Reflections on Getting Rid of 2013 Things in 2013

I'm done! Hit my goal of 2013 things out of my house for 2013. I wouldn’t say my progress has been steady in the sense of daily decluttering, but it has been fairly consistent.

I was able to gleefully get rid of several items: an unused snowblower, TWO baby swings, a bouncy chair, my maternity clothes, our oldest stroller, what felt like millions of gift bags (at least 50!). Other things weren’t necessarily gleefully removed from the house, but were not a struggle to part with - things like old clothes, crappy toys, boring/stupid books, candles, vases, planters…

Here’s the thing: 2013 things sounds like a LOT. But it isn’t. Perhaps if I lived alone or at least without kids this might be a difficult goal to achieve. Maybe if I tried to get rid of 2013 things in one weekend, that might be a bit tough.

However, in my life I have oodles - and I mean oodles - of stuff. One of my children can make eight artistic creations in five minutes. That leaves a huge pile of artwork to sort out!  And now that we are moving out of the baby stage, I’m finding it easy to get rid of the gear and most clothes - just don’t ask me to part with the itty bitty newborn stuff and certain outfits and we can get along.

My point? Getting rid of 2013 things in a year hasn’t been much of a challenge for me. I got rid of almost 900 my first year (that was a failure in my decluttering challenge but my thesis got done, what can I say?) and 2012 things last year. Hitting 2013 this year gives me almost 5000 things gone from my house. And guess what?

YOU CAN’T. EVEN. TELL.

I am not kidding.

My house is still a disaster. There are toys all over the place. The basement is full of stuff. I have storage container after storage container full of clothes for kids to grow into. Things still here from the previous owners. A dead lawnmower.

Sigh.

While getting rid of 2000+ things in a year is better than nothing, I’m just not sure it’s enough. I’m doing it without even trying. Which is fine, decluttering is a good habit. There is something to be said for having attainable, sustainable habits.

However, I’m not getting all that far ahead. I feel like the amount of stuff in this house is at a steady state. In reality, there is more going out than in but it’s more of a trickle. I’d like to see quicker progress.

Soooooo… I’m wondering if I should shake it up a bit next year. Set a one year challenge that forces me to deal with parts of my house that I have been able to ignore so far. Maybe… double my goal.

That’s right, I’m thinking of setting a goal to get rid of 4028 things for 2014.

That’s an average of about 11 things per day.

Is that crazy?

It might be (The Husband thinks I'm insane), but I think it could be an excellent exercise. I wouldn’t be able to coast on giving away baby stuff and sorting through art projects. A bigger challenge would force me to dig deeper.

That would be a very good thing.

Need Motivation? Throw a Party

At my last decluttering update, I was stuck shy of 1100 things. I have made pretty good progress since then, you know why? Because there's going to be a birthday party at our house soon. And let me tell you, there is no higher motivation to clean than people coming over.

It is a time-honoured tradition in our house.

There is a trick to success, though. You (well, at least *I*) have to start early. Otherwise you (or at least *I*) just end up throwing everything in a bin and putting the bin in the basement or the office. Which defeats the purpose of tidying up. It goes against every fibre of my procrastinator-y being to do ANYTHING in advance, but let me tell you, with 3 kids, I have learned that you have to start some things verrrrrrry early.

(One other thing I have learned is that our main living space's floor will not be clean until mere seconds before the party starts, if at all. We tidy it up and before we're even finished putting everything away there is a little 11 month old imp pulling things out of the shelves. This can be disheartening. I am so fucking tired of tidying up the same mess every day. It is what it is, though, and I have been focusing instead on areas my imp can't reach.)

The September long weekend also helped. I find it very hard to get a lot done on a two day weekend, mostly because if I do a lot one day, I need the other day to recover. The third day gives me a second opportunity to accomplish something.

Thanks to the cosmic union of extreme motivation and mucho time, I got rid of many things.

Like old ticket stubs...

and more old ticket stubs...

.

I just want to point out that these are proof that I used to go out, Exhibits A and B.

I also spent an hour or so refolding all the clothes in the kids' dresser drawers. But that is a post for another time. Stay tuned!

The count on the list now hovers around 1300. In related news, there is a lot more space on my office floor. It's pretty incredible, actually, and I'm quite proud of myself. The real test is going to be the day of the party - will I dump containers of stuff in the office???

On the Side Table: The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith

Browsing the Express Bestsellers shelves at the library, I saw it: The Cuckoo's Calling, by Robert Galbraith... or, as was revealed, J. K. Rowling.

Ah, the dilemma. Do I read a book I never would have read, just because it was written by Harry Potter's puppetmaster? Do I want to be one of THOSE people, one more in the stampeding herd of followers??? I don't even LIKE most crime novels. Don't get me wrong, I will read almost anything, but I find mystery novels to be a bit of a crapshoot, mostly because I don't like anything too creepy. I don't like creepy. And what if I hated the book? It might sully my opinion of J. K.

But then I figured, well, I don't particularly like fantasy novels but I love the Harry Potter series. So I decided to give it a shot.

Do I hear hooves?

(At least I know I'm not alone, the book hit the top of the Maclean's bestseller list and it's still up there.)

Galloping along... the book. It's a good read and a good story. The writing is solid. The novel is not fabulous. Nor does it suck. It's not gripping - I managed to put it down at 11 to go to bed on the day I started reading it - but at the same time it moves at a decent pace and held my interest. But, and I can't stress enough how key this is, it was NOT CREEPY. So I'm not going to be scarred for life. Yay! All in all, feel free to read it but don't expect it to rock your world.

I suggested that The Husband read it, so he is.

Verdict: Recommended

The accounting system isn't the point

I've thrown away several things this year where I wished I was using a different accounting system to tally things. When I got rid of 3 old hoses, I wished I was counting in linear feet (3 50 foot hoses adds up fast!). When I put the old baby swing on the boulevard with a FREE sign on it and it disappeared that day, I wished I was counting in square footage regained. Or calories burned doing a happy dance that I didn't need to walk around the damn thing anymore.

Anyway, I'm going to bet that many people think that keeping track and getting rid of 2013 things in a year is stupid. I'll admit, it does sound a little weird. But you can set whatever goal your little heart desires: things, linear feet of baseboards visible, weight in grams or ounces or pounds or whatever (I'll be crying for this one when we get rid of our old lawnmower), minutes or hours decluttering, square footage reclaimed...

How you keep track of your progress isn't the point. The point is to get rid of the crap in your life.

How am I doing? Not fantabulous, thanks for asking. I'm just shy of 1100 things and we are 75% done the year, so I'm about 400 things behind. Maybe I shouldn't have spent so much time designing birth announcements for the baby. I'm not heartbroken, mind you, because there's still time. My progress usually picks up in the fall, and there's still several months to get rid of stuff.

A Realization

Honestly, sometimes I wonder about myself. This getting rid of things thing has caused me a few small epiphanies. I had one last week. I use loose face powder every day. My current powder came with a small brush that I don't use. The brush is attached to the container at the top. Every day I'd open the lid, take the brush off, put the brush down, apply the powder, put the brush back, and put the lid back on.

Suddenly one morning I wondered why I was removing and returning this stupid brush to the same spot WHEN I DON'T EVEN USE IT.

I immediately threw it in the garbage and added a tick mark to my list.

[Now, Dr. Monster would call this a Teachable Moment and urge you to be more thoughtful in your day-to-day life, considering more deeply the impact of your actions and the power that habit has over everything you do. But she feels that seems overly "deep" today. Plus she has a party to plan and cheesecake to make.]

What DO I do all day?

Sooooo distracted these days. Waiting for Spring to FINALLY arrive - in short but sweet two-day stints. Researching peanut-free Crispy Crunch bars. Reading several books. Laundry laundry laundry. And the toddler bed is in the front room (don't ask).

Looking at nursing necklaces on Etsy. Fantasizing about new stroller in which to strap incorrigible 3 year old. Half price Frappuccino happy hour at Starbucks. Searching for nursing dresses online. Considering making own nursing dress. Search for bamboo jersey knit online. Recall that I pretty much suck at sewing.

Mad tidying/decluttering/2013 things removal/office clean-up in short spurts when all 3 children happen to all be occupied at the same time. This happens for about 20 minutes once a week. Not enough when incorrigible child can spread out 4 years of Chirp Magazines in 10 seconds flat.

Taking pictures every day.

Trying to put external hard drive together. I have no idea what I'm doing. Cannot find instructions. Oh crap, where are the screws for the EHD? Ah, there they are, under the La-Z-Boy. Of course. OK, it's put together. Oh wait, it doesn't turn on. (Don't I have a brother to do these sorts of things for me??? Mental note: don't make brother cheesecake for upcoming birthday.) Take apart EHD. Shove it in better. Make five "That's what she said" jokes and miss brother in Vancouver. Now it turns on. Must format EHD. Ummm, whhich format? How am I supposed to know? E-mail tech brother. (Add cream cheese to grocery list.) Format EHD. Transfer a bunch of photos. Wait to see if hard drive will crash. So far, so good.

Hope for the Disorganized?

I came across a blog post the other day that completely warmed my heart: Where to start when you're totally disorganized.

OK, so first off, let me tell you that the pictures associated with the post are not the definition of "totally disorganized." Ummmm, no. That living room has nothing on a family room after 3 minutes of attention from the average toddler. And that office clutter? I think I need to show these people my office.

Or maybe that would be bad for their health? I hope none of them have heart problems. I'd need to see a signed note from their doctors before opening the office door.

Anyway, I had to laugh when I read the article, because you know what it means to me? That I'm not alone! Sometimes I feel like I'm the only disorganized procrastinator who has a messy house. But if there's another blog post out there about being so disorganized that you don't know where to start - well, then, I can't be alone.

Solidarity!

PS: The office is still in major disaster mode. It is getting better but I can't just clear everything out and start over so it kind of wavers between more and less space as I go through things. I've got a long (and I mean long!) road ahead of me yet. Sigh.

Having a Peanut-Free Easter, Part II

In Part I, I talked about faking the Cadbury Creme Egg. My other nut-free Easter project was fake peanut butter eggs. Now, obviously my peanut-allergic kid can't eat peanut butter - so neither can the rest of the family (at least not at home). Thus, we need to fake it.

Let me introduce you to a pretty darn good PB substitute: sunbutter. It's made from sunflower seeds. I have tried several fake-PBs and this one is my favourite. It has a fairly close texture to nonhydrogenated PB. I like the roasted smell, it's a reasonable facsimile to the smell of PB - although if the smell of PB makes you ill, you might want to stay away. We like sunbutter so much we brought a jar on vacation last year for our toast at breakfast time.

But what's best about sunbutter is that you can make fake peanut butter cups. Which is good, because honestly the delightful pairing of chocolate and peanut butter is something I miss a lot.

So, I made this recipe, substituting sunbutter for the PB (note for future reference: one container of sunbutter is about 1.5 cups). I skipped the egg shape (roll out dough? Not if I can help it!) and just scooped and shaped the filling into balls. Then I dipped them in milk chocolate. 

Twice. 

I didn't want them to feel under-dipped relative to the fake creme eggs. That simply wouldn't be fair.

If you don't want to do the dip/roll steps, you can just press the filling into a 13x9 pan and pour a good layer of melted chocolate overtop, maybe with a bit of butter to make it easier to cut into squares when the chocolate hardens. The only reason I didn't do the 13x9 thing is because I was already dipping the fake creme eggs.

No matter the shape, these babies are yummy. They give me a peanut butter cup-ish taste in a nut-free package. I ended up with A LOT of these, I had to freeze some. Hmmm, suddenly I hear the freezer calling me...

I have yet to try sunbutter in cookies but I think I'll give it a go.

PS: throughout this entire post, stupid autocorrect has been changing sunbutter to sunbather. Maddening! I hope I caught them all.

PPS: no peanuts were harmed in the creation of this post.

PPSS: the sunbutter people have never heard of me. This is all me.

Having a Peanut-Free Easter, Part I

I admit it: my kid is one of those kids - a kid allergic to peanuts. There are times of the year when this matters more than others, and Easter is one of those times. Nutty chocolates and all of the "may contain" warnings can drive a kid, well, nuts!

It can be very frustrating to be a peanut-allergic child at Easter time. Imagine it: a generous person gives you a lovely gift with several chocolate items… but you can't eat any of it. Or, you go to visit the Easter Bunny at the mall, and the gigantic rabbit gives you a chocolate treat that you can't eat. That's tough on a child! (And really, mall rabbit, get a grip! Buy some frigging nut-free chocolates!!!)

We even have to have discussions about what the Easter Bunny will bring. My daughter has expressed concerns in previous years about the peanut condition of the chocolate arriving into the house for key chocolate days. I always assure her that the Easter Bunny and Santa know that she's allergic to peanuts and will not bring her anything she can't eat.

These days, there is an array of peanut-free chocolate available to fill an Easter basket. However, there are a few items that don't make the cut. Enter… pinterest and some simple substitutions.

First up, let's discuss the creme egg. Such yummy sickly-sweet goodness in such a small, chocolatey, "may contain peanuts" package. I have had a recipe for a homemade version (also this one) pinned for a while and this was my opportunity to try it. I kept the ingredients the same, but adjusted a couple of things in the construction process, because I'm lazy and hate unnecessary steps that have no bearing on final taste. 

Number one, there is absolutely no point to making the yellow "yolk" aside from aesthetics - so I skipped that part, and kept all of the filling white. Number deux, ummm, there was no way in hell that I was making egg-shaped chocolates. AS IF I'm dealing with candy moulds. I simply rolled the filling into balls and dipped them in milk chocolate (as suggested at the end of the latter recipe linked above).

Small side note: don't ask me how I know this, but an easy cheat is to take a spoonful of filling and eat it along with a small handful of milk chocolate chips. Ahem.

These were good! My one comment on the recipe is that I could taste the shortening melted with the chocolate. Maybe my shortening has been in the fridge too long. I'd use butter if possible. To ensure that this slight shortening-y flavour wouldn't ruin the taste of the "eggs", I dipped them in a second layer, this time using chocolate sans shortening. 

You know, just to be sure. 

Mmmmmm... 

They were not exactly a creme egg but definitely close. My kid was happy to be able to eat a creme egg. I would have done side-by-side comparisons but there is only so much creme egg a person can tolerate. Next year I'll do a double-blind study, I think. What I do for science! 

I had also pinned a recipe for a creme egg brownie. This sounded too yummy to pass up. Because the brownie's creme layer was the same as for the creme eggs, I ended up just doubling the creamy recipe, thereby saving myself (or more likely, The Husband) another bowl to clean. 

I didn't think these were fabulous. I'd rather have a Nanaimo bar. They weren't sweet enough for me, and I wasn't super fond of the milk chocolate brownie part. Don't get me wrong, I still ate the majority of the pan, but I'll stick to eating my creme eggs and brownies separately from now on. Some things aren't meant to be paired, at least in my mouth.

Next up: faking a Reese peanut butter cup/egg.

On the Side Table: Happier at Home

I picked up the book Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin at the library from the Express Bestseller shelf. I hadn't heard anything about it but I had heard of the author's previous book, The Happiness Project. I ended up going into the bookstacks to dig out The Happiness Project as well (haven't read it yet, though).

Is it a trend now to take on a project and write about it? Is that what everyone's doing now? I keep reading books about people heading off to Italy to learn Italian, living in France and learning to eat like the French, et cetera... Do I need a project like this?

Gretchen Rubin decided to seek a happier life at home over the course of 8 months, tackling one theme/project a month. She declutters shelves in her apartment, though she finds they don't stay uncluttered (I hear you on that one, Gretchen!). She schedules weekly outings with her daughter, exploring New York, in order to spend some quality time together. She faces her fear of driving, coming to terms with the fact that she may never like driving, but at least she can drive. I understand this completely, because for me driving is a necessary evil.

I found this an interesting book. In essence, it's about being happier with what you have, with the life you lead, just tweaking it to make it better. I liked her take on achieving happiness, that "Happiness doesn't always make me feel happy." The point is that you might have to do some work you don't like in order to achieve the end goal of happiness. I can tell you that the act of cleaning out my office does not make me happy, but the end result will.

She vows to " 'Suffer for fifteen minutes' each day on a long-postponed task." This sounds suspiciously like my office decluttering project. Rubin suffers with digital photos instead (I am dreading this one - it might be my next next project).

Another thing I took to heart was the idea of later. Which, if you know me, is when I do everything (unless it involves eating chocolate or baking). However, I am trying to remind myself that doing everything later isn't so great. Eventually, I'm going to run out of years (this logic is how I justify vacations). I was heartened to know that apparently I'm not alone in my procrastination. Rubin quotes Elias Canetti, "One lives in the naive notion that later there will be more room than in the entire past." Ah, good point! (Note: this paragraph took me a week to write. Procrastinate much?)

Verdict: Recommended, as long as you don't mind a little naval-gazing (geek out and use a big word: omphaloskepsis). I didn't LOVE it but there are some useful ideas here.

What's a "thing"?

Some people have asked what the definition of a thing is. Today, I will answer this pressing question, since I know it's been keeping you up at night. Unlike what's keeping me up at night, which is 15 pounds of smiles.

A thing is anything that I have made a choice to keep in the past but now am choosing to get rid of. Garbage, or anything I would have thrown out had I known about it, does not count - like junk mail, even if it ends up falling behind something and I find it later. I did not choose to keep it so it isn't tallied. In addition, an item that has been replaced does not count - for example, getting rid of your old toaster when you have purchased a new one.

On the other hand, clipped coupons from junk mail that I have kept but now want to get rid of - those count. Plastic bags that I was saving - they count too. Or, if I saved the toaster to "fix later" but now have decided that that was a stupid thing to do and I'll never fix it so I might as well get rid of it now because what's the point of keeping it - THEN getting rid of the toaster counts.

I guess in my mind it comes down to intent.

Of course, you can make up your own rules. The nice thing about making up your own crazy challenge is that you can make up your own rules, however odd they seem to others.

What else is new?

Declutter declutter declutter. You'd think that's all I do, based on this blog. Dear public, I assure you this is not the case. But my life is so dull these days! Here's what's been going on:

1. Kid 2 is potty trained. This is a big deal for me but no one else gives a rat's ass = no blogability.
2. Kid 3 rolled over her right shoulder for the first time. Whoop-da-freaking-do! I'm still holding out hope that she'll be my left-handed kid. Maybe I should put a stop to the right-handed rolling?
3. Kid 1 is doing amazingly well at her violin lessons. She started playing with actual finger positions and is starting to play scales. She's come so far so fast! (OK, maybe there's a blog entry in there somewhere.)
4. Kid 3 can push herself up with straight arms. I have no idea how she developed the strength to do this since she HASN'T LET ME PUT HER DOWN FOR A MONTH.
5. I don't want to cook dinner but I want to bake.
6. I really want to drink a litre of Coke.
7. I hate cleaning.

Hmmmm, may have gotten a little off-course there. My point is, my life is so mundane. Hence the blogging about clutter. It keeps me from thinking about what I'm going to do when I grow up. Funny, I thought that would be clear once I got the PhD, but my life took a weird path.

I'll just wait for the mid-life crisis to hit.

Oh, just put it in the office

Where should I put this?
I dunno. Just put it in the office.

I've been keeping up with my quest to deal with 5 things in my office each day. It's been a week and it's going well. I have even (gasp!) filed some papers - and I HATE filing. I'm a piler, not a filer, man!

However, there is a big challenge coming up. We are having a birthday party in a few weeks and do you know what happens when we clean up for a party? We dump a whole bunch of stuff in there. That's an OK strategy if it's just a temporary holding location (for things like the infant car seat, for example). But what happens more often than not is that the stuff just sits there... and sits there... and sits there...

I'm not sure how this party will affect the cleanliness level of the office. What I do know is that I had the floor of my office clear twice last year, and parties are what undid that good work.

Office Decluttering: How's organizing 5 things a day going?

It's getting to the end of my first week of office decluttering, using my new strategy of dealing with 5 things a day. It's going really well, I'm quite amazed at myself. Here's the thing - I could wait and wait and procrastinate and forget about it and get around to doing it... never. Or, I could start myself on a system that works for me. Why does this work for me?

Dealing with 5 things a day is not intimidating.

It's that simple. I do not have the time to set aside a weekend to clear out the office. Some days, I don't even have a 5-10 minute chunk of time to do a quick tidy - because I never know when I will be interrupted. But 5 things - I can do 5 things. Whenever I'm changing the baby, I'm looking around the office, figuring out what to deal with next. Because I have set an achievable, realistic goal, I meet that goal. I mark that achievement on my calendar. This reinforces the achievement and encourages me to meet my goal again the next day.

And this, THIS is how a majorly gigantic procrastinator accomplishes anything. Don't get intimidated by the enormity of the project, just work at it a little every day and things get done. Suddenly your office is clean, or you have a PhD. Don't get me wrong, any member of the general public would not call the current state of my office "progress" but I don't care. It will make a difference eventually.

On 2012 things for 2012

I did it! I got rid of 2012 things in 2012.

As usual for me, it came down to the wire. It was Dec 31 and I needed a few more things to hit 2012. I was holding a sleeping baby who didn't want to be put down. I knew there was a box in the basement that needed sorting, I had intended to toss some things from it to hit 2012. But ugh, the baby was cramping my style and impeding progress.

I asked The Husband if there was anything he could get rid of. And he stepped up! He went downstairs, got one crate of his old school stuff, and started going through it. Buh bye, old university stuff.

So we hit 2013 things out of the house in 2012. Yay us! But then I made him stop and wait for Jan 1. No sense overachieving when I'm starting again at 0 the next day. (Such a bad attitude, for shame!) Having things ready to go in the new year made for a good January 1 and a good start to the year.

One empty crate down. SO MUCH more stuff to go...

This was a good exercise for me. I am definitely doing it again this year - 2013 things for 2013. I'm at 135 things so far. Not great, but it's something.

My office is a disaster

Ugh.

Do you have a space in your house that has no defined purpose? If so, do you find that spot is a catch-all for clutter?

In my house, this is the office. It is a room full of junk. It's where we put things when we don't know where to put them. It's where things go when we want to deal with them "later." Guess when later happens? As I am a disorganized procrastinator, let me tell you that the answer is - rarely!

I need to clear this room out. It needs a purpose. I'm not yet sure what it should be. We don't need a whole room as an office right now. It could be a playroom, or a bedroom for one of our kids. Or a crafty space. But I can't do anything with the room in its current state (except change the baby, since we stuck the change table in there). The first step is dealing with all the junk in there.

The thing is, it's a pretty big task. And I've got a 4 month old, which limits my productivity and REALLY limits any sustained effort. But I have a plan. I'm going to put away 5 things a day in that room.

So it'll probably take me 2 years to clean out the room, but at least I'll be chipping away at the problem instead of ignoring it (or making it worse!).

I started today. I put away a hat for the baby, a pencil, a bib clip, and a couple of other things.

Baby steps...

What's your house's trouble spot? How do you deal with it?