Christmas Stuff - Part 4 - 2013

Previous posts about Christmas stuff have included food, ornaments, and wrapping paper. Today, for the day before Christmas, the topic is cards.

I enjoy sending and receiving cards during the holidays. They are an opportunity to stay in touch once a year with acquaintances made throughout life. I display cards received in past years standing up on the mantle, under clear plastic on our breakfast area table, attached to all the metal doors (including the refrigerator) in the house with magnets, and clipped to door sized scrunchies with small clothes pins. Over the years, there has been quite an accumulation and I now have more cards than places to display them.

In the past I’ve always sent cards - occasionally with a letter inside or a short note on the white space inside the card. Next year I am considering a switch to a color-printer produced family picture with short message on paper with a border - sent out in business sized envelopes.

Cards also are ‘stuff’ in the sense that there are a lot of holiday cards that have come into the house as gifts from charities soliciting donations. I hadn’t quite noticed how many of them there were until the past week or so. I’m bundling them up to put in the pile of stuff to donate! 

Christmas Stuff - Part 3 - 2013

Wrapping paper has accumulated in the Christmas stuff over the years. It's as much a part of Christmas as food and ornaments.

There was a stash of wrapping paper a previous owner had left in a house we moved into 30 years ago. I bought paper from fund raisers when my daughter was in elementary school about 15 years ago. Sometimes I couldn’t resist paper on sale after Christmas. My willpower has improved in the past 5 years so I have NOT bought more paper - but the number of rolls has not gone down either. I have tended to use gift bags - recycled year after year - rather than wrapping boxes. This year I am determined to use up paper….and maybe box up some or all that is left to donate to charity.

Aside from wrapping larger boxes rather than using a gift bag - I have a few other ideas for the paper.

• I have started using the smaller pieces of paper to wrap very small boxes (that are empty) and stash them in a small sleigh that sits by the tree. There is some nostalgia about wrapping paper and bows that this satisfies and it can be packed away for years to come as part of our normal decorations for the holiday rather than actual gifts.
• The island in the kitchen would look good with a runner of paper down the center.
• The mantle could be decorated with a cut paper garland - maybe a snowflake pattern.

Or maybe I can just wait until we move from the house and leave the stash of paper for the next owner.

Clearing away ‘Stuff’ - November 2013

The theme for this month is intentionally using up items from around that house - that have been around way too long and will be around forever without conscious effort to use them. Here’s my list.

Picnic supplies. I have paper plates that are over 10 years old! And there is a box of plastic spoons that is over 5 years old. There are multiple reasons they have been around so long; the primary ones are: 1) I forget that I have them and 2) recently I’ve started taking reusable plastic containers and packing food in a way that I don’t need utensils at all. On the next vacation, I plan to use the plates and the spoons.

Pads of paper. I have accumulated quite a few pads of paper in various sizes. They come from a variety of sources: charities as a ‘gift’ in the mail, goodies handed out at meetings or conferences, or hotels. I have several on my desk with different kinds of reminders…and it thrills me every time I use one enough to tear off a sheet to go into the recycle….and it’s even better when a whole pad has been consumed. At the rate I am going it will still take several years to reduce the pile (and it seems like more come in all too frequently.

The wrong kind of paper towels. A few months ago I bought a less expensive brand of paper towels. They are less absorbent - so much so that my husband refuses to use them! I’m taking them to use as napkins on our next road trip. It may still take a long time to finally use them up.

Do you have things in your house that will take conscious effort to use up?

‘Stuff’ Project for October 2013

It is very satisfying to combine items that have been languishing as ‘stuff’ in my house for years into something useful. This month the project is a bag to hold ‘hand wash’ items when I put them into the washing machine (I never ‘hand wash’ any other way these days).

The items I combined were the zipper end of an old satin pillow case (it was something I thought I wanted over 20 years ago but quickly decided was too slick to actually use) and a piece of gauzy fabric that I’ve had for so long I don’t remember its origin. The whole project took less than 30 minutes because the zipper was already in place. 

Feeling Energized at Home - 2013

Last year I wrote about September being my high energy month of the year - and it is still true in 2013. This year the energy level seems to be even greater and directed over a broader swath of activities.

Basil ready to dryLike last year, there is a lot to do outdoor as we near the end of the growing season. The red-purple leafed plum tree has lost enough leaves to begin raking; my plan it to spread them over the garden patch cleared of lemon balm, honeysuckle, and other wild plants in August. I’ll scatter seed pods from cone flowers and zinnias there so that flowers will grow there next summer under the sycamore.  I am also harvest basil and mint from the containers on the deck; the basil is already in a tray in the kitchen drying. The mint may take more than one tray so I’m waiting to cut and process it until the basil is dry and stored away for winter soups.

Clearing ‘stuff’ from the house is splitting into two efforts.

• Two T-shirt DressThe first is to change items into forms that are more useful. The two t-shirt dresses are an example I wrote about earlier this month. I’ve also made a Kaftan from a piece of fabric - using an old handkerchief for part of the neckline (I’ll post about it when I finish). I’ve also discovered that an old Mr. Coffee carafe (the machine itself has long since been replaced) with its handle removed fits in crockpot for baking and custards. We’ve also repurposed my husband’s the old chair mat that was cracked to protect the carpet under and around the cat litter.
• The second is to start reducing the number of ‘keepsake’ boxes. For over 15 years while my daughter was growing up we always had a box that was catching anything we did not immediately decide to recycle or trash. There are several boxes for every year! I’m going to use a ping pong table to make annual piles and I’m sure there will be quite a lot that is not worth keeping.

Considerable energy is going into planning for travel and guests for the next 6 months. I always like to do my research about places I travel and understand what guests will be most interesting in seeing when they are in town. I enjoy the planning almost as much as the activities planned!

I’ve already posted about classes in progress. There are now 4 Coursera classes in progress. They are all excellent - thought provoking in very different ways.

September is definitely a high energy month for me. It’s easy to be enthusiastic about everything in my days.

Clearing away ‘Stuff’ - August 2013

I signed up for a charity to pick up stuff from my front porch in the next few days so now I am on a timeline to get as much as possible packaged up so that it can actually leave the house. The pile already identified is quite substantial but I am collecting more. Some decisions are tough.

The pile of shoulder bags and zippered notebooks that have accumulated over the years is a case in point. Some of them are ‘goodies’ from conferences, others are purchased. Most are canvas or tough synthetic fabric; a few are leather. They’ve all be used at some time in the past and most look somewhat battered. We used them as briefcases for work - or when we travelled. They’ve carried papers and books and calculators and laptops…coloring books and etch-a-sketch…clothes for overnight…lunch. But how many do we still need? Several of them had an identification tag with an address from 15 years ago; one had our address from over 30 years ago. The addresses have all been removed at this point; so have the pens and coins and dusty tissues and disintegrated tea bags. The next step is to convince my husband that most of them can go.

There is still a tremendous amount of stuff left to sort through around the house. I am willing to part with more now than I was a year ago. It feels good to be making progress on 'stuff reduction.'

Old Stuff

I am cleaning out a closet that contained boxes of stuff I have not used for years. Most of it is old - too dear previously to consider throwing away. Now I am applying 2 new criteria: 

• Is it something I would move to my next house?
• Can it be repurposed into something I would use now? 

If the answer is ‘no’ to both questions, it needs to be trashed or donated. It is still hard to make the decision and let the ‘stuff’ leave the house. Here are some examples of the decisions I’ve been making:

Doll. The doll that was my big Christmas present over 50 years ago has been in a box for years and years - from when my mother was cleaning out her attic and gave it to me. I moved it from Texas to Virginia and then to Maryland. I don’t think I want it enough to move it again. One of my sisters wants it - so it already has a path to leave the house gracefully.

Diapers. These are some that I bought as extras from when by daughter was a baby over 30 years ago. They are the pre-folded and stitched kind. I’m going to use them as the innards of quilted hot pads I am making (see fabric below).

Yarn. I don’t know when I bought some of the yarn; I don’t even like most of the colors any more. It all goes into the give away pile!

Owl macramé. I can’t bring myself to give away the owl even though it too has been in a box for years. It was made by one of my sisters. One of her other pieces is hanging in my office but I’d forgotten the owl completely. Is it a box that I just didn’t unpack when I moved to this house almost 20 years ago? I’ve hung it from a stair railing now.

Satin pillowcase. I had completely forgotten I had this. I remember that I didn’t like it because it was too slippery and am surprised I bothered to keep it. It does have a zipper closing which should work quite nicely repurposed as the top of a homemade laundry bag to protect delicate clothes in the washing machine.

Sewing machine and ‘stuff.’ 30 years ago I was still making most of my own clothes (including suits) and 40 years ago I was making my husband’s shirts. But the last item I made is 20 years in the past. So - most of this ‘stuff’ is leaving the house: a can of buttons, finishing tape and lace, pressing hams. But I decided to keep the machine. It was a wedding present 40 years ago and needed a good oiling before it would work properly. I still have the manual that showed where it needed oil! I made a few adjustments to the tension and the stitches look as good as when the machine was new. It’s never even had the belt replaced. My plan is to use up the fabric and thread I have (see next item) making hot pads, quilts and fabric/thread doodles with the machine.  

Fabric and thread. Somehow I have a lot of white fabric; there was a time that white blouses were what I wore almost every day with my suit! Then that ended when ‘business casual’ became the career attire and I still had a lot of white material left. I am going to use some of it for crazy quilt backing, save one piece as a Christmas tree skirt, and the rest will be cut into swatches for placemat sized machine doodles. There is also some Star Wars fabric that I used about 30 years ago to make a robe for my husband; it is heavy enough to make hot pads with it; he’ll be tickled with the reminder of that robe - probably the only one of his life that he completely wore out. Most of the other fabric is leaving the house. I am looking forward to using up a lot of thread; there were too many sales of 10 spools for a reduced price that were just too tempting during my sewing heyday. I can make some very dense fabric/thread doodles!

And that has been my adventure with old stuff over the past few days. It is wonderful to have the  the floor of the closet cleared!

Clearing ‘Stuff’ - March

One of my goals in 2013 is to develop more discipline when it comes to ‘stuff’. I am posting monthly document my progress on this year long project. It is not quite the forcing function that moving would provide but (hopefully) will be enough of a reminder to keep focused.

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I’ve added a few books to the pile in March…but the most obvious additions are blue bean bag chairs. We’ve had them for a long time and they never used that much. Recently we haven’t used them at all. So they’ve been added to the top of the heap

Another addition is some long handled rollers we used for painting years and years ago. I’m beginning to realize that some of the pile is in the freecycle category and may become trash if there are no takers. The stuff certainly does not need to be kept around the house.

Clearing ‘Stuff’ - February

One of my goals in 2013 is to develop more discipline when it comes to ‘stuff’. I am posting monthly document my progress on this year long project. It is not quite the forcing function that moving would provide but (hopefully) will be enough of a reminder to keep focused.

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I procrastinated to the last possible day for the February post. The progress has not been all that great in the month. I do have a few more books in the pile. The most substantial new boxes are VHS tapes. My husband and I decided it was time to give away the ones we had accumulated since our VHS player is no longer reliable and we are spoiled by watching everything in HD now. So I cataloged the titles for future reference and loaded up the boxes. We’ll revisit our need for some of them when and if we have grandchildren.

Clearing ‘Stuff’ - January

Over time - we fill the available space in our homes with ‘stuff.’ Moving to a new house or apartment is a forcing function to clear out what is not needed. But what happens if you live in the same place for a very long time. Having lived in the same house for almost 20 years, I’ve had the luxury of putting off the task of getting rid of things. There is plenty of room to just let it accumulate.

One of my goals in 2013 is to develop more discipline when it comes to stuff. I am planning to do a monthly post to document my progress on this year long project. It is not quite the forcing function that moving would provide but (hopefully) will be enough of a reminder to keep focused.

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What have I accomplished so far? 

• To start off - I’ve selected an unused corner of the dining room and started a pile to donate or freecycle when I accumulate enough.
• There are some old pictures that were bought to match a particular color scheme that no longer exists. The glass is broken in one. They all go into the pile.
• The pile grew as I put away some Christmas decorations. There are some that are just not worth keeping for next year.
• There are some books I’ve finished reading and won’t reference again. I’m switching more and more to ebooks, but I’ll be drawing down on my pile of physical books over the next year and most will go in the pile after.
• We have an incredible number of address labels from charitable solicitations…and we create relatively little snail mail these days. I reduced the pile rather dramatically into the paper recycle. 

Of course - the really hard things are still to come: boxes of keepsakes mixed with flyers and brochures and wilted flowers. It takes time and thinking to go through them. I am more conscious now that most reminders of travels and events are in digital form.