Homemade Holiday

I recently learned to make soap at Everdale. And when I got home I put all I had learned to the test. A few weeks ago I made two double batches of soap, one peppermint, the other Vanilla-Tangerine. Both turned out wonderfully and tonight I bundled them up in preparation to hand them out to some friends over the next week as our paths cross.

I may not be making many gifts this year, or baking as many cookies but it's the few simple things that make me happy.

Staying at Home

Yesterday I posted about the Real Housewives of Orange County, today I am back from fantasyland and will be talking about real bousewives, you know, the kind of woman who acts as cook, chauffer, nanny, maid, guidance counsellor and CEO practically single handedly.

This is not a post about the choice between career and home. There is enough lively debate on the internet about such things. I firmly believe that the feminist movement was a catalyst for choice, whichever you choose. Because of my choice, I will spend most of my time talking about being a stay at home mom, a housewife, or as I like to dubb myself, The House Mouse. I have been on both sides of the counter and for the time being I like being a housewife.

Housewives tend to be underrated in our society. Sometimes they are often viewed with scorn or jealousy. Somewhere in our modern ways of the two-income trap, housewives became associated with luxury. The choice to stay at home, thus foregoing a second income, is out of the realm of possibility for many. There are numerous women out there who have to work. It is because of these women who have to help the family finances, that I feel there is a monocure of luxury involved with being a housewife.

It certainly isn't luxurious by way of work load, or stress or even time to one self. Staying home requires work in that money can often be an issue and moms at home need to be relentless in minding the budget and pursuing money saving activities to keep the home running smoothly. In that respect, it is not luxury.

I often tell my husband that I am spoiled. I am not spoiled in the sense that I get whatever I want, or that I am living the high life. I feel spoiled in that I have a choice. I choose to make laundry soap, cookies and muffins so that our family can survive on less income. I stick to a tight budget and plan menus so I can stay home. I clean toilets, scrub ovens and dust so that the world will be a better place -- okay so I made that last one up.

Being a housewife or stay at home mom can be challenging but it can also be wonderously rewarding. I used to have a career. I worked in newspapers interviewing mayors and town councillors. I was working out of my car and staying up late at night to file a last minute story. I was trying to have it all but it just wasn't working for me. Luckily we were not saddled with a large debt so the choice to stay at home became a simple mathematic equation. Money in, money out. I let go of my career and sought out other creative outlets. In the last three years since I have been strictly a housewife not much has changed.

I still lack a clear direction in my life. I still flip flop about what I would like to do or where exactly I see myself going. But I tell ya for all the uncertainty in my future, I know one thing that will most definitely come to pass; my children will continue to grow day by day. One day, not too soon I hope, I will turn around and they will be fully grown, registering for university and asking to borrow the car. We are on borrowed time and this luxury of staying home will be but a memory. I might as well enjoy this time while it's here even if it means scrubbing a toilet from time to time.

Clutter, Stuff and Hoarding

It's resolution time and I bet along with loosing weight, exercising more and quitting smoking that organizing is one of the top five resolutions people make at this time of year.

New Years signifies the end of something, and beginning again with a clean slate. A clear calendar with no mistakes. January 1st can be a great starting line, a start date for things you have always wanted to do.

An organized home is not something taught in school. Organizing and the ability to discern clutter from usable goods is a life skill usually passed down from parents or other mentors in your life. If you had neither of these and from infancy you have always managed to keep everything well organize and shiny clean then you are a freak of nature and probably anything I say will be of little use to you. But read on if you wish.

...for me to claim ownership of something I simply must love it or love it's usefulness

Organizing is finding a place for everything and putting everything in it's place. Easier said than done but do-able. When I was younger I certainly was not the best housekeeper. Over time I have amassed tips and techniques that have slowly but surely transformed my home.

The main thing I needed to master was defining clutter. Is clutter something superfluous or something usable? Could I have clutter and still have organization. I believe the answer is yes and no. Clutter is a group of items gathered with no or little purpose. Clutter neither brings me usefulness nor enjoyment. That is not to say that anything without a purpose is clutter. Certainly not but for me to claim ownership of something I simply must love it or love it's usefulness.

Using the above definition we can classify clutter as just stuff. Our modern society loves stuff. Big stuff. Little stuff. Expensive stuff. Cheap stuff. In fact we love our stuff so much our economy is kept afloat by our continued desire to amass stuff.

When our desire to claim ownership grossly exceeds our need we call it hoarding. Hoarding is a growing phenomenon, something that happens behind closed doors, away from prying eyes. It is something I think everyone suffers from to a certain extent. We buy and buy and buy, getting rid of things we bought a year ago to make room for the stuff we bought today. The only difference between us and diagnosed hoarders is that hoarders never get rid of anything and just continue to add to the pile.

When I hear stories of compulsive hoarders I am struck by the poignancy of their plight. These people are just doing what the last century of marketing told us to do. Their homes with floor to ceiling piles of clothes never worn and gifts never given away is really a reflection of each and every one of us. We are a society of hoarders, collectors, and stuff savers.

Somehow we think this makes us affluent. Somewhere along the line we told ourselves this makes us the envy of the world.

One of the biggest lessons I have learned on this road to simplicity is that these things, these materials make us no better at our jobs or our relationships. They provide us with no more comfort than a rock. In fact these things only further our sheltering from those around us. Like protective padding, this stuff is really just cluttering up our heads even more than they do our homes.

Give you one guess what I am doing Jan 1st...