The Office

Well, I opened a big, squirming can of worms on Tuesday.  I decided it was time to finally clean out and rearrange the office/greenhouse.  Okay, I know that combining one's office (with computer equipment sensitive to moisture and dirt) with a greenhouse is not perfect.  But it works for me.  It's the only room available for the office, and the only one suitable for the greenhouse - so that's how we do it.

It took all day - but only one day - to clean everything out.  And at one point it really did look like the office had thrown up all over the living room.  But now the office is a little more organized and not nearly as cluttered.  It's still a little sloppy - lots of different colours and textures peeking out from every orafice, but it's a working office - not an Ikea showroom.  Hopefully we'll all find it a little more use-able and pleasant now.

The big black shelves went to the basement along with most of their contents.  Oddly, the camera didn't seem to want to take a clear "before" picture .

Southeast corner before:

Southeast corner after:

West wall before:

West wall after:

We're not actually getting rid of a lot of stuff at this point, but a few things went into recycling.  Now there's room to breathe and a little space on the floor that Daniel has claimed for board games.







Crafty Girls

And while I'm at it, I'm going to link you to Erin's blog "Lucky By Design".  She is a teacher, and while on spring break a couple of weeks ago, re-organized her craft room.  She and her sister are the most crafty girls in the world, and now that they have a "new" craft room, I can't wait to see what they produce next!

http://luckybydesign.blogspot.com/2011/04/craft-room-reorganization.html

Office Organizing

My friend Laura has her own blog about mid-century houses - specifically, HER mid-century house in Calgary.  She`s been discussing renovations, antique stores, repairs, etc. and it is quite a fun blog.

However, she just published a blog about her office and how she is getting it organized, so I thought I`d give her a shout out and post a link to her blog here.

Enjoy!

http://midcenturymoderncalgary.blogspot.com/2011/04/office-de-cluttering.html

One Screw at a Time

Liz, a friend of mine, e-mailed the other day saying that I had "gotten to her" ... in a good way.  That my efforts (small though they have been so far) to de-clutter my house and my life had her thinking she needed to do the same thing.

But she was feeling overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all.  And I agree whole-heartedly.  If this was an easy thing to do, we'd all have done it by now, right?  You either have to be at a breaking point where you just can't stand it any more, or you have to start small and just do a little at a time.  Chip away at it. 

While at the Kennedy Space Center last week, we watched an IMAX film about the Hubble Telescope - at one point an astronaut (amazing people, by the way) had to unscrew about 30 small screws - while on a space walk in his space suit - like doing it with oven mitts on.  A challenge to say the least.  He said the only way he could approach it was by being zen about it - one screw at a time.  Don't think about what is coming and don't think about what you've done.  Just do them.  And I think that's how you have to approach any task that seems overwhelming.  One screw at a time.  Don't look at the whole thing or you'll be put off from even starting.

So just pick a drawer, a shelf or a box, and start doing it.  Or pick a corner of your desk!  If it's something you feel you need to do.  If you don't feel that your life is too cluttered, by all means don't de-clutter it.  Do what YOU have to do, not what I do.

The other thing Liz relayed was a paraphrase from the FlyLady - a woman who has a site dedicated to organizing and de-cluttering your life - she, Liz says, has a rule:  "If you don't love it, why keep it".  And this struck me.  If I am going to buy anything else to go into this house, I think I'm at the point in my life where I can put a little more money into it and buy the one I love instead of buying the cheaper but still tolerable model.  (Oh, by the way, I am CHEAP - it's something I've known for a long time - comes from being, well, not poor, but by no means rich, when I grew up, and having Scottish ancestors - but my friends now tell me openly and I accept this as just the way I am.  There are worse things I could be).

So: "one screw at a time" and "if you don't love it, don't buy it".  That's the wisdom from the Flylady and the space engineers. 

Travel Utensils

Thanks to Beth Terry of "My Plastic Free Life" for the inspiration to make these portable utensil holders.  Of course, the whole point of these little kits is to stop us from utilizing single-use plastics while on our vacation to Florida in 3 weeks (and hopefully other places thereafter).

Beth has lovely bamboo utensils in hers, but I decided to use what we already had in the house.  The glass straws I ordered the other day will go in the small pocket on the left.

Perhaps these pretty packages will help us do our part to slow down the plastic usage.

Straws

Thanks to Beth Terry of My Plastic Free Life, I got motivated today to buy glass straws to take with us on our trip to Florida in 3 weeks.  She also has inspired me to make holders for re-usable utensils that we can take with us (a slot for the straw will be there, too).  I'll post pictures when I have them made.

I bought the straws from Dharma Glass out of Mendicino, CA.  They have a wide variety and a lifetime guarantee. 

I also ordered bamboo toothbrushes this year and now feel much better about brushing my teeth.  The bamboo brushes are completely biodegradeable as is all the packaging that they come in. 

I don't know about you, but until fairly recently, I didn't ever think about drinking straws, plastic utensils or toothbrushes.  But now I think about such things all the time.  Think of all the plastic toothbrushes that go into our landfills.  Okay, they're small, but a lot of small things can make a big mess.  I read somewhere today (the Dharma Glass website as a matter of fact) that McDonald's sells 52 million meals each day - and apparently each meal goes out with a plastic straw.  Just think about that for a minute.

Our trip to Florida is going to be a challenge with regards to lessening our plastic use, but I'm for sure going to try.  Wish me luck.

Great-Grandma's China

I finally got my great-grandmother's china out of the basement and emptied 4 boxes that have been sitting packed in the basement for 4 1/2 years!  I have to admit that I'm not getting rid of much that was in those boxes.  But I did get it all put away in my sideboard and china cabinet.  So now it's on display, can be used, and is no longer taking up space in the basement.

The sideboard with Great-Grandma's china right where it should be.

The China Cabinet with new additions.

While I'm at it, I'll also show you this piece that was given to me (along with this gorgeous china cabinet) by our dear friend and old neighbour, Linda.  This piece is a collectible (not worth a lot of money, but I like it) and dates 1890-1920:

Those last two pictures were for Marie :)

Anyhow, in going through these 4 boxes as well as the stuff I've already gone through, I do realize that my environmental tendencies are  making me reluctant to get rid of things.  I'm always looking for some way to re-use or re-purpose something and I don't like excessive garbage.  So it's really hard to throw things out if I think there's even the possibility of using it in the future.  This I must get over.  If I'm not going to use it for sure, I need to get it out of the house.  It's a careful balance.  I'm attempting to strike it.

Mad at Myself

I just realized something.  I may come across as mad at everyone else because of the plastic problem out there.  But the fact is that I'm part of the problem and the real anger is at myself.  Well, and other people, too.  Because, let's face it, I'm not responsible for ANY of the Tim Horton's lids or Wendy's plastic cups that I see regularly on the street in my town.  But I am responsible for my part.  And that is the part I can change. 

So instead of coming off caustic and potentially alienating my readers (the few of you who are out there), what can I do to really make a change in the world? 

Maybe this might be a start:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Get-the-plastic-bag-out-of-the-cereal-box/173200019391677#!/pages/Get-the-plastic-bag-out-of-the-cereal-box/173200019391677

Help me out with this new page.  Maybe we can get people to think!

My Utensil Drawer - or how bad I am at refusing single-use plastics

Okay, you all know that I really don't like single use plastics.  When I end up getting them, I always keep them.  I try to either reuse as often as possible (until they break) or recycle them.  Yesterday I spilled flour into my utensil drawer.  In cleaning it out I realized that we are really falling down on the "not taking single-use plastics" front.  I'm ashamed of myself.  Maybe I should just throw them out so the proof doesn't exist.  But I'm not the "ostrich with her head in the sand" type of person.  I'd rather do better.

Just some of the plastics in our drawer

- there were several more Dairy Queen spoons,

but they had hit the recycling before I took the picture

(you really can only re-use so many long-handled spoons)

First and foremost, plastic straws in most cases are unnecessary (unless you are an invalid - in which case, I remember paper bendy straws from my childhood.  They got a bit mushy, but they still worked).  As are the god-damned plastic lids that come on the takeout cups.  Really, folks.  You don't need the pop in the first place, and if you do, please bring your own lidded cup, order your pop without a lid and pour it in (don't get me wrong, I'm not perfect.  I'm responsible for a few lids this year, but I feel guilty about it).  The damned things are all over the place and are just horrible.  The lids, at the very least, can be recycled (how many times do you take them home and put them in the recycling?  I know some of you do) but as I will continue to say, recycling is not a good solution.  We are used to paper, glass and metal recycling, where the material is broken down and re-formed in the same chemical state.  Plastics don't work that way.  Plastics are "down-cycled" - which means that each time plastic is recycled (if they actually make it to be recycled and aren't dumped or burned in China somewhere!), it is reformed into a different (and less-recyclable) type of plastic.  Plastic can only be recycled once or twice, and then it truly is landfill or waterway fodder.  And only 3.5% of all plastics is actually recycled - you know the plastics that you drop off on your curbside or at the recylcing depot - absolutely NO guarantee that they will be recycled into anything!

Back to straws - no matter how much I hate straws, somehow I forget to ask for a drink without one.  And I end up with dozens of straws in my house that I don't want.  And I still have a package of plastic straws (that came in an un-recyclable plastic box from Ikea) from my pre-plastic-hate days.  They should last us the rest of our lives.  So, just like taking my own plastic bags to the grocery store, I simply must remember to ask for no straw!!  If you're out with me, remind me!

And the last point of today's rant - we got some really scookum plastic utensils one day - nice solid ones that look very much like they might be compostable, but they aren't.  They do have a lovely recyclable symbol on them though:

Just a note on this, however.  Unless the recyling symbol has a number and a code attached to it, it CANNOT be recycled.  Unless the type of plastic is specified, there is no way to recycle it.  This symbol it hokum!  It looks good, but it is a cheap, under-handed way of making you think it's recyclable when it's not.
You can buy lovely bamboo and metal utensil sets that you can take with you when you go out.  You can also keep those skookum, non-recyclable utensils in your purse (or computer bag, man-purse, whatever) for those times that you need them.  We're headed to DisneyWorld in a month, and I'm seriously considering having a little emergency fast food pack with all the necessary utensils, etc. to maybe help us reduce our waste a bit.  (Wonder how heavy a ketchup bottle is?)

And if you still consume water from plastic water bottles, I beg you to please buy a metal bottle and re-fill it from the tap. 

Okay.  That's my plastics rant for today --- thanks for humouring me.  If we could all try not to use single-use plastics, we really would help the world ... if only a little bit.

http://ecosalon.com/is-single-use-plastic-on-its-way-out/

http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20081214-OPINION-81214008

http://ward2guelph.wordpress.com/2007/04/26/single-use-plastic-water-bottles-has-their-time-has-come/

The Boy's Room

Cleaning out the house consists mostly of going through the stuff I've collected over the years and dealing with MY issues regarding that stuff - some are more deeply ingrained than others.  But like all parents, my habits have been learned by my child.  And yesterday it was my turn to face that. 

The following pictures are not easy to look at (I say tongue in cheek, because it's just a messy room).  It is a little embarrassing, actually, that his room got THAT messy:

Should I get into the fact that I HATE plastic and think that our children are inundated with so much crap that they really don't know how to appreciate it??  I might get into that ... but not here today.

Today I want to mention that I spent 6 hours in Daniel's room cleaning it.  I didn't remove many of the books or toys, but I did get rid of a lot of garbage.  And Daniel didn't even dive into the garbage bag to save it.  He seemed relieved.  Loved the fact that his room was clean and immediately wanted to play with his Dad in his room.  As I write, he is upstairs in bed playing on his GameBoy.

Maybe, if I get rid of more of my stuff - and deal with my issues - he'll have a better chance of not being on an episode of "Hoarders" when he gets older.

Now, why do I keep things?  Good question - and let me preface it by saying that I know I'm not abnormal (and apologizing if I'm repeating myself, which I do more of nowadays).  I don't have any more crap than the average person.  It's just that I've gotten to the point where it's bogging me down and I don't want to be there any more.  So, why have I kept things?  Well, there are different reasons.  I think I felt that if I didn't keep my grandmother's stuff, I wasn't showing my love for her.  My emotions were tied up in stuff.  Somewhere, somehow, I realized that this wasn't the case.  I don't have to keep all of my grandmother's stuff to show my love for her.  I love her, she knows this (wherever her soul may be) and I can move on.  Stuff is stuff.  It's not love.  And she won't be upset with me for not keeping it all, because once you are no longer of this material world, the material stuff doesn't matter any more.


The other reason I hang onto things (books, in particular, but also other stuff) is because I might NEED it someday.  I might want to reference that book again, or read it again.  And the truth of the matter is that I rarely re-read that book.  And the ones I do want to re-read, have usually disappeared (now where DID that copy of "Eat, Pray, Love" end up?)


I hang on to other stuff, too - I have a box full of candle holders.  And I never use them.  I have very few pairs of shoes, but several of them I haven't worn in more than 5 years.  So why do I keep them?  Because I think that maybe I'll wear them sometime - maybe I'll have an outfit that needs something other than Birkenstocks.  But I never do.  So the shoes rot in the basement.


However, those are issues for another day and another post.  Today, my son's room is clean.  And I can revel in the fact that I got it done.  I don't know how long it will last - although now that he's 7, he's responsible for keeping it clean, on threat of losing his allowance - but for now, I feel better about it.

Family Treasures

It was 1993 when we moved my grandmother out of her house and into a home.  It was a hard time for all involved.  We gathered at her house one day and sorted through all the stuff she couldn't take with her.  Each member of the family who was there (all women, I believe) dealt with it in her own way.  I won't go into what other people did or felt, but for me ... well, I was the rescuer of all the stuff no one else wanted to take. 

My mother and my aunt chose the things that meant the most to them.  My sister, who was very close to my grandmother, rightfully got a couple of the nicest pieces of furniture, I don't remember what my my cousin chose to take.  I took the pieces that I had never been particularly fond of, but which no one else wanted.  I'm truly grateful for them now - the dressers, the beautiful cedar chest that grandma sat on for hours when she talked on the phone, the sideboard that sat in her tiny dining room holding all the good china, the old stereo stand, the tiny piece of furniture (table?) that we use every day now.  I'm so glad to have those things.  They are intrinsic parts of our lives and we won't be getting rid of any of them.  The other stuff I kept, however, is another story.

The teacup collection went a couple of years ago.  A woman that my husband works with is a teacup collector, so my mother and I each kept a few and gave the rest away.  That was my first step in giving away some of these connections to the past.  Today I dove into another group - the linens. 

My grandmother, like all organized housewives of her generation, had a collection of linens.  I suspect some of them were her mother's, some were her own that she made or bought.  But almost all of these tablecloths, napkins and doilies are either ripped or stained.  So I went through them all this morning.  I'm keeping about 5 pieces (and some hankies - actually, they may have been small tea napkins, but they are going to be hankies - let's see if I can cut down on the kleenex consumption) and sending the rest off.  The ones I'm keeping are the ones I really like - that are my style and that suit my house.  I had lost them amongst all the other pieces I didn't like.  I just treated them all as one collection that I didn't like, instead of finding the ones that I would use and love myself. 

It was a hard thing to do, sorting through them all.  I had the napkins to the side for us to use and then realized that, well, we have napkins.  I don't like throwing things out that we MIGHT use in the future.  It seems wasteful and not very eco-friendly.  But today it's about clearing the clutter, not what we might use years down the road.  We'll take care of the napkins we have, and if they wear out, I'll choose new napkins that will last and be used.  I think I would hesitate to use the ones my grandmother had.  And maybe someone else will use them well. 

I realized while I was sorting through these things that I have a tendency to anthropomorphize these objects.  I think they need to go to a good home, that someone needs to love them.  But they are objects, any meaning they had, any ties they had to people, died with my grandmother.  I don't know who made them, I don't know who loved them I only know that my grandmother owned them and kept them for a long time.  I hope that when I donate them somewhere that someone will USE them.  But they don't need to LOVE them.  And neither do I.  I love my grandmother.  I don't need to keep all her stuff to know that.  That's big for me.

P.S.  As a happy conclusion to this post, I am pleased to say that my friend Marie is going to take the linens.  She is a quilter who makes beautiful things and will undoubtedly turn these old linens into beautiful, useful things for other people.  Enjoy!

So here we go.

As I am not a particularly well-organized person, this is going to be a bit slap-dashed.  And I'm not sure of the speed this will go.  I'm quite motivated right now, but don't know if I'm going to maintain that level for long.

So, as far as the things I decided to turf before I started "before" pictures:

A few of the books I pulled off the shelf in my office.  There will likely be many more books to go.  Thing about books is - you can get them from the library - or get the information on line.  I have a few I'll hold onto forever, and some I want to keep long enough to re-read or refer to, but I've kept far too many for FAR too long.

How did we collect and keep so many undecorated crappy mugs??  We NEVER use them.  Why did I keep them?

Taking dishes out of the sideboard.  We actually do use these plates on occasion, but if I bring my great-grandmother's china up from the basement, I can use THAT when we have company and get rid of this old stuff - keeping the big serving plate and the noodle bowls, though.

Old dishes ready to go - along with some other stuff we don't use anymore. 

For instance, I've had this great hanging basket thing in my kitchen since my sister gave it to me 20 years ago.  I really like it.  It would be great to hold onions or something like that.  But mine just hangs from the ceiling and holds dust and a couple of old trivets I never use.  So why ....?

Next challenge: deciding where to take these things.  Any suggestions??

Inspired to get rid of the crap

A friend sent me this link on Facebook the other day.  It's an article about a family in California who decided they'd had it will all the stuff in their lives and they simplified.  I got inspired.

I've been railing at the mess in our house for some time now.  Let me clarify here - my husband is a very neat and tidy person.  His motto is "a place for everything and everything in it's place".  He compromised when he married me (in a very big way).  I'm a collector of crap, an untidy person who finds it hard to let go of anything.  Therefore, the mess in OUR house is entirely MINE (and our 7-year-old son - who has learned from the best).

So it's time.  I've worked through some issues that have kept me tied to a lot of the "stuff" in our house, I'm tired of being bogged down by crap, and I'm ready to purge.  As a coincidence, I've also recently come to the conclusion that being open and honest about stuff is the best way to live, so I'm sharing. 

I also thought this would be a good forum within which to discuss environmental issues (because reducing is a big part of saving the planet), so that is why I've decided to do this in a temporary and different blog than Rennaisance Woman.  This one will be a blog for the duration of the project (however long that lasts).  I will do before and after photos, post pics of some of the stuff I'm getting rid of (feel free to ask for anything that you'd liek), and basically take you through the process with me.

I'm not going to get rid of everything.  I'll keep my great-grandmother's china that has yet to be taken out of the box at this house, for instance.  But the extra set of plate that are sitting in a box in the basement and that we will never use again - they go. 

I have to admit that I've already started the process - only just minimally.  A few books are sitting on the floor ready to be donated, and I've take a few chotskies out of the china cabinet.  But other than that, this is a clean slate.

So here we go.  Wish me luck.  Photos and plans to follow.