Decluttering (Again)

I've gone through several rounds of decluttering since moving to my townhome and somehow I can still find things that I want to throw away, donate or recycle.  It's nuts!

This is how I spent my Friday night yesterday.

Step 1: Tackle a box from parents' house. A few days ago I went to my parents' house and I retrieved 1 of the 3 remaining boxes of my old things. Inside there were some old books, 2 graduation caps, a photo album and some old timesheets from previous jobs.  This part entailed a lot of shredding.

Step 2: Tackle textbooks. I tried to find some books that I could resell, specifically my public health textbooks. I already recycled my old chemistry books.  Unfortunately, I only found one that was worth anything, and and I will get $15.25 for selling it back. I wish I had thought of this sooner because the versions that I have are not worth anything anymore.

Step 3: Tackle VHS tapes. I also sent off a box of approximately 28 VHS tapes to GreenDisk for recycling.  Yes, I had to pay for them for this service, but I would much rather do that and know that they are not in a landfill somewhere.

Step 4: Tackle personal library.  A coworker said to me last week that she doesn't own many DVDs anymore because she streams her movies. That thought came to mind when I was looking at my bookshelf. I have so many that I don't read anymore, and they take up space.  I figured that I could donate them and if I felt like reading them again, I could borrow a physical or e-book copy from the library.  For books that are from the same series/author, I hope to put in lots so that I can sell them on eBay.  With that said, I took a bag of about 10-15 books to the library to donate. 

For what it's worth, I know that one series that I will NOT be getting rid of is Harry Potter...too much sentimental value here.

So this morning was very productive with going to the post office to mail off the textbooks and the VHS tapes and then the library to donate a bunch of books.  I also did some grocery shopping, which was really good timing because I knew this afternoon would be rainy and gross, so it'd be a perfect opportunity to throw things in the crockpot and have some comfort food ready for dinner and for the next few days. While I waited for things to cook in the crockpot, I watched a ton of YouTube via my Chromecast (mainly Project Pan and Project Use It Up challenge videos.  The one lady (Amber F.) actually finished the entire Naked palette.  Every single eyeshadow. I was really impressed!) and used my spin bike.  I used this Real Simple Magazine Slow-Cooker Creamy Chicken with Biscuits recipe (Recipe #1 of 2015). I added potatoes and didn't include biscuits (it's like the inside of a chicken pot pie).  The next time I make this, I'll include mushrooms.  

Lipstick and Book Purge

I was looking at a collection of lipsticks that I had in my closet.  I don't know why I was holding onto them for so long.  The finish or color or both were just not for me.  I guess I felt guilty because they are higher end (Estee Lauder) or were given to me as a gift (one of those free gift with purchase...my mom or aunt would buy skin care and I'd get the free lipstick).  Who wears frost finish lipsticks anymore?  Yikes.  I'm thinking about doing a makeup inventory between now and the end of the year, as inspired by PinkSoFoxy on YouTube.  I was really impressed by how much her makeup collection has whittled away in the past few years.

I also dug around my closet to see what else I could get rid of.  I decided to box up some chemistry books for recycling.  I had to get real with myself.  I hadn't cracked them open since 2005 when I graduated college. It's all a bunch of mumbo-jumbo to me now anyway. I would sell them, but it's just not worth the hassle for a few bucks.

Good News and Bad News

Bad News: I can't find my hoop earrings.  I've searched everywhere in the house that would be a potential hiding spot and I came up with nothing.  They must be in the house somewhere because I took a picture with them when I got my free t-shirt.  UGH, this is going to bug me until I find them.  Fortunately, they aren't expensive, so they'd be easy to replace with a trip to Target or Macy's.

Good News: I was looking at Twitter last night and I saw this posting about a sticker drive, specifically Stick It To Diabetes.  I collected stickers when I was younger, but the collection has been sitting in a box in my closet.  I figured giving them away to kids that could appreciate them more than I could at the moment would be a good thing to do.

Another good thing from today was that I met up with Morgan, a former co-worker, for lunch to catch up.  I also delivered some oatmeal raisin cookies to Reggie at the office.  Despite the misplaced earrings, it's been a pretty good day.

TE Sketch Challenge #157

Donation time: Today's been kinda a blah day. I spent most of the day in donation mode- going to Goodwill to drop off my TV/VCR combo and some puzzles and then going through my closet to find more clothes to donate (then I can fill it back up with new stuff, right?) and boxing up some old textbooks that I no longer need (organic chemistry, what's that?). I've had that TV/VCR combo since sophomore year of college, but in the last few years I haven't been using it, so I'm hoping that someone will find some use for it.

RJ: At some point this afternoon, I fell asleep on the couch. When I woke, I found RJ sleeping on my pillow. Shouldn't it have been the other way around? Oh well, I guess that's just business as usual for this household.

Card: Here's the card for today. I decided to stop by Taylored Expressions for their sketch challenge (#157). The navy cardstock and yellow patterned paper were already laying around near my paper trimmer. I thought the red would be a good contrasting color, so I added a few strips of it. I was fortunate to find an American Crafts paper flower embellishment that would match the yellow that I already used. I didn't feel like stamping anything other than the sentiment.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal
Paper: American Crafts- A La Carte
Stamp: Savvy Stamps (sentiment)
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Floral Doily Motifs, Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen
Other: American Crafts Delights (Party Favor), We R Memory Keepers Sew Easy Fancy Floss in Slate

Rolled Paper CARDS Magazine Challenge

Cleaning up: I went over to my parents' house this afternoon and got sucked into the Great Clean-Up. Dad's out of town for a few weeks, and Mom decided that this would be an opportune time to clean up the basement and reorganize. Some of my boxes were in the corner, and they were calling my name so I went through some of them. At the end of it all, there were three piles of stuff: recycle, trash, and donate/resell. I had to laugh when I found some of my graduate school course work. Well, I already got my diploma so there's no use for it anymore ::dump in recycle pile::

I went to the library on the way home to drop off some books for donation. The librarian was so happy to see the pile of books I left on the counter. As I was walking out, she said to the other lady at the counter, "Tina used to work here as a page..." Yep, and you were my first boss.

Hey, everyone's gotta start somewhere, right?

The clean-up continued when I got home, where I started going through my CDs and VHS's, because, I really don't use them anymore. I found a place near work that says they'll buy used stuff. We'll see how that goes tomorrow. I'll be happy if I can spend it on nail polish on clearance at Ulta, which is conveniently nearby.

Card: Here's my take on this week's CARDS Magazine challenge where we were challenged to make a card with rolled paper. I decided to create a sun with rolled paper and use that as the focal point of my card. I took scraps of patterned paper to create with rays of the sun. The sentiment was actually printed from my computer and punched out. I thankfully had some cloud patterned paper to go along with the sky theme. I thought the sun looked kinda lonely by itself so I added some bird friends.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Ocean
Stamps: Inkadinkado (birds)
Paper: Recollections
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, EK Success Circle punch (1 3/8 inch), EK Success Scalloped Circle punch (2 inch)
Other: Staedtler Triplus Fineliner