Some people can’t resist chocolate, some just love reality TV a little too much… I just can’t get enough of lists that promise to resolve the chaos in my life. And also chocolate covered pretzels, but that’s a story for another day.
You’ll see that I added the constant list browsing to one of my less good habits, and this is because I feel like what started as a helpful thing, really became a not so helpful infatuation.
Since my daughter was born, the day to day chaos has obviously increased (I mean, where does all this laundry come from?!) and my need to find some control has escalated greatly. To the point that I had to step back and have a proper look at what was happening…
It turns out that there’s a whole issue surrounding these seemingly perfect lists. You know the ones. The ones that promise a sparkly clean home when you have seven young children, a full-time job, two rabbits, three dogs and a successful side-hustle as a perfect home list maker. The ones that promise perfect skin, shiny hair and long nails that don’t pinch everyone you touch and let you pick up coins from flat surfaces.
I’m obviously exaggerating here but you see the point.
I noticed I really needed to start consuming more realistic information about personal organisation and life in general. These seemingly perfect people were damaging my experience as a young adult, as a new mum, and as a person that works, has a child (don’t even get me started on the “working mum” term) and generally wants to have a normal social life.
So I started trying to let go of some things. Small things first…
Go out in the sun instead of cleaning up those dishes in the sink.
Watching the trashy TV show instead of working on myself (whatever that means, anyway).
Taking a day off to go do my nails, go to the cinema, sit on the edge of my bed looking into the horizon, and try to not feel guilty about it.
And then this year, I decided to skip the Spring clear up all together.
I used to take a whole long weekend clearing up stuff I didn’t even know I had anymore; labelling things I didn’t need (or didn’t need to label anyway); organising mine and everyone else’s stuff over and over again.
I let go of the need to control all of that. I wish I could tell you it felt good, but it didn’t. It felt like I was failing, or missing something. But hey, it’ll probably feel better next year.
And most importantly, nothing happened. The house is still there if only a little untidy. It takes my husband a little longer to find his unmatched socks, but that’s probably a good thing. It builds character.
If you (like Marie Kondo) find joy in organising, go ahead. But I know I’m not alone.
So if you don’t, get out of the house instead. Go on that walk, read the magazines, lay in the sun, do nothing. Whatever floats your boat.
I know I’ll be out doing something probably very unproductive (and feeling guilty about it!)
Rant over!
Joana x
