Muffins

Sigh.... I spend a bit of time last night baking some muffins in the hopes that Mr. Toss everything solid to eat on the floor might try them. This morning he just tossed it straight to the ground without even tasting it. Mind you that may not have been a bad thing. It turns out I forgot to add the sugar so they aren't exactly the tastiest things out there. I may try again tomorrow and see if they are better with the sugar.

eBay

I swear, eBay is out to get me this week.  I'm in purge mode right now and I want to post a bunch of things on eBay and I can't.  I cannot get past the "pick a category" stage.  It keeps telling me I haven't picked a category and won't let me go any further.  It is super frustrating and I haven't had a reply from eBay help yet even though it's been a few days.

I'm on a roll and would like to continue. Stupid software bugs.

Clothing Purges

I've in the past week been working on clothing purges.  My hubby, Munchkin and I really do have to many clothes.  We many not necessarily have the right clothing, but in general we have too much.

On Sunday I did the Munchkin pile.  My sister was bringing over a few boxes of baby/toddler clothes that a coworker had passed along for me.  He is very nice that way which is awesome.  However I was running out of room to store all the clothing I have for my little guy (several people have given us stuff which is most appreciated but can be a little hard on the storage space).  So we lay everything out on the bed by type and size and did an evaluation.  There was stuff in the great pile from 6-9 months all the way up to 4 years old.  Mind you as the size goes up there is less stuff.   Little boys start wearing it out.

We kept a large amount of stuff, but were also able to put a bag aside for Goodwill and 2 diaper boxes for on of my sister's friends.  Now all I have to do is go through the too small stuff I have and divide it up for the people I will be passing it along to.   And I have to make a Goodwill bag of stuff I don't think my friends will use.


Next post......purging my clothes.

Yay less stuff!

Today was a good day in the reducing stuff we own.  We returned a baby swing and glider to someone we had borrowed them from.  We no longer need either of the items.

Our Munchkin doesn't really use a swing anymore and we have replaced the glider with an old fashioned rocking chair as our Mr. Munchkin doesn't seem to want to hang out in a glider.

But less stuff in the house is great!

I also spent part of the day going through Munchkin's baby clothing and I have another big pile of too small/won't fit next summer clothing to go to any boy children we know.

Great Article on how to simplify

I just read a great article on how to simplify life and I thought I would share it.

Simplify your life by Eliminating these 7 Problems

I think it's given me some items to ponder and see about implementing.  I am really on the bandwagon of the less stuff the less responsibility.

A Mish Mash of stuff

I haven't been posting so much lately.  It's been a bit of a whirlwind here.  Lots of things on the go and little time to sit, contemplate and write.

As to the busy.  We've been having a number of medical appointments with our Munchkin so that's been taking up a bunch of our time.  We are also in the middle of a renovation (bathroom) so I've been working being out of the house as much as possible with Munchkin for the renos to get done without him there.  And just general seeing people and running errands.  It all seems to take so much more time with a small person.

So on to the getting rid of stuff.  I forgot to take a picture of my porch full of stuff that went last week.  It was beautiful.  Sadly it doesn't look like it in the house.  Mind you, a truckload of renovation garbage went this week too and the back porch doesn't look like anything was taken.  Funny that.  Stuff just seems to sprawl to all available space.

I haven't really been getting rid of a lot of stuff because of the busy.  But I did return a bunch of borrowed baby items to a friend who had been very gracious and lent them to me.  That made me feel good on two fronts.

1.  the stuff left the house
2.  I got the person the stuff back in good condition and nothing bad happened to it.

Another reason, is I'm working on getting the house back in some semblance of order/cleanliness after destruction. It's a lot of work, but I'm working on getting rid of some stuff while I do it.

Getting closer

I'm getting quite excited.  This Thursday, I'm having a lot of the stuff I've been purging picked up by a local charity.   Right now there are bags and boxes of stuff all over the house just waiting to go.  Having all of the stuff actually gone is going to make me feel more accomplished about the purging I've been doing.

Yay!  Let's just hope they show up this time.  Last time the other charity didn't.  I have high hopes though.  I'll see about taking a picture of it before the pile goes and posting it.

It's very interesting though.  I'm told that sometimes if stuff sits around in bags waiting to go, you are tempted to take it out and keep it.  I haven't been feeling that, which is good.  I think my desire to be rid of stuff is greater than my desire to keep some of it.

I've got more purging to do, but it seems to be going well.  Yay less stuff.

Walk of Hope

Today is the day that my Munchkin and I are doing the Walk of Hope (Fundraising for ovarian cancer research)  for the first time.  I'm a bit nervous about it actually.  I've never really been the type to participate in these sorts of things.  I've always been a bit of a loner and not really into big "group" activities.  Probably part of the whole tormented goth thing, but hey.  Also, probably the fact I didn't used to be into exercise and the like either didn't help much.

I also have mixed feelings about these large events.  I always wonder how much money they are actually raising vs how the event costs.  I do hope the registration fee does cover it.

I think part of the nervous is going to do a big group activity where I know no one.  I'm sure it will be fine and we'll have a good time.  I do have my built in conversation piece that will be hanging off of me.  The bike ride for the Ride for the Heart has been fun the past couple of years, but I was doing it as part of a corporate team and therefore knew a bunch of people.

But I'm doing it.  I felt it was important to do something towards fundraising since I had that damn ovarian  cancer in 2010.  And maybe it's making me feel a little more involved than just throwing some money at it.  I'm not sure why as I'm not actually doing anything to cure the cancer or research.  I'm just going on a walk.

The only bad thing is I did a dumb baby toe stubbing yesterday that still hurst so I'll be wearing the Tevas instead of my running shoes.  Ah well.

It will be interesting to meet some of the other survivors too I'm sure.  I know many many people went through far worse than I did.  I mean hey, I've got Munchkin now.

More stuff gone

Well, I should clarify this..... a lot of this stuff has been put aside to go away.  The nice people form the Cystic Fibrosis association are coming by next week to do a charitable donation pickup and hopefully sometime next week the construction pile of garbage will go away too.

I did get rid of a couple of knives, a bathroom caddy from the old bathroom and a bottle dishrack.

And I suppose I shouldn't really call what I'm doing hoarding in the tags.  It's really purging.  I'm not actually a hoarder, i just feel crushed by a bunch of my stuff.

Knitting!!!!

My little Munchkin is actually taking naps that last a little while and don't require me to hold him the entire time so I tend to have a little time to do things now.  So I'm being a little selfish and have started to knit something for me!  I haven't knit anything for me in years.  I'm making this wrap/poncho.  I'm not using the yarn they suggest, which is too bad.  I'm hoping the that what I'm using will work out well.

I'm not terribly impressed with my needles though.  I'm using some bamboo circular ones and they are catching on the wool.  :(

Working on Stuff

I didn't do too much in the way of getting ride of things over the past few days.  Mostly because I was at the cottage and it's kind of hard to work on purging things whilst away.

I was pretty pleased though, we only came home with one extra thing from my parents cottage.  Usually on a visit we end up coming home with more stuff (we also give them stuff too)  This item was also prearranged and it isn't really adding to the household.  We're swapping out a rocking chair.  We had been  given a previously loved glider by a friend through a friend.  However, it didn't work out with our little Munchkin so we haven't been using it.  But when we were up at the cottage, he seemed to love being rocked in an old school rocking chair.  So my parents were able to pull out of nowhere an old rocking chair that is currently sitting in our kitchen.  It's waiting to go for a wash tomorrow.  If it all works out, it will get painted too as it's in pretty rough shape finish wise.    

Today I did work on getting rid of some items.  I got rid of (well they went into the piles going places):

About 15 onesies etc... that don't fit Munchkin anymore.

A couple of keychains

A curtain rod from the bathroom that is being renovated

A big pile of socks.  It was just time for them to go.  

I think a bunch of this stuff can go towards the getting rid of two things a day that I missed while I was away.  

Not so Much in the past couple of Days

In order to keep myself motivated, I'm going to try and keep a mostly daily record of the purging here.  It may end of being not quite so daily as I do get busy with my little Munchkin, but I will try.  And there should be some other stuff in here, with the fun stuff I hopefully get time to do.

I didn't really work on the purging yesterday.  I did more fun things like go on a picnic.  But I did manage to pass off some of the shoes that I have decided to rid myself of to a friend who will give them a good home.  I have two more people getting some shoes.  Then the rest will either be sold or sent off to Goodwill.

Hopefully I can make the pile go soon.

Shoes Shoes Shoes

So today was the day I went through my shoe collection and tried them all on to see if they fit after having my small person.    I figure almost 9 months is long enough to wait.

Sadly most of my shoes had to go.  It sucks.  You think that the one thing that doesn't change about you is your shoe size.  Gain/lose weight your feet would still stay the same.  Or so I thought.  I'm a half size at least bigger than before.  Mind you I think my feet started to get longer before I got pregnant.  

I think I've had to get rid of over 20 pairs of shoes/boots.  All of my fun shoes are gone now and most likely will never be replaced.  Many of the shoes are no longer made.  

Goodbye Platforms, Buckle Boots, Fluevogs, Swears and assorted other nifty and cool shoes!  You were awesome and I loved you.  May your new homes treat you well.  I will miss you.

And now I have lots of lovely empty space where the shoes were.  

And may there be nifty shoes in my future.

I do feel lighter now though.

Getting rid of the past

I find it interesting the reasons why it can be so hard to get rid of stuff.  There is the obvious one I usually seem to have trouble with is the "but's it's useful" or will be someday.  As a boss once said "I ended up buying new ones anyway because I couldn't find the useful stuff in the basement".  So he pretty much emptied the basement.  I kind of like that idea to a certain degree. I shall be working on it.

So today I've been working on the keeping stuff because of memories/sentimental value.  I went through a few of my clothes in the basement.  These are things that I don't want to let go of because they remind me of fun times in the past or who I used to be and would perhaps want to be again.  There are also items that I just like to remember and like to think I would wear again.

So today I got rid of a few a few items.  One was a jean jacket I used to love.  Way back when, Black Label (the beer for those who don't know) had a fabulous ad campaign (I think it was at least 20 year ago now).  Really cool graphics and the like.  I was the lucky recipient of a boatload of the promotional material (ie. jackets, T-shirts, watches etc).    I've hung onto the jacket ever since.  I'm never going to wear it, again, but it brings back good memories, especially of the caring and kindness of the person who arranged for me to get all this stuff.    But today I decided that it was time to let it go.  So it's in the pile to go up on Ebay.  I'll have a picture of it and some fond memories.

The other that I'm letting go of a bit is some of my uber goth clothing.  It doesn't really fit anymore and it should just go.  But it feels like I'm loosing a little bit of who I am by doing that.  But the stuff has got to go.  We don't have the room and I need less stuff to look after.

The other easier things to let go of have been the rollerblades from the failed "learning how to rollerblade " incident from at least 7 or 8 years ago.

Now all of this stuff is in the house, it's just all prepared for leaving.

I think I'm feeling a little lighter already.

KNITTING!!!

I forgot to mention this....  I actually had a few minutes to knit in August.  I was at the cottage and a certain Munchkin would actually sleep in a crib like thing for little while.  So I had time to knit.  It was kind of cool.  I of course knit a baby hat for someone.  But I got to knit and it was awesome!

Getting there

So today I managed to post a couple of pairs of shoes on Ebay.   It's a start on the shoe purge.   It pains me to get rid of them.  I do like them, but they no longer fit me.  Stupid feet growing while pregnant.

I'm getting the feeling that ebay is the way to go on selling stuff.  My efforts at selling items on Craigslist don't seem to work well.  I've only managed to sell 1 item successfully ever on Craigslist.  I've bought items and that's gone well, but I just seem to end up with all the flaky people who don't show up.

Ebay can be annoying to, so we shall see.

I did try on a couple of more pairs of shoes today and sadly they didn't fit.  Tomorrow I'll have to do something with them.  I think most of my "gothy" shoes and boots will get sold on ebay or craigslist as I feel like I should get something back from them and they would be likely to at least get at some money too.

I'm slowly getting there with the decluttering.

And the purging be slow

Got a little sidetracked over the past couple of days.  Yesterday was on the busy side with exercise class, birthday parties and the like.  And today was a bit of a write off.  Due to all the storming and the like my brain has been mush.  Which kind of sucks.

But yesterday I did at least manage to get rid of a couple of pairs of shoes. Well, they are in the Goodwill bag waiting to go.  But that's essentially getting rid of them.  I really do have to sit down and go through my shoes and purge them.  I keep putting it off in the hopes that my feet will shrink.  But I think they aren't going to.  It's been 8 months since Mr. Munchkin came along and other than not being all puffy and swollen they haven't shrunk any lengthwise.

It's a cruel trick.  You always think that your feet stay the same.  No fat or how skinny you are, your shoes will stay the same.  Not true!!!!  Getting pregnant can make them grow :(

There are so many of my shoes that I'm hoping I will fit back into one day.  Alas I don't think it will happen.

And the Purging Continues

More work on general purging today.  We've had to evacuate part of the kitchen for our bathroom renovation.  We need access to the pipes and stuff in the ceiling.  So we are juggling even more stuff around the house right now as we had to empty a shelving unit, and a bank of cupboards that our glassware lives in.  We also had to rearrange some of the kitchen to accommodate the fridge and the like.  Well, my husband moved around most of the stuff while I was out avoiding dust with our little Munchkin.

So I'm taking this opportunity to get rid of a few things.  Some glassware is going and some other miscellaneous items that seem not to have a home in the kitchen.

I think I'm pretty much going on a rampage here.  I really really need the clutter to go away.  It's driving me insane.

Cookbooks

And so my attempts to purge are continuing.  It's actually pretty hard sometimes for me to let go of things.  You often think you might need it some day and you will get around to making something, doing something with it etc................

But, the house is full and constantly messy which is bothering me even more so out things must go.

This morning I worked on cookbooks and recipes.  I love looking at recipes and planning what I'm going to make.  So I've often clipped recipes, saved magazines and bought a few cookbooks with the intent on making these items.  The reality is that I often don't get around to it.  Sad but true.

So this morning I copied a bunch of recipes I've recently looked at and would like to make into my recipe database with not to try them and tossed the paper out.  I got even more into it and got rid of a number of cookbooks I never use.  I even just got rid of a giant pile of "possible recipes"  I collected them years ago and haven't made them.  So out they went.

I think my new rule about cookbooks is that if I haven't used them for more than a year, they should be gotten rid of.  I also vow to copy recipes to my database so if I get rid of a cookbook it I won't lose a recipe.  Publish Post

I do have a few books I need to go through and copy the 1 or 2 recipes I use and then get rid of them.  But then my cookbook purge should be done.

I feel very accomplished this morning.  And a bit lighter.  Although I think the bit lighter will feel even better when the bag of stuff is out of the house.

Northwind Book

Well I finally managed to publish a photo book I've been meaning to for a couple of years!  I really procrastinated on that one.

Ahh well.

Northwind by Jeanette Parker ( Jen Parker) | Make Your Own Book