The art of homemaking

[Picking up the thread from previous posts]

I was hoping to have new products to post about but I worked in the garden instead over the Easter and ANZAC day break - you can see the posts so far here, here and here.

I'm also chipping away at other things in the background that are all preparing the ground for the creativity to start to flow again in regards to Pinch River. Sometimes I feel things move too slowly... but at least there is a steady pace. I'm happy to have time / make time to be blogging and being more present on social media. It's about creating habits and also prioritising, though the latter is hard when everything feels like a priority.

Aside from preparing the ground for Pinch River, gardening and nesting are also aspects of my life I am spending time on - for me nesting is about cleaning and organising my home. Having recently moved I'm only at the beginning stage of bending this home into shape. I'm enjoying the process of homemaking and curating it in a way that reflects the essence of who I am. Currently order and chaos co-exist. I'm not good with the latter but in order to bend this place into shape I am doing minor renovations, so there are things like cupboard doors off and leaning against walls, tools and paint tins neatly stacked, in easy reach. It's all orderly but to me chaotic because it's in a state of flux and I want to get it all done in the blink of an eye so I can move on to the relaxing, enjoyment and creative part.

Lately I am in this constant cycle of editing things in my life... even though I've been decluttering in waves for what feels like a good 10 or so years, I am really focused on this right now. This is mostly a by-product of moving house, which is always an opportunity to edit, and also because my mum is a bowerbird, a collector of things* (as was I for a time) - and so I have some excess items to sort through from when mum sold her house and moved up the coast. I have to do this in bursts as it overwhelms me and eats into precious other time... more often than not keeping me away from Pinch River.

*A little side note on this - it is because of mum that my appreciation of craftsmanship developed. She has been op-shopping since I was a child and her knowledge of good craftsmanship seeped into my consciousness over the years. Most of my furniture is second hand, as are many decorative items that I have collected along life's journey. I don't have a problem with clutter, I like to keep things streamlined but I am in no way minimalist. I love beautiful things and display these in my home because I feel they add character and an artistic layer. [Funny, after writing this I listened to Slow Your Home podcast episode #42 where Stacey Roberts (aka Veggie Mama) spoke of pretty minimalism... I can definitely relate to that term.]

The editing also extends to decluttering my clothes collection. I developed the culture of hanging on to clothes because I might wear them again... the good thing about packing up to move was that I went through the suitcases and got rid of a ridiculous amount of them. It felt so good and I realised I had changed style anyway and would never have worn those things again. I also made a big decision to not bring my bookshelf with me... and gave about 90% of my book collection to charity... this was a big shift! Thankfully I had read most of them and boxed up those I just couldn't part with. I'll either display them here or eventually decide I can live without them.

There is just something so satisfying about decluttering and editing the stuff in your life! It makes room for the things that are really important. I am a homemaker, it is something that brings me much joy.

[Image by Dirk (Beeki®) Schumacher from Pixabay]