Outer Order.....

 I finished Outer Order Inner Calm today in a fit of yes creating Outer Order!  I have had the book for a while (since I went to see her on March 6th and go the book) and finally told myself that yes I did in fact have time to read it so I did just that.

One of these days I am going to manage to wrangle all my clutter and stuff to make a more peaceful home.  I do make progress and then I backslide but knock on wood I have never complete regressed it is more like three steps forward one back.  I am doing my best to not be too harsh on myself and keep myself focused on my wins rather than the regression.


This morning I just could not get myself out of a mental and physical fog.  Last week the little Padawans were home for school vacation week, and of course, Easter was just this weekend.  There was a lot going on that is exhausting to me both physically and mentally so it should not have been a big surprise but it was.  I knew I had to get a lot of stuff done to pick up the slack that had accumulated over the past week, and it was daunting.

First thing I did was get myself to sit down at the computer and do work, I just had to get started and I knew it would slowly come to me.  And employing the "Fake It" technique from the Happiness Project to just get it done.  Very soon I found the fog lifting and I was making some serious progress, but I was feeling a bit unsettled, there was just so much in my line of sight that was driving me bonkers and all I could think about was my perpetual problem child of my counter.

The next thing I did was "Move it closer" in my clean up.  I had a lot of things out from Easter that needed to go back to the basement where decorations live, and there were empty boxes that needed to be put in the recycling bin and the cooler from two weeks ago needed to go down too.  So I started roaming the house and tossing things in the trash that needed to be tossed, creating like piles, and moving those things that needed to go out to the recycling bin or basement in front of the steps.  I probably spent about a total of 15 minutes and go a lot of visual clutter cleared by putting it away, folding it, or taking it out to the recycling bin.  That progress and visual impact was such an energy boost it makes me want to do more, so I looking forward to the rest of the day taking things and doing the little bits that will, in fact, add up.

Side note the "moving it closer" was something that Gretchen had mentioned during her Outer Order Inner Calm book tour that I went to see.  But also I realized my Mom has been doing that for years.  Laundry would be on the steps after she pulled it from the line and it was just natural in my house if you are going up stairs and there was something on the stairs you just took it with you.  My husband didn't grow up with this and now it makes sense why I would always put stuff by the steps that needed to go down to the basement and he always walked past it to my frustration!  Well, he didn't know what I was doing because he didn't grow up with that process and I never told him.  So after hearing it at the Book Tour, he heard it too since he went with me, I told him.  I don't think he is on board with it yet but I am less frustrated.

Second side note, when my husband heard this tip he leaned over to me and said of course that works, that is how the internet works.