This week’s missions are proving to be invigorating. And not scary at all. Unlike last week’s journey of self exploration and affirmation. Monday and Tuesday’s missions were to:

1. Go through the house and take two things from each room to donate or give to a friend.
2. Create the “Power Hour” list and post it on the fridge

I grew up in a house that was stuffed floor to ceiling, wall to wall, with stuff. I rebel against this philosophy of home “decorating”. I am sentimental and there are things I just won’t part with. But in general, I just don’t like “stuff”. Watching the Hoarders TV show makes my skin crawl and immediately want to get rid of half of my stuff. So I was really looking forward to this mission.

I successfully dug into each room of the house, including bathrooms and the basement. Although, I skipped my husband, Roger’s, bathroom. The only thing I have in there is extra toilet paper and allergy pills. Not giving up either of those! We recently did a whole house evacuation of stuff (thanks to a little house fire) so it was a little tougher to find things to get rid of in some places. We’re still in replacement mode in the kitchen. And I got rid of about 50% of my clothes. But still, I managed to create this pile of give-aways. Not pictured are the empty shampoo bottles taking up space in my bathroom (a bad habit I vow to resolve).

Items slotted for donation include:

• art I no longer feel a need to display,
• candle holder thingys,
• Partylite candles I paid way too much for and have never used,
• chair cushions for chairs I do not own,
• LOTS OF BOOKS,
• an extra hair dryer,
• leggings (because really, they’re just not for me),
• some college text books I told myself I might use one day

See anything you want? Let me know. It goes to the charity on Saturday.

Tuesday’s Mission – to make a Power Hour list was inspired by the podcast Happier, by Gretchen Rubin. If you keep following my bloggy journey, you’re likely to encounter several references and inspirations related to Ms. Rubin. I bought her book, The Happiness Project some time ago. Then proceeded to not read it until recently. My cousin turned me on to her podcast, and a 12 hour drive to Tulsa gave me just the opportunity to do something good for myself and listen to it. I scribbled down several helpful tips and things I can’t wait to try.

Now that that unpaid advertisement is over. I’ll explain the Power Hour. The idea of the Power Hour is to create a list of to dos that are NOT time sensitive. Things you just never seem to get around to doing because you never have to. Then, set aside time once per week to tackle the things on your Power Hour list. If you get through one or 10, that’s ok. Just start ticking things off the list. And add to it as things come to mind. I love this part, because if I don’t write something down, it rattles around in my head screaming at me to be remembered. Its quite rude. So writing things down helps me shut up that little voice in my head gently reminding me to do something. To be honest, I doubt the power hour will happen every week for me. Maybe once a month. But that’s better than nothing. I’ll share my list with you to give you the idea. I’d love to hear if you try it!

• Replace burnt out light bulbs in the garage, dining room, and living
• Run the cords for my computer properly (lessen the crazy tripping hazard)
• Frame and hang art/photos on the wall
• Clean off end table next to couch
• Clean off and remove little table next to the china cabinet (it serves no purpose but to collect junk)
• Assemble the breakfast nook chair
• Go through post-fire paperwork in the basement
• Get rid of old college reading materials I will NEVER read again

To the fridge the list shall go! Stay tuned for this weeks Weekly Mission where I start tackling the Power Hour list.

This week is going to be so liberating! I can’t wait to clean out and clear my head 🙂

Thanks for reading

~Teresa