Sarah's Monthly Musings

A round-up of big and small things that are on my mind this month.

Last year I did Sync It Up with Sarah monthly posts, but this year I'm taking a more casual approach and sharing things that I've been thinking about lately. Enjoy!

Smash Rooms

These are also called 'rage rooms' and we have 2 here in CT called Smash Avenue. These are places where you rent time in a room to destroy stuff.

Part of me thinks this is a great way to get out anger and frustration and they take donations of stuff for people to break. The other part of me sees this as wasteful and questions if they get rid of these smashed items in an environmentally conscious way.

My own "1 in - 1 out" rule goes bad

As I tell you this story, it only proves that I'm human and struggle with possessions too. So I've had a pair of black pumps for over 10 years. I bought them when I got my first agency social work job. I did an assessment of my shoes this month (because who isn't cleaning out closets at the start of the year?!) and found them to be in poor shape. I'd already had them re-heeled a number of times so I decided to let them go. This led to me going out and buying not 1 pair to replace them but 3! To my credit, they were all purchased at Goodwill (I am a frequent shopper there) and they were all name brand and retail for $50+. My thought was that because I had kept the other pair for so long I was entitled to get 3 to replace them. Oh, the justifications we make!

Releasing my aspirational clutter

Have you ever held onto an item for the future, fantasy version of yourself? (Ie; the jeans you fit in 10 years ago that you're still keeping because you swear you'll get back to that size!)

So, I've been holding on to a 24-count mini muffin tin, Why? Because I was going to be Martha Stewart and make my kiddo omelet bites for breakfast, holiday cookie cups for the neighbors, and mini Shepards pies for my next party. I had to accept that I'm only Martha on the inside and not in my actual kitchen and that's okay! So I said goodbye to my muffin tin.

And you can follow along with my decluttering adventures every week on my Instagram account for my Fling It Friday series.

My 2022 calendar

Every January I get the new year's wall calendar recorded. This means that I go through and transfer everyone's birthday to the new calendar (I always write the birthdays in red) and I record all the medical appointments for the year (usually in black/blue). As new appointments are made and you get those appointment cards from your provider I always tape them to the December calendar page so they're all in one place and ready to be transferred to the next year's calendar. And in terms of the type of wall calendar I use... it's whichever one I get free from a charity organization or church.

To decant or not to decant

I do like a nice uniform appearance in my own home, so I'm partial to decanting. This bamboo set of organizers to hold plastic bags of all sizes is quite snazzy. I don't know about you but the original packaging always seems to get bent and ripped. I'm thinking about getting them. Keep you posted!

Well, there you have it, a smattering of what's been on my mind for the last month.

Tell me, would you go to a Smash Room?

Or are you game for decanting your plastic baggie drawer?