• Organizing what you love makes a house a home.

    Organizing Collections and Letting Ideas Flow.

    06/02/2018 - By 

    I am supposed to be working. I am supposed to be writing some articles to submit, paying my bills and doing my online course. But I can’t settle into it because my bookshelf is untidy. Also, I see a dust bunny on my floor, and my cabinet is too crowded. I’m having one of those scattered days where every little piece of dirt is a distraction. When my house becomes messy, I literally CANNOT focus on work. I see all of these crowded creative spaces online where they say the “method is in the madness”- you know the ones, paint…

  • We are Small House Living!

    20/09/2017 - By 

    We made it. Phew. It was a long road filled with a lot of boxes and challenges and red tape and grunting and swearing and some white-knuckle moments, but we made it. We are now officially moved into our townhouse across the city. Built in 1981 and coming in at around 870 square feet of finished living space, it is a lot tinier than our 1600 sq foot rental. Our family has adapted nicely to small-space living! Almost all of our furniture didn’t fit (some, quite literally, couldn’t fit through the door), so was sold to make room (and funds)…

  • That’s It. I’m Throwing it On the Lawn and Setting It On Fire!

    20/03/2017 - By 

    I really feel like I could do that. I do. But I won’t. We still have quite a lot of stuff. In Marie Kondo’s book, she stresses that you should not declutter your family’s things, just yours. Kondo says that even a three-year-old child will get the decluttering bug if you’re setting a good example and they see how happy it makes you. With my kids, this didn’t happen. They saw how nice my room was and then just hung out in there. (hahahah!) Going to their own rooms just had them feeling overwhelmed. I asked my kids a few…

  • Why I Mostly Failed at the First Attempt to Have a Capsule Wardrobe

    27/01/2017 - By 

    Fear. I failed because of fear. I got rid of 90% of my clothes and shopped for a brand new wardrobe. I did alright! I stuck to my budget and got a few new shirts and pants to wear. All in neutrals so that they would all go together, thinking I would add in my pieces with bursts of colour when something caught my eye later on. And jewelry! I could add in bright, beautiful scarves and jewelry as colour pops. Great, so I was ready, physically, with my list as a plan. Off I went. Mentally,  a smaller wardrobe…

  • A Creative’s Take on the Konmari Method.

    18/01/2017 - By 

    I felt crushed by clutter when I came across the Konmari Method and her book, The Magic Art of Tidying Up. I did not have a hoarder’s palace, by any means, but every time I had to go from tiny pile to another tiny pile of stuff to find what I was looking for, I felt dispirited, my energy sucked dry. Frustrated also became a common emotion; like an old friend, it would hang out in the back of my heart ready to jump out and squeeze my lungs until my frustrated, shallow breaths became a norm. I could feel…

  • Decluttering and Unexpected Emotions.

    25/10/2016 - By 

    When I begin my decluttering journey, it was more about the effort to find the things I need more quickly and not feeling as if I was drowning in “stuff”. How many times can one person trip over a laundry basket of “things to be sorted later” before they feel frustrated? (Answer: Once past ‘too many times’). Even the amount and assortment of clothing I had was starting to annoy me. (You can read about that here). I took a test in a magazine that pointed out I am a “sentimental clutterer”. I keep things because, once upon a time…

  • The Konmari Method and Saving Money

    07/10/2016 - By 

    On this cold day that feels like it will snow, I am inside doing laundry and reflecting on the state of my house, which I successfully ignored during the warmer months. It is a cluttered mess. Maybe not by some’s standards, but by mine it is. Even trying to find the right winter clothing has been painful….and, by the way, I can’t believe I have to think about that already!! My mom in Saskatchewan already has a foot of snow. Oh, Canada. So what has being stuck inside on cold days made me think about? DECLUTTERING! And saving money because…

  • Why We Have Chosen to Live on Tight Budget.

    07/09/2016 - By 

    It’s September already! The blur of summer has already passed, which may be a relief if you live in Calgary, AB, like I do, where summer was just a string of thunderstorms. The leaves are starting to change colours which always makes me want to begin change in my own life. The transformation of the natural landscape spurs me to transform too….and not just physically. I find myself reflecting on all of the ways my life could be different and I start to prioritize. This year my kids are both in full-time school. My daughter began Grade 3 and my…

  • Why I’m Not Focusing On Halloween

    31/10/2015 - By 

    When I tell people I want to be a writer, they scoff and then ask what I REALLY want to be. But that’s all that I love. Anything with words. My children now being in school in the morning means I have a scant two hours to get some writing down, or at least some creative brainstorming. I try to regularly update this blog and I contribute to any site that will publish my work. But lately, I have hit a wall. I can’t seem to get anything down. As soon as I sit down, all I can think of…

  • My Crazy Week.

    13/10/2015 - By 

    Well, everyone I have talked to has a crazy busy week. Did we all put off tasks until after Thanksgiving? (Hi, Fellow Canadians!) For me, it is just how the week stacked up. I have a million appointments, volunteering at my son’s school all week, a bunch of shopping to do, a birthday party to shop for, laundry to do and I am committed to finishing all of my Kayla Itsine’s Bikini Body workouts this week. I have talked to so many women today that have the same packed schedule as I do. I am going to have to put…