One Project Done

I have officially completed one project of Operation Get Rid of Stuff, aka, clean house. It feels so great! Last night M and I went through the last of the books and now have about 3.5 book shelves full of books instead of the 6 before. Huge difference. Now we have things that matter to us on display on the bookshelves in our dining room and it makes the whole living space feel more like us.

Tonight we are going to sell a few bags of them and then try to sell the rest this weekend when we have more time. We have a lot of books to sell and I don't think they will all fit in my Bug. So tonight is stage one and this weekend will be stage two.

It is great having all this extra space and every time I get rid of something I feel a little bit more like I own my stuff instead of the other way around. I have done a few more projects around the house but the books were by far the biggest accomplishment.

All the money we get from the books will go into our savings for buying our own little plot of land. Homesteading is just one step closer.

Simpler Living

Yesterday M and I discussed about feeling disconnected from ourselves and each other. We decided to do something to get us back into feeling better and getting more refreshed. We started off by declaring that no t.v. or computer time will be allowed (besides allowing to put music on and to watch a work out video). The outcome was amazing.

So what did we do in that time? I started and defeated casting on my first toe up sock. I cleaned out the entire second bedroom closet and threw away 2 more bags of garbage (where does this junk come from?), started working on the foot of the sock, read some more about tiny living and minimalism, and made a wonderful cod dinner as well as organized most of our books.

The closet it self was a big project. We had the entire shelf above the clothes bar full of papers, half filled note books and things we just generally did not need anymore and had forgotten about. I went through every piece of paper and threw out everything we had not used in the last year (which was almost all of it). The top of the closet is now almost bare. M even asked last night what we were going to do with that space and I smiled and replied "I do not know." It is nice having the extra space.

Next was the books. I went through the book shelves and put books in order based on fantasy/fictional books and educations books and homesteading/craft books. That took a while. I am not even close to be done with it all either. Next weekend (because we have company coming over Sunday for game day!) we are going go to through the books and decide what ones we want to sell and plan on selling at least 75% of them. We have a lot. By a lot I mean 6 bookshelves, 1 closet and a few stacks hidden places as well. And these book shelves don't just have a few books on them, no. They are stuffed with books on top of books to use up as much space as possible. We love our books but it is time to let go of the ones we do not plan on reading again.

The dinner was delicious. Wild Caught Cod with olive oil, some herbs and a fresh orange made a delicious dinner and helped us relax after working so hard on trying to organize and clean.

We finished off the evening by M reading and I knitting on the couch just enjoying the quietness of the evening. Ronnie (my dog) cuddled on the couch with us and we just enjoyed being. It was a great feeling and one that I plan on recreating again tonight. A night without technology really brings bliss.

Spring Cleaning

I have been reading and researching a lot about tiny homes and being a minimalist. Let me just say that is definitely not me and my family as of right now. However, I do want to mention that I am trying to at least de-clutter my life.

Last weekend I was able to go through our huge storage closet and throw away 6 bags of garbage and create 5 bags of donations. Today we threw out three more bags out but that was only in the kitchen. I want to be able to clean out an entire closet and have it empty. I want to be able to downsize our stuff until it is just what we need and what is really important to us. Right now we have a lot of junk.

I am planning on cleaning out a bunch of our knick knacks and things we have not used since we moved to our current place (which has almost been two years). It is showing to be a lot of hard work but even M is wanting to help and downsize our belongs as well. It is always nice when you get your partner to help you and even goes along with what you want to accomplish.

Tomorrow we are going to go for a walk in nature first and then get to work straightening everything out and getting rid of the weight holding us back.

I wish everyone else luck who is going through the same thing. I would love to hear what you have been up to.

Living The Quiet Life

Today I am sitting at my desk dreaming. Dreaming of a quiet life out in the country someplace where I can devote my time to writing and crafting and making our house a home. Is this a possibility right now? No. I can't have a home out in the country, not right now anyways, but that doesn't mean I can't bring that simple life to me and you can't do the same.

I have been thinking a lot lately and I have been trying to make my life as simple as possible. This past summer I planted  a small flower garden in the plot of land right next to my apartment. Now most of the flowers are starting to wilt and I need to do more work in it to make it ready for winter but I am looking forward to that work. To get everything ready for a beautiful spring I know I will enjoy this coming year. I have included a picture below of the little herb garden I had but now has been cut down for fall.

It really helped me feel more connected to the earth again, something I found I had been missing quiet badly since moving to the city and struggling with apartment life. However, this isn't the only step I have done to get that homesteading feel inside the city. I have started to buy little things to make our apartment move of a home. I brought in warm neutrals instead of the blue couches (slip covers at Target are a wonderful thing and much cheaper than most places) knitted some pillow covers and started clearing out the clutter. Our living room used to be a catch all for all my crafts and still is but I am getting better at making sure to store the projects I am not working on so that it keeps the space feeling more open and less hectic.

I have also been really trying to throw out a bunch of items that Michael and I really just don't need. I will admit it. I am a recovering Pack Rat. I will be the first to say but once you start liberating yourself from stuff you realize how much it was weighing you down. Now I am not saying you have to go completely minimalist because for most of us that is not possible but cut down on the stuff you haven't even touched in a year, or more. I know I was/still am guilty of having snippets of fabric and bits of cheap yarn from years ago that I finally threw away. If I need it, I can buy it again. No point in keeping it for the potential use I might have for it five years down the road. I faced the facts, I haven't used it in the three years that I moved out of my parents house, I am not going to need it five years from now. And if I do, then I will face that ship when it comes into dock.

Why am I sharing this? Because I know how hard it can be to see such a task in front of you. I want to live on a homestead out in the country but I can't because I can't afford land or a house, let alone to quit my job and move away. You probably can't either. However there are little things you can do to find time to adapt it into your life. To get small steps closer to your dream.

I, personally, have started doing more home projects and re-found my love for cooking. My next step is to spend a day a month making homemade bread and freezing the extras. This isn't possible for all people but think of other ways you can change your life in the small ways to find your dreams. Do you want to have a garden but live in an apartment? Buy some pots and have herbs for the winter in the kitchen. And trust me if you have never gardened before most likely they are all going to die (I have killed many a plant over my years and still do). Don't get discouraged, keep trying and do different things until you find what works for you.

Do you want to save money on food to help you save for the future? Try something which I am trying to do by making things from scratch. Not only does it help you save money but it also keeps all the gross chemicals and preservatives out of your food. It is a large grocery bill at first but you will notice how long those things last and how much money you are saving in the long run.

I love to knit. I have been trying to knit as many things for the house as possible. I have knitted tons of dishcloths and 90% of all the scarves I own. Knitting for me adds character to my home and also helps me keep busy instead of just sitting on my butt. Well okay, I sit on my butt when I knit but I think you know what I mean. It keeps me busy even on down time. It helps me relax and it makes beautiful things in the mean time.

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These are only a few things you can do. Try picking up sewing, or quilting or even painting. Try making some of your own jewelry. Try your hand at homemade bread, or trying to eat out less and make more at home.

I would love to hear about your progress and what you do to make your life filled with that quiet joy of simple living.

The Shoe Maddess

Shoes. Everyone has them and hardly anyone I know has a good place to actually store their shoes. I tried mine in the front hall with the hopes that everyone will take off their shoes at the door instead of dragging in dirt from outside and god knows where. This did not help. Instead, we mostly come in through our sliding glass door (especially when we have already been home) thus leaving the dirt to be trailed through our apartment anyways. Oh well have to give me props for trying at least, right?

So the problem. I have attempted this in the past, as I said. I have two shoe shelves. I wouldn't call them exactly nice but they suit their purpose. I mean they are only for shoes who have dirt usually caked all over the soles. (We like to be outside)

My Goals:

To clean up the front entry instead of using it as a shoe play ground and move most of them into the master bedroom closet. Get hanging baskets for the front entry for gardening tools, slipper socks for guests. Also want a bench with area underneath to put shoes we regularly wear. Get coat rack to hang purses on (since I like to change mine out a lot).

My Accomplishments:

I removed all the shoes and put them neatly in the master bedroom closet. I also threw out the broken lamp (yes that is what it was) and the boxes that I was just too lazy to throw away. Instead of getting baskets to hang on the wall, since I did such a great job cleaning out the front coat closet. I decided to instead get hooks to hang purses and bags on above the bench. The bench has room underneath for the shoes we use the most often and also a place where we can kick off our shoes without feeling like we have to go all the way to the bedroom.

I also want to make/get a rug for the front hall that has a little more traction to it. I want to be able to collect a lot of the dirt and grim before it tracks out onto the carpet. I was thinking of knitting one out of twine but we will see how my projects line up. If I have time I don't, if I do, GREAT!

I know this isn't the master bedroom closet but I swear I will get to that!

Until next time.

The Front Coat Closet - Oh The Nightmare

Oh the nightmare is right. This closet is a mess. Coats flung in there in no neat organized matter, the top shelf just cluttered with anything that will fit up there that doesn't have a home. And the floor? I didn't know the floor could get so cluttered either. Good thing it has been summer and I haven't had to go in there for anything.

See what I mean? It is a mess. Oh big pile of mess on top of mess. 

Goals:

Have the closet a nice organized place where gloves, hats, scarves are in easy, organized access. Coats organized by person and on nice hangers. See what needs to be dry cleaned and have it done. 

Plans to Achieve Goals:

Take all coats out of the closet. What do we still use? What can be donated to a family that actually needs it? Take everything out of the closet. Sort out what is closet items and what are not. Make pile of dry clean items to be brought in to be cleaned. Find baskets to hold mittens, scarves, and hats (basket for each). Figure out something to do with the extra shoes in the closet (donate, store, etc)

End Result:

Wow. What a difference! 

I have yet to dry clean the coats or put them in a different pile even but the difference is amazing. I cleaned all the crap, and lets face it most of it was crap, out from the closet and put it on my stack of "Need To Sort Out." I then took the box that was hats and mittens and went through them and sorted them out by if they were hats, scarves and mittens/gloves. I then neatly folded them all and put them in a corresponding bins. I then cleaned out all the clutter and threw most of it away because it was just that clutter. Something things I forgot I had and most things I went "Why the hell did I keep that?" I much happier with this current closet and so much more organized. I have things to donate and I have things still that I need to sort through but my closet is looking much better.

Next task, master bedroom closet. At least it doesn't look at bad as this closet started out. 

Organizing The Game Closet

So I have this closet. It is a closet that had become so ridden with junk and debris I couldn't even really call it a closet. I shudder every time I had to open the door because I know it is so cluttered and full of stuff we never use that I just don't want to even go there. However, we love games. And our games are forced to be stored in this closet but so does everything else. So my mission was to clean it out and make it into a useful space and hopefully free up some space in other parts of our apartment too.

I suck by the way at taking before and after pictures. I completed this just last week but because I forgot to take before pictures you can't see its glorious make over. I do promise for the next project I will take before pictures.

Like I describe before it was a mess. Movies we never watched cluttered the shelves. Computer and Video games we haven't played in years shoved so close together that I swear some of the disks were close to breaking. But that wasn't all that stood in the way of our game closet and organization. No, not even close. I had a bin. I will admit it was my bin and not anyone else's of complete crap. I do mean that. I tend to be a pack rat who likes to keep everything (working on it) and store it places I think I will use it again. Broken alarm clock? Really? Papers that were old receipt of useless items I no longer even cared I had (might have even thrown some of those items out.) It was bad. Bad might be even an understatement.

My plan:

To remove said movies and games and clean out bin and not have it anywhere close to that closet and use the bin for actually organization instead of cluttered junk.

The Outcome:

I removed all the movies and put them in some extra Tupperware containers we had. The huge storage kind. Moved all the CD's, games, movies, everything related to media in there. I kept out the few blue rays we have and some movies we actually do watch quite often. (remind self to actually go through those bins sometime and throw out cases with no movies left in them.). Removing the movies gave me four shelves to do with what I will.

Well M, my partner in crime and fiance, is studying in the IT field. He has lots, and I do mean lots of IT books. School books, hobby books, text books, Cert Studying books, the whole nine yards. Before this drastic make over they were scattered throughout the entire apartment. There were computer books in our bedroom on our bookshelf, in the storage closet, in the dining room bookshelves. They were in nearly every room of the house. So I came up with the great idea to use those shelves for those books that didn't have a home but yet were still in easy access of him using them and finding them.

Now the shelves are lined with his computer books. But wait there is more. M also loves chess so naturally in our book fiendish ways he has tons of chess books. Those also found a home in the closet. So now the closet is half computer books, partially chess books and our games. The games are not in a neat stack by any means yet but I don't know if they ever will. When you have huge board games it is hard to find a place to organize them perfectly, especially in an apartment.

See how lovely it looks?  My next project is the front coat closet. I promise I will take pictures.

Anyone else have any similar projects they have done or wish to do? Let me know! I would love to see the before and after pictures!