Coping with shorter and colder months.

What?!

I've checked weather on my phone the other day and was shocked to see what time sun rise and sun set actually were at this time of the year. I leave house around 6:30 am each morning and get back at around 5, maybe 5:30 pm so in these colder months I barely see sunlight except short bursts at break time when I need to go outside to pick up my students for the next class. Other than that, however, I don't get a chance to enjoy the little sunshine we get in winter months. This, coupled with colder weather (although it has been rather mild most of the time this year), can really make it a challenge to go about your daily life: from getting out of bed in the morning, through going about your daily responsibilities, to staying healthy and relaxing with purpose.

I've put together a short guide to what you can do make winter months a little more bearable.

Wake up light

This is a life-saver. I can honestly recommend using wake up lights in the winter months when you wake up only to discover that it's still dark outside. I was gifted mine by Mr Magic and it's honestly the best present I ever got. It's the third winter I'm using it and usually after a few weeks I don't even need the sound anymore, the light alone wakes me up. I pack it up in spring and put at the bottom of my wardrobe ready for next winter. There's loads of those wake up lights out there now, I think the one I have is about £90, it's a lot of money, but as I said, worth every penny (or maybe you can suggest it as a Christmas gift?). If you're struggling to get out of bed in winter, it's definitely a great option.

Flavoured tea

I don't usually drink flavoured tea, but it's really nice to try some new stuff in winter to warm you up from the inside. I've had chocolate flake tea which was really good, apple and cinnamon is also one of my winter favourites. There is something very comforting in drinking something else than ordinary breakfast tea or even earl grey.

Cosy socks

I have a bunch of cosy wool blend socks in my drawer which are perfect for long winter evenings. My favourite ones were bought in Estonia last year. They have a lovely pattern and are so warm! I struggle keeping my hands and feet warm most of the time, so having nice cosy socks is absolutely essential. I don't often wear socks because I mostly wear skirts and dresses so tights are what I usually wear, but I actually have a completely separate winter socks collection for when ordinary cotton socks are not enough.

Gratitude

I feel like this word is being thrown around a lot, but being grateful can really make a difference to even the coldest of days when life seems to be too much. Each evening I thank God for specific things that happened that day (you can read about my praying routine here). It is a good practice to reflect on all the good things that happened to you. Even the smallest of things. I sometimes just thank God for the food that I've eaten or the time I had to read a book. On other days it might be something more special. In any case, practising gratitude helps me to keep a healthy perspective on things, to remember the positive aspects of my life.

Dealing with (far too many) digital files.

Your Dropbox is full and no longer syncing.

Your OneDrive will be frozen on or after 31st July 2018. 

I was finally forced to sort out my digital clutter. Loads of digital clutter.It consists mostly of random downloaded files (250 items, not that many by some standards, but I'm pretty good at cleaning my downloads folder) and roughly a million pictures. Loads of pictures. Some dating 10 years back. Or more. You get the picture (pun not intended). I have 8,444 files and 119 folders stored in Dropbox alone, but there is more in different clouds and just on my laptop drive. And on the external hard drive. So you can see that there is loads of files to get through.

The problem with digital clutter is that you can't really see it. It's not in our way, you can't really trip over it and generally it doesn't cause much issues. Until you run out of space on your drive or in your cloud.

But clutter is clutter in whatever form, be it physical, digital or emotional. And I feel that it needs to be dealt with somehow. By deleting unnecessary files.

And oh boy, I have loads of those files. Mostly pictures. I've been organising my documents (bank statements, invoices etc) into a neat filing system on my laptop and I managed to clear off the downloads folder in about 30 minutes, but the pictures are a huge issue. I used to take a few hundred pictures each holidays and ever since we purchased a digital camera those pictures would just end p somewhere in the folder, often not even labelled properly. And so I have so many pictures that I never looked at. I have pictures of middle school classmates who I don't even keep in touch anymore. I have pictures of random food, random buildings and many totally blurred pictures.

This is my plan : if I haven't looked at a picture for years and if it doesn't spark any joy in me at all, the picture will go. Anything else will go to a KEEP folder arranged with various sub-folders. I'll start with cloud files and work my way through anything on the laptop, followed by the hard drive. It is likely to take weeks.

That's the theory, anyway.

I feel like being absolutely ruthless is the key to success here. Just hit delete. A moment of hesitation means that the picture needs to go. You either love it or not.

Let the fun begin. I will let you know when I emerge from beneath the pile of files.

SO. MUCH. STUFF.

I need to get it out of my system, because for the past week or so I've felt totally overwhelmed by the amount of stuff I possess.

It is now taking me a second car load of boxes and bags to move my possessions. And there will be another one with suitcases filled with clothes and the furniture. This is simply ridiculous now.

I've pack all my bits and pieces up and while going through this stuff, I've uncovered quite a few gems. Yeah, let's call these gems rather than utterly useless items that are simply taking up my precious living space.

I have a full riding kit. Hard hat, jodhpurs, chaps, everything! I haven't ridden in 5 years (apart from one day doing some pony riding down the beach with Mr Magic)! I don't plan to ride. I don't have time, I definitely don't have the money to have a hobby like that.

I have two body boards and the only use I can find for them is swimming in the sea. I hate swimming in the sea: it's cold and dirty.

I have an electric guitar and an amplifier. It was bought for me by my dad as a present after I said I wanted to improve my guitar skills. I think I've taken the guitar out of the case to play less than 10 times since I've got it almost a decade ago. Yup. I also wonder why I still have it.

I have a painting of a Dutch windmill in the snow. It's objectively pretty, but it's totally not my style, I'm not so keen on paintings in the house at all in all honesty.

I have about 10kg of books, papers, articles and who knows what else. So. Much. Paper.

I also have an extensive collection of cocktail and evening dresses. When I do the Maths, I probably wear 0.7 evening dresses every twelve months. Do I need a floor length dress, a midi dress (actually, two in total) and two cocktail dresses?

So much stuff.

I'm slowly going through all this stuff, I've discovered the beauty of Freecycle and a lot of stuff is getting given away to people who hopefully will make a better us of these. But there is so much to go through. So much.

Things I don't buy.

My Lenten challenge this year was NOT to spend money. I've realised that I was buying a lot of stuff, from shoes to notepads and it added up to a lot of money. So, for over 40 days, I've decided not to spend money on anything other than bare essentials, that is food and travel. I've actually purchased a book (£2 in an antiquary bookshop) and a toothbrush, because I managed to leave my old one at Mr Magic's, but apart from that, no shopping for me.

This was such a positive experience, especially coupled with decluttering most of my possessions. There is actually not that much that I need to be happy and content with my life. And it made me think of the things that I used to buy but no longer need, not only because of my Lenten challenge, but also because of the choices I made last year to improve the quality of my life.

Here are 7 things that I no longer buy in the following categories: entertainment, personal care and kitchen.

ENTERTAINMENT

Video streaming subscriptions

My experience is that if you have a Netflix or Prime Video subscription, it is so easy to completely lose track of time spent watching your favourite series, because you've already paid for that month and you can stream whatever you want whenever you want. I binge-watched nine seasons of Big Bang Theory in about two weeks in summer. Did I enjoy it? Oh yes! I love Sheldon. Was it healthy? Most definitely not. I've found that unsubscribing from Netflix meant that I relied more on freely available material that often had more educational value. Youtube is full of really good TEDTalks for instance. Also, there are other options if you want to watch something specific. Google, Amazon and YouTube allow you to purchase or rent specific films or TV series without subscribing. And this actually makes you really think if you want to watch that specific thing. Because I now only pay for films I really want to see, I actually watch less of them. This means more time spent doing other valuable activities, like reading or baking. I sort of treat this like going to a cinema, but without leaving my house.

Stationery

This one is a challenging one, because I really like cute notepads, different coloured pens, sticky notes in various shapes and sizes, stickers and other accessories of this sort. But I have so much of it already, I won't have enough time in my life to use all of this up. So if anybody is in need of some stationery supplies, please get in touch, I will happily part with most of it. My problem with stationery is twofold: most importantly, an environmental one, because not so much of those items are actually made of recycled materials; but secondly it's such a drain on your wallet. These things are really expensive.

PERSONAL CARE

Nail polish

I had this idea a few years ago that I will do my nails, paint them with beautiful rich colours and be this really neat looking young lady with nail polish matching my outfit. In reality, I simply don't have time for that, painting and drying your nails is too much of a hassle plus I don't like the chemicals contained in nail polish. There are plant-based alternative, but I was never committed enough to actually invest in those (it's over £10 per item, so compared to around £3-£5 for a regular nail polish, the difference is insane), so a month or so ago I discarded the only nail polish that remained in my cosmetic bag, admittedly a beautiful shade of red, but I wasn't using it, so it had to go.

Female sanitary products

No, I didn't stop having my periods, but I switched to reusable cloth pads last summer, and never looked back since. They do require a bit of an upfront investment, but will last for a good few years and you will not create waste throwing those products straight after use. This is what really bothered me about female products, that you would spend a lot of money on those each month, but you would actually only get a few hours of use out of them at best and then discard that item, never to see it again. The advantage of cloth pads is that you can use those again and again. It does require a degree of organisation, having a wash bag ready in your bag and you need to do an extra low temperature wash, but I found it so much more comfortable both in actual physical terms and in terms of my psychological feeling of doing something good for the environment, that I simply got used to functioning a little bit differently.

KITCHEN

Teabags

Most teabags are sealed with plastic, which contributes to plastic pollution given how much tea I drink and many people in the UK drink. I used up all the teabags in the house now, invested in a tea strainer, and now I only brew loose-leaf tea which is less convenient, but the taste is far better and it avoids all the plastic contamination that I was contributing towards, albeit inadvertently, while drinking five or six cups of tea a day.

Kitchen towels
I have one more roll under my sink, but it has been there for ages, probably since summer and I can't see it being used any time soon, I'm still on the previous roll from that pack. It's just such a waste, because you use a piece and then it ends up in the bin straight away. It's like throwing your money away. Instead of paper towels, I have bought a set of cloths that can be used to cleaning, wiping, dusting and drying. They can be washed in the washing machine with kitchen towels. No brainer!

Single purpose kitchen gadgets
Think nutmeg grater, cheese grater, waffle maker, spiraliser, ice cream scoop, crepes pan, smoothie maker, tiered cake pans... I love cooking, but I've realised that most of the dishes calling for some special equipment can be made as successfully with standard utensils. I've decluttered a lot of items and left those essential ones. When I think about it, our grandmothers managed to cook without all these fancy single purpose gadgets. I can do without the too. Especially that storage space is precious in my kitchen and I would rather not take it up with a multitude of items.

Managing my wardrobe.

I've decided to do a proper house clear out this year, partly because I will be moving and it's a daunting prospect that all the stuff I currently have at home needs to be taken elsewhere (there's just too much of it), partly because I've become interested in minimalism and owing less.

I've started with paperwork and in one evening I've got rid of two folders full of old notes, printouts, advertisements and who knows what else. This was an easy fix, though I still want to digitalise most of the paper documents I have lying around.

My bookcase also got hit with the clearing out madness and many books which I have already read and would not read again, or those which I've started reading but never finished got sold or given away. I love books, but I have so many, and I spend insane amount of money on books each year that I've resolved to use the local library more.

Now the time has come to tackle my wardrobe.

This was my pile of clothes after I've emptied the wardrobe and suitcases. Loads and loads of stuff.  Dresses, jumpers, trousers, tops, skirts... The good thing is, I actually remembered that I had every single item here. So no surprises when the contents of my wardrobe was sifted through.

To aid sorting, some organisation was necessary I've made piles of types of clothing: this seemed like the only system that will work and will give me an overview of what I really have.

Now, I didn't think I had loads of stuff, I actually pretty regularly donate unwanted clothes to charity, but after I've counted all the clothing items that I had, I was rather shocked. This is when all the surprises came. This is my list:

13 pairs of bottoms?! I don't even like wearing trousers! Also, 19 dresses, I knew I had loads, but didn't quite realise that it was so MANY. It's insane! And the thing is, very few of those items were actually weather-specific. Apart from winter coats (yep, multiple >.<), the vast majority of my clothes can be worn all year round, with the exception of some summer dresses and such, so why do I need so much?!

Making this list of all the things that I possess made me quite uncomfortable. I don't need 3 different hoodies. I really don't, I barely ever wear sportswear. I don't need all 19 dresses. Or 17 tops! Oh my... And this is AFTER I've done some wardrobe decluttering already. I seriously got rid of so much stuff already. Insane.

I have managed to downsize massively now, although I still have a bunch of things that I'm not sure about. Those occasion dresses have been listed online, little bits and pieces taken to charity shops. I've realised that I have a lot of bold pieces but not so many neutral staple pieces that could be easily mixed and matched. This will eventually become my focused, to build a more functional collection of clothes.

Here's my wardrobe now, minus a shirt, a dress and a couple of tops. Most categories of items on my list have been halved in quantity.

For the time being, I'm testing whether the items that I've decided to keep are actually items that I wear regularly. I put all the hangers backwards and they only get turned around when I wear that item. Hopefully after a few months all the hangers will be turned around. But if not, then I will need to reconsider certain pieces.

I would recommend to do a wardrobe purge to everyone. It really does make you re-evaluate your possessions. Do I want to have loads of clothes of often poor quality or do I want fewer clothes that will last? Do I want to spend loads of time trying to work out what to wear or do I want to have a set of outfits that I can rely on?

I think now it's a nice to do it as well, because the winter season is coming to the end so you can go through your warm clothes and declutter those which you didn't wear at all. And you can go through your spring/summer outfits and really ask yourself: do I want to wear this in the next few months? This will only take a couple of hours in the afternoon. Listen to a good podcast while you're doing it (I really recommend Hidden Brain on NPR). And afterwards, treat yourself to a good cup of coffee and a hot cross bun or whatever else you fancy.

Detox.

I'm spending holidays in the heart of the Polish countryside. The internet connection here is less than satisfactory to say the least and this prompted me to a reflection on the use of the internet.

I've read a number of articles by people who either ditched the internet completely for a prolonged period of time, or got rid off the internet from their house and only ever used it at work or when out and about.

Many claimed that they have become more thoughtful, more focused and generally felt more mentally healthy than when staying online. Some claimed that it was a tedious and not so beneficial an experiment, given that they felt isolated from normal life, which these days happens as much off- as on-line.

Before going on holidays, I've actually logged off Facebook on my phone and my laptop, so no notifications are coming through to me at the moment and I don't feel the urge to constantly scroll down my home page in search for something interesting to look at or read.

But going off the internet grid completely is not something that I am particularly keen on. I've lived for ages without Facebook account, but this was not sustainable: whether I like it or not, people do use Facebook to communicate with each other and I do want to be a part of it.

After an extensive read of different experiences of reducing internet use in one way or another, I've come up with a system that will allow me to reap the benefits, but hopefully also limit the negative effects of constant online presence.

Lo and behold, here it comes.

I liked the idea of getting rid of the internet from my house, but this is not feasible. What is actually doable is using the internet intentionally. So going on the internet with a well defined purpose, rather than freely roaming around. For instance, when I turned my laptop on to write this blog post, I knew that this is the main reason why I'm online. I also knew that I had to buy a few specific bits on ebay and check a few pieces of information. I've even produced a hand-written list of things that I want to do when I get a chance to be online. So being online has become something that I need to make the time for, rather than the default mode.

It's so easy to just reach for your phone these days and start aimlessly go through page after page of stuff that does not really enrich your life in any way. Instead, I finally have a chance to read newspapers, think about stuff, appreciate the nature and make the most of the time with my family. I do rely on the internet in many respects, Google Maps are extremely convenient for instance when you need to find the way quickly or when you need to find the nearest cafe serving crepes, but other than that I'm trying to take over the reigns of my internet use.

Once I'm back at work, I plan to have clearly defined times of internet use. No more binge watching Netflix shows or looking at shoes I'll never buy anyway. Instead, a defined slot of time with defined tasks to accomplish.

You might think that this is unduly restrictive, but the fact of the matter is that humans are wired to have restrictions. Our brains love structure. And this will provide me with a structure to get things done efficiently. I also hope that this little experiment of mine will also free up some space in my brain to do some proper thinking and really excel at what I'm doing. 

In any case, I treat this more or less forceful internet detox as a blessing. No, I can't have proper Skype conversation with Mr Magic, and no, I cannot watch even most enriching YouTube videos without constant interruption, but I read a lot, go on walks with my dog and appreciate the surroundings, which is impossible with out face stuck to the screen.

Don't fret, though, I'll be back next week, hopefully with some pictures of the beautiful Polish countryside.

I leave you with this quote from Gretchen Rubin:

Turn off your email; turn off your phone; disconnect from the Internet; figure out a way to set limits so you can concentrate when you need to, and disengage when you need to. Technology is a good servant but a bad master.

Tissue mountain.

A week until half term, and my body seems to have given up. Waking up at 5:30am, long hours at work and little time for myself has taken its toll on me.

The end of my first seven weeks in school is in sight, but I feel like I will crawl towards it rather than run joyfully into a brief freedom.

As the mountain of used tissues continues to build up in my bedroom, so does the mountain of work. I have my PGCE essay due in a couple of weeks, but it's hard to try to recover from the illness, mark homework, plan lessons, do some reading and sort out everything for school at the same time. Hopefully after half term life will become easier, if only because I will actually know what I'm doing. Though they did warn me that it will be tough.

I'm so drugged up with paracetamol and the like that I'm not sure to what extent I will be able to teach tomorrow, but hopefully by period 2 my brain will clear up a bit and turn into a teacher mode. At the moment it feels like a sponge or a mini whiteboard rubber.

On a side note, highlights from last week include using plickers with my lovely year 7s, TF conference day and carrot cake. Carrot cake is delicious. Conference was quite helpful, but I shall give an update on it once I have time (and ability) to put my thoughts in some coherent order.

Being attacked by a cold monster in my bed. Obviously.

Stuff.

This is so true:

I'd like to consider myself unattached to material things, but, gosh, I've decided to sort out my wardrobe and really just leave clothes that I wear and it's been a struggle. I used to be able to fit all my possessions into two suitcases, but it's not the case now, especially that I've acquired things like an iron, pans and pots, candle holders, all sorts of stationery equipment, posters and so on... But! One of the perks of being ill is that I get to do things for which I normally don't have much time and I've got rid of some clothes, finally making it to the wonderful Oxford Animal Sanctuary charity shop. Now my wardrobe looks much better. Rather airy, really.

Not getting attached to things is a big challenge. I've learnt to let go of little things from the past that were supposed to remind me of something or somebody. Many of these ended up in the bin; instead, I've printed out some pictures and stuck them of the wall. The only thing that I let myself have in plenitude is books. One can never have too many books. Still, even if I never use something, somehow I like just having it. It's interesting, because I don't get attached to places so much. Maybe that's actually the reason why I like my things, I can simply take them with me when moving around so much.

But I want less stuff. Apparently this makes you happy. Definitely it means that there's nothing weighing you down. I like that.