Life Beyond Hoarding

So as I might have mentioned, I'm 23 years old. I'm living in my own home relatively far away from all my family and friends. I have my boyfriend and my two dogs. We're not exactly rich. I work part-time from home (and am trying to get more into freelancing). He works full-time from an office. So when stuff breaks in the house, it's up to us to fix it. When it first started to get cold, we realized that our shower temperature left a lot to be desired. But we knew there was a temperature gauge in the shower itself. So, I lugged the tool bag upstairs and settled down on the floor and started looking up YouTube tutorials. It took me a while to get the shower handle disassembled, but once I did, that's when things got really confusing. I found the gauge and just could not get it to move. I tried for about half an hour, then went downstairs to take a breather and distance myself from it. My boyfriend went upstairs and took a crack at it, then I tried again. We just c...

I hate the "New Year, New Me" thing. I hate New Year's resolutions. A new year won't make it any easier to change your life, any easier to reinvent yourself. It's going to be hard no matter when you do it. There's no point in making resolutions that you won't follow and then feel guilty about breaking them. Just choose any day of the year, any day when the way you're living has become too much for you to bear, any day when you have the motivation, the urge, the drive to make the change. That's your new start. So many people are hungover on New Year's Day. Who wants to go to the gym when you were out late the night before? Who wants to clean the house or go for a run or eat a freakin' salad? No one. New Year's resolutions are set up to fail and when they do fail, you can tumble down a whole guilt spiral only amplified by the pressure associated with all of it. I didn't make any New Year's resolutions and I'm not living my...