Re-Reading "It's All Too Much"

I just picked up Peter Walsh's "It's All Too Much" from the library. It really struck a chord with me when I first read it. Now, re-reading it, it feels like I know it. The questions to ask have become second nature. Do I love this? Does my family use it? How will I feel if I give it away?

Less Cluttered

I noticed today that the main floor of our house feels...well, uncluttered. Yes, there's the detritus of everyday living--the rest of today's paper, a few dishes still to be cleared from dinner, toys here and there. But on the whole, if a friend called and said they could stop by in about half an hour, I'd say "sure!" and do a quick tidy and then make a pot of coffee.

It's a good feeling, yes it is.

Stuff

I haven't been feeling as attached to things recently. Stuff that is. Inanimate objects. It's a subtle shift and I don't know the why of it. It just is.

CarPort-O-Rama

Today we all pitched in to clean our carport. Due to the slope of our driveway, random garbage along with leaves, piles up along the edges of the carport. I park my car there, and we store the kids' bikes, the grill, the cat litter and the hose there. So when the junk and leaves and general crapola piles up, it makes parking a challenge.

Sweetie pulled my car out of the way, then we dug in. We swept out the leaves and threw away the garbage. Broke down some random cardboard boxes that had been tossed out there. My car has a minor oil leak and I poured some clay cat litter on the oil spot.

It's much nicer now and it only took us ninety minutes. No pictures, forgot the befores and now am too tired to go out and take afters.

Crazy Ads

Sorry about all the crazy ads. There's some blogger setting that's gone wonky on me. Working on a fix.

Clutter Free? I don't think so

Have you heard of ClutterFreeBox? It's a service that stores your stuff by the box (rather than by the storage unit). You can just fill up boxes with your clutter, ship them off (for a fee) and have the company store them (for a monthly fee per box). Need the stuff back? They're happy to ship it to you, again, for a fee.

This is a great money-maker for ClutterFreeBox, but do you really want to pay and pay to store items you probably don't actually need to own?

Declutter and you won't need services like these.

Organizing Coupons

Since I've started doing the Drugstore Game, I've acquired many coupons. Thus far, I've kept them in their inserts, intact, rather than clipping them all out. This is because the deal sites where the truly compulsive Drugstore Gamers post all note which insert and which date has the right coupon for the deal they mention. By keeping my inserts intact, I only had to flip to the right page in it.

However, the stack had gotten too high. I decided to try a nice easy low-tech solution. No fancy binders or coupon holders for me. I had a box of clear sheet protectors around and I often have scratch paper (the back side of printing I no longer need, usually). I made these simple holders. Food coupons are on one side, non-food on the other.


They're easy to re-use, I can put them in a binder if I want to, and they used stuff I already had on hand.

I don't like to take a lot of time to clip coupons, since I don't actually use that many. I think of my coupon clipping time as relaxation time, and either put on a movie or some music. It's a nice little break, really.

On a side note, I send my expired coupons to overseas military families. They can use them at the PX or the Commissary for a few months past the expiration date. It's an easy way to help out our military families. Here are a few sites to check for more information.

• Happy Housewife's Support Our Troops
  
• Overseas Coupon Program
  
• Coupon Mom's Military Coupon Program
  

Could you eat for $1 a day?

Less is Enough did, for a month. Her project, one of many month or year long blog projects that have popped up, really resonated with me. I remember how I cooked back in college, when I had very little money. I'd pick up a couple of items at the little fruit and veg market on the way home and get creative.

Less is Enough started her project with a few rules. She'd use none of her existing pantry items and she'd spend a dollar a day, as she went. So, no stocking up at the begining with a lot of food and mete it out at a dollar's worth a day. No, she started with no food and one buck.

She's got great pictures of the food items she bought each day and what she cooked with it. She ate pretty well, in my opinion.

Her main goal was to demonstrate that one really can eat well on a small amount of money. The only processed food she used was Jiffy muffin mix. No Top Ramen or bargain bin frozen meals.

Memories and Possessions

I was going to post about how we as a family tackled the ginormous mess that is our kids' room. But then, something happened. A pink piggy bank that my mom had given to older DD years ago broke. I moved too quickly near it, with something, can't even remember what, in my hand, and with a crash, it was shattered. And I started crying.

I cried on and off the rest of the day. For my mom who isn't here anymore and won't give any more gifts to my daughters. For me, who misses her and for our challenging relationship.

It's a curse to have a good memory. I know people whose minds just let things go, who wouldn't have remembered where that piggy bank came from. But I remember and it's why I have such trouble letting go of the physical.

Cleaning House

The living room has been trashed for days. The kids have been LEGOing and puzzling and doing all sorts of things and the rug has gotten covered with gunk that I couldn't vacuum up because of all the LEGOs and puzzle pieces. ARGH!

So, sick of it, I tidied up today. It didn't take long and now the living room is quite pleasant.

In other news, it's Spring, my favourite season. Tulips and daffodils oh my!

Busy busy

I've been busy with non-decluttering related stuff. I volunteered to help out with my kids' school auction. I also donated an item to the silent auction, a new in box lovely piece of clutter that will hopefully grace someone else's home.

At home, I've just been barely keeping up. Every day has had some activity that takes a heap of energy. I've Roomba'd the main bedroom, done lots of laundry, and gathered some items to be donated. Nothing big though. No big changes.

Sometimes, that's what happens and that's ok.

Water Heater Happiness

So, since our water heater problem/solution, I've encountered several people who needed to get new water heaters due to a crisis with the old one. Seems the cost to have that done is around $1300. So by doing the work ourselves (hey, I fetched tools!), we saved a thousand dollars! I'm just amazed by that.

Another happy dance that I have a sweetie who's a Mr. Fix-it.

Finishing Touches

Sorry for the glare. Here's one of the kitchen finishing touches. I love this poster! It's a faux vintage poster for a California winery. They have an entire series of vintage-style posters.

Lego Madness

This is what my living room floor has looked like for days now. The kids are being quite creative, we've seen Mad Scientist's Lairs, lidded boxes, jewelry boxes and various towers. Still, I'm done stepping on LEGOs. Must.Clean.Up.Floor.

Water Heater Mayhem

So, there we were congratulating ourselves on a tiling project well done when Sweetie calls out to me "There's a water emergency!".

Our 20+ year old water heater had given up. It was leaking and not in a way that could be repaired. Luckily, Sweetie can fix anything, so I knew we'd be ok.

We had to empty the old one, which was a pain because it was so old it had all sorts of crud in it, which blocked up the water exit valve thingy. Yes, I have no clue what I'm talking about. We ended up having to use a creative solution--a cat litter tray with a hole drilled in it to attach the garden hose, which we led outside. Here are some pictures for fun.

Old water heater


Clever draining invention


Crud from draining (ick)


Plumbing Cemetary


New water heater

Kitchen Progress: Backsplash is Tiled!

Yes, it's done. The kitchen backsplash is tiled. Project started on Friday and finished on Saturday. Really, I'm just so pleased! And it was so easy, really.

All I had to do was send an email to a local tiling company. They had time because a big job had cancelled, so they fit me in right away. A reasonable fee, quick & professional work, and happy us.

Isn't it great?

Family clean-up

Last night, my sweetie went out for a beer with a friend. So it was just us girls back at the homestead. I got an itch to clean up the basement. We still had the Christmas bins (red & green lidded bins we use for lights, ornaments, tree skirt and stockings) and various other boxes, bins and bits of junk.

I took the Christmas bins to the garage. We keep them in the garage attic, but I can't get them up there by myself. They're at the foot of the stairs though, so they are ready to go up.

I broke down the boxes that had accumulated and took them out to recycling.

I ran three loads of laundry, folding and putting everything away as soon as the dryer stopped.

And, here's the big one. The little one, only 5, decided to wash the basement stairs. Now I do vacuum them several times a week when the dust and cat hair accumulates, but man did they need a wash. On her own, she found a container, added soapy water and using a sponge, washed all the stairs. Now they sparkle! What a kid!

Yes, I'm still going on about the Roomba!

I'm doing the living room-dining room this morning. Took about 10 minutes total to prep the room--I put chairs up on the table, picked up all the detritus from the kids' origami and Bella Sara projects, and dug all the crapola out from under the couch. Had to unplug the phone and stash it on the dining room table (we keep the upstairs phone on the floor near our big comfy armchair. It's not ideal, but in a 1940 house, you're limited by few outlets.)

I'll let it run 'til the battery dies. Here's an action shot for you!

Roomba again

Yesterday, I Roomba'd our bedroom; today, I'm doing the kids' room. It takes just a few minutes to pick up the floor--I move their under-bed storage boxes, costume bin, book baskets, etc. up off the floor so Roomba can work unimpeded.

Then, I turn it on and shut the door. When it beeps, I check it and empty the bin as necessary.

Easy!

Going to IKEA

We're heading down the highway to brave the weekend hordes at IKEA. Both kids have dressers from there, and one of them is having problems with the drawer runners. We're hoping to get replacement parts for it. We'll see what we can do.

I love IKEA. Sure, the stuff isn't the highest quality (for all their testing) but I love the ideas, the design sensibility, the layout of the store (meatballs, just when you need them!) and the lingonberry drink in the restaurant.

There are a couple of kitchen items I need, so those will go on the list.