Slowing Down

 I have been in high gear for a few weeks now.  Being the proud owner of a couple of autoimmune diseases does not always allow me to do what I want. When I want to do things.  

I really have enjoyed doing massive amounts of decluttering the house.  Filing up the recycling bin almost to the top. Sending huge boxes to Goodwill instead of having a garage sale.  Sharing extra fiber related things with my friends.  Emptying cabinets to the point of having not one but two empty shelves.  Leaving books in the little libraries around the neighborhood. 

Tonight my body gave me a stern warning.  Slow down right now or else.  So if I have enough spoons I will do one project a day.  Then rest by listening to books, spinning, knitting, weaving, Tunisian crochet and watching rom coms or documentaries on television.  Pay more attention to my body instead of wishful thinking that I am 30 again with only one autoimmune disease and all the energy in the world.  

Making a Big Mess

 I find it simply amazing how much mess that I can make when I go about decluttering and reorganizing the house.  Today I tackled my yarn beyond life expectancy problem.  I know you have read it here many times before.  This time even though I have less yarn, I plan on cutting my stash of yarn by another 25 to 50 percent.  

Today was the start of the project.  I spent the entire afternoon doing this.  I filled 4 kitchen trash bags full of yarn. Back when I could knit up to 20 hours a day, that would have taken me 4 months to knit.  I knit much slower now and a maximum of 2 hours a day, less if my hands are tired. So any yarn  that wanted a U.S. size 1 or 2 knitting needle I did not give a second thought to.  My over abundance of hand spun yarn 50% is gone.  Most of the fingering weight yarn is gone too.  Projects that I did not want to knit, I kept the bags but the yarn is gone.  Even if I loved the yarn and color and texture, it was gone too. 

I only have 2 more bags in the sewing room to go through.  Then it’s the garage.  My goal is not to have any more boxes of yarn in front of John’s car.  I have a very sizable collection of empty storage bags and 3 boxes.  At least 2 of the boxes will be holding more yarn.  

Did I mention that I found a lot of silk yarn that I can use to make art yarn? I found misplaced projects that I knew I bought and have wanted to knit up.  I threw away a basket that was falling apart. I found a new home or a place of residence for the things in the basket. So all in all it was a very productive afternoon.  I have bits and pieces of more room. 

Just don’t go into the knitting or sewing room right now.  They are still a mess.  I have a small pile of yarn to cake up and put in the scarf box.  Yes, I have a box of yarn for scarfs and hats too do I just have to reach in and grab a skein for my next project. I have a new box for my spinning accessories, crochet hooks and Tunisian crochet hooks too. The box that held those things is now full of yarn. A much better use for a big drawer. 

By the way the yarn will be going to the Old Pueblo Knitting Guild for the big yarn sale.  Hopefully my decluttering efforts will help the guild balance the budget.  I will give out the date and place as it gets closer.  

A little peek at the empty bags and the 4 bags full of yarn.  

 

Spoons

 Today’s blog is brought to you by spoons.  Spoons are what I never seem to have enough of.  Spoons are units of energy.  

As I am getting older my body is changing. This includes my feet.  I have changed shoe sizes. So I have found a brand of shoes that fit perfectly right now.  I can wear them all day.  So after buying 2 new pairs of shoes, I knew it was time to clean out my closet of the shoes and high heels which I can no longer wear.  I filled 4 boxes with shoes that no longer fit and are still in great shape.  So I think I moved ahead of the clutter curb.  I have also run out of big boxes.  John will take the boxes to Goodwill tomorrow.  I will see what else I can add tomorrow.  

This evening I also started putting my earrings away.  I plan on taking the earrings that are too uncomfortable to wear and the singles to make more stitch markers.  Not that I need any more stitch markers. I just thought it would be fun to do. That they would be more useful as stitch markers than collecting dust.  

Now I am too tired to do anything.  

Not to change the subject, but I am going to change the subject.  Have you ever noticed that the last 6 inches of a 6 foot long scarf seems to take forever.  Maybe I will finally finish it this weekend.  Which me luck.  

What is leaving forever, tomorrow.  Four boxes lined up to go   

Valentines Day

 As I was doing more cleaning out of clutter. Clutter defined as things we no longer need or use, I admit I was thinking about tomorrow. Tuesday is Valentine’s Day. The restaurants are crowded and it might be a little too cold for outdoor dining, winter slammed into Southern Arizona with a huge cold blast.  As usual the Road to Mount Lemmon is closed because of snow and ice.  We had rain at our house.  We missed the hail and snow.  

We are in need of nothing.  So there was no need to rack my brain for what to buy.  I might buy some strawberries to go with dinner.  

So I started thinking, what if I filled my car with things that will leave the house permanently.  With everything going to Goodwill.  I can give John the gift of less clutter and more organized space around the house.  I told John about this and he is fine with the idea.  By the way I filled 2 more boxes today.  

We will go out and celebrate this weekend when it is supposed to get warmer.  

What is everyone else doing tomorrow?

Moving Forward

 I had the energy to do a mini cleaning spree this afternoon.  So I can say 4 storage tubs are gone. Well actually 3. One dropped and cracked and since it had no recycling number on it we threw it away.  So I guess it is actually 4. I have 2 more bags of quilting material, mostly kids fabric going to a friend who works with 3 different church quilting for charity groups.  Spinning fiber going to 2 friends.  Yarn going to a bunch of people.  Also 2 more boxes are ready to go to Goodwill.

It feels good to share. I want to get my projects down to a reasonable level. The arthritis in my hands is not getting better. So I will make the transition to work on only things that I want to do. Yes, I will still knit charity hats and scarfs because they bring me joy.  I get to create pretty things and send them into the world.  What could be more joyous than that?

I found a tub of yarn for my charity scarf project too.  Knitting will have to wait a bit longer though.  The stitches got infected.  I did go to the doctor and have to take antibiotics until the bottle is gone.  We caught it early before much harm was done.  My hand is a little more sore this afternoon.  

I am also going to de stash 2 more spindles.  These are pretty Turkish spindles in layered wood.  They are going to be looking for a new home too.  They have been lightly used. They are pretty and spin well.  They just don’t fit in to my herd anymore.  I just have to figure out where to sell them and determine the price.  

Redesign Progress

 A lot of progress has been made in my knitting room.  If you were here on Monday, by today you would not recognize it.  I will take some pictures tomorrow.  John did all the heavy lifting. All the space created by the donation to our community food bank is now filled with yarn. This s makes my yarn more accessible.  I have moved every single roller to a new spot in the room.  

When I went to get my afternoon snack, it turned out that it was dinner time. How did that happen? So while dinner was cooking I did some organizing and straightening in the dining room.  It was a good day to get rid of clutter too, John was kind enough to take that all out for me and Roomba the knitting room while we cooked dinner   

I spent the evening knitting.  Only 1 project got finished today. My 19th charity hat for the year.  Another operation gratitude scarf is a few rows from being finished. You guessed it, I cast on another charity hat too.

Busier Than Usual

I spent my day recovering from a whirlwind day yesterday. I had one meeting all about Eric, which left me exhausted.  Eric’s aide had an early appointment so he had to leave early.  I missed seeing my Friday friends.

So today was spent spring cleaning. Guess what I found out today? John loves getting rind of bags of junk and will even carry it to the recycle bin.  John also volunteered to drive to Goodwill when I fill up my boxes. I also managed a 2 1/2 hour nap. Did some spot decluttering in Eric’s room. I just have 3 major areas to finish tomorrow.  As long as I sleep tonight that should be possible.

I also finished a visit from my older sister today.  Maybe a little less very rich food will help me feel better. Some how with my family it’s always over sized meals and not enough walking.

At this point it’s hard to call it an early night.  But if Eric let’s me I get to sleep in tomorrow.

Still Busy

Eric is feeling better and John is still fighting a bug. I spent the day cleaning and decluttering until exhaustion hit. Then it was nap time for me. I did not get all I wanted to do done, but 4 hours of cleaning and organizing did me in. A good nap followed. It is now time to call it a day.

Goodbye 2015

It has been a very busy and sometimes hectic year around here.  We finished our kitchen remodel. We finished the craft room remodel. We did a lot of decluttering.  Teri thought the house looked like it did 20 years ago with the exception of the new kitchen. A few dozen items were knit for charity.  All in all I think we had a good year despite a few bumps in the road. I would like to wish everyone a happy and healthy 2016.  

The Party is Over

We dropped the kids at the airport this morning.  They have arrived at their destination safely. We then headed to Costco to pick up a few items. We put everything away and finished the leftovers for lunch.  Laundry has seemed to have grow exponently today. 

Now that everything is back to quiet, I plan on finishing the rest of the of decluttering. Most is in Teri's room. The down side of decluttering today so far has been finding more partial yarn skeins that I am using for hats.  So I guess I will be making a few more hats.  By the time the house is done, I hope it will be warm enough to work in the garage.  

Candles and Cleaning

Today I helped on a 5th grade history project. I got to help Lisa's son Matthew learn to make hand dipped candles. We almost got 50% of the project finished today. I think a good time was had by all. Although I did forget to take a picture of the finished project.  Hint, hint Lisa. 

The unpacking the kitchen is still going on. Another box was emptied today, and I will finish putting it away tomorrow.  I also went through my weaving supplies with a realistic look at the warp and some weft.  Lisa left with some. Some more is going to Jody and I kept just about 50% of it.  Although more might leave with Jody. I have already re pourpsed one of the boxes for my shrinking box of candle making supplies.  

A nice chunk of of Teri's floor was cleared and more things are finding their way to a new home in the house or out the door.  I am working on knitting UFO's too. I am hoping to make a lot of progress on all my knitting and sewing  UFO's. The Zennig of the house is going very good, but the pace has slowed down a lot.  I still believe in the 5 minute method. 

Results.

I meant to spend the day finishing with the cleaning and organizing of the craft room. I got distracted. I instead spent the day working in the living room.  So far I managed to fill 3 boxes for Goodwill. Hopefully we can get it out of the house tomorrow. With each bit of decluttering I do, I feel a little lighter. The space around me seems to be getting larger, with more room to move.

The things that I pared down today were baskets, about 50% are leaving the house. Flower vases seemed to be another thing that we have too many of, so far 7 are leaving the house and I will still have a nice selection of vases.  What are the odds of me finding anymore vases? How did I land up with so many vases? Also since we went to a new drawer storage system, all my old dividers are leaving the house too. Some things that seemed so important to me in the 1980's and 90's just don't seem to be necessary anymore.  I am a lot more casual when we have company over.  Can we all give a collective bye-bye to the individual butter plates. Yes, special plates just for butter, the thought of having a proper table and pulling them out then washing them by hand both before and after a party is gone.  

As a family member of generational pack rats it seems at times very hard to do all this decluttering. I think back to one of my grandmothers houses and my parents house and have made a conscious  decision to change my ways. It is a long and slow process. I strongly suggest that family members be patient and not do any pushing. You might cause a stalling of a project that you so dearly want. 

Three's

Today was a day for 3's. I worked in the craft room cleaning and decluttering for 3 hours. I managed to fill 3 full bags for the recycle barrel. The last chore I did today was fill, you guessed it 3 boxes for a Goodwill pick up on Friday. So today has been brought to you by the number 3. 

Unusaly Good

Yesterday was an extraordinary day in my Etsy shop. I have sold out of all of my hand spun yarn. So last night I started spinning more. It will take me a few days to restock. I will be making skeins with more yardage, so if you have a color preference please let me know. Also let me know if you want some art yarn, as the majority of the skeins that I have spun never made it past my Tuesday knitting group.

Things have reached a new level of crazy and will get crazier around here. We are redoing the kitchen. The memories of the last remodel project 6 1/2 years ago is fading. So we are taking the plunge again. This time I have a bit more time so I will be decluttering the kitchen as I pack it up. I hope to get rid of things that I do not use or don't know why I have them. There will be some exceptions of course like my grandmothers grinder, I have good memories of her using it. My cake decorating supplies will also be off the chopping block for the most part. I still do make an occasional cake. I just wonder what I have hiding in the backs of the cabinets after 21 years in this house. Just maybe with more cabinets and less clutter everything will fit into my cabinets once we finish.

I need to go get ready for tomorrow.

Destash Progress Report

Well dear reader I have made some progress in getting the stash yarn from my garage. I have knit at least a couple of dozen hats most for charity, although I did manage to sell 2, and at least 2 dozen scarfs all for charity. I don't send them all to the same places but when asked and I feel its a good cause I send things along.

The process is going slower than I thought it would be, with Eric being sick so much and have a lot of really long nights I have not done as many projects as I had hoped would be done by now.

Today I took 2 partial boxes in the house and combined them, that allowed me to move a box of purse yarn into the house. With more drawer space open in the roll aways I fill with yarn I was able to bring in the giant zip-lock bag.

That leaves me with a paltry 7 large storage bins of yarn in the garage.

I have noticed that strangest thing though the more I declutter and get things out of the house the more organized I am becoming. But I would not let the professional organizer worry over this, I still have a long way to go. We have been in this house for 15 years and I am a born pack rat, just ask my mom she still has at least 1 box in her garage from a move in 1965 that has yet to be unpacked. I started zenning the house a little over a year ago, it is a slow process but it is getting done. For those of you who are not familiar with the term zenning, it is simply a fancy word for decluttering.

When Teri gets home for winter break I will let her give an unbiased opinion in a guest column of how the progress is going. Teri is a very strong advocate for a clean and orderly house, she must get that from her dad. She is very good about getting rid of things and will drop almost anything to do a Goodwill run or a Bookman's run.

In honor of today's achievement I will be having another contest. Just give me your best decluttering tip and Again I will have a 3 person panel to judge the contest. The prize will be something from my stash that will help me decluter and give you an new project.

Have a good afternoon and enjoy your families.