Tiny Sparks of Joy

Reading this, and The Ballet Family, and being happy that I found a group of people like me who enjoy school stories written decades ago.

Having a functioning bathroom again.

Reclaiming a small portion of the evening for ourselves, thanks to a co-operative small someone who just needed a nudge in the right direction.

Trying a new class at the gym and enjoying it immensely, even though I was the only person doing it and had nowhere to hide.

Using phrases from a Marjorie I worked with many moons ago and chuckling to myself every single time.

Photo Finish (Almost)

Photos have been the most irritating part of decluttering. We’ve lugged a large box containing a random assortment of snaps from college days, holiday photos and professional shots around for years. The box had loose photos, instax photos, some albums which were falling apart, a ‘nice’ box from our wedding photographer and loads of envelopes from the days when you had real film to be developed. This is in addition to what must be thousands of digital images on phones and camera cards.

I’ve spent a fair bit on very plain albums and discarded a lot of blurry images, pictures of people I don’t recognise and unflattering portraits. I went through a range of emotions while doing so, from mourning my much younger, slimmer self to laughing at the fashions to remembering good and bad days. Part of the reason I had long fingered this part of the Konmari process was my certainty that this would be difficult mentally, and it was.

We’re about 90% of the way there. There’s a pile or two left to sort through and one last album to fill. I’ve already ordered and received a photobook of images from 2018 and thanked my lucky stars that we probably won’t ever be sorting through this number of physical photos again.

 

Tiny Sparks of Joy

Seeing this in the window of the Oriel Gallery. One of our favourite artists, we have two pieces already and are very tempted by more.

A week and weekend with no rush and nowhere to be.

Handmade knitted cardigans and their wearer.

The trailer for Derry Girls 2.

Finally getting on top of our photos. New albums of old photos are a lovely thing to have.

SPARK JOY? BEAR EDITION

This is my childhood teddy bear. It’s quite obviously well loved and the worse for wear. I’ve held onto it for many years, through a few house moves and decluttering sessions. I’ve contacted a bear restoration service and I’m trying to decide whether to have it restored. I don’t think it is a particularly valuable bear, given that it doesn’t seem to have a fancy label on it and I can’t imagine it was very expensive to buy back in 1981.

I can’t honestly say this sparks joy the way it is, but I can’t bring myself to get rid of it even if I’ve thanked it for being in my life. I remember reading about ningyo kuyo a few years ago and thinking that it made a lot of sense. Maybe something like this would help me to let go of objects like this, which I keep out of some weird sense of obligation and sentiment but remain stuck on a shelf.

 

Is It Good Enough?

This is a photo I took on the 1st of May 2018. The referendum was on the 25th of May and by the 26th of May we knew we had repealed the eighth. By the 1st of January the legislation to give effect to the proposed abortion service was in place.

I know the legislation isn’t perfect and I voted for repeal in the hope that further changes to the current law will happen. I know services aren’t as accessible as I’d like and that some people will travel.

My fear is that we’ll continue to rely on so-called hard cases to push for further reform. Every case is a hard case. No one wants a medical procedure if they can avoid it. I’ll continue to grill any political representative who comes to our door on their stance on reproductive rights.

Is this good enough? I don’t know. I think we’ll have to keep working and stay vigilant. I’m learning more and more that we can’t be complacent about anything to do with reproductive health care.

Tiny Sparks of Joy

Thinking about possibly, maybe getting a new kitchen. I have an appointment with the Ikea kitchen planning service next week.

Using my new madeleine pan and eating the delicious results. Why did I wait so long to get one?

A completely new set of sheets on our bed and a freshly clean and tidy bedroom.

A Grand Stretch In The Evening. And the morning. More daylight is always welcome.

Finally getting around to listening to Slow Burn, season 2. It’s making me think a lot about things. And how and why I think the way I do about things.

Adventures with KonMari

I read The Life Changing Magic of Tidying before we moved house. I love stuff, I love a tidy house, and I was looking for a way to reconcile the two. I’m sentimental about stuff and I have fallen for the sunk cost fallacy many times over the years.

I chipped away at the stuff when I finished the book and we moved house with a lot less. We haven’t bought a lot of furniture for our home, even though it is a lot bigger than our old place. Yet, the stuff creeps in and somehow stays. It stresses me out, not a huge amount but more of a constant irritated feeling.

We bought our Christmas tree in Ikea, and got a voucher to spend in January. I have had my eye on the Malm range for a while, mainly because of the clean lines but, more importantly, the fact that the chest of drawers would fit into my wardrobe. We have no drawers at all in our wardrobe so the KonMari method was hard to follow. I didn’t want to replace what are otherwise perfectly good, inoffensive white wardrobes so putting a chest inside what was hanging space has worked well.

I went through photos this week, having cleared out most of the more sentimental things. I bought a very plain album and discarded two battered albums which were falling apart. It was harder than I expected to look at photos from college days. Those days were amongst the happiest of my life but it was like seeing a different person.

I’m still working on my feelings about those photos and all the memories they sparked. The photos spark joy, they are something I want to bring into my future and moving them to a new album was a very satisfying process.