Frozen Clutter

I defrosted my upright freezer yesterday. It took from 10 a.m. until 3 a.m. Yes, I was up until 3 a.m. defrosting my freezer. That's either crazy...or it's crazy. By 2, I resorted to pouring hot water on the inches of frost. Worked great!

I've reclaimed an entire shelf in the freezer. And, I tossed two sacks of ancient food items that will never be eaten by anyone except bacteria in the giant municipal compost heap. There's plenty of space now, so like is with like--meat all together in the bottom, convenience dinner items together, etc.

Roomba a Roomba

I know, I know, you're tired of my evangelizing the Roomba. Well, I vacuumed our master bedroom today and it was a snap. I have so few things on the floor that it took about a minute to put them on the bed. In fact, I turned on the Roomba and then picked up the room, it's so spare now. I love it!

And now, the room is nice and clean with little effort on my part. I want the whole house to be that way. And it can be, it really can. I just need to push a bit more, get rid of more clutter and convince the children to pick up all their crapola.

Enjoy the long weekend!

Tidying the Stash-n-Dash

My little one knows that there are stash & dash bins in the garage. She asked last night if she could "get some Barbies". It took me a moment to understand that she meant dig them out of the various stash & dash bins in the garage. I told her she could, but she'd need to find as many toys to give away as she wanted garage items. She immediately went and grabbed ten things. Wow!

So, I had to keep my word.

I just finished two hours of stash & dash sorting. I filled three bags of recycling and three of donations. I donated things I don't like in the house, as well as items the kids have definately outgrown. I consolidated the bins, eliminating two of them through the donations, trash and recycling. It's still not done, but it's much better and tidy enough that the little one can pick a few things to bring back into the house.

Having a garage is good for me, because it allows me to let things age. I was able to give away items I'd kept in an earlier round of decluttering, because there is enough emotional distance now. It's what works for me. And each time, it gets easier.

Score at the Thrift Store

I had fifteen minutes to kill before an appointment this morning, so I decided to stop in at Value Village. I recently learned that I like camisole tanks with the built in bra. Rather than troll the department stores or brave Victoria's Secret, I decided to see what VV had.

I was in luck. They had lots! I found three nearly new French Dressing ones and two lightly used ones. The nearly new were $2.99 each; the more used were $.99. So for $11, I got five camisoles. With the one I already had, that's all I'll need 'til they wear out. Perfect!

I have no qualms about buying such items used things. I wash them and forget the fact that they were used.

Reader, I went to Bed, Bath & Beyond

And I didn't buy a single thing.

I've had a few items on my list that I thought BB&B might have. I want a very small plastic wastebasket for the bathroom to put recycling in (you know, magazine blow-in cards, empty TP rolls, etc). There's not much room and with tile floors, I didn't want anything breakable.

BB&B had sent us a flyer with a coupon ($5 off a $15 purchase) and it was on my way home from dropping the kids at school. Seemed worth a try.

That place is overwhelming. It's full of stuff, stuff that promises to make your house a haven, to organize every room and closet, to eliminate smells and create tranquility. But what really happens? I'll bet shoppers toss items in their carts, hoping for that transformation. And those items just end up creating more chaos.

Anyway, I left empty handed. No wastebaskets that met my requirments and the only other thing I was mildly interested in (some Nautica towels in the right colour for our bathroom) were excluded from the coupon.

I handed the coupon flyer to a shopper entering the store and that was that.

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