#TIDYING

[incognitopolls]

We ask your questions so you don’t have to! Submit your questions to have them posted anonymously as polls.

[watermelllonarchive]

In this August 6 video, Abd El Rahman shows a timelapse of cleaning debris from his backyard. It's a long process, not only removing broken cement and cinder blocks, but throwing away trash and removing dirt as well.

Abd el Rahman is on Instagram @ abdelrahman.rizqa. He has a Go Fund Me as well: http://gofund.me/67841a4e

Available Go Fund Me campaigns for people whose stories have been shared on watermelllonarchive can be found in the resources post.

[sidewalkchemistry]

from the 'sacred spaces {feng shui & adornment}' Pinterest board

[call-me-chips]

As per the note challenge, I have done the cleanings

Starting situation:

After the cleanings:

[labelleizzy]

Sometimes I just have to go back to old habits. Like back in the day, I was getting daily emails from the website Flylady.net.

Got my shoes on. Got my kitchen timer on. Challenged myself to see how much better I could make the kitchen look in 10 minutes.

I cleared the kitchen island. Put away all the food, got all the dirty dishes into the sink. Started a load of laundry. Made up my third cup of coffee. Washed out some recycling and got it to the bin. Oh, now I can see the acetaminophen which I need to take today.

Do I still have a big mess? Yes I do. I came home from 2-week trip, and I'm still finding stuff I need to put away and laundry I need to do.

But my ADHD ass developed the self-care habits, routines, tips and tricks, originally in the late '90s due to this nice southern lady. She used to send out daily emails encouraging us to take care of ourselves and giving us ideas on how to tackle big home care projects, self-care projects, but mostly home care.

It was a lot of email. And not being Christian, I didn't always appreciate her dropping of God references. But without her structure, without her having figured out that there was tons of us out there, struggling with our lives and managing our shit...

She helped me a lot. The chaos is mostly controlled. (She used to backronym CHAOS as "Can't Have Anybody Over Syndrome" heh)

I'm no longer ashamed of my habitat (and also, thank you, @unfuckyourhabitat for continuing the momentum of this particular way of working).

Gonna finish my coffee ☕ and then set the timer for another 10 minutes. Got a friend coming over for dinner 🍽️ and I can stand to do a bit more tidying up.

Use the tools that work for you!

[manasseh]

it's unusual for me to have it this messy haha

✧ desk

✧ emergency grocery run and emergency second dinner for emergency why do we have surprise guests over

i love how often i still use my sheet music gear

[to-the-fishies]

I've spent years trying to get control of my papers. It's plagued me since college, and though I spent years working on decluttering (reading Jay, Kondo, White, Davis, et al.) and system improvement (Dave Allen, James Clear, Ryder Carroll), I've never really had a system that worked. "We fall to the level of our systems," and mine's never been easy enough to maintain that it stuck. I try to get control of my paper like a resolution-maker white-knuckles through a week and a half at the gym. I've attempted scanning and disposing (result: the dim idea and low-level anxiety that Information Is Sitting Around, Somewhere), filing folders, various piles. I've tried limiting what comes in (easy with junk mail, harder with everything else, partly because so much of it is what I myself produce).

The problem, as I usually identify it, is: some of these records are for reference, waiting for the day I need them; some are actionable; some are ideas or patterns or parts of projects. Some are greeting cards or other sentimental objects, and have gotten even more sentimental in the wake of loved ones passing away. Determination to rid myself out the weight of it carries me through one or two inches of stacked pages, a pound or so at a time; when I set out to tackle all of it, inevitably I spend the time categorizing the whole heap, discover that Addressing A Given Thing Fully would require more wherewithal than I have at present. The Given Thing goes in a stack with several more Items that require more wherewithal. Rinse and, in two to twenty-two weeks, repeat. "Eat the elephant a bite at a time" doesn't work when the elephant gets bigger in my neglect.

anyway, pray for me and/or share tips if you have them <3

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #388

I'm writing part of today's letter to you in the car!! We are currently on our way to the hotel where we're gonna stay the night until the test tomorrow.

I thought for some reason that I'd get a lot of pictures for you along the way as we drove, but we left at around 7:30pm; it was already dark.

I spent some of the morning packing our things and preparing the house for our visitors. I cleaned the downstairs bathroom; the upstairs one was already clean. I cleared the sink of dishes, and then scrubbed it out. Everything is nice and sparkly for them to use!

Hopefully the house will be a comfortable place for our friends. I'm confident; we have lots and lots of fun stuff to do, and our house is warm and safe; they'll have a good time, I'm sure! And our cats will have a good time with them!

...Whoops. I'm getting motion sick from writing on my cellphone in the car, so I'll continue this later.

...It is later!!! We stopped at a rest stop!!! Check it out!!!

We were hungry and we needed gas and bathrooms. We found the bathrooms! And then we found the food!

I also found these axolotl plushies!

They match my hat!!

So! You remember when we went to Otakon, right? In Washington, DC? You'll find that series of letters here:

...Number 230 describes what happened at the Shake Shack on the way back, and why we couldn't get anything from it. But!!! We were able to get things from this Shake Shack!!! Check it out!!!

...It was surprisingly good, especially given that they were just about to close when we got there. We were very lucky that the folks were so patient with us!

...I saw a very pretty lady there, too!! She had big long poofy afro hair that was dyed a pinkish-red in places. She had big round glasses, and thick, well-glossed lips, too! She was a very big lady, and she wore this stunning outfit that accentuated all of her round, soft curves, and she was dancing along to the music on the radio on her way to the convenience store section, I think – where I found the axolotl plushies!!

I was awestruck. Just... the sheer level of confidence and joy that oozed from this radiant human being was utterly captivating!! And I wanted to tell her so, but... I was in my pajamas and my mouth was full of partially-chewed burger!! So... I just met her gaze and nodded very enthusiastically in her general direction, hoping she understood, “fuck yeah!!! keep existing so radiantly, Queen!!!” Or something to that effect!

...She smiled at me. And it was so full of warmth and delight that I thought I was going to melt right on the spot! And she started dancing even more boldly! And...!! Oh...!! My goodness! I was all sorts of stunned and starstruck and inspired all at once!!

I wonder what it would take for the dyspraxic little nugget that is myself to be able to exist with such stunning presence and poise; most of the time, I feel like, even when I'm doing ordinary things, the best I can do is squiggle around awkwardly and hope for the best, ahaha~!

Well. We are safely at the hotel.

And I did manage to snag these along the way:

I'm gonna go to bed now. Up early-ish to make sure I eat before the test.

Good night. I love you. I'll write again tomorrow. I'm hoping to have lots of nice pictures of Mitsuwa for you. So please stay safe out there so you can see 'em, okay?

Your friend, Lumine

[vixenanswers]

Love what youre doing in this blog <3

Do you have any tips of staying organised, specifically keeping a tidy wardrobe and desk? Usually it takes me a long time to clean but normally whenever I finally tidy the things they never stay that way for long..

Thank you o2studies ♥️

I’m always really happy to hear that people are enjoying my stuff and it’s helpful to them!

I also really relate to struggling to keep your space organized as I used to struggle with that a lot when I first moved out. So I collected some tips that helped me and I hope they will do so for you too.

General tips:

Find a place for everything: The most important step in staying organised is to create an organization system that works for you. I think the things you need to keep in mind are 1. where do you need your things? 2. where is it easy to grab your things from? If you found a place that accomplishes both these points, try to keep your things in

Containers!: Putting things in containers prevents them from just laying around and thus reduces visual clutter. You can also just have a bucket where you put things that you need to put away later -> makes the tidying-up-process less overwhelming. This works both with containers for pencils and papers on your desk and for organizers in your closet

Put things away after using them: This is ofcourse one of the most basic tips, but it can be very helpfull to keep your place tidy. If you put things away after using them they don’t pile up.

Take time every day to de-clutter: If the last tip doesn’t work for you try this instead. For me this time used to be after coming home from school and now its in the morning before I start studying. Instead of taking a lot of time to clean everything, take a little time each day to for example put away the papers you worked on or the clothes you wore yesterday

Desk organization tips:

Keep only what you need on you desk: A cluttered workspace can be distracting and make it difficult to focus on the task at hand. It’s also helpful too keep open desk space, so you have space to work.

-> Keep things you need often nearby: Keeping the things you need most near your dominant hand makes it easier to grab them. This also makes it easier to put them back where they belong and you don’t have to shuffle things around because they’re hard to reach

Utilize your wall space, the space under your desk and stack vertically: A floating shelve/a pegboard or drawer organizers can be helpful to have more storage space and stacking things vertically is a more efficient use of space

Organize your desk according to your work process: Again if things already are where you need them to be, you don’t need to put them back and it’s also just more efficient. For example; a lot of people work from left to right, so they put documents they need to work on on the left of their desk and the documents they finished working on on the right

Wardrobe organization tips:

Clean out your closet: It can be hard to keep your wardrobe organized, when it’s overflowing so start off with downsizing and decluttering. Selling some off your stuff on websites like Poshmark or eBay or donate it to give it a second live

-> Make future clean outs easier: Place a distinct (i.e., brightly colored) hanger at the front of each section of your closet. Every time you wear something and wash it, hang it up in front of that hanger. After a few months, it’ll be pretty easy to see what got worn and what didn’t

-> Pack away seasonal clothing: Try to store the clothes you don’t need at the time somewhere else (like in another storage space/boxes or vacuum packs) to make place in your wardrobe

Create Zones: You could divide items by type, by color or based on how frequently you use them. Put high-use items in the front so they’re easy to grab and you don’t have to go through all your things. Zones also help to get an overview of everything you have so you again don’t have to go through everything

=> Hope that helped, thanks for the question!

[saskia-mae]

monthly reset

hi everyone! since it’s the end of the month, i thought i’d tell you what i do at the end of every month, to prepare for the new month :)

brain dump tasks for the month ahead

this includes any events I have, such as a party, someone's birthday, important deadlines or exam dates, as well as the revision I want to get done in the month.

organise my calendar

i use multiple calendars to keep myself organised. first, i use ical and a physical calendar for birthdays and parties/events. then I use google calendar to time block my week out, adding in when I'm at school, my morning routine, study sessions, workout sessions and my free time. to organise my revision, I have a separate monthly study planner from emmastudies.com that I fill out. i have this above my desk on my corkboard, which helps me to know what revision I have to do on any given day.

set goals

to do this i look at my yearly goals (which i have on my yearly notion page), and then i decide how my yearly goal can be broken down into an achievable yet challenging monthly goal. for example, one of my yearly goals this year is to learn german, so one of my recurring monthly goals is to do german on duolingo daily. as I'm doing my a levels this year, my german study isn't too intensive, but once I've sat my exams in the summer I'll increase how much I study german.

tidy my environment

to bring in the new month it's super important to have a clean and tidy environment. for me, this means clearing any clutter off my desk, vacuuming my bedroom, cleaning my windows, windowsill, mirror and makeup brushes. i also like to tidy my clothes shelves and make sure everything is folded nicely, as well as my underwear and socks in my drawers. don't forget to change your bedsheets as well!

self-care

my favourite thing to do is have an everything shower and do my skincare routine, so I can get into my nice fresh bed all clean :) I also love to go to bed a little bit earlier than I usually do, and read for a little while before going to sleep.

[duchessofostergotlands]

Hoovered (aka vacuumed) my whole house. God, how do tidy people do this all the time? I’m exhausted

[lanalol]

[wellthatsunfortunate444]

why is the last part of tidying the hardest. everything is almost away and now my brains decided to become mush and my body is utterly useless!!!

like its a few shirts, some rubbish and various small items it shouldnt be this hard. it will take me 10 minutes MAXIMUM and for some reason it feels like the hardest thing in the world, as if i didnt spend over 2 hours rearranging the whole fucking room-

what has my life actually come to i cant anymore

[naomiknight-17]

I can't clean and tidy all of my apartment at once like I wish I could, but at least I can dust some shelves and put all my Pokemon pops together

Also Lion from SU is there. When I finally complete my Eeveelution collection (just need Umbreon!) I will have to relocate him... he is a placeholder

[agwitow]

Crazy how an hour of tidying can make me feel a million times better...

My hubby didn't appreciate my june bugging (he wanted to focus solely on a single area), but we made progress and the house feels totally different now lol

So, this is a reminder to future me - even a little bit can make a huge difference. Who cares if you don't know where to start? Just pick up that thing. Yeah, the one right in front of you. Now put it away/throw it out. Congrats! You've started!

[hopeful-engineer]

Shoutout to people, who naturally function better in chaos, than in perfect order:

🌞 it's ok if your room/flat/house isn't perfectly tidy

🌞 messy notes are as good as neat, aesthetic notes, as long, as you're able to read them and they make sense to you

🌞 your desktop can be a bit cluttered, as long as it doesn't slow down the system and you have no problem finding anything, it's fine

🌞 the paper sheets, books and notebooks laying on your desk aren't the most important problem in the world

For some people, keeping everything perfectly tidy and 'aesthetic' is normal and doesn't even require much effort, but for others it just... isn't and that's ok. In nature, everything is 'messy' to some degree, and you, as a human, are a part of nature, too. You don't have to live for the 'aesthetic', your whole life isn't an Instagram post. A little chaos is fine. A little chaos is natural. Chill.