The Seven Things Project

Explaining the silence.

2007-07-16T07:24:00.001-07:00

Last weekend was the official end of my the first phase of my Seven Things Project. In addition to the fact that I had two Saturday Sevens to catch up on, I had planned to write a reflection on the first year of this project. Unfortunately, my family experienced a horrific event that ended in an unbelievably happy outcome, and we have spent the last many days dealing with it. You can read about it here. This blog may "go dark" for a bit, and I wanted you to know why. After we get home from our vacation and get adjusted back to normal life, I will catch up on this blog again. Thank you for understanding.

The Saturday Seven - #40

2007-06-27T01:27:00.000-07:00

Tangled Up in Blue

Look! I actually got rid of some things this past week. Seven, even. So I'm sure you'll kindly overlook (again) the fact that this Saturday Seven is posted on Tuesday. (Okay, scratch that, it's actually early Wednesday morning now, about 1:00 in the morning. I started this entry first thing Tuesday morning but had to put it on hold while I plowed through a to-do list a mile long....)

Anyway, for weeks now I have had a pile of clothes sitting out in our bedroom waiting for me to determine whether to keep it or pass it on. Given that I haven't worn any of it since I piled it there, or probably in a couple of years or more, you'd think the answer on all of it would be obvious - pass it on. But not for me, nosiree. I have to agonize over every piece. Now that I'm doing the Wardrobe Refashion, it's even harder to get rid of unused clothing - because now I see all of it as a potential refashion.

Last week, we got a postcard from the Easter Seals saying they would be driving through our neighborhood picking up donations from the curb. It doesn't get any easier than this! So I took that as the little shove I needed to find at least seven things to donate. After rummaging through the pile in our bedroom, I came up with one pair of black sandals (have always loved them and love them still, but the elastic has stretched on them to an extent that they are too big for me now); one never-worn brooch that I bought last year to go with a capelet I was knitting that did not turn out well; and five pieces of clothing, all blue: two very nice Ann Taylor tops, two tees, and a pair of pjs. I also started to put some Ann Taylor stretch jeans that are no longer my style, but then I realized I might be able to make a fun skirt out of them.

Just as I was packing the stuff up to put out by the road, I realized there were a couple of small coffee stains on the striped Ann Taylor sweater. This happens to me more times than you would believe - I'm ready to pass something on, only to discover that it needs to be washed (or worse, dry cleaned). The stuff was due out at the road first thing, and there was no time to clean up the sweater, so I took it out of the pile.

It's funny, I've been hemming and hawing over giving that sweater away for months or maybe more than a year. It has stretched out and really doesn't fit me anymore in a flattering way, so I don't end up wearing it. But I loved it so much when I first bought it, and I have good associations with it. Funny that I finally decided to part with it only to discover it needed cleaning.

After I snapped this second pic, I found one more thing for the pile: a cute little maternity dress that a friend passed on to me but I never wore (because it was too small for my late-term multiple pregnancy self). I had tried to sell it in the past with no luck. I kept thinking I'd try again, but now I'm glad I just let it go. I also fished around in my car and found a few books that I had meant to drop off at the church rummage sale (counted weeks ago as a Saturday Seven), and I added those to the bag.

One more funny cleaning-related thing. After the stuff had already been picked up, I was down in the basement doing laundry, and I discovered two more shirts I had meant to add to the pile but had decided they needed washing first. They were clean and dry and ready to go. They were, of course, also blue.

Total this week: 7.
Total so far: 359.

Thanks, all of you, for your really great comments on my last post. I'm definitely going to persist in this and am glad some of y'all are doing it as well. I'm about to leave for vacation, and hope to spend some of my time reflecting on what form this project needs to take for me over the next year. Stay tuned!

unsustainable

2007-06-14T14:50:00.000-07:00

I started the Seven Things Project partly in an effort to move towards more sustainability - both economic and environmental - in my personal life, and to be a part of a communal conversation towards that end. Funny then, isn't it, that I cannot seem to sustain either the project itself or the blog that helped me launch it.

I am so grateful for you who read this blog, and for you who comment, and especially for you who are struggling along with me towards similar goals, and most especially towards those of you who have given me such gracious encouragement and support. I feel bad about my almost total failure to respond individually to comments (I'll blame blogger a little bit, for making it difficult). And I feel even worse about my inconsistency with posting. I actually do post all the time - in my head. Getting them typed up and online has been an entirely different story.

At the same time, I realize it's a little ridiculous to live with guilt over a blog. And I also realize it probably gets tiresome to read apologies and excuses.

Still, I feel guilty. And still, I am sorry.

I am an Idea Person. I have big ideas, sometimes good ideas - and I'm pretty sure that the Seven Things Project was - and is - a good idea. It's just when it comes to consistent follow-through, well, suffice it to say that I struggle.

Which could be why my house feels just as full as stuff as it did when I started this project nearly a year ago. The baby diapers I intended to post on eBay? Still here. The antique table I wanted to sell so we could buy something more useful? Still have it. The three recliners that I thought I'd give away? Still here. The new-with-tags Bebe dress, Bebe top, and Ann Taylor formal skirt that were all ill-conceived purchases five and six years ago and should've been returned within 30 days? Got it, got it, got it.

Perhaps I have made a dent, it's hard to tell. I know I have more mindfulness - especially about the stuff I am considering buying. It has been four months now since I bought myself a new piece of clothing (other than shoes and undergarments), and I've signed on for another six months. For me, that's a pretty big deal (but don't ask me how much fabric I've bought in that same amount of time). I have made some small eco-friendly commitments and recommitments that I haven't blogged about, that seem to have come as a result of the focus this project has given me. And, as much as I fail - in getting rid of stuff, in stopping myself from acquiring more stuff, and in blogging about all of it - I am still determined to keep trying to do better. And it's possible I already am, at least a little bit.

Does this sound like a farewell post? It's not, actually. It's just my current musings, and a bit of an apology for not posting any Saturday Sevens in awhile (I suppose I can't really count my last one, since it was ZERO). This project was intended to end on July 7 of this year. I guess this phase of this project will end, but this blog will keep going - though maybe without the weekly pressure of a deadline (I probably already have enough of that kind of pressure in my life right now - also, what was I thinking, making the deadline be a Saturday, when that is nearly always a full and sometimes stressful day because of my work?). I am still considering what incarnation this project will take next.

At any rate, I'm sticking around, and I'm grateful for those of you who might keep on reading. Even when I have no progress to show. Even when I am awful at responding to comments. And even when I am sporadic in my posting. Thanks in advance for understanding. You're all marvelous.

Tackle It Tuesday #5 - the pantry

2007-05-29T04:54:00.000-07:00

Our pantry stays in disarray. We have four deep shelves - the depth actually complicates things, because items get sucked into little black holes in the back, especially on the lower shelves. The top shelf typically stays in reasonably good order, with spices on the right (my most-used spices are in magnetic containers stuck to the refrigerator next to the stovetop) and oils and vinegars on the left, with a few regularly-used items (peanut butter, tea, steel-cut oats) also stored on that shelf. But the rest? Pure mess.

I spent time this weekend sorting through it all, tossing old stuff (an opened bag of Soy Crisps from maybe 3 years ago? Yeah, I think it can go), organizing the rest, and shaking my head at how I continually buy new containers of stuff I already have because I didn't realize I had it in there (6 containers of oats, 4 containers of bread crumbs, for example).

I recently bought a set of four baskets on sale at Jo-Ann Fabrics - one big basket with three smaller ones (in a red and white fabric that matches my kitchen, not that it will be seen in the patnry). I also found another basket that we were given a few months ago. I used the baskets to hold like items. One basket holds snacky stuff - chips, crackers, nuts, etc. One basket holds bags of rice. One basket holds bags of beans. One basket holds all my cupcake making things, and then it fits in the bigger basket, which now holds most of my baking items.

Here's the after shot:

Here are the two middle shelves. 2nd shelf - dried fruits, nuts, snack stuff, and one of the containers of oatmeal. 3rd shelf - pastas, rice, and beans on the left, baking goods on the right, with the little shelf for saran wrap and foil and plastic bags hung above it (that used to be hung above the 2nd shelf, but I realized that it works better to have it directly over a big basket that I can pull out and see the whole contents of; otherwise, the little shelf conceals the view of the back of the pantry).

Bottom shelf (with Tiny Dancer's hand sneaking in the pic) - on the left is many containers of oatmeal, some grits, cocoa, cornmeal, and a few other items that either had no logical place or were too big to place elsewhere. On the right, I finally have a place to store dishtowels, dishcloths, and cloth napkins (in a lovely Amazon box). Our teeny-tiny galley-style kitchen has limited storage, with only 3 drawers. Till now I have stored these kitchen linens in the basement - which is just a drag when we need a fresh towel or dinner napkins. I think this will be much more convenient.

Overall, I'm pleased with the outcome, and it actually took less time than I expected. The real challenge now will be keeping it this way....

The Saturday Seven - #39

2007-05-28T12:35:00.000-07:00

Z is for Zero

Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Nothing. That's what I got rid of this past week. And I'm just kind of beyond feeling bad about it, and beyond being down on myself for never posting a Saturday Seven on Saturday anymore.

Life feels a little complicated these days, in a deep and slightly subtle way. On the surface I'm dealing with all the same chaos and busyness and happy stuff as always, more or less. In a more interior way, though, there are some small shifts (in a good direction), and also some old griefs and struggles that relate directly to how I deal with possessions. My mom is very ill these days, and while her diagnosis is not yet known (a recurrence of her cancer is a possibility), just the fact of her being sick again triggers old sadness and fear. So much of my relationship with stuff is bound up with my relationship with my mother, in ways that I can't always make sense of.

The Seven Things Project is explicitly about getting rid of things I already have. A bigger issue for me, though, is dealing with the acquisition and accumulation of new things. I find myself wondering how I am really simplifying by getting rid of stuff when the fact is I haven't quit buying new stuff.

Except in one area: clothes. Since signing the Wardrobe Refashion pledge in February, I haven't bought a single new item of clothing for myself (except the allowable: shoes [1 pair] and undergarments; I will also be buying a new swimsuit soon). When I first signed up, I did it for two months. Then I re-upped for another 2 months. As of June 1, I am signing on for (*gulp*) 6 months. It feels really good to make this effort, and I feel so much self-sufficient when I make my own duds. Truth be told, though, if I never made or bought another item of clothing, I could probably make do with what is in my closet(s) for a long, long time. I really, really need to get rid of much more than I already have. I just find it so difficult, even more so then I realized.

I suppose I am doing better in other areas, too, overall. It's just never easy, at least not for me. I think I've always had a vision that if I could embrace "simplicity" as a whole-life concept, I would also have a simpler life. But the older I get, the more I realize that life is probably always just going to be a bit messy, and difficult, and that no matter how much stuff I get rid of and how little stuff I own, I will never feel like I'm in some sort of balanced, harmonious, control over life. Because that's not how life works. The problem really isn't stuff, per se, is it?

So those are my rambled thoughts for this week.

Total for this week: 0.
Total so far: 352.

Tackle It Tuesday #4 - my boys' room

2007-05-22T03:13:00.000-07:00

My twin sons will be three next week. They share a small room, which has been in transition for the last 10 months, when we had to first convert their cribs to toddler beds (because they were beginning to climb out), and then take those beds out and leave the mattresses on the floor (because they were climbing the bed sides, jumping off the beds, pushing them around the room - taking turns riding in them - and blocking the door with them), and then take out the changing table (because they were climbing it and dancing on the top of it), and then take out the dresser (because they were starting to try to climb it). Yeah, my boys are a handful.

In the beginning, their room looked like this:

By this past March, it looked like this:

In March, I tackled the bed situation, by getting both crib mattresses out and assembling a double bed that we had stored in our basement. For two months, their room had a bed and basically zero storage.

I finally tackled it. My Old Man and I moved a nightstand, a small dresser, and a bookcase in their - items that were once a part of the guestroom (which was turned into the nursery), then were stored in the basement, then were moved into my study. I have had these pieces of furniture for roughly 14 years, starting with my first apartment after college. It's nice to see that they are still so functional, and they have made a huge difference in my boys' room.

Finding a place for all my boys' toys, big and small, has been a real challenge. It helps that it is finally warm enough to be in our poorly-insulated sunroom. I moved a lot of their bigger toys there. I'm not sure what I'll do in five months when it's too cold to play out there anymore. I moved most of their stuffed animals into their closet, where I hung one of those mesh tube-like things from Ikea (I had originally hung it in their bedroom a few months ago, but they promptly pulled it down). They seem to be keeping their books neater now that there's a sturdier bookcase for them.

And the best organizational piece I got was this:

A shoe hanger, for all their small toys. This has been perfect, especially for all those pesky Mr. Potato Head pieces. The boys can see all their small toys easily, and it is so easy for them (and me) to put them up).

Possibly the biggest change in the room is that, while there is now enough organized space for toys, books, and clothes, there is also enough cleared out playspace:

The dresser used to be on this wall, and the bookcase was right there at the window. Now, instead, there is a clear path from door to window (which opens up the room, and makes it feel bigger than it is), and there is space on the floor for them to pull out their trainset (from under the bed, where it is now neatly stored!) and set it up to play.

I am so pleased with this room now. I am even putting up their laundry in a more timely fashion, because there is actually a place for everything (for months, many of their clothes have mostly been stored in the basement, in laundry baskets!). It is so much easier for them to help clean up, too.

There is still work to do, and ultimately I plan to tackle it all. In no particular order:
1 - I need to remove the nursery border from the walls.
2 - We need to spackle in the holes where we had attached the dresser and bookcase (to keep them from tipping).
3 - The room needs to be repainted (probably the same color, but it needs to be freshened).
4 - New bed linens. I plan to buy a sheet set, but I'd like to make the bedcover myself (I'm hoping to learn to quilt this summer).
5 - New window dressings. (currently their old nursery valances are up)
6 - Wall hangings.
7 - Install a shelf for a CD player (that needs to be out of their reach).
8 - Remove the potties, once the boys are consistently using the bathroom toilet.

Obviously, I have a lot of tackles ahead of me! But I think this current one has had the biggest psychological impact. Now I'm ready for more!

The Saturday Seven - #38

2007-05-21T18:42:00.001-07:00

two big things and no tears

I'm late posting because I kept thinking I was going to find five more things to get rid of but I just didn't find the time to do it. But what I did get rid of was Big Stuff.

The first thing was my other crib mattress. What, no tears? Probably because I wasn't here when it was picked up (plus, I was just so freakin' happy to have it out of my study, where it has been standing in the way for weeks). I offered it on craigslist for a low, low price, but there were no takers. So I ended up donating it to a charity that works with pregnant women and new mothers, usually ones who are in financial need. I felt good about that, knowing that the crib where my little ones once slept in safety and peace would now hold another babe, one in a family that might need some extra support. A volunteer from this agency saw my craigslist ad and contacted me - she also made things super-easy. She picked it up and gave us a tax receipt. It's something I should definitely consider doing again, as you know I still have plenty of baby stuff around.

The second thing was a headboard that's been stored in our basement for three years (since we converted our guestroom into a nursery). Almost 9 months ago, I promised it to be friend CJ. Finally, this past Friday, the two of us, plus My Old Man, managed to work out the logistical details of getting it to her place. It's in nice shape, can fit a queen or a double, and should have a lot of years left in it. It feels good to have one more thing in the home of someone who will put it to good use!

So, just two things, but both things made a big psychological impact. I feel like maybe I'm getting somewhere with this getting rid of stuff. Always, always a lot more stuff to go. But still....

Total this week: 2.
Total so far: 352.

The Saturday Seven - #37

2007-05-14T17:57:00.000-07:00

the blahblahblah edition

Blahblahblah. Life is busy. Blahblah. I'm late again. Blahblahblah. Way behind. Blahblahblah. Getting rid of things is hard. Blahblahblah. Church rummage sale. Blahblahblah. On the verge of getting rid of big stuff. Blahblahblah. But for now it's the same old small stuff. Blahblahblah.

I suppose I'm getting tired of seeing myself type all the same old stuff. Indeed, I am very behind. I missed last week entirely. The spring church rummage sale happened late last month, which means my automatic drop-off spot is in limbo until the church women do an after-sale clean-up (in a couple of weeks, I think). I am working hard, HARD, to get this house in some sort of shape (quite a feat given that it appears to be falling down around us). Over the weekend, I made major steps towards completing the transition of the boys' room from nursery to child's room. This included moving some furniture in from my study. Which means there are things in my study that currently have no home. I have big plans for re-doing my study into a study/studio (for sewing, quilting, and general making) [see SouleMama for HUGE inspiration]. And big plans for making our oddly-shaped, multi-purpose living room/dining area/entryway more functional. Our bedroom is in ever-present need of decluttering (as you may recall from my unsightly bedroom dresser). And our basement (with its buckling walls) and sunroom (with its sinking foundation) are also in need of more attention than I will ever be able to give them.

All of this is to say that I have been doing lots of work, and lots of confronting of the unsustainability of our house and its contents, and lots of planning for reducing. Just not a lot of actual getting rid of.

My measly Saturday Seven this week: 5 books. 2 childproofing items (unused; one unopened). And a small stuffed animal. These will all go to the church rummage sale. Which means they will be stored in my office at church until the post-sale clean-up is done and new donations can be accepted.

My office at church? It's a disaster all its own....

Total this week: 8.
Total so far: 350.

The Saturday Seven - #36

2007-05-01T19:09:00.000-07:00

Somehow I completely blipped-out on posting my Saturday Seven on Saturday, even though I actually got rid of seven things. No excuses, really, but I'll blame it on this anyway:

Saturday morning, right before a planned outing with my boys, I looked out the window to discover this. The gold car is mine. The blue car belongs to someone who was attending U-M graduation at the Michigan stadium 5 blocks away. The fact that the car was touching my bumper wouldn't have been such a big problem if it wasn't for this:

The guy who parked behind me only left me 5 inches. So my morning went completely differently than planned, and I sort of forgot to post my Saturday Seven.

I actually got rid of 8 things last week: 2 plastic outdoor push toys that I got on freecycle last year, and 6 pieces of boys' clothes that didn't sell at our Parents of Multiples Clothing Sale, all given to the church rummage sale, which was held this past weekend. But the reason they only count as 7 is because I actually went back and retrieved something from the sale that I had already donated - an alarm clock. My Old Man told me last week that his was missing and he wanted to buy another one. Given that I had recently donated not one but two to the sale, I was pretty sure I could scrounge one back for him. And I did.

I tried to do some other scrounging, too, but to no avail. This one actually made me really sad. In December, I gave this stack of clothing to the sale. It was actually kind of hard, because a few of the things had been with me for awhile and I had always really loved them. If you look at the stack, you can see the blue, purple, and white crinkly skirt I bought my senior year of college from TJ Maxx. For the longest time this was my favorite skirt - kind of signature skirt of mine. Very beachy. Very boho. But the elastic was shot and I hadn't worn it in forever. So I finally parted with it.

Just recently, we made plans to go to the beach this summer. I suddenly started thinking of this skirt. I kept thinking that now that I know a little bit about sewing, I could probably put new elastic in the waist. Or, if not that, then I could use the skirt for fabric, maybe make a beachy shawl out of it. I was very excited about the possibilities of refashioning it. Only when I went to the sale (before it started), the skirt was nowhere to be found. I scoured the tables for a very long time - no skirt. And the volunteers who set up didn't remember seeing it. So I guess it's gone for good.

See, this is one of the reasons it's so hard for me to part with stuff. Because it seems like the very instant I finally let something go, I realize I actually did need it or could use it after all. I had been so proud of myself for letting go of such a cherished and memory-laden garment. But now I'm very disappointed that I didn't let myself just keep it.

Total this week: 7.
Total so far: 342.

Tackle It Tuesday #3 - again with the sock drawers

2007-04-24T05:25:00.000-07:00

So a couple of weeks ago, I showed a tiny bit of progress I had made on decluttering in my house. A single drawer in my bedroom dresser. It was the top drawer, and I have successfully kept clutter from piling back into it in the three weeks since I cleaned it out. And yet, the dresser still looks like this:

Hey, the fact that the top drawer actually closes now is a huge (and very positive) change from before. But as you can see, the second drawer needed major work.

Socks, knee-high stockings, pantyhose, and slips, all in a jumble. But with the new-found room in my top drawer, and some additional weeding out, I was able to find a space for everything.

This is the top drawer now. I somehow failed to take a shot of the second drawer now, which looks basically the same - another sock drawer organizer, and then to the left some folded things. I was even able to organize all my underfrillies with the two sock organizers. And - in a rare move - I am actually throwing something away. Three pairs of maternity underwear that make me feel bad every time I put them on. It has been almost three years since I was pregnant, do I really need to be wearing those now? And, though I'm all about passing my unusables on to other people, I just can't see giving these to anyone. So, score one for the landfill. Sorry, Mama Earth.

[on second thought, they are not in the trash yet, is there a non-landfill way to part with cotton? It's not compostable is it? I cannot see repurposing these for anything else, so if there's a way to recycle these, I'd love to know it]

Sorry for all the talk about underthings. I promise my next post won't be so, er, intimate.

Two drawers down. Three drawers, plus the top surface, to go.

The Saturday Seven - #35

2007-04-21T18:38:00.000-07:00

Yep, more baby stuff. Another 11 pieces of baby clothing shipped off to My Old Man's daughter for her 9 month-old son. Included was this sweet little baseball outfit (just one of them) that I absolutely adored (you can't see the shorts, but they had a little bat, ball, and glove embroidered on them. I have such fond memories of them in these outfits, right after their first birthday. A happy summer with lots of travels. These pictures are from a trip to Denver for a work conference. After a day of being pushed around in the stroller, they ended up like this:

It's one of my most prominent memories of that summer, for some reason - seeing them sound asleep in their new side-by-side stroller in their little baseball outfits.

Today, the person who bought one of our crib mattresses and our nursery dresser at my Parents of Multiples sale last month came by to pick those things up. Of course I cried after she left with them.

Total things gone this week: 11.
Total gone so far: 346.

Thanks so much to those of who you continue to faithfully read along, even though I seem to say the same things every week: I got rid of more baby things! I cried! I gave some stuff to the church rummage sale! There are things I still can't part with! This is hard! Etc!

Oh, and if you're playing along at home and want to share (either a Saturday Seven or simply a simplicity-related musing), let us know by signing Mr. Linky!

The Saturday Seven - #34

2007-04-02T17:35:00.000-07:00

This was originally going to be a Tackle It Tuesday post, but for the past two Tuesdays I haven't had time to post it, and since I'm also rather far behind with Saturday Sevens I decided not to wait for another Tuesday (when I probably again won't have the time). I have been thrown off my blogging rhythm by a number of things going on right now; I hope to be back in a groove soon.

In the midst of the chaos, I did grab a little time recently to try to put one small corner of my life in order. Okay, not really a whole corner, just a drawer.

This is my awful chest - drawers filled to bulging, handles coming off, overflow piled on My Old Man's dresser, random items slung around the floor. This is how I live, people. And this isn't even the worst of it. But it's the part I felt up to tackling. Well, not the whole thing. Just the top drawer. A start.

Here are the contents, dumped on my bed. I was startled at the amount of jewerly I found in this tangle of things. Including some stuff that is really precious to me.

Trinkets from my 20s.

I also found a lot of fairly valuable jewelry that is no longer my style but I don't see how I can part with. A couple of class rings, a couple of graduation gifts from my parents, souvenirs from important trips. One thing that struck me was how much I've simplified things jewelry-wise in the last eight years or so. Whereas I used to wear about 5 or 6 rings (incl. a thumb ring and a ring above one of my knuckles), 3 earrings in one ear plus an ear cuff, a toe ring, etc., and I would wear different earrings every day, as well as different necklaces, now I pretty much wear the same thing all the time. On my left hand, my engagement and wedding rings plus a bracelet watch. On my right, a simple silver band with a cross cut-out, and occasionally a bracelet (I have 3 different ones that are special to me that I choose from). I almost always wear only silver hoop earrings (one in each ear, no extras). About half the time, that is it. The other half of the time, I add a necklace (there are only 2 or 3 that I choose from).

I guess this means that I wear maybe 20% (or less?) of the jewelry I own. I have gotten rid of pretty much everything that doesn't have any sentimental value to it, but I really don't know what to do with the rest. I should add that jewelry has a tremendous amount of importance in my family, particularly to my mother who is basically a collector, and so it is fraught with additional complexity and emotion. [My relative simplicity in terms of jewelry, compared with the other women in my family, is looked at with some disappointment and disdain.]

Moving on. Here's something else I found a lot of, that no longer matches my style.

Scrunchies! I had, oh, maybe 15. I probably should've gotten rid of all of them. But I kept 3. You know, just in case I suddenly decide I must wear one. [this used to be my preferred method of pulling back my hair when I got home from work, but now I use a big clip]

And one other interesting find in the mess of my top drawer:

My first ever knitting attempt, from May 2002.

An hour later, this is what the drawer looked like:

I'm still deciding what to put in it and how to organize it. It's nice to be able to shut it all the way. Right now, it feels like my little corner of sanity.

I put together a bag full of scrunchies, belts, bandanas, and other things I no longer need, to give to the church rummage sale.
Total this week: 25.
Total for the year: 335.

Got a Saturday Seven, or a simplicity-related post? Let me know!

Getting Here

2007-03-31T11:34:00.000-07:00

I am back from my (awesome, extraordinary, rejuvenating, much-needed, much-anticipated) personal retreat. But I am still sort of getting here. It is quite something to spend six days being totally taken care of (with the most nourishing and delicious meals which I neither had to plan nor prepare and certainly not clean up after!), and moving slow and in (mostly) silence, and simply soaking in everything I needed to soak in. To go from that to the noise, chaos, and disorder that is inherent in life with two two year-olds, as well as to suddenly have to switch into the mode of taking care of a family (plus, now, houseguests) - well, it's a bit of a jolt.

So another week without my Saturday Seven. But I did get my tickets and receipts from the big Parents of Multiples Clothing Sale. Total sold - 45 things! Total made - $150. Woohoo. I need to turn right around and invest that money back into things needed for the boys.

On my retreat, I was in a place that holds Simplicity as a core value, so there is always much for me to learn while I am there. I always get new perspectives on what is essential versus what is just excess. This time, I pared and pared down what I was packing and thought I wa bringing a really minimal amount. But then the weather was hotter than I'd anticipated (80s, 90s) and I ended up not wearing two of the tops, and one of the pairs of pants I had brought. So, clearly, I could've done without those, even though I thought I had packed so minimally.

I was also interested to contemplate the differences between simplicity and organization. The two people who run this retreat place (it's actually called a House of Prayer), live as simply as anyone I know and have actually taken a vow of poverty. But everything is not all neat and organized - books and papers sometimes get stacked here and there, pantry items get stored a bit willy-nilly in their somewhat small kitchen, photos pile up waiting to be placed in albums. Sometimes I over-equate simplicity and organization, buying into the notion that in order to simplify, I need to own a lot of great storage items (which are usually costly!). I do want to be organized, but I also think that drive can sometimes be at odds with my desire to live more simply....

Oh, and for anyone who has a Saturday Seven (or other musings to share), here again is Mr. Linky.

On Community and Simplicity

2007-03-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

In the beginning, I conceived the Seven Things Project as a community effort, something I would do along with other people who were trying to make similar simplifying efforts. Toward that end, I created a ring, and also set up a link list on the right side of this page of people who were participating (some of whom did not join the ring). [One thing I've learned? I suck at updating my template.] I also invited people to leave comments on my Saturday Sevens to let the rest of us know if they had a Saturday Seven up.

I have to say that it has been enormously encouraging for me personally to have you readers out there, keeping up with my journey and struggles, and making helpful comments. It keeps me going, it keeps me honest. I really think this simplicity thing is so much harder to do alone. Without community, I think it is much easier to lapse into discouragement and despair (if the struggle feels too great) or smugness, pride, and looking down on others (if the effort feels "successful"). Alone, it is too easy to either give up or to feel elite and self-congratulatory. Community, if it is supportive, encouraging, nurturing, and honest, provides the corrective towards the tendencies in either direction.

I've noticed lately that I have a new influx of readers, and new people joining the ring. I think it's time to take new steps towards making this conversation more communal. I'm going to remove the link list on the right because: a) I can't seem to keep it current; and b) not everyone on the list does the Seven Things (those blogs will remain in the ring, though, unless they choose otherwise - though I have removed blogs from the ring that either don't have the code or have disappeared entirely). Instead, I'm going to start doing Mr. Linky every Saturday. That way, if you are doing a Saturday Seven, you can sign Mr. Linky and everyone else can see that your list is up, and can go check it out. I should've thought of this a long time ago, but I'm slow on things like this. It only recently occurred to me to try it, and it is far easier than I thought it would be.

As for me, I'm out of town right now and won't be doing my Saturday Seven tomorrow. I am going on retreat this afternoon through next Thursday, at Green Bough House of Prayer in central Georgia. Simplicity is a big focus there (it is a part of their Rule of Life, which I took vows to live in my own life seven years ago). So I hope to get renewed energy and focus for my journey towards simplicity.

Anyway, since I will be offline for the next several days (just in time for Global Shut Down Day, which is tomorrow!), I'm going to go ahead and put Mr. Linky up today. If and when you have your Saturday Seven posted (or really, any musings about simplicity, decluttering, letting go), please add your link. I'll check back in after I return next Thursday.

Tackle It Tuesday #2 - twin sons' room

2007-03-20T04:28:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time, I had a beautiful nursery for my twin boys. In addition to being cute and sweet, all bunnies and bears, it was clean and even organized. Then my boys became toddlers, and things quickly deteriorated. Late last summer, when we realized we had a climber, we converted their cribs to toddler beds. Only then the boys started climbing the sides of the beds, and also (because there were casters on the legs) wheeling them around the room. So we took the beds out entirely, and put their mattresses on the floor. It has given their room a very temporary feel, and because they will climb most anything, we've had trouble finding the right organizational tools as well (so far all the bins we've tried have ended up being used as footstools for all kinds of adventures).

So here is what their room usually looks like....

Disastrous.

Now I am in the process of completely updating their room, transforming it from a "nursery" to a room for little boys. It's tricky, because the room is quite small, especially for two to share. I have been working with graph paper to determine what will fit in there, and in what layout. The first decision I've made has been about their bed. They are too young for bunk beds still, but two twin beds would take up almost all the available play space. The reasonable solution seemed to be a double bed. We just happened to have one in the basement - before the boys were born, their nursery was a guest room and the double bed was in there.

We weren't sure how they'd feel about their new bed....

But they definitely like it.

There is still a lot more to do in this room - a quilt or comforter for the bed (we have some, but none that seem right for little kids), take down the bunnies and bears border, get new curtains, move their old dresser out (which I've sold but hasn't yet been picked up), and move new furniture in (still trying to decide between using some stuff we already have in other rooms, or getting a couple of new things). Oh yeah, and we'll have to bolt the new furniture to the walls.

Their room is still a mess, because there is not much in the way of organizational resources set up yet. But for now, it's nice just to have a new bed, that's not on the floor, that cannot be moved all around by them or flipped over or stacked to serve as a stool, and that is comfortable enough for me to cuddle with them too.

Bonus: they look so sweet sleeping together.

The Saturday Seven - #34

2007-03-18T13:11:00.000-07:00

the really big sale edition

Yesterday was my Parents of Multiples club spring Clothing and Toy Sale. I sold one of these:

(high chair, not baby)

and one of these

and this
(dresser, not baby)

So you can imagine my tears. Since I sold the other crib and the changing table at our fall clothing sale, what this means is that the only piece of furniture left in my boys room that was part of their original nursery is their bookcase. Waaah.

I sold a good bit of other stuff, too, but won't know the tally until I receive my check and my tags (from the items I sold) in a week or two. I know it was more than seven. In fact, less of my stuff was left over than in any previous sale. I attribute this to two things: I didn't knock myself out this time trying to sell too many things - 1) I limited myself to one big tub of spring/summer stuff, plus a small box of toys, and then a few big things (the highchair, crib, crib mattress, dresser, baby gate - which didn't sell, and carseat - which didn't sell). 2) I priced to sell. This meant most every piece of clothing was marked for $1.50 or less. I got $40 for the highchair, $55 for the crib plus mattress, and $10 for the dresser.

I feel like I am making slow, steady progress - both with getting rid of stuff and with my emotional struggle with my stuff. I am feeling a new energy around the issues involved, and I am pleasantly surprised. It is still hard and sad to say goodbye to certain things, especially baby stuff, and especially baby furniture. But I am also enjoying a new sense of feeling a little bit of release and relief. I am feeling more capable of letting go - and even of not taking new stuff in. Even though I have only been taking the smallest baby steps, I suddenly feel like I am making big progress....

The Saturday Seven - #33

2007-03-12T18:32:00.000-07:00

the "should we just call it the Monday Seven?" edition

Perhaps I should just quit making mention of my being late with these Saturday Sevens because I am so consistently late that it by now is probably unremarkable. This time, at least my excuse was partially due to an honest effort to simplify my life. Inspired by this project, I spontanteously shut my computer off midday on Friday (my day 0ff) and took a break from life as I usually live it. It was a fabulous afternoon and evening, filled with reading, resting, making stuff, and going out with my three guys. But then it meant I got behind on all my usual computer-related communications, including all blog-related activities. And I've stayed behind because yesterday was an unusually busy work day, and then today I was away from the computer most of the day.

So, without further ado, here's my blah little list of what I've gotten rid of:
- an alarm clock I haven't used in 4 years - church rummage sale
- an assortment of 6 different baby-related creams and potions - given away to two different mothers in my Parents of Multiples club

Even with such a mundane list, I still found reason to feel sentimental. One of the baby things was this wonderful little tub of locally-made, preciously packaged, organic "Whole Baby Salve," given to me by a dear friend when my babes were newborns. That friend died a year ago today. So she has been much in my thoughts, and I feel a little wistful giving away something she gave me. But it also feels good - like I'm passing a little piece of her on to someone else.

Total for this week: 7.
Total for this year: 265.

Tackle It Tuesday #1 - my so-called linen closet

2007-03-06T13:55:00.000-08:00

linen closet (after tackling)

So as I mentioned in my previous post, my "linen" closet (the one that had no linens in it) was bulging with a mess of medicines, herbs, vitamins, cleaning products, batteries, and other randomness. I freecycled 11 items this weekend, including several mostly unused bottles of supplements and some tubes of "beauty" products. I hadn't intended to completely overhaul the closet (or else I might've taken a "before" shot). But the next thing I knew, I was going at it. As is usually the case with this sort of thing, it took a lot less time than I expected.

top shelf - cleaning products - I only use a few but could probably cut even this in half and do just fine; we'll see
2nd shelf - medicines, bandaids, thermometers, etc.
3rd shelf - medicines, supplements, sunscreens, essential oils, etc.
4th shelf - linens! just a few, but the ones that are the biggest pain to go to the basement to get (the boys' towels and washcloths, the bathroom handtowels, the washcloths I use each night)
bottom level - empty in the picture, but I've now stacked the boys' favorite floor puzzles there. I'm not sure what will ultimately be stored there because I don't see this closet as being something the boys are going to have ready access to (don't need them getting into all those bottles, not to mention pulling all the linens down), and they really need to be able to get their puzzles out for themselves. But the space is so shallow, I really don't know what else should/could go there.

Doing this little shape-up made me feel so effective and efficient today. We'll see if I get any momentum from that....

The Saturday Seven - #32

2007-03-05T18:14:00.000-08:00

the alternative health edition

Again I am late, I realize. I keep trying to do better, and life keeps interfering. I am excited, though, about my Saturday Seven this week. I've been trying to declutter and reorganize our "linen" closet. It doesn't have any linens in it, but I don't know what else to call it. I think that's what it was meant for, and maybe one day, if I declutter it enough, that's what it will contain. For now it is a hodgepodge of medicine, cleaning products and rnadom things that don't otherwise have a home. Ordinarily in tackling this kind of project, I'd just dump everything I could make myself part with. But ever since discovering freecycle last year, I've realized that you can almost always find someone who wants what otherwise might go in the trash. So I unloaded the following on freecycle this weekend:

- sample size Lancome Sensation Totale Continuous-C Perfecting Complex
(unused)
- Neutrogena Clear Pore Treatment nighttime pore clarifying gel, 2 oz.
tube - slightly used (more than half the tube is left)
- Neutrogena Healthy Skin Face Lotion for sensitive skin (with
Alpha-Hydroxy), 2.5 oz., nearly full bottle
- 1000 mg. MSM capsules (LifeTime brand, 100% pure) - the bottle held
180 capsules and is nearly full
- Nature's Way Dandelion Root capsules, 540 mg. - the bottle held 100
capsules and I would guess it is 3/4 full
- Solaray BioCitrate Magnesium vegetarian capsules, 400 mg. - the
bottle held 90 capsules and is more than half full

I also found the following bottles of vitamins and herbal supplements,
all of which are technically expired. My first impulse was to dump them all in the trash, thinking no one would want them if they'd expired. Then I rethought it, dug them out of the trash, and offered them anyway. I had a taker for everything.

- glucosamine chondroitin complex (2 caps contains 1500 mg glucosamine
and 1200 mg chondroitin sulfate), the bottle held 80 caplets and is
nearly full, Target brand, exp. Apr. 2004
- GNC Biotin 600, 600 mcg, bottle held 120 tablets, and more than
half are there, exp. 07/05
- GNC Women's Ultra Nourishair (23 ingredients including biotin,
silica, MSM, and several vitamins), bottle held 60 tablets, more than
half are left, exp. 07/04
- Centrum Folic Acid, 400 mcg, bottle held 200 tablets and is at least
3/4 full, exp. Apr 03
- NovaNatural prenatal vitamins, sample size, never opened (holds 7
tablets), exp. 07/05

Pretty cool, eh? The closet is already looking a little more manageable, though I still need to organize it.

Total gone this week: 11.
Total so far this year: 258.

I am working on rehauling some things about this project, in terms of the blog and how to interact on a more communal level. Am hoping to have more to say about that later this week. Cryptic enough for ya?

The Saturday Seven - #31

2007-02-25T16:09:00.000-08:00

The "Yay, craigslist!" edition

It's gone!

before

after

Yay! No more big blank eye staring at me in the bedroom. It feels unbelievably freeing to get rid of this. I got $75 cash for it and had a good craigslist experience to boot. Not only did the buyer show up when he had arranged, he actually called me a few hours later to thank me. How cool is that? Finally having a good craigslist selling experience has given me some new energy to try again with my antique table.

I also returned 6 ridiculous and completely unnecessary plastic popcorn holders that I had gotten from the Target Dollar Spot in December. I did not go to Target that day thinking, "Hey, you know what I need? 6 plastic containers made to look like those paper popcorn holders you get at the movie theater. Because I don't have enough stuff cluttering up my kitchen cabinets. And because, you know, I don't want to eat my popcorn out of just regular old bowls." But there they were, in the Dollar Spot, looking all cute and cool. I thought they would be fun. Until I brought them home and My Old Man asked why we needed them. "They were only a dollar!" didn't really cut it as a reason. Still, it took nearly three months for me to make myself take the things back. Am still trying to learn my lesson about that freakin' Dollar Spot.

Hey, thank y'all for the very kind and thoughtful responses to my last post (both on this blog and in my email inbox). I really didn't know what kind of feedback I'd get from such a post, and, like I said, it felt vulnerable. I appreciate the really great responses. I totally agree with what TheAmpuT said - that life is a series of little deaths. I really feel that, even (especially?) whenever any happy milestone occurs - a wedding, a graduation, my babies walking. Happy things, progress, good stuff, forward motion. But these things also mark the little deaths, too. Just like the giving away of things seems to do as well.

Oh, and perhaps it won't surprise y'all to know, as much as I've been wanting that TV gone, I felt a little sad when I saw the guy walking away with it. Yeah, I know, I'm a little ridiculous.

Total this week: 7.
Total so far: 247.

Remember that you are dust....

2007-02-22T15:13:00.000-08:00

In my religious tradition, yesterday was a big day - Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of Lent. For most people, the emphasis on Ash Wednesday is on repentance. But the day is also meant to be a time for meditating on our mortality. I know that for me, this is certainly a large part of the force of the day. As the minister who puts the ashes on people's heads, it is a strange and difficult (and intimate) thing to say to each of them as I do it, "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." In more high church traditions, I think people generally say, "Amen." Being Baptists, and not so accustomed to the tradition of the ashes, our folks generally say, "Thank you." I stand up there and tell people they are going to die - and they thank me.

Me? I don't feel so thankful. Perhaps I am a morbid sort, more preoccupied with thoughts of my own mortality than I should be. It started when I was about six years old, and I first realized that my parents would die some day; my sadness over the brutal fact of death has remained with me. Having children has made that sadness all the more acute.

What does this have to do with the Seven Things Project? Startlingly, a lot. I think that one of the reasons I cling to my stuff with such ferocity is that on some subconscious level I think I can hang onto life - all the lost life behind me, all the time already gone. The baby clothes that belonged to my sweet boys? Maybe if I keep the clothes the boys will be fat little babies again some day. The shoes my mother gave me that were hers before she became paralyzed and no longer could wear them (since her feet have swelled to a much larger size), but that have never fit me? Perhaps if I keep them she will walk again some day. The answering machine I have not used or needed for six years, but that has a single message still on it, from my grandmother (who died five years ago), from July 2000, on the event of my engagement, calling to say she wished us "a world of happiness"? Maybe if I hang on to that recording, she will somehow come back.

Irrational, all of it, I know this. Re-reading my words right now, I see it makes no sense at all. There is no going back. Time always races inexorably to the future. Hanging on to bits of the past does not change that, and cannot. I am dust, all of this is dust, and my holding on to so much stuff does not change those facts, it only props up my own illusions.

This is very close to the heart of the issue of stuff for me, or maybe it is the heart. Death, grief, time. Stuff is my defense.

Is getting rid of seven things a week (or thereabouts) changing anything for me? I don't know. For now I guess it's mostly just forcing me to confront my own illusions, and to deal more squarely with my grief over things that cannot be changed.

All of this feels rather intimate and vulnerable and raw to be putting out into cyberspace. But this little project of mine was never meant to be just a random series of Saturday Sevens - it was intended to be an experiment and an exploration, a true grappling with what is going on with me and my things. And the stuff I've written here tonight - it's a true grappling, for sure.

The Saturday Seven - #30

2007-02-17T18:20:00.000-08:00

the "um, no, you're right, I did skip a week" edition

So this winter is kicking my butt. Kicking. My. Butt. I am sick for the third time since Christmas. Each time it starts with my boys and then My Old Man and I also get sick. It's all head cold/chest cold stuff, except the second time I ended up also getting bronchitis and sinusitis. Just as I was getting over it, my uncle died and I flew down for the funeral. A week after I got home, I was sick again.

Why am I whining and complaining about it here? Well, it just seems like all this sickness and stuff is throwing me off of getting any kind of momentum at all, with anything, including my Seven Things project. Last week, I only got rid of one thing, and didn't post about it. I was, however, proud about that one thing. It was my old digital camera, which I gave to my mother (who originally gave it to me for Christmas about five years ago). She had mentioned in passing that she sort of wanted one but wasn't sure she'd use it. This way, if she doesn't use it at least it wasn't a big purchase.

I thought I was going to score two big things gone in one week, starting with the camera. I listed this TV on craigslist and immediately got several bites.

Uh, yeah, I really did post taht picture on craigslist, advertising to the world how messy our bedroom is. This TV is seven years old and in excellent condition. I was asking $100 or best offer, knowing not to really expect $100. Of the numerous people who inquired, several seemed like serious inquiries, and one of them communicated with me a number of times. He was all set up to show up last Saturday at 2:00. We cleaned the bedroom. We didn't put the boys down for their nap at 2, thinking we'd wait until the guy was gone. We waited. We called him and left a message to see what was up. We waited. At about 7:00 that night, we finally decided maybe he wasn't coming. We never heard from him again.

Soooo aggravating. But the good news is - we got our bedroom cleaner than it's been in months.

I listed the TV again on Tuesday, $95 or best offer, got a few inquiries and no follow-ups. Why is it so much work to sell stuff? I know if I put it on freecycle it would be gone in an hour, but I really don't want to give it away. I feel like it's worth something and we could definitely use the money.

Anyway, I couldn't show up here after not posting for two weeks and only have gotten rid of one thing, nearly two weeks ago. So I pillaged my bookshelves and found five more books to part with and one unused shower radio. All of these will go to the church rummage sale. Looking through my bookshelves and my clothes closet, I really don't see how I will find any more books or clothes to get rid of. It is especially difficult for me to part with books of any kind.

Even though letting go of stuff continues to be a struggle, and even though I am completely off my game this winter, I do feel like I am making some deeper, maybe long-term changes regarding stuff. On an organizational level, I am finding a new energy to tackle the chaos that is my house. I have done major work in both the kitchen and the boys' room to try to deal better with the things I am keeping - to try to find a place for everything to live and to put those things back where they belong. My mother is so good at this - why did I not inherit the gene that make you put stuff back where it goes? (I also didn't inherit the gene that makes you establish a place for everything to go)

On a different level, I think I am actually becoming a little more judicious about purchases. Partly because I am trying to do better with how I handle our money (i.e., not spend so much of it!) and partly because this project is really making me see how much stuff I have, which makes me far less anxious to accumulate more. Before, I used to see some little inexpensive thing (like at the Target Dollar Spot!), and I would get it if I wanted it and not feel bad about it because it didn't cost much. Now I find myself thinking, "Where am I going to put this, and is it going to be one of my Seven Things some day?"

That's progress, right?

Total gone this week: 7.
Total gone so far: 240.

The Saturday Seven - #29

2007-02-03T18:02:00.000-08:00

The Two are Better than One Edition

Last week I got rid of one thing. This week, I doubled my effort. woohoo

Gone:
3 used Advent candles. It would've been 4, except I dropped one on the frozen ground and it shattered. We don't use taper candles except for at Advent, and then we use fresh ones each year. But I didn't want to throw them away. So I asked our Director of Christian Ed if she could use them, and she was happy to take them. There are all kinds of things that she and her volunteer teachers can use for crafts with kids - I have to remember this, so I can quit throwing out things like oatmeal containers. [there were 3 candles, but I didn't really think I should count this as 3 things]

And a caller ID thing, which I donated to our church rummage sale. I got it about 10 years ago, long before I owned a phone that would show the ID right on the phone. Yet I carted this thing to Michigan when I moved here six years ago, and then to our current house when we moved two years later. I decided it really didn't need to be taking up closet space one more minute.

I did try to sell something on craigslist again this week - a 27" color TV, excellent condition. I even got two nibbles, but the first guy never showed up to look at it and I haven't heard back from the other one. I'll try again next week. I was proud of myself just for trying - plus it forced us to clean up the bedroom some, since a stranger might be coming in there to look at the TV. We've had a TV in our bedroom ever since we married (since we both brought nice 27" TVs into the marriage), but we haven't used the one in our bedroom for the last two years, ever since we got rid of cable (sometimes we used to watch separate programs on the two TVs). I will be soooo glad to have the TV out of there.

Even though it was a meager week, I was pleased to get anything done at all. I was out of work sick until Thursday, with bronchitis and sinusitis, and then my uncle died that night and I have been on the phone and online for hours trying to work out the details of getting me down to North Carolina for the funeral. (I'm headed out in the morning.) Considering all the sickness and chaos, I supposed I was doing well to get rid of anything at all. I feel like I'm on the verge of doing a huge clean sweep of a lot of stuff. We'll see....

Meanwhile, I signed up for this:

Wardrobe Refashion '07. I'm so excited!!

Things gone this week: 2.
Things gone so far: 233.

The Saturday Seven - #28

2007-01-29T13:09:00.000-08:00

The Just One Thing edition

Yep, that's right. I only got rid of one thing last week. ONE thing. A small bottle of lotion. I tried to give it to a lotion-addicted coworker, but the scent was a bit strong for her, so we passed it on to our Vespers ministry, which is a ministry to the homeless and hungry. Every time they meet, they can sort through clothes, shoes, and personal products and choose what they'd like. I hope one of them can use some strong-scented lotion.

Otherwise, I gave away nothing. I've been sick, with what turns out to be bronchitis and sinusitis. In addition to feeling like total crap, I have been completely out of energy. And not doing a lot of the things I want and need to be doing - like getting rid of Seven Things. I've started an antibiotic now, so I hope soon I'll be back to normal.

Total this week: 1.
Total so far: 231.

The Saturday Seven - #27

2007-01-23T04:47:00.000-08:00

the few days late, few dollars short edition

My excuse for not getting rid of 7 things would be that I'm sick, but the fact of the matter is that I didn't actually start getting sick until Saturday afternoon. Theoretically, I should've already been done with last week's Seven Things by then. Of course, I'd been tending to two sick boys for a few days by then. Not to mention making stuff.

At any rate, I came up short this time. I did get a little more inventive, though, with how to give things away. First there was this:

In celebration of my one year blogiversary, I had a random drawing (of the names of people who left comments on my knitting blog) to give away one skein of Malabrigo. I bought this yarn last fall, then used a different yarn for the project, and wasn't going to use this one in the foreseeable future. So I gave it away.

Then on Tuesday, I made my first ever craigslist sale. Several years ago we bought some speaker mounts for our surround sound speakers, but we never used them. We had long ago lost the receipt (though the tag was still on them - $45). Sold them to a college student for $30. I know I lost money, but it felt really good to not only get rid of something but actually get some cash for it (since most of the stuff I've been getting rid of I'm just donating or giving away).

The coolest thing I got rid of this week was a hat that belonged to My Old Man. What was cool about it was that a homeless guy who sleeps at our church asked me for a stocking cap because it was getting so cold. I knit a watchcap for My Old Man last winter, so I knew he had a spare hat (the one he used before I knit him one). I really wanted to knit a cap for the guy at church but I knew that he needed one right away, not whenever I could get one knit. So I went home and got My Old Man's old cap - a nice, thick doubleknit one - and gave it to the guy at church. He was very appreciative, and has been wearing it ever since. It is really nice to give something to someone that you know really needs it.

So that was all for last week. Three things. But it felt like more than that - yarn (which I can't usually bear to part with), something I actually got money for (that had been taking up closet space for 5 years), and something someone in need could really use.

I've been thinking a lot lately about how giving things away is one important step for me in my struggle with stuff, but it definitely cannot be the only thing I'm doing. I'm mulling over what else I need to be doing. More on that later.

Total this past week: 3 things gone.
Total so far: 230.

The Saturday Seven - #26

2007-01-13T17:47:00.000-08:00

The Actually on Saturday version.

This week, I got rid of another small lot of baby clothes, from the boys' late babyhood. I'm sending all of these to My Old Man's daughter, for her 6 month-old son J. As usual, many nostalgic and wistful feelings going on....

The goods:

souvenir tee from Jekyll Island (the boys' first trip to the beach; My Old Man's daughter was also with us, which is why I thought she might want the tee for her son)
baseball All-Stars jersey and short set
denim shortalls w/ yellow tee and yellow striped button-down shirt
fleece slippers (never worn)
bunny sleeper
navy fleece romper (a baby gift from SIL)
ubiquitous red waffle-weave top (ubiquitous because they're wearing these in half the pictures I took over a period of months; a friend got these at the GAP outlet for like 50 cents each, and I *loved* them; they ended up stretching out some and so the boys were able to wear them a second season)
bunny jacket
Easter hat
Easter bib
pirate teddy bear baseball cap
2 baby toothbrushes

The really cool forward progress I made this week was to spend about 2 hours yesterday afternoon sorting through several boxes of the boys' clothes that had been sitting at the top of the stairs (which is actually in our bedroom, since the whole second floor is one big room) for several months. I got a labeller and some new clear containers and sorted through stuff to sell (divided into fall/winter and spring/summer), stuff to give away, and stuff for them to wear again next spring/summer. Moved it all down to the basement, where I have stacked it neatly. There's more to go through in our attic, but WOW what a huge psychological burden has been lifted, simply not to have that stuff sitting (piled four feet high) at the top of the stairs.

Total stuff gone: 13. Total so far: 227.

The Saturday Seven - #25

2007-01-08T11:04:00.000-08:00

Late. Again.

I thought in the new year I would try to do better with keeping up with this blog. But in the first week, I already got behind. Ah, well.

I'm looking forward to getting rid of more stuff this year, and maybe even getting the chaos of my house simplified, at least a little bit. The first thing I got rid of for this Saturday Seven had a huge impact on my psyche.

this rocking chair
(not pictured in its usual location)

This thing has been sitting unused in our master bedroom for, I don't know, two or three years now. I had a vision of cottage chic loveliness when I first painted it white and brought it in from the garage. But it turns out I'm not really a wooden rocking chair person, unless I'm on a porch. I bought this for the front porch of my house in Georgia, about eight years ago. Used it on that porch till I moved up here a couple of years later, then stored it for a couple of years, then painted it and moved it into our bedroom.

You know, it is really psychologically burdensome to have something big in your space that you just don't use. It is so in the way. It wasn't even in an appropriate place in our bedroom, because - get this - there are two other chairs also in that space, also unused (except by the cat). I unloaded this on freecycle - out of my house within two hours of my posting it. I've said it before and I'll say it again - Freecycle ROCKS! And I can't tell you what a relief it is not to have this thing to trip over when I get up in the morning.

I also got rid of:
- a brand-new soap dispenser that builds into a kitchen sink - we had to replace our faucet last week, and it came with this dispenser, but we don't have a hole in our sink for such - freecycled this one too
- a beanie baby monkey - donated to the church rummage sale, which is also where I got it a couple of years ago
- a small picture frame - rummage sale
- three hardcover books - a John Sandford, a Patricia Cornwell,and a health and nutrition one - also to the rummage sale. I used to have high hopes of selling these because they were hardcover and in excellent condition. But a trip to a local used bookstore quickly disabused me of that notion.

Many months ago, I mentioned that I had found some stuff at my parents' house to give to Goodwill. I never got it there, so I never updated my sidebar total with those seven things. Well, my dad told me over the holidays that he finally dropped them off for me. So here are my totals:
this past week: 7 things gone
total so far: 214

I am at the halfway point of the project now (as of January 7). It is about as hard for me as I expected it would be, but I'm really glad for the challenge and the motivation. It helps a lot to have these weekly sort of "confessionals" about my struggle with stuff. Thank you, dear reader, for being a part of the journey with me!

The Saturday Seven - #24

2006-12-22T15:26:00.000-08:00

the absurdly late edition

It's not that I didn't do my Seven Things last week. It's just that I am so far behind in everything right now that I didn't get around to posting. My Seven Things were pretty boring this go-round anyway - 7 books, 6 of which I donated to the church rummage sale, 1 of which I gave to our babysitter (I am the Central Park Jogger, which I actually bought in hardcover).

I may be taking a break from this blog over the holidays (what's that you say? I already seem to be taking a break? well, you may be right). I'll try not to take a break from the project itself, but we'll see. I've got to cut myself some slack right now. I'm just a little in over my head. And the constant stuff coming into my house isn't helping much.

Here's to a new year, a fresh start, a renewed commitment!

Total stuff gone this week: 7.
Total so far: 200. That seems like a nice number to end this year's blogging on. See y'all soon!

The Saturday Seven - #23

2006-12-09T15:33:00.000-08:00

This project continues to challenge me. It remains true that I have way more things than I need. It remains true that of the many things I don't need, there are many, many things I haven't used in years. And it remains true that every week, when I try to find seven things I don't need and don't use, I find myself hanging on to those very same things, with the thought, "I might use/need/want this some day." Or now, "My boys might use/need/want this some day."

This week, it's books. In my study at home, I have two bookcases that have been with me since graduate school. These are the books that don't merit a place in my office at work, or in my craft closet (where I keep most of my best knitting books), or on one of the shelves in my bedroom, or on my nightstand, or in our living room or sunroom. Basically, for some reason, the books I look at or refer to least are the ones in my study.

It's probably safe to say that of the six shelves of books in my study, I will probably never use half of them again. So why is it that it took me nearly half an hour to find just seven to give away?

At least the ones I found are ones I am certain I will not miss:
Sleepers (book on tape - listened to once and will not again)
The Celestine Prophecy (book on tape - never listened to, never will)
While We Run This Race: Confronting the Power of Racism in a Southern Church (a book whose primary purpose to this point has been to make me feel guilty for not reading it)
Hidden Prey (a John Sandford mind candy thriller - I've read all the Prey books, guiltily loved them all, and will never read it again)
The Fussy Baby by William Sears (given to me at a La Leche League meeting; but my babies weren't fussy so I never really needed it)
Who Do You Think You Are? (a personality profile book that I've had for more than 10 years and haven't looked at in about that long)
Dr Marcia Emery's Intuition Workbook (um, the only thing more embarrassing than owning this is that it has taken me more than a decade to get rid of it)

Things gone this week: 7
Things gone so far: 193

The Saturday Seven - #22

2006-12-02T13:29:00.000-08:00

the grey t-shirt edition

Here is how this project is good for me. Because I am such an all-or-nothing kind of person, there are weeks I would be giving away nothing at all b/c there is no time to do the really big overhaul of my stuff I need to do (i.e., if I can't do all that really should be done, I'll just do none). But with this Seven Things commitment, on weeks like this, I just make myself go through my closets and find seven more things I never wear.

This week, I immediately came upon five grey t-shirts. How many grey t-shirts does a person really need? In fact, how many t-shirts of any color does a person need? The problem is, even though I usually only wear tees to workout in, most of them have some sentimental value for me. Most of my tees are ones I got from certain events, and they are like little souvenirs. Little souvenirs that I really don't need to be hanging on to 10 years later. But still.

Here are the five grey tees. I could only bring myself to part with two of them - a little cropped Adidas one (no need for anything cropped ever again), and a one from a mission event I was a part of in 2000 (shown on top of the pile in pic below). The other three, that I couldn't quite let go of: the Mickey Mouse tee on top - a Target find a few years ago, and I actually do still wear it; a cute tee from a children's camp I worked at 9 years ago; and a t-shirt from my graduate school (I never wear it, but I kept thinking I still might....)

Had to find 5 more things to go with the 2 grey tees. So:

a light green shirt I bought at the Gap last year; the color doesn't suit me

a rose-colored shirt I've had for years and My Old Man used to really dig, but I just don't like it enough to keep keeping it (but it's really hard to get rid of something I know he likes)

a green t-shirt from last year's Vacation Bible School

a flowy, crinkly blue, white, and purple skirt, bought at TJ Maxx my last year in college - it was totally me, I wore it for years and loved it, but the elastic has gone out in the waist and it's not so much my style anymore

a pair of black bootcut stretch pants that are past their prime - the first non-maternity pants I could fit into after I had my babies; I've tried to get rid of these as a part of the Saturday Seven at least twice before but kept thinking I might wear them. I haven't.

Phew. This was hard. How is it that I can have so much stuff, know in my head that I don't need so much, and still find it so impossible to determine which things I can live without?

I'm giving these to the church rummage sale.
Total this week - 7.
Total so far - 186.

The Saturday Seven - #21

2006-11-26T12:05:00.000-08:00

I'm still trying to get back in the swing of life back at home, post-Italy, including getting back into my Seven Things Project. I did manage to find 7 things to let go of this week - just 7 little items of baby/toddler clothes that didn't sell at the fall Moms of Multiples Sale and that I'm instead donating to our church women's rummage sale. No pics this week - turns out that the boys never wore a single piece of the clothing I'm getting rid of.

I have some really nice Christmas clothes (baby, toddler) that I'm hoping to sell on eBay this week, if I can get my act together. I'm finding it fairly difficult to get myself motivated, organized, and energized - not only for the project but for all the other things that need my attention right now. I do hope to be posting later this week, before my next Saturday Seven is up. I'll also be adding some new blogs to the sidebar (we have a couple of new blogs in our ring) and just generally catching up in blogland.

Total stuff gone this week: 7
Total gone so far: 179

The Saturday Seven - #19 & 20

2006-11-02T06:25:00.000-08:00

the early edition

I leave for Italy this afternoon and as I've been packing I've also been getting rid of things.

Donated to church rummage sale: 7 pairs of shoes, 7 items of clothing (including a little brown dress that was great for dancing when I was 21 but does not belong on this 35 year-old body).

Given to our administrative assistant, who is expecting her first baby in June: the other Jungle Friends sleeper (pictured in last Saturday's Seven).

Sent to My Old Man's daughter for her 3 month-old: a jacket, hat, and pair of mittens from Old Navy, and the fleece romper Tiny Dancer wore for his first Thanksgiving (given to me by my SIL).

Sorry no pics, I'm short on time. Total this week: 19. Total so far: 172.

I may check in from Italy, though I won't be dispursing of things while there (one of the reasons I doubled-up before leaving). But I'm definitely going to be pondering the idea of simplicity while I try to deal with my urge to buy all kinds of Italian goods.

Ciao!

The Saturday Seven - #17 & 18

2006-10-28T17:08:00.000-07:00

Maybe I'm getting more strict with myself about getting rid of sentimental things. It's not that it is getting any easier. I just seem more able to do it. It is a good reminder to me that simplicity is not something that just comes naturally, at least not to me. It happens through choice, action, discipline.

I started off this week with a simple enough giving. When my new jacket finally arrived in the mail, I donated my old peacoat to our church's Vespers program (a ministry to the homeless and hungry; among other things, the ministry takes winter clothes donations to help those on the street keep warm). Then when I got a new cardigan for my trip, I donated an old cardigan that I haven't worn in years, to the Vesper's program as well. This would be a good habit for me - buy one thing, let go of one thing.

Late in the week, I also offered up two pairs of jeans on freecycle. The jeans are in great shape - just bought last summer - but since spring they have been too big because I've continued to lose weight. This is a happy type of giving away!

But then today was the toughy. I packed up a box of extremely precious baby clothes and sent them to My Old Man's daughter for her 3 month-old baby boy. Some of these were clothes that I had not previously been able to part with.

Like this yellow sleepsack that Tiny Dancer slept in
every night for the first several months of his life.
(Little Buddha didn't wear one until he quit co-sleeping at 11 months).

And this little fleece yellow sleeper.
It was hard to give away for a different reason than the sleepsack.
My mother sent two of these to me when I was 6 months pregnant. They were sized 6-9 months, but I didn't realize they ran really small until I tried them on the boys at 7 months. Tiny Dancer only wore his once, in this picture with my father. Little Buddha never wore his because it was too small. :(

I can still remember receiving the gift basket of baby clothes my mom had delivered to me while I was pregnant. I can remember holding these little sleepers up and imagining my little boys in them. It is so sad to me that they never even wore them.

There were other things in the box I sent that had also been unworn or worn very little. I was so confused in the beginning about things that were labelled "6M" - I thought that meant they would fit at 6 months, not that they would fit starting at 3 months until maybe 6 months.

Anyway, the box included 13 things. So those plus the jeans, the jacket, and the cardigan brings this week's total to 17. That's good because I needed to double-up this week and next since I'll then be in Italy for 2 1/2 weeks (and won't be doing the Seven Things then!).

Total things gone so far: 153.

The Saturday Seven - #16

2006-10-22T20:38:00.000-07:00

the late again edition

I tried to post yesterday, really, I did. But blogger wouldn't let me in, and I gave up.

I seem to be getting suddenly serious about really getting rid of stuff, including some very sentimental things. Like these precious costumes that my boys wore last year, at 17 months.

Little Buddha, as a lion
he refused to wear the headpiece,
but I still thought he was adorable

Tiny Dancer, as a monkey
that everyone thought was a mouse
he was so precious

I remember him running down the sidewalk, calling out, "hi, hi, hi," to everyone, with his little monkey tail dragging behind him. And Little Buddha, who wasn't walking yet, had to be carried everywhere. He clung to us like a little koala bear, and was as heavy as lead.

I sold these on eBay. The lion costume ended up going to another twin mom, 45 minutes away. I thought that was cool.

I also divested myself of 8 pieces of my own clothing, donated to the church rummage sale. It won't happen till April, which means I can go ahead and get rid of all the spring and summer things I didn't wear this year, or last, or the year before, or the one before that.

Total this week: 10.
Total so far: 136.

The Saturday Seven - #15

2006-10-14T18:25:00.000-07:00

the deja vu edition

This is so not interesting. Gone this week: more maternity and nursing clothes. Specifically, two pairs of maternity pants, four maternity tops, and two nursing tops. I'm passing it on to the same freecycler I've been giving my other maternity and nursing things to.

I can't believe with as much maternity and nursing clothing I've already divested, I keep finding more. Part of the reason I keep coming up with more is that I can't seem to get rid of it all at once. I have to pry my tight grip off the things I once thought I should get a good price for, and just pass them on. Having the Seven Thing goal each week helps, though. Otherwise, I think I would've only gotten rid of five of these things this time, but I forced myself to cough up two more. Then later, I realized there had actually been one more in the stack of five than I thought.

So here's another picture of me in a nursing top with a baby. I wore this top a lotlotlot. And I had that same sleep-deprived look on my face a lotlotlot. I remember when this picture was taken, I thought Little Buddha looked so big all of a sudden (this was at 2 1/2 months). Now I can't get over how small he once was. (yeah, like I said, deja vu - I know I said this same kind of stuff last week).

Oh well. Stuff gone from my life this week: 8. Total stuff gone from my life so far: 126.

Seduction

2006-10-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

The opening riff of my sermon this past Sunday (full text eventually here) was about the seduction of catalog images. I thought it belonged in this space, too. So here 'tis.

Lately, of the hundreds of catalogs I receive throughout the year, more and more feature children. I’ve been identified and targeted. Clearly, someone somewhere knows that I have kids. So now I’m inundated with every possible thing for children I might consider buying. Children’s clothes, children’s toys, children’s books, children’s bedrooms, children’s computer software, children’s ride-in battery-powered mini-Mustang cars. I would like to assure whoever makes those cars that there is no way I am putting two little boys behind the wheel of something that has a gas pedal and can go 2.5 miles-per-hour, even if it does promise it has “seatbelts for safety.” But the thing is, no matter how little I need the things they’re selling, I can’t seem to put the catalogs down. I’m entranced by what I find there.

The girls are dressed in the most adorable little dresses and tights, with chic little shoes and glossy girly hair. The boys have a good-natured, All-American rough-and-tumble look to them. Babies bounce on their handsome fathers’ knees. Children play happily – and quietly - together in color-coordinated rooms. Older sisters read to younger brothers on quaint quilts that look homemade (but aren’t). Little boys in fall sweaters carry footballs, while little girls in pink rooms play house. Families lounge in sunny kitchens in matching pajamas. In every picture, children and families are smiling, or laughing, and looking completely charming and thoroughly happy. And you know what? The mothers in these pictures never ever look frazzled. They have found the secret to a happy family and a well-ordered life – the right clothes, the right furnishings, the right stuff, the right life.

When I look up from the promise-making pages of these slick catalogues, at the real children in my life, the difference between real and ideal is jarring. Real children rarely play together happily and quietly in the rooms for long stretches of time, no matter how color-coordinated or well-decorated those rooms are. The charming outfits are soon stained with blueberries or oatmeal. And it turns out that the rough-and-tumble look of little boys comes because they actually do get rough and they actually do take tumbles. And not only do real children rarely sit still for nearly as long as the catalog layouts imply, they frequently interrupt whatever sitting-still time we grownups try to get. Real life, real children, do not match the gauzy sunlit photographs in my mailbox.

In the last few decades, marketers have realized more and more that childhood is a goldmine. So advertisements are increasingly aimed at younger and younger potential consumers. And, of course, their parents. They beckon to us with their sweet promises of contented kids and a harmonious household.

(end riff)
I have to admit that there is a part of me that thinks that I will get the right life if I can get the right stuff. Advertisers count on us thinking that way, at least subconsciously. I am trying to become more conscious of my own flawed thoughts, but is that changing anything? I don't know. I know I still have too much stuff. I know that even though I'm getting rid of at least seven things a week (in an ecologically responsible manner), I'm still buying stuff. And plenty of it.

In my quest to reshape my thoughts and impulses, I've been finding online inspiration. Like here and here. What about you? What resources are encouraging you towards simplicity?

The Saturday Seven - #14

2006-10-09T06:45:00.000-07:00

the late, late edition

ACK! How did it get to be Monday already?

Clearly, I'm behind. And I don't even have photos this time, to try to jazz this place up.

And, I'm going to fudge this week's Seven. I have been so worn out from last week's big sale, and food poisoning, and work responsibilities, that I just didn't get organized to get rid of 7 separate things. I did, however, get my check and receipts for what I did sell at the Clothing Sale last weekend. 19 things. For a total of $33.25. This is out of about 100 things that I sorted and labeled.

With the crib and changing table, that makes 21 things for this week and last. That's great, in terms of getting stuff out of my life. It's not so great in terms of making sales. With the $55 I made for the crib and table, I grossed $88.25. Deduct a seller's fee, a parking charge, and childcare, and I netted $52.25. That looks pretty good, until I factor in that I spent 13 hours on the sale itself and another hour delivering the crib and changing table to the people who bought it. Less than $4/hr. Not much of a return on my investment, eh?

And that's the thing I'm starting to realize about stuff. Unless you are selling a car or a house or an antique (and in my case, not even with an antique), you are almost never going to get what you think the thing is worth. It takes so much time and energy to sell things that the payoff doesn't really justify it. It makes me wonder if I'd just be better off giving my things away. Granted, I could make more on some of this stuff if I sold it on eBay. But that takes time, too. Time for pictures and listing, and time for packing and shipping.

I realize now why I have received so many boxes of hand-me-down baby and toddler clothes. It really seems to make more sense to pass the stuff on. If we all do that, then maybe in some karmic sense it all works out.

Monday morning ramblings. Get 'em here for free!

Total for this week and last = 21.

A sale and a sob

2006-10-03T14:48:00.000-07:00

In her essay entitled "Dust," in her book Long Life: Essays and Other Writings, Mary Oliver writes:
For the first time in twenty-five years there is no small footstool next to the bed, on which to break one's toes. The little dogs, first Jasper and then Bear, are gone. How neatening is loss, since it only takes away!

There seems a deep relationship between the stuff in our lives and the losses and gains, emotional and otherwise, that we sustain. So that a death of a dog means getting rid of the footstool. And getting rid of the footstool reminds us of - or makes more acute - our grief at the death. How neatening is loss!

Perhaps this is why I struggle so with releasing things, holding onto my stuff as a way of forestalling my grief over the real losses such release might represent. The losses have already happened, but letting go of the things somehow makes it more real, or makes facing the grief more necessary.

On Sunday, the day after the Big Sale, a woman called me to inquire about one of my cribs and the changing table. I sold them to her for $55 total. It's not much, but it's nice to have a little money to sock away towards furnishing the boys' room at some future point. And of course it's good not to have those two items cluttering up our back room, completely unused and unuseful.

But as the woman's husband walked away from me in the dark, with my changing table under his arm, emotions welled up and got caught in my throat. I made it all the way home before I broke down and cried. It was the changing table, even more than the crib, that pricked my grief. It was months and months before the boys moved out of our room and into the cribs. But we were placing those vulnerable crying babes on that changing table from the first moments we brought them home. Such tender moments, so many times a day, tending to our new little loves. Those moments have been long gone, but somehow the loss of those moments became real in a new way when the changing table was out of our lives. My grief was further intensified by the fact that the woman who gave us the changing table died last year. It feels somehow wrong to be getting rid of something she gave us.

Here's a picture of the boys when they were six weeks old and could both fit on the table at the same time. This isn't usually the way we changed them, but somehow this is one of the mosts vivid pictures in my mind when I think of their babyhood and the changing table. A reminder of how astonished we kept being that there were two of them!!

And here's a picture from a year later, a year ago, in their beautiful new fall diapers. I thought they had grown so much, and gotten so big. Now I look at this picture and marvel at what babies they still were. And I'm sure I'll feel the same way this time next year when I look back at this fall's pictures.

The passage of time has always been so bittersweet to me, but even more so now that I am constantly watching little ones become bigger ones, and then bigger ones still.

The Saturday Seven - #13

2006-09-30T13:28:00.000-07:00

the three steps forward, two steps back edition

ARRGH. You wouldn't believe the hours I have spent on trying to get rid of stuff this week, and not to very much avail.

Early in the week, I did manage to part with three nursing tops and a teether, to a freecyler I've given stuff to before. But it's been downhill ever since.

First I should say that this week has been awful. AWFUL. And I'm looking forward to at least two more that are at least as busy and stressful. Then this morning was my Parents of Multiples club's semi-annual toy and clothing sale. Because I'm an officer in the club, and because the sale was happening at my church and I was the point person for that, the sale involved some volunteer hours from me. But on top of that, I decided it was high time I got rid of some of the boys' things I've been hanging onto. Including some big stuff.

A few weeks ago, we finally disassembled the boys' cribs. We had to take the changing table out, too, because they were climbing on it. Now their room consists of two mattresses on the floor, a bookcase, a dresser, and some plastic bins of toys. It is a really sad looking room to me, especially compared to the picture at the left (which doesn't show much, but trust me when I say that long ago the room was lovely and it slowly devolved as the boys grew older).

I decided to try to sell both the cribs and the changing table at the sale, along with one of our carseats (the other one went to My Old Man's new grandbaby), and several bags of clothing. All in all I took 100+ things to the sale. I won't know how much sold until I get my check in a week or two. I do know that I had to pack an awful lot of it up afterwards, including the two cribs, the changing table, and the carseat!

What kills me is how much time and money I put into this event, apparently for little payoff:
1 - approximately 8 hours of sorting, labeling, and packing
2 - 5 hours at the sale itself
3 - $2 on parking
4 - $32 on babysitting during the sale
5 - $2 seller fee
6 - $10 on stuff I bought at the sale, because I apparently can't be around stuff for so long without buying some of it

For a total of 13 hours and $46, and I would be surprised if I sold even $20 worth of things!

But the thing that was most difficult about this event was actually going through all their little things. I actually cried. They are just things, and yet each item I held brought up a wave of emotions as I remembered my little ones wriggling around in this sleeper or that. This is my constant battle: between practicality and sentimentality. My Old Man was wonderful, encouraging me not to get rid of anything I wasn't ready to yet. So I put aside one big box of things I can't part with, even though they fit no one anymore.

And apparently there's a whole lot of stuff I was ready to part with that I'm still stuck with.

So my total is up in the air for this week. Obviously there's the 4 things from early in the week. And I know I got rid of at least 7 total. But the exact total will be a mystery for a bit yet.

What about the rest of you? What do you do with baby things you can't bear to release?

The Saturday Seven - #12

2006-09-23T12:39:00.000-07:00

More selling on eBay this week, which makes me feel a good sense of accomplishment. I sold this Ella Roo Wraparound Baby Cover that I never used. I had such great visions of being one of those slingin' mamas, carrying my babes around in a traditional wrap. Like many of my great hopes, the dream was dashed by the reality of twins and the general frazzlement that ensued. I was happy to be able to sell it for what felt like a good amount.

I also took a bag full of toys to church, to give to the church nursery. These were mostly really nice things - wooden pounding toys, wooden sorting toys, a jack-in-the-box, a couple of stuffed animals. All the wooden toys were things they just got for this past Christmas. But they were not playing with them much, and it was partly because there were so many small pieces that they always ended up scattered everywhere. The boys have the smallest room in the house, so I'm beginning to think that organizing their toys has to mean paring down to essentials. Well that and just putting up with the fact that some toy storage will just have to happen in the living room. It makes me sad to get rid of such nice stuff, but they will be able to play with these things at church, and now other kids can too.

12 weeks of getting rid of things by giving them away. It has been as difficult as I imagined it would be, and some weeks even more difficult. It takes so much emotional energy for me, not to mention logistical efforts that require a lot of energy as well (just getting something to the post office to mail to an eBayer is hard). I am frequently overwhelmed by thte amount of stuff I still need to deal with. I intend to persist though.

Things gone this week: 7.
Total things gone: 97.

Simple Living

2006-09-19T17:22:00.000-07:00

This summer I signed up to receive the Simple Living Newsletter from the Simple Living Network, and my first issue arrived via email yesterday. What little I've had time to read is very thought-provoking and inspiring. I'd recommend it!

The Saturday Seven - #11

2006-09-16T11:55:00.000-07:00

I am really struggling with my personal challenge these days. Oh, I can always find stupid little stuff around the house to get rid of. But that's really not the point. The point is to deal with my attachment to stuff. For every stupid thing I get rid of, there are probably 7 more things I don't need but can't seem to let go of.

Not only that, but I just this moment realized that I didn't actually get rid of 7 things this week! I was on my way to getting rid of more than 7 actually. I have 3 nursing tops, a baby teether, and a baby toothbrush all packed up and ready to be given to a freecycler. But when I got sick and lost email contact with her, we couldn't get the pickup arranged by today. So these 5 things are still waiting to go.

Meanwhile, I got rid of 5 other things at the church rummage sale, including that bizarre test tube looking thing in the picture there. It's a candle thingy. You put colored oil in the tube and then light the little wick. We bought it our first year of marriage at one of the many Ann Arbor stores that sells little doodads like this. We loved it for about 3 months, until the cats started knocking it off the top of the entertainment center. We haven't used it in maybe 3 years. I'm thinking that when I dropped it off at the rummage sale collection, I should've included a note saying what it was.

In addition to it, I also got rid of 2 pairs of shoes I haven't worn in years, a purple top that I haven't worn in years but suddenly find myself missing, and a monstrous pair of earmuffs.

Addendum!
After I wrote this post, I raced around the house looking for anything I could offer up on freecycle immediately. I came up with a bottle of pet odor destroyer that I can't stand the smell of (sickly sweet) and a Movie Trivia CD game for the car. Both things got spoken for right away, one was just picked up and the other is pending pickup. So I'll call that a Saturday Seven after all. (I won't include the CD in my sidebar total until it's actually picked up).

Total this week: 7
Total so far: 89 (90 after CD pickup).

Check it out

2006-09-13T07:31:00.000-07:00

Knitting Simplicity. A group blog dedicated to fighting the rampant consumerism that has grown on the knitting blogs. How cool is that?

The Saturday Seven - #10

2006-09-09T20:00:00.000-07:00

This week has totally kicked my butt. I'm behind in every possible way, but I somehow managed to get rid of more stuff than usual. I did it early in the week this time.

To the right you can see part of it - a bag full of curly hair care products. The pic doesn't really do justice to the haul. I got rid of 11 tubes and bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and styling products, many of which were full or nearly full. I can't bear to add up how much money I spent on this stuff. Some of it had been sitting in my closet for roughly 4 years. But the freecycler who scored it was happy to have it anyway. She also got: 2 bottles of nail polish (I never use nail polish anymore, except for my annual vacation pedicure, which I get done at a salon so I don't use my own polish. Still I ended up hanging onto one bottle of nail polish anyway. You know, in case I need it some day); a half bag of makeup applicator wedges (I only use a brush these days); and a jar of bronzing creme (never used) that was a gift a few years ago. Someone can do a whole little spa weekend with this stuff.

I also sold a prenatal yoga workout DVD. Woohoo.

Total this week = 16.
Total so far = 99

The Saturday Seven - #9

2006-09-02T03:35:00.000-07:00

the little surprises edition

So I sold this sling.

Yep. Not only got my act together enough to list it (first at Mothering, where there was zero interest, then on eBay), but actually sold it. Someone chose the Buy It Now option and bought it for $40 plus shipping. (I paid $60 new, and used it about three times). I put it in the mail yesterday. I've been really sad to let it go, even though I never really used it....

It takes so much effort for me to mobilize to sell something that I did nothing else all week about getting rid of stuff. Figured I'd list some stuff for freecycle today. Then it dawned on me at about 8:30 last night - no one could pick anything up today because it's a game day (opening game, even!), and we live 5 blocks from the Michigan Stadium. So I listed some stuff and said we could do pick up on Sunday. Someone immediately responded (someone I've given stuff to before) and said she could take everything and could pick it up last night from my porch. So I got rid of 10 things, almost immediately:
2 nursing tops
4 baby bibs
3 dog bowls
1 dog toy

I also remembered that there were two more things in what I gave to the rummage sale last week, but I can't remember what they are (not too much sentimental attachment there!). So I'll add those to this week's total.

Stuff out of my life this week: 13. Total stuff gone from my life so far: 83.

The Saturday Seven - #8

2006-08-26T07:39:00.000-07:00

the gettin' busy edition

As I mentioned in my previous post, after several strikeouts this week, I finally hauled a big box of stuff to church for the fall rummage sale (put on by the women's missions group to raise money for missions). It included the 7 articles of clothing from last week's Saturday Seven, as well as a number of other things:
2 black cloth napkins
4 yellow cloth placemats
8 red cloth placemats
2 big candle/candleholder thingys from our Crate-and-Barrel registry from when we got married
an umbrella
a weird keyhold thing that someone gave My Old Man as a gift - it's too difficult to describe (I suppose I should've taken a picture)

No pics this week, I'm doing well just to have gotten rid of this stuff and made a log of it. Being back at work and getting ready for a new program year, plus trying to firm up travel plans for my trip to Italy in November, makes life more than a little intense right now.

Total stuff gone this week: 18 + last week's 7 = 25
Total things gone so far = 70

Even harder than I thought it would be

2006-08-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

I knew this project would be hard. Knew it because I know how attached I get to stuff, how emotionally invested I am. Knew it because I know how hard it is to find the time to wade through all the things I don't need. Knew it because I know what an aggravation it is to get things ready to give or to sell.

But I had no idea that even once I readied myself emotionally, made tough decisions, and actually organized myself to get rid of things, even then some of the stuff wouldn't leave. Because apparently, nobody wants it.

It started with an antique table I listed on craigslist last week. I immediately had two bites - one was a scam and the other never wrote back after I sent her more pics. I know I shouldn't expect it to sell immediately. But now I realize I could be looking at this old table, in my way in my study, for a long time.

It's a beautiful old drop-leaf pine table, from the early 1800s. My Old Man and I bought it in Georgia three years ago, our first antique purchase, with the idea that it was a good investment (in addition to be functional and handsome). We thought that, given how old it was (it even comes with a little typed card taped to the underneath, telling its history), that it would hold or even increase its value. It felt romantic and adventurous to buy it. Two years later, with twin toddlers in the house, we realized it was no longer practical, nor would it stay handsome much longer if we didn't get it out of their reach. I've advertised it for somewhat less than we paid, because in three years' time it has gotten a couple of scratches and watermarks. I'm willing to lose money, but I'd still like to get something. I'd been hesitant to take it to a dealer, because I assume I'd only get (at best) about 65% of whatever they sold it for. Should I just suck it up and take a huge loss, or should I persist in trying to sell it myself? Any advice?

Then I resolved to get rid of several big things all at once. It was stuff I knew would take too much effort to sell considering the return I'd probably get, so I thought I'd donate it somewhere and get a nice tax-deduction. I got everything ready to go - a double bed with mattress and box springs, a double bed frame with headboard and footboard, a big mirror, a big dining table, a recliner. I called Purple Heart. They call every month wanting to see if I have anything they can come pick up. Turns out they don't take furniture.

Then I gathered and sorted some things for freecycle. No takers. That's the first time that's happened. I mean, really, who doesn't want free stuff?

And I've got a ton of stuff I refuse to just give away - nice things like cloth diapers, maternity clothes, baby and toddler clothes. Stuff I really need to list on eBay or prepare for my Parents of Multiples clothing sale. But it just takes so much freakin' time and energy to get everything cleaned up, take pictures, do pricing, do the listing, not to mention go to the post office to mail things once they've sold. And we all know I'd rather be knitting.

I did take one nice size box of stuff to the church for their fall rummage sale. It included the seven things I listed on Saturday, plus a number of other things. Right now, though, that seems like the tiniest drop in a whole bucket of stuff I want out of my life.

The Saturday Seven - #7

2006-08-19T19:45:00.000-07:00

The slacker edition

So this whole thing is ending up being harder than I thought. The weekly deadline thing is the kicker (yes, as a pastor I feel the same way when sermon time rolls around). 7 things a week doesn't sound like so much, especially in light of all the stuff I have that really needs to be gotten out of my life. But I don't make it easy on myself. Each thing is so hard to let go of. Especially when I've been so busy with other things, like vacation.

So it was late this afternoon, 30 minutes before a real Saturday night date with my husband, when I finally scrambled around the house to find 7 things I could part with. I focused on clothes. I probably have 70 things I should get rid of (there are things in my basement I've been hanging onto for nearly 20 years), but I just set my little goal of 7 and went to it. In short order I made a tidy little pile to give to the church rummage sale. None of it is photo-worthy, so no pics this time. Just a list:
3 pairs of jeans, 2 of which were passed on to me by our sweet petite niece. They never ever fit me, but they are very fashionable (she works at Banana Republic and has excellent taste), so someone will really get a bargain
4 t-shirts, including an old favorite that I used to practically live in (navy, v-neck, American Eagle)

Boring. But hey, it's stuff. And I'm getting rid of it.

It's ready to go but not actually given yet because I'm not going back to work till Tuesday and won't be making a special trip just to drop this stuff off. So again I won't be adding this total to my sidebar till the things are out of my life.

Phew! Posted with an hour to spare. Anyone else just sqeaking by this week?

p.s. to people who have joined the ring in the last few weeks - I'll get you linked in the sidebar soon, I promise.

The Saturday Seven - #6

2006-08-12T18:50:00.000-07:00

The "I Love the 80s" (and early 90's) edition

It is a feat of sheer stubbornness that brings me to this blog tonight. I have not done much blogging lately because my time with family is way too brief to spend too much of it online. But I'm determined to keep up with my Seven Things commitment. So this week, I have gritted my teeth and started going through old things of mine in my parents' closets and drawers. It is a bit ghastly. You might want to avert your eyes.

Except that I'm having so many bleepin' technical difficulties tonight (have already wasted nearly an hour trying to get my camera, My Old Man's laptop, my dad's pc, and blogspot to cooperate with each other), I'm unable to get any pics uploaded, except one.

So you'll just have to let your imagination fill in the horrifying blanks. Except for one little pic from 1989 (my dad's scanner is down, so this is a picture of a picture)
1 - matching distressed denim vest and jeans with brown leather trim. I won this. WON IT. That right there tells you why I have held on to it for 17 years. It was a week before I was leaving for my freshman year of college. I was shopping in the junior department of Parisian, when the salesgirl (a friend of mine) told me about a contest they were having. If you could rope their fake steer, you would be entered into a drawing to win $100 worth of denim. I roped the steer. My name was drawn. I won the denim. Looking at the picture, you might think that they chose which denim I won. Nope, ladies and gents, I picked this ensemble myself.

I was so proud of this outfit. So even though I haven't worn it in forever and haven't fit in it for nearly as long, I have held onto it. The Seven Things Project was the kick I needed. It's going.

2 - my sweet sixteen dress. Tea-length, peach, lace. I have an unbelievable picture of myself in this thing, wearing a cape, crown, and carrying a scepter for a church award ceremony. Couldn't get it loaded, but trust me, it's a pretty astonishing thing. Held onto the dress for sentimental reasons.

3 - my junior prom dress. It's actually still kinda cute, but of course I'll never have a use for it. It was black and white and floor length with a shirred waist. I have a pic of myself in this with super big hair, a very fake tan (from a bottle), and the cute Dutch exchange student (who I asked to the dance because I was determined to go). Held onto the dress for sentimental reasons. This piece feels like the hardest one to get rid of, though I'm not sure why.

4 - bridesmaid's dress. Tea-length, teal green taffeta with huge puffy sleeves. From the only wedding I've ever been in (other than my own or other than as an officiant). I was my cousin's maid of honor in the early 90s. We had shoes dyed to match. I assume I got rid of the shoes, don't know why I still have the dress.

5 - black knit dress with leopard print collar and belt. Wore this to a homecoming dance at someone else's school my senior year in high school. Felt incredibly out-of-place when I saw what all the other girls were wearing, though my date didn't seem to notice. This had been my mother's dress before I started wearing it. It is sooooo 80s. Am not sure why I still have it.

6 - homecoming dress from senior year of college. Cute little purple number. I can't believe how small my waist was when I look at this thing. This dress reminds me of how truly horrible I was - I broke a date with someone for homecoming because the guy I really wanted to go with asked me to be his date. To make matters worse, the two guys were roommates - and I was their RA. Oof. We had an okay time on the date, and we dated a little bit after that, but I always felt bad for how I treated the other guy.

7 - purple plastic diamond shaped earrings. Totally 80s, though I may have worn them in the early 90s as well, perhaps with the purple dress of #6.

So that's the account. I have many, many more outfits and pieces of jewelry that need to be gone through here at my folks' place. But it's hard because every piece has such history and nostalgia for me. Having the goal of 7 has really motivated me. I doubt I would've gotten rid of even this much otherwise.

Am taking all this to Goodwill on Monday. Won't add it to my sidebar counter till then.

The Saturday Seven - #5

2006-08-05T18:13:00.000-07:00

I'm out of town right now (in Alabama currently) but did manage to pack a few things to give away while gone. All of it went to My Old Man's daughter, who just gave birth to her first baby 2 1/2 weeks ago. I gave her a whole bag of things, including 4 nursing gowns that had been passed on to me from someone else, and four tubes of diaper cream, which we no longer seem to need.

And then the things with real sentimental value. First, this nursing gown and robe set, bought for $4 at my Mothers of Multiples clothing sale. I wore it in the hospital after I gave birth.

Here I am in the gown, with Little Buddha, 3 days old.

Here I am with the matching robe on, holding Tiny Dancer in the NICU, at 3 days old.

I also gave her something super-sentimental. The Christmas I was pregnant, she gave us our first clothing gift for the babies, matching duckie robes. I gave her one of them (am not sure what to do with the other one). Here are a couple of shots of the boys in the robes (at 6 months old).

*Sigh*. It made me pretty wistful to be giving this stuff away, but I am not going to need it and there's no sense keeping it in my closet simply because it brings back happy memories of my boys early days.

So that's what I got rid of this week. What about the rest of you?

Things gone this week: 11.
Total things gone so far: 45.

The Saturday Seven - #4

2006-07-29T05:12:00.000-07:00

The "They're Growing Up So Fast" Edition

I was pretty late in getting myself organized to get rid of 7 things this week. It wasn't until yesterday that I got myself in gear and started posting stuff to freecycle.

First to go was the Gentle Leader Headcollar for large dogs. This belonged to my Rottweiler Mocha, who died a little over 2 years ago. I haven't been able to part with her things till now. This is the kind of thing I would ordinarily hang onto since someday I hope to own a big dog again. But someday could be a long time from now, or it could be never, and I'm not organized enough to keep it in a place I'll know to look in five years. I freecycled it to someone who could use it now. And in the process I connected with someone who works with Boxer Rescue who will take any other doggy items I find.

The picture of the collar was pretty boring. So here's a picture of Mocha, since memories of her tug at my heart when I try to get rid of her stuff.

Not the greatest shot but it turns out I only have two digital pics of her on my Mac, all the others are on my old pc which needs professional help before I can get the rest of my files off of it.

I got rid of four things that were reminders that my boys are no longer babies.

Two #1 Birthday candles, which I didn't use for their 1st birthday, opting instead to go with just a basic small plain candle that fit better on their homemade cakes. Pics of candles are boring, so again I instead include pics of the memories that make me sentimental over little things like candles. Funny how even though I didn't use those #1 candles their presence made me sentimental about the boys' 1st birthday.

Little Buddha with his first birthday cake, after the candle was removed.

Tiny Dancer with his first birthday cake, after the candle was removed.

I also freecycled these two floats, from our very first beach vacation as a family, last summer.

The boring stuff to go was this:
Two metal Steel-Cut Oats containers and a tin heart container. I pass this kind of stuff on to our Director of Educational Ministries, who can use these things for projects. And an unopened box of Earth's Best Organic Oatmeal for babies. My boys used to love this stuff. But they've outgrown it. Totally forgot I had a brand new box in the basement.

Things gone this week: 9.
Total things gone so far: 34.

Things fall apart

2006-07-26T18:58:00.000-07:00

It figures that just when I decide to finally get rid of stuff I don't need, the things that I do need start falling apart all around me. This always begs the question: repair or replace?

Being a naturally-acquisitive sort, my first impulse is to replace. But I'm trying to do better. Here is what has gone wrong in our house in the last six weeks:

dishwasher. First the little thing that sprays the water and spins broke. We had a repairman come out and he fixed it. Then it started leaking. He came out and fixed it again. Then it started leaking again. A different guy came out and said we need a new dishwasher. But he also showed us how to put the gasket back in every time it falls out to try to keep using it until we absolutely can't make it work anymore. So that's what we're doing for now. We did at least get a partial refund of what we paid to have it repaired.
living room window. One of my sons cracked his head against one of the window panes in our living room. He was fine, but the window shattered. We taped it with duct tape for about a month, but now that we are getting ready to leave town, we didn't want to leave an unsecure window. So I had it replaced today. Cost = $95.
DVD player. Our DVD player holds 5 DVDs. The boys put 12 in and closed it. The really ridiculous thing is that we were both standing right there when it happened but didn't see it happening in time to stop it. So it's broken now. It's at the shop and we don't know a cost yet. We just bought this thing last fall after our other one broke (freecycled that one).
Oven. The igniter blew. We just had it replaced about 18 months ago; the warranty is only 90 days unless you pay extra to have it covered for a year (which we didn't do and wouldn't have helped anyway). The repairman told us that once the igniter has been replaced once, the chances that it will need to replaced again are higher. Don't know if this is true or not, but it cost us $238 to get it fixed. Since we've now done that twice, I suppose we could've bought a whole new oven. Especially if there's a good possibility we're going to have to do this again in another year-and-a-half! But I couldn't stand the idea of throwing out a perfectly good stove/oven just because a small part was broken. Not to mention that though $238 is a tough pill to swallow, the amount for a whole new oven would've been even harder, even if it made more economic sense in the long run.

Do other people have major appliances blow and household repairs that need to happen all at once? I don't know how other people are able to keep their houses up because it is a real struggle for us. The amount of time and money it would cost to really keep our house in top shape just seems huge. My little decluttering project seems to pale in comparison, but I'm still plugging along....

The Saturday Seven - #3

2006-07-22T13:25:00.000-07:00

I mean to be making more entries than just my Saturday Seven. I managed one other post this week, but that was it. Things are a little hectic here lately, what with celebrating births and birthdays. Also, we are trying to get ready to go out of town, and that always means total chaos for us.

Still, I got rid of some stuff.

More books. Small potatoes, but trust me when I say I was doing really well just to get these gone. I dropped them off at the AAUW book sale again. These were part of a batch of books I tried to sell to a used books store last spring, to no avail.

If.... (Questions for the Game of Love). A fun little question book given to me by a friend 10 years ago. I haven't looked at it in many years.
Reclaiming Our Health by John Robbins. One of the many alternative healthcare books I have bought over the years. I haven't looked at in at least five years.
Total Wellness by Joseph Pizzorno. Ditto the above.
The Last Precinct by Patricia Cornwell. I can't help it. I love these kinds of thrillers. I really, really shouldn't buy this kind of stuff in hardcover, but I can't seem to make myself wait for it to come in paperback, and I can't bear to be on a super-long library waiting list. Am trying to learn patience.
Easy Prey by John Sandford. Ditto the above.
Ashes to Ashes by Tami Hoag. Ditto the above.

My Old Man remains astonished at my interest in this kind of fiction.

You will see in the picture another book, the Mayo Clinic Complete Book of Pregnancy and Baby's First Year. I accidentally left it out of the bag after I took this picture, so unfortunately it is still here.

A gift bag from a spa party. It includes lotion, product samples, and tea samples. I don't need a single thing in this bag. I gave it to a friend who has a lotion addiction.

This is a pair of sandals from Earth Shoes, bought on my quest to find the perfect all-purpose shoe. I just bought these recently but returned them to the store when I realized I didn't like the way they looked with anything I own. I'm including these, even though it was a return rather than a giving away/selling/etc., because it's a big deal for me to actually get rid of something this way. I can't count the number of times I have ended up having to keep something I didn't need/want because I didn't return it in time or I lost the receipt.

Number of things out of my life this week: 8.
Total number so far: 25.

What about the rest of you?

FlyFlunkie

2006-07-17T11:53:00.000-07:00

So a couple of years ago I got really energized by my discovery of Flylady. Most of you are familiar with her, I'm sure, and some of you have probably really whipped your homes into shape using her approach.

Not me.

Some of her approach really did help me. I liked the whole idea of shining my sink every night, and I even did it for a few months. The idea of setting a timer and making myself do a certain task for a prescribed period of time was also good for me, and one that I still try to do from time to time (and should probably do more often). I did find the constant emails, the over-the-top testimonials, the shilling for dusters and flycrap, and the lecturing about wearing lace-up shoes all to be a tad annoying, but I was willing to put up with it all if it meant I could get a handle on my home. But that didn't happen. So I unsubscribed.

The one flything that really, really never connected with me was the 27 Fling Boogie. That's when FlyLady tells you to go through your house right now with a garbage bag and find 27 things to throw away. Supposedly, after that, you're to go through with another bag and find 27 things to give away. But the emphasis really seemed to be on finding stuff to throw away.

That irked me for a couple of reasons. First, part of my problem is impulsiveness. I buy stuff because I want it now. The cure for impulsiveness is not more impulsiveness (i.e., running through the house finding things to toss), but mindfulness. I need more intentionality in my life, not more blind and anxious dealings with my stuff.

But the other thing that really bothered me was all the throwing away. It's bad enough I've bought stuff I can't or don't use. How does throwing it away do anything but make the problem worse? I couldn't possibly feel good about finding 27 things in one fell swoop to send into our landfills. That disgusts me.

I know that Flylady would say that we fool ourselves into hanging onto clutter by telling ourselves that we will find a use for it, or we will sell it, or we will find someone else who can use it. Well, between freecycle, craigslist, eBay, the church rummage sale, and the thousands of charities which take donations, I'm pretty sure I'm not fooling myself when I tell myself I can find someone who will use my stuff. And if not, well, Ann Arbor has one of the easiest recycling programs in the country.

I still wish I could keep my sink clean and my "hot spots" cleared. I do wish I had more routines in my life, and that I kept a better house. In the meantime, I'm happy enough to be mindfully ridding myself of 7 things a week instead of impulsively grabbing 27 things at once and thinking that's somehow going to solve a problem that is a lot more than a housekeeping issue.

The Saturday Seven - #2

2006-07-15T04:37:00.000-07:00

So these are pretty small offerings. But it's the small stuff that is taking up space the most. I get overwhelmed by so many little things that don't have a home.

Here's my humble seven record of this week's purging:

Three videos from the Buns of Steel series. Have had these for several years and I can't remember the last time I used them. Not since we got a DVD player 5 years ago, at least.
Freecycled.

Numei cotton chenille yarn, 3+ skeins.
Super-cheap but didn't like working with it. Was going to use it for more washcloths (the colors match my bathroom). Bought it in November and haven't used it since I made the first one.
Given to Becky.

My first circular needle. Susan Bates, size 7, 32".
Used it to start a baby blanket in October. Just finished the blanket and know I will never use these again if I can help it. Not after using Addis for all these months.
Given to Becky.

Knitting Pure & Simple Weekend Neck Down Pullover pattern.
Bought this one by mistake when I was trying to order the basic women's pullover a couple of weeks ago. The company doesn't do returns on patterns, and with as many things as there are already on my to-knit list, I knew I wouldn't knit it.
Given to Becky.

So that's my list. (Thanks, Becky, for accepting stuff when you're trying to get rid of stuff, too!) It feels good to be making even little dents in my load of accumulation. My total this week: 8. Total so far: 17.

What about the rest of you? If you have a Saturday Seven posted somewhere (blog or forum), please leave a link in the comments, along with a tally. I'd like to start a running community tally in the sidebar, along with my personal tally.

Thanks, and happy Saturday!

Take a button

2006-07-12T14:33:00.000-07:00

Huge thanks to Becky for making this nifty button. (You may notice that the background is the fabric from the sling from yesterday.)

If you want it, take it. (the button, not the sling - I'm still on the fence about the sling, though my test-run with it and my little boy yesterday wasn't particularly promising....)

My perennial problem

2006-07-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

Here is a close-up of what my problem is. Or one of 'em. I always think I'm going to someday use the thing I'm thinking of getting rid of.

Case in point: this blue baby sling (this is just a close-up of the great fabric). One of four baby carriers I owned (two were hand-me-downs, two I bought). I think I used this one a total of three times. I found it very difficult to do the sling thing with two babies. But I liked the idea so I kept the slings, thinking I would use them.

I finally got rid of the two that were hand-me-downs; I gave them away. I'm sure I could've sold them but I didn't since the people who gave them to me didn't. But now I have these two really nice ones that I bought myself - and they were not cheap. One of them I didn't even use a single time because I couldn't figure it out.

And then there's this one. Simple to use, and beautiful, it's the Ella Roo Sling. It's been hanging out in my study for months, waiting for me to take a picture of it to post to the MotheringDotCommune forums Trading Post. Now that The Seven Things Project is underway, I finally kicked into gear and took some pics. I even uploaded them to my computer. And then I made sure I still had the directions.

That's what sunk my plans. In looking at the instructions, I noticed that it could carry a toddler up to 35 pounds. One of my boys is already almost at that weight, but the other has a long way to go. I suddenly had visions of myself slinging my little boy while my other one walked alongside me holding my hand. I can't bear to get rid of it now, because I just might use it.

This time, I'm giving myself a week. If I don't use it by then, that's it, I'm posting it for sale.

The Seven Things Project Community

2006-07-10T11:32:00.000-07:00

I'm really pleased with the enthusiastic response to this idea! I've never done anything like this before, and I realize now that a more organized approach would've been to get the word out before July 7th and then get people all signed up, in the blog ring, linked, and so forth. But I didn't know until July 7th that I was actually going to go through with this, and I knew then if I tried to wait to get organized, well, it would go the way of all my previous decluttering attempts (i.e., nowhere). It's one of the things that stands in the way for me - waiting till I can get organized and ready.

At any rate, I am trying to get things organized now. For those people who have left comments saying they want to be part of the project community, I've added your blog links to the sidebar. I didn't have blog addys for everyone, so if you want to be a part and are not in the sidebar, please leave a comment on this post and I will make sure to add you. You do not have to have a blog to participate in the community project. You can always just leave comments here, letting the rest of us know of your progress. For MotheringDotCommune forum members, there is a thread in the Decluttering, Organizing, & Simplifying subforum of the Mindful Home Management forum. For Knitting Help forum members, there is an OT thread in the General Knitting forum. And if you are part of another forum somewhere, please feel free to start your own check-in thread there.

I have started a blog ring for anyone interested in that. You don't have to be a part of the ring in order to be a part of the project. It's just a fun way to surf around and see what other folks are doing. Click on the ring link to the right to get directions and the code. We'll have a button soon that you can add to your blog.

There are no rules. You can read my personal guidelines for ideas and suggestions, but it's not like I'm going to delink you if you don't get rid of 7 things a week. That's not the kinda gal I am. I do think it will be a lot of fun to see pics of each other's adventures in decluttering, as well as reading reflections about letting go. I think we can help each other by sharing our own experiments and journeys. On a practical level, we can offer each other suggestions of environmentally-friendly ways to get rid of stuff. On an emotional level, I think sharing our own struggles can really benefit all of us in our quest for a simpler kind of life. And on a fun level, won't it be a hoot to see that we're not the only ones who have moved the same box of old love letters to six homes in 12 years? (oh, wait, was that just me?)

Thanks for all the interest and enthusiasm!

The Saturday Seven - #1

2006-07-08T18:25:00.000-07:00

My debut Saturday Seven is pretty modest - not much emotional attachment here. The main thing was just making myself actually get rid of these. In the bag are nine books (I started with seven and then saw two more I didn't really need to be hanging onto). I donated these to the American Assocation of University Women (Ann Arbor Branch) for their book sale . The money the AAUW raises from the book sale goes to fund scholarships for undergraduate women and fellowships for female graduate students. Great cause, eh? Plus I got a little receipt to get a tax deduction.

I took a picture of each separate book but then decided that was a little boring, so here is a shot of just the bag of books. I'm a little embarrassed that I own(ed) some of these, but here goes.

Contents:
The Detox Plan for Body, Mind, and Spirit (Jane Alexander)
owned since: 1997
last time I read it: I never really read the whole thing through. I think I glanced through it briefly in the last few months, out of mild curiosity.
did I ever follow the plan? no
why did I hold onto it for 9 years? Because I have these notions that some day I will try a detox diet and find myself miraculously with tons of energy and looking and feeling better than I ever have. The truth is, though, I'm actually skeptical of my own such notions. Not to mention too lazy to ever implement.

Stupid White Men (Michael Moore)
owned since: 2003?
last time I read it: 2003. I did read the whole thing and enjoyed it. Though MM is a tad over-the-top.

Prevention Women's Health Today 2002
owned since: 2002
Yet another diet/exercise book cluttering up my shelf. Says the same old stuff.

Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease (Dean Ornish)
owned since: 2001. Bought it after my husband had a heart attack. Read it from cover-to-cover. Digested some of it and haven't picked it up since. No need to keep it.

The Whole Soy Cookbook (Patricia Greenberg)
owned since: 1998, when I was still a vegetarian and not yet suspicious of soy.
Glanced through it some and never ever made a single thing from it.

Marilu Henner's Total Health Makeover (Marilu Henner)
owned since: 1998
I'm totally embarrassed that I own this. I think I saw her on Oprah or Rosie touting her diet. And I was impressed by how she had completely changed her body. The diet, though, was not for me (I'm not really a diet person, despite the fact that I bought this book). I think I did make a couple of recipes from it several years ago.

The 30-Day Total Health Makeover (Marilu Henner)
owned since: 1999
More of the same. Can you believe I owned two diet books by Marilu Henner - both in hardcover??

The Real Mother (Judith Michael)
owned since: 2005
Got this through freecycle in a batch of books that had something else I wanted to read. This isn't usually my kind of novel, but I read it anyway. At least I'm not hanging on to it.

The DaVinci Code (Dan Brown)
owned since: 2003
In my line of work, I had to read the book since everyone was asking me biblical, historical, and theological questions about it. I found it a quick, enjoyable read, but not the earthshattering book that others seemed to think. Not the kind of book I hang on to.

How I feel about getting rid of this batch of stuff: Pretty good. Though believe it or not, I'm sitting here wondering if I missed some good recipes in the Marilu Henner books....

Total number of things gone from my life so far: 9

I'm excited that some of you out there are planning to join me on this journey! If you've posted a Saturday Seven on your blog (or photo hosting account, or somewhere else), please leave a link in the comment section below. And look for a blogring announcement in the next few days!

The Project Begins

2006-07-07T17:59:00.000-07:00

I want to own less. I want to buy less. I want to need less. And I want to want less.

There's more to say about my struggle with things and my journey towards letting go, but I'm giving myself a year to say it, here. So for now I'll just talk about this project as I am envisioning it.

The upshot: from 07/07/06 till 07/07/07 I intend to get rid of 7 things a week.

The guidelines: I will sell, donate, give away, or recycle these seven things (in very rare cases, I may decide to throw something away, but I intend to be very strict with myself about keeping waste to a minimum). Every Saturday, I will post the Saturday Seven, a picture list of the seven things I got rid of that week, along with an explanation of how long I've had these things, what made it hard to get rid of them, and what I chose to do with them. I will also record periodic musings about stuff and my attachment to it, along with anything I am learning from this experiment.

The rationale: I want to more fully embrace simplicity. I don't mean simplicity in terms of "convenience" (a notion which often leads to buying more stuff because the stuff seems to promise to save us time and make life easier). I mean simplicity in terms of becoming less attached to things, less driven by an acquisitional anxiety, more attuned to the needs of others, and more attentive to ecological sustainability. I believe that this kind of simplicity leads to contentment, spaciousness (physically, as my space becomes less cluttered, but also emotionally, mentally, and spiritually), sensitivity, and generosity.

Because I have so much stuff cluttering my life, it is difficult to know where to begin. It overwhelms and paraylzes me. But I think I can get rid of seven things as a time. And after a year, 350+ things will be gone. I chose seven because it seemed like a just right kind of number - not too easy but not so difficult that I would be tempted to quit within a month. Seven made sense also since I'm doing this weekly - there may be weeks when the best thing for me to do is pick one thing a day to get out of my life. Plus, in my religious tradition, seven is a sacred number representing fullness and completion. [Since the number 7 seemed important to me for this project, I decided to start on 7/7 and end on 7/7/07. It just seemed fitting.]

One of the many issues arounds material things for me is my emotional attachment. I am very sentimental about my stuff. I think it may be easier to get rid of some of it if I have a record, with pictures, to tell the story of the mark these things made on my life, and the reasons I have held on to them.

The invitation: I imagine I'm not the only one holding on to so many things that need to be let go. So I invite anyone who is interested to join me weekly in getting rid of seven things. Every Saturday, when I post my Saturday Seven, I invite you to post your own seven on your blog and then come over here and let me know. I think it would be great to have a whole little online community of folks striving towards a simpler life. Maybe we can help each other to live more lightly. Please join me!