Hey friends, I thought today I’d just spend some time chatting about how life in isolation is really going around here. A brain dump of sorts. Maybe some of it will help you, maybe some of it will entertain you or maybe if nothing else it’ll distract you for at least 5 minutes. Since I haven’t written any of it yet, one can’t be too sure what’s about to come out but I’m going to hope for the best, ha!
My Life in Isolation
No Longer So Crazy:
I’m not sure how many of my online friends know this but my name is Laura and I’m a germaphobe. Hi! It all started 20 years ago when I gave birth to a child with many many life threatening food allergies. My world was no longer an easy care-free one. Suddenly I was constantly scoping out all the dangers that could harm my child. The more I discovered where these hidden dangers could be, the more diligent I became about getting rid of them. Anything he touched had to be wiped down constantly. And so that began a lifetime of constant vigilance that continues to this day. And that child is now grown and no longer even lives with me! Although in my defense, I now have a rogue immune system (thanks to an autoimmune disease) that requires me to take extra precautions.
I still wipe surfaces and use hand sanitizer immediately after anyone shakes my hand. I never touch public door knobs with bare hands or use someone else’s pen. And I have always carried wipes with me in my vehicle. Those holders in the side of your car are not meant for coffee cups. At least not in my world.
You can only imagine how much ridicule I’d get about these tendencies. Well welcome to 2020 where these crazy habits of mine no longer seem so crazy! And listen I won’t be sad if some of these extra precautions that everyone is taking these days stick around. Nope I won’t be mad about it at all.
Also with wipes becoming a rare commodity right now, keep a bowl of diluted disinfectant on your counter to wipe surfaces in your home instead. Works great! I change the water/cloth out every morning.
Isolation Diary 2020:
Next up is something I started doing thanks to my not so great memory. I wanted to come up with a way to document all the crazy that is going on in the world to remember years down the road when grand-babies are asking. And just for the record, I have no grand-babies yet. I’m just being prepared. It’s what I do. I’m also not a journaler (I’m pretty sure that isn’t a word but just go with it) and so I did the next best thing. I’m using a date planner to jot down notes on any given day. My husband got me a planner for Christmas, which was incredibly thoughtful, although why he assumed I didn’t already have one I’m not sure. I don’t think he gets the depths of my orgjunkieness (also not a word, oops).
Since I did indeed already have a planner (it was already December after all!), I decided to use the one my hubby got me as my Isolation 2020 planner. Although let’s be clear, I’m not planning anything, I’m just home. Day after day after day. Instead I’m just documenting what goes down in the world each day. Schools are closed, businesses shut-down, gas is so very cheap. You know that kind of thing. It’s working well. Now I just hope the grand-babies I don’t have yet appreciate it 🙂
Door Drops:
Turns out the funnest thing about isolation is leaving the house to be sneaky little elves that door drop on friend’s porches. I was looking for something to do to cheer my 13 year old son up and decided he 1) needed something to do 2) needed to get out of the house already and 3) needed something to smile about. The answer to all of these things you ask? Caramel popcorn! We have made batches and batches of the stuff. Then we package it up and drive around town dropping it on friend’s doorsteps. My son gets a huge kick out of ringing the doorbell and running. We like to see how many times we can get away without being caught. We’re pretty good at it although a few friends have spotted the dashing boy.
Here’s the yummy caramel popcorn recipe I used.
I purchased the cutest labels off Etsy and attached them to the bags of popcorn. Since the popcorn is homemade we do sign our names so they feel more confident about eating it. The whole germaphobe thing and all. No one washes their hands more than me! Well okay maybe doctors and nurses but you know what I mean.
Here’s what we’ll be doing next. How fun is this! And these Crush printables are FREE from Tip Junkie so feel free to crush your own door drops. It’s especially fun when you get to see your teenager grinning from ear to ear. And hopefully we’ll put a smile on a few of our friend’s faces as well 🙂
And I even got a door drop myself the other day from a friend which was fun. I love tulips so much!
If Not Now in a Pandemic, When?:
I’ve realized during all this home time at home that there are just some things I have no intention of doing. Because if it ain’t getting done, or used or eaten in isolation, it probably never will. Take this stack of unread magazines for instance. I collected my stash from all around the house and found 19 magazines that I hadn’t yet read. Ummm, some were as much as a year old. So okay now it’s your turn. Go now. Go collect all the magazines you might have lying around. How many did you collect? Now either give yourself a timeline to get them read or just cut your loses and door drop them to a friend who might like them more.
You could also do the same with your pantry. We all have stuff in our pantries that isn’t a favorite but you keep it just in case. Well now is just in case time and if you haven’t eaten something during a pandemic, chances are pretty good it’s never going to happen. Because if not now, when? That’s the question you need to ask yourself.
Organizing:
I’m also getting a little organizing done. I’ve been following along with my list of tasks I gave all of you. Didn’t see those two posts? Here they are again:
Organizing Projects To Do While Social Distancing at Home
5 More Organizing Tasks to Tackle at Home
I purged and organized my books by asking myself that question above. If I’m not reading it now, when will I ever? I added quite a few books to my donation station and then rearranged what was left. I normally keep books on the shelves attached to my dresser. I moved all my organizing/business books to my office and was able to get all the rest of the books down to one shelf. Yay! I can now use the extra shelf space for my pajamas.
Next I cleaned out my laundry room/storage area. In this area I have two shelves for my containers in waiting. I know that’s weird but please don’t forget that I’m an Organizing Junkie. It happens, I can’t help myself. As you can imagine, these two shelves were busting at the seams. I took everything out to sort and am letting go of all of this! Golly, that feels glorious. Yet hard. Definitely hard. But I purged until it fit. I follow my own advice. Most of the time 🙂
I also cleaned out my freezer so I know exactly what I have in there. I didn’t write down an inventory list though and am now really second guessing that. Did I mention my memory is not so good?
Hair Roots:
You know what I don’t have to remember or worry about? Roots! I do not have to stress about covering up roots because I have none. My whole head is grey and I don’t have to worry that my secret will get out. It’s already out and I proudly let my silvers freely fly! I know some of you may be panicking right now about those roots. Might I encourage you to embrace the grey? Here’s why and how I did it. It’s one of the best decisions I ever made!
I Miss Smiling:
If you were to ask me to name one thing I’m missing during all this, I’d have to say smiling at people and in turn getting smiles back. Like I really miss it. So I follow my son around the house smiling stupidly at him. But instead of smiling back, he looks at me like I have two heads and backs slowly out of the room. Apparently I’m creepy. Whatever.
So overall I think my life in isolation is going okay. Some days are for sure better than others. And some days I get more done than others. And in all honesty, some days just require me to take more naps. I haven’t been sleeping well at night so I listen to what my body needs and I don’t feel bad about it. We will get through this, one day at a time.
Now it’s your turn. Tell me how you are managing life in isolation right now?
Cathy says
Thanks for making me laugh about following your son (I have two teen boys so I totally relate) and the brilliant bowl of countertop disinfectant idea! Stay well!
Laura Wittmann says
Thanks Cathy!! The more it annoys him though, the more I want to do it. Oops 🙂
Linda says
What is in your bowl of disinfectant? I would like to do this too 🙂
Laura Wittmann says
Hi Linda, it’s just diluted Mr. Clean. It’s all I could find right now.
Linda S says
Thank you, Laura. You really blessed me with your words this morning. I appreciate your positive spin on our unusual circumstances!
Blessings to you and your family 🙂
Laura Wittmann says
Thanks so much Linda for stopping in to say hi this morning, I so appreciate the connection!!
Chris says
I love your take on door dashes! Great ideas! Could you please share what you are using as your disinfectant solution?
Also, you inspired me to journey to gray after your initial post on this a couple years ago. I only have a bit of gray around my face, but I’m not going back. Thanks for stepping out and showing us how it’s done!
Laura Wittmann says
Yay, that makes me so happy to hear!! Right now I’m just using diluted Mr. Clean, it’s all I could find.
Christine Wright says
Loved this article. I also love to organize. And I love to doodle art. So I color for 20 minutes and then clean out a drawer. Color 20 then coo k something. I have done so much coloring that I have reorganized my colored pencils 6 times. Right back to how I had them the first time!
Laura Wittmann says
Haha, love that Christine!
Cindy says
Christmas tinsel all year round on my head too, since in my late 30’s.
A few years ago one lady asked me where I got my grey streaks done and I told her its all natural and her response was ****
(sorry I had to sensor it as I don’t say those kinds of words)? needless to say she was a bit envious which is a nice compliment as I had nothing to do with the design. 🙂
Laura Wittmann says
That’s awesome Cindy. I often get asked too where I get mine done. I always answer “God did it” 🙂
Ann says
Hi Laura. Glad to hear you are doing well. Thank you for the popcorn recipe—can’t wait to try it. I get so many good recipes from you.
I am SO PROUD of you for purging all those organizing containers! Wow, that must have been really hard. I have a giant lidded bin of them in my basement, but then also found another stash in my recent Basement organizing project, and hope to re-org my giant bin to incorporate them, but in reality, I should purge a lot. Oh yeah, I also have a nested stack of larger bins too, inside of laundry baskets that get pulled out for pre-trip packing. Oh dear, I definitely need to purge. Thanks for the inspiration!
Laura Wittmann says
Glad to hear I’m not the only one Ann! Good luck with your purge 🙂
June DeHart says
Fun article. Great ideas.
Neena says
Loved reading about your transition to grey. Even before reading this I had decided that this isolation was the perfect time to take the same plunge and quit dying my hair. While I am considerably older than you, I had resisted the going grey process for some years now. I tend to have most of my grey right around my face, and much less throughout. This gives me a chance to see just how much I do have all over. Excellent tip about getting a toner. By the time my hairdresser is open again and I can actually get in to her, it may be about time for some!
Laura Wittmann says
Yay, you’ve got this girl!
Marcia (OrganisingQueen) says
Loved reading this post! Must be something in the air because I wrote a similar one on Wed last week.
I had all these plans to do all these things but I’m reading less because I’m working and cleaning more!
Your hair looks fabulous – i keep referring random people to that blog you wrote 🙂
xxxx
Laura Wittmann says
Awesome, I’m going to go check it out!