Organizing Stuff

Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love to arrange things, re-arrange them, organize stuff, reorganize stuff, de-clutter things and basically make the energy in my space flow comfortably and easily.  I think part of it may be a little obsessive / compulsive disorder-like, but for the most part I think it has to do with needing a tidy space where I can locate what I am after.

 

Today I spent some quality time with some of my family (more about that in another post) and then after I had tidied the kitchen and done my dishes, I got to tackle one of the BEST organization projects (for me) to date.

 

This particular project started last weekend when my WONDERFUL Sister in Law let me know she was going to be going to IKEA while on a work trip and asked me if there was anything I wanted her to pick up for me. I let her know that I absolutely DID have a couple of things in mind and then, when I got off the phone from our call, I promptly forgot about the IKEA trip. 

 

My Sister in Law must have a sixth sense - she sent me an email the day before leaving letting me know that if there was anything I wanted to just email her the spec numbers... God bless her for that!  I immediately got onto the IKEA website and emailed her the spec number for what I needed... what I have actually been looking for for roughly the last year.

 

When I moved into my house, one of the things I immediately appreciated was the HUGE kitchen cupboards - massive!  What I realized shortly after taking possession of the house was that the HUGE kitchen cupboards weren't 100% conducive to true kitchen organization. 

 

So what have I needed, and been looking for for the last year or so? Shelf Inserts. Yes, truly, I have been looking and not finding anything sturdy enough to do the job.  Short of buying lumber and building them myself I just wasn't getting anywhere.

 

So Carrie, bless her forever and ever, picked up 8 shelf inserts for me.  Thanks to Carrie (and in small part to IKEA for having organization stuff that people like me need) I now have kitchen cupboards that look like this:

Organized!  Woo hoo!!

Ah the bliss of organization!

With love across the waters,

Letting Go

I have gotten too comfortable with my worries.  They aren’t exactly my friends, but they have almost always been there with me, when I wake up in the middle of the night. Not exactly comforting, but reliably there.

I have been doing some mental and emotional cleaning lately – and since I spent so much time in the last year doing all of the physical clearing and de-cluttering, it actually makes sense that the emotional and mental clearing also be done – I guess that truthfully I was both not yet ready and, well, just hadn’t thought of how important it might actually be!

I subscribe to the Abraham–Hicks daily Law of Attraction quotes – the emails are in my in basket when I wake up and they are often a great thought to start the day with.  Yesterday’s quote made more of an impact on me than usual. Here’s the quote in its entirety:

Most people have a hard time delegating, or even wanting to delegate, because you have been justifying your existence through your hard work, and you equate success with struggle; you equate results with struggle. And so, you sort of wear your struggle like a badge of honour. And all of that is opposite of allowing the Well-being. The only thing that ever matters in success or achievement is your achieving the things that you want to achieve. So if you are setting standards and you're feeling uncomfortable about the standards that you've set, tweak the standards back a little bit. Ratchet it back a notch. Give yourself a break. Give yourself the benefit of the doubt. Lighten up. Be easier. Go slower. Take it easy. Have more fun. Love yourself more. Laugh more. Appreciate more. All is well. You can't get it wrong. You never get it done.

--- Abraham (Excerpted from the workshop in San Antonio, TX on Saturday, April 20th, 2002 # 490)

Anyhow, as I said, it made an impact - and off and on, all day yesterday, I thought about it. “Why not? What is it about my worries that I need to hold onto? I’m obviously not resolving any of them by lying awake at 2:00 AM thinking about them all – maybe it is time to delegate the resolution of these worries out and let someone else produce viable solutions for me?”

This in mind, I came home from work, had a decent dinner and wrote a letter to Santa Claus.  Ok, not really, but what I did do is sit down and, with my trusty red pen, write out a letter to the universe about everything that has been on my mind lately… All of the concerns and worries that have been bogging me down and waking me up at night. The letter started with grateful thanks for all of the wonderful people and blessings I have in my life. I then listed out my main bugaboos and let the universe know that I have now delegated all responsibility for resolution of these things to, well, the universe.  There is infinite energy out there, why not use some of it to help me let go of some things that have been sucking up my energy down here?

Finishing with thanks and yes, more gratitude, I let the universe know, in writing, that I trust that all of these concerns will be dealt with in the next six months to a year (I have to be reasonable in my project timelines, right?) signed it and then placed it into my wood stove and burnt it.

Ok, I know that may have seemed a drastic step – but here’s why I burnt it. Letters to Santa weren’t always sent by Canada Post – once upon a time, they were burnt and the ashes magically ended up in the North Pole, in once piece, for Santa to read and determine what was going to be possible and what would need to wait until “later.” I figure that if it works for Santa it MUST work for the rest of the angelic community, right?

Off to bed last night, I did wake up in the middle of the night – I needed to pee… but when I got back into bed, well, instead of my usual “lie there and hope to fall back asleep before starting to worry about… oh crap, I thought about it and therefore started worrying about it… SIGH” I thought about some nice things and then fell back asleep!

Huh – there must be something to this!

And then, like magic, this morning’s Abraham–Hicks daily Law of Attraction quote:

It's not your work to make anything happen. It's your work to dream it and let it happen. Law of Attraction will make it happen. In your joy, you create something, and then you maintain your vibrational harmony with it, and the Universe must find a way to bring it about. That's the promise of Law of Attraction.

--- Abraham (Excerpted from the workshop in Larkspur, CA on Sunday, August 16th, 1998 # 491)

I think I may have taken a step in the right direction this time!

With love across the waters,

Accomplishment

This weekend I managed to knock a few more things off of my "to do" list.  

After pumping up the tires on my bike on Sunday, I went out for the first ride of the season. I was a little smarter this time than I was when I went for my first ride last year (what was also my first bike ride in close to 25 years) and limited myself to less than 5 KM.  I was wearing my bike shorts and a pair of Capri pants bought especially for bike riding, and Jasmine and I took it easy & had a good time. I’m a little tender in parts today, but that’s totally to be expected – next ride is planned for Wednesday after work – thank GOD for Daylight Savings!!

Once the ride was done, I put the bike away and decided that it would be really smart if I took advantage of the clear weather to get outside and get some more of my yard work looked after. This included planting the gorgeous Coral Bark Maple that my parents gave me as a housewarming present when I first moved in... I then spent tome cutting down the trellis and wisteria vine (and another one of the badly growing shrubs at the front of the house) and then cleaning up the rest of the garden bed under the eaves. 


There was a GOOD interesting find (not like finding the leprosy dolphins!) of an antique pressing iron – the kind that would be heated on the top of a wood stove and then used to iron and press any concept of wrinkles into submission! I brought it inside and scrubbed it down a little - it is now sitting on top of my wood stove.  I will try and scrub it down a little more - to take off the rest of the rust, but honestly, this is up there with the cloth-backed wallpaper on my personal coolness-meter.

Anyhow, I then got on with emptying out and getting rid of some of the planters that were at the front of the house and replanting some of the items that were homed in temporary pots.  I’m pretty much in “wait and see” mode this year – seeing exactly what it is that my yard and gardens yield.  In chatting with my neighbour yesterday, I learned that there is a colony of out of control Jerusalem Artichokes near my garden shed – edibles that evidently work more like a potato than an artichoke - and so I will have a few things to harvest this time around. I know there is also some lemon balm and a container that has strawberries in it – but much more than that, I’m not certain of.

I also learned that, if I'm planning on planting of anything, I need to check in with him (the neighbour) first, before I go out & buy plants - he quite often divides items and then donates them to the local garden group that puts on Seedy Saturdays (almost all of which I will miss because I work on Saturdays) and has told me that he is more than happy to pass things over the back fence to me, as and if I would like!

Sunday's day of accomplishment was followed by a WONDERFUL home-made Indian food dinner with good friends, after which I did a quick grocery shopping on my way home - and not surprising, grocery stores are EMPTY after 7PM on a Sunday night and so this may be my new favourite time to go get my groceries!!

Since I added to it again yesterday, the next pile of crap to be taken away to the dump is slowly getting larger. Removal will need to be arranged fairly soon - and in fact, with the exception of the all weather carpet that is on my front steps (yes, all weather carpet, on the front steps!) I think it is pretty much ready to be hauled away.

For today, though, I hung out in the house, relaxed on the sofa and contented myself with cuddles with each of my pets and a little light reading.  All in all, a productive weekend that is ending with a quiet and restful night!

With love across the waters,

Yard Work and Magical Finds

My Mum and Dad came up to visit today and brought my Grandma with them.  Their trip up was partly to see the new house, but also, partly to help me out with some of the yard work that needs two pairs of hands.

Dad and I started out front – we trimmed back a shrub that was growing up across the big window and then Dad climbed up the step ladder and pulled out the rest of the Wisteria that had grown up into the roof line.  I had already cut away all of its connection to its roots, but some of it was too high up for me to get without help.

Once that was done, Dad and I headed into the back yard to tackle some of the overgrowth back there – namely the big dead Sumac tree and its smaller sproutlings on the left side of the yard.

When I took possession of the house, the back yard looked something like this:

Welcome to the jungle, Baby!

Believe it or not, there's a pond under there somewhere!

There's actually a maple tree back there somewhere!

Overgrown Sumac on dead Sumac...

And now, having cut down the dead Sumac as well as its sproutlings, it looks like this:

Holy smokes - I can see the yard!

A Sumac tree still destined to come down...

Huh - there were paving stones under there!

Did you notice? There’s a GORGEOUS Japanese Maple back there – one that was being choked out by the sumac and was completely invisible from the house because of it!

Here’s another shot of this gorgeous little tree:

Now… I think I also mentioned that Mum & Dad gave me a Coral Bark Maple as a house warming present? She is in the back yard right now too – until I can dig her spot in the front.  They are called coral barked trees because new growth has this beautiful coral colour to it – see what I mean?

And neato-fenito? I am finding all SORTS of interesting stuff now that I can actually SEE much more of the back yard… here are a few of the finds to date:

Dragonfly Plaque

tumbled rocks around the pond

wind chimes that were hidden in the Sumac 

PVC pipes - I think used as "fencing"

So... next up will be multiple trips to the dump with cut down trees and branches and stuff... here's just a little of what will eventually end up going:

Everything needs to be cut into smaller pieces

the whole back fence is piled high with stuff!

And just so you know she was there:

The Supervisor!

My neighbour has put me in touch with a friend of his who will, for a very small amount, load the back of his truck and haul items to the dump. Next Sunday we will haul out load #1 from the back. 

With love across the waters,

Feng Shui Workshop

I was telling one of the ladies at work about the awesome work I have been doing to my home (thanks to Terri Perrin at Fine Art of Intention Feng Shui) and not too long after this discussion, Terri was into the branch – I introduced her to the lady at work and lo and behold, last night I attended a Feng Shui workshop at her home!

I’m was very much looking forward to this event – there weren’t as many people there as I thought there might, and of those there, some of whom know all about Feng Shui, others for whom this was an introduction.  The energy was great (as were the treats!) and we all had a good time.

I came away with some new information and a renewed sense that Feng Shui isn’t just a “one shot deal” of changes – it’s an ongoing practice in my home AND my life.

The session was great because it incorporated a lot of explanation – and in fact, when leaving with a friend, she commented to me that she was really pleased that Terri was so free with information.  The sharing of information – the changes that can be made, and the resulting feeling of those changes, was really the whole focus of the evening.

What sorts of additional things did I pick up? There were a few bigger items that resonated with me last night as well as a number of small “tweaks” I can make here and there…

Some *more* decluttering (nope, not done yet after all!) this time, find a way to finally remove the electronics I purchased over in the UK.  An advert will go up on Kijiji, Craigslist and on something called Used Courtenay / Comox.  Hopefully I’ll be able to locate someone moving to the UK who can take these items with them.

There’s some yard work that desperately needs to be attended to – Terri told us last night that, when divided up, our yards are symbolised as Front = past; middle = present; and back = future.  Since I have no middle yard, and my front yard is mostly fine, I really need to focus on clean-up and planning out my back yard’s space.  With the flooding in December, I’ve not given it any thought at all, and so my hope is that, this weekend, I’ll be able to sit down and focus some thought on what I can do with it and then, start to take action.  More soon on this project.

Last up is an interesting thing I can do to draw things to me.  Essentially, with a (new) red pen, write out all of the things (by hand on some fancy paper) I want to draw into my life.  Place this list in a silver box and then place the silver box in the “helpful people” section of my house.  For me, the helpful l people section of my mail floor is in the foyer and upstairs it is in my office.  Since I spend more time in my home office than in my foyer, I’ll place the box up here.

And so, with this in mind, I’m going to finish this post off here, walk my dog and then start taking action on the next phase of my Feng Shui education.

With love across the waters,

A Request for Assistance

Something I haven't spoken a lot about is giving. I'm going to speak out a little more in future about this. We all have so very many blessings in our lives - giving isn't impossible, ever. And giving isn't always about money - its about time, second-hand and gently used things, touch, prayer, and sometimes just company or an ear to listen to someone who needs to talk themselves out.

So I am going to keep this post short & sweet... a friend of mine (whose blog I follow) has posted a request for assistance for a client of hers. Here's the link to Yambo (yet another mommy blog) Please take some time to pop over to her blog and have a read.

 

I've been talking a lot, lately, about de-cluttering - if you are inspired to do some de-cluttering of your own, please remember that there are others out there who would love to have your treasures... if you are able to, every little bit will help this young woman - and if Calgary is too far away for you, please remember that someone close to where you live could probably use your assistance in some way, shape or form.  There are a number of fantastic organizations out there who help people in need - and they would also love to hear from you.

 

With love across the waters,

(mini) Feng Shui Update #4

Tonight I officially finished the final task in my de-cluttering journey. Yes, I finally tackled the closet in my home office. Now that it’s all officially done, I feel a little sad, in a strange kind of way. I actually enjoyed the process of reviewing what I have, and getting rid of the things that aren’t necessary for me to retain. It’s a little strange to think that, in the last 6 months or so, I have reviewed each and every “thing” that I own and then given away, donated, recycled, thrown away or sold the things that no longer serve me.

What was the very last thing I removed…? Well, funnily enough, it was the hardest thing for me to actually let go of, which is likely why I left it to the very end of this process. This will sound strange, but the hardest thing to remove, for me, was day timers. Yes, of all of the things I have held onto for years and years (and carted across the country 4 times, AND taken overseas and back) is 22 years’ worth of day timers.

I think that the main reason that I found it so very hard to actually get rid of them is because of what they represented to me. Relationships. They all symbolized, to me, ex-boyfriends through the years.

How does this make me feel? Truly, tonight, I feel a little hollow inside. Not sad – I want to be clear that I am not sad at all – I am actually feeling lighter tonight than I think I have ever felt. I feel a little hollow though – and strangely, very nervous.

Way back in August, I commented in my Feng Shui Update #2, that what I had been noticing was that, as I was removing old things, new things were making their way to me. As I cleaned out closets, new clothing was being given to me, and as I gave away books, new books were arriving in my hands.

Perhaps the hollowness is related to the fact that, by hanging onto the day timers, I had been hanging onto energetic symbols of those various relationships. Now, gone, there is a space inside me, finally, that I am willing to allow to be filled. Maybe now, having let go (finally) of some of my past, my future can make his way to me.

With love across the waters...

Feng Shui Update #3

This morning I had Terri Perrin (from Fine Art of Intention Feng Shui) come over to have a look at the changes made so far, discuss the things I am working to manifest in my world and, finally, suggest more changes I could make in my home to help boost the energy around these items.

I thought it might also be a great time to update you on the changes made, how things look and feel in my home and where things stand just now…

Having now made *most* of the changes Terri initially suggested (and holy smokes, the energy feel in my home, in some cases changed INSTANTLY – it’s amazing what one simple mirror can do!) I thought it might be a good time to revisit what it is that I am trying to accomplish in my life and to also see what additional “tweaks” I could make to help nudge the universe a little to bring things about maybe a little sooner.

When she came though the door this morning, Terri commented right away at how much better I was looking (not that I looked bad before) and how much more “up” I seem now than I was when we initially met.

I’ll pause mentally for a second say that, yes, I *do* feel more energetic and happier overall.

We sat down and had a cuppa coffee and discussed where I was in the process, what I haven’t yet done (and in some cases won’t do) and why; and what it is that I am working toward manifesting in my life. That done, we took a walk around the home with my notes from our last session and discussed what has been changed and what additional tweaks I could do to help nudge things along.

The list is much smaller this time - a few additions here and there, a few removals and also a couple of things to be moved around!

Mum & Dad came up for lunch today and, now that I’m home, I’m going to brew myself a cup of tea (for some reason, actual Feng Shui activities, including de-cluttering – require me to drink tea) and get started on some of the “quick hit” items I can take care of.

Once done, I’m going to take another swipe at getting rid of more unnecessary stuff I have hanging around here.

Something interesting to remember is that negative energy can be held in all sorts of ways. Things to review in your own lives and homes could include:

• Clutter & Broken items
• Dead things (yes, dried flowers MUST GO)
• Unfinished projects
• Items you didn’t want in the first place, and also things that you hang onto because you feel obligated to do so
• “Crap” from old relationships. Not just the emotional baggage we hang onto, but also the mementos that we hang onto that we think are harmless but really, may not be.

There’s also another subset of clutter that we need to address… the mental and emotional clutter – AKA “baggage.” This one seems hardest, at least to me, to deal with. This one includes things like:

• Appointments needed to be made (or cancelled)
• Relationships that need to be healed
• People no longer needed in our lives

Sometimes we need to address not just the person, company, event, issue or whatever it is that has created the emotional clutter, we need to address OURSELVES for this part of it all. It’s very easy to look outward… it’s a lot harder to look inward.

 

And on a final note, something really wonderful happened for me this last week and I wanted to offer gratitude to the universe for helping me to reach the point in my life where I could see the beauty in something as simple as one person reaching out to another person to tell them that they were thought of, and often. Stacey, if you read this, you may never realize just how much that meant (and means) to me, and I want to say thank you for reaching out.

 

Blessings,

Erin