Things I never thought I'd be posting
Back in November I was thinking of dieting again. So I was wandering around seeing if there were any good email support groups for the diet I was considering (there weren't) and found a reference to FlyLady. For those of you who don't know and don't want to click on the link, Flylady is a person who tries to help people get into the habit of cleaning and decluttering. If you join her email list, you will get emails every day with subject headers like "WHERE IS YOUR LAUNDRY?," "WHERE ARE YOUR SHOES?," "IT IS TIME TO MOVE," and "PLEASE GO TO BED: YOU NEED YOUR REST." My personal favorite on the list of emails I will probably never follow is "27 FLING BOOGIE: READY SET GO!" which says I should "Take a garbage bag and RUN through your home and throw away 27 items. Do not stop until you have collected all 27 items. Then close the garbage bag and pitch it. DO NOT LOOK IN IT!!! Just do it. Next grab a box and gather up 27 items to give away."
Despite my misgivings about 27 Fling Boogies, I signed up. I followed the directions of some of the emails. I even joined the local NYC list and went to a FlyFest (when FlyLady readers gather.) Reading the FlyLady emails introduced me to the show Clean Sweep. Clean Sweep is a show where people turn up, empty two of your really cluttered rooms out onto your lawn, and then make you get rid of most of it. It makes the viewer feel better about their own clutter. The problem with the show is that all of the people on it are homeowners in California, and not all the advice applies to NYC apartment dwellers. The organizer yelled at one couple for leaving a folding dining room set under the bed, telling them that if it's for the dining room it should be in the dining room. Of course I saw this and thought, "Under the bed! THAT'S where we can put our folding table." Storing things under the bed is also a big FlyLady no-no, but that's where that table is now and I couldn't be happier about it. There really is nowhere in the kitchen for it most of the time but it is still a useful thing that we're not getting rid of.
I've now seen almost every episode of Clean Sweep. This led me to wanting to start watching Queer Eye again. I've now seen every episode of Queer Eye.
What has this meant in my life? Well, for a while I was on a decluttering spree. That has been put on hold, while I run around like a lunatic doing other things and generally being lazy about stuff in my room. Sadly, for a while I was watching old episodes of Clean Sweep and Queer Eye instead of actually cleaning. I still get the FlyLady emails, and sometimes I even clean things in my apartment.
Queer Eye has probably had the strongest influence on me. Kyan the grooming guy finally got to me, and I found myself buying copious amounts of stuff from The Body Shop. I now use a facial cleanser, an eye cream, and a moisturizer every day. And I'm trying to ween myself off of the really cheap shampoo I was using. For the first time ever I put a mask on my face, and I try to remember to do that every week now.
For people who don't know me very well this may not seem like a big deal. Trust me it is. It's strange and wacky and disturbing. But probably a good thing, so I'm not stressing. Although every time I have to go back to the Body Shop to get something like foot lotion because I actually managed to finish the other bottle of it I bought I feel weird and almost guilty for reasons I don't think I can explain.
And for reference, the diet didn't last, and I was exercising regularly for over a month but now I'm not. I need to get back to the exercising, but since I'm dealing with other stress-causing things in my life right now Bear says I'm not allowed to diet for the next few months because I get irritable when I'm hungry and he doesn't want me yelling at him for stupid things like putting the pots back in the wrong place. This actually happened recently, it was a five to ten minute conversation which was mainly caused by the fact that the reason I was trying to find the pot in the first place was so I could make food because I was really hungry and therefore prone to overreacting to things. Although why on earth would he think the right place to put a pot is on top of the frying pans?
Maybe I should get myself a bowl of cereal or something.
Despite my misgivings about 27 Fling Boogies, I signed up. I followed the directions of some of the emails. I even joined the local NYC list and went to a FlyFest (when FlyLady readers gather.) Reading the FlyLady emails introduced me to the show Clean Sweep. Clean Sweep is a show where people turn up, empty two of your really cluttered rooms out onto your lawn, and then make you get rid of most of it. It makes the viewer feel better about their own clutter. The problem with the show is that all of the people on it are homeowners in California, and not all the advice applies to NYC apartment dwellers. The organizer yelled at one couple for leaving a folding dining room set under the bed, telling them that if it's for the dining room it should be in the dining room. Of course I saw this and thought, "Under the bed! THAT'S where we can put our folding table." Storing things under the bed is also a big FlyLady no-no, but that's where that table is now and I couldn't be happier about it. There really is nowhere in the kitchen for it most of the time but it is still a useful thing that we're not getting rid of.
I've now seen almost every episode of Clean Sweep. This led me to wanting to start watching Queer Eye again. I've now seen every episode of Queer Eye.
What has this meant in my life? Well, for a while I was on a decluttering spree. That has been put on hold, while I run around like a lunatic doing other things and generally being lazy about stuff in my room. Sadly, for a while I was watching old episodes of Clean Sweep and Queer Eye instead of actually cleaning. I still get the FlyLady emails, and sometimes I even clean things in my apartment.
Queer Eye has probably had the strongest influence on me. Kyan the grooming guy finally got to me, and I found myself buying copious amounts of stuff from The Body Shop. I now use a facial cleanser, an eye cream, and a moisturizer every day. And I'm trying to ween myself off of the really cheap shampoo I was using. For the first time ever I put a mask on my face, and I try to remember to do that every week now.
For people who don't know me very well this may not seem like a big deal. Trust me it is. It's strange and wacky and disturbing. But probably a good thing, so I'm not stressing. Although every time I have to go back to the Body Shop to get something like foot lotion because I actually managed to finish the other bottle of it I bought I feel weird and almost guilty for reasons I don't think I can explain.
And for reference, the diet didn't last, and I was exercising regularly for over a month but now I'm not. I need to get back to the exercising, but since I'm dealing with other stress-causing things in my life right now Bear says I'm not allowed to diet for the next few months because I get irritable when I'm hungry and he doesn't want me yelling at him for stupid things like putting the pots back in the wrong place. This actually happened recently, it was a five to ten minute conversation which was mainly caused by the fact that the reason I was trying to find the pot in the first place was so I could make food because I was really hungry and therefore prone to overreacting to things. Although why on earth would he think the right place to put a pot is on top of the frying pans?
Maybe I should get myself a bowl of cereal or something.