It all starts here!

A Scottish man once gave me a wonderfully descriptive word, a 'gersinter'.  We’ve all got one (go on admit it) – it’s the place where all those things you don’t really know what to do with ‘gersinter’ (say it with a Scottish accent and you might get it…no?...goes inta, into? Ha ha!).  It might be a drawer in your kitchen, a cupboard in the spare room or even the spare room itself!  You’re probably asking what this has got to do with anything – good question, I’ll try and explain.

A bit earlier this year, I saw an email from Ikea inviting people to apply for the #liveLAGOM project.  I read the blurb, sounded interesting and had a philosophy I liked, so I thought “why not?”, bashed out an application, then lost all hope of ever hearing about it again.  Then out of the blue, I got an email saying I’d been successful.  To quote Wallace & Gromit, cracking!

I went along to the induction, dreading that they’d ask me to talk about what I’d written on the application (couldn’t remember a thing).  Thankfully they didn’t and I had a lovely evening, eating Swedish buffet (most importantly), talking about our home, who lives there (me, husband, toddler and cat, just in case you were wondering), Lagom and what it might mean for each of us.  We were asked to make a New Year’s Resolution, something that would start us on our Lagom journey and challenge the way we live a little.

WARNING!! This paragraph is a bit sentimental so skip to +++ below if you want to…over the last 4 years, there have been a few events that have changed the way I view life forever.  In 2013, I was made redundant and then my sister died suddenly; both things forced me to look at myself deeply and wonder “what am I doing with my life?”.  This led, in a roundabout way, to having our daughter in 2015, after 15 years of being married - yeah, we were NEVER having kids!  And there’s more stuff that happened, and is happening, that leads me, eyes forced open, staring, quite frankly a little bit scared, into the future thinking what is the most important thing in life.  Not stuff, not money, but time and connection.  Time to spend with people you care about, to do things you love and connection with people, life, the world on a deeper level.  So I had the idea for my resolution, I needed to make space for all of this in my life, but how? 

+++ (You’ve made it past the sentimentality, you’re safe!)  So, back to the gersinter…in my house, it’s a whole room, or two if I’m honest, ok, if I’m really honest it extends a little beyond that.  All this stuff is getting in the way of how I want to spend my time, so I decide my resolution is to claim some of my space back and resurrect a hobby that I love and which also allows me to use/reuse some of this stuff; I’m going to clear a room and create myself a sewing room **deep joy**!  I’m envisaging homemade clothes for the toddler, beautiful things for my house, handmade gifts and just useful stuff…or maybe it’ll just be mending those things that have sat in the gersinter for a year or so, ha ha!  So I’m ready to get started, you’re welcome to pop back and see how I’m doing.

So, ok gersinter, you’re history **rolls up sleeves**, I’m heading in…