Minimalism And Me - Mid Week Check In

Sometimes you live for others and sometimes you have to rediscover yourself and do your best to take care of others.

I am back to me. 

Not I am not neglecting my responsibility, I am just not taking on as much responsibility that I don`t have to.

Being clean is part of me, keeping a clean home is important to me because it is the way I was raised and taught by my father.

This past month I have lessened the amount of time I have gave to others, Especially online. The blogging site, the people who are making money off of me but I am not getting what I earned. I don`t mind helping others online but sometimes I need to do for me, is that selfish? Maybe.

I began my cleaning and clearing last weekend March 25th and 26th and I have not stopped, however, I did slow down a bit.

Monday was one of those days when I wanted to work outside and there was a threat of rain but I went for it anyways. I got the backyard mowed with the push mower, its the dogs area and it is also time for their flea and tick treatments to start. It did rain on me but that was okay, it was not a hard rain just a light sprinkling rain.

I took the mid day of Monday to clean up the spare bedroom/stockpile room I vacuumed and dusted plus I moved things around. I got all the empty canning jars together and moved around a few cases of canned foods. Since I really don`t think its pretty to look at I found this table cloth that worked perfectly to cover the shelf that some of it is stored on. Looks so much better. 

Tuesday I went into town to pick up the mail and check on a few things at work,  that did not take long so I got back to the house and cooked dinner, rested and then began to get the kitchen cleaned. I washed the dishes and wiped down all the counter tops, I leave nothing on them except the coffee pot. I scrubbed the sink. I swept the floor and mopped. 

I cleaned off the dining room table, filed the coupons and all the receipts. 

I vacuumed the office.

Wednesday

Today I have the intentions of dusting the office and mowing some, if not all, of the lawn and fields, if weather permits.

Seems everything that is to go out ends up in the laundry room or the breakfast nook till I take it out to the car. So, I took it all out this morning, Trash and recyclables and shirts to give to my sister. I also still had a few houseplants that I rooted waiting to be taken out, got those out. The only plant that will stay inside is my Christmas cactus, they do not do well in the full sun here.

Each step I take to get my home back under control and cleaned up, I feel back to me.

How has your week been this far?

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By Andria Perry

Photos by Andria Perry

My Minimal hoarding life - Just Make It Happen

Its Springtime of the year and its time to bust open those windows and let the pollen in :)

Not really but it is time to clean up what has been closed up all Winter. I will be one of the first to admit that I did not do much cleaning this past winter, for one I was taking care of someone sick and any smelly cleaner made him sicker so I had to just go for soap and water.

But......

First I turned off the computer and cut off the phones, cant clean house with those on.

This weekend I have made things happen. I have brought in new and took out the old, cleared and cleaned.

I do love that I got an inheritance of furniture and nice things but now that I have had it, looked at it and used it for two years I can say that its not really my style and I am cutting it loose. I bought a new recliner and took out the inherited sofa, its really nice so I put it at the old home place that I am working on off and on, so I have a sofa to use when I am there. I got the vacuuming done in the living room while I was moving the room around.

Ah! the openness and the flow of energy is so much better. If you believe in peoples energy staying in their things, then you know what I mean when I removed that piece from my home.

I also cleaned out more of the houseplants, yes I do have a lot but that is because I was supposed to had a greenhouse built last fall but I could not make it before the weather came in so I had to bring them into my house. Another room cleared of those, feels so much bigger :) even though its the spare bedroom/stockpile room it feels almost empty.

I got the desk cabinet cleaned out in the office, I am officially out of envelops :( 

I made sure I got my bedroom dusted and all the clothing hung up or put away in its place.

But the biggest accomplishment is that I got both bathrooms scrubbed! And I washed the bath mats, dried them and laid them back down.

The master bathroom has this mirror and I hate it and its in a weird place on the wall by the tub, I think its glued to the wall and I cannot get it down so I covered it. I installed a curtain rod and I hung a curtain over it. The energy in that room changed immediately, I should have fixed that years ago.

I had to let the kitchen go because I cannot get anything else accomplished if I work in there all the time. But that is okay, it gets cleaned more than any room but I will do the dishes, I piled them up today and I will do them before bed.

I guess I need to continue with getting the house cleared and cleaned so I can focus on other things I want to do outside, and to have more free time to do whatever I want.

One big project I will save for a day when its raining, my walk in closet.

Did you accomplish any Spring cleaning this past weekend? 

By Andria Perry

Photo By Andria Perry

My Minimal hoarding life - Itching To Get Started

More than one project began, none finished.

Yeah, that was how last year was, up and down and get this started and go do that instead. Stop one thing because the fumes were to much, began another thing because it was quiet and had no smell.

But I got up off my lazy butt and got a few places cleaned out, so far this year, and I do not want to stop just because I am getting lazy or I think I don`t have time to be clean and organized.

Spring always seems to be the busy time of the year for me and cleaning, I think that is because I take out the houseplants that invaded the house for the Winter, I am itching to take them all out but I have to wait till I can make sure that the freezing weather is over, Once we had a freak snow storm in April! However I could not wait and I took out half of them today, especially the trees since they take up so much space. I cleared my wealth section, when using Feng Shui and I changed curtains, for the time being I am using a pretty shower curtain. ( the photo is that curtain)

 

After cleaning the bathroom, a little, I also took out a couple of inherited things from my bathroom, that I liked when they were in her house. An antique tissue holder and soap dish, but I am learning that sometimes when I like stuff that other people have does not mean it fits into my lifestyle or my decor. 

With only a few things and plants gone I feel SO much better.

I will dust sometime this evening, I hate dust and dust is what follows me to taunt me, sneezing and sucking away my clean air.

I have a few weeks open to get things done before I know where life will be headed. I am settled with one job and one job is over, so I just have the one that rules my hours, meaning I wont know how much I will work and how much time I will have for me, BUT I do have a few weeks to get life back on track in my home.

Spring cleaning and clearing out the clutter.

How about you? Removed anything lately?

By Andria Perry

Photo By Andria Perry

Minimalism Monday - One In One Out Rule

Anyone that has ever hoarded stuff, whether intentionally or not, knows this is the rule when you are cleaning out the hoard. If you buy something new you have to remove something you already have.

I like to keep my home maintained, I like it clean and I do not like clutter but sometimes I have clutter, mostly paper clutter and my house gets nasty but the thing with maintaining it is that you have to buy new and get rid of the old.

I do not recall what month but I had to replace the mini blinds in the dining room, they were beginning to bust up with just a bump while opening them daily. 

The next room was the kitchen, same deal. I swatted at a fly on the closed blind and one of the slats broke. I got the tape and taped it back together and forgot about it for a while.

I realized these mini blinds are seven years old, already, and that is why they were becoming brittle. Another thing I noticed was they smelled! Since this is now a non smoking house I can smell that gross smell left behind from before he quit smoking, I guess I was used to that smell until recently.

This month I decided it was time to start replacing the mini blinds. I went through the house and counted them, knowing I would not buy all of them at one, so to know how many I needed and to price them.

I ended up buying half of what I need, I replaced all the mini blinds in the kitchen, living room and my bathroom for under $35. 

I had set a budget for $50 and that was it, spend no more. So since I had a little money left over I decided that it is time for a new shower curtain liner, I usually replace them about every year anyways. 

The main bathroom gets cleaned more than mine does and I am often changing the shower curtain, I do have several I bought and a couple that looked new that was left behind by tenants. I have several colors of bathroom rugs that I also change out often.

This is what I did. 

I picked the oldest, but still looks great, shower curtain I own, its tri-color green on top, blue in the middle and purple at the end, and I hung that one with the new liner. I have a green and blue bath mat but no purple. I bought a $10 purple bath mat and a new liner. Both with tax included was $12.20.

With the mini blinds and the bathroom stuff I still came in under the $50 mark.

Now I am at the point I have to chose what goes out, or already went. 

Its a no brainer that all those old blinds went into the trash as well as the old shower curtain liner but what will I get rid of for the new bathroom rug I bought? 

Last night I changed the cats bedding and I tossed in a few older bath towels. No I do not wash the old ones that smell like cat urine, the boy cats mark their area. Today I am giving my beagle dog a bathroom rug, for the winter, in his dog house. I also took all the little plastic things I saved from buying fruit to the recycle bin, I was going to sell produce and use those but something had to go.

Okay, maybe I bring in one thing and take out two,but that`ll work!

As far as cleaning I still have dust on the furniture and I need to vacuum but preping the rest of the taxes will come first. 

How was your week past?

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By Andria Perry

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My Minimal Hoarding life - Mid Week Check In

Its already March 8th. and I have big plans to clean out this house once again this Spring, to me I seriously look at March as Spring because the temps begin to balance out and it stays warm for the most part. Spring cleaning! Or do I say " Spring clear it out?"

I am making myself a promise not to bring nothing else used into the house, nothing else new unless its absolutely a necessity for life. I am now making a single note book for what I take out and what I bring in, the food journal is working so why not apply that to other parts of my life I want to improve?

This past few days I have managed to get ALL the laundry washed, folded and put away. That includes clean sheets for two beds and a couple throws I keep in the car.

One bathroom : I took down the shower curtain and washed it, hung it to dry, folded it and put it away, I only left the while shower curtain liner for the moment. I changed out the color for the towels in the bathroom that is used the most, I switch up every couple of months so they will stay rotated and not get worn out so easily. I had to clean the toilet again, I have not made it to cleaning the tub or sink, the toilet HAD to be cleaned it was awful.

Pantry : I cleaned out a couple of crates I had dehydrated foods in, some needed to be tossed because somehow they got opened and air left inside and I did not feel comfortable eating it.

I cleaned up Tony`s area of the living room, he has gotten better about picking up his own trash, I had let him slide when he was so ill.

That is about all I have accomplished so far this week, I cant make plans to clean or clear out anything at the moment, I just have to go with the flow of life and working outside the home and maybe toss in a few hours here and there for cleaning up. 

How is your week so far?

More about this week? Playing catch up

By Andria Perry

Photo By Andria Perry

Minimalism Monday - I Let Go

There are times to let go of stuff, whether its already in your home or is about to move in. This is a hard one to make decisions about, but we all have to make them.

Last week was more of a week of work and I did not get much of anything accomplished, as far as with my home and getting rid of what needs to go here, But I have a different job than most people, I am a landlady.

People leave good furniture behind as well are dishes and what-nots, its not always just trash.

Over the past few months as people moved in and out I put all that was left over into one house that I was slowly working on until I had someone to move in, I approved her after taking the application so I had a week to get busy and get rid of and clean up this rental. After she had the water turned on we also had to do a few repairs, one due to the last tenants abuse to the house.

Some had their own appliances so the ones that I had picked up here and there was piled up.

This past weekend I plugged up three refrigerators, The only one that worked properly was the one I had put in this house, the small one.

I had changed out the stoves from gas hook up to electric because most people do not use gas anymore and this one had this old gas stove, I HAD planned on bring the gas stove home and using it as my canning stove set up outside for summer canning but I got so frustrated with all this .... this... 

Trash! 

I gave it all away to be hauled off as scrap. I helped the elderly man load it and unload it at him house.

When I got finished I had a small desk and a very small round table left and a very small pile of pure trash of busted boards and pieces of wood. I asked the tenant if she wanted the desk and table, she did, got rid of that! Now I just have a small pile of trash to haul off.

The only things I kept were the left over window shutters and the windows that was left there till I could move them.

Now lets backtrack to before, when I wanted to keep all of it.

Fridges are not cheap so I was going to have both repaired, probably under $100 each and store them in the basement of the old home place, that I just cleaned out last year. Gas stoves are not cheap and I thought I could save money by setting it up, somewhere around here, and using it instead of buying a new one for the summer canning. The desk is make of solid wood and is adorable, I was going to use it at my old home place for when I spend the night there for the laptop. The little round table I would have used on the front porch of the old home place with a chair on each side.

BUT I let it all go. 

When I think about it I do not need any of it. The stove may not have even worked anymore since no one had used it for years, they used the microwave! And one day soon I might even rent out the old home place, I have people asking for small houses all the time and its the only two bedroom house I have, and I would have to get rid of it then.

Sometimes I realize I do not have to hoard stuff, even for use in the rental houses, nowadays most people have their own appliances.

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I have to give God thanks for allowing me to get all the rental houses filled and sending me good hard working people.

How was your passed week?

By Andria Perry

Photo By Andria Perry