I don't think the lady believed Brent.
He called to cancel DirecTV and the lady went into her whole script and Brent interrupted her and said, "we do not have any TVs in the house, please cancel the account"
That's not in the script......poor lady. So she doggedly pursued her script and at some point asked Brent what he would be replacing DirecTV with. He repeated that he had no TVs to watch anything on. She wasn't to be deterred, "cable, internet or local antenna sir?" He gave in and said local antenna.
Yes, we really do not have a single TV in the house. We do have one sitting at my Mom's. It's 19 inches and she was going to hang on to it, but changed her mind. It's just waiting to find a new home.
One might be tempted to ask "How's that working for you?"
It's going OK.
My laundry isn't getting folded because every person in this house is used to folding laundry while they watch TV.
And that seems to be the hardest part of having no TV. Really.
We are gradually adjusting and the laundry is getting done.
It's been ten days. I had to look that up and think back to when the last TV left the house, that's how much it hasn't affected us in the end.
I do think part of that is that we just were not big TV watchers in the first place. We had a handful of shows we watched, well maybe two if you count every show that every family member wanted to record. And we only watched recorded shows. And mostly we only watched while folding laundry......seven people evidently equals enough laundry to watch all our favorite shows.
We do have a few funny moments, when someone wants to watch a VHS movie and it takes us a minute to realize we can't. Or somebody suggests we get a movie and I remind them the laptop is our only option. That dims the enthusiasm a lot.
The kids have had a great attitude about it. They understand that we're trying to save money, by canceling satellite and make money by selling the TVs, and players. They are very, very motivated to help us get our debt paid off and it's neat to see their enthusiasm! It carries me when I'm at low ebb.
And yes the original plan was to watch shows on the internet. But we aren't at the computers enough to really sit and just watch a show. So no, the internet hasn't replaced our TVs. It could, but it hasn't yet.
Yes really, DirecTV lady, there are no TVs in our house.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Monday, May 17, 2010
minimalism
I had no idea the turn my life was taking that day I typed in clutter in my search engine! But what a boost it has been for me. I love the energy in the house as we empty it out. It flows through the rooms and lightens up the mood.
General public focus on minimalism has been building for awhile and there are some really great motivating blogs out there. I am trying to minimize my time on the computer and so I'm not reading all of them, but there are a few I really enjoy and keep going back to. Zen Habits being one of them.
A guest post really made me think and made me want to read about the great Gandhi's life. The post is here.
http://zenhabits.net/gandhi-lessons/
He talks about five life lessons we can learn from Gandhi and they really struck a cord with me.
I've been trying to remember some of the finer details and so today I did a search for that post and I bring it to you also. In case you are interested.
General public focus on minimalism has been building for awhile and there are some really great motivating blogs out there. I am trying to minimize my time on the computer and so I'm not reading all of them, but there are a few I really enjoy and keep going back to. Zen Habits being one of them.
A guest post really made me think and made me want to read about the great Gandhi's life. The post is here.
http://zenhabits.net/gandhi-lessons/
He talks about five life lessons we can learn from Gandhi and they really struck a cord with me.
I've been trying to remember some of the finer details and so today I did a search for that post and I bring it to you also. In case you are interested.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Zen
One of the blogs I found the day I typed in clutter was called Zen Habits.
It's written by a dad of six kids. Seems like he might know a thing or two about dealing with lots of kids and stuff.
I've really enjoyed his style and his insights. He's also given me a lot of inspiration and motivation through his writing. So take a moment and see what he has to say about being a minimalist. You don't even have to have lots of kids to appreciate his thoughts!
http://zenhabits.net/the-beginners-guide-to-zen-habits-a-guided-tour/
It's written by a dad of six kids. Seems like he might know a thing or two about dealing with lots of kids and stuff.
I've really enjoyed his style and his insights. He's also given me a lot of inspiration and motivation through his writing. So take a moment and see what he has to say about being a minimalist. You don't even have to have lots of kids to appreciate his thoughts!
http://zenhabits.net/the-beginners-guide-to-zen-habits-a-guided-tour/
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
emails
Don't faint....but I have ONE email in my inbox at the moment! I LOVE email. Love it, love it, love it....did I mention that I LOVE it?! At times in my life I have received over two hundred emails a day from various lists, friends and such.
I have found that there is a time and a season for all things in my life. And when I had young babies nursing every two hours that was my season for high volume email. I could always tell my babies were weaning when my email started to go unread for days at a time. And as they weaned I would gradually unsubscribe from my email lists. But I still averaged 30 emails a day, until recently.
I read Tim Ferris's Four Hour Work Week, (http://fourhourworkweek.com/) and his thoughts on email really impacted me. I, just like every one else, received several ad/offer type emails a day and I was subbed to 10 or more yahoo lists. All the lists were very low volume, maybe one or two emails a day, but they all add up! His point was that every time you have to take a second and focus on those emails, even just deleting them, you're sidetracking yourself from the really important in your life. A second or two per 30 emails, deleting them, adds up, and I could see how I had to use energy/focus to make the decision to delete with or without reading every single time, with every single email.
I took the plunge and unsubbed from all but three yahoo lists, two of which I am no mail on. I go read them if I want. They are home school lists and I don't need to see every email about what is going on. I can go to the website, skim the list and click on the ones that are relevant. I also have to add that I am not "allowed" to unsub from them either. I have some really wonderful friends on them and they won't let me just quietly unsub. Which gives me warm fuzzies, because they care! I can live with that.
The third one is supporting recording my life lessons, they can be seen over at http://onespiritualwoman.blogspot.com/. This list varies in it's volume, but it rarely has email every single day.
I went in to every add/offer email I received and unsubbed, as they came through my email box. Which admittedly added a LOT of time for a few days. But it only took a day or two to see a really huge difference in the time/energy spent on email and it felt really good. So I had the motivation to keep unsubbing. It is really hard for me to put into words the amazing feeling that this has given me. I don't miss those offers at all.
I do have to add that I don't tend to use coupons (it's just not what I do right now, for various reasons), and so I don't miss those offers. If you do use them, then setting up a folder for them to go directly to, and then only going to that folder when you're shopping and need to use one, would be a huge energy/time saver.
Now I have way fewer emails to deal with and I have a cleaner inbox, which makes it less overwhelming to deal with the emails that do come through. And at times I actually get down to one or two emails. I can't remember ever having an empty box....but I think one or two is pretty good. I love how energizing it is to come to my inbox and be able to whip through what's in it and move on. It just feels so good.
Give it a try, you can always go back and resub if you don't like the results. If you give it a try let me know how it goes!
I have found that there is a time and a season for all things in my life. And when I had young babies nursing every two hours that was my season for high volume email. I could always tell my babies were weaning when my email started to go unread for days at a time. And as they weaned I would gradually unsubscribe from my email lists. But I still averaged 30 emails a day, until recently.
I read Tim Ferris's Four Hour Work Week, (http://fourhourworkweek.com/) and his thoughts on email really impacted me. I, just like every one else, received several ad/offer type emails a day and I was subbed to 10 or more yahoo lists. All the lists were very low volume, maybe one or two emails a day, but they all add up! His point was that every time you have to take a second and focus on those emails, even just deleting them, you're sidetracking yourself from the really important in your life. A second or two per 30 emails, deleting them, adds up, and I could see how I had to use energy/focus to make the decision to delete with or without reading every single time, with every single email.
I took the plunge and unsubbed from all but three yahoo lists, two of which I am no mail on. I go read them if I want. They are home school lists and I don't need to see every email about what is going on. I can go to the website, skim the list and click on the ones that are relevant. I also have to add that I am not "allowed" to unsub from them either. I have some really wonderful friends on them and they won't let me just quietly unsub. Which gives me warm fuzzies, because they care! I can live with that.
The third one is supporting recording my life lessons, they can be seen over at http://onespiritualwoman.blogspot.com/. This list varies in it's volume, but it rarely has email every single day.
I went in to every add/offer email I received and unsubbed, as they came through my email box. Which admittedly added a LOT of time for a few days. But it only took a day or two to see a really huge difference in the time/energy spent on email and it felt really good. So I had the motivation to keep unsubbing. It is really hard for me to put into words the amazing feeling that this has given me. I don't miss those offers at all.
I do have to add that I don't tend to use coupons (it's just not what I do right now, for various reasons), and so I don't miss those offers. If you do use them, then setting up a folder for them to go directly to, and then only going to that folder when you're shopping and need to use one, would be a huge energy/time saver.
Now I have way fewer emails to deal with and I have a cleaner inbox, which makes it less overwhelming to deal with the emails that do come through. And at times I actually get down to one or two emails. I can't remember ever having an empty box....but I think one or two is pretty good. I love how energizing it is to come to my inbox and be able to whip through what's in it and move on. It just feels so good.
Give it a try, you can always go back and resub if you don't like the results. If you give it a try let me know how it goes!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
sucess
Oh how sweet the success tastes. My Mother came for three weeks and boy did she give me a huge boost! She was hear to pack up the cabin and downsize her possessions. In the middle of all that we had a garage sale to help unload both of our stuff.
This was a huge boost because it organized the garage so that all the stuff I've been sending out there for the last few months was all sorted and on tables. We could just send kids out with stuff and they'd put it where it needed to go, or close to it, anyway. Then we had a huge sale and move a TON of stuff. And made some money. Which was really, really nice.
I didn't get a lot more of my stuff out for the sale, we had our hands full just setting up enough tables and organizing stuff so people could see it and get to it. (I was still running kids/animals places during all this) We ended up in three buildings, one three car garage, one two car garage, and our main barn. The three car garage was the main area, with the two car garage full of furniture and the main barn had plywood tables set up with free stuff, including free clothes. Did I mention it was a lot of stuff?
Now that Mom has accomplished her mission and returned to the coast, I have this week to finish purging my house for another sale on Sat.
Yesterday was the first day I'd had to focus only on our house and boy did we focus! Stuff was flying out of the house all day! We moved out beds, toy chests, shelves, dressers, blankets, books, clothes, and just STUFF.
Stuff that was STUFFING our house!
And boy can we tell a difference! Our upstairs hallway and our office had the biggest makeovers, in the public family areas anyway. We also changed out a bedroom, so that we now have a play room again. So two of the bedrooms now have no toys in them and the boys love how much room they have. I love not walking on legos when I go to tuck them in!
The younger two boys have a bed each and a short bookshelf each in their room and that's it. Their personal toys/papers, STUFF are in drawers that are built into the beds and their clothes are all in their walk in closet. I love walking into their bedroom right now. So clear and calming!
I am LOVING how our upstairs feels. We cleared out all but one books shelf and the stand the snake is on in the hallway. The stand is smaller and shorter, now that we only have one snake.(the other snake was sold at the sale!) There is also a cat litter box and one box in the hallway. The bookshelf and box will leave at some point. (hopefully some point in the very near future)
I asked my husband and one of the boys how they liked the hallway and they both are loving the room. Me too. Another son is loving his room, he had two beds in there, his loft bed and a captain's bed.(we used the bed as a spare for guests) Now it's just the loft bed. Plus his other furniture, a desk, dresser, cupboard thingy, and a coffee table he's using in the middle of his room to play games on with his brothers. He was so happy to see the legos and captain's bed go! It's given him so much more room.
There is a play room again and I love how that works for us! They were all in there tonight building legos, they walked out leaving very little floor showing and I DON'T CARE! I closed the doors to that room and I don't have to deal with it! If they want to use it, they have to maintain it! There is very little reasons for me to have to see or walk into that room! And there will be even less when I get our room moved downstairs! (which is also hopefully in the near future!)
I am loving how much I downsized the homeschool stuff. I don't miss any of it yet, and it's much easier for me to look at the stuff and use it! LOVE IT! I cleared out our closet. Took out a laundry basket full of clothes between my husband and I. And there were some boxes in it, waiting for me to deal with. So I dealt with them! Again I love the space! It just feels soooo good. Did I mention how much I'm loving it?!
I've made progress on decluttering AND on making money on the stuff going out the door. Still have hang ups on the money thing.....I would much rather the sale this weekend was a freebie sale. But I'll stick it out one more time and then the next time, it's all going for free.
I am very happy with how far we've all come with the decluttering and am looking forward to this week and having a lot more success to boost me up!
This was a huge boost because it organized the garage so that all the stuff I've been sending out there for the last few months was all sorted and on tables. We could just send kids out with stuff and they'd put it where it needed to go, or close to it, anyway. Then we had a huge sale and move a TON of stuff. And made some money. Which was really, really nice.
I didn't get a lot more of my stuff out for the sale, we had our hands full just setting up enough tables and organizing stuff so people could see it and get to it. (I was still running kids/animals places during all this) We ended up in three buildings, one three car garage, one two car garage, and our main barn. The three car garage was the main area, with the two car garage full of furniture and the main barn had plywood tables set up with free stuff, including free clothes. Did I mention it was a lot of stuff?
Now that Mom has accomplished her mission and returned to the coast, I have this week to finish purging my house for another sale on Sat.
Yesterday was the first day I'd had to focus only on our house and boy did we focus! Stuff was flying out of the house all day! We moved out beds, toy chests, shelves, dressers, blankets, books, clothes, and just STUFF.
Stuff that was STUFFING our house!
And boy can we tell a difference! Our upstairs hallway and our office had the biggest makeovers, in the public family areas anyway. We also changed out a bedroom, so that we now have a play room again. So two of the bedrooms now have no toys in them and the boys love how much room they have. I love not walking on legos when I go to tuck them in!
The younger two boys have a bed each and a short bookshelf each in their room and that's it. Their personal toys/papers, STUFF are in drawers that are built into the beds and their clothes are all in their walk in closet. I love walking into their bedroom right now. So clear and calming!
I am LOVING how our upstairs feels. We cleared out all but one books shelf and the stand the snake is on in the hallway. The stand is smaller and shorter, now that we only have one snake.(the other snake was sold at the sale!) There is also a cat litter box and one box in the hallway. The bookshelf and box will leave at some point. (hopefully some point in the very near future)
I asked my husband and one of the boys how they liked the hallway and they both are loving the room. Me too. Another son is loving his room, he had two beds in there, his loft bed and a captain's bed.(we used the bed as a spare for guests) Now it's just the loft bed. Plus his other furniture, a desk, dresser, cupboard thingy, and a coffee table he's using in the middle of his room to play games on with his brothers. He was so happy to see the legos and captain's bed go! It's given him so much more room.
There is a play room again and I love how that works for us! They were all in there tonight building legos, they walked out leaving very little floor showing and I DON'T CARE! I closed the doors to that room and I don't have to deal with it! If they want to use it, they have to maintain it! There is very little reasons for me to have to see or walk into that room! And there will be even less when I get our room moved downstairs! (which is also hopefully in the near future!)
I am loving how much I downsized the homeschool stuff. I don't miss any of it yet, and it's much easier for me to look at the stuff and use it! LOVE IT! I cleared out our closet. Took out a laundry basket full of clothes between my husband and I. And there were some boxes in it, waiting for me to deal with. So I dealt with them! Again I love the space! It just feels soooo good. Did I mention how much I'm loving it?!
I've made progress on decluttering AND on making money on the stuff going out the door. Still have hang ups on the money thing.....I would much rather the sale this weekend was a freebie sale. But I'll stick it out one more time and then the next time, it's all going for free.
I am very happy with how far we've all come with the decluttering and am looking forward to this week and having a lot more success to boost me up!
Monday, May 10, 2010
a journey
Several weeks ago while I was trying to muster the energy to attack my house again. I typed in clutter to the google search engine. Wow, I got sucked in for the afternoon! But it's been a journey well worth taking.
I've really been struggling for several months with my house and my life. I know that the last four years were intense and that it had taken a toll on my health. By last summer though, I was pretty much back to normal....health wise, I may never get my mental state back!
So then the plan was to tackle the house chaos and get back to living life. Right......not so much on the house anyway. I've really struggled to make any kind of inroads on the house. I did manage to get the kitchen painted, thanks to a wonderful friend and her help. I did manage to get the living room painted, thanks to the kids and Christmas coming.
But I still have no pictures up in either and I have not fixed the cabinet doors.
And I'm still very overwhelmed about the house. I had a dialog last week with Brent about this. I had been casting back into my brain trying to pinpoint when I was the happiest. And it is at a point in time when I had minimal stuff and maximum time for going places and experiencing life. So I want to get back to that.
I am still a bit confused as to why my brain is more energized by the concept of dumping so much stuff vs. selling everything possible to pay off debt. But it seems to be the way my brain works. I was supposed to have emptied the house Jan/Feb of all salable items. However I haven't sold one item.
Now a week after deciding that dumping stuff was the object, our two desks and book shelf in the office have been gone over with a fine tooth comb. The desks have a few drawers left, but the surfaces are much clearer. I would be farther, but half the week is spent in running boys to do their stuff....their active stuff, which recharges me and I enjoy taking them to and/or watching them be involved in. The stuff I want to free up my time to pursue!
When I say dumping stuff, I mean clearing out the house of everything that is excess. Otherwise known as clutter.
I wandered over to http://rowdykittens.com/2009/10/living-with-72-things/ Which is an article about living with a 100 things or less....and then I wandered over to...... You probably don't want a step by step account of my journey that day. But the point is that I found plenty to think about.
I love the concept of living with a hundred things. Especially in light of our current travel plans over at http://onetravelingwoman.blogspot.com/ .
Could you live with 100 items? I like that this author has an excel sheet posted with her items.
I am still pondering why the thought of selling stuff and getting money to pay down my debt stagnates me, while the thought of purging the house of anything excess energizes me, but in the meantime, while I ponder it I'll get a move on downsizing!
I've really been struggling for several months with my house and my life. I know that the last four years were intense and that it had taken a toll on my health. By last summer though, I was pretty much back to normal....health wise, I may never get my mental state back!
So then the plan was to tackle the house chaos and get back to living life. Right......not so much on the house anyway. I've really struggled to make any kind of inroads on the house. I did manage to get the kitchen painted, thanks to a wonderful friend and her help. I did manage to get the living room painted, thanks to the kids and Christmas coming.
But I still have no pictures up in either and I have not fixed the cabinet doors.
And I'm still very overwhelmed about the house. I had a dialog last week with Brent about this. I had been casting back into my brain trying to pinpoint when I was the happiest. And it is at a point in time when I had minimal stuff and maximum time for going places and experiencing life. So I want to get back to that.
I am still a bit confused as to why my brain is more energized by the concept of dumping so much stuff vs. selling everything possible to pay off debt. But it seems to be the way my brain works. I was supposed to have emptied the house Jan/Feb of all salable items. However I haven't sold one item.
Now a week after deciding that dumping stuff was the object, our two desks and book shelf in the office have been gone over with a fine tooth comb. The desks have a few drawers left, but the surfaces are much clearer. I would be farther, but half the week is spent in running boys to do their stuff....their active stuff, which recharges me and I enjoy taking them to and/or watching them be involved in. The stuff I want to free up my time to pursue!
When I say dumping stuff, I mean clearing out the house of everything that is excess. Otherwise known as clutter.
I wandered over to http://rowdykittens.com/2009/10/living-with-72-things/ Which is an article about living with a 100 things or less....and then I wandered over to...... You probably don't want a step by step account of my journey that day. But the point is that I found plenty to think about.
I love the concept of living with a hundred things. Especially in light of our current travel plans over at http://onetravelingwoman.blogspot.com/ .
Could you live with 100 items? I like that this author has an excel sheet posted with her items.
I am still pondering why the thought of selling stuff and getting money to pay down my debt stagnates me, while the thought of purging the house of anything excess energizes me, but in the meantime, while I ponder it I'll get a move on downsizing!
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