Tag Archives: lifestyle

Am I a minimalist??

Posted in books, California, Death, decluttering, home stuff, simple foods, simplicity, Uncategorized by

After reading the latest book,

I’m pretty sure that’s a spoof on her ‘author’ moniker.??

I wondered what I still had that was not really worth keeping. Or was it now something no longer needed? I’ve gone through a lot of shelves, drawers, closet ( we only have one closet) and took a hard look at things. Some things are left to deal with later, but a great deal was eliminated.

The author asks, “How do you want your home to ‘feel?’ “and then this is your why. I really want things to be simplified. It’s that simple. I want things to be uncomplicated and simple. Simple meals, simple house chores, simple maintaining the house, etc.

One of her tidbits was to go around your house and identify what irritates you or bugs you, and toss or throw them in the goodwill box. I like that idea.

This is part of the latest pile. 😦

Of course, having my husband just die is a motivator. Some of the things to let go of are those that I have no use for. Half-used notepads, a zillion pens, old T-shirts. ( I have saved some of his T-shirts like Grateful Dead, for now. I don’t know how I’ll feel in 6 months. Here I thought we had really prepared for his passing by getting rid of things, but honestly, it’s a shock what’s there. We have been on our minimalism journey for over 15 years, and here I am scratching my head going”why”?

As I’ve always contended, life is about change and trying to be in the season of your life as it is. I’ve never been here before, so I have to make the changes.

I’m not planning on canning in the near future, for example. So I don’t need a bizillion canning jars. I’ve given away on our Pay it forward group over 3 dozen jars. Now, of course, I’m holding back getting rid of my water canner and my All-American. Why? I don’t know, except I like canning, and I still might in the future. That is too early to tell, because this year, with Barclay dying, we didn’t have any garden. So time will tell on this one.

Even the yard stuff has been a lot. My son has done 3 trips to the dump already. And we still have at least 2 more that are mostly old wood. All this should have been done long before now. We’ve lived here 30 years, and well, stuff does accumulate, especially old wood from projects, scrap metal, old coolers, etc. I’m seriously thinking of hiring someone who does junk to get rid of it.

I suppose all things change as our attitude, circumstances, and perspective change. I’m glad mine is continuing to evolve and change with my current circumstances. I just wish Barclay were here to do this with me. 😦

Frugal Friday

Posted in bread, budgeting, budgets, California, cooking by

The biggest expense this week was my dental appointment. It was quite a bit but then what isn’t these days. It needed to be done so. I still have a cleaning in March and I’m planning on signing up for their dental saver program. It’s $400 a year and covers 2 cleanings and lots of other stuff. It seems a good deal.

Then I went to Costco earlier this week and that was around $200. That shop will last us a while until we need coffee again. Food was less because B picked some socks, and I picked up the new Dawn spray cleaner and there was something else nonfood.

I drove to Sacramento for my doctor’s appt, which uses more gas. I have enough gas in the Santa Fe until I go back to the pool which I think will be Monday. i have labs early Monday and plan to go to the pool afterwards.

Not a very frugal week but manageable.

Today I opted to stay home and do some extra house needs. I washed my office windows, and dusted baseboards. I also started sourdough baguette loaf for tomorrow. Last night I roasted a chicken and made homemade mac and cheese. Tonight I think I’ll make a frozen Costco pizza. It’s a new brand they had and I’d like to try it. I think it said made in Italy.

It’s a beautiful sunny day with a temperature of 62 degrees. I’m looking to put a chair in the sunroom so I can sit out there. right now, I don’t have the little loveseat because Tux is sleeping out there in a cat bed and he’s not fixed. therefore he’s spraying although we haven’t seen him spray out there. I’m thinking of a used Poang chair from market place. I’ll have to look at listings.

How Flylady and decluttering changed my life.

Posted in decluttering, Flylady, home stuff, minimalism, simplicity, Uncategorized, White space by

First a comment about Flylady. When I started with FL, there was none of the bat-shit crazy stuff she spouts today. She never mentioned religion per se or anything remotely conspiracy-related. Of course, this was back in 2010 or so and things weren’t quite as crazy as they are now. So if you happen to go to her channel be ready to see a wall of weird crosses behind her etc. I only go to the website which is now handled by someone else. I do that only to check in to what the zone is.

So without further ado, FL did change my life when I was overwhelmed with everything. Personally, when I see Youtubers like Minimal Mom, Shannon Torres, etc, I can see their need for some control in their lives, and decluttering and minimalism work for them. I felt the same.

By the time I was diagnosed with myeloma in 2005, I was heavy into collecting everything mid-century. I was doing craft fairs to sell stuff and always on the hunt for Life magazines, collectibles, etc. So after my diagnosis and subsequent year of treatment, everything came to a halt. Our small house was packed to the gills and messy. It was always clean but there was just too. much. stuff.

I think it was around 2010 that I stumbled upon FL. I wasn’t so much into minimalism at that time but FL’s plan included decluttering and getting rid of excess. I think the most valuable thing for me was her zone concept and cleaning your house by zones. I still do that today although it is modified to fit what I need. I would highly recommend the zone method as every 5 weeks you then deep clean the one zone. If your house is bigger with more bedrooms you would need to add some zones. So the zone concept really changed how I kept up with the house and cleaned.

In addition, her daily tasks really kept me focused. Daily tasks included clean/clear counters and surfaces, swish and swipe the bathroom, one load of laundry a day, sweep the kitchen floor and keep the sink clear of dishes. I implemented with the whole family, NO dishes in the sink at bedtime.

She is one of the original influencers who coined the 15-minute decluttering time. Basically, do what you can in 15 minutes, use a timer, and then when it’s up you’re done. That is how I started the great decluttering. So much stuff left our house and barn. I gave lots of the more valuable things to a friend who had a big house so it fit in well.

I haven’t missed a thing. I didn’t take pictures of all the stuff and I would recommend you do. It’s a great way to look back and go, oh yeah I remember that.

So, the biggest change was how I began to see our very small house. Since it is just 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom, we were always challenged with not enough space. My office area used to be my daughter’s room and my son had the small bedroom. In hindsight I would have done things differently but as said hindsight is always 20/20.

Now I see we have enough room since I got rid of anything that wasn’t serving a purpose or that I/we loved. Honestly, I’d love to get rid of more stuff, mainly furniture but each piece we own is functional. We have to sit somewhere:0

So I went from overwhelmed to organized. Maximalist to minimalist. Compared to die-hard minimalists, I still probably have too much stuff( Catherine Holm , anyone), but hey, it’s my definition of being minimal. Pretty much what you see is what I have. I have very little storage space, so… I mean I do have Christmas stuff, my vintage Halloween, a tiny bit of Easter/Spring but not things unknown in drawers.

All the areas of our small house work for us and I’m very glad that even after 14 years, we’re still trying to ”Pare down to the essence, but don’t remove the poetry” Leonard Koren.

Simple Sunday

Posted in California, Flylady by

Yesterday I think was a record temperature of 110. I can only think of one or two times we’ve ever been this hot. The house is staying cool with the window AC units. Of course, what our PGE bill will be is anyone’s guess. Today is also going to be very hot at 107 but I think after that we’re tapering down. I really don’t do well in the heat and have felt zero motivation. Even today, it’s usually the gym in Auburn and I just don’t feel like going. 😦

I bought another set of black out curtains for the sunroom. Amazon is having early Prime deals and this was one. They are 84 inches long and usually they are more expensive but the deal was quite affordable. I don’t like curtains as a rule but these black out curtains which are thermal blockers do make a BIG difference. In the winter they also keep the cold out so I guess I will have to get used to them. Since we don’t have neighbors that can look in windows I have usually opted for no curtains.

Here’s a few pictures of the mostly finished bathroom. We still need the base boards but can get them anytime really.

So far it is all quite nice and very airy. I miss the clawfoot tub but I think it was a ‘needs-must’ situation.

This week is the kitchen zone with Flylady and I plan on getting in there today. I’ve decided to sell my Pyrex collection as I don’t really use them anymore. The colors are fun and I do like the refrigerator containers but I just don’t use them.

I used to have a huge collection and have slowly either sold or gave to hospice thrift. It’s just one of those things that I used to really love but isn’t very important now and I don’t want to have to keep cleaning them.

Everything changes with time and this is just one of those things. What used to be important isn’t anymore for one reason or another. In this case, I don’t want to spend the time washing these every month just so they can live on a shelf.

I’ve been using my new inexpensive steam mop and liking it. I can’t wash floors on my hands and knees anymore so this has been great. I do still have my microfiber mop and use that in between steam mops.

Well, off to do the kitchen zone.

Organizing is not decluttering

Posted in budgeting, California, decluttering, Flylady, home improvement, home stuff, simplicity by

I’ve been on another round of decluttering. I don’t have lots of stuffed areas in my small home but I do have things that I no longer need or find useful. I didn’t make the connection for myself about visual clutter till way into my decluttering journey. Now I realize, that because I’ve always been a visual person, I need to see space around me in my home. That’s also the reason all the rooms of my house, the bathroom excluded, are painted Simple White by Benjamin Moore. I need that continuity.

If you’re just organizing your stuff, you’re really just rearranging stuff that probably needs to go. Moving stuff around doesn’t get rid of it. reI like organizing things using the container method. This method by Dana K White is about keeping only what fits in any container. The rest is decluttered. It’s a good method and very efficient at getting to visually see what you have in any given space. 

This month we took a bunch of things to the Placer Food Bank. Some of this was the ‘pandemic’ food I just knew I would never use but someone else might. Especially all the Mountain House dehydrated food meals that I thought someone homeless could use as they are complete meals. I still have a few random things to give them but I’ll wait till at least it’s a bag full.

We also took a load of ‘nice’ things to the Assistance League thrift. This included 2 pairs of dress-type shoes( Merrells, and Naots), and some other misc. I’ve already got a few more things ready to go including the Food Saver vacuum sealer that I haven’t used since summer and then it was only for frozen corn. I also have the beautiful quilt frame ready to go. I have it on Pay it Forward but so far no takers.

It’s important to reevaluate where you are in life and what things are helping in your space and what things are just in the way or cluttering up your home. I have decluttered pretty extensively since 2011( I checked an old file I had from when I started Flylady). So much has left my home and storage areas but it doesn’t really stop as there’s always something to get rid of. I’m a firm believer that the things I don’t need may benefit someone else. Plus, now being in my 70’s, there’s a whole other level to what I need/want. I need things in my home to be simple and easy to maintain. Plus, there’s the safety factor of how things are. We know we’ll need to change out the tub for just a shower unit and I’m planning on working that into a project for this summer. Since we only have one bathroom, summer will be best because we can use Rubi’s bathroom while we do this. The floor will need to be redone and sink, toilet while we’re at it. Of course, this is going to have to be budgeted for. But what we do know is the tub needs to go for safety.

We still have some boxes of photos to go through. B has been putting some on the cloud to preserve them. I also have gone through these boxes previously and gotten rid of tons of photos that were duplicates, of random nature pictures, and just blurry or strange.

Once the weather changes, I’ll go back out to the barn and clean the restaurant shelves, and decide what to do with the empty bins. There are maybe 8 bins or so. I might take some of the older bins we have and switch to these as they are smaller in size and fit those shelves perfectly. But, we are in a rainy period here in Northern California so it might be a while. The next week is forecast to be raining off and on.

Frugal Friday and other random things.

Posted in Blood test, budgeting, California, cash envelopes, decluttering, Pantry, prepper pantry, Walking by

Another low-spend week. We spent $53 at Holiday Market. It’s way more expensive than TJ’s or Winco but it’s also 1 minute from our house. We used to walk down all the time but now we drive mostly because our driveway is very steep. So going down is fine but coming up is not. After I figure out what’s going on with the knee I may start going up and down to strengthen the muscles. We’ll see, I’ve been saying that for years and haven’t done it yet. ( haha).

We filled up the VW too. And we went on a coffee date.

I did order some things from Amazon. A different knee brace, some hangers to add to the ones I got my daughter for Christmas, cream for my knee, and 1 set of candles. The 4pk of candles I usually buy from Blue Corn Beeswax were out of stock. I also ordered the tuna in olive oil in a 12-pack because it’s easier than going to get them at the store. the price is almost the same as Winco, maybe 10 cents more. What I’m doing is using a virtual envelope for Amazon and giving myself $100 a month for household things. I won’t include the tuna as that’s food.

Saturday is my MRI and after that, I plan to go to Trader Joe’s and get a few things. Eggs, bread, cream, bagels, maybe some chips and a few frozen meals to add to the freezer. Last week we had the Kung Pao Chicken and it was very good.

Next week I have my labs and the appt with the PC about the next step with the knee once the MRI comes in. I guess I would hope that it’ll just be PT to help strenghten it but it’s anyone’s guess at this point. That’s it for the week. I doubt I’ll be going to the pool or the gym till I have a plan in place. Although, if the knee brace stabilizes my knee I will go do upper body weights. I’m pretty depressed about it all since I hate not being able to be active. But as always I’ll get through it.

We have a good size load in the back of the VW to drop off at Goodwill and Assistance league. B will do that today. It’s always a good feeling to great rid of stuff. I did put all the Mountain House dehydrated meals in the bag for the food bank and I’ll do that either today or next week. I still have some other food out in the ‘barn prepper pantry’ so I need to get that first. I do not plan on restocking any of that out in the barn. I’m just going to have my pantry boxes and what I have on the Ivar shelving unit. ( That’s for the pressure canned goods and jams, salsas, and tomato sauces.) I’ll always have some stock up pantry because I’ve always bought in bulk starting back in 1975 but I won’t do the same thing as when the pandemic hit. Having bulk rice and beans etc just makes sense for how I cook plus I hate thinking about what I need so I’d rather buy bulk and be done with it for months at a time.