Every day this week I've made a concentrated effort to cut down on the amount of junk email I receive. I have a couple of email addresses, with one just used for online offers and purchases. This is great in terms of limiting the amount of email I receive on my phone-- only my personal email comes there. The rest is only read on my home computer.
The problem lies with my "junk email" address. That email address makes up about 90% of my email daily, and most of it I don't even read.... it's newsletters from companies that I have signed up for a free sample from, or it's advertising from someone, or it's just pure junk. And when I'm on my home computer, all of my email accounts open up in one program, so despite the separate email addresses I still have to sort through the junk and the personal stuff. What a waste of time!
So.... every day this week I have taken a look at the junk emails. If it's a company that regularly sends me useful coupons, it stays. If it's a company that I no longer have an interest in, or one that I never read, I click through and unsubscribe from their mailing list. Most of these have taken no more than 30 seconds.
I'm looking forward to having a lot less junk email facing me each day!
Don't forget to join me here on Tuesdays and share what you've tossed this week!
My pots and pans cupboard was a ten minute job-- it mostly just needed to be reorganized. I did rehome a few things and get rid of the broken lid organizer, but mostly, it was just a matter of straightening this cupboard out:
It's funny to how something so simple as a little straightening up can make the space seem so much bigger and much more pleasant to use each day!
Don't forget to join me here on Tuesdays and share what you've tossed this week!
This weekend's challenge: the pantry. I was happy to see this one, because my pantry was definitely in need of some organizing after the holidays, when things got crammed in there every which way.
I kept groups of things in the same general location in the pantry. I pulled things out, sorted them to their proper locations, recycled any boxes I could eliminate, and pitched the expired crackers, pudding, and drink mix. I did all of this while I was making dinner, as the ground beef was browning and then as the
enchiladas were baking. Since my pantry is about three steps from my stove, it worked out great.
I've used one odd container for a while now. See it there.... almost right in the middle? I use a cardboard box to protect our bread from getting squished, which is a pet peeve of my husband's. The height of the box also allows me to store tortillas laying flat on top of it, which works out great. It's not a particularly pretty organizing solution, but it works for us!
If you really look closely, you'll see that I buy a lot of store brand items. Most of the name brand items I buy were special sales or coupon deals. There are a few exceptions, and one was made very obvious to me as I sorted things out. Can you see it? Down in the bottom right corner? It's partially hidden, but anyway .. apparently I'm pretty partial to
Barilla pasta
. There were 8 boxes in there, all Barilla brand. LOL!
(This is not a sponsored post of any sort, just an observation of what I found in my own pantry.)
This was one organizing task I'm glad to have done... it's something that I will appreciate on a daily basis. What about you... have you organized your pantry lately?
Don't forget to join me here on Tuesdays and share what you've tossed this week!
I've been working on my craft room for-ev-er. Yesterday I was in a rotten mood... hormone fueled, mad, you get the picture. So I channeled that anger into finishing up the room. EVERYTHING is now in white banker's boxes, sorted by category. Two large black trash bags went out. Sure, there's more sorting and purging that can eventually be done within the boxes... but wow, what a difference. The boxes are stacked along one wall-- 23 in total. The craft table is clear, the floor is clear. It's a great feeling!
I'm learning some things as I declutter. The biggest realization has come over the last couple of weeks as I tackle small projects here and there: I like empty spaces. Empty space can just be empty, it does not need to be filled up. It sounds silly to some, I'm sure, but it's quite a revelation to me.
I've been increasingly frustrated by the pile of shoes by our front door. Solution? Clean out the front hall closet so that the shoes can go in there. Well, it took all afternoon (I tackled it on Veteran's Day since I had the day off), but I did it. I have one kitchen trash bag full of outgrown coats to donate, and I filled a black trashbag 2/3 full with random junk (holey shoes, school papers, etc.). That closet was literally packed with junk. Ugh.
The final result? I have my front entryway back again. There's no ugly pile of shoes. I thinned out the coats piled on the coat rack, so now there are just a few there, and the rest are on proper hangers in the closet. And every time I walk through there I feel lighter... all that free space looks good!
I did it! I spent Saturday afternoon working on my craft table. When I started, it was heaped high with assorted papers, craft supplies, catalogs, junk mail, etc. I wish I had thought to take a picture, but basically I think it looked something like this:
It was to the point where putting one more paper on there would result in an avalanche. Not pretty.
By the time I was finished, it looked like this:
Now, to anyone else, that might not seem like much progress. (Again, wish I had taken that "before" shot!) But I see less than half of what was piled there to begin with, and that makes me very happy. I'm left with ten white file boxes, none of them anywhere near full. Each one has a specific category, and if an item didn't fit into one of those, out it went. I filled a huge black trash bag with trash. Filled.
I was ruthless in the purging. I flung scraps of scrapbook paper that I normally would have held onto. I am working really hard to get it into my head that a clean, decluttered space is much better than hanging onto tons of extra clutter "just in case" I need it.
Now to keep this momentum going and finish the room....
I'm linking up to
Tackle It Tuesday... and you can, too- just share what you've accomplished from your to-do list this week!
My husband wants to get rid of a bunch of toys... things the kids don't play with anymore. Sounds reasonable, right? They have way too many toys and the playroom is always a mess.
For my husband, it's easy to throw the older stuff in a trashbag and toss it in the garbage. For me, it's not so easy. I want to go through everything, get all the pieces together, clean it all up, donate it somewhere.... ugh.
I know that for the end goal of getting the room cleaned up, I should just go with my husband's method and get the stuff out of here. It's just so hard for me to "waste" perfectly good stuff by throwing it in the trash.
So, for now, we have two big trashbags of toys sitting in the playroom. They are things the kids OK'd to get rid of, so what's my problem?
Out the door today: 3 books.
I casually mentioned to a guest that if they ever want a particular genre of reading material, to let me know, because I've got a pile of review books (books sent to me free in exchange for reviews) sitting around. To my surprise, that person said they'd be interested and could use some new reading material. I immediately ran up to my bedroom, grabbed three books, and handed them to her. There are plenty more here, but those were the first three I saw. Now I know where I can send those type of books- to someone who really appreciates having them.
Unexpected decluttering: a win for me!
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