Life Upgrade

I happened to catch Oprah last week (it was too rainy to do my usual potter-around-the-garden-after-work thing), and she was discussing an interesing concept. Namely, that your house reflects what's going on inside you. Messy house? - then you're likely disorganized inside. Everything gotta be perfect? - check out your perfectionistic streak. Things hidden in closets? - perhaps you've got things hidden inside you that you'd rather not show. Cold, unwelcoming room? - maybe you just won't let yourself relax there, feel that you don't deserve comfort.

Immediately I could relate!

The past few years have been trudging in a rut for me. My house has become run-down with stuff piled in the corners and dust collecting behind the piano. My son's toys and goods overrun the lounge (because he sleeps in a part of it and has absolutely no storage space), my bedroom doubles as a homework area (because it's the only place big enough to take the desk & computer), the bathroom hosts the washing machine and I hardly dare scrub things for fear of it falling apart (the pipes are the old copper type, and appear to be perishing, while tiles threaten to drop off the wall....). Having two dogs means inevitable white dog-hair on the dark couches, and the carpets are so awful that I'm embarrassed to have folk around. As a result, people simply don't drop around anymore and I seem to have lost all my friends.

So, when I went home I tended to spend time outdoors where there was order and peace, not inside where the look of my house grated on me. I tried to get parts of it organized. Every now and then I'd sort out a room, or scrub something to gleaming perfection. But still the clutter lurked in corners and cupboards, and whatever doesn't fit in the house has taken over the garage.

Sound like a disaster zone? It felt like one!

But in the past month things have changed in me. Something's been switched on that necessitates a chain-reaction life upgrade. And it's starting to show in my house too.

Little by little, I'm losing the clutter, chucking out the stuff that hid the clean lines and space that actually exists. I'm letting go of books I have read and will not re-read, I've thrown out so many old clothes that my closet is literally bare, I've attacked the tiles in the bathroom and cleared out the kitchen drawers.

And it doesn't stop there. We've switched to 2-ply toilet paper from the cheap "newspaper" type (want to laugh at that? well, go ahead, but it's quite a difference! :) ). We're eating "lite" margarine in tubs on our bread, instead of buying the cheapest block and taking bits off it. We're investing in plastic containers for toys and throwing out the cardboard boxes that are falling apart and spilling them across the floor. Dishes no longer pile up. Dusting AND polishing is done regularly. Papers have been filed or recycled.

Last night I jokingly told my son that he wouldn't notice if someone had come in and trashed the place, because that's what he's used to seeing when he walks in the door! But all that is changing. Along with my rising confidence levels and the sense that I'm actually someone after all, my home is turning from squalor to decent living - becoming a place that I'm glad to go home to and where I can relax without worrying about that pile of stuff on top of the bookshelf.

My office is changing too. It's always been well-ordered and organized, but has become pared-down to essentials and highlighted with small "me-touches". I've donated the chilli plants to the boss who is always eyeing them, I've sorted the recycling to go to the school later today, and cleared the clutter in a few drawers.

And you know what? Doing this at home and at work is feeding back into who I'm becoming. It's like a cycle of improvement and upgrading - and it's working.