Monday Musings

Hello world and happy Monday! I’ve got a few things rolling through my head for todays Musings edition…

First, I think next to people making resolutions to lose weight, another top item on the list for many is getting more organized/tidy/having less junk… I mean…”valuable stuff”…. taking up their space.

Enter a little Japanese dynamo named Marie Kondo, an organizing consultant who helps people get rid of their useless valuables.

I can’t claim a long term following of her or her ways as I innocently stumbled on her while Googling some value fact or bit of info I was after one day. I read the article, noted the before and after of neatly arranged drawers and thought…. hmmm… maybe I’ll just give  her version of drawer organizing a whirl.

First, though, if you’ve missed out on the movement of “KonMari”, get on the cool kids bus with us.

It simply means gathering all of your belongings, one category at a time, touching them, thanking them for their service ( ok odd I know… not sure how much of that I’ll be doing 😛 ) and only keeping those things that “spark joy”, then you donate what doesn’t.

The idea is to be left with only things that make you happy and bring joy.

Ok that sounds good to me…although I’ll state this here… I’ll never be a “minimalist”.

No offense if you are.  I need some things around me that breathe people live in my home. I want cozy and comfy with a tiny bit of something not always in it’s place.   I don’t like walking in somewhere and wondering where the person is who lives there, (personal touches) everything carefully staged, sterile if you will.

Just not my vibe.

But the less unimportant stuff that we all tend to keep around ’cause… maybe we don’t essentially feel moved to get rid of it, don’t know HOW to get rid of it… whatever the case?

Yeah, sign me up.

So as mentioned, I thought I’d start with a few drawers.

Easy…

And I knew it wouldn’t take huge amounts of time. If I “liked” it, I decided I’d move on to something bigger.

Her folding style is different from how most of us may fold. I tend to fold and stack things into the drawer. Her method is to fold into neat thirds and then you stand items up on end, like book spines sticking up. Then you can see at a glance exactly what you have and easily select it.

I started with hubby’s undie drawer. (sorry hubster) I figured it would be fast and then… I’d know…. if I should continue on.  Well, needless to say after I did his drawer, and had extra space that previously wasn’t there, I wanted to move to one of my athletic drawers ( yes I have more than one)

So this drawer, made me crazy every morning. No matter how I folded things or kept shorts separate from sports bras, I was inevitably throwing stuff out looking for one particular item. Now, I open drawer and it’s all neat right in front of me, with space that wasn’t there previously!

I’m still trying to decide if I wanna apply this to socks. Some of you may know how I feel about socks… so those might be the LAST drawers I tackle. I will move on to my closet next and although I’ve cleaned out quite a bit before lil Marie tripped into my life, I realize I can go back for more.  I might be taking baby steps on some of this but it’s better than nothing, right?  It’s a 2019 goal for me.

I did do something fun in my week though….

Hubby and I took off to play tourist in our home area. Our kids had given us an  all inclusive stay at a gorgeous hotel on the riverwalk and we had gift cards to a local restaurant  for food. What’s better than a pre-paid escape??

We didn’t stay in the room of course, but did some roaming around enjoying the beautiful day.

I’m not sure what it is about being downtown, but it almost has it’s own energy, it’s vibe, of people and culture and times gone by that I love. I also love people watching too.

I was kinda shocked and delighted to see one of the buildings still decked out with Christmas. You know how much I love old school vintage and this Santa and Nutcracker were worth snapping….

We stopped outside the Ripley’s museum and couldn’t resist playing with the distortion mirror…..

After roaming around all day, we headed out for dinner at a fun place called the Rainforest Café.

So inside is like a rain forest, it has animals and they actually move and “act” like what they are…. we happened to be seated next to a bunch of gorillas… it got really loud ….

Oh and of course we had to stop for a little coffee break while we were out… I love how they let you know you aren’t on your own coffee turf anymore.. hubby patiently waiting as he’s used to me taking random pics for my blog…..

 

All in all it was a fun little weekend get away, and all rather close to home. Next time we’re going back for scooter rides….

Speaking of coffee…..

Dunkin’ Donuts just opened in our neck of the woods.  I happened to stumble in the first day, right after they opened, and decided to try their iced coffee.

Yes, it was good. I probably won’t be there as a permanent customer ’cause I’m on Starbucks rewards program and I get free stuff ya know…. and free is good… and not only that… I love so many of the people I’ve gotten to know there too.

What about food?

I made this amazing scalloped potato recipe for a family dinner last week.  This won’t rank up there with slim and fit dishes, you gently boiled the peeled and sliced potatoes in heavy cream first!

Yikes, but they were tasty 😛 find the recipe below and dont’ forget to head to Pinterest and find my Sassyfitnesschick page for lots of great ( healthy) and wicked recipes, fitness tips and more.

https://pattyandersonsblog.blogspot.com/2015/03/steakhouse-potato-gratin.html

Your turn!

Is organization on your 2019 list to do? Have you heard of Marie Kondo? Or tried her methods? What other things are on your goal list this year?