5 on Friday (#7)
1. I have spent the past few weeks clearing out/decluttering at both my parents’ and grandmother’s house. At my parents’ house, my Dad had held onto some pretty random things in the basement and shed; at my grandmother’s, she had pretty much fifty years of stuff in the place. We had dumpsters for both and there was kind of an amazing feeling throwing out junk. We donated so much stuff to various places and had a yard sale last weekend and another tomorrow. Mostly, this makes me never want to buy a single thing ever again, plus makes me want to get rid of so much of my own stuff– 4 boxes so far, plus more clothes that I already donated.
2. As part of trying to rein in my budget and savings more, as well as inspired by all the stuff of these cleanouts, I’ve been having a no-buy June. So far, so good ( though our grocery bill this past month has been over budget, mostly due to my poor planning/laziness), though as a result of this and the closet purging, I’ve noticed some huge gaps in my wardrobe that I’m hoping some yard sale revenue will cover. In all my pairs of shoes, I don’t have any brown shoes for the summer ( how did that happen?) I think if I have learned anything in all this decluttering and purging is that one only really needs the basics with a few extras thrown in for fun.
3. 3 words: Leingkugel’s Summer Shandy. So good.
4. After spending pretty much the entire month of June, plus a weekend in May, on cleanouts and getting rid of stuff, we’ve decided to do pretty much nothing else for the rest of the summer. Our garage and fence stripping/painting project is going to wait til September, at least.
5. With all the cleanout stuff and the ridiculous amount of pollen blowing around, we were a little behind on getting the patio furniture out, but we finally did last weekend, which was perfect timing for the one random hot day we had this past week. It was so nice to sit outside after work with some iced tea and a magazine, but I forgot how loud my yard can be at that time of day with the main road behind us. Maybe I’m just becoming a cranky old lady, but my tolerance for loud neighbors and road traffic is waning and I found myself dreaming of a quiet house in the woods lately. Someday maybe.
Wishing you a happy weekend and the official start of summer!
Life By Kristen 