Week 3 Decluttering - Challenge Sort of Accomplished

So Carla made this week a "productivity" challenge.  I "thought" I would do all this bulk cooking.  Yeah....not so much.  BUT, a few ingredients I need for some of it will be on sale next week, so maybe this was a good thing (just go with me on this).

I also (ok, this implies that I did more than one thing....but again, just go with me) worked on my Home Office.  I figure a clean and beautiful home office will make me more productive, right???  So here are the messy before pictures:

Main Office Area

Tangled cords

Not really home office, but in the same room

The plan was to clean the desk off and reorganize the papers.  Additionally, I was going to make a wall hanging pocket organizer, and cover the file cabinet in the same fabric.

This is what I discovered along the way:

1)  Papers are easy....wires are more time consuming....especially when you take it ALL APART.

2)  While I am happy with how the wall pocket thing came out (even though I hacked it in 2), it was VERY TIME CONSUMING.  If anyone wants to attempt this, let me know, and I will share what I learned.

3)  I need more time to purge the file cabinet before I can cover it.

Here are the end results:

Clean Desk! And ugly file cabinet

The now famous wall thingy

Wall thingy hanging up

Nicely hidden

The former mess of cords

Now, the other area of the room:

The idea is that this dresser will change seasonally (it had a Fall and Yule display, then became junky).  The "Family" picture will get hung above it, but what you can't see are the family pictures that are already there.  We have to take them all down and rearrange it.  The clear drawers....the kids craft stuff will go in the now empty one.  The other one....well.....

It went into the closet....which is part of the dreaded challenge.  And the big pile of crap yet to be sorted items that have taken over the kids' craft table.....that is now part of the dreaded challenge as well.

And you guys saw my "helper" in the Family Area challenge....well, I had another helper this time:

Once I get the file cabinet done, and a few other decorative things....I will revisit this post and show you.  PLUS, then I can cross off "home office makeover" off my goal list for the year!

Oh dreaded challenge.....how I dread you this coming week!!!!

Successful Weekend? Failed Weekend??

The main goal of the weekend was home office makeover and productivity.  Oh yeah....and a break from my family.  Did I achieve my goal???  Not quite sure which category I belong in.


Fail

• Didn't bulk cook
• Didn't finish (or start) my file cabinet makeover
• Big pile of stuff that I will probably pitch anyway miscellaneous items that I still need to deal with (they just keep moving location)
• Change the sheets so my family can come home to clean beds (but I may be able to do this before they get home)
• Read or comment on blogs
• Mail stuff
• Vacuum car
• Didn't do laundry

Success

• I took apart all the components of the computer and cleaned everything
• Wires organized
• Desk very neat and tidy
• Made a wall hanging file thingy (OMG....this took F-O-R-E-V-E-R...should of just bought one)
• Hung out with friends
• Extra Sleep
• Watch stuff on DVR
• Ate yummy (but totally not good for me) food

So there ya go....8 things in each category.  I already admitted that some of my thoughts for the weekend were out of whack.  I do feel bad that I didn't bulk cook.  But I did have a mini vacation.

Pictures will come tomorrow.  I need G-man to hang my file thingy and move my calendar (we have plaster walls, and I was too afraid to do it myself).  And then you will get some pics.

My family will be hitting the road in a little while, and I am sure will be dog tired when they get home.  So our night will be quiet.  I did miss them.....but I sure did like the quiet!

Today is the Day!!!

G-man, Bossy, and Sassy will be leaving early this afternoon to visit G-man's mom.  If all goes well, they should be there around bedtime (although I am sure they won't be going to be right away).

I didn't sleep well last night....worrying about them.  But that is what I do....I worry.

Meanwhile, I will be making over my home office, clearing more crap extra items, and taking some time for myself.  I am going to eat the foods no one else in the house likes.  I am going to take a bath, and read some light and fluffy books I picked up at the library yesterday.

I am going to recharge my battery.

I do have a few mini-goals for the long weekend:

• Comment on blogs that I may read but don't comment on often
• Mail stuff
• Vacuum my car

My home office....you have NO idea how excited I am about this!!  Can't wait to show you guys!!!!!

Taking Back the Kitchen, part two

(I have to say...this post and I did NOT get along!  The pictures did not cooperate AT ALL.  Just because I love you guys did I keep messing with it until it was somewhat better.  I gave up eventually!!  But you at least get the idea).

The second part of this challenge was our pantry.  We have 2 corner cabinets that we use for food storage, both with lazy susans.  I HATE the lazy susans.  All the boxes get screwy, stuff falls behind them.  If the shelf isn't full, everything shifts around. UGH.  But this is what I have, so I need to embrace it.

Here were the starting points:

Upper Cabinet Before



Lower Cabinet Before

 The first thing I did with the cabinets was empty them.

Upper Cabinet Contents

Lower Cabinet Contents

Then I threw out all the yucky stuff.  Anything that only had a serving left (alot of snack food), I put in a sandwich baggie to be added to a lunch this week.  This is what I threw out.

I cleaned the cabinets and added shelf paper.  I ran out of paper for the the bottom two shelves, so I need to get more.  I didn't want to fail the challenge, so I pressed on!

 

Yuck!!!



Double YUCK!!!

But once it was all cleaned out....I put new shelf paper down (or at least until I ran out!)

 

In the end, here are my finished cabinets:

Upper Cabinet After

Lower Cabinet After



I am not sure why I waited so long to do this....this really didn't take long, and it wasn't all that bad. 

As for the mini challenge....writing a letter or note.  I wrote this note that was enclosed with the pictures from Sassy's dance:

So there you are!  Week 2...DONE.  Oh....Week 3, you little devil....I can't wait to tackle you!!!

Decluttering Challenge, Week 2 - Part One

Did you know that it IS possible for a small space to hold more stuff than say....the Mall of America??? Holy Dog Dirt....as I was pulling it all apart, I was amazed at how much STUFF was there.

Part One of this weeks challenge was my kitchen "crap catcher."  It used to be useful.  But overtime, I have relocated items, and it became the place where paper went to die.  I would get some of it cleared out, and then MORE paper appeared!  How does it do it????

So here is the starting point.

 

Sometimes you have to make a mess to clean up a mess.  Here is a shot mid way through the purge.

  

Eventually we got to this point.

We decided to relocate the shelf to the home office/playroom (you will see it in the future!).  The yuckiness behind there was just...well....YUCK.

In the end, here is the space.

Of the "stuff," one huge bag of trash was purged.  I have a big box of stuff to be shredded.  And the remainder was files, put away, or somehow otherwise used.  My kitchen seems so much larger now!  Of course, I still hate the floor (a long time ago we were going to replace it with black and white tile.....).  But at least it is all cleaned up now!!!!

Stay tune for part two, the kitchen cabinets!!!  And the mini challenge of course.  ;)

Decluttering Challenge Outline

As you know (and alot of you are already participating in), Carla is hosting a Decluttering Challenge for February.  I will be honest....even though I need to do this, February is a rough month for me to take this on.  I have Bookfair, Winter Break for the kids, emotional stuff....but then I realized they are just excuses.  Time to put my big girl panties on (and yes, they are still big...weight loss is a struggle!), and JUST DO IT!

Since I agreed to do my updates on Mondays....I thought I would just share with you the outline for the coming month: 

Week One: Personal Space Challenge

This will run January 31-Feb 6.  I decided that this is going to be our master bedroom, aka "the place everything lands that doesn't already have a home."  I have several boxes of stuff in there that just need to be purged.  And it needs a good cleaning!!!  My personal challenge in this one is to NOT buy new stuff for the bedroom (like replacing the HORRIBLE rug).

Week Two: Family Space Challenge

This will run Feb 7 - Feb 13.  *sigh*  This week is bookfair, so I am going to be running like a mad woman.  But  again....JUST DO IT.  This is going to be cleaning out the food pantry (which is really just a few cabinets in our kitchen, as we don't have a real pantry), and getting rid of the "crap catcher" in the kitchen.

Week Three: Productivity Challenge

This will run Feb 14 - Feb 20.  Now, just as an added "bonus" in here...there is a chance that the kids and G-man will be going to visit his mom for the weekend...leaving me ALONE for 4 days!!!  If that happens, I might be able to get to number 3!!!  If not, then #1 is the main challenge.

1)  Home office make over. This was on my personal goals 2012, so it is serving double duty.  Love that!  Once the home office is more organized, productivity will naturally go up, right?  And the idea that I might be alone to do this and really clean it out....OOOOHHHHH.....I may need to excuse myself....is it hot in here??

2)  Bulk cooking of pancakes, green chili, rice, and something else that is TBD.  I am going to try and think of recipes that use some of the same ingredients (chop once, use twice!), just to make it easier.  I am also planning on having the crock pot and the stock pot going.

3) (BONUS, baby!!!) Work on clearing out the attic for a minimum of 3 hours.  It got messy again!!!


Week Four: The “Dreaded” Challenge

This will run Feb 21 - 29.  Since it is dreaded....I gave it 2 extra days.  :)  Plus, if the kids and G-man are still gone, I have a leg up on this one.  My rules!!!  I haven't officially decided on this one.  It is either going to be the coat closet (our house is over 100 years old, so closets aren't plentiful in our house), or the shelves in the basement.  Still mulling this over.  Hey, do I get double points if I do BOTH???

Looking forward to the mini challenges as well, and of course, seeing everyone else's before and after pictures.  I will admit....I am not looking forward to sharing some of the "before" ones, but it is all for a good cause.  Life is messy!!!

Let's Call It What It Is

Somewhere in the middle of the mess I called my life this past year, there were a few lessons along the way.  Those will all be the subject of a multi-part series that will probably  make its debut later this month.  But one thing I would like to surface address today....

I have tried so hard to make things into something they are not.  The ole square peg into the round hole.  It just doesn't work.  I can push, twist, ram and jam....and it just is going to fight back.

It reminds me of a line from the movie Keeping the Faith.  When Ben Stiller's character is tutoring a boy for his upcoming Bar Mitzvah, and the poor boy just sucks.  And Stiller tells him he needs to embrace the sucky-ness.  "I love that I suck!" is the war-cry!

Which brings me to my point (yes, I really do have one).  My home office.  Sharon over at Musings of a Midlife Mom just cleaned hers up.  My home office is in the room we call the playroom.  It really is the dining room if you were to sell the house...but we have never used it as a dining room.  It has always had kid stuff in here, and now, the home office.

My home office is completely lacking in a few key areas.  One of which....REAL organization.  I have the calendar in the kitchen.  The bills go in a binder on a shelf in the kitchen.  Miscellaneous papers end up in a few other areas.  The file cabinet is over crowded, and I would guess at least half of the stuff in there can be pitched.

So I am going to quit fighting it.  My dining room is NOT a dining room...it is a craft room and a home office.  And it needs to look like it.  And work like it.  I found a template for some wall folder on Pintrest.   And a way of covering the file cabinet with paper to make it more attractive (the rust just doesn't scream vintage....it screams OLD).  The 2012 calendar will get posted near the computer.  And for once....I am just going to embrace what I have instead of denying its true destiny.

Pictures will go along with this project....don't worry!  But I owe you other pictures first.  And this project will wait until after Christmas.  Probably during the week the kids are off in December.

Anyone else have something in their house that they just can't admit what it REALLY is?

Channeling that Emotional Pain

I will post more about the party fiasco later....but since yesterday, this has been at the fore front of my mind.  The kids don't know yet.  Bossy...as of right now, 1 friend is coming, and MY friend and her son (so I guess that makes 2 kids).  He will be fine with that.

And it is weighing on me how to tell Sassy.  I have confirmed now that 2 of the 3 girls invited are NOT coming.

I am so mentally exhausted at this point.  It is starting to effect me physically, where my stomach is sick.  My sleep is disrupted.  I don't like this.

So I am trying to channel the upset into something more productive.  I am trying not to eat....because that opens another can of worms.  Trying not to spend money....again, Pandora's Box there.  So I have to turn to another vice....cleaning and organization!

I am down to 10 items on the "31" To-Do list.  And there is a good chance that at least 3-4 of those will get done when I get home from work today.  We won't talk about the new To-do list yet.  I am really trying to finish that first list before I tackle the next list.  I am focusing on the feeling of crossing things off....the feeling of completion.

As I have been cleaning...I am putting that extra effort behind it.  Being upset will do that to you.  It is fuel for the fire. We are closing out the month in a few days....it would be nice to have things DONE and start fresh.  Of course, the catch behind all of this is that the events are actually Oct 1 and 2, so while I am scrubbing away the week, I am just getting closer to the weekend.

If it isn't one thing...it is another.






 

You be the judge....who's "right"?

This rack was full on both sides

Confession time....remember when we had the yard sale in June?  Here are the pictures of all the clothes we were selling (and remember...I have been selling stuff off for several years...this is what we STILL had) :

2T-size 7

Newborn - 18 months

Most of this stuff did not sell.  :(  We put them back into boxes, and those boxes landed in our "playroom."  We were too tired to deal with it.

A few weeks later, consignment shops started taking fall and winter stuff.  So I tried that route on some of the things.  I found out that wasn't worth the time.  They rejected 80% of what I brought, and the 20% that they did take...I got about a $1 per item (which was exactly what I was selling the clothes for at the yard sale).  But bringing the stuff there, having to wait hours for them to sort it, then get $20?  It wasn't worth it.

So we decided to donate it to Goodwill.

Now, G-man has participated in this process very little.  He mostly was the brawn who moved the boxes.  The actual sorting and dealing with it...not so much.  And since the yard sale, he hasn't looked at any of it.  He fully admits this, and also has no plans to help me with the cleaning up at all.

I have said multiple times that I wanted the playroom back to working order before school starts.  So I have spent a great deal of time bagging everything up, making a list for the tax donation, and driving it over.  We have donated about 12 bags, and I still have lots more stuff.

And here we are at the impasse:

G-man thinks we should just bring the stuff over...screw the tax write off.  

Just get it out of the house.

vs.

I think that for the quantity of stuff that we have, it is too big of donation to not take the write off.

I want him to help me bag and list and finish.

Ok...so who's "right"?  Are you team Mysti or team G-man????

Adventures in Yard Sales - The Final Episode

We survived.  Can I just tell ya....there were a few moments in there where I wasn't so sure.  But we are alive.  I had a massive melt down the night before.  My anxiety level was really high.  We had marital counseling earlier in the day, it was a rough go.  The boxes and the clutter all around me at home...I was a mess.  My friend stopped by while out on a walk to find me huddled on the couch.

 This was the mess around me at the time (sorry they are dark again...I stink at photography using my phone):  

We left ourselves 3 hours to set up, which was just about right.  We had a few earlybirds, which was fine.  We were amazed at how much STUFF we had in general.  Some it looked like more than we thought....some of it I thought looked sparse.  But it was what it was. We ran the sale from 9am-3pm, but no one showed up after 1:30pm.  It took us about 2 hrs to take everything down, and by 5pm, we were wiped out.

Here is what it all looked like set up: 

 I think we priced things well, as most people just paid what the sticker said.  We had a few hagglers, which I expected.  Then there was the one lady who must have picked up 25 items of clothes, and offered me $5 (we were asking $1 an item).  She wouldn't go above $10...fine, whatever lady...just go away.


So...how did we do?  We didn't sell as many clothes as I thought.  We had tons of pregnant ladies, and I was sure that we would get rid of stuff...but some things were never even touched.  We did sell several larger items to our neighbor.  Kids books went well.  Home decor was not a big hit.

We made $88 from presale, and $193 from the main sale, for a total of $281.  I am trying to not be disappointed.  I sort of had $400 in my head as a goal....but whatever.  We netted $256 after we paid Sassy $20 and Bossy $5.

We are sooooo proud of Sassy.  She was up at 5:30am to help us, and worked her little tail off.  She hauled boxes, ran and got things for us.  She entertained little kids while their mom and dad shopped.  She had her bottled water station, and stayed outside with us for the entire day.  Her water station didn't do very well.   Only sold 2 bottles all day.  :( We felt she deserved more than just $2 for all her efforts, so we added $20 to her profit.

Bossy mostly stayed inside for the day.  But he was so well behaved.  He did come out from time to time, but he largely kept to himself and just let us do what we needed to do.

Unfortunately, we ended up putting things back in the attic for the moment until we can permanently get rid of them.  So no pics of the attic yet!!! I think I am going to bring the clothes and try and consign the nicer ones.  The rest will probably get donated.  Toys...don't know yet.

Would I do it again....probably.  But I think I would rather do 2 smaller sales than 1 large.  Especially with the clothes!!  We decided that the profits will go towards debt (although part of us is thinking of putting it toward the carpet in Bossy's room).

Thanks for all your well wishes!

Adventures in Yard Sales - Part One

Despite reading alot about how to have a yard sale, we have never actually done it.  Talked about it...but never did it.  Most of what I read said it is better to have several smaller ones over the course of years, than saving it all up and having a huge one ever 10 years.  Mostly so you can sell stuff while there is still some interest in fad type items.

Oh well...we are having a huge one with a decade worth of crap treasures waiting for a new home.

This yard sale has several concurrent objectives:

• Clean out Attic (see Personal goals 2011)
• Make money (see Financial goals 2011)
• Entertain you guys.

First, let's survey the damage.  The following are pictures from my attic (sorry they are a little dark, and not that great), before we started.  *sigh*  Believe it or not, it was organized chaos.  Like was grouped with like.  And we have cleaned and organized it before, just never was successful in getting rid of alot.  I Craigslisted some stuff, and sold clothes over the years, but this is where we are at, in June 2011.

Looking down the length of the attic

Far end of attic

Christmas stuff

One side

Dormer Area

Other Side

It is somewhat appalling how much stuff we have.  Granted, it was collected over time, but seriously.....some of this is absurd.  For example, we have like 20 sets of sheets.  I think my mom bought them for us over time.  Unless we are running a hotel, we don't need this many.  Most of them I don't even like.  So I washed and folded them, and if they can go to another home....great.

I also found binders from 2006 when the kids were in preschool.  I kept every daily "schedule" of what they did....all in order, in a binder, sorted into tabs by month.  OK....do I really need to know that they fingerpainted on 2/16 and had carrot sticks for snack?  NO.  Those were pitched.  I kept the boxes of all the art and such to go through later and streamline.  No time right now for that, but I have the boxes together waiting for me (it isn't like I was selling that stuff....unless....maybe my kids are Ar-TEESTS, and I can sell it for thousands!!!)

Our first pass at emptying the attic went well.  Our playroom now looks like the attic barfed all over it, but we needed somewhere to put it.  There was only one item that G-man and I had to discuss getting rid of vs. keeping.  That was Bossy's bouncy chair.  I said get rid of it, but with tears running down my face.  I was trying to be practical.  But there are so many memories with that chair.  In the end, we kept the cover (for his memory box) and pitched the frame.

I can't wait to show you what the attic looks like now!!!  But alas, you will have to wait.  I know you are as excited as I am.

Messy Mind = Messy Purse

photo by factwoman@photobucket

Things are very rough right now....and in the past 48 hours have escalated.  My purse is a MESS.  I couldn't find my debit card in that big mess, so I ended up using my CC to put gas in my car.  I transferred the money from my checking account to the pay the charge, but it was an extra step I was forced to do because I needed gas, and dumping out my purse all over my car wasn't going to help at the moment.

I have loose change, paper money, receipts.  It kind of looks like my wallet drank too much and barfed in my purse.  Meanwhile, my wallet is disorganized too.  I usually keep certain things in certain places (like our insurance card).  Up is down, down is up....dogs and cats, living together!

I have NOT tracked a single thing in 6 weeks.  Bills are paid, checkbook is balanced.  But don't ask me what I have spent on food.....no clue.  And I probably don't wanna know at this point.  I am sure I could figure it out if I added up all the receipts floating around in my purse though!

So tonight, I hold my purse's hair back, and let it puke all over the kitchen table and then clean it up.  It might be nice to know how much cash I have.  Or where my debit card is......