Eat Pray Love is My Mantra As I Find Motivation To Purge

My theme has been to eat pray love for the past few months even as we scrambled to get various things done.

Last year I had pledged to keep purging until I had completely decluttered by giving, donating, or discarding the extra stuff we’ve accumulated. I set myself deadlines and even though I was inching towards my goal, the road seemed to get longer and longer. Why? Because we did not stop living. Also, other things took priority and if I am good at one thing, it is being flexible.

But now, the urge to purge has become really strong and thanks to my son’s power to play project, I took off with enthusiasm. As I miss my son, I really miss having my Mom around, too. We loved to change things around the house often and at this point, I feel almost guilty about not doing anything major over the past three years. I yearn to try all my DIY projects and figured I’d first revamp various areas at home that my son and I had planned.

Time to go beyond my eat pray love mantra

As I went from room to room.

I made lists and jotted down ideas.

Finally, I decided to start with the kitchen, one of my favorite rooms in the house. This means I have to work in tandem with our little prayer room that doubles up as a store room. The last time I contemplated repainting the kitchen, I had a nasty fall from a stool while reaching out for something that was just out of reach in the attic and ended up placing my foot where there was space, not the stool. This time I intended to be cool and calm, yes.

My list for the kitchen looked something like this:

• Take stock of provisions – big step. I realized I had to store all those items I used exclusively for my son and give away things I wouldn’t be able to use before he came home for the holidays. Who knew this would be such a big job!
• Pack off extra utensils – with just my husband and me at home, I figured we’d need a lot less than we were using, what with the fun element temporarily away.
• Collect and give away all the extra containers. We’ve tried to opt for refill packs as much as we could, but for regular things, the larger pack which comes in a container costs less. Thus the accumulation of extra storage containers.
• Reorganize the provision shelf by downsizing containers.

By the time I reached this stage in my list, I realized that I may as well revamp the kitchen – repaint it and give it a new look.

Google beckoned and I looked around various sites. I fantasized about these kitchen ideas and designs. There were over a hundred pages of them.

A few hours later, I felt armed and ready to DIY.

It will be at least a week before I repaint because I want to make sure I only keep what I need and not just shuffle things around. As I am busily also going through the store room, collecting the giveaways in a large carton, I am also organizing the room, and grouping things together. It is funny how this tiny room is a favorite in our house.

Somehow, it is the go-to place for those things we’re not sure where to keep but consider valuable. So it is an assortment of things and very very interesting. My son used to love the room when he was little and I laugh to think of all the mischief he would get up to in this little space.

My goal is to transform the house before my son comes home for the holidays. Yes, I need a big project to keep me busy because I miss him so much. My heart warms over when I think of us happily settled in our favorite spots, making plans with some spring cleaning in the works every time he had a few days off from school. I will miss that very much. Thank heavens there are cell phones and Skype!

In the meantime, I will eat pray love. Sometimes that’s all we can do.