Project Update: 10-13

If you see small household items on my front porch sporting name tags, don't worry. I haven't gone nuts and named frying pan "GEOFF" or the microwave cart "MEL B." I've just been--as Christa put it--freecycling like a boss.

• Needlepoint kits I'll never get to? Gone.
• Electronic charging station that seemed like a good idea at the time? Adios.
• Board games we haven't played in 5 years? So long.
• Carry-on suitcase with the missing zipper pulls? Bye!

Freecycle is not my only pal as I edit/purge/simplify. Craigslist sent a nice momma my way; she bought a bag of toddler boy clothes from me.

And at 3 a.m. today, I decided that tomorrow would be CLOTHING SWAP NIGHT. About a dozen friends woke up to learn they've been invited to stop by at 7 tomorrow with clothes and other small items they no longer want/need. It looks like four people are coming so far. If all goes well, everyone will unload a few items by leaving them with other folks who'll enjoy keeping them.

A lot of these items are from the closets that I worked on most of the yesterday. Office closet looks WAY better now. Living room closet now makes a LOT more sense. I've still got some figuring out to do in the coat closet, and probably spend more time in my son's closet, but things are looking pretty fine!

Rebecca, Days 11-13: Editing rooms, closets, drawers

In the past week:

From my closet, I removed many items that no longer fit and/or have lost their appeal to me. Like James, I prefer to sell unwanted items when possible; but my favorite place to consign clothing recently closed, and I don't really feel like going through the hassle of booking a consignment appointment elsewhere and waiting a month or two for my items to be seen.

So instead, I took them all to Buffalo Exchange. They give you cash immediately for any clothing/accessories they think they can sell. They didn't take that many pieces, but I got $40 for my efforts. Then I gave several pieces to a friend's daughter, and I am hoping to organize a clothing swap among friends for other especially good pieces. The rest, I will probably donate to charity or post to Freecycle.

From the family room/living room areas, like Natalie, I went to work on toys. My toddler has way too many to play with. Most of what he hasn't been playing with lately went into bins in the basement, and he hasn't missed a thing. I'm going to winnow things down further when I have a chance. I also edited our decorations, moving a few things around and eliminating a few others, and I like the way things look.

I would love to work on the basement, but that's tough because we have a lot of things down there that we do use seasonally--or that we are saving for a second child we hope to someday have.

From my son's bedroom, I pulled a ton of clothing from his drawers and closet. He has way more clothing than he can wear, so anything in his current size that I didn't like (especially sports-themed items), I put into a bag and posted on Craigslist for only $20. No takers yet, so if anyone would like a bag of 3T boys' clothes, let me know! I did the same with the 24M/2T stuff he has outgrown, saving only a few favorite and/or gender-neutral items for potential future use.

The other area that needs serious editing is my home office. I don't have a great office at work, but my department is supposed to be moving to a much better space next year, and I'm hoping I'll be able to move lots of my academic books and files there at that time. In the meantime, I'd like to make a plan of attack that includes:

• Sending old papers/files to One Dollar Scan for digitization
• Donating/giving away some other books
  
• Trying to rehome the closet and dresser full of craft projects
  

Re: the last item, before my son was born, our guest room was essentially full of items for potential crafty projects. Yarn, fabric, embroidery and needlepoint supplies, etc etc. I gave a majority to a very grateful friend who actually works in the wardrobe union in Boston and has a dedicated sewing room in her home. I kept what I thought I could get to soon and/or really, really loved. But the reality is that I have way less time for crafting than I'd like, and I still have a closet and dresser half-full with craft-related items. I think I just need to part ways with anything I can't work on very soon. With the limited time I have, there is NO NEED for an entire stash. If I ever run out of crafty projects to do (ha!), I can just go buy a new one, right?

If anyone reading this is crafty and would like to take a look through my stash, please let me know. :)

Christa, Day 13: A Trip Down Memory Lane

Closets and drawers... closets... and drawers. My own little likenesses of the Dorian Gray that is my life. The good news is that not ALL of the closets and drawers in my wee house are filled to the brim with out of place or unnecessary stuff. I don't, for instance, have a junk drawer - as much as I really would like to have one since the one that my dad always had, and still does, has always been a source of bizarre family fun. Junk closets? I have at least one, and I'm about to go look at it so I can address today's simplification idea:

Edit closets and drawers. Once you’ve gone through the main parts of your rooms, tackle the closets and drawers, one drawer or shelf at a time. More here.

I chose one little corner of the "red room" closet and, wow, what a haul.

Tedd's uncle's infant silver set and Tedd's, too. Long old fashioned gloves that my mother-in-law wore when she was a young adult - which aren't practical and the lovely pink kid gloves from France are too small for my big fat hands *cries*. The shoebox of things from P.'s early life, like one of her tiny preemie diapers and a preemie onesie that seems too small for even dolls (plus her umbilical cord stump ewwwww!). What is probably too many pairs of tap shoes. Manuals for all the baby products that came with manuals. A few books, some evening bags, a pair of Crocs Mary Janes the P. will grow into, a batik skirt I thought I'd make into a dress for her, and more.

Now tell me, is that a lot for one little corner of a closet? There were also some files that got stashed in there when we were moving our bedroom upstairs and random papers, to, including a print out of a pirate ship with no contextual clues as to why it was there. I love treasure hunts! This was a fun one, even if I didn't quite get into the spirit since not much made it into the trash or the donation pile. The books are going down to the bookshelves, as are the CDs and the silver, while other stuff will be filed or brought upstairs for safer keeping. The gloves I'll keep until P. is old enough to appreciate them - hey, they don't take much space - and the tap shoes...

Those I'm on the fence about. I don't exactly have a need for multiple pairs of tap shoes sporting different heel heights. I know I don't.

Particularly not the one-offs I used in a single show, like the white Mary Janes. Adult tap around here is all about the jazz funk, so my custom crossovers will likely do me forever. But still, keeping my shoes around is like my guarantee to myself that I will tap again someday. It's just that the teacher I really like teaches classes that are too dang far away, boo.

Basically I took a few trips down memory lane, put whatever had a place back in its place, and now have a slightly less messy closet in a room that is sort of up in the air as to its purpose. 

As far as my overall voluntary simplicity progress up until this point goes, I DID make a meal plan to simplify home chores but trashed it tonight for Subway (which was simpler, so ha), I DID ultimately choose to let go of a fairly big obligation that will free up more time for family (woo!), and my first big item to go on Freecycle was this:

Bye bye, treadle table! And thanks, Freecycler for hauling it off!

Julia's Day 12: Keeping it simple

Today we've just been doing exactly what was suggested in the blog, starting with a hall closet. HOORAY.