rcn - ditto on everything you said about magazines for me too :-) I have nearly every issue of Fine Gardening, Horticulture, Country Gardens, English Gardens, Traditional Home, Victorian Home, etc. since the early 90's. I do have them sorted chronologically, but had to get extra shelving in the library when it started overflowing the space I had! I do pick out issues randomly to look at over and over again when I want to relax so I guess there is some merit to keeping them. I think I find more pleasure in thumbing thru a magazine than the internet for recreational reading, but I now use the internet when I want to find out something specific - it is so much easier than trying to remember which article I saw in which magazine. I never thought of going to the online indexing that you mentioned - didn't even realize that such a thing existed. Terri
This message was edited Nov 27, 2009 7:36 AM
Dirty little secrets of the MA
I still haven't tossed any Fine Gardening from my one or two year time with that, AGES ago.
Several yrs ago a friend 'kindly' passed to me a bunch of quilting stuff. I went thru the mags and 'only' saved about a dozen with things I really liked, Same with books, saved a half dozen. Fabric.., dumped some, eventually I sorted some by color, prewashed some, started a quilt with some but I messed up something in my design and the blocks weren't fitting as I thought and I realized I didn't like the yellow with the blue after all. Then my plan was to just cut every piece of fabric into a chosen size/ shape and make a scrap quilt. In what spare time? What if there's not quite enough for a certain size quilt? And we all know every tiny piece of fabric down to an inch square might be usable. I was able to share some with a friend who did a scrap type quilt last year. When the top was done, she sent it out to get quilted, can't be too cheap. I really should take that fabric and start hand piecing a top for the gal that gave me all that. But hand piecing is fine , then eventually you have to Quilt it!
After weeding out yarns years ago, I just went and bought two more skeins. Besides the two small fancy ones for last years unmade scarf.
Mostly I try to take the tack of thinning out, deciding on part of whatever that is not as appealing as others and reducing that way. My sewing and quilting and cross stitch takes up a HUGE plastic bin, plus a drawer, and a sewing table cabinet, plus a sweater holder...
AHHHH---We are all "Sisters" in all this! To a greater--or lesser--amount--we. the creative ones, have the same dilemmas. Unfinished plans and projects......Occasional "flare-ups" of something new we want to do, as we run out and buy all the supplies needed to do this and that project---and then the desire passes as our minds return to more important, time consuming things--like families and life. In my case--it was Card-Making.....because my friend, Helen, is such a Pro at it--it got me all motivated....Now I have a couple of small boxes-full of card stock and punches, and all kinds of other needed supplies that has become the latest addition to my store of "needed items".......AAAGGGHHH!
Yes! We all share this to some extent!
Terri--
I don't know how old you are--but if you have been saving postcards all your life please know that many old postcards have collectible value. As an example--Post Cards showing the twin Towers in NY. Good market on these!
Postcards from different World's Fairs-----Old postcards of Cities that have now been so built-up that no one would recognize the earlier photos. BUT--historically speaking--these Postcards can be donated to Historical Societies in your City. Have you thought of just putting them all in a BIG Scrapbook?
Also-as far as old letters go--IF the letters mean nothing to you and you ARE going to toss them--please remove the stamps (cut them out in a way that does not destroy the time, date, and location cancellation) and pass them on to a young person just starting out in Stamp Collecting. Perhaps you even have one in your family? Or--sell them.
I also have many cards, letters and postcards in boxes here and there.....
Many of them are from family members-- long dead----now to be "treasured" (???)....BUT--those would not be in English and so they are useless to save, as neither of my daughters, or my nieces speak Latvian.
I have this double-Whammy going because of it in many things I want to save.....
As far as Magazines go--I am cutting out receiving "TIME" Magazine as of NOW. One a week for 52 weeks a year!
I just don't have time to read them.....
Keeping "Martha Stewart" and my the "Geographic" which, by now, has invaded every corner and free space throughout my house.....One just does not DARE throw these away!!!!!! HA! You can buy them in any Thrift Shop for 25 cents a copy!
I also have shelves-full of these "Time-Life" Library series of zillions of books. Yes! One of the "Libraries" is my "Encyclopedia of Gardening" Series. I remember signing up for these back in the mid-60's. They said it was a series of 7 books. NO biggie! So I started subscribing to them. OH, YEAH?????
Well--you know what happened---The "Series" ended up being 30 books--each at a great cost.....I DO use them now and then for reference though....BUT--just think of how all the information has changed since 1965????
I also own other "Library Series" on other topics.....
Sally,
Before you just throw out all these fabrics and sewing supplies--bag them all up and advertise them in either the
"Pennysaver" or on "Craig's List". Like--maybe $5 a bag--or $10 if it is better stuff.
Many doll makers (doll clothing) and quilters and people that work with other projects that require fabrics will snap those up in no time.
I used to sew all my own clothes and those of my young daughters--and even pants and shorts for my Husband. YES! I also have a big floor-to-ceiling shelf-full of asst. fabrics in my Laundry Room. Have to attend to it......I ought to follow my own advice here.....:o)
YARNS?????------I have a couple of totes-full. Sold a bunch several years ago at a yard sale--but still have many...many....just too good to give away........Some day, I will make something out of all this......Sound familiar?
Makes me depressed just to talk about all this!!!!!! It is a hopeless cause!
AND--The list goes on and on!!!!!!
Love all my "sisters" in these addictions.........We ARE the masses.....
Gita
Good idea on the Pennysaver/Craig's
Terri, I'm not sure Horticulture offers the ability to find previous articles anymore but Fine Gardening makes it easy for you :) http://www.finegardening.com/pages/fg_articleindex.asp
Gita, it IS depressing to think about all this but good to know we're all "sisters" :) It's making me think about all the unfinished projects stored away and brings to mind the Icelandic sweater I started almost 30 years ago!!!! My grandmother picked up the yarn for me when she was in Prince Edward Island back in the 70's and although I started knitting the sweater right away, I quit once I got to the difficult part - the shoulders. I've hung on to it (stored with other unfinished knitting projects) but the "depressing" part is even if I ever decided to finish it who would wear it??? It's not exactly my "style" after all these years! LOL
Gita, I hadn't thought about the stamp collecting aspect when going thru the bin of old cards and letters. I'll take your advice and give them to a stamp collector. I was born in 1962, so 47 years of saving these things - not many postcards, mostly Birthday and Christmas cards. Maybe the ones that I don't want to keep might be of interest to a collector, I'll have to see as I sort thru them.
Debbie, thanks for the link for Fine Gardening indexing - that will help a lot!
"Sisters" is a good one - I know I'm not alone in this :-) Terri
Along with my crafting supplies are gift types of items that I buy throughout the year when I see deals I can't pass up. At least yesterday I made one good dent in a closet. I wrapped Christmas presents for my niece Angela and her family. They are in visiting this weekend and won't be back before Christmas, so I am hoping to get these things to them today before they head home. It will cost me a fortune to mail them.
Yes, some of my magazines I hold on to for while before giving away. I have a couple of shelves in two tall Barister bookcases that we inherited from John's' folks. There is also a stack over a foot tall sitting on the floor beside the couch where I sit to watch TV. Yikes, forgot the two large baskets sirring under the TV table. They are older holiday ones. I have been keeping them thinking that some time or another I might refer to them for making holiday treats. Not sure if it will ever happen or not.
Something just came to mind regarding getting rid of access items. At two of thePlant Swaps that I have attended, different people have brought things and just sat them out for others to help themselves to. Someone brought loads of gardening magazines and older seeds to Harts swap a few years back. I brought a couple of bags full of little gardening types of items to Holly's and sat them with some other door prize items and before I knew it they were gone. poof!!!
I have been a member of our local Freecycle group for several years and find that as being a way to get rid of some items I will never use. I always feel good when someone has posted a wanted item and I have whatever it is and can plan an exchange.
Well sisters, may each of you be able to soon address some of the clutter that is bothering us. I am hoping to continue to empty out my gift closet as I continue to get things ready to deliver to recipients. The sooner I get things out of here, the better I will feel.
Have a wonderful Sunday everyone.
Ruby
Freecycle is a great idea too.
~~~
Think about this--you use 10 % of your stuff 90% of the time, and the other 90% of it only ten% of the time.
~~~
Yesterday I found a little plastic container on the microwave, of seeds I had fermented from a tomato--in August.
~~~
Today hubby said the van was stinkin. On further investigation I found, way in the back, the little bag containing the little baby snake Mom annihilated about two weeks ago, and I took it to put in my trash so she wouldn't think about it rising from the dead in her trash can and coming in to eat her.
Ewwww.
LOL!!! Sally, you are way too young to do that!!
Wow, this all sounds so familiar. We are adding an expansion onto the house now so I hope to clean out (ummmm, sort out) some of our clutter. I have taken to ripping and filing magazine articles. I have made a serious dent in the piles around the house.
Gita, check out this online store for crafters to sell stuff.
Etsy :: Your place to buy and sell all things handmade
www.etsy.com
I have some very artistic friends who have built up a following for their stuff on that site.
Welcome Dria. I too have friends who have used Etsy as a great place to sell their crafts. There are some very beautiful things for sale on there.
Thank you, dria--
I bookmarked this site. Gita
Ditto to Jen's sentiments on the snake. hahaha
Great idea re: Etsy for Gita, Dria. Good going on the magazine piles.
I am not going to confess to the condition of my two extra bedrooms that are in a state of disarray from bringing down holiday items from the attic. I would never let anyone know that I spent several months and all sorts of mental energy, plus a little strain on the back getting the rooms set up as so to serve as an official guest room after not having one for five years, and the other room being used as my winter plant room. I would never let the secret out that I recently boasted of being about 90% complete with the rooms, only to have ten minutes of of moving in large plastic bins of holiday decor and gifts, stacked several high and taking up walking space. No one will ever hear this from me. No siree, never. I am too embarrassed by it.
I am so glad that rooms have doors. I pretend the house is neat and clean and try to forget what is behind the doors. hahaha I just hope that no one comes to visit and needs a bed soon or no plant needs a drink of water till I can get in there and begin coming up with another system to store things.
One positive in the whole mess is that I learned that I definitely need another design for storage in the closets. I can't get to the things I want to access very easily and I find that very, very frustrating.
I might break down soon and send some of the plastic bins out to newly created space in shed versus keeping it indoors. That would help matters tremendously. Ya'll please with me luck.
Ruby
LOL Ruby, I'm getting ready to move the large bins filled with Fall decorations back up to the attic and bring the large bins filled with Christmas decorations down.
I'm not talking about my bedroom Nobody will here from me that most of my summer clothes are still piled up on two chairs and a stool in my bedroom. Or that my dive gear bag is still laying on the floor just feet from my bed waiting for me to gather all my gear together from different corners of the house. I'm thinking maybe a few new large bins might come in handy at my house right now.
And a truck to haul them away.LOL Ric
snort~~!
I should be getting xmas decor out today but hate crawling under the steps, moving other boxes to get them. The ideal set up would be enough easy-to-access storage so each season one comes, out the other goes in...or throw everything away instead of storing it year to year.
We have our attic setup in rotation. We take down the current season, move the next season to that spot, and then put the returning one in the back. It works pretty good since all the summer stuff goes to the barn or garage. Ric
My garage is done. Ric and I both worked out there for a couple of hours this afternoon. He did the lions share but I was helpful. I need to go out later to organize the flats and pots but it is a major improvement. He has the back of the explorer loaded with some of Josh's stuff which he will deliver later. Huge difference.
It's a great feeling, isn't it??
Stormy, I'm impressed with what we got done, and having the space to organize the craft and garden materials is great. Josh couldn't understand why I was in a "rush" to move his stuff until I reminded him he moved 2 years ago! LOL Ric
LOL, It's definitely a different perspective from their age to ours.
OK... Why ya gotta go and dis' da desk???
I know this thread has been around for a bit, but I just lurked on it for the first time. DH is wondering why I had to pull my small camera out and take a pic of the desk. I can assure you, I won't be showing any other areas off though!
LOL, before I opened your pic I was wondering where your keyboard was!!! My area looks about the same but I've got way too much room - not only do the papers pile up in front of the keyboard but on both sides as well :(
Rose, LOL, I assure you that this is not any worse than any horizontal surface in our house that I have access to, since the vertical one are occupied by fishing rods, brooms and mops. Not to mention Holly's stuff. Ric
Hi there folks... Now I am really impressed with the Holly and Ric team. So glad to hear that you are able to work together and get projects completed. John and I are doing a bit better than we used to. Even though I consider we have a great marriage, I am sometimes hesitant to get him involved in my things because he tends to be a grump and we butt heads often. He is getting better with age thankfully.
I haven't made much progress the last few weeks with decluttering but was able to at least get holiday decor all in one room and now instead of having two disorganized rooms, I now have only the one in a mess. I am going to aim at only putting back five bins to the attic after the holidays. That will be down from ten of them. Granted some of them have gifts in them and will hopefully be emptied out, but when I packed them away last winter I didn't realize how much stuff I had.
I really appreciate everyone's honesty here. It helps and I don't feel like such an odd duck. Happy Holidays to All.
Ruby
Hey Ruby, Talk about finally getting things done. Ric and I bought a new washer/dryer set today. That means he has about a week to finish up the laundry room. Actually it is and has been almost finished for quite awhile. They are delivering it in about a week so he has a time table.
If I don't get the laundry room done in time, I have a plan!!! I'm going to put big green bows on the washer and dryer, set them in the livingroom, and set the tree on top of them!!! After all she did order the cranberry ones and they should be quite attractive.
LOL Ric
You guys are nutty!! lol
Ric, Is the washer a front loader? I just love mine! I also think it is easier on the clothes, the tumbling action and the push/pull of the agitator.
Lady, I have a front loader and never thought about it being easier on the clothes. You're probably right.
Yes it is the new energy efficent front loader. I would have just gone and gotten a new(maybe used) washer when mine died but he wanted the front loader and I told him if I was getting one of those I'd want a new dryer, too. So I have a working old dryer to get rid of if anyone needs one?
My old washer died about a year ago and started a series of related jobs. The "laundry room" is really more like a very large walk in closet. There is a short hallway from the Mud/utility room that leads into the laundry room. Just to get the washer out you had to move the dryer and all the stuff that was stored in that hallway. That area was never finished think ancient unpainted drywall. So we decided to rehab the whole area.
Here is what it looks like now. This shot shows the short hallway with the dryer sitting in it and the laundry room opening to the right.
It's looking good, Holly.
It's kind of funny, the unfinished things we all live with for so long for no particular reason--maybe that its just not that fun to finish jobs? We have one small but full bathroom with an out of work shower waiting for the right time for rehab. the usual small shower with tile walls and sliding doors Maybe a new shower insert- or could we combine the space with the other bath and make a really nice but bigger one, out of two? I think there's a furnace chimney in the way for that actually.
Ruby, I don't often work with hubby on 'my' projects either`` but he likes to explain his projects to me. Boy does he like to explain his projects...When we met, we had friends we played Pictionary with- where you draw a little picture within one minute and get your partner to guess an answer? I developed a technique with DH. I would not guess ANYthing for the first 50 seconds. He would start the most complete picture so that by 55 seconds you would know what the answer was. Most people take a stab first at drawing specifically what they want you to guess, no matter how bad an artist you may be. (that story was probably more boring than I intended, You had to be there LOL)
Well Ric started with the electric wiring. I had wanted a panel box moved so the opening in the wall could be enlarged and there was a lot of old wires that were attached to nothing left over from when the addition was put on maybe 20 years ago. So he spent a good bit of time with that. Then he moved the box tore out the wall and built a new one with a new header. All the old drywall came out and new went in, that all got taped and painted, he wanted the drywall sealed. Then the panelling I picked out went in. There are cabinets Josh and Ric drug home (freebies) I painted them lite grey and Ric hung them over where the washer/dryer will sit. Much nicer than the old open shelving that was there. The laundry chute from the second floor and a new recessed light were put in the ceiling and it was finished with a stucco look.
You are so right Sally, Since Ric and I built most of the house there are a lot of areas that just never got completely finished and then there are other areas like the kids rooms that have been remodeled several times as they grew, changed and moved out or back in. LOL About the bathroom I too have a bathroom on the second floor with no working shower. One good thing if I get up in the middle of the night and have to pee the toilet does still work.
Lets see the concrete floor needs to be painted, the molding needs installed and since the washer and dryer will be reversed Ric needs to switch around some pipes. Then the hallway needs a drop ceiling, shelves in the end, molding and a door. That can be done after the washer and dryer are in place.
Here is a pic of the paneling I picked out it looks like limestone. There are several different fossils this one is a seahorse but most of them are just shells.
This message was edited Dec 10, 2009 11:49 AM
Looks good, Holly. You'll be so happy when it's finished. I love grey & Burgundy together.
I think it will look good. I'm painting the floor dark gray and sponging it with the same light gray that the cabinets and moulding are. Ric laughed at my wanting the red washer and dryer after all its not like anyone will see them.
You'll have to start giving laundry room tours.
Only if the mud/utility room gets done, too. I don't have a basement so this area is the equivalent of an unfinished basement. I did get the gray base-coat on the floor today and freshened up the area in the mud/utility room that was painted as well.