Summary - and redirection

I am not caring about clothes so much lately.  I feel like I have that under control, except for the fact that I now own way too many clothes!  I am now refocusing my attention on my home.

A little background - my mom is a straight up hoarder.  Yes, like on TLC.  I never thought I was, I thought I was just kind of messy because I'm lazy and easily distracted.  However, as an adult, I've also never lived anyplace for very long at a time so I never really found out since we regularly had to purge and pack.  But now we've been in our current home about 8 1/2 years.  Stuff is starting to accumulate.  (Understatement.)

Interestingly, I do this at work ALL THE TIME, as I work in residential behavioral health.  I understand the reasons why it occurs, and have many strategies for dealing with it that I can implement for other people.  For some reason that part shuts off when I come home.  I get used to getting things just to where it's manageable, not nice.  This is further complicated by the fact that our home is mid-remodel so stuff is constantly getting shifted to accommodate a project, and most projects don't get all the way done.  

While hubby was deployed, I did fine in terms of basic tidiness, dishes, laundry, etc.  But the problem areas never got "gotten to".  Anyone else have a junk drawer? What about a junk room?  What about more than one junk room?  Having a big house with few people in it isn't wonderful when you're a clutterbug.

I had actually interviewed and hired a housekeeper to help out  with the problem areas a couple of months ago, with the intention of getting it done before hubby came home from Afghanistan.  Unfortunately, her aging mother fell ill so she had to bail.  So the support I had kind of counted on to get me/keep me going is no longer there and I felt a little defeated.  Now, with the support of my awesome hubby, I'm ready to attack it again.

I've done some reading on minimalist blogs, but that seems a bit unattainable.  A blog I am strongly identifying with right now is A Slob Comes Clean.  Nony does a wonderful combo of developing better habits and self-analyzing why she is the way she is (which is very similar to me, as I read on).

My daughter just turned 18 and moved out, so I have abruptly found myself to be an empty nester.  It seems like the perfect time to get my home restructured to suit just the two of us.

In other news, I just had a birthday.  Now I'm 37. 

37 for me will be the year of getting my oral health in order (I have a lot of dental work scheduled), and getting my house in order too.

So.....

Friday I had 3 fillings and started antibiotics.  Root canal is in about three weeks.

Saturday I got my room in order and finished sewing room darkening curtains.

Sunday I got almost all caught up on laundry, all the way to put away.  Took about 20 bags of stuff to charity.

Monday (today) I have a counselling appointment, so I think I'll just skip my singing group, wrap up the laundry, and call it a day.  

Also, this week we are waiting to hear back on a house (duplex) we're trying to buy in Wisconsin.  Positive mojo appreciated.