Why Don't You Just Buy a New House?

My house is not the worst. I know this to be true because I am a Realtor and I've been in lots of houses. Some are much nicer and larger than mine. Some are so full of stuff that mine (at times) looks to be well-organized. Others are so organized that mine looks like hoarders live here. Honestly, though, it's a good house and a great home, but I don't know if it's where I want to retire.

When we bought this little 3-bedroom ranch with a partially finished basement, we had small children aged 8, 6, 4, and "one on the way." That was 13 years ago. Needless to say, I thought we'd live here a few years and then get something bigger. Now that college boy has graduated and landed back at home at least for the short term, something larger seems to be nearly a necessity. However, the house might just be perfect as we approach the empty nest phase in the not-too-distant future.

So, what is the point of this post if we're just planning to stay here? I have been trying to convince my housemates (spouse and children) that decluttering and then organizing will make the space more usable, it will help us be more focused and productive, and it will feel at least a little more spacious.

They aren't buying it. And I'm not buying a new house. Child 3 will be a high school senior next year and child 4 will be in 8th grade. I moved my senior year of high school and promised I would do whatever I could to avoid that scenario for my children. The soonest possible move is a year away.

As a Realtor, I advise clients to declutter as part of preparing their homes for sale. I'm trying to take my own advice in the event that we do sell next year, but I keep hitting road blocks that are mostly in my mind. I purged a lot of junk out of the garage in the past couple weeks, but still can't park in there. I get hung up on little things and turn in circles, accomplishing little. I keep thinking that I should hire someone to help me. Then I think, the children and my husband could certainly help me. But there's always a scheduling conflict or an excuse. No more excuses! 

This is my plan:

1. Finish garage decluttering this week!

When will the car move back into its house?

What is all this stuff?

2. Declutter laundry room, paint walls, replace shelving by end of July

One section of the wall got the white paint in 2012. Why didn't we finish? 

3. Encourage children to do their rooms by mid-August before the new school year
No photos!

4. Declutter, then re-envision the basement common space by the end of summer

Edge of workout space next to everything else. Not working well.

Not comfy.

Too dark for office/study space. Plus it's a mess.

My husband has a couple of days off this week and has agreed to help hang some tools in the garage and organize the shelves. The garage needs to be done so we can move on to the laundry room next.

I looked back and saw my garage project part one and part three, and the laundry room post that started this blog in 2012. My attitude was better then. Trying to recapture that enthusiasm and finally get the job done.

Let's go!

Flowers and Paint

Giant oregano, hostas, sunflowers, and more!

Peppers, tomatoes, and flowers.

Summertime in the city. Every summer I tend to do two things--garden and paint. These jobs tend to be alone or quiet times for me, especially in the garden. I wish someone else in my family would willingly join me to "Play in the dirt!" I haven't spent as much time as I would like in the garden, but I'm hoping to change that trend this week. Painting, though, seems like it will consume many days this summer, the first of which was yesterday, and I have an enthusiastic partner in my daughter.

I had a rather rough winter into spring. I wasn't particularly sick or depressed, but I constantly felt ill-at-ease. I couldn't get moving, and things just felt wrong most days. Now that summer is here, my little world seems to be blooming and joyful again.

Tiny corn and cucumbers--and wild violets.

My vegetable garden is coming along slowly this year. I tried something new--planting in wood chips. Wood chips are supposed to be great for lots of things, including holding moisture and providing nutrients to plants while keeping weeds under control. After a very hot and dry spring, our early summer has been cool and sufficiently rainy. Therefore, my heat-loving plants haven't grown much yet.

Day lily and  coreopsis.

We are expecting a very hot week, though, so things may start to take off and grow quickly now. Although the corn isn't knee high and the 4th of July has come and gone, my flowers seem to be particularly happy this summer!

After the bunnies nibbled away at my beautiful red and white verbena last year (no flowers after I planted them, just lush, stubby green plants), I thought petunias would be a safer bet for some annual color. The petunias are filling in nicely and the perennials are blooming in turn. I hear the goldfinches singing outside my window, so I know they have returned to munch at my sunflowers.

 My teen-aged daughter's room is the current indoor project. She has spent the past couple weeks discarding things that take up space and bring no joy. She had a color in mind for the walls--she calls it "dove." It's a light tannish-grey. We recently purchased some furniture for her room, so I was hoping to keep additional redecorating costs low. I remembered that I had a couple gallons of off-white paint left from my garage project last summer, as well as a tan sample and some dark grey from another project. What did we have to lose? We mixed the paints, and we came up with a custom color with what we had on hand. The best part--it's exactly what she wanted and we spent $0! We had a great time yesterday, listening to 80s pop and painting her room together.

We have painted together before, but this time was the best. Maybe it was because it was her room or because we created the color together. We are both excited to see how everything turns out when the furniture and curtains are all in place. We are already discussing other projects we would like to do together in the house this summer.

Thank you, Lord, for this special time with my daughter and for the resources you've provided to add beauty to our lives. Making things beautiful brings peace and joy to the heart! 
Amen.

Paper Clutter, Projects, and the Darkness of October

You may find that this post rambles a bit. If so, I apologize. However, it's October, which means the darkness and cold are settling in, so I'm beginning to struggle a bit with Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.). My concentration is meh. I'm sleepy. I don't feel like exercising or dancing (very weird for me!). Reading books knocks me out. Things that ordinarily wouldn't bother me much have become exceedingly annoying lately. I clearly need to make some changes now so I don't slip into full-blown depression by Thanksgiving.

I try to avoid using the word "busy" to describe my days. It seems like a cop-out word. Everyone in modern American society seems to be busy. I don't believe I'm as busy as I seem to be. I think I just need to better manage my time. I often replay my days and weeks in my head, wondering what I do with all of the hours. I don't know what makes everyone else so busy, but for me it seems to be projects. Particularly troublesome are the projects that fail to come to a satisfying conclusion. The projects I begin seem to have a way of developing into unfinished symphonies (or novels, as the case may be).

My family did a little "move" in August when my eldest was preparing to leave for college. The other three children switched bedrooms and my office was bumped to the basement. It has been almost two months since we moved everyone, but things are still not organized the way I'd like.

The timing was fairly horrible for a room shift--it was the week before school started. I teach an online freshman composition class at a community college and homeschool my two youngest children. We totally switched our curriculum for our homeschool this year, so we are still getting used to things. In addition to the regular things, we've had extra projects and mini emergencies. My husband spent a couple weekends repairing cracks and cleaning the driveway to seal it before winter. My car broke down twice, requiring extra trips to the shop and a complete upheaval of my schedule for those days. I acquired a large load of wood chips which are being distributed throughout my garden beds--and it's taking a lot longer than I had anticipated to tackle the pile (which is sitting in my front yard). Our washing machine also needed repairing, but the repairman said it would cost as much as a new machine--so we repaired the four-year-old large-capacity, high-efficiancy machine ourselves for $200. Now the washing machine is working like it did when it was new--nice and quiet! In any case, time has been at a premium, and certain things have gotten pushed aside, like finishing the paper decluttering that should have happened before the rooms were swtiched two months ago.

I actually started to write this post back in September, before the car broke down the first time, just as school was starting. At that time, I was thinking "I still owe you an overview of the garage project." I laughed when I saw the draft of my blog post that said, "Next weekend, we hope to hang the shovels and do some finishing touches, and then I'll recap the adventure." Hmmm. Maybe we'll get to the shovels and finishing touches after Halloween....

For now, though, I would like to wrap up the untimely move. I said yes to the idea early last summer, but I went into a panic thinking about actually executing the shift which involved moving large furniture (dressers, beds, desks, a bookshelf, and a china cabinet). We rearranged furniture between three bedrooms, the mudroom, and the kitchen. Basically, it was like "moving" but staying in the same house since everyone except my husband and I would be sleeping in a new space. In some ways it was more difficult than an actual moving day because we weren't moving into an empty house. Every space was already full in our fairly small house, so choreographing the adventure wasn't as peaceful and smooth as I would have liked.

Nobody slept well the first night in the new rooms, including me! However, now that the new rooms are set up, the move seems to have been an excellent idea. All of the children are comfortable and happy in their new spaces.

Besides the physical moving of furniture, the "room move" renewed my focus to declutter, particularly kid stuff and paperwork. The "kid stuff" is under control, except the constant outgrowing of clothes for the boys. The bigger issue, of course, is paper clutter. The file cabinet that had been in the former office space was the final piece of furniture to move downstairs. Since it was full and heavy, it sat in the kitchen for almost two months.

I have been intending to purge the files for about a year now, but it's an easy project to put off in favor of other things, like baking cookies or picking tomatoes. I know in my mind that if I would simply do a few file folders each day, the job would be done rather quickly. For some reason, though, the thought of the task overwhelms me. I sometimes don't know what to save and what to shred. In this digital age where more and more bills are delivered online, how many past copies of bills do we really need to maintain on hand? USA.gov has a useful webpage for Managing Household Records that I'm planning to use to get things in order this month!

The FlyLady's October mission is to reduce paper clutter. In order to move the file cabinet, I took out all of the folders. In order to give my daughter an empty closet, I also had to take out a number of folders. These folders are stacked in my living room and my new office area. I hope to be writing by next week with my progress--not in December with the realization that two more months have gone by without success. I believe that reducing the paper clutter which is now taking over the living room and the office will help with my S.A.D.

Heavenly Father,

I know that you are all good. I know you have given me many good gifts. Help me to eliminate the clutter in my life and to be a better steward of my possessions and especially of my time. Please bless and guard those who suffer from depression, particularly as the darkness of fall and winter sets in. Thank you for all of the readers of this blog. Bless them and draw them close to your Sacred Heart.

Amen.

Garage Project, the Continuing Saga!

The garage project is mostly complete! We still need to hang a few shovels and decide whether to purchase a new tool rack for the brooms and rakes for some finishing touches, but all of the hard work is done. I will write a longer reflection soon, but I thought I'd at least post a "before and after" photo comparison.

Before: Dark and Scary!

After: Bright and airy!

Thank you to my wonderful family for their help in getting this project done! My husband, all four of my children, and my niece all painted, moved things, and helped in many ways over the two week transformation of our garage. I couldn't be more pleased with the results!

Garage Project, Part Two

As I mentioned in my previous post, it would be very easy for me to go in the house, close the door, and ignore the garage without some specific deadlines and accountability. Two appointments this coming week have motivated us to keep moving!

On the back wall of the garage is a makeshift table from one of the wooden house doors we replaced 8 years ago. The door is on top of a couple sawhorses. As with any large flat surface, it is a great space for projects, but mostly it tends to be a place that accumulates clutter. The children leave toys, sweatshirts, paper, sidewalk chalk, and bubbles on the table. I tend to put gardening paraphernalia and painting supplies on the table, and admittedly not always in an orderly fashion. Consequently, when it comes time to start a project, I often spend the first 15 minutes finding the table under the clutter. On the adjacent wall is a three-tier shelf/workshop table that is partially inaccessible because it is partly behind the door table. During our Minimalism Game purge (I know, you're probably looking at the photos and thinking "What did you get rid of?"), we realized we could probably part with the cumbersome door table and rearrange a bit to streamline our storage, while reducing the flat surface invitation for clutter.

In order to make sure the door went away, I called our local building supply salvage store for a donation pick up. They are coming Thursday, so we cleared off the table this weekend. All we have to do now is put it outside on Wednesday evening.

Work surface? Nowhere to be found! 

See what I mean? Disaster. The items in the back corner
are inaccessible.

At least the floor is clear and I can fit the van in....

The next order of business was to figure out how we would deal with re-taping and mudding the ceiling to prepare for painting. A step ladder is not practical for this type of work. We asked a couple friends if they knew of anyone with scaffolding we could borrow. No luck. So I looked at the online catalog for the local construction rental place. I saw the perfect solution--a rolling work platform! I called and reserved the platform for Saturday morning. Since the store is closed on Sunday, we can get the platform for the whole weekend for the cost of 1.5 days!

One of the split seams on the ceiling.
My shoulders ache just thinking about this weekend!

You may not understand why these deadlines are so exciting to me. I will explain. Since we only have the platform for the weekend, the ceiling must be completed this weekend. No time to dilly-dally! That means by Monday morning, when I take the rolling platform back to the rental shop, the garage will have a fresh coat of paint and will look like a new place.

The project won't be done with the completed paint job, though. We still need to do some trim work around the windows. We also must make a decision on what to do with the floor (stain, paint, Racedeck, or simply clean what we have). Finally, when all the cleaning and painting is done, we will reorganize and possibly purchase a storage system to get things off the floor and orderly. The most overwhelming task, however, will be completed once the paint dries on the ceiling.

If you've done a garage makeover and have suggestions for tool and bike storage or floor treatments (pictures please, I'm a visual learner!), I'd love to see them!

Have a great week, and I hope to be sharing some great results, and maybe some interesting stories, next week!

Garage Project, Part One

When we bought our house back in 2005, we knew we would need to do some updating. We've done a little at a time, including a new roof and new doors, new faucets, lots of painting, a new garage door, and updating to the downstairs bathroom. We have a list of other updates we'd still like to make when they are in the budget. One of the worst spots in the house is the attached garage. It's "just a garage" so it was pretty been low on the priority list. Over the years, we have used the space for storing bikes, lawn and garden tools, and the van. I've also used it as a workshop for furniture and kitchen cabinet painting projects. My favorite use of the space is for practicing Irish Dance! Before our annual recital, sometimes alone and other years with my daughter or my friend, the van gets moved out and the floor swept, and then I practice my hard shoe dances. 

We are not planning to move any time in the foreseeable future, but since this is our third house, I've learned to remodel and update in terms of improving home value and sale-ability. An ugly garage space probably wouldn't be the main feature that would tank a home sale, but a fresh-looking garage could definitely be appealing to a buyer. The other thing I've learned after selling two homes is that it's smart to make the improvements for yourself, not for the next owner. I lived with dingy, ugly wall-to-wall carpet for several years at our previous house. I shampooed it, and it still looked bad. When we listed the house to sell, the realtor strongly suggested replacing the carpeting. I agreed, and the house looked so much better--for the next owner. This time, we're making the changes to make our home the way we like it.

House wall. See ugly paneling piece around the garage
door opener. The whole wall to the right of the house door
was pieced like that.

In spite of its usefulness, the interior of our garage is downright ugly. The wall attached to the house had some 1970s fake wood paneling, which would have been okay with a coat of paint, if the pieces weren't all smaller than 3' x 3'. They were oddly pieced in, and it looked super tacky. The lighting is poor and the windows are difficult to open, so it's stuffy in the middle of summer. In addition to the weird wall treatments, the sheet rock on the ceiling was taped and mudded, but never painted. As a result, the tape seams have cracked. Before his summer job started, my oldest son removed the fake wood paneling, revealing drywall like the ceiling and the other half of the house wall. The other walls are plywood. 

Attic access ladder is broken and tape seams are cracked.

My husband and I agreed last month that it's time to make some changes to the garage. Most of them are not expensive--just time consuming. We've already purged a lot of junk during June when I played the Minimalism Game, but then we had a couple weeks of not much progress. As any runner knows, having a race to train for is a great motivator. I am training for a half marathon 10 weeks from now. I started a couple months ago, and I'm starting to build up my mileage so that when race day rolls around, I'll be ready. A household project is easy to ignore and postpone, unless specific deadlines require accountability. The Minimalism Game helped because I knew we needed to purge 20+ items per day at the end of the month. Now that the game is over, it has been easy to focus on other things and ignore the garage. 

Enter...organized and hard-working husband. I had lots of other things I would have rather done last weekend, but my husband said he was planning to work on the garage. It wasn't necessarily the most romantic way to spend our anniversary, but we were working together, and that's a big motivator for me. If I have a partner and accountability, I have all the focus of a "normal" non-ADD person. I jumped into full-on work mode. We used the spackling compound we had on hand and finished patching and sanding the wall that had had the fake wood paneling. It's now nice and smooth and ready for priming and painting. Unfortunately, we ran out of supplies (we were using up what we had from other projects). So far, this project has cost "zero dollars"!

Tune in tomorrow for an update on this weekend's progress and the benefits of accountability!

Minimalist, I Am Not

Today, June 30, was the final day of my participation in the Minimalism Game with a group of friends. I have posted some of my daily decluttering tallies in this blog: here, here, here...and here. I have pondered whether decluttering would help my un-diagnosed ADD and whether the accountability in the game would help me maintain focus. The answer to both of those questions is "sort of." 

Pride is a useful tool. When other members of the group would send the group emails with their daily tallies, I couldn't let them beat me. I'm not always a "winner," but I am fairly competitive. My pride motivated me to keep purging junk, even though I wasn't highly motivated personally to get rid of things on certain days. I knew that the other members of the group would notice if I didn't send a message with my purge list, so the accountability kept me going to the end of the game.

Has the decluttering helped my focus? I would say, not yet. We have purged a lot, but several areas need more concentrated purging, then organizing before I can be in the spaces without being regularly distracted. Most importantly, the office needs an overhaul. However, some of the spaces that were particularly distracting to me are much better today than they were May 31.

Several members of my household have contributed to the item count. My daughter cleaned out the clothes that she doesn't wear and the socks with holes for a 20-something count. Because she cleaned out her dresser, I was able to repair a broken drawer, and her "clothes pile" is no longer on top of the dresser. The clothes are mostly put away, and I can now stand in her doorway and talk to her without feeling anxious at the sight of the clutter.

The boys helped my husband with a garage clean-up that tallied to the full count for days 28 and 29. When I drove the van into the garage today, I noticed that it felt much roomier. Organizing and painting the garage is the family project for the rest of this summer, so the Minimalism Game was a great first step to getting that project underway.

I was struggling today to finish the game. I had a bit of a headache and thought about not bothering with the final day. The pride thing started gnawing at me around 9 p.m.  I was sitting here wondering what I would do for the final 27 since I had the first 3 accounted for.  I kept looking at the shelves in the office closet, knowing that I probably could have gotten quite a few days’ worth out of there, but I hesitated to tackle the space for some reason. A few moments ago, my gaze fell upon a green basket. I remembered that I used to store cassette tapes in that basket. On top of the cassettes were some small photo albums. My daughter and I looked at baby pictures of her and the two older boys for a few minutes, then I dug in to find the cassettes!

Day 30

1.  Pair of my husband's old running shoes

2. A pair of holey, not holy, underwear.

3. Dried out glue stick

4-30! Mix tapes and other 1980s cassettes.

Done!!

For July, I will be working on the garage project and my Camp NaNoWriMo novel, but I may try a 31-day Minimalism Challenge for August with a special focus on the office and kitchen. Then, I'll let you know if my focus improves.

I have learned from this game that I am not a minimalist, and I probably never will be. However, we have recognized as a family that we have held on to a lot of junk that we really do not need. Clearing out the junk makes it easier to find what we do need and to use the useful things we'd forgotten because they were hidden in the clutter. 

Maintaining Focus through a Game

With all the things I'm getting rid of, I would expect the house to feel empty! Of course, lots of the items are small enough to fit in my hand, so the impact is gradual. Even so, this minimalism game is motivating me to keep purging junk, which will make it easier to find the things we need and keep the house clean.

My husband and I stood together in the garage the other day and considered some purging that we'll be doing in there this weekend. Days 21 and 22 should be a cinch since I'll have a team working with me! My husband will make sure that all of the children pitch in for the garage project!. Once the garage is purged and reorganized (and the ceiling and one wall painted), it will make getting in and out of the vehicle more comfortable and will make the tools, bicycles, and lawn mower much more accessible. In addition, it will look nicer and will be a welcoming place to drive into when I come home.

So, here are my decluttering accounts for days 13 to 17.

Day 13:

(1-12, trash!)

1-10 Pile of threadbare, holey cloth napkins that actually were in the washing machine. As I was moving things to the dryer, I thought, "Why are we keeping these? I have new ones with no holes!"

11-12 Facecloths that were threadbare, too.

13 A skort that I never wear (going to a friend)

Day 14:

(1-9 are in a bag to donate to Goodwill)

1-3 Skirts

4-6 Dresses

7-9 Sweaters

10-14 plant trays (3) and a bunch of empty "six packs" from plants, recycled

Day 15

1-3. Two water bottles and a belt for running--given to a friend who will use them!

4. Work ID from former employer, 2005

5. Refrigerator magnet

6. "Hallmark" book (basically an extended greeting card) 

7-9. Cubic zirconia necklace and two pairs of earrings 

10-15. Other costume jewelry (pin and several pairs of earrings).

Day 16

1-16 Medicine cabinet and linen closet purge of "lotions and potions"!  Samples of hair product that I'll never use, old nail polish (some that my daughter contributed to the cause!), multiple packets of mineral oil and a packet of oatmeal bath stuff from the 1990s.

Day 17

1-3 rags that have seen better days

4-7 several of my youngest son's 3rd grade workbooks

8-12 more HBA stuff

13 Dried up Mod Podge

14-17 T-shirts of mine that were so old, floppy, and ugly that I wouldn't even wear them to garden or paint.

Almost everything I've purged the last few days is trash that I've been ignoring. The game is making it so much easier to toss, toss, toss! 

As I write, I'm noticing that my office holds many items that we never use and that my tiny desk is a big mess. The office will be my decluttering focus for the next few days. Purging and then organizing this space is essential if I'm going to conquer my distracted nature when I am working!

In addition to being a homeschooling mom and a blogger, I teach a college composition class and am a freelance writer. I've written articles mostly for Catholic websites, but my personal goal is to write a novel. In fact, I hope to write many novels, but the trick is to finally finish one! I have started and quit NaNoWriMo several times (November is always too busy for me), so I'm hoping to finally write my first complete novel during Camp NaNoWriMo this July. 

Who knows, the Minimalism Game may just inspire the focus I need to stick with the writing project for the entire month!

Will Decluttering Help My ADD?

What makes me most distracted? Hmm--that's a tough one. I would say weeds and junk. If I walk outside between May and October, I will often lose track of my original mission and begin pulling weeds. If I walk into another room in the house to get something, I often forget my mission as I notice clutter along the way. I'm hoping that my participation in a decluttering mission for June will help me maintain focus as I move from one room to the next in my daily chores.

Today is Day 12 of the Minimalism Game. I had out of town company for days 8-11, so I did a couple days ahead of time, and I've caught up with the rest today. Over the past few months, my children have been on a chore rotation where the responsibility of washing and drying dishes and emptying the dishwasher is on a weekly rotation. The chores have gotten done consistently on most days. I'm always delighted to walk into the kitchen before bed and see that all the dishes have been washed, dried, and put away. Unfortunately, like a "clean" bedroom with a messy closet and a pile of stuff under the bed, my kitchen has become cluttered behind closed doors and drawers.

From time to time, I, as the mother and homemaker, must step in and correct the mess. I could "make them do it." I've taught them all many times to stack bowls of the same shape together and to corral the lids in a zipper bag to keep the storage container cabinet neat. In fact, I probably will recruit one of them to fix that particular mess. But the drawers and pantry were full of little bits of stuff that could easily be recycled or thrown away, ultimately making the clean-up process easier since the closets and drawers could more comfortably hold the items that really belong there in an orderly fashion. In any case, the decision of what to keep or toss is up to me.

With that goal in mind, I purged the following items.

Day 10:

I recycled 10 old gardening magazines. I did get distracted and look through all of them one last time. However, I discovered that radish seed pods can be used in stir fries, so it was worth the look (I have several radishes that have gone to flower this week).

Day 11:

1. Cat medication (over 4 years old)
2. Almost empty bottle of calcium with a "best used by date" of October 2010
3. Bottle of blackstrap molasses. Yes, it's a good source of iron. But it's gross.
4. Nearly empty can of Clorox Disinfecting Spray (I don't use many chemicals in the house anymore, so it has been in the closet for years!)
5. Dried out floral foam
6. Container of mini Christmas cookie cutters--used once, 6 years ago.
7. Lint roller handle for which I can no longer find refills
8. Bottle of eye medicine from 2011
9. Old shoe box that had corralled vinegar and other bottles in the pantry. Replaced with nice round tray that will function as a Lazy Susan.
10 & 11 Several Walgreens prescription instructions and an empty cough medicine bottle

Day 12

1. Broken plastic fork
2. Instructions for a salad spinner
3. Instructions for a can opener
4. Bent metal fork someone found in the yard, which was washed and put on the side in the silverware drawer years ago. Nobody has ever used it.
5. Broken wax crayon for use with Easter egg coloring
6-10 Medicine cups and spoons with calibration that is worn and hard to read
11 & 12 plastic baby spoon and fork set with teeth marks

All items except the cookie cutters went to the recycling or trash. I will give the cookie cutters to a friend or donate them to Goodwill since they are like new. As I have been decluttering for nearly two weeks, I am delighted when I open and close a drawer without a struggle. I feel more peaceful when things are orderly. And, if things are orderly, I can more easily maintain focus.

The kitchen is in much better shape now, and I have a better idea of what is on hand in the pantry and refrigerator. My next step is to make a menu and grocery list. Since the clutter is gone, I should be able to sit in the kitchen and get the lists done without distractions.

Do you struggle with ADD? Is your house cluttered? Maybe a month of the Minimalism Game will help you cut the clutter and establish more focus. If you try it, let me know how it goes!

Disclaimer: I am not trained as a doctor or psychologist, so I don't have professional qualifications to help you with ADD or ADHD. I'm simply a person who is easily distracted and is happy to share my experiences on things I've tried that help me to maintain focus.

Accountability and the Minimalism Game

As I mentioned in my previous post, a friend invited me to join her and some of her other friends and family members in the Minimalism Game.

So far, I've kept up with each day's number goal. We have been sending "reply all" messages to each of the players in our game. 

Here are my small victories:

Day 2: Today I recycled a pile of papers out of the office and recycled a magazine that had been sitting on the end table in the living room for a few weeks. It's trash night, so they went to the curb! It's nice to have a clear corner on my desk! Hoping to tackle the garage tomorrow.

Day 3: Today, I threw out a cracked 14 lb barbell weight that had been left behind by the previous homeowner. We've been here nine years! I also threw away the welcome mat our realtor gave us that used to say "The Ford's. Most of the letters had worn away and it was cracked in half. I also got rid of a pile of lathing strips that had been on the raised beds in the garden, but they seemed to be more of an annoyance than a help with the "square foot gardening".

We are having out of town company starting Sunday, so I will be doing some of my "8, 9, 10" days with other days. I finally cleaned out the kids' craft cupboard which also held my almost fourth grader's 2nd grade school books. I recycled a giant stack of paper and old magazines, found a fast food sand castle toy to toss, and gathered a pile of books to give away. I think it more than covers "8"!

Day 4:

1. A key of unknown origin to the trash

2. Pile of sample work from my portfolio from 1995 (computer products catalogs and brochures), recycled 3. Life vest for a 30-50 lb child--in the van, ready to donate to someone who can use it.

4. Stack of mementos from the 1980s (concert program, perfect attendance certificate, other junk) that mean nothing to me now.

Thursdays seem to be loaded with appointments, and I've have several today which have kept me in the van, not able to purge any clutter. I have 10 more hours to locate 5 items to evict from my home. I can do this!

A Game for Decluttering

A friend sent me an email last week inviting me to join her in The Minimalism Game. Apparently Josh Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus have made headlines and written books and blogs about being minimalists. I bounced around their website a bit and looked around at my clutter and thought, "Sure, why not?"

The Minimalism Game begins on the first day of a new month. The idea is to get rid of stuff every day in proportion to the date. On the 1st, one item. On the 5th, five items. All the way to the 30th (for June) when 30 items should go out the door for a monthly total of 465 items. According to their site, you can rid yourself of "Clothes, furniture, electronics, tools, decorations, etc. Donate, sell, or trash. Whatever you do, each material possession must be out of your house—and out of your life—by midnight each day." 465 sounds like a huge number to me. 

I have been putting off the decluttering I planned to do two years ago when I started this blog. The laundry room is better, but still not decluttered. The garage needs a major purging. And my closet has been neglected for far too long. Maybe I do have 465 items I can purge from my home.

If you are ready to declutter, join me in The Minimalism Game! I will post my progress each day. Feel free to share comments about your progress, too!

Today, June 1, I threw away a broken bicycle pump that was sitting in the garage for several years.

Tomorrow, I will find two more items!

My Grandmother's Dress

My 94-year-old grandma is selling her house and moving to a lovely independent living "villa." It's a condo-like duplex with a sun room that overlooks woods and a lake. Grandma loves bird watching, and I imagine many feathered friends will flit outside her new windows this spring and summer. In addition to the beauty of the place, the community atmosphere will give her a chance to make new friends and enjoy activities in the main building while having her independence and privacy at her new home. If she needs more care in the future, assisted living apartments are available.

Last Monday I drove from my home in New England to the Midwest to help my mother (who lives in a neighboring state and had arrived a couple days earlier), grandmother, and aunt. We sorted, packed, and purged items from grandma's home so that she only takes what she really wants and needs to the villa. The house she is selling has lots of storage, which means she had plenty of space to keep everything. I told my husband that I am glad our house doesn't have much storage space because having lots of storage space simply means the storage space gets filled with stuff.

The schnauzer-boxer mix puppy who almost
convinced me to bring her home
from the animal shelter.

From Tuesday through Saturday we gathered, sorted, and purged. Many boxes and bags were delivered to Goodwill. A local hospital had a paper shredding event where we took three or four large boxes. We took a grill and a spreader to the curb and smiled when they disappeared before morning (one woman's trash...). We filled the garage with items for an auctioneer to collect before the big move. We took towels, sheets, and newspapers to an animal shelter. With all we purged, Grandma will still have plenty of her personal items to make the new place feel like home.

I am so proud of my grandma. This decision was very hard for her, but she's been brave. Like most people, she doesn't like change. She was comfortable living in her own home. However, she realized that she honestly couldn't maintain a house on her own anymore. She got choked up several times when she looked at paperwork that mentioned her family and friends who died before her, including all three of her sons. Many memories were stirred up throughout the week as we handled gifts and cards, obituaries and photographs.

As we sorted, my mother and I each took some items that were special or useful to us. Grandma used to do a lot of canning and gardening. I learned those hobbies from her, so I took some of the kitchen and garden tools.

I spent a good bit of time scrubbing and sweeping spaces that had been hard for Grandma to maintain for the past few years since climbing stairs has become difficult, and a bit scary, for her. This "alone time" gave me a chance to reflect. Many families have to go through their loved ones belongings after they pass away. I feel very blessed that we were able to go through the things with Grandma. We got to hear stories of where certain items were purchased (like the full set of Fiesta dishes she and Grandpa bought for $25 when they were first married) or the juice glasses her mother purchased in Florida when they owned a motel in Ft. Lauderdale.

The week also gave me a chance to spend time with my aunt (Grandma's daughter-in-law) who has been a generous caretaker for Grandma for many years. Since Grandma stopped driving about 10 years ago, my aunt has taken her to doctor's appointments, the hairdresser, and the grocery store. She really made it possible for Grandma to live on her own for much longer than she could have otherwise with my mom and I living several hours away in opposite directions. We enjoyed having several meals together in between the cleaning and packing.

Grandma's dress, which is now my dress.

Toward the end of the week, my mother discovered a clothing item in an upstairs room where Grandma's knitting and good linens were stored. Mom held out a long dress which she seemed ready to pop in a Goodwill bag. I grabbed it and held it up to myself. Grandma was about 5'2 before osteoporosis and age shrunk her height to well below 5 feet. I'm about 5'5 and the dress comes to my ankles. I took it downstairs and asked Grandma whose it was. She said it was hers--that she had worn it for bowling banquets. I imagined her 40 or 50 years ago, standing tall in 3" heels wearing her floor-length gown to receive an award at her bowling banquet. Then I went in the bedroom to try on the dress. The dress looks as though it were tailor-made for me. I'll probably wear it with flat sandals rather than high heels, but I will wear it and think of her.

The week went by quickly, but I'm so grateful to have spent the time with my grandma, mom, and aunt as grandma prepares for the next chapter in her life.

FlyLady Motto and My New Year's "Musing"

The FlyLady offers thoughtful reflections in her "Morning Musings." She often mentions that perfectionism is a problem for "Sidetracked Home Executives" (SHEs). Today's musing is How Our Mottos Gently FlyWash Us. Over the past few days I was wondering what the new motto would be--and now I'm wondering if I can come up with one that the FlyLady would like.

When I discovered the FlyLady website about six years ago, I initially scoffed at this concept that perfectionism was negative. What could possibly be wrong with doing things correctly and thoroughly? For readers who are unfamiliar with the FlyLady, she offers a sensible, realistic, and gentle approach to home management.  Do I follow every idea she presents?  No.  If I did, though, I'd probably be more relaxed, have more fun time with my family, and a cleaner house. However, after six years of receiving her emails, I can honestly say she's the only "daily digest" I've never considered "unsubscribing" from.

Upon reflection, I have finally realized over the past couple weeks that I do struggle with the perfectionism. I have a 2' by 3' white board next to my desk where I've been noting things that need doing--a running to-do list of the big things around the house that don't have a specific due date on the calendar. The whole board is full of notes regarding things like:

• Tidying the gardening things, toys, etc. in the garage
• Bringing furniture in from the yard
• Taking old electronics to Staples for recycling
• Scrubbing windows
• Writing the novel I started four years ago
• Making blueberry jam

Some of these items would take less than 15 minutes to complete.  Many would take less than an hour.  I've had numerous excuses for not completing them:

• "I need to leave to pick up someone from practice in a little while." 
• "I still have 30 papers to grade." 
• "I need to figure out what I'm making for dinner."

What's the real reason "nothing is getting done"? Perfectionism. The biggest example in my home right now is the living room. I started redecorating at the beginning of last summer. I arranged to have the sofa and love seat reupholstered. While the furniture was gone (for almost two months--but that's a whole different story), we painted the ceiling, walls, and woodwork. I felt so pleased because the room looked fresh and inviting. The furniture finally came back, and fear set in: "The cats are going to ruin my newly upholstered couches." One of my kitties was adopted from the animal shelter when she was a year and a half old. She had bad manners when we got her--she was a sofa scratcher. She is 7 now and behaves most of the time, but when she wants attention she is inclined to scratch. I bought a spray that was supposed to deter cats and sprayed it on some scrap fabric. I placed it on the floor. She walked over, sniffed it, then sat on it. Clearly, the spray would not keep her away from the sofa. We have a scratching post that she will use, but she did go after the furniture in the past, so I've been terrified of walking in to find the new upholstery torn to ribbons.

What is the solution? The upholsterer had leftover fabric that I'd intended to use to make pillows, but the more practical use seems to be arm covers. Covering the arms will cover the section on the front of the couch where the cat is most likely to scratch. I've been considering this project for three months now. I have searched for instructions online on more than one occasion. Instead of getting it done, I've covered the arms of the sofa with blankets and the entire loveseat is covered in an old quilt that slides around when the children sit there. Then the arm is exposed again and the angst returns. The cats, however, are happy. They lie on the quilt and feel quite cozy. I, on the other hand, cringe at how trashy the room looks when the whole point of reupholstering the formerly shredded couches was to make the room inviting. I rarely sit in the living room now because it frustrates me too much.  

In addition to the coverings on the couches, I've been hoping to make or purchase new curtains. Again, hours of shopping online and in stores for fabric or ideas to treat the window and complete the room have resulted in the same old curtains hanging there, looking out of place as the teal shade looks odd against the new blue walls. Finally, this week, I decided on curtains and ordered them before I could change my mind again.  

It's all just stuff, really, and I feel materialistic (more guilt) that I've obsessed about it so much. BUT, the whole point of the project was to make the living room an inviting place for the family to gather and friends to visit.

My agenda for today is clear (dual meaning--no appointments, and I recognize what must be done). I will use the 2008 "Do it now!" motto and get some things done today in the living room. I did begin the arm cover project a couple days ago, but the mock-up didn't fit well, so I looked for better instructions which I will use to finally complete that project and put the blankets to better use. I will also get the old curtains down and the windows washed so the new curtains can be hung when they arrive this week.  

It will feel great to erase some of the items from the white board.  Maybe I will "Wipe the Slate Clean for 2014."

October Gloom Inspires Change

The gloom of October has settled into my bones.  I love the autumn colors and weather, but the darkness in New England exhausts me.  I find that I become tired very easily and cannot seem to accomplish the tasks I need to complete each day.

In particular, I reflect this time of year on making a change of some sort.  I have considered going back to school or looking for alternate employment, but financial limitations foster complacency.  My job is okay.  I like it sometimes.  The money is okay.  Truth be told, I'm not sure what I want to do when I grow up, but I know I'm not doing it now.

Therefore, I groan, grumble, and complain, but I don't know on a practical level what to do. I have moments of excitement over possibilities, but none of them seem realistic.

1. I could start writing regularly about things people care about and make a living as a blogger.
2. I could work toward sustainable living--growing most of our food. 
3. I could send the kids to school and teach full time.  Or work in an office.  Or something.
4. I could simplify our lives and cut our spending so that I could quit my job.
5. I could go back to school and get a degree in a different field that would make work exciting.
6. I could write and publish my first novel, developing the first draft during National Novel Writing Month in November (NaNoWriMo).

And then the realist/pessimist in my head retorts:

1. You haven't been able to blog every week with any consistency.  How on earth could you earn money blogging?
2. Your garden was bountiful this year, but you didn't substantially cut your grocery bill.  And you live in the city and zoning restrictions mean no livestock. Vegan living would put your family over the edge.
3. You have to at least homeschool the younger kids. You don't want to teach full time. Two words--Common Core!  
4. You don't buy many extras. You already do most of the "cost cutting" tips the magazines tout (cook meals, coffee at home, no cable, cheap cell phones), what else could you cut?
5. You can't afford school. Period.
6. You've started three NaNoWriMo novels and have never gotten past 50 pages.  And in November, when work and life is busiest. Ha!  Never gonna happen my friend.

October gloom.

I'm not always gloomy, though.  After morning coffee and prayer time today, I started looking at the FlyLady website and reading her Cruising Through the Holidays ideas and daily missions.  I felt enthusiastic about planning for the months ahead. Why? Because the focus was off of me and redirected at the prospect of spreading joy in the way I approach Thanksgiving and Christmas. The FlyLady offers tips on gift-giving, home decorating, baking, and more.  Her tips are a great way to make the preparations easier so the focus of the holidays can be on the people and memories we share during these special national and faith celebrations.

Gift-giving in particular used to be pleasurable to me, even when I had very little money.  When I was single, I'd put time and effort into purchasing or making gifts that would bring joy to my family and friends. I don't know when that feeling changed, but increasingly over the past 10 years, gift purchasing has been a rushed, stressful process that has made me bitter or frustrated. The emotional change may have been spawned by several years where my four children received so much plastic stuff that was broken or didn't work correctly that we'd hold our breath to see if the gifts under the tree would bring joy or tears! The Clutter Free Gift Ideas on the FlyLady site renewed my excitement about gift giving.  She offers hundreds of ideas from other "Fly Babies" for gifts that would be useful and appreciated. The list, and the testimonies with them, inspired me to start really thinking about my loved ones and how I can bring them joy this Christmas.

I still long for a change, but I recognize the first change needs to be my approach. I will get my priorities in order by shifting the focus off of myself and onto bringing joy to others.

Spring Cleaning in January

Wow do we have a lot of stuff!  My family has a small 3 bedroom ranch with a partially-finished basement which I lovingly refer to as the boys' dormitory.  My daughter and I decided recently to swap her bedroom with the home office, which had been her bedroom a few years ago.  She mentioned that she wanted her room to be green (the color she had picked when her room was in the current office space) instead of light purple.  I said, "Maybe we can paint this summer--or maybe you can just have the green room back."  I thought moving furniture would be easier than painting, and we wouldn't need to wait for warm weather to open the windows.  She loved the idea and began "cleaning" to prepare for the move.

If you read my article "Bouquets of Love" you know a little bit about my daughter.  She saves lots of useful things and is very crafty and artistic.  My husband and I share the home office.  I have a desk that's rather tiny--my choice in the hopes of minimizing the likelihood that it will be covered in stuff.  I used to have a large L-shaped desk which mostly collected stuff and wasn't terribly useful.  The new desk has just one drawer and a narrow cabinet that holds binders and answer keys for our homeschool.  Even though it's tiny, it still holds plenty of useful things.  My husband has a large desk with a hutch that holds a shelf full of books and many useful things.  In the office, we also had a bookshelf and a closet with shelves full of many useful things.  You are no doubt recognizing the trend here. The stuff would need to be moved (or permanently re-moved). Needless to say, swapping the two rooms was probably just as time consuming as painting would have been.

Mike was heading to Florida for a conference, so Elizabeth and I decided to swap closets and bookshelves while he was gone.  I thought it would be a rather simple process--pull the books, move them to the other room.  Every stack I moved seemed to multiply.  Old magazines, homeschool textbooks, readers from the first composition class I taught in 1996, lots of holy cards and greeting cards from religious orders, knickknacks, tchotchkes, trinkets (yes, those last three are redundant--as was much of the clutter).  We filled trash bags and recycling bins and donation boxes.  After many hours, the closet and bookshelf transition was complete.

Initially, I thought that we would just move the big stuff when Mike got home...until the next morning.  Elizabeth's things were in the office.  My things were in her bedroom closet. Annoying? Yes. We decided the inconvenience was unnecessary and that we should move the furniture immediately.  Did you ever notice that on remodeling and home improvement shows, they are able to move everything in an hour?  We did not have the magic of television to assist us.  We also had no men.  I don't care what the ultra-feminists say.  I like having men in my life, and I like when they pick up heavy things that are simply too cumbersome for me to move on my own or with my petite 13-year-old daughter.  Anyway, I kept looking at my husband's big desk and tried to recall how he and his friend maneuvered it into the office two or three years ago.  Before the desk could be moved, it had to be cleared and emptied.  All of the useful things were moved to my bedroom.  If the job wasn't completed that day, I'd have to sleep on the couch.

My sewing machine cabinet and the office chairs were all moved into my bedroom and the area rug was moved into the mudroom.  Once the desk was clear, I measured it a few more times (I'd already measured it and the doorway five times, hoping the results would change.  Desk: Depth: 30.5, Height 28 (without the hutch), Length: 59.5.  Doorway: 29.5, if door is removed.  Hmmm.  I honestly didn't remember the guys removing the hutch, but I have no clue how else they could have made it through the doorway.  I imagined myself as a master Tetris-player, turning the L-shaped chunkiness in a skilled angle to slip gingerly through the door across the narrow hallway to the other room.  Hmmmm.  13-year-old daughter attempted to help me lift the desk to put it on its end.  Fail.  11-year-old son attempted to help me remove the hutch.  We started to get it, but I noticed lots of nails and thought "They didn't take all those nails out--there must be another way."  We stopped and I measured again.  Feeling somewhat defeated, I told Elizabeth we needed her older brother.  She looked at the clock and said, "What time does he come home?"  It would still be several hours.  We continued cleaning the floors and purging junk.  Unfortunately, that desk had to move before we could move any of the other furniture between the two rooms.

15-year-old strong boy finally came home from school and laughed at me.  Not mean-spiritedly.  He simply said "not happening," when I told him we should be able to somehow get the desk through the door.  I measured again said that the height of the desk would fit through the doorway.  He responded, "take off the top thing and we'll move it." That was my original plan, but it seemed too involved when we tried earlier. I checked the nails again and realized they popped out easily and a couple turns of locking screws released the hutch.  Man-child easily helped me lift the desk so we could turn it and slip it ever-so-carefully through the doorway. Initially, we attempted to turn the desk to go to the other doorway.  However, the skinny hallway would have none of that nonsense.Then, my Tetris skills came in handy. I paused and pondered, trapped at the end of the hallway with everyone else on the other side of the chunky desk. We did not need to turn the desk.  It was already facing the right direction to go through the other doorway.  Move the rectangle out, over, down, and into the open space.  Success!  

With the desk finally in place, the rest of the move only took 3 or 4 more hours, which included reassembling two computers and replacing all of the useful things on and in the desks.  I slept in my bed.

My first morning with the new space proved to be productive and peaceful.  Elizabeth seems to love her new space as well.  With clean, organized rooms, we were both better able to focus on our work.  Simply having a tidy space made me less distracted throughout the day.  And the biggest bonus--my desk is next to a window that overlooks the garden, so when I'm writing I can look out at nature.

Dear Lord,

Thank you for your bounteous gifts.  Help us to use those gifts for your greater glory.  Thank you for men and boys, for their strong arms and tender hearts.  Teach them to love as you love. Thank you for girls and women with creative minds and big ideas.  Help them to use their talents to honor you.

Amen.

A.D.D., A.D.O.S., or Life in the Internet Age?

When I started this little blog, I hoped it would motivate me to get my laundry room organized and eliminate clutter in my domestic church.  The thought of taking pictures of my newly organized space and sharing successes in the hopes of helping other distracted moms inspired me. We had succeeded in painting just one short wall and organizing a few sections of the laundry room when the temporary lull in our family schedule disappeared.  I haven't been able to finish anything else in that space since school started.

Last Friday, I finally moved the clutter out of the "family room" section of the basement and back into the laundry room since I know I won't be painting any other walls before Christmas.  Back to square one!  The section of the room that was destined to be a workout area is again full of boxes of clothing and art supplies that I haven't used in three years.

Which begs the question: Why can't I just finish the job?  My blog post that has gotten the most traffic is "Maybe I have A.D.D," so I recognize that many of you must have similar struggles.  Is it A.D.D. or something else? I know I have difficulty staying on task when I'm online.  If I am grading student essays, I am often curious about ideas in their papers which prompt me to do a "quick" search.  Next thing I know, I've checked two or three sites that are related to the essay.  Then I notice that I have received a new email and take a moment to read the message.  Next thing I know, I've spent 45 minutes to do a 15 minute task.

The problem isn't isolated to internet usage.  My parents and grandma came to visit for my son's confirmation this past weekend.  I was spinning in circles for days before they arrived.  My timer helped me stay focused enough to keep the laundry up-to-date.  However, everything else I did was interrupted by my own racing mind.  Shaking the rugs from the bathroom would remind me to scrub the trash baskets which in turn would remind me that the wall in the kitchen had cobwebs on it.  Meanwhile, I needed to make an urgent appointment at the pediatrician and buy groceries before taking one child to swimming and picking the other up from cross country.  Not to mention music lessons.  I chose to homeschool because we wanted to give our children a good, Catholic education, and because I wanted flexibility and family-control of our schedule. Sometimes I wonder if it would be easier to give someone else control of the schedule--someone who has a better sense of time and the ability to say no.

My guess is that a lot of my readers who are finding me through a search about A.D.D. are equally scattered and busy.  My friend told me about a "condition" called A.D.O.S.--Attention Deficit, Ooooooh Shiny! Those suffering A.D.O.S. are easily distracted by shiny objects or exciting things.  The exciting things are my shiny objects.  I often think I have time to do this little project or that fundraiser, and next thing I know I'm stressed out, behind on my work, and impatient.

Like I said, the children are involved in numerous activities which are all great for them.  But driving them here, there, and everywhere leads to chaos.  I long for simplicity, but thwart my own efforts by seeking out activities to fill the day.

Hurricane Sandy and the other two big storms are set to converge, which may lead to widespread power outages.  Last October, our area suffered a week-long power outage.  Other than being a bit chilly because our forced-air gas furnace relies on electricity, the week was great!  We read books, spent time together, and didn't have to go anywhere for days.  My A.D.D. or A.D.O.S. was gone for the week!  I had clarity and focus, and the house stayed pretty clean.  I honestly don't want the power to go out today, but I'm glad the outside activities are already cancelled. We'll "do school" this morning and maybe some baking as long as the power is on, and then just be together the rest of the day--sweetness !

List-making and Getting Things Done

Last Friday, I turned in grades for the summer course I was teaching.  Some might think that means "vacation" until the next semester begins on September 4.  In my mind, it actually means a mad frenzy of back to school preparations and tending to the chores that haven't been done properly for the past month or so.  This morning, I made a to-do list.  The plan is to delegate a number of tasks to my children.  The hope is that they will take the assignments cheerfully and perform them with enthusiasm and joy at the opportunity for loving service to their family.  I'm genuinely optimistic at this point!

This past weekend, Mike and I made some progress on the laundry room project.  We cleared a 4-tier metal shelf against the wall that will become my pantry storage area.  The metal shelf was here when we bought the house, and it's rusty and ugly.  To-do item--sand, prime, and paint the shelf.  The shelf will have a new home in the utility corner of the laundry room where it will be used to store tools and supplies for painting and household repair projects.  That shelf was a primary problem spot.  Until we cleared and moved it, nothing substantial could be completed in the laundry room because the space is so narrow.  I kept avoiding the task, but my husband encouraged me that we could get it done.  We filled a trash bag with stuff that had been taking up space but was really junk.  We moved the shelf outside to be sanded, swept the floor, and dusted the wall.  Then I masked the area to be painted.  We need to do a few other things before painting (removing a paper towel holder and switch plate from the wall and removing the door and hinges from the door frame adjacent to that section of wall), but it's definitely do-able this week.  Once the tool and pantry sections are done, the rest of the laundry room project should move along more quickly.

In addition to the laundry room project, we need to tend the garden.  The weeds weren't bad during the drought, but we've had several good rains now, and the crab grass, lamb's quarters, and their weedy companions have taken over in the garden beds.  I had hoped to plant seed for some fall crops, but I'm behind schedule.  At the minimum, I still plan to plant a few varieties of radishes and lettuce/spinach to continue a harvest through October.  The beans, which were stunted by the drought, have started to take off now and have flower buds!  I thought we'd have no beans this year, but God seems to have other plans.

Besides the physical jobs, we must prepare for a new homeschool year and I need to prepare for my fall classes with a new textbook.  We have three hectic weeks ahead of us in August, but with some delegating and a lot of prayer and trust in God, I know we can accomplish our goals. I'm looking forward to the new school year!

Purging of the Junk Continues

Trash night was last night.  We added more crud to the giant barrel. Our city has large rolling trash barrels for residential pickup.  In addition, we have a giant blue barrel for recycling, which is picked up every other week.  It's a great program--we don't have to sort.  Paper, plastic, glass, and metal cans are all included in the recyclables.  We are diligent recyclers, so the barrel is usually quite full by the second week.  One the other hand, the same-sized giant green barrel, which is picked up weekly, is almost never even halfway full. We compost food scraps. We don't buy fast food or use paper plates or paper napkins unless we're having a party.  We simply don't generate much trash.  However, I know the clutter lurking in the laundry room includes a fair amount of waste.  We've held onto empty packaging from various electronics for years, just in case.  We kept an old medicine cabinet, just in case.  We kept the arms from an office chair that have collected dust for six years, just in case.  Some people might need a dumpster to really declutter their homes.  Since we are using baby steps to get the job done, we simply need to put more things that are trash in the giant empty trash barrel we already pay to have picked up weekly.

I admit, some of the screws, woods, wires, and other miscellaneous items we've kept have come in handy for this project or that emergency over the years.  However, the bulk of the items sitting in the basement are waste.  They waste our space.  They waste our time, by preventing us from organizing the  stuff we do need.  They waste our energy when we need to move them repeatedly to get to the things we really want and need.


One of the biggest sources of clutter is partly used cans of paint.  I must have 8 or 10 cans, some of which probably have about a cup of paint in them.  Now that it seems we'll be getting a little break from the extended drought and heatwave, I'm hoping to do a few rounds of touch up painting to use up the last of what's in those cans and get them out of the house before the edges are too rusty to use.


The biggest blessing of the whole purging project is that Mike is finally on board, which has made the job much more manageable.  For a long time, he took my requests to get rid of things as a personal affront--like I only wanted to get rid of his things.  Something changed recently, though, and I'm not sure why or how.  In any case, he knows it's not about him or his stuff.  Now we're working together to make our little house meet our needs and keep our family comfortable.

The decluttering project is taking many weeks longer than I'd hoped, but it's getting done a little section at a time.  We spend 30-60 minutes opening boxes and pulling out items.  Some, we just toss.  Others, we talk about and then decide together.  We've tossed junk, donated useful items, and found new uses for dusty items we'd forgotten.  We've done two or three rounds of sifting and sorting so far. I'm going to give it another round or two of purging before I post updated photos.  The change is negligible to the untrained eye.  In other words, if you never walked in our laundry dungeon, it would be hard to recognize the tremendous progress we've made.

The ultimate goal for the laundry room is to make it a multi-purpose space.  One end will be a workout area with mats and weights.  The middle section will be a pantry area and laundry section.  The other end of the space will be storage.  I'd also like to make better use of the "under the stairs" space so that it can be well-utilized for Christmas decorations, freeing up a bit more room in the storage section.  


In addition to better defining spaces, we plan to paint the room to brighten it up.  The room is so dark that it's hard to check clothing for stains, even with all of the lights on.  Once some painting is done, I'll post more pictures of the transformation.