Monday, September 5, 2016

September 2016

September - Labor day weekend.

We purged and packed the dinning room.

I am still going thru papers and shredding documents.  My husband asked if I was purging 40 years of papers.  I think it just feels like it.  I don't really have 40 years worth.  I hope.

I had a hard time purging items from the dinning room.  I love linens - of course they are fabric.  So it was hard to let some of them go.  I love dishes and teapot and cups.  I let some of them go but very likely kept more than I should have.  Thank God for the organizer and my daughter and daughter-in-law who helped me.

Oh, and cookbooks.  What is it about cookbooks?  I have collected them for years and hardly ever use them but I do enjoy looking at them.  I let many of them go and tried to sell some but most ended up at Goodwill.  I hope I don't buy them back.

We have also been eating out of the freezer.  We have had many interesting meals.  But I am attempting to get most of the food gone so we do not have to move it.  This is really not good for my diet. 

When my husband ask what I wanted to do today I told him it was Labor Day and we would be laboring.  Go purge and pack a box.  So far he has packed 1/2 of a box and purged nothing.  I am currently attempting to talk him into a storage unit so we are not living with packed boxes all around for the next month +.

It is going to be a hard move.




July And August 2016

Where the heck did June go?

I continue to work on downsizing.  I know that eventually we will need to move to a one level home. I am not sure where we will find one we can afford in the current hot housing market but if I can get our house ready for sale maybe we can afford something new.  We happen to live in the hottest of the Portland neighbors so maybe we will not have any problems selling.  One levels are just really hard to find.

This past week I have been cleaning out quilting magazines.  I have (gasp) ripped out pages to save of items that I might make and gotten rid of two grocery bags of magazines.  I have years of magazines still to go thru.  That is what happens when you have a six bedroom, three story house you collect because you have room.

Last month I got the binding done on two quilts.  The baby quilt and twin that I was working on in May.  I have begun binding a small table topper.

I went one Saturday and spent the day at the local quilt shop getting help on my Made in America embroidery piece.  I had gotten stuck and it has sat for almost a year.  I am not unstuck.

I completed joining the rows of the third reflections quilt but still need to put on the outside boarders. June was just such a busy month and yet I do not know where the time went.

For July my goal will be:
1) finish by Reflections quilt. Not done yet
2) sort out more magazines - Two more pages out of the house
3) paint the front porch - that is were I usually take quilt pictures in badly needs painting. - Power washed- still not painted and fall is coming.
4) attend the Janet Fogg class at the end of the month - Attended but the project is now a UFO.
5) do another block for Made in America - Not done.


I am hoping if I write these down I will make progress.

AUGUST

There was absolutely no sewing done in August.

What I did do.

1)Began to pack and purge - I started by packing up my quilts that are not in use.
2)Had a family work day with the kids helping.  We hauled 4 truck loads out of the basement to Goodwill.
3)Sorted my own clothes and got rid of 2 black garbage bags of clothes to Goodwill.
4)Began sorting and getting rid of books.  We have hauled out hundreds of books.  We were able to sell a few but most they would not buy. I still have several hundred books and that does not include the quilting books.
5)Packed up the DVD's
6)Dumped old canned food that had passed its expiration date.  Some did not not even have a date.  7)Some of the home canned food was terrible old.  I have not done any canning in about 15 years.
8)Contacted a couple of different contractors about doing work on the house.
9)Contacted a home organizer to help with purging and setting up my new house.
10) Contacted a loan company about a loan for a new home.  (glup - that is pretty scary) We will still own this one but it needs work and that is not going to happen while we still live here.

We made an offer on a house and are waiting for the assessment. We might have a new house by the end of September.