Very productive day of cleaning and removing things from my life.  Tackled another 3 shelves of the linen closet!  All that is left is the rather stuffed full bottom section.

Found a pile of obsolete electronics that I’ll test tomorrow and pass onto the granddaughters if they want them.  Portable DVD player for the car, a Sony disk video recorder, large 35mm camera and a small crappy one.  Who knows it might inspire one of them to be a film director!

I cut a hole in the guest house bathroom door and installed a new knob (that locks!) and rehung the door.  Now they can crap in their own bathroom and stop crapping in mine!  Hahahaha.  I have never cut a hole in a door before.  Pretty cool.  Girl power!

Although today was a productive day not all have been.  I find it a bit overwhelming sometimes thinking of all the crap I have to go through.  It can be very discouraging.

I’m back to posting the blog in the afternoon or evening of the same day so I don’t procrastinate.  Blog history shows I’m not good otherwise.

I’ve also given up naming each daily blog entry something creative.   Would I even be able to think of 275 more creative titles?  Thus the date.  Simplify, simplify, simplify.  I can’t hide my missed blogging days so easily.

Things removed from my life:  Threw out 12 empty binders and a bunch of other useless things I don’t need.  Two garage bags of junk.

275 Days and counting.

Cleaned out my email and reorganized to streamline things.

Worked on cleaning the bookshelf in the master bedroom.  Still have a bit more on that before I can move it to the garage and sell it.

Most of my time has been chewed up planning Destinee’s NYC trip for her 18^th birthday.  I never stand in line if I can buy my way around it so planning is a must.  Advance tickets are a key.

I’m cramming a lot into the long weekend but it will be an experience to remember.  I use Travefy (app and desktop version) to plan trips.  It keeps everything in one place, is accessible from anywhere and helps me make the best use of our time.  Once I give the kids access I don’t have to answer the “what are we doing next” question with anything but “Check your itinerary!”  Hahahaha.

We’ll see the Unisphere, Statue of Liberty,  Charging Bull,  9/11 memorial and museum (day time and evening viewing), have dinner in a bank vault, walk the Brooklyn Bridge, go to the top of the Empire State Building, tour Times Square (I can’t believe they shut down the Toys R Us store!), have dinner in an Italian restaurant (probably not nearly as good as the ones we had in Italy), see Shear Madness and laugh our assess off (Although I tried to get Destinee to agree to see Naked Men Dancing!  Hahahaha), take a carriage ride through Central Park, walk through Central Park (and not get mugged), visit the Guggenheim Museum (who else has dreams about rollerblading down that long circular central walkway?), tour Chinatown, eat bagels and pizza.  That’s the plan.

Now that it’s all setup I can go back to throwing stuff out.

Things removed from my life:  Two bottles of lotion.  Hooray.  Two bags of old paperwork to the trash.

276 Days and counting.

Wednesday I cleaned out both bedside tables in the master bedroom.  To my surprise Jeff’s was almost empty.  Mine not so much.  I found even more freaking lotion bottles in there.  What the heck!

I also tried to tackle the hall linen closet.  It is literally stuffed full.  See pic.

I was able to totally clean one shell before my time ran out.  Babies steps.  Found a brand new shower curtain liner and curtain rings that I forgot I had.  Hung them up and threw out the old stuff.

New rule:  While cleaning out places I make sure I dispose of or find a new home for unwanted items rather than placing them someplace else in the house only to pile up again.  I have designated one of the spare bedrooms as the holding place for all things headed out of the house that I can’t remove right away.  Right now there is a pile to bring to Lisa’s and one for Ashley to grab next time she comes out for a visit.

Things removed from my life Wednesday:  Two throw pillows, wall scones, cloth shower curtain, two sets of twin sheets with matching comforters ……..all given away.  A large bag filled with mismatched sheets and pillow cases went out to the trash.

280 Days and counting (as of today – Thursday).

It’s been raining non-stop here for what seems like forever.

I’ve decided to do my Blog writing in the morning so I get it done.  It will be a previous day review of throwing crap out.  I find by afternoon or evening I’m too tired to think about blogging intelligently.   Thus my daily count down has been seriously off.

The morning was spent cleaning out the two rather large medicine cabinets in the master bath.   After one medium size trash bag I still can’t consolidate everything into one cabinet.  I have ten bottles of body lotion!  Who the heck needs ten bottles of lotion?  What was I thinking when buying them?  That there would be a drought on body lotion?

Besides having people from Craiglist not show up at their appointed times yesterday that was it for the day.  Not exactly my most productive day.

More on the Craiglist no shows.  This is a common issue when selling on Craiglist.  I found that only giving them a set time frame to show up works a lot better than saying “anytime in the afternoon”.  I only give them a time frame that I know I will actually be home doing something.  I don’t schedule my day around when they can make it.  It never works.  The other people this past week all showed up on time.  But alas it was bound to happen and make me lose faith once again in the human race.  Sigh.

Things removed from my life Monday:  I have no idea.  See what I mean about being too tired to think?

Things removed from my life Tuesday:  A medium size bag full of lotion.  Only joking.  Of course I kept the lotion.  Never know when one needs a gallon of lotion.  I did throw out lots of expired medications though.

281 Days and counting (as of today – Wednesday).

I haven’t posted since Thursday since I’ve been busy, busy, busy.

Friday was too busy to do anything.  Too much work.

On Saturday we spent half the day traveling around looking at RV’s with Destinee.  She’s been freaking out about living in one during the times she will be home from college so we decided if she saw a few she would see they aren’t as bad as she was imagining.

We’ve been leaning towards a toy hauler since the second bedroom is basically a blank slate and can be used for several different things throughout the year as it has very little built in furniture.

After seeing the selection of toy haulers on Saturday that clinched it for us.  Destinee was happy as well.  We will likely need something around 40’or a little bigger (I’d prefer smaller but I doubt we’ll find everything we need and want in something smaller).  Fifth wheel versions only.

The hauler we liked the most had a second bedroom with full bath.  One of the walls in that room could fold down into a deck accessed by a screen door wall which could provide a huge amount of space for entertaining or racket ball.  Hahaha.  It would function as Jeff’s office when she’s away.   There was a sliding door that opened onto an additional side deck off the main living space that had a TV and mini frig.  The perfect place to entertain and eat dinner when Destinee IS home.

Sunday I cleaned my office space and sold stuff.

Things removed from my life Friday:  Sold the portable air conditioner.

Things removed from my life Saturday:  Nothing.

Things removed from my life Sunday:  Sold the bench vice and the hanging lounge chair.  Cleaned out my desk and filing cabinet.  Removed lots of old papers to the trash.

283 days and counting.

Today I was a little sore not to mention tired from lugging furniture down the stairs and out to the car and got rid of so much stuff yesterday that I only cleaned off my overloaded dresser throwing stuff out as I went along.

I’ve come to think the reason that I (and many people) have so much stuff is because we are so tired we don’t put it away, then pile more crap on top of it, then are even more tired so end up buying new stuff just so we don’t have to spend more energy looking through the pile of crap to find what we want.  Am I right?

That is exactly what happened with the dresser.  We traveled so much this summer that when we would return home I’d pile stuff on the dresser from the trip being too tire to deal with it at that point, only to pile more stuff on top of it after the next trip.  Trips are exhausting.  Besides…..who wants to clean anything after they just got back from an exhausting relaxing vacation?

After the dresser, in my sitting on the bed resting mode I decided I’d remedy my email problem.  I started unsubscribing to the millions of newsletters and advertisements that inundate my two email boxes every day with the hopes that by summer 2017 I will hardly get any email.  I’ll let you know if that actually works.

Things removed from my life today:  One small bag of trash from the top of the dresser.  Hey!  It’s something.

Look how pretty the dresser top looks now!

Before

After

287 days and counting.

Today I spent the morning throwing things out, answering email requests to see my junk that I had posted on Craigslist yesterday, loading junk into my car for a trip to my step daughter’s new apartment this afternoon.  Fortunately for me she is in need of junk.

As I sift through things I find things I either forgot I had or now have more than two off since I forgot I had them.  I know I’m not alone.

I’m thinking of piling all the books scattered throughout the house into my office, creating a spreadsheet of their ISBN numbers and then selling them online to a wholesaler.  Easier.  Or so I have imagined.  Sell Your Book Back seems to be the service that offers more money for the least hassle.  Any ideas?

Speaking of books…….the Good Sam 2016 North American RV Travel & Savings Guide arrived today.  All 1560 pages of it.  It doesn’t come in an electronic version so I had to break my vow and buy a hard copy.  It’s huge.

Things removed from my life today:  One metal bedframe, a dresser, a very tacky white plastic drawer set (Jeff’s….I would NEVER buy such a thing!), a painting (I have had it since the day I bought my first house.  I’m not a sentimental person), another painting which now that it is removed makes a space for the painting that has been laying on top of my dresser for several months (placed on the dresser by Jeff I might add……….sigh) and a small pile of junk I will never use again from one of the drawers in the secretary —-moved to the trash.  Oh and I sold a chair to a circus performer.  No joke!

288 days and counting.

I got rid of the cat today.  She was an annoying little bitch who always attacked me.   Only joking.  She’s my youngest daughter’s cat (Lola) and I have sworn on my cookbooks that I will keep her with us until my daughter has a place of her own for the little furry princess (aka psycho cat).

We have three small dogs and two cats.  One cat, Mr. Kitty, will go live with my son’s ex-girlfriend.  That cat always liked her the best and hates the rest of us.  He’ll be happier with her.

Lola and the three dogs will be fine in tiny living quarters.  They have a love hate relationship.  They love to hate each other!

Things removed from my life today:  All the crap under the master bedroom bathroom sink that was never being used.  Removed to the trash.

Posted a few things on Craigslist for sale.

289 days and counting.

This day has been coming for a long time now.  Probably all my life.  A life spent consuming as every American is taught.

My husband and I have decided that since our youngest daughter is heading to college next fall we could do with a life change.  We have become a safe haven, boarding house, help center of sorts.  Mostly my doing for some ungodly driven reason.  We are tired.  We want our lives untethered and quieter.

We have decided after some thought and lengthy discussion to move out of our large rented house on June 30, 2017 and move into something much smaller.  At first it was going to be a small two-bedroom apartment in a suburb of DC at least for a year or so until we knew our daughter was flourishing comfortably in college and her new independent life.  We had suffered a great family tragedy the fall of 2014 and the family was still rocking from it.  Leaving us feeling extremely protective of our little group.

Then after a three-week trip through Europe with our two daughters carrying only tiny suitcases and realizing how much we could actually live without I started thinking that a tiny house would work for us.  It is all the rage.  I wouldn’t feel compelled to take in some poor soul to sleep on our couch or in our spare bedroom if we lived in a tiny house.  I like the idea of being able to get up and move the house any time we feel compelled to see new places.

Fortunately, my husband has a job where he works from home and travels, in about equal proportions.  He can work from anywhere.  I started a small business in 2010 and am ready to give it up to start something new.  I’m tired of dealing with the staff.  Besides I’m not one to stick with things for the long haul.  I’m always swimming with ideas on what to do next.

Back to the tiny house…….once I started thinking about the idea of not being stuck in one place and being able to float around the country, world, universe I began to consider that a tiny house might not hold up to that kind of travel.  I didn’t want restrictions and my husband agreed.  He was concerned once we started moving around we wouldn’t stop until the tiny house was in splinters.  I do have a tendency to overdo things once in a while.

So we considered, sigh, the RV.  Something I was not very keen on.  I was looking for something that I could design.  That had character.  That was eclectic looking.  My husband was looking for something he didn’t have to build.  We have worked together on many building projects.  Me the designer.  He……the worker.  He is tired.  He doesn’t want the next big project to take over his life.

One weekend a few weeks ago we went looking at RVs.  I wasn’t excited.  Many were huge and had all this crap I didn’t want.  Many had the most inconvenient lay out.  Or were dark.  Boring.  Predictable.

After about 100 RVs I started to see things I liked.  Things that I could tolerate.  I did research.  Read a lot of books on RVs (Ok, not a lot.  One or two).  The typical way I start every project big or small.  I was not one to go off halfcocked about something unless I knew my facts and had a plan.

I started making a list of what we want in the RV.  Then we decided that will be the next home for us.  Moveable.  Compact.  Realistic.

The gypsy life seemed just the way I wanted to spend my middle age!

We announced our plans to the girls and various people living in our house.  They thought we were joking.  We weren’t.

Everyone started coming into the rooms of our current house with weird expressions.  Looking around at the furniture and abundance of “stuff” in a new light.  They asked things like “What are you going to do with the huge TV in the living room? Your bed?  The new living room furniture?”, “I want this or that”, etc.  I told them we weren’t dying.  Just simplifying our lives.  That I would sell a bunch of stuff.  Give them some things.  Store some things, although that isn’t high on my list as it feels like cheating.  I want a fresh clean cut.  No dusty furniture waiting for me in some storage place from my past.

The count down to the minimalist life began.

So far I have given away a blender.  To my oldest daughter.  My youngest daughter was not happy.  Although she never used the thing she protested that I was giving away EVERYTHING.   This was not going to be an easy task.

Every day I look around and see all the stuff we have accumulated and think…..we don’t need that, we don’t need that, or that……..can I bring that?  Will it fit?

I’ve changed my shopping tactics.  I buy less everything.  Only enough to last.  Stopped buying things that take up space.  Have converted to e-books rather than hard copies.  No more spur of the moment impulse buys.

I decided a diary was in order.  It would help me to stay on task and outline what we need to do as well as keep a record of progress.  I will start removing the excess from our lives day by day.

Thus the Map to the Simple Life Blog was born.  A daily blog of our progress to the minimalist simplified life.