Thank you for your concern. Gurrrl, lemme tell you.
While it seemed highly likely that I had contracted some sort of mouse syphilis to go along with my Chilean lung leprosy and antibiotic reaction, that did not turn out to be the case. Discovering a gigantic mouse in my kitchen that then crawled up my bare leg didn't actually kill me, which was a bit of a shock.
No, instead, I have still been dealing with the Chilean lung leprosy. Because I'm sexy like that, and I hear coughing is the new flashing a boob.
When My Guy picked up my antibiotics, the pharmacist was careful to tell him that they might interfere with birth control. Bless his heart, my husband's response was, "All she does is cough. I ain't touchin' her."
So, there's that.
Thankfully, I've mostly stopped coughing and the antibiotics have done their job. I feel insane, but confident that I can get through the last 2.5 days of this Augmentin haze ... not that I'm counting down the minutes or anything. Ahem.
I'm exhausted. I've been sick for 5 weeks. It's ridiculous, and I'm just now starting to feel human again.
But you know what's a great activity when you feel like you have nothing to contribute to the world? Cleaning your closets.
It sounds like I'm joking, but I'm not.
I read "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
" by Marie Kondo. This is the book that's been all over - people seem to either embrace it or think that the author is a special, banana-sandwich level of crazy. I'm pretty impressed and happy with what it's done for me so far.The author's thesis is that you shouldn't have anything in your house that doesn't give you joy. And you should touch all your stuff, and gauge how you feel when you touch it, and then keep or get rid of it accordingly.
As ridiculous as it sounds, this was a great activity when I was feeling sick. Because when you clean out your closet and throw all your clothes on the bed? You can lounge on the bed, too. I'd sort through some clothes, then take a break by flopping down next to the clothes. I was one with the clothes. It was either insane or very Zen.
I liked this book because it gave me permission to get rid of guilt-inducing clothes. Kondo basically says that even if you bought a skirt and then never wore it, it served its purpose - it made you feel happy when you bought it, or it taught you that orange isn't your color, or it helped you realize you've never been a size 00 and those people just need to eat sandwiches or whatever. And it's OK.
I cleaned my closet and dresser, and even refolded much of my stuff in Kondo's recommended fold / roll / stack-on-the-end style. I must admit that it's pretty gratifying to open a drawer and be able to see at a glance what's in there instead of digging around. Keep in mind that my wardrobe consists of about 98% t-shirts and jeans, but still.
I haven't gone through my shoes or books, but the impact on my closet was definitely worth the price of the book.
Have you "Kondo-ized" your house? What did you think? And have you ever had Chilean lung leprosy? How long did it take you to feel like a semi-normal human again?
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7 comments:
I haven't actually read that whole book, but I flipped through it at the book store where I work and I didn't like what Kondo said about books. Like if you're not going to read it right away you shouldn't keep it. I beg to differ. My stacks of unread books give me great joy. So I'm keeping them.
Smalltownme, I totally get what you're saying about books. I don't want to cull my books ... however, it was nice to get "permission" to give back books that had been loaned to me that, let's be honest, if I hadn't read in three years, I'm not gonna read. But yeah - other than that? Hands off the books.
My allergies tend to take the form of a nasty cough that lingers for weeks on end. Once, after throwing out my back coughing, I went to the doctor for something to help with the cough. I was prescribed codeine that was guaranteed to take the cough out. It certainly knocked me out, but not the cough, resulting in me sleeping through a coughing fit where I threw an elbow and cracked one of my husband's ribs while he was attempting to sleep.
I keep hearing about this book, but I am not at all interested in reading it. With a husband who works from home and a teenage daughter, there is a good bit of stuff in our little house that doesn't bring me joy, but it's not up to me to get rid of it.
I'm glad you're slowly mending.
My colleague "Kondo-ed" her house, workspace and life. She's really happy about it and what she told me made a lot of sense. I should try Kondo-ing my clothes maybe.
B and D were in KC last night for game 2! GO KC! Will you head to a game?
Holy crap, you and I did have the same damn thing.
I am so sorry.
My allergies were a huge part of why I wasn't getting better.
And I need to get that damn book but then that would be one more piece of clutter in my house.
So I need to borrow it.
I've been curious about that book. I did a lot of "culling of shit" this year - or thought I did- but still have more. Seeing empty spaces and counter tops brings me a lot of joy. More so than a knick-knack sitting around. That said, my house is currently a cluttered dirty mess. How does this happen. Glad you're feeling better!
Augmentin will knock you for a loop -- not as bad as ICU, but certainly no fun. Dang, woman -- you've had quite the fall season! And then you respond with linky love and I'm not even around to see it for two whole weeks. I'd blame it on the mice but since I'm not hanging off the ceiling light fixtures (they can't get me there, can they?) that's probably not a good excuse. The important thing is that you are finally recovering.
I've got that book on my Amazon wish list, ready for the moment when I need to spend another $10 to get free shipping. It's been there for a few weeks already (premonition? desperation?) and I'm glad to know it works for you. Will the author come to my house and force me to follow through? Because seriously, that is my downfall. I need to free the space and the guilt in my closet.
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