Sunny Sunday Cleaning #2

I had every intention of cataloging my whirlwind of spring cleaning, but the whirlwind has been more of a snails crawl! The dust bunnies are winning and I see no end in sight!

My modest goal for today & tomorrow is to have ALL the surfaces cleared off & dusted. We'll see how that goes! I have a feeling that I may just be shutting the kids doors & doing a stash -n- dash Saturday afternoon.

I have already put away a ton of stuff in the laundry room, making room for all the stuff that is out & doesn't have a home yet. I also need to get the rest of the Easter stuff put back into storage. The kids just don't want to put the baskets & buckets away yet.

I have 6 days to get the house company ready, I am co-hosting a "Tastefully Simple" party Saturday night. Should be fun, even if it isn't very frugal! A night with the girls is always worthwhile.

My raised garden bed is built & now I am just waiting on my delivery of dirt. Thankfully my brother dug a big hole this week for his foundation, I should be able to steal a dump truck full! The weather is beautiful here, but I'm sure it won't last. I don't dare plant in the ground before Memorial day!

On the "Frugal" front I did not have a great week! I feel like I've spent all the money I've been avoiding spending for the year in the last few days. I can't complain too loudly though, sometimes you just have to break down & spend the money. The Prince needed new baseball spikes, like he wore a 2 1/2 last year, this year he's wearing a 6!!! The toaster kicked, my niece is having a baby so must sew a quilt (buying a little at a time, since I'm still deciding on a pattern), groceries, gasoline, blah blah blah. I did squirrel away some into the EF. That account is growing, so I must be doing something right!

We celebrated Earth Week by planting 7 trees at our local state park, where my sister works. The kids loved it & will insist on visiting there tree ALL SUMMER LONG, I'm sure! We also celebrated Volunteer Recognition Week with a big breakfast at work. We had 29 volunteers recognized in our north county area, it was an impressive turnout. If you volunteer at anything THANK YOU! Your services are truly valuable & valued, it doesn't take much to make a difference in your community. Even the smallest gesture can change someones life for the better.

Decluttering & Spring Cleaning #1

Decluttering with a Camera is a great tip. I took pictures of a lot of my babies in their little clothing so I wouldn't have to hang on to boxes of that cute stuff! I'll always have the pictures.

I use my camera as a tool with my FlyLady home "walk through." It's a great way to SEE that stuff that you just don't see anymore. You know the knick knacks you walk by every day, that sloppy pile of papers or magazines... The camera doesn't lie & a quick snap shot is a great way to see what each area really looks like!

I am finding that it is easier to let things go when they are going to a good cause, so find a great charity to give your stuff too. I find myself adding things to the boxes just because I KNOW someone will be able to use it...

I like after pictures, a lot!!! They make you feel accomplished & it's a reminder of how good it can look with regular upkeep. Very helpful for an easily distracted homemaker like me!

Tackle it Tuesday #22

We got almost all of the Christmas stuff down & back into storage. The next step was to rearrange the living room. This is the best "before" picture I could find. We flipped the room, our couch is here now. The kiddos were testing out their new light sabers on Christmas morning. It's a good thing Santa brought two...


We had to do something, with the Wii, I was afraid the Princess would take out my computer with one of the remotes! She has a monster throw. It looks like I have a bowling ally in my living room, but since that's our favorite game we should!

I broke out the oil soap and cleaned the wood work while I was at it, very dusty! So really it was 2 tackles in one!

Stumble It!

Thursday Parade of Adventures 7-24

~Golf lessons for boy& hubby (he just watches) The Prince has natural talent. He can drive the ball farther than I can already & he earned his first $2 at the last lesson, so he's already a pro. They had a putting competition, he beat everyone in the class (even the 13 year old). So he may not be the next Tiger, but club pros make a decent living!

~Laundry (ALWAYS)
~Dishes, sink & dishwasher
~Hamster still MIA
~Check garden, pull a few weeds
~Dinner, I have no idea yet, thinking chicken helper since I have a box & chicken handy!

~Spend 15 minutes decluttering zone 4 (master bedroom)
~Zone 4 mission - 15 more minutes attacking the clothes pile
~Zone 4 mission (Thursday) - clear off dressers

~Remake The Princess's bed, she had a potty accident yesterday ;-(.
I can't complain it's her first real bed accident. Hers were usually issues with clothing removal standing in the bathroom!

~figure out who has my hubby's immunization record, since his Dr.'s office doesn't, useless people, he's only been a patient there since the late 80s...

~Find surfaces in the house, they all seem to be cluttered with something...
~Run to the store (or drive), need wiper blades for the van, deposit a few $s into my new bank account, add $ to my cell phone, etc, etc, etc.

Tackle It Tuesday

I have been brutally attacking clutter. The yard sale is the 26th and 27th so I haven't got much time but this is the pile so far. I still have a couple rooms left to go through but everything I find is going into one corner. After I get through the rooms I'll start organizing and pricing.

Tackle it Tuesday #9

Besides tackling my pedometer (which reads 8770 for yesterday) I need to clear off the dryer and washer again. I'm not sure what about these areas says "hey put stuff here, even if it belongs somewhere else" but alas I am again in need of clearing this "Hot spot".



I'll post the afters when I'm done, ewwww.

My new mission

I am on this purging kick. I'm not sure how all this junk accumulated in my house (OK, so I might have had something to do with it, but really only half of it is mine, maybe 1/3).

I have already managed to find 2 construction sized bags of garbage. Between the broken toys, stuff that was hiding in corners & under furniture. I am hoping to have a few boxes to take to the Salvation Army.

I just realized that the one thing that is standing between me & our moving the master suite upstairs is junk & lots of it. The laundry didn't get put away the three weeks I was working so it has been piled up everywhere. This opened my eyes to the sheer amount of clothing we have that we don't wear or will ever wear, because my closet was still fairly full but I had nothing to wear or that looked right. And of course my sewing room is still in shambles so little by little, project by project I am clearing the clutter & junk out to make room for the stuff I need & use.

The basement is pretty empty now that we donated our old cabinets to the little league snack stand. Except for the clothes I was saving to recycle into clothing for the kids. Most of them are going to get tossed because I doubt I will get to most of the projects I had planned & it has just become clutter. So after I get all the junk cleared out I will be able to have a nice organized storage space for our seasonal items. That will clear up some space from around the house that is currently housing the seasonal decor.

Wooohooo!

The concession trailer finally sold! My large clutter left the driveway yesterday. We didn't get what we wanted for it, but it is gone. Now once I get the rest of the equipment out of the garage it'll be like the ice cream thing never happened! I'll be thrilled!!!

I have it all

Big clutter

and Small clutter!

2007 Goals -

One paycheck into dh's new job, so not too much has changed yet. I have started working from home online, so far so good. I should be getting my first check next week.

I've been doing the blog for money thing (several different places). And I know I said I'd report how that was going, so hear it is...

Blogsvertise = 10 posts since January = $69 paid to date
Pay Per Post= 12 posts since March 7th = $56.75 paid to date, $42.50 will be paid. I'm no Colleen but the little bit has come in handy.
Loud Launch = 4 posts since February = $18.00 paid

I think the only area of the goals we are doing okay at is the teaching the kids about money. The Prince wants to be able to go buy a new video game, so this weekend he is going to have to do some serious chores to make up the difference over what he has for spending $ now & what the game will cost. We are letting him decide if that is how he wants to spend his hard earned money or not.

Well really, that's not true, we are improving on all our goals even amidst all the chaos going on, my routines are getting better. I won't say my house is chaos free, far from it, but my bed is made, I am dressed to the shoes, drinking water, and doing my best to spend at least 15 minutes a day de-cluttering & in my zone (if you have no idea what I'm talkng aobut & want to check out FlyLady). I have been able to save a little bit of money, I am still waiting to get paid for my new "job" but I'll let you know how that works out!

I got my Mother's Day gift from DH early! Since he is now working for a food distributor I am in heaven! He brought me some commercial grade cookie sheets & some large plastic food containers. I had also requested some flour & sugar (to be stored in the containers). So I got the coolest gift evvah! I think I'd only admit that here... "Oh what did you get for Mother's Day?" "Well, I got the coolest commercial grade 8qt plastic containers to store my flour, sugar & baking mixes in, ain't that cool!"..."Ummm sure", I can hear my sister now "You are a DORK". It isn't the ipod I wanted, but I'll live. I have already requested my Christmas Present come from work too. I am itching to get one of those Kitchen Aid stand mixers (to mix all my flour & sugar) Similar to Kitchenaid Professional 5 Plus KV25GOXGR 5-Quart Bowl Lift Stand Mixer - PARENT. And he can get me the commercial model that has an automatic shut off if the beater jams.

Don't forget, if you just happen to be a quilter, to get in on my book giveaway. I'm drawing names on the 18th.

Goals 2007 - Organizing Update

On the organizing front:

~ I have flung 250 pounds worth of stuff, old hangers from kids clothes, broken toys, ripped books, catalogs, magazines, old papers in the file drawers, hole-y socks & underwear. (super fling boogie is on over at www.flylady.net)

~ I winterized the Prince's windows & rearranged his room, he & Dad built a barn for his tractor collection, so I cut back his wheeled toy collection to fit in it (it is still quite large), fixed his closet, so we can hang clothes again, sorted all toys into bins by category, sorted through his old school papers so we are only keeping a few from each year, put all clothes that don't fit anymore into sell/toss/recycle piles. Still need to finish the corner by the closet, go through more school papers, move bed now that he started sleeping in the top bunk, we can put the trundle away.

~ In the MBR I cleared off the dresser, tossed anything that was garbage, started a donation box for anything I don't want anymore, cleared out under the bed. Still need to run new outlet so we can eliminate the miles of extension cords to the lamp on the dresser, find a way to move most of the clothes out of the large dresser, so we can get rid of it (we'd like to replace it with something more stylish/appropriate), sew a curtain to cover the nook we turned into closet space.

~ In the pantry I cleared off the dryer, moved the laundry sorter, tossed a couple of old food items (ok, so the cake mix I got from my Grandma was dated 1999, ewwww, don't know how I missed that), regrouped like items (they tend to wander when more than one person is putting things away), put more infrequently used items into long term storage (the upper cabinets, where I need a ladder to get to), grouped the painting supplies & paint under the sink, restocked the tool box with the basic tools (hammer, screwdrivers, pliers, tape measure) that were found all over the place. Still need to finish clearing floor, wash blankets, vacuum, put more stuff in long term storage. We want to be able to put down some new flooring this spring (right now it is carpet, not really my first choice for a laundry room (or kitchen, or bathroom, but that is what we got with the Money Pit.

~ In the dressing room (off bathroom, more like overgrown closet), we took the mirror doors off, took out the tracks, put shoes on shoe rack, moved my purse & gym bag to a shelf in the closet, they were on a hook in the kitchen, designated a shelf for folded towels, tossed anything old that wouldn't or couldn't be used, old catalogs, magazines from bathroom, outdated cosmetics & medicines. Still need to clear up floor in closet, find home for stuff, replace flooring (we ripped out carpet to look for crawl space door.

~ In the kitchen, I cleared off the counter to start from scratch with what appliances I wanted out, cleaned out under the sink, set up paper collection area at top of basement stairs (to be burned), finished putting away decorations, got out Valentine's Day stuff. Still need to clear off table in corner (we want to turn it into cabinets/counter in the future, for now it houses a table), organize spice cabinet.

~ In the living room, cleared off surfaces to "start over", especially on top the piano, it just begs for clutter, picked up all of the corners & under the furniture (found lots of little toys, blocks, legos, etc). Still need to put away the movies & games that get left on TV, shampoo carpets.

~ In the playroom/front room I sorted all the toys into bins, moved in a bigger table (was in the Prince's room, he got the smaller table back), moved a book shelf (videos, DVDs, video games & books). Still need to find a new home for the old couch (it's antique, so can't be used by the children), go through the other book shelves, shampoo carpets.

~ I haven't started in the Princess's room yet. I need to put away her clothes (in drawers, I do this regularly but she regularly empties them), some kind of toy storage need to be found, place for dress up clothes, sort stuff into sell/toss/recycle piles.

~ Office: sorted through a couple of files, tossed some old stuff, finished ice cream business's books, set up in box & to be filed box, still need to go through stuff on top of desks (lots out, but the drawers are empty???)

~ Basement: sewing room is almost complete, shipping center is started, holiday decor is in bins, furnace area is still full of coal ash, but dh threw his back out so it will be there for a bit, there are still a couple items that aren't organized yet. Still need to finish organizing shelves, put up doors to sewing room, get ash out.

~ Garage: work area is set up, all of the tools & benches are workable, the storage area is ok. Hard to do much out there now that it is cold & snowy.

We have made progress, but I still have a long way to go!!! Thankfully there are 11 months left :D.

Organizing Tips from THE Martha!

Martha on Organizing Thanks to Organizing LA Blog for posting the link to the article, I hadn't done a Martha search in a while!

Day 1 of December...

Ok, so now is the time of year when most of us start thinking about stockings & gift giving. Guilty, as charged! I really did mean to start so much sooner, but what can I say I am not a fluttering flybaby (flylady.net) for nothing! I can say that thanks to black Friday specails the kiddos are done for Christmas morning gifts. We still do stockings plus gifts from Mom & Dad for Christmas Eve. They aren't getting much from us in the way of gifts this year, I know it's hard to do, but they are lucky in that we had HUGE extended families & there is never a shortage of presents to open. They just had their birthdays & we usually have to buy all of their summer stuff ourselves. I never realized how hard it would be having birthday & Christmas so close (did I mention I am a Christmas Eve baby...duh!). I guess my parents had the same problem with me, I was never in need of warm clothing, but even here in western NY we occaisionally need shorts!!!

I have been collecting ideas for inexpensive & practical stocking stuffer ideas. I have a bunch that I am going to put into use this year.

Batteries ~ No brainer, does anything not have batteries anymore!

School and art supplies ~ I'm sure the supply of pencils & erasers is dwindling at school, now is the perfect time to restock. (of course if you thought ahead & bought when everything was on special for back to school, you could be saving yourself some money!).

Bath supplies and toys ~ It's that time of year...tossing all of last years nasty bath toys & getting new ones! If you are like me you probably have a few toys that are so gross that soaking them in bleach isn't working anymore (why do they put so many grooves on bath toys, ewww). This is the time of year I get them the nice character bubble baths, usually I buy whatever is cheapest & makes bubbles! Two years ago I found some Crayola Tub tints, this has been a fun way to learn colors for the toddler & what combining colors does for the 2nd grader (then K).

I started a tradition of an ornament, dated & with their name on it. I try to find something meaningful to each child for the year, hard to do sometimes. I can usually find one for under $2. Then I just write on it with a Black Sharpie, voila instant keepsake!

Of course they'll get the chocolates & Mom has to have her candy canes (yummy in a cup of coffee or hot chocolate, rarely do they ever just get eaten!)

I try to focus on not only cheap, sorry FRUGAL gifts but also clutter free ones. If you live near a zoo or science center a family membership would be the best gift! We will probably buy season passes to our local amusement park, it's small & very kid friendly. No clutter there & a guarantee of family togetherness!!!