Making Space...

Things are pretty bustling here and I'm not finding time to blog much, but I do want to let my blogging buddies know I'm still around.  I check into your blogs when I can, and will try to post some more Making Space posts before the whole experiment ends in less than a month for me now.

The reason I haven't posted for a little while now is mostly due to busyness, but to be honest, I've had some struggles emotionally as I'm nearing the time for the closing of my brother's estate.   Closing the estate isn't the cause of my emotional struggles, but in going through records to do some final accounting and prep for next tax season, I have experienced some emotional "triggers" I didn't anticipate.  And there have been some hard days where the rug has felt pulled out from under me emotionally and even spiritually. 

On one hand, I've wanted to write about it here - to be known, to document my process, even to be beneficial for others who have perhaps dealt with loss that comes out of a complicated situation and family dynamic.  On the other hand, I've not wanted to inadvertently invite advice or even sympathy that is based on incomplete knowledge - because I don't feel I can share enough for a reader to really understand the situation.  I know... that was quite circular.  And round and round it goes in my head.

So I don't write much here about my loss and the head- and heart-work of dealing with it.  I may some day.  Or maybe not. For now I write this as much as a documentation for myself as anything - to record the existence of profound loss and often crushing regret alongside the good of life that is happening.  That's the nature of loss.  Of grief.  Of deep regret even, I'm learning.  Good often runs parallel to confusion and chaos.  Happiness can be experienced adjacent to profound pain.  It occurs to me that this is, perhaps, a small glimpse of a spiritual redemption that I hope to someday see more fully.  On that note, I do want to say I've gained great comfort and spiritual insights from others who share their grief journeys in a public way.  You know who you are, and I thank you.

So... yes, things are hopping here.  It is, perhaps, the hoppingness that helps me handle the hard moments of late.  The reason behind the hoppingess will be shared soon enough, but not yet on that either.  😉

So...  with all that said, let me share my recent decluttering.

Curious how many of you may have one of these around:

After 41 years, I finally opened up my hermetically-sealed wedding dress.

The blue around the yoke is tissue paper.  Someone seeing the picture thought it was fabric, so I thought I should clarify.

While it looks pretty in the picture (and I assume it did in person), my dress was not an heirloom-type dress.  It was made of polyester, and I bought it off the clearance rack in 1980.  I wanted something pretty, but I wasn't into the idea of spending a crazy amount of money on a dress I would wear exactly once.  Always practical - that's me.  Even so...  in 1980, off the clearance rack, I think it cost a little over $100.00.  I probably waffled over spending that much.

Anyway, the dress had at least one dark stain after 41 years of baking in different attics, and the white lace has myellowed to a beautiful shade of cream, but it made using the dress for some other purpose (other than a Halloween costume, perhaps) pretty much out of the question.  So I cut the skirt off, and am saving the still-intact bodice for now, and will hopefully remove the lace someday and make something else pretty out of it. 

I don't imagine it's the most beautiful of lace patterns, but it feels special since it's mine.  It's actually fairly substantial in weight so if I can remove it intact, I may find it has many uses.  We'll see!

Also, I saved a long skirt's, and a short train's worth of the lining fabric - I'm thinking it's probably taffeta.  Probably polyester, too, but it's a woven fabric - stiff and thick enough to provide some shape to the knitted polyester of the dress.  Not sure what it will be good for, but for some reason I felt compelled to save it. 😊  

That's all for this week.   

Making Space Week 48:  878 things gone!

Comments have been disabled for this post.  To anyone who commented and came back to read my response (which I usually leave), I have edited portions of one paragraph above that I think might have been better left unsaid for now.  Please trust that all comments were received in the generous spirit they were given, and I have saved them for my personal benefit.  Your kind comments are jewels to me. I just rethought the idea of having a comment section on this post. Thank you, kind readers.

Making Space...

Earlier today the video below popped onto my Youtube feed.  It's six months old, but its topic is timeless.

In this video Dawn fleshes out the concept of The Silent To-Do List, but gives credit to where she got the idea (the video below). 

Original video found at Simple Victoria: 

And Victoria got the idea from the book, Goodbye Things by Fumio Sasaki - which I'm now listening to on Hoopla.  

I think Dawn does a great job of simplifying and at the same time giving some very good everyday examples of things that end up on our Silent To-Do Lists.  The concept immediately resonated with me.  BTW, you might want to skip to 1:30 in the first video, though, just to cut to the chase.   And Victoria has some real gems in her video too.  

Seriously... if you're ever lagging in decluttering motivation, I suggest checking out this not-so-obvious idea.  

~~~~~

To be honest, though, I came up with this week's haul before watching the videos, but the idea of a silent to-do list is still very relevant.

First up, I went through a small storage cabinet in the garage this week, and emptied at least half of the cabinet:

Normally, I don't count recyclables, but I had put several more glass jars in this cabinet than I photographed.  For some reason I was collecting them out there and they were taking up space.  A few went under the kitchen sink for putting grease or other food stuffs in that I don't want going down the drain and the ones pictured got recycled.  And I just want to point out that this is a second ice cream bucket that has surfaced during this clean out. 😄  Otherwise, like most of my decluttering, I found quite number of little unremarkable things to rehome.  Thirty things in the picture above.

And then I remembered that I had decided some weeks ago to get rid of a shoe box full of CD's we'd obtained many years ago when attending and working at homeschool conventions.  Working meant we didn't have time to attend as many workshops, so we brought home bunches of recordings to make up for what we missed.  Some of these might have even gotten listened to.  😉  I can't help but think we have more than this somewhere in the house, but so far this is all that has surfaced:

Here's where I'm applying this concept of the Silent To-Do List:  I've held this collection of CDs back from my weekly Making Space posts because it is very tempting to think that I might like to listen to some of these recordings - not everything is homeschool related, and there are some topics that I might honestly find interesting still at this point in my life.  But you know what I'm going to do?  Scrub that idea out of my brain, and erase it from my Silent To-Do List!    What a relief!  Simply deciding up front I'm not going to listen (or re-listen) to some old CDs makes my to-do list 36 things shorter!  😃

If you're at all curious about this concept, watch the first video above especially.  And then look around and see what you can remove from your Silent To-Do List!

Making Space Week 46:  877 things gone!

Making Space...

With comfortable weather upon us, it was into the garage yesterday and today for just a little bit each day.  I think there will be yet another foray into this space soon, but for today's post, I am divesting myself of most of my silk flowers and greenery I store for seasonal decorating, but when it comes right down to it, I don't really use most of it.  Some items still have tags on them.  

Out it goes!

Most of it, anyway.  I saved aside a few pieces that I may find useful, but largely I'm done with silk flowers and fake plant material.  For now.  

I have no idea how many pieces are in the tub in the second picture above, but I count 10 different types of flowers or plants in the first picture.  Individually, there are probably nearly a hundred pieces (from the largest to the smallest), but I'm going to count 20 things gone from this category and call it good.

While outside, I took a picture of two 4-H posters two sons completed for Shooting Sports.   I asked them if they wanted them and I got a "Geesh!  You still have those?"   😆

Outta here!

I brought some boxes of miscellaneous stuff inside to sort through and I'm happy to count 10 items above (in all that fake greenery, there are at least 3 separate pieces).  

And one bow made of PVC pipe.  At least one of our boys enjoyed making these (and arrows from wooden dowels and some material for feathers) many years ago (when a young teen).  I think he may have sold a few to friends.   If son doesn't want this for memory's sake, it's leaving.  As much as it makes me smile remembering him making these, one way or another it's leaving.

Now... what I'd like to know is why there were these five Better Homes and Gardens magazines, dated from 2009 - 2012 amongst the stuff in the garage.  That one is a head scratcher. I'm assuming I just tossed them in a box to clean off a surface once upon a time, but they've been in that box for at least nine years (according to the newest date on the magazines).  Sigh.  The other things are just random stuff used at some point in homeschooling.  I did put a couple of books found in this box on the shelf.  You know... for those yet-to-appear grandchildren.  😉  

Not pictured are a couple of boxes of memorabilia that look like they're full of stuff from from my side of the family.  Since that's a project that will slow me down, I'll probably not sort through them right now.  Just quickly glancing at the contents of those boxes, I honestly didn't even know I had those things.

I think it's obvious more than 41 things are leaving the house with this post, but that's what I'll count - and be happy about it.

Making Space Week 45:  811 things gone!

Welcome, September...

'Twas a busy week last, but I got in some crocheting and even finished a few projects.   

I made two more little doilies from the book 99 Little Doilies.  First up is Doily #56:

I'm calling this "Garden Web"

It measures 5 1/2 inches across

And immediately following that was Doily #81 - which measures in at a whopping 4 inches across (at its widest):

Thanks to suggestions below, I'm naming this one Pretty Little Bird House

Marsha asked me once how many doilies from the book I've finished, and today I counted 14 different patterns I've crocheted.   I don't intend anymore to complete all the doilies in the book (necessarily), but it will be fun to make the ones that appeal to me  - and there are plenty that do.

After I finished the little doilies, I decided to make a pattern I had printed out some time ago.  It's called Dawn Glow:

While Dawn Glow isn't as tiny as #81, it only measures 8 inches across.  It will be a pretty little doily to create a vignette with some ceramic bunnies and maybe a little plant next Easter time.

The pattern was a little unconventional (from what I'm used to). I'm used to symbols which tell me where to repeat the pattern (kind of like music notation, but different), where this designer just trusts a person to know where the repeats begin and end.  That said, many people who made it found the pattern easy, so there is that.  Fortunately, it's not a complicated doily and I was able to ad lib when I hit a snag.  I made notes in case I wanted to do it again, but honestly...  I'm not even sure my notes are correct.  

And then the last round was pretty much a total departure from the pattern, but except for a missing picot or two, it works.  I think this doily probably took me at least an hour more than it needed to with the different times I got stuck or decided to rework something.

It sounds like I wouldn't recommend the pattern. If you like making doilies, do give it a try. No one else complained in their project notes, so it really may just be me.

And that is all I've got for a Year of Projects post today.   The weather has turned glorious here in central Indiana.  After some rainy days (finally), the humidity is getting knocked down and the nights ahead look comfortable for sleeping with the window open.  Mmmm...  my kind of weather.   And our grass is green again!  It's amazing how quickly a yard can go from crunchy yellow to luscious green after a couple of good soaks.  

That said, my heart goes out to those still suffering the aftereffects of Hurricane Ida - from the gulf coast to the eastern coast.  What a shock and devastation that storm was for so many.  

And I know many are still praying for the safe return of  Americans and allies still in Afghanistan.  The stories that are making their way out are heartbreaking.

On that note, though, I was excited to learn that several thousand Afghan refugees are being temporarily housed at a National Guard base just a few miles south of my little town.  They are being quarantined for two weeks, and then will be allowed to leave for more permanent housing.  I know many (maybe most) will leave the area, but regardless of where they end up, it makes me happy to know (and hope) that Indiana is one of the soft  places they've landed on their journey to making a new home here in the U.S.

And that is truly all I have for today.

I hope you have a good week!

Making Space...

Early in the week, I went through a medicine cabinet and gathered together stuff that had expired (mostly things like lotions or weird one-time prescription items someone had and didn't use all of).  Then Hubs came along and decided to discard what I had boxed up to take a picture of.  

I was annoyed at first, but then decided it's just as well - twenty year-old calamine lotion isn't very photogenic.  

Though I have to tell you...  I found three small containers of our sons' baby teeth!   I'm saving those to give to them just to see them laugh, and I imagine they will then discard them.  I'm amazed I saved them all. 

So, while most of that stuff is now gone with no picture to document it (and I'm thinking some of you are thankful now), I'm counting 10 items purged from the medicine cabinet.

Then mid-week painting started happening here.  With a few rooms turned upside down to accommodate that, I didn't imagine I'd have anything to show for a Making Space post this week, but hubs decided to help out by telling me he had more empty slide trays:

Whoa!  That's a lot of trays that represent a lot of slides that either got digitized or tossed this year. I think, though, we're all done.  Well... until I let the last 15 or so go that I'm still saving my family slides in.  Until I can make some prints or be utterly convinced they are saved properly, I'm hanging onto my family slides.  Total slide trays leaving this week:  37!

~~~~~

And I remembered that before things got all messy here (for painting) I had collected some plastic serving dishes from the furnace room that I hadn't used since youngest son graduated from high school. Let's see... how long ago was that?  Seven years ago!?!?!   How could that be?  

Quick! Outta here before I change my mind. 

A few of you are downright pretty. 

It's not that they're not perfectly usable, but the fact is, I haven't used them since our three sons' graduation parties (that I can recall), so I'm pretty sure I'm not going to miss them.  I bid them adieu and hope they bless someone else who's going to go to (or host) more gatherings than I am these days.  When I go to a potluck or pitch-in I rarely take items on trays.  It always seems I'm lugging a big ol' crock pot or large bowl of something or other.

So adding 7 plastic serving pieces and 2 Tupperware shakers, I've got 56 more things leaving!

~~~~~

And finally here, I need to readjust what week I'm on.  I don't know where I miscounted (probably - when I took several months off), but as I look at the calendar, I see I have 8 more weeks in this year-long challenge.  Which would make this week 44.  So yay me!  I have more time to reach or surpass my goal of 1000 things gone.

Just for inspiration, these are areas I want to go through yet:

My clothes closet - as the weather turns cool I'll naturally have a reason to go through it again.  And I have imaginings of being ruthless this time. 

The garage - I'm planning on rehoming some seasonal decorative stuff I am storing out there.

The laundry room and furnace room - these two spaces are adjoining and miscellaneous things are purposely stored there, and sometimes things just migrate there.

Books - we're still looking for our next home, and I'm pretty sure we're not going to end up moving to a house that has room for all the books and bookshelves we own, nevermind that I won't likely live long enough to read them all, so why not pare them down now rather than later?  Much easier said than done, but I'm still eyeing them with the thought to rehome more.

That's all from me on the Making Space front this week!

Making Space Week 44:  770 things gone!