Other Places to Find Me
People I Love
Search Me
May 2013 S M T W T F S « Aug 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Tags
albuquerque art beans black beans cemeteries chickpeas corn Cuervo December Views digital familia de burque family fast fasting garden gardening juice juicing kale katie life Matrix Fine Art new mexico New Mexico State Penitentiary organization photography poetry purge purging quinoa Railyards raine klover Raineworks Photography recipes reverb rice simplify simplifying ucc vegan veganism volunteering william wooden cow gallery Yeso
Tag Archives: organization
Katie
Katie vamping it up
Today I purged a little more – with the kids! Katie chose to eliminate half of her stuffed animal (down to eight) and we eliminated a box of dress-up clothes under her bed. We kept the stuff but ditched the box and decided to utilize an empty vintage suitcase she already had in her room. We also went through her closet and purged her summer wardrobe – getting rid of things that are too small or she just doesn’t like anymore (apparently she is now opposed to monkeys). Katie’s tastes have changed this year and she is more adamant about her opinions. Her favorite colors are purple and black, she tends to go for edgier, punk styles, and she hates ruffles and bows. Anything “baby” pink had to go, as well as things that had bows, ruffles, eyelet lace, or anything remotely “sweet”. I would hold something up and she would either give it a thumbs up or thumbs down. Thumbs down were often accompanied by “that’s dumb” asides.
Thankfully I bought her fall/winter wardrobe at a local consignment sale in June – after she had made her new fashion choices clear. Babygirl now has a cohesive wardrobe that will transition from summer to fall to winter easily.
Related posts:
The Great Purge of 2011
I am not a minimalist. I am a maximalist, a piler, a stacker, an information addict, a paper addict, a secret hoarder. I’m a sucker for yard sales, estate sales, thrift stores – and art and art supplies. In my 20s apartment living combined with moving a lot kept me from acquiring too much. However six years in Albuquerque in a house allowed give in to my hoarder tendencies. And exploring mixed media artmaking gave me carte blanche to buy anything and everything in the under the guise of “art supplies.” Dozens of old license plates – art supplies! Random antlers – art supplies! Hundreds of old glass negatives – art supplies!!! A wall of fabric – art supplies! As I moved away from mixed media and focused more on photography and my gallery I had several “arty” yard sales to get rid of some those supplies. And when we decided to move I got rid of even more stuff – and most of our furniture. I felt like I’d gone as low as I could go as far as the amount of stuff I owned.
Once we got to Huntington we went on a buying/acquiring spree – new(to us) furniture, kitchen stuff, new storage stuff. Our new house is about the same square footage as our old one – but with a vastly different layout, few closets, and no garage. I’ve grumbled for a full year about the lack of space.
And I’ve allowed my piles of stuff to grow and multiply. It’s just been too easy to complain about the lack of space while letting the piles get out of hand.
The last few months and I’ve been looking into tiny houses as part of my sustainable living quest. I’ve always loved tiny living – my favorite home ever was my studio apartment in downtown Seattle. Treehouses, houseboats,yurts – tiny living is where it’s at. But how could I ever live in a tiny house when I can’t even get comfortable in my small house?
Cue a dinner I was having at my house – I had the food ready, the house picked up (read the piles had been stashed) and I just lost my mind. I started taking the doors off my kitchen cabinets, I quickly made a “yard sale” pile of the all the dishes that didn’t match, the kids had outgrown, I never used, etc. And voila – in a few hours I had a much cleaner, simpler, happy kitchen!!
This was a freakin’ epiphany! Over the past few weeks I’ve gone room by room, drawer by drawer, and cleared out so much. I even have an empty drawer in my kitchen now! We have low, slopey closets under the eaves. One of which you literally couldn’t even walk into. It’s been completely cleared out and now holds my art collection (the part that’s not on the walls) and encaustic supplies (something I couldn’t even see much less reach before). I went through an unpacked box that’s been mocking me for a year now – and kept almost none of its contents.
We also weeded out our DVD collection by 3/4. I made my first visit to a pawn shop and unloaded 2 engagement rings, 1 wedding ring, and some old random jewelry – that was a great way to release some emotional baggage. Nothing was sacred and everything was scrutinized. A desk and a couch left the premises. My closet got a major purge as I vowed to only keep stuff that I loved (or at least liked a lot).
I also got rid of mounds of paper – magazines, art papers, old paperwork. I can’t believe I moved so much paper cross country!!!
We’re also working on simplifying our life in general. We didn’t renew our YMCA membership (we didn’t use it as much as we should have) and are checking into eliminating our satellite TV and going with a Roku.
The backyard has gotten a makeover – I’ve torn down an old fence, cut down a tree, trimmed some other overhanging trees from the alley, and painted the deck. I’ll be working more on that as we head into fall. More on that later.
I planned on having a yard sale yesterday, but was rained out. Next Saturday is the day!!! And then all of this stuff will really be out of my life for good.
I’m so much happier in my house and my skin now. I feel like those piles were blocking my creative juices – I have so many ideas spinning through my head now.
Gotta go make something!
Related posts:
Follow Me
