Feathering My New Empty Nest

I am 61. I've not been looking forward to it . I'm not entirely sure why. Mostly, I suppose, because neither of my boys are here at home and I'll be spending the day alone. Although I am not alone. I have the delightful company of jack and Jenny who will follow me around the house, beg for treats, complain if their food is late and sit on my legs in bed. David has bought me Louis Theroux's autobiography which I have devoured and am nearly half way through and it's not even lunchtime. I ate chocolate and toast for breakfast and have had 2 cups of coffee already. Both Theo and Max phoned this morning. They're good boys although Max , it turned out is in London visiting his girlfriend but I must accept that girlfriends have more allure than mothers, and I do. I'll be turning up the Foo Fighters to 11 and blasting their songs at the top of my lungs with nobody to complain. I am in my Pjs. Enough said. It is a good day .. so far.

The root of most non-essential spending is unhappiness apparently . I must have led a very miserable life in that case. Our home is full of Stuff. I have spent most of this summer getting rid of a lot of it but I realised I was just becoming more adept at shoe-horning it all into the available remaining square inches of space. I have 3 full boxes ( extra large ) of storage containers . Ironic ? It has made me utterly miserable dealing with it all to the point of despair. I have to keep reminding myself of the motivation behind this life-changing exercise. To free up time and space and to live a simpler life. Every single item has required some sort of a decision - keep , re-home, chuck, donate, gift . It has been exhausting . A real 1st world 21st century problem I realise. With half the world starving and millions homeless, here I am wondering whether I really need 8 calculators . OK , so I'm a maths teacher but I can only use one at a time. In all of this mess I have only giv