My House is a Hole (Seriously)
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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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Need Help? Barter For It!
I hope you all enjoyed your weekend, whether you celebrate Easter or not! Here, have an absolutely adorable baby bunny to look at:
Photo by greefus groinks
I finally managed to plan a big step in my fight to get my house (and stuff!) move-ready! Unfortunately it can’t happen until the end of May, but the time has just been flying by so far this year so I’m sure it’ll come up in no time.
I’m swapping some work with my relatives! My Mother in Law and my Aunt are coming up to help me sort through my stuff and help me be ruthless in getting rid of it! Yay!
In exchange, I’ll be helping my Aunt sort through her basement, though I’m not sure what we’re doing for my Mother in Law. Ahhh, bartering! What fun!
I’m swapping decluttering for decluttering, but at least the job will get done. If that’s not your thing, trade something else you are good at. If you enjoy baking, make a friend a few pies, or some nice homemade breads in exchange for them helping you with your decluttering. If you’re handy, offer to fix their broken lawnmower or repaint their peeling fence. Not only is this cheaper than paying someone to help you, it gives you a working buddy you already like, so the task should go quicker! 
Trading labour for labour is a great way to get some decluttering help if you need it! After all, it’s much easier to toss something out if it doesn’t mean anything to you, so a helper’s point of view may be just what you need to show yourself that you really don’t need to keep all those egg cartons “just in case” you need them for a craft. I do this sort of thing much better on a team rather than by myself. It’s too easy to let myself keep something in case I need it later.
Jennifer at Declutter it! hit the nail on the head the other day. She points out how difficult it can be to get rid of those things we’re keeping “to do later”. We all have some things that we bought with the best intentions, but we find ourselves just too busy to do them, so the supplies sit there, unused. Often, we find it extremely difficult to get rid of this sort of thing. It is especially painful if you bought them at full price and they are completely untouched (you feel as though you didn’t get your money’s worth - because you didn’t!).
Why is this step so hard? Because it forces you to look at what really matters. It means you have to be sickeningly honest with yourself and admit who you are.
It might feel a little sad to get rid of that gardening stuff, because that really does prove that you aren’t going to be a gardener, no matter how cool it sounded. It’s depressing to get rid of the jeans that you wish you still fit into, but maybe once you clear out the clutter of your life, you’ll have time to workout, and then, guess what, you can buy new skinny jeans.
Her challenge for this week is to get rid of 5 “maybe” items, as she calls them.
Try it out. Trust me, you’ll find at least 5 to get rid of. It won’t be easy, but I know you can do it. I’ll do it too, and post what I’m getting rid of!
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Happy Spring!
Welcome Spring!
Photo by Steve
Supposedly. It’s still snowing here in Southern Ontario today.
I have just heard about a new holiday (thanks BusyMe!) that I really should celebrate!
It’s happening right now; March 19th 2008 to April 5th 2008. What is it, you may ask?
Discardia, of course!
Discardia is a made-up holiday, created by Dinah Sanders.
The purpose of Discardia is to simply let things go. Stuff. Bad habits. Emotional baggage.
Discardia is celebrated by getting rid of stuff and ideas you no longer need. It’s about letting go, abdicating from obligation and guilt, being true to the self you are now. Discardia is the time to get rid of things that no longer add value to your life, shed bad habits, let go of emotional baggage and generally lighten your load.
Discardia is a quarterly holiday, so it happens 4 times a year in conjunction with the Solstices and the Equinoxes.
It takes place in the time between the Solstices & Equinoxes and their following new moons. Discardia is celebrated by getting rid of stuff and ideas and habits you no longer need. On the Discardian new moon you don’t buy anything or bring anything into your home and enjoy the fact that you have enough.
Sounds like a great concept to me! It suits Clutter Cubed to a tee! It’s not just about getting rid of “things” here, it’s about getting rid of anything that clutters up your life, physically, mentally, or emotionally. Get rid of things you don’t need, and try not to being anything you don’t need into your life either.
Seth has made a Discardian Calculator, so you can see when the next sets of dates are. As he says, mixing solar and lunar events like that makes the schedule a little wonky, but that’s ok!
The next ten Discardia “celebrations” are as follows:
- 19 Mar 2008 - 5 Apr 2008
- 20 Jun 2008 - 2 Jul 2008
- 20 Jun 2008 - 2 Jul 2008
- 21 Dec 2008 - 27 Dec 2008
- 20 Mar 2009 - 26 Mar 2009
- 20 Jun 2009 - 22 Jun 2009
- 22 Sep 2009 - 17 Oct 2009
- 21 Dec 2009 - 14 Jan 2010
- 20 Mar 2010 - 14 Apr 2010
- 21 Jun 2010 - 11 Jul 2010
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