Nearly Done Now

Wow -just ONE MORE WEEKEND before Christmas!  I have so many little odds & ends to finish up.  Presents to wrap, one more package to send, supplies for school party, and 1 last major food shop.  But I don't think I'll be up until the wee hours of the morning to get things done at the last minute :-D  Hopefully I'll be able to take most of our gifts & food to my sister's next weekend so that on the day of our family party I can just head to her place (I'll be working the morning of our party).

I would have liked to be further along since I ended up with three bonus days at home this week thanks to the weather.  But I didn't count on how time consuming it would be to keep DD & the dog from hurting each other.  We are babysitting my mom's dog Seamus (maltipoo puppy 9 months old) for the time being.  She has just had a hip replaced & we all figured it would be best if she didn't have a dog constantly under foot during her healing time.  At any rate, it is very stressful to have a puppy & a toddler under the same roof.  I'm really wishing we would have put in a fence this last summer because then at least I could kick him out to play.  But it will be so much easier for Mom to get better if she's not worrying about him or having to take care of him.  Good thing both he & DD are cute!

It is the last full week of school too.  I have plenty of work to keep the kids busy, and LOTS of projects which they love.  The decorating is done, but we had to disable the lights on our wreaths.  DD just couldn't keep her hands off the cords and for safety's sake, they are unlit.  I'm sure we'll plug them in on the big night.

One good piece of news: I thought DD's Santa cookie plate was lost to us forever, but I found it this past week.  I'll just pop it in the shadow box along with the Santa Key (note to self -still need to assemble this) and we'll be ready for Santa! 

I've been much more organized this year than I have before.  But one lesson learned is that I need to seriously declutter.  It is hard to keep various projects going when there is no where to put things out of the way but yet still be accessible.  I'm thinking that Decluttering will be my New Year's resolution.  Have you decided on a resolution yet?

I'll need to sign off now, I'm preparing the meat to put in the freezer for the Christmas Eve meal!

Don't forget to check out fellow Flybabies as they reach the Christmas Finish Line:
DianeDenmark
A Mothers Ramblings
Typical Ramblings, Atypical Nonsense

Cardinals & Candy Canes

We are already on week 6 -one third of the way through the preparations!  As I have been ill this past week, most of the Holiday planning has been just that -planning.  I have chosen one craft project and have all the supplies ready to go, just need to start doing it. 

I found some great decorative papers to hand make gift tags for this year.  One of the papers has inspired me to choose a decorating theme this year -cardinals!  I'm leaning toward red as the main accent color, and since we have been leaning toward bird ornaments the last couple of years, the cardinal seemed like a natural choice.  I chose candy canes because they are also red & white.  Love to look at them, just not terribly fond of eating them (hee hee).  I have a holiday decorating trick up my sleeve, but until the project is finished I'm going to keep it under wraps.  That way if I don't finish it, no one will be disappointed!  LOL

I have been very productive so far today - I finally got into DD's closet and finished decluttering!  3 large bags of clothes & toys are ready to be dropped off at Goodwill.  All toys have been organized into baskets so EVERYTHING now has a place to be.  Books & stuffed animals will be rotated (out of the closet) to make it easier for DD to put things away.  She's already spent a considerable amount of time playing with that had been packed away in the closet!  There are still some toys in the basement to organize & we may need a few more baskets -preferably solid under-the-bed kind so they can be stored out of sight when not in use.  At least DD is now ready to make space for new things to come into our home for the holidays.

I haven't started baking yet!  I still need to "declutter" the chest freezer otherwise there will be no space for any made-in-advance goodies :)  Mincemeat is on my grocery list this week, as is Drambuie - both necessary ingredients in DianeDenmark's Christmas Cake recipe and the only ones I don't currently have on hand.  Will you be joining us for the bake off?

Check out the Holiday Planning activities at:
DianeDenmark
A Mothers Ramblings
Typical Ramblings, Atypical Nonsense

Drop me a line if you would like to be added to the list!

More Babysteps

Today's Babystep: Find one of Kelly's Missions & do it!

Oh boy, now I'm in for it! Decluttering AND a mission? Do I have it in me to do all of this and get ready to leave for a vacation? Since this week's mission is the MBR, I just may be able to handle it. DH spent some time in there last week organizing his stuff while I was slaving away in the basement. So the MBR actually isn't all that bad. I think I can handle 15 minutes getting rid of things that don't belong there! LOL I wouldn't be surprised if I couldn't declutter for 15 minutes as it is quite neat at the moment. But try I shall. Maybe I'll tackle the Drawer of Unmatched Socks (also known as the League of Unaligned Footware).

I am so close to the point of being able to completely move my clothes into my new "closet space". I shall try my rubba sweepa in the utility room as it is bare concrete. Then I should be able to move my holiday & storage tubs back into their little corner, freeing up a lot of space. So exciting! I think I may even try to find some carpet tiles to put on the floor in front of the washer and dryer - something to make it more a laundry room and less like a basement utility room :)

Emails - Dare I Delete?

Today's BabyStep: Delete all the emails from Flylady

Seriously? Just delete them?!?! I don't know.....what if I miss something important? What if I plan on going back and reading them later? What if my world comes crashing down because I have deleted the most important email ever? What if...what if....what if.......

OK, I psyching myself up for it. I think I can do this. If I'm honest with myself I know that I'm not going to go back and read the emails. I have a place for them, but do I need to keep them? Most likely not. So here I go.........no really -I'm going to do it this time........all I have to do is click on the FlyLady folder then hit select all & delete. Yep, that's it. That's all it takes. Right now. Do it. Now.

OK, that wasn't so bad. 155 conversations sent to my Trash. The Trash I just emptied last night, by the way. Didn't even hurt. If only decluttering my home were as easy!

When's the last time you decluttered your email? Or your computer for that matter? I have discovered a new web tool to help keep my computer clutter under control : tagfoot. Maybe your computer is like mine, burgeoning with bookmarked sites. Tagfoot is an online bookmarking site, but it is social as well. I can't claim to understand how it all works, because I've only just started using it. But so far I'm liking it. I can bookmark websites, pictures, music, videos. If I find something really cool, I can share it with one of my designated friends. If it is superfantastic cool, I can share it with all my friends. Check it out - click on the tagfoot picture in the upper left corner to see my profile page. If you like it, join so I can share all the funny stuff I find!

Decluttermination

Decluttermination: when one is determined to declutter.

It seems like an accurate theme title for my summer! I am determined to get rid of all the junk that is weighing me down.

I am determined to create a home that I enjoy being in and feel comfortable bringing friends into.

I am determined to finally putting my own stamp on this home that I have lived in for over two years now!

Do you have decluttermination?

DeClutter Bug

Who would think that a FlyBaby would get over-enthusiastic about a project & go overboard? While you recover from your collective gasps of shock, I'll fill you in on the details.

I was feeling a bit blue (stinkin thinkin really) about my house and that lately even with constant rescuing & decluttering, I was making no progress. Rooms would virtually explode the moment I left them (spontaneously of course!). My summer was looking like constant drudgery rather than the time I needed to devote to various projects at a leisurely & satisfying pace. The straw that broke the camel's occurred while I was washing DH's clothes (normally he does it himself but right now he still can't lift heavy objects such as full laundry hampers). I ended up having to wash all of his clothes because unbeknown to me, the clean clothes from the last load of laundry were inside the hamper and I was throwing his dirty clothes from the floor on top of them.

Now I may have mentioned this before, but we have a tiny 1941 house. We have correspondingly tiny 1941 closets but 21st century wardrobes. DH's wardrobe is very simple - work clothes & not work clothes, don't really change from season to season. Whereas I have work clothes for fall, winter, spring & leisure clothes for fall, winter, spring, summer as well as workout clothing. Do you see where I am going with this yet? It is just physically impossible to put all our necessary clothes in our MBR at the same time, especially when clothes are heaped on the floor in front of the closet making it impossible to reach. Obviously, throwing clothes from the floor into the hamper is not as helpful as I had thought, so it was time for immediate action.

A Twitter Sister had worked very hard to clean & organize her MBR. I want an MBR that is a tiny, gorgeous, restful place to be. Then inspiration struck! I was at a standstill for decluttering the basement as I needed to be able to get the holiday decorations back into the utility room. But I couldn't because the utility room was so out of control that I couldn't get them back in. Inside our utility room is a long rack where I had out of season & long clothes that wouldn't fit in our own closet, clothes I hadn't worn for too long and some costumes. By getting rid of everything except essentials off that rack, I could bring my clothes downstairs and turn the utility room into my dressing room. With a little effort & my imagination, it could be a luxurious boudoir.

With this goal in mind I was able to clear out 4 boxes + a suitcase full of clothing. In the process, I unearthed 6 boxes of clothing packed up for charity LAST year. Yesterday, we loaded up both cars and dropped them off. Last night while doing my decluttering, I found more things to send to charity. It is beginning to take shape. I have taken the before pictures already, but I will wait until the project is finished before sharing them. Yeah! I have a space I can decorate to my heart's content AND I will be decluttering and organizing my home at the same time! <3

Design Inspirations?

Day 9

Today's Baby Step: Declutter a little every day.

Well, I have it on my CJ, it just hasn't happened for some time! Maybe I should change it from Declutter 15 minutes to 27 fling boogie! With Turtle around, it is difficult to carve out 15 minutes that I can devote to decluttering. Finding 27 things to get rid of, that should be more manageable! My basement is still a shambles and I am rapidly approaching the time when it will need to be our guestroom. Yikes!

Zombie Clutter

With the help of a Twitter pal, I managed to do a lot of decluttering this past week. As I neared the bottom of the pile on my work table, I came across an electronic toy of DD's that was in pieces. I have to mention this particular toy because I have thrown it away TWO TIMES already. Yet there it was, laying in a pile and mocking me.

I'm not the one who pulled it out of the trash with the hopes of breathing life back into this little plastic piece of junk, but this post is not about blaming anyone. The point is that I felt absolutely NO REMORSE in sending this toy on its way to silicone heaven. This is a toy that DD doesn't use (obviously as it has been in pieces for many months now) nor was it a toy she ever loved. I have no place for it so off it goes! There are a few other items which seem to worm their way out of the garbage bags too..........

My basement has now been relieved of two bags of garbage and three boxes of items that have already been delivered to charity. I also managed to free the buffet in my kitchen which is actually my largest counter space. Cooking is so much nicer when I can use the counters for prep and the stove for cooking, rather than using the stove top for both prep & cooking!

Menu is planned for the week, just not loaded into my Google calendar as it was down when I was ready. It will be my second week of summer vacation, but an odd one as I will be caring for DH who is having minor surgery this week. I think I should get a few bottles of wine to keep on hand for this task!