Purging Mode

Sarah from the amazing blog Clover Lane wrote a great article on purging her home's contents here and here. This girl is amazing. She's a hard core family loving woman who is not afraid to tell you how she feels.

Today I dropped off 4 trash bags of clothing, housewares, and other miscellaneous items to my local Goodwill. It's so nice to free up some space in our spare room! The thing that I love most about what Sarah does to purge is to use BLACK trash bags. That way, your kids (and husband)won't see what you are bagging up (aka toys, 40 gazillion shirts that your hubby doesn't wear anyways), and when its in the bag, its in. You can't see it's contents so its much less tempting to pull things back out of it!

Now, I am all about asking my husband permission to get rid of things that are his out of respect. My hubby had SO many t-shirts they took up one whole rack in our closet! Seriously, over 40. Maybe more. (Need I start in on the hat collection?) One thing that I came up with to prove he didn't wear or need EVERY. SINGLE. SHIRT. was to turn all the hangers backwards on his t-shirts. When he wore one of his shirts, after I laundered it I put it back on the hanger the way it regularly goes. After a few months it was pretty obvious which shirts he loved and which ones he really didn't need to hang onto.

He was a good sport and ending up purging a lot of ones that he really didn't need. He also let me donate half of his hat collection - which meant that I got to donate 20 hats (and gain back a nice chunk of overhead closet space over MY clothes).

Could I get rid of 40 trash bags in 8 weeks? For me, probably not because I am a habitual purger. Seriously. My husband gets worried sometimes that I get rid of TOO much stuff. I am consistently taking a few trash bags full of clothing and household items to my local Goodwill or Deseret Industries frequently as I don't like things to build up. I really don't like clutter. At all. And I am a believer of only keeping items that are useful or that I find beautiful AND love.

Going into the holiday season its a great time to clear some space in your kids rooms and throughout your house as well! Do you think you could find 40 trash bags to take out of your home? This also includes paper trash and other garbage to throw away. Imagine how much more open and airy your home would feel - I bet you'll feel like you had a weight taken off your shoulders!

From Seriously Outdated to Awesome

I found this "beauty" at a local garage sale a few months back for $3. I think my husband thought I was absolutely crazy when I came home with it. I saw potential. He has since learned to trust my vision :)

First things first - get rid of that awful shade! I wondered if I could repurpose it somehow into something else....but sorry I'm just not THAT creative. I promptly put it where it belonged....the trash. (I did keep the knob at the top of the shade to use for the new shade that I put in its place). So why did I buy this brass beauty? The lamp base! No, I'm not a brass lover, but believe it or not you can actually spray paint it! I've seen it on other blogs, so I decided if other girls could, then I could. I sprayed a light coat of primer on first, followed by 2 coats of Rustoleum's Heirloom White (LOVE!).

Much better, eh? I picked up the lamp shade months ago at another garage sale for $1.50. I knew I could use it one day. I have a rack on my garage shelving just for things like this. So for under 5 bucks (not including the spray paint which I already had) I have a lamp that BOTH my husband and I LOVE. Hubby suggested I put it in my office, which I thought was a great idea!

It's a touch lamp too - my 4 year old loves that part!

Adventures of Spray Paint: Napkin Holder

I got this napkin holder at my local Salvation Army a few weeks ago for $3.55. We get these restaurant style napkins at Costco and I could NOT find a napkin holder that fit the dimensions at any restauraunt supply store online. So many websites, and nada. I have actually been carrying one of the napkins in my purse for weeks so if I passed by anything that would work I could test it out. (Yes, I may have issues)

The napkin holder looked fine the way it is, but bamboo wood is not my style as I have much more traditional and cottage/country decor.

(I'll talk about the white candle holder in a future post)

Ahh, much better! A few coats of Rustoleum's Heirloom White took care of it. (Home Depot carries it but I have not found it at Lowes) I have seen so many bloggers rave about this color in blogland, and I have to say I love the color too! It will be a staple in my ever growing spray paint collection.

Did summer not get the memo that it's fall?

It's almost October at I picked up my kids from school this afternoon and it was 106°. Sheesh! These beautiful sunflowers graced my garden late this summer, but I enjoyed them immensely nevertheless.

When I think of a summer flower I think of sunflowers. So cheerful even amidst the serious heat we get out here in Southern California. These things got 6 feet tall before they even bloomed. Can't wait to plant more next year!

Fall Wreath from the....DOLLAR STORE

I had so much fun a few days ago making this wreath that I found on blogland....would you believe it actually came from the DOLLAR STORE??!! I was shocked too. Allison from the House of Hepworths did a great tutorial on this wreath that only cost $10 dollars! You can find the tutorial here.

I ended up using all the fall leaves plus I only used a few of the decorative pumpkins (although I did buy an extra leaf bunch- I love the colors of the fall leaves (especially since here in Southern CA they're hard to come by) so I decided to keep the focus on the leaves. I'm in love!

An "aha" moment

I just had one of those moments tonight....anyone have a junk drawer like this....anyone??

This is our junk drawer central for our home, one of the drawers in my dining room hutch. I've been wanting to get all of these flashcards and card games organized, but obviously the cardboard holders they all come in have long been destroyed...what to do? I have specifically tried to buy card games that come in a metal (aka unbreakable) tin - luckily I found one for Uno, but what about for Phase 10, regular cards, and others? I love these games but I hate finding random cards strewn around in drawers!

It finally dawned on me. I had an old plastic pencilbox that one of my sons used in his classroom last year, the ones you can get for a buck or less during back to school season. I had it in my sons room thinking about using it for his colored pencils or crayons so that I can get my nice lined wicker basket back that they have taken. But tonight a better idea! I could use it for those card games to keep them sorted!

I love it. Now I think I need to run to the store to buy a bunch more to finish cleaning out the junk drawer of all those flashcards - hopefully they're still under a buck! :)

I'm so happy that now they can go with all the other games!