clean home = clear mind

Pick up after yourself! This is not a hotel room with daily maid service ..... That for sure is the first good advise, and yes practice what you preach, so it had not been easy for Raton to actually do at home what he did for others. Living in a clean and organized house was always very cleansing, Throughout his work load he sometimes came across a couple of clients , who not only asked for a simple decorating job , but they truly needed help "cleansing" their home . They were either so busy with work or traveling too much, or some had a traumatic life change and turned depressed. There are many reasons why perfectly beautiful homes can turn upside down quickly.

Not that Raton was a clean fanatic , but he did like to keep his place tidy even just for the simple reason of when returning home from a long day, that his space was organized and neat. And by all means , he didn't mean super clean just not a mess , he disliked stumbling over things or see laundry and shoes spread out all over the place. And he realized the smaller a place was , the messier it got fast , so he got into to the habit to just touch an item once and placed where it supposed to be. Once he got used to this system , it was actually really simple and easy to stay on top of things . It turned into a habit. 

We all know people that are so organized and neat , that even the socks inside of their drawers were color coordinated , which can be a little bit annoying , but those people most likely never would run into the infamous onesy problem, meaning have many , many socks but of each pair just one . That continued to be a mystery in Raton's life , and to this day it was a phenomena that no one was able to explain. Again there is nothing better then a lived in house , so we don't want to take the cleaning and organizing tasks too seriously, but what we don't realize is, that it is actually much easier to stay neat and clean , then having to take the time to clean up.  

Once you stick to your little routine, you will see how easy it really is and how much better you will feel to have less clutter all over the place . And if you don't know how to go about it , you might want to continue reading this and will learn a thing or two, even though there is nothing to really to learn, there are really just normal procedures. And for the guys , don't think you are out of a sudden a girly man , because you are trying to have your apartment  tight. See it as normal , try to see it as sexy. The biggest turn off is when you walk into someone's flat and it's messy. It compares to the the broken window theory, it reflect that actually no one cares. 

Raton started his home "cleansing" project with a decent laundry bin , that way in the morning and evening he was able to place his worn cloth right where they belong. He got even one that separated the whites from the others  , he felt he was already one step ahead of the game , because nothing would fly around the house any longer. And they are actually really cheap, it doesn't have to be anything fancy. A foldable mesh laundry bin costs as little as $10 and they are so easy to find these days. There are fancy once as well of course, but that's really up to the messy person that wants one.  . 

Then a big help for him was to get into the habit to make his bed right after he got up or basically within 10 min of rising. Sometimes he had to squeeze in a run to the bathroom first, but the essential thing was it was done and the bed was made right from the beginning of his day . That way he didn't have to look at his messy bed , which immediately started to calm his mind and again he felt he had something accomplished without even really thinking about it. Nice crisp bed linen always seemed to help as well . If you like what you sleep in , most likely you will take care of better.  ....Yes, sometimes he did wish the days back when there was a full time house keeper on hand, which really just contributed to become lazy and feeling too superior . 

Certain things one have to do themselves, that includes flushing your toilet (you are not Diana Ross for crying out loud)   , brushing your teeth and picking up the basics after yourself. Yes, it is luxury to have a housekeeper once a week , every day is heaven , but it is the same like being driven around , sometimes it is just necessary that one is on their own . Helps to keep you grounded and independent. 

Raton did remember those advertisements in the magazines that promised the ultimate house cleansing experience , and oh boy on some days he was day dreaming about hiring someone for himself and not the other way around. Important for Raton was as well that he would get control over the cable and extension cord madness . Just looking at it made him confused and  puzzled . He thought there must be a way without it constantly looking like cable chaos. And yes , there are many solutions to take care of it, one just has to put the time and effort and it can be done very easy . . But how ? 

It was a picture perfect California fall day. Just warm enough without braking out in a sweat. He felt awkward during summer arriving to work all drenched in sweat. Today is was perfect and Raton enjoyed the walk to work like it was a stroll in the park. How lucky we are he thought. In Europe they were freezing already, all bundled up, dealing with the never ending rain. Every Sunday morning his mother would tell him on the phone about it. Not here, he smiled as he was walking in to the russian deli around the corner where he started working, helping to revamp a clients home, which had started with a rude awakening and served as a reminder how important a clean home really is. 

The first 3 days had nothing to do with revamping or decorating, it was trash removal, carefully combing through things and determine what needs to be thrown out and what would need to stay. 

Some mother had called asking the office if we can help her to decorate her sons home. He had fallen into some kind of depression, and she wanted him to spent Christmas in a nice and proper new home. Sure, no problem Raton thought, but she forgot to mention that her son was actually a dirty pig with three indoor cats and that he was a horder, so when Raton arrived at the house , he almost lost it over the unbelievable amount of trash and boxes and cloth laying around all over the place. 

The living room was so messy, that one could hardly see the furniture and the stinging smell of cat urin didn't make it any better. What a sweet man he was though , so grateful that someone had actually showed up trying to help him. At this point he said, he was so overwhelmed that he didn't know where to start, so he didn't start at all and the piles just grew by the day . So the first day was intense sorting our , organizing in piles determining what was trash and what were the treasures. And their were many treasures under all the filth, nostalgic old mini trains, frames, vases, jewelry. Some wonderful stuff he had not seen in months he said. Raton felt good helping the guy, he felt he was making a difference.

Raton was grateful that he was able to help this guy, but at the same time so sad, realizing that a traumatizing event had caused all this . On day three the enthusium had kind of stopped and his client ended up sleeping again for most of the time , which is a sign of deep depression. Raton had seen before in other people.  He was just hoping that clearing everything and make it nice and new would inspire , but at this point it wore out quickly. 

Day three was productive , by 4 o'clock Raton wrapped up and grateful that he was doing just fine . He maybe had a melancholic Sunday afternoon once in a while , but thankfully nothing like this . Sometimes it was good to see , how others really have it not so good and actually really suffer , so personal problems he thought he had might not be so big . It goes to show the importance to be healthy, physically and mentally and a clean and organized living environment for sure is the first step to success .  Clean home = healthy mind. Makes sense? 

by RATON (c) 

Today blog is sponsored by retro gallery , LA's finest glass gallery for over 20 years . 

just blog and have fun with it

How important is a daily routine?

Or any routine for that matter . How important is it? Is a routine holding you back from an  exciting and adventurous life or is a routine necessary to stay healthy and focused? 

Small triggers can lead to big changes , that is if you notice them . For Raton it seemed to work best to have and stick to a daily and weekly routine . That way his overloaded mind could at least make him do one thing at a time , it gave him guidelines on how he would get things done and be on time . A routine  created somehow the feeling of home and having a purpose. It seemed it was necessary to stay balanced and the beauty was, everyone could create their own routine, whatever fits their lifestyle. It was always when Raton was traveling or in between projects , that he got off his path without a routine.  

Routine is so important for your mind and for your body . It helps to balance your way of thinking and you therefore are able to be more productive and happy. But you don't have to force and live by the hour. Being aware what you would like your day to look like is almost enough. Well, and following up of course. So what really is a routine? How do you define it? The dictionary says it is a prescribed, detailed course of action to be followed regularly, a standard procedure, a set of customary and often mechanically performed procedures or activities. Does that mean shopping could be categorized as routine well ?  Or would it be more drinking a cup of red tea every day at the same time ? Moisturizing your body with your favorite body lotion in the morning ? Out of a sudden Raton could think of many things that he would consider as routine , but then he felt he would need to narrow it down a bit.



On a regular base he was happy , sad and somewhere in between. He felt while sticking to a more healthy lifestyle that yes , his life would become more stable and solid and less frantic , but at the same time Raton realized how stale and boring it could be to do every single day the same thing . 

Everything was running out of a sudden like a fine oiled machine for him . Get up at 7.30 in the morning , walk eyes half open to the coffee maker and quietly bickering to himself , how if he would have prepared the coffee maker the night before, he now would only need to push the button and how much more easy that would be right now. Talking to each spoon of coffee remained important to him , because that would determine how good the coffee would turn out that day . Then the walk to bathroom , then switching on the computer to check emails . The coffee was done by then , and now thinking became much more easier . For Raton it seemed no matter what, it would take at least one hour before he was completely there . He never could understand how some people just got up , showered, brushed their teeth and leave the house . Something would be missing he thought , and that was exactly the routine , Raton was trying to define .

 Puttering around for an hour in the morning, before really doing anything was it . That was what he loved to do and if he didn't have that , his day would be completely different .  Meditation in the morning made a big different for him as well even though he was better doing it with others in a class setting then by himself . Trying to meditate in the morning by himself most the time made him fall back asleep , and that was not a good way to start the day , waking up twice .

So bottom line, routines are different for everyone. Some run out the door in the morning right away , others fall back to sleep and so on.  Maybe we can describe and compare routines a bit with computer programming. For a computer a routine and subroutine are general and nearly synonymous terms for any sequence of code that is intended to be called and used repeatedly during the use of a program.  Similiar to how we are programmed to get through the day. Once we have developed a routine , days go by actually much more easy and faster.


Our main sequence of logic can branch off to a common routine when necessary. When finished, the routine branches back to the next sequential instruction following the instruction that branched to it.  So things we do that turn into a routine can be called  procedures as well ,  which is similar in meaning.

There are different types, levels and descriptions of routines , like routine activities which are completely mundane and almost boring , daily tasks we do all the time over and over again. Then there are routine decisions, which are  decisions we make on a regular basis and are obvious and require little or no consideration of an alternative. Routine administration are being used to run day to day organisations.

Learning about all these different angles of routines, Raton got actually so tired that after his delicious cup of morning coffee , he went back to bed for another one hour snooze . It showed him how important routines really are . They are   different procedures for each indiviuals , but make or brake how communities and groups are functioning. Without routines there would be chaos , he thought and fell back to sleep . Overall routines are a really positive thing, so are change of routines. Raton evaluated what he could change in his daily routine . Add more meditation , go to the gym , eat better , there were plenty of things that could make his life better . He and his friends would appreciate it.

by RATON (c) 


"The less routine the more life."
Amos Bronson Alcott