Feelin' Artsy

I don't consider myself a very artsy person but occasionally I like to paint.  The first painting I did was about 7 years ago and it was big and bold and I was getting tired of it.  I just didn't like it any more and I had another painting that's been in my head for a few months waiting to get out.  Instead of using a new canvas, I decided to just paint over the old one that was bugging me. 

Several months ago, Julian fell in love with Mickey Mouse and one night, I decided to make him a Mickey Mouse painting for his room.  I did it very quickly and it was sloppy and the colors were off.  So I've also been wanting to redo this one. 

Things have been a little crazy with Brian gone and a lot of stuff has gone undone because I've just wanted to nap when Julian naps.  I finally decided that I needed to do something creative and get my mind off all the things that have been bugging me.  So naptime was a perfect time to paint. 

I've included the before and after shots.  I find the yellow painting to be much more calm and serene than the pink and brown stripes.

While I was painting, I noticed the photos I had hanging on the wall.  They were three black and white photos of waves and I liked them but they weren't anything special, I bought them at the store when I bought the frames.  It occurred to me that I've taken some beautiful photos of beaches that I really like and I could just change them to black and white and put them in the frames instead.  So I went on my computer and found three photos that I liked and changed them to sepia tone (it looked better than b & w), printed them out and replaced the store-bought photos.  It's my new goal to have the art/photos displayed in my home be meaningful to me.  I only have a few store-bought pieces left but I'll replace them slowly or just give them away when we move.  They're pretty large pieces and I don't want big blank spaces on my walls right now.

Aaaahhh..... (my sigh of relief)

On Tuesday, I took my second truckload of clutter over to my friend's garage for our upcoming garage sale.  (Thanks, Morgan, for all your help.)  I never would have guessed we had two truckloads of stuff we didn't need stashed around our apartment.  There's not a huge difference in how things look in our apartment but it feels lighter to me.  I feel more relaxed now.  The decluttering is slowing down a bit for the moment.  I think I did too much too quickly and I'm kind of burnt out but I still have two boxes in my bedroom (one for the garage sale and one for Goodwill) that I will occasionally add to until they're full.  Yesterday, I decided to look at some of my sentimental clutter.  I've already gone through most of this stuff once but I ignored some of it so I decided to revisit this area.

I keep all of my sentimental stuff in a wooden chest (like a hope chest).  A few months ago, all of my stuff wouldn't even fit in the chest but now everything is in there and it's not even full anymore.  I had some t-shirts in there that I was saving but I took them out and my friend is making a small quilt with them that I can put on Julian's bed.  So I didn't really get rid of them but this way, they'll be useful instead of just taking up space.  In the chest, I have two boxes of photos.  One is from our wedding and the other is all other photos from my life before I got a digital camera.  I'm not doing anything with these because I feel that it's a reasonable amount and they're organized in the boxes.  My wedding dress is also in the chest and it takes up very little space. It's wrapped in tissue and rolled up in a travel shoe bag. 

The things I really need to deal with are the paper items.  The ones I decided to address first were yearbooks.  I had 8 yearbooks, 4 from my own high school years and 4 from when I was teaching high school.  That seemed pretty excessive to me.  I looked through the yearbooks from my freshman and sophomore years in HS and decided they could go (I scanned about 5 pages that were meaningful to me).  The yearbook from the last school I worked at instantly went to the recycling bin (it had no special meaning for me and was a complete waste of $50).  I'm also going to get rid of the one from the first school where I taught.  It has a few special memories but I'll scan those pages and I won't miss it. 

For now, I'm keeping the other four yearbooks.  I'm finding that the farther I get away from my high school years, the less important those memories are but I think it would be sad if my kids didn't see anything from those years (I don't have a lot of photos).  I taught at another school for two years which were two of the best years of my life (when I lived in Korea, met my husband and made some great friends).  Those yearbooks document some great memories and they'll be sticking around. 

I've also been tackling my digital clutter this week.  I deleted close to 3000 emails this week and got rid of most of the folders in my email accounts (yes, I have several but that's something for another day).  I signed up for an internet backup service last week because we've had too many computer problems in the last few months and I wanted all of our pictures, music, etc saved in a more secure location so I wouldn't have to worry anymore.  We're trying to go digital for most of our paperwork, music, and photos so I especially wanted the backup if we don't actually have the physical copies anymore.  I've been going through a lot of folders on my computer and deleting the old files and blurry photos that I've never dealt with.  It's going to take a long time to get through everything but I feel like I've gotten a good start. 

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Toddler Lessons

I find it fascinating to see Julian learn something that I didn't even know that I taught him.  On Thursday, we went to Toys 'R Us.  We don't go there very often but he's been there a few times.   Typically when we go there, we'll let him sit in the cart and play with some toy that he finds interesting and then we're leaving, we put the toy back on the shelf.  But this time, we were actually there to buy him a toy.  That night, Brian was going to leave for California and he'll be gone for 30 days.  So I thought Julian could have a new toy to play with while Daddy is gone.  After being in the store for a few minutes, Julian saw a Duplo set that he liked and so I gave it to him to hold.  Pretty soon after, he saw a small train that he liked and handed me the Duplo set so he could hold the train instead.  Somehow he knew that he was going to get something while we were at the store but also that he could only get one thing.  I was very amused by the fact that he traded a $20 toy for a $6 toy.  Then we moved to look at the Cars aisle.  He is obsessed with the movie Cars and carries his toy Mater everywhere we go (I think it has taken the place of his binky).  He saw a car he wanted (for $4) and gave me the train so he could have the car.  As we were going to checkout, he then saw a package of Cars stickers ($2) that he wanted instead, so he gave up the car. 

The whole experience was very eye-opening for me.  First of all, kids don't care about the price tags on their toys.  Julian would have been just as happy with the package of stickers for $2 as he was with the $20 set of Duplos.  He loves stickers more than anything right now and he'll entertain himself for quite awhile just decorating the house with stickers (fortunately they come off easily).  Second, Julian has learned that he doesn't get a lot of stuff.   He has plenty of toys but compared to most kids we know, he doesn't have that many.  His 2nd birthday is next month and it won't be a big deal.  We bought him a wooden toy kitchen as his present (he already had the wooden food and the toy dishes).  He got it early because I wanted him to be able to play with it for a little longer before it goes into storage while we live with my parents.  On his actual birthday, he'll probably get a new book and 2 or 3 cars and that's it.  We'll probably have some cake and maybe go out to dinner.  We won't have a party because he's still too young to care.  I think parties and holidays are overrated (just ask Brian, he calls me the Christmas Nazi but that's a post for another day). 

In case you're wondering, we bought the stickers, the car, and the train.  I figured spending less than $15 wasn't that big a deal (I would've spent more on a single larger toy if that's what he had wanted).  Julian got the car that day and I'm saving the other two for later in the month while Daddy is still gone.

My 50 Things

I've been reading several minimalist blogs lately and in the "minimalist world" when you refer to 50 or 100 things, that's typically the amount of things you own.  Many people have pared down their lives so much that they can easily count the number of things they own.  Well, I find this concept very interesting but I'm nowhere near a goal of owning such few things.  For me, it's unrealistic, especially when I'm about to have two kids (and I have a husband who likes stuff).   Even for just my personal stuff, it's not a goal I want to achieve.  I like some variety in my life and I like to have beautiful things around me.  I'm not comfortable with bare walls, I like art and photographs to brighten up my life.  I appreciate having more than three shirts and two pairs of pants because I get bored with my wardrobe quite easily. 

I do, however, want less stuff in my life.  Our 3-bedroom apartment is constantly cluttered with piles of stuff everywhere.  I know adding an infant to the mix won't help things so I need to pare down before the baby comes.  My goal is to eliminate as much stuff as possible before September (when baby is due), maybe August if we move to Tacoma before the baby comes.    The two kids and I will be moving in with my parents in Tacoma for several months while we search for a house there and Brian is overseas.  That is another reason to downsize, because we will be sharing my parents' house and don't need to bring a ton of stuff with us for those few months and I don't want to pay to store stuff that I really don't need in my life. 

So my 50 things refers to what I've gotten rid of so far.  None of it is actually gone yet, just set aside in my friend's garage for an upcoming garage sale, but I know that nothing will be returning to my life.  If it doesn't sell, it will go to the women's shelter or Goodwill immediately after the sale. 

The book I've been reading, "Throw Out FIFTY Things", has you keep a list of items that you are getting rid of as you go through each room.  Each category of items counts as one thing (eg, 5 lipsticks, 10 shirts, 17 magazines all count as one thing each).  Since I didn't do one whole room at a time and just did one piece and another piece there, my list was very haphazard.  It took up 8 pages in a small notebook.  I condensed it today and combined a lot of categories to keep it down to 50 things.  I love making lists and counting things (what can I say, it's the math teacher in me) so I liked keeping track of everything.  But I was shocked to find out how much stuff I had that I wasn't using and didn't need to keep around.

Many of the items I'm getting rid of are small and don't take up much room, so it didn't seem too bad around here, but it was still crazy to think I've been keeping all this stuff for no good reason.  In most of the categories, I'm still keeping the same amount of stuff that I'm eliminating.  There were a few things that are gone for good (like the enormous amount of bubble wrap that I had been saving - it was Freecycled to someone who was moving).  In my list, I didn't include all the piles of paper and magazines and most other things that have gone straight to the garbage or recycling.  I also didn't include any of Brian's personal items but I did include Julian's stuff (since I was the one choosing to get rid of it) and shared belongings that Brian and I both agreed could go.  The hardest thing about sorting through things with a toddler is that your piles frequently get moved to places all around the house where you didn't want them to be.  Julian thinks that he has found dozens of new playthings as I empty out the closets and drawers so he moves them to where his toys are or puts them in a drawer or something so I have to rediscover them later. 

Here's my list (which will be updated as I continue to finish my decluttering process):
1. 52 shirts (regular, maternity, and nursing)
2. 12 prs of pants
3. 14 sweaters
4. 12 prs of socks
5. 7 nightgowns/prs of pajamas
6. 9 skirts and dresses
7. 159 items of kids' clothing
8. 17 prs of earrings
9. 17 bracelets
10. 7 rings
11. 3 watches
12. large trash bag full of bubble wrap
13. 12 pieces of furniture
14. 70 toys and games
15. 13 things from my underwear drawer
16. 22 hair accessories
17. 16 makeup items
18. 60 other things from the bathroom (mostly travel size toiletries)
19. 400+ postcards
20. 8 pkgs of stationery
21. most of my rock collection
22. 166 items from when I was a teacher (pens, rulers, scissors, protractors,etc)
23. 71 things from the kitchen
24. 3 prs of eyeglasses
25. 224 CDs and 2 CD binders
26. 9 pillows and 3 pillowcases
27. 18 bags (includes backpacks, purses, wallets, etc)
28. 3 candles
29. 22 misc. plastic containers
30. 12 scarves/sarongs
31. 13 misc. kid items (baby carrier, pacifier straps, etc)
32. 2 DVD players
33. bag of sewing supplies
34. 25 misc. electronic accessories (cables, chargers, adaptors)
35. 219 books (incl. some of those expensive souvenir guidebooks from tourist destinations)
36. 13 prs of shoes (both kid and adult)
37. 15 necklaces and pendants
38. 104 knickknacks and home decor items
39. 10 small electronic items
40. full-length mirror
41. 10 seasons of Friends on DVD
42. 2 tablecloths
43. 2 swimsuits
44. 6 blankets (adult and baby)
45. 1 hat and 1 pr of mittens
46. 4 prs of knitting needles and 10 skeins of yarn
47. 3 blankets (adult and baby)
48. 2 prs of sunglasses
49. 22 holiday decorations
50. 39 random items

***List updated as of 6/12/2011

Extreme Couponing

I like to watch TV, but typically only a few specific programs.  I rarely sit and watch just whatever is on but that's something Brian likes to do.  Last night after I put Julian to bed, I came out to the living room and Brian was channel-surfing.  He stopped on TLC's program "Extreme Couponing."  I'd never seen this show before but I used to watch TLC quite a bit and I'm familiar with a lot of their other programs.  This show was both amazing and appalling to me at the same time.  Basically, the people on the show spend the majority of their lives finding coupons and ways to double and triple them so that they pay little or nothing for groceries and other items.  The first family we saw had 5 kids so they needed a lot of groceries.  They got about $1100 worth of stuff for less than $45.  Wow!  To me, that was impressive.  But I was not impressed by the products they were buying.  This happened with all the people I saw featured on the show.  We ended up watching almost 3 episodes, so saw 5 different families. 

These people saved thousands of dollars and had enormous stockpiles of stuff (that would last them several years) but most of the stuff they bought were things that I don't use or want in my home.  Okay, I'm picky about the food I eat and the toiletries and cleaning products that I use.  This doesn't mean that I need name brand products and have to buy expensive stuff but I care about what's in my food and what chemicals I use on my body and in my home. 

One of the guys on the show had 1000 bottles of body wash in his garage and bought 60 bottles of hand soap in one shopping trip.  Apparently he doesn't care about the toxic chemicals in those products that are harmful to his health and the environment.  It just disgusted me.  Also,  pretty much everything these people purchased was packaged in plastic and I'm sure most of it was going to end up in the trash. 

To me, most of these extreme couponers are just wasting their time (up to 5 hours a day) finding coupons for things that are wasteful and even harmful to them and especially to the environment. 

Bye Bye Binkies (and a truckload of clutter)

My son Julian is 22 months old and up until last week, he was still very attached to his binkies.  Brian (my husband) and I were at a loss as to how we were going to convince him to give them up.  Then last Sunday, I noticed that Julian was extremely congested and getting a cold.  He still tried sucking on his binky but it was difficult for him to breathe well since his nose was all stuffy.  As soon as he fell asleep that night, I took it away so he could breathe a little easier overnight.  Well, the next day he still had a cold and so I didn't give him a binky all day.  My parents happened to be visiting us at the time so Julian had some distractions and he didn't seem to miss his binky too much.  There were a few times I know he wanted one (he's not very verbal yet) because he kept pointing at certain places where I normally put the binkies and he was constantly digging through the diaper bag.  After one day without any, I decided we would just keep going without them (basically cold turkey).  So I hid them all really well for a few days and after a week (my parents were here that whole time), I threw them out.  Brian told me to keep one for Julian to throw away (and I did) but I won't give it to him yet because I know he still wants one and would just pop it in his mouth and not give it up without a big fight.  For now, it's sitting in the back of my dresser drawer waiting for Julian to get a little older.

The other thing going on in our home lately is decluttering.  I started reading the book "Throw Out FIFTY Things: Clear the Clutter, Find Your Life" by Gail Blanke.  She talks about why we hold onto stuff and why we don't need it and says to start clearing out your life by getting rid of 50 things.  Her "50 things" is actually way more than 50 though.  Each category of things only actually counts as one thing, so getting rid of 20 shirts and 5 magazines only counts as 2 things.  Her book is divided into 2 parts: physical clutter and mental clutter.  I've finished reading the first part but not the second.  My physical clutter was my primary concern anyway.  (Normally I read books very quickly but I also tend to read 6-8 books at once and finish the ones that I find the most interesting.  If I get a little bored with a particular chapter, then I switch to another book for awhile.) 

Brian wasn't really on board with the decluttering process.  He is attached to his stuff - I was too but my perspective is changing.  So he was not excited when I started telling him about the book and what I was reading.  Eventually, he decided he could part with a few things and I found that I could part with a lot, including Julian's stuff that he had already outgrown.  I started talking to a friend about my decluttering and how I wished I could have a garage sale (we live in an apartment so that's not really an option).  She said that her family has garage sales a few times a year and that I could put my stuff in the next one they had.  She also offered the use of her garage to store all of my stuff until the sale so it wouldn't be piled up around my apartment  (I had company coming so I was really excited about this part).   After Brian and I had gone through most of our closets, drawers, etc and found everything we thought we could part with, we called a friend with a truck to transport it for us.  We filled up the truck, not jam-packed or anything, but it looked full.  The only large thing we had was a desk.  Everything else was in boxes or trash bags.  It kind of shocked me to know we had that much extraneous stuff lying around the house.  Especially when you look around now and we still have too much stuff.