I’m posting a link to a blog I just read. I tend to follow people that I not only relate to but make me feel like they’re talking to me as a friend and not just writing for someone to read and enjoy… I guess you can say somewhat conversational? Anyway, Fey is from Cuba and lives in South Florida. I absolutely love her personality and this post is one that is uplifting for women and also a good read. Feel free to check out her other posts.
Occasionally I post daily thought’s that I receive in my email from Real Simple. I really like Real Simple. I was on looking for cake/dessert recipes (because I want to get back in to baking) and I came across this article at the end of a slideshow: 8 Secrets Why Women Love to Clean. I found this to be quite funny and interesting considering the cleaning spree I’ve been on recently. As I mentioned before, we’re moving and I’ve been taking my time cleaning out areas so that moving will be smooth and I won’t be stressing over what really needs to go with us and what will be trashed. I was also thinking a lot recently about why I get overwhelmed with feelings I cannot describe when I clean. Well as fate would have it this article landed in my lap and I’m going to share my personal thoughts on each of the secrets.
Let’s get to it!
It gives you a sense of accomplishment: verytrue. Whenever a day goes by (like today, I was feeling rather ill) and I do not even do something small like clean the kitchen, I feel like I’ve done nothing. NOTHING. But after this post, I’m going to do it – I need to.
It calms your mind: I’m not 100% in agreement with this. Sometimes while cleaning, I get more worked up if I realize there is actually more to be done than I expected or if the task to be done feels impossible to complete. And I have a few of those… But I still clean like crazy when I’m pissed.
It’s a way to stay in control:It truly is! We can’t control everything around us but we can our personal surroundings. Even a basic clean up makes you feel like you you have everything together and you are – in control.
It’s a stress reducer:Agreed! I find myself cleaning when I feel stressed out or I’m upset about something.
It’s a form of meditation:I’d more say a shower is but I find I get a lot of thinking done when I am at the kitchen sink and it’s also why I don’t use my dishwasher as often; plus I hate the sound of it when I’m home. Folding laundry also gets me thinking and it also exercises my brain when I try to recollect what happened on the day I wore certain items of clothing.
It’s a mood boosting workout:With this one, the first word I saw was workout but on the mood, I do feel better once I’ve cleaned – physically and emotionally. I always think of cleaning as a workout because if I’m on a roll, I like to think I could skip a session at the gym. My vacuum is a little heavy so that’s a good arm workout ;). But I do feel like the physical clutter is less mental clutter and I can move on to other things.
It’s a reflection of who you are and how you feel: When you have a mess, it says you don’t have time. It says that you aren’t organized and you don’t have everything together. I have to say that I have bits of mess about the place that I’m working really hard to clean up. I guess that says where I am in life as well? Somewhat true, but at least I know I’m on the right path if that’s how I feel about my physical space.
It’s a reflection of how you take care of yourself: As the saying goes “cleanliness is next to goodliness”. My mother would always get into a cleaning fit as she heard someone was passing by our home. Even if the house was clean, she’d still want any little bits of clutter tidied, go over the floors with the mop once and shut all the doors to hide any untidiness like my messy room :). Now that I live on my own with my husband, I know exactly what she was doing and unfortunately/fortunately I do the same thing. When someone enters your home, you want what they see to be a reflection of how you look after yourself. You want them to be comfortable and to feel like they won’t catch something from your home or have this lingering scent burning their nose. You want them to feel like your home is a good place, that you are a good person and you look after yourself and your surroundings.
Women are expected to be the cleaners so I guess it’s only rational that it has some emotional attachment to it and isn’t just a physical act. What does cleaning do for you? Is any of the article true?
I figured I’d take the time today to just throw some random stuff out there 🙂 and thank you for your support of my blog of rambling.. it’s just a dash of everything after all ;).
I finally got black flats! *Yay!* I don’t remember if I mentioned what happened to the last pair I bought but it basically went like this:
I went to the mall while my husband had a casual business meeting, so while I was waiting for him to pick me up after I finished what I went there to do, I was walking around Nordstrom looking for some flats. Spring was around the corner and I wanted some as I was tired of boots. At first I called him and told him to come inside because I couldn’t decide on a pair, then I found a pair and told him don’t bother, I’ll meet him outside so he doesn’t have to park. When we got home, I tried on the shoes and showed him… you can basically say he fell off the chair laughing.. (*side note* my husband thinks all flats are granny shoes and they all look bad but some just look worse than others) He told me to return them and we’ll go shopping for a pair together. Now, I know my husband and I knew he wasn’t going to go so it took me a little while but I kept looking and I found these babies: The Cole Haan ‘Air Monica’ Ballet Flat *Angels singing: Ahhhhhhhhhhhh*
Having these shoes are major for me right now because I’m supposed to be taking a break from heels. I twisted my ankle 3 times (yes 3, in a row) running to the car in my shoes on my birthday night… please don’t ask what happened, it just happened… So my chiropractor asked me to take a break, I can wear heels if I have to but preferably wear flats. *sigh* But these are super comfy! I was looking at the Tory Burch flats but they were rubbing on my big toe on the right foot and had to be broken in, I wasn’t paying $200+ to break in shoes so I made sure I got a pair I could run a marathon in. I don’t do marathons.
Next, I got highlights. No pics yet, I’m getting a cut in two weeks when I go for my relaxer so I’ll post a pic of that then. I’m really excited about my hair and miserable at the same time. Last weekend I was a bit obsessed with a certain hairstyle.. plaits! I washed my hair Friday and seeing that it’s always puffy, I tried to tame it and do something different. I was tired of the middle and side part and was definitely not curling it so I decided to do two plaits and pull them back. Saturday was a single plait across the front, and Sunday ended the little phase with two again. Hubby decided he doesn’t care if I grow or cut but just don’t go pixie short again. I think I’ll go through with growing but I am getting frustrated and I will continue to look for ways to not feel as bored with it. Here’s a pic of Friday’s hair and outfit :).
Speaking of clothes, I ordered some shirts for my husband. He’s a software engineer so he’s pretty casual with what he wears to work and he loves shirts that have sayings on them. I ordered from a site that when you buy 3 you get 3 free so I got 5 for him and one for me. I’m dying to wear this shirt to a vegan place or somewhere where people aren’t huge fans of meat (is that mean? if it is I’ll only do it once ;)).
I have another shirt coming and I can only post that when hubs wears his as well as we’ll be matching and it’s kind of nerdy lol. I’m turning into a slight nerd since he makes me find out a lot of technical stuff on my own and only helps if I really fork it up lol.
I got my nails done yesterday before highlights. I was trying liquid gel over my natural nails and that didn’t work out. You see, I don’t believe in wearing gloves while washing up because I like to feel the surface of things to make sure the soap is off as well as any fine residue. Even when I use my dishwasher I’m running water over the wares before I put them in and I’m always washing my hands, so even though my nails are hard, they weaken with the water and break and split. So yesterday I decided to just put gel powder on them since that’s the only thing that does last longer than anything else. I had to get tips and cut off my nails as the girl took off a lot of my natural nail removing the liquid gel. I like my nails to look nice, I don’t always make a full on effort when I leave home but I think certain things should be… kept – eyebrows and nails. I went for a slight barbie pink and got quite a few compliments on it. I’ll keep these up and hopefully grow out the tips and just keep the gel on with my natural nails.
Oh I forgot to update! Hubs said he would do my make-up but not on camera *womp* I’ll see if I can get him to do it but hide the camera lol. And last but not least, I’m becoming a Belieber… if you don’t like this song, something is wrong with you!
Just a Dash 