PURGE and don't feel guilty about it!

Here it is, my final push to get rid of the BIG stuff.  The emotional baggage that we let ourselves attach to some items is simply ridiculous! Even I am guilty of this very thing I tell people to "get over".  So here it is, I'll lay it on the line...I'm guilty of carrying around things such as dishes (our wedding china) that I never liked and rarely ever used. Every time I pulled them out and thought about sticking them on e-bay or Craigslist I felt this crushing guilt wash over me. Part of me was saying "Sandie, this was a wedding gift" and the realistic side of my brain would retort "Yeah and you never liked it, it wasn't what you registered for and you don't ever use it. It's taking up space just get rid of it". It was like Good Angel versus Bad Angel on my shoulders. Can you guess which side was the Good Angel? It wasn't until recently that I realized that it was the side telling me to purge and the Bad Angel made me feel guilty. For the longest time though, I thought that it was the other way around. 

Now I've got this new felt freedom surging through my veins and I'm going through things in the basement looking for MORE things to purge! It doesn't matter how much something cost 20 years ago or the fact that something came from your great grandmother or your best friend- if you never use it then it's simply taking up valuable space!  Over time peoples tastes change, it's a natural occurrence and nothing to be ashamed of. We do it with clothing, shoes and handbags and even furniture so why not our dishes and artwork? The counted cross stitch pictures of the nursery and birth announcements of my children will stay stored in the basement for future generations. But the rest, well I've already got a good selection of framed prints and even some paintings that are going to be list for sale on the internet. Now if you happen to know of anyone looking for a service for 8 of Noritake Greenbreir, complete with a large platter, serving bowl along with a creamer, sugar bowl and a teapot let me know!

Up-Cycling!

I'm a scrapbooker, a quilter, a foodie/gourmet cook, a gardener and now I'm a self proclaimed up-cycle queen! 

 I am all about giving item a new look with a little paint and maybe a few alterations to their original design. Take our master bathroom- we're giving it a fresh new look. I bought some spray paint and we went to town! The original color of the hardware and light fixtures was a dark brown almost black and we switched it up to silver with a hammered texture. The dirty purple walls are now a lovely serene aqua reminiscent of tropical ocean waters. I decided to go with a Hawaiian theme as I have fond memories of us spending our 15th wedding anniversary in Hawaii. By using exotic tropical flowers such as orchids (real ones) along the wall by the jetted bath tub, I've managed to give the room the  feel of a tropical garden. I purchased fabric from a quilt shop in Hawaii for making window treatments and basket liners. The floral print is an authentic Hawaiian print, one that's full of Orchid, Plumeria, Hibiscus and Antherium blossoms as well as a few varieties of green leaves. I hope to find a large leafy plant for the bathroom to round out the tropical garden feel.

While I was out scouting around in my favorite consignment shop, I found some great things to work with...there was this small half round table that I HAD to have! With a little bit of sanding and a fresh coat of paint and it'll be perfect for our half bath! I'm very much into Pinterest- if you haven't joined yet, then you must! I'm always finding things I like, things that inspire me and things that I want to make or recreate for our home. Another one of today's great finds was a wicker picnic basket- I am going to gut it and make it into a Pet Bed for my spoiled cat. I'll make a fabric liner with Velcro tabs so it can be easily removed for washing.  
 
Now to look at some fabric for my kitty's new bed.

The time to purge is now!

What do you do when you have lots of stuff that you keep for sentimental reasons but don't use? For me, I keep it all packed up in boxes. Today I'm going through those boxes and am making myself part with those items.

I have openly admitted that I am a dish hound, well I've got a few boxes of dishes to go through and weed out. Who am I kidding, it's A LOT of boxes! I've decided that it's just plain nuts for me to keep dinnerware that we don't use. I thought about saving it for my kids...what a joke! I can wish as much as I like that they could appreciate quality made in the USA dinnerware but it still isn't going to happen (insert small chuckle here). 

At the same time, it's also insane for me to keep dishes that I never liked, even if they were a wedding gift. This is a different set than the ones I was just talking about. Now it's been over 20 years and we've been dragging this stuff from assignment to assignment and state to state. At times it was in permanent storage (one of those out of sight out of mind sort of deals). Well the time to purge them is now. Seriously, why am I keep something that's been stored in cardboard boxes for years? I should not feel guilty for wanting to get rid of something that I don't ever use- but yet I do. Is it because it was a wedding gift? I need to move past that. I just need to get rid of it all right now, kind of like tearing off a band-aid off in one swift yank! 

Following a routine

Have you heard the Phrase "A Clean Home is a Happy Home"? This saying can be applied to any room of your house be it the kitchen, the dreaded "kids bathroom", your crafting room/space or your living room.

I've always been one to organize things- everything in it's place and a place for everything (it's a common phrase I say at home). I never had a problem with becoming overwhelmed with house keeping things until our move from Texas to Virginia. The move was terrible, the packers did the worst job in recorded history on packing all of our items -that is until the movers from South Dakota to England but that's another story. My husband couldn't take time off to help me with the unpacking and organizing of the house I was left on my own to complete the task. The boxes weren't labeled correctly so I was unable to locate items that I needed- such as the iron -which I found a few days after I really needed it in a box full of Lego's and a bucket of red Texas dirt -no joke. I promptly tossed the old one and went out and bought a new iron. But the real catch here is that the people who packed up our belonging mislabeled just about every single box they packed which left me surrounded in utter chaos. I had things strung out of every single box- which became very overwhelming. A friend recommended The FlyLady and I've taken her concepts to heart and have added a few of my own along the way.

I loved how The FlyLady broke it down in simple easy to do steps. I remember reading a quote from her "your home didn't get this way overnight and it won't get clean in a day". But for me and the cross country move it had gotten this way overnight. With her insight I was able to pace myself and not let myself feel overwhelmed. I've recommended her website to dozens of military spouses over the years. She's helped me get through every military move since 2000. By having check lists and pacing myself, I've gotten through our military moves. With another big move in my future, I know that the FlyLady will help me to stay focused.

Make a routine for yourself and follow it. If you don't know where to start then check out the flylady's baby steps page, it's got some great information on how to get yourself back on track. I can spend 15 minutes or less in any room of my house and have it be what I like to call 'company ready'. Keeping the bathrooms clean has been a snap since our son left home for college ;-) Oh yeah, it's obvious who the little piggy was in this house. Any room that boy of ours walked into was left in total chaos. But I digress...Make a routine and follow it, it's as easy as that. Maybe (and it's only a suggestion) it would help if you got others in the house to follow a routine and to pick up after themselves as well. I never could get that boy of ours to conform, I have happiness in knowing that he's changed- now that he has a girlfriend ;-)

Purge items from your home regularly!

Being stationed here in England has made this easy for me and it's all because there are more charitable organizations out here than one can shake a stick at! All of which have "charity shops" that generate money for their cause. Okay the other part is that at any given week I get a bag shoved through my mail slot from one of the many different fore mentioned charitable organizations looking for donations ...not for money like back in the states, but GOODS!!! Talk about making this easy for me! American Charities could use to learn a thing or two about this kind of funding raising. I can take the bag and fill it, leave it on my door step and poof! There goes the clutter of unused items from my house! FREE Pick up of my unwanted goods (another things American charitable organizations could taken note of, and gas is more than double the cost here than it is back in the states). This week it was 2 bags of clothing and shoes. Next week who knows what it could be. I have integrated this into my reduce, reuse, recycle program/habit. I will miss these British charities when we move back to the states and the weekly pick ups. Hence I will have to re-establish a new routine for donating unwanted/unused items. But until then I shall purge as I go through each room and set it aside for the next charity bag that comes through the mail slot!

some of my other antique shop finds...

I confess, I am a hopeless Pottery Addict! Living here in England has enabled me to find a wider selection, better prices and better quality pottery!

Take this Portmeirion Basin and Ewer in the Christmas Rose pattern- I could only dream about owning something like this. But living here in England has given me the opportunity to be able to own such fine pieces as a fraction of what it would cost me back in the states. Now to replace them if they were to break during the move- now that would cost a mint!


Now who can resist a covered casserole dish? This was calling out to me, a brand NEW Portmeirion casserole dish that someone received as a wedding gift and they didn't like it. Left abandoned and on it's own to find someone who would love it...then I came along! I paid a third of what full retail is on this lovely piece of British made pottery! I will treasure it for many years to come!

These platters are so seriously cool to look at! The style is called "Flow" as it has to do with how glaze is applied before the firing process. Believe it or not but the Turkey Platter is in mint condish and I got it for the whopping price of...£5.00, no joke! It dates to the early 1900's and has clearly only ever been on display. Apparently turkey platters aren't much in demand out here.

The Fleur di Lis platter is supposed to be late 1800's and did cost me a little more than the Turkey Platter, but look at it, it's seriously cool!

Now as for being "collectible", apparently it's the Asian or Oriental designs are the ones that are highly prized and sought after by collectors. Me, I don't much care for the Oriental designs, I'd much rather have a nice pretty floral pattern or something else that strikes my fancy than Blue Willow.

AAhhhh, more great finds in Portmeirion. This is a retired floral pattern and it's one heavy bowl! It's lovely! It will be well used in my home!

This lovely little vintage piece is made by Portmeirion, it's from the 1970's and I do not know what the pattern is called but it's pretty none the less! The piece is a Sandwich tray, but it's great for serving all kinds of yummy treats!

The little bowls you see are made by Burleigh and are small sugar bowls- which are great for serving wonton soup, salsa or ice cream!

Here's my best deal yet on Burleigh Pottery- the large Chinese bowl which retails for £54.50, I paid £15.00. There's no way on this planet that I would ever find a deal like this back in the states...no way no how! I felt as if I had won the lottery that day!

There are also the Unusual finds- take this Portmeirion Halloween Bowl. Since Halloween isn't all that "big" out here in England like it is back in the States one would never expect to find something like this.

As you see, it fits in perfectly in my kitchen table in the breakfast room filled with Halloween treats!

With only 6 more months to go out here, I look forward to seeing what other great deals I'll come across and discover. One never really knows where the next bargain is lurking.

Room Transformation

I back only a few days and I'm ready to get back to work in our sons "old" bedroom (old being a relative term). He's off to college now and his room is now our "new" guest room. I started tackeling his room the day he left (July 26th) but as you know I had to leave suddenly myself on the 28th-which meant the bulk of the cleaning out of our son's pigstye of a room was left to my husband. I'm happy to say that my husband got the rest of the rubbish cleared out of there, got things cleaned up leaving me a blank canvas in which to work with. So, after airing out the room for 3 weeks, it's time to dress it up!

Now where to start? Hmmmm...

♥I started with the decorator table, put a floor length tale cloth on it- looks fab!

♥Lets move on to the windows- took down the room darkening drapes and out up these new Waverly window treatments that I bought while out in California, they're a pretty blue check and they are floor length. If you want to get some great looking window treatmens try Lowe's. I can't make window treatments for less than what I can get them for at Lowe's. I'll pull them back with the ivory colored curtain tie backs that I bought at the Laura Ashely store last year (Laura Ashely has awesome sales).

♥Now to the bed- remember that Americana quilt that I made for the guest room for our house in South Dakota? Well it's now got a bed to call home. Fresh clean sheets, pillows, some fancy handmade pillow cases by yours truly and now an awesome quilt! The bed looks great!

♥The walls- being that our son chose not to hang anything on them for his time here I've decided to change that! I'm going to hang a few things up and make it a real guest room.

♥Additional closet space- oh yeah! Now this is a real treat! I'm storing all of our extra bed linens on the shelves in his closet along with a few other items and maybe some of our clothes, LOL!!!

Look for pictures soon!

reduce reuse recycle

It seems that no matter how many times I "purge" items from my home I always seem to find "something" to be able to donate. I hate to throw away embroidery and counted cross stitching charts, I've tried selling them before and I've actually sold a few of them. But now, I'm just going to donate them. Our church has a donations spot for such items and I plan on bringing many items to fill up the spot. As I was going through my cross stitching charts I came across some patterns for "teachers gifts". My children are well past the age of giving teachers gifts and with that I'm going to be donating those charts so others can make a special gift for their child's teacher.

Now to get on with things here at home. I'm feeling better after my drug induced coma and I slept like a rock. It's the first time in days that I don't feel as if I have a metal rod in my spine and neck. I'm taking it easy and won't over do it, I promise. I'm going to sport some fabric and take some close up pictures of my armoire (how it's made sort of pictures).

Must have more coffee and then I'm off to sift through a few Rubbermaid totes of fabric.

Toss, Keep, Donate, Ship and Pack

Those are the 5 words that are constantly going through my mind. These pact few days. And I thought that I was done on the donate line and yet here I am, getting stuff ready to take to the Salvation Army (again). I had called a local shelter thrift shop on recommendation of a dear friend who knows that they pick up furniture. Well they do IF you reside within Rapid City city limits. If you don't, they want a $20 pick up fee...for picking up donations, come on! So if I'm going to do this, I might as well take it to a place that gives tax receipts.

I never was able to sell my cable ready TV's, how sad is that? So our big screen TV will go into permanent storage come tomorrow and the rest are outta here! Donation CITY! Along with a chest of drawers and a books shelf. I've also got donations of food items (can't pack it or take it with me) and I need to call up one of the ladies from the Quilters Guild as I've also got items to donate to them (we can't take or pack aerosol cans).

Now to finish getting everything set out for packing and putting into permanent storage -just thinking about it makes me have butterflies in my stomach.

Things that amaze me

It continues to amaze me how a couple with no children or a family that has 1 child can put out 5 to 10 times more trash than than a family that has of 3, 4 or even 6 children. It kills me to see my neighbors being so wasteful. I see all kinds of things being tossed out on the curbside that could be donated to various charities. I hate seeing waste, it bugs me to no end to see my neighbors tossing out things that are perfectly good that others could use. If Mother Theresa were here she's have something to say about this- you can bet on it!

I physically can not make myself throw away good usable items into the trash, truly I can't do it. I know in my heart that there's always someone out there that could use it, so I donate the items to charity. Be it clothing, housewares, furniture, electronics, outdoor items and yes even food. If it's in good clean usable condition I donate it. When did we (America) become such a disposable throw away society? We really do need to sit down and rethink our priorities and help those that are less fortunate than ourselves.

As I drove down the street on my way to taking my daughter to school this morning I saw a huge stack of patio chairs in one neighbors trash pile and I thought to myself- Wow, what a waste! My daughter said the same thing out loud. I told her that it's a sin to be so wasteful and she agreed. My thoughts instantly turned to those that are on a fixed incomes, elderly retired folks would probably like a set of lawn chairs so they can sit outside and enjoy the fine day we're having. Maybe a single mom with kids on a tight budget would enjoy some lawn chairs too, so that she may sit out of doors watching her children play. It's little acts of kindness that really do show who we are inside.

Donate Donate Donate

I'm doing it again...going through things in my home and pulling them out and putting them into the bags marked "donations". Here I have been donating so much over the past few months and I'm going at it again. This time it's clothing. I went though my sons entire bedroom and used a few of those bin like containers by Rubbermaid. I organized his closet and drawers, got ALL of the junk off of the floor and out from underneath of his bed. Now to vacuum and dust in there...I'll vacuum but I refuse to dust!

So anyway...I came across clothing that I know he's outgrown. So from there I went to Hannah and asked her is she any clothing that she no longer is interested in having...she brought out an outfit that she got over a year ago. I was surprised to see that she still had it in her closet. I've gone through this latest batch of clothing and decided to give away some more sweaters and even some summer clothing.

In the kitchen...oh my gosh who of us doesn't have at least a zillion of those Glad company plastic containers that lunch meats come in? I'm culling the herd and am keeping 4 of them, the rest will be either given away, donated or recycled. Those plastic containers are handy for all kinds of things, but I don't need so many of them. I'm saying goodbye to my electric can opener. I don't use it, I prefer to use my hand crank can opener. So off it goes and a few other little things.

I recently donated a great number of items to the food bank- our Post Office is having a food drive this week and I dropped off several plastic bags of food items there on Thursday. here's something to make you laugh... I had recently shipped off ALL of my round and rectangular cake pans, my Angel Food Cake pan, some spring form pans and my simple bunt cake pans to England. So there I am organizing the pantry for the open house tomorrow (yes another open house) and there's all of these cake mixes...and nothing to bake them in, LOL! So off to the food bank they go! There was all kinds of stuff that I sent to the food bank, but I did have to laugh at myself for shipping my Angel food cake pan off and not realizing that I had 4 boxes of Angel food cake mix- oops! Well I look at it this way, my stupidity is another persons gain and I'm glad to be able to help others.

I've got to get myself ready for the day, then later on I'll drive downtown to drop off my latest batch of items for donation, pick up my Mary Engelbreit quilt from the Professional Quilter (she called yesterday and it's ready) and maybe I'll have lunch downtown too!

I'm on a roll- Lets Purge!

Something really got to me yesterday and I feel as if I've got some sort of a second wind when it comes to purging even MORE stuff from my home. Would you like to know what the "something" was? IT was a call from the moving company that's coming here on Monday to pack my husbands 500 pound load. This to me was like a wake up call- this IS REAL this IS HAPPENING! And it's going to happen next week! First it was my car- which by the way is ON the Boat which is currently sailing on the Atlantic Ocean! I felt strangely queasy yesterday afternoon.

So I have Longaberger Baskets all over the place...I also use them for storage. Here we go on the purge part- no I'm not purging the baskets, LOL! I'd open up one basket only to find about a dozen table clothes. These are the wonderful yet relatively inexpensive plastic table clothes with the felt backing. This is the table where the kids do homework and class projects, my husband does his little electronic crafting and so forth. I would use those plastic table clothes to protect my table- and they've done a great job too! But now, it's time for me to cull the heard and reduce how many of them we own. I took out half and put them in the box for the Women's Shelter. I open another basket and find acrylic paints (the type for walls not paper). I haven't done any stenciling in over 8 years, why on earth do I still have this old stuff? Out to the trash bin they went!

Next stop on the purge express...back to the guest room closet. I came across a box that just made me laugh! Why I had it still is beyond me, I thought that I had gotten rid of all of that junk years ago- but apparently not! Costume jewelry- basically earrings from the 1980's. I was quite the fashionista back in the 80's and had costume jewelry earrings to match every outfit I owned, then again the same went for high heeled shoes, handbags and belts, LOL! I had gotten rid of the shoes, belts and purses years ago. As I looked into this box and got a real blast from the past, and then threw it all out into the garbage! I didn't care to be reminded of how much of a yuppie I was back then.

Here's a question for you... Why do we hang on to the boxes that jewelry came in? You know, the little rectangular box that the jewelry store puts the purchase in and that your husband wraps up in pretty gift wrap before he gives it to you? I'm serious, why do we keep them? We never put the items back in it, we store it in a jewelry box right? I came across even more of those boxes yesterday, this was stuff my parents had given to me over the years (again this was stuff in the 80's box). In the end, I threw out everything that was in that box.

Little stuff can really add up and it takes up space just like big stuff. Go through your things and get rid of the items that you don't need or use, things that are doing nothing but taking up space in your home. This stuff lurks everywhere...underneath your bed, bathroom sink, in the linen closet, in the kitchen and even your coat closet! Check your garage, I'm sure that there's stuff there too! I know that there's stuff is for me waiting for me to go through it- it's too cold for me to go through it this week but it is on the list of things to go through.

I'm off to tidy up the house, get some laundry done and to make little appetizer desserts for tomorrows open house. I'm going to take pictures of my house and then I'll post them here with a link to the MLS. It could very well be that someone reading my blog can help us to find a buyer for our home :-)

just when you thought that I was done purging...

I haven't purged anything for quite some time. So this morning I got this bug in my head to go through and clear out some stuff in our home office/ guest room closet. We had 4 boxes of framed portraits stored on the top shelf in the closet since we moved in here nearly 2 years ago.

My husband and I talked about how we felt about having pictures of people (family, our children, friends) and neither one of us wanted that huge spread of pictures on a wall anywhere in the house- so we put the boxes in the closet and that's where they stayed... until now. I'd much rather that those pictures be made into scrapbook layouts. So while I was still in my pj's, I took all down all 4 boxes and went through them popping out the photo's. I took out all but 3 pictures from the frames and put them(the photo's) in to acid free sleeves (for now), I decided to keep two 5x7 and one 8x10 frame and the rest (all 20+) are in a box marked DONATIONS. I will not look into the box, nor will anyone else in this family be able to retrieve anything from the box. That's been the golden rule and we've done good as to sticking to that rule.

My next big hurdle is the decision making on what goes into permanent storage for the next 3 years...Heaven help me with this one, LOL!

I've started another organizing project

I don't think that I'm truly happy unless I'm reorganizing something...today it's the very top and the very bottom shelves in the armoire that my husband custom built just for me to house my crafting supplies, it's where I store my quilting goodies. The top shelf has been this depository of all of my leftover quilt batting scraps, thread and whatnot's and the bottom shelf - well it needs to be gone through and I want to see what's going on in those containers.

After I pick out fabric for my various quilting projects, I like to keep them organized by keeping the fabric, pattern and threads together in those nifty zippered containers that sheets, pillow cases and such come in. It's a great way to keep everything together not to mention dust and pet hair free. Using those zippered containers is part of my reduce/reuse/recycle program. I'm using something that a product came in instead of tossing it the trash.

It's snowing outside (again) it's 19º F and with the windchill it's a whopping 5ºF -brrr! I'm more than happy to be staying indoors today, organizing fabrics, patterns and sewing notions. I'm cutting fabric scraps into 3-4-5 and 6 inch squares and 2½ inch wide x length of fabric strips for my own "jelly rolls" and 1½ inch wide strips x length of fabric for my own "sweet rolls". I'm using my P-touch label maker and am in the process of labeling the containers as to what I have stored in them (this will make it easier to locate items now and after our big move to England). I'll have to get the camera out and take some pictures of what I have going on and add them in later.

crunching numbers

Our meeting with the realtor went very well. He's crunching numbers we've got the average expenditure on our utilities ready. I'm excited to be at this stage on this move of ours. It's beginning to feel real, I feel safe saying it- we're really moving! The realtor was excited to see our home, he loved everything we've done to it. He said that it was nice to see a home with so many upgrades. Now for him to find us a buyer!

I've gotten rid of so much stuff from our house these past few months and it shows! The storage areas look large and spacious instead of feeling crowded with piles of stuff everywhere. Even my husband got into the groove and went through his things this week and pulled out clothing and shoes for me to take in for donation. I'm quite proud of all of us and the work we've gotten done. I still plan on doing more reducing around here. Stay tuned to see what else I go through and donate. There are things in the garage that need to be gone through but there's no way you'd catch me out there today! Sure we have an insulated garage, but it's still tooooo darn cold for me to be out there!

Keeping Christmas in your heart throughout the year

Have you ever given thought to that saying and what it means? It's about love, generosity, and compassion. Most people only give food the the local food banks during the holiday season but the real fact is that people are hungry all year long, not just as Christmas time. And donations of clean usable items like bedding, clothing, shoes and household items are needed at homeless shelters and women's shelters. These are people that through a tragedy are starting their lives overs and through the generosity of stranger they are able to start to put the pieces of tier shatters lives back together again.

I won't throw away something that is in good usable working order, I prefer to ask a friend if they could use it or I donate it to an organization that could use such an item.

As I've already gone through all of our holiday decorations and have donated items we have not used in ages, I'm now working on bedding. I'm currently going through our sheets, blankets, pillowcases and throw blankets. Those that are in good usable condition will be washed and donated to the women's shelter, anything else...well I should be ashamed of myself if I was to come across anything ratty looking in our linen closet! Towels are another thing, I've got this assortment of these HUGE beach towels that we haven't used in ages. I cringe when my children find them because they will use them instead of the bath sheets <(larger than a regular bath towel smaller than a beach towel). They are all washed and in a bag ready to be donated. My question for you is...Are there items in your linen closet that you could donate? For me, since we just got the new mattress and it's 14½ inches thick, we've had to replace our bedsheets. The other ones are fine so I packaged them up and donated them. Hannah decided that she doesn't want to have pink sheets and bedding plus the teddy bear themed flannel sheets that were a Christmas present a couple of years back (that she never uses) any longer so those items are also going to be packaged up and give to a place that I know will put them to good use. Come on join me and go through your linen closet and purge those items that have just been hanging out. Make some space for those sale items you're going to buy in January!

My friends inspire me!

My friend Laurie makes me smile- you've got to check out her latest page on blog Moving to England. She's taking the ride with me as I purge unused items from my home, decide what goes into permanent storage for the next 3 years, what I will donate to charity and what I will sell off.

I wrote something on Laurie's blog (she's in my side bar- Blogs of Note) that I've not shared here on my own. You must go to Laurie's blog to read it- call it an exclusive if you will. It's another insight into how I feel about things, people, situations etcetera. I think that we need to practice charity throughout the year not just at Christmas time. Here's one part...

I feel in my heart that God does not want us to go into debt helping others, he just wants us to share what we already have.

bathroom clutter

So there I was...looking in the linen closet in the bathroom wondering how on earth did it get so messy in there. It was so unorganized, I couldn't find what I was looking for and then I did it...I pulled out EVERYTHING! I checked expiration dates and tossed quite a few almost empty bottles of lotion, hair gel, bubble bath and mouthwash. Why on earth did we have all of that in there? I found many half full bottles of body lotion and consolidated them into one bottle. I also did that with my anti frizz hair cream. I was able to clear out a lot of plastic bottles and I ended up filling up the recycle bin. I was able to get a lot done in the two full bathrooms upstairs. A lot of stuff was cleared out and I even found a few things to give away. My kids are always getting toothbrushes from the dentist- Hannah always seems to get these kiddie ones (and how she hates those kiddie toothbrushes too!) I save them and give them to the women's shelter. And all of those tiny sized tubes of tooth paste...another item to donate. I'll call first and see if they will take them, if not...then off to the trash bin they go!

So what's in your bathroom closet???

Moss- an accumulation of unused items

Being married to someone who is career military has it's advantages. How so you wonder with all the time they spend working and being deployed right? It's the moving every few years that I look at as being a motivator, to purge that unwanted and used stuff we tend to hang on to- the stuff I like to call "moss". I'm here to tell you that "moss" can be accumulated at any time. We tend to hang onto things like books, kitchenware and of course purses/handbags and wallets we no longer use (that are taking up valuable shelf space in your closet) and why do we do this??? It's all because we can still remember how much money we spent on it! There it is that's the BIG ugly truth of the matter, we remember how much it cost us even though we bought it say for instance 12 years ago. My word of advice is to...

"LET IT GO"

First and foremost be honest with yourself, you're never going to use it again so get a box (make it a big one) and write on it with a black marker in big bold letters "DONATIONS" and place the items that you haven't used in 6 months or more inside the box. Don't look inside the box once the item is in there...just let it stay in the box.

I'm going through my closet systematically and am still surprised at how much more I am willing to let go of. Make a rule for yourself... purge 2 items for every 1 item you bring home. Did you recently get a new purse/handbag? Then look in your closet and take out 2 and give them to a local charity. I was looking at my shoes yesterday and thought to myself...why am I hanging on to these? And with that very thought I was able to pull out 3 more pairs shoes, I promptly placed them in a bag and they're going to the women's shelter in the next couple of days.

It still surprises me that I'm able to purge before and after a move and even during the in-between times. So who is with me on the clear your house of clutter and unused items? Let me see a show of hands (just reply to this posting).

Random Acts of Kindness

I love this time of year, it really brings home the things I deem as important. My faith in God, my family and practicing charity throughout the year.

I never throw away anything usable, I always always always donate it to charity. There are many charitable organizations around if you let your fingers do the walking through the yellow pages.

Just when I thought that I have gone through everything, I've found that I have MORE to give. As my husband and I are putting ornaments on the tree, I'm looking through all of the boxes of ornaments...thinking at times out loud but mostly to myself- "we can donate that". The ornaments displayed on our Christmas tree are mostly from places we have been, so the Disney Character ornaments can go, as a matter of fact the kids won't even let us put them on the tree any more. So I'm making a substantial donation of Christmas ornaments and decorations to our local women's shelter. I'm sure that the children will be delighted to see their favorite Disney characters on their Christmas tree.

The other things we participate in is Angel Tree gifts- we started that with our children. It's an awesome way to show your kids acts of kindness when they are small- it stays with them. Every year since Andrew has been 6 years old, he's come home with an Angel Tree gift tag -that boy of ours has a heart of gold! He personally picks out a gift and he spends his own money on it too!

Both of our children are involved in Food Drives. The local school district has a food drive this time of year... which reminds me, I need to pick up a few 6 packs of green beans and corn for the kids to take to school tomorrow. I love how my children become involved in programs like this- it makes me proud! It saddens me to think that there are children in our own local community that have nothing to eat.

Clothing and Coats Drives- Andrew is involved in this through the AFJROTC, last year he brought in the most clothes (with help from his mom of course). The coat drive did very well this year, past years found the program struggling. Since the end of the last clothing drive we've been saving all of the clothes that the kids have been grown out of, I like to think of it like this...I'm recycling these clothes to give them a chance to have new users. Shoes are often something that is overlooked. If they're in good usable condition, I clean them up, put new shoe laces in them and donate them.

So I've been going through my own closet and I'm looking at shoes and purses...ones that I haven't used in a while are being donated. There's no need for me to hang on to this stuff if I'm not using it. I just sent a package to my Mom who is on a tight fixed income, I made her day when she discovered that I sent her a Dooney & Bourke handbag. My thought is, if I'm not using it why not let my mom have the pleasure of using it. I have a another handbag that I'm going to send to her, I plan on doing that closer to Valentines Day.

Here's my thought of the day/week/month...

Think of the things that you have in your home that you're not using and what joy it could bring to someone else.

Start something new...Practice Random Acts of Kindness. It seems as if I'm always making up a goody box of some sort and sending it off to a friend. You can do this too!

what's lurking in your garage?

In my quest to reduce the amount of "stuff" We've acquired over the years and to maintain a good sense of organization behind the scenes, I'm really giving it my all in effort to reduce the amount of items we've kept stored cardboard boxes in our home. The embarrassing part is that nothing I've come across so far has belonged to my husband, it's been items such as children's toys, household goods that we "might" once again use one day and of course and my ever growing collection of crafting items. From countless counted cross stitching kits and patterns to all sorts of paper crafting items from my scrapbook nook and yes even fabric from my quilting corner. I'm determined to reduce the amount of my crafting stash and am giving these quality items to places that can use that bit of comfort that comes from crafting.

Last night while going through a file box out in the garage that I didn't go through earlier because I thought that it held old business tax records. Surprise! After opening it, I discovered that the file box didn't contain what I thought it had, in fact it was stuffed FULL of counted cross stitching charts (many of which date back to the 1990's). After going through and sorting them, 90% of those charts are going to be donated, I pulled some for me to keep and the rest will go up for sale at my Etsy store Busy Bee Design Studio. I'll be sorting the counted cross stitching charts into groups and will be selling them in bundles going by theme.

So even though I claim to have rid myself of my hoarding/pack rat ways, there's always something lurking in the garage, basement or closet...waiting to be discovered, LOL!

Using my friend Cindy's move as my source of inspiration, I've found myself getting into the groove of preparing my home for a move. Are we moving? My answer is- No, not at this time but it doesn't hurt to be prepared. I relate what I'm doing (sorting and purging of our belongings) as something similar to that of a school fire drill or a military exercise- preparing for something that "could" happen but don't know when or if it will happen.

Personally speaking, there's nothing worse then waiting until the last minute before you start the purging process. I've found that you've can't wait until the 4 to 6 weeks before the move to start the process. You've got to actually stay with it through out your time on station. Waiting until the last minute is when it becomes a frantic push to rid your household of it's "extras" that have been hanging around. I can say this from personal experience, it can be quite the overwhelming task to rid your home things. You know that it's too late when the moving company truck pulls up to your front door and you end up bring that 'stuff" with you only to have to get rid of it at another destination. And so continues the hoarding/pack rat process of accumulation. My question for you is this...What's lurking in your garage?