What’s Under Your Desk? Contest
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I know many of you have cluttered cables hiding under your desk. Some of my most read posts are the ones about getting rid of cable clutter, so I know they are there! 
Green Plug is holding a contest that involves your cluttered cables - and all you have to do is take a photo of them!
Photo by Andy Melton
First prize is lunch in Beverly Hills with “green advocates” Christopher Knight and Adrianne Curry, co-hosts of the VH-1 reality show, “My Fair Brady”.
The second place winner will receive a $500 gift certificate to Wal-Mart, while Green Plug will make a $250 donation to the third place winner’s favourite green nonprofit organization. Your tangle of inefficient cords and cables could be worth the chance to make a real difference this Earth Day. See official rules for prize details.
Honestly, I’d be more interested in the third prize, since I’ve never heard of the people nor the show in the first prize, and I’m not a big fan of Wal-Mart. Not that I could enter anyway, since it’s a USA-only contest. Oh well, I figured some of my readers might find this useful!
You have until Earth Day, April 22 2008 to enter (though for some reason the Rules page says May 1st… no idea what’s up with that. I suggest sending in your photo before Earth Day if you want to enter).
You can check out the twisted messes in the entires gallery! Even if you don’t enter yourself, it should definitely inspire you to clean up your own cable clutter, eh?
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Squee! A Wall!
I hope no one minds if I talk about my house two posts in a row!
Here is what our house looked like last week:
It has a foundation! And flattened dirt! Whee!
And here’s what it looks like now:
33 is our lot number, as designated by the builder. Our actual street address will be different.
Poor construction workers! I bet they have eager homeowners driving by all the time - the one in front of the house in he second photo is giving the thumbs up. 
I’m so excited! Closing date is still 3 months away, but we drive by every weekend to see the progress so I get all excited again each time!
For those who were interested in the floor plans, here’s a .pdf file you can view! (File size: 192k)
Our house is actually reversed from those plans, based on how the lots were set up, so the garage is on the left side instead of the right and everything is flipped. I think that will make it more interesting for us. The model home matches the layout of the floor plans, and we’ve been in it about a dozen times and are used to that floor layout, so it’ll be a bit different when we move into our home.
See Bedroom 2 (or Bedroom 3 - we haven’t decided yet!) on the second floor? That’s going to be my spiffy new craft room! More than likely it will be furnished entirely by IKEA, because IKEA makes me happy.
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My House is a Hole (Seriously)
I’m so excited! My house is a hole!
That’s not usually someone gets very excited about. It sounds awful, doesn’t it?
In my case, however, I mean it’s literally a hole in the ground! It used to just be a pile of dirt, so this is a huge improvement!
Part of my reason for starting this blog was because of this house-to-be. I hate how I live and how my current (rented) house looks, and I want to make sure that my new house, the first house I will ever have owned, won’t end up looking like a bomb went off all the time. I want it clean, I want it neat, and I want to be able to invite friends over at any time and know that the house will be presentable.
I have a countdown on the side bar over there —> showing how long I have to get my act together. Eeek, that’s soon, eh?
Not only do I have to learn how to keep a house neat, I also have to get rid of a whole tonne of stuff before we move (why waste the time, money, and manpower moving a bunch of crap that I don’t use?).
My husband and I drive by our build site every weekend to see the progress. I find it very motivating! Knowing that our house will soon be a reality gives me inspiration to meet my goals.
[I forgot to publish this post last week (oops!), so our house has actually progressed since then, as this photo was taken March 25th.]
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The Cable-It
Finally, another instalment in my Cable Clutter series!
I found this video of a new cable decluttering product that looks interesting. Or rather, a new product, based on an old design, with a new feature added that makes it a bit different!
Sorry about the video 
; it’s more like a low-budget commercial rather than an informational clip, but it shows the nifty part toward the end.
It’s one of those cable-holding tubes, but with a small twist. Those have been around for a while, but this one has a nifty attachment that makes it easier to insert the cables into the tube. I’ve thought about getting this type of system before (though now I plan on using a different idea to tame my office cables after the move!) but when I’ve seen them in stores it’s just the tube thing, and carefully feeding all the cables through always seemed tedious. This attachment could make this system easier to implement!
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Declutter During Earth Hour
As many of you know, tonight at 8pm is Earth Hour! [Canadian link] [Everyone/USA link]
Earth Hour is an international event that asks households and businesses to turn off their lights and non-essential electrical appliances for one hour on the evening of March 29 at 8 pm local time until 9 pm to promote electricity conservation and thus lower carbon emissions.
Even Google is getting in on the action:
Google users in Canada will notice today that we “turned the lights out” on the Google.ca homepage as a gesture to raise awareness of a worldwide energy conservation effort called Earth Hour. As to why we don’t do this permanently - it saves no energy; modern displays use the same amount of power regardless of what they display. However, you can do something to reduce the energy consumption of your home PC by joining the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.
Earth Hour is a great opportunity to not only conserve power, but also to declutter! After all, turning off you non-essential appliances means your TV and computer too! So what can you do during that time? Simplify your life!
Take that hour and gather up a few things to donate to charity. Gather up that laundry from your floor and put it into the hamper. Do some dishes by hand rather than turning on your dishwasher. Go through your living room and pick up everything that does not belong in that room and return it to where it goes in your home.
For an approach that simplifies your life rather than your stuff, sit in your backyard and listen to the sounds of the evening birds. Light a candle and read a book that you’ve been meaning to read (but have been “too busy”). Or even just sit an relax doing nothing at all. Help the planet and help your own well-being at the same time!
On an unrelated note, I’ve almost accomplished one of my New Years Goals! My goal is to reach 100+ RSS subscribers, an I’m currently sitting at 98! You can help me reach my goal by subscribing to my RSS feed!
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