Loyalty cards

I alphabetized, punched holes in, and secured all my loyalty cards on a homemade key ring. A beaded key chain might be better. Glad I made it to this point.

My sister cut all of hers to the same size as those little cards. About 1-1/4" x 2". 

Here's my stack. A little too bulky for my purse but better than hunting through all of them. 

From A. C. Moore to the YMCA. they are all together. 

Ah, for the simpler life

My sister, a friend and I just returned from a girlfriend trip to Lancaster, Pennsylvania to see the Sight and Sound Theater production of "Moses". Lancaster is Amish country and we saw and learned about the Amish and their way of life.  

Horse and buggy. Plow the fields with mules and work horses. Trust and honesty-we saw little road side stands with a can to pay for your lemonade or vegetables. Very clean at "Katie's Kitchen" restaurant-my friend peeked in the kitchen of this authentic Amish eating place and it was immaculate. I noticed when people left the restaurant one waitress wiped the table down and another waitress (using a different cloth) wiped down  the back and seats of the booth. 

We stuffed all that we could into two days. The "Moses" production was spectacular. 

We also saw a life sized reproduction of the Tabernacle and took a tour of that with a Mennonite. Asked lots of questions.  Lots of fun was had by the three of us. 

Ate at a smorgasbord. Yummy. 

My sister bought a piece of furniture  right from the Amish man who created and built it. We were amazed by the craftsmanship and he was impressed that the Prius was not only got good gas mileage, but could hold a piece of furniture. 

Beautiful. Handcrafted by Levi Fisher. 

We went to a quilt shop and saw some exquisite quilts. This shop was near the Miller's Smorgasbord.   The proprietor said these quilts had to be made within 20 miles of the shop and all had to be hand quilted. The white one took 1-1/2 years to quilt. We had to wear white gloves to touch the quilts. 

So how does one have time for this? Getting rid of some everyday distractions might help: 

TV? Yes. 

Computer? Maybe.   

Electricity (this is a little too far for me).

Let's sleep on it...or not

Nice queen size mattress and box springs (or foundation, as the call it if it doesn't have springs). Too big for the room and a friend's daughter needed one. 

Here is how it looks now.  Would like a twin size to replace it someday. 

What comes around...goes around

Recognize these plant pots? Go to the April 23,2014 posting. I had such high hopes. After letting them grow awhile, they died. So they are headed to a thrift store. In the background is a "Biodome seed starter". That's going along with it unless one of you local friends would like it. I have a "Brown Thumb" and I don't think I can get something to get started. 

The motivational sign

I decided to write this sign. Motivation to move it out. Give to Goodwill or throw in the trash.

"Failure 100% of the time"-chapter 1

I titled this entry based on my comment about the following item

Yes, it is an air mattress. Actually there are two air mattresses. You will note that both are deflated. That is how they served us on a recent camp out with friends. Here we are outside our tents

We went with friends and they are in the next 

We had a fun time but the two air mattresses failed. It seems like they last for two or three times, then they fail. All of them do. 100% of them fail after a few uses...

In the spirit of organizing one day at a time, I threw both of these away at the campground dumpster.

Two less items go home and clutter things up.

Take a break

What a beautiful day. We came down to Virginia Beach and took the early part of the day off from cleaning. 

Been busy the past few days addressing the foyer and making it less of a foy-er, and more of a foy-yeah. Put backpacks duffel bags and other paraphenalia  away. 

Looks lots better and fresher.... Like the beach. 

 

Medicine bottles

I admit (in times past) to throwing old medicine down the toilet or in the trash and spoiling the environment. :-(  Alas, cannot retrieve those things now. When a friend told me she had gone through her medicine and saw they expired in 2009, she was appalled. It made me think I needed to make a sweep of mine. I began collecting medicine bottles and have been waiting for County-wide "medicine disposal day". I kept a bag available to put the bottles in to collect them and this weekend I can turn them in. 

FYI The oldest expiration date is  December 13, 2001! Many are in the 2004-2005 realm. Again, I wanted to keep these "just in case"-I don't always abide by the expiration date.  

By doing this I am regaining about 1/2 cubic foot of space in the house!

How long do I have to hold on to papers?

Some people are directionally challenged.  Others are physically challenged. Still others are (you name it) challenged.  I consider myself PAPER CHALLENGED.  What I mean by this is I can't figure out how to organize my papers and what to save.   Yesterday I hit on an idea.  I am using a hanging folder box and going to all the paper places in my house and sorting the papers. Several of my hanging folders quickly filled up.

So this morning I stopped by my insurance agent and asked what I needed to keep. I took the thick folder shown here:

Then she sorted through everything and said that I only needed to keep the most current stuff. Take a look at the trash/shred vs the keep papers:

 

 

So I am pretty happy! 

Stopped by my bank this afternoon and the guy said, "You don't have to save any of it." 

It was a 1" thick folder. He asked if I wanted him to take and shred it. At first I balked, but then agreed to hand over all of the statements. I saved out my duplicate check copies but I can get rid of them as well. FREEDOM!

Don't like it? Donate it. Give to a friend. Take to work and put a FREE sign on it

This is a quick post. 

Bought some Birthday Cake flavored Pop Tarts. 

"I'm not up for strange flavors. Give me Blueberry or Strawberry," was heard 'round the house. So I took them to our church food pantry. 

The lady there took them out of the outer box-they are packaged two-by-two-and put them with the regular flavors. I mentioned that they were not marked with the flavor on the wrapper. She said that would be okay, to let whoever got them be surprised.

So, if you don't like a particular food, that doesn't mean someone else wouldn't like it. Last week , I donated squash flavored macaroni pasta.  It was a little sweet. 

But look at this blog: http://jaytriedandtrue.blogspot.com/2013/10/rienzi-i-bambini-mini-pasta.html

They loved this Rienzi i Bambini pasta. If you don't want it and there is not a food pantry nearby, ask a friend if they'd like to try it or leave it in the break room at work with a "FREE" sign on it.

Gave this to my neighbor. I loved it but just don't have a use for it.

Just how long does it really take?

I have lots of projects. I love projects because I can see results when something is completed. But some projects seem too overwhelming because I think they will take much more time than they do. So today I am trying a little experiment. I have the following kit and am going to see just how long it takes to complete.

So it took 9 minutes 16 seconds, including taking the pictures. I think some jobs are overwhelming because they seem like they will take too much time.

As I remember I will take pictures of my little herb garden growing.

I am writing this on an iPad.  I need to figure out how to put the pictures on the posting in a quicker way. Here is what I have been doing: 

Take pic.

Upload by sending to my email. 

Copy from email to desktop.

Choose "insert image" on this blog.

A window comes up and I "choose file" which is located on my desktop.

there is a easier way...anyone have that info?

Hey leave it to the young people of today. My son said if I downloaded the blogger app, then I would easily be able to post  pictures. He was right. Here are the pics!

That's all for now. Remember to "organize one" today.

Just sit with me...

All of my siblings, except one, have the same issue I have about clutter. We like to say the same things: "I might need it just in case" or "someone can use it" or "I just don't know where to start" or a number of other comments when we get right down to getting rid of stuff.  We sisters are Social Cleaners.  I can clean stuff up when someone is there. All they have to do is be in the room.  They could be reading the newspaper, but I can stick to it longer if I have someone with me.  But I am so SLOW.  I have to touch every paper, every item.  I watch "Hoarders" and see I am like them in that respect.  Fortunately I don't have dead animals under piles of debris.  No, all my clutter is "good stuff"! Ha Ha.

Here's some "good stuff" headed to the "prize box" at school.

I feel good giving someone something instead of donating it to a generic buyer at Goodwill.  I feel better about donating to a thrift shop vs. Goodwill because I know someone will get a good deal at the thrift shop.  The minimum price at Goodwill is higher than at local thrift shops.

We have our mom to thank for this attitude. She was very organized at our house. Later we found out how much was stowed neatly in the closets. She was kind and generous and always looking for a good bargain (especially a bargain that would help someone else out).  We have followed her proudly. But looking for a good bargain eventually leads to a lot of stuff. Hopefully as the year goes on we can gladly say we did indeed pass those bargains on to others who would enjoy them.

When you can't do everything, do something

What to get rid of today...??

Well Yesterday (AKA Day 2) came and went .  I got home late from work and ended up meeting a friend and talking.  Nothing removed from the house, but luckily...nothing added.

Decided not to make this a Day 1, day 2 affair. Instead I will post the dates and try to give it a title.  

I am also considering that if I do something on my to do list, then that is like an uncluttering/untangling of  sorts.

It is always busy, so I will post when I can .

 

Since last time, it was a busy week.  Friday we went up to DC and saw John compete in a contest  against other graphic design students. Here is a picture of him with his design showing to the audience.

Football shaped bowls

 On Saturday was the Tea for the Cure for cancer.  I took these four football shaped bowls that I didn't use and put them with a package of football napkins and plates, dubbed it "Football Tailgate set" and put it in the silent auction.  It brought $5.

  Although I am not a regular poster, perhaps being accountable for writing things can help me get organized or declutter my life on a semi regular basis.

Day 1-the Journey begins

April 2, 2014: My friend, Heidi, started a blog several years ago.
Here is the link to it:
 http://simplifyoneperday.blogspot.com/

It was a blog about getting rid of one thing a day to try to simplify your life.  My life was too complicated then to try to simplify it, but every now and then I got rid of one thing or several. 
So, today, I put out two directors chairs with a "For Sale" sign on them and maybe they may sell.  I am so sentimentally attached to things that I find it hard to get rid of something I have not used in probably 10 years.  Anyway, if it doesn't sell it goes to the Goodwill or one of the many other thrift stores that abound in our area.

Here are the chairs for sale in the middle of the day on our quiet street where only 10 cars go down and a dozen walkers go by:

Chairs for sale

Who was going to buy them? No one...I gave them to my neighbor-he was thrilled!

So ends day #1.  I also defrosted my freezer and threw lots of stuff away and organized the rest.