Little Black Guidebook

We’re home and sorting through the pictures. When you’re carrying everything on your back like a snail through the world you travel light. We took only photos and a few postcards home. Even our couch surfing hosts and European friends were surprised when they saw our luggage or lack thereof.

Hubby finished his book basically on the flight over and was lamenting that he didn’t pack more. I handed him the iPad and told him to download another book through Amazon Kindle. We both love the tactile feel of paper and I don’t think he ever would have done this at home, but on the road with no other option he picked up the iPad downloaded his book and read it and 2 others on the trip and loved it!

Now that we’re home I’ve been thinking more about the stuff that fills our life. Books in particular. We’re both voracious readers and always are reading something. Some books are like old friends and will never be discarded, but after having the experience of actually reading a full novel on the iPad it isn’t as necessary to cling to our $0.99 paperbacks. Tom Clancy can always be downloaded or borrowed from the library and doesn’t need to fill my shelves at the house.

One small change in our house, but a fundamental shift in the “I might want this someday.” category.

Last room of the house to receive my obsessive spring cleaning pass before officially declaring it to be summer was the laundry room. After clearing out all the garage sale items which were being organized in there last weekend it wasn’t too hard. Phew, nice to be done with something. Now time for a new list…

Laundry Room Overachievers Spring Cleaning List via Real Simple

The Washer

• Run white vinegar through the washer. This will sanitize the inside and clear away soap scum.

The Dryer

• Empty the lint trap. Wipe off fuzz with a damp cloth or a used fabric-softener sheet. Or wet your hands and run your fingers over the mesh screen to scoop up the lint. Fabric softener can cause a waxy buildup on the screen, so wash it out in a sink or vacuum it.
• Wipe the interior walls of the dryer. Use a cloth dampened with dishwashing liquid and warm water. Scrub any linty residue around the trap opening with an old toothbrush, if necessary.

Both Appliances

• Wipe down the outside of each appliance. Clean the fronts, sides, and tops using a cloth dampened with a few drops of dishwashing liquid or all-purpose cleaner.
• Clean behind the appliances. On a low setting, with a brush attachment, vacuum the backs of the washing machine and the dryer and the flooring underneath. To reach behind the units, move the machines using appliance wheels or casters (available at hardware stores). Be careful not to stretch the dryer hose. If the hose looks too short, disconnect it first.

The Sink

• Wash with cleaner and a cloth. Then shine the faucet with a microfiber cloth.

The Countertops

• Clean the surfaces, shelving, and bins. Wipe them down with a cloth and cleaner, and then do the same with the cabinet fronts.

The Floor

• Mop or vacuum. Start from the farthest corner of the room and work toward the door, from left to right. Launder rugs, if possible, or vacuum them. Run a dust mop underneath the washer and the dryer, if it fits. Airborne lint can get kicked underneath the appliances and create a fire hazard if it piles up.

The Dryer Hose

• Run an extendable duster around the inside of the dryer hose. Or vacuum it with a crevice attachment. Either method will clear away the lint that accumulates on the walls of the hose.

The Vents

• Using a brush attachment, vacuum the vents on a high setting. Dust and lint, particularly in this room, can clog the vents, reducing airflow in the room. Wipe the vents’ grates with a damp cloth.

The Window(s)

• Spritz glass cleaner on a cloth. Or try dishwashing liquid and water. Pass over the sill and the frame with the damp cloth. Vacuum curtains, if you have them, with a brush attachment.

The Iron

• To clean mineral deposits and spray-starch buildup make a paste of baking soda and water, apply it to a cloth, and wipe down the iron. Circle the holes on the soleplate with cotton swabs.

“You are excited, thrilled, and can’t wait. You are about to move overseas indefinitely for the dream experience of a lifetime. You now need to detox and simplify every corner of your home and life like never before. Many things need to be eliminated, then eliminated some more. Your things need to be streamlined and re-organized. This time you’re not overwhelmed with the thought of clearing clutter and simplifying your life because you have the adventure of an overseas destination waiting for you.”

So ends round one of We’re Moving Overseas! Do I feel ready to move?

Physically, we’re getting close. If we actually had to move we would sell our major furniture pieces, eat our perishables, donate our cans, and pack up; probably with another big garage sale for the practicality sake of expense of moving.

Emotionally? Hell no! I’m a planner and an actual overseas move would take months of agonizing details, job searches, etc. But I am in a better place. Having purged a lot of material attachments, I find I am more mentally prepared to handle changes. I could actually contemplate moving when hubby gets out of the Army Reserve and we are free to live where we like. I could see actually moving beyond the dreaming phase to the action phase and plan on keeping the house and our lives as uncluttered as possible to allow opportunities like this to be taken advantage of.

Whether the future holds 50 more years in Alaska or moving to France in 2012 I don’t know, but we’ve allowed room in our lives both physically and mentally for more possibilities through this process. I would highly recommend it.

Thank you unclutterer for posting the original inspiration for this series.

I have been so vocal against my battle against the household bulge that I am being joined by several of my coworkers. We’re turning our workplace parking lot, which is on a major thoroughfare into a employee-wide garage sale. Hopefully the pool of stuff and prime location will result in better turn out and more money coming from our purging.

Today is the day of the big yard sale following up on our downsizing purge. We’ll see how much all that clutter is worth. Right now its actually costing me in time, energy and space so even though it will be worth far less than paid, its worth infinitely more than being in my house. I’m not falling for the sunk-cost fallacy. All remaining items will be going to charity. The cash is going straight into the travel fund.

This week has been the first really nice weather since last summer. Temps as high as 70 have me finishing up my Spring Cleaning by sprucing up our Outdoor Spaces.

Exterior spaces Spring Cleaning List via Simply Stated:

1. Sweep and wash porches and patios.
2. Replace mats at doorways as necessary.
3. Sweep cobwebs out of corners of exterior walls, garage, and porches.
4. Clean outdoor furniture and prepare for summer use.
5. Clear branches, sticks, and leaves that may have fallen into the yard during the winter months. Trim plants and trees as needed.
6. Bring garden hoses out of winter storage. Check exterior water faucets. If you have a mechanical water system, test the system and inspect for problems.
7. Inspect liquids and powders used for bug and weed maintenance and make sure none of the containers are leaking or past their expiration dates. Dispose of expired materials according to your local, county, and state laws.

Bonus Overachiever Tasks:

1. Make a garden plan
2. Clean the grill for the 1st BBQ of the summer
3. Clean the gutters
4. Donate leaves to friends compost pile

via John Lawton

Wet drizzly weekends are perfect for Spring Cleaning. But we were out of town, so I’ll be cleaning the garage during the evenings this week. Here’s the plan.

• Tidy the tools. Its Spring Cleaning not organizing time so we’ll just corral them up again and not whip out the pegboards quite yet.
• Wipe down the shelving. Our metal shelving was easy to assemble, and able to withstand heat and humidity better than wood, all it takes is a quick wipe down.
• Put loose items in clear plastic storage boxes. Cardboard boxes, no matter how strong, bend and dent with frequent use and eventually succumb to dampness. You also can’t see what is in them so they really add nothing to organization. I have a bunch of clear plastic boxes left over after emptying them of extra craft supplies so these babies are going to the garage.
• Get the bikes down. We hang items like our bikes, cords, and hoses. Seasonal changes rotate what gets hung up.
• Sweep the floor. Gravel, melted snow dirt and other dirt really piles up all winter.
• Have the boiler serviced.
• Re-asses gardening supplies. If we didn’t use it last year, why? This is the best time to get rid of it, because everyone else is buying what they need.
• Go through the camping equipment. (Keep, toss, donate, repair)
• Car falls under “garage” right? Time for a car wash now that the snow is melted. Maybe an oil change too for summer weight oil. You know, while we’re thinking about it.

Home office = messiest room in the house. Its the room that if company is coming I just shut the door and hope they don’t get nosey. You can’t get things off the bookshelves without tripping over mountains of Army stuff or paper.

But decluttering this room involves negotiations of personal space (its really his room/stuff). Ultimately there are certain things like “Army junk” papers and gear, that regardless of whether they’re needed just have to be kept and they have to be kept in our house. As a reservist he doesn’t have an office to do his Army job at so it all comes home with him. Read this four post series from UnClutterer to follow the same process as we did to get  rid of the paper. It has a nice list of which papers must be kept and how often and how best to keep the papers for before shredding them.

So I changed what I could by simply removing every last lick of non-Man stuff, other than our wifi enabled printer and some office supplies and said, ok, the rest of the room is yours to use how you want and called it good.

Sounds easy, but in the process I had to deal with an addiction. We’re addicted to paper. We moved in after his Grandmother who kept every canceled check she had ever written. We have all the tools to go digital (scanner, harddrive, filing system), but we just haven’t taken the time. So I had to remove and process a mountain of paper and then shred it.

Once all of  ”our” stuff was out of the room I gave him some rubber-maid bins to keep stuff corraled and then Spring Cleaned.

Overachievers Home office Spring Cleaning List via Simply Stated:

1. Move furniture, vacuum or sweep where furniture had been placed, and vacuum the underside of large furniture items.
2. Clear off desk and clean desk top with appropriate cleaner. Pull items out of drawers and off shelves, wipe down the drawers/shelves, and replace organization units if worn.
3. Wipe down telephone.

While I’m trying out the one-room remedy in the kitchen,  I totally found the deep treatment tasks for week 3 to be needed in my house. This week I was doing my Overachievers Living Room Spring Cleaning, which is where our family’s landing strip is anyway so the timing was perfect.

Landing strip: Where stuff goes on the way in the house. Before we had just one side table where everything got dumped. Now we have one bin for keys and wallets and a bench for shoes, coats, purses and everything else.

Landing Strip (Before)

Landing Strip (After)

Outbox: Where stuff goes on its way out of the house. Before we had nothing, making it 4 weeks since I last remembered to grab the Netflix movie off of the TV stand to return it. Now we have this, right next to the door.

Outbox

Decluttered Entrance/Landing Strip

Moved all old mail, catalogs, and magazines to the recycling. Wow, why did I think I was going to reread Shape magazines from 2006?

Who loves to do lists? I do, I do! I know, its a sickness. Feels so good to check things off of it. These spring cleaning lists make my heart sing. Ok, enough weirding you out. I’m going to go have fun with a can of compressed air now.

Living Room Spring Cleaning List via Simply Stated:

1. Move furniture, vacuum or sweep where furniture had been placed, and vacuum the underside of large furniture items with the help of a strong buddy.
2. Wash or dry clean furniture slip covers and steam clean upholstered furniture.
3. Polish wood legs on furniture and tables.
4. Pull items out of storage drawers and off shelves, wipe down the drawers/shelves, and replace organization units if worn.
5. Pull books off of shelves, dust with a clean, dry rag, dust bookshelves, and replace books.

Bonus overachiever tasks:

1. Dust light fixtures, photographs and artwork.
2. Window coverings: take down and launder all window coverings
3. DVD/VCR: dust the outsides, use a DVD or tape cleaner on the insides, spray the inside and outside with compressed air to dust
4. iPod Dock: Unplug the dock and wipe it down with a damp soft, lint-free cloth. Don’t use liquid cleaners.
5. Remote Controls: Wipe the entire surface of the remote control.
6. Stereo and Speakers: Dust the entire surface of the stereo. Wipe everything, including the knobs, with an electrostatic dust-mop cloth that has been slightly dampened with water and a few drops of dishwashing liquid, then wrung out. Dust the inside with compressed air.
7. Television: Wipe down the screen with horizontal strokes beginning at the top of the screen, with a dry electrostatic dust-mop cloth or a dry-cleaning sponge. (Shorter strokes cause smudging.)

As promised here is a shot of our bedroom after Spring Cleaning and purging. No my husband’s teddy bear was not even considered for purging. It may go live at his Mom’s house for awhile if we ever move, but it will never be thrown away. Some things are like that.

I love my floating bamboo night tables, they make the room look bigger without such a heavy furniture feel. Poladroid effect makes the green carpet look better. (future project?)