Celebrate Dr. Seuss’ Birthday: One Fish Two Fish Easy Snack Mix

I watched the video on your home notebook and idea system! Very cool! Curious, do you keep up with your business ideas and brainstorming in the same manner? I struggle with all that comes with that!
Bernice

I also throw open all the windows for some fresh air flow. I typically start pulling out the warm-weather clothes and washing (coats/snowsuits) then, packing my winter clothes into storage.

Yay – Spring!

I keep children’s books even though both of my daughters are adults now. I know they will want to share them with their children. I am much better at giving up my own books after I’ve read them. I know many others who will enjoy them too and then pass them on. I learned the hard way – never touch my husband’s “stuff”. I did it only once and that was quite a while ago. I don’t think he has forgotten yet. Now I just bring him piles and ask him to go through them. One pile a month seems to be about all he can handle!!! I made a huge step several years ago and purged a good ten – fifteen year collection of magazines, after pulling out favorite photos and putting them in notebooks. It was easier than I thought it would be. Now I subscribe to only 2 magazines and pass them on to office friends when I am finished.

I am so with you on these. I figure until I cannot declutter any more of my own stuff I can’t complain too much about my husband’s and it is my job as a parent to teach my kids life lessons. The books are important to have in your house, especially with kids. As a literacy specialist, I teach parents to keep baskets of books all over the house to encourage kids reading.

I am in the same club with you! Although I am much older … 58 … I do the same thing! When we were transferred to Florida from the mid-atlantic states back in ’88 I had to adjust to a smaller house with a smaller garage, no basement and a small space over the garage they called an “attic” … so needless to say I had to learn how to live large (and uncluttered) in less space … and I can say I have successfully done that … even when I had my girls living at home I was able to keep things uncluttered … my husband does not throw anything out either … old ink pens, clothes that he doesn’t wear any longer … (when we moved in ’88 … he was in his 40′s and I found in his closet clothes and shoes from high school!) you name it and he will just find a space to throw it in … but I, like you, will purge every couple of months particularly when things start to get cluttered … when I began couponing in mid January and everything I read said to “stockpile” I panicked (I’m not talking about extreme couponing!) … I thought where in the world would I store more … but guess what … by just shuffling things around and weeding out unnecessary items I am able to store my items in my pantry and in a “linen” closet down the hall … not in the garage and not under a bed … I am also a “labeler” … I get teased about it from my friends but when somebody wants to find something in my kitchen it’s very easy. An 87 yr. old friend of mine from church has nicknamed me the “Label Lady” … lol!

I recently started doing ONE thing that makes me feel better: I’m using more washcloths and less paper towels. I gathered all the washcloths I have and stacked them neatly in the kitchen. When they’re close at hand, I’m more likely to reach for them when cleaning toddler faces and spilled milk. I even bought some that match my kitchen because I’ve noticed that when something is cute and matchy, I like using it more! Silly, I know, but it motivates me, so that’s good!

Such a great post!  I think it’s so true that people feel “green guilt” and are so easily overwhelmed when they first start to learn about all of the things that you mentioned here.  Baby steps are really the only way that my family has been able to makes changes, at least the changes that have stuck. And sure there’s always so many more things on my “changes to make” list, but we do the best we can, as we can. 

I love this quote – “Don’t fail to do something, just because you can’t do everything.”  It’s from Bob Pierce the founder of World Vision and he was talking about dealing with global poverty, but I think it applies to this really well too! 

We ditched cable about a year and a half ago when we realized that the bill kept getting bigger, and we did the math and knew we didn’t watch that much tv. We watch almost all through Netflix and AppleTV because my husband is a picture quality snob (must be HD as much as possible) and we get a lot of movies and all of the kids’ shows for pennies through dvd trading sites. We also have one antenna, but rarely use it. It’s still actually much cheaper for us to use iTunes, and my husband is also really good at finding deals on iTunes credit.  I do occasionally find some networks that aren’t very good about making their shows available (Food Network is one in our home that we wish had more shows available). Also, it’s difficult to watch sports, but we didn’t watch that much beforehand so it’s not that big of a deal. One of the biggest benefits for us now is that commercials are almost completely gone, which we love.