Comments (12)

By Mom Unplugged, October 5, 2010 12:02 pm

Yes I am still here on planet Earth!

What a long blog break I took! Actually I have been way too busy to write lately. I, a confirmed pack rat, have been organizing, sorting, and “de-junking” my house.

I wish I had taken before and after photos. Clutter and mess was creeping in and threatening my sanity. So far two whole pickup truck loads of stuff have left my life and it feels GREAT!

I am not done yet. I have a big house and lots of things pack ratted away, but I am nearly done with the downstairs and then I will move on to the upstairs.

It took me a whole year of sitting around and procrastinating to finally get going with this enormous undertaking!

If you are feeling bogged down by stuff and need some tips to get moving to eliminate it, here is what I have learned:

• Start small. Don’t think about your whole house or you will just want to curl up and take a nap instead. Be sure to make each goal achievable in a short time, preferably a day or two.

• Pick a closet, drawer, cupboard or something easy for your first tidying session. Once you see how great it looks, you’ll be inspired to tackle the bigger jobs.

• Make a deal with a friend to help each other sort and organize. When you have someone else there to help you work, you can’t just go take a nap instead! Plus, it is way more fun to do it with some pleasant company.

• If you don’t have a friend available to work with and you can afford it, hire someone to help you. This might sound extreme, but that is what I did. Hiring a helper is the only reason I have been able to accomplish all that I have accomplished so far. My helper is a friend of a friend who needed a part-time job. It is a definite win-win for us both. She has a job, I have help and motivation, and we both have found new friends in each other (never having met before).

• Set a schedule and stick to it. For example, Every Monday 9AM to 3PM at your friend’s house. Every Thursday 9AM to 3PM at your house. If you are not strict about your schedule, you’ll find a way to procrastinate. Trust me. I KNOW.

• Be ruthless, it will feel good in the end. Do you really need five pie plates? If you haven’t worn your out-of-style, navy blue interview suit in ten years why are you keeping it? What about that tacky porcelain cow that your aunt gave you for Christmas twelve years ago and that you keep only because you like your aunt (not the cow). Someone out there will find that cow in a thrift store and think it is the most wonderful piece of art and you (and, indirectly, your aunt) will make their day if you only just give it away!

• Unless you are a regular Ebay seller, don’t hang on to things thinking that one day you will sell them on Ebay and make a fortune. Ebay takes time to do right and if you tend to procrastinate about sorting your house, you will almost certainly procrastinate about listing your things on Ebay. Just get it all out of there and let a “real” Ebayer find it in the thrift store. The good feeling of letting go is probably worth more than you would have made anyhow!

• If you have sentimental feelings about any of your give-aways, don’t put them in your own yard sale. Seeing strangers handling your precious belongings and haggling with you over prices will be distressing. Either give them away to a thrift store, or find a good friend who will sell them for you.

• Once you decide what to toss out and what to donate be sure to get all of it out of your house right away. This avoids second thoughts, nosy children, and clutter simply moving to a new location such as a garage or attic. Plus, you need the immediate reward of feeling the positive energy that moves in to replace the stuff that leaves.

For more inspiration as well as some ideas for where to donate your cast-offs, read my old post Sort, Junk, Donate. Good luck!

(Thrift shop photo courtesy of Wikipedia - license information here)

Comments (11)

By Mom Unplugged, February 10, 2010 11:18 am

BLAST FROM THE PAST POST (Originally published on May 23, 2007) - Having fun digging out some old stuff!

++++++++++

I did a silly thing.

With child number three, we finally outgrew our small kitchen table. I ordered this great table with the green chairs from West Elm. The table arrived and I LOVE it! It looks fabulous in my green kitchen area and is nice and big for meals, homework, projects (clutter), etc.

But…I ordered the cushions too. The chair cushions are a lovely, minimalist white. WHAT WAS I THINKING??? They have washable covers, but do I really want to be removing cushion covers and washing them every day? I have enough daily laundry to do without adding more to it. Plus, what about spaghetti sauce? Will that come out or will I need to dye the covers red to match the stains? Maybe we should just eat white food from now on. Potatoes, pasta, milk, ice cream (vanilla)…

This reminds me of one of my pet peeves. Decorating magazines that feature “families” with cute little blonde curly-haired angels running around the immaculate garden in adorable white outfits. These families always have elegant minimalist living rooms in varying shades of white with sisal rugs. The room is completely decorated with “flea market finds” and boasts (and this is the kicker) a WHITE SLIPCOVERED SOFA on which the family greyhound is reclining comfortably.

The glamorous, yet natural-looking mother always offers up some savvy decorating wisdom, such as: “Seek out flea market pieces that have good bones.” Or, “I like to decorate with white slipcovers because you can just pull them off and throw them in the wash!” With a house full of toddlers and sofa-sleeping greyhounds, this mother (or her maid) must be washing her slipcovers five times a day.

My slipcovers would be living in my laundry room. My sisal rug would have cat barf on it (How does one clean cat vomit out of the fibers of a sisal rug anyhow? With a toothbrush?). Do Lazy-Boy recliners have “good bones?” Where do I find a flea market near me? We have garage sales, thrift stores and a “swap meet,” but unless your decorating style is “Early Salvation Army” or involves antlers, you might be a bit disappointed with the availability of elegant antique bargains where I live.

So, this brings me back to my dilemma. What do I do with white kitchen chair cushions? I am simply not as brave as those “magazine moms.” Mine are in a box in the attic to be brought out when my children are in college.

PS. I thought about cleaning off the table for the photo, but decided that it was more interesting to simply capture a moment in time from a “real mom’s” house. I hope you appreciate my honesty.

Comments (4)

By Mom Unplugged, October 23, 2008 11:13 am

Fall is here in the Arizona mountains. The cool morning air smells faintly of piñon smoke left over from evening fires.

The chili roaster is tumbling down at the little local grocery, producing baskets of lovely, soft charred green chilis.

Ponderosa Pines are beginning to shed some brown needles and fields are brimming with bright yellow wildflowers.

Maximilian Sunflowers line the roadways. They are tall this year which means, according to local legend, that our snow piles will be tall too.

Squirrels are getting busier as they rush off with peanuts and sunflower seeds to hide away for the winter.

The Humming Birds have left, and the Robins. Even the golfers are leaving, along with the thousands of people who spend their summers here in our mountain paradise to escape the scorching desert heat.

Peaceful silence will descend upon our town as we hardy year-round residents retreat from our porches, gardens, and decks and take to our homes in preparation for winter snow.

Comments (10)

By Mom Unplugged, September 8, 2008 10:18 pm

Yahoo! My bedroom extension is finally finished! Ever since I moved into this house four years ago, there has been a horrible leak in the playroom ceiling which was underneath a deck off the master bedroom. Look at this sad picture!

The leak was obviously coming from the deck, but where? Floor? Wall? Windows? (If so, which one?) Door?

After a few expensive and unsuccessful attempts at repair, I decided to get drastic. A remodel. I never used the deck anyhow. With three kids, who has time for a quiet morning tea on the bedroom deck listening to the birds? I figured it would be wiser to spend the cash making the bedroom nicer and hopefully getting the money back in the additional square-footage at resale.

Neither I nor my husband are in the least bit handy, so we obviously hired a contractor. It was all a bit complicated and involved shoring up rather minimalist foundations (probably the cause of the leak in the first place).

I LOVE the new space, but with the wonderful new window, it is a bit of a fishbowl.

The problem however, is that curtains don’t really work with a curvy window like the one I chose. They would have to go on the remains of the old exterior wall that I decided to keep as an accent feature, but that would mean a rod that would span 184″ (467 cm). Custom rods were going to run $250-$300 (ugh), so I decided to head to the hardware store in search of creative inspiration.

In case anyone out there wants to give this a try, I will share my experience with you.

+++++++++

This is what I brought home from the hardware store:

Two 1/2″ (1.3cm) diameter copper plumbing pipes, a copper connector, three copper hanging brackets, two cute little copper end caps (labeled “valves” but I thought they’d make great finials), and six screws (unfortunately not copper but I can always touch them up with copper metallic paint later if they bother me).

The pipe was sold in 10′ (305cm) sections, but the hardware store cut each section down for me to 92″ (233cm) for free!

Also, if anyone out there wants to try this, be sure to buy the cheapest copper pipe. At my hardware store they had two types: L (blue printing) and M (red printing). The M was a bit cheaper and lighter than the L. Cheaper and lighter is what I wanted in a curtain rod. Glad I asked someone!

By the way, my 2 year-old gave me lots of “help” with this project. When I started, she left to get her “tools” and reappeared with some tweezers from my oldest daughter’s microscope kit. Tweezers? Hmmm…..

She also made off with the screws, and several important bits of hardware just as I needed them. She had to go potty at least four times, always when I was up on the ladder at a crucial moment.

What should have taken even a not so handy person like me about 45 minutes at most, took two and a half hours. Oh well. Such is the life of the mother of a 2 year-old. My advice: find a baby sitter for your 2 year-old.

Anyhow, once you have your 2 year-old nicely tucked away somewhere else, you can begin.

While using nail polish remover to wipe some sticky labels from the pipe, I happily discovered that it also very easily removed all that ugly printing on the pipe:

Next I marked in pencil where the screws for my brackets would go, then I drilled pilot holes for the screws. First mistake: In an effort to be sure not to drill the holes too big, I drilled them too small. Pick a drill bit that is just a little smaller than the screw, but not too small. I had to redo.

I screwed in the brackets with the drill, but whatever was underneath the wood was so tough that I had to finish by hand with a screwdriver (and still didn’t get them quite all the way in, but they are good enough).

Next came the fun part, the valve “finials.” I slipped one on to an end of each rod. Aren’t they cute?

I was sorely tempted to simply hang my four Ikea “Arden Blom” curtain panels and let gravity have its way with the wrinkles as I DESPISE ironing. But, I heard my mother whispering admonishments from beyond. In honor of her memory, I decided to iron the curtains. I used her old iron and ironing board and knew she would approve.

Well the cats had a great time rolling on the curtains as they were draped over the ironing board. Also, I hadn’t ironed in so long (did I mention that I DESPISE IRONING?) that the elastic was all gone on the ironing board cover so it kept coming loose and bunching up. Even worse, the iron decided to steam out rust all over the white curtains!

I washed the rusty spots in the sink, threw out the cats, told my 2 year-old to go “bake Mommy cookies” in her play kitchen and was finally able to finish pressing the curtains.

I then threaded the curtains, two on each pole.

First I put up one pole:

Then I fitted on the cylindrical connector and slid on the other pole.

I had to undo the second end bracket to get the other finial end of the pole up into the bracket which was a bit of a pain, but honestly, how often will I be changing (and IRONING) my curtains?

Here is how they look closed:

Here is how they look opened:

++++++++

Total cost:
Rod (pipe & hardware): $43.52
“Quality time” with 2 year-old: Priceless

Comments (7)

By Mom Unplugged, May 23, 2007 10:56 am

I did a silly thing.

With child number three, we finally outgrew our small kitchen table. I ordered this great table with the green chairs from West Elm. The table arrived and I LOVE it! It looks fabulous in my green kitchen area and is nice and big for meals, homework, projects (clutter), etc.

But…I ordered the cushions too. The chair cushions are a lovely, minimalist white. WHAT WAS I THINKING??? They have washable covers, but do I really want to be removing cushion covers and washing them every day? I have enough daily laundry to do without adding more to it. Plus, what about spaghetti sauce? Will that come out or will I need to dye the covers red to match the stains? Maybe we should just eat white food from now on. Potatoes, pasta, milk, ice cream (vanilla)…

This reminds me of one of my pet peeves. Decorating magazines that feature “families” with cute little blonde curly-haired angels running around the immaculate garden in adorable white outfits. These families always have elegant minimalist living rooms in varying shades of white with sisal rugs. The room is completely decorated with “flea market finds” and boasts (and this is the kicker) a WHITE SLIPCOVERED SOFA on which the family greyhound is reclining comfortably.

The glamorous, yet natural-looking mother always offers up some savvy decorating wisdom, such as: “Seek out flea market pieces that have good bones.” Or, “I like to decorate with white slipcovers because you can just pull them off and throw them in the wash!” With a house full of toddlers and sofa-sleeping greyhounds, this mother (or her maid) must be washing her slipcovers five times a day.

My slipcovers would be living in my laundry room. My sisal rug would have cat barf on it (How does one clean cat vomit out of the fibers of a sisal rug anyhow? With a toothbrush?). Do Lazy-Boy recliners have “good bones?” Where do I find a flea market near me? We have garage sales, thrift stores and a “swap meet,” but unless your decorating style is “Early Salvation Army” or involves antlers, you might be a bit disappointed with the availability of elegant antique bargains where I live.

So, this brings me back to my dilemma. What do I do with white kitchen chair cushions? I am simply not as brave as those “magazine moms.” Mine are in a box in the attic to be brought out when my children are in college.

PS. I thought about cleaning off the table for the photo, but decided that it was more interesting to simply capture a moment in time from a “real mom’s” house. I hope you appreciate my honesty.