JawJaw,

Did you go to seminar or does Jamie have a book or a CD?

I loved the idea of setting a time for working on a room.

Such a simple idea, but this seems more reasonable and most important - doable.

Thanks for the tip.

Dotsie, our community yard sale is this coming Sat. June 6th.

John's breaking down a bit about the old time photography business and thinks he'll sell my friend's desk and our cash register. I'm hoping he'll sell more, but I don't want to sell our costumes or the real antique props that we have. I'm really beginning to think about possibly using them as a fundraiser activity ie PTA. The whole family would have their photos taken in costume but wouldn't have to go to a beach or an amusement park to do it.

I have a 76-year old house, so we only have one bathroom and an istsy bitsy kitchen. We have two little closets because they taxed them as "rooms" when the house was built.
That's why it's so necessary for us to pare down.

But, this was my husband's Great-grandfathers house, so it holds a lot of memories for John and for his whole side of the family. Every cousin and newly wed couple has had their photo taken in front of our house.

So, we never sold it and now that it's paid for we don't want to start a new mortage. So, I've set a goal to just "make it work" for us. There are only two of us (plus 4 dogs), but I know this is possible. We've just moved away from the urge to own more material objects. Wish we had more newlywed couples who could take some of their relatives stuff, but they live in California. We've given them plenty of time to fly out and drive home with a U-Haul it filled with memories.

Okay, time to get out my black plastic trash bag and hit the den.

Emily in Marylnad

Emily,
I love the fact that you have this old home and cherish it. I would kill to own one. Kudos! I can truly understand the need for more storage though. Too bad you can't convert one of the rooms into a walk in closet. I almost did that with one of the bedrooms here but decided to make it into an office for me instead. Glad I did now. Its 10 x 10 and just right for now. I can see where I'm going to outgrow it though.

The downloadable file of Jamie's was a free download and I got it by signing up to hear a Teleseminar given by Karen Greenstreet. http://www.passionforbusiness.com/

I'm pretty sure you can get the free download of Jamie's from her own web site though. I DID write to her and ask if I could share it. I figured it was best to ask before I did. I haven't heard back from her yet. But check out her site because it seems to me I saw it on there.

I would LOVE to have the biz that you've got in storage. The Old-Timey thing. What a fun business to own and what a great idea you have for the PTA fund raiser.

I use spoken word tapes or cds whilst I tidy wardrobes and quiet tasks.My library has a great assortment and I feel its a relaxing way to attempt to create order.As the tapes/cd needs to be changed itsa way of timing the task.
I feel I am at a stage when I would like to own less.Last week I donated three large bags of clothes and know what I dont miss anything at all.
Mountain ash

JawJaw,

Actually, I'm glad I have an old-fashioned house, too. We even have one of those porcelin sinks with the back-splash.

It feels really homey here. I tried to decorate in a more formal way when we were first married. Now. I'm changing. I'm playing up the history of the house. We have taken the paint off of the original door and taken it down to the wood. The same shutters are on the house. John and I agree that we will not put vinyl ones up (though they'd be so much better to maintain).

We have all wood floors now. With our pets, this was a necessity and an added plus is that John and me are no longer bothered by sinus problems.

We actually have an old time phonograph -- the one with the big horn -- in the basement. I have a second stove down there -- a porcelin one with the top that covers the burners. It's sits up on legs. It works, too!

I have the head to my grandmother's sewing machine. Thinking of bringing it downstairs. It could sit on a hope chest or a table as a centerpiece. I just don't know how I could fill in the bottom -- the area between where it would sit up on the hard surface.

Gee, JawJaw, you've got the right side of my brain on go.
But, but I'm sticking to the clean up the clutter thing first. Or, maybe I could do time cleaning up and more time on redecorating. (After all, I am coming out of that awful down and deserve some fun!)

Mountain Ash, I'm the opposite in musical choice during cleaning. I have to listen to something fast. The faster the music the faster I clean. Motown hits work good too.

Okay, I'm going to go take a nap now, before I start my one room at a time de-cluttering project. I really have a surge of energy in the evening. During the morning and afternoon, I have to talk to myself to get going on a project.

Love,

Emily (whose house will be able to breathe by the end of this month)

Meredith,

I love that idea re: lists of chores. I get overwhelmed when I look at a whole room and start doing this task and switch to another and before you know it, everywhere I look needs cleaning. That's when I give up.

I really never thought about hitting the same areas in each room. This makes sense.

Thanks!

Emily in Maryland

Anne, when do you hope to be finished? What an undertaking! Are things shaping up?

I have to buy a vacuum cleaner, my poor Hoover died and shall rest in pieces in the dump. I can't believe these prices, maybe I will just have dusty floors like some of the old homes that had dirt floors. LOL!!

Chatty,

I know what you mean about prices. We need to replace our vaccum, too.

My sister invested in a Dyson and says it's the best money she's ever spent.

My husband buys these cheapo things that are clearly not designed for a home with four dogs!

I've had Hoovers for years. There was an vintage Electolux in this house, when John bought it. We actually used it for a whole year. But, we didn't have dogs -- or much of anything -- at that time!

We made $250.00 at our yard sale this past weekend. Not as much as we thought we'd make, but I'm beginning to light filtering through our basement windows!

(Things were piled so high, I actually forgot there were windows in that part of the room.)

And, John has been motivated to have more sales or pile it up for Salvation Army. This is great!! With him on my side, we ought to have things pretty much in order by fall.

Make it a good day!

Emily in Maryland

Emy, congrats on making that much.

One of the best vacs we've ever had was a Rainbow. You fill the tank with water and all the dirt goes into the water tank. Then you empty it after every use. It's super for peopel with allergies. The only thing I didn't like about it was that it was so cumbersome. There were too many pieces to carry around and then they'd separate when you were carrying from floor to floor. Anyone else use one?

http://www.rainbowsystem.com/eng/