Double Challenge Month Update

Time for a little review (gee, I sound like a teacher don't I?). Just what HAVE I accomplished so far this month? It's a good thing I wrote down my goals on a separate page at the top of my blog!! LISTS are NOT for the feeble-minded, they are for the PRODUCTIVITY QUEENS like US - ya hear that Carla? - I said PRODUCTIVE!!
1. Financial Goal - set aside $88 towards the $440 I need to save for my half of the new TV! DONE!! (In fact I might end up saving a little extra and if I do I am going to put that money on my Line of Credit! Although the month got off to a rocky start (had to spend over $80 on ink cartridges plus my income has decreased by $500 per month) I have to say the last two weeks have been much better. I've had quite a few No Spend days AND I've stuck a few $5.00 bills into my Sealed Pot!

Decluttering Goals: (Carla - I did my decluttering challenges in a slightly different order - I hope that's ok!)
1. Personal Space Challenge: I chose to organize and declutter the ROOM OF MY OWN!  DONE
2. Family Space Challenge: I decluttered and organized our TV Room/guest bedroom/cat's room/my dressing room. DONE
3. I did the Dreaded Challenge in the 3rd week as I just wanted to get it over with! I chose to clean my itsy bitsy teeny weeny linen closet which of course doesn't come close to being as huge or messy as Kim's was but I still dreaded it all the same!! DONE!
4.  The Productivity Challenge: I chose to change my laundry habits by a) co-mingling my laundry with Kazi's and Michael's and b) doing it after 7pm on week nights instead of spending my Saturdays doing it. Partially DONE - happily I still have another week and a bit to change this habit. I only did a load of laundry Thursday night - I had one ready to go last night but something came up (plans changed - we went out!) so here I am again on Saturday doing my laundry (though it is co-mingled!)  HOWEVER, you wouldn't believe how PRODUCTIVE I'm being Carla!! In addition to laundry I've made a huge pot of soup, have cooked up a 1/2 package of chicken bacon (Carla - I could eat bacon everyday too!) AND have made a new batch of oat squares (this time I used brown rice flour instead of whole wheat) AND I've read two newspapers!! This is even more AMAZINGLY AWESOME AND PRODUCTIVE because I didn't go to bed til 2:30am AND got up to drive Michael to work. Maybe that's the answer to my productivity challenges - I should sleep LESS! So...next week I will continue with the productivity challenge and do my laundry in the evenings thereby leaving my weekend free for other things - like listing some items for sale on kijiji! 


Mini-Challenges:
1. Donate food to the foodbank or a similar needy program or family. DONE! I donated juice boxes and granola bars to our breakfast program at school.
2. Write a card/note/letter to someone using snail mail. DONE! I sent out two cards to my sisters who both live in Bracebridge.
3.
4.

Carla - have you given us the 3rd and 4th mini challenges yet?

I can see the light at the end of February! We're quite well stocked up on food and Kazi and Michael have been paying for gas for the car we all share. I think that overall February has been a great month thanks to Carla's challenges - I've been pretty frugal, I've spend my time organizing and getting rid of unwanted stuff and I've had a lot of fun besides! So Carla - THANK YOU!!

Oh my Aching Back!!

Today I spent six hours up in my multi-purpose room which combines a guest bedroom, family TV room, my dressing room and the cat's room. It was ugly and I almost gave up before I started. But with the vision of Carla's super cute wallet dangling in front of my eyes I persevered. I filled 2 garbage bags with well...garbage...and another 3 garbage bags with clothing donations, a bag full of shoes (which are really hard for me to part with BTW), a large comforter we no longer use plus a box of other donations PLUS 2 large bags of coat hangers. Just wait til you see the photos! Possibly tomorrow, if not then Saturday for sure. So I've surpassed by far the 29 donated/purged items required for the challenge!

Here's a wee glimpse of what I was up against.  There is a guest bed under all of that crap somewhere! I hope there's no forgotten guests! The 2 small bins on the left were full of 1/2 used toiletries from the sale of the trailer, the clothes basket is full of clothes from the trailer, some donations from Kazi, and yes that is my Halloween wig hanging from a floor fan that doesn't work anymore.

This horrible mess is my clothes closet. There are also clothes hanging off the door knobs as well as from hangers on the tops of the doors. And waaaaaaaaaaay too many shoes. But I like shoes. Shoes make me happy. I hate getting rid of shoes, it's like getting rid of close friends. I can hardly stand to look at this picture!

Right now I need a break. I didn't even eat lunch! I was up there for SIX,  6 hours with just coffee to sustain me. (Don't worry - I had breakfast earlier and since I've come down I've eaten again. I tried on several pairs of pants and am happy to report that I now fit into a few more pairs so that helps out my wardrobe a great deal!

The bad news is I moved things, lifted things, carried heavy bags down the stairs and out to the garbage and my lower back is aching. Not sure if I'll bike tonight. I'm trying to do every other day on the bike and pedaled 20km last night. Only 360km til I get to Philadelphia so sure hope Judy gets back online soon!

So that's my news for today - it was an easy peasy NO spend day as I didn't leave the house except to get my recycle bins. It's exam week and today is exam review day and since my students don't write exams they didn't have to be at school today and neither did I! So I put my time to good use, you know, making hay while the sun shines.

I'm thinking on Saturday I will attack the "dreaded challenge" which for me is the linen closet - I'm scared of that monster!

A Room of My Own - Declutter Challenge #1

These two photos show how the future "Room of my Own" used to look.  It was our office and functioned well as one for about a year. Then Michael purchased a new laptop and we took to using our laptops in the living room, thanks to having wireless internet and the "office" turned into a junk room/paper collection spot.

These two photos were taken the day that Michael organized the room as an office so it looks pretty organized - this DID NOT LAST!! (Look - you can see my Crofters Lane Jar on top of the bookcase!) I don't know what the heck I'm eating but look how tanned I am!

As I stated in my decluttering goals there are (were) a few areas I wanted to organize better so that I could a) access what I need more easily...and b) be more pleasing to the eye (that's important to me)...and c) be able to see all of the things that are important to me like photos, candles & small carvings that I made. There is much to tell you about what a "Room of my Own" means to me so today's post will just be about the decluttering and organizing for Carla's challenge. Periodically I will give you a more personal glimpse into my ROOM.

The photo above show my VERY cluttered and ugly bookcase. It had TOO much stuff on it and a lot of ugly stuff as well as too many photos and sculptures and decor items. Here's one of the shelves for a close up.

Just a wee bit busy wouldn't you say? And who wants to look at my bills holders and cheap Dollarama incense burner? You're right - nobody.  Here's what my bookcase looks like now:

Much less cluttered but still containing my most beloved objects.

 A picture of my mother and I on the wall. My most prized books: some have stories in them written by my mother, some were gifts to me from my mother and others were gifts to my mother from me! Also a collection of reference books I frequently use. And a new addition next to the big dictionary is a book of blank pages that I gave to my artist brother Kim with the inscription - "write some poems about nature"...and so he did! I have it back filled with his beautiful poetry! There is also a photo (bottom left) of my gramma as a little girl, a few other tiny photos and two of my sculptures made from carving and polishing fossils.

 MUCH less on this next shelf. The wedding photo of my mom and dad, my favorite picture of my nephew Paul kissing Kazi as a baby and one of my favorite pictures of my dad and I dancing around the dining room table. (My Crofters Lane Jar and my Sealed Pot in the back and two boxes containing smaller items.

A lot of the paper clutter were genealogy documents which are now housed neatly in the box. Fittingly there is a photo of an ancestor's thatched cottage in Dicklesburgh, photos of my two grandmothers and a china shoe in the background which I gave to one of my grammas. Another of my sculptures on top of the box.

 Photo albums, not pretty but very important.

The rest of my genealogy papers flanked by my sailor dad and my mom waving at me while riding her bike. See where I get it from?

Ok, next up - another ugly area of printer, papers, binders, paper and lots of wires.  Now it looks like this:

Pretty boxes house papers and binders and help to hide all the wires.

My gorgeous oak drop-leaf gate-leg table which was the first antique I ever purchased more than 30 years ago is weighted down by books, photos and a vase of PEI dirt and rocks from Crofters Lane.

And here it is now:

 Right this very second I am typing this post on my laptop while sitting at my table.  The blinds are closed now though as it is...6:51pm and very dark outside!

Starting from the left: a photo of my dad aged about 20, small photo is the whole family, then my mom, then the happy baby is ME, then my gramma and Kazi in one of her Gr. 12 grad photos. 

Here's a close up of my dad and I:

Here I am in my Gr. 1 photo, and yes I had a sailor dress on!

And finally:

Here is a picture of someone who really needed a "Room of her Own".

To be continued.....