Checking in from Chicago...

It was a good weekend. I took Friday off work and spent most of the day spring cleaning in the dead of winter. My place isn't really messy or overly cluttered, per se, but it was in dire need of a good top-to-down cleaning.* And I ended up unpacking a bunch of vinyl and rearranging a number of things, so by Saturday it felt a little bit like a fresh, new apartment. I recommend it!

Oh, gator watch ... how I miss those simpler times.

As I was in the midst of this, I began to revisit just what makes a "home." For me, it used to mean being surrounded by items from various collections that brought me joy. But these days, very few physical things have that effect on me any longer. It's probably a mixture of age and no longer being able to quite locate the passion that led to my need to own so many of the things I've collected over the years. 

It does make home decorating a little difficult though. In fact, after cohabiting with other people for many of the last 20 years, I'm not even sure I have my own style any longer, if I ever did. Plus, honestly, nowadays I really am a person who lives within his means and doesn't feel the need to buy anything beyond the items used on a daily basis. 

I started keeping a gratitude journal a few years ago and have tried to stick with it. When you're as isolated as I have been for as long as I have been, just noting at least 3 positive things I personally experienced that day does make a huge difference in keeping my mood up. And reminds me that while I may rarely see the people I wish I could spend time with in person, I am having experiences spurred on by elements outside of me and I am not alone. Neither are you.

Also, the Chicago winter. While I am ecstatic to live in an apartment long enough for my to get my 10K steps in per day without ever leaving the house, too many days inside without a long walk outdoors was beginning to take its toll on me.** But yesterday, after a long freeze, the sun came out, the wind died down, and the temperatures rose enough that with the proper layering I was able to visit the nearby forest preserve and get back in the middle of some actual nature. Who woulda ever thunk I'd turn into a nature boy who needs the outdoors?! But here we are. And it was truly glorious. See?

This week? This week I am going to embrace the notion of Swiffering and mopping on a regular basis now that the baseline is set. It's just building a routine in to keep that forward momentum going. And I am so oddly excited by that!

*You can do it too! I spent the previous week devoting an hour or so a day to organizing or tossing clutter and readying the place for a good cleaning. I don't know about your brain, but mine is much happier with a clear plan of attack versus just tackling the whole job at once. The trick helps to shush your internal procrastinator. And then you're done!

**Luckily, no one lives underneath me, so don't worry—no one besides Pickle the Kitten is disturbed by my clomping around.