Hatton House Diaries

In getting ready for my daughter’s birthday party, we converted the front parlor from summer use to winter use, which in the land of no garage means moving the bikes downstairs, which meant that I could then see the lost treasures of Spring gone by. Under a table, behind the bikes, was a huge box. In fact there were three boxes total that were hiding behind bikes (because like coats, we also have more bikes than people in this house). In two of the boxes, there were lights that I bought at a garage sale to change out some outdated fixtures in our rental house. In the third box, there was a giant pile of stuff. I counted: 76 items, all ready to be donated (and 4 items worthy of selling) that I just never got to the Thrift Store this Spring. JACKPOT!

I now realize that I had nothing to fear in this project. I thought this would be the hardest week. Where was I going to find 20+ things per day to get rid of? Now, I’m panicked because in four days, I’ll officially be done, and I’ve done one corner of the cluster f*%& that is our master bedroom. I haven’t gone through all the lotions and potions I keep in the bathroom but never use. And the attic…full of boxes of mystery, that I haven’t even cracked open. I’m pretty sure I could do Minimalism game for at least one or two more months and not be done. I’ve gotten rid of 351 things, and only in a few corners of my world does this place actually look decluttered. I’m going to have to think about how I want to use my last few precious official days…not at all how I expected to feel at this point.

P.S. That’s Pumpernickel, one of the mousers from Days 22-23 in the background, waiting to mail the silverware and collectibles out from our Ebay sell off. Remember my silverware stash?  It sold for $214.05. Not a bad haul for junk in a box!

I have the only granddaughter and grandson on both sides of our family. Sure, I’d rather have tons of nieces and nephews, but instead, I have two awesome kids that want for nothing. They have plenty of toys and a great collection of clothing, especially my daughter, who gets hand-me-downs from a friend with excellent taste in clothes. This is a wonderful thing, until they outgrow them. We are still planning to have another child, but it’s taking a little longer than planned to make that plan happen, so what started as a few boxes of extra clothes is now an out of control wild prairie of Rubbermaid boxes across the preserve of our 1000 SF attic. It’s not OK.

So I’m starting slow….a box of my shoes that don’t fit anymore and pants that aren’t at all special cast off by my son, sizes 3-5T. They’re for sale on my Minimalism sale on Facebook. Get these things out of my house folks, right here: https://www.facebook.com/tanyakeith/media_set?set=a.10202251802514841.1073741831.1183778292&type=3

Also, the Ebay page: http://www.ebay.com/usr/djotzke#

Please, buy our stuff.

I have a problem. I have cool stuff I could sell, but I seem to get lost in the thought of how complicated it would be to sell it. I will have to find it, clean it, photograph it, list it for sale, meet with the buyer….ugh…it’s all so complicated. I will put it off forever. I will sometimes donate things I know I could sell, just because it’s so much easier. What I’m learning through this minimalism is that inaction can be just as draining as action. Seeing stuff time after time and having to think, “ugh, there’s that X again. Someday I’ll get rid of X” takes energy, energy I was expending over and over again.

Case in point: The spice rack from our first home. We used to have a house with no cabinet space, but a fair amount of counter space, so we moved everything we could out of drawers and into counter based storage solutions, such as this lovely spice rack. I thought it was so cool looking, and I loved the part it played in our first home. Now we have a home with plenty of drawer and cabinet space, but very little free counter space, so I moved the spices into one of the drawers, but couldn’t seem to let go of my little rack when I unpacked the kitchen stuff.

But 12 jars and a rack….that’s 13 items, if I could just force myself to clean it out and list it. So I dumped the several year old spices, cleaned the jars, photographed and posted. In the end, it didn’t take that long, and once it was posted, it didn’t take long for it to sell and the drop off was seamless. The lesson: less stuff and more cash in my pocket is the way to go. I promise you, there will be more to come!