I'm a Border Collie on a Mission
I have boxes and boxes of things for this spring's garage sale. As I go through the house, I'm boxing anything I haven't used in over a year. I've emptied drawers, closets, and checked all the nooks and crannies where I
Clean slate. That's my mantra this year. If it's not useful, beautiful, or beloved, it goes.
Then I attacked my blog feeder.
I was shocked! Dozens and dozens of people had stopped blogging. If they hadn't blogged in three months or more, their blogs were deleted from my list.
The other cuts were to bloggers who did constant promo. I don't mind the occasional advert, but as a reader, I want to read about interesting stuff. Stuff they learned, the skeletons they discovered, or new adventures they're attempting.
I didn't cut too many, but if they never bothered stopping by my blog and theirs was a daily rendition of 'buy my book', I gave them the Marie Antoinette haircut.
2015 is the year to be interesting again. Blog about the stuff that makes you, YOU. If you allow guest posts, insist your guests be interesting.
I plan to blog at least twice a week from now on. Probably Mondays and Wednesdays.
This Wednesday, I'm going to talk about the expense journal I started and the humiliating discoveries I made about myself. This thing punched me in the gut. If I was a drunkard, I'd be stone sober right now, instead I'm just black and blue.
I took down my Christmas tree over the weekend. The house looks so sad now. I drove Greg crazy with the way I stored stuff. You see, I have specific boxes for each kind of decoration and room. It just makes life easier when it comes time to bring them down again.
Greg calls me Mrs. Sheldon (a la Big Bang Theory). Nana is also a Sheldon. She can't stand things not going in a certain order. That's the border collie in her. Maybe me and Sheldon are really border collies.
Are your lights and decorations down? Are you a "Sheldon" when it comes to storage?
Stop by and see me Wednesday. Maybe I can convince you to start an expense journal even for a week. It's an experiment you won't soon forget.
Comments
First World problems eh. Happy New Year (Once Wednesday is over)
The last of the breads gifted to us was given to the chickens, so nothing went to waste.
I am not brave enough to weigh myself. Hopefully I've been active enough to balance it out. :)
I like your idea of getting rid of things that you haven't used for a while. Helps to de-clutter and reduce the "hoarding" potential.
The Christmas tree is still up as I've been more focused on getting things done for our move. We're just about done.
As for that expense journal, if it is anything like doing a food journal, it is a ridiculous wake-up call on things we do, habits we have, that we don't realize until we see the proof in black and white. Now that I'm in this new place, an expense journal will go along way to helping me find ways to reduce my expenditures.
This year we didn't put up light or decorations, having recently moved into the house - I know, it's not an excuse. But it just worked out that way.
I realise now that unless you plan for Christmas like it is some major military operation, the little bugger sneaks up behind you and bush-whacks you with a scream of, "TAH-DAH! I'm HERE!", and before you know it it has gone again.
As for me being a 'Sheldon' - yes, I'd have to say so. For me there is a place for everything and everything has its place.
My wife on the other hand adopts the tornado approach to putting things away. Drives me crazy. Really.
As for the journal. Nah. All my money goes on the bills, so no needless expenditure there (although I would argue that point - certain bills are needless in my eyes!).
This year, I hoping to kick 2015 in the balls and run away laughing - 2014 did that to me, now it's payback time!
We've got all the indoor decorations packed away but the outside lights will probably stay up for a while. Cold front just rolled in and I'm not taking down lights in single digit temperatures.
I'm not without clutter (paper-wise) but everything else is always in its place.
Click through to see my before and after photos at my public facebook album.
Nice job!
Hubby and I worked hard for two days just to get the office spotless and functional. The fact that Hubby worked harder than I did on it is probably a Christmas miracle.
My Christmas stuff, however, is still up. It'll probably come down tonight or tomorrow.
Happy New Year, Maria!
Having extra children home during college break makes my house a bit' tornado-ish also.
Except for the grocery store, I goes weeks without spending any money, not even gas.
It looks so much cleaner and elegant.
I used to keep a few abandoned blogs that I really enjoyed and thought I might go back to browse their archives, but I never did, and probably never will. It was time to let them go.
Re: grocery store
And that's where my downfall began. It was amazing how many little things we simply bought on impulse made their way into the cart. Now we think through each item before it goes in.
Can't say I'm such a Sheldon when it comes to storing, but each ornament goes back into the box I bought it in (I buy a dated one each year, and have since we got married). Then they all go into this huge Army storage box we got when we were stationed at Ft. Wainwright. We painted over the olive drab with yellow and it's still yellow...sort of. Best box, that's for sure.
That's my Chelly in the picture. She's been gone for a while, but I love that picture of us and can't bear to part with it.
I'll be by to check out your blog soon.
How I ended up with so many decorations is a mystery. :)
Re: Decorations. We had some bad weather over the weekend so Husband was home and HE took them down. He put them up, it's only fair he take them down, right? We also finished off any holiday treats. Well, except the butter tarts. They didn't seem to be popular this year. Don't know if I'll make them next year.
If you have any ideas as to what I should do about my Saturday blog post, I'm all ears. :)
Or you could do what Sarah Ahiers does with her Wednesday Weird, weird stories from across the globe. That's always interesting and diverse.
Also, how do you tell a guest they must be interesting? I mean, my guests are always fabulous, dahling, but I'm just wondering how one asks. Maybe do a post on how to get guests?
Re: guests
Good idea! Off the top of my head, my first request is that they write a post that has more global appeal than just plain promo.
That might be a blog topic right there.
Happy 2015, Maria!
My decorations started like yours but it has become less so over the years. Once we've moved I'll do a proper purge and reorganization of the decorations.
My blog roll definitely needs work. Kudos to you for tackling that so early in the year.
Here's to a fabulous year, my friend!
As for decluttering, I just told another blogger I still have stuff in the basement from a move 7 years ago. Perhaps this will be the year I get my act together.
I think you would hit it off with my hubby. He's always ready to clean out cupboards.
Re the blogging, I'm hoping to get back to blogging in 2015. The last four months of 2014 were frantic and blogging went by the wayside.
Welcome back to the online world.