Garage Sale 2012

The garage sale was a HUGE success. So much so that we will be doing it again in a week at another location. The even greater success of the garage sale was all the stuff we got rid of. Day to day we would look at everything at the end of the night and wonder what in the world we sold because there was still so much left. My house is so much more open and cleared out, and I'm loving it. I can't wait to get everything cleaned and rearrange things and see what the house will look like.
In other news Jason got a job. Yay!! He is working for a local roofing company, A+Affordable Roofing. **commercial** If anyone needs a new roof give him a call and he'll give you an estimate (903)910-7429 **commercial** He loves it and the added bonus means he gets to stay home and no moving for us, at least right now. Now we just have to cross our fingers and pray that this will be steady enough work to support us.
Although I have done a lot of simplifying but I don't feel its quite done yet, and may never fully be done. That, however, is for another post.

I want to start off by saying my thoughts and prayers are with all the folks who were effected by the tornadoes in north Texas yesterday. We had storms here but no tornadoes and no damage other than some tree limbs in yards. I haven't had a chance to get out of the house and drive around town to see if there was any more damage.
I am loving my homemade cleaning products. I think I've actually cleaned more since I've made them because I want to use them. I didn't add essential oils to any of them so after a good cleaning the whole house smells somewhat like a hospital. This smell doesn't bother me. I actually like it much better than the chemical smell that previously meant I had cleaned the house. I'd rather the house smell like vinegar or alcohol and be clean than smell like lemons and not even do as great of a job. Hubby, however, doesn't like the sanitary smell so the next batch will have some essential oils in them.
Debt busting isn't go as well as I would have hoped it would be right now. I know we'll get there, we just have to get Jason back to work. We have a budget all planned out and a plan for paying items off we just have to get the income to put all of that into practice. Right now we're thinking he should get called out for the storms we had yesterday. That would be really great, and with the money he would make doing that we could get out of debt in no time. We do have a backup plan/future plan as well. I don't want to get into details or anything until we find out exactly what will be happening but it might involve a move. I will keep everyone updated on the whole job situation.
Progress has been made on garage sale items. I have about 4 trash bags full of clothes, and maybe 4 or 5 large comforters still in line to be washed but I have washed, dried, and folded or hung up more than half of the garage sale items. Everything was piled up (as shown in previous pictures) to the point it was driving me crazy. My wonderful hubby helped me pack up some stuff in boxes and all garage sale items were moved to the full size bed in our daughters room.

 I can't believe how much stuff we had that we didn't need, or didn't use. Now that everything has been moved in one central location I am better able to see the impact of having less and living simpler. Plus I now have more room to finish going through our house. Believe it or not the kitchen still hasn't been sorted through other than a few items I knew I wanted to sale that I pulled out of the cabinets. I'm hoping to do that this week, but we shall see.
Online sales have really slowed down, but I haven't really put much time into it lately since I've been working on things for the garage sale. I'll start back up after the garage sale with the items that didn't sell, or get donated.
Still have a few things to do in our master bedroom to get it the way I want it but did get the closet finished (other than the lack of doors due to the previous renters). We plan on getting replacement doors or maybe just curtains to put up to be able to close it off.

Minus the clothes that are currently in the laundry this is our closet.

All of our shoes are on the shelf on top.

Right side is hubby's.

Left side is mine.

This week's agenda is to

1. get the garage sale items washed, priced, and organized for moving them to the garage sale location.
2. get the kitchen simplified
3. reorganize the laundry room
4. at least start the next section of STUCK, considering I haven't even looked at it yet.
5. and pray for the job situation for Jason.

Here is my Laundry Soap I made yesterday.

Laundry Soap

1 cup Borax
1 cup Washing Soda
1 bar Dove Soap
Grate soap, mix all ingredients, store in airtight container. Use 1-2 Tbsp per load, let dissolve in water before adding clothes.

  

 

Here are the other Green cleaners I made yesterday.

Counter top Disinfectant

2 Tbsp. ammonia

1/2 cup rubbing alcohol

1/4 cup vinegar

water

Glass Cleaner

1/4 cup white ammonia

1/2 cup rubbing alcohol

4 drops dish liquid (I used Dawn)

water to fill bottle

 

All Purpose Cleaner

3 Tbsp white vinegar

1/2 tsp. washing soda

1/2 tsp. castile soap

2 cups hot water

Bathroom Cleaner

1 part Dawn

1 part white vinegar

Spray it and leave it on about 10 minutes then rinse. It works great on soap scum.

And now onto pictures of decluttering.

This is a picture of the bedding, and curtains I'm getting rid of. They are piled up for washing, then garage sale they go. 

This is a picture of half of the clothes I'm getting rid of. Piled up for washing and then garage sale they go. The other half is still in bags.

This is a bin of accessories and shoes for the garage sale.

This our dinning room table currently, and it's driving me crazy having all this stuff on it in our way. This is all items that I am getting rid of in the garage sale.

I'm so so looking forward to having the garage sale and getting rid of all this stuff. Online sales have been going really well tho. Sold some more today. Just hope they keep up the pace with one or two at least a day.

Here is a picture of my daughter....she wanted to help me write the post. Although you can tell by the toys in the background she's not into the decluttering.

Simplicity progress

It's been a rather productive day, which is I guess why I decided to do a post. So I will feel really accomplished when I lay down tonight to bed.
Last post I said my Kitchen will be started and finished last week............I haven't even started it yet. What I have started and finished is the laundry/junk room. All bags and boxes have been gone through and sorted. I am in the process of washing clothes and linens for garage sale. I guess it just got to that really bad point where I had to do something about it right then. I also finished going through my bathroom and putting stuff away, all that's left is to actually clean the bathroom . I will try to start on the kitchen this week, it's just a little cluttered with all the garage sale/ online sale items piled up everywhere.
I did get all my homemade cleaner recipes out today and made my cleaners. Laundry detergent, all purpose, counter top disinfectant, and a shower/tile cleaner for soap scum.

I've used the all purpose cleaner on my kitchen counter tops but it left a film I just didn't like on my kitchen counter so I used the disinfectant on it and I love it. No streaking, no film, and it feels really clean. Currently my burners and burner pans are in zip lock bags with ammonia to degrease and clean them. We will see how that works out. So I guess I've sorta started the kitchen and didn't even realize it.
Sales are going really well online. It is feeling great to get rid of things and make money to pay the bills. Haven't really made much headway on the debt, but at least it's paying some bills. We will be having a large garage sale in April and I'm hoping to make a lot more money then with clothes and small odds and ends. Keep the sales coming Lord, we really need the money.
Bible studies are going well. Saturday was the second session of STUCK and if was great. It is a really deep study, but It's really opened my eyes to so much. I've realized not only does my house need decluttering so does my life. And as I realize this, sometimes I'd almost rather go through an endless supply of boxes of garage sale items than get serious about cleaning out the "clutter" in my life. Next section is titled Discontent....should be a good one. I haven't started yet but that's in the works for this week as well.
On the books for this week:
1. clean bathroom
2. start and finish Kitchen
3. sell, sell, sell

I will post the cleaner recipes and some pictures later tonight. Wish me luck on the kitchen this week.

Ambush

With all the goings on lately at the Lewis house the decluttering and simplifying kinda went on the back burner. That is until yesterday when my dear friends ambushed me and my bathroom. I'm ashamed to say the bathroom still isn't finished but it is enough in shambles that I think about it ever time I go in there, which is good. I have gotten a few odd jobs done here and there around the house.
 My daughters room is done, minus the closet that still has non baby items that need a home. There wasn't a whole lot that needed to be done in her room because she hasn't accumulated a whole lot in 8 months, other than clothes that is. The items she no longer needs have either been passed down or listed for sale. I figured I would start listing items for sale and try to work on that debt.
Our master bedroom is also done with the exception of the items that we are getting rid of being stacked up on the floor. I plan on getting pictures of everything as soon as It's all finished and everything. Every time I start a new project I forget about taking before pictures but maybe when we start the kitchen I'll get some good pictures.
Bathroom should be finished with the decluttering process by the end of the week. We did get through quite a bit of it yesterday with the ambush. And I did finally get my hubby to put up a shelf I've been wanting in there forever.
Laundry room will be a long term project because it is also our "junk" room, which means all of the decluttering gets pushed into that room. Kitchen will be started and finished next week. I'm posting that to hold myself accountable to it.
As I go through everything I have realized that living a modern minimalist life isn't just about getting rid of everything but may actually mean buying items to help you live a more efficient life. Meaning you may get rid of several small kitchen appliances and replace them with a more expensive one that does all the jobs of the items you got rid of. I have realized this in my clothes as well. I have previously had random items here and there that may not actually go with anything else in my closet but hey the were cute, or on sale. This has left me with a very small amount of actual wearable outfits after decluttering. I plan on doing a small shopping spree when we have extra money to put together some more usable pieces of a wardrobe. If they could just come out with a Garanimals line of clothing for adults I would be good to go. I have started a 30 Day Buy List on pinterest to help me see what is really needed and not impulse buy just because I want to. Currently there are quite a few clothing items listed but I will slowly edit those choices as I go and see how many of a particular item I really need. This board has already helped me a lot. I have already been able to take stuff off the list, not because we bought, but because we've realized we don't need it.
With all the nice weather we've had lately it's motivating me even more to get this decluttering/spring cleaning done so we can enjoy the season. I'm going to try and list some more items to sell today and bring in some more income.
Still trying to get those two businesses going just taking longer than expected to get the funds. If anyone has a direct line to the IRS if you could call and tell them we want our refund soon....I think 2 months is long enough for them to process it.
Bible studies are going well. I've really enjoyed meeting with the small group of ladies just to talk and have someone to listen to my problems and pray with me. The really helped me this last week when we went to court. It was nerve racking to say the least. The second meeting for Girl Power's STUCK study is this Saturday and I'm looking forward to it.
Hopefully the next few weeks will be more productive than this last one. I just have to keep thinking about how good it'll feel to have everything cleaned out and simplify the way we live.

Week One

Did you ever think that the reason the modern household can't live off one income is because we spend more, live bigger, and value less?

Sure prices have gone up over the years, but even so few of us know how to live within our means, much less below them. We are living in larger homes with fewer people, therefore they cost more. We spend more time "making a living" than actually living. If we all just paired down and got rid of the things we don't need or use and didn't go out and buy something else to replace them we might be able to enjoy the purchases we've made and value the time we've saved.

I'm just as guilty as anyone for buying something, hanging it in my closet, never wearing it, and then selling or donating it a few years later with the tags still on it. This was never more apparent than on my recent venture to purge my closet. The pile of clothes to get rid of was actually about the size of our queen size bed, including height. I have to admit it was overwhelming how much money, time, space, and energy  I've wasted with just those clothes. So much so that the pile is currently still sitting in the bedroom floor. Part of me had to leave it there because I was overwhelmed and didn't feel like I could mess with it at the time, and the other part needed it to sit there all week making it difficult to live with to make myself truly understand how we've been living with unnecessary things. Once I move the pile out it will feel like a whole new bedroom. It will be freeing getting that pile out of my life. The pile may be a metaphor for the pile of unwanted, unnecessariness in my life, but I'm a visual person so I think I finally "get it".

Our tree out front has tiny blooms on it so I guess it's time for spring cleaning as well. How appropriate to deep clean and declutter at the same time. I'm excited that living with less also means cleaning less. The plan this week is to finish the bedroom completely, decluttering, and cleaning. We shall see if that gets done. I think I'm just going to stick with a few things on my weekly to do list. Seems like that will give me more gratification when I actually finish the list in a week instead of carrying over 20 things to the next week.

I really was expecting to make more headway with the decluttering this week but I guess I wasn't ready to jump right in, hence the pile on my floor. Our daughter was sick with RSV this week as well so between taking care of her and trying to get some sleep there wasn't even time to do laundry and dishes. She is doing much better now but still has a slight cough.
We have a lot going on right now so I'm not sure how much will get done this week either. Dr. appointment Monday, Court on Tuesday, taking care of the girls during the week ( just earning some extra money for that dept payoff), and Jason possibly going back to work insurance claims after all the storms this past week.

When Jason goes back to work that'll mean we can actually start progress on the getting out of debt. With the job(s) he's doing now we are just paying bills, with him going back to work we could actually pay off some things and start saving. When he goes back to work we will have the money for me to start my business and start making money while still being a stay at home mother. I'm so excited to start my business and even more excited about the income potential without havig to join the workforce again.

I hope the week to come brings lots of nice surprises. I'm ready for the good things to start happening.

New Beginings

With this being my first post I want to tell a little about myself. I am a fulltime stay at home wife and mother. Me and my wonderful husband had our beautiful babygirl in July 2011 and we finally got married in November 2011. There were also moves, new jobs, new cars, and my baby brother had a baby of his own. Needless to say 2011 was a wirlwind for us and our lives, which is why I am making lots of changes in 2012.
I may be getting a late start on new years resolutions but better late than never. These are mine that I have come up with so far, and I'm sure more will be added throughout the year.
1. Pay off debt (at least half)
2. Declutter, and start living a simpler life
3. Start a business or businesses
4. Start the proceess of buying land and or home
5. Move closer in my walk with God

So far we haven't made much headway with #1. #2 just started yesterday. I was going to do a before and after picture of our closet but I forgot until I was done. I'll probably post some pictures of the after and the piles of hangers, clothes, and shoes we are getting rid of. #3 is in the works as well. A business for me and one run with my mother. #4 will have to wait until #1 is accomplished. #5 is the one that has probably had the most progress. We've been going to church more, I've joined a bible study with a wonderful group of christian women, and a small bible study on Monday nights.

I'm so excited to really get started on all these 2012 goals. I will be updating the progress of these goals as the year goes. I'm sure weight loss will be added to the list sometime this year but I'm just not ready to be held accountable for that one yet......but I will be working on that quietly.
2012 looks to be a great year, at least according to my plans. We will see what God has planned for this year.