A female primary care physician opines on money, travel, fitness, and other topics to be determined
I wrote at the end of January that I needed to work on decluttering my books.
My updated goal was to remove 180 books by the end of May. This should, in theory, clear up enough space that I would no longer need my tall bookshelf, and could make more room in my home office.
Continue reading “Book Decluttering Challenge Update”I have some scattered thoughts, none really worthy of a full post.
Continue reading “Wednesday Wool-gathering”At the end of October 2018, I wrote about 10 Steps to Future Me. I was a bit worried that I would be cutting back on work and frittering that extra time away. Those 10 steps were meant to move towards my idea of how I wanted to improve myself and/or find new activities to give my life some purpose and form once I am no longer working full time. I thought it might be time to review them, see what progress I had made, and think about how I might move forward on some of those 10 steps.
To be brief, there were 10 items to work on over time, but I really only planned to address 4 or 5 of them over the short term. What have I gotten done in the past 3 to 4 months?
Continue reading “Future Me, the February Follow Up”I love to read. I love to re-read my favorite books. My goal as a kid was to read every book in my local library. I didn’t know about their practice of deaccessioning to make room for new books; that would have been a Sisyphean task had I taken it seriously.
I’ve spent a good part of my adult life accumulating quite a library: favorite books, hard-to-replace books, just-in-case-guests-need-something-to-read books.
However, I am starting to feel a bit overwhelmed by all my possessions. Last autumn, I started to think about getting rid of a particular bookshelf, but I knew I’d have to deal with all the books it holds.
Continue reading “Book Decluttering Challenge”It seems minimalism is all the rage these days on the Internet. Or Netflix, with Marie Kondo’s series. I see the appeal: it’s easier to find what you have, it’s easier to clean a house with less stuff, owning less saves you money and is good for the environment. I myself find that a cluttered–or just full–room makes me cranky and/or anxious. My friends keep posting links to this NY Times article, which makes me think I’m not the only one with this issue.
However, I also grew up in a house that contained many things–some useful, some clutter, some beautiful decorations and mementos. My parents have been able to provide a number of very helpful hand me downs to their children, such as lamps, tables, dishes, and towels only by saving their old items until we needed them.
Living as I do now–in an older home without a ton of storage–I find myself torn between two schools of thought. Keep things I might need, or clear out unused items. Shop my closet, or clear the clutter.
Continue reading “Shop Your Closet or Clear the Clutter?”Last week I rambled a bit about finding something to retire to, rather than focusing on retiring from. Also about (re)building a life that I can enjoy now, rather than waiting until . I also mentioned that I am taking a small pay cut, to get a little more time back in my life. The big question is: how will I use that time well?
Continue reading “Ten Steps to Future Me”