Update

Gee, I haven't been writing much. I certainly go through spurts.

I do have great news.... The basement is almost done!! Whoo!!! The floor is clean, all the junk is gone and everything else is on shelves. We need to get the BBQ out and I have a few totes of garbage to sort (I should be glad it doesn't all end up in the landfill, but it can be a pain to go through when you're getting rid of stuff).

Best part is I know I can go through and get rid of even MORE stuff!! I am loving being able to ruthlessly declutter. I have also been doing a better job of keeping the house clean. On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being disaster and 10 being perfect), I have gone from about a 3 to a 7. Amazing!!! There is more to be done but Babysteps, babysteps. I am working on it every day.

I need to clear some more space for food storage. I joke to DH that I get rid of so much stuff and turn around and buy food in it's place. Well, we need to eat and it sounds like prices are going to skyrocket (many already have). So we will greatly appreciate having plenty to eat in times of trouble.

I love being able to give stuff away. It's such a great feeling. It's kind of funny as MIL sometimes buys items I have donated and will ask if it's something that used to be ours. Yeah, which is why it's there and not here!

This coming week I will be working on our bedroom. I need to help DH learn where things go. I need to reteach the kids that toys do not belong in my sleeping area. I have been doing a good job with my stuff; it's everyone else's that is causing problems! It will come. I think we are all loving living in a cleaner environment.

Great Stuff!

No, not mine (although I do have a personal attachment to it ;) ) but this one: http://lentilsandrice.blogspot.com. Excellent! I highly recommend reading about her simple life, her stretchy bean and/or lentil meals and their quest for sustainable living. They are so much further along their way than we are, but we are all in different places. I appreciate reading about others journeys so I can learn more.

This post in particular struck a cord since I am hard core into cleaning and decluttering right now. That and the Wii are the main reasons I haven't been posting much (yes, we did break down and buy it. I have to honestly say I don't regret it a bit!!). We're having DS's birthday party on Tuesday and I want the house in order by then. I can do it! I can see the finish line! The entire upstairs for once is entirely CLEAN! Whoooo!!!! I am making great progress downstairs. I think if I had some kid free time, I could get it done in a couple of hours. They just tend to take things out when I am in the middle of doing things. After it's all done, it's just a matter of maintenance, which I am going to work very hard on. I am also putting off the basement until the rest of the house is done but all I need is a couple of days and a couple of energy drinks to get that in order ;)

Oh, we got a piano! I don't even have to feel a bit of guilt over it. It was left in an abandoned community center building and a friend rescued and repaired it about 20 years ago. They no longer need it and they let us have it! That mother is heavy, lol! It's about a hundred years old, the days before compact pianos, so it weighs a ton. It left deep marks in the kitchen floor...eeps! Our kitchen floor is in dire need of replacing after we move, as is our living room carpet. I would love to see hard wood floors, but I doubt it with public housing. We take what we get :)

Well, so much to do and not enough energy at the moment. I've been cleaning since about 6:30am and I'm starting to drag. But I know if I work, I can get everything I want done today and I can spend tomorrow with a scrub brush.

Solar Cooking

I have started looking into solar cooking. I think next week after I have the bulk of the cleaning out of the way, I will make one and see how it goes. They go from very simplistic (a pizza box with tin foil and plastic) to very complex $500 jobs. I'm looking to do this on the cheap so I'll try the pizza box (I have two in the hall closet DH never got around to putting in the compost. I guess I can't complain now!). You can make almost anything in these! I can't wait to try.

My basement has done a miraculous transformation and I'm not even done. I will be putting out a lot of garbage and recyclables this week, plus there is a ton for the spring clean up (May 28th!) and everything we have saved for the yard sale we'll be having, the remnants of which will be given away. I've already sold a rocking chair :). I love simplifying. I wish I could get hard core about it as there's a lot I'm still hanging onto, but eventually I'll let it all go.

We're doing pretty good with not spending money. We have more in savings than I ever could of expected. A few hundred more and we'll be bumped into a higher intrest earning category, woo!!! Plus we'll earn 1000 PC points a month, which is equal to a dollar. I can't wait until those dollars will be buying us our house :D

Freecycle

I can't believe it, but I am considering joining Freecycle again. I know lots of people love it and think it's great but it was the worst few months of my life (OK, that's an exaggeration, but I REALLY dreaded checking my email, which was awful). People were SOOOOO ungrateful, they would come pick up their stuff then start asking me for everything they see (hello!! My house is not a store!!), people regularly would ask for the most ridiculous things (like cars. I know, if you don't ask, you won't get but who is going to give a new car in running condition away for free and have to drive it three hours away, no less??) and there were constant debates over the yardsalers (basically, people would sign up and ask for every single item, regardless of what it was for the sale of selling it. That is NOT in the spirit of Freecycle, IMO).

I have been going through my house, going through the decluttering part of simplification and it's staggering how much we have to get rid of. I know the Salvation Army never seemed that impressed when we'd show up with 10 garbage bags of stuff in the past and they're in a smaller location now and they have no parking so we'd have to trudge this stuff all over creation to get it there. Sigh.

The kids toys have been way easier than I thought. I did get the kids involved a bit. They had a garbage bag of playfood. They could not play with it as there was too much stuff. The kids and I went through it and kept a small little bag, literally a 10th of what they had, and a tea party set. Voila! They started playing with it again. I started going through their Little People (of which they had tons). DS actually offered to give up one of his houses! What a sweetheart. I told him we would wait as we're going to move the Little People back to his room where they would have room to play with it again. (We are getting rid of some though)

That's the biggest problem we have; no room! We moved some of the kids toys into a section of the living room but there is no room to play. We have wood in DS's room right now to finish building his bunk bed (we lost the instructions years ago as we have only been using part of it until DS was old enough to use a bunk bed). Clothes are all over his room as that is my sorting area. It's all a big mess. This is why I need to declutter, so we can LIVE again! So the kids can play again. So I can get stuff done again!!

I will go through my items and make a list for freecycle. I will just ignore the people who take away from the spirit of Freecycle and give to those who have a true need. I bagged up nearly 10 bags worth so far plus have a lot of big ticket items to give away too. I find I am seeing things with new eyes. I can see there will be light at the end of the tunnel. It's going to be slow going getting there and will involve learning new habits and a new way of living, but I can see that there will be happiness there.

A Carload

Here we have a car load of clothes that are being taken away and donated. There are 6 garbage bags! Including the clothes that I have saved to give to people, this means 8 huge garbage bags of clothes have left my house in the past week. Whoo hoo! The decluttering is underway. Now DH and I have to go through our clothes and pare them down. The kids are given a lot of clothes. Poor mommy doesn't even get to buy them clothes anymore. Now less laundry fo me to do, yay!!