Goodwill to a Few Anyway

I let the spirit of Christmas carry through today since it was our "Christmas observed" day off. I specifically focused on the "Peace on Earth, goodwill..." part.

In other words, I tackled the basement for a while and hauled 4 boxes of the kids' clothes to Goodwill. Don't worry, they set them aside awhile ago as clothes to either sell or donate. I decided today I don't need them gathering dust until garage-sale season so I let them go. 

If you know me, you know it's a big deal for me to let go. And not think "Ooh this is worth XYZ" or "I could sell that and get something good for it." 

Nope. Not today, my peace on Earth was decluttering and spreading it to Goodwill.

My other big accomplishment was breaking down a ton of boxes. A ton of "I should save this – this is a good box" boxes. Am I the only one?

I must pile them up all year thinking I can use them to wrap presents at Christmas. Since 90% of our gift-giving was cash or direct-shipped, I didn't need the boxes anyway. Since I did the Goodwill run today, I'll do the recycling center run tomorrow. Gotta space things out. I can't have all my vacation fun on the first day.

Hope you're enjoying some peace in your corner of the Earth, too!

Green Sky at Night, Something's Not Right

Red sky at night, sailors' delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning. 

We didn't have the red skies tonight. Just red warning signs on the TV and a greenish sky right before the storm hit. Right before the storm that COULD HAVE BEEN a tornado hit.

Everyone knew as early as yesterday that we could be in for some wicked storms in Wisconsin today. And those darn weather dudes were right. Since the severe stuff was going to hit around 5 p.m., we all left work in time to get safely to our homes.

I wasn't home long and I turned on the Weather Channel and they were showing tornadoes in Wisconsin with one of those TORNADO WARNING lines on the bottom of the screen. Say what? So I change to local channels and it's tornado talk everywhere.

We're in the middle of the state and the line of storms were not going to miss us. A tornado touched down in Tomah, which is southwest of us and, of course, it was heading northeast. It's not too often we're in a tornado warning so even though we saw it on TV, we jumped when our phones alerted us LOUDLY to "Get in the basement!"

Nothing reveals your priorities like a tornado warning. Like knowing it was a real possibility you could lose everything. So what did I do?

First of all, I brought Mr. Deck Chair safely into the garage so he wouldn't blow away. Well, duh. Then I grabbed my phone, camera and laptop and headed into the basement. Jim just grabbed his phone. Now that we have our "beverage fridge" in the basement, he was set for the long haul. We both just left kitty asleep on her heated bathroom floor. She slept through everything. Per usual.

I'll admit it was freaky seeing Wisconsin Rapids and the Town of Grand Rapids in the direct line. Apparently the funnel dissipated right before it got to Rapids. Well praise be! We also didn't get hail here (it melted on the way down) and the strong winds didn't do damage except for a few branches. 

I saw just a few downed trees in town on my way to my hair appointment. Yup, that was my main concern. Let's get this tornado over with so I can get to my hair artist on time! 

The Lord sure looks out for drunks and ne'er-do-wells because it all timed out perfectly!

Be careful out there!

Voodoo Cleaning Magic

Does it really matter where we find our motivation to declutter as long as we find it? Well, maybe... It's possible someone has a voodoo doll of me and they are lighting a match under my feet to get me moving. If so, please don't stop. I have lot more to do!

Today was the basement and closet continuation. I had three big plastic totes of craft stuff. Much of it was stuff I got free from way back in the early part of the century (that's actually accurate) when I worked on arts and crafts magazines. When the magazines shuttered, the loot was divvied up. I shoved it in totes and fast-forward to today and I was posting pictures of items and hoping to give them away to friends in need before donating.

After all, there's a ton of stuff that I never got into – like bookmaking, knitting, and voodoo. Wait, what? Seriously, it was some books from some art and craft (maybe witchcraft) vendor. I think my friends are scared of me now!

I did get rid of a bunch and tossed a bunch of worthless items today, too. Our garbage cans are full so I guess that means I'm off the hook the next few evenings!

Hubby will be glad. He interrupted me mid-cleaning yesterday and said, "It looks worse than it was!" Well I had all those games and was cleaning the shelves, etc. So yeah, it was a big pile of piles.

Now I'm feeling good. Have bags on the right and totes, etc on the left that are awaiting pickup or room in my vehicle to take them to Goodwill. Whew. That was a productive weekend!

To whoever controls my voodoo doll, please put out the fire and let me sleep tonight.

Clutter Jams

I've been looking for motivation and today I finally found it. Thanks in part so some old '90s mix CDs of mine that I've now dubbed "Music to De-Clutter By." And it was.

About mid-morning, I headed down the to basement and came up at 5 p.m. – only taking breaks to eat and refill my water bottle.

I hit the "main room" of the basement with the goal of going through bins of Carter's clothes and toys and eventually hitting the closet. Instead of just throwing things in the donation pile, I did post photos of several items as part of a Giveaway Saturday! I like to give stuff to people I know if they can use it. The rest will go to Goodwill.

At end of day, I did have a trunk full of stuff – not even clothes yet – but I probably won't add any items to the backseat. Who knows how many weeks I'll be driving around with junk in my trunk (ha) before Goodwill opens again!

I did go through the games part of the closet, but have to drag out stuff from the other side, which seems like a bunch of craft bins – books and material, etc. I'll do that tomorrow while I still have my motivation. Crossing fingers it doesn't drift away while I sleep!

Part of fun was discovering favorite clothes Carter used to wear and items from his childhood – like his bouncy ball collection! I assured him I wasn't getting rid of that. Quite valuable, I'm sure.

I also came across some puzzles I didn't know we had. So tonight after supper, that was my treat. I'm doing a kitty puzzle! I didn't get very far but, hey, I'm not going anywhere anytime soon so I can pick at it when I have a few free moments or just need to escape from the day's headlines.

It will be a true test of willpower to get back downstairs tomorrow and hit that closet, rather than trying to finish the puzzle border. Maybe I should go back out there before I go to bed!

Just for a minute.