It has been very busy around here the last couple of weeks and have needed time away from my blog. I was losing control over the housework and I had to make time to sort and try to make more space for organizing. It is taking a lot more time than I expected.
With all the work up at the tiny house we became overwhelmed with "stuff" because we had to empty the small building and a shed that was piled to the ceiling with years of stuff. I mentioned in a previous post that we are working on a tiny house an hour away so we can have a place to stay when we need to go up to help a family member. It is a small building that has been used to store no longer used items, broken items, things other people gave to them. It originally was used as a small woodworking shop.
I even took an online course this past week to see if that would help me to find new ways to organize our home, not the tiny house that is not finished yet, but our home that we are living in. The course did not address our problems which are that our house is small and few closets, no garage, no attic to store things. But the course did help to give me a new perspective and it has come down to thinning out more because I cannot make more closets. So I took everything out of the closets and drawers and have been going through all of it and I am still working on it.
We have given away, discarded and thrown away all of the "Stuff" from the small building and the shed (almost).
Life goes on while trying to organize.
The oven was very dirty...
But with some elbow grease and a lot of determination it is coming along better than it was.
Meals still have to be cooked and laundry still has to be done.
Zucchini and onions, rice and carrot salad. I do change these dinner napkins, just have many of the same pattern. lol
Dishes have to be washed and floors have to be mopped.
We love this meal, Rahmschnitzel, pork with gravy, potatoes and onions, sauerkraut and a side of beans just out of the garden.
Salad with a hamburger patty cooked with mustard and sauteed onions.
Boiled Chicken , baked sweet potatos, green beans and beets with onions.
Cereal with chopped dried apricots and coconut milk. Just a few of our meals.
We have been looking for a bed to go in our tiny house and finally found what we were looking for. We wanted a vintage iron bed similar to the one we have in our blue guest room. I cleaned it up and stood it in the sunshine for the afternoon. At this time it is leaning against the guest room bedroom wall along with several boxes of items that will be going up to the tiny house when it is finished.
As we go through life we accumulate things for many reasons. For us we have lost loved ones and have had to clean out their houses. It is difficult to part with things that belong to someone we love, a mother, father, Great Aunt, friend. I held on to things for a long time until I felt ready that I could let it go, especially difficult with my mothers things.
But we cannot keep it all or we can be overwhelmed with too much clutter in our home.
As far as home life goes, we move through life and our interests change, some of us learn to sew, to knit, crochet, paint, build things. Some of us have canning and dehydrating and fermenting equipment to preserve our food. Charles does woodwork, we garden and we have seeds, and seed trays and tools. All of these things require storage space.
So we are "trying" to fit more loosly into our space without giving up our interesting things that we do and it has not been easy. "Loosly" is the key word here, nothing on the floor, nothing crammed and everything has a place that is in a good location. I have had it in fairly good order but over time it has lost its place when something new comes in and then everything shifts.
Charles and I both enjoy having a interesting home with pretty things around the house, especially vintage items but we need balance as well.
We live in the city but live more like a farm family and always have chores. But even farm families find time to sit on the porch and listen to the crickets and watch lightening bugs. That is what I am after.
I want to let you know that I am changing the day that I normally publish a new post. I have been posting on Monday and Tuesday but I am changing to Friday, depending on what is going on it could be a day before or day after but I am aiming for Friday. It has been difficult for me to get housework done with posting the first part of the week because Charles comes home for lunch on Monday and laundry is on that day and ironing on Tuesday so I feel it should work out better for me to do a post on Friday. I will also type up the diaries on that day as well. :)
If I finish the oganizing and painting by this coming Friday I will start back posting regularly and if not it will be the next week but I will post something to let you know by next Friday June 3rd.
I can say that I have no magic wand to make my house or your house organized and I have searched to find a better way or something that will tell me what to do but it all comes down to just doing it. Get some boxes and start sorting by marking the boxes, garbage can, donate, sell, keep. No matter what, do not give up! It will be worth it.
As I am writing this, it is Memorial day weekend here in the U.S. and we remember and honor those that have died while serving in the U.S. military. While Charles and I are studying the year 1943, we are in the middle of world war 2 and heavy fighting is going on. We should remember those men and women that served and died in all the wars. Grandma Donna
