If you read my last blog you know that I was going to continue to share the sequence of videos and blogs that led me to rethink how I decorated my home. I talk about the selling of my family home, and how I moved into a tiny apartment, and then downsized even further, but in light of Pam Young’s passing, I’ll put that on the back burner for now.
Today’s Blog:
Pam Young’s Motto was: “Make it fun and it will get done!” I’m sharing today from a *blog she wrote in October of 2019. She talked about a woman who challenged that motto.
The woman said something about fun not leading to happiness. Pam thought that happiness was the most important goal we can ever have (even more important than being organized), so she decided to think seriously about her definition of fun.
Pam’s use of the word “fun” can make us think that money was needed to enjoy life. We’re often lulled into believing that things that we see in brochures and commercials like vacations, parties, and expensive things are needed to have fun.
She wrote that the “brochure brand” of fun can’t make us happy. We have to be happy already, and we’ve all seen examples of this. There are many wealthy people, many celebrities, who can have anything in the world they desire and are miserable and in despair.
What Pam meant in her motto, “Make it fun and it will get done!” wasn’t about being hysterically happy about everything we do.
She said that “It takes practice,” but she assures us that it’s worth the work it takes to have joy in the mundane.
She wrote: “…it raises the bar on our happiness quotient.”
Pam developed the theory that we all have an inner child. (She first called her the inner brat but changed it.) Pam decided that her little girl wasn’t a brat, just an immature version of herself, the child version that is motivated by fun.
Here is an example of something she would have “Nelly” do. (that is what she named her inner child, after Nellie Olsen from the TV series “Little House on the Prairie.”)
She would get Nelly to pick out a really fun bedspread so that they loved to make the bed and set it up to look pretty. She let her inner child’s imagination take over when planning meals, grocery shopping, and even cleaning. She said that one day they imagined they were cleaning out George Clooney’s refrigerator! LOL
I’m going to stop here for now, because there is plenty to chew on here.
Can you think of something that you just can’t stand doing? Something that you can give a new spin to?
Here is what I’ve done in the past. I don’t like to do budgeting, keeping up with my bank account balance, and paying bills, but when I was a kid I loved to play office. I would use an adding machine and one of those receipt books and a ledger my father let me have, and I have a ball.
So, I just pretend to play office when I have to do “accounting” type stuff. I guess I’ve been doing a version of Pam’s inner child without even realizing it. 🙂
Is there a section of your house you don’t take care of? Could you take a look at that area and see if maybe your inner child could motivate you to do something fun with it?
Maybe an entranceway is cluttered. Would a nice new throw rug spruce it up? Maybe paint the door a fun color! You could get a wreath for the door too.
Make the little space a project and clean it thoroughly with the intention of making it lovely. Wash the windows, spray down the screens, wipe out the sills, wash and re-hang the curtains, or get some kind of fun window treatment for it. Do all of this with a childlike mindset and see if the work stops feeling like work.
This does not have to be expensive! Have you heard of “Opps Paint”? You can get a $30 gallon of paint for $7 at the local paint store or big box hardware store. They sometimes mix paint that is the wrong color or mixed it in the wrong base, then mark it down. There are often lots of colors and finishes to choose from!
For the window, you could use a large accent scarf you never wear, drape or fold it on a curtain rod, or use a sheer curtain that you already own and tie it back with some fun beads.
Let me know how you do!
With Love,
Kathy
The Tidy Tutor
