A Little Lesson In a Lot of Mold

It feels gooooood to be home!

As long as you’re not dealing with mold in every corner of your house, and termites leaving sand trace all over the wall.

I remember the first feeling that arose immediately as I walked in my apartment:

God, back to this old, nasty apartment. I can’t believe I still have to live in it.

It’s always the first thought that arises when I return home. It’s not the apartment per se. It’s really the fact that the states always make me soft.

Everything there is so comfortable.

• Sparkling clean houses

• A gadget for every need

• A TV in every single room

• Perfectly controlled temperature

• Every different type of cleaning machine

It’s so convenient.

I live in an apartment where the toilet does not flush properly, the door is held together by duct tape and there is no couch or TV.

Yet it feels like I always have more time. I can’t remember a single meaningful thing I did with the time I saved in Maryland.

And I always notice a stark difference in my discomfort threshold.

The longer I stay in the states, living in these perfect houses, the quicker I succumb to stress over little things.

I incessantly want to fix everything to perfection.

My mom is that way. The house she bought in Maryland was once her dream home. Yet just last week, before I left, she told me:

I miss my new house in Vietnam. There, it is perfect just as I like it. This house is full of clutter and things I do not want.

It makes you wonder…

Lesson of the week

After cleaning literally everything, I learned this about myself:

I’m kind of a hoarder

I found so many things stowed away that I don’t remember owning.

Silly, silly things that I’ve carried from apartment to apartment (like the bag of oats) and never touching them.

So I am currently on a mission to throw away as many things as possible.

I once heard on The Minimalists podcast this trick:

I’m going to implement that with the time period of 2 months.

Can you get rid of one thing you’re holding onto that no longer serves you?

Content of the week:

Zero. Zilch. Nada

I haven’t written anything this week except this newsletter. I’m writing from a vacation house on the other side of the island. (Yes, I did come back from vacation to be on another vacation)

This is my current view (live)

I will…uh.. get to it as soon as I get back. (I promise this is the last time I say this. I have nothing else planned for the next 2 months, I swear)

Quote of the week:

-A