I started reading “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin on Monday night. I was intrigued after seeing it mentioned a few different places, but I was hesitant to read it because it seemed a little too “self help” for me — and frankly, because I’m also pretty happy with my life as is. I like the way things are going, and while there are things I could always change, I feel like I have a good handle on what I’d need to do to change them — even if I don’t actually do that.
After reading the first couple chapters (each chapter covers one month of the year, and the resolutions she set for that month in her quest to become happier; I’ve read about January and February so far), I’m finding the book to be about what I expected. Some of it is a little too nazel-gazing. Some of it doesn’t interest me personally. But there are also some things that I can TOTALLY identify with.
For instance: clutter. She tackles this one right away, in January, and gets rid of bags upon bags of old clothes, old toys, and other assorted junk. It was interesting to read this chapter on Monday night because I had JUST spent about 4 hours that afternoon tackling the disaster area that our study had become. Case in point:
Why yes, there is a picture frame on the floor that I have to step over to get to my desk. Why yes, there are piles of papers along the wall (which, I should add, is a Sarah trademark; just ask my college roommates). And yes, there is a huge array of other flotsam and jetsam floating around the room. For months, the study has been a dumping ground for all of my paperwork and other items.
By the end of the day, I had made some pretty good progress. There’s still work to be done, but I’m halfway there, and I knew I wouldn’t get it all done in one day anyway.
I’ve always had pack rat tendencies but ever since we moved into the house I’ve been trying hard to fight them. While it didn’t seem like a huge deal to have a junky apartment, it bothers me a lot more to have a junky house. I admit that my decluttering binges have occasionally turned out badly. (Most recently, I threw away one of Jose’s magazines because I thought he wasn’t going to read it. That was not the case, which made me realize that perhaps I should confine my efforts to my OWN things.)
I’m often grumpy when doing dishes, but the final product — a nice, clean kitchen — makes me happy. I haven’t spent much time in the study lately primarily because it was so messy that being in there just stressed me out, but now I’ll be able to settle in without having to dig through piles of papers to find the info I need. Doing some organizing truly does make me feel calmer, less stressed, less guilty…and even happier, I suppose.
I started reading that book, but I just can’t seem to finish it. There are definitely some good points, but you have to slog through everything else to get to them. I think this will be the first Kindle bok that I don’t finish. We’ll see.
Yeah, I’m definitely feeling rather “enh” about it right now. There are some bits that I do like, but there’s also a lot of what feels like her just droning on about things.
Since I’ve been married I’ve been trying to confine my clutter a bit more since B is neat. I throw my clothes on my bathroom floor instead of our shared bedroom floor. 😉 Overall, I think I’m actually neater than I was.
I agree there is something about a house that makes clutter seem less acceptable. I think it is the realization that this is as much space as I should need — rather than this is as much as I can get right now. Somehow the apartment seemed temporary and small such that it was OK to have clutter because there just weren’t places to put everything.