It’s not much, that beats, crawling into a freshly made bed, after a long warm bath.
Hey, Frodo, scoot over! You’re hogging my space…
Ahhhh…..
I’ve got books…
coming out of my ears!
As most of you know, I’ve been on this quest to read myself out of my bookshelves the last year. And my plans are to continue to do so this year. That’s all good and well, until I spent weeks trying to get through one book! OK, so the book had 900 pages, and yes it is the size of 2,5 regular books.. but still… I spent pretty much all of January on this one book… (that’s how it is when you only have 30 minutes here, and 30 minutes there)
How on earth am I going to get rid of 34 books this year if I need a month on each?
Well, thankfully book reading have gone a little smoother this month, and I found a bunch I can’t bother to read again. So I have managed to rack up a number for my first book instalment this year after all 🙂
Here it is, 17 books going out-the-door!
Hey! That means I’m halfway there already! Woohoo! I didn’t realize how many it was until 3 seconds ago when I counted them up…
That’s really cool, because as soon as spring hits us! We all know I’ll be spending most of my time in the yard, and my books will yet again be collecting dust 😉
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
A plastic trash challenge!
Johanna over at Every week is green, decided in the beginning of February to do a trash challenge, where she keeps track of all the trash she generates through a month.
I thought this was a great idea, and I decided to join her on parts of this challenge, namely the plastic part.
Were I live here in Norway, we have pretty good facilities for recycle. My trash room have separate bins for paper, food waste and general trash. They also pick up plastic once a month, which are collected not in bins but in big plastic bags.
Right next to my local shop (just down the street), there is a big container for glass and metal cans, and you can deliver light bulbs at the store itself. Any big electrical items, can be delivered at any electrical store, paint and stuff is considered special waste and can be delivered either at the fire station or you can bring it to the local recycle centre (which for me is only 4 minutes away). The local recycle centre will take everything you could think off. You pay a small fee and you can toss to your hearts content 😉
So you see, there are great opportunities to recycle if we are mindful!
During my blogging year, I’ve come across a lot of people trying to go plastic free. I’m not quite there, as I do use my plastic containers to store food and stuff, and I do use the occasional plastic wrapper. But at the same time, I also bring my own bags to the stores, both carry bags and bags for fruit and vegetables. And I do try, to keep the amount of plastic that enters my house, to a low volume, with the unfortunate exception of necessities that happen to be wrapped in the darn thing.
But just like Johanna, I’m a bit curious on how much of the stuff I actually go through in a month, so I have decided to keep track of the plastic trash this month.
I started out February 1st, and this is what I went through my first week. It’s turning out to be more plastic than normally (I think) as I went a little crazy on bagged salads (on sale) and had to refill wiper fluid on my car:
- 1 chocolate wrapper
- 1 baguette wrapper
- 3 salad bags
- 1 mashed potato bag
- 1 puffed rice bag
- 1 windshield washer fluid refill bag (which at least uses 63% less plastic than a regular washer fluid container)
- 2 milk carton tops
- 14 contact lenses and their storage trays – I use SoftLens daily, and they come in small plastic containers
- 1 plastic box for 500 grams of grapes – unfortunately they come in boxes, no loose grapes here in my stores 😦
- Bunch of plastic that covers things like fruit, vegetables, pork chops, fish and a few other necessities
I stored most of it in a mason jar (you can see it empty on the picture) during the week, but pulled it all out to show you the stuff. I repacked it nicely into the grape box, as I’m keeping it there while I start on a new week of mason jar collecting 😉
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
Oh no, here we go again :-)
I told you last year about this photo project I was starting up on… well late November I packed everything away (I desperately needed a tidy house), and it’s been out of sight since 😉
I was thinking that now is as good a time as ever, to start back up again…
Yesterday I pulled everything out, and stacked it nicely on and around my dining room table. As you can see, from the picture below, it’s quite a load… “tons and tons” of albums, negatives and loose photos.
The goal is to sort out the keepers and scan them, as I want them digitized. Then after that “little” deed is done – OK maybe not so little, as I have a few thousand photos, and I’m sure, that even after I ruthlessly go through them, I will end up with another few thousand to scan – I will sort out the ones I would like to put into albums.
I’m hoping to get down to about a couple of thousand photos to scan, and less than a thousand to put into the albums. Wish me luck, because from the pile you see, it’s not going to be an easy task! Guess I’ll just have to eat this particular “elephant”, one album at a time… 😉
January in a nutshell!
Ha, bet you thought I had fallen of the face of the earth now, didn’t you?
Well that’s OK, you are forgiven for thinking so 😉 I am after all the the one who has been a bit on the quiet side!
I’m not sure why, but it’s been a slow start this year with the things I have on my agenda, which is why you haven’t heard much from me lately! Thankfully it seems like I’m finally getting my butt back into gear, and I’m sure I’ll pick up speed going forward…
So what have I been up to in January?
The most important thing is that I’m back at work, ever so slowly, half a day a week – yeah I know, stupid really, all I get done in those few hours is pretty much show up for lunch, have a meeting, chat with people and then I go home 😉 Hopefully I get more done when I start up with two half days a week, mid February. And I’m hoping I’ll step up more, after I see my neurologist in March, but we’ll just have to wait and see what she says first.
I gave you a list of goals a couple of weeks back? This year around, I think I’ll give you guys a monthly sum-up, of how I’m doing with those goals, and not just a tally of my decluttering, like I did last year.
So here it is – my January in a nutshell!
Declutter
Have I decluttered anything in January? Well, yes I’ve been working away at it the last couple of days (finally got my act together) and a post is on its way 😉 It will have to count as a February shed though!
Activity and exercise
I have a plan to be more active this year, and so far this month I have been out on an average 2,5 times a week… Not a lot I know, but the weather have been really shitty, and I took a spill on the ice a few weeks back, which kept me out of the walking loop for a few days 😦
Only buying necessities
I’m on schedule, so far so good. But what about my allowances?
- Books – bought 5 dollars worth of e-books (3 I think it was)
- Eating out – we’ve done pretty shitty in January, as we have eaten out 10 times. There have been a few reasons for why. Like, we have been working at someone’s house and I just needed food “now”, and a few times we have been meeting people helping them look at stuff and ending up eating in the process. And one of the days I was hanging out with someone at the hospital all day, and just needed a quick bite… So it racks up! Regardless, we will have to do better in February.
- Flowers and plants – no purchases, quite the opposite, I gave away a couple of my plants to the neighbour instead 🙂
- Buying a non essentials – yes, one purchase, but it was really a replacement purchase of sorts.. I’ll tell you about it later!
Other financial goals
Mortgage: I paid my yearly down payment, 10 days ago, and I’m now finally under half left of my original mortgage, phew 🙂
Other activities/projects this year
We finally got the job done at my sisters place, installing the heaviest ceiling lamp on earth, over her dining table (it’s still hanging.. I think…), installed a ceiling lamp in her hallway, and we got her very long TV network cable hidden away (she has the TV at the opposite side of the room from where the plug is), I have to say.. her place is coming along really nice and she seems happy with the job we did…
Other stuff? Well, there are still a few things on the agenda at my step mums new place, but that is going to have to be a February thing!
That’s it for now.. see you in February 😉
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?
Finally back at work… sort off!
As some of you know, about half a year ago I made a decision to take a two month hiatus from work, for health reasons.
My neurologist and me, had made a 5 month plan, where the focus was on treatments, rest, exercise and a slow reintroduction back at work. I’m not sure if you remember my “wonderful” plan:
From the headline of this post, you can probably gather, that things didn’t quite go according to my original plan. Turns out my two month hiatus turned into 6 month off work!
We can have the best intentions, but sometimes there is no rushing the body, it seems to take it’s own time, regardless of what we want! And that’s pretty much why this has taken much longer than I thought it would do.
So what’s been going on, these 6 months;
Medications:
I followed my original plan when it came to medication and that seemed to kick-start my body into getting a little better.
Workouts:
Have not gone according to plan, at all! For some reasons the treatment I started, aggravated an inflammation in my hip early July, and I’m still struggling with it (going in for an MRI on the 19th) so it kinda put a dent into my workout plan. I have done walks and stuff, but no gym 😦
Treatments:
I’ve done extensive treatments these last 6 months. As I’ve earlier mentioned, I started going to an osteopath. Turns out I ended up switching between two, since they did different things.. as one have specialized in cranial osteopathy.
To be frank with you, the progress has been excruciating slow, and my original osteopath actually had to throw in the towel. But I have continued to work with the one that does cranial manipulation, and he is still hanging in there 😉 and during the last few weeks, we are finally seeing some good progress.
A couple of months into my hiatus, my neurologist and me decided it was time to try medical Botox. It’s a know treatment for people that suffers with chronic migraines (you can read about it here), and we decided that maybe it would be worth a try for my 24/7 tension headache/migraines. It’s a treatment you take every three months and I was really lucky and got an appointment quick. My first round of medical Botox I got early September, and my second treatment I had just a month ago, in early December.
It seems like that second treatment is actually doing something for me! 🙂 As my osteopath treatments is having much better effect than ever before. My daily basis headache (the one that is present 24/7 – yes that’s, 24 hours a day, every day) has gotten better and better, to the point where this is the best it’s been since August 4th, 2010. And my migraine attacks seems to have reduced some as well the last couple of weeks. Woohoo!!!
So I might finally be on the mend 😉
And therefore, I think it’s time to get back to work (been kind of antsy to get back)!
My neurologist on the other hand, wants us to reap the benefits of me feeling better, a little longer before I get “hot and heavy” at work again, and she didn’t really want me back quite yet. So we compromised 🙂
Tomorrow I will start back at work, but only one half day a week! Yes I know, sound puny, but that was all she would allow me to do. And it gives me a chance to clear my mailbox, say hello to people, catch up a little with what’s going on, and get to know my new department (we were reorganized as of January 1st).
Then in 5 weeks time (February 16th), I will start work two half days a week, and do that until I have seen my neurologist again, end of March.
And hopefully by then I will have had even more progress with my osteopath, and maybe if I’m lucky, even had a day or two without a headache? My world, wouldn’t that be grand 🙂
So you can see, this is slow going. But guess that’s always the way isn’t it, there really is no rushing it. It’s probably taken a long time to get bad, and it needs a long time to get good.
In hindsight I do realise, I should have not pushed my body as much as I did. When I originally started feeling bad early 2010, I should have taken it easy right out of the bat, instead of what I did, which was to continue to work as hard as I could. If I had know then, what I know now… sheesh… I would have taken 6 months of right away… and maybe never have ended up in all the trouble of the last 4,7 years…
So if you are out there, struggling with health problems! Listen to what the body is trying to tell you! Slow down! Take care of yourself! Your health is the most important thing in your life… without it… well we all know how that goes!
And here I am, about to start work again, if ever so slowly! And this time around, I HAVE to be better at paying attention…
PS:
Another kitchen run!
The first group of workers are done at my step-mums place (only the bathroom left to do), and there is a massive change from how it was before they started. Even though most of the major work is done, there are still a few tasks left, so I guess it’s my time to get to work 😉
We are trying to get the kitchen done, and Fridays work was the kitchen ventilator. As always, it took much longer than I thought. A quick couple of hours job turned into a few hours more! Hmmm, isn’t that always the way…?
Anyhow, it’s done (phew)! Now…did I manage to remember to take a before photo? Off course not… 😦 Could I at least take a photo of the discarded parts? Yes, off course! And the after photo? Absolutely 🙂
Today was the day to put the the kitchen cabinet doors and drawers back together. Remember I told you about taking them down to have them professionally painted? We picked them up before Christmas, but decided to wait until after the holidays to put them back up. Well, there is no more excuse, it is well after the holidays, and time 🙂
So here we are, one kitchen almost done…
Not very exciting… I know… but it is what I’ve been up to the last few days… 😉
Minimalist Sometimes 