A DE-CLUTTERING AND NO-BUY JANUARY

 I am sure you have seen the many posts about New Year's resolutions: 

Go on a diet (see Anne Lamott about this!), go to the gym, take cookies to neighbors, learn French or Spanish, reconnect with old friends, and shed healing balm on our broken families. All well and good, but--

These are things that actually make me feel crazy. I think I could maybe do one, like refresh my college French by reading the daily Angelus address from the Pope, translated into French. 

This is good. Or, read Emmanuel Macron's posts, all in French of course. Disturbingly nationalistic, though: Egalite! Fraternite! And more in this vein.

On the many FB feeds I get, two I am loving now are these: My Second-Hand and Frugal Life, and Clean, Organize, and De-clutter. I am not frugal. I am the opposite of this; deranged, looking for goods to fill the holes inside, wildly spendthrift, you get the point. I read that some on these sites are going to not buy anything in January, rather like a Dry January for drinkers, except this is for buyers. I am signing on. Not going on Amazon for a month. Can I do it?

 

I have already started the de-cluttering stuff in my kitchen, spending a whole morning sorting out my fridge, throwing away a ton of stuff, cleaning all the shelves, and putting everything back in these nifty, see-through Amazon plastic boxes. (Bought before January!) I took a video, and I have to say, I am proud. It looks marvelous. And clean. Also now I know where things are. Mirabilu dictu!

Really organized folks put up a magnetic list (from Amazon, of course..) of all the ingredients in the fridge so you can then make meals from them. Not there yet.

Yesterday sorted out my Lazy Susan, (my hubby said, "Now she is no longer lazy!") taking out a ton of crap, most of which were expired vitamin pills bought by moi. Vacuumed, sprayed and wiped, and only put back a few things that I know I will use. Today's task is to sort out the two freezer drawers in my fridge. I put throw-away stuff in one bin, and save in another. There seem to be a great deal of shredded cauliflower packages for when I was doing Keto.

Then, the laundry room and pantry. The shelves are disorganized and basically wretched. I have 2 (I was sure I had 4?) wicker baskets to put things in, which will look nifty. Then get rid of stuff for Rick to take to the recycling center in our town.

 

By then, I will need more strong coffee, keto brownies, some FB and Pinterest scrolling, etc. But there is one spiritual de-cluttering I am going to do:

--The St. Ignatius Spiritual Exercises. This is a really intense and durable journey of 34 days. Tried it several years ago, and it is now time to try again. Because this yields amazing insights into one's personality, soul, and spiritual journey.

 I will let you know how it goes. It uses a lot of visual imagination, putting yourself in the places of various times in Jesus' life. I quaver. I tremble. Time for a third cup of coffee!