Sweet Solutions

My own home was feeling like it needed freshening up. I started with the bathroom. In dream symbolism, the bathroom is a place where you can be your authentic self, cleanse and release what is no longer needed. I didn’t consciously choose this room first for it’s symbolic meaning, but I am going through quite a bit of transformation and change. Carl Jung called it the ‘process of individuation’; when you let go of old conditioned roles that no longer fit who you are and become your true authentic self. So it kind of makes sense to start with the bathroom.

To begin, I removed everything and spackled and sanded the walls. Then I painted them a nice, clean white.

I chose to put back only the essentials. I changed the location of the bookshelf, putting only books of poetry on it. It’s a small shelf so there’s only room for three : ‘Dreamwork’ by Mary Oliver, ‘Songs of Innocence and Experience’ by William Blake, and ‘The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam’, translated by Edward Fitzgerald. (The latter purely as a tribute to my grandmother whose copy lived throughout my entire childhood in the guest bathroom, and which, I have to say, I never really read.)

My goal was to keep all objects off the windowsill, or floor if possible, and to make this tiny room feel less cluttered.Minimizing the amount of items that draw attention to themselves, including artwork (which is an essential, but less is more), will increase the sense of peace and calm.

I took out a little table where all the books ended up. Took out an antique enamel pitcher that served as a toilet brush holder and hung the brush behind the toilet on a hook out of sight.

Now the toilet paper holder is the only thing on the floor.It’s a cool old wire thing and creates a kind of sculpture out of the roll. It requires no effort to add or remove a roll. So there’s none of that aggravating being- the- only- one- to- change- it going on.

The extra toilet paper is stored as a kind of sculpture, too, in an old wire item that I found somewhere. It makes a pleasing visual out of a mundane item.

There’s more here…I also went through all the medications, lotions and potions, tossing the outdated and the only- used- once’s; even when they might be useful ‘someday’. Meanwhile I was asking myself, what am I really going to use, what products are really working, which do I plan to invest my time and money in in the future? I’m trying to narrow down to basics there, too.

Everything we bring in requires energy on some level. Items take up space and require cleaning and organizing and space management.Visual items require our mental attention.If we’re trying to create a calm environment keeping it to a minimum is necessary.It’s hard to do and takes constant vigilance, sometimes even a complete overhaul. But I have to say, my bathroom feels great and it feels much bigger.