Since going back to work, I feel like I’ve been permanently just a little bit behind with life.
Not in a dramatic way where the house is falling apart around us or we’re surviving on takeaway every night 😂 but more in the way where all the little jobs that normally make life feel calmer have slowly started piling up in the background.
Have you seen that meme that says, “I’m not an early bird or a night owl, I’m a permanently exhausted pigeon”? Well, that has very much been me lately. The human equivalent of a permanently exhausted pigeon.
I had seven months off work and, if I’m honest, going back has properly tired me out. For the last few weeks, getting back into the routine of work has been about as much as I could manage, so some of the little home routines that make life easier have quietly slipped.
The washing gets done but not always put away properly. The sideboard has become a temporary home for things that need putting away “later” and I realised yesterday that I haven’t done a proper online food shop or meal plan since I went back to work.
When I wasn’t driving for a while, I’d actually got myself into such a good routine with meal planning and ordering online each week. It saved money, reduced waste and made evenings feel so much calmer because I already knew what we were eating each day.
All those little routines are simple enough on their own, but together they make life feel so much easier and calmer. And over the last few weeks, they’ve quietly disappeared.
I didn’t have a reset plan for the day. I just woke up this morning with absolutely no plans and, when I opened the blinds, the sunshine coming through the windows made me feel instantly more energised than I have in ages. So as I sat on the bed and looked out at the blue sky, I found myself actually wanting to potter about and catch up on all the little jobs that have been sitting in the back of my mind for weeks.
Not a dramatic deep clean or one of those unrealistic “transform your entire house in one day” situations you see online sometimes. Just a bit of a refresh.
The first thing I did was change the bedding because I bought a gorgeous new set last week from an outlet centre. It was originally £90 and reduced to £27, which made me very happy because it’s pretty and you can really feel the quality in the fabric. There’s something about fresh bedding that instantly makes everything feel cleaner and calmer, even if there’s still a basket of washing waiting to be folded somewhere else in the house.
By research purposes, I obviously mean watching people renovate Victorian houses like ours and looking at beautiful gardens that immediately make me jealous of people who seem capable of keeping plants alive and grass stripey at the same time.
There’s also a lot of pathway, which sprouts weeds everywhere if we don’t keep on top of it. 😂 So I got the weed sprayer out, mixed up some weedkiller for the paths and gave it all a good spray.
I’ve been meaning to do it for the last couple of weeks because it took us ages to get the paths almost weed-free in the first place, and I really don’t want to let them get out of hand again. And you know what? I don’t even know why I put it off as it takes about 10 minutes as we have one of those pressure sprayers that makes quick work out of it! They’re game changers if you ask me!
I topped up the bird feeders and then went back inside to cool off – by this point, it was 22 degrees and I was ready for a sit down. I didn’t get to sit down for too long though before this guy visited…
I don’t discriminate against any birds (although I much prefer robins to pigeons) but this guy is going to get himself barred if he doesn’t stop being so aggressive. He isn’t graceful enough to help himself whilst hovering so he literally headbutts the containers to spill it all on the floor – sometimes hard enough to knock the bird feeder off completely.
I gave him a look through window but he’s very unbothered. 😁
Once my rude visitor had a full tummy and moved on to cause havoc elsewhere no doubt, I opened up my laptop and sorted out a few bits of life admin that I needed to do and ordered a couple of things I needed for jobs that I want to do tomorrow and then Miss Frugal rang and asked if I wanted to go out and do something. 😍
I rarely say no when one of the kids asks me to do something with them as I value the time they want to spend with me so much. We ended up having a drive up to Costco and I had a lovely few hours with her.
When we got back, she went off home and I decided to do a quick speedy clean of the house so I set my phone alarm for 7 minutes and did as much as I could in the Living room in that time. When the alarm went off, I moved to the Dining room and did the same again and then again in the kitchen. I repeated this in every room in the house so in not much more than an hour, I’d made a big difference.
And that concludes my refresh day.
Nothing exciting, nothing Instagram-perfect, just making the most of a sunny day and a bit of unexpected motivation!
I’d love you to follow me on Twitter and it would be amazing to see you over on my Facebook page and on Instagram. If you’re interested, you can find out more about me here and while I’ve got your attention, if you’re wondering why some of my posts lately are a little bit less frugal then have a read of this post. 😉
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