Bedroom Tweaks

One of my Christmas presents from the boy this year were these new roman shades for the bedroom that match the IKEA curtains. The shades, which are from JC Penney, are pretty sweet. First they're thermal shades, and I have noticed they help block some air leaks from the windows, they also block out the light really well, which is great for sleeping, but make it challenging to take pictures.


One of the interesting things about decorating, for me, is that it's a process, not a single event. It's fun to go back and see how things have changed over the year. What is really just a small tweak here and there, eventually adds up to a completely different look. I still have more plans for the bedroom, but it's finally starting to look somewhat pulled together.

Christmas 2009: The Better Late Than Never Edition

So it's January. You're tired of Christmas, I'm tired of Christmas, but some lazy pants around here never posted any Christmas photos. For shame. Anyway, for posterity sake, and so that I can look back next year, here's what Christmas 2009 looked like around min hus.


Last year I changed up the decorations quite a bit with the addition of the blue tree, which I still love, so this year only some minor tweaking was done. And in my effort to simplify and not make unnecessary purchases, I didn't even buy any clearance after Christmas decorations for next year, because I have enough as it is.

Snowflake Curtain: A Craft Project Even I Can Do

photo by Laura (aka Lupin) of Bugs and Fishes by Lupin

I've always enjoyed making paper snowflakes around the holidays, but I never found a really great way to display them, until now. Last week was stressful, to put it mildly, and spending an hour working on the beginnings of my own snowflake curtain was a great way to chill out. I'm sure mine won't look as great as my original inspiration from Bugs and Fishes, but this is a cheap, easy holiday craft anyone can do.

Light It Up

Don't you love finding out about other people's habits and how they live their lives? I know I do, and not just about the big things, but also about minutiae, like, say, lighting habits. Do you ever drive down the street and notice leaves porch lights on all day and night, who has no lights on, who has every light on, etc? I know I do, but then again I'm nibby like that.

I started thinking about lighting again after reading Ana @ Rearranged Design's post Leave a Light On and I wanted to share my lighting habits, especially since they've recently improved.

The Icky Before

The exterior lighting situation has improved a lot in recent years thanks to my handy boyfriend. Now all our exterior lights are the motion detector variety, and use CFL bulbs, including three new, awesome motion detector sconces which turn on when there is movement, but can also be set to stay on continuously. Thanks to these babies I no longer waste electricity, come home to a dark house or forget and leave the light on for 48 hours straight, plus they're on whether I'm home or not. And they're pretty nice looking, which was a bit of a challenge, at least on a budget. *happy sigh*

After!

On the inside I have one light on a timer, which is also awesome, plus we leave a small CFL kitchen light and a basement light on for the cats, who the boyfriend insists cannot see and get scared otherwise. I used to make them live in darkness, but now I feel guilty so the lights stay on.

That's the lighting story around min hus, what's yours?

Deal on Sun Laundry Detergent at Kroger

No, this isn't turning into a deal blog, too many other people do that far better than I ever could, but in the interest of giving back, I wanted to share a deal I found today on Sun detergent at Kroger.

Laundry detergent is one of the things I really hate to buy, so I'm always on the lookout for the cheapest brand that does the job. Lately that's Sun. Today Kroger had Sun detergent on sale for $2.50/32 load bottle, plus there were "buy 2 get 1 free" coupons at the store. In addition I also had a coupon for $0.50 off a bottle of Sun detergent. After coupons, I spent $4.00 for three bottles of Sun laundry detergent, or just $1.33 each, versus the $3.49 each regular price.

If your store has the coupons this deal should be available at least through Sunday.

Black Friday Deals

I'm not much of a Black Friday shopper. I don't like getting up at the crack of dawn, standing in line in the freezing cold, or dealing with all the rude shoppers. There is however one store that manages to get me to leave the house on Black Friday: CVS. While I didn't do quite as good as last year in terms of how much cash I spent, I did get more items we'll actually use and need. I spent around $11 and got $50 worth of items, plus I still have $7.88 in extra care bucks to spend at CVS.

Also, CVS still had plenty of stock on all their deals while I was out this morning, which was nice to see. If you're interested in scoring some deals, you have through Saturday to do so. Find coupon matchups at The Thrifty Mama.

Decluttering Slump

This adequately illustrates the current state of my decluttering efforts

Much like my recent blogging efforts, my decluttering efforts have seriously dwindled to, um, nothing though it might not look like it since I was decluttered way more than an item a day a few weeks ago. Part of this is due to time and focusing on other things right now, and part is due to pain levels since most, but not all of the easy stuff is already gone. Note that I didn't say it's because my house is decluttered, because although there's been some improvement, it decidedly is not.

I've been trying to figure out why it's so hard for me to let go of certain items of clutter. I'm not even talking about items that have sentimental value. So what am I talking about?

1. Wooden dish drying rack - I haven't used this in at least three years, not since I fixed my dishwasher, and yet, because there is space for it in my cabinet and I "might need it sometime," I can't manage to discard it.
   
   
2. Gameboy - I haven't played my original gameboy in years and years. But it still works and hey, it might be worth a lot someday to some videogame nut. Regardless, I just can't let it go.
   
   
3. The rest of my fat clothes - I've lost several sizes in the last year, but somehow I can't quite part with all my fat clothes yet. Because what if I gain the weight back? I have managed to part with the clothes that are now three sizes too big, the ones I never wore, and the ones that needed repair or were stained. That still leaves way too many though.
   
   
4. Plastic plates - For all of those dinners outside I never have. I don't even think I've used the darn things.
   
   
5. Books I want to get rid of, after I read them one more time - You know, just in case they suddenly became uncrappy in the last several years. Olivia Jules, I'm looking at you.
   
   
6. Last year's IKEA catalog - I used to keep every IKEA catalog I ever received, which wasn't that many really. I've purged a couple, but still have more than one, which is silly.
   
   
7. Those ugly dark green towels - I bought these for college, which was, I'm not telling you how many years ago. I keep hanging on to these because they are so useful: gym towels, rags, etc. Guess how many times I've used them? Yep, none.
   
   
8. (to be continued)
   

This is just a sample of course, there is much more stupid crap I'm still hanging on to. So how does one overcome this?

• Try, try again. Things change and one thing that works for me is persistence and regular decluttering efforts. I've been going through some of the same boxes of mementos for years and I've found that what seemed incredibly important a few years ago, I might be willing to let go over the next time.
  
  
• Limit yourself. Set a limit for how many things you don't use but still want to keep that you're willing to hold on to.
  
  
• Check for substitutes. Check and see if your local library has a copy of a book you don't love but might want to keep, or maybe a neighbor or friend will let you borrow that tool you have but hardly ever use.
  
  
• Write about it. Seriously looking at the list above is making it sink in just how silly some of these things are. While the Gameboy is safe, Olivia is on her way out.
  

Obviously, I'm still struggling with this myself, so what tips do you have for me?