I'm not the only one who does it

My brother remarked to me recently that there was no accounting for the reason why I save some of the things I save, but weren't there some things I could throw away? Something to that effect.

I do save a lot of stuff. One reason I save stuff is that I really do hate the idea of how much stuff is buried in the land fills. And once there it probably isn't going to be used again.

And I do recycle everything I can. I just read that some recycling places do recycle vitamin bottles, I'll have to investigate if my county takes them.

Anyway here's a list of some of the stuff I have saved: plastic bottles of all kinds, large and small; water, juice, vitamin, spice, pill bottles, etc. Non-bottle plastic containers such as the kind that hold potato chips, and cocoa, etc. Oatmeal boxes, and similar such cardboard containers. Plastic spice "tins" (not the bottles). Bottle lids. Cardboard tubes from paper towels and toilet paper. Altoid, and similar tins. Keys. Old clothing of all sorts. Plastic bags. Paper bags. Gift bags. Newspapers. Tissue paper. Wrapping paper. Ribbons.

Reuse ideas. I just spent a good bit of time googling reuses ideas. Here are some I found. Some I had thought of myself.

* I found a place to send keys. Wind chime. Weights for the hems of curtains or table cloths to be used outside.

* Lots of people thought of using the small plastic containers for storing paper clips, beads, buttons, etc. (Yeah, I had thought of that.)

* Clean, food-safe bottles for lunch boxes to put nuts, or salad dressing.

* A chandlier. The chandelier I saw made of various plastic items--not at all attractive, I havta say. I have thought of trying to make some kind of sculptures.

* A soda bottle greenhouse. The greenhouse made of 2 liter bottles looked pretty cool. A "green" greenhouse.

Some of my own ideas.

* Cut-up old jeans to make quilts for charity.

* A small plastic vitamin bottle makes a good place to put broken pins and needles.

* Put small plastic spice containers filled with water in the freezer to use as ice packs. I use the ice packs both for packing food and for pain relief. (Ice is good for reducing inflammation, and the bottles don't drip as much as bags of ice.) This also also a good to fill up the freezer. It's supposedly more energy efficient for some reason.

I have thought of trying to open up a warehouse or something that just collects such things so every conscientious person who had more plastic vitamin bottles, etc. than they need could take them there. And anyone would needed such stuff for a craft project or whatever could just come and get what they needed. And the stuff wouldn't just go the the land fill. I haven't been able to think of a way to cover the expenses however. I wonder if it would be worth it to the county to keep so much stuff out of the landfill?

Pencil rich

Well now I've heard about it. The 100 thing blog. I heard about it on a story on the news the other day, and he has written up in Time Magazine. This guy out there has decided that he wants to pare down his personal stuff to a limit of 100 things. Apparently he has a following.

His list includes one pen and one pencil. I don't remember a pencil sharpener on the list. Well, let me not nitpick. It does seem to be an interesting attempt.

I know that I am no where near making such a decision although I am trying to get rid of stuff.

I wonder if I started counting my stuff what numbers I would come up with. I'm sure I have more than 100 things in just the category of pens, markers, pencils, colored pencils, art pencils, crayons, etc. Would my life be easier if had less pencils?

Well, I don't want to start counting right now. First I want to get rid of something. Maybe I can find someone who needs a pencil.

Needed: good home for 3 chairs ...

Well, I'm home again. With all of my stuff. It seems to be everywhere. Added to my already cluttered house and my brother's house. The on going saga of clutter...

No doubt, I am a keeper. By which I mean one of those people who keeps stuff, as opposed to a tosser, a person who gets rid of stuff.

So I sit looking at several (lovely) baskets, piled on top of the microwave. One of my collections, among others. Another, stuffed animals made of fabric, which includes cats, bears and a zebra, too.

I had decided to part with the rabbits, not that I didn't like them. Doesn't somebody want a rabbit made of an old quilt, or pink chenille?

Much of this stuff I would like to sell. And at a decent price, too!

For now, I am moving around cardboard boxes so I can get to my pots and pans, or the back door. In the boxes: other "collectibles" - books, paintings, shells, glass jars, little wooden boxes, stuff people gave me, it goes on and on.

And then there is some furniture, too: chairs, 4, 3, 2 and 1 of a kind. A "drum table". A bed frame... and shelves galore. It didn't seem like so much when it was in the store!

A yard sale coming soon. Then what, we'll see?

I just know there must be someone somewhere who will happily enjoy using a little wooden box, or someone who needs just 3 chairs...

Still decluttering

I have been tackling my sewing room since I will soon be sewing at home again.

I actually found a whole garbage bag worth of stuff to throw away! Yeah! Amazing!

Most of it was old (and possibly moldy) tiny scraps of fabric and some also musty scraps of paper, notes about quilting, design ideas and drawings, extra copies of my quilting guild's newsletter (I am the editor). I wonder if anyone else saves tiny, as in less than an inch wide, scraps of fabric? I probably wouldn't be throwing it away if it hadn't had a musty smell, that and the sneezing. Is musty the same thing as moldy? Why does stuff gets musty? Is it part of God's plan to make people like me throw things away?

I am seeing just how much scraps of stuff, I need to use up. I cut up some pieces into 2" and 2 1/2" squares. Most of the 2 1/2" squares will go to a "quilt bingo" project I am working on.

The sewing room is looking much better. It still looks pretty bad; it still needs a lot of work. It was in a truly horrible condition. Now there is room for me to put more stuff! I have to bring the stuff I have at the shop now back home. I just need some floor to ceiling shelves in there and I think I could put everything away nicely.

Stash, trash and the environment

More on my cluttered life. After writing about the stuff I have outside my door (actually that would be on the carport (or car porch as some Southerners say), I went to have a look at it and see if couldn't make any progress with dealing with it. I did sweep up all of the bottle caps that were on the ground. The recycling center doesn't take the caps, and I didn't like to throw them away, and had saved a good number of them. Mind you, I only threw away the ones that were on the ground and still have more of them.

And I threw away a few pieces of fabric. The fabric which I have outside has been given to me and is too stinky to keep inside. There is a slight chance that I could get the odor out by putting them in the sun. But I probably should just go ahead and throw it away. Some doesn't seem to smell too bad.

There is also the point that I really have lots of fabric inside the house. Quilter's refer to their fabric accumulations as their "stash". Many, many quilters will admit to having an overwhelming stash, enough for several lifetimes, especially if you don't actually sew all of the time.

If I threw away the plastic stuff and the stinky fabric I would have a few items left to deal with outside, but it would be much tidier.

I was telling myself I did this in part to keep it out of the landfill, and then I was thinking about the stuff I do throw away, maybe I should feel guilty about throwing anything away!

Maybe I could make plastic sculptures covered with stinky fabric. Perhaps I could find a market and make a fortune in modern art ...? LOL!

first post

I like the idea of doing a blog. I so often seem to have something I wish I could communicate to someone. I have only in the past year been into reading blogs. Certain people have a writing style I just really enjoy.

I just jump into things sometimes. So with this. It does have some feeling for me of jumping out of an airplane. If I were to think too much about it maybe I wouldn't do it. So just go for it.

I titled this breathing because I am thankful for the fact that I am alive. No matter what is going on in my life and how hard it seems to be sometimes, I can be thankful for the gift of my life. I think even being able to say that is a gift from God.

Why is my life, "a cluttered life"? Does that sound poetic? "A cluttered life," it sounds rather poetic to me. I am thinking of it in both a literal or outward sense and inward. If you were to come to my house you would see immediately the outward manifestations of stuff before you even enter the door. When I learn how to do the picture thing, maybe I'll post some pictures.

In recent months I have watched hours of HGTV, the shows about organizing and the ones about decorating. I am definitely at the need to organize point. After all that watching I know all about what people recommend for getting organized. I could tell other people how to do it. First you have to examine everything and ask yourself what are you keeping it for. And then get rid of stuff that you don't need. Then you start to put order into what you want to keep. Sounds good, eh? Time to quit watching about it and get to it.

So there is that. And then there is the internal clutter. I am not sure what I mean by that, but I suppose it might be about needing to be more intentional about the choices I make.