Brandon Mull obviously has kids because he’s using some quality subliminal messaging in the third book in his Five Kingdoms series. All the cool kids in the ultra-modern realm of Zeropolis use the slang term “tidy” to mean good, awesome, sick, buck, or super fly. What are those darn kids saying these days in the magic-deficient earthen-type world? Cause in Zeropolis they say “tidy.”
“Wow. Your new spikey blue hair cut is super tidy.”
“You are good at the techno-baseball. That was a tidy catch you made with your glove of catching.”
“Your room looks so good since your mom made you throw away everything that you hold dear. Tidy!”
I like Mr. Mull.
We made it through spring break with very few injuries although Wanda described her adventures as “discovering new kinds of scabs.” She says she doesn’t fall down on purpose and she doesn’t like getting hurt, but one good thing is she can always discover new kinds and shapes of scabs… “and that’s good!” Love the attitude.
Another thing that’s good is throwing out half your belongings and that’s just what we did in the kids’ rooms and with their stuff throughout the house. Their rooms look awesome and they actually want to be in them so everyone is happy but the mice who are looking for the crumbs and plates of food I found under their beds. The mice and bugs hate everything about our spring break adventures. P.S. We have never had mice in the kids rooms, but oh how they would love it there.
Now, the whole week wasn’t as epic as the 12-hour clean-a-thon day one. We slept in some and played a ton of games but we made it through every category of stuff and now I’m on to the rest of the house. Today I emptied every darn thing out of the freezer and deep freeze for the first time in the nine years we’ve lived here.
I found a can of frozen juice with an expiration date of 2007. We have purchased two new refrigerators since 2007 and the can of juice has moved from one to the other to the other. Yes. That happened. But now it is on its way to the happy landfill in the sky and I am left with only food I would actually consider preparing for my family.
It’s strange that I would keep horribly freezer-burned food for years because, “I don’t want to waste it.” But the truth is, if it’s got a greenish tint, is covered in frost, and I would never, even in a zombie apocalypse, consider serving it to my family, then it’s already wasted. Now, keeping it in there just wastes my energy and space.
It’s the same with any item I purchased and am just hanging onto because I feel guilty about wasting money. I wasted the money the minute I bought it. Now I get to choose if I let that poor choice determine the way I live indefinitely.
I have the same issue with food on my plate or in the fridge. I frequently overeat in the name of not wasting food. Truthfully, the food waste is even greater if I eat something my body doesn’t need or want. Would I rather waste the food in the trash can or waste it in my body as if I’m some sort of living breathing food disposal unit? Because it hangs a-ROUND once I place it in my body. And not in a good way.
So now that the kids’ rooms are done and the kitchen is done and my clothes are done, I start on all the rest of the house and as I start on all the rest of the house I feel the need to put some solid habits in place to care for the things I’ve been blessed with and the people I love.
I’m starting simple.
Three non-negotiables, as recently brought to my remembrance by StressFreeHomemaking.com.
1. One load of laundry from start to finish every day, folded, put away. It may sound strange, but I think my problem was I was cleaning too much laundry on any given day. Cleaning it’s the easy part. I couldn’t keep up with the folding and putting away.
2. Dishwasher run each night and unloaded first thing in the morning. I’m pretty good at this already but I’m going to try running it every night regardless of how full it is so I can start the next day with a clean slate.
3. Dinner planned and ingredients thawed every night for the following day. There’s something embarrassing about how shocked I am every single night that we need to eat something around 6pm. Again?! We just ate dinner yesterday!!
I’m also doing my best to follow a basic weekly cleaning routine. I’ve looked at several and this is the one I’m using for now because it’s simple and the printable is cute.
I’ll let you know my progress and how long the routines last. Consistency is hard, unless it’s consistently eating chocolate. I can do that.
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Consistent chocolate eating – yes, that sounds doable!
Great work! I am feeling inspired!
PS – what game is that? Looks like something my family would dig.
It’s Downfall of Pompeii. Really fun. Fairly simple as these games go. We also love Splendor, Kingdom Builder, and I was just introduced to The Castles Of Burgundy, which is also fun if you’re a fan of Catan, Seven Wonders, Ticket to Ride, etc.
I want to know the game too! I need to go through each room again, but I think it will have to wait until next month because life is too busy right now (and I like to pretend it will slow down…)
I am shocked about dinner every night, too! Of course, I discovered while out of work for 12 weeks that my shock was the same, but I just had a few extra buffer hours to thaw or shop while I was off! I also made it my mission during that time to organize and finish longstanding projects, just to get them off my list and remove as many dark clouds from above my head as possible. I knew I’d never get free time like that again, so I needed to use it or I’d be kicking myself! Baby book up to date, curtains hung, gift wrap and tissue and gift bags organized, basement storage redone, linen closet cleaned up, and who knows what else. It was glorious!
Those are my top 3, too. Sometimes I try to throw in a follow-up load that doesn’t need to be folded right away (like towels or sheets) so it forces the clothes out of the dryer. That’s a bonus, too, because that stuff is usually saved for last, and by the time “last” rolls around, I don’t want to do it.
Dishes are endless, and it always seems like you just got them done and when your turn your back the sink is full again. I would love to have an empty dishwasher every morning. That is a great plan.
I hate the dinner conundrum. It’s like my family doesn’t appreciate the stress of coming up with something different every night. My husband just lamented that he has 8 lunch containers of potato soup in the freezer when I said we’d be having it the next day. Sheesh. I thought we liked potato soup…
Part of my answer to the dinner problem is creating a list of 20 meals, five a week for four weeks that I rotate through. That way there’s some stability for me, but enough variety too. If I end up making dinner more than five times per week, I can add other meals or experiment but the majority of our meals are family favorites that I’m rotating through.
Darn you Kathryn! All this awesome talk of declutterung is contagious. I ended up purchasing The book you recommented about decluttering on audible. I’ve listened to it twice this week. Guess what were doing this weekend.
I’m so glad you liked it. I was super motivated after I read it. You are my decluttering inspiration, by the way!