Monday, March 5, 2012

Mamavation Monday: Functioning Spaces

Image courtesy of clearsimpleliving.com
How often do you feel like this fellow over on the left? More often than not, this is just how I feel. I feel wrapped up in chaos. I walk into a space and my brain short circuits. "I can't deal with this. There's no way I can make this work." These are the phrases I've told myself. It's frustrating to walk into a space and not have the first clue where to start.

Today, I'm here to help with that. In fact, when I'm done, you're going to say duh and leave me some comment about how this whole post is pure common sense. I'm ok with that. I write for myself as much as I write for anyone out there who may come across this.

Since this is my handy dandy blog about weight loss, I'm going to focus on the kitchen as our space. Let's face it. Without an effective kitchen space, this weight loss journey becomes ten times as hard as it should be. I can't tell you how many times I've walked into my kitchen, looked around, sighed and turned right back around and begged Justin to order me a pizza for dinner. Why? Because somewhere along the way, I lost control. My house became something that you'd see on an episode of hoarders. Life overwhelmed me and it took me a while to get back to the point where I felt like I could start to take back that control. One of my first steps? Turning this...

Empty boxes, dirty dishes, groceries and more..just waiting for me.

Into this...
Cleared space combined with organized canisters makes me happy!
I walked into my kitchen. I looked around and I chose one space. It didn't matter what space. What mattered was that I got started. For me, I needed an area where I could at least make a sandwich or a wrap. Up until this point, there wasn't a clean surface for me to do anything. I won't lie. This process wasn't always the easiest. My kitchen sinks still aren't draining and there hasn't been enough money (and the house hasn't been in good enough shape) to get another plumber in. This meant I grabbed small totes and filled them with dirty dishes. Then, I lugged them into the bathroom and I did them in the bathtub. Was it fun? Heck no! Every time I wanted to give up, I went back into the kitchen and I looked at the progress being made. Want to know a secret? This whole counter...in the horrible condition it was in...took me less than an hour to make into a yay spot in my home. 

In less than one hour, I gave myself a clear space that helped me in multiple ways.  Every time I looked at it, it made me smile and when you smile, a little of the stress disappears. This weekend, for the first time in quite a while, I cooked dinner for myself and the boys. I actually had enough counter space that I could break out our new Foreman grill and I made us some burgers. 

So, who wants to know the secret of where to start? Anyone? I bet not. I bet y'all know it by now. The secret is that there is no secret. Take one space in any room or in any part of your life and just take babysteps. For me, it's my kitchen. My goal for this week is to actually have walls painted. Then, I will move on to my living room. We spend so much time in there and we need it to work for us. I will clean and reorganize. I will repurpose containers and I will even clear out a space for me to workout.

Life is hard but if we take it one babystep at a time, we can do anything.

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