After a grand start last Monday, things went a bit tits-up on Tuesday with the sudden departure of The Man on The Island (my partner works on a remote island 1240kms away). We knew he was going back it’s just the flight got moved forward a day.
So I left my Christmas get-together, thankfully I had eaten, and did the 100km round trip back home,  to the airport, and back home again.

So now I need to shift gears.  Any partner of a FIFO (Fly In Fly Out) can tell you that it’s a bit of a shift to the “other routine” when they go; this is the one when I do pretty much everything.  That’s not to say my kids don’t help, but they are still of an age where I need to parent and care for them and also keep the house operating at it’s hum; on the brink of chaos we know and love so well.

So here I am at 4pm on Tuesday staring down the barrel of six items I need to dispose of.

Interestingly I watched a show on telly Monday night about two hoarders; one lived in a very lovely area of West London and the other lady further to the south of the city and they lived in what can only be described as in total chaos.  And while  I was horrified at the strewn rubbish on the stairs, the piles of newspapers and boxes and boxes of bric-a-brac; I can from my current situation see how easy it is to go from ‘this’ to ‘that’.

I watch a lot of hoarder shows, well when I say a lot,  I mean if I am channel surfing and they are on, then that’s what I watch.I don’t set my tv reminder or anything less I miss someone drowning in more junk than I am.   One thing I have noted is that a lot of the time they too were once ‘just messy’ and then…… something happened; a massive tragedy in their lives.  Loss of a parent, partner or child, the loss of their job. Some true blindsiding of their day-to-day lives.

So what did I toss today ….

.

Today is now day 7 – and I feel like I am cheating.  You know how most people have a third drawer full of crap in their kitchen.  I have one in my bathroom.  There’s Body Shop Products in there from my days as their Admin Officer; which was over 12 years ago (and I only remember it’s that number because I left to have my youngest child).  What was that about me not being as bad as those people on the telly???.  On the plus side, I have at least another day if not 2 on that drawer alone.   Yesterday (6) and today (7) have been straight in to a bag because I am pretty sure some type of scientific reaction has happened and I am not touching those things.   Also I probably just missed my chance to become a Superhero.

So Day 8 I again chucked more from the dreaded drawer, and I was feeling pretty unwell. Maybe I did touch something in the dreaded drawer the day before??? Was I about to gain super powers? Oh no,  I was not. Unless it was to become Sleeper Woman

I woke up on the 9th barely able to move with head spins and gunk coming out of my eyes, ears and nose.   I slept through some classic movies and a few episodes on The Royals on Netflix.
Day 10 was a repeat although being a Saturday I got out of bed at mid morning, made it to the couch with a cup of tea and slept through more movies….  so that’s 19 things I am already behind on at this point.

And here it is with all these challenges; whether it be exercise (yes 30 day squat challenge I’m looking at you) or cleaning your house or whatever it is – there is no safety net. No “if you can’t do the main thing, do this instead”.

All there is is the sense that ONCE AGAIN YOU FAILED.

There’s the  overwhelming sense of you can’t even follow these simple instructions. I mean so what if your leaking gluey green fluid from your eyeballs? You can’t throw things out, how do you even adult???

Day 11 and while I less resemble a crusty Slimer, I am still not 100%.  I found this out after getting up off the couch to decorate the Xmas tree.  No I can’t just leave it to the kids, although they did help.  I ended up a sweating dizzy mess and spent the rest of the afternoon watching The Holiday.  I love that movie.

At a time when most people are winding down on a Sunday  – or those with a great life are enjoying a lovely cold alcoholic beverage in one of Perth’s many fine bars and pubs I was getting my adulting together.  I made a list of things I could possibly think about tackling tomorrow, I ordered the groceries online (and dinner while I was at it), I sat and read through some of a book I have been asked to review prior to it’s launch and chatted to a writer about what word count is acceptable and lamented my lack of finishing things. Again.

And I have not thrown out the now 30 things I should have….. and again I ask; how do these things not have a bit of a safety net to allow us not to feel like abject failures, because trust me there’s a part of me that in the not having showered or left the house for 3 days,  barely cooked what you would call nutritious food  – in fact 2 days were take-away deliveries – wants to keep going but then I could barely make it to the loo without holding on to the walls in the brief moments I was awake.

Who knows, this week I might just pull off a Christmas miracle and pull it together and get this done.

My best friend is also doing this with me.  Here’s what she had to say on the past week:

Joining the minimalist challenge has been interesting. Weirdly before this began, I decided leading up to the actual challenge to have a small clean out – which turned into a massive throw out of all my 7 year old’s old junky toys and different things – that felt awesome. I’m not sure if I would have done that if I wasn’t starting the minimalist challenge. I have found though that I haven’t committed consciously to this every day, but I am starting to remove things out of my space and it is feeling good. With Christmas coming, I’m keen for less landfill and more clean and open spaces at home. Work has been pretty stressful this year, so if I can make my home environment less cluttered I will be happy – then I could maybe tackle the office!

So I am not alone in  my lack of commitment to the exact number of items each day, but it seems we both feel better for doing some of it rather than abandoning the whole project.

And therein lies the lesson.