Dandelions and Daydreams

I’ve read that for everything we become as adults, the seeds were planted in our childhood.  If that really is the case, I’m trying to figure out where the seed was planted that grew into this obsession with decluttering and simplifying.

As a teenager, my parents referred to my room as “the center of gravity.”  When something went missing in the house, you could most likely find it in my room (especially scissors and hairbrushes).  In the last 2 years, I have turned decluttering into a hobby.  This past weekend, I realized my need for beauty is as strong as my need for simplicity.

For a while now, I have been following the Flylady organization system.  One of the key components of the system is the Control Journal.  The control journal is basically a notebook where you write down your routines so that on those down days you can look and know what you need to do without having to make a decision.

I have tried to make a control journal at least 5 or 6 times, but I never actually used it.  The notebook I had the stuff written down in would end up sitting on my counter until it got covered over with a pile of mail.  I tried to follow the rules and not get perfectionistic about it.  I tried to write the routines down in pencil or use a post it note, but those things always ended up looking junky to me.

This weekend I found a stand up photo album at a garage sale.  I typed up my routines to fit on a 4 X 6 post card.  In the extra space to the right of my routines, I included digital images of Monet paintings.  My morning routine card has Impression: Sunrise, which is the painting that started the impressionist movement.  Each card has a different picture on it.  All of the pictures are Monet paintings because Monet is probably my favorite landscape artist.  My control journal is now a beautiful work of art.  I smile whenever I see it rather than being irritated with the messy look of my hand writing or by the fact that post-its won’t stay in place more than 5 minutes so I am continually picking them up off the floor.

I think the next step in my life is learning to balance functionality, simplicity, and beauty.  That makes me smile.

sunset reflections

Periwinkle Farm

Book Review: The Spirit of Loveliness

Creating a welcoming refuge

Hiding Your Wounds

Tags: Housekeeping

This entry was posted on Monday, July 14th, 2008 at 2:01 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.