- Posts tagged decluttering
- Explore decluttering on posterous
Because, apparently, you CAN have too many books!
Serious style for book lovers....click on the other views to see inside!
Getting stuff done
It has been very easy for me to fall in to the trap of excessive time online, planning and plotting, thinking about things I'd like to do around the house, reading organizing blogs and decorating blogs and business blogs and minimalism blogs.....and then not actually DO anything.
On top of the mountain of laundry that had piled up, I had a number of nagging tasks that I had been putting off for weeks. Then I started saying "As soon as we're back from Rome, I'll get right on it." And then we got back and I got sick.
So now, feeling much better and only slightly bedeviled by allergies, I decided to hit the week running.
The top goals are/were:
Do something about the sorry state of our lawn. There was an article in the Star last last week about how to repair lawns, so I spent a good part of Monday and Tuesday raking the thatch and have started to put down a layer of new soil where the lawn is patchy. I've got 200 litres of bagged soil in my trunk from my second soil run, and I"ll get that spread tomorrow. I've also got some good quality grass seed that I'm sowing over the soil. It looks like we're going to get some rain over the next few days, so that will help. Status: Half-done. To be finished tomorrow.
Replace the hideous window coverings in the master bedroom. They probably weren't hideous when they were first installed, and probably matched the previous owner's decor, but they are faded, dusty, brown-coloured balloon shades. The strings are broken and the seams are coming apart. So after doing the measurements, I headed out to Ikea yesterday and picked up some sheers, some chocolate brown panels, and curtain rods. We needed a total of six of each panel as we're in a corner room with a double window on one side and a bay window on the other. I've got some elbow issues right now, so I'll need Z's help to get the rods installed as I don't want to put pressure on my joint with a screwdriver or power driver. Status: Measuring and shopping done. Installation to be done this weekend.
Get a new washer/dryer. We have the machines that came with the house. The washing machine is ancient, doesn't spin well, and is leaking oil. So it's gotta go. I want a stackable pair as space is at a premium, so I spent some time on Monday researching machines, and whaddya know? The top rated front-loading washer is on sale at Sears at the moment. So I plan to order it in the next day or so. The city picks up old appliances free with a phone call in advance, so nothing to be done re disposal. And they offer a $60 rebate when you purchase a high-efficiency washer. Status: Research complete. Rebate form printed.
Taxes: Canadian taxes are due at the end of April. Before we went on holidays, I downloaded the current tax software, (electronically) transferred the data from last years returns, and did Alex's (very easy) return. Today, I did Z's and mine, and e-filed all three of them. Status: Done! Done! Done!
Laundry: I don't know how it happens, but it piles up! It took me a long time to get all our vacation laundry done because I was sick, But it seems that as soon as I had it all put away, there were overflowing baskets of dirty stuff. So today I sorted it all and got started. Status: Two loads done. Two loads in progress. Two loads left to do.
I've had a bunch to mini-tasks to do which I've managed to check off with some ferocity. Shoes and a watch to their respective repair shops. Getting some Canada Pension Plan info. Groceries, shopping, chauffeuring, dog-walking. You know the drill. But it's these things above that have made this week seem so productive. And it's only Wednesday!
I've been using this excellent Daily Docket from Simple Mom to organize my days. It really helps me stay on track and not get lost in online wanderings or excessive book-reading-napping. I print one first thing in the morning and fill it out while I'm having coffee. It also helps that I've started trying to get up a little earlier each morning now that I'm feeling well. I'm all done breakfast by 8 and have a good start on the day.
A shocking but (maybe) doable proposition?
A Simple Post on Simplifying
I rarely print out content from blogs or websites, but yesterday's guest post at Zen Family Habits had me hitting the print button. Called 43 Simple Ways to Simplify Your Life, it was a list of great ideas that are short and sweet. A list of some things that I'd already implemented and some things I need to get a handle on. The tips range from keeping a gratitude journal to keeping spare garbage bin liners in the bottom of the bin. I could benefit from both.Zen Family Habits is a sister site to Zen Habits, another inhabitant of my feedreader, and full of sane advice about keeping it simple and real. For example, it reminded me to get to bed early, one of my resolutions and something that I've fallen out of doing so soon into the new year. Same with weekly meal planning; I need to get back on that bandwagon.For the next 30 days, Leo over at Zen Habits is giving every penny of sales from three of his ebooks to Doctors without Borders, so if you're interested in this kind of lifestyle, head over there and get one. They're all under $10.
Seven Quick Takes Friday
--1--
--2--
--3--
While we're on the subject of hair, I am considering letting my grey grow out. I estimate that I'm over 50% grey, at least at the front. After perusing Going Gray Looking Great and requesting the book at the library, I'm going to talk to my stylist and see if she can do some magic with a combination of low-lights and highlights to let my grey come in without looking like a skunk.
--4--
Okay, enough about my hair. (And I said that I didn't really care about it....) The Declutter Club started on Monday with an online chat for an hour, which was great. There were over a dozen of us online, plus some who couldn't make it. I've been working hard on getting my living room bookshelves into shape, purging books, listing some to sell, giving some away, and generally sorting through all kinds of papers and junk that I had stuffed in various places. Next week, I will start working on a large former TV cabinet that I'm now using for linen and candle storage. I want to get this unit out of my house, so I've got to find a home for all the stuff inside it.
--5--
--6--
Alex is coming home from Queen's for the weekend. Apparently, a lot of people are going skiing this weekend and he'll find it hard to study. Yes, you read that right. We'll see how much studying gets done at home. And I need to remind him to turn off his file-sharing software on his computer....luckily for us Bell caps internet overusage at $30 per month. We could have been hit by an extra $300 last month for whatever it is that he does.
--7--
I requested and received reservations for two papal masses when we're in Rome over Easter. We'll be able to attend the Holy Thursday mass at St. John Lateran (cool VR tour) and the Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peter's. Those letters are my favorite faxes of all time! Now I need to book a tour of the Vatican Museum.
Seven Quick Takes Friday
Welcome all Company Girls!
--1--
The last couple of days have been rather nerve-wracking, health-wise. The night before last, I woke up at 3 am with stomach pains that wouldn't go away. They continued all day yesterday and pretty much prevented me from doing anything....I only managed to take Wilson around the block, and I drove to the library to drop off and pick up books. My blood pressure was also up. Quite a bit.
I kept reading these websites about how heart attacks in women can mimic indigestion, etc, and was getting a bit freaked out. We didn't have anything in the house for stomach ailments, and I didn't really feel like eating. I forced down some plain yogurt and a couple of bananas over the day (and a cookie) and basically lay on the sofa with a book.
My stomach was still bothering me last night when I went to bed, but it's all better this morning. I have a headache, and my bp is still up, but hopefully it will subside as I start to feel better. At least I'm up for errands and housework today. And dinner out with friends tonight.
--2--
One of the "benefits" of being under the weather is getting some reading done. Yesterday, I read the Philip Roth novella The Humbling
. Very dark and intense story of a successful, aging actor who can no longer work.
--3--
I also got NutureShock: New Thinking About Children:
by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman from the library (again). This is the third time I've checked it out but I've never been able to get it read before having to return it. I"m halfway through and it's a book that I wish I'd had when my kids were young. So many important insights, but mainly it's a debunking of many of the prevailing child-rearing tenets. Like praise. Like talking about race. Like gifted testing in the early years. Like TV makes you fat. Highly recommended reading for all parents of all ages.
--4--
I have a couple of resolutions from the book above regarding Michael. First, it is imperative that he gets more sleep every night. To that end, the laptop, iPod, and phone will be turned off at 10 and left outside his room at night. Second, he needs to understand that his brain is like a muscle, and the more he uses it, the more it grows. He needs to start doing more work at school, more than is required by his teachers, if he is to keep it growing. He has decided to drop Japanese for the rest of the year....he was quite far behind and unable to catch up, so we have let him stop going. In it's place, we've registered him in the Saturday Science and Engineering Academy at University of Toronto. Their spring program is ten weeks, starting next month, and he'll be taking the Math and Physics for Engineering program for students in Grade 9 and 10.
--5--
We also watched the first episode of the HBO production of Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, an adaptation of the Giller award winning book
of the same name by Vincent Lam. The show really pulled us in, and is complex with flashbacks, fantasy scenes, and unanswered questions about why certain things are happening. Another one for the PVR.
--6--
This Saturday, Z, Michael and I are heading to Koerner Hall to see Quartetto Gelato and Ethel. Should be a high energy evening! Check them out:
Ethel
--7--
The online Declutter Group I've joined starts on Monday! I"m looking forward to having a focussed approach to getting the house in order as well as the accountability of doing it in a group. There are still spots, if anyone's interested in joining me!
That's all for today! I"m off to get my house in order and run some errands.
Obligatory Post about New Years Resolutions
Yes, I'm making some. But I'm easing in and taking it slowly. My theme for the year is "Peace". Peace in all it's forms: peace with myself, with those around me, with the world, with God. Bringing peace to others and building a peaceful sanctuary in our home.But that's kind of the overarching goal. To get there, I need some feet-on-the-ground strategies around the many day-to-day struggles that I face as I move into the next calendar decade, as well as a personal milestone: turning 50 in July!My main source of inspiration over the past week has been Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project
. In particular, I like how she focuses on one area of her life each month in an effort to establish some positive habits and I"m going to copy her themes, at least for the first few months.In January, she chose to focus on Boosting Energy. Rightly, she argues that boosting her vitality level would help her with future months in her happiness projects, and that makes sense to me. Like Gretchen, I hope to develop some habits around both physical and mental energy. On the bodily energy side, I need to work on getting more sleep and more exercise. I aim to get to bed by 10 pm each night, at least Sunday to Thursday. With my recent blood pressure incident, I need to bump up my exercise level to a minimum of 30 minutes per day. I have started with doubling Wilson's daily walks from 15 to 30 minutes and keeping to a brisk pace. My 70s music mix keeps me engaged and moving. Today's playlist included Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke
", Captain and Tenille "Love Will Keep Us Together
", and Ian Thomas "Painted Ladies". I'm also going to go back to Oprah's advice (actually, Bob Greene's advice I think) about not eating two hours before bedtime. Now, I've been known to do a lot of mindless eating in the evenings, and so this is a good one for me. So, no eating after 8 pm.
On mental energy: I need to create a calm and organized home. If I see order around me, my stress level goes down and I'm able to relax and enjoy my family much more. I have a number of great resources on this front, but for the purposes of setting a resolution, I want to spend some time each day following suggestions made by one or more of The Clutter Diet, Home Sanctuary, or My Simpler Life. I also pledge to keep a running To-Do list, or bucket, per Getting Things Done's "Collect" phase.. I think of this as a brain dump, a way to manage stress by getting all the free-floating to-dos out of my head and onto a list so that I don't forget them, and spend my precious mental energy trying to remember stuff.Finally, I commit to blogging every day. I did it in November, and the first part of December, and loved it.I'm using an iPhone app called Touch Goal to manage my goals, and am currently using the built-in iPhone To Do list (which isn't very good). It doesn't let me assign a start date or due date to items, so it's a bit lame. But there are lots of apps for that. I just need to sort through them.It seems like a lot, as I write it all out, but many of these habits are already (or have already been) part of my life at one point or another. To summarize:Body: no food after 8 pm, in bed by 10 pm, and exercise 30+ minutes per day.
Mind: one declutter task per day, running to-do list, blog every day.
On mental energy: I need to create a calm and organized home. If I see order around me, my stress level goes down and I'm able to relax and enjoy my family much more. I have a number of great resources on this front, but for the purposes of setting a resolution, I want to spend some time each day following suggestions made by one or more of The Clutter Diet, Home Sanctuary, or My Simpler Life. I also pledge to keep a running To-Do list, or bucket, per Getting Things Done's "Collect" phase.. I think of this as a brain dump, a way to manage stress by getting all the free-floating to-dos out of my head and onto a list so that I don't forget them, and spend my precious mental energy trying to remember stuff.Finally, I commit to blogging every day. I did it in November, and the first part of December, and loved it.I'm using an iPhone app called Touch Goal to manage my goals, and am currently using the built-in iPhone To Do list (which isn't very good). It doesn't let me assign a start date or due date to items, so it's a bit lame. But there are lots of apps for that. I just need to sort through them.It seems like a lot, as I write it all out, but many of these habits are already (or have already been) part of my life at one point or another. To summarize:Body: no food after 8 pm, in bed by 10 pm, and exercise 30+ minutes per day.
Mind: one declutter task per day, running to-do list, blog every day.
2010 Declutter Calendar
Clutter Diet - Week 2
As I mentioned last week, I have joined the Clutter Diet for some online coaching in getting problem areas of my house in order.This weeks task were partially completed, but I did two large unscheduled tasks to make up for it!The easy ones were buying Hallowe'en candy (I had to do this twice, LOL) and getting a snapshot of my computer in the event of disaster. The two I didn't do were getting rid of old computers (I located it, but it needs to go to the special waste depot), and getting my credit report (this is easy...it's on my list).The main task was working on my home office and I got this partially done. The two areas I worked on were the kitchen ledge and the filing cabinet.Kitchen ledge before: mail, papers, craft supplies, some moon cakes, and all manner of junk gets deposited here.
Kitchen ledge after: Ahhhhh...
Filing cabinet before: Note bottle of Chinese rice liquor is sitting just three feet from where it belongs in the liquor cabinet. There is also a stack of financial and other paperwork, most of which is filed in binders in another room and doesn't belong there.
Filing cabinet after: Ahhh...nice and clear, with just a piece of artwork
But the other two big unscheduled tasks this week were the fridge and the master closet. The fridge was LONG overdue to be cleaned and we got rid of half a garbage bag of take-out boxes, old rotting sauces and condiments, and moldy leftovers (which we don't normally have, with a teen boy eating them at 10 pm most nights). The fridge itself was also rather filthy, so it's now gorgeously white, decluttered, and sparkly.I was able to get Z to focus on the master closet this weekend, as he has been setting up his new office in our recently departed-for-university son's bedroom (sorry, Alex!). We got rid of 2 bags of clothing that will be donated at the monthly St. Vincent-de-Paul Bundle Sunday coming up next weekend at our parish. Everything is dusted, spacious, and tidy, with nothing on the floor except for some shoes and the laundry basket. It's quite a small closet for two people, so tidying it up really makes a difference. So while I didn't get all my proscribed tasks done, I believe that the decluttering mindset is rippling through the household, and we're getting some other long overdue projects out of the way.
Thanks to the Clutter Diet people for spurring me on to accomplish these large tasks. It's great to have a resource like that to give you a list and make you accountable. They have message boards where you can compare notes with other declutterers and get advice from the pros. I hadn't been able to motivate myself on my own, so the small subscription fee is definitely worth it to me.
Kitchen ledge after: Ahhhhh...
Filing cabinet before: Note bottle of Chinese rice liquor is sitting just three feet from where it belongs in the liquor cabinet. There is also a stack of financial and other paperwork, most of which is filed in binders in another room and doesn't belong there.
Filing cabinet after: Ahhh...nice and clear, with just a piece of artwork
But the other two big unscheduled tasks this week were the fridge and the master closet. The fridge was LONG overdue to be cleaned and we got rid of half a garbage bag of take-out boxes, old rotting sauces and condiments, and moldy leftovers (which we don't normally have, with a teen boy eating them at 10 pm most nights). The fridge itself was also rather filthy, so it's now gorgeously white, decluttered, and sparkly.I was able to get Z to focus on the master closet this weekend, as he has been setting up his new office in our recently departed-for-university son's bedroom (sorry, Alex!). We got rid of 2 bags of clothing that will be donated at the monthly St. Vincent-de-Paul Bundle Sunday coming up next weekend at our parish. Everything is dusted, spacious, and tidy, with nothing on the floor except for some shoes and the laundry basket. It's quite a small closet for two people, so tidying it up really makes a difference. So while I didn't get all my proscribed tasks done, I believe that the decluttering mindset is rippling through the household, and we're getting some other long overdue projects out of the way.
Thanks to the Clutter Diet people for spurring me on to accomplish these large tasks. It's great to have a resource like that to give you a list and make you accountable. They have message boards where you can compare notes with other declutterers and get advice from the pros. I hadn't been able to motivate myself on my own, so the small subscription fee is definitely worth it to me.
The list for today
Yesterday was a bit of a write-off. I awoke feeling like I'd been hit by a truck, and worried that I was getting the flu that Michael just got over. I couldn't even get dressed until I absolutely HAD to take Wilson out for a walk. I didn't blow dry my hair, so it's a fuzz ball today. It wasn't until just before Michael got home from school that the kitchen got tidied from breakfast (and to be honest, from the half of dinner that didn't fit into the dishwasher the night before). I forgot to go to the library. My decluttering projects didn't go anywhere. By late afternoon, I was feeling much better, but I forgot the loads of laundry, one in the dryer and the other in the washer. So I'm gonna write my big list for today here and cross things off as they get done. Sort of a public accountability thing. I'm not committed to getting the entire list done, but at least a respectable amount.
- Finish laundry and get two additional loads done.
- Clean kitchen
- Wash kitchen floor
- Return library books
- Pick up prescriptions
- Declutter filing cabinet
- Declutter kitchen counter
- Declutter bookshelf beside desk
- Organize kitchen drawer
- Remind Michael to finish moving his stuff out of Z's office
- Vacuum living room
- Vacuum stairs and upper hall
- Do sewing repairs (jeans, shirt, mattress cover)
- Make chicken pot pie for supper
