I don't know if anyone cares or will even be notified that there is a new entry. After 5 1/2 years, I am ready to try to keep up the blog again. So here goes.

When the hubby told me that it was too much work to move while we were working full-time and would have to wait until retirement, I was pretty discouraged. I gave up the idea of finding a cute Craftsman Bungalow to live in for at least a decade. My downsizing project stopped just short of slamming on the brakes. Things began to accumulate again. I gave it a half-hearted try by taking a box to Goodwill once or twice a year. But furniture that had been replaced by newer, sleeker models, moved upstairs where no one but the occasional insect lived. Add to that my mother's move to a retirement community when she had to do some serious downsizing of her own (and she really wanted me to have some more family things)...gadzooks! After a couple of years, what we had upstairs were 2 bedrooms, a bathroom and a small bonus room. Although there was a futon in one of the bedrooms, there were 3 tables, 14 chairs, which included a recliner, a bookcase, 2 dressers, a file cabinet, 2 TVs, games and boxes. Man were there boxes - shoe boxes, Christmas decorated boxes, shipping boxes; some were empty, but most had either styrofoam pieces or papers I didn't know where to file (even though the 4 drawer file cabinet was almost empty).

Fast forward a few birthdays and anniversaries, we retired. Da-da-da-da (trumpet fanfare). By this time, I had lived in the nest for 32 years. The hubby went first in April of last year, then I followed in August. We joined a gym and went faithfully about 3 times a week. I built up some muscles and he maintained his. We had time for fun again - retired people stuff like playing cards and doing jigsaw puzzles in winter - woohoo. Once he had been retired for about a year, he decided it was now time to move. I was game, but was also the one who had to start the ball rolling by finding a Realtor and doing some preliminary house searching. All of a sudden, the fun went away and it was work, work, work. I wanted to start in on the blog again, but was too busy purging the second floor. In the evenings I was exhausted.

As I was busy upstairs, my guy was toiling in the basement. I have to say that I spend as little time as possible in the basement; there are 8-legged critters down there! Unfortunately, the freezer and laundry area are in the basement. It was really sad when I had knee replacement surgery last year and was not allowed to go to the basement for weeks. The hubby had to do all of the laundry (sad emoji). Anyway, he had the much more difficult job of bringing 1 heavy box after another up all those stairs. I would go through them and save one or two things from each box. We would then throw the rest of the contents of the box into the rented dumpster that had taken up residence in our driveway. I regret not taking any pictures of the process, but it was all-consuming. We found things that had been there for more than 30 years - quite embarrassing.

I'm sure that some would say I'm a hoarder, but how I differ is that I have no emotional attachment to most of the things - I want to get rid of them. I was happy to purge.

to be continued the next time I can't sleep...

The Nest is Free and Clear!

This week marked an important milestone in my life. For the first time in 27 years, I am mortgage-free! For a couple of years, we talked about paying the house off early, but it was just too big a chunk of change. We paid extra toward the principal every month until the balance was a smaller big chunk of change. Last week (even after getting not-so-great tax news), we [gulp] took money out of savings and just did it.

I have to say, I was a little disappointed in the reaction of the bank employees. I knew they probably wouldn't uncork the champagne or release confetti out of the ceiling, but I expected a little smile and a "congratulations," or "way to go!" I'm here to say that it was just another day at the office for these courteous but glum tellers. I left feeling a little under-appreciated and not really having anything to show but a receipt that looked like all of the other receipts I got over the years.

...and now the 'after' picture

I know it doesn't look that much different to the naked eye, but I had already given a bunch of the containers away last year. I did fill a small box to take to the thrift store, but the main thing I gained was a drawer for a few small appliances. Now my collapsible salad spinner and immersion blender have a home and the Magic Bullet is off the counter! Yay, I was able to go to bed feeling good about that!

Tomorrow after work, I get to have a facial. Nighty-night.

3 more boxes and a bag

Oh boy... I can't believe it's been almost 2 months since my last post. I'm so ashamed... 
There is good news, though. I have been consistently hunting and gathering up on the second floor. I have packed up a big box with 14 pair of pants, 15 tops, a sweater and 3 jackets. I also  squeezed 6 pair of shoes and sandals in a smaller box. The bag (mentioned in the above title) has 4 pair of shoes in their boxes. These were all relatively uncomfortable footwear purchased for a specific event. I planned to wear them for multiple uncomfortable occasions--wait, no, that's not quite right. Anyway, they were never the right color or style for the next  event and then, sadly, they went out of style.

 

Tonight's project, and the content of the third box (again, see title) was the dreaded Tupperware cupboard. Dun-dun-dunnn...and adjoining "lid drawer." I have received a few small appliances in the last couple of months  and I don't have a good place to keep them - no large drawers in my 80's style kitchen. So the need for a drawer to put these utensils in prompted the clear out of the one holding the plastic lids. The cupboard also contains 3 rolling pins. Three rolling pins? you may ask - why 3? Well - one I don't need, but the hubby brought it into the marriage and he seems to want to keep it. I'm not going to begrudge him one rolling pin. I'm saving up my requests for downsizing on his part for the things that really bug me (ie: those horrible old sweatpants.
The after photos will have to wait - the batteries in the camera need to charge. I hate technical difficulties. Okay, off to bed for me! I'll post those 'after pictures' soon.

Still moving ahead

Even slow progress is still progress.That's my new mantra! On Saturday, the hubby came in with head held high and proclaimed, "I helped with the downsizing project!" He had given 2 float-tubes and 2 sets of flippers away to daughter number two and her fiancé. For those of you who don't know what a float tube is, here is a picture I stole from the internet:
 A fly fisherman sits in this contraption in the middle of a lake with flippers attached to his/her feet and proceeds to paddle around in said lake in an attempt to locate and catch fish - usually trout which he/she then may or may not unhook and throw back into the lake. This is repeated until sunburned or arm falls off, whichever happens last. Incidentally, they are quite large and take up considerable real estate in my basement.

In other news, am moving forward in bits, still taking 1 or 2 bags a week to the trash can. Over the weekend, I boxed up more clothes to take to the thrift store. Feeling pretty good about myself this morning! 

Slowly making progress again

I know, right? Two posts from me within minutes!!! Well, they were unrelated subjects and I do want to upload a picture of one "guest" room - former daughter room #1. At this point, it would be for guests who we do not want to ever see again. Sometimes if I post a photo, it's so embarrassing that I want to get it cleaned up faster so that I can post the "after pic" and then I'll feel a little better about myself. I have been slowly chipping way at it, about a grocery bag a week. Just keep in mind that the temperature in the evenings up there is around 90 degrees!

Another summer, another road construction mess

Here we go again! This summer's street work in front of our house will be much less invasive than last years'. It's still not a lot of fun. The last word I had (from neighbors) was that they will begin to pave this week. We have had a lovely break from the 6:15 AM wake-up calls of last week, but I guess they wait until the day is at it's most scorching to begin with the black sticky stuff. Last week they performed the prep work of digging up the street and giving many driveways new aprons (not ours) and making the corners scooterchair friendly.

It's too bad that we don't have any preschoolers any more to watch this from our front yard. 

Here's the end result - to date. I don't know when the paving will happen - I just hope I can get home today!

Back at It

I know it's been 5 months. I think I'm getting back on track now. I took this photo of our breakfast area this morning. After 2 days in a row of record-breaking heat, we had a lovely summer morning with a warm breeze wafting through all of the windows. Note the newspaper and gardening gloves - kind of a photo essay of my morning - [Heavenly sigh].
It was about a week before Super Bowl Sunday that I last posted. The great news is that I didn't have to do a lot of clearing out of the family room before our annual get-together. The room stayed fairly clutter-free since last year. There was all sorts of bad news that  happened right about that time, though. A couple of hours before everyone was going to show up for pulled pork sliders and the Hubby's special baked beans, one of our dogs tore her ACL. We managed to enjoy way too much food and the game anyway.
The next day, my Mom had a moderate stroke 1,200 miles away. She's doing much better now after a lot of physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and even "swallowing therapy." I did go see her after she was released from the hospital and staying in the rehab facility. When I talk to her on the phone, she sounds (and believes) that she is just about fully recovered. The dog had some PT of her own, and is just about healed also.

It's still the New Year, right?

I have been avoiding posting updates because I missed my final goal date (notice that I did not use the word “deadline”). I was pretty disappointed when I realized that my projected time was upon me. Here is an excerpt from an early post dated November 21, 2010:

Having no realistic idea of how long this clearing out will take, I'm just going to pick a date out of the air....here it is...drum-roll...January 1, 2012. I considered 11/11/11 which is such an awesome date, but there's just something about the beginning of a year that seems to keep order in the Universe.

Four weeks ago, I checked out a book from the library titled, One Year to an Organized Life by Regina Leeds. Well, in typical disorganized fashion, I started looking through it today; the day it’s due. Well, I read the first several pages on my lunch break and then I returned it because, as luck would have it, someone had reserved it and I wasn’t able to renew. I am excited enough after reading a few pages that I put it on hold for myself. Ha-Ha, take that! One year sounds like a long time, but there are a lot of things in the book that I have already done. It also includes things other than clearing things out. She talks about organizing financially, and things like not spending time looking all over for keys. I do need to get rid of a lot of things, large and small. She definitely advocates pitching things, but she also talks a lot about getting new things such as containers in order to organize. I like the way that the author presents her ideas and plans. It is laid out in 52 week-by-week segments. The book begins with January, but in the Introduction, Leeds, suggests beginning at whatever time of the year with the corresponding month in the book. Not having read very far, I can only assume that the activities coincide with the ideal time of year to complete each one. I think that ordering it from Amazon would be a better choice for moi, it is priced low and I think I will be referring to it for months. 

(I don't know why Blogger has been arbitrarily highlighting and underlining sections of my posts, but it's annoying and I don't like it)!

I'm baaack and I have something to talk about