Cleaning Up

I know I have been a bad blogger and have started a couple posts that I will get to in the next few days. Got to upload the photos still.

Last night I got home from work and spent several hours (5.5) cleaning my house. I am tired of the stuff stacked around the place that we might get to some day. Frankly, our condo was starting to look like a storage unit. When we had people over, our bedroom was the dumping ground as everything got chucked in to and the door closed.

All this clutter also prevented me from accomplishing things I want to do. Things like, relaxing on the weekend with some knitting or sewing or baking, Enjoying time with the bonus kids. Having enough room to work out. Sitting and watching a movie or reading a book. All without feeling anxious without all the stuff all over the house.

Well - no more!

I cleaned the heck out of my place last night. Anything that did not have a home and was not going to be donated ended up in the dining room. This morning we are going to schlep it all out to our onsite (does not cost extra) storage unit. I would rather have the clutter out there until I can go through it. We do have our storage unit pretty organized and this won't add too much to it. We just don't have to live with it on a daily basis.

For those of you out there looking for more ideas on living simply, decluttering and decorating well, check out these posts....

Remodeling This Life is doing a 31 days of simplicity.

Dear Lillie's decorated her patio for fall in Apple Pie on the Porch. LOVE!

Tightwad has Ten ways to make use of your old magazines.

Rowdy Kittens is talking about Bike commuting with baby.

We started our Halloween decorating last weekend and plan to finish this weekend. Photos to come soon!

Also, some hopefully exciting news. Just putting it out there for positive thoughts. I will find out on Wednesday and will let you all know!

The New Bar

We have had this dresser for several years that has morphed from being a craft cabinet to a bar and many things in between. We decided it was too big and took up too much real estate in our dining room. Not to mention the amount of clutter it collected. So last weekend, armed with a tape measure, we went in search of a new bar.

I thought I would end up with a smaller dresser that didn't have cut outs on the side like our old one. I really was not sure what I was picturing but when we saw it we knew immediately. We were at a yard sale and there sat a little shelf no more than a foot deep and the perfect height. I so would have paid ten bucks for it - alas it was not for sale.

After a few more yard sales, our last stop was Cost Plus World Market. What do you know, there sat the exact same shelf. The price was a little steeper being brand new and all but at least it was on sale.

Below is the old bar. As you can tell, I am not a huge fan of dusting. C has a bunch of model cars all over and those little cut out shelves received several of them. This is not the most flattering photo since the top and sides are a mess from moving stuff to the new bar area. It's totally cleaned out inside though. I have to find homes for a few items and then post it on Craigslist (with a better photo of course) and then we will have as easier time getting around the dining table.

Here is the new bar in all its cleaned and organized perfection. This is where we had our little computer desk before our PC died and we went with a laptop. **Side note. My curtains do not go all the way to the floor which I absolutely hate. The reason for this? A baseboard heater below the garden window with an outlet directly over it in the center of the wall. Try hiding that cord!

I actually like that it is open because we can see exactly what we have. I think I am going to put the four glasses in the middle shelf in our kitchen cabinet for regular drinking and put our four martini glasses down in their place. I am not too thrilled with the stack of stuff on the bottom shelf to the right. There are two cigar boxes that hold bottle stoppers, corkscrews, C's flasks, etc. There is a tin case that holds coasters, a wooden match box and a leather cigar case.

However, I love that it takes up less of a footprint and moving this little shelf will be so much easier than the old dresser!

Decluttering - The Aftermath

So, last month I spent A LOT of time decluttering the things from my life. Our condo is looking and feeling bigger than ever now that we have the items we love and use on a regular basis where we can find them.

I came across this blog post which could not have come at a better time since I am now contemplating all the books on our book shelves. What to keep and what to sell.

I do like the idea of putting everything you don't use often somewhere to come back to later and sort of wipingthe slate clean. If you need something you can retrieve it. I do think I was pretty ruthless when I went through my closet but I bet there are still items I can pluck from the rods and shelves that I know I could donate and probably not think about again.

My personal email box is so full its not even funny. I have over 400 emails. Tell me, when amd I possibly going to get to all of those? I already have folders that I can file most in and for the rest I can just create a "if I need it" file to go to later. I really should delete some of my folders too. A clean inbox is a wonderful thing.

I have a little time this weekend. I could probably take all the books from one cube of my book shelves and make decisions on them. I know the ones I am not keeping are going to be posted online to sell. I have a lot of hard back books I would like to make some money on so I can put that on the credit card balances.

Sunday it's a world cup party at my sisters house.

Have a great weekend!

Emergency Kits

I was talking to a co worker today on our daily lunchtime walk and she mentioned she and her husband have a place they have agreed to meet in the event of a disaster. It's across the state.

That got me thinkingthat my husband and I should have similar plans should a disasterous event occur.

I also thought we should probably have something in our cars and in our home in the event of en emergency.

After Googling "make your own disaster kit" I found several links but I thought this one was a good one. After reading about how bad it is to drink from water stored in a plastic water botle in the car I need to look for alternatives to that but I do think water, ready to eat food (for pets and humans) along with a can opener, a first aid kit, tools, supplies and sanitation needs, important documents and clothing are all important.

A few sites have comprehensive guides for you to follow to get these items together. Especially if you don't have a lot of time or can't even get home its a good idea to be prepared. Flylady has a detailed guide on things from decluttering to preparedness for evacuation.

I think one of my goals for the coming months will be to get these kits together. We have first aid kits in the cars and houses but not to this extent.

Lounging

This weekend I was supposed to clean out the storage room off the patio. C was supposed to help but got a better offer of a car show yesterday and tinkering to make Steampunk Rayguns today. I opened up the patio door determined but just could not bring myself to do it.

Its rare I have the house to myself and I thought it was a perfect weekend to lounge, watch girly movies and drink copious amount of tea.

Technically since I am not getting the patio storage done this weekend it means I won't make my decluttering goal. As C pointed out yesterday, the patio storage is on the OUTSIDE of the house and therefore does not count to INSIDE decluttering. Since I get to make the rules and we do have some stuff to get done in the yard I am running with that.

I still have my pantry to clear out but it should only take an hour later this afternoon.

The morning has been spent reading through some of the books I am going to post for sale. I have three Shabby Chic books and I never thought I would get rid of. I am not too in to flowers and pink but there are some of her ideals I still agree with.

She doesn't see a reason for collecting things unless they serve a purpose or make her happy. I am practical minded like that. I don't collect anything. I have always liked Rachel's idea of buying missmatched china to use for every day. The only thing they have in common are their colors.

This setting above has four different plates and yet they go together fine by their combination of blue and gold. I especially love that nothing is overly flowery and there looks to be a toile piece tossed in to the mix.

C and I got rid of our every day dishes about a year ago and have been using our formal china we got for our wedding every day. I was concerned at first because its expensive if anything broke. We have been lucky and nothing has. I think if we stick to blues and greens and greys we should be able to get a nice collection together of plates, bowls, cups and saucers. I plan to keep my iced beverage glasses and my silver and crystal stuff as I do use it for every day. Once we have a good collection of china we can sell our more formal stuff.

The second thing she says is furniture should be comfortable as well as functional. I am in total agreement there and still can't believe we spent $900 for a couch that was decidedly NOT comfortable. Our $30 thrift store find is GREAT! I will post a photo when I get the slip cover made so you can see a before and after.

If you buy things that you like and use them then "Whenever you'd like to get together with a bunch of friends, you can be spontaneous because you will always have a source of decorative items".

I am at odds with my genuine desire to live minimally but to surround myself with things I love. I think for me living withing a small open floor plan with minimal stuff and repurposing is the way to go. I am rambling now so will sign off.

Hope you had a good weekend!

A Light at the end of the Tunnel

Sunday night my family was over to celebrate Father's Day and my sister went through the bag of craft supplies I was going to get rid of. What is left I am giving to my neighbor.

Tuesday night I went through my clothing in our master closet. I took everything out of the closet and laid them on the bed in two piles. Clothing I wear all the time and clothing I rarely wear.

Can you guess which pile was taller?

You guessed it, the pile of clothing I rarely wear.

After placing the clothing I wear all the time back in the closet I started sorting the other pile. Items that I never wear due to not fitting right or repairs that I will never make or don't go with anything else went in the donate pile. That just left costumes and formal wear or dressier items. I carefully scritinized these items before making a decision on weather to place it back in the closet or in the donate pile.

After all was said and done I have two garbage bags full of clothing and shoes ready to be donated this weekend. It was a little underwhelming as I thought I was being pretty ruthless and thought I would have more but I suppose two bags are nothing to sneeze over. C still has not gone through his clothing but that is not on my list for this month and doesn't prevent me from reaching my June goal.

I am down to two areas in my house that need decluttering. The pantry and storage off the patio. The pantry will probably get cleared out tomorrow night and the patio is reserved for this weekend. I also have our bar but decided to hold off on decluttering until we find a suitable smaller replacement. I will put some of the glasses I like from the bar in our cabinets and get rid of some other glassware that has seen better days.

I think I just might make my goal for June of getting all my decluttering done.

Home Stretch To Clutter Free

My goal this month is decluttering all the little hidden nooks and crannies of my house. I am down to four and of those there is one only really large one.

I need to go through our bar because there is stuff in there we never drink. Even when we have a party and tell people its a free for all at the bar. We are also going to replace the bar with something smaller. Currently its a dresser that sits in the center of the dining room wall. It's a little hard to squeeze between it and the dining table with a chair pulled out. Our replacement is actually going to go in a corner of the dining room that doesn't get much use and doesn't interrput the flow of traffic. We don't have a replacement yet but are on the lookout.

I need to go through my pantry which is actually my coat closet with shelving that C installed. I keep my large kitchen appliances and vases and such in there. Most everything is staying but there are a few items I never used and with people putting things away in there incorrectly, its hard to get to everything.

I want to go through my closet again and purge even more clothing. I know there are things that I never wear that are too big and they just need to go.

Finally, there is our storage off our patio. Mainly this is used for gardening stuff but so many other things have migrated to it. It needs a severe clear out.

The patio storage project is reserved for this weekend while the other three areas of the house I can tackle during the week after work. If C has his way we will get the patio storage done and we will lay pavers for our grill to sit on and get it off the patio.

So, my deadline of June 30th seems reachable.

Practise the Art of Simplicity

A post on Unclutterer today caught my eye. The idea that you can practise something as opposed to being 100% good at something all the time.

That is something that I am trying to be better about. I am almost decluttering my house but if I don't keep up the practise of taking care of the ways that clutter can slip in yo my life I will be back at where I started.

I am practising things like folding my clothing and putting it right away or in the laundry instead of tossing it over something. Admittedly I no longer have anything piled up in my bedroom that I can toss things on. C has a valet that I think invites clutter.

I need to be better about practising (even remembering) eating leftovers in the fridge before they go bad. I have decided that a certain shelf should hold the leftovers and once its full its time to eat that stuff rather than make more stuff.

I am practising cleaning up after meals or projects or just upkeep on chores so I don't have to dedicate my entire weekend to cleaning the kitchen and bathroom and doing laundry. I would much rather spend a weeknight on something like that and enjoy my weekends.

I am practising keeping a to do list and actually crossing items off. Once projects are done not going back and messing it up again. Getting things clean and keeping them organized are way easier than fighting piles every day. I feel much saner for it.

I am practising putting small amounts of money away every month and extra amounts on credit card balances. This builds up our savings and pays down our debt faster. Soon we will have no credit card debt and a lovely amount in our savings account.

I look around my house and its so nice to see how its coming along and how close we are to being done and just enjoying things.

Getting There

I took Friday off and I accomplished a little bit of decluttering. I went through the rolling cart I keep next to my stackable washer and dryer. My laundry area is actually a hallway closet and the rolling cart has drawers there for laundry supplies and a place to keep things like light bulbs, candles, etc.

I didn't get nearly as much accomplished this weekend as I had planned. Somehow, and I don't know how, I threw out my back. It started to feel bad when I got up Saturday. By the time we got home from dinner Saturday night I knew the couch was where I was going to end up and not at my friends art show. Very bummed about that.

I stayed home from work today and we shall see how I feel tomorrow. A hot shower has loosened up my back a little but certain positions are pretty uncomfortable.

We spent the better part of Saturday evning, all day yesterday and so far all day today streaming episodes of Sliders and movies from Netflix. I am not a huge fan of Sci Fi and only watched a few episodes when this was on TV originally. We are almost done with season two.

Friday Minutia

I was planning on getting up at eight this morning even though I took the day off. Got up at ten and probably needed the sleep. It's raining and a little gloomy out. C (the hubs) is working in the morning and coming home early. This is so he can get the kids earlier than normal so we are ready to see our film premier tonight. It is part of STIFF (Seattle True Independent Film Festival) and aparently there is quite a buzz about it. I am excited to see it tonight and hang out with all the lovely people I met on set!

Also, thank you for your comments regarding my post from yesterday. Only a few days ago I would not have even considered getting rid of any of my books. In the scheme of things they don't take up that much square footage in my house. However, the time has come. When all I can think about is dollar signs when I look at them I know I am ready. This was a long time coming.



Above is a photo of the hallway bookshelves. It's hard to take a picture of the entire thing with the way the hallway is situated. The bins you see on the bottom are the ones I went through last weekend.

I counted roughly 65 (maybe more) books that I could sell. Of those, some are cookbooks and I would of course type up my favorite recipes in the computer. The internet makes this a possibility for me. Both because I can look up recipies online and because I can sell the books online.


We are going to try and keep only enough books to fill four of those cubbies. This shelving is actually two pieces, a four by four and a two by four cubby. We are going to keep the 2 x 4, lay it on its long side and place it behind the couch as a sofa table. It's exactly the same height as our couch and about 22" narrower than our couch. The 4 x 4 will go in the kids room to store all their stuff including clothing. Since they are only with us six full days a month they don't have a lot of clothing here. We have a Billy bookcase from IKEA in their room we are going to get rid of too.

It's not quite half way through June and I am confident I will get my decluttering project finished this month. I am down to my bedroom closet which I have purged a few times so I am not expecting it to take long, the rolling cart in the laundry area, the pantry and the biggest job - storage off our patio.

That will then leave a few condo projects and then we are DONE!

I can't wait for next month when I can start on all the lovely projects we will be doing to finish up our condo.

Beej and I wish you a great weekend!

Books

I have come to a rather hard decision. I am going to sell most of my books. We have an entire wall in our hallway of bookshelves filled with books. Of the books in the hallway I would say 75% are mine. Of that 75% I feel I can sell 90% of them while keeping a few. I honestly don't know what creiteria I am going to use except that they take up room and I don't read nearly as much as I used to.

I love the smell of books. I love sitting in a comfy chair with a quilt and a glass of red wine and reading for a rainy afternoon. I love rereading books and those few I do reread I will probably save. Books are my friends.

What I don't love is the space they take up or the dust they create.

In looking around my house for ways to eliminate clutter and possibly make some money to help pay off debt faster my eyes fell on the bookshelves. I could easily make a good chunk to put on a credit card balance. One book at a time.

What has always kept me from actually selling is the feeling of giving something up that is important to me and to replace it made no sense since it would cost thousands compared to what I would actually get for them.

I have this goal of reading the classics. I don't want to purchase them but can easily borrow them from my brother or the library.

This is another project that comes out of my decluttering madness. I don't expect to get it done by the end of June but it could get started.

Focus on What You Want Most

I came across this blog post through another post from Frugal Babe I read today and the quote really did resonate with me.

Never sacrifice what you want most for what you want right now.

This is something I am starting to realize as I get rid of the clutter around my house. I can see the finish line which is so awesome. I know that I will meet my June completion goal for those hidden areas in my home. In fact, another closet was completed last night. I do stiil have a few tweaks I want to make. We will still have small condo projects to complete but they will be so much easier without stuff lying around that has no permanent home and we can find the tools we need to complete a project. The small condo projects are not my goal for this month anyway.

As I focus on getting this project completed and look forward to the fun projects that will come out of them this quote means even more to me.

I think a lot of unhealthy attitudes in life come from the instant gratification of getting what we want right now. Wether its sacrificing our health for something quick or buying an item we think we need because we can't find something at home or its the perceived the answere to all our prayers.

Case in point. I have been sewing since I was eight years old. I will never give that hobby up. I organized all of my patterns last night. I found four patterns for robe/PJ's. I don't need four patterns, I had them because I was not organized enough to have my patterns in one place when I wanted to make a new robe. I even found (and kept) my favorite pattern for PJ bottoms. One pattern piece - love it. I managed to get all the patterns in to three shoe boxes but am already looking for a better way to store them.

The simplicity of this quote is so great and if I keep it with me in times of uncertainty or the spontanaeity of wanting someting right now, it will further the goals I have put in place.

Clutter - His vs Hers

Last night I had a "conversation" with my husband about clutter. We both are in agreement the clutter has to go. The problem is, sometimes we can't agree on what is clutter. One of the main differences in our personal clutter story is my husband is a collector and I am not. I am much more of a neat freak and am constantly being compard to Monica on Friends.

"Collections are an accumulation of objects gathered for study or comparison for exhibition or hobby. Clutter is to fill or cover with scattered things that impede movement or reduce effectiveness."

There are many reasons why a person would want to collect something. Collections are not inherently bad. I used to collect items but decided they really didn't fulfill any sort of need for me and I just prefer not to have to dust tchockes all over my house.

In my search to find advise on His vs Hers clutter, I came across a few articles like this one that compare His vs Hers when it comes to household chores. I think its important to recognize and talk about your issues with clutter and household chores with your partner so you can be on the same page and work together to achieve the look and relative clean you want in your home.

What happens when your collections become your clutter? You can development in to a habit of hoarding. In fact, the problem of hoarding has become so common there is now a TV show on A&E about the disease.

We are by no means hoarders and have tackled many areas of clutter in our home. We are close to being done with it entirely. We have established ways to tackle clutter as it comes in to the house. After a few more weeks we will have other hidden areas of our house cleared out and will be making new homes for items that are in limbo.

How do you handle differences in how you handle clutter and household chores in your home?

Happy June

I can't believe June is here and the year is almost half over! I endeavor to do a post a day this month.

Over the long weekend I was able to finally get my master bedroom cleared out. That is the room where items go to die. Or at least go until I can find a place for them. I don't know if I have mentioned before but storage options in our little 900 square foot condo are extremely limited.

It's not totally decluttered. There are things living under the bed and the closet could use a good clearing out too. I have a couple items that currently do not have homes sitting in the corner of the bedroom. At least they are no longer preventing me from getting in to bed and have piles of stuff on top of them. They will stay there until I find a permanent home for them.

I'm pretty excited about this declutter project. Mainly because it doesn't cost any money. I am down to the areas of the house you don't see. Closets, storage off the patio and yes under the bed. The kids room needs a major clearing out. It is at the end of a hallway and I like to keep the door open to let in the natural light. When I leave the door open I see all their crap and it stresses me out. For two teemagers who only live with us two days three weekends a month they have an enormous amount of crap!

I have a list I have made of areas I need to declutter, what purpose I want them to serve after I am done and what items need permanent homes. That way as I am clearing areas out I can think about areas where items can live permanently.

• Under master bed
• Master closet
• Hall linen closet
• Hall pantry
• Hall laundry closet
• Hall - bins in shelving
• Patio storage

My goal for June is to get this declutter project completed. This may be a pretty lofty goal but I am willing to give it a try. I know that the hidden clutter in my home prevents me from allowing myself down time activities I enjoy such as knitting, gardening and sewing.

Here is to a productive June!

Storage Unit - Completed

After 9 years and 2 carloads of donate over the last two weekends our storage unit has been completely decluttered. We even have open space on some of the shelves.

We used to keep all our holiday decorations in 30 gallon tubs. A real pain in the but to bring in to the house, unload and decorate. Then repack and schlep back out to storage in crappy weather.

The hubs final trip to donate saw three 30 gallon and one 25 gallon tub go bye bye forever. We still have four 20 gallon tubs left but they fit neatly on top of our shelving at the back of the unit. You can't see in the photo below but just above the top shelf where the boxes with yellow lids are sit those tubs.

The only thing sitting on the floor is a huge R2D2 beverage cooler (you can sort of see the arm peeking out towards the left bottom of the photo) that the hubs is going to turn into something Steampunk, our orange moving dolly and a spare wheel for our small trailer we hook up to our car for camping.

This storage unit used to be packed from floor to almost ceiling and from back to door with moving boxes. The door is just in front of the extra wheel.

It feels so good to have this space cleared out so we can pop down quickly and get what we need. Everything is labeled and like items sit together. All we have is camping equipment, holiday decorations, beer making stuff and large tools - oh yeah and R2.

This unit is not something we pay for seperately but at the bottom of one of the condo buidings in our complex. I'm going to call this completed and checked off my list. As time goes on we will try to replace the cardboard paper boxes with plastic tubs to better protect the contents but for now - we are done!

The Decluttering Continues

Last weekend the hubs and I ventured in to our storage unit. This unit is not something we pay for. Each condo in our complex has a storage unit off the patio and a larger one under one of the buildings. The one we have under the building houses items we don't have room to store in our house but still need such as camping equipment, holiday decorations and large tools.

The problem is it's also become the respository for all things we don't know what to do with but can't bear to get ride of.

In the past few weeks we have been decluttering the heck out of our living space. This is extending to areas that are not seen but still there. It was time to go through things and get rid of items we no longer need. We donated one car load of items already and have another one ready to go for this weekend. I found things I have had for almost twenty years and have no need for such as my highschool color guard outfit, my college letter jacket, massive a tub of fabric of which I will never use for things as my taste has changed since I purchased it.

I can tell ya, I feel so much better, like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders!

This weekend we will finish up going through the storage unit. The goal is to get rid of the large tubs sitting on the foor of holiday decorations and downsizing them so they fit in boxes on the shelves of the storage unit. I have been bringing home boxes but we might have to purchase some small plastic tubs that fit on the shelves.

Off to finish watching the first disc of Arrested Deveopment season one.

Computer Shelf Gone!

About three years ago my husband installed a shelf in a corner of the dining room to house our PC. We always intended to build a little rolling cart for the tower and printer that could roll under the shelf when the computer was not in use. We got as far as my husband taking a circular saw to our old computer desk and cutting out what we would need to "temporarily" house the tower and printer. Notice the cords and clutter everywhere. Eventually I learned to look past this mess. You can see the old computer monitor behind the open laptop.

With the recent purchase of a laptop and wireless printer (returned the incorrect wireless router and need to purchase the correct one still) we have eliminated the need for the computer shelf in the corner of the dining room. This helps to increase the usable space in the dining area and reduce the amount of visual (and real) clutter in our tiny home (still need to touch up with paint).

As I have stated before, our condo is 900 square feet. Between the living and dining rooms we have gained back some of that and its being used for - nothing. It's so nice to have room to breathe in our space!

Now our laptop sits on our coffee table (my grandfather's WWII foot locker). We still have some wiring to figure out but after we get our new wireless router.

More photos of improvements to come!

DVD Storage - Living Room Remodel

After painting our living room and putting back only what we absolutely want in that room we discovered how deseptively large our little 900 square foot condo can be. We sold a wing back recliner and invested in some DVD storage from IKEA. It's not the exact thing I want but the hubs and I are realists and we figured we would never actually build what we need before kid number 2 graduates high school. So, click on over to the hubs blog to see our new DVD storage. Can you believe we actually need more already?

What he didn't mention is that above all that lovely DVD storage we found the perfect print. It's a black and white scene of a London street. There is an older style double decker bus in red. Will post photos after we purchase and hang it.

Absolute Necessities

I have been on a decluttering binge for many years now. I aquire less and less and it seems to me that I am ready to give up more and more.

The past couple of weeks the hubs and I have made more of an effort on finishing our condo projects. We painted the living room and the walls above the wainscoting in the bathroom. We bought more baseboard molding to finish off the living room. A trip to IKEA is in our future for many of these DVD shelfs and this leather couch. When we painted the living room we only put items back in that we needed. That meant a recliner we do use all the time but just really clutters up the room is going away.

I am the first person to look at something and think "how can I reuse this in another way". I had briefly decided that recliner (it looks like a wing chair) would work great in a corner of the dining room as a reading nook. (Photo below is not the actual chair but close to ours and lighter blue - you get the idea).

This is where I get in to trouble. Suddenly I am all about the reading nook and less about the rest of the dining room that needs finishing. Not to mention the living and bathrooms that have unfinished projects we started working on. All I can picture is lazy afternoons reading in the chair by the garden window, sipping my coffee with a blanket tucked around me. Never mind that in order to have those lazy Saturday afternoons, I need to finish the living, dining, bath and master bedrooms.

Instead, we are selling the chair. Pairing down. Perhaps in the future we will have a reading nook. If so, we will look for the appropriate chair at that time. At least this way I have not gotten distracted from finishing my current projects. Cause the dining table and chairs need to be sanded and painted - so they match. I think that is a little more important than a reading nook (which still requires us getting our old PC unhooked and the shelf it sits on taken down).

I have always been "afraid" of dead space in a room. In the past I have always filled my rooms with probably more than they needed. I always worry if there will be enough seating when I have a party, or Christmas morning when the relatives come over. You know, I have stopped worrying about those things because I am tired of living in clutter just to be prepared for those few days a year where I need to have more than my immediate family in my living room.

I have learned the hard way to start with good basics and build from there. I never had the money for good basics so I bought or inherited the basicas and built on top of them. We are getting back to basics.

Our Computer Died

Last night I turned on the computer to warm it up since its a little slow and takes a bit in otder to get online. After stopping at my neighbors to get my dog and chatting for a bit I came back down to see that I still could not get online.

Everything works on the stupid computer but it is unable to get online due to some network card. The computer is 3 1/2 years old and I was hoping to keep it a little longer before needing to replace it. This is also probably why we are unable to use our Roku to stream from Netflix to our TV.

The hubs and I have been wanting to get two laptops and eliminate the computer all together since we don't have a lot of room in our place we had to reserve one corner of our dining room for the computer. With laptops we can get rid of the temporary setup we have there and just put a cabinet to store things like the external drive, printer, etc.

We are shopping around and will end up buying some sort of laptop by the weekend. My husband is selling a car (hopefully tonight) so a portion of that money will be used for the laptop purchase.

Until then we can't get online unless we go to our neighbors or I do it at work.

Ug! So very inconvenient.