Motherly Advice....Streamline your space...Calm your mind...

I avoid decluttering for the sake of it.

 

Now and again, one or the other of my favourite bloggers will have a Decluttering Challenge. I avoid them like the plague. I am the sort of person who becomes attached to my 'stuff', and every time I get enthused about tossing a few things, I suffer terrible grief and remorse afterwards. I still almost cry when I think of the time I threw out my Nannas button tin. Sob...

So this leads to lots of stuff, and I just have to be in the mood for a cleanout to do something about it.

I usually try to motivate myself by buying a treat, and then sternly telling myself I cannot have it or use it, until I've done my declutter.

This week, I had a couple of treats in store for myself.

First of all, a new gold and white keyboard, mouse and mouse mat for my computer desk. Look here they are....

Both are available at Amazon.com here.

I would have also liked a white monitor, but that will have to wait for now.

Meanwhile, that was the kick I needed to clean up my desk, which up to this point was groaning under a mountain of un-filed paperwork, pens and pencils and various other bits and bobs that just never found their way to their real home.

Now I always believe the Universe provides, and I'd been wanting a Ghost chair like this...

...since forever. I have a glass computer desk and I just knew this was the right chair for me. Well lo and behold, as soon as I'd tidied my desk area, one turned up at a local thrift store for $20. Thankyou Universe.

Now these are usually styled with a white faux fur throw rug over them. This is because the acrylic isn't the most comfortable thing to sit upon for long periods. The throw feels very luxurious by comparison.

 

But being that I don't go around making my own life difficult, as I've mentioned here and here, I chose instead to have a soft cocoa coloured throw, sourced at IKEA in the clearance section for $45 some months ago. It's been on my daughters bed, but sorry kiddo, it's mine now!


 

Now the funny thing about a good tidy and toss, is that suddenly things you don't normally notice are cast into high relief. See above that dreadful tangle of cables and cords. Well...now it was annoying me. Ahhh...it's a curse, I tell you.

 

None of the recommended solutions for cable tidying were relevant here as they all involved hiding a wire basket or channel of some sort under the surface of the (timber usually) desk, and my desk is glass. So then I decided to just put a screen in front of the cable and cord mess to hide it. A fire screen sprung to mind but upon searching, I realised that they're just a framed picture on feet. I had a framed picture...no feet...but it fitted nicely under my desk, effectively hiding the cords. Not a Man solution, but a good Woman type one!

 

As time goes on, I know the Universe will provide me with a more suitable screen...perhaps something also white, that would be nice. I'm patient.

 



 

Meanwhile we're looking better than we were. I have my DIY Chanel art on the wall, an Eiffel Tower poster purchased in Paris in 2008 in front of me, another Eiffel Tower print at my feet to hide cord clutter, a Ghost Chair with lambswool  throw, and gold and white paraphernalia on the way.

 

Total cost? About $40. And much peace of mind achieved.

 

 

 While I was at it, I also tidied our bookcase. It's now a haven of tidily organised fiction reads, sandwiched between two ends of cookbooks, anthologies, and Aromatherapy tomes.

Serenity Reigns.

 

I find that when I do a decent declutter...by which I mean tidying and tossing that which is no longer useful NOT discarding family heirlooms...I feel lighter somehow. 

 

I also feel more motivated to tackle other tasks, as if my brain has had a Spring clean.

 

What about you?

 

I can't wait for my new keyboard, mouse and mouse pad to arrive now. I've earned it!

 

...Mimi...