Day 17-How Many Thermal Mugs Do You Really Need

We all know that I might have a longstanding love affair with coffee. We go way back coffee and I. Back to nursing school. Back to working the night shift. We had a break up for a while because of that whole birthin’ babies thing but we reconnected and have been together ever since.

And over the years we have collected a vast number of these.

Thermal coffee mugs.

You know how it is. You go on a trip, you forget to bring your favorite mug, you need coffee, you buy another mug.

Or you get a mug as a “thank you” for something. Or as a promotional gift.

Or they just breed in the cupboard like rabbits.

These are such useful little suckers. So, so useful. In the morning, after the elixir is done brewing and is all hot and lovely and fragrant they keep it just that way for much longer than a regular coffee mug might.

They have been exclusively dedicated to the holding of coffee and they have taken their job seriously. I have other thermal mugs dedicated just to hot tea. You cannot make tea in a thermal coffee mug due to the imprinted coffee memory that the mugs carry. The tea will always taste faintly of coffee.

And to quote Gollum, “Not very nice indeed”

We love our coffee mugs but we have too many of them. This is but a portion of the mugs that are taking that eternal walk out to the garage for reassignment to another person. I have culled all the ones that are missing a top and those that do not fit in the cup holders of either Coco (my car) or Fonzi (HHBL’s car). It is essential for the coffee mug to fit properly in the car.

We have walked a long way together but now it is time to say goodbye. We have kept back two thermal mugs a piece.

I think that will be plenty.

Day 16–A Bunch of Miscellaneous Junk

You know we all have them. The junk drawer. The junk box. The junk closet.

And in those places there are all the odd and strange items that clutter up our lives. The things don’t really have a place but we don’t yet have the heart to say…

Bye Bye.

Or we just didn’t realize they were there.

Today is a collection of such items.

Wow, now that is an exciting group of things. Be still my beating heart. And it really isn’t a large number of things but every little bit counts.

If I can develop an entire post around cleaning out Post-it notes then I should have no problem here.

The white basket was something I used for a long time to hold plastic silverware when we would entertain in the summer. But I have another “system” now and this thing has been hanging around the pantry for several years so….

Bye bye.

The Tricky Fingers game was something that the progeny played with, briefly, when they were little. It has followed us on our moves. And no, I am not going to keep it for when the grandchildren arrive. I will buy something else when that time comes.

Bye Bye

I am not sure why I purchased a box of fabric crayons. They have never been used and the project that they might have been attached to has long exited my ever cluttered cranium.

Bye bye

Now the bandanas are sort of nostalgic. I have had those since I was pregnant with Cartoon Girl. I think I knotted them and wore them around my neck. I am sure there is a picture of it somewhere. When I find it I am sure that it will be included in a Pictures From The Crypt.

Bye bye.

The Bosco Salt Codfish box I have had forever. Most likely I purchased it at the local flea market at The Cottage. I used to store things in it. What things I do not remember. It has been in the basement for a long time, unused, unloved. And so…….

Bye Bye.

Have a great weekend everyone. Clean out a drawer. Go through your shoes. Throw out or donate something.

You will feel better for it.

Day 15–Do Post-It Notes Breed in the Cupboard?

Hello, my name is Debbie.

I am a……. Post-it Note hoarder.

Oh how I love them. I have always loved them. The possibilities are endless.

Note writing. Reminders to self. Blog ideas. Band names. Quotes.

My father is a physician and I grew up in the heyday of The Detail Man. The Detail Man was the source of all pens and note paper and sticky notes in our household. Before I was ever old enough to even know WHAT birth control was I knew the names….because they were emblazoned on all our note paper and sticky notes.

And then I grew up and had a home of my own and progeny of my own and my father would often say when we visited,

Do you need any pads of paper and pens?

YES! YESYESYESYESYES.

The progeny were never without plenty of paper to doodle on and write lists on and draw faces on. They came home with their own bags of paper and pens. And with every new house I packed up and moved the ever growing box full of post-it notes/pads of paper.

And that box didn’t just contain the stash that I got from Papa. Oh no I continued to buy.

And then they introduced “Super Sticky Post-it Notes”.

And I was doomed.

Not just one shelf full of post-it notes. TWO shelves full. And these are just the “generics”. There is also this………

This desk drawer is full of “the good stuff”.

I could be a Post-it Note dealer on some street corner.

And so I have decided that no one person could possibly use all these post-it notes in one life time. So I have cleaned out.

This picture really doesn’t convey how many of these that I have eliminated from the store house. I weeded out all the packs that didn’t have “Post-it” written on the back because to be honest all of those have lost their stickiness over the years (and I do mean years) and no longer do what they are intended to do.

I also eliminated any packs of stickies that came in the shape of female internal anatomy.

You may laugh but there were some.

And if the ad on the sticky took up half of the front then they were culled as well.

I fell so much lighter!

Oh, and lest you wonder. I DID NOT cull any of the good post-it notes. Those I love and SURELY I will use all of those up by the time I die. Or I will just give them to the grandchildren.

But I am not allowed to buy any more.

Day 14–Tea Anyone?

Everyone knows that I appreciate a good cup of coffee….or three.

And that every morning, whether I want to or not, I write a little “Elixir of Life” poem. I can’t seem to get off that train. People look for them and when they are late I get Facebook messages and tweets. But we are not here to talk about coffee, even as I sip some of the delicious brew.

We are here to talk about tea. Specifically tea boxes.

Did you even know that tea used to come in boxes and not those little tea bags. Well it did, and still does for that matter.

There was a time when I did not drink coffee. Not a drop. Not a sip. I know it is hard to believe but it is true. I drank hot tea instead. Hot tea with sugar and milk. Growing up it was skim milk {{{shudder}}} but now it is whole milk. And of course because I DRANK tea I must also have a collection of tea boxes.

Doesn’t everyone?

I collected them here and there, never paying more than $2 for any of them. They aren’t of great value. I actually tried to sell a bunch of them at a garage sale several years ago, priced reasonably. They all decided to stay with me despite my pleading with people to take them home. So now I am forcefully ejecting them.

I have “culled the tea box herd” so to speak. I have kept several of my favorites and have actually put them to work holding………loose leaf tea.

What a surprise!!!

And the rest of the tea boxes.

Bye bye.

Day 13- The Easter Bunny Left His Junk At My House

There was a time, not that long ago, when I decorated for every holiday.

I decorated a lot.

Every surface was covered. Filled.

Taken over.

I am not sure how HHBL stood it. And stood it without really saying anything. He is a man who likes his desk to be neat and orderly so to speak. I drive myself crazy with thinking about the clutter.

Just add it to the list of things I have done and continue to do that makes him crazy. The list is so very long.

But I digress.

I have one place where I put a few things that make up a small collection that has some meaning. I restrict myself to that small space of real estate. And when I decided that this was the course I was going to take then I had to go through all the things that I had collected for various holidays and celebrations and collections.

This week it was Easter.

The bunnies are going so long, see you later (not). But lest you think I will be bereft of bunnies never fear.

There are more.

And I have this feeling that even though the remaining bunnies are all stuffed, they possess some properties that give them the ability to multiply despite their obvious stuffedness.

And of course there are bunny books to go with.

There are PLENTY more bunny books that I kept back. They seem to have the same multiplication properties as the stuffed bunnies.

Say bye bye to the bunnies.

Oh, and the whole decorating only one small place in the house and keeping all other surfaces clean thing?

You so know that rule DOESN’T apply when Christmas roles around.

So. Doesn’t. Apply.

Day 12 - Binders!

Ah binders.

Not the binders spoken of in this clip from one of the funniest movies of all time, The Trouble With Angels. If you advance to around 5:40 in the video you will see the kind of binders that they are talking about. Of course if you want to watch the entire video then go right ahead.

And if you want to watch the entire DVD then come on over because I certainly have a copy.

But I digress.

Today I mean these kind of binders.

I do not know how it happened but we seem to have a large number of binders. This is but a portion of the binders that we have purged over the last 18 months or so. There was our large supply of binders here at Chez Knit. And then there was a vast army of binders that came home from at least one office that we cleaned out. Every time I turn around there seemed to be more of them. Binders in the closets. Binders on the shelves. Binders in office.

I am convinced that they breed in the basement and then as fast as we get rid of them they replace themselves.

My own personal version of office supply tribbles.

Think of all the moola that we have spent over the years on binders. No wonder Staples and Office Max love us.

And since HHBL and I are purging and scanning and trying to be as paperless as possible we couldn’t possibly need all these binders. Especially as some of these are absolutely gigantic.

And so….

Bye bye.

Day 11–But I Am Sure I Can Fix That!

I have absolutely no idea where this next item came from. Or for that matter when it arrived here at Chez Knit.

A chair. A red chair which is good. But also a broken chair. At one point I had the piece that was broken off I think. But I am not too sure about that.  I am sure that I had visions of wood glue and repairs.

That never happened.

It is well and truly broken.

Once upon a time a bear sat upon it. Way up high on top of the shelving in the Family Room. It was blank space up there and something needed to fill it up so I put a silk plant and this chair with a bear sitting upon it up there.

And there it sat for a bunch of years.

As you can see I didn’t get up there at all much to dust.

And then Joyce the Stager arrived, took one look at the poor bedraggled plant, the chair and the bear and said…

That ensemble surely does not go with the felling that I am trying to impart to your home. I can use that plant somewhere…after you dust it….but the bear and the chair have to go.

And so down to the bowels of the basement it went. Being moved from one place to another. Languishing in all it’s dustiness. The bear that went with the chair is in the box of bears to be donated. And I haven’t missed either one.

So…..

Bye Bye.

Have a great weekend everyone. Clean out a closet. Go through a drawer.

You will feel so much better.

Day 10–Tool Hoarder?

Tools. Who doesn’t love tools.

I mean the kind of tools that you build things with and fix things with. Sheesh! Get your minds out of the gutter.

As I was saying. I come from a long line of people who love a well crafted screwdriver or hammer or nail gun. I don’t have a nail gun but I think I would like one someday. I have a circular saw. I have two cordless drills. I have an electric drill. I have all sorts of tools. I have seven hammers.

That one still confuses me because I have no idea how I amassed seven hammers.

But I decided recently to clean out and clean up my tool space. And some things had to go.

I used to store them in this nifty container on wheels. Only this thing was really a pain in the bahookie.  Too heavy, too bulky, too clunky, too whatever. And so I am saying bye bye to it.

I am not a tool belt kind of girl. Unless HHBL is wearing it that is. And if he was wearing that AND one of his suits along with the starched white shirt and that fab pink tie.

Lord. Have. Mercy.

Ummmmmmm, where was I? Oh yes, tools.

I already have a pair of wire clippers and I have TWO other containers of drill bits just like this one and I have NO idea what those bolts are for. They came home with me when I cleaned out a former work space at one of HHBL’s companies. Bye, bye.

A girl really only needs one pair of tin snips. I already have a much nicer pair….of tin snips. And the drill bits….I have a boat load of those in every size. Bye, bye.

I have no idea why I would ever have purchased, let alone needed, 15 toggle bolts. 15!!!! What was I thinking of hanging from the ceiling? Bye, bye.

I feel so much better now.

And I am keeping all the hammers than you very much. A girl can never have too many hammers.

Day 9–Not Sure What I Was Thinking

Today’s item isn’t all that big by itself. But it represents one of those forks in a person’s life road that they should have put more thought into before blithely taking.

First the picture

What seems like many a year ago, but was really only around 2003, I discovered the world of scrapbooking. And yes, it really is an entire world. If you are not a “scrapbooker” you won’t really get that. It can be all consuming.

And I was a total and complete newbie. I hadn’t ever made a scrapbook. I hadn’t even really seen one. All I did was ask a friend, who happened to be a Creative Memories consultant, what scrapbooking was.

And in no time I was somehow signed up to be a consultant. It was around the time that Shoe Queen went off to Jr. Hi, I finished up at a job that I had held for 6 years and loved and I was looking for something to fill that hole. And I thought this might be it. HHBL knew it wasn’t and he questioned my starting this but I was all Damn the money spent! Full Speed Ahead!

But I was wrong. I am so not made to be a consultant. Not that there is anything wrong with being a Creative Memories consultant. It is just that I was so not good at it. I did not have what it takes to sell people stuff. Or at least sell enough stuff to make my quarterly minimums without having to make up the difference myself. When you have to make up the difference your self at first it doesn’t seem like a problem because you might not have all that many scrapping supplies yourself. But after a while you end up with a lot of paper and stickers and tools that you might use….in about 100 years of scrapping.

And then there are the bags that you think you need to carry the scrapping stuff to other peoples houses where you all spread it all out and cut paper and talk scrapping and look at pictures and secretly think that everyone else is doing it “better” than you and…..

Never mind.

I have cleaned out my scrapping area several times. Have given away some of the stuff. And this bag represents the next round of clean out.

But there is still so much. I keep reminding myself that I will never have to buy another piece of paper EVER. So if you see me in the scrap book section at Michaels make sure you tell me to step away from the paper.

BarbN – continue to be RUTHLESS! I feel your pain about cleaning out books. It is one of the most difficult things that I ever have to do. Books are my friends.

Day 8–Teddy Bear Picnic

Well, I missed posting on Monday. Worry not that I missed a day of clean out. LookLeap and I spent 3+ hours cleaning out and expanding in the garden. I was just beat.

Now back to the clean-up.

I have long been a collector of teddy bears. It all seemed to start with the fact that I attended a university that had a bear for it’s mascot.

AAAAAAAAAAAA SIC’EM BEARS!

Sorry, that only means something if you are a Baylor grad.

And there might also have been the fact that as a child I played the song “Teddy Bear’s Picnic” over and over and over and over again. Mimi was probably sick of it.

The bear population that followed me around seemed to grow and grow as the years went by. I was running my very own bear shelter. Big, small, stuffed, china. The collection grew and grew and grew.

And then I got married. And the collection came with us when we moved to The Frozen Northeast Ohio. And they lived on our bed. And they reclined on the couch. And they took up surfaces and gathered dust.

One day HHBL looked at me and said….

Don’t you think that you might have too many bears? It has come to the point where it is them or me.

No I don’t thank you very much! I love you but I love the bears too.

I would like you to reconsider the bear population. They are eating us out of house and home!

He might not have been that stern but the intent was clear. And I looked around and decided that maybe he had a point. So I cleaned out half the bears and gave them to someone who was excited to have them come into her home.

But that didn’t mean that I didn’t continue to collect bears. No, I still brought some into Chez Knit, not as many but they still came. There was Parker, who I picked up from the side of the road. There was ZhaZha who is made of mink. There was Kirkwall who decided to come home with me after I met him in Kirkwall, Orkney Islands, UK.

Now has come the time to clean out some bears. I have kept all that decided to leave their home countries and come to live with me after various travels. I have kept bears that have a personal meaning to me. But that left a box of bears that are ready to go to a new home. They are all excited to find new owners who will love them and give them hugs and kisses and cookies and take them on picnics.

Bears are like that.

Day 7–A Perfectly Good Cooler

Remember I mentioned earlier in the week about the “garbage day repurposing” that is a tradition in my family.

Well there is also a tradition of picking perfectly good things up from the side of the road tradition too. The progeny may remember the time that we were zooming along the highway when I saw a lovely stuffed bear along the side of the road. I got off at the next exit, got back on the highway going the opposite direction, got off at the next exit, went back the way I had been going, pulled off to the side of the road and picked up the bear. His name is “Parker” and he still lives with me.

Today’s item is a perfectly good item that fell off of a truck in front of my house earlier in the summer.

Our across the street neighbors were having their roof replaced and the different tradesmen had their trucks parked along the street. And one day, after everyone left there was this cooler, laying on it’s side between my mailbox and my driveway.

Lonely.

Rejected.

Very, very dirty.

But I figured that who ever the owner was they would realize that it was missing, know where they had lost it and come back for it so I left it right where it was.

For two days.

And no one came back and I couldn’t stand it’s cries of loneliness anymore so I brought it up to the house. It still had the remains of someone’s lunch in it (YUCK!) as well as a very wet, rather stinky and VERY dirty towel (DOUBLE YUCK!).

I dumped the food. I washed the towel and put it in the drawer where I keep “work towels”. And I left the cooler out by the garage. And frankly I then forgot about it for a while. I have the amazing ability to walk past something multiple times and just ignore it. I do that all the time with the dog hair elephants. The cooler sat there for about a month before I decided that I should wash it and see what I had. It is nice. It is small. It is as clean as I can get it. But I really don’t need it, we have a bunch of other coolers in multiple sizes and so, rather than allowing it into the house and then having to make a decision later on to donate it I am moving it directly into the growing mound of stuff that is going to VOA.

Have a great weekend everyone. Continue to clean out at least one thing a day. Aunt BeaN congratulations on cleaning off the plant shelf. Now go and tackle a closet.

If you are so inclined and want to share what you have cleaned out just shoot me an email.

Day 6–It’s Mine Mine Mine!

Let me tell you the tale of the plastic laundry baskets.

Once, many a year ago I had a whole bunch of these. Laundry baskets both small and large. And they were useful, oh so useful.

When we lived in this house, long  ago, there was a laundry chute that went from the second floor to the basement laundry area with a small door, mid way down the chute, that opened onto the 1st floor powder room. Here is not the time to tell the tale of what was thrown down the laundry shoot (cough, cough…the cat). Just know that the progeny were instructed to throw their dirty clothes, minus the cat, down the laundry chute. When the clothes were then washed, by moi, and folded, by moi, then they would be carried upstairs to each progeny in their own basket.

But now I do not have a laundry chute.

Nor do I have any progeny who live at home full time.

And I stopped doing their laundry when they each reached the 6th grade. I taught them how to do their OWN laundry.

And yet I still have the baskets.

When we were cleaning out the first time in preparation for trying to sell Chez Knit I had put the baskets out in the garage with a whole bunch of other stuff that was being donated. I put them there with some reluctance. I didn’t use them but we had walked the long road of having girls who produced a lot of laundry. We were bonded over the washing machine. But they were out there and I was OK with it.

And then LookLeap came over one day saw the baskets and asked, Are you getting rid of those cuz if you are then I might want them.

Immediately a light shone down on the baskets and they became as precious gold to me. I clutched them to my ample bosom and ran back into the house yelling…

NO! I am NOT getting rid of these. I NEED them. They are mine mine mine.

Well it might not have been that dramatic but I did say I wasn’t getting rid of them. I was like a small child with a toy that she didn’t really want or need but who, when confronted with someone else who wanted to use that toy, suddenly decided that it was something she just couldn’t give up.

I took those baskets back in the house. I put them back in the laundry room above the cabinets. And I didn’t even use them once in the year and a half since that conversation.

They are going to reside at LookLeap’s house down the road. A place where they should have been already if I wasn’t such a hoarding child.  They will be used. They will be happy. And I can come and visit occasionally.

Day 5–It Is Music To My Ears

HHBL and I like music. Who doesn’t. We have long been collectors of different forms of music.

Some of us (me) have a more eclectic taste in music. It is not uncommon for my playlists to contain a mixture of genre’s and songs. Pink’s Raise Your Glass might segue into Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini  (part two and part three. You  HAVE to listen to both. This is just sublime music) which might then lead to a spirited rendition of Dooley by The Dillards moving on to Showtunes. HHBL just shakes his head. If you think MY playlists are eclectic you should see the ones for Shoe Queen and Cartoon Girl!

But I digress. Music will do that to me. Cartoon Girl and I often exchange lines from musicals over Facebook. Last week it was various lines from You Did It  from My Fair Lady.

No one ever said that we were normal.

We have A LOT of CDs. Boxes and boxes and boxes of them. The pictures above are just a small portion. I found these in a box in a closet. And they are going bye bye. I have made sure that they are in my itunes (thank you Steve Jobs) and backed up to Carbonite. I know that the progeny have digitized what they wanted of these.

The problem for us has been what to do with the CDs. Do we have to keep them forever? Both HHBL and I have the ability to plug our ipod/iphones into the sound systems of our cars so we don’t need CDs there. And we don’t even have a CD player in the house I think. We have decided that they are something that we do not need to take with us when we go to the next residence. Hopefully over the winter we will be going through the other boxes and making sure that all the music is in itunes. And then the rest of the CDs will be making a journey to the library. They aren’t going to know what to do with all of those boxes!

So into the bag of items that will be donated to the library they have gone. A bag that is stored in the garage along with the ever growing pile of things to be donated.

A pile that is now slightly smaller as I am actually donating the Art Table to a friend. I know that she will put it to good use. And maybe I can visit occasionally.

Day 4–It Came From Someone’s Garbage, So What!

As I am so sure you can astutely tell, I got today’s item out of someone else’s garbage. Specifically someone in my very own neighborhood.

I have no shame.

Here is the item and then the story.

Our little town used to have a wonderful “Spring” tradition. At a certain time in the Spring, when your garbage day rolled around, you could put anything you wanted out on the curb for pick up. If you had a refrigerator you could put it out there. If you had remodeled the bathroom and had an old toilet to get rid of you could put it out there. And then it was every man for himself. If you saw that toilet and had a use for it then you could pick it up and take it back to your place and make a planter out of it…

Not that I would know anything about that mind you………

And so I was driving down the street, going who knows where, and there in the garbage was the wooden art table. Just waiting for me. A bit damp from having to sit out at the curb all night in the dew and the damp. Crying out to be used and not to be put out to pasture.

Screeeeeeeeeeech!

I slammed on the breaks, jumped out of the car, opened the back and stuffed the table in. Hoping all the while that none of my neighbors saw me.

And lest you think this is some anomaly on my part I have to tell you that I come from a long line of “Garbage Day Repurposers”. It is an art finely honed over years of practice. Just ask Mimi about the funeral flower arrangement baskets she scored many years ago.

For many years the table sat in the Family Room and was used as a large and rather unwieldy plant table. You can see all the water stains. And when Joyce the Stager saw it in the preparations for the sale that never happened you can just guess what she told us we needed to do with it. To the basement it was banished and there it has resided for 18 months. And I have come to realize that I haven’t missed it all that much.

And so to Volunteer’s of America it goes. Where it is hoping for another reincarnation as an art table. Or something.

Day 3–How Many Clothes Do I Really Need?

A bag of clothes. I thought to take a picture of each piece of clothing but then I got ahold of myself.

I know, a bag of clothes. Whoopie Do.  Deb don’t you have something more exciting to show us.

No I don’t.

OK, yes I do but not for today. And let me tell you, getting rid of clothes is a major thing for me, or at least it was in the past.

When HHBL and I got married I had A LOT of clothes. That poor boy got the very short end of the stick when it came to closet space. I got most of it and I didn’t even think twice about it. I had clothes for winter. I had clothes for summer. I had clothes for those in between times. When a different season rolled around it was a big thing to switch out the clothes.

And then I got pregnant and so we had to add MORE clothes to the already bulging closets.

My question to myself now is, how did I manage to wear that many different pieces of clothing? And how did I manage to amass them in the first place?

I have been cleaning out clothing for a long time now. And yet I can still manage to find enough things that I haven’t worn that I can donate a bag of clothing about 4 times a year. My usual rule is if I haven’t worn it within a full year then I most likely am not going to wear it so why should I keep it. That rule doesn’t cover everything but for the mundane every day things it certainly does. And since I have been about the same “size” for the last few years I don’t have “fat” clothes and “thin” clothes. I just have “Deb” clothes.

I live my life in jeans or shorts most of the time. I own some skirts. I own a dress or two for those times when I have to actually look nice. I get my shirts from Target. I get my jeans from the thrift store. I wear clogs. I knit my own socks.

I am MOTHER EARTH!

And most of the time…I don’t even have any makeup on. GASP!!

And so, the bag goes into the pile that is waiting for Volunteers of America to come and pick up.

Day 2–No I Am Not Keeping This

Oh the things that I seem to want to cling to even though I know I am never going to use them again!

I am sure that you will read that phrase more than once over the coming 100 days.

I bet my mother, Mimi, could tell you what this is and where it came from. This is a canister, minus the top, that I used to have sitting on my counter. It is part of a set of three canisters that I purchased from The Dollar Store back when that store was actually a fun place to shop. When you never knew what you might find on any given day and they weren’t trying to be a cheaper (and poorer) imitation of Wally Mart.  I had flour in the biggest one. I had sugar in this one. And I had salt in the smallest one.

Then we tried to sell Chez Knit. Joyce the Stager walked around the house, took one look at the canisters and said….. Well those will have to be packed away right now. They don’t go at all with the look that I am trying to achieve.

And of course, at that point in the process, I did what Joyce commanded. I did it with more than one grumble. I needed those! They held my flour and sugar and salt. I do a lot of baking. I needed them right in front of me. But I put the flour and sugar and salt in plastic containers with tight fitting lids and stored them in the pantry, out of sight. And I wrapped up the canisters and packed them away in a box, mourning their absence on my counter and fully intending to unpack them and refill them the moment the first chance arose.

And then a funny thing happened on the way to not selling the house.

I found that I liked having less things on the counter. And I found that I liked having the baking supplies stored in the pantry. An organized pantry points to an organized mind. That is my story and I am sticking to it.

And so, I have decided that the canisters have served their useful purpose and are ready to go to a new home. In fact they are already on their way.

They told me they were very excited about the new opportunity.

Day 1- The Lurvey Fruit Basket

First some pictures and then the story.

This is what I refer to as “my Lurvey Basket”. I think the reason for that is obvious. I have owned this little item since the early 1970’s. My Amsler grandparents lived for a time in Dousman, WI. That is a VERY small town outside of Milwaukee.

Very small.

My Aunt Kathy and Uncle Hank had a cottage up there, on Pretty Lake. One memorable summer I spent a number of weeks visiting the cottage with my grandparents. I read old Life magazines. I read books. I dabbled my feet in the “lake” that was really only a few feet deep. I ruthlessly dug up clams. I made popovers with Grandma. I did not watch TV as I don’t even think they had one there. This was long before computers or the internet but I don’t remember ever being bored. I had my own little room where late at night I read or more likely laid on the bed and listened to “Mystery Theater” on my little transistor radio…AM only. Every morning Grandpa Amsler fried himself a hamburger and made instant mashed potatoes for his breakfast (no one ever said my family was normal) and Grandma and I had something more traditional.

And one day Grandma said, We need to make freezer strawberry jam today so that means we need to pick strawberries at Lurveys.

The Lurveys were great friends of the Amsler grandparents as well as parishioners at the small Presbyterian church that Grandpa was pastoring at (his last posting as a matter of fact). They owned a farm where you could pick fruit….obviously. And so that is what we did. And then we came home and made freezer jam that I can still taste today. I am not sure why I brought the basket home, I just remember doing so.

I have carried this basket around with me from house to house to house. And now it is time to say goodbye. It hasn’t been used for many a year. It has just been sitting, lonely and feeling unloved, on shelves in the basement. I am actually taking this item, along with a number of “newer models” from this years peach crop, over to Beck’s Farmer’s market where it will have a good and happy life. They are always looking for these kinds of things.

I Begin As I Mean To Go On

It all began with a single statement.

I have too much stuff.

There, I said it.

And to be perfectly honest I have to think that I am not the only one with this problem. And the really scary part about all this is that I am not sure how we managed to accumulate all this mathom (name that book reference!). It has slowly grown over years and years. Quietly increasing in basement and cupboard.  Things once used but needed no more.  Wedding gifts that have seldom seen the light of day (and we have been married for 26 years!) Boxes of papers and pictures from kids. Boxes of things related to hobbies that were taken up with vigor and left in the wake of new hobbies and interests. 7 hammers for the love of Pete!

A bit of background is in order I think. If you have arrived from Stop Her She’s Knitting then you know that a year or so ago HHBL and I went through the process of trying to sell Chez Knit. We were unsuccessful. And during that time I cleaned out a BUNCH of stuff. And yet, there is still more. I am convinced that it is breeding in the dark recesses of the basement. And in the kitchen cupboards. And in my office. One of these days we are going to be successful at selling the old homestead and when we do that and move to a smaller house….

I don’t want to move anything that isn’t absolutely necessary.

Believe me when I say that the phrase “absolutely necessary” does not cover all that much stuff. Think about it, what do you really need to live your daily life? What can you absolutely not do without?

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

So, since I have to do this I thought I would have you follow along. This is how I think it is going to work. I am going to post Monday thru Friday. 100 days of cleaning out. One or two pictures and story a day. And after that we will see.

But I want you to participate. I want you to comment. I want you to tell me what you are inspired to clean out, to donate. Let’s do this together.

Ready?

See you in a bit with the first item.

I can hardly wait.