Return All the Things

If ever I needed proof of my type-A personality, my suffocating need for achievement and perfection, or my tendency to over-think, over-analyze, and over-everything, I could point to my 25th birthday present. My mom, aware of what I really needed, bought me Simple Abundance: A Daybook of Comfort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breathnach. But I won’t, because it is far more telling that I never opened the book until this summer, 14 years after the fact.

Of course, I opened it back then on my birthday. I read the inscription and smiled, as good daughters do. I even carried it with me on the flight home (I was visiting my parents in Lake Tahoe) and when the pretty Indian woman in her 30s leaned over to ask me what I thought of the book, I looked down at the book in my lap and said, “I haven’t read it, but I’m sure it’s good.” She smiled back with a look that said she knew me.

I found the book in my childhood room, lost among all the other books. It was shortly after Helena’s parents died, and I grabbed it because it seemed much more relevant 14 years later. I had changed.

Then I opened the book and noticed it was a devotional of sorts, that there is a short essay for each day of the year and that the first date is, naturally, January 1. The introduction said to not worry about dates, and that “if this book finds you in April, don’t think that you can’t use it.”

I closed the book again–this time bringing it home for safekeeping–and made a mental note to start reading in January. I hadn’t changed that much.

On January 3rd, I read the following.

There are six principles that will act as guides as we make our inner journey over the next year. These are the six threads of abundant living which, when woven together, produce a tapestry of contentment that wraps us in inner peace, well-being, happiness, and a sense of security. First, there is gratitude. When we do a mental and spiritual inventory of all that we have, we realize that we are very rich indeed. Gratitude gives way to simplicity–the desire to clear out, pare down, and realize the essentials of what we need to live truly well. Simplicity brings with it order, both internally and externally. A sense of order in our life brings us harmony. Harmony provides us with the inner peace we need to appreciate the beauty that surrounds us each day, and beauty opens us to joy. But just as with any beautiful needlepoint tapestry, it is difficult to see where one stitch ends and another begins. So it is with Simple Abundance.

I wrote the word Excellent in the margin.

It was the very thing I needed to hear, that it’s okay many of the projects I do are practical, boring, not even remotely pinnable. There is an order to things, and before I can get to zshushing I have to work on the foundation. Otherwise, it’s just lipstick on a pig.

We hosted a dinner for out of town relatives a few days before Christmas. Our advent candles had burned down low, so I made a quick visit to Michael’s for more. I found the pretty gold candles on sale for a ridiculously low price and, thinking they would look lovely on the table, bought two boxes of four. I was right. They were lovely. That is, until they burned for more than a few seconds, and their marked down, too-good-to-be-true price made sense. (Not cents.)

They melted. They melted everywhere, and fast enough that you would think someone held a blow torch to the wick. They melted down the candle, down the candlestick, and pooled on the antique table we are borrowing from my mom. The table is flimsy and of little value, but that didn’t make scraping wax off the finish any less annoying. Stupid, cheap, golden candles.

After Christmas, I was left with an annoying decision. I knew I would never again use the candles, but I didn’t want to throw them out, either. It seemed wasteful, even though I didn’t spend that much. And it was the small amount of money I spent that presented the problem: large enough to keep me from tossing them out, small enough to make me put off returning them. Before this summer, before October, and before the estate sale, I might have kept them just in case. Or, I might have stored them so I could sell them at a future garage sale.

Storing worthless candles I have no intention of using so I can salve my ego or make 50¢ at a mythical garage sale is silly. Taking the time to tuck them away in pretty organizing bins is putting lipstick on a pig.

I returned them. I waited until I had errands that would put me near a Michael’s and walked out ten minutes later with, I don’t know, maybe $5? It seems silly, but these little purchases here and there add up. I keep my returns under the entry table in my kitchen, always in plain view, so it’s the last thing I see when I leave the house. I don’t store them in baskets or make them look pretty. I’ll forget them if I do. Instead, I let them plague me like an unwanted suitor until I can’t take it anymore. I returned a box of candles at Michael’s, two duplicate toys at Target, a purse and a necklace at Macy’s. Suddenly, I have money to work on projects around the house.

Inches make champions.

Return all the things. I did.

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Now it’s your turn! Feel free to share how you have lived according to the William Morris quote, “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” Made a plan? Cleaned a drawer? Bought a sofa? Let’s hear it with a link or in the comments.

A few guidelines:

1. Please link to a specific post, not a general blog address.
2. No links to giveaways, please.
3. A link back to this site is always appreciated. There are buttons to add to your post or sidebar, too, thanks to the lovely Alex of Type A Calligraphy. Just copy the code and insert into your blog post or sidebar when in html mode.
4. Let’s use this weekly link up as an opportunity to gather inspiration and motivation. Click links. Discover new people. Say hi and good job. I know I will.

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Unstyled Life

For several days in a row, the sunset stretched like taffy across our suburban skies. Blues, purples, pinks, and oranges melting into each other, one after another, until they blended into dark.  Picture after picture after picture, I clamored for more each evening around 5:00pm. I never got tired of the spectacle, not once. Like the Kardashians for T.M.Z., it never got old.

On Wednesday, the sky split open into fuschia. I gasped from my desk, and the boys scrambled up the back of the sofa to look out the window.

“It’s a Sailor’s Delight, mama,” from an observant Nicholas.

We kept watching.

“This is a nice family moment,” from an equally observant Mikey.

It didn’t take long, no more than a minute or two, for the sky to bleed into gray. The boys turned around and faced the room, now darker than before.

“It’s too bad the sunsets don’t last very long,” Mikey went on. “It’s not fair that something so cool goes so quick.”

That does seem to be life’s general theme.

After a break from the insanity of the holidays, we are back to reading The Chronicles of Narnia. The boys stumbled upon The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe movie over the weekend, and now that Mikey knows there are movies in his future, we can’t get through the books fast enough. Nicholas isn’t as interested–the English is old and complicated–but he has finally, finally taken an interest in me reading to him. I’ve jumped on this like a flea on a dog and try to read to him four books every morning after Mikey goes to school. Then, Mikey reads to him when he gets home as part of his homework assignment. Before we go to bed, more reading, usually Chronicles of Narnia. Whether he becomes the avid reader Mikey is remains to be seen, but it won’t be for lack of trying.

Today we read four books and then played four rousing games of Tic-Tac-Toe, during the first of which he beat me fair and square. I didn’t see it coming.

Then we ran errands, had lunch, and picked up Mikey and a neighborhood boy from school. Did some homework, took powers naps to recover from an accidental early morning, and ate pizza once the Mister came home. Brushed our teeth, put on our pajamas, and climbed into bed.

Now it’s the weekend, the middle of January, our twelve year wedding anniversary. The days go by quick, just like sunsets.

How to Organize the Family Medicine Cabinet

As sick as we were in December and the first week of January (Mikey is still coughing and feeling tired), it’s no surprise I decided to make the medicine cabinet my first official victim of The William Morris Project. (The picture wall was my unofficial start.) What is surprising is that I let it go for as along as I did. This was a project I wanted to tackle in October. I didn’t because I let my perfectionism get in the way.

Most people use the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, but I grew up in a paranoid physician’s household. Instead of a box of band-aids and aspirin in a dark bathroom, we had an entire cabinet stocked with medicine, vitamins, rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, 4×4 gauze pads, bandages of all sizes, ointments, cold medication, emetics and anti-emetics, over-the-counter pain medication, heating pads, and rubber ice bags. We never did use more than 2% of the contents, but it was organized and waiting like an operating room.

I never got over the habit of checking the kitchen for medical supplies (not for lack of trying) so the kitchen O.R. lives to see another generation in our home.

Our medicine cabinet, and the counter beneath it, was a mess after a month of heavy and continuous use.

It wasn’t terrible, but if the bottles weren’t even upright I can’t claim was very good, either. I found the solution in an unlikely place: photo memory boxes.

I went for plain and simple from Michael’s. They were on sale, so I was able to buy all three for $6.00. I spent an obscene amount of time looking for the right containers for the job and admit to settling, slightly, with these boxes. They aren’t the perfect fit, but after months of searching I had to concede I was hung up on an issue of negligible importance. I bought them. They make the area much more organized and efficient. They are useful.

I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with step one.

Empty out the medicine cabinet, lay everything out, and check for expiration dates. I disposed of everything that expired or we didn’t need according to federal guidelines. You can visit the FDA website to learn how to dispose of unused or expired medication. I called the pharmacy to see how I could dispose of Nico’s old epi-pens since I don’t have a Sharps container. Turns out, I can drop them off at a fire station!

I don’t know if you can see the tupperware containers in that dogpile of medications a couple of pictures up, but I used to have our medicine organized by symptom, like G.I. Upset, Cold/Flu, Pain, etc. Dumb. Now I have it organized by patient. I have one box for kids and another for adults. The third box is first aid.

Take the children’s box, for example. Inside I have everything I need for cold and flu, tummy bugs, and other childhood illnesses. I have all the medication dispensers in there, and a sheet from their pediatrician on foods to eat during the stomach flu. I also have several thermometers, replacement batteries, and a penny (our thermometer backs unlock with a coin) so if I need to, I can change the batteries on the fly in the middle of the night. It is a universal truth of parenthood that thermometer batteries never run out during the day.

Now, whenever we need something, we pull down the entire box. This works especially well at 1:00am with a sick child. You grab the whole box and head back to their room for the long night ahead. No more back and forth getting supplies. I can’t tell you how many times this December I grabbed the cough medication only to come back to the kitchen an hour later for ibuprofin. Now all I have to worry about is tripping over a box in the middle of the night as I crawl back to my bed.

This is how the medicine cabinet looks now. The bottoms shelf is for daily medications and heating pads. I figured anyone who needs a heating pad doesn’t want to grab a step ladder to reach them. The next shelf holds the kids box. High enough so they can’t reach it, but low enough to be within easy reach. The next shelf is for adults and the top shelf is first aid.

You can see here the fit isn’t perfect. I suppose a few of you will think I’m being persnickety. I am, I admit it. This is how I am. Did you not see my project list broken down by room? Are you new here? I spent far too long searching for the right box (months), and this is as close as I got to finding what I had in mind. The perfect box would be tin (so I could wipe down any medication drips), a tiny bit smaller, and come with hinged lids that open and close easily. Oh well. The boxes extend past the shelf a bit, but not so much that we can’t shut the door firmly. The lids are not impossible to deal with; we’ll see how they hold up to regular use.

Ah, but even with those small nuisances I am happier than a pig in slop with the end result. The only thing that would please me more would be to never again see the inside of this cabinet. Not likely, but fingers crossed its use will go down significantly the rest of this winter season.

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Now it’s your turn! We’re going to try a link up today and see how it goes. I’m a little nervous about it! Feel free to share how you have lived according to the William Morris quote, “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” Made a plan? Cleaned a drawer? Bought a sofa? Let’s hear it.

A few guidelines:

1. Please link to a specific post, not a general blog address.
2. No links to giveaways, please.
3. A link back to this site is always appreciated. There are buttons to add to your post or sidebar, too, if you like…but not this week. I’m working on it!
4. Let’s use this weekly link up as an opportunity to gather inspiration and motivation. Click links. Discover new people. Say hi and good job. I know I will.

The Intentional Home

I am so happy to hear many of you are starting your own projects or will be working alongside with me! Please link up each Thursday and share your progress. Sing your praises in the comment section ff you don’t have a blog or collection of photos online. The mundane, when done as a group, can become extraordinary. I promise. If it wasn’t for this blog–knowing I had to report here every week with a project of some sort–I wouldn’t get done half as much as I do. I suppose that’s why Stephen R. Covey says accountability breeds response-ability.

The first link up will be this Thursday. Are you ready? I am, mostly. I need to edit pictures and write the post. Everything else is done. This is why I picked Thursday as the link up day. On Wednesday I’m wrapping up whatever project I’ve decided to do so it can post Thursday. That gives me Thursday and Friday to think about what I will do the following week. If it’s something big, I have the weekend to plan and execute. If I don’t have time on the weekend, I still have Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to wrack my brain for something to do.

Actually, that’s not true. I always know what to do because I have a long, extensive list of potential projects. That crazy list is my number one tip for anyone just starting. I did it for the October series, and I am doing it for this one, too, even though it’s only once per week. It’s my plan of attack. I’m busy. I’m scattered. I forget things. This list helps me remember what I need to do, because even though I dig through my overflowing sock and undies drawer every single day, I still can’t remember to clean it out.

If you don’t have a project ready to share on Thursday, share your list of potential projects. You’ll feel better just for having written it out.

My list is…extensive. First, I’m a detailed person with a tendency to over-think. Writing out a list like this is natural to me. Yours doesn’t have to look like this, and probably won’t because splitting hairs doesn’t make your blood sing like it does mine. But sing it does, even when I put in items I know we couldn’t afford in a million years. This drives the Mister batty. He can’t understand why I want to focus on something we can’t have in the foreseeable future, like complete bathroom remodels for two out of three bathrooms. I can explain my reasoning.

First, just because we can’t do it today, doesn’t mean we can’t do it tomorrow. We could win the lottery. We could find a buried treasure. I could be approached by a major corporation desperate to work with a small blog with a weird name. Anything is possible, anything can happen. You just need to be open to the possibility. Second, I find it much more depressing to turn away from a dream than face an unlikely reality. Also, new bathrooms would be useful and beautiful. So there.

Dream. Put it all down on your list. When we are done, there won’t be anything in our homes that we don’t find useful or beautiful. I say we try to get both at the same time.

Here is my list. Please, don’t feel you have to read it all. This is to keep me organized and inspired. I wrote my intention for each room before I listed line items to keep me on track. I’m not looking to create a showboat home or keep up with the neighbors. My goal is to have a home that reflects our family, the contents of which are useful, or beautiful, or both.

p.s. Need more inspiration? Rachel at Small Notebook likes to Clear the Clutter every Monday, and Nester is hosting a Home Goals link up tomorrow. I’m sure there will be plenty of posts about home goals–including this one–linked up and waiting to inspire you to spit shine your abode.

Kitchen: A point of entry into our home for family and friends and a place to create nourishing meals. It is welcoming, clean, and feels like as comforting as cookies and milk.

1. Repaint kitchen, at least the ceiling.
2. New floor in kitchen. (A temporary fix is okay if it can be reused somewhere else.)
3. Caulk and paint window trim in kitchen.
4. Create family organizer system in kitchen.
5. Frame and hang prints, photographs.
6. Organize medicine cabinet.
7. Plant flowers or pots in planters flanking kitchen entrance.
8. Repaint kitchen threshold.
9. Replace cheap shades and inadequate window treatments.
10. Organize and purge corner cabinet.
11. Organize and purge drawer under ovens.
12. Organize and purge food processor cabinet.
13. Organize recipes.
14. Scrape and re-caulk kitchen counters.

Laundry Room: A bright, orderly, and invigorating room that functions efficiently.

1. Scrape off wallpaper in laundry room.
2. Paint and patch walls.
3. Repaint pantry doors in laundry room. Replace door handles.
4. Organize broom closet.
5. Organize and purge shelves in laundry room.
6. New rug.
7. New shelves.
8. New washer and dryer.
9. Put back original window that previous owner removed.
10. Remodel and convert into mudroom/laundry room.

Yellow Guest Bathroom: An interesting, quirky and cheery room. You know, for a bathroom.

1. Decorate yellow bathroom: paint, shelves, medicine cabinet, rug, and general zhushing.
2. Install baseboards.
3. New toilet and sink.

Dining Room: A gathering place for family and friends where one can linger in comfortable chairs to discuss the day, play games, and share meals.

1. Purchase new, made to last dining room table and chairs.
2. Purchase dining room rug.
3. Purchase china cabinet to match/coordinate with dining room table and chairs.
4. Sell current sideboard.
5. Sell IKEA display case.
6. Sell midcentury china cabinet.
7. Replace sliding doors with something safer.
8. New window treatments for sliding doors/something safer.

Family Room: A cozy, embracing room where bodies sink into stuffed sofas and chairs to read books and watch movies. The lighting is plentiful, flattering, and comfort reigns over form. 

1. Repaint family room a calm, comfortable color.
2. Scrape acoustic tiles off family room. Drywall.
3. Find a media cabinet, preferably with shelves for display or books.
4. Replace with good quality, family friendly materials the sofa, coffee table, chair(s), window treatments, and lighting.
5. Create a reading nook.
6. Install floor to ceiling bookshelves along one wall.
7. Replace carpet, preferably with hardwood and rug.

Living Room: An nattily dressed room that exhibits an appreciation for nature, music, and art in an approachable manner.

1. Purchase jute or flat weave rug.
2. Purchase cowhide rug.
3. Purchase an upright piano, purchase stand for Mikey’s guitar.
4. Shutters for picture windows in living room.
5. Remove fireplace mantel, possibly replace.

Master Bedroom: A respite where we go to rest, relax, and rejuvenate. A soft place to land.

1. Clean out jewelry drawer
2. Clean out and organize drawers. Donate clothing.
3. Paint master bedroom a calm, relaxing color.
4. Replace door handles and drawer pulls on built in closet.
5. New window treatments.
6. New blinds.
7. Create rosary/meditation station area.

Master Bathroom: Clean, bright, and from the 21st century.

1. Completely gut and remodel.
2. Clean out and purge cabinet under sink.
3. Clean out and purge medicine cabinet.
4. Clean out and purge cabinet above toilet.

 Mikey’s Room: A charming room for a charming little boy.

1. Organize and purge dresser drawers.
2. Organize and purge nightstand.
3. Organize and purge expedit shelf.
4. Organize closet.
5. Organize and purge secondary bookshelf and toy storage.
6. Convert into shared bedroom for Mikey and Nico.

 Nicholas’s Room: A charming room for a charming little boy.

1. Organize and purge dresser drawers.
2. Organize and purge nightstand.
3. Organize closet.
4. Organize and purge bookshelf and toy storage.
5. Remove train table, donate or sell.
6. Convert to guest bedroom.

Boys Bathroom: The bathroom in a men’s club if the men in such a club would get over themselves and have a sense of humor.

1. New outlet so I can play music while I get ready.
2. Install shower rod/head combo, possibly call plumber for this since it’s not standard.
3. Install shower curtain.
4. Repaint ceiling.
5. Purge and organize medicine cabinet.
6. Replace overhead lights.
7. Completely gut and remodel.

Office/Outside Studio: An invigorating, comfortable room that promotes creativity.

1. Complete purging and organizing project started in October.
2. General zhushing, make comfortable and inviting for the Mister—and maybe me?—to work in at night.

Garage: A place where people park their cars, not store junk.

1. Purge and declutter, sell contents of discarded items form 31 day series.

Hall Linen Closet: A place where linens and things hang out.

1. Organize photo drawer. Create memory system.
2. Replace pulls and door handles, possibly repaint.
3. Create wrapping paper storage, do something with all the gift bags.

Entryway: A welcome point for new friends and a place to store the incidentals of school and sport.

1. Rug for entryway
2. New window treatment or film for front door window.
3. Station for school backpacks, purses, coats, etc.
4. Hang coat and hat hooks in entryway
5. Hang photographs or prints in entryway

Back Porch: A place to lounge and hide from the sun while enjoying its warmth.

1. Install ceiling fans and lighting.
2. Purchase outdoor rug.
3. Create inviting seating arrangement.

Front Porch: A place to sit and watch little boys ride bikes, play in leaves, and catch bugs.

1. Landscape flower bed.
2. Bench for lemonade.
3. Pot and arrange grouping of plants.
4. Purchase good quality, stylish door mat.
5. General zhushing.

Backyard: A casual expanse of green with spots of color coming from modest beds of flowers. 

1. Plant flowers around Chinese Elm.
2. Plant flowers or plants along flower bed in the backyard.
3. Purchase fire pit, new patio furniture.
4. Purchase new grill.
5. Install twinkle lights.
6. Plant herb garden, vegetable garden, regular garden.

Front Yard: A happy, humble, tidy yard with a welcoming approach.

1. Plant flowers in front brick area.
2. Completely gut and landscape.

Miscellaneous: We all have those things that don’t really go anywhere but need to get done.

1. Paint all trim in the house.
2. Scrape and paint all exterior windows.
3. Blow up and hang two favorite pictures of boys.
4. Add images to family wall of pictures.
5. Reframe painting from Helena’s parents, find permanent place for it.
6. Paint all doors in the house.
7. Replace all doorknobs in the house.
8. Repaint top of board and batten.
9. Polish and maintain brass candlesticks.
10. Polish and maintain all silver.
11. Replace wire and plastic hangers with wood.
12. Return items that belong to others.
13. Return items to various stores.
14. Repair, reupholster vintage chairs in garage.

 

 

The William Morris Project, 2012

It’s back!

It’s back, but not like before. I decided to commit to one project every week, and I hope to have you join in on the fun on Thursdays. As amazing as October was for me on many levels, it is impossible to maintain that sort of momentum for one year. That’s not to say I don’t have the material, sadly. There are still so many projects left for me to do around the house, but many of them take considerably more time than one day, and more money then $20.

It’s bizarre what I’ve turned a blind eye to, and what I’ve brought in our home without loving. What I have made work because I couldn’t wait to have what I really wanted. What I’ve put off doing because I was afraid to…I don’t know, put some holes in the wall.

When the Mister and I married (12 years on the 15th!) I made a point of creating a family wall in the entryway of our new home. Everyone loved it, even though at the time our pictures were limited to our parents, our siblings, and our dogs. Recreating that wall was one of the first projects we tackled when we moved to this house. When we had the walls painted over a year ago, we took down all the pictures. I never put them back up.

At first, I was concerned with proper placement. The pictures were out of date. I wanted to add more. Two good excuses I used to justify leaving the walls bare. I didn’t want to put the pictures up bit by bit, I wanted to wait until I had everything the way I wanted. Perfect.

Then, after a few months, I started to hate the wall color. I didn’t put up the pictures, this time because I wanted to repaint. A third excuse.

In October, I picked out a wall color and painted it myself.

In December, well over a year after we took them down, we put up the pictures.

It was as aggravating as I anticipated. Here is the thing with a wall of pictures. If you are type-A, like me, getting everything straight and precise and aesthetically pleasing is impossible. You will never be satisfied. Never. So, I did the unthinkable. I, with the Mister, started hanging pictures on the wall with no real plan other than hanging our family picture front and center. I yelled and cursed and had panic attacks every five minutes, but we did it.

We did it, even though the pictures are horribly outdated. The oldest picture of Nicholas is when he was 6 months old. There are no pictures of my brother’s wife, or my now 2 year old niece. There is no picture of my 4 year old niece, either. There are no family vacation trips, no school pictures, and very few candid shots, which are what makes a wall, in my opinion. There is plenty of room for more pictures, so that’s good.

I plan to fill this wall with pictures of the boys since it faces their bedrooms. In these pictures, Mikey is 3 and Nicholas is 6 months.

The wall is woefully inadequate, but it’s a start. And, for a perfectionist like me, it’s more than just a start on a wall of pictures.

A very special thanks to Alex, who late last night designed and hand-lettered my William Morris post header in two hours because I had a whim. Speaking of perfectionists, I’m supposed to let everyone know  she will be refining it over the next couple of weeks because there is only so much one girl can do at 11:00pm with a head cold and slow drying ink.