Making progress

I've talked about this many times.  I say things like:  My house is fast becoming a hoarder house.  I feel as if I'm living in a garage rather than a house.  If I had company where would they sit?  If a grandchild or great grandchild wanted to spend a few days with me where would they sleep?  The craft stuff has taken up all the space of my life so that it becomes a cocoon around me. 

I've also shown several times how desperately I want all the STUFF gone so there is room for what really matters in life.  Time after time, I've cleaned it all up, gotten rid of some, and more or less organized packed it tightly enough the house looked somewhat presentable.

When I announced my retirement from full time machine quilting career in order to have more time with family and friends (to have a simpler life); I once again went on a mission to clear out the STUFF that is preventing me from being happy.  I haven't forgotten it, I've just been a little side tracked lately. 

During the thunderstorms (and flooding issues) we've had for the last few weeks; I've actually done quite a bit of clearing out STUFF.  I stay away from electrical things during a storm which means no internet and no quilting.  I used the down time for sorting and purging.  Here is one room as it was before.  I took the photos when the sun was shining because there's no light in there.  Its a catch all room for groceries that were not yet put away.

It was a dropping spot for the cardboard brought to me by a friend who gets really good cardboard boxes for making cardboard furniture.  I needed to cut it into storable size.  Hmm... enlarge the photo to see the detail I added on the cardboard cabinet base.  It's upside down because Ladybug used it to play grocery store with me.  She thought it made a great cash register.  What an imagination she has.

There is some recently canned orange jam that I couldn't fit into the kitchen cabinets and some bags of clothing scraps left over from the last two memory quilts.

More clothing scraps and more food.  There is my dehydrating machine that really should be stored in the kitchen..... but where to put it?

I kept telling myself all that food should really be put away.  Well.... what am I waiting for?  My next life?  Anita, put it away already!

So that's exactly what I did.  While the thunder storms were raging, I cleaned and sorted and put stuff away.  Cleaning kept my mind off the dangers but I also had the radio on to hear an alert if it came.  The room is once again cleared out and ready for me to start painting. 

The cardboard cabinet is waiting for me to finish it.  I'm undecided whether to make it into a bookshelf or put drawers in it.  Then again, I may change it completely.  But.... I promised myself I would not start working on any craft item until the house is visitor friendly.  A nice reward for all my hard work will be to sit and craft without feeling closed in by stuff or feeling guilty about quilting that should be finished.

After taking this photo, the rest of the food was moved to the kitchen.  The dehydrator is moved to the closet for now.  I'll put it in the kitchen when I get to that area of organizing and purging.... again.

The doors you see in this room were stored here many, many months ago when the new floors were installed.  They are the doors to all the closets of my house.  The floor guys never came back to install them.  I plan to paint the doors before I call the floor company.   I'm sure they are responsible to put the doors back up but after all this time there might be a charge involved.

It may not seem like a lot done but it was for me. 

I'm really an organized person by nature.  I actually like having a minimalist house.  I love everything having it's own place and everything being in it's place.  What happened?  Well, a major part of the problems was that I got busy running my machine quilting business.  Too busy to be normal.  I let the customers decide what my day involved.... which was always according to their deadlines.  Don't get me wrong, I appreciated having the customers.  They meant no harm asking me to complete work for deadlines.  I could have said no but I was afraid of letting go of the money earned. 

Gradually, over time, there was more and more quilting and less and less of life.  This was my fault.  As I said before, I could have said no.  There are several other things that contributed to my house being overwhelmed with STUFF.  All that is water over the bridge now.  The flood of work has passed as any flood eventually ends.  My life is on a more relaxed path.  I may post about some of the other contributing factors as I continue my journey. 

We are expecting more storms in this area later this evening.  The major weather system that has caused many tornadoes out west is now headed for our area.  I'm going to get off the internet and see how much work I can get finished before this evening.  I have my emergency stuff ready. 

Frozen skillet meals

Do you ever buy those bagged frozen skillet meals?  Or the bagged frozen crock pot meals?  I can't think of a brand name right this minute.  It's those frozen meals that say brown an amount of meat, add the package of veggies and the sauce, then cook until done.  Do you have any idea how much you are paying for a personal chef to choose the veggies for you, cut them up for you, and freeze them for you? 

Personally, I don't have a personal chef's salary in my budget so why would I want to pay for a personal chef through my grocery shopping?  Gee whiz, buying frozen skillet or crock pot meals is almost as bad as paying extra for frozen veggies with "butter" sauce.  I think I'm perfectly capable of adding a pat of butter to my veggies without the extra cost. 

I don't know about you but I like to choose my own veggies.  The frozen meals often contain way too many cheap "filler" veggies which could be something no one in the family really likes all that well.  You might find many of those filler veggies remaining on the plate after the meal is finished.  So let me ask you?  At what cost are you paying for those frozen meals?  Not the price.... the cost of paying for the convenience of a personal chef?   Wouldn't you rather spend the extra money on something fun to do instead of extra cost on groceries?

Ok, so go sharpen your veggie knife and let me show you how I make my own frozen skillet and crock pot meals.  This is just one example of my frozen meals to show you how easy it is to do your own.  I found these in the discount bin while shopping Thursday.  I like a stir fry made with smoked sausages.  It was just a stroke of luck that these are made from chicken which is better for my diet.

The first thing to do is decide whether the meal will be fried, baked, or put into a crock pot.  I could put all of the meals into plastic bags but I'm going one step farther for these.  I'm packaging these in foil just in case I want to put them in the oven.  It will depend on the amount of time I have when I decide to cook these.  

I cut the sausages into bite size pieces and divide them into portions for two meals.  Five packs of sausages make ten meals for two.  This would be for Ladybug and me or two meals for me.  The largest area I have for laying out foil is my intake table. 

I like onions in my stir fry so I cut up a bunch of those.  Might as well chop them all.  What's left can be frozen to use later in other meals.  Actually, I cut up the onions before I started preparing the meals.  Once I started putting these meals together I didn't want to stop until finished. 

Green peppers (or color peppers) just naturally go with onions in this house.  I happen to have a bunch of them already in the freezer.   I got these peppers from the discount bin back in March.  They are copped and ready to add to the meals.

I like mushrooms as well in my stir fry.  I look in the freezer but there isn't any frozen so I use canned.  Everything is divided in portions and put onto the foil.

I add a bit of soy sauce, a bit of stir fry sauce, a bit of cornstarch, and these are ready to go into the freezer.  Hmm.... I could have added some scrambled eggs or some other veggies.  I think these will be ok as it.  The only thing I'm going to add is some rice.  I look in the freezer and find the packages of rice already cooked and frozen in portions for two.  Ten packages happen to be what I had in the freezer.  Lucky again.

I roll up the foil, stick a label on it, (made from scotch tape), and put into numbered freezer bags.  Two packaged meals plus two packs of rice fit into one bag.  If I make frozen meals that someone else might be cooking, I'd put the cooking instructions inside the numbered bag.  I mean, say for example, a lady prepares these for a husband to fix while she's away at a quilting retreat or something.   Husbands (and others) don't always know what to do with something taken from the freezer so it's best to give them detailed instructions. 

The meals are all finished.  Five numbered bags which represent either ten meals for Ladybug and me or twenty meals for just me. 

Now was it that hard to put together some frozen prepared meals?    Think about this the next time you are tempted to pick up a frozen meal in a bag.  Do you want fillers or do you want only what will be eaten?  If you want to read more about my thoughts on paying for a personal chef at the grocery go read this post here. 

Hmm.... I'm sure the new readers of my blog are wondering about the numbered freezer bags.  You can read more about those in this post here.  I should have another post about how the freezer looked when full but I can't find that post.  Since the time I wrote that post, I've made a few changes to how I organize my freezer.  I'll do an updated post either today or Monday showing more details.  I think the freezer is much better organized than it was back then.

Ok, back on subject, let's say on the day I choose one of these meals for dinner, I decide not to bake it but want to put it into a crock pot.  I remove it from the foil, put into the crock pot, add a can of tomatoes and that's it.  The rice can be either added to the crock pot during the last few minutes of cooking or zapped in the microwave.  If I decide to actually fry the stir fry meal I unwrap and put into a skillet.  Get the idea?  One preparation, several options. 

Blessing or curse

You can't fix what's broken until you understand what's broken. 

Before I can prevent myself from becoming a full fledged hoarder, like you see on those tv shows, I need to understand why I've started accumulating so much stuff over the last few years.  I need to understand what's broken.  I'm going to document my backward journey to a simpler life in a series of blog posts so I can refer back to these posts now and then.  When I see myself slipping back into hoarding tendencies; reading the posts may help me remember.  Senior memory is not as good as it once was ya know.   My journey won't be fast and it won't be slow.... just steady.  Or at least that's my hope.

One reason I accumulate so much stuff comes from seeing the "potential" of many things.  It can be a blessing to know how to reuse items because it saves money in my budget.  It can be a curse because it creates a tendency for hoarding. 

Let me give you some examples that I found around my house yesterday.  Here's one.  Orange peels.  You may see something that should go into a compost pile or in the trash.  I see their potential for keeping stray cats from using my garden for a potty.  If these were Clementine oranges then the peels would be turned into Clementine powder to use as flavoring for cakes or cookies or ice cream.

Here's one of the oddities I save because I see it's potential.  It's a cassette tape I found in my yard just the way you see it.  I picked it up thinking it should be thrown away before the wind blew it all over the place.  Just as I was putting it in the trash I saw it as plarn (plastic yarn) instead of trash.  So I rescued it.  Plarn can be knitted, woven, braided, or crocheted into many useful things.

I saved these yardsticks I get from the fair.  I've been saving for several years because I need 22 and I get only a couple each year.   Why so many yardsticks? 

These are to be used inside my window quilts as the risers.  They can be cut to just the right size for each window.  I could also use the yardsticks for curtain rods.  Why not just buy some yardsticks?  Well, money of course.  Buying is using money, these are free.

Another oddity I rescue.  Thread tails.  When machine quilting I pull up the bobbin thread to start which creates a thread tail.  This thread tail is cut and saved.  Why am I saving thread tails?  My hope was to eventually create the fabric for a coat for myself.  It would be placed between two layers of water soluable stabilizer, stitched heavily to make the fabric, then cut into pieces for a coat of many colors. 

Want another oddity?  Here's one.  Soda bottles.  What on earth could these be used for? 

Cut the bottom out like this.  Drill a whole in the cap.  Place upside down in the garden next to the plants for slow watering containers.  I will pour some water in them each morning and the water will slowly drip out to the plants.   This saves water because I won't be watering anything but the plant.  Not the area around it.  Saving water means I can keep the water bill low. 

You see these?  These were given to me by a customer.  She got them from a florist.  I'm not sure what the florist uses them for but they would eventually be thrown away.  What will I use these for?

Thread cone covers to tame my quilting threads.

As you can see, I have a lot of thread cones.  I also have several drawers full of threads.

Speaking of thread cones.  I save the empties too.  What will I do with empty thread cones?

There is a lot of potential for thread cones.  As risers for multiple trays in the freezer when I flash freeze food.  As the base for pretty curtain tie backs.  You know what I'm talking about?  The rope thingies used to hold curtains open.  Hmm.... tie backs made from plarn or thread tails maybe?  The cones could also become the knobs for cardboard furniture. 

Cardboard.  You know how I do love using cardboard for other things.  Ok, here's one box that is not to be cut up.   It's a shoe box.

It became a portable light box.  Oops, I noticed this box has some really cool micro sized flutes.  Micro fluted cardboard is hard to find.  I may have to find another shoe box for the light table. 

Many quilters know about dryer sheets.  These make great foundations for string quilts or as a stabilizer for embroidery.  I see other potential for them as well.  I'm thinking maybe these could be dyed and used in art or possibly woven into a very soft rug. 

Another example of cardboard rescued from the trash.  At first I was only rescuing it to cut the recipe off to save.  Then I saw the potential. 

I used a part of it for making a quilting template.  I needed a square so I cut one.  Then added a bit of tape to use as a handle.  I never know when I'm going to need a template so I save boxes.

This is the template being used on the quilt currently on the machine.

Here is a weird oddity I've saved.  These are buttons that hold objects in a package as a deterrent for thieves.  I plan to use them as a base to make handles for cardboard furniture doors.

This is the plastic sheet that comes inside of packages of bacon.  These make great quilting stencils.  Draw a design on with permanent marker, stitch along the lines with a domestic machine, no thread, then use powdered chalk to pounce the design on the quilt.   

Some things I've saved for many years because of an idea; but, the idea doesn't get made.  For example this laundry starch.  I bought it when my daughter was very young.  I planned to make silly putty and paint and slime for her to play with.  If I'm lucky, I might manage to finally make those things for Ladybug.

To be continued......

Oh wow

I've talked about how my house always looks like a hoarder house.  Over and over again I clean it out only to find it looking like this a few months later.  I can blame no one but myself for the rooms looking like this.  Do you notice there is no furniture in this room?  Only stuff piled all over the place and my closet office in the corner.  This is supposed to be my substitute living room since the actual living room is my studio space.  About a year ago this room was completely empty.  My daughter had just moved into her own house and taken all her stuff out of here.

A lot of stuff comes into my house but very little stuff goes out.  Heck, I don't even have a full trash can on garbage day.  At most, there will be one bag of trash in the can.  I create very little trash when cooking or cleaning and most of the other stuff gets rescued.  I'm stuffing my house like a strange looking turkey with myself right in the middle of it all.  When someone offers me stuff, I can't seem to say no to it.  Why?  Well, at the time it is offered, I think to myself..... I can use it for this or that so I take it.  Somehow I never seem to get around to using whatever it was I accepted.  I know there are more projects in this room than I will ever be able to complete.  Strange that I have a plastic drawer tower with empty drawers right next to stacks of stuff.

I use a lot of this stuff.... but I don't use it all.  Quite a bit is for my quilting business or my textile art or my charity quilts or my cardboard art.  Some of it is things gathered for a new recycle craft I want to create or for a new art piece.  There's completed quilts waiting to be donated to charity this year at Christmas.  There's art quilts I've made and gotten ribbons on that should be either given to my kids or hung up for me to enjoy.  Hmm... do my kids even want the art quilts?  Would I just be adding to their own pile of stuff? 

There's cardboard boxes with interesting flutes or texture I could use for my cardboard art projects.  There is cardboard furniture in various stages of completion just waiting for me to work on and post the instructions on my cardboard blog.  There is a potty seat that Ladybug hasn't needed for well over a year.  Why is it still here?  Could I be unmindfully hoping it will be needed for another grandchild?

There are 11 window quilts I rushed to get quilted back before winter.  I installed only two and never got around to doing the others.  Probably because I was unhappy about making all of them a full foot too short.  How many years have I tried to get window quilts on the windows?  5, 6, 10?  I believe I took the last one's down in 2000 with intentions of replacing them right away.

It's the rescue of stuff that causes so much of the mess.   (and the stress)  I have good intentions when saying yes I will take it; but, will I ever get around to actually doing it all?  When someone offers me a piece of fabric I immediately think of a quilt it would look nice in so I take it.  My intentions are good.  When I see a cardboard box ready to put into the trash I will notice it has potential in a piece of furniture or an art piece for the wall so I rescue it.  But the box somehow doesn't ever get used.

There is t-shirt scraps just waiting to be made into some new underwear for myself or to make rugs.  There are pillow cases rescued from a friend that are just waiting to be made into dresses for Ladybug.  There are cook books and art books and quilting books that I do use but they don't have a convenient, permanent shelf to live on. 

I've noticed that for the last year or two I've kind of drifted from one project to another without ever completing any.    Time management is the most likely cause although it could be more.  I start projects only to be taken away with work commitments.  The quilting pays the bills so it takes priority over completing a me project.  Once a project is set aside it becomes very hard to get back to it because it gets lost among the piles of other unfinished projects. 

Yes, I know I'm semi-retired from quilting for others.  I don't do nearly as many as I did in the past.  Maybe I should consider not quilting at all for a few months?  I can cut down the bills to bare minimum and get by.  Not comfortably but enough to survive.  It would mean giving up a lot... like the internet and cable and call waiting on the phone.  It would mean cutting back on the laundry and daily showers.  It would mean no air conditioning this summer. 

Umm... I'm not sure that's the way to think.  Let me reverse that.  Maybe I should not do any me projects for a few months and concentrate on just machine quilting?  It would mean the cardboard furniture would not get made.  It would mean not creating portrait quilts or charity quilts or my own underwear, rugs, and window quilts.  It would mean.... Umm, nope.  I can't do that either.  Too much of the way I live depends on my skill of re purposing instead of spending money.

Where is the balance?  How can I continue to be creative with found objects and at the same time keep my house from looking like a hoarder house?  Maybe I should store this stuff in the garage?  Umm... I don't have one.  Maybe in the basement?  Don't have access to mine.  Maybe the attic?  Nope, don't have access to that either.  Under the bed in the guest room?  There is no bed in the guest room.  In a spare dresser?  Don't have any.  How about in an extra closet?  They are all being used.  One is my office, one is stuffed, and the other is for my clothes.  Well, half is for my clothes, the other half is stuffed. 

Ok, I've bored you enough for today.  I have some serious thinking to do while I work on the next quilt.  Just one more thing.  I've been stopping by Jilly's blog for a visit over the last few days.  This morning all I could do is say.... Wow!  She has really cleaned her house out and it looks wonderful.  You should see what she's done with her quilting stash.  Go have a look.



Organizing in the studio

My one 2011 goal (and resolution) is to make my house a home again and not let it get this way ever again.  Fewer new year goals and resolutions mean a greater rate of success don't ya think?  Ok, the holidays are over and it's time to get back to accomplishing my goal.  I start back to work quilting today so the cleaning and organizing will go at a slower pace the rest of the year. 

I talked about "no junk drawers" a few days ago.  So how about a whole tower of junk drawers?  That's 10 junk drawers all together in one unit.  This thing has been bugging me for the longest time.  It's handy to have stuff close at hand but this thing is always in my way when walking to the backside of my machine.  AND, it's absolutely not organized.  Stuff gets lost in there.  It's time for me to clean it out. 

I won't bore you with 10 photos of 10 junk drawers.  I'll just show you a couple of them so you understand what I'm talking about.  This is the top drawer.  It doesn't look too awfully bad seeing it like this.

Now look at it all dumped out onto the table.  That's a lot of disorganized stuff in one junk drawer!  Hmm... maybe I need to finally learn how to use my MP3 player?  I've only had it two or three years without ever using it.  I can't figure out how to get books put onto it.

Ok, back to what I was type-talking about.  Here's the second junk drawer.  Not too bad looking either.

Look at it all dumped out on the table.  No, it's not both drawers dumped out together.  It's just one drawer.

All the drawers are out of the tower and this is what I find.  Look at all the dust and cob webs. 

I told you I had lots of spiders living in my house?  Eeeeewwww!  Here's where... uh... some of them died.  I found more in other drawers too.

I take the drawer tower completely apart to wash it really good. 

When cleaning out the drawers I found a box I've been looking for since 2007.  It contained spare parts for my quilting machine.  I knew I had these.   I simply couldn't figure out where I had stashed them.   Well cleaning out the drawer tower has saved me some money this year.  I don't have to buy these when I do a yearly tune up on my machine.

When I was cleaning and organizing the drawers; I stopped long enough to make this bobbin organizer out of cardboard and chopsticks.  Now my quilting machine bobbins are ready for me to start working.  If you want to see how I made it, look here on my cardboard blog.  It's simple, easy, and free.

Well, that's what I did yesterday.  The tower will not be going back into the corner.  I divided it in half and it will now fit under my quilting machine table along with the other 10 drawer units already there.  One down and about eleventy million more of those plastic things to go.  I have a lot of plastic drawer units around my house.