Oy. It's July and I haven't blogged all year. Yeah. I'm a slacker. Here's a brief update on my seriously dull life.

I started volunteering at the local library in January. I love it!!! I work there two mornings a week, mostly shelving books and making sure that every thing is straight and orderly. It is perfect for my OCD-ness. :)

Other than that I've been reading a great deal. I have stamped some and thought about working on the quilt I started last May. Haven't actually stitched any, yet, but I'm thinking about it. I figure that's at least a small step in the right direction.

We lost our best buddy in the whole world in May. Sam was with us for exactly eleven and half years. The past six months or so were rough on him. His arthritis was to the point that he could hardly get up off the floor, and we really think he had cancer, although we never had the vet run the tests. For a dog his age and size, there really wouldn't have been any point. He went peacefully to doggy heaven with both Ed and me at his side. There wasn't a dry eye in the room - I think our vet loved Sam as much as we did. He is missed, and always will be.

We still have Hank and Her Royal Prissiness Emma Grace to keep us busy. They mourned for Sam, too, but I think they might be getting over it some. Hank's enjoying getting all the treats to himself and getting to ride up front in Ed's truck when we go somewhere. There are definitely perks to being an only dog. :)

I'm addicted to Pinterest and have tried many of the things I have pinned. Maybe I'll make time to post some of the items that have turned out nicely. And some of the cards I've made. And just maybe someday I'll finish that quilt and I can post a picture of it. That will definitely be blog-worthy as it is the only one I will ever make!

Really?

I haven't blogged since March? Wow. That's bad even for me. Believe it or not I have been crafting lately, so watch this spot. Something just might show up here in the next week or two. I doubt it will  be nine months before I get around to posting again. If it does, just remind me to kill this blog, okay?

Progress in the Play Room

Earlier this week I started cleaning up my "playroom" for this week's Project:Simplify Hot Spot. You can see the before pictures here. I've made a good bit of progress cleaning and moving stuff back into the craft room. I'm not finished just yet, but I'm getting there. Well, it's clean. There's no doubt about that. It's cleaner than it's been in years (except for the closet. Let's just forget about that closet, shall we?). I just need to finish sorting through and moving all the STUFF back into the room.

The main shelf...

The black and white boxes are from IKEA. They match the black accents in the room and are great storage for all the odds and ends of "cluttery" type things that end up on these shelves. The blue bin on the bottom left holds all of my retired Stampin' Up cardstock. The gray box holds the Big Shot dies, the white box holds the Cuttlebug folders & Spellbinder dies.

I finally bought cute little jars for my buttons, and I found an inexpensive spice rack at Ross to put them on.

My desk...

I added an extra rail to hold punches, and removed the shelves that hung from the top rails. I'm not sure if I'll put one back on the left top rail or not. The black wire basket on the left is also a Ross find. It's holding the ribbon that doesn't fit on my ribbon holder.

The other side of the room hasn't seen as much progress...

The movies on the red shelf were easy. :) The bag is full of just plain trash. The box lid on the trunk stays put. It belongs to Her Royal Fuzziness, Princess Emma Grace. We plan to put shelves above this desk for additional storage eventually.

The box on the chair is full of items that don't have a home....

If they still don't have a home a week from now, they either go in the trash or in the yard sale pile.

The guest room is looking better.

Mainly just piles of stuff to sort through, and a couple of piles of stuff for the yard sale. I need to get bigger boxes for yard sale stuff, or one central location to put it all in.


Things to be sorted and moved into the craft room...
 
Assorted stuff from beside the file cabinet and old catalogs. Lots and lots of randomness!














These photo boxes are all full of cards I have either made or received. Cards that I have made or received in swaps that I don't plan to use I'm going to send to charity - either one for soldiers or kids. Cards that I have received I will keep, but they will be stored in the closet, not on the shelves in the main part of the room. No need for them to be out and in the way. The black and white boxes may be left out, as they will match the decor, but the others will be put away.

Stamp sets on the left are going in the yard sale. Magazines are going in new holders that match the room decor. I bought plain white ones at IKEA and plan to cover them with black and white scrapbook paper. MUCH cheaper than buying black and white magazine holders!

One last basket of stuff to sort through in the craft room. This is all of the paper I pulled off of the side table and my desk. I'll tackle it another day!

Going, Going, Gone!

Over at Simple Mom, this week's Project:Simplify Hot Spot is kids' clothes and toys. Since the only kids I have at home wear fur instead of clothes, I decided to work in my craft room this week. It's a wreck!

Here are some before pics....

The shelf. It used to be organized. Now it's just a semi-organized hodge podge of stuff. I had grand plans for unmounting all of my Stampin' Up sets, but that hasn't happened. I'd still like to do it, since they would take up a lot less room once they're unmounted.

I can store so much more on this shelf if I can really get it sorted and organized.

The second desk that we put in this room for more stamping room and sewing projects. Note the red bookshelf in the background. It's from IKEA. It's almost 27 years old and still going strong! That PC on the floor? Doesn't belong there! Shoot. Half the stuff in this room doesn't belong there!

And the side table that get dumped on when I'm stamping. And evidently when I'm not stamping. Love this little table. It's awesome!

Ah, yes. The desk itself. Wreck, huh?

 File cabinet in the corner, along with the random junk on the floor collection.

So, I've spent a good bit of time yesterday and today emptying this room of EVERYTHING! I figure it needs a good cleaning, and there is just way too much STUFF in here. The best way to really clean it AND go through all the stuff is to take everything out, clean all the surfaces, and then put everything back in.

As I put everything back in, I'll sort through it and set aside what I'm going to get rid of. I'm really looking forward to be finished with this project. This room has been in chaos seemingly forever!




What it looks like now.....

So where did I put everything that was in here??????

The guest room! I REALLY hope no one needs to stay with us before this project is finished!

Project Simplify: Week Two

Paper clutter. UGH!

Bills. UGH!

Receipts. UGH!

Filing. UGH!

I hate paper. Well, let me clarify. I love pretty paper. I hate the paper that piles up and becomes a monster - the stuff that bills and junk mail and magazines and receipts are made of.  This week our Hot Spot was cleaning up and defeating that monster. Thankfully I had started to clean our file cabinet about a month ago, so this helped a good bit.

This is what I had to start with...

This sits on my husband's dresser. It's supposed to be the pretty basket that holds the receipts, checkbook, stamps, and bills waiting to be filed. It's a beast out of control!!!!

Random papers piled on top of the PC that isn't even supposed to be hooked up anymore.

More random papers waiting to be filed.

I do have a filing system in place. File cabinet, file folders, and the files are even in groups - bills in one section, personal info in another, and less pertinent info in the bottom drawer that doesn't lock. Here - proof!

Top drawer

Bottom drawer. I was so proud of this bottom drawer after my last mini-purge. I had thrown out/recycled so much trash last month! Um, I had hardly made a dent!

This time around I ended up with a great bunch of stuff to shred...

And recycle...

Our cat, Emma Grace, kept trying to sleep on this pile. She normally sleeps in the chair and did NOT appreciate sharing it with the trash pile. *sigh* What a tortured life she leads!

I must admit that I was SHOCKED at what I found in my file cabinet! I had no idea that it had been THAT long since I had really, really sorted through ALL of the files! Magazine articles from 1995? Seriously? Insurance enrollment information from 2000? Our son's progress reports from 8th grade? He graduated from HS last year! Oy! I've been slacking! I'm happy to say that it has now been purged. Truly purged! Here are the end results....

The basket on my husband's dresser...

In box to catch random papers (top), and scratch paper on the bottom....

And the file cabinet. It's hard to tell a difference in the top drawer, but there really is one. Those files are a LOT thinner, and there are fewer of them.

I'm particularly proud of this bottom drawer! The entire right side used to be almost entirely user manuals and warranty info, mostly for stuff we don't own anymore. The only appliance books I kept are for the major appliances, my Dyson, and my Keurig. Those files on the right are empty!



At the beginning of the week I even had a grand plan to attack my craft room and go through my scrapbooking/card making piles of paper! I didn't make it quite that far, but I did make it to the 12x12 paper tower in my craft room closet. There is so much paper in this thing that I am sick of! I decided to attack it and thin it out.  The paper tower in the craft room closet before I attacked....

And after....

Kind of hard to tell a difference, huh? Here's the paper I culled....

A friend mentioned that her daughter is interested in scrapbooking, so they get first crack at this stack. Whatever they don't want will go in my yard sale!

Project Simplify: Week One Results

The Hot Spot for Week One of Project Simplify was our wardrobe. Clean it out. Clean it up. Sort it. Toss it. Donate it. Just do whatever needed to be done to get it whipped into shape by the end of the week.

Now, my wardrobe has been in flux for the past several years due to my fluctuating weight. I gained a lot of weight between 2007 and 2010, and I had kept many of the clothes that used to fit in the hopes that they would fit again "someday." Since last summer, however, I have lost a lot of weight (yay!!!!) and I have been purging clothes as I've lost the weight, so this job wasn't too daunting of a task.

I started out with 4 drawers, 1 shelf, 2 large storage bags, and my hanging clothes to sort through. Oh, and my shoes. I ended up with 3 drawers, 1/2 a shelf, and my hanging clothes and shoes. And numerous bags to be donated to charity!


My hanging clothes & shelf before:

and After:

Yes, I know. I don't have any clothes. And those pants on the right side? Those aren't mine - they're Ed's work pants. I really, really need to go shopping!!!!!!!

Shoe area before:

And after:

The storage bags I sorted through:

Everything in these bags now has a home in the closet, my cedar chest, or is going to charity. I used to have four of these bags stuffed in the computer room closet year round, but now I have NONE!!!!


And the bags of clothing and shoes that are waiting to go to our local Benevolence House:

Not too shabby, huh?

I must say that it was hard to part with some things, like my Franco Sarto boots that I have held onto for years even though I can't wear them anymore. They are beautiful and I love them, and I hate to let them go. But why should I keep them? They are just taking up space and cluttering up my closet. Goodbye boots, I'll miss you. *sniff*

Now, what's next?

Project Simplify

My husband went to a retreat in January where he learned about a book by Charles Hummel - Tyranny of the Urgent. He called me and asked me to look it up and order it for him, and while searching for it I came across a blog that intrigued me - SimpleMom.net - and this blog post in particular.

Over the past six weeks I have meandered through this blog, interested in the green cleaning tips, the money management tips, and other areas. Not all of it applies to me, as I don't have children at home and obviously don't homeschool the dogs, but it's interesting nonetheless. Last week I stumbled across it again while wandering through my bookmarked blogs and lo and behold I found.....

PROJECT SIMPLIFY

Exactly what I need at this point in my life! I'm feeling cluttered. Disorganized. Displeased with my home.

If you walk into my house you won't see piles of clutter, but please don't open the closet doors or the cabinets. I keep my clutter well hidden, but I'm tired of dodging bullets when I open the doors. Actually, I don't have to dodge things when I open ALL of the doors. I do have some cabinets and closets that are completely safe. Unless you're looking for something specific. Then you'd best tie a rope around your waist, anchor yourself to a sturdy piece of furniture, let someone know to come look for you if you aren't back in 30 minutes, say a prayer, and dive in!

I think that Project Simplify is just what the doctor ordered for my hidden clutter problem, and I can hopefully combine some good old fashioned spring cleaning with it. I even went all out and ordered Tsh Oxenreider's book Organized Simplicity (like I need an excuse to buy a new book!). It arrived today and I'm loving it so far! Very easy to read, spiral bound, and a handy size.

I'm looking forward to getting my Home Management Notebook all set up using Tsh's guidelines and templates downloaded from her website. There are cleaning checklists, daily dockets (highfalutin to-do lists), budget worksheets, weekly schedule worksheets, and more. I'm a list maker and a visual person, so this is right up my alley!

Five weeks to a more organized home? I'm on it! And I'm incorporating ideas from the book in with Project Simplify, so I'll be on track with the cleaning, too. Once I get everything all clean and shiny it will be so much easier to keep up with it all.

My goal? To keep my house cleaner, my life my orderly, and my day more productive. I waste way too much time doing absolutely nothing, and I don't like it. When I am old and gray I want to look back and say "I didn't work, but I did THIS," not "I didn't work, and I really didn't do anything."