It's Time to Simplify: 365 Days of Decluttering Challenge

Even the good stuff can be overwhelming when there is too much

My years-long obsession with home and decor blogs seems to be waning a bit. Instead, I've been spending more time at blogs that deal with simple living. Blogs like Small Notebook, Simpler Living and Simple Savvy.

Don't get me wrong, I still visit upteen home and decor blogs, but I'm really interested in feeling less like a hamster on a wheel that's moving way too fast. Up until now though, I've just been looking, but min hus has been feeling more and more crowded. Most of the clutter is hidden, but it's impossible to find anything in many drawers and closets around here. But after looking at the 365 days of decluttering challenge, I thought, even I can do that one.

So here's the deal, I want to get rid of at least one thing a day for the next 365 days. I'll probably be doing this on the weekends, rather than daily, but I'm going to keep a list here. I'm not sure how often I'll post about this, it's got to be fairly boring (for all three of my readers), but we'll see.

I was actually so excited I got started last night and filled a couple grocery sacks full of trash, several things went to recycling and I filled one shopping bag with clothes and things to donate. The boy unwittingly participated yesterday too while he was cleaning the garage and got rid of four tires and rims, seven (yes, SEVEN) bucket-size kitty litter containers, an old plastic table. He put it all out on the curb and it was gone within an hour. Even all seven kitty litter containers, I'm still amazed someone wanted those.

The dearly decluttered:

1. Green plastic patio table
2. White shower curtain that shrunk
3. White O-N dress shirt (too big)
4. Black sandals
5. Red, white and blue knit shirt
6. Red pj pants
7. Blue plaid pj pants (week 1, August 23-29)
   
8. white t-shirt
9. white t-shirt
10. Old space heater (only half-works)
11. Old vacuum
12. Green bag
13. black tote bag
14. linen drawstring bag (week 2, August 30-Sept. 5)
15. black purse
16. Brown sweater
17. Pink sweater
18. Cyndi Lauer tape (it's time to let the casettes go)
19. Smashing Pumpkins tape
20. Toad the Wet Sprocket tape
    
21. Girl's diary (week 3, Sept. 6-12)
22. Unopened pine candle
23. Blue tealight holder
24. Small plastic water bottle
25. Dental tape
26. Martha Stewart Living - June 2009
27. Martha Stewart Living - September 2009
28. Green flower plate (week 4, Sept. 13-20 )
29. Kitty foot massager (lame)
30. Cloth napkins (4)
31. Partylite candleholder
32. Plastic tablecloth
33. Red mug
34. yellow mug
35. blue mug (week 5, Sept. 21-27 )
36. green mug
37. glass candy dish
38. pink plastic cup
39. Book: Smart mobs
40. Book: Knowing Knowledge
41. Book: The Three Theban Plays, Sophocles
42. Votive candles (week 6, Sept. 28-Oct. 4 )
43. Strawberry candle
44. Red bead tealight holder
45. Votive candles
46. IKEA mail holder
47. Cinnamon candle
48. Votive candle holder
49. Precious moments plate (week 7, Oct. 5-11 )
50. New black bra
51. New white bra
52. Unmentionables
53. Unmentionables
54. Brown and black purse (donate)
55. Blue cloth napkins (donate)
56. red shirt (week 8, Oct. 12-18 )
57. blue flowered shirt (donate)
58. orange t-shirt (donate)
59. purple clock (donate)
60. Organic garden magazines (10)
61. headband (trash)
62. round brush I never used (trash)
63. lotion (trash) (week 9, Oct. 19-25)
64. tan capris (donate)
65. Navy blue slacks (donate)
66. Merona black velvet dress (donate)
67. Jessica Howard dress (donate)
68. NYC tan linen slacks (donate)
69. Nine west gray slacks (donate)
70. Apt. 9 white capris (donate) (week 9, Oct. 25 - Nov. 1)
71. White short-sleeve sweater (donate)
72. White sweater (donate)
73. Old navy flower shirt (donate)
74. bottle of nail polish (trash)
75. bottle of nail polish (trash)
    
76. Book: Les Miserables (Half-Price Books)
77. Book: Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination (Half-Price Books) (week 10, Nov. 2 - Nov. 8)
78. Black ODCE bookbag (donate)
79. Coaster (trash)
80. Spatula (donate)
81. Sunglasses (trash)
82. IKEA 2009 catalog (recycle)
83. Pink Eddie Bauer sweater (gave away)
84. Black Eddie Bauer Sweater (gave away) (week 11, Nov. 9 - Nov. 15)
85. Navy blue Eddie Bauer Sweater (gave away)
86. 
    

Fixing the Leaks: How I Got My Living Room Back

During my first two weeks off I spent the vast majority of my time doing projects around the house, mainly a lot of scraping, paint preparation and a little painting. Most of the results wouldn't stand out to the average min hus visitor, but they do make the place look a little brighter and cleaner.

One fix does make a pretty big difference however, and it's the project that pushed me into project overload: fixing the leak damage in the living room. Long story short, the living room has had a moisture problem for, oh, way too long. It was an extremely slow leak, but over time it did some ugly damage.

So why did it take me so friggin' long to fix the leak? Well, it was way above my knowledge level so I turned to family, friends and finally a roofer for help. Multiple quick fixes were tried and failed. Many inspections and estimates were obtained and finally, I hired a roofing company to redo the chimney flashing (in two spots). I'm still shocked they didn't say I need a new roof, let's hear it for honest roofers.

And while I'm still not convinced the roof leak is 100% fixed (call me pessimistic, but if it's not fixed, I'm pretty sure I know the cause and a fix is already planned), I couldn't stand looking at the damage any longer. Really, I can't even guess how much time I've spent glaring, cursing and crying because of that wall. Oi.

So on Wednesday I finally started scraping all the loose paint and whatnot off. The area under the window, which had cracked paint, was the worst. The layers of paint came off pieces so large that I literally got nauseous. Fortunately, feeling nauseous is a common occurrence for me during projects, and it's only since I've survived it several times that I was able to not cry, freak out and call for reinforcements. The damage was so bad in fact that even the boy thought I'd gotten in a little over my head when he came home and saw with the first coat of patching compoun applied.

After a lot of scraping, and a little panicking, I patched the wall, sanded, patched, sanded and finally painted. This took two and a half days (lots of drying time is required of course) and brought me to the end of my project patience, but in the end it was worth it. Yesterday I celebrated by deep cleaning the room and house, doing some small rearrangements and then calling an end to all projects for the rest of the weekend. Aaah!

My patch job isn't perfect, but I'll worry about that after I know that the leak is completely banished. For now I can once again sit in the living room and relax.

Even the scary patch under the window looks good again!

My Little Ponies

Last weekend I went to North Carolina to visit family. While there, we went hiking at Grayson Highlands State park in Virginia (the Web site doesn't do it justice). I was ambivalent about going because it was a 45 minute drive and I was sick of being in the car, but once I got there I changed my tune entirely. I can sum up the awesomeness of this park in two words: wild ponies. Yes, you heard me, wild ponies. Once you enter the gate, you never know where the ponies may show up.

Most of the ponies we met were pretty friendly too. This little guy followed us for awhile, probably hoping for handouts. Seriously, how cool is it to hang out with wild ponies?

The hiking wasn't bad either, but bring a jacket and decent shoes. It gets chilly quick and the trails are rocky.

This place must be a big hit with kids (and kids at heart); it would have been my dream destination in my pony-lovin' youth.

Pink Garden Pom-Poms

My pretty pink peony poppies did not show up in time for my Pink Parade for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, they wanted to make an entrance. And what an entrance it is.

Their stems may be wild and twisted (I wonder if they always grow like this, since this is my first experience with them?), but their blooms are gorgeous pink puffballs that make me smile.

Like so many of my flowers, these poppies were winter-sown and oh, so worth the effort.

Kitchen Island inspiration for Tight Spaces

(image: Anastasia Faiella)

I love Anastasia Faiella's renovated kitchen, which was recently profiled on Apartment Therapy. But the most inspiring piece for me is the movable island. I haven't seen one that looks this great and is still on casters. It's definitely something I'm going to keep in mind for my own kitchen reno, where I'll be losing some counter space to make room for a bigger dining table. Something like this just might fit though.

Visit AT to see the dramatic before and afters.

The Neverending Summer To-Do List

Restoring nine windows is just one
of the projects on my to-do list.

Thanks to a job change, I'm lucky enough to have some extended time off this summer for traveling and hopefully tackling some of the things on my never-ending to-do list.

This brings up a topic I struggle with almost every weekend, do I spend free time doing projects, planning for proiects, relaxing and having fun or trying to squeeze in all three? I'm not good at balance; instead I have a bad habit of becoming singularly focused on big projects and work myself ragged until it's done. All of which makes for a very unfun and tiring vacation, weekend, etc. Then I'm not able to find the motivation to do another project for a long time.

This time, I'd really like to strike a balance between getting things done, and still having fun even when I'm home. Anyone who has tips on how to do that, please share! So far I'm thinking: take some time off during the day to do things I don't have time to do when I'm working (eating some breakfasts and lunches out, making a nice lunch for the Boy and I, going to a movie during the day, going swimming, etc.).

But without further ado, here's my list. I'm sure there's still more on it than I can possibly accomplish, even though we've started a few things already and even finished one or two.

Inside:

• Pick out a new AC
  
• Fix living room walls and repaint (Done!, but it almost killed me)


• Fix bedroom ceiling and paint
  
• Finish patch in kitchen
  
• Touch-up bathroom paint and paint window
  
• Patch and paint bathroom door
  
• Hem bedroom curtains
  
• Frame and hang art in living room
  

Outside

• Stain deck, see it here!
  
• Paint/restore three or four windows and storms (two will have to do)
  
• Paint front door and shutters (Done!)
  
• Paint awnings (or at least fix the horrid rusty one!)
  
• Paint garage doors
  
• Remove hideous bushes by driveway(done! thanks to the Boy)
  
• Patch and seal driveway (The Boy said he'd do this one on his break, yay!)
  

I've Been Deprived

As the boy will be the first to tell you, I'm no chef. I've never loved cooking; I only do it to save money and eat healthier. Lately, however I'm trying new recipes and liking the results (usually). The other day I was faced with too many blueberries and no desire to eat them, I saw a blueberry recipe and it hit me, make blueberry crisp!


So, using this recipe, that's exactly what I did, I made my first crisp. And let me tell you fellow non-chefs, sisters who hate to cook, it was so simple to make and yet it tastes devine. It's also an easy way to please a dessert-loving man. My crisp didn't live through the night, we gobbled it up so fast. What I'm saying is, crisps are the new black. You heard it here first.

My first bite of blueberry crisp was delicious. I suddenly felt several things, pride, satisfaction and great sadness. What, sadness you say? Yup, I was totally bummed. Why? Because I've wasted 30 years of my life not eating crisps. What kind of crap is that?

In fact, the only reason I thought to make a crisp and knew it's wonders was because last year Jared's sister made a tasty apple crisp while we were visiting. Without her, I'd still be clueless to this day. And you know who I blame for this don't you? That's right, I blame my mother.

I mean come on, how could she deprive me of this quick, easy and extremely tasty dessert? It's even healthy, what with all the fruit and all. Crisps are like a mother's dream. Sure, she was a bit busy what with holding down a full-time job, raising me (but I was a dream child, or so I've been told), going to school and taking care of the house. But still, crisps are so quick and easy, even the most busy of moms can squeeze them in. I demand an explanation!

Parents of the world, let this be a lesson to you, don't deprive your kids of an important experience, bake a crisp today!

Disclaimer: I take no responsibility for the state crisps may have on your waistlines. Proceed with caution and only make them when there's a big group around to minimize temptation.