puzzles galore!

today I gave a bag of floor puzzles of animals to a couple of my favorite small people at church. can't believe they were buried in our garage but happy they have a new home.

buried treasure

the water leak also meant moving boxes in the garage away from the wall. holy cow! why had we saved all this stuff????  I took 2 bags and 2 boxes to the thrift store today - board games, puzzles, glassware, a chafing dish (?), and more. woohoo!

flower pots

so we have a leak in the window. and the wall is wet. so we're cleaning out that side of the garage and ripping off siding and tearing down the potting shed and....

which left us with an overabundance of flower pots. posted on freecycle and our nextdoor site and, boom! gone!!!!! started with about 50 and here's all that's left (except that more have vanished and now there are only 3):

Here I go again

We did a lot of purging last year but I didn't keep track; this year, I'm curious. Every time we watch Hoarders I feel like pulling up a dumpster and just tipping the house into it (but it's not really even close to that bad) except that the huge majority of our "clutter" is something that someone else could use. Better that they use it than it sit around my garage. Right before Christmas I took 2 bags to Goodwill, 1 bag to Friends of the Library, and 5 (!!!) bags to Turnabout Thrift Shop. Woohoooo!

I'm hoping to actually keep track this year, mostly to keep me motivated - sort of like a decluttering FitBit.

Bag of books off to the library!

new year, new cleanup

starting the year off right. 1 bag of books off to Friends of the Kensington Library. 1 bag of fancy towels and linens in the car for Turnabout Thrift Shop. 2 bags of artsy/craftsy stuff in the car for Creative Re-use. Yay!

summer purge...

took an overflowing box of old tax papers and financial stuff to the shredders. plus a box full of old hard drives - 16 to be exact. what????  all shredded and gone. yay!
also took yet another bag of book to the friends of the library. how did we get so many books?
started on the desk - creative reuse will get a bonanza of greeting cards!

music to my ears...

finally tackled the boxes of music in the basement.... 
- 2 bags of vocal music to son's former voice teacher
- 1 bag of piano music to son's former piano teacher
- 1 bag of miscellaneous choir stuff off to church

also 1 huge bag of books heading off to Friends of the Library
and 6 huge bags of clothing, etc. off to CARH.

woohoo!

pajama parties - not just for kids!

Last night my friends and I had a pajama party! We've been getting together to watch Masterpiece Theater - saw all the Jane Austen series, watched Tess of the d'Urbervilles and are now on to Wuthering Heights. Having joked about this a couple of weeks ago, last night was PJs required. S0, there we were, a group of women in our 50s, drinking wine and having lovely snacks, watching Heathcliff and Cathy - in our PJs. Lovely! Why should all the fun be wasted on kids!

The Library

I just have to say that I love our public library! For awhile I got into the habit of buying books I wanted to read and now have shelves of books that I'll never read again taking up all that space. We have books everywhere, in every room, many on shelves but many in bags and boxes and stacked on furniture! I've been sorting through them and taking bags of books - to the library! The Friends of the Library has big sales several times a year and now has an on-going sale just inside the door of the library on a big bookshelf. They raise a decent amount of money that they use for programs and to buy books and other things the library budget can't provide.

While carting yet another bag of books to the library for their sale I realized that continually buying more books was kind of dumb. Now I only buy books that I want to have on my shelf, books that I might want to read more than once, books that I want to own for whatever reason. The rest - I check out of the library. I love that I can sit at home and look at the catalog (though there are times when I love to browse the shelves and hold books in my hand and leaf through them) and put books on hold. I finally realized that if I want to read the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series in order, all I have to do is put them on hold. Miraculously, I get emails saying my book is ready for pickup at my local library, 2 blocks away. Usually it's quick, but right now I'm #84 in line for Revolutionary Road so we'll see how long that one takes.

Saves time, saves money, saves gas, saves paper - what more could I want?

resolutions/habits

Resolutions for the new year always seem kind of artificial and lame. This time I'm going to try to develop new habits, one or two per month. January - eat my vegetables first and use my calendar. I'm calendar-challenged - just ask my husband! This will help me be more organized and will help the rest of the family so there are no surprises. In an effort to develop healthier habits, eating my vegetables first seems like a good idea. Fill up on broccoli and asparagus and then the pasta won't be calling my name. Well, it'll still be calling my name, but maybe it'll be whispering...

potterheads unite!

Harry Potter! Need I say more?

Stewardship Thoughts

As I’ve been reading the passages from Luke in the Daily Message recently, I’ve been struck by how often the word “generous” is used. Be generous; give to the poor. Be generous; ask for just what you need. Be generous…. These passages are striking a chord with me because I am dealing with an overload of material possessions. The concept of “trying to deal with the clutter” is an overarching theme in my life and my friends laugh when they hear me say it, again. Like many people these days, I have WAY more than just what I need – shelves of books, stacks of papers, boxes of things in the garage and basement.

I find myself wondering if this is really good stewardship. The papers just need to be filed or recycled, and I’ve made progress on this. The bigger issue is the stuff we have sitting in the garage. A lot of it belonged to my parents and it either just stayed here when my parents moved out and we moved in or I brought it when we cleaned out my mother’s apartment. And it still sits in boxes.

I’ve started collecting lists of places to unload things: books to Friends of the Library, postings on Berkeley Parents Network or freecycle.org, things to Goodwill or CARH. I’ve found inspiration and resources in books and on line. My current favorite tool is FlyLady.net. For me, her idea of doing things in small steps is working, at least a little bit. And the idea that finding a new home for things you don’t need, don’t use, or don’t love is really blessing someone else who can use it helps me let go of some of these things.

I’m slowly unearthing treasures, box by box. I can use my grandmother’s teacups for our next book club meeting. I will use my mother’s Christmas teapot next December. I’ve given away bags of books and clothes and things. But the pink-flowered bowls from my great-aunt sit on my kitchen shelf. I’ve never liked them, I still don’t like them, and I’m working on being able to let them go.

When’s the next church rummage sale?

clutter is taking over my life!

In a moment of madness, I sent in a Stewardship Moments blurb for the church newsletter that owns up to the fact that I have way too much crap. My only goal this summer is to deal with it. So now it's July 19 and I'm still drowning in clutter. However, I've done the following:
5 bags of books to the Friends of the Library
5 large bags of clothing to CARH
1 load of cardboard to recycling
2 extra bags of paper for curbside pickup
an ever-growing pile in the driveway, headed for the dump.

I just cleared out one side of the entry way, most to recycling. Now, onward to the vacuum!