99 magazines in the rack. 99 magazines 🎶

today I am decluttering all my old magazines and am going through them before donating to a day care for crafts. “First for women” September 15, 2014. Still has great ideas. My favourite ones I’m keeping digitally. Good thing I have an external hard drive. I’m a photo hoarder. 1 down, 98 to go.

21 Days

My 2 cents for today, or thoughts are 1) back in the 70’s, a researcher suggested that it takes 21 days to make or break a habit (which is actually a myth, it’s more like 2 months according to Forbes) and 2) Newton's third law of motion; “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” These 2 sayings came to me when I was on day 21 of the challenge that I did this month because something strange happened. On day 21, after satisfactorily completing the skating rink on the pond after days of plowing and flooding, hubby went to the woodworking shop and decluttered, cleaned & organized the entire building. On day 22, step son comes home from Costco with a huge shelving unit and after removing an old fridge, set it up and started decluttering, cleaning & organizing the kitchen. Day 23, he does the same to their front porch and then day 24, his girlfriend comes home with paint supplies (They live in a house attached to ours) and now they are decluttering & repainting one of the upstair’s bedrooms. So in conclusion and it is MY conclusion: 21 days MAY have cause and effect, cause an effect and it can create an equal and SIMILAR reaction.

PS. I did nothing today other than make a new crockpot recipe for supper, pack a suitcase and google information about Cuba. Hubby booked a last minute deal and we leave Friday. Happy early Valentines Day to me.  Dishes are still in the sink.

Peel & Stick

While I was at it..... I sort of understand linoleum under sinks because it’s water resistant but the edges tend to curl. When it’s glued, stapled AND duct taped down, I thought it would be a difficult task. Thankfully there was a layer of wallpaper underneath that made it easier to remove. Guest bathroom cabinet cleaned, peel & stick tiles installed, contents decluttered.

Winter Mice?

So much for a do nothing day. Too cold to go down to the rink and watch hockey so I puttered around the house. Hubby needed towels to set on the seat of the truck when delivering ribs & pierogis to the crew for supper, so after digging around for some old ones, I said what the heck. Thanks to seeing mouse dropping on the floor I scrubbed & stuck down 4 adhesive tiles & set a trap. Tell me why I have cats again?

Oops. Dripped paint on the chair and didn’t notice. How do I get it off now?

Today I am working on turning the 2 left drawers into a door & creating a hole on the side for the litter cabinet. Jigsaw is in woodworking shop ... outside ...-15 C. Brrrrr

Aaaaand done.... the closet anyway. So is my back since I rearranged things as it was not conducive to the cats and that’s really what it is. The cat room. Lol. 6 boxes & baskets stacked so I can sit & go through one at a time. 5 boxes of cassettes & CD’s to go through & donate to a music therapy foundation. Company tomorrow. Have a great weekend!

Decluttering Never Ends

I’m backtracking to the office. I decluttered once when I repainted. I decluttered again when I put up the tool shelf. Now I need to declutter the boxes on the top shelf. I’m pretty sure they are all full of cassettes. I’m tempted to empty it completely and repaint it but that’s my mind talking before asking my back how it feels. Another day. Lol

Got another set of kitchen drawers decluttered, cleaned & organized while waiting for paint to dry. Lol

I think I’m done decluttering!

DAY #22 - Do some advance prep. (Leftovers for supper) ✔️
DAY #23 - Count your blessings. Happy Thanksgiving! (Every day is a thankful day) ✔️
DAY #24 - Celebrate Buy Nothing Day. (Will for the rest of the year other than necessities)✔️
DAY #25 - Declutter your bedroom closet ✔️
DAY #26 - Declutter the floor & shelves in your closet. ✔️
DAY #27 - Declutter hanging clothes. ✔️
DAY 28 - Clean out your closet - final day ✔️
DAY 29 - Clean out your dresser drawers. ✔️
DAY 30 - Declutter your nightstand. ✔️

Other than a few kitchen drawers and clear out all the bins & boxes in the guest suite (hubby will do that) I just need to load up everything by the front door that’s going into town with me tomorrow. Recycling & donations will get done and I can focus on daily cleaning and upkeep. And Pinterest projects. Painting with Purrl continues

DAY #21 - Clean the guest bathroom

 Last night, I got the guest suite in better order. At least you can get into it and everything is boxed up and ready to go out the back door. Today I was supposed to head to the airport but hubby went instead and while he got some quality time with his daughter, I slept in and then started on the bathroom. Last weekend I was debating on repainting it and did some test strips so today I thought, what the heck. Let’s Do It!

Hubby doesn’t like it. Says it makes the room seem smaller. I know. But it’s like hair colour. I can change it any time. It just needed some pizzazz.

DAY #20 - Get your guest room ready for guests

Nooooooo. I doewanna. K. I will later today only because there are 2 and 1 is the guest room and the other is the guest suite. Room I can do because yesterday some of the clothes from my closet purge were thrown on the bed. Easy tidy up. The suite however, is back to being a dumping ground. Will deal with that another day as I have to deal with the mess of clothes & hangars & junk on the master bedroom floor without overdoing it.

My ankle is tender. My back is too. My day is starting. How about you?

Well I decided to tackle the guest room after all. Since I had to hang up the clothes on the bed I started with the closet. I had purged it a while ago but it needed more (and still needs more.) Half way through I realized I have to pick up my stepdaughter at the airport tomorrow (3 1/2 hours away) and she is spending the night. I think Purrl approves and it’s time for lunch.

Break time! Mess on the floor in master bedroom almost done. Oh look! I can see the top of the dresser!

Bag for donation. Bag to sell. Pile of old t-shirts for rags for the woodworking shop. Hanging clothes to donate WITH Hangars (will wrinkle less rather than in bags until I can take to town)

Blue bin. All the odds and ends that I will go through later. Is that cheating? I know, I know but I’ll find my “Round Tuit” later.

DAY #19 - Clean up the family/living room

Nope. I tackled the bedroom closet & armoire. Oh, & put all the groceries away, (thankful hubby does grocery shopping) ate supper standing at the counter while cleaning the freezer.

Is it just me and my ADHD or does each task seem to have a trickle down effect? I am still struggling to stop cleaning & rearranging and focus on decluttering and leaving it. I guess if I am never satisfied with the final outcome, there is no FINAL outcome? Does having too much stuff offer me too many options?

Yesterday’s “cleaning” the entryway led to “cleaning” the front room led to “cleaning” the living room. (Cleaning=rearranging) I swapped the end tables from the 2 rooms, moved the sofa table into the dining room, dining room table into the front room, guest suite table into dining room, turned the kitchen table  into an island, etc. Yeah. It’s exhausting. My stuff is exhausting me. It’s filling up space but not filling up ME! It’s taking away. Taking up my time, energy & attention on “cleaning” rather than on living. Doing. Being.

Aha moment. Thank goodness I found that promoted post on Twitter or I would just continue the cycle & circle.

DAY #18 - Clean & organize your hall closet

So much for a do nothing day. My back is still sore but not as bad as last night. You get used to living with chronic pain so I got several things done.

First, not that it’s in a hall but it didn’t take long to clean and organize the closet by the side deck. I used to keep the chair pads from the deck there but since cleaning out the guest suite, I was able to hang them in there.

The front door has 2 sets of hooks on either side. One is made from horseshoes but is taken down as that wall is getting painted by stepson next and I want the 2 switched because it’s larger and there is more room on the right. The other was a gift to hubby from his youngest son. I’ll need to find a new place for it. Hmmmm

DAY #17 - Clean & declutter your entryway

I’m sure it’s just the front door but with 4 doors to enter or exit the house, I took note of each one, did what I could.

The entry from the front deck is shovelled & cleaned (inside) but not decluttered. I have more piles set there to take to Salvation Army when we go into town next week

The entry from the side deck is decluttered but not cleaned. I will be repainting the area in the near future. Saving it til then.

The French Doors in the bedroom to the side deck are decluttered but not cleaned. It’s gotten too cold out and it’s blocked by a huge snowdrift. Hot tub doesn’t run in the winter so we don’t use it except to let the cats in or out and they certainly aren’t interested in going out in this cold.

The back door from the guest suite is seldom used but was cleaned, repainted & decluttered before Xmas. It needs to be decluttered again as every day I put more items in that room for the garage sale. Hubby will take them out to the grain bin with the tractor next time he is using it.

I spent most of my day rearranging furniture, which is not good for my back so helping push the Canada Post Mail Lady’s van when she got stuck making a 3 point turn on our gravel road did not help. Note to self - keep a shovel in every vehicle. Although the hockey stick worked, I’m sure it would have been more productive with the proper tool.

Now to decide on handles. I sent this to my 3 sisters last night for opinions. Black was the popular choice. Gotta love spray paint when it’s on sale (last year)

DAY #16 - Organize your work space

I actually did that back in May. Moved out everything other than the desk. Even moving it back from the wall to in front of the window was tough. Painted a wall a day and then one day for the trim, another for the door. Clean up next day. Yup. A week to paint a room.

Recycle, Repaint, Reuse

Pinterest projects finally coming to fruition. Pics to follow.

DAY #15 - Recycle something

We recycle as much as we can since we live on a farm & store household garbage in a utility trailer until we haul it to the nearest county dump. I used to have 3 large blue bins for recycling but changed to smaller green bins with paper bags to separate as some years we are away more than we are home. Batteries, electronics, glass, tin, cardboard & newspaper are all separated and taken to RediRecycle in town. Beverage containers are taken to the wood shed and the can are crushed in a garbage compactor before being taken to Redi for cash back. 10 cents a can, 25 for 2 litre bottles. It’s my mad money. A pedicure here. A manicure there. A treat that’s not in the budget.

Some days I find myself removing recyclables from the garbage can. It has taken me many years to retrain the step children and even though they are grown & gone, they continue the new tradition and hubby relapses every so often.

Not sure if Princess Purrl is helping or hindering but she is definitely not recyclable.

DAY #14 - Clean your laundry room.

Nope. We got new pedestals for the laundry pair at Christmas and everything got cleaned then, even under, behind, beside & around when we installed them. Besides, Sunday is a day of rest, sort of, as I don’t seem to be able to sit still on do nothing days.

After pancakes made by the 9 yr old granddaughter for everyone, and our Sunday tradition of watching a movie (Tangled) on the iPad in bed, she headed back to her mum’s in town. Then the guys went out to plow the newly fallen snow in the yard and at the skating rink.

For some reason I had the urge to paint. Last year I bought a bread box & potato bin from my friend’s business on Facebook. She even threw in a plate rack for free because the colour matched. The colour was cream. Way too yellow for my taste so I repainted them “cotton” which is the same paint as the trim that I painted over the dark dusty rose trim inside the house. (leftovers) Now I am painting everything I can find if I don’t like it’s colour. All with the help of my trusty sidekick, #PrincessPurrl Well, supervision when she’s not napping.

DAY #13 - Clean out your linen closet.

Nope. That was the day of our family skating party at the farm. My linen closet in the main bath is not in too bad of shape. A lot of old towels that we use for the hot tub. I will get rid of any ratty ones or use them for drop cloths when painting.

Day 12 - Declutter the bathroom cupboards.

Nope. We were in town all day. No time. I bought something though. So much for another challenge from the group not to buy anything for a year. A necessity however, new winter boots. Hubby bought a wall clock from Salvation Army for $8. EIGHT DOLLARS!! I didn’t like the pic that was up there before anyway.  I’m going to sell it in the garage sale for $10

DAY #11 - Declutter your medicine cabinet.

Easy Peasy. I actually had already done it last month, checking for expired meds. They are in a ziplock bag ready to go to the Pharmacist next time we go into town. All I had to do was wipe the shelves & clean the mirrors.

I guess I should check the medicine cabinet in the trailer. Nope. -26 C . I’m pretty sure I emptied it in the Fall of anything that would freeze since we weren’t going south this winter.

Finally got around to part of Day 9’s challenge. After taking out what I needed for supper, best to clean it before I put anything back in. 1/4 the way done! After supper, finished the top half. Pretty darn empty since we haven’t been grocery shopping in a week. Freezer is full though. That’s tomorrow’s job as it shouldn’t take me too long to declutter the bathroom cupboards. I hope

Bonus! Just finished organizing 2 more kitchen drawers. With a little help from friend. 

Day 10 - Clear your kitchen and/or dining room table(s).

Nope. I did it that Monday when I had company. Haven’t gotten to the Fridge or Freezer from Day 9 either. I decluttered 2 junk drawers AND a cupboard AND 2 pantry doors. Mind you, most was done from midnight to 2:30 am and the rest after supper. Hey. It’s still all in one day. Just took a 6 hour “nap” in between.

Uh oh. Now there’s stuff all over the dining room table. Just need to find a box or bags to put it in as soon as I decide if they are donate or garage sale. I’ve run out. I now have a garbage bag full of Tupperware to donate that has been added to the pile by the front door.

The junk drawer has never been so clean. Still too many pens even after testing them all & throwing away anything that didn’t work and the basket on the right doesn’t fit properly. I know I have another little white one somewhere. I’m sure I’ll run across it as I continue decluttering. It could be in the trailer but it’s -20 and almost 1 am. I need another 6 hour nap. Goodnight!

DAY #9 - Clean your refrigerator and freezer

Nope. Didn’t happen. Will do it tomorrow as my friend a province away has decided to join me in the challenge but she is not on Facebook and even though we’re behind, I know we’ll get caught up eventually. It’s like going to the gym. It gets you more motivated when you’ve got someone to go with.

Today I woke up achy all over. Literally top to bottom, or bottom to top. Hips, back, shoulder, jaw, & cheek. Can you have arthritis in your face? Lol. The change in the weather has a lot of people in the same boat. Hubby was back from town at the walk-in clinic with meds for his chest cold before I was even out of bed. He didn’t sleep well last night so I didn’t start decluttering til after he woke from his nap. I wasn’t planning on doing anything today but after supper & unloading the dishwasher, it just made sense to clean the cupboard before putting the dishes away.

2 cupboards down. 5 more to go!

Day 8 - Clear your tables of clutter

Yesterday, the challenge was to clear your tables of clutter. Although I said I did nothing because I had company from noon to midnight, I actually did it. Lol. Didn’t even look at the challenge until today but had to do it to eat at the table (we usually eat in front of the tv during the week) Dining Room table cleared! Check!

Kitchen table cleared. Check! I had already done it a while back when the automatic cat feeder arrived. It’s got a camera & speaker!! It makes a chime when the food is dispensed. Now I can go away overnight or even longer & not worry about my 3 fur babies over eating or running out of food. No more FaceTiming my stepson to see my cats when he looks after them when we go away for winter. I can FaceTime to talk to HIM

Day 6 - Declutter & Organize Your Kitchen

Day 5 1/2 lol.  Still nope to organize the pantry. That is a 3 day job. 6 with my back issues soooo one cupboard at a time. Or shelf at a time. I’m pretty good at keeping the canned goods in order & my spices too. I organized my Aunt’s pantry once & she was blown away. In April when I was dog sitting at my daughter’s while they were in Europe, I organized theirs. The OCD in me & the compulsive cleaner in me get along quite well.

Moving on to
DAY #6 -
Declutter & organize kitchen cabinets.

Day 7 is kitchen drawers so I’m reversing the two since I have more drawers than doors. If I did one drawer or door at a day, that would take me a month in itself so I’m doing what I can today then setting a reminder on my phone to do the rest. A door a day keeps the declutter away!!

Drawer #1 is the top drawer. The junk drawer. Is it the same in your house too? I should start there (tackle the hardest task first and the rest will be easy) but as hubby always says, should shouldn’t be a word. I need to channel my inner athlete and like Nike says. “Just Do It”.

I started with drawer #2. Yup. Taking the easy way out. But when the time comes, forget emptying the contents onto the counter, that sucker is going to be emptied all over the kitchen floor & no one will be able to go anywhere until it’s done.

Day 5 1/2 lol.  Still nope to organize the pantry. That is a 3 day job. 6 with my back issues soooo one cupboard at a time. Or shelf at a time. I’m pretty good at keeping the canned goods in order & my spices too. I organized my Aunt’s pantry once & she was blown away. In April when I was dog sitting at my daughter’s while they were in Europe, I organized theirs. The OCD in me & the compulsive cleaner in me get along quite well.

Moving on to
DAY #6 -
Declutter & organize kitchen cabinets.

Day 7 is kitchen drawers so I’m reversing the two since I have more drawers than doors. If I did one drawer or door at a day, that would take me a month in itself so I’m doing what I can today then setting a reminder on my phone to do the rest. A door a day keeps the declutter away!!

Drawer #1 is the top drawer. The junk drawer. Is it the same in your house too? I should start there (tackle the hardest task first and the rest will be easy) but as hubby always says, should shouldn’t be a word. I need to channel my inner athlete and like Nike says. “Just Do It”.

I started with drawer #2. Yup. Taking the easy way out. But when the time comes, forget emptying the contents onto the counter, that sucker is going to be emptied all over the kitchen floor & no one will be able to go anywhere until it’s done. Drawer #2 Pretty much what it looked like when I started other than some unused chargers & sticky notes. Guess what? Haven’t touched ANY of what’s left in a year. Who uses phone books any more? If the power goes out & your cellphone dies so you can’t google the number do you even have a landline to use? We do lol. Moved to the office.

Cheques, stamps & seal from hubby’s business. He’s retired. Well, on disability until he’s 60 THEN he’s retired. I put them all in one of the drawers in the guest suite where his tax papers from 1977-07 used to be in. That means room for.... more junk? Kinda. Just rearranged so bottom drawer is not so crowded.

2 hours to clean 2 drawers? Really? Is 15 decks of cards too many? I already got rid of 6. Well sort of. Put them in a ziplock back to take out to the skating rink on the dugout so next weekend the kids can toss them into the burning barrel there, along with the 2 blue bins of those tax papers that will finally get moved off the front deck & burned rather than waiting for the shredding event in the spring at AAA. I got it down to 12

7 crib boards? We already have one in every vehicle and the RV and one hanging on the wall. Not having had a tourney in years, will check with hubby about donating to a seniors centre.

3rd drawer has all hubby’s 2017 tax papers. I always keep it organized. It will get cleaned out at tax time & start again for 2018

Bottom drawer, where all the cards & crib boards used to be, is now solely for product warranties & info. I cleaned out the ones that no longer apply.

There’s also plastic bags in behind (the cardboard box used to be filled with them) Years ago I moved them to another drawer and when ever the kids came home for a visit, they would go to that drawer for a bag. I would direct them to the new drawer. Now that I got hubby a new set of cutting boards, knife sharpener & can opener for Xmas (he’s the chef of the family) I’ve moved the bags back there so his gifts have their own drawer near the stove. Kids are going to roll their eyes next time they go looking for bags. Lol

Apparently the ADHD in me doesn’t get along with the OCD in me. I was taught “A place for everything and everything in its place.” I tend to find a place to put a thing then find a better place, over & over & over again. Drives the hubby nuts.

Corinne

Corinne

Day 5 - Organize your pantry

Nope. Not today. I’m at Day 4 1/2 because my back gave out half way through the day but I did get the other side of the kitchen counters cleaned.

The diffuser got moved to the bedroom. My cats like the mint a little too much so rather than them knock it over and ruin it every time they try to jump on the ledge, the pastry stacker got moved to the other side & is now a charging station!!

I actually need to put more things ON the ledge for when it has empty spaces, large enough for a cat, they’re up there in no time flat. A nice little row of unbreakable items & they see there’s no “cat pass through”

The beautiful silver tray from my sister is now where all the bills go. 2 new wrought iron key hooks are for each of our keys & I’m not sure what to do about the phone outlet on the wall. Will put that on hubby’s to do list and let him worry about it eh?

Pantry tomorrow while hubby’s at the hockey game! Hmmmm. Why do I always clean when he’s away. Maybe a bath, a book & a movie marathon instead 😏

Corinne

Day 4 - Clean Your Kitchen Counter

Half done at least. Got distracted cleaning under the bedroom vanity & found lots of things to throw away/donate. My new David’s Tea station was a gift from my kids so that got moved from the other side, closer to the tea kettle on the stove. A knife set that was not sharp & was only for looks. Gone. Toaster & coffee maker are not used daily, only when we have company so they went into the pantry along with the panini maker that was where the spider plant is now.

The pastry stacker that was on the other side I moved over closer to the oil diffuser & has all my essential oils on it. The counter ice maker is being used now so it will go in the pantry when we have enough. That spot was where my new breadbox was but it’s too big so need to find another place for it. Maybe under microwave on the other side.

The other side. I won’t even take a picture of the mess now. I will finish tomorrow. Or later tonight after the hockey game. Here's a picture of my cat instead lol

Day 3 - Donation Boxes

Labeled donation boxes in rooms.

A very pretty donation Box in the bedroom for clothes to go in.

A Big basket in the living room already filled with magazines from 1997 on. I will make a pot of David’s Tea in the Xmas gift from my kids and then do a skim through & take photos of recipes I like and toss when done. Or maybe I Will take to Good Sams on Monday when we go to sing & play guitars for the residents.

No garage so another basket is in the music room. Do I really need the books I learned to play the piano as a child? They plan to take the white upright to the dump 😩 I so wanted to donate or up-cycle it but don’t have a box big enough. 😛 Lol. Will see. Was planning on selling the key board. Drums are already gone. Karaoke is now computerized. Sell all the CD’s? Decisions. Decisions. Slowly but surely. This too shall pass. 😊

Day 2 - Clean Out Your Car

Day 2 was a success. I took everything out that was shoved in my Mazda for recycling & donation. The trunk, back seats and BOTH front seats were full because we weren’t going to use my car during December trip to the Okanogan for Xmas. So I shoved everything in the back of my hubby ‘s Truck. Bahahahah. Good trick eh? Actually, he’s going into town tomorrow & not me. Just has to load up the computers by the front door for electronic recycling which has permanent bins at Redi Recycle along with glass, tin, cardboard, papers, plastic and refundable bottles One Stop Dropping, which means we don’t have to wait for the annual city held electronic recycling event in the spring.

Can’t wash the car even though it’s warmed up from -37c. And have to wait until it gets above 0c next week. Thursday is looking good. I have to sing at a senior home that night & will load the car up with Donations to Salvation Army. We live too far away for them to pick up but what better thing to do in town and give instead of receive. Oh. On a side note, my motorcycle is still for sale. $3500 cash or etransfer and it’s yours!

30 Day Declutter Challenge

I’m starting the new year on a mission. I discovered Donna Smallin on Twitter actually, a promoted post about her decluttering group on Facebook that was for the month of November. Today is my Day 1. I’m not sure if I’ll love her or hate her after the challenge but I know it needs to be done. Better late than never. You can buy Donna’s latest book on Amazon here.  

Declutter the purse. It actually got done New Year’s Eve before going out for the night, so instead, for day 1 my son & I decluttered computers. He is transferring information onto ONE removable hard drive/backup disc and then removing the hard drives from FIVE laptops & THREE towers, all unused, with dead batteries or old operating systems. Electronic Recycling here we come! But not tomorrow. I don’t want to go into town & be tempted to shop.