It's hard to keep the kitchen clean when the Olympics are on. We're doing a half-hearted attempt...but we tend to be downstairs watching in the evening instead of cleaning up the dinner dishes.
Both regular exercising (Wii Fit Plus) and regular cleaning are on hold for now. Only a week to go and we'll be back into our usual routines.
In the meantime, I'm spending the time in front of the TV organizing our many photographs. We don't have many printed out after 2003 (when we got a digital camera), but we have boxes and boxes of photo albums and loose photos from both our childhoods up through 2003. I took TONS of photos during the three years we lived in Japan.
So far I've filled a grocery bag with photos that will be recycled. I've decided to forgo the traditional photo albums and instead use photo storage boxes. I still have about eight brand-new photo albums, and I'm not sure what to do with those. I'm thinking that it's unlikely that we would sit and go through photo albums, and I'm finding it very difficult to keep photos organized in albums (not to mention all the space they take up!). I will often pull photos out of a particular album, and then they rarely find their way back into the correct album. With a photo-organizing box, I'm hoping it will be easier to keep track of them.
Right now I'm pulling the photos out and organizing them in Ziploc bags with dates. It's fun to see some of the old shots, but I'm amazed at how many duplicates or similar shots I have, or photos of people whose names I can no longer remember or have since lost contact with.
Mike's using the Olympics time to keep up with the laundry. We so rarely watch TV, but we're using the time with multitasking!
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Recycling Jewelry and Books
After my trip to Powell's last weekend, I filled a bag with the best of Powell's rejects, my jewelry castoffs, and other odds and ends, and took them off to my local consignment store. I received $56 for the haul. They took all of the cookbooks and much of the jewelry. I found a couple of brand-new Abercrombie shirts for Chris, and a summery top for myself, and I still have money left over.
I put the remainder of the cookbooks on paperbackswap.com, and I've already posted off about six or seven of them.
Last night I made fresh crab cakes out of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, and it was so wonderful to be able to reach our cookbooks easily and find the one I wanted!
I put the remainder of the cookbooks on paperbackswap.com, and I've already posted off about six or seven of them.
Last night I made fresh crab cakes out of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, and it was so wonderful to be able to reach our cookbooks easily and find the one I wanted!
Monday, February 15, 2010
Book Recycling
I took two enormous bags of cookbooks to Powell's on Saturday to see how much they would buy. They ended up taking about 20 of them, for a grand total of $40 in trade. Pathetic!
I selected the best of the bunch to take to my favorite resale store to see how many they would be interested in, and I posted the rest to www.paperbackswap.com. It is always nice to get Powell's credit; however, in some ways, Paperbackswap is the best way to go. I've been able to get some really great and sometimes rare books that way, by putting books I want on a wish list. You pay postage for your posted books requested by others, and they pay postage to send the books you request. I tend to post mostly lighter-weight books as much as I can. Children's books are especially great to post.
Already, I've posted four of my cookbooks, and two more have been requested. Someone had requested the original Moosewood Cookbook, but we decided to keep that when we discovered that I had given it to Mike and had Mollie Katzen inscribe it to him! So it's a sentimental keeper.
My friend Shelia in Boise picks up free books at library or garage sales and posts them. It's a great way to get inexpensive books, many of them in great condition. The only down side is that you have to keep the books in storage somewhere. In our case, they are in boxes in the basement.
I selected the best of the bunch to take to my favorite resale store to see how many they would be interested in, and I posted the rest to www.paperbackswap.com. It is always nice to get Powell's credit; however, in some ways, Paperbackswap is the best way to go. I've been able to get some really great and sometimes rare books that way, by putting books I want on a wish list. You pay postage for your posted books requested by others, and they pay postage to send the books you request. I tend to post mostly lighter-weight books as much as I can. Children's books are especially great to post.
Already, I've posted four of my cookbooks, and two more have been requested. Someone had requested the original Moosewood Cookbook, but we decided to keep that when we discovered that I had given it to Mike and had Mollie Katzen inscribe it to him! So it's a sentimental keeper.
My friend Shelia in Boise picks up free books at library or garage sales and posts them. It's a great way to get inexpensive books, many of them in great condition. The only down side is that you have to keep the books in storage somewhere. In our case, they are in boxes in the basement.
Olympic Scrapbooking
Since my husband was an adolescent, he's been painstakingly compiling a scrapbook containing news clippings about EVERY SINGLE OLYMPICS. Winter and summer. We have a couple of boxes of them somewhere in the attic. I'm not sure where his pre-Japan Olympic scrapbooks are...perhaps my mother-in-law has them (or junked them).
Mike prides himself on the fact that he can still shock me occasionally. He has announced that this Olympics, for the first time ever, he is not going to do an Olympics scrapbook. (Another time he shocked me was when he announced, on his 40th birthday, after 13 years of marriage, that he wanted to hyphenate our names.)
He realized that so much is on the internet nowadays, and asked himself how often he actually looks back at them. Both excellent points.
During previous Olympics, we tend to accumulate piles of newspaper and magazines, sitting around for him to clip and paste. He tends to get behind, sometimes not even getting the scrapbooking done until the next Olympics comes round.
I applaud his decision and have to ask myself whether the One Year to an Organized Life approach might have influenced him to give up this tradition. Or maybe he just wanted to shock me again.
Mike prides himself on the fact that he can still shock me occasionally. He has announced that this Olympics, for the first time ever, he is not going to do an Olympics scrapbook. (Another time he shocked me was when he announced, on his 40th birthday, after 13 years of marriage, that he wanted to hyphenate our names.)
He realized that so much is on the internet nowadays, and asked himself how often he actually looks back at them. Both excellent points.
During previous Olympics, we tend to accumulate piles of newspaper and magazines, sitting around for him to clip and paste. He tends to get behind, sometimes not even getting the scrapbooking done until the next Olympics comes round.
I applaud his decision and have to ask myself whether the One Year to an Organized Life approach might have influenced him to give up this tradition. Or maybe he just wanted to shock me again.
Friday, February 12, 2010
Intimates and Apparel
For February and March, I am working on finishing the kitchen (still need to do the kitchen nook and clean the drawers) and also cleaning and reorganizing the bathroom and bedroom. Then I will be back on track with One Year to an Organized Life.
Today I went through all of my jewelry and intimates. I threw out several pairs of underwear and bras, and relegated the following jewelry for resale or donation:
I polished my new dresser and filled its drawers, and did more cleanup on the bedroom. I'll try to post a photo of the new dresser this weekend--I love having more space for my clothes. And it's a beautiful old art deco dresser with inlaid wood. (Thanks, Nadine and David!) I was able to move my pajamas into the dresser and will be able to move my sweatshirts down to the bottom of the closet, so Mike's shoes will not fall on me each time I try to get a shirt down. (Currently they are way up above me, so I have to jump to get at them.)
Then I went for a massage this afternoon (!). In the evening, Mike took Kieran to fencing and went swimming with Chris, while I continued cleaning while 3-year-old Nicholas serenaded me with Broadway hits.
I also cleaned the living room and am continuing to move things around into the new dining room cabinet.
This weekend is mostly designated for fun, but I do want to take a few trips to the resale store and Powell's!
Today I went through all of my jewelry and intimates. I threw out several pairs of underwear and bras, and relegated the following jewelry for resale or donation:
- 1 necklace & earring set
- 7 necklaces
- 5 earrings
- 9 pins
- 7 bracelets
I polished my new dresser and filled its drawers, and did more cleanup on the bedroom. I'll try to post a photo of the new dresser this weekend--I love having more space for my clothes. And it's a beautiful old art deco dresser with inlaid wood. (Thanks, Nadine and David!) I was able to move my pajamas into the dresser and will be able to move my sweatshirts down to the bottom of the closet, so Mike's shoes will not fall on me each time I try to get a shirt down. (Currently they are way up above me, so I have to jump to get at them.)
Then I went for a massage this afternoon (!). In the evening, Mike took Kieran to fencing and went swimming with Chris, while I continued cleaning while 3-year-old Nicholas serenaded me with Broadway hits.
I also cleaned the living room and am continuing to move things around into the new dining room cabinet.
This weekend is mostly designated for fun, but I do want to take a few trips to the resale store and Powell's!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Another day off to clean (am I crazy or what?)
Yesterday the house looked like a tornado had hit it. I was planning to take another day off today to keep up my organizing and cleaning, but so far it's mostly been cleaning!
We got some new (hand-me-down) furniture this week, so we need to move some things around. Mike and I have been tremendously lucky to have received so much of our furniture secondhand! When we were getting married, my cousin's widow gave us all sorts of furniture when she decided to downscale. We've had my grandparents' bed and grandmother's dresser. We have bought furniture for the kiddos and office and family room furniture. But we have some dining room cabinets from my parents and a beautiful cabinet my sister's brother-in-law made. Now my sister and her husband have given us a dresser (that belonged to David's mother) and a beautiful buffet handcrafted by David's grandfather. More places to put things! Yay!
This is what I accomplished today:
We got some new (hand-me-down) furniture this week, so we need to move some things around. Mike and I have been tremendously lucky to have received so much of our furniture secondhand! When we were getting married, my cousin's widow gave us all sorts of furniture when she decided to downscale. We've had my grandparents' bed and grandmother's dresser. We have bought furniture for the kiddos and office and family room furniture. But we have some dining room cabinets from my parents and a beautiful cabinet my sister's brother-in-law made. Now my sister and her husband have given us a dresser (that belonged to David's mother) and a beautiful buffet handcrafted by David's grandfather. More places to put things! Yay!
This is what I accomplished today:
- Cleaned the kitchen (we're back to Day One on keeping the kitchen clean, because of a late-night concert last night)
- Sorted through Kieran's art cabinet and discarded all dry felt pens and junk--it's now being moved up to the kids' room (and out of the living room)
- Cleaned the dining room table (which had been piled high with art supplies and other crap)
- Organized paperbackswap books and other items to post
- Did various cleaning around the house
- Got my hair cut (!)
- Made dinner and cleaned up afterward
- Found Kieran's valentines by searching the house high and low and no one else could find them
- Gave the younger boys baths and put all three to bed
Drat! That's not very much, when I write it all down. But at least I have the weekend ahead of me! More to come...
Monday, February 8, 2010
More on what to do with unused medications and other unrecylable items
After disposing of our unused vitamins by melting, blending, and depositing them in a Ziplog bag with coffee grounds, today I happened across two additional articles on Slate.com about disposing of unwanted medication and items:
"Should you be flushing your old prescription drugs down the toilet?"
and
"What to do when you forget whether something can be recyled"
For those of us committed to do what we can to preserve the environment, these articles give some helpful tips about how to do the right thing.
"Should you be flushing your old prescription drugs down the toilet?"
and
"What to do when you forget whether something can be recyled"
For those of us committed to do what we can to preserve the environment, these articles give some helpful tips about how to do the right thing.
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