A Renewed Focus on Simplifying

1. Sorry if you read this blog and were offended by the naked "follower". I just noticed that, have no idea how that got there and I blocked it. YUK!

2. I've been tackling mini purging projects. In the post-Christmas downtime, I have organized and purged the following:
     A. Pantry cabinet and shelves. (There is definitely more to do here. I'll post a photo of my after-see if I can get some organizing baskets or whatever and post an "after after" photo. I am humble enough to show you my "before" but I forgot to take photos.

     B. Kitchen utensil drawer (the one with the big utensils). It was a mess and getting on my nerves. I'll do the main drawer today. Our flatware stays fairly neat and organized but the side spaces to this drawer need a little attention.

     C. My nightstand. I usually have anywhere from 3 books to 10 stacked on this tiny space. I just took them all off the stand and have to dive into the cabinet underneath and move a few things to the basement shelves. I'm not brave enough to get rid of my favorite Catholic books. These are the books that I read the most. I'll have to consider this as I move toward minimizing.

There you have it. My itty bitty purges.

I'm thinking of jumping into flylady again. When I first discovered her site about 6 or 7 years ago, I probably applied 50% or less of the principles and it still made a huge difference. I just want to be more organized. Speaking of that, I ordered this book. I'll click on SimpleMom occassionally and always enjoy Tsh's articles. I couldn't resist another simplifying book with organization tossed in to boot. I'll let you know how it is.

As I mentioned on my other blog, I'm considering my word for 2011. I haven't decided what it is yet. I'll let you know, though.

An Update and the True Cost of Furniture

Do you remember this post? Here we are, less than 6 months later and I SOLD the computer cabinet! Craigslist, I love you! Actually I don't think I posted it until after Easter, so really, it only took about 3 months to sell. It was worth it. I had a price that I'd be happy with. Originally I posted for $300 more than that (what the heck, right?) No hits, then I brought it down by $100 increments twice and then reposted high just last week. A woman emailed asking if I'd accept the number I was originally thinking and she just came today with a deposit and will pay the balance when she picks it up. Yippee!

It is a good piece of furniture but I calculated the cost to us over the 11 years we've had it....$100/year. That may not sound like much but considering I haven't needed it for work since 2000 or so, I've had it exactly 10 years longer than I needed it. Ouch!

I think I'm more excited about the space it will free up than the cash. It will also force me to purge what was left in there and reorganize and make my other spaces more efficient to make room for the things that I do keep. All good.

Church Flea Markets

A great way to get rid of clutter and help your parish at the same time! I'm scouring the house for anything that would be saleable at our church's parish festival flea market. That would include just about anything. People buy the strangest things-even used mops. I'll post a photo and maybe a list of the things I parted with. Warning....unless you have a specific need, DO NOT under any circumstances visit the flea market. Especially don't let the kids in there!

Tackling the Garage

Because of the weather and preparing for Mark's communion, I had to put off decluttering the garage. I rolled up my sleeves and got to it today. The good news is that we have always managed to be able to park in there. The bad news is, there is a lot of clutter in there and not much organized storage space. Talk about a hodge-podge. I have 2 free-standing closets (white particle board things). 1 steel shelf, 1 closet that looks like an old canning cupboard and then random shelves and hooks. I really should pull those white closets out. They're huge and don't really hold that much. (I just thought of that). What I really need is a place to hang the usual stuff you find in a garage, long-handled yard tools, heavy duty extension cords, ladders, and some sports equipment (basketballs, rollerblades, bikes, hopefully baseball stuff). The lawnmower is in there, extra terra cotta pots, yard maintenance things. I know there's a better way to store all of it. I just need to do it.

So, today my goal was to purge. (2 big green garbage bags and a huge haul to the junk store). Tomorrow I'm hoping Mark and I can shop for some storage solutions. Any ideas?

Camcorder? What Camcorder?

Well, it happened. "Where's the camcorder?" Mark asked the other night as we were going to sleep. Why? I wondered. In the 6 or 7 years since we've had it, he's never asked to used it. Don't be horrified that I made the executive decision to get rid of it. There are some things that Mark feels comfortable leaving to me. Small appliances that only I use is one of them.

When I simply told him that it was broken and I didn't want to spend the time and money to get it repaired, he didn't give it a second thought. No regret, no "we should have...." or "that cost a lot of money..." It was fine and he was at peace with the decision.

I was surprised that I didn't regret the decision not to investigate repair. It was all fine. I just didn't expect the question to surface so soon. I anticipated second thoughts-nope.

Approaching the Books

As a homeschooler, it's very difficult to let go of books. Some of the best homeschool support and reference books aren't typically available in the library. Curricula specific to homeschoolers is hardly ever available. The same goes for Catholic books, both fiction and non-fiction. Those are the main categories that I purchase the most and have the hardest time purging. And to be honest I looooooove the look, feel, even the smell of a good book in my hands. I'm attached.

This is a tough purge but I'm applying 4 criteria.

1) Is the resource readily available at the library? If so, I don't need it.

This standard helped me purge books like specific animal books (polar bears, bats, lions, etc.), some books about weather, planets, that kind of thing. This was easier to do if I decided that the quality of the book wasn't that great.

2) Have I used the resource often or within the past 2-3 years? (I think for other things one year is a good limit but with books, we often come back to a topic or time period a few years later as the younger kids revisit it ). If we did study the subject matter that the book covers, did we use this particular resource? If not, bah-bye.

3) Does the book have a schizophrenic quality. You know the kind, you open it and are assaulted with scads of pictures or drawings all over the 2 page lay-out with blurbs or captions for each small vignette.

Most Usborne and DK books are formatted in this way and some are good but generally, they give me a headache just looking at them and I think that presentation can be overwhelming. Come to think of it, most of the textbooks that the schools use have this format which is why I don't use them. Sensory overload, which is not what I'm looking for at this point. Less is more in this regard, too. I won't get rid of books like this if the kids have actually used and enjoyed them, though.

4) Do I need to apply the principles of detachment and trust? Abby Sascer has a great ebook available here in which she replaced the term decluttering for detachment. There's plenty of scriptural support for this principle and she makes a good case for it as well. I realize that if I don't detach from my stuff, including books, I'm not going to achieve order in my home. Things aren't totally chaotic here, far from it but there are things that we have to simplify in order to focus on the things that matter. The problem is that stuff gets in the way of even knowing what matters. "Trust" applies to letting go of resources that the kids likely won't use for a few years. Here, I'm dispensing with the "we-might-use-it-some-day" mentality. It takes trust to tell myself that if the kids are studying that particular topic in 2 or 3 years, then I will have the resources to provide what they need and most likely it will be a better fit.

Finally, it might seem wasteful, but I decided to recycle or donate books whose pages are yellowing, staple bound (like cheap scholastic books) and any books that have seen better days. I think holding junky books detracts from the innate pleasure of reading. No matter how classic the story is, if the book is beaten up, it's getting chucked.

Now the debate about what to do with all of these books. Some will most definitely go to the library. I can offer homeschooling friends a look-see, but I so hesitate to clutter up their bookshelves. (Any of my friends reading can shoot me an email-trust me, you probably don't want or need what I'm getting rid of).  I may take them to the used book sale at our local homeschool conference next week, but again, that's a lot of energy. I think I'll have more tolerance for expending energy on "stuff" after lent. I've been toying with the idea of letting my older 2 children list books on half.com. Sort of like a mini-business. They can enter them, price them, prepare them for mailing and I can get them to the post office.

I'll let you know how this is going as I work on this area of clutter in the house.

Basketball Videos-An internal conversation

Did you catch the dilemma at the end of my last post? What, you didn't read my last post? I'll refresh you...I would decide what to do with a stack of VHS tapes from a few of my college basketball games. First let me say, that I don't own a VCR anymore and no, I don't want to buy one for $30. When our last one broke a few years ago, I joyfully purged our collection of VHS tapes with no regret.

While I was shredding this pile of financial stuff in the basement (I'm not under indictment, but the post about the filing cabinet made me notice the huge pile of bank statements and old checks on top of it) I was thinking about what to do with the tapes.

Another thing you should know is that I've had these tapes for more than 5 years and haven't watched a minute of them. I attended an alumni luncheon and my coach was decluttering her office. I thought my kids would want to see me play and we'd have hours of entertainment viewing them. "Pop some corn kids, it's W&J vs. Hiram tonight!" Surprisingly, the kids aren't clamoring to watch them.

I was imagining some conversations like, "Who wants to watch an old basketball game?" (crickets  chirping in the background) or

"Hey guys, I just spent the better part of this year transferring my old basketball games onto DVD so if you want to stay up to watch TV, you have to watch me playing basketball."or

"Hey mom, what are you watching?" "Just one of my old basketball games" "Cool, can I watch?" "Sure"............."Do you do anything in this game, I mean besides just run around, like do you score any points?" or

"Gee mom, you weren't that good." or "Gee mom, do you sit on the bench for the whole game?" or "What were you guys wearing?" (I played when the uniforms were still tight and polyester).

Needless to say, I pretty much decided that my children would have a full childhood even if they never watched one of my games. But then I was thinking, maybe I should just keep one and they can decide for themselves if they want to keep it and they could show it to THEIR children some day, Well, then that started a whole 'nother conversation in my head....

"Hey kids, want to see Grandma playing basketball in college?" "Eww, NO!"

In all seriousness, I'm really not that hard on myself. I had to ask myself whether I'd give anything to watch a video of my dad playing one of his games in high school or college. He has some great stories about nail-biting games at a time when the whole city cared about who won. But the answer was "not really". I have an image in my mind of him dribbling down the court and scoring. Though I have no doubt that watching him on video would meet or exceed that fantasy, what I'd give anything for is to BE at one of his games-but that can't happen. (I'm hoping that heaven will have something like that in store for me).

The truth is, I've played my games. I had a great time but I've decided to make room in my cabinets for the present and the future. I have terrific memories of playing and being on the team and holding on to a pile of unwatched videos isn't preserving those memories for me, so, I've decided to let them go.

Out of the Home Work History-Letting Go

We have a steel 4-drawer filing cabinet in our basement. It is nice to have, but I'm realizing that it's also a nice place to hold onto the past. As part of the 40 bags in 40 days challenge, I've been looking at my spaces with different glasses.

In addition to our tax files, appliance warranty things,  7 years' worth of returned checks and bank statements (do I really need these), and some personal things like resume samples and other job-search forms, I have been keeping almost 2 drawers full of old case files. Some from my days as a federal clerk, some from cases that I worked on that include lots of my legal writing. Other files contain forms and resources for employment law-related issues since that was my area of practice.

I haven't worked full-time for 13 years but I was keeping these files "just in case". Just in case of what? Aside from a few writing samples, no prospective employer is interested in the nitty-gritty of any of those cases. Part of my reason for keeping them is that they reflect professional successes so I guess, it was emotional attachment, too. But I am years past needing validation from my days in the working world. I really don't care about that anymore.

To be honest, my brain doesn't really even process the legal language anymore. Anyone who might hire me in the future-quit reading now-but I don't remember ANYTHING! As a former federal clerk, I knew the federal rules pretty thoroughly, I don't even recognize them anymore. 12(b)(6)? Huh? I have to attend continuing education classes in order to keep my license active. I only do it as insurance in case Mark loses his job or something worse. I bumped into a classmate who is also staying home but keeping up with requirements and we were both talking about how we'd be in trouble if we had to work again. She asked whether I could write anything in blue book form (a legal writing standard for briefs), my response was I forgot there was a blue book form. My point is, I didn't need 2 drawers full of files which basically remind me every time I look at them that I don't remember anything.

Aside from a couple of writing samples, the files are GONE!

Next up-and I might need your help with this....a stack of VHS tapes from my college basketball games. Even the most relentless purgers among you have to admit, that that's a tricky one.

More "Letting Go"

You'll never guess what happened. I'm pretty sure my digital video camera broke today. I opened the tape compartment to put in a new one so I could video my neighbor shooting off giant icicles with a BB gun-no we don't live in West Virginia-and the compartment won't close. To be honest, I made this purchase about 6 years ago when my youngest son was just over a year old and I became panic-stricken that I would miss his first steps. He had some developmental issues. I was tempted to launch into action. Call sony, trouble shoot, find out how to fix it, how much it will cost and how long it will take. But then, I remembered.....I'm trying to simplify, right?

The truth is, I never take the video camera to major events because I want to experience them and enjoy them in real time. I have mostly used the camera to tape everyday happenings that I don't want to forget-certainly not everyday. I've had the camera for almost 6 years, but I've probably only taped about 6 hours of video. I find the process of uploading and editing and creating DVD's too tedious.

I'm asking myself, is this little appliance worth all the energy? Maybe I should just cut my losses-in terms of time and energy. Both mine and Hannah's point-and-shoot cameras take video if I'm ever in a bind and we are going to be forced to re-evaluate our cell phone plan in April. I'm pretty sure you can't even get a phone without video. So, folks, I'm letting go.

Wasteful, maybe, in terms of monetary investment. But in terms of time and energy, I'm thinking my decision is most cost-efficient.

Thank you sony.

An Update on my idea about the CD's

I bought some nice little boxes for the CD's and they should look all neat organized in the cabinet. It does take energy, though. I have to build each little box from IKEA, then sort of categorize them. I refuse to alphabetize-the homeschooled children can do that- and finally, label the boxes so I don't have to open every one each time I'm looking for a CD. BUT Cheryl over at My Simple Spot may have me convinced that it's a better idea to let these things go. On the one hand, I probably haven't listened to most of them in 15 years. On the other hand, if I actually DO begin to listen to my music again, it would be a loss. What to do? Simplifying is all about being more efficient, clearing space and ultimately minimizing, right?

I've decided on a compromise, I'll get rid of any CD that I haven't listened to in the next 6 months. I think I can live with that. Maybe it will motivate me to actually take them out and play them. Also, I'll know whether they are still pleasing to my 40-something ears or at least evoke positive memories or emotions. Certainly I'll ditch the ones that have the opposite effect. I did play "10,000 Maniacs" the other day and it reminded me of my roommate in graduate school. She was a sweetie. I also remembered the time I went to see Natalie Merchant in a relatively small venue. A good memory. But I have to admit that I didn't love the songs as much as I used to. I could see my daughters liking the sound, though.

 By the end of 6 months, if I don't make an effort to listen, it will be nice to have the empty shelves. AAAHH, just the thought of it makes me feel better.

Using What I Have-CD's

The idea of using the things in my pantry and freezer is working great. If I were more organized, I'd know how much I've saved. I wrote a whole post listing my menu and what I had on hand and the few things I bought to give you an idea of how it was working.

In the process of clearing a cabinet to get rid of this, I've been forced to organize our CD collection. It made me realize that I NEVER listen to my CDs. I used to listen to my music all the time. I know Mark did. He loves music and we love listening to music together. I know lots of moms have music in the background all the time. They've been proactive about sharing their music with their children and I have to admit, I haven't been that good about it. Mostly because I just got out of the habit of listening to music because I think I prefer quiet. But I know that music is so important to overall well-being. I don't have data to back it up but I'd bet that listening to music is good for your health. I know it's good for the soul. I just bet it releases good chemicals. Don't quote me on that, though, it's just a guess.

So, I am resolving to USE my current CD collection. Sounds simple enough, right? I may even get in there and purge some! Have I told you how much I love to PURGE?

OK, now for the fun part....what music did you listen to before you got married? I loved Natalie Merchant, Elton John, Seal, UB40, Eric Clapton, Bruce (of course-who doesn't love the Boss?), R.E.M., Dave Mathews Band, Fine Young Cannibals, Billy Joel, The Allman Brothers, Bob Marley. I didn't listen to country until I met Mark, now I love Kenny Chesney and The Zac Brown Band and will listen to them when I turn music on. (I have no idea why I asked a Q since nobody reads this blog-oh well).

Letting Go

I decided to get rid of a GIANT piece of furniture. We got it about 14 years ago. It's a big computer armoire and has served us well. I recently realized that it's too honking big for the space. It hasn't always been that way but since it moved into our dining room, we've added a large upright piano and a regular sized dining table (as opposed to the antique cherry drop leaf table that now sits in the corner in the same room). A repurposed antique sewing table serves as my computer/junk table. That's a lot of furniture for this 13'X 15' room. The other thing I realized is that the height of it makes it aesthetically awkward for picture frames, even a nice lamp. It's a little tall which makes the guts of the lamp visible.Consequently, the big flat space up there has become a clutter magnet. That's BAD!

This is a big move because this piece houses A LOT of stuff-both essential and non-essential to daily living. I keep homeschooling things in it, stamps and other office things, bills, books, records, tax stuff. Some things can be moved to other bookshelves in the house, some can be purged but others, I need to find a visible home for (outta sight outta mind).

My hope is to clear it out and post it on Craigslist. Honestly, if I can't sell it, I have a problem because, as I said-it is HONKING BIG! In fact when the delivery men brought it the first time they dropped it (broke a few things in the process) and had to take it back because they broke the cabinet, too.

I'll let you know how it goes.

FS: Beautiful pine computer armoire.

A Radical Experiment in Using What I Have

I've been clearing things out pretty much since the week after Christmas. Slowly, just taking time to think about how I want my spaces to look and feel. For the past couple of days I keep hearing my brain tell myself (does this ever happen to you?) "Use what you have." I can't even count the number of times I hear myself saying this to myself. Is this inspiration? not sure, but I'm paying attention and thinking about all the ways that this can be applied toward my efforts to SIMPLIFY.

Groceries: I'm no hoarder but there are plenty of things in my freezer and pantry that I can use up before buying ingredients for meals. I don't have years' old anything but I can definitely say I have things that I should use. I'm talking entire meals with the exception of maybe the vegetable. I planned my weekly menu this week with this principle in mind and really only picked up a few things at the grocery store this morning. I'll check in at the end of the week and let you know how this went.

Craft supplies: I have a craft shelf in the basement and my daughters have stores of the things they frequently use in their closet. I'm determined to use what I have before making another run to the craft store. We were going a lot during Advent and that's fine, but I really want to use what we have. My older dd asked today if we could go to Michael's because beading supplies are 40% off. This is the tricky part. If I tell her to use what she already has, will she be less inspired? That's the dilemma when kids and creativity are involved. I'll see how this goes.

Books: This is my weakness. As a homeschooler, book purchases (leisure and curriculum) are easily justified but not always necessary. I have plenty of books for all of us to use without buying more for the moment. Remembering to "use what I have" applies perfectly to homeschooling books.

I will only add to this that I also am determined to "get rid of what I don't use". So, I'll rephrase my goal "Use what you have and let go of what you don't use!" That second part has crept in and I think it will help.