DAY 24

 

Time to show you my 24 items to leave the house today.

I finished cleaning out the laundry room cabinet and these are the last 6 towels that will be leaving.  With that cabinet cleaned out, I now have a place to put my accessories for my Kitchen Aid mixer.  That means, the top of my washer and dryer are now visible again.  Looks so much nicer in the laundry room.

Then I ventured into a room I have not decluttered in many years.  It is the room that was made up for Josie.  She spent a lot of time with us over the past 15 years.  We decided when she was about 2, to make a room dedicated to her so she would feel at home here.  Since she has grown up and spends less time here, it is now time for us to clean it out and make it more like a guest room.  The above two pictures I had always planned on putting on her wall in there.  They no longer appeal to me so they will be donated.

I also had stored all our wrapping paper in there and decided (thanks Becki) there was no reason to keep any of it.  I strictly use bags for gifts and if I need paper, I will pick up ONE roll at the dollar store for what ever occasion it is needed for.

Looks like I will probably be able to get the rest of the month completed from that room alone.  In fact, I think I will just keep doing this declutter until I am too exhausted to carry on anymore.  This house needs to be cleaned out!

So, today, I have already baked a loaf of bread, done a load of towels, done the declutter and am getting ready to start a sour dough starter (again).  Since I do not have any major activities for the next two week, I figure I can get a good start on the sour dough and probably even make a loaf or two.

Come back tomorrow to see what has happened in my crafting world as well as my 25 items that are leaving my house.

Until next time........................................................

DAY 23

 

Another day of getting items out of my house and donated, tossed or given away.  I needed to go and find a 'spare' dish towel to use for our water cooler and when looking for 'just the right one' I found a big mess in the 'rag' cupboard.  This get me started on cleaning it out.

Here is the beginning of that clean out.  Thirteen hand/dish towels that no longer have a purpose in my house.

Here are 10 pair of leggings I needed to say goodbye to.  See the ones that are inside out?  I did this last year at the beginning of leggings season.  That means, those leggings never got worn in over a year.  The ones that are right side out are ones I no longer wanted to keep.  I still have 18 pairs of leggings in my drawer and that is more than enough for me.

Today is my last day to dog/teen watch.  Hubby is with me today.  We will be picking up the teen around 1, taking her to swim practice and then he and I will go to a local place to have a bite of lunch.  We pick her back up at 3:30 and then will go back to her house.  We will all patiently wait for her mom to get home from work and then we are all going to go out to eat dinner at one of our favorite spots that has an outdoor dining area.  

We were notified, the people we sat next to in church, last week, one of them has tested positive for the virus.  We all had masks on and we did socially distance too.  Neither hubby or I are too concerned about it though.  When I say we sat next to them, I mean we were at least 6 feet if not more away from them.  My concern is for the person who has contracted it as he is in his 80's and his wife has multiple health issues that make her susceptible to it.  Here is the irony, he is a Doctor and she is a nurse so I KNOW they have taken so many precautions.  This disease does not discriminate.  He said he doesn't feel bad and only had a fever for a couple of days and just feels like he is dragging and has a mild cough.  I pray it does not get any worse than that.

I am looking forward to the weekend and next week.  I do not have any major plans other than doing things around the house to get 'caught' up on things.  What are your plans for the next few days?

Until next time.............................................................

DAY 22

 

It had to happen at some point during this decluttering challenge.  I knew I would, at some point, need to go into my closet and be brutally honest about what I should keep and what should find a new home.

The above photo is of shirts I do not wear or can not wear.  They are all Lularoe shirts.  Basically, those are the only shirts I own anymore.  Although, I no longer purchase Lularoe clothing, I have a lot of their clothes hanging in my closet.

On the left are more shirts (some Lularoe and some ordinary) I no longer wear along with two pair of Alegria sandal and 4 Lularoe maxi skirts.  I am not sure I have culled my closet all the way yet.  The 'winter' clothes have not been looked over so, there may be other items flying out of here before the end of the month.

I know this is supposed to be all about decluttering but I just can not help myself.  I just HAD to tell you other stuff.

Another day of dog/teen watching.  It will be a bit different today though.  The teen has a swim meet this afternoon in the next town over.  We spectators are not being allowed into the swimming pool area because of Covid.  However, we are more than welcomed to sit outside of the fence to watch our kids participate.  Since the teen's parents will not be able to make it, I will go today, take my camping chair, wear a big floppy hat, bring an umbrella to keep the sun off, wear a mask, bring along lots of water and sit in the sunny 90 degree weather and cheer my girl on.  This is their last meet before their state qualifying meet on the 31st.  The coach allowed her to choose the events she wants to swim in today.  She will be doing the 50 yard freestyle and the 100 yard freestyle and possibly a 400 yard freestyle relay.  Fingers crossed she can cut some more time off her speed on the first two events.

Tomorrow will be my last day of Grandma duties for a couple of weeks.  I have enjoyed this past week but feel bad that my house chores have been neglected.  Hubby has been a trooper and picked up my slack.  Here is an example of why he is my hero.

While watching the news a couple of nights ago, we heard about flour and yeast starting to fly off the shelves again because of the second wave of Covid hitting.  I went to the store the next day and there was no yeast on the shelves and flour was starting to get a bit thin.  I checked my supply of flour at home and found I had plenty of self rising, all purpose and wheat flour.  What I was low on was bread flour.  Husband went to Sam's club to purchase if for me and discovered they no longer had any bags of it.  So he scooted over to Costco and TA-DA......................

.

They are now carrying bread flour in 25 pound bags.   (I always buy 25 pounds at a time as it is all I use for my breads and dough).  I am set again for several months.  I went online to King Arthur and ordered a pound of SAF yeast so I should be all good for a while.  (I may have ordered more than just the yeast at King Arthur LOL)

I want to leave you with the photos I took yesterday:

Just a girl and her dog!

Until next time...................................................

DAY 21

 

Welcome back.  Today, I found 21 items that needed to vacate my premises.

Here I have four pair of shoes and a blouse I dearly love.  Why am I donating the blouse if I love it?  Because, everytime I wear it, someone asks me if I am feeling ok.  I finally took a look in a mirror and saw that it made me look quite pale and sickly.  The color was not my friend.

Next up are some magazines hubby had stuck in a bookcase.

And some more magazines I found in another bookcase. Just so you get an idea of my husbands passion for books, we have 5 bookcases in our house.  All but one of them is filled with books.  The last one is getting close to full.  In his defense, he has read 90% of the books and uses about 50% of them for research and reference when he teaches at our church.  He is also good about letting people borrow them.  When that happens, some come back and some don't.  

So far, there has been 231 items removed from my house.  Isn't it amazing how quickly things add up.

Today, I am off again to dog/teen watch.  The teen has a short day at school so we will be going to Chick-fil-a for lunch.  After lunch she has a virtual meeting with her school 'house' and then it is homework time.  The dog and I are going to do a little housework for my DIL and then we will watch some chic flics.  My DIL has an after work meeting/dinner to 'interview' a potential new Doctor to join their practice, so she won't be home until well into the evening.  This means, I get to have dinner with the teen again tonight.  My DIL was sweet enough to make a lovely Italian casserole for us so I don't even need to cook.  I brought some home last night so hubby could enjoy it tonight for dinner.

Did anyone see the meteor shower last night?  Hubby and I went out to watch but I think we have too many street lights near us, so it was a bust for us.

Until next time......................................................................

DAY 20

 

Why of why do we hold onto things we will never use again?  Case in point:

Old eye glasses with their cases.  None of these have the right RX in them for hubby or I.  So, why do we still have them?  They are heading to the Lion's Club today where they will be put to good use.  There are also little pouches that hubby had been keeping for no good reason as well as a cell phone holder that goes on a belt.  Whoosh...............out the door, never to be seen again.

Hey!  I just had to tell you, it was 63F when I woke up at 6:30 this morning.  This is such a good sign of fall for us.  Granted it will get into the 90's today, but only for a little while and then march back down into the 70's by bedtime.  Another week or two and my windows and doors will be opened to let in some lovely breezes.

Time for me to get cleaned up and head over to take care of a dog.  I also have after school duty with a teen (not that she really needs me, but loves to have me around).

Until next time.........................................................

DAY 19

 

Look what I found hanging around in our guest room/library.  More books that needed to find a new home.

I was surprised to find 19 books so quickly.  You know what that means?  There have got to be more than this that need to go.  That will be a job for another day.

Thank you to all who wished us a happy anniversary.  We had a nice day of doing almost nothing.  I did finish up the laundry, made menus, went to the grocery store, delivered those 17 stitch markers to a friend, made a loaf of bread, ordered bread making supplies from King Arthur, and topped it all of with hubby's favorite meal (tacos).  

Today I will be emptying the dishwasher, picking up a prescription, filling the car with gas, going to our son's house to spend lunch with the teen and play with their dog, knit on hubby's sock and then come home and make spaghetti for dinner.  After all of that, I have a cupboard that needs to be cleaned out.  I discovered it yesterday when looking for something.  This makes me excited because I think there will be treasures in there that will be finding their way out of my house!

Until next time...................................................................  

YOP WEEK 16 & DAY 18

 

Hello again.  Another week has passed and it was not my usual week.  Hubby and I took off on Monday for a little holiday in Las Vegas.  We spent time with his mom as well as some of his siblings and also some very special friends.  It was a lovely little get away and has lifted both of our spirits tremendously.  Since we were on the move so much, I did not have a lot of time to knit.  Yet, I do have a finish to show.

Sock #1 was completed during our little holiday.  It is just a plain vanilla sock with an eye of partridge heel.

After we returned home on Friday, I started the second sock.  The cuff is is almost completed.  This yarn is a bit splitty, so I do need to keep an eye on it to make sure I am grabbing all strands when working with it.  Otherwise, I really like this yarn.  It is super soft and very squishy.  The fiber content is: 80% Superwash Fine Highland Wool/ 20% Polymide.  Before you think the highland wool is from Scotland, I will let you know it is actually from Peru.  It is not an expensive yarn either.  Here is the link to look at it.  It is on Close out, so if interested in obtaining any, now is the time.

And now...............for the next segment of my post for today.

My declutter project is still going strong.  Today I have 18 items that have left the building.

I won't even tell you what years these magazines were from.  I will tell you, none of these are  from the last 5 years.  Amazing what you find when going through book shelves.

Books that have been read and will not be re-read are items that needed to leave.  I am normally pretty good about recycling my books but, somehow these few never made their way out of the house.  Although, the Debbie Macomber book is her newest released paperback (2020) and I just finished it about a month ago.  

This coming week is going to be crazy.  Our son is once again traveling for business.  I have dog and teen duty.  The teen is back in school 4 days a week now so, I will be doing lots of running for the next 5 days.  I sat down with our son and his wife last night and we worked out the schedule for the next week.  Let's just say........................I won't be doing much stuff around my house next week.  But...................there will be plenty of time for me to work on hubby's second sock!  That means, I need to spend some time today decluttering more stuff.  I also need to make out menus that will be easy for hubby as there will be 2 days I won't be home until well past dinner time.  Good thing I completed all the laundry yesterday. 

Today, hubby and I are celebrating 45 years of marriage.  We met on a date, set up by my ex-sister in law.  Four months later we were married.  It has been a wild and crazy ride.  We have moved households 15 times and lived in 4 different states.  We have been blessed with 4 children, 8 grand children and 1 great grand child.  It has not always been sunshine and roses, but those difficult times are what has brought us all closer together and made us a stronger family unit.  And yes, we are still in love.  Even more so now than the day we married.

Until Next Time...............................Happy Crafting & Stay Well!!!!!!!!