Last Christmas, I depended heavily upon BuzzFeed for present ideas. They had a pretty good gig going, with an entire category of gift idea articles at any given time. You could go to “32 Things You Didn’t Know You Needed” or “Great Stocking Stuffers for Literally Anyone” or “16 Gifts for the Neighbor You Think Might be a Serial Killer So, Couldn’t Hurt.” I can’t remember if that last one (or any of those, for that matter) was verbatim, but it sounds close enough.

Anyway, so what I obviously did was end up buying a lot of these things for myself and “my family.” And one of those things was a set, that became six or more sets, of these amazing hangers. BuzzFeed’s Heather Braga headlined about it in such a way that how could I not give them my money:

These Velvet Hangers Will Save You So Much Closet Space (So You Can Buy More Clothes)

Marie Kondo is crying tears of joy somewhere over your decision to buy these.

So anyway I bought some, and then I had to buy more. Because what these hangers really did was make me notice how much more responsible my closet looked with matching hangers. And what we had was a nice ensemble I like to call “every kind of 88-cent hanger set Walmart ever had, in every color.” So I piled all of the rejected hangers on the spare room bed for a couple of months until my son and his girlfriend came to visit, and then I tried to give them all to them because I’m a really thoughtful mom who loves them.

They politely declined.

“All of our hangers match,” Hunter told me gently, in the tone one would use when dealing with someone of lesser intelligence while not wanting to hurt their delicate feelings.

How is it that I had a kid who, at 23, already has matching hangers when I, at 44, needed a BuzzFeed article to tell me that it was a pretty cool little inadvertent mood boost? If I spent any time trying to figure that out, I’d have to look at all the other things he did more responsibly and much younger than I, and there’s simply not that much time, even during these current days of so much time.

As I’m here in my home for a lot of (all of) hours every day, I’ve definitely had some time to appreciate the things that I have, and hanging clothes on these matching hangers, for whatever reason, brings me joy. It doesn’t take a whole lot of time, as I’m mostly wearing a robe as you may recall me mentioning before, but here we are.

Also, yesterday Josh and I took to the empty river near our house for a quick (very quick, the water was moving crazy fast) kayak jaunt, and it was beautiful. For the first time in maybe ever, we didn’t stop at the gas station to get drinks and snacks first. We took reusable bottles. We picked up some trash we found on the way. And it seriously seemed, in that time, like maybe this isolation was better for everyone.

Today, back in my home, I’m trying to remember that. If nothing else, this mandated time off, this work furlough, and this scaling back in all ways of necessity has provided a great lesson in what I need and what I don’t. So I’m grateful for my hangers and my house (every day I find myself face down on a spot of floor for one reason or another, usually existential dread though, and that makes me notice how much that spot needs dusting/deep cleaning, so I’m doing a little bit of that per day too, and how can that be a bad thing really) and being a helper from afar. I’m super bummed to turn down invitations to do social distancing dates, or not to float with friends, but it’s for the best if it’s getting tiny spots of my floor cleaner every day. Plus, I finally got to see The Graduate yesterday, and holy cow what a bananas movie that was.

Hit me up with your simple joys and homebound entertainments! I’ll be here, on the floor, if you need anything.