FARE WELL TIGER CUB

May you never be separated from you Mommy again. Save travels Jonah! May you make it to Niniveh safely. Good by little Mouse! May your world stay fun and full of colors. 

The little one has managed to destroy 3 flip the flap books in less then a day. And when I say destroyed I mean destroyed. Each flap is torn off and with it usually half of the page. I was especially sad about the first one. The one in which the tiger cub is looking for his Mommy. He did some prep-work the days before and I found flaps in the recycling trash that his "I-will-toss-anything-that-crosses-my-path"-brother already put there that I saved. When I found more flaps I said to JAmes:"I guess I should just toss the book." He agreed but I didn't do anything. I saw the book in the trash the next morning. I was crying out to me all week until I took it to the outside bin the night before pick up. I was this close to taking it out to at least take a farewell picture. 

Tiger Cub, Jonah and the little Color Mouse are gone. Sigh. I wish this wouldn't bother me so much. At least I let them go. That's a lot more than I would have been able to do just a year ago!

AVOIDANCE

I have been avoiding the blog. Why? So I would not have to report on my book project. I am afraid that was not the smartest approach, but hey. By now you are probably already guessing that it did not go all that well. You are right. I only got 2/3 of the shelfs sorted and the girls were willing to part with about 15 books. OF those 15 books  I was only willing to part with 2. Now here is were I get to claimit was a succes anyway. I looked at those books for a day and decided to rehome them. 2 people were REALLY excited. One, because she is a foreigner and was excited to have 2 childrens books to learn the language. The other one was excited because with both of them being students their is no money for books and my girls tossed stuff that are considered children's classics, like "Where the Wild Things Are" and "Love You Forever". The third new owner doesn't even know how lucky she is as she hasn't gotten her books yet. 

So after all I think I did well. 

Surface of the day: kitchen counter

7 a day: BOOKS

THE BOOK PROJECT

Okay. I will be honest with you. I thought I picked a really easy project. Matter of fact I thought I could pull it of in just 2 or 3 days and feel like a total hero. Turns out the first 7 days are up and I have done nothing but put 7 books on a shelf. And I am not very happy about the spot I found. It is in my wardrobe and lets face it. Putting something IN FRONT of something else is never a good idea. That is one way to start a hoard. Cramming too much stuff into too little space. And on top of not getting any books out of the house 2 new ones arrived by mail. How can something that looked so easy turn out to be so hard?


7 a day: the usual little things like kid's art and rock but no serious effort ongetting more tangible stuff out

surface of the day: dresser tops in the hall

NEW PROJECT

I have decided that I need to start a new decluttering project. I am just not sure what, and most for all WHEN! Seriously. Taxi Tuesday was as challenging as very with 2 additional appointments. Fortunately one of the rides was canceled, but lets faced it. Logistically I am doing a great job. I know, it is just one day per week, but I have 2 more days with rides for kids and of course there is homework, household, cooking and all kind of other things. Decluttering? Uhm. No. I do a lot better not hanging onto every little thing. And I can tell a difference. But I can tell without a project, a plan, a CHALLENGE and a deadline progress is so small it is not really visible. 

I would love to have "declutter every Saturday challenge" but that is simply not going to happen. The attic is too cold by now, I would hate to bring the stuff down. I know. Excuses, excuses. Books. I think I will declutter books. The kids have 2 huge shelves full of books that nobody ever seems to read. That'S what I'll do! I will go through all our shelves this month. Wish me luck! 

Surface of the day: Are you kidding me? It's TAXI TUESDAY!

7 a day: How d you feel about 5 matches and 2 burnt down candles?

THE PUZZLE BOOK

I had a major break through today. A few years back I bought a puzzle book. On the right pages of the book there are puzzles. In this case 6 of them. With 48 pieces each. Usually those pieces stay in quite well. But not with this book. Every time you attempted to turn a page puzzle pieces kept tumbling out. The boys hated the book and refused to use it. I tried to push it, but they simply ignored it. The girls kind of liked it, but the pictures to look at, the puzzles, were always gone. Kind of stupid. I know. Each puzzle had a different colored back side so you could keep them apart more easily. As the puzzle pieces had two layers the eventually started falling apart. As I collected the pieces for the umpteenth time, telling myself that I better glue those backs on, so I could pass the book on, yup, the book that nobody liked, I thought:"AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! TOSS IT!!!"

And I did. Felt good!

Surface of the day: 1 dresser top in the hall

7 a day: 4 coloring books, A PUZZLE BOOK, a bucket, a Halloween costume

SALT IN MY WOUNDS

The recycling boys must have been in a bad mood. They did take the box of cardboard, but left my books behind. Maybe it was a little too cheeky to have 4 boxes out. Maybe the truck was almost full already. I don't know why they took them last time and left them today. All I know is that I am stuck with them. Again. To make things worse their was some light rain last night so now the books are defintily trash. I dumped the first box into the now empty can. I don't dare throw to many in at once, as I am afraid it will get too heavy. . If I keep going at that rate it will take me until the summer to get rid off them all. But that's not it. On my way to pick up the kids I ran into the lady I got the books from. I am sure the big smile she flashes me every time our paths cross is sincere.  She shares a first name with one of my childhood comic villains. I just can't help thinking she is laughing at the idiot she dumped her books on.

REBOUND

Things were looking grim the last few days. The place in shambles and no motivation what so ever to get back out of it. Today I finally managed to get started. I restacked the still leftover books from 2 big boxes into 4 little boxes in the hopes of getting rid of them when they pick up recycling on Friday. My thinking is, if the box is too heavy, they will not take it. I am not sure if I dare to put them all out at once, as I have a whole banana box full of folded cardboard that needs to get out of the house, too. I think I will just see how much extra stuff the neighbours still have. The first time they picked up recycling after Christmas there was as much stuff next to the bins as was in the bins.  So we will see. There is at least 1 more banan box full of books in the garage, but that one will defintiely have to wait.

I dropped of about 10 books at the semi public book shelf at the school that had room again, even though it wasn't much room.

Getting all the cardboard boxes the kids had been playing with out of the living room made a big difference. Stumbling over 2 things in the basement that I was able to discard off without thinking too much about it and 2 more things out of the kitchen that I was thinking of getting rid of the last few weeks did brighten my day. I feel like I can get more done, tomorrow!

2 BOXES GONE

Believe it or not. I got rid of 2 boxes of books. Admitely one the 2 smallest ones, but they are gone, none the less. And no, not from offering them online. Nobody called. But I picked up a tiny cardboard box an aquaintnace lost in the parking lot and he told me he needed it to start the fire. I jokingly said that if he really needed paper to start the fire I could offer him 6 boxes of books. He wasinterested, said his wife had use for old books. no matter what. I ran to my car to show him and yes, he took 2 boxes of books. Even if it only was about 20 % of what I still have to deal with it's 20 % less.  And I didn't even have to throw them away. I just hope he didn't get in trouble with his wife! ;)

FROM VICTORY TO DRAMA

Here I was, so excited about my good progress with the million books. Guess what. The used book store didn't want them. The first public book shelf was not accessible by car, the second wasn't as public as I hoped and was in a locked building. Shelf #3 and 4 were full.

I had to admit to myself that nobody would ever want those books. At least I can not think of anyone who wanted novels that are 30 to 50 years old or even older.

Now that I am facing having to throw the books away I feel the urge to re-sort them. So far I resisted. The forum I am on suggested offering them for free, online. I hadn't event hought of that. I will give them a week to evaporate that way. Then they will end up in recycling!

SPOILER ALERT

Okay. This will make you slap your forehead. Hard. So if you want to avoid a headache, stop reading.

A few weeks ago I made the mistake of offering to take a truck load of books off someone. All in the hopes of making a couple of bucks online. I realized a few days later that it most likely wasn't worth it and I would be stuck with even more stuff that I don't want. When the girl didn't call me I felt relief.

6 weeks later, she called. Asked me if I was sure I wanted the books. Stupid me said yes. She said it was about 300 books. It feels more like 3000. I made 30 bucks with the first shipment. I am afraid it's not worth it. On the other hand it is free money. Money I make while watching TV. Will I ever learn? I will curse myself when it's time to get rid of the ones that don't sell.

~ 500 BOOKS

are out the door. I sold about a third and dropped off the rest at a public book shelf. I am very proud of myself for resisting the temptation of taking some out. I am also happy that I got the books out of my brothers living quarters who happily stored them for a year. 4 moving boxes neatly stacked up against the wall and a few more books not so neatly on a desk. Now that I am aware of my own problem I am more aware of people with similar issues. I think my brother is even worse than I am. He still lives at my parents house and occupies 2 large rooms with lots of storage. A long time ago those rooms were mine and my sister's. So in some of those niches there are still boxes and shelfs with things that belong to us. My sister said when she finally got around to working through some of her stuff he got upset with her because she threw away HER OWN THINGS. I must admit I sometimes get nervous when people throw away perfectly good stuff. But I am afraid that wasn't the case here.
I hope my brother hasn't adopted my pile of books into his hoard yet. He wasn't there when I cleared out my stuff. Just to make sure the shock isn't too big I left 2 of the moving boxes (now empty) in the spot they were.
I am happy with myself that on the 4th attempt I finally took care of it all!