I do clothes washing about once a week. Recently when I was folding my all-purpose black socks, I noticed that some needed mending. Even after that, I had more than I could ever wear from one wash day to the next (even adding on a couple extra grace days for delayed washing). Thus, I came […]
Living Lightly
Susan Vogt on living more simply but abundantlyBrowsing Posts tagged Organizing
I recently returned from a trip to Olympic National Park on the Pacific Ocean. I saw some big stuff like huge Douglas Fir trees and millions of small stones along the ocean. It was awe inspiring and a visual reminder of how we humans are a relatively small part of creation. And then I returned […]
We’re down to Holy Week and I haven’t done a total clean sweep of all the hidden places in our home, but I have found stuff I didn’t know we still had and put them in 3 categories: 1. KIDS’ STUFF: * How many puzzles should one home have for a rainy day? Probably a […]
Sorting through misc. stuff can be fraught with thorny decisions. True, I’m not using it now, but maybe the next time we go camping we’ll want that old cook stove? Or maybe our kids will want it? Or it has sentimental value. These can be tough “first world lifestyle” decisions. But…once decided, corollary decisions arise […]
Sometimes Living more Lightly is short and simple. Of course there are other times when it takes more time than I would like and feels complicated. This week I’ve had a little of both. Simple: Over the Christmas holidays we had a lot of guests. One of our guests treated us to a number of […]
Lent is over but my 2019 Room by Room pruning is not. I’m taking a breather to reflect on what I’ve learned over the past 6 weeks. The photo at right shows much of what I decided to give away but not all of it since some items have already been disbursed, recycled, or trashed. […]
The 6 weeks of Lent are over but I’m not done. Despite my carefully crafted schedule and efforts to catch up at the end – life interfered. Here’s the skinny on the: Dining Room: We have a beautiful built in china cabinet which makes it easy to store misc. dining and decorative items. It also […]
The past 10 days have included a trip to urgent care, 3 days of company, and a weekend of contra dancing so I pruned my finely tuned schedule instead of stuff. Fortunately 2 of those days were Sundays and the rooms didn’t contain a lot of stuff to give away. LIVING ROOM: Since our furniture […]
BEDROOM #3 (Click on photos to enlarge) Days 10, 11, 12 I thought this bedroom would be easy because I knew I dare not remove any of our daughter’s memorabilia. It hasn’t really been her bedroom since she graduated from college, almost 20 years ago, BUT she had personalized it by painting murals and sayings […]
Before I reveal what “BVG” means, I’d like to share a letter to my grandchild. See if you can guess the BVG. Dear grandchild, Once upon a time, a long time ago, BVG, you may wonder what families did for fun. In my own family we played GAMES. Lots of them were board games. We […]
Now that we have our solar panels installed, I thought I would be so happy. I am, but the feeling is fleeting. The same thing happened after we got replacement windows, or even when I get a book from Amazon, or the perfect all purpose travel blazer. But it’s not just about stuff. Often I […]
Now that one office file cabinet is pretty much pruned and reorganized, I decided to tackle my two bookcases which hold work related books. I had a happy conundrum. Friends who were moving out of town offered me one of their bookcases. It matched my main bookcase in size and style so I was happy […]
Lent is over but my Lenten resolve is not. I had 2 goals: TO CLEAR MY MIND OF THE POLITICAL FUNK that was crowding my spirit by trying to better understand those who have different political beliefs than mine and voted for Trump. I spent a lot of time during most of Lent conversing with […]
Another weekend, another excuse. This past weekend out of town travel kept me from continuing to clean out my desk. After returning home and doing the obligatory catch up from the meeting and addressing the coming week’s priorities, I decided to attack the low hanging fruit – stuff on top of my roll-top desk. This […]
I’ve been saving pruning my desk files for a weekend – when I have more time. Unfortunately/Fortunately this past weekend was Pig Town Fling – an annual weekend contradance which “required” my full presence and hosting 5 people. My nod to giving stuff away took the form of donating 2 contra dresses to the dress […]
I finally made the time to work on my Lenten commitment to clean out the paper clutter in my life, especially around my desk. It took me 2 ½ weeks to start because I knew cleaning off my desk would be a big project and I had other priorities. This weekend, however, provided some free time. […]
We’re one week into Lent and I haven’t even started. Oh sure, I’ve not eaten sweets (except on Sunday 🙂 ), but I haven’t started what I planned to do – clean up my paper clutter. My excuse? I’ve been preparing for work travel, traveling, and catching up from travel. All necessary things but still, Lent […]
January 1: As we begin a new year, our hearts turn to resolutions but our practical sides often resist – at least after a feeble try at exercising more, eating healthier, becoming more prayerful, etc. In an effort to serve you better and clear my own life of clutter, I keep up with what professional organizers […]
Lent is about to start again and I’ve got two ideas for Lenten practices. Help me decide. 1. Don’t buy anything during Lent. I wonder if this discipline would bring me into greater solidarity with those who may not have money for the basics much less any extras. Of course there would need to be […]
I started my Drawer-A-Day pruning in the logical place – my dresser drawers and night stand. Here are the stats: 5 days 8 drawers (2 of which I skipped – after emptying these drawers I chose to remove nothing.) I used the process described on Ash Wednesday – Empty the drawer and divide the contents […]
