Can Cleaning Lead to Happiness?

This is a two fold post. It is time to re-examine how I have been doing on The Happiness Project, and to continue with an on going theme to "Snap Out Of It" , the funk that pain, bad health news that meant more pain, but an explanation attached for some of the pain I had already,dealing with no sun, not being able to get my walks and a hormonal month from hell brought. Never mind that though all bills were paid and food bought, rent money set aside, our account had under 2.00 left in it after the dust settled...at least that had a bright side, everything was taken care of for awhile!


I have just ended what became as I mentioned the hormone month from hell, a time of month that has lasted most of March. I figure it is tied to stress over hubby throwing his back out, missing work, finding out I had fibroids and well finding out  all the crunches in the world would not flatten out the "10 week size" bloat the doctor declared me to have. I have been freaking out since I truly do not need to NOW start having these lady issues when I do not have insurance to get them taken care of. Even the free state program may not cover needing to be "fixed"...though at this point would do the happy dance if they would! Anyway moving away from that, it is almost like once I found out what was causing a few issues in that region, they became more pronounced and it put me in a further funk!


As you know the other day it hit a real low. I mean who shows a photo of themselves in a bathrobe and sweater cap, sans make up and admits that this has been the daily wardrobe for nearly a month, sans a few times when I would put on my baggy, patched blue jeans ( cause they are so comfy around the mid section) and a baggy sweater and same sweater cap...I mean I simply did not care who knew or who found out, and in many ways wanted to shock people so if they too were sitting in the same type outfit they might get dressed from the horror of seeing it stare back at them. It did not do that for me, but hey I am in a funk remember?


I could have lied, put of a front, and say I am dressed up even on days I am at home. That used to be the truth. I used to lead an online chat group about fashion and used to be asked by people at Wal Mart if I was going somewhere special cause I was dressed up and I would always say that "I always dress this way..." Seems like a lifetime ago. But then most of you know all this. The other thing that seems a lifetime ago was wearing makeup, past lipstick or gloss. The day after I wrote the "This is Me" post, I decided that it was time to clean out some things, wipe down surfaces, clear those proverbial cob webs and stop staring at things I was not using on a regular basis. I started with my make up.

A lot of makeup for someone that no longer really wears it!

I admit, I love buying make up, and then get lazy about putting any on.

Nice, neat and orderly!

The evidence, even Queen Bitty wants to help take it out.

Did not stop with make up, moved onto shoes, purses, books...

I honestly did feel better once the job was done, trash taken out and I was sitting with my feet put up and a nice hot cup of tea to warm me back up after braving the rain to take it all out. I actually did feel a bit happier. Lighter actually. Now I admit I held onto a few things that I most likely should have gotten rid of...but baby steps. As I can afford to replace things, streamline a bit more, I will throw more out. I love opening my drawers now and seeing them all nice and orderly and it makes me smile. 

Maybe cleaning can lead to happiness...or at least be one of the building blocks. There is TV shows that are about that Clean House on STYLE, Enough Already on OWN are a couple. Part of the book of The Happiness Project addresses getting rid of clutter, cleaning, organizing etc to help lead to happiness. So in my eyes I was working on the on going self project/challenge that I set up for myself in January and had been lagging on this past month. I think I will continue with this trend and go clean out the fridge and kitchen cabinets. 

So now onto part two....March re-cap, and then what is on tap for April.......

So the challenges for March in the book were ....

*Launch a blog

*Enjoy the fun of failure.

*Ask for help

*Work Smart

*Enjoy now. 

Hmmm, well obviously I already had a blog, DUH! So succeeded on this LOL !! Enjoy the fun of failure, well um it was not fun, and I seemed to be failing myself the whole month...yep, no fun! Asking for help, never a strong suit, but with hubby's back out, I had to. I at first turned down my youngest for help with the groceries. Then I re-thought it, and asked my middle daughter to help me, and she did and I was so grateful. Baby steps. Work smart, well not entirely sure how that ever applied to my life, so skipped it anyway. Enjoy now. yep, fail. Been so tough. When you hurt and are in such discomfort all through your body and ten fold in your teeth and middle section, it really is so very hard to enjoy now. This is something I will have to keep adding to my lists of challenges. 

New List for April

 April's list of challenges is dealing with parenthood, called "Lighten Up" . I am kind of done raising my children. They are all out of the nest. I rarely talk to them, they are all so very busy with their own lives, as it should be . But I still like the list, and I do tend to be a very serious person by nature & could lighten it up some.....so here it is.

* Sing in the Morning. 

*Acknowledge the reality of people's feelings.

* Be a treasure house of happy memories.

*Take time for projects.  

 So there is the list. I will keep you up to date on how I applied it to my life now. But trust me I already know I am going to skip the first one...it will make everyone else happy if I do LOL 

Thanks to Gretchen Rubin for the permission to discuss her book, the book plate and personal note for my copy of The Happiness Project, and on going inspiration through newsletters, daily quotes and tweets!