N.L. Riviezzo

26/05/2012

Good Ideas Don’t Always Last

As I further progress in extracting myself from the mire of my house, I find myself leaning more towards a homesteading lifestyle. This is an asinine intention. I’m all for eco-friendly products, green housing, and organic foods but homesteading? I think not yet I have this notion that it would be worth while.

It is a good idea, maybe even a great idea, but it won’t last. There are a lot of good ideas and intentions that lie still as death under my feet. I get an idea, run with it for awhile, hit a wall, and I go back to things most familiar. This leaves the idea to wither and die.

A large portion of the clutter is remnants of ideas long since dead. I find the remnants, wonder what it was, remember, and think ‘why the hell did I think that it was something worth my time/money?’ Yes, a person should try new things and I do try but more inclined for the familiar.

A noticed pattern that has become clear over the last few weeks as I become more firmly intrenched in my resolve to declutter.

Another recent pattern (that probably won’t last) is that I use the same eight kitchen items over and over every day when I hand wash the dishes. I’ve been hand washing the dishes for over a week. I hate doing dishes yet I find something soothing in washing these dishes. My dishwasher has been serving as a drying rack. There has been the thought of not having a dishwasher should I downsize but that is ridiculous.

Writing is why I think this pattern will go away soon. When I devote my focus to writing or other creative pursuits, the housework slips away from me. This is further aggravated by ‘bad health days’ which are extremely frequent. These reasons are also why homesteading and living the nomadic life in a motor home are unreasonable ideas when moved beyond paper and thought.

I know why the motor home is such a tantalizing idea but embarking on the idea won’t fix the reasons why. Must bear the reasons and try to ease their burden without ‘running away’.

Reading back through what I have just written for this post, I have further proof of another pattern. My ideas and notions are very sporadic and, at times, conflicting. It comes as no surprise that I have several writing projects going at one time and none are done quite yet. They will be at some point though.

There are ideas that stick and stay but I have to complete them on my own timetable. Functioning on my own timetable keeps everything in my world from spiraling into absolute chaos. The only thing that can survive not being on a timetable is editing work for others. I get it done promptly and move it along as I can go back to my own “world”. I suppose it is because editing is such a right brain oriented task that it is not victim to the left brain’s flights of fancy.

Decluttering and downsizing cannot and will not be ideas that wither and die. If I do not complete them, I will have ultimately learned nothing and remain stagnant in every aspect. I cannot cling to tattered life that way. Need to grow, heal, and reassemble.

3 comments | tags: Al-Bisslii | posted in Daily Words

22/05/2012

The Horrors of the Downsizing Process

By nlriviezzo

There are times when I wake up in the ‘dead of night’ after having a nightmare. This a frequent occurrence nowadays and it always involves sorting through clutter. The most common theme is it eating me alive. Shiny, sharp, and slimy teeth working their way out from the most innocent looking piles of paper or fabric or – the worst – the spiral notebooks waiting to be written in. Still I forge ahead fifteen minutes at a time to try and combat the situation. My home is so not a candidate for that show, Hoarders: Buried Alive, but it has issues.

Issues that fifteen minutes does not seem to make much of a dent in which is why I am still writing about decluttering months after I started. Granted, there were times I slacked off in favor of other activities but I am determined to get real serious about getting it done. After so many months, there is a noticeable difference in my environment which leads to the determination. It is challenging to see the light at the end of the tunnel when everything is blocking the way but brick by brick, the light is starting to become brighter.

Yesterday’s “victim” on my war path was the most clutter prone counter in my kitchen. It is now spotless and reorganized along with the three upper cabinets. I even scrubbed the microwave, toaster oven, tiles, and cabinet doors just because they were there. It took around two hours in fifteen minute increments to complete but I am happy with the results.

Today features record-breaking heat and a swamp cooler that refuses to work so I have been hiding out on the cooler, darker half of the house and writing. I’ve written three poetry pieces and will soon work on editing projects until it is cool enough to venture to the kitchen. (Evil skylights!) If I can get to the kitchen tonight, I plan to sort through the pantry cabinets along with the refrigerator.

Wow, my life sounds so dull. A necessary evil on the way to a simpler and, hopefully, more creatively productive life.

On the side of other projects’ progress, I did get the Kindle versions of The Heart of Autumn and The Soul of Winter reformatted so they are readable once more. A Hundred Flames is closing in on completion. With my upcoming participation in June’s Camp NaNoWriMo, I hope to get A Hundred Flames and Smoke & Spirit done. I have ideas to write about for both so there is a very real possibility of it.