Purging the unnecessary

Several years ago, I can remember thinking that it wouldn't be too bad if my house burned down and I lost everything.  I'd be able to start over, and only acquire what I needed, meanwhile shedding all the excess crap that I can't ever seem to willingly part with.  Of course, I'm glad I've never actually had a house fire.  I think it was just something I was imagining because I couldn't imagine actually having the strength to really give up all the meaningless possessions that I've somehow become attached to.  Every so often, I go through a closet or a drawer or a room and pile up a stack of items which then get sold or donated.  And that's what we did this weekend (also, Ryan would like me to add that he re-coated the roof).

The first step was the bookshelves. We went through and cleared out all the books we were sure we wouldn't want to read again. There were some that I think we've been keeping as reminders of who we once were, like ten-year-old books from grad school, or travel guides that are nearly a decade out of date. We just don't need those anymore. We ended up with a pretty big stack of books, which won't be replaced anytime soon either - I've re-discovered the joy of the library, now that I go there 3-4 times a week for various story times.

Then we hit the three boxes of CDs that were in the storage shed.  Now, some of you may not be familiar with those.  It stands for 'compact disc,' and you should think of them as sort of a data storage device.  Back in college, they're what we used to use to listen to music.  I no longer have a CD player (besides the computer) and haven't for years.  So as you can imagine, those CDs no longer have much use to us.  We kept some, transferring them to a cd portfolio, which takes up a lot less space.  The remainder joined the books in a pile in the living room.

Next on the chopping block: DVDs.  We stream Netflix, so we haven't watched a DVD in months, except for Game of Thrones, which we have to watch on disc since we don't have HBO (I'm a huge fan of the books, I have them all in English and Spanish, and they survived the purge).  Almost all of the DVDs were added to the pile.  If there's something we desperately want to watch again, I'm sure we can find it on Netflix.

We ended up filling several boxes and bags, which we then took to Bookmans, which is an awesome used bookstore.  They took slightly more than half of what we brought in, and gave us over $200 in store credit for it.  Pretty good deal, though I'm pretty sure I heard the employees who were going through it mocking some of our music choices.  Ryan can't help loving Roxette.  It's embarrassing, but let's not judge him for it.

After the Bookman's trip, we went through the CDs one more time, this time to determine which of the remaining CDs had a chance at being useful as thrift store donations, and which ones would be better off as garden reflectors to protect the fruit trees.  It was about a 50/50 split. Once we get a working camera (note: Do not let toddler throw camera on tile floor), I'll post some pics of the new garden art/bird repellent.

Now the trunk of the car is full of the leftover books and discs, as well as a large portion of the contents of the front hall closet (another successful purge this weekend).  There is also a box of magnets left over from our photography business that I rediscovered recently.  We sold them for $3 each at shows, and sometimes they really made the difference between a horribly crappy show and just a mildly crappy show.  But now that we don't have a business, what the hell do we do with a couple hundred magnets?  Same as we're doing with everything else.  At some point tomorrow, I'm taking them to my favorite thrift store and saying good-bye.  It's going to feel so good!

I always love cleaning things out.  I love opening up the space, both physically and emotionally.  Too much clutter makes it hard for me to focus.

Painting and doors

Our latest big project: replacing all of the crappy 1970's scratched up fake wood closet doors with new, nicer ones.  I know we usually try to reuse and repair everything, but in this case, due to ugliness, we had to make an exception. Maybe we could have tolerated them longer, but when we built the Arizona room, we put nice six panel wooden doors on that closet.  The AZ room closet is about two feet away from the laundry closet, and being able to see the old and the new at the same time just highlighted how terrible the original doors were.

I know it may seem like I'm exaggerating, but I'm not.  These doors were so terrible that even the Habistore rejected them, and told us they don't accept those doors because nobody will buy them.  However, they did tell us to stack them outside by the dumpster and promised that someone would come along and take them eventually.  It felt a little weird abandoning the doors rather than donating them, but apparently that's what they do there (plus an employee told us that a couple of days earlier someone had picked up about 20 closet doors from that spot, so there is hope that they really will be taken and used).

The new doors are all six panel folding wooden doors that we purchased at Lowe's.  One for the pantry, two each for the laundry closet, back bedroom, and front bedroom/playroom.  They are now all painted and installed, except for the one in the playroom.  That one is installed but unpainted, because we're still debating repainting the walls.  It's amazing what a difference it makes - the rooms look so much lighter and brighter.

There was some difficulty with the paint, namely that we were out of the light blue kitchen wall paint that we needed for both the pantry and the laundry closet - and apparently that brand of paint no longer exists.  Well, maybe it exists, since it does still have a website, but the store locator on it tells me that no stores within a hundred miles carries it.  Furthermore, just for fun I checked and no stores within a hundred miles of Phoenix, Chicago, New York or Los Angeles carry it either.  Luckily, Ace Hardware has a color matching service - and it was almost perfect.  Plus, that allowed us to get the paint in the Benjamin Moore Natura that we used in the bedrooms (it's a no VOC paint that didn't exist when we painted the kitchen, so we used a different and apparently unsuccessful low-VOC brand from another store).

It's kind of amazing to me how one little change can make things look better - and highlight what still looks bad.  Here, the chain of events was getting nice closet doors in one room, leading to needing nice ones in the other rooms, which then led to the current project of painting the dark brown door that divided the kitchen and AZ room. We were able to live with that particular brand of ugliness for years, until we had nice closets on each side of it.  Once that's done, who knows? Perhaps we'll realize how ugly our countertops are and decide to replace those (just kidding, we already know they're ugly).

Non-accomplishments

A few weeks ago, I posted a list of my sewing projects and stated a goal of getting them done within two weeks.  Here's what actually happened:

1. Lining the baby blanket for J&H  Didn't happen.  Decided not to line it, because I didn't have the patience to hand stitch the lining.  Ryan convinced me lining wasn't necessary.  Here's what the blanket looks like: Star Illusion Blanket
2. A pillowcase for my toddler, so she stops stealing other people's pillows in the middle of the night. Done. Will do a post about it later.  Sadly, though, she won't sleep on it and still steals other people's pillows.
3. Finishing the hem on the last two bedroom curtains.Didn't happen. My excuse is that I couldn't remember the measurements on the hems of the other curtains, and every time I remembered to check, I couldn't do so because the toddler was sleeping, and if there's one thing I know not to do, it's interrupt her nap.
4. Fixing the unevenness of the living room curtains by adding an edging. Didn't happen. No excuses but laziness.
5. Making beanbags. Done! Though I don't know why I decided the toddler needed 14 beanbags.
6. Repairing some of Ryan's pants. Didn't happen. I blame Ryan.
7. Finally making babylegs out of the pair of socks that has been sitting on the shelf next to the sewing machine for months. Didn't happen. Probably because the weather warmed up and she doesn't need babylegs. Or because one of the socks fell down behind the shelf and I didn't feel like moving everything to get it out.  

So not the most successful task list.  However, other projects are in process, and will likely be successfully completed.  I'll update about them later.

Past Projects: Rope Rug

Ryan and I are both rock climbers (or at least we were pre-baby and hope to be again one day).  The ropes we use have a finite lifespan. Some people use their ropes until they snap and the climber falls to a tragic early death.  Others, like ourselves, know when to retire them (hint: it's before the tragic early death part).  And then what do you do with a retired rope?

Behold, the rope rug, made with Ryan's beloved 60m Sterling 10.2 and about $3 worth of caulk:

See that dirty spot? That's the halfway mark. So it's not really a dirty spot.
Quit judging my housekeeping skills.

This was a very simple project.

Step 1: Wash the rope.  We just soaked it in a bucket with detergent and hot water then rinsed it in the bath tub. You can skip this step if you don't mind a rope that's full of dirt and climber blood.

Step 2: Sewing.  In order to get the rug started, you have to sew the first few rounds together.  After that, it doesn't matter, you can lay the rug out and it will stay in place. It doesn't matter what color thread you use either, since when the rug is done you can just snip it off.

It's difficult to get a needle through the rope, and I actually had to use pliers to pull it through a couple of times.

Step 3: Lay the rug out on the floor, simply coiling it around itself in a circle (or you could do an oval, which is what I'm going to try with an old static rope that's been in our shed for awhile).  You really should put it on a dropcloth or tarp or something.  I didn't do that, which is why there's an arc of caulk still on the tile in the baby's playroom.  Learn from my mistake.

Step 4: Caulk it up.  We bought a bunch of caulk for $1 each at Habistore.  I don't think it really matters what kind you use or what color it is - it's just to hold the rug together and to keep it from sliding on the floor.  I just globbed a bunch on and spread it with a 6" taping knife.

Step 5: Let it dry.

That's it.  Pretty simple, and it makes a durable rug.