Beauty

[geezerette]

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@Brisky wrote:
I threw out all the candy and junk food a couple days ago. I have a head start. Chocolate, no more in my house. I dumped some well worn clothing also.

I broke or chipped a back tooth a week ago. I bit down on something that felt like a rock. Dentist tomorrow at 7:00 AM. Did not know dentists made app's that early
I called him in on emergency basis, he basically filled it with some putty. I like my dentist. I'm not in severe pain or anything. It obviously struck a nerve though😔

Going to pick up here, shower and go to my mother's house. She is having dillusions now.

Athena has made herself right at home now. She's a black tabby with grey stripes. She is a sweety and talks a lot. She isn't going anywhere.☺ She is loving the warmth of our house. She is a keeper...

Brisk better get moving. Shower time. Brisk out for the day! Have a good day all, Brisk out....

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@Brisky 

Ack!  Sorry to hear you're having tooth problems.  I hate that.  Especially this time of year when everyone else is having fun and eating.  And it's hard to get into the dentist office!  Glad to hear you'll have it fixed tomorrow.  Whenever that happens to me I always vow to eat better, thinking that my tooth would have been fine if I hadn't been eating junk!😄

Sorry to hear about your mom.  Rough on her and the family.  I was talking to my doctor the other day and said that I'm not afraid of the end, just all that stuff that comes beforehand.

Good for you that you got a head start on the dumping.  But it's so hard to keep on the straight and narrow when you're emotionally stressed.  In fact, that's how I got off my healthy diet years ago.  I was caring for my mother and she got to the point that she didn't want to eat alone.  Okay.  So I brought my food from home and ate my meals with her.  But then she kept wanting to know why I was eating different things than she was.  (She had known full well why until her mind started shorting out.)  So, in order to get her to eat anything, I had to start to eat the processed food that she wanted or she wouldn't eat at all.  Then, she got to the point where the only thing we could get down her was sweets, and she insisted I eat them too.  What are you going to do?  Even though I'd only have a little of that stuff, of course it got all those old cravings going again, and soon those veggies I had been living on were left by the wayside.

Glad to hear that little Athena is a sweetie.  I know she's going to give you a lot of love and laughs in the coming years.❤️

Take care of yourself.❤️

[just bee]

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@geezerette wrote:

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@just bee 

🎶"...And a partridge in a pear tree!"🎶 🎄 🤣

I haven't done an inventory on my personal care items, but they're all stored together on shelves in my closet so I can tell at a glance what I have.  I want to consolidate some of what I've been using on my face because I just don't like using as many products as I've gotten into.  However, I haven't been happy with how my skin has been feeling for several months now.  I happened to read another thread in another forum and realized that I had eliminated what the poster had a question about.  I put it back in my "routine", and voila!  Used it twice and my face felt good again.  That's exactly what I want to do with everything: find out what works and is worth buying, and eliminate the rest.  Basic.  Simple.  I think I've got that down as far as clothes goes, now I have to work on skin care.

What I did do was take an inventory of what I'd spent in 2019.  I keep track of all expenses as the year goes on, but what I went through was the discretionary expenses--the things I didn't need and often ended up not even wanting.  

😱Yikes!  Was I surprised!  And shocked!  And embarrassed! 😳  I was sitting alone in an empty house (okay, the animals were here), but I was actually embarrassed!  Let's just say it was enough to almost pay for a small compact car.  Probably was enough for a used compact car.  I've been an idiot!  Worried about spending money in savings, here I can eliminate half of that just by not spending on things I don't even like!!!   Talk about a 'DUH' moment! 😯🤬

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@geezerette 

We can be absolute morons when it comes to money.  But it's always good to keep an eye on how we're spending it.  What's worse is how we save it.

I procrastinate about the investment decisions.  I wait until the end of the year and then make a lot of decisions all at once about that and what to donate.

Moronic.

As for you, that was the last decade.  This is a new one and you can do something different this time.

[geezerette]

Then there is the inevitable question every ten years:

Does the new decade start in 2020 or 2021?  🥳🤨

[aprilskies]

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@geezerette wrote:

Then there is the inevitable question every ten years:

Does the new decade start in 2020 or 2021?  🥳🤨

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@geezerette, you made me count on my fingers , 2020 is the start of the decade. 

[aprilskies]

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@geezerette wrote

I haven't done an inventory on my personal care items, but they're all stored together on shelves in my closet so I can tell at a glance what I have.  I want to consolidate some of what I've been using on my face because I just don't like using as many products as I've gotten into.  However, I haven't been happy with how my skin has been feeling for several months now.  I happened to read another thread in another forum and realized that I had eliminated what the poster had a question about.  I put it back in my "routine", and voila!  Used it twice and my face felt good again.  That's exactly what I want to do with everything: find out what works and is worth buying, and eliminate the rest.  Basic.  Simple.  I think I've got that down as far as clothes goes, now I have to work on skin care.

What I did do was take an inventory of what I'd spent in 2019.  I keep track of all expenses as the year goes on, but what I went through was the discretionary expenses--the things I didn't need and often ended up not even wanting.  

😱Yikes!  Was I surprised!  And shocked!  And embarrassed! 😳  I was sitting alone in an empty house (okay, the animals were here), but I was actually embarrassed!  Let's just say it was enough to almost pay for a small compact car.  Probably was enough for a used compact car.  I've been an idiot!  Worried about spending money in savings, here I can eliminate half of that just by not spending on things I don't even like!!!   Talk about a 'DUH' moment! 😯🤬

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@geezerette, dont even get me started, I cant even begin. This has really been weighing on me a lot lately and trying to find a way to let it go. 

Just have to do better going forward. 

[FindingMyJoy]

Happy New Year!! I hope 2020 brings happiness, peace, health and decluttering to all!!

I mentioned in last month's thread that 1 big goal for January is I want to use up items in my kitchen cabinets. I have several cans, jars of random stuff. My grocery shopping is allowed for fresh items like dairy, fresh veggies and fruit, plus random items needed to complete a recipe which uses several pantry items. I hope to see my grocery bills majorly shrink this month! If I do want a minor splurge like a frozen pizza here or there, I will allow it as a treat. Today I used up an old box of biscuit mix that was pushed to back of a shelf. The biscuits turned out quite well! Cross 1 item used from the pantry! Also used chicken from freezer that's been in there a while so cross off another item!

My major issue to take control over buying is body care including shower gels, body creams, hand creams. I decided to jumpstart the year by laying out my current stash and counting. Yep, it confirmed I have enough stuff for a large family or heck maybe my neighborhood block for a year?? One good thing from 2019, I have tackled and used up all the large 32 ounce Philosophy shower gels with the decision that this is my least favorite body care line so temptation to buy should be greatly reduced. Here are my numbers: shower gels 28, Body creams 36, hand creams 8, mini creams 1 ounce or smaller 34. One good thing in review of the items is 2018 is oldest, that's also the saddest thing - look at all the stuff i bought in 2 years? what a waste of mindless spending. But the money is spent so not beating myself up about it, i will just have glorious looking skin when all is used!!

For all who are trying to use up a stash, what's the best method? Do you first use up the scents you know you love? Or use up a lesser favorite to check it off the used list? Do you tackle smaller containers first to make a dent in the stash? I'm open to suggestions. I had been doing 1 shower gel only in shower but find I get tired of scent and often feel like i need a different scent for a different mood so this year I can have 2 open in the shower that reflect different scents to give me variety. I'm also using least favorite shower gels as handsoaps to help use it up vs buying other liquid soaps for the sinks.

One random goal for 2020 - weed out the used clothes that I have used so much and need to be thrown out. I'm a clothes user that I will wear something until it's dead aka stained, ripped, has a hole, lost its elastic stretch etc. especially since i'm fulltime work at home for my current job. My drawers of socks, underwear and bras I know contain items that need to be thrown out. So my goal is as I reach in to wear something, if it's in bad shape, it's worn one last time then thrown out instead of washing and putting back in the drawer. After a few months, I hope to have weeded out several items and know that I'm using newer items vs "saving them for special events". 

I'm working on setting my health goals for 2020. I need to set something for January that is doable so I can look at this month as a success vs a failure to really jumpstart 2020 as a year of better health. 

[aprilskies]

How about looking at this from a different viewpoint?  I wonder if we all have been concentrating too much on the negative, and thus unintentionally beating ourselves up over past purchases and choices.  Can't we do this in a positive way?  It may work better.  Like, instead of thinking of all the delicious junk food we have to give up, think of how much better we're going to feel, and therefore, how much more we will be able to do and enjoy.

We  need to figure out how to make the things we want to do be fun, instead of concentrating on how much we're "giving up". Nobody wants to do anything that smacks of drudgery, work, or sacrifice.  But we all like the fun, happy stuff!  Isn't that why we buy or eat in the first place--to try and make ourselves happy?

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@geezeretteWhat a excellent point. I am going to try and incorporate this viewpoint this year. I really want to keep the pressure on decluttering this year and this will help me because it really has been depressing me a bit even though I feel relieved at the things going out the door. 

This will be a great shift in mindset. 

[aprilskies]

@rnmom, I dont mind being stocked up if it is stuff I am using and know I will use up and if I had the space.  It is a nice feeling to know you dont have to run out for every little thing and can be prepared in storms or whatnot. 

Especially where you live. 

@Brisky, so glad your new addition is working out and is a keeper. How sweet. 

All there has been so much written and I dont even know where to begin.  I agree and resonate with all.  I will have to come back and really read it again. It brought up so many feelings. 

[rnmom]

@aprilskies - i agree with so much that has been written too, I'm not sure where to start to respond to all of it either. 

I know that I want to say thank you to everyone who is offering tips on how to cut back on the sugar, that is going to be a hard one to tackle, I'm so addicted. I know it's in so many products, but if I can even just start by giving up the candy, cookies, chocolate habit every day, that will be a good place for me to begin. 

@just bee -i don't think that your inventory sounds like it's too much at all. Other than maybe eyeshadows, it doesn't sound like you have any excess. It just takes so long to use up eyeshadow, I swear one palette can last for years. That collection just might last you the rest of your life.

@FindingMyJoy -as far as using up your collection, it sounds like you're already using shower gel as hand soap, that's a good start. As far as using up the other items, I'd either use my favorites first (just in case they go bad you'd hate to use up the ones you didn't like and have all your favorites go bad on you). Or I'd use up the smaller containers first so that it at least feels like the numbers are going down.

Do you think that you would be interested in donating any of them? I know that there's a shelter here in my town for victims of domestic violence and they are always so pleased to get toiletry items as donations. I'm sure a place like that or a homeless shelter would love to have some of the extras you don't care for if that's an option. 

[geezerette]

@FindingMyJoy 

I use all my skin care, body washes, etc. by date.  I use the oldest up first.  If it doesn't have a manufactured date on it, I go by the date I received it.  (I label all my products when they arrive.)  I don't use different scents, so I don't need to rotate because of that.  

I have most of my "good" clothes hanging up, so I can tell at a glance how many I have.  For my stay-at-home clothes, I went through and decided how many of each category (pants, shirts, etc.) I need.  Now when I have a new shirt, for example, to go into my stay-at-home drawer, I make it a rule to take out the shirt that is in the worst shape and toss it.  That way I don't look too grubby around the house, and also, I don't end up with so many things that I can't get my drawer closed--which has happened!🤗