The past month has been a complete blur with so much going on leaving little time for the blog, sleep or just being able to balance my life. My parents in one week bought a home in a different state and started the process of selling our current house with a realtor. Let me tell you, getting a house on the market in less than a month takes a lot of work! There were a lot of late nights of getting some work done on the house, purging and making the house pretty for an open house. On top of getting the house ready for photos and open houses, work has also been keeping me busy. I often come home so exhausted that I cannot move, but stay up late to pack up my bedroom and work on house projects. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to add this to the blog, but while I was not looking, I started to date, someone. It is still in the early stages, however, it just feels fun to see where this is going to go. One thing I have learned this month is that you cannot plan your future or the path you are headed on. So much has happened that was not planned, however with these changes they have brought me so much joy and most importantly a new direction in life.
On that note, I wanted to share on the blog ways I am working on simplifying my life. I don’t have all the answers or the perfect solution, but with a little bit of effort, I can stay on track instead of falling behind.
1. Digital Detox
At first, this may sound terrifying and I had no intention of neglecting social media myself. It kind of just happened by accident because I had no time for it in my day. I decided to just delete my Facebook page to see what would happen and after two days I no longer missed it. Shocker- no one noticed I deleted my page. It also helped improve my self-confidence and overall happiness too. There are constant engagements, baby announcements, friends getting brunch and going on cool adventures while I am using in cat pajamas in my room or at work on a weekend. FOMO is real for all of us, so by eliminating a platform that shoves your friends having fun without you in your face, it definitely helped improve my happiness. I still scroll on Twitter during my break at work and maybe check Instagram for a minute at night, but I don’t spend as much time scrolling as I used to. I also found it such a waste of my time when I started to have very limited time left in the day for myself.
2. Reduce Your Stress
There are so many things that are out there that can stress me out, but this month I have worked really hard not to sweat the big stuff. I have been sticking to my routine and accepting that I just cannot get everything done in a day. At work, I often forget a lot of things and I am constantly dropping things or knocking them over, but now I laugh it off. It is just one more trip to the back room or I have to bend over and pick it up. I can do that easily, so why have it ruin my day? My mind almost always gravitates toward the negative, but my power to control how I respond to things is helping me push on. I was recently in a disagreement with someone and instead of just taking a few breaths before jumping to conclusions, I went for the worst case scenario. Bad idea because what was a miscommunication turned into a much larger thing than it had to be. Breathe and take your time before making your reaction.
3. The Five Minute Rule
I am not kidding when I say that my to-do list is often a never-ending list especially with all the things that had to be done to get the house ready for an open house. I would come home from work exhausted and not want to do anything, but then I told myself that I could get it done in 5 minutes and if it took longer than that, I would move on. It sounds silly, but it helped me go through my to-do list. We often have so many household chores and errands to run, but by giving me a time limit to get each one done I was able to get a lot more things done. It works best with smaller tasks that you can get done immediately before you start your day or get a few things done before bed. Make your bed in the morning, empty the dishwasher, answer those emails or sort your laundry- it is amazing what you can do in five minutes….
4. Keep A Stocked Kitchen
The worst thing in the world is when you open and close your fridge hoping for food to appear. I am constantly running out the door in the morning so I like to keep my kitchen filled with grab and go breakfast foods and then a snack drawer full of pre-packaged goodies. Most weeks I do not have to go food shopping, so I started to order groceries online and have them delivered. I promised to never be that person, but ordering cereal, snacks and other items through Target online has definitely saved me time in my week.
5. Routine
What has been helping the most is creating a routine. I have been waking up at 6am (ish!) and really taking advantage of all the time in the day. I start off my day by getting a few things that I want to get done in the morning and it helps me feel productive for the rest of the day. When I get home from work, I throw on some comfy clothes and while I make dinner I also pack the next days lunch. However, what helps me the most is by going to bed at 10:30pm every night. This is completely new for me because I have been going to bed after midnight for months, but after I set a bedtime and started to stick to it I finally have more energy in my day.
6. Declutter Your Life
This one kind of happened by accident while getting the house ready for open houses. I spent weeks taking everything off my wall, boxing up my stuff and only leaving the essentials out. My room looks so empty, however, my room is a lot more relaxing without that pile of dirty laundry on the floor. I threw out a lot of the things that I didn’t need, donated a lot more clothes and had to justify keeping each item. There are going to be realtors with clients walking through my house every day without notice, so I have to keep my room very tidy and perfect for the next few weeks. It is a lot easier to clean up my room before I leave the house in the morning when everything has a place and I have a lot less stuff…
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