Out with the old, in with the new!

OH shoot -- I goofed on the one-sided paper acronym. It's GOOSe, which stands for "good on one side, EH!" Anyway, I found a lot more GOOSe yesterday, and it's been added to the pile for printing.  

I finally got through that pile of receipts, and I did keep a few that I'll sort through later. But the majority of it is gone. More on that in a minute. DH had the gall to ask why I didn't just dump it without sorting. He hasn't learned that I have to do things MY way or it doesn't work well! And I found a gift certificate for $100 with NO date on it -- I'm going to see if I can still use it. 

I also managed to get through the last bit of stuff from the 6-drawer plastic unit. So I'm making progress, slow and steady. I unpacked the box I took up the other day and sorted through it quickly. There is a drawer full of paper to sort through and several small baskets of stuff. Some might be useful, some might need a home, and some might be worthy of donating, but I bet most of it is junk. 

It looks like stuff that collects, and you have no idea what to do with it. You know - those freebie things that you get so excited about and then get home and think -- what the heck am I supposed to do with this? I used to be bad with that kind of thing. If it was free -- I WANTED it -- I needed it. I wanted free stuff at quilt shows, trade shows, and conferences. And now I'm throwing most of it away. 

All I can say is think long and hard about anything FREE. While it may be free in that you didn't have to pay for it, it's NOT free because you have one more thing to waste your time on as you manage it. So be careful!

Here's a close-up of that headstone from the Kindree cemetery. I've made it as large as possible, and hopefully, you can see what I meant by the sons' names being listed but not the daughters'. Actually, three of four sons are listed. Apparently, three of the children died of TB. Talk about an unlucky family, but times were different, and thank goodness for vaccines (I did not say that out loud) to prevent these terrible diseases from killing more children. 

Did you notice that two of their children died within 5 days of each other? 

A graver marker in the Kindree Pioneer Cemetary

As if we hadn't had enough excitement on our street, I came home from walking Murphy to find this. 

The new mailboxes have arrived

Wow --- it looks like we are getting our new mailboxes! The old ones were already loaded on the truck. Lexi and I saw the new mailboxes sitting by the curb as we walked past. Hmm -- now where are those keys we received last week? 

Checking out the new mailboxes

Can you believe that in all the kerfuffle, the mail person arrived and put our mail in the new boxes as they were sitting on the side of the street? Yep -- because when I went to the mailbox later in the afternoon, we had mail! Now that's good service. But doesn't it make you wonder why we get mail every day? It's not like before we had e-mail and cell phones -- mail used to be important or more important than it is now. 

But we get mail delivered every day. I would vote to have mail delivered once a week when there's actually something worthwhile to get. How much money would we save? But then someone would be out of a job and how to store it. 

And I have a room with a view. As I sat in the room sorting paper, I could watch the progress of the installation. 

Watching the installation process

I've seen some other installations in our neighborhood, but we got a spiffy new surface for our mailboxes. I'll take some pictures and show you want I mean. 

Spiffy new boxes (for us!)

I'll have to take a better picture, but the pedestals they are sitting on are all new, and they put bricks in the front or something. I wondered why some of the curb was taken out last week.

How long will it take for someone to slap their "painting" and "cleaning" services all over them? Can we not have one surface that is clear of that crap? 

I needed to get rid of the boxes of stuff that were now sitting in the front hall, so I loaded up the car. I had donation boxes, a box of electronic waste, and a couple of things for the hazardous materials drop-off. And my box of receipts. 

The car is loaded with stuff to go!

I must say that it felt good to get rid of another carload of stuff. Bit by bit -- I'll get it under control, but I've done nothing else in the last couple of days, and even though I have more to sort, I'll tackle it slowly and grab a small container of stuff and sort through it throughout the day. That leaves five boxes on the floor in the office, which is excellent considering what was here. 

But that box of receipts was a challenge to get rid of. The slot at the shredding place was narrow, and I had 6 pounds of paper to dispose of through that small slot. Thankfully, it didn't take long and paying $6 to dispose of that paper beats buying a shredder for home, where it's one more thing to own. 

The bin for shredding

Oh boy -- if you have a pet, you can buy anything for your pet. I had to stop and get dog food for Murphy. Can you believe that you can buy a tent for a dog? A PUP tent! Remember those? 

A tent for your dog!

Or you could buy an open bed with a top for shade. 

Or an open-sided dog bed with shade

I don't know about you, but I don't think my dogs would want that, and even if they did -- they are not getting them. Even my gazebo doesn't provide shade all day, so I can only sit there at certain times. And my girls seem to be pretty happy picking where they want to sleep - sometimes in the sun and sometimes in the shade. 

But one more thing to buy your dog and then have to deal with at some point. Yes -- I am a huge cynic on the consumer side of things. 

So I've been watering the new grass and plants on a very regular basis. I can only imagine what our water bill will look like. I may not have saved the grass along the driveway side as it seems dead, but there are green blades of grass in there! I'm optimistic that it will come back!

However, while doing this, I usually take the girls out to enjoy the front step. They were on their leashes and tied to my chair. Of course, Murphy doesn't grasp the concept and lies right in the sprinkler's path. 

MOM -- I'm getting wet here!

Lexi is the smart one; I swear she is laughing at Murphy. Notice how she is right on the edge of the wet patio. Yes -- Lexi, Mom says you are smart! Not always, but in this instance, you are super bright!

MOM -- my sister is silly!

This picture must be from the weekend as the porta potty is still there. 

Watering the grass

It left Monday morning, and it's quiet and lonely here! But it sure looks lovely at night! And thankfully, the neighbor has NOT turned on those new lights since they were installed. I wonder why? Did she realize there were too many and they were too bright? Apparently, she's a realtor, so she's seen many houses and should have known what she was doing. 

The front step at night

I finally have the watering thing worked out and know where to place the sprinkler so I don't get wet, and I don't do this. After 20 minutes of watering, I stepped into the wet ground and sank several inches into the mud. UGH!!!!

Someone stepped into the mud

How's this for the unusual? The kids at one of the houses along our walk were busy with chalk and colored on the sidewalk to their front door! 

A fun chalk walk!

I need to get to the long arm today and the sewing machine! If any sorting gets done today, it'll be in small bits as it's time to move on for the moment. I made significant progress, and now that I see that I can throw away that paper, the rest of the task won't be so daunting. It's amazing how much paper accumulates -- how many patterns did I photocopy (what a WASTE!) that I thought I'd do and I never did. Now I look at them and say -- yes -- still nice, but not going to happen. So they are gone. 

It will take me some time to process the things - I realize now that they will be more challenging than the paper. And I MUST give myself permission to toss that stuff if it's not worth donating or keeping. That will be the hardest for me (and I see that in my Mom). We acquired the items thinking they were valuable (in some way) and then just tossing them into the landfill -- well, that's hard. But I WILL do it. 

Do any of the decluttering books go through this? So many of them talk about organizing, but do they talk about the agony of making those decisions? Do they show the crappy little stuff that we accumulate? More on that another day because I have lots to say on that matter. And I might just recap my best tips for decluttering. 

One thing we have to be careful of is over-organizing versus decluttering. It's one thing to be organized, but if you don't get rid of things, you become an organized hoarder! 

Check out the QUILTsocial link today for great adventures with the Husqvarna Viking PLATINUM Q160 stationary quilting machine. 

And don't forget the virtual Retreat this weekend. 

Saturday, July 30  --- starts at 6 PM

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89254233911?pwd=VGQrTnFybW1HMWpleHA4M2Q2NGVwZz09 Meeting ID: 892 5423 3911 Passcode: 982797

Sunday, July 31 -- starts at NOON

Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81693717518?pwd=STNoVVQzbDd4ZnROQndNNlpvcC90QT09 Meeting ID: 816 9371 7518 Passcode: 579285

Keep up the faith with the decluttering. It's hard -- it's darn hard and often a dirty job (literally and figuratively). But one drawer, box, or basket at a time, and we will get through this mess we've created. And BE VERY AWARE of what you bring into the house. You'll never get ahead of the game if you don't stop accumulating! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!