January Minimalism
The children went back to school today, so I was up at 6 to make sure that they all headed for their trains with breakfast inside them and wearing appropriate clothing and without forgetting their holiday homework. It’s amazing how much I get done when I’m up at 6 in supervising mode and simultanously whizzing round tidying and putting away. By 7.30 when the last teenager left I felt like I had a whole morning’s housework under my belt.
Over the weekend we put away all the (rather excessive and cluttered) Christmas decorations and gave the house a good thorough clean. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas, but there is something about the intense feeling of mimimalism that strikes when everything is packed a way that well, frankly makes my heart sing. Even though it’s a dark and dreary day today I somehow feel full of light and space and very, very free. Life feels good despite the rain and painful derriere and I can’t wait to get living it. I think an absence of clutter sometimes does that for me. It’s always, always uplifting. I just can’t cope at all if I’m living in chaos and my productivity goes down the toilet and then I feel bad about life in general.
I’m also back to work with a vengeance – which is also pretty heart-warming when you are a free-lancer like me. January is sometimes very quiet and I end up having a crisis and thinking that nobody loves me and my wonderful clients have all run off to the competitors. Not this year they haven’t, so I’m juggling work with finishing laundry and mending and am glancing wistfully at my Martinique quilt top which I would like to finish machine quilting this week. I started it before my sewing machine started misbehaving and it has been looking at me expectantly ever since.
I’m going to get there. I know I am. And you know what? I can’t wait!
Watch this space!
Helen
