Recently a friend was cleaning out items from his mother's estate, a chore than sadly has stretched on at least two years now. He brought over a bag of craft supplies, jewelry, and a peanut butter jar full of needles and other small sewing items. Â In pretty short order, Dan and the girls and I sorted through the jewelry and craft supplies. Only the peanut butter jar remained. Specifically, it remained on my desk for weeks. Finally I got sick of looking at it there, so I moved it to the kitchen island to motivate myself to sort through it. There is remained for another month. I looked at it … [Read more...]
Take it with you when you go.
I mentioned yesterday that I have been doing some more decluttering in my garage. I had gathered, in one corner, a pile of stuff that belonged to my son. There was his battered old bicycle frame from his accident when he was nineteen, various bicycle parts, a pile of 24 used skateboard decks, a box with spray paint cans, a pile of used core-board for mounting photos from his university days, a sports bag (all shown in the photo below) along with a couple of small tables and a large sheet of chipboard ~ all out of shot. He came over last week and together we went through the items and … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Little Free Library
Just a short post today to tell you that my Christmas present finally got finished. My husband Dan and my friend Dan built a Little Free Library for me, out of scraps we had in our garages, and my friend Holly painted it to match our house. It only took contributions from a couple of people, and we were in business - the business of book exchanges. Little Free Library was started by a Wisconsin man in 2009 as a way to honor his deceased mother, a teacher. Now there are thousands of Little Free Libraries in the United States, and some in other countries, as well. It's really just a book … [Read more...]
Do something important today
I read this quote last week when it arrived with my latest update to Gretchen Ruben's ~ The Happiness Project ~ newsletter. Â Â "Anything one does every day is important and imposing and anywhere one lives is interesting and beautiful." ~ Gertrude Stein The part that struck me mostly about the quote was this "Anything one does every day is important ..." which said to me ~ Whatever you do today make it something good because it is important either way. Important because no matter what you do it will have either a positive or negative effect on either you, those around you, the planet you … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom – The Lesson of the Widow’s Mite
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom He sat down opposite the treasury, and watched the crowd putting money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury. For all of them have contributed out of their abundance; but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on. Mark 12:41–44 This Bible lesson has been instrumental in my decluttering … [Read more...]
Get set for success
I have had a couple of conversations lately with people who are struggling to gain momentum with their decluttering. They are making fitful starts here and there but get frustrated. I have discovered through these conversations that the main underlining theme behind their difficulty is that, once chosen, they don't have a plan in place as to how to get rid of the clutter. As a result all they end up doing is moving it around the house. Most of my regular readers have this situation well and truly in hand. So much so, that they can also easily investigate and discover an outlet even for … [Read more...]
My garage declutter
My husband and I had a garage decluttering session the weekend before last. Let me just say that the garage gets regular attention as we get more and more ruthless with our decluttering. It is also the holding area for the items decluttered from the house ~ prior to trips to the thrift store and ebay auctions and for those procrastination items awaiting decision ~ so the landscape is constantly changing out there. There are also items that have been stored there for some time that, if we are to be honest with ourselves, are really just "I might need/want it someday" items. Some of those items … [Read more...]
Don’t Let “Value” Fool You
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom My mother, as I have mentioned before, is VERY decluttered. She was a minimalist before I had any idea that there even was such a decorating style. (I thought is was called "bare.") Very recently, my parents moved back into their house after having it extensively remodeled. Before moving to Austin, Texas, my parents had lived in a very stylish, although not very large, custom-built house. The plain ranch that they purchased in order to live next door t me and my family never fit my mother's idea of stylish. Every remodel produces its share of furniture and … [Read more...]
Simple Saturday ~ A Guest Post by Madeleine of Guinea
Week after week, tons of clothes arrive in Guinea's capital : Conakry. They are sent everywhere and sold at the markets. Here in Kissidougou, the sellers open new bunches of clothes every Tuesday. There is a rush on them, as everyone wants to have the best pieces. Then, the rest is sold during the week. You can really find anything: clothes, bras the seize of shower basins, gloves, ski suits, and the most beloved pajamas. Guinean love pajamas, because the shirts match the pants. They don't understand pajamas as such, and wear them all the time. They don't mind wearing ski suits either, even … [Read more...]
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom ~ Just Let It Go
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom As I've told you (probably countless times), we remodeled our house, and the last of the workmen pulled away two years ago in July. There were a lot of smaller jobs and some very large painting jobs that needed to be completed, but the house itself was done. Two years have passed, and I still have a half dozen paintings, including a couple of pieces of expensively framed limited edition pieces, that have not been hung. About every three months, I get into the closet where they're stored and vow that today is the day that I'll finish figuring it out. And every time I … [Read more...]