City-wide Garage Sale

Corey and I are still working on our house item declutterathon and the city wide garage sale had some really wicked timing.  We just wanted to get as many things out of the house as possible and a little extra money would be nice.  We have had this old couch, loveseat, and chair that have been a major part of my home decor for years.  They had moved with me four different times since I've been on my own.  It's really hard to pretend to be grown ups with your main pieces of furniture in your house are futons.  Granted, they were really nice futons, but still.  It was time to say goodbye.  We were able to send the couch off on Craigslist but the last two pieces just wouldn't leave.  We hoped for the best and got them ready for our garage sale.  We decided that it was going to be their day.  It totally was.

I'll admit it was a little bittersweet to see them go.  When I was in college, all three of my roommates and I curled up on the couch to watch a movie and talk about what type of theme party we wanted to throw in the name of sorority recruitment.  The man who would be my husband got ambush kissed by me the first time on that loveseat.  A few years later, that same fella blew my mind with a ring and a question when I was curled up on it with sweatpants and glasses on.

We have totally respectable married people couches now and I hope the fella that bought them has some good memories with these futons too.  

Project 1000

I read on Musings of a Midlife Mom that she was on a mission to get rid of 1,000 usable items from her house by the end of the year.  I mentioned it to Corey and he scoffed and said that we don't have anywhere near that much because our house isn't cluttered.  I asked him if he's been living somewhere else and not telling me.

I know how to play the game and allowed him to watch the first few rounds of the NFL draft before asking him to help me with the pantry.  Thankfully, the city wide garage sale is this weekend too so he has an extra perk in helping me to clear it out.

Welcome to our kitchen pantry!  I like to think of it as a walk in junk drawer most days.  Yes, that is our vacuum in the pantry.  Don't hate.

This is our Halloween/Christmas/Wedding/Goodwill dishes/half completed craft project section of the pantry.  I'm just thrilled that I managed to keep everything in their own box instead of just a giant pile of disorganization pushed into the corner.  I mean it's really close though.

After!  I realize that a pantry is supposed to have food but we're about to start the third month of once a month cooking.  We haven't bought groceries except milk, bread, and peanut butter since March 10.  We've  only eaten out three times so I'm pretty proud of us.  We have a plastic tub for every day of the week and when groceries get put away, they are sorted by meal.  When it's the day for that meal, you can just grab the container and take all of the ingredients to the kitchen.  It's handy and you realize right away if you have that  d'oh moment when it's half cooked and you're missing something important.

Much better!  The Halloween/Christmas/Wedding/Goodwill dishes/half completed craft project boxes have found new permanent homes.

We even went through our medicine cabinet and disposed of all of the out of date medicine.  I'm guessing those eye drops from 2007 will do more harm than good at this point.

I can safely say that 12 items are going to be removed from our house either for Goodwill or our garage sale and we filled up our city trashcan with junk.  It reminds me of when we moved in and said that we would never have enough food and things to fill the shelves in here.  988 items left to go!  We can do it!

Do you have a nightmare room that needs to get a makeover?