This concept isn't totally new to me. My family loves Legos. We love them - we give them to each other as gifts, we put sets together as a family then display them, we have Lego artwork. We even decorated Aidan's room with a Lego superhero theme a couple of years ago. Here's what I don't love about Legos: they collect dust. Dust builds up in every nook and cranny of every set we have, and every time I move a set to clean around it, I break something off, meaning I have to dig out the instructions before spending time making repairs. One of my sets is the Haunted Mansion, which is a huge, complicated set that I convinced myself actually looked more authentic with dust bunnies. But a few months ago, I hit the "over it" point. I carefully packed up all but one of my Lego sets to store in the attic until the family feels like rebuilding. My Legos were becoming a pain instead of bringing me joy (except the Tower Bridge, which still makes me happy from its bookshelf perch).
While I'm not ready to let go of the Legos completely - rare sets increase in value and are fun for the whole family - I am ready to get rid of a lot of other stuff. Jewelry that I never wear, kitchen items that are taking up space (I seriously don't need four colanders), the cat water fountain that is used for play instead of hydration, books I haven't read and don't intend to read - these things are pointless. I feel like they're in the house only so I can move them out of the way when I'm looking for something I actually want to use. So this February, I'm happily decluttering the cabinets, bookshelves, closets and junk drawers. As I'll be out of town for a few days this week, I've gotten the items from February 1 - 5 together already and taken pictures (see below) to send to my accountability partner.
On a completely unrelated simplification note, my husband finally cut the cable cord! To those of you who don't know him, this is HUGE. He is a politics junkie, and he's been holding out only to have access to cable news channels as they don't have full online streaming access - and when they called the next day to offer him a cheap price and a $200 Visa gift card for changing his mind, he stood his ground. I haven't turned the TV on for anything other than Netflix/Amazon movies or SEC football in at least a year, so I'm really excited to have one less bill to worry about.
These past couple of weeks have been somewhat more difficult for me in the food/personal wellness categories. We're doing very well with cooking healthier foods at home (but I know we could do much better), I'm drinking more water and very little soda, and I've even managed to work out four times this week. I know I could be doing more, though. It was hard for a couple of weeks because my mouth was sore from surgery. Then came the first business trip of the new year. I ate healthier than I've eaten on many previous trips, but I have two more trips over the next two weeks. One of my absolute favorite things to do on trips is to sample the local food. So with trips three weeks in a row, it's going to be hard to make sure I maintain healthy habits. If you travel frequently, please share your tips on eating clean while on the road.
While I'm not particularly proud of the eating better category, we're all still happy about the CSA and are excited to start planting some of the seeds we've received. And I'm hoping to start a compost heap soon so we can use it in the small garden that WILL happen this year. If you have tips on that, please share those as well.
4DX is working pretty well for us. It's keeping us honest if nothing else - I can look at my scorecard and know exactly where I've failed for the week if I don't see results. Progress is slow, but it's steady - baby steps will get us there eventually, right?!
Thanks for reading my rambling. :)
Feb. 1
Feb. 2
Feb. 3 (the cat fountain is in the bag)
Feb. 4
Feb. 5
