Although it is September twelve in Australia today it is September 11 in the USA, a date that will forever remain a day of tragedy and grief. I remember that day, getting up in the morning to see the horror unfold on my television screen in Seattle. I also remember not being able to drag myself of the couch in the hope that I would see the rescuers bring people alive from the wreckage of the twin towers. Alas I hoped in vain. When I finally did leave the house I remember feeling the urge to wrap my arms around every American I saw and tell them how sorry I was for what had just happened to Continue reading
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom – Second Favorites
posted by
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom We all have our favorites - favorite laundry soap, favorite hand lotion, favorite beverage, favorite brand of tool. We also all have our second favorites - second favorite lipstick, second favorite pair of black pants, second favorite brand of tea, second favorite bath soap. How did we accumulate so many seconds? Perhaps the second favorite used to be the favorite, before it was replaced. Or maybe we shopped at a different store than usual, and our favorite item wasn't available. Or perhaps you just thought that you should branch out some - not just stick to the same Continue reading
Cindy’s Weekly Wisdom – Decluttering the Pantry
posted by
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Last week, I discussed methods for cleaning and decluttering your refrigerator and freezer; this week we're onto what is usually a larger repository of items that should have moved along long ago, the pantry. Because things in the pantry don't usually spoil, they can sometimes hang around long enough to become honorary members of your household. It will probably be helpful to have a pen and paper with you when you start excavating your pantry, especially if you know it's... let's politely call it "a goldmine of uneaten potential." What do you have, how many do you Continue reading
Simple Saturday – Under Cindy’s Bathroom Sink
posted by
These photos are the result of a 10 minute clean up under my bathroom sink. It took me longer to actually get all the items to their new homes, but the decluttering itself was a breeze and look at the difference. I removed and found new homes for: 12 bottles of nail polish (neighbor) a foot scrub brush (this was broken apart - some recycled, some trashed) 2 Aveda Be Curly hair products (neighbor) Color Me Beautiful color guide (Anyone else remember Color Me Beautiful? trash) a large box of latex gloves (moved to the paint supplies, which is where they're more useful) 4 Continue reading
Thoughts on the Use It Up Challenge
posted by
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom Colleen has issued a Use It Up Challenge several times. The most recent one I can find is in September. I've been thinking a lot about this challenge recently because we are finally coming to the end of it here at the Bogard household. Along the way, I consumed all the multiday vitamins and calcium I had in the cabinet, and we used all the various extra bottles shampoos and conditioners along with several toothpaste tubes that the girls had not squeezed down tho their last drops. Those items were quickly finished in comparison to the soap challenge. I had no idea we Continue reading
Reduce Reuse Recycle
posted by
One of my golden rules for decluttering is... Don't waste it just because you don't want it. There is no doubt that during the course of decluttering your home you are going to have to deal with what to do with all the items you are getting rid of. We have spoken quite a lot over the last thirteen months on how to go about rehousing items but it never hurts to refresh our minds of these details. On my page Give away-Throw away - Sell - Use up, I list what became of all the 365 items I decluttered from my home during 2010. I will use the info from that page here to explain what was involved Continue reading
UFO – Unidentified Frozen Object
posted by
Cindy's Weekly Wisdom In Honor of Tuesday's Mini Mission Imagine your freezer, nice and tidy, not too empty and not too full. Now imagine dumping it all out on the floor, scrambling it around, and shoving the frozen food back in willy-nilly. Whew! That's a mess. Now double the amount of food and really cram it in there. That's what my freezer looked like last year. I decided to do something about it. Just like with any other major decluttering and organizing project, before I began, I got boxes and my label maker. I was ready. I did this cleaning in winter in the garage, so there was no Continue reading
Natural progression decluttering
posted by
For those of you who haven't read my earlier posts or have forgotten, natural progression decluttering is where instead of reducing the number of certain items by giving them away you use them until they outlive their usefulness. Once gone do not replace them. There are several ways this can happen depending on the kind of clutter. Wearing out - Things like an over-abundance of socks, underwear, shoes, towels etc are prime targets for this type of decluttering. The key to making this work is to move the items that you are wanting to declutter to the front position in their storage space Continue reading
Day 251 Use it up challenge revisited
posted by
Back on day 159 I instigated a Use It Up Challenge which quite a few of my readers jumped on board with. We found some interesting uses for things that we were desperate to use up in ways other than intended and made special efforts to just focus on others. The end of the last challenge were on Day 171. Since then I have been continuously using up things that I have excess of and today I will share them with you. Three sample size bottles of perfume that had been given to me from friends. Aluminium foil & plastic wrap that we had doubled up on due to my husband working away for a Continue reading
Day 226 Retail waste
posted by
While out walking today I went by the fruit shop and noticed a box of over ripe bananas on the footpath by the door. I did a double take when I remembered I needed a couple of onions and picked up two of the old bananas as well thinking I could use them to make a cake. When I took them to the counter to pay there was no charge for the bananas which was what I was half expecting. I was happy with that and thanked the man and went on my way. Later on when I was making my banana cake with my free bananas I got to thinking...there is more to this than just a couple of free bananas. This Continue reading
