Tuesday's Frugal Mission

Mer.

Frugality.

Frugal.

CHEAP.

Frugal doesn't necessarily mean cheap. Frugal means thinking about where you're spending your money, what you're spending your money on, and actively making a choice on how you're spending money.

Some days I'm great at being frugal. Others... not so much. OY. I think it's like that for a lot of people.

In any case, today I had a BRILLIANT idea. I saw these awesome curtain rod strings at Ikea and thought - I NEED THOSE FOR MY BACK PORCH.

And then I remembered that I bought the same curtain rod strings - in fact I bought them to string up in the dining room to hold The Monkey's art work but I never got around to it (and I've determined I really like the painting we have in the dining room anyway so I bought magnet clips for the fridge). I thought I might have donated the string or maybe sold it in the last yard sale that we had but no, I didn't do anything with it. Instead the curtain rod string thingy was just hanging out in a basket in the closet.

I even have leftover home decor fabric from when I made curtains for The Monkey's room when I was pregnant. SCORE.

All I need are 4 extra corner holder thingys from Ikea and some type of hanger clips and I'm all set to hang up some curtains - instead of using the tension rods which keep falling on The Monkey when she's playing back there (it's sort of funny. I mean you suddenly hear something snap and then a 3 year old screaming "GHOST! IT'S A GHOST! I CAN'T SEE!!!").

So the total cost for these curtains AFTER finding what I already have in my house will be under $10. WOO HOO!!!

My NEXT frugal mission after Ikea and the curtain rod string thingy is to go to the library.

I reserved 5 books - two are urban homesteading books which are all about turning your yard into a vegetable garden and basically making the most out of a 1/4 acre of land. Here in the city we have like an 1/8 of an acre - but with the tree coming down in the back, I can start to take advantage of all the sunlight we're going to get next year and plan out more vegetables and determine how to PRESERVE what I grow. That's the tough part - you can only eat so much while it's fresh so knowing how to preserve homegrown food is really a good thing to know. I'd like to do lasagna gardening in our front flower beds for vegetables and move all the flowers into the actual yard - but make some sort of patio for chairs and a table (yes, we hang out in the front yard here in Minnesota, sometimes even in the garage!). First I need to read HOW to do some of this shit and determine how much sun the front gets to know if I can actually move some flowers and how bad chicken wire will look from the street. Maybe I should start looking at what grows best for vines... Meh, whatever... I have lots of months to think about gardening and to write down which flowers did the best this year.

Three books are just for funzies - one stupid Nora Roberts book (the last in a trilogy which will take me two or three days to read); another last-of-a-trilogy book in the Grave Mercy series which won't take me long at all; and the 4th book in the Logan McRae series by Stuart MacBride (if you can't tell it's a book set in Scotland by a Scottish author).

And the last frugal thing that I do today:

Make lunch with leftovers from dinner - some type of veggie wrap or quesadilla with the grilled veggies from last night.

Cook dinner with the last of our CSA veggies from last Thursday. Tonight = roasted veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, beets, turnips) with rice pilaf.

If you notice, there's no meat listed above. Basically we get enough veggies where I don't really need to cook meat with a meal. There's no way we can eat everything if I include meat. We become partial vegetarians in the summer with the amount of vegetables we receive with our CSA and with what I supplement from the co-op or Cub or Target or Byerly's. That doesn't mean we don't have meat - in the freezer there's pork chops, chicken, ground beef, fish, and shrimp. I have meat so when we do need some protein I can just pull it out of the freezer instead of running to the grocery store or wherever to get meat. It's a cheap way to eat meat - I buy when it's all on sale (and I don't buy the cheap stuff, I buy organic free range chicken, organic grass fed beef, organic fed pork, etc...) and then I toss it into bags with marinade in portions for 1 or 2 people.

So.. I think that's all we're up to today.

Happy Tuesday!!!

The Art Cabinet in the Dining Room is CLEAN

I finally went through it.

It was -30 degrees outside and I had no energy for actually starting the car to get to anywhere.

So I started pulling shit out of the cabinet and trying to see if any of it was salvageable artwork from a toddler.

I took this "before" picture after I had already pulled all the shit out of the bottom shelf.

As it turns out, little scribbles that I totally thought I would remember really mean nothing.

I ended up recycling and trashing almost all of the "little scribbles" that I thought were so precious. Last January I gave The Monkey my old college art drawing book so she could have something to color in - she actually filled the whole thing up. So I'm going to label it with her name, the year 2014 and then put it in one of her storage boxes. When she's older and needs some inspiration for her own art, then she can pull that out at any time and take a look back at what she did. I also saved one painting where I really liked the colors and one foam sticker art project because she LOVED doing that. The rest went goodbye...

Not quite finished yet - I still need to clear the top and swap the larger "napkin basket" with Bimmer Man's "biking stuff basket."

Top shelf = paints, stickers, art project supplies

Middle shelf = napkins, playdough

Bottom shelf = loose paper, foam sheets, dot stampers, markers, craft supplies

Art easel with basket of coloring books and paper

Washable paints came out of a bin and into a metal basket - the old shitty paintbrushes went into the trash. Every time I rinsed them I would have to re-glue the bristles to the handle. Stickers, buttons, and other craft items went into one basket, markers into their own, dot stampers into their own. I pulled out all of the coloring books and larger paper pads and put those into a basket by The Monkey's new art easel.

I can't move the napkins because it's The Monkey's job to get everyone a napkin before each meal - it needs to be at her level. I saw an immediate response to art organization because all we did that day was art projects and she was able to get out what she wanted to make what she wanted. In fact, she really just wants to color in her Princess coloring book with her markers so I'm thinking I might buy myself coloring pencils and a coloring book from Pocket Posh.

With it being organized I'm no longer shoving used paper back into the bottom shelf, stepping on fallen art supplies or continuously getting out paper for The Monkey to color. It's awesome.

Uncluttering My Jackets

I don't think I can do it.

I seriously don't think I can get rid of any coats or jackets.

This is Minnesota.

This is the Land of 10,000 Jackets.

I need a light jacket for summer, a little heavier jacket for spring, a light jacket for spring, a heavy coat for winter (ok, a down blanket jacket, a dress coat, a winter coat that I can use for snowshoeing, playing outside, etc...), at least two different types of fleece for winter, spring, and fall, some type of sweatshirt jacket for spring, summer, and fall.

I already donated two jackets (a really nice down jacket that was too short, and a VERY NICE Banana Republic dress coat that the arms were too short).

I set aside two fleece jackets but I ended up using both of them this past fall.

So that plan failed (putting the two coats in a very different room to distract myself from the fact that I had those two jackets).

But I did hang up a sweater two weeks ago and I haven't used that yet... so that will be donated next week. Not only did I decide that I mostly wear 3/4 sleeve shirts but I end up stretching out the arms of all my long sleeve sweaters because I end up pushing my sleeves up for most of the day so most of my long sleeve sweaters will likely be donated. Or sold. I'm not sure - I don't really like keeping stuff around to sell that I've decided I'm done with. With dress clothes I need to put together a bag for Dress for Success.

I think in the end, I WILL just donate one of my fleece jackets. I'm just going to do it. It was from Old Navy quite a few years ago. I haven't used it enough to wear any of it out. There's no holes in the pockets. I just need to donate it and use my purple fleece. I don't need two fleece jackets.

There.

My mind is made up.

Get rid of it. Make more space in the front closet.

First world problem, right?

(Ok, I just set it aside in my donate pile)

Does my one item inspire you to donate one item? More items?

I sure hope so! Happy Friday!

I Got Rid Of My Dining Room Chairs

I posted a little ad on my Facebook page for free chairs. They were scooped up in seconds. 

Now, don't get me wrong, I really, really LOVED these chairs. Like, loved them (ok, I didn't really need to add that second "loved" but I need to emphasize the fact that I really did love these chairs). They were somewhere around $50 each from Ikea - really well put together, really sturdy, and great chairs. 

BUT.

I had a problem with them. With a 2 year old and a husband and a dog, they got really dirty. I scrubbed them weekly to get off all the food, crayons, markers, dot stampers, glue and everything else that happened to fall on them. Simple answer: recover the seats.

My answer: BUT I DON'T WANT TO CLEAN THEM ANYMORE.

So this post is my so-long-to-my-favorite-dining-room-chairs post.

They were lovingly used by The Monkey to help me with crafting.

They made the BEST forts. The BEST. Because with draping a blanket over them I could actually SIT UP in a fort. Imagine that, an adult sitting up in a fort!

So what am I going to do?

Well, right now we've got two mismatched chairs (an old antique one and a chair that's similar to the old Ikea ones without a chair pad, the one without the chair pad doesn't work for The Monkey, she kneels to eat so her little legs slip through the bottom rung of the chair). When Bimmer Man eats with us I haul up the old piano bench that I spray painted red. It works for right now but I need to find something better.

I'm looking at going a little more modern - maybe some colored chairs. I don't know. We'll have to go to the Scratch & Dent place off of Highway 7, Ikea, West Elm, etc... I've looked on Craigslist but people have overpriced their crappy chairs and I can't find anything that I'm absolutely in love with that I would re-finish or paint. We shall see. I'm planning on only spending less than $150 on dining room chairs - if I see mismatched chairs that look good in antique shops, I may just go that route instead. I've seen a few pins on Pinterest with that look and a few articles in Better Homes & Gardens, and also in Midwest Living where I really liked the mismatched look. 

Whatever... I am determined to find some chairs that are easy to clean, comfy to sit on, and can fit a booster seat with ease (no, I am not pregnant, just looking to the future!). 

And lastly, a little dining room update - I found a vintage mirror at a little shop were I went with a good friend that I've known since I was ZERO years old - my friend Erin and I re-connected through Facebook and it's like we were never apart. Seriously, she still knows me so well, it's a little uncanny at what old friends can do for your heart. I'm so glad we re-connected, it's been wonderful!

And now I'm going to donate the old card holder that I had hanging up - last year I taped all the Christmas cards to the door frame between the dining room and living room anyway - I didn't even use the card holder. Getting rid of another unused item is fun!

De-Cluttering The "Craft Room"

UGH.

GOOD LORD WHAT AM I DOING.

Next week is my craft fair at the Brooklyn Park Armory (from 9:30 - 4:00 in Brooklyn Park, MN if you're interested in coming!!!). This week I need to organize all of my crochet into bags (I use Ikea bags or extra bins lying around the house) into their own categories, which then gets stuff out of my office so that I can actually see the yarn and unfinished projects that I have. This week I need to be scrupulous and extra careful to pare down the projects that I just can't do.

So here are my rules. I made them up myself. I didn't take them from any other yarnaholic, or crochet addict because if I did then I wouldn't be getting rid of yarn or declaring a project unfit to work on.

Ok, I know, someone needs to shake some sense into me. I MIGHT BE DE-STASHING MY YARN.

No,  I AM DE-STASHING MY YARN. 

I need to. 

Back to my rules:

1. Is this a project that I can complete in one month? If the answer is no, then the project and yarn need to go into a pile designated "I CANNOT COMPLETE THIS PROJECT"

2. Is this a project that I can complete in one week? If so, put it into the "DO THIS WEEK" project to have it COMPLETED.

3. Is this yarn leftover from another project that I will never do again? If it's a whole skein, then I need to list it on Etsy for de-stashing or on Craigslist. 

4. With the "I CANNOT COMPLETE THIS PROJECT" pile: frog the project for the yarn and list the yarn on Etsy for de-stashing or on Craigslist.

Bah. With craft stuff my little artist heart bleeds a little bit onto my sleeve when I think of giving away or selling yarn. But I know that I can't do everything and I know that I just don't have the time that I used to have or the patience for long projects.

I have learned with simplifying my crap that I need to admit what I can and cannot do. I have also learned that there are things that I plain just don't want to do and that I don't have to do those things if I don't want to (like cleaning rugs. Why do I want to do that? I'll just get rid of them instead). 

I knew that this week would come. I knew that eventually I would have to get to my yarn and craft items. I knew it. The week is here.

On a random note, I hate raking leaves. Absolutely hate it. When the tree in our backyard needs to be cut down or it falls down, I probably won't cry about it. And then I can plant more veggies. 

De-Cluttering Children's Books

I'm really happy that there are a bunch of "Little Libraries" in our neighborhood. I've been able to dump a bunch of children's books and my old unread novels into the Little Libraries and not feel bad about anything - we also come home with books too.

Children's books can be hard to de-clutter. I have a ton of my own favorites that I like to read, Bimmer Man has his own favorites, and The Monkey has her own favorites. 

First, I de-cluttered the books that I can't stand to read anymore (unless it was an absolute Monkey favorite), next were the books that didn't really have a good lesson, and finally ripped and torn and un-usable books went into the recycling.

Next was to organize - I pulled out all the books that weren't season or holiday appropriate (Easter, 4th of July, etc...), but I set aside the Christmas books. I will wrap up 24 books for 24 days of Christmas - all books that we already have, nothing new. 

I then shoved all the books back into the bookcase - The Monkey has no idea how to alphabetize or whatnot so we'll deal with that later. 

After all of this, 75% of her books were still on the bookshelves, but I just went through all of her books in May for a garage sale so I'm not surprised that I didn't de-clutter much. As she grows, I can de-clutter more and more. Wahoo!

More Stuff De-Cluttered. Including Cookbooks.

I'm going to be honest.

I don't even remember what is in these boxes. 

I do remember that I had two Book Club Cookbooks (which I never made a recipe from and my current favorite cookbook which has tried and true recipes is my Better Homes & Gardens Bridal Cookbook, weird, but true!). 

Also, another cookbook that went was my King Arthur Flour cookbook. I tried to make an apple crisp and thought this King Arthur book would have a fabulous recipe. Well, no, it did not. Instead I ended up using my Mark Bittman recipe (way better!!! way easier!!!). 

More clothes. Of course more clothes. I swapped out my summer stuff for my fall/winter wardrobe and in the process I ridded myself of clothes that no longer fit, clothes that I hate, clothes that weren't in style, and anything that I didn't feel good in. Which means that I also donated a few sweaters that I just held on to because they were sweaters and I live in Minnesota (and well, who doesn't need 15+ sweaters??). Into the box went 5 sweaters. Phew, I no longer need to dry clean 5 sweaters!

Last week after I did the last load of summer clothes, I also went through all of those and decided to donate 3 more pairs of shorts, 4 T-shirts, a sweatshirt, and a bunch of old college T-shirts.

I'm not really sure why, but I felt really guilty for putting old college T-shirts into the donate box. I mean, I just worked at Indiana University so I don't really have to much affiliation with the school, other than Bimmer Man. With my Golden Gopher stuff, I can't quite bring myself to go through that yet. There's definite shirts that don't fit, sweatshirts that have shrunk, hole-y shirts, shirts that are too small, and who knows what else is in my college T-shirt bin. So I stuck it into the back of the closet and I will re-visit that bin in a few months - if I've forgotten what is in it, then I won't even look at it, I'll just dump the whole thing into a trash bag and bring it to the donation center. That seems quite scary to think about right now, but I'll do it. I'm not ready yet to let go of my items related to my college years yet. 

And lastly, just a box of crap. Coffee mugs, extra pairs of mittens that I don't use (and I'm not sure why I didn't toss two pairs of gloves in there too.. those are for the next box), a hat that I was SURE I was going to wear all summer (which no, I didn't, instead I wore a straw bowler hat and my wayfarer sunglasses a ridiculous amount). I also donated 12 simple cream napkins, I mostly use our 18x18 inch homemade or purchased napkins from World Market anyway, so why keep those cream napkins when I don't use them? We don't even have enough company anymore to use 12 more napkins and I don't want to wash them plus they're not big enough. 

Time to let go. 

Happy Friday!

Is there anything that you're not ready to let go of? An item that is attached to memories? Something that reminds you of the past that you're not ready to part with yet?

My Minimalist Efforts Have Paid Off

Well, to a certain extent anyway.

Last night I folded and sorted 5 large Ikea bags of laundry plus one overflowing laundry basket.

Turns out...

There were only 12 pieces of clothing for me (not counting socks & underwear).

And only 8 items of clothing for The Monkey.

4 towels, 3 hand towels, 2 washcloths, 5 dishtowels, 2 dishcloths, 3 cleaning rags. Yes, there was so little laundry for the household stuff, me and The Monkey that I remember the count of laundry items.

The rest of the clothing was Bimmer Man's.

I spent and hour and a half folding mostly one person's laundry.

I quickly decided "what a freaking waste of time" as soon as I realized that I wasn't even going to be able to fit all of his clothes into his dresser drawers. So I just stacked everything on top.

And later that night I told him he had too many clothes.

I left it at that.

Not my clothes, he can decide what he wants to do with HIS stuff. It's not my job to de-clutter his stuff because I just can't make those decisions for him - but I can set an example and keep getting rid of MY stuff and pare down The Monkey's stuff. Maybe I'll inspire him to let go of things. I'm not trying to harp on my husband - we all see "things" differently and he likes his clothes, he WANTS his clothes (but my guess is that I also do the majority of his laundry and he has NO IDEA how long it takes to do laundry, if he did the majority of laundry then he may change his mind or he might still like ALL of his clothes, I'm not sure, but either way, de-cluttering his clothes is up to him).

I highly doubt that he will miss the 6 hole-y socks that I threw away OR the yellowed and stained white shirt that ended up in the trash.

My huge point for de-cluttering for myself is this: I have donated or tossed so many of my clothes, had it just been The Monkey's, mine, and the household laundry it would have taken me 15 minutes at the most to fold, sort, and put everything away.

I'm finally starting to see the benefits of not having stuff to take care of.

And frankly, it's pretty freaking awesome. I have less chores to do around the house (but the bathrooms, floors, kitchen, etc... still need to be cleaned and wiped and vacuumed), I have more time to do crafts and play with The Monkey, I have time to crochet and finish things that I need to do around the house, and I have time to blog again. It's pretty great, I must admit.

In fact, last week I had a friend over for lunch and it took me only 5 minutes to clean up, put stuff away and Swiffer dog fur.

I'm just excited that I get to be able to choose what I want to do instead of looking at household chores as something that I'm chained and handcuffed to. Clearing out clutter has been awesome, and I'm still motivated to do more. So I am.

What I've done and what I'm going to do this week:

• Get rid of 4 more knives (I realized that after a week I mainly used 5 knives plus one crazy sharp one when sorting dog food);
• I have one more sweatshirt that I don't like; 
• One more pair of work pants that I'll never wear again; 
• I think I can even go through my book case one more time this week and let go of a few more cookbooks
• I even have a rug that I can say goodbye too
• Maybe even 2 or 3 jackets.

This week will also be time to get the garden ready for winter

• I need to pull out old tomato plants and annuals
• Get the compost into the garden beds
• Get some leaves raked into the new garden bed down on the boulevard so the plants will over-winter well
• Mow the lawn one last time and leave the lawn clippings as mulch/fertilizer
• Put up a few Halloween decorations

Monkey activities this week:

• Pumpkin crafts
• Painting
• Button crafts
• Working on counting UP from 1 not DOWN from 3. (basically working on numbers)
• Learning farm animals in french

Happy Monday!!!

Organizational "Stuff" - Do I Keep it or Toss it?

Since I've de-cluttered a few things I've cleared out storage bins. Now that there's no stuff to go inside them, I have to decide what to do with them.

I don't think I want to keep them but my thought process keeps going back to "I might use these!" I might buy more stuff to fill them! No, that's not what I want to do at all.

I've got 4 smallish bins right now that I don't know what to do with - I need large bins to organize The Monkey's clothes that she no longer fits in (I'm saving those for when we have our next child, and once we find out if it's a boy/girl, then I'll get rid of them or save them. Also, NO, I'M NOT PREGNANT, so don't think anything into this!!). However, I don't really want to buy new bins so I'm trying to get myself motivated to de-clutter the storage room in our basement so I can re-use the larger bins from that room.

And then I also have two CD storage boxes - I don't use CDs anymore thanks to modern technology and iTunes and Amazon so I don't know what to do with those. I think those will go into the next donate box for next week or the week after.

But I guess I can always post things on Craigslist and Freecycle - my only problem is that once I decide I want something gone, I want it gone that moment and I don't want to wait for someone to come and pick it up. When I'm motivated, I'm motivated and when I'm lazy, well, I'm lazy.

Same with the magnet spice tins on our fridge - if I use those as magnets for keeping stuff on the fridge, when it's used then everything under it falls to the floor. Irritating, annoying, blerg. So once I've used up the spices in those, I think I'm going to wash them out and give them to Bimmer Man to store small items in the garage. He can put them on his tool box or wherever to keep little things so they don't get lost.

De-cluttering can be more of a chore and a burden than a fun thing to do, however, once it's done and items are gone it's a fantastic feeling of relief. Or maybe a release? Not sure yet, but I do know that sometimes I need to sing "Let it go!" from Frozen to be able to just say to myself "THINGS AND STUFF DON'T MATTER."

BUT WHAT IF THE APOCALYPSE COMES??? WHAT WILL I DO WITHOUT MY STUFF??? Meh, I'll probably wish I had stockpiled guns and ammo instead of craft supplies anyway, right?

I guess I don't need my organizing bins for organizing my stuff after all.

I'll put them all into my donate box.

So Long Irritating Rugs...

I love my bathroom rugs. They are approximately 2ft x 3ft, are more than an inch thick and ridiculously soft.

And I'm getting rid of them today.

Why?

BECAUSE I HATE WASHING THEM.

From reading lots of "simple living" blogs, and minimalist blogs, and the book "Clutterfree With Kids," I've come to the conclusion that I just need to rid myself of the things that irritate me in my house. I hate cleaning. I'm not sure if I've mentioned that before. No? Yes, I'm sure that I have.

I tossed the dirty, disgusting dog bone rug that I hated vacuuming a few weeks ago. I've never been happier just to run the Dyson around the perimeter of the kitchen and then use the Bona mop with water/vinegar/essential oils. Now it takes me much less time to clean the kitchen.

I keep reading over and over again: less stuff = less stress

I'm thinking that I really like that idea. A lot.

And those damn bathroom rugs. I just can't sacrifice my sanity anymore for the luxury of my feet. I'm done. I bought a super small, more towel-like rug for the first floor bathroom which means that I can toss it into the washer with a load of towels instead of saving up rugs to do at once and shake my fist at the washing machine every.single.time I wash rugs. I'm done with one less stress and irritation.

I know that I bought something new, but I'm donating 3 rugs in place of one. I think it evens itself out. And why on earth did I have 3 rugs? Blerg. Consumerism, right? You see something that you think you have to have and buy it only to realize that it really just sucks the fun out of you.

So now as I wait listening closely for those damn rugs to unbalance the washer, I'm getting more and more excited to toss those rugs into my donate box.

My road to a de-cluttered house is turning into more fun by the week as I shed items that bring me more stress than I thought.

**************

Do you need a de-cluttering challenge today? If so, do you have an item that causes you stress and irritation when you clean it or take care of it? How does it make your life better? In what ways do you justify to keep it? What would happen if you didn't have it? Could you live without it? Is there something else that you have that does the job better?

Are you going to sell it or donate it?

Feel free to comment with your "irritating item" and what you decided to do with it...

Shelf By Shelf, Item By Item - Hall Closet

Slowly but surely I'm working up to cleaning out the office, and whatever else I can.

It feels great to make little accomplishments though, and do them in 5 minutes or less which definitely doesn't make cleaning and de-cluttering feel like a chore. I have no schedule, just more of what looks like needs to be de-cluttered and cleaned gets done.

Maybe I should have a schedule?

No, I don't do well with self-set schedules. They don't quite make sense to me, as I don't know where to start and I may not have 15-30 minutes to do something on that day, nor might I feel like tackling a whole room.

Baby steps, my friends, baby steps.

Which is why I share with you my two shelves that I cleared out this morning in under 10 minutes. Thanks, to Curious George on PBS I had time. WOO HOO.

However, since I really wasn't sure what was even in these shelves (because I just kept putting things in and not taking them out....), I really didn't know what I would find.

I kept a pile of bags to use for gifts, but I think I might go through them one more time and toss store-specific bags. I don't want to put a gift in a bag that doesn't correspond to the store. And I gave Simone two of the smallest bags so she can pretend to "shop" with her shopping cart at home too.

I do need to keep tissue paper. I ship all of my crochet wrapped in tissue paper, attach the invoice, etc... so that is all staying. The square basket will have to be sorted through again another time because somehow spare parts to pretty much everything were in there and not in a tool box (nails, braids, hardware, weird Ikea tools, etc...). I don't know if those things will need to be saved or not. I guess if they haven't been used in years, then I can toss.

But they look better than before. I didn't take a before picture. I didn't even think about it.

Just an FYI - The Monkey thinks Clinique's Be More Happy stinks so I tossed it. It smells like an old lady. Too bad I sprayed myself with it because I couldn't remember what it smelled like.

Cleaning Out My Non-Existent Pantry

I don't have a pantry.

Our house was built in 1949, so there's little storage, little or no closets, no mud room, a teeny entryway, and no counter space in the kitchen with not very many cabinets.

A few months ago I was dreaming about a HUGE kitchen with a mudroom and a ginormous center island and butcher block counter tops and a fantastic selection of pots and pans.

I have realized that I don't need all of that (but butcher block counter tops would be AWESOME, then I wouldn't need a cutting board), and I still want a mudroom (not just for storage but because we don't use our side door and basically, when two people walk inside at the same time, you have to balance yourself so you don't fall down the basement stairs. Not cool).

In any case, I digress.

This morning I cleaned out the "pantry cupboard" in the kitchen.

I threw away old flavored vinegars that expired in 2012 or 2011. I tossed an unopened container of Hershey's chocolate powder that expired in 2010. Into the trash went a box of Bisquick that expired earlier this year.

If we had a pantry, I don't think I'd be able to use half the stuff in it - I would be tempted to fill it up just because I had the space and then we'd be tossing unused food. That's not cool either. That's just plain old wasteful.

In the past few months I've become more conscious and aware of what we have in our cupboards to eat, or at least I thought I had. New items went into the cupboard and old stuff was just moved to the back.

Sort of like our other cupboard with glassware. Somehow we kept getting new glassware and the old stuff just went to the back and wasn't used. So I donated whatever we didn't use on a regular basis (um, I don't drink martinis but we had several martini glasses! I see a drink shaker that we've never used but had for years, that will be going into the donate box today too!).

Food expires. You have to toss it, it's just making the time to go through your pantries and cupboards and cleaning out the shelves. Don't remember when you bought it? Toss it. Expired? Out it goes. Never going to cook with it again? Into the trash (or organic waste bin in our house).

Lately my favorite time to do this is when I'm waiting for a pot of water to boil for pasta or waiting for chicken to cook on the stove. I'm already in the kitchen, why not kill two birds with one stone?

So, the bottom shelf of the cupboard has been cleaned out, I just need to wait until The Monkey's nap this afternoon to do the rest. I'm short so I need to stand on a chair and I don't want her to see me doing that - she may get some new ideas of her own if she knows she can stand on chairs in the kitchen. Aye, the things you don't think about until you have a toddler....

So, if anyone wants to follow along with me... Challenge yourself to clean out one shelf in your kitchen of expired, unused, old food. I think you'll feel great once you've finished!

Cutting The Sentimental Crap

Slowly but surely I'm getting all the "stuff" out of this house.

Today (after two Bloody Marys from McCoy's) I'm starting to wonder how in my right mind I'm going to tackle my craft supplies. There are items that I KNOW I DON'T NEED. I just don't know what those are quite yet.

And so I got rid of a rug instead of tackling craft supplies.

Le sigh.

There are items that are going to be ridiculously hard but then there are going to be items that won't. Like all the sentimental items in the office.

For example, I encountered a piece of drinkware, ok, a Dos Equis pint glass with Bimmer Man's signature on it and a date.

The date, I confess, I did not remember.

It took me a good five minutes (sorry, Bimmer, I just couldn't remember the specific year...).

And then I remembered, I took that afternoon off of work so we could get married. But the glass? I have NO IDEA why that thing is important. I just don't remember why a pint glass could be so important. I must have saved it for a reason, right? Did one of us steal it from the bar we went to after we got hitched?

I don't know.

Which is why I didn't keep the glass.

I had no idea why a glass was so important to keep after seven years. Why? Why was it even in our office? Why did I not wash it off and keep it in the cupboards to drink out of? I don't get it. If it was so important to us, why wasn't it out in the open where everyone could see it?

My memories are much stronger than an item of sentimental value. The moments of your life are defined by your memories and everyone's memories are different. Your memories are not defined by things.

In the seven years that Bimmer Man and I have been married, I haven't actually heard him even mention this pint glass once. Nope, not ever.

So I understand why sentimental items are hard to let go - they bring back memories of good times and bad times. But when you look at an item and can't remember why you even have it, then what's the point of saving it?

And then at some point I'm going to have to tackle different sentimental items that I won't really know what to do with - old college artwork that I don't like (throw it or donate?), craft supplies (recycle? toss? donate?).

Gah.

I suppose this is why it's going to take me forever to get through this house.

At some point in the future, I will not clean as much crap because it won't be in the house, I will be able to spend more time with my family because I won't be cleaning, I will be able to garden more because I won't have "things" to take care of, I will be able to read more books again because I won't have to worry about buying more storage bins for more stuff. I will be able to do exactly what I want to do.

I just have to get through all the sentimental crap first.

The Lone Empty Shelf

I've never had an empty kitchen shelf.

Never.

And now I do. 

WOO HOO.

Ok, it's a super small and awkward shelf, but still. It's empty and I call it a fantastic step in emptying out my house of stuff we don't need.

My road to a more minimalist lifestyle is beginning to take shape, I'm hoping that I can empty out the above closed cupboard of random leftover containers without lids tomorrow and get a box of stuff over to Goodwill. I'd wait for the Disabled American Veteran pick up, but it's still a month away and I just want to get rid of stuff. 

Another thing that I did was rid the kitchen of the rug beneath the dog water dish. All I would do is vacuum it and then it would be dirty in about two minutes. That went into the garbage and I've never been so thrilled to be rid of a chore. I hate cleaning so the less I have to clean the better. 

I also took the small kid's potty chair for the Monkey out of the bathroom since she prefers to pee on the seat that we put on the big toilet. One more less thing to clean.

Next up for small steps on Friday: open up a book case in the office and clear out one shelf. And then put away some crochet stuff in the book case. Or maybe move magazines there. I don't know yet. I don't have the heart to part with my Garden Gate or Domino magazines yet. I still read those and get a lot from them so... they shall be saved for now. A few weeks ago I went from having maybe 18 full magazine holders to 10. I can still part with more and toss more into the recycle bin. I also need to pare down office supplies - by that I mean throw away pens and markers that don't work, and see if we have doubles of tape dispensers, pencil sharpeners, too many folders, etc... and put those in a box for donation too.