Beauty

[rnmom]

Hi ladies! I haven't been posting much because I haven't been doing much! My decluttering has pretty much staggnated, though we did give away an old, large 36" TV to a friend at work and an entertainment center, so those two large items got out of the house.

My kiddos are off school in a couple of days and then we will get down to tackling their rooms and playroom. My eldest son has gotten it into his head that he wants to set up a table at the end of our driveway and try to sell some of his old toys so that he can make some money. I was never going to have another "garage sale" as long as I lived, but I told him that if he wanted to do the work that we could do it. So we will need to get whatever he wants to sell together and that will take some time. And if we're going to do his toys, I might just be able to find a few items from around the house to add to it too.

We're starting to do some work on finishing off our basement, and we've been working on some small projects around the house, so decluttering has taken a backseat. I need to get motivated again, things are piling up, magazines, etc.

I have been making some beauty purchases, not excessively, but some are coming in and some are going out, so not making a lot of progress there. I will probably buy a few items during the BBW semi annual sale even though I need NOTHING, because I still have a $25 gift card to use from Christmas and I'd rather buy during the sale than not.

Other than that, I still can't find skincare that I like. I tried the Cerave SPF 50 with InvisaZinc that was recommend here and I hate it. It leaves this horrible white cast on my face that doesn't go away. I hate to just throw away a whole brand new tube, maybe I can use it on days when I wear makeup, to help offset the white cast. But now, I have to look for something else to try. The whole process is just so frustrating. It would be so easy to stick with products I love if I could just find any!

[marky]

I managed to shred lots of old documents that belonged to my mom and some of mine too. I balanced the checkbook and did some rearranging. I have to keep telling myself that I didn't get in this mess overnight so I shouldn't expect to get it all done overnight. Oh, how I wish I could just snap my fingers and have it all done !!

[just bee]

This 15 minute routine seems to be working for people. I think a 15 minute investment is better for us than avoidance.

If you look at a project and think that it will take hours or even days to complete, you start thinking about when you'll have that total block of time available. Generally you won't have it so that becomes your excuse for putting off the project.

But if you tackle it by dividing it into 15 minute chunks...

Let's say you have a bookcase full of books, papers, and dusty knickknacks. How many shelves? Six, including the top where you have some houseplants? You're avoiding it because you'll have to stack all those books somewhere and there's no place to stack them.

But what if you just spent 15 minutes one day addressing that top shelf? Just take care of the plants.

Now the top shelf looks so good that it makes the others look worse. That's immediate incentive to complete the project. The next day, spend 15 minutes on the second shelf. A shelf a day until it's done. If you were trying to set aside that block of time to tackle the whole thing, it still wouldn't be done.

But in 15 minutes a day it was completed. One shelf, one drawer, one counter, one table, one box, one basket, one project a day is doable.

And if you have a piece of music you like that runs 15 minutes, you can listen to that and get something accomplished before the final note. That will be your official ComPact theme song.

Maybe I'll dig up Rhapsody in Blue and start a project...

[Eager2Learn]

Well said Just Bee, and I love the graphic reminders!

[just bee]

[FUTURE]

Well, you guys, I'm majorly patting myself on the back! I cleaned the storage room today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I can die a complete woman now! Lol!! It probably took me two hours, which doesn't seen like much, but I was like the Tazmanian Devil in there. I got rid of two boxes plus some large items to donate, and three garbage bags to toss. I didn't go through every box, because many are things from our childhood that I'm either not wanting to get rid of (dolls, blankets, toys, etc), or they are hubby's of the same nature. We have a lot of electronics items/wires/cords that I know hubby will want to keep. Sometimes you have to pick your battles. I figure if he has 10 boxes of things, I can live with it. I also combined all of our extra cleaning supplies, TP, paper towels, etc (we always buy in bulk at big box stores for items we use all the time, to save $$$) into one large rubber tub. The room looks 50% better, so I can for sure live with that. We also had several boxes of books from college/grad schools that I knew we didn't want to get rid of. Overall, it was a success! Now I just need to use up my beauty products in storage there. The good thing is, I've gone through it many times, and I'm down to items I REALLY USE, so I'm not going to totally beat myself up about it. I'm just not adding to it!

[Nicole76]

On 6/1/2014 just bee said:

On 6/1/2014 kcc said:

Yeah June ComPact! Just Bee: I so can relate to your story & recommendation about trying to save (or not) personal items NOW. I have 3 sisters. Two of us are 'savers' bordering on 'hoarders'. The other 2 don't want to hold onto anything. They'd rather toss everything. If there's a fork in the sink, they can't sleep :-) With you & all of the ComPacters advice, I am working to find the happy medium. Love the post about 'if we were moving' what to keep or purge. This will be my inspiration. If I were moving, what will I need/take. Thank you again Just Bee.

This reminds me of my brother who, if he hadn't looked so much like my mother's family, we would have continued to believe was one of those "switched-at-birth" kids. Zero sentimentality. No use for the superfluous. His room when he was a kid was immaculate.

He decided that we had some "old" (therefore useless) books in our collection, so he took it upon himself to rid us of them. He pulled them off shelves and put them in the garbage shoot where they were incinerated in the basement.

These books were old. Old and extremely valuable. Antique and rare. And burned to a crisp.

I must have been a librarian in a former life, I cringed at the thought of this...

[Nicole76]

On 6/1/2014 Dosey said:

On 6/1/2014 kathie66 said:

My ORC stalled bad. Need to get back on that wagon and will start with the 15 minutes. When my kids were little, I used to put the timer on for 7 minutes every night and we would race around and organize what we could every night. Need to get back in the habit myself. My kids recently reminded me of our 7 minutes of cleaning. My daughter turns 25 on Tuesday where did the time go?

What a great idea? Do you think I can get a 16 yo and 12 yo to do it?

I found myself thinking the same thing! Only wondering if I can get my 7 yo and 5 yo to do it. Though I can already picture that we may have to alternate between 7 minute days and 5 minute days...they are very attached to their age numbers right now. Maybe I can solve that by making it an even 10 minutes.

[Nicole76]

On 6/7/2014 marky said:

Getting ready to start de-cluttering again today but more importantly, I am NOT buying the Fresh Cream Philosophy TSV. I love the fresh cream but I don't NEED it. I vow to use up what I have. I have finally come to the realization that there will always be a TSV from Philosophy just around the corner whenever I truly NEED something.

It is unbelievable the number of fragrance sprays, shower gels and lotions I have purchased over the years. Some of the lotions turned which I don't understand. I can buy a bottle of Jergens and it never turns rancid like the Philosophy products do. Oh, well, lessons learned. Years ago, prior to QVC and HSN, I would buy one bottle of shampoo or lotion or shower gel. I would use it until it was gone and then I'd buy another one. Then for some reason I started "collecting" these items and have multiples of each product. NO MORE MULTIPLES !!! Not only do they sometimes spoil, I have to store all of them. Now, I'm off to de-clutter.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! This is just what I needed to read today. There was a sale, I was contemplating lotion, and I don't NEED lotion! I have recommitted to using up the lotions I have and THEN getting a new one.

ETA - And yes, it was a Philosophy lotion I was contemplating and yes I do have a couple of different Philosophy lotions open and in use right now.

[Caffeina]

Cleaning out a bedroom junk drawer today. These are the greeting cards DH & I gave each other over the last at least 20 years. Stuck chi that has to go. I'm putting them out with tomorrow's recycling.