MOVE IT OUT!

Are you deep into the winter doldrums? Are the overcast skies and dark mornings creating a blah-ness that permeates not only your mood but your home?

Well, shake it off with a 10 minute trash purge!

Take a fresh 13 gallon garbage bag (not the flimsy little ones you get at the grocery store) and turn up some fast music that makes you dance.

Start in your bathroom medicine cabinet and collect all lotions, facial scrubs, spot treatments, and eye wrinkle creams that you haven't used in three months. NOW THROW THEM OUT.

Next, pull back the shower curtain or open the shower doors and look at all the bottles and tubes you have amassed there. THROW OUT THINGS YOU ARE TRYING TO USE UP BECAUSE YOU DON'T LIKE THEM. Who said you have to use something you don't like? Pitch 'em.

Now go to your sock and pantyhose drawer. ANYTHING WITH HOLES BELONGS IN THE TRASH. Do it. Toe holes do not bring a smile to your face. All they do is pull you down further by nagging you to either use them up 'til they fall apart, or go buy new ones. Well save yourself 50% of that stress by throwing them away. And schedule a shopping trip to replace your socks and hose. Do it this week,

Pilled and faded sweaters depress you. The little metal shavers don't work. Re-dying clothing is too much trouble. THROW THOSE OLD CLOTHES AWAY. The charity thrift stores would have to do it for you if you donated those sweaters to them. They don't sell junk, and you shouldn't have to wear it, or keep it either. You would be taking money away from your favorite charity if you donate pilled and faded sweaters because they have to pay for disposal costs for unwanted or un-salable merchandise. Why pass the cost of disposing of your trash onto charities?

Throw those sweaters in the bag.

And if you still have that live evergreen wreath hanging on your front door, take it down NOW and pitch it. It is NOT "the holiday season" anymore. It's January, and spring is just around the corner.

OK, 10 minutes are up. Tie that bag and take it out to the trash cans/dumpster/trash chute. That wasn't difficult! And I bet you feel better now, too.

These mini-purging sessions are addictive. We'll do more soon. In the mean time, keep warm and keep smiling!

Dejunking Small Home Projects

I am in the process of renovating several rooms in my home. The delight and relief I feel as I make one small improvement after the other has me contemplating just how much unfinished home improvement projects DRAIN our energy.

My ex-husband left me with several unfinished home improvement projects in five (yes, five) rooms of my large-ish house. When we moved into this house, the home was in excellent shape with a few dated elements, most of which we could live with (dark paneling in four rooms, air vents of many colors, dated but quaint wallpaper in the entry), and a few which we had to change (dark paisley wallpaper in the master bedroom and bath, green patterned carpet in the master bath, walls in need of paint in the family room and guest bedroom, just for starters).

The scope of my renovation projects began to overwhelm me. I decided to take them on a little at a time, and they are now being completed bit by bit. I have hired a local handyman to complete the work I can't do myself (and work that he can do 10 times more quickly than I can, like painting walls and ceilings), and he and I have accomplished so much it amazes me. Here are a few things I have done myself, the simple things that most anyone can do. Repairing and upgrading and fixing things around my home feels BETTER THAN FENG SHUI.

THE LITTLE THINGS I DID:

• Spray painted most of the heating vents so that they actually match the flooring and each other. I used Rust-Oleum Hammered Finish spray paint, in silver/gray. Looks wonderful.
  
• Removed several decorative hinges and a lock from my pantry doors. It looked too busy before, and now it looks clean and simple. I used a screwdriver, that's it.
  
• Replaced many almond colored light switch plates and outlet covers with white ones to update my walls.
  
• Spray painted my master bath cabinet and drawer hardware. Looks brand new!
  
• Hung three framed pieces of art in my daughter's room (her newly painted walls had been bare for several weeks).
  
• Removed at least half a dozen shelves that were screwed to the walls in my enclosed breezeway.
  
• Removed so much trash that my ex had saved that I am sure my garbage men think I'm running a demolition business on the side. It's still not done! I'm doing it the slow but no-cost way. Sure, I could call 1-800-GOT-JUNK, but they would have charged me around $2000-3000 for the amount of stuff I have been able to set out at my curb. In my city, there is no limit to how much trash residential customers set out. I did have to break up pieces of sheet rock to get it to fit into the garbage cans. My garbage collection service doesn't take large appliances or bulky junk. I have to call ahead to arrange large, bulky item disposal.
  
• Spackled the small holes in all my kitchen cupboards, from previous owners' renovation project.
  
• Rehung many framed pictures. My ex had hammered the nails and hung them when we had first moved to this house, and, as he has never read anything written by Alexandra Stoddard, hung them waaay too high. I spackled the old nail holes.
  
• Re-glued baseboards that were falling off in my rental apartment, which is connected to my house. I was going to have my handyman do it, but I got creative and USED MY BRAIN: "What do I have in the house already that can fix a baseboard?" I have a high-quality craft adhesive in my cupboard that worked great.
  
• Greased my sliding closet door tracks and squeaking kitchen drawers.
• Re-nailed a fence board.
  
• Fixed about a half-dozen drawer guides using a hammer and nails.
• Repaired a floorboard.

These are not difficult things to do, and they made such a HUGE difference in the quality of my daily life that I urge you, FIX UP THE SMALL THINGS YOU CAN and hire out the bigger jobs. It gives you the same magnificent feeling that dejunking does, and your life will WORK so much better with all these nagging little projects completed.

God bless you today!