Living the life I live

We've made a couple of decisions in the last few days which sit well with me. Little things, but little things which will amount to big improvements in my life.

First we decided not to renovate the kitchen. We were going to do a pretty sizeable reno, knocking out a wall, changing cabinet doors, new countertops and backsplash, and a new paint job. I would have looked really great, but it was largely cosmetic and would have been in the neighbourhood of $10 000, probably more if you factor in the inevitable delays and fuckups. That's a lot of money for a would-be-nice reno.

We decided to keep the money (most of it coming from my stock options) and put it into paying down our mortgage. That way we'll be able to use it later when we buy a house, which will probably be in much more dire need of renovating than our ten-year-old condo.

Second we decided to set up an "office" for me, with the Windows box and my Palm cradle and the printer all set up and the filing cabinet nearby. This means I'll be able to go back to using my Palm for appointments (because I only use it when I can use the Palm Desktop) and I'll be able to print stuff out and manage the household that much easier. Right now it's a bit chaotic, with Windows on a laptop which drifts about the house, my Palm cradle not hooked up to anything, and the printer just barely working in a corner. It's a pain in the ass.

Finally, I've been doing lots of little spring cleaning things, getting rid of or putting away stuff which doesn't apply any more. Stuff like my music stand, which I used when I was taking voice lessons. I finally folded it up and put it away, which means that I've accepted that I won't be taking voice lessons again for a while, and also that I won't have to clean around it. I've put away our funky fruit stand because we have nowhere to keep it; it was on top of a bookcase but up there we never noticed it so the fruit just rotted. Now I don't have to worry about where to put it. I'm going to put away our wine glasses, which will free up another two feet of book shelves, and I won't have to dust them, nor do I have to think about how we're not really the kind of people who need wine glasses.

It's about getting my physical surroundings in line with the life I actually live, getting rid of things which aren't relevant any more, and making more space, physical and mental, for the things which are.