Terrific Tax Return and Super Saturday

I have been sick the last few days. I stayed home from work on Friday because I felt so bad, and will be home again tomorrow because I feel so bad. But Saturday, for some reason, I didn't feel so bad, so I did a couple of things around the house, and ran a few errands, which I will tell you ALL ABOUT in a moment, and consequently made myself sicker.

I am completely unable to take it easy any time I am home, even when I am sick, unless I am so out of it that I can't get out of bed. On Friday, I was running a temperature and miserable, so I sat on the sofa watching "Friends" on Netflix, sniffling and coughing, and knitting on the sleeve of a sweater than I am making. When I got bored with the sweater, I decided to take the opportunity to e-file our taxes. Yes, that is correct, I did our taxes while running a fever. Because Steve is a student, we will be get a very generous return, which we will use to get new glasses and running shoes, a laptop for Steve to use for school, and pay off a bunch of credit cards (yeah!). Once the taxes were done, I decided that since I had the laptop out, I would go ahead and place an order with Bramble Berry for my soap making supplies (I recently decided that I wanted to try my hand at making our own soap). Feeling satisfied with accomplishing so much in spite of all the dripping and moaning, I spent the evening being super-lazy.

On Saturday, Steve and Dharma went to a Girl Scout Father-Daughter bowling event. Girl Scouts paid part of the cost, and a snack was included, so it was a nice, inexpensive way for them to spend the afternoon together. I had the house all to myself, which is very rare. Even though it was partly sunny and would have been a great day to do laundry and hang it on the line, we were out of laundry detergent, so I didn't get to do laundry (waaah). I had also planned to go for a nice long run, but since I am sick, that obviously didn't happened either. Since there is no way we can afford to go to Washington, D.C. again this year for the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile Run, I was planning on doing my own anniversary 10-miler on the day of this year's race. I had planned to kick off my training this weekend, but ... sick!

Anyway, rather than taking it easy, since I have been sick, which would have been the smart thing to do, I decided to put my canning supplies that I rescued from under the sink into the cabinet above the refrigerator. I only use them about once a year, so this cabinet is a good place for them, since it is hard to get to without getting out the stepladder. When I climbed up the stepladder to get to the cabinet, I saw that the top of the fridge was really super dirty. So I pulled out that industrial-size bottle of Mr. Clean that I found under the sink and started cleaning. I finally opened the cabinet, which I don't think we have opened in years, and found some antique dishes, and old phone with missing parts, and some walkie-talkies (what? why?). I tossed the phone (since it was missing the actual part that you talk into), put the walkie-talkies into a bag to give to some friends, cleaned out the cabinet, and returned the antique dishes to it. Then, I put all my canning jars and supplies into the cabinet. I also located my Christmas cookie cutters and put them in the cabinet as well.

On top of the cabinet, I found these mid-century trays, which I cleaned up, and will hang on the wall:

and a cool wooden fish mobile, which I cleaned up and hung upstairs in the bathroom for the time being.

After the cleaning spree, I heated up some bean soup for lunch. This is the same bean soup that I made last Sunday. It has gotten yummier as the week has gone along. I also used the tortilla chip pieces in the bottom of the bag to make mini-nachos to go along with my bean soup. It was tasty, and perfect for someone who has a cold - warm and soothing.

Then, I spent a little time playing with my kitty Fifi. Bridget, another of our kitties, joined in as well. Last week, Steve did some cleaning in the attic and threw out a cat bed belonging to our kitty Allister who died a few years ago. The bed was dirty from being in the attic, and had a tear in in, but otherwise was in great shape. I pulled it out of the trash, and washed it and hung it on the line to dry. Then, I got out my sewing kit to mend the tear. Before I even finished mending it, Bridget had jumped into the bed, curled up and gone to sleep. I had to sew very carefully to avoid sticking the sleeping kitty! When Steve came downstairs, I pointed to Bridget and said, "And you were going to get rid of this!". This story doesn't really have anything to do with me playing with the kitties on Saturday, except to illustrate how cute they are!

When Dharma and Steve got home, Dharma and I loaded up the car with donations for Goodwill. I had several errands I wanted to run while we were out. First we stopped at Plato's Closet. Dharma had an LL Bean backpack that she wanted to see if they were interested in. As it turns out, they only purchase backpacks around back-to-school time. We looked around the store anyway, and Dharma found a shirt that she liked for $8.

After Plato's Closet, we went over to Goodwill, where we dropped off the donations, including the backpack. Then, we went inside to do a little shopping. I was looking for a Pyrex measuring cup to use for my soap-making adventures. Alas, I did not find one, but I did find a great pale pink J Crew pullover sweater. It was 100% cotton which is my favorite, because it doesn't get too stuffy, and all it needed was some laundering. And the best part was that it was $6. J Crew sweaters that I have seen online start around $60 and go up from there, so the pink sweater came home with me!

After Goodwill, we went across the street to JoAnn Fabrics. I wanted to get some paper for my running scrapbook. (I like to scrapbook all my running bibs along with pictures from the races and events that I do.) They were having a 40% off sale on scrapbook supplies, so I selected the paper that wanted, then headed over to the yarn. I wanted to get three skeins of 100% wool yarn to make wool balls for the dryer. (I also need a pair of pantyhose for this project, which I never buy, but I rescued a Halloween pair that Dharma was donating to Goodwill.) The yarn was not on sale, but I had FOUR 50% off one regular priced item coupons. I was able to use three of the coupons for the yarn, and I gave the last one to Dharma for a necklace that she liked. She used her own money, and learned the lesson of how there is more money left at the end of a transaction when you have a coupon.

After JoAnn, we went to J.C. Penney's. Dharma has a store credit that she got from returning some Christmas presents that didn't fit. She wanted to look for shoes to go with her spring "piano recital" dress. She has learned that when she uses her own money for clothes, I am somewhat more lenient with what styles she can purchase. They didn't really have any spring shoes in yet, but she talked me into wandering down to the juniors area. By this time, I was pretty tired and cranky. After five minutes of aimless browsing, I announced that we needed to go.

The last stop of the day was at Rite Aid. I had a fistful of coupons for body wash, shampoo, conditioner, and hair color. I was particularly jazzed about the hair color coupons. I had a $2 manufacturer's coupon, a $1 off store coupon, and another $2 rewards coupon, so I got $5 off the box of hair color. With the other coupons, I saved a total of $11.27. I also got some isopropyl alcohol ( for first-aid and soap-making purposes), a little spray bottle (to use with the alcohol for soap making), and some brown shoe polish to restore my awesome 14 year old brown shoes.

We finally made it home, and ordered a pizza (I had some coupons). Even though the pizza was more than I would have liked, Steve picked it up so we didn't pay for delivery, and I got 25 points on my deals account, which means I can get a free pizza later this month.

The day did not end on a high note though. I put my new J Crew sweater in the wash, and moved the clean wet clothes that were in the washer to the dryer. I turned the dryer on, and it said, "Click!" and nothing happened. That means that the fuse has blown AGAIN. The last time we replaced it, I was going to order some more, but I forgot, so we have no fuses. This means we have no dryer for at least a week! Of course, the weather has now changed, so I won't be able to hang clothes on the line either! I was able to go to Amazon and immediately order some more fuses, but of course it will take a week for them to get here. I also ordered some A/C filters while I was there (as I can get them in bulk and they are cheaper), and a Pyrex measuring cup, so I guess all wasn't lost.

All in all, it was a very productive Saturday. Of course, I am paying for it today, because I overdid it and now feel horrible! And probably no one cares about all the boring things that I did over the weekend, but decluttering, simplifying, and living and shopping frugally are all new and novel concepts for me!

Everything Under The Kitchen Sink

Hello, everyone! It's time to play What's Under Jill's Kitchen Sink?

(Theme music. Cheers and applause from the audience.)

So, some of you may remember that I was planning on cleaning out the cabinet under my kitchen sink. I know, I know, my life is wildly exciting and glamorous. Don't be jealous.

Well, I didn't get around to it the day that I mentioned it, but I decided to tackle it after dinner tonight. I can honestly say that I haven't really cleaned out from under the kitchen sink since we moved into the house 12 years ago. My husband, however, has cleaned it several times, as we have had some intermittent leaking pipe issues under there (so stop those gagging noises right now!). Still, over time, it has become a black hole filled with half-empty bottles of cleaners and insecticides, plastic bags, old flashlights, extension cords, and other things that I couldn't even remember.

Here is the BEFORE picture:

This picture doesn't do justice to the GIANT MESS THAT LIVES UNDER THE SINK. I pulled everything out into the floor, so that I could, you know, fully appreciate the mess.

Let's just take a look at some of the items that I discovered. Clockwise from the top, we have:

• two boxes of baking soda
• one box of kitchen garbage bags
• one box of yard garbage bags
• a yucky plastic bowl
• a super-old tub of plant food
• canned air
• super-old bottle of plant pesticide
• hangers for the towel warmer in the bath room
• a plastic shelf from the refrigerator that we have never used
• Swiffer Steamboost pads
• drain snake
• three almost empty bottles of insect spray
• carburetor cleaner
• a half-full, industrial-sized bottle of Mr. Clean
• some miscellaneous canning supplies
• my personal favorite - a license plate from Washington state (numbers blurred out in the pic)
• my second favorite - a PAPER bag full of PLASTIC bags
• more plastic bags
• a really rusted and gross glass shelf from the refrigerator
• a mop sponge pad for a mop we no longer own
• a 6-outlet adapter/converter thing
• three rolls shelf paper that were there when we moved in(!)
• an old t-shirt (to use as cleaning rags)
• two packages of plastic dropcloths
• liners for a Litter Genie that we no longer own
• a small bottle of camping soap that was mostly dried up
• a broken sink sprayer hose
• an empty disposable fire extinguisher
• some disgusting old rope
• a bunch of expired packages of wet wipes
• various receipts, labels, etc.
• other long-forgotten or unidentifiable things

Not pictured - dishwasher detergent, pet comb, and complete and unopened canning starter set (SCORE!)

Yes, all that was under the sink. Here, Fifi investigates the GIANT MESS.

I bagged up all the extra plastic grocery bags and took them out to the car immediately, so that we can recycle them next time we are at the grocery store.

Here are some of the things that got tossed into the trash. I made sure the fire extinguisher was fully discharged.

Not picture above in the "tossed" pile - the yucky glass refrigerator shelf. I considered donating it, but it was so rusty and gross - ick! I also recycled the plastic shelf. We've never used it, and honestly, I am not even sure how it fits in the fridge. Also, the license plate was disposed of properly according to Washington and Tennessee requirements. And I tossed all the expired wet wipes.

Only two items were selected for donation (most stuff got tossed or recycled).

I am keeping the canning stuff, but it was all quite dirty. I had to toss some of the lids and rings, but I am running all the jars, funnels, etc. through the dishwasher. I don't know if you can tell from the photo, but the woman on the box bears a strong resemblance to Amy Poehler.

Here is the freshly scrubbed cabinet. Notice how the previous home owners were kind enough to "floor" the bottom of the cabinet with vinyl flooring that matches the rest of the kitchen.

And here is the final result! I returned the garbage bags, dishwasher detergent, baking soda, Mr. Clean, Swiffer pads, cleaning rags, and a few plastic bags to the cabinet (the plastic bags are neatly contained in the P.F. Chang's bag. Yes, I know - plastic bags in paper bags - maybe that's a thing in our house). There was enough room left in the freshly cleaned cabinet that I was able to store the kitty litter, puppy pads, and cat box liners under there as well! These were previously "stored" on the other side of the kitchen, where they total blocked access to a lower cabinet.

Upon completion of this project, I dragged my family into the kitchen to admire the beauty and elegance of the new sparkling clean under-sink cabinet. They were so impressed that they hoisted me on their shoulders and carried me around the kitchen nodded politely.

Now your turn. Have you ever experienced inordinate satisfaction from a simple decluttering project? Please share in the comments area below.

Declutter Holiday!

This weekend, we went visit my parents in East Tennessee. My dad retired from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and they live just outside the Oak Ridge city limits. Now, as you may recall from previous posts, Oak Ridge is the location of the nearest Holiday Bureau! So you know what that means ... DONATION TIME!

We have been gathering toys, holiday decorations, stuffed animals, and so forth for several months now with the anticipation of taking them to the Holiday Bureau. We had two plastic totes of Christmas ornaments, a black plastic bag of more Christmas ornaments, two small Christmas trees, a plastic tote of holiday lights and yard decorations, a black plastic bag of stuffed animals, a plastic tote completely filled with my Groovy Girls, a plastic tote of my daughter toys, several holiday-themed tins (the kind popcorn comes in), and an eight-place setting of holiday tableware, including serving bowl, salt and peppers shakers, sugar and creamer, and a butter dish. (There are probably some other things that I am forgetting.)

When we loaded the car, it was literally stuffed with the donations! The trunk was full, we packed things around my daughter in the backseat, and I had to hold our suitcase on my lap because there was no room for it anywhere else. My husband was the only one who had a little room, since he was driving.

I had planned to take pictures of the giant pile of stuff that we were donating, but I forgot before we loaded it into the car. We arrived at the Holiday Bureau, I was so excited, that I forgot again, but take my word for it - it was a lot of stuff. The folks at the Holiday Bureau were so helpful unloading everything, and so nice and sweet, assuring me that my Groovy Girls would make some little girl very happy, and that all our donations were much appreciated. It was a wonderful experience, and I can't recommend the Holiday Bureau enough. They do wonderful work in the community!

After dropping off the donations, we spent a lovely weekend with my parents. I have made a resolution to myself to get all the stuff that my parents have been "holding onto for me" out of their house. They have plenty of room, and their house is quite large, but I am a grown woman and there is no reason why my clutter should be cluttering their house! My mom told me that there were six boxes in the basement of my stuff, so I spent Saturday afternoon going through them. The boxes included letters from friends that I have lost touch with (or sadly don't even remember!), newspaper clippings, school awards, schoolwork, high school memorabilia, college memorabilia, and old bills and cancelled checks from the early 90s. I also found a pristine $2 bill, postcards from Yugoslavia from the 1970s (with stamps), and a cool "friendship sheet" from my pen-pal days as a kid. (Friendship sheets were so neat, for those of you who probably don't know what they are. You started the sheet, sent it to a pen-pal, they sent it to one of their other pen-pals, and so on, until it was full. Then the last person sent it back to you. My friendship sheet had been to Denmark, England, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Poland, Spain, and several states, before coming home to me.)

To deal with the boxes, I made four piles - shred, recycle, trash, and keep. At the end of the afternoon, there were only two and a half small boxes left. I packed them up neatly, and put them back in my parents' basement for now. We don't yet have a place to put them at our house until we clear out some more stuff. My plans are to scrapbook the newspaper clippings, ticket stubs that I saved, memorabilia, and that kind of thing. Some of the things, I am not sure what to do with, and others I will likely get rid of when I go through them again.

On Sunday, we went to a wonderful service at the First Methodist Church in Oak Ridge, where we also ran into some friends from when I was a kid. Then we spent the afternoon playing board games before heading home. It was a wonderful weekend, in which I got to do many of my favorite things - spend time with my family, play board games, and declutter.

Unraveling the new year

The new year is just over a week old, and I return to work on Monday. I have been on vacation since January 1. I like to take time off the first week of the new year, to look back over the previous year and evaluate my accomplishments and my failures, to plan ahead for the year to come, and to just relax, reflect, and rejuvenate. Also, people tend to be cranky at work during the first week of the new year - everyone has gone on a diet and all there is a conspicuous LACK of Christmas goodies in the kitchen. I give everyone a week to settle down into their routines, then I quietly slip back into my office the second week of the year.

During this year's break, I had planned to get some major decluttering done. Unfortunately, the first several days of my vacation, I had a cold accompanied by several (or one long) migraines. Needless to say, I have not gotten a whole lot accomplished, but that's OK. I tacked a couple of small but tough decluttering tasks. One of these was going through my collection of Groovy Girl dolls. I have been putting this off for quite a while, because all these little smiling dolls make me so happy. For those of you not familiar with the Groovy Girls (by Manhattan Toy Company), here is a picture of Groovy Girl Kelsey:

Now, interestingly enough, I am not a doll person at all. I didn't play with dolls growing up - I preferred Legos, Lincoln Logs, and Tinker Toys. My daughter got Kelsey as a present on her first birthday. She played with her quite a bit, but I just fell in love with her sweet little smiling face. Over time, Kelsey's "friends" came to "live" with us as well. Every time we would go the store, one of Kelsey's friends would come home with us. But they didn't "live" in my daughter's room; they lived in my room. I even built a special shelf to keep them on. They quickly outgrew the shelf, and have been on top of my chiffarobe for some time now, though I have not added to the collection in years. I noticed a couple of months ago that they were covered with dust, to the point that you could barely see them. It made me sad and ashamed to think how I had neglected them after the joy they had brought to me. So this week, I removed all the dolls and place them in a laundry basket. I thought that I had about twenty, but I was shocked to discover it was closer to fifty! Some of them, I don't even remember getting! Many still had the tags on them. I took them all to the dryer, and ran them through on air dry with a dryer sheet to get the dust off. Then, I went through and cleaned any the were stained or dirty. Finally, I picked up each one and decided if I wanted to keep it or not. I used Marie Kondo's litmus test: "Does this spark joy?" I told myself I would keep five or six, but I ended up keeping ten. I realize ten is not very "minimal", but it's quite a bit better than fifty! The rest, clean and smiling, are in a black plastic garbage bag to be donated to the Holiday Bureau (placing them in a closed black plastic garbage bag for about a month will kill any dust mites, according to the Holiday Bureau.) The ones that I kept, I placed carefully on the now clean shelf, with a promise to appreciate them and keep them clean. Now, I can see ten little smiling faces in my room, rather than a pile of dust.

So even thought I didn't cart ten tons of junk to the curb this week, I did get some small, important tasks accomplished. For those of you who have decided to simplify your home and your life in 2015, here are a list of articles that I have found to be useful:

D is for Decluttering from Brooke McAlary's "Slow Your Home" blog

Getting Your Brain Back from Mr. Money Mustache's blog H is for Home, Not House from Brooke McAlary's "Slow Your Home" blog - this one really spoke to me!

2014 in 2014 Declutter Challenge Month by Month Guidebook from Brooke McAlary's "Slow Your Home" blog - she is preparing a 2015 version as we speak

Unraveling the new year by Susannah Conway at

The last of these is a workbook to help people determine their "word" for the year. This word will be used to keep you on track with your goals and the path you have set for yourself. I haven't had a chance to work through the book completely yet, but I have selected my 2015 word: LESS. I occasionally have moments of enlightenment, usually when I am running, or looking out the window at the sunset. During these moments, I feel happy, at peace, totally content. I am not worried about tomorrow, or replaying the day in my head. I am in the moment. I want to have more moments like that in 2015. And to achieve those moments, I need less - less clutter, less stress, less debt, less junk food, less stuff, less distractions, less of all the things that drag me down and keep me from having those golden contentment moments. With less of these things in my life, I hope to find that at the end of 2015, there will be room for more of the things that I truly value: time with my family, running, my music, charity, and fixing up our wonderful Blue Heaven.

Sock It To Me!

For Christmas, I treated myself to the Kindle version of "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing" by Marie Kondo. This book has been getting a lot of buzz on the minimalist blogs, and it sounded like it might have some interesting ideas. The author is Japanese and works with clients in Japan, where homes are smaller, so I thought she might have some great "small-space" tips. I have not finished reading it yet, but there does seem to be lots of good advice and perspective so far, and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.

I was happily reading along Saturday afternoon when I reached a part of the book in which the author advises the best way to store socks. She described her horror at learning that one of her clients kept all her socks in rolled "potatoes", the cuff of one sock turned over the other to keep them together, then stuffed unceremoniously into the sock drawer. The author explained that this method of storage stretches the sock cuffs, and stresses the fabric of the socks. Also, with your socks in potatoes, it is difficult to find what you are looking for within your sock drawer. The socks on top tend to get worn over and over merely because they are conveniently placed, while other pairs remain hidden and buried in the back of the drawer.

This thought really struck me! This is how I have stored my socks for years! I will put the two socks together, then roll the cuff of one over the other so they stay together it the drawer. However, even though I recently went through and culled out many, many pairs of socks, I can still barely open and close my sock drawer. I enjoy knitting my own socks, so I have several pairs that are thick and bulky, taking up the lion's share of the room in the drawer. Another drawback with the "potato" method that has always frustrated me is that I can never find my running socks, which are shorter and thinner, so they get lost in the drawer, while my compression socks, which come to the knee, tend to be omnipresent strings throughout the drawer.

After reading the section of the book about sock folding, I immediately decided to try it out. I went upstairs and emptied my sock drawer onto the bed.

Notice the bright pink compression socks at the bottom, and the bulky knit socks on the right. Next, I took each pair of socks and folded them neatly. I started with the running socks, which are primarily ankle socks. I placed each pair together and folded them at the heel. Next, I folded my knit socks and trouser socks. For these, I folded the toe up to meet the heel, then folded to upper part over that (so, two folds). For my compression socks, I folded them in half, then in half again. Then, I placed all my nicely folded socks in my sock drawer, each folded pair standing vertically.

Look how pretty! All my running socks are right in front where I can get them quickly when I am trying to dash out for a run. Compression socks are in the back, since I use them less frequently. Knit socks on the right, and socks for work on the left. I can SEE all my socks at once, and can tell if I need to do a wash to have clean work socks or running socks. The whole thing only took about five minutes.

You have no idea how happy my new sock drawer has made me! Several times when I was in the bedroom, I just opened it and admired my happy socks. On Sunday night, I had several freshly laundered pairs of socks to put away, so I folded them nicely and "filed" them in the drawer. Even though the drawer looks full, there was still plenty of room as the socks are not jammed together. The drawer opens and closes easily as well, with no socks getting caught. When I got ready for work this morning, it was very easy to find my gray socks that I wanted to wear!

I was so inspired that I also organized my underwear drawer. (Even though I happily took pictures, I won't post them here - no one needs to be looking at my undies, no matter how prettily folded they are! If you have any questions about how I folded stuff though, I will be happy to answer them.) I found when I organized this drawer, that I had lots more room, as the underwear folds down quite small. I also discovered that I needed to do another load of laundry (only two pair of work underwear left?!)

My success with my socks has renewed my simplifying and organizing enthusiasm. (I offered to organize my husband's and daughter's sock drawer, but they both declined.) It made me realized that our house does indeed have plenty of space, if we only utilize it properly.

2005 Was A Good Year

Last Friday night, we decided to have spaghetti for dinner, so I volunteered to cook (yes - I define boiling water as cooking!). While I was in the kitchen waiting for the water to boil, I decided to clear out a corner of one of the countertops. Out kitchen is very small with limited counter space, and yet has still managed to become a catch-all area in our home. This particular corner held a recipe box, two outdated phone books, several cookbooks, and more appliance / toy / equipment user manuals than I wanted to count! In the time it took for the water to boil, and the pasta to cook, I had recycled the phone books, sorted through the user manuals and recycled those for things that we no longer own, culled the recipe box, and selected unused cookbooks to take to the used book store. Though there is still too much in that corner, there is a lot less than there was before. It just goes to show that with even a few minutes, a bit decluttering and simplifying can be accomplished.

In sorting through all the papers, recipes, and user manuals, I found several interesting items - an old address book from when my husband and I first got married, and a whole stack of coupons that expired in 2005. Think about that for a minute. Those coupons were cut out and collected in 2005, placed in that corner of counter with the cookbooks and manuals, and have remained there, mostly undisturbed, for ALMOST 10 YEARS!! How is that possible?! We use those cookbooks and occasionally those manuals, and we HAVE cleaned that area of countertop in the past 10 years. But apathy, disinterest, something, kept us from going through those papers and throwing out those coupons. I wonder what else we will come across on our journey that will cause us to just shake our heads and say, "Why did we keep this?"

Has anyone else out there had this experience - finding things in their home and wondering why the kept them all this time?

Things I have found new homes for this week

Considering that I have not had a lot of time to declutter lately, what with the mad end-of-semester push for both my husband and daughter, I feel like it has been a fairly successful week. I have found homes for the following items this week:

• mechanical timer - previously used for an indoor greenhouse for starting seeds, I gave it to my supervisor at work for her in-office space heater that she worries about forgetting to turn off
• alarm clock - this was on my nightstand, but I have decided to use my iPhone as an alarm clock (the alarm tones are not so jarring in the morning!). I gave this to a friend who has a friend that is setting up a new apartment
• toothbrush holder shaped like duck - left over from when my daughter was little, this has been sitting by the kitchen sink for about 5 years (why?). It also went to my friend with a friend, who has kids
• stand mixer - barely used, this went to the same friend for his parents that like to cook
• blender - used but still in good condition, also went to my friend's parents

The mixer and the blender will free up almost a whole cabinet under the kitchen counter. Not sure what I will do with that space, but I am sure we will put it to good use!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just wanted to share a picture of our dining room table. We decluttered it yesterday for Thanksgiving, and actually had a meal at the table!

The only thing left from the piles of junk mail, magazines, old receipts, and things that just never got put away is a stack of library books, which my husband is returning to the library later today. Everyone agreed that it felt wonderful to sit at the table for a meal. And now we can have a games night tonight!

Also, Bridget, our Official Kitty of Thanksgiving, reminds you to give thanks for the blessings in your life, and pass the turkey.

13.1 Miles Is Not Half Anything

We have done very little renovating or minimizing over the past couple of months. Last spring, I competed in the Cherry Blossom Ten Mile Run in Washington, D.C. About a week later, in a residual runner's high, I registered for the Rock 'n' Roll Half Marathon in Savannah, Georgia. To that end, I spent most of my summer weekends either completing, or recovering from, long runs. Needless to say, this did not leave a lot of time, or energy, for home projects.

The race was on November 8, and I had an absolute blast!

The course wound through historic Savannah, and was flat as a pancake, except for one bridge at mile 1.

I had a time goal of sub-3 hours. I ran with the local Fleet Feet pace group, led by a wonderful woman named Crystal, and finished in 2:59:19. Hurray!

I have a few races planned over the next few months, but the longest is a 15K in February. I want to get some of the many projects that we have started, or that we have planned, completed, and I can't do this if I am out running 14 miles on the weekends.

Following the half marathon, I renewed my commitment to decluttering, minimizing, and simplifying. This morning, I spent some time going through the pile of papers on the dining room table. Most got tossed or recycled, and now there is a clean space to work on some Christmas gifts that I am making. I am continuing my journey into minimalism, reading everything that I can get my hands on, subscribing to blogs devoted to the subject. My favorite is Joshua Becker's blog Becoming Minimalist. I subscribed a few months ago, but just recently went back to the very beginning of his blog, to follow his journey from the start. It inspired me to document my own journey into minimalism within this blog, in addition to our home renovations and projects.

I also recommend:

Brooke McAlary's Slow Your Home
Leo Babauta's Zen Habits
Tammy Stroebel's Rowdy Kittens
Courtney Carver's Be More With Less

And for anyone looking for a wonderful, minimal Christmas gift, Courtney Carver is offering 31 Gifts That You Deserve, delivered daily to your email box. I have subscribed for my husband and I. We are going to try to give each other experiences rather than things this Christmas, as part of our move away from consumerism.

Somehow, even though I haven't had as much time as I would like to go through everything, just knowing that someday it will be out if our house has allowed me to mentally let go of all the feelings associated with all that junk. It's freeing, or at least the beginning of freeing. I already feel better just having made the decision to get rid of stuff - now, I just have to actually get rid it!

Where have I been? Well ...

I haven't posted in so long, because I was out enjoying one of the nicest summers we have had in a long while. Usually the summers in this area are hot and humid, and after the 4th of July, everyone just retreats to their air conditioning to wait for fall. This summer was different - it was a warm, soft summer, with temperate weather, beautiful sunny days, and firefly-filled nights. Our family took full advantage of it, and we were outside from the time we arrived home from work until dark every night that we could be. I didn't get too many projects done. But during the week, I had lots of nice evening runs, and saw many beautiful sunsets, and on the weekends, we relaxed and relaxed some more.

This week, it is starting to feel like summer is coming to an end. A cold front in moving through today which will bring fall-like weather, according to the weatherman. It has been hot and muggy the last two weeks (as opposed to all summer long, like it usually is), but I am still sorry to see this summer end.

So other than enjoying the summer, what have I been up to? Well! Let me tell you.

For a while now, I have subscribed to Joshua Becker's blog, Becoming Minimalist. Recently, I read his books Simplify and Clutterfree With Kids. Our house is small, and during the last couple of years I have been increasingly dissatisfied and perturbed by the feeling that I am living in a storage unit. Joshua and his family started out like us, and have now embraced minimalism. I found this idea very intriguing. I like the idea of clear surfaces, room to move about, and the ability to find things when I need them.

I took a week off work after Labor Day (just 'cause), and decided to spend some time going through ... DAH, DAH, DUM ... The Third Room. The Third Room is the third bedroom in our home. It is a sewing room / music room / storage room / dumping ground for all things we can't place elsewhere. I went through about ten boxes of things and got rid of almost all of it. I got rid of three garbage bags full of quilting fabric, which I donated to a local guild that makes quilts for the NICU. I got rid of an entire box of video tapes - many went in the garbage, but some are in a box to go to the used book store. Same with CDs. I found a box full of cassette tapes, 95% of which are now either in the trash or in the donation box for Goodwill (we still have a cassette player, so there were a few keepers). I got rid of two garbage bags of my own clothes (I never shop for clothes, so I am not sure how I ended up with so many!). One box had nothing in it but an old bag of potting soil. It's been stored safely in The Third Room for ten years! Why? Why? There is now a pile of things by the front door that have "exit strategies" - a box to go to the used book store, a box for Goodwill, a box for Freecyle, my old bass amp to go to Sam Ash, a box to go to ReTool (a used tool store), etc.

Getting rid of all this stuff is liberating and exhilarating. There is still tons to be done just in The Third Room, but I feel motivated to do it. The trick is the way you look at your things. If I open a box, and ask "What can I get rid of?", very little will actually be "gotten rid of". Most items will stay in the box. BUT, if I open a box, take everything out, and then ask, "What do I want to keep?", only a few things, if any, will go back in the box. I will find a home elsewhere for those things that I want to keep, that bring value to my life, and everything else gets an exit strategy. And the now empty box gets added to the growing pile of empty boxes.