De-cluttering my dreams.

Number 9 on my list is Tidy and organise my home from top to bottom. I think I put that on there at the time of writing because, well, my house is a tip. It has been for as long as I can remember. The Boy and I just have too much stuff and too little time to maintain a clean and tidy house. Not to mention too many animals. Despite knowing this, I still harbour a little hope that if I could just tidy everything up, throw away all the junk and get on top of things, we'd be able to achieve the kind of lived in, yet tidy house I've always wanted. I decided to spend my two days off work gutting the spare room (read dumping ground) because I've secretly wanted to turn it into a Craft Room for some time now. So I took out everything except the big furniture and cleaned, dusted and vacuumed it all. And then, lets say it became an experience.

Now, I should probably explain that I'm a hoarder as well as a dreamer. Putting the two together leads to a lot of physical and emotional clutter. After I'd put all the essentials back into the spare room I was left with a mish-mash of stuff that seemed like remnants of dreams and ambitions that never came true. A guitar that I bought 6 years ago and never learnt to play. Travel guides for places I've never visited. A strategy guide for The Elder Scrolls IV, the very first game I bought for my Xbox 360 3 years ago and I never finished. That's when I started to feel overwhelmed. I wanted so badly to make a fresh start, yet felt like I was betraying the me who dreamed of playing the guitar, travelling the world and being an awesome gamer. I remember who I was when I had those dreams. So, it seems, I've hit a wall. On the one hand I have a brand spanky new craft room with all my inspirational books and magazines stacked on the shelves. On the other hand I think its about to be invaded by all the junk I just can't bring myself to say goodbye to. Hopefully I'll be brave enough to get rid of it before I start to feel too guilty about all things I've never achieved.

To be continued...

You can find my complete 101 in 1,001 here. If you are working through your own list please share in the comments so I can follow along!

I made a start!

After the stress of compiling my 101 in 1,001 I took a break for a couple of days and came back to it. Oh my goodness, what was I thinking!? Win an award for wildlife photography?? I've never taken a wildlife photograph in my life! I've also charged myself with setting a strict budget so we can save a house deposit and at the same time I'm supposed to replace all my clothes and food supplies. Needless to say it's not a very well thought out list but oh well, the heart wants what it wants.

Anyways, I just thought I'd jump on and show you my first contribution towards 85. Take 1,000 photographs that make me smile.

This was an obvious starting point. A photo of the cutest doogie in the world, lying in her pink fluffy bed, next to the warm radiator with her favourite monkey. What's not to smile at? Haha!