Summer's Over So Where Am I?

Again, I really stink at this challenge.  Sigh.

So, here's what's been happening this summer.

My oldest told me he wanted to do a "stand".  I figured out later, that he must have overheard me talking to a friend about a past yard sale, and realized he wanted to do a yard sale.  I tried to gently talk him out of it.  Then he came to me with a handful of DVD's.  I told him which ones were OK to keep and which had to stay.  He ended up finding 5 he wanted to sell.  The he decided he wanted 5 toys to sell as well.  Here is the result of what his yard sale consisted of.

He was ridiculously adorable!  He made a sign that said "Yrd Sal" and was shouting "Yard Sale" hoping someone would stop by.  The only person who walked by was an exterminator or apartment worker.  He quickly became very disappointed when no one stopped by.  Now, we were only out for about 1-2 minutes.  After telling him to just wait, we decided to move closer to the pool, thinking there might be more traffic.   We set him back up there, and it didn't help.  He was so deflated.  My heart breaks just thinking about it.  My little started yelling "Yard Sale", and my big stopped him.  He just didn't want any attention drawn to him.  I felt so bad.  I wished I had known someone that was around so I could have called to have them stop by.  We didn't stay out long before we packed it up and put the toys and DVD's away.  I told him the next time I saw a community yard sale, I'd buy a table for us and he could try again.  I haven't brought this day up since.  I just feel so bad for him.

Later in the month, I went to a scrapbooking crop.  I fortunately or unfortunately brought home more than I went with. I won a couple of raffles and games, so that was good, but bad was that I ended up taking more stuff home.  I also won a basket that I don't remember bidding on, so I must have put my ticket in the wrong bag.  It's not stuff I want, so I'll try to sell it if I can do that yard sale!  There was also a free swap table and I took a ton of stuff home from that.  I bought a bunch of paper flowers too.  Sigh.

Last summer I bought a grill to celebrate my big's birthday.  Only because the friend who was going to let us borrow his forgot and took it away for the weekend.  We used the new grill for the party and three days later, our apartment complex put up permanent grills and told us we had to remove ours.  Ugh.  Well, a few weeks ago I finally decided our grill didn't need to be in our storage unit any more, and gave it to the guy I work with.  Brand new grill, used once - with tin foil so the grill is pretty clean, gone.  Wasted money.  But, the party we bought it for was fantastic, and I gave a gift to a coworker who will use it and appreciate it.

So those are the big things from the past couple of months.  I am still impressed with the day to day things I'm throwing away.  I'm not keeping every piece of paper with a drawing on it, I'm not keeping sticker pages with one sticker left on it, I'm tossing small broken crayons. Tonight while the kids are out, I'm throwing away homemade bug catchers they made in camp.  They are cute and my kids love bugs, but they bought a plastic catcher that we bought when we visited the bug museum, so whenever they find a bug they want to use that one.  They won't miss the decorated shoeboxes with mesh covering a hole in the top.

I really want to get back into this (I know, I know I've said that before).  Along with my de-cluttering I've been wanting to organize better.  There is a great monthly checkoff list that I've been using for a while, but again, I'm behind on that.  There are also two 30 day spring cleaning checklists I've been holding on to (considering it's now the end of summer you can see how that has been going).  So the other night, I put together a calendar.  Each day has a chore on it from one of those lists.  I have it spread out onto dates to the end of September, but I'm OK with that.  I think it's realistic.  I want to incorporate my daily chores and meal planning as well.  I'm hoping it becomes a great visual for me to get back in gear.  I'm already a little behind on it, but I'm thinking this is going to be a good week to get started on it.  I'll have to add the September check off list soon, but I'll get things done when I get them done.  Sitting here now I've realized I need to print the calendar out.  Then it can be right in front of me and not sitting on the computer that I sometimes hate to get on, because I end up doing 20 other stupid things instead of doing what I got on to do.

Hopefully you'll hear from me soon!

I Hate Throwing Away Food

Yesterday, I cleaned out the fridge.  The bottom shelf was disgusting!  There was some kind of liquid on it, I'm hoping it wasn't from raw chicken. I was tired of looking at it, so I cleaned it.  I also went through all the food, and unfortunately threw a bunch out.

The expired condiments weren't that hard to get rid of. I mean, if the mustard says it expires in 2012, then by July of 2013 it's OK to throw it away.  I was bummed my Chinese duck sauce (I can't find good duck sauce here.  It's so much better in Massachusetts) was expired though.  Not that I use it that often, but I'll probably forget I don't have any the next time we order Chinese take out.  What really hurt to throw away was leftover veggies that were forgotten about, leftover pasta and other dishes that for whatever reason my husband refuses to eat (then I forget about them or make new food for me and the kids).  I also threw away a brand new bag of rice milk cheese.  I bought it when Whole Foods was out of the vegan cheese I buy, thinking my milk allergy kid could eat it.  Turns out, the casein is just enough to make his throat itchy.  Now I just need to clean the bottom drawer!

There was a birthday in the house last  month, and three balloons have been floating on the ceiling since then.  One deflated about a week ago, but I wasn't allowed to throw it away. I finally put another out of its misery yesterday, and threw it away before anyone noticed.  That made it easier to throw the other one away today.  Chuck E Cheese is still stuck to the ceiling, and although tempted to get rid of it, I think I'll let it stay for the weekend.

A Ring, Among Other Things

Tonight, I threw away a toy plastic ring.  It was hidden between a kid mattress and the kid bed.  It won't be missed.

Tonight I also realized, I don't have motivation to blog.  There, I said it.

I really do want to keep trying at this.  I'm really doing well at not personifying things and throwing that stuff away.  Tonight I went through a bag of papers that I had put into a bag to clear off the table.  The bag was sitting on my craft table, and I've spent an hour or so a couple times this week trying to clear the craft table. I went through the bag tonight and tossed expired coupons, drawings from the kids and some other random papers that I just needed to toss.  After the kids went to bed, I looked at my computer and thought, I just don't want to sit and type.

Maybe some of that is because my computer is a laptop with a broken monitor hooked up to an ancient monitor - definitely not a flat screen.  It's set up on top of an old end table that is too low for me to type at, and with no room to put my legs.  But, it's what I have.

Maybe some of it is that the weather is warmer, hot and humid even, and I just don't work well when it's hot.  Maybe some of it is that I'm just not motivated to do much lately, and being lazy is much more appealing.  Maybe I'm not motivated because I'm too overwhelmed at what my house is looking like right now!  A busy life is great, but it does nothing for housework except add to it.

I don't know what my deal is, but sitting and typing this now, is making me feel much better.  It's a busy day tomorrow, but hopefully I'll clean and toss something, so I can eventually get out of my rut.

Slow Going

I was able to throw away a few things every day since my last post.  Unfortunately, it wasn't much.  What I'm happy about is the change in attitude I have.  I think I mentioned before it's getting easier for me to throw things away.  For instance, there was a small plastic skull face with arms laying on the floor.  Instead of picking it up and putting it back in the toy bin, I tossed it out.  The kids won't miss it.  I tossed some papers that came home on the last day of school.  I tried to toss a 1/2 rubber ball out today (it's some kind of suction cup toy thing) but I was caught, and since it only came home from the dentist's office today, I gave it back.  I threw away some sticker sheets that still had a sticker or two left on them - we have plenty of stickers.  I threw away some art work too.  Now that's a toughy for me, but I'm better in the end. Tonight  I took pictures of the art work that is hanging on the wall so tomorrow I can start taking down some of those. Little by little....at least I'm still in the game.

Rubber Ball, Martyr

Mommy made good on a promise.

The kids just wouldn't pick up their stuff tonight.  I came home from work and there were new toys scattered across the living room, complete with packaging, and a few bread rolls to boot.  The boys were excited there were new toys to play with, so I didn't mind too too much, but the trash and food I was so not impressed with.  Then they got out the new science experience book.  Then after we created on experiment, they wanted another.  My response, not until you pick up.  Well, the 2nd experiment never happened.

I probably asked them to pick up for an hour.  At some point during that time, not only did I take a break to have my own dinner, but I told them if the toys weren't picked up by the time I finished eating and picking up my mess, then their toys would go in the trash.  Not well received as you can imagine.  Didn't help much though.  Sure a few things were picked up, but there were tons of complaints, and many tears as well.  Finally, I picked up a small rubber ball, which we have plenty of, and threw it in the trash.  Lots of tears, but movement began to happen in the cleaning department.  Later I had something else in my hand to throw away, but I let it be taken out of my hand and put away properly.

I really didn't want to throw away their new toys, but I needed to make good on a threat. I feel good about it, because I was able to carry through when the job wasn't done.  My point was made, and in the long run, they aren't going to care about the ball, but they may remember it for some time.  I may have to use this again, and I'll have to make sure I carry it out in the same way - I'll make sure there is something of little worth to me, something that just adds to the clutter, that I'll be able to throw away if need be.

Avoidance

So, I've been totally avoiding this blog.  I'll think about sitting down to write, and think, nah.  I'll think I should throw something away, and then I don't.  I turn on the computer, open a new internet tab, and I see this blog as one of my most frequented sites.  All I have to do is make a "click" and I'm here, and I just don't do it.  I feel bad, and guilty, but I get over it.  Somewhat anyway.

I'm just not motivated right now.  I'm not motivated to do much of anything right now.  I'm not sure why.  I recognize it, and I'm even at the point where I think - Yeah!  I'm going to do something about this.  But I don't think about thinking about what to do.  Blah!  I really need to get back on the horse (See, I told you I think about changing), so I forced myself to write tonight.

I do want to get back into this.  I really do want to force myself, so we'll see how the rest of this week goes. I have learned from this experience so far, though.  When I see a random item, I definitely think about throwing it away, rather than not even having that thought come to mind.  For instance, I have a pile of stickers that the kids can use for their crafts.  Before, if a sheet even had one sticker on it, I'd save it and put it with their other stickers.  Now, I'm throwing it right out.  They have plenty of stickers and they aren't going to miss this one.

Last weekend, the kids made sand art necklaces.  The sand is all mixed up and one necklace was in the car, and the other was in the house.  I almost threw out the one in the car as I was cleaning, however, I decided to keep it because I thought if the kids see the one in the house, they are going wonder where the other is, and someone was going to get sad that they didn't have their necklace.  My husband found the necklace and asked if he should keep it.  I explained why I kept it, but then told him to get rid of it.  I really want to get rid of the other one too.  My husband wanted to keep the plastic necklace container actually, but I said no.  At least this stuff is getting easier for me.

Here's to a new attitude!  Let's see how far it goes.

A Basket Full of Trash

I took a personal day from work yesterday, sent the kids to school, hubby was sleeping all day, which meant I had the day to myself.  So....what did I do?  I cleaned the kids' room.

I did some major laundry on Mother's Day (what a thing to do on Mother's Day, hey?) - so much so I had to go to the laundromat.  There were still 2 baskets of laundry sitting in their room, and some birthday clothes from Grandma and Grandpa's visit from the day before, so I started with putting that away.  I also picked out a few things out of their closets that were definitely too small and/or too winter and put those away.  I tidied up their closets a bit and they look better than they did a month ago when I cleaned them.

Next I made the beds (which I rarely do) and put some pillows and stuffed animals on them.  As anyone reading this blog knows, I love stuffed animals and can't really bare to part with them.  I've whittled that down before, so now I just need to find homes for them all.  I cleaned off the top of the bookshelf (which I organized not so long ago and it still looks good - could be because we are doing a lot of library lending lately.  Right now we have 37 books checked out of the library!) and put all the story characters, Big and Little Nutbrown Hare, Curious George and Mr. Knox to name a few, on top.  I cleared the top of what used to be the dresser attached to their crib, and put the rest of the animals on that. It looks good.

Then, I conquered the tall bookshelf with all the coloring stuff, arts and crafts and games.  With the extra shelf that used to store stuffed animals, it all looks great now.  There is more room so everything is not cramped and messy looking.  Since the animals are gone, there isn't going to be a constant spill out from the bottom shelf that I'm always picking up.  I'm happy with what I accomplished yesterday.

I haven't talked about the trash!  I did mention a  few pieces of winter clothing I put away, but I also cleared out all the leftover pull ups and swimmies.  I'll give those to a friend.  I put a puzzle book into my Salvy pile. I threw out a puzzle that was missing a piece, and threw out some paper that had been cut up and colored on.  I tossed a few coloring pages, broken crayons and old stickers too.  It filled up their bedroom basket, so that's pretty good.  I'm sure I could really go through more, but nothing is really over flowing or messy, so I'm ok.

I didn't have the chance to clear off their dresser, but I can do that today.

Yard Sale!

Much of last week was spent preparing for the yard sale.  My husband and I went through our books and DVD's, the kids helped me go through their books and DVD's, and without the kids' help, I went through their toys.  I went through all my holiday decorations, gathered a box of rubber stamps and a few other crafting items, and a few odds and ends.  I was most excited to sell the outgrown kid's clothes.  I had a full tote of summer stuff and a full tote of winter stuff.

Well, the yard sale was Saturday - and it was a beautiful day for it!  I made about $100 (took home about $60 after the food we bought and the cost of the table space, and I sold a lot of stuff at 25 cents and 10 cents), but most importantly, I got rid of so much stuff!!  All the DVD's went, and the kid's DVD's that didn't go, I gave away to a friend that was hanging out at the end.  I also gave away whatever books I had left.  The adult books I gave to the guy who was next to me, because he had 100's of books, and was selling them left and right.  He gave us a couple to take home that my husband was interested in.  The leftover kid's books I brought to the Salvation Army.  I only had a couple of stamps left that I ended up donating, as well as a few holiday decorations.  Some Christmas decorations I kept because I still use them, but I just wanted to thin out what I had.  I donated a whole bag of plastic Easter eggs to the church because sometimes they have Easter egg hunts. The most surprising part of what sold, was that it was not the kid's clothes, but their toys!  Usually any clothing I sell goes lighting fast.  I didn't think the winter would go as fast, but not that much of the summer stuff went.  I had probably two people that came and bought $5+ worth (everything was 50 cents a piece), and a couple of people that bought one or two pieces, but that was it! I still have a lot left.  I brought it home, because I want to see if I can either sell it online, or donate it to someone I know or know needs it.  When all else fails, I'll put it on freecycle.com or I'll bring it to the Salvation Army.  I knew the toys would go, but it pretty much all went!  Even the cheap McDonald's toys!  Since the church that held the sale is next door to where we live, I had my husband go home and bring a few more things out to sell.  I was pumped and kept thinking the whole time "What else can I get rid of?"

Monday I met with the woman who bid on and won the scrapbook service I offered at the silent auction fundraiser.  She wants me to scrapbook baby boy pictures!  What luck!  I have LOTS of baby boy stickers, papers and embellishments, and I found a blue gingham scrapbook as soon as I walked back in my door after meeting her.  I may buy some more things, but I'm excited because I won't spend the $50 like I was planning too, and I'll use up some of my own stuff, getting rid of it.  Two birds, one stone....bam!

I threw away a few non working pens this week, and tonight I'd really like to go through my pen basket to see how many else I can throw away.  I think I'll end here, and go do that.

Reversed Weekend

So, I think I remember saying I was going to get rid of clutter, not start collecting more.  Well, not this weekend.  I started the weekend by gathering some more craft supplies to get rid of. I came up with a baggie of colored pencils.  Not much, I know.  I'm happy with myself for getting rid of them though.  I have nice watercolor pencils, and the kids have tons of colored pencils, so they were pretty easy to part with.  Tonight I went back through and tested all my regular (as opposed to pigment) ink pads and threw a couple away and put a couple away for the yard sale.  Some of those pads are so old, but they still work fantastically!   I also tested and threw out some magic markers.  Those were really old too, and those were not working well.

That's about all I did this weekend.  However, what I took into the house, was much, much more.  Friday I "won" a basket at a silent auction.  I paid $90 for $300 worth of stamping and cardmaking/scrapbooking supplies.  So, it was a good deal, but more stuff in the house. Some of it, like a stamp set in French, I already donated to a swap table at a crop I was at on Saturday (I put a few other things on that table too, like a couple of punches and things).  Some of it I used, which was nice, and the rest I kept.  I also spent $55 at the crop on new paper and scrapbooking items.  Sigh.  I finished 7 pages at the crop, but I don't think I threw away a lot of packaging and scraps.  I don't think I made any kind of dent in my supplies.  I also had a couple of people give me some of their paper that they didn't want any more.  I love the free supplies, but I really need to get rid of some stuff!!

At the silent auction, I offered my scrapbooking services, and I just got in touch with the woman who bid on it.  Although I'll be buying new stuff to make her book, I hope I can get rid of some of my own stuff, too.

Another Week Goes By

Gosh, I'm starting to suck at this.  Last week was crazy busy for me.  I was up late most nights working on a fundraiser for my child's school.  I didn't realize how much work that was going to be.  I did get a little me time in over the weekend, but it was also a day away from home when I had so much to do.  My little one's birthday was yesterday and I didn't buy presents until Sunday!  Although still busy and still stressed, I think things are a little better now.

Last week I did throw away a pair of shoes.  The sole was coming off, and instead of gluing them back together like I thought I should, I chucked them.   I liked them enough, but I have other brown shoes.  Today wasn't bad.  I took a mental health day today to take care of me.  I napped for most of the day, but I did go through a pile of receipts and put them in a recycling bag.  They had been sitting around for months - some since before the new year (there was even one from September)!  I had saved them because I was trying to keep track of grocery expenses and what I was saving in coupons, but I was so far behind, I gave up.  This year I'm not keeping track of those things.  I am keeping track of overall expenses this month so I can start a budget next month.  That's another project!

My husband was a dear today and cleaned the house.  I can't tell you how much of a relief that is for me!  There is still a large pile of papers in the dining room, and a few spots of small clutter, but I can actually breathe!  When cleaning the bathroom, he took out the potty seat and travelling potty seat, and I told him he could through them away.  We don't use them, and although I thought maybe we could use the travel seat, I figured we really hadn't used it before, so why not pitch it.

I also went through my stamping drawers.  I don't really use my rubber stamps anymore, so I gathered a large shoebox full and I'm going to try to sell them at a yard sale.  I also decided that whatever I don't sell, I will donate.  I could probably get rid of so many more, but I keep thinking that maybe I'll use them.  I might go through those drawers again before the sale and see if any more call to me to be thrown away.  I found a few other card making/scrapbooking items to pitch as well.  I still have more drawers to go through.

Speaking of scrapbooking, that me time I was talking about was spent at a crop.  I was able to use up some of my stock so I'm a little lighter in that area.  I didn't through away a lot, only because I didn't use the entire package of something.  I also bought some, not a lot, of stuff at the scrapbook expo last week, so I'm not sure I'm really ahead in making scrapbook trash.

Hopefully I can get back on track this week.  The yard sale in two weeks will hopefully motivate me.

Finally...The Kid's Closets!

This weekend I've finally had some time to go through the kid's closets.  I've been wanting to do it for a while, and now there is a stack of laundry waiting to make it's way in as well.  I know what sizes I'll need this summer, so I started with the tote that's been in the closet since last summer.  Since it's all too small now, that tote is now sitting outside of the bedroom.  I've started filling up another tote too.  Since winter is officially over, I've been tossing some outgrown winter stuff in there.  I'm also starting a pile of winter things to be put away for next year.  The kids both have birthdays coming up, so I want to make room for that new summer clothing!

I have some more motivation for getting rid of things.... a yard sale!  The neighboring church is holding a yard sale at the beginning of May, so I really want to go through things everyday so I can have a good stash of stuff for the sale.  We could really use the money, so I'm excited what this could look like.  Kid's clothing goes well, so by May 4 I'll have completely made my seasonal switch.  I might even throw a few more things in there too just to thin some stuff out.  The kids are blessed with very giving grandparents, so anything we depart with will be replaced by fall.  And anything that doesn't sell that still fits, I can keep.

I took 2 pairs of shoes to church today to give to the service trip.  It looks like they had quite a few donations as the shoe pile was quite large.  I think there was going to be a shoe weigh in after 2nd service.

One Book at Least

So, I'm slacking again.  I think I threw something out Sunday, but I don't remember what it was.  I do know though, that those shoes I took out of my closet, are going to a good new home.  At church I found out there is a group of people from church going on a service trip and they are collecting shoes.  I think they get money for shoes turned in or something.  Anyway, this weekend, I'll give those shoes to them.  I need to remember that my eldest's school is also collecting shoes.  I don't remember the specifics of what shoes they are taking, but I'll have to remember that if I have more shoes to get rid of, I'll need to bring them to school.

I don't think I really got rid of anything this week.  I've been going through email again, but since every day I get to work and there is a message about my mailbox being close to full, I'd say I'm not deleting enough.  Today, though, I did look at some of the larger files I have and got rid of them (one was actually so big it was called Enormous!).  I also haven't been going over my organizing and spring cleaning check lists.  Tuesday I had a committee meeting (for a school fundraiser) and then I worked that night, so I didn't have much time that night to go through anything.  Yesterday I dealt with work drama from when I left work til a few hours later, so when that was done, I was just plain lazy.

Tonight has been a little different.  I went through the kids' bookshelf.  I think I went through it a week or so ago (I guess I'll have to check my blog posts to see if I've counted that already), but I think all I pulled out were holiday books.  There just isn't anymore room for books, and I know I'll be buying some more books soon, so something has to be done.  So, the holiday books will go into storage until next year. Those were still in the room, so I pulled them and put them in the spring decorations tote that is still sitting in my living room.  (I really need to put my Easter decorations away.)  I did throw away one book though.  It was a book that had some magnets with it, and the magnets could go on the pages so the kids could make their on scenes.  However, my little one chewed every magnet, so the pictures on them are ruined, one sticker/paper has come right off the magnet, and one is gone completely (missing, not inside my kid's stomach).  So, tricky mom snuck it out tonight.  When I cleaned out the shelves a short time ago, I pulled another book too.  I hid that one under their dresser, because my little one still wants it, even though I think it's too young for him.  I want to bring it to his school to see if one of the classes there wants it.  I'll try to remember that tomorrow so it leaves my house.

More Closet Cleaning

I already cleaned out my closet, however, yesterday I set aside a few more things to donate.  When cleaning, I almost took out an outfit that I haven't worn for awhile, but decided to keep it and made it a point to want to wear it this week.  Well, I put it on yesterday and the shirt had magically shrunk in the closet!!  Funny how that happened!  I also took out two pairs of shoes, that I really liked, and are new, but don't fit.  I really needed a pair of grey shoes and my mom bought me a pair for Christmas.  I only wore them a couple of times, but they were too small.  I was hoping I'd break them in, but yesterday when I looked at the size, they were really a size too small.  My mom also bought me another pair of black shoes for Christmas that were 1 1/2 sizes too big!  I'm not sure what she was thinking, but it was nice of her to buy me the shoes anyway.

Tonight I went through the hall closet.  I've organized it recently, however there was one shelf I really hadn't touched.  First, my husband has a habit of bringing umbrellas home from work. I didn't even know he had stashed three of them up there!  I kept them, but moved them to better locations.  There was also a growing collection of scarfs and hats up there, that found new homes.  Thrown away were some baseball caps and other hats that my husband is just not going to wear.  Gone!  He took a few things out and put them in a bag (like a baseball mitt - he only ever takes that one when we go to a rare baseball game!) and said he wanted to keep them.  I told him it was OK, but living in a bag on the handle of the closet door was not OK.  I think he ended up putting the bag in his closet.  I had asked him to clean his closet, but he told me he didn't have much to go through so he didn't think he needed to.  Whatever.  His closet isn't in my way so as long as things don't start creeping out, I'm OK.

I still haven't cleaned out the kid's closets, but hopefully soon.  I stay on top of those pretty well (the kids are nowhere near babies anymore but I still find myself nesting in there!), but there is a ton of laundry that needs to be put away, and it's also time to start a change of size and change of season purge.

Improvements for Me

This has been a good week of cleaning and purging for me.

Tuesday, I threw away a pair of orange plastic fangs that the boys still like.  They were sitting on the bathroom sink because my husband had just used them.  I know it doesn't sound like much, but it's big for me.  I really have de-cluttering on my mind.  First, I normally consult the kids before I throw away anything that belongs to them.  As you can guess, I don't get rid of everything I'd like to when I do it that way.  Second, the kids still use and enjoy these.  I'm not mean - really. I just saw them on the sink and wanted to throw them away rather than put them away.  It was in impulse decision that I don't regret, and the kids won't miss the plastic piece of junk.  They have so much, they really won't be missed.  Besides, I think there is a green pair still in the toy bins.

Wednesday I finally went through the shelf in my linen closet that I've been wanting to get to for a couple of weeks.

It's a mess, right?  As you can see, I have attempted to keep things organized with baskets and containers. The problem is I've got too much that I don't need and the baskets are filling up.  I had mostly empty sunscreen bottles that were probably too old to be used, and a basket filled with sample sizes of men's hair creme that were old when my husband was using them, but has since changed his hair style.  I also had bay lotion and powder in there that I got as shower gifts when I was pregnant with my first (that was 6 years ago!).  Some of it had expiration dates on them and they were never opened! Well, I went through it all, and I'm really happy with the results.

I'd still like to go through that emergency baby first aid kid that's in there.  I'm sure some of it can be put in other places now.  The kids aren't babies anymore.

This is all the stuff I got rid off.

Not bad for about a half hour's work!

Yesterday wasn't as good.  We went on the hunt for a baseball shirt for school.  I did, though, get rid of some more work email because I got that silly "full mailbox" message again.  This time, though, I went through the "sent" box which I hadn't done before.  Boring stuff, but at least getting rid of clutter is still on my mind. 

Another thing I did yesterday was make some lists.  I think I've mentioned this before, that I have started following a website that has printable monthly lists for simplifying my house around me.  I've also printed out two more "30 days of spring cleaning" lists, and I sat for a while and looked at those lists and updated them and modified some of the items.  For instance, one day I am supposed to rake the leaves in the yard.  Well, I don't have a yard, so I changed it to pull and clean out all of the leaves and pine needles from the hood of my car.  Instead of organizing the attic and basement, of which I don't have, I'll be organizing my storage closets.  The first items on the lists are taking inventory of what I want to do.  Well, let's cross that off the list!  Here's to 30 days of action!

It's Been a Productive Day Off!

We've been away for the weekend, so I couldn't do much house cleaning.  However, I've been busy since we've been back.

First, my car is clean, well, sort of.  All of the crayons and toys and movies and papers, etc., have been picked up and taken into the house.  All of the trash has been placed in the dumpster.  Now, it needs a vacuum and the seats/floors need to be scrubbed, but I'm very happy to say that it's emptied out!  That usually doesn't happen!

Last night, I went through their VHS movies (yes, we still have VHS movies) and was able to have the kids agree to donate some of the tapes.  They don't watch Bob the Builder anymore and Elmo's World really isn't their thing either. Besides, we have a password for Netflix and there is Youtube, so we can probably find what we need, if we need it.

Today was great too.  I cleaned out my closet and found some clothes and old pocketbooks to donate.  I threw away a faded sweatshirt and a pair of broken boots too. Then I went through my bedside table and made a pile of magazines/catalogs that I'll donate to my kid's classroom, threw out a bunch of random papers and things, found new homes for things that didn't belong, and really organized those two drawers. Now the top drawer needs some more straightening up, but everything in the drawer has a theme and a
purpose for being there.

I'm excited about the work I did today, and I'm excited to get more done this week too.  I really love that I'm getting rid of things I don't need any more, simplifying, and organizing all at the same time!

Tomorrow my goal is to organize the kids' closets and find something to do with all of their outgrown clothes!

Broken

I was disappointed in myself for not throwing anything away yesterday.  I laid in bed bothered by it.  I guess I went through my work email again and deleted lots of stuff, but since I've done that a few times, and it doesn't really get rid of physical clutter, I feel I can't count it again.  Well, kinda.  Anyway, I threw stuff away today.

Today I threw away an Easter decoration.  Yesterday one of the kids dropped it and an ear fell of a bunny.  I was going to glue it back on, but today I noticed what I thought was another piece that broke off.  It's actually picture holder that I don't use, so I thought I'd get rid of it.  As I was throwing it away I realized the 2nd piece I found wasn't from that bunny.  The bunny it came off of is still ok without it, so I'm going to keep that one, minus the broken part.  I also threw away a broken tv tray.  The top has a crack in it, it's been there.  Tonight I noticed that the metal bar keeping the top together is unscrewed, and the hole is cracked open so a new screw would stay.  It's now sitting near the garbage, ready to head to the dumpster.

The other nice thing about getting rid of these items, is that it checks something off another list I have.  I printed out some monthly to-do organizing sheets, and something on this month's list was to fix something broken or throw it away if I don't have intentions of fixing it.  Two birds, one stone.

A Gold Box

I bought an Easter gift for my niece tonight. I KNOW I have gift bags - I have a ton, but the gift is kind of big and thought it might be nicer wrapped.  I have one roll of non-Christmas wrapping paper, that sits inside a gold box, accompanied by a roll of tissue paper and gift tags.  It's flowery, and would look nice wrapped around an Easter gift.  I've had this wrapping paper for years.  Probably for many years.  No, definitely for many years.  It was purchased from a school fundraiser that I probably bought before I moved into this apartment, and I've been here for 3 1/2 years.

I dug the gold box out from behind a crate filled with gift bags (yes, a crate) in my closet.  To my disappointment, there was only a small amount of paper left, most certainly not enough for the gift.  So...I threw the box away.  I have a bag filled with tissue paper, so I put everything in there.

Not huge, but I threw something away.  And now I can blog about what I threw away today.

Old Medicine

I've had other things on my mind this weekend this weekend, so I wasn't really thinking about things to throw away. (Sweet 16 baby!!) Tonight, however, I had a renewed sense of happiness related to filling up a trash bag.  With a little help from an organization blog, I decided to tackle my medicine cabinet.  I thought it looked pretty good because I cleaned it out a few months ago, but I still found a few tubes of this and packages of that that were expired. Out they went!  There is also a bottle of men's cologne that I'd like to get  rid of, but I really should ask my hubby about that because it's obviously his.  I'm hoping I can pitch it because he never wears it.  I also have a tube of toothpaste that I'm going to donate to my kid's preschool.  The older kids brush their teeth after lunch, and this is a flavor my kids don't like, so instead of throwing it away, I'll donate it.  Yay!

I still haven't tackled my hair accessories shelf yet though!

Low Key, But Still A Win

Yesterday I went through the kids' toy bins again.  I didn't necessarily mean to, but many of their toys decided to take a bath, so I did some organizing as we were putting all the toys back.  I didn't throw out much, probably just a couple of McDonald's toys, but I'm OK with that.  The bonus is that the toys are organized again and some of them are clean!

Today I finally took out the Easter decorations.  Well, the tote they are in has been sitting in the living room for almost a week, I just opened it up today.  I have a bunch of plastic eggs that although I don't plan to use this year, I'm not going to throw away just yet.  I did throw away a handle-less basket.  I have a couple of large plastic eggs with clear lids that I thought about throwing away, but the boys said we could use them to put candy in this year.  We'll see.  I think whether or not I use them this year, they won't make it to next year.

(I also rec'd the dreaded work email that said my inbox was getting to full.  I permanently deleted some stuff, but didn't really go through much else.)

Getting Back Into the Swing of Things

Yesterday I was able to make some progress at home and at work.  At work, I made another purge from my yearbook office.  I threw away a 2001 Penn State yearbook.  We have yearbooks from other schools so we can get ideas.  I'm not sure the trends of 2001 are still the trends of 2013.  Besides, now we have a 2011 edition.  At home, I was hoping to clean out the shelf of my linen closet that holds all my hair supplies and toiletries, but instead, I cleaned out two drawers in the kitchen.  I didn't get much thrown out, but I did reorganize and put things back in their homes where they belong.  I now have a drawer that stores only baking supplies...cookie cutters, dough roller, cupcake wrappers, etc.  However, I don't really bake.

Today, I vacuumed out the back seat of my car.  I wish I had taken a picture to show how gross it was.  Popcorn, candy, broken crayons...ugh!  Today was over 50 degrees finally, and the rain stopped.  It was a good night to go to the car wash to vacuum.  I'm hoping to get some more work done tonight as well.  We'll see.

Weekend Update

Not a bad weekend in terms of getting rid of things.  Saturday I went to a crop (scrapbooking) and there was a swap table.  I brought a bunch of things, and left them!  There weren't many people there, so not much of my stuff was taken, but the organizer took it all with her when we packed up, and will bring it to another crop she hosts.  I didn't take anything from the table!  Yay me!

Sunday I dropped off a bag of clothes at church.  It's been in the back of my car for weeks now, and to be perfectly honest, most of it was clothing I counted already in my early days of this blog.  The bag just hung around, then slowly made it's way to my car.  I did add to the bag, though, so I'm still counting it!  Ha!

I'm putting this challenge back on my priority list.  I need to!  I'm starting to feel overwhelmed again and getting rid of stuff really helps me out. My plan tonight is to tackle the shelf in my closet that holds all my hair supplies and various toiletries.

Bad Start, Great Finish

I threw nothing away Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday of this week.  I can't believe it!  Well, I guess I can - I am just running around doing so many other things, that I'm forgetting to make it a point to throw things away.  I made up for it yesterday and today though.

Yesterday I threw away a bunch of old papers and catalogs from my yearbook office.  I know it's not my house, and it's not really my office, but it is an extended office of mine.  It really should be more of the responsibility of my student staff, however, my student staff and I really work in partnership together, and honestly, I don't think they care as much.  Most of the work they do on the yearbook is done on their computers in their own rooms, so really we only use the office for meetings.  Therefore, I do most of the cleaning.

Today I threw out two white sweaters.  Now that hurt.  At the end of last week, I put on a white sweater to wear to work.  As I'm getting ready in front of the mirror, I notice a light red stain right in the middle.  I threw it in the laundry, hoping I could try one more time to get the stain out.  I put another white sweater on in it's place.  That sweater looked like it had laundry detergent still in it in a huge patch on the side, that stretched way into the back and a little on the front.  I ended up wearing it to work because there was no one in the office but me, but then I was hoping to get the stain out after washing it again.  Needless to say, neither of the stains came out.  I loved that second sweater!  It looked great with a pair of jeans and a nice beaded necklace that I have.  I'm bummed, but they had to go.

Little Holes

Today I threw out a shirt belonging to my little one.  It used to belong to his big brother, so it certainly got it's use.  As I've been noticing in a few shirts lately, there was a small hole in the sleeve. The fun part about trashing this shirt, was I tried to let him rip it off his body.  It was a button down shirt, so I let him play Hulk.  Unfortunately, neither he nor his brother could do it, so daddy got the pleasure.  My little was perplexed that the buttons came flying off.  he he. Cutie!

Things I Didn't Take Home

Since I knew it was going to be slow this week, I had planned on planning.  Most of that didn't happen, but another thing on my list was to shrink the two giant, messy piles of paper on my desk.  Although I didn't clear the piles completely, I probably got the piles down to at least half the size they were.  I recycled a lot of paper.  Some of it I was able to put aside because the backside can still be used - my kids can draw on it, and I have a great idea for making homemade recycled notepads that I'm anxious to do.  Some of the old paperwork I got rid of was dated 2010!  I know there is more that can just be tossed, I'll just take some more time to do that later.  I think I made great headway though.

Last night I was picking up the house, and threw a shirt away.  There was a necklace attached to it that was ruined in the wash.  I could have kept it aside and looked for a way to repair it, but I know me and it would have sat in the corner for months before I did anything with it.  I'm really not sure I could have repaired so I just tossed it.  I've had it for several years and have worn it plenty of times, so it wasn't too hard to get rid of.

My big thing for today wasn't anything I threw away, but rather something I didn't bring into the house.  My church had a big flea market today, so I took the boys to show my support.  I wasn't in the mood to really shop, so I think that was good - that means I didn't spend any money (at least not on flea market items) and didn't bring anything home!  I did let the boys each buy something, but one was a hot wheels car (a Mystery Machine) so that was tiny, and I'm sure it'll get used a lot, and the other was an Imaginext pirate castle thing, that can probably be stored in one of our toy bins, so that shouldn't be a space filler either.  I'm pretty proud of myself for not bringing too much home!!

More Email

Ok, I know I've done this before, but today was another day where I went through my office email, and permanently deleted lots of email.  Mostly spurred by the notices (note the plural) I received saying my inbox was near it's limit, this was a job I wanted to take on this week anyway.  My students are on spring break, so it'll be a slow week for me.  I want to do a lot of planning, and a lot of purging.  I'll slowly start with the email, and hopefully by the end of the week I'll only have one large pile of papers on my desk instead of two!

A Week's Worth

Well, I haven't been blogging, but I have been throwing things away.  Here is a little of what I did last week:

Valentines
Like his Kindergarten Christmas cards, these were his Kindergarten Valentines.  He has rec'd Valentines before, but these were his first truly in school.  Everyone in his class had to give one to every one else in the class, and the classroom was turned into a post office all week.  He got the chance to stamp, sort and deliver the mail.  I think it was a fun idea to turn this occasion into a lesson.  Valentines aren't just a folded piece of paper anymore. He rec'd pencils and tatoos and lollypops and erasers and stickers....  someone even made chocolate covered pretzels, which he loved!  A few of the cards were handmade.  I took this picture and threw all but one away, the one from his "sweetheart"  :).

Junk Drawer

This has been on my list of things to do for over a week now.  I have a storage container of drawers in my bedroom that are a mess.  I finally made the time this week to go through most of the drawers.  The big mess was the top drawer.  I took out anything that wasn't an office supply, and found new homes for those things, and I threw away stuff as well as put a few things in the donation box.  I went through one other drawer as well.  Those were the baddies.  The other two drawers are OK.  I'll go through those eventually, but I accomplished what I set out to do.

Car

The floors of my car are disgusting!  It's really more the floors of the backseat, surprise, surprise.  I've been getting into the habit of telling the kids they have to take out a few items to either throw away or take upstairs.  One day I might say, "Take 2 toys out with you to bring up stairs", another day it might be "Pick up three pieces of trash to throw away".  That trash goes immediately into the dumpster, before we even get inside the house.  Today, I had just hubby with me, so we were able to take out all the things that belonged in the house, and most of the big trash (like papers).  Now the back is mostly filled with old cereal and sand, but a quick trip to the car wash vacuums later this week should take care of that.  Now hopefully I can get there later this week.

This past weekend has been a big cleaning weekend. My "craft" table in my bedroom is usually a disaster.  It's the place for things that I otherwise don't know what to do with.  It's usually souvenir kinds of things, or pictures the boys have made. I cleaned off the entire thing, found some homes, and even made the time to scrapbook one page!  I threw out the remaining baby wash clothes and a plastic bib, which my youngest could probably use since he's so messy, but really too old now to use a bib.  I have two burp cloths left, but I'm keeping them as items to keep in my "toddler bag".  I may need it to wet down and clean a dirty boy.  I have a stack of receiving blankets too.  I'm pretty sure I'm ready to get rid of them, but I want to donate them to the SPCA so I haven't tossed them yet.  This week I'll check out its hours, and think about heading down with the boys.  They might get a kick out of seeing the animals.  I also took some pictures of our one of a kind wall hangings (aka boys' artwork) and recycled the originals.

Today we went through the house and cleaned pretty much from top to bottom - getting rid of a lot of dust!  Yuck!  Hubby even threw out a couple of stuffed animals with my blessing!  It was tough, but I'm OK.  I went organized the kids' bookshelf with all their puzzles and art supplies and games.  It wasn't too bad, but I did a great job at putting some things in folders and organizing baskets.  I feel great about it.  I threw out an art easel that they don't need, especially when the have others.  

Hopefully this week I can tackle some of the boys' artwork that I've been saving.

Getting Bad at This

So, I'm thinking my goal is pretty much broken.  I'm thinking about throwing things away, but I'm not deliberate about it any more.  The though of blogging is even too much for me.  I went away again last weekend, so it was another weekend away from home and not throwing anything away.  I just haven't gotten back into it since I've been home.  Sigh.

I did throw away some socks tonight.  Before we went away, I pulled out all my unmatched socks. While we were gone, my husband did all the laundry in the house.  Once home, I tried to find any matches I could. The socks sat on my dresser all week.  I couldn't bring myself to throw them away. I kept thinking a match might pop up.  Tonight I got sick of looking at them. I said to myself that even if I found a match, I had plenty of socks and didn't need them anyway.

Deliberate About Random

Again, I don't remember what I threw away yesterday.  I do know, though, I am deliberate about the random things I'm getting rid of.  Like tonight, I wanted to write something down, so I opened my drawer that contains that big basket of pens I've mentioned.  I could have reached for a pencil or pen from the top drawer, or looked right in front of me in my basket of pens I take scrapbooking with me, but I purposely went into that bottom drawer.  I dug into the basket, knowing that I might come up with a pen that didn't work.  And I did.  In fact, I think I went through three or four pens until I found one that worked.  The non working pens went into the trash.

This is the kind of deliberate action I'm taking in throwing random things away.  I'm not necessarily looking for things.  I'm seizing a moment I have and making a deliberate choice. I'm getting rid of the attachment issues I have and I'm personalizing less.  The other day I threw away a travel coffee mug because it was leaking a little.  Why keep something that isn't working right, especially when I have so many more at home and will likely end up with a new one as a gift or from some event I attend soon?

I still want to take some deliberate time and purposely go through a bin or drawer or file and fill a trash bag.  For now though, I'm happy with the steps I'm taking and the strides I'm making.  This feels good.

A Night of Random

The stuff I threw away tonight was so random, that I don't even remember what I threw out!  I know I took some of the kids' drawings off the wall and took pictures of the rest of them to prep to take those down.  In fact, I'm not sure what is keeping me from taking them down now.  Maybe I should go do that!

Catching up!

Gosh!  It's been almost two weeks since I've blogged!  I know that I have to blog regularly in order to keep myself accountable!

So, let's see...
Wed., Jan 30 - a pen.  Yeah, just a simple pen, but I think a few weeks ago, when I forgot what I threw out, I had thrown out some other pens from a big stash I have.  I also took some to work.  This pen was yet another from that stash.

Thurs., Jan 31 and Friday., Feb. 1 - My desk was a mess!  I couldn't see the top after being so busy for over a week.  I took the time to clean it these two days, and tossed some stuff, recycled some stuff, and just made a neat desk.  I still have some piles to go through, but that'll be another day!

Sat., Feb 2 and Sun. Feb. 3 - I was on a ski retreat with some students for the weekend so I really didn't throw anything away.  On Sunday, I took home some of the unused food we had.  I was given the jelly to take home, but there was enough to probably make one sandwich, so I just pitched the jar.

Now, this past week I don't remember as much.  I threw away some slipper socks.  I have so many and so many are old.  I even have some from when I was in the hospital having the boys!

Wednesday I threw away a bunch of hand sanitizer.  I have a ton of them, and who knew they had expiration dates?  There were some that expired 2009, 2010...  Yikes!

Wednesday and Thursday I went around the house gathering some things to donate.  My church is putting together baskets of love and some of the donations they need are hand sanitizers (yup!  gave away more), bubbles (again, we have tons, and alot of it isn't opened) small candles, individual treats and candy.  I put together a grocery bag full and gave it away today (Sunday).

I'm sure there were random things at work that I got rid of, and things at home as well, I just don't remember them because I didn't write it down.  That'll serve me right for not blogging right away.

I really didn't throw anything away this weekend.  Again I was on a retreat - this time with women from church.  Since I wasn't home, I didn't have access to anything to throw away.  I did take to handfulls of back seat trash out of the car, and I threw away my name tag from the weekend.  I guess those are a couple of good things.  I ate all the candy in the goody bag too, so that didn't come into the house!  What a good girl I am ;)

Fill'er Up

I had hoped to make some progress in cleaning my office today, but a big program happened today and I was apart of it.  It took up a good part of my day, so I didn't get much cleaning done.

However, I was multitasking at the gas station!  While I was filling up my car, I cleaned up under the passenger side seat.  I tossed a guide book, several activity book pages and a few other pieces of paper.  Had my tank needed more gas, I would have thrown away more stuff!

Conquering the Kitchen

It started with the outside of the fridge.  There were too. many. magnets. There still are, but I threw away a few that held no meaning, and neatened up the rest.  I have a little magnet bucket that can hold a few things.  It was holding a lot of things... some sticks with smiley faces that were brought home from school, movie tickets and gift cards, and membership cards to a few local attractions.  I kept the membership cards up there because it's a nice easy place to remember where they are at.  The movie tickets and cards were moved to a bedroom drawer with the other movie passes we have (we often get movie passes from our jobs), and threw away the sticks.  The fridge isn't as overwhelming now.

I moved to the inside of the fridge.  I HATE to throw away food, but once in a while, leftovers creep to the back of the fridge and are forgotten about.   Sigh.

I was on a roll.  I moved to the drawers beside the fridge.  I tossed a couple of potholders I never use, moved a couple of cloth place mats to the closet where the rest of them are, and threw out a couple plastic straws that no longer fit any of the boys' cups.  I started in on the junk drawer next to those drawers, but didn't finish.  I think I'll have to tackle that another day.

Without Alot of Effort

Today was a good day for getting rid of things I don't need.  I did a minimal amount of housecleaning today but feel good about what I've purged.

I came home from our weekend away with a bunch of children's books.  My Mother-In-Law was going to throw them out and I couldn't let that happen!  We love books.  Although I was particular in what we took home (well, my son took a one or two I wouldn't have taken) we still took home more than what would fit in our bookcase.  So, it was time to clean out the bookcase.  I asked my son if he would like to help me give away some of his books.  I told him we could give them to his day care, so the babies there could enjoy them.  He really liked that idea so he helped me stack up just enough books to empty space for our new books.  I'm surprised he didn't give me a harder time.  It was him who suggested most of the books, and after he turned his back, I put two back on his shelf! I just wasn't ready to part with them!

Our kids' humidifier is broken and has been sitting in my room for about 2 months now.  My husband and I have no idea what is wrong or how to fix it, so into the dumpster it went today.  My hubby also cleaned off most of his bedside table today (remember I said there were sales circulars on it?  This table was a mess!), and although it isn't empty, he did clear it off pretty good. It was mostly filled with things that didn't belong there (like children's books and VHS movies!).  The last things from my bedroom I trashed were some old slipper socks.  I threw away four pair, I think, and I still have three pair left, two singles that I know are around somewhere and received two more pair for Christmas.  One of my son's wanted to make clothes for his stuffed animal, so I gave him a sock to cut up.  It worked great!

We wrapped up the afternoon cleaning spree by throwing away a cookie tin.  I'm thankful for all the Christmas cookies we received, but I don't need another tin in the house.

I feel like I'm back on track from my depressing day yesterday!!

I Hope I'm Not Getting Bad at This Already!

So, I kind of figured I wouldn't blog every day.  I know I'll be going away for weekends, and on vacation.  I don't know what my problem has been this week.  It only takes a minute to come over to my computer and write a few sentences, but I haven't made myself do it. Chasing two kids after working all day might have something to do with it.  I really need to get better at sitting down for that minute because blogging is keeping me accountable for attaining my goal.

I know I've thrown things away this week, however, how intentional it was I don't know.  A couple of times I threw something away and said to myself", "I'll have to remember this for my blog" but now I can't remember what I did.  I don't know what I threw away Wednesday and Thursday.  I do remember that one day I thought I hadn't thrown anything away and I may have found something after that.  Yesterday, I cleaned up a bedside table a bit and threw away some old sales circulars that were hanging around for some unknown reason.

Today was great though!  My husband likes to bring things home from work.  He mostly brings home umbrellas, sunglasses and water bottles.  Oh, the water bottles!  It actually skeeves me out a bit when he brings them home and wants to use them.  They are fine, I suppose, because we put them through the dishwasher so they are clean, and they are made to be reusable, I mean, that is their purpose.  I guess I just need to get over that.  However, whenever my husband finds one at work, he brings it home and it's his new favorite cup (he'll bring one back to work and drink from it while working).  This summer we bought a reusable, refillable cup at Hershey, and now he brings that to work everyday.  His coworkers call it his sippy cup!  Today I was in the cupboard and easily convinced him to throw all the others away that he doesn't use anymore.  There were a couple more up there too, that I got rid of.  This, for me, was awesome!

Tomorrow I am really going to make a conscience effort to get rid of something.  I really want to get back on track!!

Teddy Bears and Kitchen Clutter

Teddy bears have faces.  That makes them much harder to throw away.  I just can't put them in a trash can, trash bag, box or any place I know where they will be covered with unwanted things.  When I was younger, I used to imagine my stuffed animals would talk and move around when I wasn't looking.  I imagine you can guess a couple of my favorite movies.  Hmm... a movie about talking toys, perhaps?  I've seen Toy Story 3 100 times and I still cry at the end.  I've even come in at the end of the movie and I STILL cry.  Favorite children's book? The Velveteen Rabbit.  Wouldn't it be great to love a toy to life?  Sigh....

Well, as tough as it was, I threw away a small teddy bear yesterday.  I organized the boys' stuffed animals shelf and tucked a few in some open shelves on the side of the dresser that was attached to the crib at one time.  I was hoping to find some more to get rid of, but amazingly I was able to find homes for all of them (including Buzz and Woody dolls) except for one tiny bear, that I think was a Build A Bear replica that was a McDonald's toy won in an Easter Egg Hunt.  At one time it had a fireman's jacket and hat, but that found it's way to the trash a while ago because I thought the bear was lost.

Today I tackled the clutter on top of the microwave.  I try to keep it clean, but clutter just magically appears on it.  I threw away some Christmas candy, including a Pez dispenser, a fortune cookie and some school papers that were up there.  I filed a recipe, a Thanksgiving place mat made by a boy in school and put away some note pads.  There were some unmade Christmas crafts that were up there too, that I put away until next year. Something splattered up there too, because I cleaned the wall behind the microwave and the bottom of the cabinet above it.  Hopefully this will stay clean a little longer this time around.

Scrapbook Weekend

I love to scrapbook.  I don't get the chance to do it often, but this weekend, I went away and got to scrap from Friday morning to early this morning.  I had some nice "me time", and got 70 pages done! One of the nice things this crop offers, is a flea market table. I took a few things from home that I don't need or use anymore, priced it to sell, and tried to get rid of it to the other scrappers in the room. I had a Sizziz die-cut machine and a letter die set that I bought for over $100 but never used.  I tried to sell it at 2 different yard sales this fall, but apparently they don't go for much any more.  I sold the machine for $5 this weekend and sold the letters for $5 as well.  Not what I wanted, but it didn't come home with me.  I had a few small dies that didn't sell, and I tossed them this morning when cleaning up.  I didn't have a lot to sell, but I was able to get rid of a few things, and through away a few more.  I did bring a couple of things home, but not much.

I also threw away a lot of pictures this weekend.  That made me sad, but I did it.  I need to realize I don't have to scrap EVERY picture I take.  I'm getting better.  A few times I wanted to dig through the trash to keep something I tossed, but I reminded myself that all these pictures are on my computer, so if I really want to use a particular picture for something, I can reprint it.  I did scrap a couple of pages that had more pictures than I needed on it, but they were cute, and for the way I laid out the page, it works.

I created a lot of trash this weekend.  Between the pictures, and sticker packaging and unusable paper scraps, I filled and emptied a small trash bag three times.  I threw away some big stuff directly into a trash can as well.  I was thinking this might cheat as well as my challenge goes, but it's stuff I used up and threw away.  Therefore, I'm counting it! My home embellishment pile is smaller, and smaller piles around the house is what my goal is!

More Office Cleaning

No pretty pictures today, just my lovely words (and seriously, just as I was typing "lovely words" my son said "I love you Mommy"!  Sweetest. Kid. Ever!)

Yesterday I cleaned up a bit more of my office. I  had some boxes and things gathering on my floor, so I looked through it and found new homes for most of it.  The trash can definitely ate an old cookie tin and Easter basket.  There were a few other random things as well.

Today, I cleaned out a bunch of emails.  I know, not really anything I can trip over, but still needed to be done.  Especially because I was reaching my mail box limit.  My email folders are definitely holding items that I really don't need anymore.  Just another thing I'm afraid to get rid of!

I Can Do Better

I'm going to try and blog as close to every day as I can.  I'm hoping that keeps me more accountable to my goal of getting rid of something every day.  However, I've already realized that blogging everyday isn't going to happen.  I already blogged about the weekend in a post yesterday, which means I didn't blog about what I threw out yesterday.  I'm going away this weekend and won't have a computer, so that'll be a weekend I don't blog either.  I'm thinking weekend heaves may be told about in one post at the beginning of the week, and I can see myself getting busy or out of a routine and having to catch up at other times too.  Oh well.  I'm still getting rid of stuff every day, so my goal is still being met!!

So, yesterday... I threw out a lipstick color I didn't like.  Today I went through my make up drawer and threw away a few more items.  I know there are more toiletries I can get rid of, but I'm feeling pretty good about starting there.  I was going through some old pictures, and I found some of people I used to work with years ago and people I don't even know anymore. I pulled those and tossed them.  I KNOW I have plenty more pictures that I can get rid of.  That'll be a chore for another day, but again, I started the process and I feel inspired to do more.

Another big removal today was from my office.  I recycled a whole box of letters that I had too many copies of.  I kept them because I thought I might need them if I did another mailing, but I didn't need that many.  Now the deadline for that request is over so out the letters went.  I found a catalog and a few other papers and posters that I got rid of too.  I found a new home for some old t-shirts too.  Cleaning out my office is going to be a huge undertaking!

I tell ya, throwing stuff away is easier than I thought and I'm so inspired to do more!  I want to keep going and going!

Weekend Clothes Warrior

Over the weekend I got rid of a lot of clothes - mostly kid clothes.  As you can see from the above picture, my little one cannot complain about having nothing to wear! Besides the benefit of cleaning out the closet and getting rid of some things around the house, I made a little money!

On Friday I received the bag I ordered from ThredUP.  ThredUP is like an online consignment shop for kids clothes.  I filled the bag with some great clothes (probably 1/2 to 3/4 of that tote) and sent it off.  The clothing will be posted on their website and I'll get cash for what is sold!  

On Saturday, I sold another trash bag filled with kids clothes to a woman I've sold to before.  I've met up with her so many times that we have built a little friendship, and now I just give her clothes.  It's been awhile since I've seen her (her grandson is catching up size wise to my son, so I haven't had much), but I was still going to just give her this bag.  She insisted I take money from her, so I made a few unexpected dollars.  The money was actually a blessing because later that day, I needed to buy some emergency clothes for my son and I spent all but a penny that she had given me!

Sunday I donated a bag of my old clothes and a few other items I had from around the house.  It feels good to finally have all that stuff out of the boys' room!

Toys, Toys, Toys!!

I've been pretty good lately about getting rid of some of the kids' toys.  I cleaned out before Christmas anticipating their new arrivals.  The boys even helped me get rid of some of their cars!  We gave them to our friend's son on New Year's Eve.  But after doing Christmas three times, the toy box lid once again wouldn't close.  So, tonight I went through it one more time.

Having the boys around doesn't help a whole lot, but they were willing to let a few things go, especially when I told them the toys were broken.  There were also a few Kid's Meals' toys that I secretly tossed, and honestly, I put some toys in new locations, just because they didn't really belong in the box.  I was thinking we might have a few things to give to friends or donate, but really everything I tossed was cheap or broken.  It still feels good that I get to close the toy box lid though.

The Greeting Cards Have All Been Sent

My Kindergartener received several Christmas cards from his new classmates this year.  I just think it was so  sweet.  OK, sure, it was probably the mom's of all those kids that the cards really came from, but I think it's nice just the same.  When I read the names of the senders to my son, he was excited every time he recognized a name.   He really wanted to send cards out as well, but I just didn't have the time to get special cards (the cards I sent out to family and friends had personal pictures of our family on them, not really appropriate for his class). The thought of him making friends and having his own little life at school, really warms my heart.  That is why I'd like to keep these first Christmas cards that belong to him.

But, it's a year of getting rid of things, so these cards must go.  Even though I've taken down all my other Christmas cards, I've left his hanging up waiting for an idea of what to do with them.  So, I've taken a picture to record the memory, I've written down the names of all the senders, and I'll tuck those away in a scrapbook that I'll be making next week. That way, he'll have a little memory of how kind his classmates were, and I won't have the clutter in my house!

I'm inspired!

I don't usually make New Year's Resolutions.  I used to make a list on my birthday of things I wanted to accomplish in the upcoming year.  I always have a to do list in my planner, both for home and work.  But this year, I'm inspired!  I didn't set out to make any resolutions but I found a few websites yesterday that inspired me.

A friend of mine told me about a couple of websites that inspire her to wake up earlier in the morning to spend time with God and be fully prepared for her kids and her day.  I'm not a huge fan of waking up any earlier than I have to in the mornings, but I'd love to get in some exercise and I should really start my day with God instead of just ending my day with Him.  Then, I was on Pinterest looking at crafts for the kids and saw some be-crafty-for-365-days sites.  I'm a scrapbooker, but knew that creating a new scrapbook layout every day would be unrealistic, and I take enough pictures so I'm not really interested in taking another picture every single day (nor can I think of anything interesting to take a picture of for 365 days).  I was thinking about maybe using something from my craft stash every day, which could be doable, especially   since I have kids that love to craft too.  Then it hit me... I need to get rid of some of my clutter!!

I have way too much stuff.  I feel it's weighing me down.  I have piles and boxes of papers and things that I just either can't get rid of, can't decide what to do with, or just don't have the time to go through.  That's why I made this challenge to myself.  I figure if I just get rid of one thing every day, eventually, it will become easier, I'll feel better, and won't feel so overwhelmed!  I don't have to necessarily make trash.  I'm very happy to recycle, donate and give away, and maybe even repurpose.  I'm excited to take on this project, and I'm sure my husband will be glad to help.  In fact, I'm sure he has a few things he can depart with too!

So, for my first pitch of the challenge....lip moisturizer!  I know, it's small, but I have to start somewhere, right?  I received a couple of new lip balms in my Christmas Stocking, so I threw out all my old ones.  I think I have one or two at work too, so tomorrow, I'll be getting rid of those as well.  

I'm feeling lighter already!