Happy birthday to me, y’all! I’m 42 today!
All week, I’ve been trying to think of something birthday-related to write, like I did on my 40th and 41st birthdays.
But y’all, it has been a hard week around here and birthday-related creative juices haven’t been flowing.
So today, I decided to walk around my house and get rid of some things I have outgrown. I was going to call the post, “Things I Outgrew By My 42nd Birthday.”
It was on okay idea. I found a few things, but none of them were very funny. And then, as I opened drawers in my breakfast nook and decided I did want to keep both staplers and all the hotglue guns and realized I wasn’t ready to admit I’ll probably never have a fancy enough dinner party to use those individual-sized, cute-as-they-can-be salt and pepper shakers, I realized I was finally ready.
Ready to do something else.
Ready to act on advice given by you, dear readers, many times.
The struggle: My breakfast nook has built-in cabinets that look pretty in pictures, but end up being used for storing cereal boxes and paper towels and chips and snack baskets.
My justification: No one sees this breakfast nook. Really. It’s back behind a corner. I’ve actually had friends come over and ask to see it after watching me declutter it in a video. These were people who were in my home, even in my kitchen, on a weekly basis and didn’t know this nook existed.
The advice: Take away the decorative items. Storing random non-decorative things on a shelf that I obviously once hoped would be a decorated spot just makes it look messy. Accept that it’s a space for storing, but not for decorating.
So I did it. If there’s anything I’ve learned with age, it’s that I might as well accept reality.
My reality.
I removed almost everything decorative.
The candlesticks and crystal bowl went in the cabinet below, where I’d look for them first. Other things were taken to the most logical places, and I stuck the blue plate-clock, the chipped yellow platter, and the fruit picture in my Donate Box.
The pickle flavored Pringles went to the trash. (Oh my word, don’t buy pickle flavored Pringles.)
I kept the big serving dishes on the top shelf where we put our chip bags. I wasn’t ready to change that yet.
It looks better. Bare, but better.
I’ve accepted that cabinet for what it is right now, in this stage of life. Accepting things like that is a very 42ish thing to do, don’t you think?
Note to self: Buy cereal.
P.S. This before picture could be so much worse. I actually have another post, almost ready to go, that talks about straightening this area. It will come out soon.
--Nony