As the temperatures started to go well below freezing at night earlier this week, I grabbed a few of the potted impatiens to bring inside. Some might make it through the winter. Others? Time will tell. I figure I have nothing to lose. This little pot is doing rather nicely on the kitchen window sill. I plopped it in Don’s vintage metal Ponderosa Ranch mug.
Even though we said we were not doing anything special for dinner yesterday, Don, while out and about, succumbed to the holiday atmosphere and ended up preparing a yummy vegetarian holiday meal. “Chicken” strips and sauteed green beans and onions, steamed green beans, mashed potatoes and veggie gravy, squash, jellied cranberry slices, salad, and stuffed mushrooms. I didn’t make biscuits – the only thing that was missing – but I’ll make them at Christmas.
And pumpkin pie, but we were too full to have any last night, so we’ll most definitely have some today.
While husband was foraging in the supermarket, I took on a task that I have been threatening to do for months. Sorting and purging in the craft/crap closet in the office. My one regret is that I didn’t get a ‘before’ shot. Believe me when I tell you that every available space on the shelves and on the floor was stacked high with STUFF. It was like those closets in cartoons where opening the door threatens to bring everything crashing to the floor.
In process:
The contents of the closet were everywhere: in the hallway, in the bedroom, to the left of this shot and in front of the desk. Six trash bags were put outside near the shed. At least 4 bags of things to donate are now living in front of the sideboard downstairs.
All of this is going to our storage space today; a big bin packed with things I want to save, an old computer that I don’t know what to do with (yes I know I can donate it, but it’s well and truly fried) and empty plastic storage boxes and wire bins. I cleared so much out of the closet that I don’t even need the storage boxes!
Huzzah!
I understand that this doesn’t look all that exciting, but it is to me! Do you see that long box on the top wire shelf? That’s the box holding the parts for the Fairfield dollhouse: sheets of wood, templates, instructions, etc. That has been sitting on the floor in front of my china cabinet for months. Every – and I mean every – time I scooted my desk chair away from the desk, I would hit that darned box. It was making me crazy. It now has a home on that shelf, along with the pieces I’ve already assembled.
On top of it is the wrapping paper used on my birthday presents. The dragonfly design is so pretty that I’m saving it.
I also had a minor creative burst. I figured out how to store this vintage lampshade that I got from Christie Repasy’s shop several years ago. It used to be on the floor lamp in the living room, but that lamp bit the dust. I realized I could tie it to the rod. That way it would be up off the floor and the fringe wouldn’t be smashed. Bingo!
Silly, I know, but this has been looming over me for a while, so getting it done is a big deal. I still have to tackle three other closets, but this one might be the only one I get done before I have to start my research and eventually leave for Hartford.
The desktop got a cleaning, as well as my craft worktop.
You most likely can’t see the difference, but I can.
I listened to great singers, past and present, singing the American Songbook on Jonathan Schwartz’s radio show via my Bose/bluetooth speaker and I was a happy camper.
Little Z is doing much, much better. He was, according to Meredith, at about 90% by yesterday afternoon. Bless his heart, that boy went through so much. Best Thanksgiving present there could be – Z’s homecoming. Did I ever tell you I was very ill when I was newly born? I turned blue and had complications that kept me in the hospital. I was born the week before Thanksgiving and I wasn’t released until Thanksgiving Day. For years and years, my father would say the blessing at the Thanksgiving table and would always add a thank you for my homecoming.
Don and I kept thinking about that as Little Z was released in time for Thanksgiving with his family.
Happy Friday.
God bless Little Z!! It is a great feeling to have a clean closet, now more room for other items! Ha!
Don’t say that! I want it to stay the way it is!
So happy to hear that little Z is doing so much better. A sick child is so scary. I applaud your reorganizing efforts. I have several closets that need a going through and purging. I don’t think it will happen until the first of the year but It will be done. I just might start putting out a few Christmas decorations today.
I have more to do, but I’ll be busy from mid-December through May, so I thought I should get at least one closet organized!
Your feast sounds delicious! I envy your organized “crap” storage. I have a big mess waiting for me in my studio…and waiting…and waiting…
More to go through here, as well!
Oh, and your pretty little impatiens blossom! Did you know that they stand for motherly love? Meaningful on so many levels. (I learned that when I was researching them for the Winston portrait.)
I didn’t know that. Thank you for telling me, Shanna!
Love hearing Little Z is improving everyday. I have a “crap closet” too…formerly known as a linen closet. That is on my to do list…I’m thinking after Christmas. And, it is mind boggling all that I have stored in there. Trust me…it’s definitely not linens! Keep on purging…it’s good inspiration for us all. Enjoy your day! ;)
Thank you, Donnamae. Don took everything to the storage facility today. I put the stuff to donate in my trunk, but haven’t schlepped it to Salvation Army yet.
Little Z doing so well is a testimony to the care and love he receives.
I have so many places like you closet that aren’t contained in a closet. It is overwhelming. My first job is to sort and pitch old clothes.
As for the computer Best Buy lets you bring in old computers, TVs, and other electronics. At least they do here. If you decide to try them call first so you don’t waist the trip for nothing.
We’ll consider that at some point, Trudy. I tried plugging it one more time and…nothing. Just the fan going on.
Fantastic news about Little Z. Just catching up on emails now, and my heart was in my throat when I read your Wednesday post, and then moved on to Thursday. I know there were a lot of readers breathing a collective sigh of relief! Best to the family…
Thank you so much, Lori!
Sounds like Don fixed you a delicious meal yesterday! Yum! The news about Little Z is wonderful. I pray he keeps on recovering and hopefully, there will be no more seizures ever! I need to rid my closet of clothes I can no longer wear and donate them to someone who can. If I can just get the motivation to work on that, it probably wouldn’t take too long. But after a houseful of company yesterday, I think I just need to rest for a day or so.
He did. It was a delicious dinner!
Clothes closet needs to be sorted here, too. And my dresser drawers. And the closet in the den. And the very tiny coat closet. Yikes!
Such good news about your nephew. He and your sister are so lucky to have encountered each other.
Here, the city recycling center accepts electronics. That’s something you might check on. The Best Buy option is a good one too.
We’re in a small town, and I don’t know if our recycling facility accepts that sort of thing. I don’t think they do.
Thanks, Margaret!
Here in California, Goodwell with take old computers and their staff take them apart and sell the parts and it provides jobs for the handicapped.
Good idea, Mary. I’ll check that out!
My comment should read Goodwill, not Goodwell. Sorry for the error.
Don’t worry – I knew what you meant!
Kudos for getting started on your closet cleaning! I’m fortunate to have e-cycle events regularly in my town, including two a year at the small shopping area near me. I’ve brought printers, computers, mice, wires, phones, etc, even the odd metals, like nails and screws that one inevitably finds but they don’t go with anything! Sometimes schools hold e-cycle pick ups as fund raisers. If you do get rid of your computer, make sure you open it up and pull out the hard drive yourself. Then smash the hard drive to ensure no one gets your info. You can bring your computer to a computer repair shop for them to take the hard drive out for you, but there would probably be a charge.
Thanks, Wendy. It’s now in our storage space. We have another old computer in the shed…someday we’ll deal with all of it. Someday – I sound like Scarlett O’Hara!
So glad to get the good news about little Z! Thought about him numerous times throughout the day yesterday. Delighted to hear that he got home on Thanksgiving and is recovering well. I bet in the future his family will be making a Thanksgiving prayer very similar to the one your own Dad made for years. Our family had a great day too. My youngest sister hosted this year – the sister with the seriously-overgrown hospitality gene. She LOVES to cook & entertain and this year, she roasted TWO turkeys, one of them just for leftovers!! Isn’t that wild? I guess maybe when you grow up in a big family with 5 older sibs you just can’t help but think along those lines. We were well-warned to bring containers, and we all went home with extra everything. In my case I think I have enough for at least 3 additional meals [including desserts]. A really really nice treat! Have a great weekend… 🍁
#ThisIsNotNormal
It sounds like you had a great day with your family, Janet!
Claudia, remember, in an aside, I’d told you I was tidying up (SO not the right word; it’s called major shifting/rearranging, not really decluttering…but that’s the mess when you’re trying to live in a house that’s in the middle of home improvements/remodeling… w.e.l.l. …crunch time; it took a lot longer than we anticipated to be ready for that appointment (today)…didn’t help that I had a doctor’s appointment every darn day up to Thanksgiving, which robbed me of HOURS I needed back at home…so, what did we REALLY do on the holiday? Worked ourselves to the bone and almost had to pull an all-nighter to make the house look good enough and inside for photos. Not easy when you live with paint cans, ladders, sawhorses, detached doors, taped-over (for protection) floors, etc. (And living a life out of packing boxes, never fully moved in until this project and that project are completed.) But it’s done now; the photo guy is here and gone. I ache all over from too much out-of-norm stretching/bending/lifting.
But, to my point, what I learned…or AGAIN learned from this sort of endeavor (not unlike what you discover when you move and you can’t stand to pick up one more object to be packed or, after the move, find a place for)…is that I have to quit clipping things out of mags/newspapers, and printing off stuff from the web. I am buried in paper. Which means, and that’s just the paper, months ahead of…indeed…sorting; shredding; filing. I’m also kicking myself… AGAIN …for ever buying another Christmas tree ornament. And, oh, wow, do I need to go through my clothes. We don’t have an inch of spare hanging-closet space…and I don’t enjoy purging perfectly-good clothes which still have ample wear ahead; but, like all the professional clutter organizers will refer to (although I think one guy coined the phrase…what was his name {?}..Peter Walsh [he’d had a show on TV once] ), “It’s all too much.” And somehow I have to cure myself of buying new books…or at least tone it down a little. One of the things which will be, for me, a hedge against gathering/consuming in 2017, other than MONEY (and needing to save for retirement), will be to simply deal with what I already have which, frankly, is enough…and to just stay out of stores, brick & mortar AND online. It’ll have to be really super-duper, extra-special for me to bite. I have a friend whose husband cured himself (temporarily) of buying books by making a pact that he’d never buy another until he’d read every single book in his home library…and it’s taken him awhile! In my quest since young to make a comfy ‘nest’, I’ve over-spent and over-accumulated…but then just held on to too much of it; even things like linens and towels. Seriously, just how many towels does one person need?!!
I so understand. When you suddenly have to clean everything up, you realize just how much stuff you have. Likewise with moving. Every time I’ve moved in my life, especially since marrying, I’ve ended up chucking out so many things I just couldn’t handle packing. Either that, or I gave them away. Half the clothes in my closet should be tossed. I’m only hanging on to them for sentimental reasons; I never wear them. I’m usually a jeans/t-shirt/sweater girl. And then there’s all the stuff in the den closet. And the shed…that will require renting a dumpster and throwing everything in there. I’m pretty good about books. I buy them, yes, and I get a lot of them via book reviewing, but eventually I box them up – as I did a few weeks ago – and donate them to the library.
We do need new towels, though. Ours need replacing!
Had a chuckle about the towels. I’d send you some of mine (tee hee) except that I just bundled them up for the local pet rescue organization who are doing a blanket/towel drive for the shelter. Pet babies need blankies for the colder nights now.
Anyway, glad to know I’m not alone…but, you know, you read enough about it only to realize that we all have too much stuff. I repeat this too much…but often go back to that line in the movie “Boyhood” with Patricia Arquette where she looks around her kitchen…I think this was how it went…and says, essentially to herself, “I spent my whole life accumulating all this stuff, only to have to get rid of it.” Sigh. Downsizing. I was thinking yesterday of my very first apartment…brand-new, just-built building (with a view!)…and how happy I was…with a $50 secondhand loveseat (I still have it), Mom & Dad’s old upholstered club chair, camp stools as seating for the secondhand kitchen table, my bedroom set from age 8 and a desk my dad made for me (out of an old door). The place had harvest-yellow/gold shag carpeting (what can I say; it was the 1970s); same color for the frig (which you had to defrost). But what I had was manageable and it was all I needed. I kept saying to my husband this week, “We need a bigger house.” And he, voice of reason, would respond, “No, we need to purge.” He’s right. But I’ve done it so many times! I have a friend who upgraded, oh about 20 years ago, to a pretty-large home (5 bedrooms, four baths, two levels) although it was just the two of them and I remarked at the time, “How will you ever fill this house up?” A couple of years later, opening a closet, as you described, to where a tennis racket fell on her head while I was standing there, she said, “And you were saying, Vicki?” Yep, within a couple of years, they’d filled it up…and they’re not even big gatherers! I just think, with the smaller homes, you’ve really got to say to yourself, “One in, one out.” It’s so much worse in a small home when there’s too much stuff because what ordinarily would NOT be, soon becomes instant clutter.
I loved all my apartments, some more than others, and none of them had adequate storage. You’re right – as you move up in size, you just accumulate more!
I know how good it feels to get “stuff” cleaned out of a certain spot – good for you! And so glad to hear Little Z was able to come home just in time for Thanksgiving. As far as your old computer, you might want to take a look on earth911.com. If that site doesn’t help, then definitely call your township, city, or village. They should be able to help you.
It’s now stashed in our storage space, Melanie, but I will definitely consider that in the future. Thanks!
Glad to hear the good news about LB! A friend of mine had a huge impatiens plant indoors, so if you’ve got the right light, I’ll bet yours will even grow. Nice work on the clean up, too! I need to follow your lead. BTW, that’s a most impressive spider plant near your desk!
I’ve overwintered them before, Judy, so I’ve got my fingers crossed!
That was a teeny-tiny spider plant that I bought last year to brighten up my apartment when I was working in Hartford. It’s doing really well!
Cleaning and organizing is something I definitely need to start working on in the boys’ room since they are both coming home next month. We gave away their bunk beds so now I need to get a daybed (we already have a sleeper sofa in there). Want to paint, too. My biggest problem is purging. What to do with everything? I’d really like to get rid of so much. I’m so very happy that Z-Man is doing much, much, much better. Hugs and blessings, Tammy
I know – purging is tough. Do you throw things out? Do you donate? Where does everything go?
So glad your boys will be home for a visit, Tammy!
That’s the difficult part. I hate just throwing stuff out. Kuwait is such a small country and when I think about the amount of trash created here, and the fact that it all goes to a landfill in the desert, I just cringe. People don’t think about where all the trash created has to go. It’s overwhelming. Donating isn’t always easy either. Businesses come and go. I’d like to send clothes to Syria but there has been difficulty with some organizations getting the items to the refugee camps. I’m going to have to get on the ball soon though. December 1st is tomorrow. Unbelievable!
I understand. We really have to think about what we put in the trash. It’s all so difficult. I’d love to send some clothes to Syria, as well. If you learn anything about how to do that, I’d love to know, Tammy.
Isn’t it wonderful how a good reorganizing and clean out, particularly of a closet where everything seems to multiply, can positively energize and make you almost euphoric!…..Dianne
Euphoric is indeed how I felt, Dianne! Thank you!
I hear you! The Friday after Thanksgiving, we commenced the ‘big event’ to move my 91 year old mother in with us…we spent 2 1/2 weeks going through her condo to sort and compile a give away pile, a throw away pile, a keep pile and a small to-store pile. It was so sad to see her face as she had to make the choices…so I just made them, and she was thankful for that. Thankfully we had both our sons, our son-in-law, two grandsons and my husband to do the hauling and loading of the UHaul I had rented…my oldest daughter and my Mom and I did all the packing and labeling of the boxes and furniture. It was a task, but much needed as she has been ‘slipping’ some with her judgement and thinking, and physically also. Now, she is safely and comfortably established in her own bedroom with her beloved bedroom set and some of her favorite things. I had to just harden myself and purge for her…mostly when she was not there to see the things go. It just had to be done, and we are so blessed that we are here for her, and she is right here for us to ‘watch’ over her.
That’s a lot of sorting and, of course, it marks a big change for your mom. That isn’t easy and it can get so emotional!
My grandmother had to move in with my parents for the same reasons. I know it was hard for her, but it kept her safe. Good for you, Laura!