Pots and Pans

Been slow going around here lately. With the husband performing out at the Kansas City Renaissance Festival the last 7 weekends I've been very hurt for energy and time. Kudos to all the single parents and the parents who stay home with the little one(s) while your spouse is gone 60+ hours a week. I can't imagine doing this on a full time basis. I'm not allowed to drink enough coffee right now to make that something I could do long term. But okay, back to the point. It's been slow going. BUT I did make a tiny bit of progress!

For my birthday late last month my one sister gave me money. Always a nice thing, and she told me to spend it on something fun. Well I bought useful and fun! AND the best part, these things allowed me to remove several things from my kitchen. I bought a nice cast iron skillet and a cast iron dutch oven. (I know not everyone loves cast iron, but I do) We had 4 skillets that were barely usable really. The only good one had just started flaking off it's nonstick coating. So those are in the trash! And yes I know, only 1 skillet? Yes, frankly, I maybe MAYBE once every couple months or so use 2 at the same time. If I find myself hurting for another one as our little ones get older, I'll buy another, but right now it's not a necessity. I also got rid of 2 of the 3 large pots we had and kept the one just for boiling water and such. The dutch oven actually would be able to... but it's to much of a hassle for me. But I love the dutch oven. The hubby is not a fan of most baked dishes especially ones with pasta and I've gotten pretty good at changing recipes to be stove top meals. I now use the the dutch oven for this and I think it just works so much better than any other way I've done it. He's happy, I'm happy, we are all happy!

I have not gone through the other baking dishes and trays and such yet. But that is on the agenda for this week or weekend. But so far, here is where we are at for stove top items: 6 pots and pans with any coordinating lids have left our house and we are down to- 1 skillet, 1 dutch oven, 1 lg pot and 2 little pots (it would be 1 but the hubby refused to get rid of his ramen noodle pot from college and I liked the other one, so we kept both). Not bad huh? It's amazing how much going from 9 down to 5 pots and pans has freed up our kitchen.

TOO MANY CLOTHES!

Okay, I've hit a bump in the road. I started working on minimizing my clothes a week and a half ago. I'm definitely having some struggles with this. A huge part of it is that I'm also trying to do this while I'm pregnant. I do not recommend it. Because not only am I having to try and keep maternity and regular clothes I need to plan for breastfeeding clothes. And this isn't an exact science and I mostly know what fit during all of this with Ann, but I can't guarantee my body will follow the exact path it did last time. So I think I've decided to do just a base go through, pull out all my pregnant belly accommodating clothes and then put everything else in tubs based on size and if they are breastfeeding friendly. And then I'll start weeding things down after this baby is born and get down to my minimal wardrobe in a few years.

I will post my progress for my initial go through as soon as I'm done. Because even though this isn't working well I'm still getting rid of a TON of stuff.

It's throw away time! First stop, the bathroom!

Here it is! I have been gotten through the first category on my list! I decided on the bathroom as my first project just because there was a lot I knew needed thrown out and I figured it would be the easiest one to start out with. And wow! This feels fantastic and it's just has hard as I thought it would be. I say I got through it... but I'm not satisfied and am very confident more of this will be leaving my house. I started this yesterday and "finished" it up today. Just between yesterday and today I was able to get rid of things I was planning on keeping. I'm curious as what I'll be able to get rid of in another couple months.

Frankly... I struggled with a few items... like my body sprays and perfumes. I still have a total of 5.... UGGG! And not one is natural, they are all loaded with all the nasty stuff I want to avoid but I just love them. I wanted to at least be down to 1 or 2, but I have such a huge soft spot for smelly things. But I finally parted with a huge amount of nail polish, 26 bottles to be exact, many weren't even usable anymore and I have no idea why I still had them. I still have 14 fairly new bottles, I think several will end up being gifted to a certain 11 and 13 year old set of sisters I know that might appreciate them. Because I mean really, how often do I wear nail polish? Not that often. I keep my toes painted but that only needs done every month or so since it seems to never wear off, and I'm a crafter and a mom to a coming up on 2 year old... yeah... painted fingernails are lucky if they last a weekend.

But like I said I'm not where I want to be yet. Going from lots of stuff to not a lot of stuff is a strange thing to try and do. You get so used to just having lots of things just for the sake of having them and it's an adjustment. I also find it very difficult to get rid of anything that was a gift. Especially if it's not been used much. I had collected several sets of body wash, lotion and body spray over the years that were gifted, I'd used them all on and off and most of them were down to the bottom and were years old so I didn't feel bad getting rid of them. I still have 2 sets. One is a small set that I've used sparingly because I love the scent, so I've decided to use it as my travel set until it's gone, and the other one is a normal size set that I only got last year, I've used it a little bit but not a huge amount since I'm trying to get away from the chemical loaded body products and have other things I can use... I know I'll probably barely use it and its sitting just waiting for me to decide what to do with it. I'm thinking of bringing it to my parent's house and leaving it there for when I visit... I don't know.

The pictures below are before and after pictures from our bathroom stuff closet and the shelves above our toilet. Sorry the pictures are so dark. The lighting in the hallway is particularly bad.

The top 3 shelves in the bathroom storage closet. As you can maybe see, the top shelf only has our spare shower curtain, which I'm having troubles parting with because it's a seascape I used in my room when I was a kid so it's sentimental. But the evil cleaning supplies shelf is empty. I haven't gotten rid of anything yet, it's just been moved into the laundry/utilities room until I'm ready to deal with it. But you can see the medicine shelf isn't packet full anymore. It was amazing all the expired stuff we had. Stuff that I didn't think was that old was expired. Good lesson in checking expiration dates more often.

The bottom 2 shelves and the floor. This was pretty much all my stuff. As you can see it was pretty packed full. This is where most of the throw away stuff came from. It was ridiculous some of the things I've kept all these years. Going through this stuff made me feel like I'm a borderline hoarder. But I know I'm not because it was easy to get rid of most of it, I think I might just be lazy and I know I don't like getting rid of things that I MIGHT just use. HA! If I haven't used it since before my daughter was born, I DON'T need it. But okay, you'll see there are no longer boxes on the floor and I actually have room for the dog food and toilet paper! Yay for those things not being shoved alongside the toilet and under the pedestal sink where the toddler can get to them! The bottom shelf has some travel stuff, a few dog things and then some Ann stuff, including a few medical things that we shouldn't need but we'll keep until the expire next March just so we don't have to buy more if we end up needing them. Then my shelf, full of my not often used girly stuff. It's so manageable now. I love it! 

The bathroom shelf. So much nicer. All the baskets are half as full, my jewelry(there is more in the storage room which I'm going to worry about when I get to it) is organized, all my hair clips are in a tin. Ann's bath time toys finally have a spot so we aren't just leaving them in the bottom of the tub. 

I didn't take a before or after of the stuff on the sink, but it looks fantastic as well. There were several things that had just kinda collected there. As is true of about every space in this place.  

12" x 20" x 13" box, very full of all the throwaways.

 And the clear box is all the nail polishes that are getting thrown out.

Not to shabby for the first throw away haul. 

I'm just wondering how I'm going to progress throughout all of this. I know I'm struggling with certain things but I'm already feeling myself becoming more willing to let go of things I logically know I don't need, won't miss, or even want in my house. I really hope in another 3, 6, 12 months to see even fewer things in this closet, as well as everywhere else in this house. But like I've said, I want this to be therapeutic and not extra stress, so I'm going to work my way up to getting rid of more and more. 

Game Plan

I knew I would need to get some sort of plan figured out in order to get this done. This isn't just something you can just do in an afternoon, no matter how much I would love for this to just be done and over with. I know this is going to be hard and stressful for me. I'm a pack rat and it's really hard for me to let things go. But I know how good this will be for me and my family.

So the first thing I decided was to go back to the idea of keeping only things that are useful, beautiful or sentimental. So I wrote out some questions to ask myself as I go through things.

Useful

• Do I really use it? And when was the last time I used it?
• Is it necessary to have? 
• Can I do the same thing with something else?
• Do we have more than 1? If so, how many do we actually need? 

Beautiful

• Can it be displayed?
• Is it broken?
• Does it really fit our personalities and home?

Sentimental

• How sentimental is it, really? 
• Will I miss it if I had forgotten I even had it until I unpacked it?
• Will a picture of it suffice? Are there already pictures of it? 

And I'm sure there are many other questions I'll start asking myself that are more type of item specific but this is my starting grounds. 

Now, I've got my goals, my list of questions and a couple little ideas in my head to keep me motivated and on track. "Simple is peaceful, peacefulness is simple." and "Only keep things to encourage peace of mind, body and soul." Can you tell I'm going for some peace in my life? But okay, now to get started but... where to start. Okay back to planning. I decided to make it easier on myself by listing out categories of types of stuff in our house. Here's my list in no particular order:

• Bathroom
• Clothing
• Garb
• Linens
• Electronics
• Office Papers
• Multimedia
• Books
• Adam's toys
• Kitchen
• Shoes
• Ann/Baby stuff
• Craft room
• Storage room/unpacked boxes
• Crap catchers. 
• Cleaning and laundry supplies
• Candles, incense and other smelly house stuff.
• Holiday stuff
• Furniture

Now my list is fairly broken up. I thought about doing it by room but, like I've said, I'm busy and need smaller goals to try and reach. And that way I feel like I'm actually hitting goals by getting to check a category off my list more often.

So I have my list of categories. I went ahead and made notes about each category about how I want to go through things so when I start I don't have the excuse of I just didn't know how to start.

Example: Clothing- empty closet and drawers. Only put back keep items, rest goes into trash, donate or sell boxes.

Example #2: Kitchen- go through 1 drawer or cabinet at a time. Rearrange after finished going through everything. 

I then wrote up a tentative plan on what order I want to tackle these things in. It's a very loose plan because I know I'll want to change it once I get rolling. One thing will become some glaring spot on my radar while I couldn't care less about the next thing on my list. I was going to go so far as to split things up for a week by week plan, but I know that I won't be able to stick to it because of my weird and wacky schedule and just get disappointed when I don't get things done the way I planned. I'm sure I'll have weeks were I can tackle lots of stuff, while others I'll be lucky if I can get a box emptied. I'm going to take this as it comes. I want this to be therapeutic, not just another stressor. 

So I've got my plan. I've got my goals and motivation. I have my page of things to keep me on track and motivated. I have my notepad and pen to keep track of some stuff and take down notes. I have the camera on my phone to take many before and after pictures. I have the support and help of my wonderful hubby. I have this blog to help keep myself accountable. And possibly the most important thing: I have permission to get upset and frustrated, this is going to be a challenge. Next post, my first category to be tackled. Wish me luck! 

Goals

So I've decided to minimize the amount of possessions my family and I have, now what? I decided to sit and think about what I actually want out of this all in the end. I ended up with 5 big main goals that I'm shooting for with this whole experience.

My Goals:

1. Less housework.

-I'm horrid at getting housework done. I'm one that I let things pile up for several days than kick myself for not just doing things more often. And I mean really, logically if you have less clothing and dishes to get dirty they can't pile up into a massive overwhelming pile. It also means less things to dust and clean as well as less things to not get put away. So less housework. Who can't love that!

2. Everything having a home.

-We currently have just piles and piles of things that don't have a home anywhere in this house. So where do they go? On the table, counter, a shelf, in a box or basket, a drawer, pretty much anywhere I can find. Which really makes for a fun time when you are trying to find that one item that you know is this one location but who knows where in the rubble. 

3. Spend less money.

-Weird one to think about, but really it makes sense. If you minimize things down and realize how few possessions you really need to live, you will not only redefine your definition of  the word "need", you will buy based on this new definition. I know I've spent my fair share of money on things that I "needed" or thought it would be so neat or helpful to have and... well... it just kinda sat there. We've all done it, we aren't proud of it. But we've been brainwashed into thinking more things are better and that we need to have this, this and that to make our lives easier and to make us happy. Which really isn't true. 

4. To buy things I really love!

-When I do shop for things I want to not buy the cheapest I find at Wal-Mart but to buy something I really love! Preferably something from a small business and handmade if at all possible. I love supporting artisans, being one myself. And you just can't beat the beauty of a handmade ceramic bowl, a hand embossed leather journal, a homemade soap, or how about a handmade quilt or blanket. They are the most wonderful things to fill your home with. I frankly hate all the plastic mass produced crap that seems to just make it's way into my house because it's cheep and I can only afford it if it's cheap because I buy to much unnecessary stuff anyway. A cycle I would love to stop. 

5. To make my house more healthy.

-This one is personal for me and something that would not just be a result of the decluttering. I'm pretty much a hippy environmentalist. I hate having so many chemicals in my house. I love organic local produce. I can't stand all the plastic, which most of it is made from oil and lots of chemicals. So basically, my hope is to start off with eliminating as much of the chemical filled cleaning supplies and body care items, which are bad for our bodies and for the environment, and not let anything that isn't natural back into my house. I also want to try and get away from plastic where I can, especially in the kitchen. If there is a better for the environment alternative available I'm going to go for it.

What I love about these goals are that if I'm successful with any of 1-3 it'll really help my stress levels, and 4-5 would just bring me some major peace of mind.

There is one other goal I didn't mention. And that is how much stuff do I really want to get rid of? Well, that is kind of a hard question. Because there are some things that we aren't really going to get down to the minimum but more just a thorough weeding down and making manageable, like my craft stuff and our renaissance faire garb. And we don't get rid of books unless it's unreadable by either being just that bad or having been damaged that badly. But when it comes to most everything else, I'm shooting for anywhere between 50-90% of each category of items to be leaving this house. Yes, that's a lot of stuff to get rid of, I definitely have my work cut out for me. Guess it's good I have a game plan, which I'll share next. 

Hectic Life

My life is hectic. Who's isn't? Here is a quick rundown of my life: I'm a young stay at home mom to a very busy amazing little toddler whom was diagnosed with Leukemia this past March. She is doing absolutly fantastic with her treatments but we have had weekly or near weekly Dr appointments for her, plus medications at home and things like going out can be dictated by her count levels, plus being extremely careful about time spent outside because she's a redhead on chemo that makes her more sensitive to the sun. Luckily, a few months ago my husband got a new job with better pay, less stress and he is home at a regular time everyday. When Ann was diagnosed I ended up quitting my part time job to do some occasional daycare here and there for a friend because I needed the more flexible schedule. Money is still very much tighter than what it was, so I kinda traded one stress for the other. I'm also trying to slowly but surely get my little business off the ground, I'm a seamstress and crafter who does quite a bit of custom work for renaissance faire performers but I'm trying to get an Etsy shop up and running and eventually start going to faires as a vendor. So I'm busy trying to be super woman and then lets throw on pregnancy hormones and getting prepared for our new family member coming our way February to the mix. So there is the state of my current life in a nut shell. Needless to say, I'm busy and exhausted.

So you're probably asking, okay... What does any of this have to do with anything? Simple. I'm taking some action to changing my life to a more simple and peaceful life. Some things I can not change. I can't change the fact that my daughter has cancer or the many Dr's appointments. I can't change my hormonal state, my pregnancy brain and the extra amount of tired that comes with it. I can only do so much to help the money situation out at the moment. But what I can change is our home. We live in a pretty great rental house at the moment. 2 bedroom, 1 bath, mostly open floor plan with a office/ spare bedroom, a craft room, storage room and garage. Sounds like we have plenty of space for small family like ours. But here I am feeling like I'm drowning in full closets and tables piled high and housework that feels overwhelming and I have to work around so many things. The state of our house and housework gives me more stress than anything else as of late.

A very small taste of some of the clutter that our house is filled with. You don't want to see our dinning room table. 

Okay... now that's all well and good, but how do I plan on changing my home to make it more manageable and less stressful? I completely believe that the state of your home reflects the state of your mind and that changing your home will help change the state of your mind. I've tried organizing a million times but It never goes very far. I get stuck with normal delema of not having anywhere to put things. So I've decided I want to make our home minimalist. My plan is that we are going to get rid of most of our stuff, to not only help with the stress of too much clutter but to help clear some mental clutter as well. Most people seem to have heard of the decorating rule of only having things that are beautiful, useful or sentimental. Well I'm taking that idea and going a step further. Because frankly, we have lots of things that are useful, we just don't use them. We have lots of beautiful things, that are in boxes with nowhere to go. And we I have lots of sentimental things that are in boxes, that I don't even remember I have until I see them, but just haven't been able to let go of yet. My husband and I have talked about downsizing our things so many times and we just haven't done it. Well it's time! And I'm so very ready for this! Thank you pregnancy nesting for finally kicking me in the butt to get this done!