OUT WITH THE OLD
Happy New Year Everyone! Typically, I managed to acquire this rotten chest cold that’s been going around for the festive season, like a plain fule, so I’ve been at home attempting not to spread festive cheer. It’s only a very heavy cold (I realise there’s a very nasty ‘flu going around as well - all sympathies if you have that), but there’s something about a revolting common cold that makes me feel particularly sorry for myself. That aside, WH quite enjoyed the day!
As usual, thoughts, and hopes, turn toward a New Year, as arbitrary as any other date in the calendar, but for many people a threshold over which to step into a new plan, diet, self image, or even life. Good luck to everyone in what they hope to achieve for 2026.
Stuck as home as I have been, and lucky enough to have to find room for gifts and yet more ‘things’, I did something I never thought I would and read Marie Kondo’s Spark Joy. More on that a bit later. Dealing with and fascinated as I am with the material past, I have always collected objects of interest. They can be anything, from a 1950s glass bowl, to a George I dressing table mirror. Things, everywhere. And of course, with all the writing, there are the monstrous amounts of paper, everywhere. And why, for the LOVE. OF. GOD. do all these companies pester you endlessly to ‘go paperless’ and then continue sending you paper? I never know what to keep, and what to throw away. So I end up keeping it all. Also, I’ve taken up houseplants. I apologise profusely to Mr I here, but, y’know, they do brighten the place up and they are good company (no back chat and no meal schedule). Ultimately, when feeling under the weather, I realised it wasn’t only my chest that was oppressing me: it is time for the big clear out. Next week is a big work week, so I have tomorrow and the weekend.
I know I’m not alone in having thought the Kondo Method wasn’t for someone as fond of well-organised Tetris style clutter as me, but having finished the book I can see her logic. I won’t be thanking my handbag or my socks anytime soon, but I am going to reread it as I go along in the next few days and pick out the bits that really made sense. I won’t be getting rid of the bowl or the dressing table mirror any time soon, but I am already 4 bags of old papers and cupboard clutter down and feel I haven’t touched the sides yet. Many of these items are things I’d either forgotten about or didn’t know what they were for, but if haven’t even thought about them for years, I doubt I need them. Perhaps I am recovering from the cold, finally, or perhaps with each bag I will feel lighter. Who knows?
What are your resolutions, if any? Whitney is ready to put her best paw forward in search of more snacks and wuzzes. We wish you a very happy 2026. x
