Tackling the Storage Unit – still

With each passing day, and continued trips to my storage unit, I am coming to the realization that I am going to eventually be “forced” to examine some memories of my former life that I really don’t want to have anything to do with. For example….this is a photo album:

Actually it’s the cover of a photo album. The location of this photo album in my storage unit caught me completely off guard because it was in a box marked “crafts”. At any rate, I was not ready for this book to show up out of nowhere and if you want total honesty, I don’t even want it in my house. However, it did show up and I was forced to deal with it, which, for me, was to throw it in another box. Is that bad?? I don’t have the answer to that question except to say that any and ALL items from my former life will eventually be removed from my surroundings. No sense hanging on to bad juju. 🙂

The good news in all of this is, (I have to find the good!) I found some very cute wall hangings that are mere minutes from completion! Since I am planning on a few craft shows this year, I am pretty excited!

Snowmen are my favorite!!! I can’t wait to finish these….there are 12. And I just love the fabric on this one:

I have 15 of this design! Crazy!!! You all do remember that this stuff has been in storage for nine years, right? Wish I would have remembered this 8 1/2 years ago! Oh well, things happen for a reason!

One Day and Counting… every day that gets me closer to being “bad juju” free!

The Freezer – a small victory!

Some people might be appalled at the thought of sharing the innermost workings of their freezer, but for me, it was a definite step towards my goal to live simply. Really, all I wanted to do was find something for dinner but it turned into the massive frustration because if stuff wasn’t falling out on my feet, I couldn’t find what I was looking for. Something seriously wrong with this picture:

Would you believe I found stuff in there from 2006???? Not only is that completely ridiculous, it is pretty wasteful too. So, I pulled everything out, disposed of the gross and disgusting, cleaned things up, and started over.

My hope is that I NEVER have to do this again. The goal is to plan my menus a little better and to use the items I buy so 7 years from now I am not saying… WHAT????

One Day and Counting …. this small success.

Tackling the Storage Unit – Memories

By now this whole goal of living simply has moved towards the realm of obsession. There is so much to be said about de-cluttering one’s life. With each passing day, and each box I empty, I am astounded by the feeling of relief that is starting to come into my life. My storage unit is a mostly dark place, full of stuff and memories from a former, and very different, life. And, except for my two beautiful children, it is a life that I would rather forget. In all honesty, I have little attachment to most of what’s in there but every once in awhile I find a treasure. This, for example….

This goose is the very first thing I ever tole-painted. I took a class 20+ years ago to learn how to paint and the rest is history. As I have mentioned before, I love this particular outlet in my life as it helps with my stress level. Even though she was relegated to the dark recesses of my storage unit, this goose used to hang proudly on the wall of my kitchen. Now she will hang in my craft room as a reminder of how far I’ve come….

One Day and Counting…..many more trips down memory lane.

Dump Trip #1

So remember that HUGE pile of stuff that was blocking the front half of my storage unit…. here’s a reminder…

Lots of stuff that needed to go away! Well, guess what??? Today was the day! Despite the fact that it is Saturday, and there are hundreds of other things we would rather be doing,  my husband and I went and loaded the truck up

then went to the dump! The result is such a relief….and a huge step in the right direction!

Now, I still have LOTS of boxes and stuff to go through, but at least now I have some room to work. Again, the goal is to go by this place every day on my way home from work and take a carload out! Feeling pretty optimistic at this point in time….

One Day and Counting…. til this project is done!

Tackling the Storage Unit

So, if you think back to the first post in which I set my goal to live simply, you will remember that I have a storage unit full of stuff that has been there for NINE, count them, yes NINE years! Now, I have to be honest here and say that some of the stuff has only resided in storage for about three years, but still, three years in a storage unit is more than enough time to figure out you don’t need it anymore. At any rate, I finally “snapped”. On Monday, I started to weed…..here are some before pictures…..

Can you say SCARY?!?!?!?! It looks like I am a hoarder…. Yikes!
My plan is to go to this place every single day on my way home from work and take a carload of stuff out….to the dump, to the thrift store, home (as long as I truly need it there) or anywhere but that storage unit…. so far, so good….

Stuff for the thrift store….

And empty boxes where stuff was thrown away.

One Day and Counting the HUNDREDS of boxes I am going to have to sort through….anybody need a piano??? 🙂

We interrupt the goal to live simply…

….with the start of the school year. Not that I have zillions of people following my blog or anything, but, for those of you who don’t know, I am a school teacher librarian. I was cruising along pretty good with this whole “clean out my house” thing until I had to go back to work. Now, I have reached a virtual standstill. I am up early in the morning and by the time I get home, I am exhausted. I attribute this to the fact that I am simply not used to my “school schedule.” Eventually I will have my sea legs again and definitely more energy.

Haven’t worked too much on Room #1 lately, but I have designed the quilt I am going to make for my bed. Nothing fancy but it should look nice…. here’s a picture. 

The dark represents the denim I cut up from the stack of jeans I had and the light represents a sage green print of some sort, most likely flannel. Am excited to get going on it….

One Day and Counting ….. til next weekend comes! 🙂