a bright shiny sink this morning (!)

- Washed and swapped out my comforters so my cold-weather blanket is on my bed now

- Did a paying photo shoot (!)

- Sorted photos, started editing, AND got my old website hosting back up and running

- Got hooked up with a friend about a secret life-changing endeavor (!)

 

So, good things. My eating was decent. I rested a lot. And I still managed to get a lot done without feeling too resentful about it. I just have come to terms with the fact that my priorities are not necessarily shared with my family. And that's ok. I'm going to lead by example, and all that jazz. I'm not getting anywhere by burying my head in the internet, that's for sure. It's funny, as soon as I decided I was going to really focus on the changes that are important to me, it's like the stars aligned and everything just started cooperating. I got a paying photo gig, which is rare for me. I found out about a career change that is right up my ally that I'm gunning for. I was able to get a great deal on a lot of the website stuff I need for some of my personal ventures. And everything I attempted at home went just fine, which is super unusual.

 

It's nice to see progress, which is why I'm focusing on it and listing it all out here so I can remind myself later how good it feels when I accomplish things. This is actually going to be a lot like a journal for me this time around, so I apologize in advance for the ramblings that are to come!

 

Today has been great. I got into the gym since I have my surgeons blessing, and I had a pretty good workout. I didn't hurt until I was all done and had to get up off of the floor. That's when the nerve pain got me, and it took me a few minutes to manage to get back to standing. Luckily, that's the only time it has hurt me today. It's a little sore since I've been active pretty much all day, but it's not the shooting/ripping pain I've been experiencing. I have some really great food for my 3-day work week, and except for the bitter cold outside, I think it's going to be a good week.

[starsapart]

Huzzah productivity!

 

Huzzah gym!

 

You, my friend, are doing AWESOME!!!

[Alexandrite]

Its a total balancing act to share space with others, you are doing great!

Cant wait to hear about the opportunity if it pans out!

- Sent from my magic Navi-powered device!

[Mad Hatter]

Teddie you rock and you'll get through everything! You're doing great. 

[teddie.bare]

Ok, I hope to have more time tomorrow to check in with all you lovelies. Time is just flying past me this week. We are cramming 5 days of work into 3 days and it's NO FUN.

 

So here's my quick update from yesterday/so far today:

 

Last night was super productive. It was also the start of the 'why are you being neurotic' argument with my husband So, I'll have to deal with that. One mountain at a time.

 

- Put all of my daughter's clean clothes away, this included putting too small things in the donate

- Picked up my daughter's room with her help (she's 3)

- Cleaned off a huge chunk of my dresser top. This was spontaneous, but I got a lot cleared off

- Unloaded and reloaded the dishes before dinner, also did dinner dishes

- Cleared my hope chest of my husbands clothes THAT DON'T BELONG THERE (enter bone of contention. dun dun duuuuun)

- Unsubscribed from so many emails. Geez louise

- Picked up the living room, and went on an epic missing-toddler-sock quest

- Stayed off of Facebook until the allotted 8pm time

- Got some major issues resolved with my web hosting, now I remember why I don't do this for a living any more... I still have two more issues to fight with tonight.

 

I had a great nutrition day so far. I did a 30 min brisk walk on the dreadmill today. I jogged exactly one minute yesterday and one minute today. That still sucks badly. I've also been on my feet a lot the last two days, and my quads are complaining about it. Suck it up, quads. I even wore heels for most of the day today, although the balls of my feet don't appreciate it much. I have to finish up for the day, but so far my productive evenings are greatly improving my mood - it's nice to get home and see little glimmers of hope, even if I get harassed about reaching the end of my rope

[Alexandrite]

Dreadmill, haha! And hey, you wore heels for longer than a few minutes. You're a hero in my book! Closest I get right now is cowboy boots.

The FB thing is interesting, I might try that out!

Honestly, the new you is probably just knocking the socks right off your husband so he doesnt know how to react. Give it time. There is literal dust settling and there is metaphorical dust settling. Need time for both after all that organizing!

- Sent from my magic Navi-powered device!

[teddie.bare]

Ok. Update before I have to fly out of here. Man has this week been a whirling blur.

 

Last night:

- Dishes unloaded/reloaded

- Photos edited, 3 delivered to client (2 more to go)

- Fixed 2/3 of my website hosting issues. Going crazy.

- Planned out and wrote out plans for secret life change

- Planned out and wrote out plans for side venture

- Cleaned more dresser space

- Only got on facebook for like a minute, and it was like 9:30pm. Big win here.

 

Today I got to the gym today and did a decent workout. My incision was super pissed about doing proper skull crushers, but I ignored it (bad, I know). It's fine though. Eating was great. I need to get some sleep this weekend, and my new iPhone is FINALLY supposed to be delivered tonight. I'm a hot mess. Hair and eyelash dying must occur this weekend. That is really the only plans I have though, which is glorious.

 

The no scale thing is proving harder than anticipated. I have to walk by another one in the gym, and I've had no less than 3 people tell me I look like I've lost more weight. It's killing me. But I will stay strong. I would LOVE to have a decent loss when I weigh in a couple weeks. Although I'm steeling myself for a continuation of my plateau. I need to stop thinking about it all together, but it's hard when people mention it constantly. But it's all good. I knew it would be difficult.

 

Talked through things with my husband some more after another blowout last night. I think he's finally seeing my side clearer. I don't really care right now, as long as he stops giving me a hard time about it. We have a long-running project that is -><- close to being done that I will try to make him finish tomorrow. Other than that, I'm pretty much just leaving him alone while I work through my own stuff. Lots of thinking going on for me right now. But impending anticipation of big life changes tends to do that to me. Right now the only thing I can control is my wordly goods, so that's what I shall do.

 

Have a glorious weekend, lovelies. I will try to visit more logs from my new and improved phone

[lullaby88]

Go Teddie!! You're doing great!

 

Hair and eyelash dying must occur this weekend. That is really the only plans I have though, which is glorious.

Eyelash dying? How does that work? I've dyed my hair plenty of times but I would be to nervous to do that to the eyelashes. But I also have troubles putting on mascara some days.

 

Keep up the decluttering!! I'm stealing ideas for when I can do that to my stuff. Most of which is still in boxes and I have no place to put any of it in the 'right' spots so in the boxes

[teddie.bare]

I wore contacts most of my life and I have really sensitive eyes and couldn't wear mascara with them. My mom let me get my eyelashes dyed, which I really liked. I stopped for awhile and got Lasik. Ten years later I had to get glasses and now that I have a toddler, I suck at mornings. I don't have time to go to the salon and I figured I can get the supplies for a year for the same cost as having it done once.

Anyhow it takes about a half hour. I use a few drops if hydrogen peroxide instead of an activator because it's the same base ingredient. I do one eye, let it sit ten minutes, rinse, do the other eye.

I'm all about stuff I can do myself for cheap right now. Tomorrow I'll do my hair.

Last night I did dishes. My new phone finally arrived (I've been waiting since September). So I got the screen protector and case put on, and got all my info moved over. I played with it a bit and then went to bed early.

Today has been a pretty big rest day. I'm sore from the gym, and my nerve pain is worse when I am home more, bending over with my little one. I had to go turn in my old phone and pick up said hair dye. I got my lashes done, and I'm snuggling with my little one.

I plan on getting a few productive things done tomorrow. I'll post an update after i see how far I get.

[teddie.bare]

Updating my today so I don't forget

First: I did get all of the photos edited that I wanted to yesterday and got the lot delivered to my customer. Just waiting to see what her favorites are for more editing before I make her Christmas cards. That was big for me.

Today was really productive.

- I remembered to wash my gym clothes

- Washed my towels.

- I'm still on top of my dishes

- Got my hair dyed. It's whatever brown, but it went fine

- Did a half dozen stints with my study shelves. Lots thrown away. Lots reorganized. Lots more to go.

One thing I'm really realizing is that I need to make a dedicated effort with my scrap booking, and soon. Now that my daughter is getting older, I need to make a plan and involve her. Not this challenge, but soon.

I also had work stress bleed over into my weekend and I'm not happy about it. I have an issue that I need to squash, and I hate being the bad guy. This life change had better go my way - I'm going crazy with the way things are right now. I have the first part of my plan of attack worked out, and I will implement it this week.

I'm going to start talking about my attemot to change my life here, since I can't talk about it anywhere else. I pigeon holed myself into a career based on making my grandparents proud. 15.5 years later, they are gone and I'm tired of the immense stress. Don't get me wrong, I'm super proud of what I do, even if I can't openly talk about it on a public forum. I've been blessed with success and long-term employment, but I've needed a change for a while now. One of my close friends is moving across the country in January, and he's helping me apply for his job. It would only be a small monetary reduction, but the change of environment would be priceless. Step one: redo my resume. I've done the hard parts of the reworking on paper, so I just have to get it typed up. I'll update more as I feel more comfortable. Right now I don't want to jinx it.

[Elastigirl]

Awesome level ups in this post-congrats on the photo Christmas card customer, and the bravery to step out and find a career that makes you happy. Awesome week!

[Alexandrite]

Yes, totally agree, there is some HUGE stuff going on for you this challenge, and it sounds like you've got things lining up to help set you up for success. Keep at it, your heart knows what you need!

Week 2 go time!

- Sent from my magic Navi-powered device!

[Mad Hatter]

I'll update more as I feel more comfortable. Right now I don't want to jinx it.

 

You don't have to update more if you don't want to, but there's no way you can jinx it. You've got all the skillzz you need.

[teddie.bare]

Week 1 rundown:

 

I was terribly productive, which feels really good. I know I'm misplacing some feels, but that's ok. I only got to the gym 3x, but that's because it was a short week at work. I'm not going to be angry about that while I'm still doing so much internal healing. I ROCKED my dishes, keeping the sink clear and shiny all week. Yay me. My scale is still in it's stash spot, and despite it's siren song, I have not pulled it out this week. It's driving me crazy, but I need to work through it. I also did great staying off of Facebook until 8pm Mon-Thur. The main thing with that will be reminding myself to keep it up tonight, after the weekend. But I wasn't on there that much, I got tons done around the house.

 

 3 Points for exercise

 7 Points a week for dealing with dishes

 7 Points a week for staying off the scale (1 freebie, 09 Dec)

 4 Points a week for staying off Facebook until 8pm Mon-Thur

21/22 Points

 

So, I SUCK at big life changes. Like really suck. I pretty much go into numb auto pilot, and just ride it out until it's over. I was like that when I had to get a new car. I was like that when I bought my house. I was like that when I got married. I was like that when I was having my daughter. I can't sleep until it's over, and my brain is on OVERDRIVE until it fails. I've been tracking my sleep this week, and I'm only getting 5-6 hours of actual sleep, despite being in bed 8-9 hours. That sucks. I know it is affecting me negatively. Nothing will help that except getting through it.

 

And you're right, Hatter. I totally got the skilllzzzz. It's in my career field, just a different industry. Like, completely different. I could say there are a million pros and cons, but honestly, none of them matter. I'm so starry eyed over the opportunity that there isn't much they could tell me that would make me not want it with every fiber of my being. Which is making me overthink things. I know I'm gonna be crushed if it doesn't pan out, which makes my brain all "then why try at all?!" and my brain is an asshole. So I'm ignoring it. It would involve 3-hours a week PAID to work out, with a world class trainer. OMG that makes me fan girl so hard. And I could BECOME one of those said trainers - squee!! so anyhow, first step is the resume, which I'm working on putting my outline into actual form right now.

[Alexandrite]

If you need someone to review a resume, just let me know. I used to work for a staffing agency (in house) back in 2008 and dealt with a lot of the initial contacts and scheduling for recruiters. Just keep at it. It sounds like you really do have the ability, the drive, and the passion for it. And when someone fan-girls hard for something, that is an instant sign that you would be happy and successful doing it as a job. ^__^

 

As far as sleep, if it helps any you may want to write a list down on a little sticky or pad of paper, right before you go to bed. Dump everything you have in your brain: to do's, responsibilities, things that aren't pressing but you feel are important anyway, things that bother you. Just list it all out, plain and simple, no prioritizing. Lay down. Get back up and write more down if more comes to you. Then write at the bottom, "This will be here tomorrow so I won't forget. Nothing more to do today." It should help your brain a lot knowing that it's there waiting when you wake up, and there's nothing more you can do right then. This was part of my sleep training for a while back when I had a hard time getting to sleep.

 

Way to finish out week 1 with so many points!