Last year was a year that got me a bit unfocused and lost on what I was and am suppose to do. A cross between politics, election, pandemic, and isolation, routines were out of whack, what routines I did have, then life got out of whack. Depression and anxiety was really setting in towards the end of the year and I became paralyzed. I shut down mentally. When I shut down mentally it is hard for me to even take care of myself, let alone my family. However, when school started that brought back some “normalcy”.

School is the only thing that has remained the same through the whole issues of the pandemic and issues of this country and the world. My child goes to an online school so that helped with not having to worry about whether to go back physically or making up what couldn’t be done by not going physically back to brick and mortar. There are no make up missed days because of snow or pandemic. There are more breaks and longer breaks because we don’t have to make up days and we get out sooner than the brick and mortar schools. It has been really nice to have that consistency in our lives.

Even though I have not blogged much or posted much on Facebook I have been busy decluttering and organizing my house. I have been doing that pretty regularly, but sometimes I just shut down and don’t do anything and clutter, dishes and laundry all build back up, but it I have noticed that it is not getting as bad as it used to. Before, within a day or two the whole house would be out of control, but now it takes it a week or two and still not as out of control as it used to be. It is nice.

I have also been trying to learn new tricks and tips to decluttering, organizing and cleaning, but even with that I have sort of lost my way and became sidetracked with other things. The worse part of things is that I am a perfectionist and that can be debilitating. That causes me anxiety and then turns into depression, and then I become paralyzed until I break out of this horrible cycle by doing one thing, just one thing. It might be read a self-help book about decluttering, organizing, getting my life organized. It might be doing a load of dishes everyday for a few days and then add doing a load of laundry everyday. It might be taking an area and decluttering, tidying, or organizing it to break this cycle because these things changes my way of thinking and makes me feel better and unparalyzes me. Seeing a decluttered, tidy, organized area makes me happy and feel successful and free.

This past week my husband ended up in the hospital with issues breathing. It was hard because our child couldn’t go up and see him while he was there. So we couldn’t see him physically until he got out a few days later. While he was in the hospital I still had to do things around the house. We found out that he has to ease his way back into doing things. Now I really have to do a lot more, but with the way I have been decluttering the house it has made it easier to continue decluttering while taking care of him, still helping with schoolwork, and do whatever else that needs to be done.

Do I have a regular routine? No. Except for school. That is the only thing that is as routine as it is because there are live lessons that my child has to attend on some days and in order to get the lessons done in a reasonable amount of time the school day has to start by a certain time. Ending time differs. As for the house “routine”, I basically try to do things when I think of it or while I am waiting or doing something else. For example, while I am waiting for coffee or water for tea to be done I try to empty the dishwasher or load laundry into the washer. If the dishwasher is empty then I try to put in a load while waiting or switch the laundry into the dryer while waiting for the tea or coffee. Also, while I am cooking I might try and do the same or declutter the counters or sweep the floors, depending on how quick the food is cooking.

The past few months my husband and I have been slowly trying to get our laundry room completed. We are turning part of our garage into a laundry room. We built the walls a year or two ago and we are almost done insulating the walls. We have some drywall up on the bottom part of the wall. Yet there is so much more to do and now the outside of the house is needing to be done, and my husband is trying to recover. However, we just take one day at a time, one project at a time, do what we can, and at times we only work for two hours a day. That’s truly how we have gotten things done, by working as a family for two hours on the weekends and I work for a little bit during the weekdays, maybe 15 minutes to an hour.

Now it time for me to try to get back on track and focus on working more on my business. I will try and blog/post more even if it is what I have completed for that week. I am wanting to also start other business things with my husband have products along with services to sell, but for now I just have services.

My services are helping with decluttering, downsizing, organizing, and teaching how to manage your home whether it’s in person or online. Follow the Uncluttered Lanes journey here or on Facebook and if you have any questions or concerns or need help please contact me. The information is on the contact page. Thanks. Have a great week.