2017 in 2017

2017 End of Year Update

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I can’t believe another year has passed!

This is the time of year people reflect on their previous year and make plans/goals for the upcoming year.

So how did we do with last year’s goals?  Depends on how you look at it!

√-  Our decluttering goal was to rid the house of 2017 items.  We got rid of 1506 items.  That brings our total since we began counting in fall 2014 to 15,519!  Not quite our goal but better than nothing!
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More stuff gone in December (empty turbotax case and phone book we never use among the gems!)


GOAL REVIEW

√+  We wanted to have a No Spend Month.  Well we did it last February!  Surprisingly (or maybe not) we have been more aware of purchases than we were even before this experiment.   We are contemplating another one this month but with our first granddaughter due any day, I’m not willing to do no spending just yet.  We will have travel expenses to see her (I suppose we could eliminate this from the “rules” but then there will be meals out, etc to contend with.)

√-  Next, we wanted to thoroughly go through the garage.  Most of our big decluttering in January and July were due to decluttering the garage.  Not quite as much as we would like but it looks better than before Jan 2017.

X  The last big goal was to clear out enough of the garage to put a car in it and purchase a new garage door and opener.  Well, the car still parks every night in the driveway.  The big item that seems to be holding this up is the full-size Air Hockey Table.  We just need to suck it up and figure out a way to sell/give it away.  The facebook for sale and craigslist for our area has a lot of these and they aren’t moving even if the price is $0.  Not sure how we will deal with this – maybe we need to start having our air hockey championships again!  Granted, it was a lot fun when the kids and their friends were involved – just us, not sure.

On the personal goals:
√ √ 0 X  Barb is drinking more water!  She is “officially” a descendant of the Mayflower;  she didn’t gain any weight (and only lost about 5 pounds for the year); and the picture boxes are untouched.
√+ 0 X  John is tracking his blood sugar every day (like he was supposed to do all along!) and has found that alcohol affects it (he needed to see the results himself!)  He didn’t gain any weight (also only lost about 5 pounds for the year);  and we can’t park in the garage (see above).

While we both had some successes and some “failures”, we are quite happy with how our year turned out.  We are less stressed about STUFF and other things in general, eating healthy meals at home more often than before, and enjoying doing other things that we wouldn’t have before.  Guess we need to start writing about those things too!

So now off to think about the goals for 2018!

Desk Drawer – again!

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As the end of the year approaches, I’ve decided to “start” decluttering all over again.  I began this journey in earnest with our bathroom.  I then moved on to my desk.   Here are the things that didn’t make the cut this time around.

1 box of pencils (16 pencils), counted as 1 but it could be 16!
5 postcards
2 protractors
1 chemical rings stencil
1 circle stencil
1 curvy line stencil
5 different types of address labels

16 (or 31) items leaving the house!!

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Decluttering the Bathroom – Again!

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I finally finished the book I’ve been working on for about 5 months documenting one of John’s family lines from the 1740’s to present.  123 pages later!  I was really wanting to finish before Christmas to present a hardbound copy to mom-in-law and I submitted it to the book binding place a couple of days ago.  Hope it arrives before the holiday.

Now that that project is finished, while doing a much needed cleaning around the house, I decided to do a quick decluttering of the bathrooms again.  12 more items gone!  Now I should go finish cleaning the bathrooms!

What a great feeling of accomplishment on so many fronts!

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November 2017 Update

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Our November wasn’t too productive on the decluttering front. We removed 6 items from the house.  That gives us 1435 items so far in 2017.

I doubt we will hit 2017 but that is OK.  We decluttered like crazy for 2 years and removed so much during that time (over 15,000 items!).  We are now finding occasional things that can leave – removing an item we want/need just because we have a 2017 goal is really stupid!

We have noticed that less comes into the house – that’s a good thing!

We took a weekend trip to Sequoia National Park during the month.  It was nice to get away for a weekend.  We were able to spend it with Kiddo #2 – her first weekend off since July and she wanted to spend it with us!!  It helps that she is averaging about 85 hours a week and really wanted to feel like it was something “unique”.

Feeling small in the world next to General Sherman.  This definitely puts a lot of things into perspective.

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We had 2 different Thanksgiving dinners – one at John’s mom’s house with his sister and her family, the two of us, and his brother.  Kiddo #2 was able to surprise us by getting off work early on Thanksgiving and arrived about half an hour after we sat down to eat.

Dinner #2 was at our house – just us and kiddo #2 on Saturday.  We love making a turkey and all the trimmings!  Nothing fancy but nice to enjoy seeing the kiddo twice in the same week!

Somehow the pic was taken before the gravy and veggies (roasted brussel sprouts) were put on the table!

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October 2017 update

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It seems like yesterday I was writing about decluttering our keychains and then looked at the date – 4 weeks ago!

On the decluttering front, we removed 12 items from the house in October.

Grand total so far this year: 1429 items

This doesn’t seem like much but when you consider that we have now removed over 15,000 items from our lives.  We have both spent too many hours to document cleaning out emails and digital files (which we didn’t count).

Can we stop decluttering?  Of course not!  But I think our focus/outlook on what is essential has gradually changed over the last 2 years.  I think it will still be important to occasionally go through those same closets and drawers again.

Image result for clutter meme
source:  http://www.relatably.com/m/img/cluttered-memes/meme.jpg

 

 

Declutter your keychain

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We had a key break in the back door lock recently.  John did the lock replacement today and while we were dealing with a new key, decided to determine if all the keys on our keychains still work the door locks.  Guess what?  They don’t!!

I can only imagine that since we replaced doors and locks over 2 years ago after The Great Flood of 2015, these are old keys to the old locks.  Why didn’t we declutter them sooner?

How many unnecessary keys are you carrying around??

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Declutter the Extra Pictures!

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Advise:  Don’t keep every copy of every picture!  Get rid of them before they become clutter.

Kiddo #1’s mother-in-law asked for some baby pictures of Kiddo #1.  That part was “easy”.

Oh, the memories!  It took longer than expected to find our favorite pics.  John and I laughed over some of our attempted family selfies from 30 years ago.  (Those are not getting published!)

Going through and eliminating all the duplicate/triplicate/millioncate copies of the pictures was also easy to do.  Why did I keep every copy of every picture??

We also found the extra baby announcements you get with the hospital pictures.  Kiddo #1 is 30!  Why did I keep the extra 7 announcements for 30 years??  My attitude toward these extras has changed so much – it was easy to recycle them (30 years later!)

62 items decluttered!  The picture box is a little lighter today!

Below is kiddo#1:  left picture is the official hospital pic – got rid of 3 sheets of extra pictures;  right picture is her 6 month pic – got rid of 4 sheets of extras.

 

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August 2017 Update

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57 more items left the house!  Just when we think we are finally done, we find more stuff that seems unnecessary.  Decluttering has become second nature and we are finding we aren’t as focused on the counting (even though we still do it) as we are on clearing our space.   1355 items so far this year!

Some realizations – our daily habits have changed:
The little bit of mail we still get gets sorted, put away, and/or disposed of as soon as it enters the house – no more letting it pile up “until we have time to go through it”.

The kitchen counters are clear almost all the time!

You can open any closet or drawer without fear!

We both even spent an evening recently clearing our email, saved documents, and such from our computers all because we have the time to do so!  It amazes us how much “free” time we have now that we aren’t having to spend as much time cleaning up to clean or stressing about the condition of the house.

 

Here are a few of the pictures that didn’t make it to being their own post.  Imagine, we are getting rid of some reusable bags.  Why?  We aren’t shopping as much and haven’t used them in over 2 years!

July(ish) Challenge – Day 17 the Last Day of this Challenge

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We are at the end of our self-imposed challenge.  Our original goal was to average 18 items per day decluttered.

Today we removed:
an old inkjet printer      IMG_4216
4 torn bags found in the garage
a leg? to something found in the garage     IMG_4217
a wicker basket
another cell phone cover (again for a phone we no longer own)
2 books
2 small bags (one empty, one with thread)
1 screw in Barb’s jewelry box (not sure why it’s there)
1 complete box of slides of unknown people – Barb received this from her mom, when asked who they were “I don’t know.  That’s why I gave it to you.”
1 set of slides, again with unknown people.  IMG_4218

Today = 15 items

Challenge Total = 312 items

Average =  18.35 items per day!!  We meet our goal!!  Happy Decluttering Dance happening right now!!!

Thank you Jen at HiddenHoarder.com for the challenge idea!  You motivated us to declutter just about every day for 17 days!

July(ish) Challenge – Day 16

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This morning Barb is “suffering” as she prepares for her colonoscopy this afternoon.  John picked up an old coffee can, wandered the garage (to get away from the sufferer), and picked up all the stray nuts, bolts, screws, nails, etc.

Not sure how many items, but it has to be at least 18!  John was not willing to count them.

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Today’s Total = 18 (ish) items

Challenge Total = 297 items

Daily Average = 18.56 items per day

July 2017 Update

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It seems had to believe this month is over already!

The end of July means the both of us have to return to work (sigh), John on the 3rd and Barb on the 4th.

We decluttered 560 items on this forced staycation.  Our 17 day July(ish) Challenge was successful!  We have 2 more days but I think we will make it!

We have decluttered 1298 items so far this year!

We calculate we need to average 54 items per week to meet our goal of 2017 items in 2017.  Is it possible?  YES!  Will we make it? Sure hope so!

Now that we are going back to work, we look forward to using the Instant Pot.

Beans have been mastered!  Artichokes were attempted.  The crock pot feature works wonderfully!  Happy meal prep is ahead!!

 

July(ish) Challenge – Day 15

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So I walked into the garage to do a load of laundry and happened to look up to the top of the cabinets.  Why??  Who knows!  But I did find the home and supplies for the hermit crabs.

How long ago did we have Hermie and Crabby?  I’m assuming about 12-15 years ago.  Kiddo #1 was still living here and she graduated from high school in 2005.  She moved away to go to college and has “never returned” (is that sounding too dramatic for this mommy??)  I seriously doubt they were in our home her senior year – more likely earlier – hence the range.  Does anyone remember when having hermit crabs was the big thing??  Early 2000’s??

 

Today’s total = 10 items

Challenge total = 279 items

Daily Average = 18.6 items per day 

July(ish) Challenge – Day 14

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So this morning we got up (not bright and early) to spend about an hour in the garage decluttering.  Here are the 29 items we removed from our home.  Now to load some into the car for a trip to the donation center.

3 plastic storage boxes.
1 wire closet organizer + 1 extra drawer
1 portable BBQ from John’s dad
1 gardening wire support
1 turkey fryer – used only once in 20 years
1 pair of crutches
1 child safety gate – ironically never used for our kids but to keep the dog away from the cat.
1 dried up rubbing compound
10 balls and 1 badminton birdie
1 pet watering bowl missing the water holding portion
6 miscellaneous trash things

Today’s total = 29 items

Challenge total = 269 items

Daily Average = 19.2 items per day

July(ish) Challenge – Day 13

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Actual items out of the house/premise today = 0

But we accomplished so much!

Barb spent the day organizing and purging her work portable hard drive.  Today she started with about 46 GB worth of files (this is when she decided to look about noon).  No idea how many actual files, probably over 30,000.  By the end of the day, there were 25.1 GB and 14,356 files.  Many of those were duplicates.

John spent the day fixing the sprinkler system.  About a month ago, kiddo #2 was home alone and heard a weird clunking noise in the bathroom.  When she walked around the house to investigate, there was water all over the patio.  John thought he fixed is a couple of weeks ago, but when he turned on the water, it obviously wasn’t.  We must have had a pressure surge because 3 pipes had cracked/burst at the same time.  Today was spent finding and fixing the other 2.

Total for the challenge = 240 items + a bunch of digital files!

Daily Average = 18.46 items per day.  We definitely need to remove some items tomorrow!

July(ish) Challenge – Day 12

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We worked on another shelf that had all the large framed pictures from the walls and under the bed before the Great Flood of 2015.  It has been about 2 years since we “moved” back in after the flood and the pictures were still bubble wrapped on the garage shelf.  Can’t claim we work fast!

We decided to get rid of 5.  The others will be put up in the house.  We’ve gotten used to the bare walls.  Adding a few pictures will be ok.

The nursery picture!  So sad to see it leave but “Really? We still have this?”

Freezer Grandma made the wedding wreath needlepoint for us.  We haven’t had it up on the walls for about 30 years.  Another one of those “But Grandma made it for us.” discussions.

The Los Angeles girl and the Norman Rockwell were given to us by Barb’s mom.  She “collected” these in the 80’s and when they downsized, we got them.  They aren’t our style and really, who cares if someone I don’t know signed them.  The Rockwell picture is supposedly signed by the boy model.

The seaside is one of those you get when you in your first home together and “have to” have something on the wall that you both agree on.

 

Total today = 5 items

Challenge Total = 240 items

Daily Average = 20 items per day

July(ish) Challenge – Day 9

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WOW!  We’ve decluttered something every day for 9 straight days!  This morning yields 16 items.

Here’s a blast from the past that we can’t even look at and our 16 items, sadly all from Barb’s desk.

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When was the last time I used these?  Not in the last 21 years – that’s when I started teaching at the middle school.

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Challenge Total = 175 items

Daily Average = 19.44 items per day

July(ish) Challenge – Day 8

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After much debate for the last several years (and yesterday), the old chest freezer took a ride this morning in the newly reclaimed Xterra.  The local appliance company said if we drop it off they will take care of disposing of it.

We just don’t need it anymore.  With just the 2 of us, even 2 refrigerators seems excessive.  That debate will be ongoing – probably for several more years.

This freezer still works wonderfully.  We inherited it when Barb’s Grandma died in 1993 (24 years now!  Wow!)  Hence part of the reason for the debate.  How do you get rid of “useful” stuff you inherit.  Of all things, it’s a freezer.  We also got the miniature lemon tree she had on her patio forever.  It still produces a ton of lemons every year!  Whenever John makes lemonade using those lemons, we call it Grandma’s lemonade.  He freezes the lemon juice but we really don’t need a separate chest freezer for that.  Grandma lives in our hearts, not the freezer.  (That sounds weird now that I typed it!)

Grandma had this freezer for at least 10 years.  She moved back to California in 1981 and we think that is when she purchased it.  [Interesting side note, she moved to Iowa to care for her ailing father in 1972.  Barb can’t remember if she put it into storage when she left.  It could be even older than we think.]

Among the things in it were soup bones (since 2002- yikes!)  and some meat from a partial cow purchase in 2009.  We think those are no longer edible.

We also removed extra floor tiles.

Removed today = 26 items

Challenge total = 159 items

Daily Average = 19.875 items per day

July(ish) Challenge – Day 7

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John was motivated this morning to clear out some things from the garage!  When he got this pile ready to move out, we considered it a day for the challenge.  Anything else he removes (now that the post is finished) will count for tomorrow.

13 carpet scraps, 1 old wooden school desk, 1 garment rack (again something not used since the girls stopped dancing about 15 years ago), 1 bar for the garment boxes when we “moved” out during the great flood of 2015.

Total today = 16 items

Challenge total = 133 items!

Daily Average = 19 items per day!  We are still ahead of our goal of 18 items per day!!  We are doing a decluttering dance today!

July(ish) Challenge – Day 6

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We are still finding stuff to declutter – and to think we thought we were done!

19 items gone this morning!

Barb’s desk yields 2 magazines, 2 cellphone covers (for a phone we don’t even have!), an appointment card, and a duplicate check thingy from 2013.

John’s desk yields 2 magazines, 1 not working pen.

The linen closet yields 3 pillowcases, 3 flat sheets and 2 fitted sheets.

and a pair of winter boots and a butane powered curling iron from when the girls competed for dance (about 15 years ago!)

 

Total for challenge =  117 items gone!

Average = 19.5 items per day

July(ish) Challenge – Day 4

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20 more items gone!   Thank you Jen for the random number challenge! You would think that after removing over 15,000 items so far we wouldn’t have anything left.  We find it encouraging to go back to a place we thought was “done” only to find more that can be removed.  Today it took about 10 minutes to find, photograph, and post.

Today, we opened a drawer in our bathroom.

6 makeup brushes, 3 mercury thermometers, thermometer covers, 3 lip balms, 2 nail clippers, 1 nail brush, 1 contact case, 1 glasses cleaning cloth, 1 lipstick, 1 cracked drawer organizer.

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Total items gone because of this challenge = 80

Daily average = 20 items per day.

July(ish) Challenge – day 2

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23 more items leave!!

How many ace bandages does a household of 2 middle-aged people really need??

Expired hydrogen peroxide (2011 and 2013)  Guess we don’t use as much as we thought.

Random makeup, brushes, and “special bandages” from the extra bathroom – guess the girls don’t need it any more!

“Directions” for a reading light that’s not in our house.

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Total for this challenge:  41 items

Average: 20.5 items per day

July(ish) Challenge – Day 1, 18 items

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Jen at HiddenHoarder.com has inspired us to work toward a certain number of items each day.  We are on vacation for 3 more weeks and have decided to try to get an average of 18 items per day (since that is Jen’s goal).  That would be 306 items gone by Aug. 2.  [John goes back to work on the 3rd and Barb on the 4th.]

Today = 18 items!

expired food from the pantry, appliance booklets, medicine spoon, wooden grinder thingy, and a partial bottle of Slo-Niacin the doctor said not to take any longer.

 

June 2017 Update (and a new car)

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We removed 51 items from the house.  738 less items this year to bother us!!

Here are a couple of pics!  We both cleaned off our desks but didn’t take pics of the resulting pile of paper.  The binders had old transparencies – does anyone still use an overhead machine??  She counted each binder as 3 since she separated the transparency and paper insert from each other – transparency into the recycle bin and paper inserts used for scratch printer paper (you know, the things you want to print out but don’t want to waste “good” paper for).  An old VHS tape we felt we could depart with and a set of sheets.  Extra dishes and wireless headphones from the motorhome – we couldn’t remember the last time we used these.

 

So much for our financial simplification though.  We decided to get a new car!  Brand new Prius V five – our first car with all the bells and whistles!  We gave the dealer a very specific color and model.  He found it about 2 days later.  Now to get those windows tinted!

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Our old 2010 Prius base model, which we’ve had for 7.5 years, is going to kiddo #2 for the bargain price of $5000 – we are still discussing her payment plan hahaha  Maybe a nice cruise or something when she begins making more money!!

John finally gets his 2003 Xterra back – it has been in the “possession” of a kiddo since 2005 when gas prices hit $2.50 a gallon.  He drove it until that magic value was hit and then traded with the kids.  Kiddo #1 was driving our tow vehicle (1992 Honda Civic, which was John’s parent’s tow vehicle until they got something a little bigger to tow).  Our Honda tow vehicle was replaced with a 2008 Nissan Sentra in 2008 and John still drives it every day – I can’t believe it’s been 9 years we’ve had this car!

The Xterra averages about 16 mpg, while the Civic and its replacement Sentra got significantly better and he is the commuter (about 12 miles each way).    Our gas prices here haven’t been that low since, so there was no “rush” to trade cars again with them.

Xterra possession:
2004-2005 John bought it a year old.
2005-2005 kiddo #1 – finish high school
2005-2007 kiddo #2 – finish high school
2007-2009 kiddo #1 – finish college
2009-2011 kiddo #2 – finish college
2011-2012 Barb – kiddo #2 was home and driving farther for her volunteer work and classes.
2012-2013 no one regularly drove it – and gas prices sucked, usually about $4 per gallon.
2013-2017 kiddo #2 – med school
2017-???    no one will regularly drive it but John is looking forward to having it back – 12 years later!!

 

Working on the garage

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We are spending this afternoon working on the garage.  So far we have eliminated 53 items.  Barb was kicked out of the garage since she wasn’t helping much with her shoulder injury and was annoying John as he started on a new section.

4 license plates – not sure how to dispose of these.  Recycle bin??

1 old first aid kit

1 piece of wood

47 books

May 2017 Update

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Can you believe May 2017 is over???  This month flew by!  We have some great memories of this month!  We also spent more than anticipated celebrating!!  That’s ok – it was money well spent!

Kiddo #2 graduated from Medical School!!  We are so proud of her accomplishment!   She and Barb drove across the country to move her new apartment (and official first full-time job) in sunny southern California!  They drove 3 days covering 2700 miles towing a 5×8 uhaul trailer with all her belongings.  Guess that would qualify as minimalist living – she will have more space in an one bedroom place now.  She felt having a “real” job means she doesn’t need to live in a studio any longer.  Look – they even gave her a “physician” parking permit!  How exciting!!

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Both kiddos are in the same time zone as us!!  We are so excited!!

During May we decluttered 30 items – not much but Barb was still recovering from her illnesses and we celebrated a graduation on the other side of the country.  Total so far this year – 687 items removed from our home!!  Now we are “cheating” a little on these numbers this month – kiddo #2 did take with her 8 items: 3 blankets, 1 “big-ass draft” beer stein from the local bar in her college town, 2 reusable water bottles, 1 dresser (so sad to see it leave, it was in the nursery before we even brought kiddo #1 home), and 1 end table.

Some other stuff to leave this month:

 

It’s beginning to feel like we are really getting close to finished.  It’s weird to look at the house and not see all that needs to leave.  We are feeling so relaxed in our house!  There are still “tons” of pictures in boxes in the closet.  Guess I know what I’m doing (maybe) when we return from vacation!

Things are just easier now.

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Having been sick since April 13th, I haven’t done much/any housekeeping.  Sure the dishes were put in the dishwasher; laundry was done when we ran out of undies; and the sheets were washed multiple times because when you have a fever, you sweat like crazy.

Know what else??  The house is still tidy!  Sure, the carpet needs vacuuming and furniture could use dusting.  BUT the house generally looks fine.  The “old” house would have had stuff piling up everywhere.  This is the first time I’ve been sick since we removed 14,680 items from the house (since we began counting).  With less clutter, even being out of commission for 4 weeks, everything looks fine.

Other household chores like going through the mail is easier.  We have gone electronic for most things.  We now get very little physical mail and it is very easy to go through standing at the recycle box.  We also stopped all magazine subscriptions and newspaper delivery.  Today the only mail was a Mother’s Day card from kiddo #1.

Paying bills has been simplified – I have a list in the bill/paper box so I know what needs to be paid and the due dates.  I’m still hesitant to do automatic payment.  We have streamlined so much of this that it takes about an hour to get everything done.  It used to take all day – literally – to get every check written, address envelopes, put all the info into the budget book.  The other thing that weirdly helps is getting paid just once a month.  I get paid the last work day of the month, John gets paid the first work day of the month.  Bills get paid and we know exactly how much we have left for the month.

I’m so thankful we started thinking about simplifying our lives a few years ago and that decluttering and minimalism are aspects that are working for us.

 

April Update – April was tough!!

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April was a rough month in our house this year.

We decluttered 5 items – I think this is the least amount ever!  Grand total this year is 657.  We have a ways to go to reach our 2017 goal of 2017.  We are enjoying the “freedom” of less in the house!

So here’s our month:
Barb had a stomach bug and missed 2 days of work (Thursday and Friday 4/13 and 4/14).

Image result for sick face

Anyone who is a teacher knows that missing work unexpectedly is horrible.  The first day she text a coworker and she handled the sub plans.  Thank you Stefny!!

We got onto a plane Saturday to enjoy the holiday weekend with kiddo #1 in San Francisco area to fly home Sunday night with kiddo #2 in tow.  Kiddo #2 flew in on Friday – it was the first Easter with both kiddos in 5 years!  Such a blessing!

Monday night kiddo #1 called – mommy made her sick.

Image result for sick face

Thursday Barb developed a cough and low grade fever.

We then went apartment hunting on Saturday for Kiddo #2 since she will be living about an hour away – horray!!

By Sunday it was a high fever and nasty cough.  Our Doctor-to-be (in 2 weeks!!) insisted she go to the doctor on Monday.  She even escorted Barb since she was so miserable.  Antibiotics and cough medicine prescribed.  Barb missed work again on Monday and Tuesday (4/24 and 4/25).   As of today, tiredness and coughing still happening.  Will this ever end?  This comic represents life when the cough medicine wears off about 3 am.

Image result for cough comic

Because Barb is on the district science committee, she misses a lot of school for meetings.  At least those are known in advance and you can plan ahead.  Illness is horrible for planning.  Teachers rarely take sick days because of true illness!

John and kiddo #2 picked up the slack for the 2 + weeks Barb was under the weather.  THANK YOU!!

So as you can see, decluttering was nearly nonexistent during April.  We did eliminate an old, ugly, holey t-shirt John insisted on still wearing.  Some things are such accomplishments they have to be mentioned!!

 

 

 

 

March Update

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March saw us very busy on the weekends – so much so that we only decluttered 16 items this month.

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Long weekend #1
On a positive – we took a 4 day trip to the opposite coast to visit our kiddo.  One thing we realized is that we are getting too old to take the red-eye flights!  Work all day, drive to the airport, fly across the country to have breakfast with the kiddo wore us down!  Thursday was a great day though.  We visited Arlington National Cemetery – I know, of all the things to do in DC, we visit the cemetery.  It is one of our favorite things!  The Cherry Blossom Festival was non-existent due to the weather destroying the blossoms.

Friday we attended our daughter’s medical school “Match Day” ceremony.  She will be coming back to California for residency!!!  You can imagine how excited we are – she “left” us in 2007 to go to college on the east coast and basically hasn’t been back to live.  We are so proud of her!

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Her Shirt!!

The rest of the weekend was spent celebrating!!  We flew home Sunday to go to work Monday morning.

Long Weekend #2
Our second “excursion” this month was the the National Science Teacher Association conference in Los Angeles.  This was a Thursday through Sunday event as well.  2 long weekends away from home in one month.  We both got a few great ideas we can implement in our classrooms.  Always worth it!  We are both so tired and ready for a weekend at home, maybe decluttering the garage!

 

 

February Super Lean Month and Decluttering Update

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February is our SUPER LEAN SPENDING MONTH.  We are changing the name from the more common Spend Nothing Month.  We know we will spend money on something!

So today is our first day since Barb got paid (on the last work day of the month) and John gets his check tomorrow (the first work day of the month).   We both get paid once a month.  It is actually easier once you get used to it – it could also be that we’ve been once a month for about 25 years.  You pay all the bills up front – no saving a certain amount for the mortgage, etc.  Then you know exactly how much you have to spend for the next 30ish days.  We are doing this for February since it only has 28 days this year – yes, we like to play mind games with ourselves!

Today (Jan 31, 2017) we spent $70.53  I know it doesn’t look like we are off to a great start in minimal spending.  This purchase included dryer sheets, dishwasher detergent, and ziploc bags for the freezer.  I know, plastic bags are bad.  We just find it so much easier to divide the stuff we need to freeze into the bags for later use.  We also purchased eggs, applesause (I make our own during time off, while we are working it gets bought!), yogurt, almond milk, beets, and a pork loin.  This should cover at least 2 dinners and several breakfasts.  We’ll see!  We are also planning to use up as much as possible from the pantry and freezer.  Food will still need to be purchased – we don’t have much extra stored anymore.

Decluttering update:  625 items left our house and garage in January!!  We have over 1/4 of our 2017 gone already!   It’s hard to not be excited!  Kiddo #2 removed 71 stuffed animals and the rest was from our disaster in the garage.  Hard to believe we have so many items that can still leave the house.

Let us know if you decide to try a Super Lean Month as well!  We know Life As I Interpret It will be joining us.  She also did a “sample” month for January.

 

Stuffed Animals

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I know we love them but they take up so much room!  Each one has a special memory.  These are just as hard as other “important treasures”.

Kiddo #2 was home for the last 9 days.  While here, she went through 3 boxes of stuffed animals.  She sorted and debated for a couple of hours.  The pile was narrowed down and she is keeping 1 box – mostly Beanie Babies!  She just couldn’t bring herself to get rid of them!

Total number of stuffed animals going to a new home = 71

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Garage Part 2

declutteringthestuff 2017 in 2017, decluttering

504 items gone so far this year!!  We are 1/4 of the way to our 2017 goal!!

Yesterday John went through his box of stuff from his time living in Japan.  So many fun things in it!  He decluttered some of the stuff and ended with a smaller box.

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We counted 10 slides as one item.  I vaguely remember this pile being worth about 100 points.
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Everyone has these right??

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today we spent about 2 1/2 hours in the garage.  We finished the rafters section and removed a few unwanted items.  I’m not sure what John is doing in there at the moment but maybe decluttering his workbench???

On the very plus side, John can walk to his workbench without having to squeeze between the garage door and the air hockey table.  We are so excited!!!

We go back to work on Monday.  Our decluttering spree will be coming to a quick, screeching halt for a while.  This was a very productive week!!

Stuff for the hazardous waste center – taken today!

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More Christmas Lights and other Christmas Stuff

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10 more strings of lights
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13 strings of lights
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20 packages of replacement light bulbs

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Miscellaneous from the last Christmas box.
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bottom of the sleigh, no idea where the actual sleigh is!

 

Random stuff from the Garage – shoe rack, expresso maker, dirt devil, stair stepper, albums, bowling ball, umbrella, and poster never opened.

 

And the dry corsages and boutonnieres!!

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Garage Rafters – oh my!

declutteringthestuff 2017 in 2017, decluttering ,

Today, having nothing better to do on our last few days of vacation, we decided to put away all the Christmas decorations.  They go into the garage rafters.  While we had the ladder out, we pulled down every other box up there.  We decluttered 3 of the 7 boxes and a few other things!  Productive day in the garage!

Box 1:  Memorabilia – this was a hard one to do.  It took the afternoon to completely go through and do the shredding of stuff with our name/address.

Barb’s report cards K-12, 7 deflated balloons, 45 greeting cards, 3 postcards,  1 scrapbook, 3 books for places we visited, and a lot of comics and receipts for places we went while dating!


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Box 2: Empty Boxes!

Kiddo #2 got this RC car while in elementary school.  She is about to graduate medical school in a few months!  The car is gone – now its box is too!

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Box 3: Old Camping Stuff

1 BBQ grate, 4 plates, 4 mugs, 1 thermos, 1 first aid box, plastic and stainless silverware, 4 bottles, 1 box of dog flea collars, and 1 package of toilet seat covers (some of us have issues sitting on public toilets without them!)

 

Other Stuff:

1 reptile cage (the chameleon died about 15 years ago), 2 fishbowls, 1 Therm-a-jug, 1 under-carriage piece for the car, and 1 candle-lit school house.

 

More Stuff Decluttered and we’re counting it too!

declutteringthestuff 2017 in 2017, decluttering , , ,

So far this year:

  • 10 more magazines!!
  • 1 magazine holders
  • 3 DVD’s  – duplicates, go figure!
  • 2 packages of beef jerky seasoning (sorry, no picture)
  • 1 weight watchers booklet from 1991
  • 1 cracked plastic ruler
  • 39 rubber stamps
  • 9 packages of modeling clay
  • 1 rotten candy apple found in the work bag (no picture – no one needs to see this!)

 

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10 more magazines!!
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another magazine holder

 

 

 

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The thermals and magazine holder are included in this picture for donation purposes. They were actually decluttered in 2016.  Try not to judge on our choice of movies hahaha

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When was the last time anyone in our house stamped??  YEARS AGO!!
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Kiddo #2 knows she used this in 7th grade 15 years ago!!  It’s still pliable!