Sunday, April 19, 2009

Deneiling

I have suffered from being a hoarder for a long time now. After many years of attempting to break the habit, throwing out stuff and giving things away, I usually went out and bought more things to replace everything that I had re-homed.  Finally this year I think I may have overcome this affliction. I have a new term for this, "deneiling".  I think it is a great word and completely encapsulates what I am doing.  I wish I knew why it has taken this long to be able to de-clutter.

I have spent many dollars on buying organizational books, listened to hours of lectures from friends and up until now, I just wasn't able to bite the bullet and really get rid of all my extremely useful, but largely unused belongings.  Now, however, I have emptied bags of clothes and shoes out of my walk-in-wardrobe, that was no longer a walk-in-wardrobe as there were so many things in there, I had to climb over the piles to find anything.  It has been about 4 weeks now, and admittedly there is a pile of stuff to go to be re-homed, which I still haven't got around to taking away, but I am proud to announce that I only took back 6 things from that pile, and I haven't been out shopping to replace anything.  This is a major breakthrough for me.

To continue on this theme of de-cluttering, I have just had the living areas of my house re-painted and during this process I have decided that I have too much furniture, homewares and decorator items.  I do not like the minimalist look but I really can't stand all that excess clutter anymore.  I am sick of buying extra furniture to accommodate all my things, so now I am down sizing, yippee.  I feel fantastic for it.  I used to feel horrible after I had de-cluttered, now I feel liberated!  I couldn't understand why my friends could happily throw out things that they hadn't used for a year.  I always thought, what if I need it next year.  I probably will want it next year, but I don't care any more. There will be a lot of people out there benefitting from my de-cluttering.  I have already had friends over to take what they like out of the pile, and the rest will go to charity. I am now about to go through all the junk stored in a display cabinet that has been filled to the brim for years.  Most of the things in there have been used once or twice and the rest I do use but they really shouldn't be in that cabinet.  This is another piece of furniture that is going through the deneiling process. I have had this cabinet for about 10 years now, and it is time for it to go.  Hopefully I will find a loving home for it in someone else's home.

I still have to brace myself to tackle my ensuite.  That is a huge task, however I have refrained from buying any new makeup or cleansers etc for 3 months now, a miracle for me.  I have been using up all the things that I have, including samples, that are still ok.  I am not only de-cluttering I am saving myself serious amounts of dollars.  Why oh why has it taken this long to see the light?  Now the question is, how far can I go???????

Saturday, April 18, 2009

OK, paradise it is!

After being rather scathing of the weather in my previous post, I now must state that the weather has turned.  The last few days have been absolutely glorious.  That incandescent golden orb in the sky is once again shining down upon us.  Now the Sunshine Coast is putting on it's best to prove that it really is the Sunshine Coast.  Beautiful one day, perfect the next. Yes, this is paradise, this week!




Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Global warming? Yesterday's weather was typical of the type of weather we have been having here and why I had decided to call my blog Sunshine? Paradise?. Unfortunately the Sunshine Coast is no longer the Sunshine Coast.  It has been weeks since we have seen a full day of beautiful sunshine. As usual, it is Easter so it must rain. Fortunately the rain gods kept their gifts to a minimum over most of the Easter weekend, and we had a couple of not too rainy days, however, they made up for it yesterday. So far, in 21 hours we have been inundated with 231mm of rain.  I think I will change where I go on all my holidays in future and a desert might be a wonderful place to be. Move over Nicole!!!!  It seems almost un-Australian to complain about the rain, when so many other places are in dire need of rain, and believe me I have been wishing fervently for it to go anywhere else it is needed.