The gauntlet has been thrown.
The goal is to go through the house, bit by bit, as quickly as i can, and get rid of everything that we do not currently use, or use during another season, or that the kids don't want to inherit.
This way, the decisions are easy. Not using it, or going to use it in summer or at Easter or whatever, it's gone. Kids don't want to have it someday, it's gone.
Searching online has even brought up a place that buys silver. You know, the kind everyone makes such a big deal about buying you for your wedding. That makes ours over 25 years old, and we have yet to use any of it. At all. And i hate polishing silver. The acquiring of such stuff is an outdated foolishness and if this place gives me a few dollars for it, at least i don't have to store it any more, watching it tarnish.
For Brother-in-Law, The Mouth -- well, his books are going in boxes. Not sure where they will be put, they won't be thrown out, but i'm not keeping them front and center in the library anymore when no one here is interested in them. Even he isn't interested in them, and hasn't looked at most of them in years.
Really i'd like to have the majority of the parts of the house people see the most done before the family vacation in March.
It's time to stop pussy footing around with having too much stuff. It's time to realize that i'm tired of cleaning around it all, and stepping around it all, and looking at it all.
Some of it is just annoying, like the silver. Some of it is from "who i thought i was" or maybe "who i wanted to be" at one point in my life. None of it needs to be here.
Have to tackle the taxes and paperwork at the same time, for us and for co-op. The homeschool co-op doesn't file taxes, but this is my last year in it as Little Girl will go to the private school next year. Thus, if they ask me to stay on just as treasurer, because it's hard to get someone to do that, i will. I want to be ready, though, to pass the stuff on if someone else does take it over.
So, it's time to buckle down.
Today is:
Appreciate a Dragon Day
Concordia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of harmonious relations)
Festival of All Fairies -- Fairy Calendar
Haru-No-Yabuiri, Japan (Day of No Work for the Overworked, an extra day off for those who worked over the holidays.)
International Hot and Spicy Food Day
Magen David (Shield of David or Star of David) Day -- Israel (equivalent of Flag Day)
National Fig Newton Day
National Good Teen Day
National Nothing Day
National Work At Home With Your Spouse Day (Try if you dare, i won't, as much as i love him, i'd have to kill him.)
National Religious Freedom Day -- US
Sight-Saving Sabbath -- to alert church members to the importance of regular eye exams
St. Priscilla's Day (Patron saint of widows.)
Teacher's Day -- Thailand
There's No Business Like Show Business Day (Ethel Merman's Birthday!)
World Religion Day -- Baha'i
Birthday's Today:
Kate Moss, 1974
Sade, 1959
Debbie Allen, 1950
John Carpenter, 1948
Dr. Laura Schlessinger, 1947
Ronnie Milsap, 1944
A.J. Foyt, 1935
Dizzy Dean, 1911
Ethel Merman, 1908
Frank Zamboni, 1901
Harry Carey, Sr., 1878
Robert W. Service, 1874 (Poet, The Cremation of Sam McGee)
Andre Michelin, 1853
Today in History:
The title Augustus is bestowed upon Gaius Julius Casesar Octavian by the Roman Senate, BC27
The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison, 550
A great storm tide in the North Sea destroys the German island of Strand and the city of Rungholt, 1362
The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy, 1412
The first grammar of a modern language, in the Spanish language, is presented to Queen Isabella, 1492
Ivan IV of Russia aka Ivan the Terrible becomes Tsar of Russia, 1547
English parliament passes laws against Catholicism, 1581
The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes is published in Madrid, 1605
The Continental Congress approves enlistment of free blacks, 1776
The Commonwealth of Virginia enacted the Statute for Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson, 1786
The refrigerator car is patented by William Davis, a fish dealer in Detroit, 1868
The Pendleton Act creates the basis of US Civil Service system, 1883
The British explorer Ernest Shackleton finds magnetic south pole, 1909
The British House of Commons accepts Home-Rule for Ireland, 1913
Writer Maksim Gorki returns to Russia, 1914
The US ratifies the constitutional amendment on Prohibition, to take effect one year later, 1919
The League of Nations holds its first council meeting in Paris, 1920
The first photo finish camera installed at Hialeah Race track in Hialeah Florida, 1936
Benny Goodman plays the first jazz performance at Carnegie Hall, 1938
Crash of TWA Flight 3, killing all 22 aboard, including film star Carole Lombard, 1942
Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of manned spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk, 1969
Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects, 1970
The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocates to Egypt, 1979
First meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force., 1986
El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City ending the 12-year Salvadoran civil war , 1992
The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the remaining members of the Taliban, 2002
The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107, but disintegrates 16 days later on reentry, 2003
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president, becoming Africa's first female elected head of state, 2006
Mimi, your thoughts here are my thoughts, exactly. How much of this stuff do I NEED??!! We have way too much in all aspects of our life and need to do something about it before we drown in it...actually...we're already drowing in it and need to get above it all, quickly. Suffocating, yes.
ReplyDeleteI wish you well in this effort and will be sending encouraging thoughts to you and yours! I know you will be successful.
Ponygirl
I should mention that my sweetie is as bad (or worse!) than me when it comes to "...but, we better hold on to this because we might need it later..." You wouldn't believe the thousands of items we have lying about in a comatose state for that reason.
ReplyDeleteOr sweetie might say, when faced with discarding a perfectly worn-out/used-up/malfunctioning/beyond repair item..."I want to open that thing up and take a look inside, maybe I can figure out what happened..." Then, the item sits...in that comatose state...for months, sometimes years, waiting for sweetie to begin surgery. I could cite hundreds of examples.
I hold on for many reasons. I am a work-in-progress. Better, but have a long way to go.
I just wanted you to know that I'm at the same mindset as you. It's time.
When I first read the title, my thought was, gee, them kittens are reeallly acting up! But this is much better. And, according to some family members, the books have a notice attached. "These are your books. Take them. If you do not, in x amount of time, they will be taken to (whatever charity or site takes books). It has worked for most of our family. We only had to take the books out, threaten on the day, and magically, said family member arrived, and retrieved the books. Some actually had FORGOTTEN they'd stored books at the house!
ReplyDeleteSo. 2 cents from Cat
PonyGirl, it's been pointed out to me that "someday" is not a day of the week. Also, if you continually give, you will continually have, so give the stuff to someone who can use it now, and later, if you need it again, it will be given to you.
ReplyDeleteCat, Sweetie and his brother are identical twins. Brother-in-Law wants his books here, and whines that he has no place for it at his house, and Sweetie lets him bring the books here. If it were only me, i could do that. Since it isn't only me, boxing the stuff is the only compromise. Twins are just plain, well, awkward.