How Many Objects Do We Own?

Did you hear about the Belgian photographer who decided to photograph every item in her home? Yep, turns out Barbara Iweins has 12,795 items in her home. And that includes everything... every little single piece of Playmobile to every single fork and every single tweezer or blister pack of pills or screw or nail.

That seems like an awful lot of stuff. And yet... when I look at that number, I think... "Heck, I probably have at least that many nails and screws... just in nails and screws!" I'm a bit concerned that we would blow that number out of the water!

Some of the many items that Barbara Iweins catalogued in her home

What Barbara also learned was... only 1% of those objects are actually important (128 objects). The rest of it... she could get rid of easily. Now that number... I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around. I mean, yes, I could easily get rid of every screw and nail and thing-a-ma-jig as they are not sentimental in the last. And not really "important"... until I need one. Which I often do. 

When I first read the 1% statement... I read it is they only "need" 1% of the things. But that's not the case... it's only that 1% of the things are "important". And many of those things are sentimental to Barbara and her children, like a Dahlia preserved in a jar of formalin.

And so I think... if we had to pack and move and could only keep the things that were "important" to us... what would we pack? Knowing that we could always get more nails and screws somewhere else. I think we could come in under, or at the 128 item limit. Maybe.

North American Reality

But then... I had a bit of a wake-up call... You see... this was a Belgian woman living in a typical European home. She was appalled at the 12,795 things that she owned... and that took her 4 years to photograph.

Guess what... the average American home contains around 300,000 things. Yep... that is almost 25 TIMES as much as our Belgian friend. The average American home has the contents of 25 Belgian homes in it.

On the bright side, that means I should be able to keep 300 items of importance to me but... that's not the point of this...

300,000 things. How is that even possible? Although... with my stash of screws and nails and thing-a-ma-bobs... I do see how we might.. maybe... come close to that. For sure if we counted every single puzzle piece as a separate item! And let's not even get into paperclips. We have the space in our large North American homes so it's easy to buy in bulk and stock up on paperclips and staples and sticky notes and nails and screws.

I had this vague idea that... "oooh... maybe I should photograph everything that we own!"... Yeah. No. I mean, Barbara is a photographer and everything she took a photo of was very nicely staged, which must have taken a fair bit of time. I wouldn't do that but... it's a very different thing to photograph 300,000 objects. Nope. Not doing it. And besides... that's the average American home... what if we have more!?

So you will NOT be reading a blog a year or two (or 10) hence when I produce 300,000 photographs of our possessions. Not doing it. It would be too scary.

Could we get by with less things? Undoubtedly. We have gone through decluttering purges every once in a while and it is always (a) amazing how much we can let go of and (b) amazing how much stuff we still have! Sometimes ignorance is, really, bliss.

More Reading

Barbara Iweins site - Where you can see her Katalog of items

Time to Sell and Simplify?

 We've lived in our current house for 10 years. That is the longest that I have lived in any place, other than at home when I was a kid and teen. Our house has a basement suite that we've been renting out on Airbnb. And we have a large yard (8200 sq ft) which requires a lot of maintenance. With a partner that has a chronic health condition, a lot of the work for the yard, house maintenance and the Airbnb falls on me. While my partner and I had both hoped that the health condition might improve... it would appear (7 years into it) that that is not the case. I'm not getting any younger and I am tired. Tired of the yard maintenance. Tired of the never-ending house maintenance. Tired of everything that we put into the Airbnb.

And so... a few days ago (Feb 28, 2023)... we began to seriously consider selling the house. We could sell it and then buy a condo, for easy, simple living. No Airbnb. No yard. No roof maintenance. No gutters. No perimeter drain. Somewhere in walking distance of stores and coffee shops and hiking trails.

We scrolled through the Realtor.ca app and identified a few top contenders. We messaged our realtor and said... we are ready to pull the trigger. Her response "Cool! So you have decided life is too short and want low maintenance, inexpensive, easy living and time to travel?" YES!! That!! Exactly!

So, tomorrow we are going to look at some places.

Now... this might all seem ass-backwards. Shouldn't we be selling the house before we look for something? Or at least know what we can sell our house for? Probably! I'm sure our realtor will have all of that ready for us tomorrow.

But in the meantime... in the last few days since Feb 28, I trotted down to the liquor store and came back with armfuls of liquor boxes. We have decided to send a message to the universe... We are ready to sell! So we have started by packing up nic-nacs and tchotchkes... all of the extras that clutter up the surfaces. We've packed up "extra" stuff... craft projects and supplies. We have packed up a bunch of books as we look to reduce the amount of furniture in some rooms.

We are looking at paint touch-ups. We had new door, window and floor trim installed a year ago (2 years ago?) and the brad-nail holes were spackled and sanded but need to be painted. The spare bedroom has a gazillion nail/thumbtack holes in the walls and needs a full paint job. Some closets had the rods taken out and extra plywood shelves put in for all of the craft stuff. So... clear out the stuff... take out the shelves... patch and paint the closets and... pack it full of boxes.

We may get a storage locker in March... we'll see how it goes. We need to hear back from our realtor...

And... yes... this might all be a lot of work for nothing. At the very least, we might be doing The Minimalists big declutter event... pack everything you own into boxes and, as you need things, open up a box and pull out that item. Maybe... after living without all of these "extras", we will decide that we like the open and clear house! Maybe we will be more inclined to let-go of things? Maybe.

And we have legitimately been decluttering as we pack up all of this stuff. The thought of schlepping it around to yet another living space is just too much. "I haven't used this in 20 years... it's time for it to go."

There is a freedom in all of this. And a fear as well! I hate moving. I hate the whole process. I hate the upheaval. I am scare of moving to somewhere new. I have had 10 years to put down roots in this house and a part of me just likes the old and familiar. But the other part of me wants less. Less house. Less responsibility. Less work. Less stress. Less complexity. I want more. More time. More free time. More walks. More simplicity.

Letting go of the old can be hard. It is warm and comfortable and familiar. Even if it is a lot of work. 

Sooo... as I write this on 3 March, 2023... I'm not sure what the future holds. This post is scheduled to come out in early September... that is a full 6 months away. Will next week's post have exciting news about a house sale and new condo? Or will we have reversed direction? Or maybe it will simply be an update on our progress... not sure... stay tuned!

Through the Worst of the Sugar Detox Symptoms?

 The first three days of the sugar detox were the worst...

• foggy thinking
• tired/fatigued
• overheating at night
• moodiness
• emotional
• lack of motivation
• overwhelmed
• irritable and reactionary
• headache
• dizzy/lightheaded

But, as the first rays of Day 4 break over the horizon, I think I might be through the worst of it. I'm sitting in Starbucks and while I looked longingly at the chocolate brownies in the display case... I reminded myself of what I'd just endured and... I passed.

The struggle of the last few days is too fresh in my mind right now to even consider munching on a sugar-filled treat. I just wish that I could remember the struggle 2 months from now. The truth is, I seem to have short-term memory for this sort of stuff. Once something is more than a month in the past, the sharp edges tend to blur and I think... "It wasn't that bad." But it was. It is.

And so I thought I would document this... if not for posterity... then at least for me. So that I can remember how bad it was. I honestly feel like something is seriously wrong with me when I am going through the first days of the detox. I feel sooooo very unlike myself that I think I have lost my mojo... lost my brain power. It's not a pleasant feeling. I remind myself that this too shall pass but honestly... when I'm in the middle of it, I really doubt that!

These last few days, I have been trying different things to combat the sugar detox doldrums. I've been adding in some regular snacks - things like an apple with some almond butter, or an orange with some nuts. Sometimes I'll have a hard-boiled egg. I'm also going grocery shopping today, so going to get some hummus to snack on - along with some carrots, celery sticks, cukes or peppers. That mix of complex carbs and protein is so important. Giving my body food that will release energy slowly, over time, rather than an immediate gratification hit of refined sugars or even simple sugars like fructose without the protein.

I've read elsewhere that it's a good idea to keep a food diary for a while... I'm not sure that I'm up for that right now. I've got enough stuff on my plate at this point. But maybe once the worst of the sugar doldrums are done with... then I can look at that.

I know that the coming days/week are going to be hard. I might be through the worst of the sugar withdrawal symptoms but... the cravings are still there, and will come on hard and heavy in the coming weeks. If I can just remember these detox symptoms... I'm hoping to weather the storm.

It's funny... because before I stopped drinking Coke for good back in 2009, I had tried kicking the habit many times. Suffering through intense headaches for days afterwards. But, inevitably, I would start drinking it again. This time... I'm hoping that I can stay the course and finally choose my health over my cravings.

How to Make Extra Work for Myself through Procrastination

There are some days where I could just kick myself. I see something that I need to do but I don't "feel" like it right now... so I don't do it and then... I end up making a tonne more work for myself. I don't know why I continue to do this... but I do. So I must a little mole hill ahead of me and at some point, it hits a magic threshold and POOF!... it turns into a mountain.

Here's the most recent example... We have an Airbnb in our basement and we ask all of the guests to please put their recycling into the blue box in the carport.

We don't want them to put it in the big blue curbside bin in the driveway because... our recycling system is complicated and most guests have absolutely no idea as to what can be recycled or not. They go by what works in their city or town. And even though we have diagrams on the fridge outlining what can and can not be recycled, inevitably, they make mistakes.

You see, our recycle (and garbage and green) bins get picked up by a huge truck with a big mechanical arm, that picks it up and then empties it into the top of the truck. And as it gets dumped out, a camera scans the items to see if there are "non-recyclable" items - like glass jars and styrofoam and filmy plastic. These are all huge no-no's as they can contaminate an entire load of recycling which then ups the rejection rate at the recycling plant for our city trucks which means that the city gets charged more and... our property taxes go up.

On top of that... you might get an emailed notice from the city saying that you had rejected items in your blue bin and to please do better. So far, we have been clean but... I don't want to start getting notices!

And so... we ask the guests to put their recyclables into the blue box in the carport. I then sort through that and place items in the appropriate bins. Some people are very optimistic as to what can get recycled... like price tags made out of cardstock. No... really too small. Anyhow, the system works for us. And for things like glass, styrofoam and filmy plastic, I bundle that up with ours and then take it to the local recycling depot. Because while they can't go into the truck... they can go into designated bins at the depot. Like I said... complicated.

Anyhow... there I am last week, and I see that the blue box in the carport is getting full and I think... I really need to sort through that... but I didn't "feel" like it. I'll do it "tomorrow". Yeah. Right. And that evening, I'm sitting in my office, with it's window overlooking the driveway and I hear cans and glass bottles hitting the bottom of a plastic bin. Noooooo.....!!!! Yesssssss... I see our current guest standing by the blue bin dumping the indoor recycling bin AND the blue box into the curbside blue bin. Nooooo... 

I guess they had more recycling in the suite and the blue box was too full for them and they... decided to just dump it all. I utter several suitable swear words. Now... I've got a bigger problem on my hands. The curbside blue bin is deep, like 3.5 feet deep and getting stuff out of there is a hassle. and it's all in a big schmoz and... bummer.

So... on a Sunday afternoon, when the guests were out... I spent a good 20 minutes rummaging through the bin, dumping stuff out on the driveway and pulling out all sorts of non-recyclables... glass jars, filmy and crispy plastic overwrap, styrofoam trays and an inordinate amount of Tim Horton's cups. While the cups are recyclable in the curbside bin, they need to be washed otherwise they contaminate the paper stuff in the bin. Same with the little yogurt containers and the margarine container and... on it goes.

Now, I would have had to pull all of those things out of the carport blue box when I sorted that... which is maybe why I procrastinated on sorting it then. Because we took all that stuff inside and ended up washing it. A lot of people would have just tossed it into the garbage bin but... we are somehow eco-nerds and sooo... we washed a good 2 dozen Timmies cups and various other plastics.

And then my partner came up with a bright idea... we have now put a large, clear, plastic garbage bag into the blue carport box as a liner. If ever the box is close to full but I don't feel like sorting it... I can just yank the bag out, toss it in the backyard and put a new bag into the box.

Hopefully one small step now avoids a much larger step later!

And perhaps I will learn the life lesson that... procrastination does NOT make the task easier or less onerous. In most cases it makes it harder and bigger and more icky! Lesson learned??? Only time will tell!

PS - We came out one morning after the recycling bin had been cleared out on collection day. There were several more unsorted, unwashed items in the bin. I pulled them out and decided to temporarily put them in the carport blue box. We then happily placed all sorts of recycling into the blue bin. And then... yesterday, a Saturday... I found that they had dumped their blue box into the blue bin AGAIN! Even though the blue box wasn't even close to being full. So... all those items that I took out... are back in there again. So much for solving procrastination!

PPS - The latest iteration of my procrastination habit saw me watching weeds grow in the front yard, thinking... "I need to go and stab those out". We are in the thick of summer, so the lawn really doesn't need mowing, the weeds needs removal. I procrastinated for a couple of weeks and when I finally did it... half of the weeds had gone to seed puffs and the job was so much harder and took much longer than if I had done it when they were small! Ugh!

Cukes - better shrink-wrapped or naked?

Have you seen those triple packs of cukes in Superstore? Maybe only if you shop there. Well, let me tell you about them.

They come wrapped in plastic shrinkwrap, all three of them bundled together. It's a way better price than buying 3 single cucumbers (also separately wrapped in plastic). But the kicker with the triple pack is... the cucumbers inside the triple packaging area ALSO shrinkwrapped! What the heck??

Isn't that double packaging and incredibly bad for the environment? Yes it is! And Superstore got that memo and now those triple-packaged cucmbers are naked inside the packaging. Which is good.

Or is it. I just learned that cucumbers dehydrate three times as fast when they are naked. So the shrink-wrap actually serves a very useful function. A naked cucumber will last 2 days... a shrink-wrapped one will last 7 days. If we want cucumbers in February... then we should be grateful for shrink-wrapped produce... because they can be transported farther and still arrive in good shape.

Sooo... I'm actually kind of missing the individually shrink-wrapped cukes. You see... we bought at triple pack last week and ate one cucumber quite quickly in our salads. And then we ran out of greens for the salad and couldn't get to the store and... now those 2 naked cucumbers are off - going slimy and mouldy. Had they been individually shrink-wrapped, they might have lasted longer.

Now that we know that, however... we can take some steps to clothe our naked cucumbers. Put them in a big ziploc bag and squish out as much air as possible. 

Because... which is worse... some excess plastic wrap or... two wasted cucumber and all of the wasted water and gas and labour and... everything went into producing them and transporting them and storing them and selling them?

Now... having said that... there is no excuse for shrink wrapped bananas! Oh, the Brits...

Another Sugar Detox... Amongst Other Things

Tofu

I know. I've been here before. At least 3 times in the last year. And I'm back at it again. This time with more insight and motivation. Hopefully that will lead to success.

Those who follow the ramblings of this blog will know that I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's - an auto-immune thyroid condition that leads to hypothyroidism - not enough thyroid hormone. It means I need to take a synthetic thyroid hormone to keep my thyroid levels within range. But it's been a bit of a roller coaster trying to keep the numbers within range. Which is frustrating and annoying.

Right now, I'm struggling again with low energy levels, sluggishness, achy joints and anxiety. Fun, eh? Not. I've been doing a lot of reading and researching and... I've learned that these sorts of things often start in your gut. There are some foods that are just not good for auto-immune conditions, but it's hard to pin down because it differs from one person to another. One person might be good with eggs but for the other person, it sends them into a Hashi flare.

Some practitioners recommend something called the Auto-Immune Protocol which, among other things, recommends that you avoid "suspect" foods and focus on "good" foods. So... cutting out things like gluten, soy, legumes, nuts, eggs, dairy, nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant), sugar, high-glycemic fruits. It leave a lot of greens and meat to eat. It's a bit extreme... but maybe it's time to bite the bullet.

But then... in reading the list of foods to avoid... I had a bit of an epiphany. I went back to my TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) lab results and discovered something intriguing. Just to clarify, the TSH is a hormone produced by the pituitary gland when thyroid levels are too low. So when the TSH goes up... it means there isn't enough thyroid horomone. Kind of counter-intuitive.

TSH Labs

Let's take a look at my TSH labs - going from 2014 to 2023. I had always put my thyroid issue down to the stress of taking care of my Dad towards the end of his life - 2016-2019. But those labs are all happily within range. There's a bit of up and down, but it's all relatively good.

Where things start to take off is in January 2020 when my partner and I decided to get rid of meat, dairy, and eggs from our diet. We were going whole foods and plant-based. We introduced a lot more legumes into our diet as well as tofu and tempeh (both soy products).

And then... in March 2021, we both went to see a naturopath. I was actually feeling pretty good, but given our vegan diet, she decided to put me on a heavy course of Vitamin D (like 10,000 IU/day - recommended is 600-800 IU) because she thought I might be low in Vitamin D given the vegan diet. She also recommended fish oil (liquid stuff). She told me to avoid gluten but said sourdough bread was fine. 

I pigged out on sourdough bread from Cobs Bakery and... well... you see what my TSH did. Turns out Cobs Bakery doesn't do the "right" type of sourdough bread! With increasing doses of synthroid, however, my numbers came back down but then there are these weird blips where it goes up again. That was usually because I slid backwards and thought... I can have "some" gluten! And we continued on our vegan diet.

I eventually ditched the naturopath because I developed other issues - things like oral lichen planus (raw spots inside my mouth). The naturopath thought that was weird and told me to stop taking all of the supplements she had put me on. She said that when I came to her, I was basically healthy and she wondered about all the stuff she had put me on. Brilliant. Paid $$ to get put on supplements and then paid more $$ to be told to get off of them. No more naturopaths.

Personally... I thought it was the fish oil... so I stopped taking that and added salmon into my diet. And my mouth cleared up. Interesting.

Taking Charge

So here we are... my thyroid is screwed up and when I look back at the history of this... I am faced with the dietary change from a regular diet to a vegan diet. Got rid of meat and fish and added soy and legumes and lots of whole grains (most were wheat based - things like farro). If you recall from above, soy and legumes are two of the things on the "avoid" list, along with gluten. Is soy the issue? Is it just the gluten?

I don't know but I've started an experiment. We have agreed to add meat back into our diet - ethically sourced, local chickens and bison. We're already eating eggs and salmon, so we'll continue with that. We are eliminating tofu and tempeh from our diet. And sugar. Sigh. And I'm getting rigid on the gluten. No more chocolate brownies. No more Timmies bagels. Nope. Done. For 3 months. I'm writing this on June 17, so we're looking at end of September.

What will my TSH do? How will my energy levels do? I don't know but it's worth it. Right now, I'm on 100 mcg of Synthroid right now. I'm at the point where I'm tempted to increase the dosage just to feel better but... maybe these dietary changes will do the trick.

I've read enough stories about people taking charge of their dietary eating plans and seeing a reversal in their thyroid labs to know... this is possible. Will it work for me... we shall see. Small steps.

So, every time I go into Starbucks, I think... no brownie (despite it's siren call). It's not worth the rest of it. Just. Not. Worth. It. Period.

When My Day Turns into a Chronic Hiccuper

 There are just some days where everything goes sideways. Wake up early, Starbucks not open, Wifi not working, Bluetooth mouse not connecting, brain not working properly, can't log-in to a website, co-worker complaining about something... ugh!

It seems like the whole day is "recalculating... recalculating... recalculating...". I try to go with the flow and pivot and adapt and reformulate and regroup and refocus and readjust and... eventually it's just a bit too much. I just want something to go right!!!

Sooo... deep breathing. Pause. Slow down. Maybe it's time to stop. Just stop. Another deep breath. Given what is happening to this day... what are my priorities. Not what I hoped to get done. What do I actually NEED to get done. I have all sorts of plans and ideas and tasks for the day but... maybe it's time to let them go and reassess my day. Which is a hard thing for me. I just want everything to go smoothly! Why can't it just go smoothly every single day!

Which is really a useless, pointless question. There's always little hiccups that happen in a day and on this particular day, it seems like the hiccups are endless. So, given that it's a Day of Hiccups... how can I adjust my perception, my attitude about this day. Rather than getting frustrated... it's to recognize that this day is just not off to a great start. Really, anything that I get done today is a bonus.

And... rather than struggling upstream, frantically trying to make things happen in the face of a slew of hiccups... just go with the flow. Maybe today is not the day to write a blog. Maybe today is not the day to figure out why the Service Canada website is rejecting my login (it is a Saturday after all). Maybe today is not the day to work on anything at all. Maybe it's a day to rest. The workshop I've been helping with had its last session this morning. There is nothing urgent on my plate. I can actually stop.

My temptation though is to get a whole bunch of other things done today, stuff that has been snow-ploughed all week, as the workshop work took up my time and energy. I figured that once the session was done today, I could dive in and get a whole host of things checked off on my to-do list. Maybe not.

So perhaps it's time to stop... maybe even back-up and reassess this day. What do I NEED to get done today. Maybe I NEED to rest and relax for a while. That is a hard thing for me to admit. But that's what this is all about... reflecting on what is happening and seeing what is required. It's a small step on the road to self-care.. but at least it's a step!