on getting rid of stuff ..part I

After a few years of circumventing the issue I have bought another organizing book. I have a few, some are funny to read but overall worthless for my life or should I say life style of a pack rat.
This one I have been ogling for a while and the other day I broke down and bought it. Now after studying it for a few days I had my first let's get this done kind of day.
Now having moved 5 years ago, give or take a few months, you would think our possessions are pared down quite a bit, but we moved kind of in a hurry. Pretty much most of our belongings, but for what was stolen ( but that adventure is for another posting ) made it to our new home.
So after staring down this stuff for quite some time now I have finally psyched myself up to getting rid of it.
today I started in the kitchen....
My kitchen came with the house which was built in 1927 and was redone somewhere around the 50's maybe and it has deep cupboards. It is small and really not conducive to cooking. When we moved in everything was shoved into those cupboards and the items most frequently used kind of migrated towards the front of other stuff. I have cups that are older then my kids and my oldest is 32, and those cups are by no means anything worth keeping. Then I have cups that were acquired while the kids where growing up. Mustard cups that have animals prints and were heavily fought over at one time.
Then there are PBS cups from various fund drives and the odd ' ooh I like that one ' cup . As I 'matured' in 99 I bought six 'Y2K 'cups in yellow no less and I generally do not like yellow. And so I went down memory lane today with my cups the Mothers days, Birthdays, trips and other occasions were a cup seemed the right gift for me and myself.
So I decided to think this over ( not recommended by the book btw. ) and let the kids choose cups before I pitch.
Next was the Tupper cupboard, were it looked like a graveyard for anything plastic that could come in handy some day. Old Tuppers either missing lids or bottoms, an assortment of water bottles all abandoned since it is not pc anymore to keep water in plastic. College travel mugs so worn one could hardly read the printing and a package of brand spanking new cheap mock Tuppers for leftovers just in case I run out. Though I have to admit anytime I want to send food home with kids I am better off sending those cheap containers and besides finding the right mate to some older ones would be a longer undertaking. So today I pitched and only kept bottoms that had lids and now I have some real estate available in my tupper cupboard for a salad spinner that I know is somewhere in those other cupboards I have not gotten into yet.
I will be brief as to the findings under the sink, let me just tell you my youngest son, who was shanghaied for this adventure today, exclaimed
"oh that is were our 2 cup measuring cups got to "
they still had paint residue in them along with a ladle that really needed to be brought back into the fold of regular silverware. Now it is nice under there and again lots of room after the removal of what seemed like a million or more of plastic bags. I almost got sidetracked, I would have loved to start crocheting a carpet out of those bags, but I was very brave and pitched them, though somewhere in my brain I remembered a link on how to cut bags so you end up with one string so this crocheting goes slick. If you are interested I'll find it for you just leave me a comment.
The pots and pans cupboard, it also houses Cuisinart, slow cooker, a hand powered Cuisinart thingy, and some odds and ends and the baking stuff and casserole dishes' cupboard were also attacked today and they all were organized, cleaned and had a few odds and ends that needed tossing. I will not go heavily into the findings of residue of not quite cleaned up elderly potatoes
that were found a while ago by husband and youngest son. Let me just say I finalized their past cleaning efforts today. Now everything is as it should be and again nice and roomy.
After releasing my shanghaied son from his duties today I tackled the dish cupboard by myself. Since this area is used daily it really was pretty easy and other then revamping my tea collection and realizing that my dishes are somewhat puzzled together though not as bad as my cups all it needed was a good cleaning and putting a few strays in their proper place.
The drawers, the area over the stove and the pantry is next. And I have to make a major decision as to what color my new potholders are going to be, because the old ones were washed one to many times and really need pitching.

what a wretched beginning......

so here I am with my blog...my youngest said it's real easy mom...

well I should have gone to bed an hour ago...

but maybe I can show off some of the stuff I made and share my interests and over the last thirty years or so I have been really neglecting friends I made on the way and some family so this would be a way for me to keep or get back in touch.

Having five children and lots of work to do is not really an excuse, since some of those friends have been equally busy and still managed to write all those letters and sent pictures so really why haven't I.
The word hermit comes to mind, I care , I loved those letters, loved to hear about the kids growing up etc but somehow writing back in a somewhat reasonable time frame was not to be.

The early years were easy but then life intervened and being married to another hermit certainly added to it. Waiting for him to write a letter is a lost cause.
Let me just say other then shopping lists I can easily keep the things the love of my life has written over the years in my wallet and one very sweet note I do have stashed away there for a few years now.

So I've learned a lot, lost a bit, won a bit and I think it is time to share. And if not a single soul ends up reading this .. it is good therapy, just in case I need it.

I like doing things, though my husband might argue I make him do things.

I will share some projects I ran into over the years, share some recipes, and maybe tell you how you can get from wanting to paint just a few walls to tearing down a ceiling, stripping 7 layers of paint from banisters with what seems like hundreds of rails and still keep your husband from putting you 6 feet under.
A few 'UFO's that have been bugging me that need finishing would profit by sharing - a bit of peer pressure never hurts.
So if you stumble across this blog stop back again and maybe just maybe I can show off one of my projects as soon as I figure out how to import pictures on to the rest of the site.
Should you by any chance be Bavarian you may comment in German or Bavarian I would be thrilled.
This blog will stay in English but for the odd reply to a possible Bavarian comment.
greetings for today.