Beyond Halloween, October is the height of election season in the USA and this can be scarry. Political conversations rule the news and penetrate many of our conversations – with both friends and opponents. So how should decent, loving citizens listen to news and to each other? On one hand, we can stay in our […]
Living Lightly
Susan Vogt on living more simply but abundantlyBrowsing Posts in Uncategorized
What? How can one “Love the HUB”? Am I talking about hubcaps on a car. an internet hub, or something else? Well, for environmentally minded people in the Cincinnati area the HUB is short for Cincinnati Recycling & Reuse Hub. It’s the go to place for many hard to recycle items. If you live in […]
Sometimes our lives are cluttered with things. Sometimes it’s things to do that clutter our mind and time. I wonder if I will ever get my To Do list done before I die. Sure, I make time to nap, read, recreate, and take vacations so it’s not like I don’t take breaks, but still I […]
Before you canonize me as St. Minimalista for bringing only 3 new items into our home and getting rid of 71, I must clarify that 56 of the outgoing items were pens and pencils and 13 more were duplicates or older socks. Here’s how it broke down: THE MAIN EVENT: 1 new pair of shoes […]
The other day I had a doctor’s appointment. My custom is to take the morning paper with me to appointments since there is always some waiting time and this is a good way to spend it. The doctor saw me and said, “I didn’t know anyone read paper papers anymore.” So, how much news do […]
Is there a statute of limitations for hanging on to maternity clothes? The biblical stories of Sara or Elizabeth notwithstanding, I’m long past a possible pregnancy myself. I did think, however, that perhaps some day our daughter or daughter-in-law might want these clothes. I’ve finally resigned myself to letting go. What helped me make the decision was a […]
There’s not much to say about this post, other than it continues to be very cold in my little area of the world (Ohio/Kentucky/Indiana). The temperatures have hovered around 0 Fahrenheit. Meanwhile I escaped to Lima, Peru for an international meeting. (I know, it really wasn’t fair to be dealing with balmy sunny summer weather […]
Giving To Those In Need In early January most states in the upper half of the USA experienced a polar vortex, i.e., some really cold weather. I had been hanging on to some extra coats that had belonged to our children for when the ones in balmy Singapore or Kenya came home for winter visits. […]
Sometimes my giveaways have to hunt for a home, so it’s a real blessing when the right home presents itself. That what happened this week when some contra dancing friends announced that they were going on a mission trip to Belize and needed old luggage in which to carry medical supplies. The luggage would be […]
The S’s are pretty much finished so I’ll tell you about this lovely warm (and rather expensive) fur lined coat that I decided to give away. I actually gave it away last February because I wanted someone to be able to use it while it was still cold out. I decided not to post it […]
You’ll seldom find me wearing a sheet but I decided to make a departure from giving away clothes and jump to sheets because I store them close to my clothes closet – and most importantly, they begin with “S.” (I love consistency. :-?) Besides, my linen closet was pretty stuffed with sheets. On occasion, we’ve […]
With my days of measuring garbage behind me, I can finally get back to the S’s. I found one more skirt that I missed several weeks ago and am totally willing to give it away now. It did look rather lonely, however, and produced only a rather drab photo to simply give away one powder […]
…and Smugness. Today I selected to give away: 4 pairs of slacks 2 sweaters 8 scarves But what I found that was hard to give away was feeling SMUG. I was feeling quite virtuous about continuing to find clothes to pass on to others when I reflected that since I work at home, I really […]
In keeping with my Round 1 order of “S’s” I looked through my wardrobe of shirts, skirts, and suits. I’m surprised that even though I pruned my closet over a year ago, there were still items that I hadn’t worn in years. I found: 4 shirts (OK, I’d really call them blouses but that doesn’t […]
Our adult children were all home for Christmas. Hurrah! I hoped they would take some of the stuff I had been saving (especially for our grandchildren) back with them. A few things traveled to a new home but I again found that items that I’d been saving did not fit the taste or circumstances of […]
My first shoe purge in 2010 got me from 30 pairs of shoes to 13 pairs – the national average. This was progress, but since I work at home, heels hurt my feet, and I really don’t care much about shoe fashion, I felt that certainly I could do better. I just reviewed my shoe wardrobe, but […]
One of the things I pride myself on is traveling lightly. I usually can fly anywhere for up to two months with only a carry on (and a husband to lift things). Not only is it easier to transport luggage from place to place but it avoids lost bags and my thrifty side is happy […]
“Below the Waist” may be a provocative title, but laying out mostly earth tone pants makes for a pretty boring photo. I did include a couple boxer shorts to bring this week’s give aways to 14. This concludes, for now, my six week stint of giving away our adult sons’ clothes left at home. (Our […]
Since it’s Halloween, I’m taking a break from giving away my kids regular clothes and rummaged through our old “costume box” to see if I really needed to save all the stuff for a grandchild who doesn’t live in town or for gag costumes for special events. I decided the ghost costume made out of […]
What do horses and shoes have to do with what I’m giving away this week? I have 11 polo shirts and 3 pairs of shoes. (You are now allowed to groan.) Some of these are pretty nice. I hope the new wearer enjoys them. I’m finally through the shirt category. Next week, let’s see what […]
