Welcome to 2022. It’s the first Monday of the year, or at least the first that counts. Is it just me or are the two weeks around Christmas and New Year’s the Bermuda Triangle of time? January 10th, although technically closer to mid-month, feels like the actual kick off to 2022. Oh! And we’re redoing the house. Hah! Happy new year, friends.
My 2022 intentions
Resolutions are not my thing, not anymore at least. They feel like they’ve set me up for failure over the years. It’s impossible to predict what a year will bring, sometimes to a laughable degree (looking at you 2020). They also feel restrictive, you know? What if the year brings something else to the surface to consider and unwrap? Something outside of your view when you laid down those new year resolutions?
Intentions are better–– and I’ve learned the more open-ended those are the more supportive they are. So this year my word is possibility. 2021 was a crap year for us. It was hard guys. Between work, the world, and personal stuff, it was a challenging fucking year and it didn’t go down easy either. Right up until the end we had personal drama rise up to the surface. Maybe it’s a good thing? I can see that. We need to get through our deepest darkest stories that hide in our mind self sabotaging our lives.
But, fuck, it seemed like 2021 was a purge for us. At many points it was hard for me to see that anything was possible outside of the crap I was holding. Whether that was infertility, financial worries, being let go from my job, family dynamics and unearthing old wounds… there was so much to unpack. And none of the ways I wanted it to be seemed possible.
Creating a year of *possibility*
So that’s what I want 2022 to be… a year where dreams are possible. If you missed my post on a nifty way to evaluate your 2021, catch up here. I want to be able to let myself imagine I can have the 4 tiny houses we want for our rental property, hygge house; that I can afford to redecorate our home because we spend so much time in it that we deserve to fully love our space… And, yes, that I’m worthy of all the things I desire.
2021 opened so many wounds within me, but it also allowed the light to come in. I found emdr therapy, which I talk about more closely in my newsletter. It changed my life. I did life coaching, soul searching and I ran toward all the ugliness living inside me, all the things I’ve been afraid to admit or say out loud. And I’m really proud of that.
Redecorating our home
On to the fun part of this new year: redecorating our home. Here’s the short of it: Jaime had covid during the holidays and while quarantining himself, he realized life is short. Why not LOVE our surroundings? We spend so much time here. We have BEEN spending so much time here since 2020.
We’ve transformed our home a lot over the three years we’ve lived here. Check out our before and after video on our youtube channel:
And yet, we had budgets in mind, we recycled a lot of thrift-store pieces, freebie hand outs, etc. It made for the best possible look we could achieve given the constraints, but ultimately, not a home that reflects our true taste or excites us. I’m not one for waste or to buy new stuff for the sake of buying it, yet I do understand his point on the time being now. Why not have a space we love? What are we fucking waiting for?
How we do one this is how we do everything.
That phrase haunts me sometimes. As I was quarantined myself, I looked around at all the things in my home (and life) that were good enough. Not the thing I wanted but almost there, fine. And I realize so much of my life is that: good enough. I tell myself I can’t have the thing I really want for some reason or another (money, time, talent) and I settle for good enough. I’m better than that.
So this act of redecorating is less about aesthetics and more about empowerment. We won’t waste or toss any of our current things. We’ll save it for the tiny houses we plan to build this year and gift ourself some new pieces of furniture. I’m not looking to stock landfills with more garbage. That’s our deal: as little waste as possible.
Upcycling, minimalism & buying less
We’re going through each room carefully analyzing what we like and what we don’t. If we don’t have use for it, we’re giving it away to someone who does. If we can repurpose it (and much of it we can), we’re saving it and refreshing it for the tiny home cabins. And we are only purchasing the minimum number of items that we LOVE. No settling and no over-buying. Just because it’s free doesn’t mean we HAVE to accept it.
In fact, we already had a SUPER successfully thrift find for a solid oak dresser we plan to refurbish and transform!
House tour
I fully intend to do a big AFTER reveal, but I regret not taking enough before photos early on. So here’s our home tour now before our refresh, which will affect every room in the house!
Living room home tour
kitchen home tour
hallway and guest bathroom home tour
Office home tour
Baby room home tour
Master bedroom home tour
Stick with me. I’ll do a blog and Youtube reveal as we go through everything in stages!
Ps. If you liked this post, you may like my memior, Embrace That Girl.
Pss. If you’d like to follow our journey on Youtube, subscribe to my channel: http://bit.ly/SubscribeToTheGreeneHome
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