I have two of my daughters graduating next week. The oldest from high school and my 2nd oldest from 6th grade. I’m thinking we’re going to be having people drop by the house even though I haven’t officially invited anyone. My house is clean right now but my porch is a mess. My free ranging chickens love to hang out on the porch and do what chickens do - poop and they poop a lot!

My goals for this weekend:
1. Clean off porch. Completed
2. Declutter livingroom and kitchen areas.
3. Finish planting vegetable garden. I still need to plant my cucumbers, swiss chard and zucchini.
4. Finish cleaning up and planting flower pots. Completed
5. Get 3 more websites up and going. Got 1 up and running, working on others.

On Tuesday I got the pink slip to my husband’s truck! What a wonderful feeling it is to know that we actually own the truck. It was funny I was talking to my husband and asked him how it felt to drive a paid for vehicle. He said, “Why don’t you take the kids to school in it and find out for yourself?” This truck is a big jacked up Ford F350 crew cab dually with a flat bed dump, the truck is 8′ wide at the rear tires. I’d need an empty parking lot just to do a U-turn. About 12 years ago he had a similar truck and I had to drive it to school because my other vehicle had a dead battery. I was so embarrassed, I was running over curbs left and right.

Here’s my update on me:

It’s been cold here. Last week it was hot, this week it’s cold. The vineyards have been on frost patrol. Check out the picture with the icicle’s that I took yesterday morning.

My husband took off again, he left yesterday morning and won’t be back until Thursday or Friday. He travel so much of business and leaves me home so much. I’m tired of it and I’m sure he’s tired of it too. He hasn’t had a full weekend off in over five weeks.  He gets to eat out on his company credit card while he’s gone and I know he really likes that. He’ll call and ask what I’m making for dinner. Most of the time it’s something cheap out of the pantry and he’ll be eating a porterhouse steak. How unfair is that?

I had 37 things listed on ebay and I’ve sold 12 ($82), I’m waiting for payment on two and so far people have bids on 5 more things ($30). I’m doing pretty good there and really can’t complain. I have at least 50 more items I’d like to list and just need to sit down and do it. I get so bored of listing stuff, it’s almost painful but I know that I need the extra money so I’m going to buckle down and do it.

I’m doing pretty good on my half.com account too. This month I’ve sold five books there and am waiting on a payment of $40. In March I ended up getting paid $67!

I’m still trying to cut back expenses everywhere. My electricity bill actually made me happy this month it was ONLY $211. Normally it’s over $300. Big families = big electric bills. We also have a well and pump our own water, that adds a lot to our electric bill.

I’m still working on daughter #2’s bedroom. She’s a slob, there isn’t any other way to put it. This girl doesn’t mess around with her messes, she goes all out! I’m hoping to get it done today, unless something comes up or I can find an excuse to get out of doing it. LOL Tomorrow is garbage day so I really need to get in there and throw stuff out.

I’ve also decided to clean out my laundry room. I’m almost done!

Six sacks of junk - that went into the trash
Five spider webs - knocked down
Four loads of laundry - that got washed
Three bags of toys - to donate
Two splinters - in my hand from the rake I was using
One Vacuum - that got a workout
=
My son’s clean bedroom!

He was so excited when he came home from school and saw his clean bedroom. He never even asked what I’d done with all his stuff. I saved all the important stuff, his books, legos, and hot wheels. Now the real battle begins, keeping it clean.

Edited to Add:  Thursday morning when my son woke up he made his bed and was telling me how much he LOVES his clean room.   Hearing that made me feel so good. 

All this cleaning up has got me wondering what being this disorganized and cluttered for a good 10+ years has really cost me financially, emotionally, and physically?

I need to think this out. I’m sure I’ve paid a heavy price. Off the top of my head, I know that financially I had increased credit card interest rates and many $30 late fees because I didn’t know (or care) where the bills were or whether or not they were paid on time. I was living in denial.

I can also think of hundreds of time I spent 10-20 minutes looking for something, not being able to find it and then having to go to the store and buy it again. Okay, I’m a stay at home mom but if I had a job and made about $12 and hour those 20 minutes I spent looking for something would add up to $4. Everyone’s time has value. Lets say I went looking for missing items 3 times a week over the course of a year that would be about $624 worth of wasted time. Time I could have spent doing something I love, being with loved ones, or even cleaning.

I mentioned earlier buying duplicates of things because I wasn’t able to locate the original item I was looking for. This is going to sound really really bad but here’s a great example. Now that I have all my clothes hanging in my CLEAN closet, I have 12 plain black tee shirts. Do I need 12 plain black tee shirts? No I really don’t. Before I started cleaning I thought at most, maybe I had 6 black tee shirts.

Emotionally being disorganized has caused me a lot of embarrassment, frustration, feelings of being overwhelmed and hopelessness (that I’d ever have a clean house). I’d be embarrassed if someone decided to drop by unannounced. A few years ago I had a change of heart and decided if my visitors didn’t like my cluttered house it was their fault, after all they didn’t HAVE to stop by right? Well, I really never fell for that one so it really didn’t work for me. I’d be frustrated with my messy house but wasn’t ready to deal with it or even take it on. I’d try to keep my house clean for of a few days, and when I got tired of constantly cleaning and picking up after everyone, I’d tell myself, “Well it’s just me versus 5 other people and I don’t stand a chance” so I’d give up. I felt trying to keep a clean house was a never ending battle and it was a battle I was fighting alone.

I’ve now decided that I refuse to live in a messy cluttered house any more. I’m tired of it and I’m not having it anymore. I’m also no longer going to be fighting this battle alone. My kids are going to have some household responsibilities, there will be chores. My husband is going to have to stop throwing things on the floor, I’m not his maid nor servant and he is capable of picking up after himself.

What has this mess cost me physically? Well to tell the truth, I’m just lucky no one got hurt. Gosh that sounds bad. Having piles of stuff (junk) laying around, isn’t safe, it really isn’t. I’m lucky no one tripped and got hurt.

I’m about 80% done cleaning out my closet. I have 3-4 bags of clothes and I also have a box of stuff like old purses and a brief case to donate to Hospice . For Ebay I have a whole basket full of NWT (new with tag) men’s button down casual shirts. I’m going to get them ready and list them on Sunday afternoon.

I still need to clean off the dressers and my messy desk. Already my bedroom looks twice as big as it did before I started cleaning and I have to tell you, it feels wonderful!

I got an email from American Express Blue and my balance transfer with through! Woo hoo I went from 14.9% to 4.99% until the balance is paid in full!

I sold two books on half.com yesterday. That’s another $17 that I can apply to my credit card debt. I’ll probably wait until the end of the week to make that payment, just in case I sell a few more books.

I bought the paint for my daughter’s bathroom and I’ll be painting that probably this afternoon. I went with Walmart paint - it’s such a great deal and it really is nice quality paint. I’ve purchases expensive paint in the past but I really don’t see any benefit to using expensive paint, I don’t even think it covers as well as Walmart’s paint. For $28 my daughter is going to be getting a nice fresh bathroom. I choose white for the ceiling and trim. I choose “Suede” for the walls. It’s a light grayish tan color. I’m hoping to make the tiny bathroom have an expensive spa type look and feeling.

I feel as though everything in my life is really coming together. I feel like I can breathe again, I’m not a prisoner to my bills or my clutter. I’m back in control!

Yesterday afternoon I started cleaning out my walk-in closet. I’m about 75% done. My closet has carpet and I can see it! I’ve also put my husbands clothes, that were in laundry baskets on our bedroom floor, away in the closet - honestly I haven’t been able to do put our clothes away for years!

I’m hoping to be done tomorrow and then I should have a clean closet and a clean bedroom. My husband left yesterday on a business trip and I told him over the phone what I was up to and he’s pretty excited about having a less cluttered bedroom. Here’s to my post tomorrow saying that I got it all done! Woo hoo progress!!!!!!!

I’m thinking that in the future when a new piece of clothing comes in the house (closet) then an old piece needs to leave, I NEVER want to let my closet get this bad again.