Movie collection!

My movie collection is a mess!

I have loads of movies (about 200), and even more series collections (bunch of Star Trek’s and Stargate’s + a “zillion” more)

I’m not sure if you remember, but last year I told you I had started up going through my movie collection. Just like I’m working my way reading myself out of my bookshelves, I started a watching myself out of my movie collection task.

The intention was to go through my movies one after another, watch it one more time, then decide which one of these categories it falls into:

keep – great movie will watch it again – worth being kept as a physical disk
copy – good movie will/might watch it again – worth copying it to a PC hard drive
toss – good to crappy movie probably won’t watch it again (or know I won’t) – get rid of it

For the time being I’ve been working my way through the individual movies collection, as the series are a whole different ballgame.

And, I just had a big instalment of movies leaving the house 🙂 All counted up, they amounted to 50 movies out-the-door!

Now, you are wondering, did I actually watch all those 50 movies? I can answer that with a resounding NO, I did not 🙂

After having watched a few pretty bad movies, I started to get more selective on who would make the cut, even just to watch, and a lot did not pass that little test. Then during my living room packing party, I had one day where I got into a bit of a ruthless tossing mode, and out a few more went.

Since my intention is to half my original collection, I still have a few more to go through. But I thought 50 out-the-door, was worth celebrating 😉

Packing party – Kitchen! And results!

I knew I would run into trouble with my kitchen packing party, and I was right.. I sure ran into a bump in the road with this one. And I have to confess, I did not pack it up like I should.

I’ve decluttered my kitchen, so many times, that every time I opened a cabinet or drawer to empty it, I took one look and realised that there wasn’t really any reason to pack it, as I would just put all the stuff right back where it belonged… So I didn’t, pack it that is!

My bad!

But even though I did not follow my own rules on this one, I did however manage to shed a few things after all 🙂

And here it is, my kitchen shed;

4 measure cups
2 knives
1 mixing bowl
1 set of tiny glad bowls to store food in
1 metal water bottle
2 serving bowls
1 swiffer duster handle
4 cleaning cloths
2 dinner plates
1 trash bin
1 food scrap trash bin
2 cereal bowls
1 frying pan
Bunch of small river rock, sand and shells for decorations – count as 5
1 terracotta plant watering “tube”
2 ice cube trays
1 pair of chop sticks
1 thong to grab hot bowls
1 broken soup bowl – that obviously didn’t want to hang around it’s siblings any longer…
Bunch of decorate stuff for flower arrangements – 17 items

I can’t believe it, that actually turned into 51 items out-the-door, that’s kinda cool! (small happy dance going on here 😉 )

So what room is next?

As I mentioned in my last post, doing the hallway would just be a joke (or a very easy pass) as my hallway is the size of a stamp, and the only thing in it, is the entrance door and a closet. And not to mention that this closet I have already gone through several times, and there is nothing left to get rid off. If I take a seriously good look, I might find a pair of shoes that could need new shoelaces, but other than that, only a few dust bunnies are to be had 🙂

Then there is the guest room. That’s a whole other ballgame! There is no doubt it needs to be done… but right now it looks like an overstuffed piñata, filled up with; boxes from other rooms that are not quite emptied yet, some of the stuff that is going out-the-door that I’m hoping I will find takers for, piles of out-the-door items I have not written about yet ++ It’s been literally treated as an overflow area during my packing party, and it’s a hot mess.

The guest room is NOT going to be fun, as I have a few big huge IKEA wardrobe cabinets, filled with stuff. Since I don’t have much storage rooms, I use these cabinets to store my Christmas decorations, photo collections, electrical stuff, towels, bed linen, guest pillows and covers, golf stuff, other smaller sports stuff, speakers, printer, cables… you get my drift, yes? It is where I store everything!!!

So this is how this is going to go!

This coming weekend, I will clear the room of all the “junk”, unpack the items that belong elsewhere, and prepare myself…

For the following weekend, which will be crunch time for the guest room 😉

March in a nutshell!

Here we go again! Another month just flew by!

I thought February was a busy month, but it was nothing compared to March… I sure hope April will bring a little more relaxation… well I can hope, can’t I? 🙂

My step-mums move is finally over, and I believe that the things she needs me for is mostly done. Pictures are hung, office is installed, machines are connected, curtain rods are up, furniture in place, TV and internet – check.. the only thing I know I have left to do is to fix up her entrance door, but that has to wait for warmer weather as it involves paint and oil.

Spring seems to finally be on it’s way, I think.. maybe! Plants are thinking about popping out of the ground, but there are still the occasional waking up to a bit of white outside, so I’m not quite sure 😉 The weather right now is beautiful Easter weather and I’m hoping this is a sign of how the spring season will go, as that would mean a lot of days outside.

But, let’s get back to how I’m doing with some of my goals.

March in a nutshell!

Declutter
As most of you know, I’m in the middle of a pseudo packing party, so far I’ve done my bathroom and bedroom, and I’m currently working on my living-room. I’m sure you all wonder if this little project it’s wielding anything out-the-door! Well, yes it is, a black bag full of stuff went out-the-door yesterday, and I will tell you all about what the stuff was. I just need to sit my butt down, sort through all the pictures I took and actually write the post 😉

But as you all gathered by now, unfortunately it’s not counting as March out-the-door, as yesterday was April 🙂

Activity and exercise
Hmm, sport wise I did pretty shitty during March, but I sure was active… between cutting and trimming fruit trees in my step-mums allotment garden, hanging curtain-rods and pictures, lifting heavy boxes, moving furniture, working in my own garden and actually getting the occupational walk in, I averaged 3 times a week. Still not quite according to plan, I’ve gotta do better, hopefully now that the weather is perking up…

Only buying necessities
I’m on schedule. But what about my allowances?

Books – none
Eating out – we are still doing pretty poorly, like I mentioned before, with all this “working for someone else” it’s hard. Now that this moving business is out of the way, hopefully we can do better…
Flowers and plants – no purchases
Buying a non essentials – yes, one purchase, I got myself a new casual top, a thin cotton hoddie, to replace a couple of ragged tops I had

Other financial goals
Mortgage: After my one time lump sum payment, I won’t be doing anything on my mortgage other than pay the monthly interest. But, on a happy note, with my extra payments the last few months (I had a lump sum payment last year as well) my monthly interest payment is now half of what it was 7 months ago 🙂

Other activities/projects this year
Hmmm, now that the move is over… I have nothing 🙂 But I’m sure that won’t last long.. so stay tuned 😉

Well, that it for now, see you around in April!

Packing it all up! The number of stuff….

Only a few more things to do, and then my step-mums move is finally over. Monday was the day the movers came, and boy did it turn out to be a long, loooong day 😉

The last few days have been crazy with packing, disconnecting electrical items, cleaning up the new place after all the workers (who incidentally are still not done.. according to the grapevine. I believe they are putting the finishing touches on the bathroom today), the move itself, unpacking, reconnecting electrical items +++

All I’m going to say is this… moving is a pain in the… 😉 and I’m glad it wasn’t my house this time around!

I would like to think that, now that I have cleared away quite a bit of stuff, it would be reasonable easy for me to move (if I ever were so inclined) but having witnessed the chaos of the last few days, I’m not so sure any more.

I knew my step-mum had quite a few things, but I didn’t realise how much, until stuff came crawling out of the woodwork. And I’m starting to think that even as much as I have decluttered, there are way more, than I realise, hidden away in my nooks and crannies.

Maybe it’s time I take another look at all the little things that are hiding in “plain sight” in my closets, drawers and shelves. See if there isn’t a way to reduce even more. I should probably implement the moving test going forward with my decluttering task. A moving test, huh?

To me, this is to implement questions like;

If I was to move to a different country or a smaller house, would this item be worth paying good money to have it moved, or would it fit in a smaller lifestyle?
Would I keep this item if I myself had to physical carry/haul this over to the new place, with no help from anyone…

Hmm, I can think of a few things that would not survive the “hauling it myself” test 😉 I mean, even if thing are small and don’t take up a lot of space, I’m telling you, when you pack all that stuff in a box, it quickly becomes a heavy load of stuff… and even the smallest box becomes heavy after you have lugged around 50 of them!

I don’t think I’m quite at the packing party level, like The Minimalists did, especially after the last few days (if I don’t see another moving box again, I would be really happy), but I can still “pretend in my mind” I’m packing up, right?

So that is what I will do… ahem… in a couple of weeks time! I just need to get this current move out of the way first, and there are still a few things that needs to be done (guest bedroom/office to set up, basement storage room to sort out, curtain rods to be hung, pictures to put on the walls, books to unpack… you get the drift) before I can lean back and relax.

But at least I have made the decision (and a decision is half the work, right? 🙂 ) to do a pseudo “packing party” as soon as this real “unpacking party” is over…

Want to join me, in my “packing party” endeavour?

February in a nutshell!

I can’t believe I’ve almost forgot to post February’s summary!

I’ve been a bit on the busy side, it’s getting down to the wire when it comes to my step-mums move. They are working like crazy to finish her new bathroom, and we’ve been working on putting up lamps, painting and putting in storage shelves. This weekend we just finished putting in new bookshelves, today we are putting up blinds in the bedrooms, cleaning up the new place and packing the last bits and pieces, as the movers are coming tomorrow.. oh yeah, and I have a dishwasher and a washing machine to disconnect….

Since I will be occupied with the move and sorting things out for a few more day (ok, probably more than just a few), I figured I would give you a quick summary!

So here it is – my February in a nutshell!

Declutter
Yes I did actually get a few things out-the-door during February, my Wii, a bunch of clothing and a few books! 101 items all together 🙂

Activity and exercise
My activity plan really didn’t happen much in February. Between work, treatments, running around sorting things for my step-mum and not to forget the rain, that blasted rain, I averaged only 2 times a week 😦

Only buying necessities
I’m on schedule. But what about my allowances?

Books – none
Eating out – not doing to well in February either, like I mentioned in January, when we have been working at someone’s house, I sometimes just need food “now”, or we are to tired to bother about making food and we eat out. So it racks up! Hopefully when this moving business is out of the way, we can do better…
Flowers and plants – no purchases
Buying a non essentials – yes, one purchase, I finally found something I have been looking for, for the last couple of years, I’ll tell you about it in a separate post!

Other financial goals
Mortgage: Due to how the interest rates are doing, I made a one time lump sum payment, which I told you about a few days back… I’m really chuffed that I’m now down to about a third left of my mortgage 🙂

Other activities/projects this year
As I mentioned above, the focus is getting my step-mum into her new house…

Oh, yeah, and I did a plastic trash challenge in February. I have to admit, it was an eye opener…

I guess that’s it for now, I told you it would be quick 😉

Closet time again!

The last few weeks, I’ve been chipping at my closet again.

One of our fellow bloggers, Becoming a minimalist is impressing the heck out of me. She has her closet under iron control, being down to a couple of shoes (shucks, I have about 24 pairs if I count all including flip-flops) and about 30? items of clothing. She follows a rule of three! 3 pair of pants, 3 cardigans, 3 t-shirts, 3 jackets and so on.

In my heart, I wish I could be on her level, but in my head, I realise that it’s not going to happen 🙂 It’s also not really practical, considering how I do my laundry.

Living on my own, it takes a bit of clothing to fill up my washing machine. As I separate my clothing into dark and light, my machine don’t run very often, since towels, and bedding is done separately from my everyday clothing. Now that I’m home a lot, I live in the same stuff all the time.. and the machine runs even more seldom than normal.. which means that I need enough underwear, socks, t-shirts and pants to last me at least a fortnight.. no rule of 3 for me.. no siree…

Like most people, I tend to use the same items of clothing over, and over again, and I’m your typical t-shirt and jeans kinda girl! Now, girl, might not be “politicly” correct as I just turned 50, but never mind, I’m sticking to my original statement, I’m your typical t-shirt and jeans kinda girl 😉

But even for me, there are occasions where I need to dress up a little better. A meeting at work with vendors, a birthday or Christmas… you know what I’m talking about. So there are a few staple items I have no choice but to keep in my closet – unless I want the wrath of my mothers (yes both mum’s) to fall on me – even at 50…. Hey, don’t laugh at me.. you all know how mothers can be 😉

So with that in mind, T-shirt and jeans for me, pretty clothing for those couple (or ten) occasions a year, and having enough to fill up my machines, I’ve been attacking my closet, weeding a few more items out of my pile…

Last year I got rid of around 100 pieces of clothing and about 14 pairs of shoes, you’d think there wouldn’t be anything left for me to find! But there is! Even with my goal in mind, I still end up with 7 pants, 10 shirts and enough t-shirts and undies to start my own store… not to mention the sweaters, tops, sports attire, sleepwear, socks, belts…. and shoes… those darn shoes…

There is obviously no hope for me as I still have ways to go 😦

But here at least, is my latest instalment of clothing out-the-door! 72 items

1 dress jacket
1 green dress
1 jacket for the green dress
1 long summer dress
5 shirts
1 thin sweater
1 thick jacket (my dads)
1 thick fleece (my dads)
2 shorts
4 decorative scarf
3 t-shirts
2 sweaters
1 fleece
3 tank tops
1 pink top
1 workout top
1 scarf (dads)
1 pair of gloves
1 pair of Welly warmers (which just didn’t ever work, as they came out with my feet when taking the boots off)
1 cap
1 rain jacket
6 hankies
1 pair of cosy socks/indoor “shoes”
2 golf gloves
2 belts
8 bras (which I will save you from – picture wise – together with the other unmentionables 😉 )
2 sleepwear shorts
12 undies (Some with tags on. I’m sure I still have enough for the next 30 years, so I really needed to get rid of some 😉 )
1 pair of flip flops
4 pairs of shoes – bicycle, everyday, dancing and office shoes

It’s Wii time!

When I lived in US, I got a little carried away and bought myself a Wii.

You’d think I was 5, but what the heck.. I don’t care what age group you are, Mario Kart, is fun.. 😉 OK, so I didn’t really get it for the Mario Kart as I got the Wii Fit balance board and everything with it! Turns out though, that it was mostly used for games, not exercise – funny that 😉

Since I got home from US, the Wii haven’t seen much use, as it has mostly been tucked away in one of my drawers, and it’s time to let it go!

My neighbours kids are 7 and 9, and I have tested that my american Wii works on her Norwegian television, so this weekend the Wii will be installed in her house, rather than mine 🙂

I might miss Mario a little (I told you it was fun, right), but I sure won’t miss it filling up one of my drawer.

So here it is, all the Wii stuff – 12 items out-the-door!

1 Wii with power and receiver
1 Wheel
2 Nunchucks
2 Controls with plastic protective cover
1 Wii Fit Balance board
5 Games

Plans for 2015?

We are halfway into January, and you’re wondering, do I have any plans for 2015?

Yes, off course 🙂

I have plans within the areas of decluttering, finance, exercise and life in general! Why don’t you let me tell you all about it 😉

Declutter
In 2014, the focus was mostly on decluttering, and I’m afraid I still have ways to go 😦 Seems like decluttering and getting less stuff, inspires me to want less and less. So I will continue this in 2015. Last years goal was to declutter one item a day (365 items) and I far succeeded that, so I thought maybe I should try that one, one more time.. I think it will be harder this year to find the 365 items, but I’m sure gonna try 😉

I don’t know if you remember! Just like I’m reading myself out of my bookshelf, I’ve decided to watch myself out of my movie collection, and I also have this big, actually huge, photo project which I mentioned for you guys in November, that I will be spending time on this year.

My declutter goals for 2015;

365 items
100 Movies – that’s half of my collection
Cut my physical DVD series collection by 30% (yeah, that’s a lot, I have a lot, a lot of series)
34 books – I did 82 or something like that, out-the-door last year, but now I’m getting into more of the books I love…
Photo collection – oh lord… I can’t even tell you what my goal is for this year! Half maybe?
My overall goal is to keep key photos as physical photos, scan the other ones I’d like to have access to, and get rid of the rest. Now having several thousand photos, this is a task that will take time, and most likely spill over into 2016…

Only buying necessities
My focus last year on only buying necessities ( I want, I want – I want it now!!!) served me very well, as I had to spend quite a bit on medical treatments instead. It served me so well, I think I’d like to continue the focus this year. But with a small change compared to last years – I will add an allowance;

Books – I can still buy up to 10 books/magazines – preferable as e-books
Eating out – We did pretty good last year – we will try to squeeze even more this year, by reducing another 25% on last years results.
Flowers and plants – stay at the same level of last years result
New allowance: I can buy up to 10 non essentials throughout the year 🙂

Other financial goals
Last year I managed to pay off my car (a few months early) and I’m pretty happy with that 🙂 My ultimate goal on the other hand, is to have my house mortgage paid off, in 16 years or less, compared to the 25 it was originally. I’m 7 years in and have almost halved the mortgage so far, which is phenomenal! But it’s getting harder now that I’m on a severely reduced pay due to not working so much. Every January I pay a lump sum towards the mortgage, so my goal for 2015 is to save up 60 000 NOK for my lump sum in January 2016. If I manage that on my reduced pay, I’m doing very well.

Activity and exercise
Due to illness I have not been the most active person the last few years, every time I think I’m ready to start exercising, I’ve managed to screw that up somehow, and I’ve gotten worse again. Now on the other hand, I’m feeling better than ever and I think it’s time to give it another shot. But this time around I’m going to be careful about it and take my time!!!

The goal for this year is to build up to, by the end of the year: 7 days of activity a week, with 3 of these as real workouts.

By activity I mean something that gets me up and going and preferable out of the house, like a walk in the neighbour hood, work in the yard, run around playing with kids… just about anything that gets me out of that couch, gives me some fresh air, and brings me into a moving state 😉
With real workout I mean an activity like for example going to the gym, yoga, biking, running, Rollerblade … you get the drift.

Other activities/projects this year
I have a few other things on my agenda 🙂 Like; travel, projects in my yard, other projects, throw a garden party, ++
But these, I think I’ll tell you more about, as we move into the year 😉

So that’s it for my 2015 goals… enough don’t you think?

My 2014 goals – how did I do?

In 2009, after having lived in the US for two years, I came home with enough stuff to fill up a entire house (after having furnished an empty condo in Houston), and I already had a house full. Since then I have slowly but surely gotten rid of stuff, and I’ve dwindled it down to one household again. But as good as I had been at it, I felt that there was still more that could go out of the house. Which is why I decided a year ago that I would make 2014 a year to declutter and living with less.

And to be accountable – I started this blog 🙂

I decided my main goal, would be to get rid of an average of at least one item a day, all through 2014 – yepp, 365 items!

I also made a second goal, a promise in my post I want. I want – I want it now!!! – to make an effort to buy only necessities, needs rather than wants.

Have I managed what I set out to do? The short answer – YES!

So here it is – my MAIN goal;

2014 tally of items out-the-door – 634 items, 2200 bookmarks and 14485 emails 🙂

Curious about what items I shed? Check it out;

January tally – 63 items
February tally – 45 items, 2200 bookmarks and 2450 emails
March tally – 12 items and 7535 emails
April tally – 58 items and about 4500 emails
May tally – 126 items
June tally – 22 items
July tally – 22 items
August tally – 45 items
September tally – 103 items
October tally – 7 items
November tally – 23 items
December tally – 108 items

My second goal – only buying necessities;

I did better on this during 2014 than I did in 2013 (which was the first time I tried this). I replaced broken items, only if I had too. I used up before replacing or even did not replaced at all.

I did really good at not buying anything but necessities, until my trip to US in September, when I ended up buying some clothing I didn’t really strictly “need”. I do however have an excuse as my luggage was lost for several days, and I got sick of walking around in oversized men’s clothing that I had borrowed. So I caved and bought some ladies things 😉 And it’s not like the clothing won’t come in handy, when I wear out my older stuff…

Other than that, as far as I know, there are only a few other items I got, that were strictly not a necessity. 1 small box set I thought was really cute, that I really haven’t found a use for, yet! And then I got a a few cheap IKEA wine glasses for my birthday grill party, as I did not have enough glasses for the champagne toast! (thinking about it, I believe this could be considered a necessity 😉 )

I did have some allowances for the year! Things I could do and things I could get that aren’t really necessities;

Books – I could buy up to 10 books/magazines – I bought one physical book, and two or three e-books

Eating out – the goal was to cut down to half the amount of times we (a friend and I) eat out compared to 2013 – we didn’t quite manage, as we only cut 39% on times. But what we did manage was to cut the amount we spent, with more than 50%, which was ultimately the goal.

Flowers and plants – The goal for 2014 was to cut down to procuring less than half of what I normally would – Done 🙂 I did even better than half as I cut my procurement of plants for the garden closer to 70% compared to any other years.

So all in all, I would say that I passed my goals for 2014!

Did I pass with flying colours? Hmmm, probably not, I’m sure I could have done better, but I’m pretty happy 🙂

December tally!

I can’t believe it’s almost the end of the month already. As we all know, December is the month of Christmas. With all the preparation and celebration, that entails, it doesn’t really leave much time for any other activities.

Even so, I did manage to squeeze in some moments to spend on other tasks and to celebrate my blogs 1 year aniversary! Woohoo!

Since tomorrow is new years eve, I kinda figured I won’t be decluttering any significant stuff these last to days. So I decided to post Decembers tally early 😉

And here it is. DECEMBERS TALLY of things “out-the-door” = 108 items!

6 items – during My Christmas shed

2 shirts
1 cardigan
1 sweater
1 vest
1 painting

90 items – that I had been holding on for my neighbour to check first – In finally out of here

2 magazine holders
3 microwave items
1 ice cube tray
3 plastic boxes to store food in + a box of ziploc bags
1 serving tray
3 candle holders
1 pack of plastic spoons
1 pack of plastic straws (should be a hit with her kids)
2 wine openers
3 wine stoppers
1 huge sport drink reusable bottle
1 reusable lunch bag
1 small porcelain bowl
4 long stemmed wine glasses
1 tea box full of different teas
1 plastic box (the one with an X I’m keeping for now.. I have an idea and if it works I’ll post about it 🙂 )
1 cut board
1 decorative glass bowl
1 tiny shots glass
Bunch of rubber band (bracelets) – count as 1
7 watches (she took a couple for her kids)
18 Christmas decoration items
1 box of decorative tiny apples (Christmas stuff)
3 bean babies
1 head light
1 big storage box (all the stuff she took with her fit in the box – it’s that big 🙂 )
1 pair of running shoes (another friend took earlier)
2 medium size storage boxes (perfect for her kids toys)
1 pair of jeans
6 bras
7 pantyhose
3 pairs of socks
2 short sleeved bicycle tops
1 pair of shorts
1 pair of dress pants
1 t-shirt
1 sleep shorts