Category #2: Books! 📚

I read the ‘how to tidy up your books’ section in Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and Spark Joy. And in case you’re wondering if you should read both books, I would say no. The latter has how-to drawings (and the first one doesn’t), but I don’t think it gives you any more insight into the theory than the first book. And her videos on YouTube will give you better instructions than the drawings anyway.

And also, just a heads up, her book is also very touchy-feely. In fact, I think her whole approach is very touchy-feely. So if you’re not like this and want practical tips on how to tidy your home, then this book ain’t for you. You’re not going to get much of that from her! 😆

The book ‘Outer Order, Inner Calm‘ is on my to-read list, and I think this would have more practical tips, if this is more your style.

But this 8-week challenge is all about Marie Kondo’s approach – the KonMari method – and I’m going to give it my very best. I wonder just how effective this will be after 8 weeks, and whether I will indeed stay nice and tidy, and not relapse and go back to my old ways.

I actually don’t have many paper books, so this category is actually really easy. It’s the next few categories that I am going to really struggle with, in particular, papers and hobbies. These are really difficult categories for me to tackle. And I’m sure a few other miscellaneous categories are also going to be pretty hard. And I’m already dreading getting to the final category: sentimental items! 😩

My Friday reality and weekend expectations

I felt better today, thankfully, almost back to my normal self again 🙏

N went to a workmate’s place for dinner tonight, so I just stayed home and filmed my next YouTube video 😆 And then I watched YouTube videos on how to level up my colour grading skills. Not quite how one would usually spend a Friday evening, but such is my life now! 😂

I think the weather also isn’t helping my mood or my productivity. It’s been foggy and overcast the last few days, with the threat of a shower actually delivering the goods once or twice. But generally, it’s just been grey and miserable. And apparently the weekend is pretty much bringing more of the same 😒 So neither of us really want to do anything tomorrow. How blah. So I might just stay home and start working on my 8-week tidying up challenge. OK, not start, since technically I started it last week, but continue. And get started on the next category: books 📚

My closet has been great, by the way. Everything has a home (or a temporary home, while they wait for their permanent home – ie I need to go shopping 😊), and I put everything back in its rightful place at the end of each day. I want the same thing with everything else in the house! So if I can achieve that with my books this weekend, that would be so awesome 😊

Category #1: Clothes

I did it. I cleaned out my wardrobe, OMG. I’m so proud of my effort today 👏 I felt like I was really ruthless, and got rid of sooo much stuff. I actually could have gotten rid of even more stuff, but instead, I decided to keep a few things and just go shopping to look for things that can replace them with stuff that I actually do like.

Part of my wardrobe – woohoo ! 🎉

I need some storage containers, so I’ll have to head over to IKEA sometime (or maybe Muji) and look for some possible solutions.

Man, I’m loving my wardrobe right now! 😁

Next stop: books! But perhaps I’ll leave that for another weekend 😆 There is still a lot of work to do in the house (a LOT! 😱), but I’m going to tackle it one category at a time. I have eight weeks 😆

My new challenge

I didn’t have the most productive day today. I just wasn’t in the right headspace 😔 I really wanted to do more stuff, but I just didn’t have the willpower. Sighhh…

N and I were also hearing negativity around us, which didn’t help matters. Sighhh… This is one of many reasons why I don’t like giving out negativity into the universe. If someone is already down, you’re just going to compound that feeling and make them feel worse. I don’t want to be a source of negativity. I want to be a source of inspiration, of motivation. But I, too, have down days, so it’s not always easy. But I try 😊

I’m thinking of doing this 8-week decluttering challenge set by Marie Kondo. It’s a tad longer than my 30-day splits challenge, but I’m sure she made the daily tasks bite-size and totally doable. Plus week one sounds really fun and easy 😆 I totally go into these decluttering sessions with guns blazing, but then six months later, I fall back into my old habits, and the house looks almost exactly the same as it did before I did the decluttering session 😔 I say ‘almost’ because I do improve incrementally each time. But it’s never as neat and tidy as straight after the decluttering session. So if I do a full-on 8-week deep dive, then maybe I can actually change my habits during those 8 weeks and actually see long-lasting results. Maybe… 🤞

And as per my one-word theme for the year, you may as well just do it and see what happens! Much like my 30-day splits challenge, sure I didn’t get all the way down to the floor, but I’m so much closer to the floor now than I’ve ever been my entire life. And now that I have a new daily stretching habit, I may actually eventually reach this goal too! But I won’t know unless I keep stretching every day and keep pushing myself. I’m definitely going to keep tracking this goal and see where I am at the end of 90 days, and then after 180 days – a whole half year of stretching! 😱 Much like so many things in life, if you just keep working at it consistently, more often than not, you will see progress. That’s what I’m hoping for with these stretches and with this 8-week challenge 😊

Whirlwind

Today felt like a whirlwind of a day, being thrown back and forth all around the place. But having said that, it was sorta good too, in a way, because I didn’t have any time to think, it was just go go go! So I got a ton of things done, but now I feel quite tired from running around on adrenalin for most of the day, coupled with this stupid cold that I have.

I think it’s also because of this motivational speaker who I recently discovered: Mel Robbins. She actually just makes me want to go go go! She’s got this five-second rule, which basically says you should act within five seconds if you have an instinct to act on a particular goal. So at the moment, every time I want to do something but quickly find myself starting my usual umming and ahhing, I say 5-4-3-2-1-GO and off I go and do it. It is so simple yet so powerful! It’s a bit insane, really. So I think that’s contributed to the frenetic pace of my day today. But like I said, not a bad thing! Perhaps not so good for my cold, but productivity-wise, it’s been awesome 😊

But because there was so much stuff happening today, I didn’t get to stick to my 8-hour eating window. I didn’t get to plan my meals out properly, and when I noticed the time, I knew I wasn’t going to make it in 8 hours. So. I had to stretch it out to just over 9 hours 😔 Such a shame. I had been doing so well this past week. Never mind, I just have to get back in control tomorrow 💪

I started re-reading Marie Kondo’s The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up. I need inspiration once again to cull. It’s very hard to stay on top of it, and clutter is very insidious. It just slowly builds, and before you know it, you’re surrounded by it. I obviously haven’t mastered the lessons she teaches in the book! 😂 I think I have my clothes under control, I’ll give myself that much. It’s more papers and books that I can’t seem to get a good handle on. Definitely a weakness. I’ll have to zone in specifically on the section of the book that deals with this type of clutter. But I did manage to throw out some stuff, so it’s a step in the right direction 😊

It was a good day 👍