Puppy training and back-to-school time.

Our new puppy sure is creating a lot of smiles around here.

Look at this. How can he not?

Gunnar is a quick study. He's learning his name, he knows to head for the door when we say "let's go potty," and he has even figured out how to weasel his way into Ladybug's heart. Or is it under that poor old dog's skin? A little bit of both, I think.

He has spent the last two nights sleeping in the dog crate with very little protest. We've gotten up 2-3 times every night (and by "we" I mean me and Gunnar) to go outside which is vaguely reminiscent of middle-of-the-night wakeups when we had babies. No wonder I'm so tired.

While we're getting used to having another four-legged friend in the house we're also getting used to a new routine. Sam is now into daily practices for football and it seems like we have something else going on in addition to that every day. Last night Sam and I went to his back-to-school night. Sam had a doctor's appointment first thing this morning and tonight Rachel and I are going to her BTS night while Sam is at practice. It's busy, but it's good. Well. It's good at the moment. It wasn't so good last night when everyone was tired and the kids were bickering and I had my fill of it and went a little ballistic on them. Everyone's a little calmer and kinder today, though. Amazing how that works.

The weather's been pretty warm lately, but the mornings are quite cool. I'm starting to pull plants from the garden and toss flowers that have run their course. Time to simplify outdoors and start to think about doing some organizing and decluttering in the house. I'm looking forward to having some time during the day to focus on that kind of stuff without having kids going behind me and undoing it all.

Six days to go before they start school. Six. Days.

 

A thrifty find from the files of "Who Knew?"

I have this mental list of things I look for when I am out and about shopping. When I go to the grocery store I often (ok, always) buzz over to the home goods side of the store and check out the clearance racks. If I have a little extra time while I'm in town I swing by the Goodwill or Habitat ReStore to take a gander at what new items have popped up.

Some of the things I keep my eyes open for are creative storage pieces. Large, small, and anything in between. I pick up small baskets with straight sides as drawer dividers. I found an old dresser I spruced up to store extra place mats and table linens and candles near the dining room. I have learned that you can use just about anything in your decor - if it is useful or something you love, it works.

On a recent stop at Goodwill I was in the mood to dig. I'm not always. There could be treasures unknown at the bottom of a pile of plastic picture frames and old wooden coat hooks, and I have no problem leaving them for the next person. But that day something made me squat down to see what might be tucked in the back of a bottom shelf. There I found this:

It's glass.

It's Pyrex.

It's French.

And when I picked it up it was ... oh, less than sparkly clean. But it has all those little indentations and I pictured using it as a paint palette or as a little holder for jewelry - maybe rings and small earrings. Plus, I have this affinity for good, sturdy, clear glass. It goes with anything. What's not to love?

I thought the $2 price tag was a little steep for a second-hand item, but I liked it and was curious enough about it I decided to buy it. It took some searching on-line to figure out what it is.

I love teh Interwebz. Almost as much as I love thrifting.

My little jewelry sorter is actually an escargot plate. Snails! How fun is that?

Here's something even more fun: I've actually tried escargot. It wasn't bad. And the fact that I've eaten snails (well ... ONE snail) cracks my kids up.

An escargot plate. Who knew?

It's cool finds like this that make the search for thrifty treasures worth it.

'I got a bee in my bonnet.'

Ever hear that expression? Ever get that feeling? Like you've been pondering an idea and now you need to do something about it?

I got a bee in my bonnet last night - not sure why, but hey, when the mood strikes I figure I better use it to my advantage.

So what did I do? Not dishes. Not laundry. Not vacuuming. No shaking rugs or changing bed linens. No taking out the trash. All of which needed to be done.

No. The most pressing thing on my list was putting the Christmas decorations away. Which meant taking them down. Yes. It was January 19th and I still had bulbs and beaded garland and all sorts of Christmasy stuff hangin' around. Including a tree. NOT the "real" tree - the one we all insist we want, even though nobody wants to remember to water it; that was taken down weeks ago - but the smaller, artificial tree that was decorated with all the kids' ornaments from over the years. The one that stood in the living room.

It just didn't bother me all that much to still have it up. I seriously considered leaving it for a while longer. But then I remembered how dusty this house gets, and how much I hate dusting.

So I forced myself to get it all packed up and tucked away under the bed and in a closet. Even though I'm never quite ready to see the last of it go.

Clearing out those spaces gets me excited to do a little more decluttering around the house (it's an ongoing effort) and to tackle a couple DIY projects I've been meaning to get to. So here I go ... I'm going to write it here to keep myself accountable. First up: I need to figure out some sort of "system" for the kids' area near the front door. We put up sets of hooks for each of them a couple years ago and they quickly got into the habit of dropping/hanging their things where they need to go when they come in the door, but - and I'll show you with pictures - that area always seems to look unkept. Or rather, be unkept. I have some ideas for it, but we'll see how (or if) they pan out.

Wish me luck.

We can't do everything.

The other day I was blog hopping and found a post from a mom who has gone scratch-cooking-gluten-free-no-sugar-and-I-can't-remember-what-else, and the gist of her post was this: we can't do it all. And ya' know what? She doesn't feel so bad about that.

It was a relief to read this from another mom. She has made the choice to feel good about the positive changes she and her family have made, and to not feel badly because they choose not to do other Potentially Really Good things. I totally dig that. Because for heaven's sake, who are these people who make us feel all sorts of guilty because we don't recycle our glass bottles or cloth diaper our children or make homemade bread from sprouted grains (whatever the hell those are)?

I read that particular post at the same time I was kicking around the idea of writing a sort of stream of consciousness post here. I thought I'd set a block of time, like "preparing dinner" and jot down every(unrelated)thing that came to mind while I did that one seemingly simple task.

Uhh. I decided my somewhat ADD self didn't need one more distraction while I'm cooking. But I couldn't get over the idea, so I thought I'd try a "virtual" stream of consciousness. (Does that even make any sense? Ha!)

OK. Imagine I'm making banana bread. Which I really am going to do today.

Here's what's happening in my head:

Banana bread. Good way to use up the bananas we didn't eat. Score one for not wasting food. Too bad we can't grow bananas closer to Michigan. That whole "eating local" thing. Too many bananas, need to double the recipe. Two cups times two is four cups. Rachel needs some help with her multiplication. Add flashcards to the shopping list. No, we have 3x5 cards, we'll make some. We don't need to buy things we can make ourselves or do without because eventually everything ends up in the trash. I wish we didn't create so much trash. I wonder how much of a difference it makes that we burn our paper instead of putting it in the trash. Definitely a good choice to toss all the fruit and veggie scraps outside instead of in the trash can. Maybe someday I'll actually have a compost pile again, to use on the garden. Deer ate it all last time; bad location. Deer ... I'm so proud of Sam for bagging his first buck. Venison will be back from the processor in a few days. I wish Steve was here 'cause he'd cut it up himself and save the cost of processing. But at least we have the cash to pay to have it done. We have the cash because Steve is working, and having a job is a good thing. Do I miss working? What am I talking about? I still work every day, just not "out there." I work for my family. Part of what I do is home cooking and making shopping lists and following a budget so we can live on one income. Add flour to the shopping list. I should probably start stocking up on baking supplies with the holidays coming. Lots of flour 'cause I want to try my hand at making pies. With crusts from scratch. How can I be 35 years old and never made a pie? There are moms out there teaching their 5-yr-olds how to make pies. Mmmm, apple pie. Do I have enough apples for pie? What are the best kind of pie apples? Note to self: look up pie recipes next time I get on-line. Or maybe I should forage for apples. We have lots of trees around here. Then they'd be free(!) and we all know the best kind of apples are free apples. I'll check into that. Even if they're not good for pie I can make some applesauce and freeze it. Freezers ... I really need to make an inventory of what's left in the freezers and make sure there's room for venison. Make sure to add cinnamon to the applesauce if I make it, 'cause Rachel loves cinnamon. I'd love some nuts in the banana bread but the kids don't care for nuts. Maybe some with chocolate chips and some with nuts? I should just make it how I like it and if the kids don't like it they don't have to eat it. But this is what I planned for an after-school snack. What time is it? Will these be out of the oven before the kids get off the bus? Hey! I bet I can find a flashcards app on my phone. I really need to cut back on the kids' TV time. Some people live without TV and survive just fine - better, even. So they say. Ah well, my kids love TV and it's a great reward after they do their chores. Chores? When was the last time I paid them for their chores? I need to make a new chore list. Maybe it should include helping make dinner. But I'm home all day, I can make dinner. And breakfast, too. I should do a menu plan and do once-a-month cooking. Then we'd definitely need freezer space. Where's the damn dog? On my bed again. I give up! She needs a bath, though. Has she had her heartworm medicine this month? Check the calendar. Crap. School pictures coming up. Another check to write. What a racket. I really want to have family pictures taken sometime. I'd like to lose some weight first, and I'll never do that if I eat this banana bread. 'Cause I like mine with a lot of butter. But it's so much better than buying boxes of snack foods at the store; at least I know exactly what goes into this bread. Sugar. Like my kids need more of that. Maybe we should try cutting back. I can't control what they do when they're not here, though, so they're gonna' get sugar anyway. What time is it? They'll be home an an hour and a half. Should I be driving them to school? I'm not crazy about some of the things they hear on the bus. But it would be crazy to use all that gas when they can ride the bus for free. Man, I really wish I had a stand mixer. Definitely need to invest in one before we start making our Christmas cookies this year. Gotta' stock up on those supplies. Wouldn't it be fun to do a cookie exchange with some girlfriends? I'd really like to have a get-together. Need to do some cleaning, though. Put spray bottles on the shopping list so when I use up all the cleaning supplies I have I can make my own. Natural cleaners are a good thing. But I'm not crazy about the smell of vinegar. What's that candle over there? I should swap out summery scents with fall scents. I like these candles that are made in the USA. Pumpkin pie candles make me want pumpkin pie ... hmmm ... maybe I can teach myself how to make pumpkin pie. And make several, and put them in the freezer, for the holidays, when we'll be making cookies, and budgeting so we don't spend too much on stuff we don't need, and I'll be using that new mixer (hopefully) to whip up some bread dough but I'll be damned if I'll use sprouted grains. I can't do it all! Oooooh, warm banana bread.

And it goes on like this all. day. long.

Aren't you glad you're not inside my head? You'd probably get motion sick, or at least a little dizzy.

I hope all that blather helps me demonstrate a few things.
1. We can't do it all. Most of us have to make choices about how we're going to contribute to saving the planet and/or humanity. Are we going to go "green" with our choices in building materials, household cleaners, transportation, food consumption? Are we going to become activists for wildlife? Are we going to focus on the political aspect and encourage others to only elect leaders who make the environment and/or high moral values their focus? Will we homeschool our children? Start a farming co-op? Fight the power?

2. Parenting is tough. Mom, dad, single, married, co-habitants, alone, surrounded by family and friends, whatever. It's hard. A few years ago I flooded a social worker with questions upon questions about raising children and you know what I was told? Just the fact that I was thinking about how I parent and questioning some of these things was a pretty good indicator that I'm a good parent. Whew. Hello, validation. My children are fed and clothed and have a roof over their heads. And they eat red meat. And boxed cereal and chicken nuggets. And they drink Kool-Aid and juice boxes sometimes. And milk! And I don't make them wear bicycle helmets. But I let them use power tools and occasionally drive my pickup down the driveway. I say "I" because for the most part I do the parenting while Steve is away. *shrug* I think we're doing fine.

3. Perfectionism can be incapacitating. I like to call myself a recovering perfectionist. In the past, if I didn't have time to do something perfectly (or whatever my vision of perfect was), I wouldn't even get started. Dieting, hanging pictures on the wall, writing a letter, folding towels ... any number of things I wouldn't do because I didn't have the time or energy to make it perfect. I have learned that it's OK to do some things "good enough" and save the pickiness (is that even a word?) for the things that really matter to me. Bonus: this has freed me from being judgmental of others' imperfections. *ahem* Mostly. What can I say? I'm a work in progress.

4. Don't take it personally. If I don't see you stopped next to me at the light, or I don't look up from my list when you walk by me in the grocery store, I'm probably having one of those stream-of-consciousness moments. Go ahead and nudge me. (Well, not with your car, but tapping me on the shoulder in the grocery store is alright.) I might just appreciate the escape from my own brain.

Aaaaand, this seems like the perfect spot to stop rambling for the day! At least publicly. Rest assured it will continue in my head. And I really do need to get baking. Ciao for now!

A sweet little 'before & after' in the entry.

The entryway in our house was one of the first areas I painted after we moved in. I didn't think much about the paint color beyond wanting something that a) was relatively neutral, and b) hid all the little toddler fingerprints.

A tan color called Sheepskin accomplished both, but I didn't take into account the color of the closet door and trim which ended up blending into the paint. So the entryway has always been rather blah and not at all a reflection of the cottagey style I've grown into.

But at least it hid the fingerprints.

The other issue I've had with the entryway is I've tried to corral the entry "activities" there with a chair for putting on and taking off shoes, a place to put said shoes, a place to hang/store coats, jackets, the dog leash, and drop keys and mail.

Oh, and if I could make it feel welcoming when visitors enter our home, all the better.

I think it's been a decor and functionality fail. Even my own family wouldn't use the chair; they'd grab their shoes and walk through the living room to sit on the couch and put their shoes on. Umm, HELLO??

So the entry has been my latest project. I decided to re-paint it with the lighter tan (or is it beige?) I used for the hallway and kitchen, and I've been keeping my eyes open for a small table I could tuck into a corner with a lamp and maybe a dish or basket for odds and ends.

At the same time, I've been helping my mom and aunt clear out my late grandma's house in preparation for selling it. While hauling some stuff out to the garage the other day I found this tall, slim piece of furniture stuck in a corner of the garage.

Perfect! I asked my mom if I could take it. And if I got it home and it wasn't perfect for the entryway I would make it work someplace else in the house. Five drawers! How could I pass up the opportunity for more storage?

You can probably see this piece had a hefty layer of varnish on it. What you can't see is how it smelled like moth balls.

It seriously smelled like moth balls.

I took all the drawers out and left the whole thing sitting outside in the sun all day, which took care of most of the smell.

And then I sanded it. I despise sanding with a passion, but I wanted to paint this baby and nothing was gonna' stick to that.

My paint of choice?

I have this thing for Flat White lately because I tried it on one piece of furniture and loved it. I should buy it by the case.

Anywho ... ready?

Piece of furniture: free (spiders and all ... *shudder*)
Two cans of spray paint: $7
Another can of spray paint for good measure: $3.50
5 new brassy-looking knobs:  $15 (Totally worth it.)
Total: $25.50

 *Swoon!*

I think this piece must have been part of a larger set because one side was unfinished and had holes in it like it was screwed to another piece. I don't care. And I'm going to have to take it back outside on another sunny day and let it air out a little more because there's still a hint of moth ball smell when you open the drawers. But that's OK because I love it! (The furniture, not the smell.)

We now have a place to store extra hats and mittens within the kids' reach instead of in a box on the closet shelf, which in turn frees up closet space for bulkier items like sleeping bags and whatever else needs a home.

I also love how a prettied-up piece of furniture and a lamp make this space feel like part of the rest of the house instead of a doorway to hurry through to get to someplace more comfortable.

(Yeesh. These pictures are not the best quality but you get the point, right?)

I'm still working on collecting some items for the other walls in the entryway, but this little makeover has given me some wicked cool inspiration. I love it!

I am "unstuffing" my life.

I have decluttered. I have minimized (sort of). I have gone through my belongings with a fine tooth comb and gotten rid of just about everything I didn't use or love or want anymore.

But I have never "unstuffed" my life. Until now.

When I saw a group of friends chatting on Facebook about how they were following a plan outlined in some book, I was skeptical. Listen, I've read all the books. OK, many of them. I'm a self-improvement book guru. There can't possibly be a book or blog out there that says anything radically different than what I've already read about strategies to simplify your life.

In a sense, that's true. Andrew J. Mellen's book Unstuff Your Life has some of the same suggestions I've read elsewhere. But there is something about how Mellen presents the questions he insists we answer about how we relate to our "stuff" and how it makes us feel that somehow takes this idea of "I'm not my stuff, my stuff is not me" to another level.

Exhibit A: The stuff that is leaving my home after spending a few hours yesterday unstuffing the kitchen.

Now, that's a pretty big box for someone who thought she had a grip on kitchen organization. (Except the clock radio, which I've been meaning to get rid of for a while.)

It may be Mellen's writing style that drew me in - how he addresses the reader as if he is a friend on the other end of the telephone line. "Go get a notebook and a pencil and write this down. Do it. I'll wait." That kind of thing.

Or it may be the season of life I am in; I only thought I had been brutal when decluttering in the past. Now I'm seriously getting down to business. What's different now is that I am ready. I have no use for things - stuff - in my life that do not bring a smile to my face or add to my life in some other way. So as it turns out, this book came along at just the right time for me to make the most of it.

I haven't even read the whole thing and I would already recommend it. And if you decide to try it, I would suggest downloading it to your computer (via Kindle for PC or a similar program) or straight to an e-reader (if you have one). Saves on clutter that way.

I'm taking Before & After pictures to share with my fellow unstuffers. If I get brave maybe I'll post a few here too as I go through the process.

Maybe.

The dresser makeover.

I found this little gem at a garage sale last summer.

Actually I found both of those gems - the dresser and the lamp - but today I'm going to tell you about the dresser.

Consider it a Valentine's Day love story.

It was obvious the dresser had been well-loved at some point, but she was looking pretty shabby by the time I found her (yes, I've taken to calling the dresser "her" because I saw some personality there right from the start) under a bunch of other junk in the back of a poll barn.

I imagined a father or grandfather carefully cutting and sanding and gluing the pieces together in some bygone era.

And then staining the wood a dark, rich brown. Because yes, under a layer each of (probably lead-based) blue and green paint, there were drips of wood stain.

I had dreams of grandeur. Of restoring this piece to her original beauty. Or better.

Actually, I was just looking for a little more storage near the dining room and this sad-looking, dusty, musty-smelling relic had the perfect bones.

Turning this baby from her current state into a simple, cheerful, cottagey-type chest of drawers would require some fresh paint. I carefully considered several options, but in the end I chose the color I had originally planned on using. Can you guess which one?

 

Oh, and somewhere in the process of peeling off those old layers of paint and revealing a beautiful wood grain on the top of the dresser, I heard a voice in my head. 

"You want to paint that? You're not going to paint that are you?"

 

And so I relented. I left some of the wood bare and stained it, then primed the rest of the dresser for paint.

The stain actually looks pretty decent here, right?

Well let me tell you, I hated it. I painted the rest of the dresser in the color I chose and I hated how it looked with the stain. I had a vision in my head of what I wanted and that wasn't it. And there was no way I was going to live with something I didn't like just to save the look of some wood grain.

Someday when I sell this piece at a garage sale, the next owner can curse me for the layers upon layers of paint I put on it.

But I don't see myself parting with this baby anytime soon.

 

Orange! I painted it orange. Dutch Boy's Bouncing Ball, to be exact. 

And I LOVE IT!

 

I painted the insides of the drawers with the white primer to smooth them out and brighten them up a little. I also put a layer of orange on the sides of the drawers because they don't fit quite perfectly and I didn't want the imperfections to be really obvious when the drawers are all closed.

In a last minute wild card decision, I even decided to paint the rusty old casters a glossy white. My other option was to cut them off, but I decided the fact that the wheels are wood adds a little charm.

This photo washes out the color of the piece, but shows the cute pewter knobs I found at Lowe's on clearance for $1.02 each! They weren't what I originally had in mind, but a sweet clearance price made me fall in love with them.

So I took it from this:

 

 To this:

 

From this:

 To this:

Ain't she purty?

What you don't see here is what a time-consuming job this turned out to be. And what a complete mess I created in our front room (because we don't have a garage or basement, and I couldn't go outside in the snow). It was a little more than I bargained for, but definitely worth the effort. I ended up replacing the bottoms of two of the drawers with some wood glue and an inexpensive, thin sheet of wood from Home Depot (I asked and they took me right to the stuff I needed) that I was able to score and snap myself.

I used an eco-friendly paint stripper that I could use indoors. I ended up buying a second can because the paint on the top of the dresser was pretty stubborn ... and I am not patient enough to let the stuff sit and do its magic. For the pieces I sanded (the fronts of the drawers) I wore a dust mask because I really don't know how old the thing is and I wasn't interested in inhaling any more lead dust than necessary. Safety first, ya' know. When the weather outside hit ... oh ... maybe 27 degrees, I cracked the windows open just for good measure. That was a must on the day I applied the doomed-to-fail stain.

All in all I invested about $60-$70 in this project, and I'm good with that. I bought the dresser for $22, two cans of paint stripper, a quart of primer (and I have some left), a quart of paint (and I have a little left), and the knobs. I'm not counting the stain, the paint rollers, or anything else I can now consider part of my general decorating/sprucing up stash.

And of course, I can't put a price on my time. I'm guessing if I scrunched together all the hours I worked on this it would add up to a good three days' worth. I'm totally happy with that. I luuurve this piece! I'm doing my best to be patient and give it a good week to get really really really dry before I leave the drawers closed and actually set something on top.

Did I mention how much I *heart* this ORANGE chest of drawers?

I did?

Well then. Happy Valentine's Day!

Progress report.

I had a pretty productive weekend.

Saturday it rained much of the day, so what better time to sit indoors and sort through mounds of photographs?

Boxes, albums and frames, oh my! You can't see it in this pic, but there is a pile of discarded photos on the floor next to my chair that just about equals the number of photos on the table.

Seriously.

I am happy to report - thus far, with about 85 percent of the sorting complete - the stack of photos for Child #1 is not much larger than the stack of photos for Child #2. Most mommies of two or more children will understand my relief.

The sorting continues today, with the goal of clearing this stuff off the dining room table as quickly as possible.

Onward!

The picture project.

One of the projects on my One Of These Days When I Get To It to-do list is sorting through and organizing our family photographs.

Fortunately for me, I did a partial sort and organize when I cleaned out the master bedroom's walk-in closet a year or two ago, so there is not a metric ton of photos and they are at least stacked somewhat neatly in boxes on a shelf in the closet. It won't be a monumental undertaking.

Oh, who am I kidding? When is sorting through boxes of photographs not a monumental undertaking?

I'm actually looking forward to it, though. OK, not the sorting part so much, but that part is just a means to an end and what I hope will be a really cool decorating project.

Instead of leaving all these great pictures in boxes on a closet shelf, I'm going to choose the ones I really love and display them as art in our home. I'm going to start with a section of wall space in the dining room. It's a long, narrow, vertical space that is just perfect for what I have in mind.

 See that empty, sad-looking space? Like a blank canvas, isn't it?

And even after I swore I would stop getting ahead of myself on projects like this (Right. That was sort of an empty promise to myself anyway), I went ahead and visited Goodwill yesterday to start collecting picture frames.

I can't wait to get after them with some spray paint!

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

It's that fall nesting thing.

I am in stock-up mode. I am in full-on, list-making, let's get this place organized and ready for winter mode.

This fall nesting thing is two-fold for me.

One, I want to be prepared. If we get a crazy wicked snow or ice storm and can't get out to get to the grocery store for a couple of days, I don't want to run out of toilet paper or basic food staples. Hence, this time of year I take some extra time to study sale ads and pair them up with coupons to stock my pantry (which is really a set of sturdy shelves in my laundry room) as cheaply as possible.

Here's a glimpse at how it looks today:

I also buy items in bulk at Sam's Club to stock up for the kids' school lunches. It's like ripping off a Band-Aid; it hurts big time, but only temporarily, and then I'm not eating up my grocery budget buying juice boxes and fruit cups every week.

Also along the lines of being prepared, I like to have enough in the cupboards that if we invite someone over for dinner last-minute, or a friend is injured and can't get around the kitchen, or whatever other instance might call for sharing some comfort food, I can whip something together without having to run to the store.

And then there is the remaining sting, however faint, of months of joblessness last year and the concern over whether we would be able to pay all the bills from week to week. We did not worry as much about whether we would eat because we had taken the time to stock up. I don't need any more experiences like that to show me this is a good idea for us.

The other main reason I do this nesting and stocking up thing is because it helps me stay organized, and when I'm organized the mornings and evenings with my children run much more smoothly. Lunches can be almost completely packed before the kids go to bed at night. When they ask me in the evening what we're having for dinner, I have an answer. When they get off the school bus in the afternoon I can have snacks waiting for them so they're not rifling through the cupboards.

I am willing to sacrifice a couple of hours on the weekends to plan our menus and my grocery trips if it means I'll have a little more time for doing other things during the week.

Now if I could just convince the kids that just because we have 12 boxes of cereal doesn't mean we need to have them all open, life would be sweet indeed.

Small change, big impact.

Sometimes I just need a change. I look at certain areas of our home that have looked the same for years and suddenly (or maybe not so suddenly) they appear stagnant. Boring. Screaming to be spiffed up.

Like this counter top in the kitchen, for instance:

It's not horrid. A little cluttered maybe, but I hadn't changed anything because I always told myself these were items we used all the time. That is until the other day when I was scrubbing the splattered I-don't-know-what from the canisters and I realized we haven't used the smaller two canisters for quite some time. And you know what? I don't even really like these canisters anymore.

Yet they've been sitting in the same spot since we moved into this house 10 years ago. High time for a mini makeover in the kitchen, don't you think?

Goodbye canisters. Goodbye old, dull knives. Goodbye rechargeable (but sorta broken) can opener. Cookbooks, back into the cupboard with you. Bananas, off to the newly-designated fruit bowl on another counter.

I spent about $15 on new jars for the flour and sugar which we use often, and about 15 minutes clearing the space and washing the discarded items to send them to Goodwill.

It's simple and clean and I reclaimed some valuable counter space. I love it. Now I smile every time I walk through the kitchen.

I've been motivated these last few days by Melissa's posts over at The Inspired Room. Here is the post that begins a little series about organizing a home. In that particular post she writes about assessing (or reassessing) the needs of your space, which is precisely what I did for that little corner of my kitchen.

Paring down our possessions and organizing our home is an ongoing process for our family, a process that little by little leads to a simpler life, fewer distractions, and more time to focus on what is important to us. I think we're making progress even if it's just one kitchen counter - or one linen closet or one end table - at a time. I hope as I share these little projects here to help keep my focus and keep track of my progress I'll inspire someone else, too.