Can It Be??......More September DeCluttering P*rn!

Oooh Baby!
I am on fire....on fire with decluttering p*rn!!

First off, Hubs contribution to the last trip's clutter was the Get Smart beanie, the Mets truck and the hand massager.....not that anyone tried for the Bonus Points or anything. ;-)

Onward to the third trip, as in "#3",  to Salvation Army for September.....

1 Cat in the Hat facial tissue cover(in the white box)
1 Wilton train cake mold
1 Christmas ornament
3 assorted books
2 Curious George toothbrushes
1 Cabbage Patch Kids playset
1 novelty coffee mug
1 Precious Moment figurine
1 Power Rangers candy mold

1 Gerber baby doll
1 Dilbert day planner/calendar
3 Pokemon pocket monsters
1 vintage cast iron wagon
3 Godzilla stamp sets
1 Polly Pocket pet shop
6 Teenie Beanies
1 Star Wars pin
2 Wilton cookie cutters
1 pair Thomas the Tank Engine shoelaces
1 roll Power Rangers stickers
1 Cat in the Hat watch
1 Walmart watch...yes a Walmart watch, as in a walmart truck goes around the face of this one!
1 package Troll party napkins

2 Avalon Hill strategy games
1 cross stitch pattern book
1 set Chinese iron balls(#2 son's contribution-still shaking my head why he spent good money on this at the amusement park?!)
1 McDonald's glass
3 California Raisin figures
2 Just the Right Shoe figurines

And if you are keeping score at home, that's 38 more items and the 11th load to Salvation Army for 2011.

Now I am off this blasted machine for awhile.
I actually have to leave the house today.
Go me!

What's on your plate for today?

Sluggy

Food Spending Week 2.5-3.5 & Meal Plan

So here is what I planned on serving for dinner last week....

Sunday--Spaghetti and Meatballs
Monday--Chicken Biscuits, Corn
Tuesday--Trout, Fries, Pan Roasted Summer Veggies
Wednesday--Pork Chops w/Apricot Glaze, Potato Salad, Brussel Sprouts
Thursday--Meatloaf, Roasted Potatoes and Carrots
Friday--Leftovers
Saturday--Hot Dogs, Leftover Veggies/Potato Salad

And here is what actually happened....

Sunday--Spaghetti and Meatballs, Salad
Monday--Chicken Biscuits, Corn
Tuesday--Trout, Fries, Brussel Sprouts
Wednesday--Leftovers
Thursday--Meatloaf, Potato Salad, leftover Corn
Friday--Chinese take-out, Pizza(sleepover night)
Saturday--Hot Dogs on rolls, leftover side dishes

We got takeout on Friday since there was a surprise Teen Sleepover & I didn't have enough Pork Chops thawed to feed everyone.

Groceries bought last week....
$33.87
And most of that($25.09)was crap/snacks bought on Friday for the sleepover....ice cream, chips, soda and pies.  I never went grocery shopping last week. The only 'real food' I did buy were a container of ricotta cheese, a gallon of milk and a dozen eggs.

This week I want to stock up on some salmon which is on sale.  This hasn't been a good price in ages so I'm spending what I have left in the budget for September on fish for the freezer.  I should have enough for about 5 lbs. worth.

So here is what I am planning on serving this week for meals, working solely on what I have already.

Sunday--Pork Chops, California veg. medley, leftover Potato Salad, Applesauce
Monday--Lasagna(using crumbled leftover meatloaf from last week in the sauce)
Tuesday--Fried Mac & Cheese(using up leftover mac/cheese), Mixed Veggies
Wednesday--Chicken Fried Steak, Mashed Potatoes, Gravy, Broccoli
Thursday--Beef Pie Casserole w/carrots and green beans
Friday--Chicken Cheese Quesadillas, Green Salad
Saturday--Leftovers

No take-out this week.  And I know that Tues. meal is lame but it's the only thing I can think of to get them to eat the leftover mac and cheese!lol  I look at this unhealthy choice this way....the Fair they hold this week is canceled this year due to the flooding....and they ate far worse stuff at the Fair so Tues. meal is my homage to fair food.lol

I've got most everything to accomplish this meal plan except I will have to buy carrots and salad greens along with our usual milk purchases for the week.
And some fresh fruit as we are all out.

I'm at $215.34 spent for September so far.
I've got $34.66 left in the food budget with 5 days left to go.

Sluggy

Weekend Feelings & Progress

Well my back gave out sometimes between Friday evening and Sunday morning.
This means I didn't get all the potential toy sale boxes gone through in storage before the weekend was over.
Shoot!

I have sorted many of them however.

I also got all the shelving put together and arranged in the garage.

 I have 40 shelves, 1 banquet table with a shelf on top, 1 card table, 1 tea cart, 1 patio table & 2 storage tubs I can use to put items on(fragile/heavy items like ceramic cookie jars, etc. that the shelving can't hold).  If needed I can also put the pool deck storage box in the driveway and display more items on that.

And I got the Advertising Flyer designed and ready to print.

Now I need to dust off and price all the items in the garage and put them out for display since there are so many boxes of items out there now you can't even walk around.lol
After I get that all priced and out(the empty boxes go into storage in case I need them to cart what doesn't sell to charity), I'll get back to going through what is left in storage.
I am tired.

And I am emotionally raw too.
It sucks to be me right now, but I know I have to face these feelings so I can get past them.

Going through all these boxes of items and deciding what to do with them has been rough.
I've had to confront some bad memories.......from a time when I wasn't very happy and bought some of this stuff.
I've had to confront things about myself.
Things like...what made me buy all this stuff in the first place.
Things like.....the waste of money.  I made money on this stuff but not being able to sell what is left and hanging onto it has cost money.
Things like....not making decisions for so many years on some of this stuff.  Not being able to let it go!
Things like....throwing good money after bad and not just cutting my losses sometimes.
Things like.....letting some of this stuff take over my life.
Things like.....feeling like a hoarder.  It runs in our family so I have to keep an eye on myself.

Spending so much time with all this crap just makes me depressed. 8-(

But I know I am getting better.
Because if I had tried to sell all this crap last year for as little as I am going to charge, I wouldn't have been able to go through with it!
This tells me that I have loosened my emotional hold on these "things".....or have they loosened their emotional hold on ME?!?!
Hhhmmmm...

At any rate, I'm done dealing with this stuff for today and tomorrow I'll continue to make preparations for the sale.

Here's hoping your Weekend brought you some time off or good progress toward a goal!

Sluggy

When You are a Plant, There is a Thing As Too Much Rain!

I can't remember if I shared this photo yet....yes, it's hell getting old.lol

Late last month I harvested my banana peppers.  There were a few left on the plants that were still green but I think the rabbits have since stripped the leaves and peppers that are left.

And I had a tremendous bounty of pie pumpkins out in the yard....

Last I counted there were 9 pumpkins.
Then the rains from 2 Hurricanes came through within a week of each other, dumping 16 inches on our yard.
All my ripened pumpkins rotted or fell victim to hungry chipmunks.
Same fate befell many of my tomatoes.

I was able to pick/save enough tomatoes to make one large batch of pasta sauce(besides the few we ate on sandwiches).  There will be no canning of tomatoes this year......

I was able to save one pumpkin....

Well, the chipmunks did nibble on it....

I cut that part off, roasted, pureed and froze the pulp.
The good news with the pumpkins is that there are two still out there that are just ripening now, so not all is lost.  I'll be picking and bringing them inside this weekend.

 And my volunteer Morning Glories survived the rainfall, dried out finally and are still blooming.

We'll be closing up the pool and the gardens this weekend.
Fall is officially here and the changing leaves have already stepped up the rate at which they are a changin'.

Here's hoping you can get outside this weekend and get your hands dirty!

Sluggy

Making Progress on the Toy Sale Prep

Here's an update on everything I've been working on to get ready to hold this Toy Garage Sale next month.

I've been getting boxes of inventory out of storage and going through them.
I sort every item into one of three piles....
1. Still worth selling on eBay-those boxes go into the living room
2. Going directly to Charity-those boxes get photographed and put into Hubs car trunk
3. For the Toy Sale-those boxes get stacked in the garage

I figure I've got about 1/3 of the inventory left in storage to go through.
As I hauled boxes out, I put back and organized other boxes(no-toy stuff)in the storage unit.

Here's a shot of the whole unit from Tuesday afternoon....

Well you can see the foreground of what is left in this shot.

Here is what's in back....

And in the very back....

The stack of boxes on the right in the picture contains empty boxes, extra bubble wrap and the one on the bottom is filled with toilet paper.lol  All the rest is merchandise.

Here is what I organized.....

This set of tubs/boxes is all the extra toiletries and HBA products I have. There is 1 box left in the garage to take over and add to this stack.

In this picture(the stack with the paper towel rolls and facial tissue and the tubs behind that stack)shows my fabric stash.....well, some of my fabric stash.  I still have tubs of it in the garage to move.  But at least now in storage, all the fabric is in one place.

I got the last 3 shelving units taken out of storage on Tuesday.  After I get them cleaned up I can start arranging all the shelving in the garage for the sale.
Yesterday I began rearranging and emptying some of the shelving already in the garage.
I cleared 3 shelves on this unit.....

And I cleared 1 shelf on this one.....

The shelf below the one I cleared is toys I need to go through to sort, so I consider it half cleared off already.lol

Now you are probably wondering WHAT was ON those shelves I cleared, aren't you?
The 1 shelf above I cleared was stockpiled noodles, canned cheese, foil and plastic wrap(the plastic is not mine, it's Hubs!).  All that just got consolidated into the other big shelving unit of stockpile goods.
But the unit I cleared 3 shelves off had held most of my TP stockpile.  So I shifted some and filled up these shelves above and below with TP, since they are too tall or too low for holding the toys that are for sale.......

And the rest of the TP stockpile was moved to here.....

Under the bed in Daughter's ex-bedroom where piles of her crap use to live.  So now my TP stockpile is spread out over 3 locations.....bedroom, garage, storage.  I hate that but it's only temporary until the toy sale is over.  Then I'll move what is in storage into the garage(where the toys sat for the sale) in preparation for getting rid of the storage unit.  It should all fit by then since we'll be using it down some.  Just pray I don't find a sale on TP anytime soon that makes it free with Qs and promotions....then we'll be in trouble!lol

Next up on my plate here.....
1. Getting the last of the shelving into the garage and organized.  I have the boxes of what I am planning on putting into the toy sale stacked out there and there is no room to move around.  The shelves need to go into place and I need to take some tubs of fabric out of there and put into storage, now that there is room in there for them to be stacked neatly. 
2. After organizing shelving for the sale, I can start to put the toys out on the shelves, making room in the garage for more boxes.  Then I can haul more loads of boxes of toys home to sort through.  I hope to finish getting all the boxes of stuff here for sorting(and get them sorted!)by the end of the weekend.  That should keep me on schedule for now.

Wish me luck!


Sluggy