Starting the New Year off right...and early

I’ve been a little bit sick the last few days.  Mr. GV may have given me his cold.  As usual I show it as a sore throat and fatigue illness.  So today I did a lot of lying around, but in between resting spells I managed to get a few things accomplished, some people laundry and a load of kitten laundry.  Right now we are between fosters but I need to get ready for the inevitable.  

I also decided to do a declutter of my dresser.  I am so very pleased with how it turned out.  I didn’t have any problem before with shutting the drawers, or clothes overflowing on the top. No, my problem was that the dresser had become a catch-all for random things.  How random? Check out the odd items below.  

Here we have a magnetic wallet that attaches to the waist of your clothes (a gift), frame I took an old photo out of, a small Nylabone (probably taken from my late chihuahua at night), a lottery scratcher from Virginia (haven’t been there in years...), some papers to be recycled, a makeup bag that came with free samples on the internet long ago, and 3 cat collars that belonged to a cat that died several years ago.  Everything in this picture is gone except the bag, which is holding a couple small things I want to repair.  

These are all items that are still here, but in their proper place:  a couple pieces of doll clothes I plan to use for kitten capes (trust me, it’s frickin’ adorable), a book from my childhood, a few things that belonged to my dad (cowbell, military stuff, bandanas that he carried all the time), empty jewelry bags that will go in my basket for the humane society silent auction because they are perfect for donated jewelry, a broken picture frame (one of the items I hope to fix), oh and one thing that did leave—cat treat sticks that only one cat liked.  The dogs got the majority of these.  But why were they in my dresser?  

On the top here are some clothes that were trashed:  stretched out socks, gown that was too short, and sleep shorts that were too big and as thin as paper now.  Jewelry boxes for banquet, husband’s half marathon shirt returned to his dresser,  Madame Alexander doll cape put with cat supplies for teensy kitten pictures, Cafe Du Monde ornament reunited with other Christmas ornaments.  Other items donated.  

Lingerie!  I have had a drawer of this for 24 years now, since my lingerie shower before getting married.  Most of it I don’t care for.  I kept two pieces and the rest is out of here.  More T-shirts that are leaving.  Random doo dads I don’t need.  The box from our Legoland family keepsake picture from 3 years ago.  All of this has either been donated, trashed, or recycled.  

Norman was a big help.  He decluttered, aka scattered some wrapping paper scraps for me

Some items that were already in my donate box:  2 shirts, pet tags, bit of jewelry, kids’ DVD, and a book and magazine that will go to a Little Free Library.  

Magazines for the library, 2 Star Wars DVDs my nephew is getting, and movie for the library.  

A few memory items here: pillowcases my mom cross stitched, T-shirts for the T-shirt quilt I intend to have made this year, and a few other odds and ends.  I have a decorative box where the memory items go.  

Almost all of these items came from my dresser. As a result, I now  have THREE empty drawers!  Top middle drawer contains PJs/undies, middle have T-shirts and shorts, bottom has swimsuit, sweatshirt,  two holiday-themed T-shirts, and the two pieces of lingerie I kept.  Note that the bottom left drawer used to be full of lingerie I never wore.  

What will I do with the empty drawers?  Right now two are staying empty, and I’m just relishing in having that space.  The top left is now home to my laptop, which is perfect.  I got an IPad for Christmas and am phasing out my laptop, but until I’m done with it, it has a home.

What’s next?  I think my closet.  It’s not terrible, but still messy after Christmas supplies and gifts were stored in there.  

Bunches out of the house and one thing in

Oh my goodness, I've got several things leaving the house again and I'm so excited about it!  Most of these things were in my walk-in closet in my bedroom and we have so much more room in there now.  




These stuffed animals I pulled from yardsale donations that were made to our humane society a few years back.  Yes I said years.  I had all the intentions in the world to sell them on Ebay, as it seemed they were worth a few bucks.  Well, there they still sat in the closet, so out they go to donations.



Same here.  Going out as donations.  More stuffed animals, a freebie shirt from a conference, shoes that I love the look of but just aren't that comfortable on my feet, sunglasses no one claimed at an event I ran.  A few more items that weren't in the picture:  a back support Mr. GV bought to use in the car but really doesn't help him, a box of sidewalk chalk, and a few more small items.



Our humane society is having an event with a silent auction soon.  I've been keeping these things in...you guessed it...that same closet, some for months now.  I am so so so glad to get rid of them and vow to never junk it up like that again!  This is also a good reminder that your good quality "junk" can be a good fundraising item for a charity.



Bissell gives us a free product every year as a Partner for Pets. Hopefully we will make some nice change off this at the silent auction.



I bought these travel Bingo cards a few years ago when the entire family went to Florida on vacation. We never used them.  Sigh.  They are still in the original packaging.  I also donated a cute little dog picture frame that I never could make myself print out tiny pictures in order to use it.



Bracelets that were donated for our yard sale this year but were nice enough to hold back for the banquet.



Bought this Peppa Pig toy on clearance last year.



A Christmas gift for me in the past, and now a nice item for the silent auction.



Cool metal thermometer, bought on clearance.



A few years ago Mr. GV tried to get into birdwatching, but it never really stuck as a hobby for him.  Here we have a new (but from a yardsale) DVD and a couple of gently used books, plus a cute little notebook to make note of what birds you see.  I bought a bag of birdseed and some birdseed shaped into a bell to complete the basket. Basket from Goodwill.



My sister bought these at Dollar Tree and I picked up the basket at Goodwill.




This basket started because my sister gave me the cute little cat tea infusers as a gift for someone and never gave them to the person.  So she gave them to me for the banquet.  I threw in another brand new tea infuser that I got for my husband last Christmas and he never used, a mug and some lemon honey spoons from Marshall's, snacks from Dollar Tree, and loose teas from Kroger.  Basket from (of course) Goodwill.

I had a couple of other items I was able to donate:  Brand new lazy bed glasses (look it up, you wouldn't believe it if I told you) that Mr. GV had bought to give to a friend last Christmas and never did, and an item I got Mr. GV for his stocking last year and he never used--a gadget to convert the screws in the light switch plate to magnets to hold your keys.  It's a nifty idea but I forgot I had bought a nicer shelf with magnets to hold his keys, wallet, pens, and ID badge.



When I was at Goodwill last week buying the baskets for my auction goodies, I saw this Halloween decoration for $3.99.  I simply could not resist.  It was the week of Halloween and had a cat on it.  Never mind that I really don't decorate for Halloween.  I hung it on the front door and when my sister moves into her own place I plan to gift it to her since she has a black cat.

Just one change

I recently made a big change in my life.  I decided to leave the board of directors of an organization for which I volunteer.  That might not sound like much, but let me tell you, my stress levels have gone way down in the less than 2 weeks that I've been off the board.  I didn't realize the constant worry over financial and logistical issues was getting to me quite so much.  I'm still volunteering with the organization, but I don't have to be involved with big decisions and I don't feel obligated to volunteer for everything.  Now it feels more like a choice and not an obligation, and I am much happier because of that.

Now I don't dread looking at my FB feed.  Now I've got the messenger app actually sending me notifications again because it's not pinging all the time.  Now I don't feel the guilt that I always felt by saying "no" before.  Now I'm "only" a volunteer, and that suits me just fine.  Now I'm reading more.  Now I'm spending more time with my husband.  Now I'm making plans to go out of town and if it happens to coincide with an event, that's OK.  Now I have more time at home, which I LOVE.  I am most definitely a homebody.  Now I can do the parts of volunteering which give me the most joy.  I will never allow myself to become that involved again.  

Out of my garage

I’ve been keeping busy, so only one thing has left the house lately, but it’s a big one. Finally!  We sold this trundle bed frame for $40 on Facebook. We were so thrilled to get it out of our garage and the woman who bought it was glad to get it for when her grandkids visit. The woman lives about 5 minutes from us, so we delivered it to her. As my husband said “I’d drive it to Timbuktu if it meant it would leave the garage.” Haha 

Lately

Currently we have a cute set of foster kittens named Lilith and Frasier. He is a cute little black kitten and she is a beautiful tortie. And she whips his butt on the regular. They were 3 weeks and 11 oz when they came to me from a feral mom that was done with them.  Now they are 2 pounds and will be adopted out as soon as they are altered. 

This is Llamacorn. She came to me at about 4 weeks and was a screamer. She screamed all the time and went through 2 fosters before me. She turned into the loveliest little cuddler though and was adopted out to some old high school friends and their teen boys a couple of weeks ago. 



As you can see, she was terribly uncomfortable with her new boy from the very beginning. 



And her mom. 



Lilith and Frasier decided to give me a heart attack and disappear behind the gas logs. See that flame? They stayed just enough away from it to not get burned but had their own little campfire to huddle behind. I had to disassemble the logs to find them. And yes the flame is off now. 



Milo (and Mobey, not pictured) has their annual vet visits. Both are in good shape at 7 years old. Milo is the nervous type. I like to call him suspicious. He has never offered to bite anyone and is not aggressive at all, but I wouldn’t put it past him to fear bite if he was pushed.  He did so good with his blood draw, vaccinations, and physical exam though. 


We had an overnight visitor, Miss Monday, as she was all alone at the shelter and traveling to an adoption kennel at a store the next day. She was super sweet and cuddly. 

Kat Spade has turned a corner and I believe she will make a good pet now, as opposed to a barn cat, which is where she was headed a couple of weeks ago. Now she purrs and asks for attention. It’s a complete switch. 

Things out of da house!

I’m still on the decluttering train. I guess that never really ends, does it? We will always continue to acquire items to some extent. 

First up, a pair of glasses each from myself and Mr. GV. Our prescriptions have changed, so we donated these to the Lions Club bin. 

I’ve recently started donating our books to our local Little Free Library. We are so fortunate to have one in our small town. The mystery and clutter book are mine, and the rest are Mr. GV’s. He has become much better about getting rid of things. These were all books he had stored in a bookshelf cabinet because he didn’t want to part with them. I’m so pleased he let them go now. 






A few things I took to Goodwill:  An inpulse buy from QVC years ago...a financial records kit from Suze Orman. It floats!  Yeah really important here at the top of the hill where I live...never even cracked it open. On the right is a plug-in cooler. This belonged to my parents and would be great for someone that needs to travel with medicine. At my house it had just turned into a spot for the cats to perch. 



Random stuff:  new paint kit, coupon file, new knee his, visor CD holder, new VHS tape, tiny bowls Mr. GV used in geocaching, a hobby he doesn’t participate in anymore. 



I feel like I have made quite a bit of progress around the house but I still have a ways to go. You’d think from the amount I’ve posted in the past about decluttering our house must be stacked woth boxes everywhere that are full of junk, when in fact, it’s not. I feel like this is a pretty typical problem in many American households. So, I’m just keeping on until I’m happy. 

I'm back

I'm back over here!  I tried the new blog, just didn't feel like me, and quit.  But after a couple years of not blogging, I realized I really miss it.

Over the past few years I became super involved with our local humane society.  I'm on the board, I was running multiple days each week doing volunteer work.  But I realized recently I need to back off.  I need more time at home.  I need to not say "no" so much to my family.  I need to fix my priorities.

So I'm back, and hope to share lots of pictures and some stories.