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walkitoutI had a great phone call with K. I had a nice walk with M. I had a long walk by myself. I had a great phone call with my sister.
I tried the Mori Nu (shelf stable) tofu in the air fryer. It does not crisp up as nicely as the stuff I buy at the grocery store. But it is perfectly acceptable. The last Sun Basket box and last meal kit box (I’m skipping for the next several weeks, for several reasons) arrived and we cooked the salmon for dinner.
I read the rest of _Decluttering at the Speed of Life_, by Dana K. White. I had not previously read her first book, altho I’m thinking about it, because she has a wonderful authorial voice: her form of self-deprecation is about her previous self, really, the perfect target of humor’s barbs. Not current self-loathing, which is depressing. Not attacking someone else, which is distressing. But gently poking fun at one’s previous errors and talking about the process of doing something a better way.
She has a _very_ container focused approach. Not go out and buy containers. But treat one’s house as a container, the room as a container, the closet / cabinet / drawer / shelf as a container. Put your favorite things that belong in _that_ container in first, then get rid of everything else. If you can’t bear to get rid of something, one in one out it with something you already put in. You can obviously reassign space (this shelf WAS going to be for pink stuffies, but I have too many purple stuffies to fit on the purple stuffy shelf, so I’ll have two purple stuffy shelves and get rid of all the pink stuffies), the crucial thing being to consistently recognize the otherall limits.
The container approach plus the sense of humor would be enough, but her decluttering order of operations is unusually solid. There is no “keep” box. She wants you to go put it where it belongs _right now_, so that you don’t wind up with stacks of “keep” boxes with no home when you inevitably get interrupted by a phone call, door bell, cat vomiting, kids coming home from school, need to eat, etc. Start with the most visible spaces in your house, because that way, when you’ve accomplished something, you will _see_ that and it will be a positive motivator (vs. decluttering invisible spaces like closets, where even massive improvement can be completely invisible once you shut the door). She is opposed to trying to sell things, because that slows the process down so much. She makes up great words, like “Procrasticlutter”: a lamp sitting somewhere because what you need to do is replace a bulb elsewhere so the lamp can return to its permanent home. Pick up the trash and dispose of it first. Then “duhs” go in the Donate box: it isn’t trash, but it’s super clear it isn’t needed / wanted around here anymore. Then question one: If I needed this item, where would I look for it first. This is a crucial flip from almost all other decluttering / organizing books which attempt to impose some sort of organizational system that matches one’s personality. Top down. This is a bottom up approach. Store it where you will _look for it_. Brilliant reframe! And then put it there immediately. If the answer to the first question isn’t totally obvious, question two: If I needed this item, would I think to look for it in my home / would I remember that I owned it / one / some? If you will auto-buy it even when it is already in your home, there is no reason to store it.
The psychological insights in the book are at times a little brutal, which is a good thing, because White is super compassionate (remember, her primary / only target is her _former_ self) and she is _very_ focused on making the present better. It’s never clear to me whether a book’s tone will “work” for someone else. But if this book sounds at all appealing to you, I _urge_ you to give it a shot and then report back to me. I want to know if there is something unappealing about this book that I just missed (it happens).
#21
I tried the Mori Nu (shelf stable) tofu in the air fryer. It does not crisp up as nicely as the stuff I buy at the grocery store. But it is perfectly acceptable. The last Sun Basket box and last meal kit box (I’m skipping for the next several weeks, for several reasons) arrived and we cooked the salmon for dinner.
I read the rest of _Decluttering at the Speed of Life_, by Dana K. White. I had not previously read her first book, altho I’m thinking about it, because she has a wonderful authorial voice: her form of self-deprecation is about her previous self, really, the perfect target of humor’s barbs. Not current self-loathing, which is depressing. Not attacking someone else, which is distressing. But gently poking fun at one’s previous errors and talking about the process of doing something a better way.
She has a _very_ container focused approach. Not go out and buy containers. But treat one’s house as a container, the room as a container, the closet / cabinet / drawer / shelf as a container. Put your favorite things that belong in _that_ container in first, then get rid of everything else. If you can’t bear to get rid of something, one in one out it with something you already put in. You can obviously reassign space (this shelf WAS going to be for pink stuffies, but I have too many purple stuffies to fit on the purple stuffy shelf, so I’ll have two purple stuffy shelves and get rid of all the pink stuffies), the crucial thing being to consistently recognize the otherall limits.
The container approach plus the sense of humor would be enough, but her decluttering order of operations is unusually solid. There is no “keep” box. She wants you to go put it where it belongs _right now_, so that you don’t wind up with stacks of “keep” boxes with no home when you inevitably get interrupted by a phone call, door bell, cat vomiting, kids coming home from school, need to eat, etc. Start with the most visible spaces in your house, because that way, when you’ve accomplished something, you will _see_ that and it will be a positive motivator (vs. decluttering invisible spaces like closets, where even massive improvement can be completely invisible once you shut the door). She is opposed to trying to sell things, because that slows the process down so much. She makes up great words, like “Procrasticlutter”: a lamp sitting somewhere because what you need to do is replace a bulb elsewhere so the lamp can return to its permanent home. Pick up the trash and dispose of it first. Then “duhs” go in the Donate box: it isn’t trash, but it’s super clear it isn’t needed / wanted around here anymore. Then question one: If I needed this item, where would I look for it first. This is a crucial flip from almost all other decluttering / organizing books which attempt to impose some sort of organizational system that matches one’s personality. Top down. This is a bottom up approach. Store it where you will _look for it_. Brilliant reframe! And then put it there immediately. If the answer to the first question isn’t totally obvious, question two: If I needed this item, would I think to look for it in my home / would I remember that I owned it / one / some? If you will auto-buy it even when it is already in your home, there is no reason to store it.
The psychological insights in the book are at times a little brutal, which is a good thing, because White is super compassionate (remember, her primary / only target is her _former_ self) and she is _very_ focused on making the present better. It’s never clear to me whether a book’s tone will “work” for someone else. But if this book sounds at all appealing to you, I _urge_ you to give it a shot and then report back to me. I want to know if there is something unappealing about this book that I just missed (it happens).
#21