Neither Decorative Nor Functional

"Lose It!"

* huge toy purge over the weekend and still more to do this upcoming weekend -- I'll spare you the details but we found plenty to toss and plenty to donate. It feels awesome to have canvas bins be sort of organized and not filled to the brim.

* leather-esque bin, formerly used to store blankets and throws -- If you look at the picture of the ravaged bin, you think, "Well, that's a no brainer." Indeed. Yet, I continued "using" the bin even when two of the sides were hanging by threads and it no longer decorative or functional.

* assorted junk -- from junk drawer in the kitchen. You know, expired coupons, junk mail, and other random junk. The kind of stuff you keep in a junk drawer. Of course, it's starting to fill up again . . .

What are you losing these days?

Straight to the bin, baby.

"Lose It!"
* one inflatable balance ball -- it's supposed to live in the basement, but Bub brings upstairs all the time and nothing good comes of that. Today, he deflated it, and I thought, "This thing is so gone." But I didn't actually toss it and thus, after nap, Bub began throwing a large piece of limp plastic around.

* one music table -- the table has been parted from its accompanying drumsticks for months now, so noise is not an issue. But damn it, the thing is large and cumbersome and I don't need it in my life. I've thrice tried to get rid of it, but it's been rescued from the giveaway pile by Bub and by our cleaning lady.

Guess where I'm heading folks? Straight to the bins in the alley. I'll have an item in each hand.

In other news, I've got lots more stuff I've unloaded or am planning to lose soon. I'm still alive and so is the project. So there.

Backdated.

"Lose It!"
* Ellie's Krieger's Healthy Appetite cookbook -- beautiful cookbook, recipes sound great, but I know I'll never make one of them.

Cookbook Challenge Stats: 16 down/37 to go
* light blue cargo pants from 2004 -- they are too short for me and also too tight, have shed illogical thought that if I lost "five or ten pounds" the pants would then be long enough

* eight empty baby wash bottles -- the boys enjoy playing with them in the tub, but I'm tired of pouring stagnant water from them before the next evening's bath. Also, Little Bit has been trying to drink out of them. Gross.

* some more stuff that I can't remember . . .

Confession:
I went to Dollar Tree today, defying (and not for the first time) my 2009 vow to stop bringing crap into my house. I got some stuff to do some crafts around here. Not horrible, but still, crap.

Request:
Give me some inspiration. I'm in the mood to rid of big stuff. You know, to make it look as if I'm really losing it around here. Tell me what to get rid of.

Okay, I'm going to recommit to this blog and this project.

Yum-No

"Lose It!"
* Rachael Ray's 30-Minute GET REAL Meals cookbook -- I enjoy Rachael, and I'm sure I'd enjoy her food if she were to prepare it for me. What I find, however, is that I never feel like trying her recipes when I read them, only when I've seen her prepare them first. Plus, the GET REAL cookbook is a strange, pseudo-low carb thing that seems a little forced. Don't get me wrong though, this is not a diss to R squared.

Cookbook Challenge: 15 down/38 to go

Just Jammin'

"Use It!"
* the freezer jam pectin and plastic Ball jars I purchased in May -- after thrice buying four pounds of strawberries with the intention of making jam (they got eaten not thrown out), today Bub and I made strawberry jam as Little Bit looked on. Easy peasy and tastes just like my Grandma's. I am counting this as a "use it" because I would not have been surprised if the Ball jars and pectin sat ignored in the pantry all summer.

Now, what to do with the glass Ball jars I purchased eight years ago when the hardware store in my neighborhood had a going-out-of-business sale . . . perhaps attempt to make cooked jam of some sort without scalding myself.

Another shirt off my back . . .

"Lose It!"
* actually, two more t-shirts off my back -- note to self, anything of the Sonoma brand at Kohl's does NOT work for you. MEP, you may like the fabric or the color and certainly the price, but you will not really like how it fits.

No Space in the Space Bag

"Lose It!"

I continue to add baby and toddler clothes (30 pieces or so the past two days) to the large donation pile in our basement. While I'm at it, I've been sorting the "keepers" and storing them in the space bags I got at Costco. Have to say I'm impressed with those things, and Bub has really enjoyed using the vacuum to suck the air out.

Next challenge: rearrange/weed through other crap around here so that I can fill the newly-emptied plastic bins that used to house the clothes.