Everyday Crafty Goodness

Wow, I did the unthinkable over the weekend … I tackled my paper clutter and survived!  I’m horrible at filing things and for years I’ve put statements and bills in boxes and bags thinking that I would file them someday.  I had about half a dozen of these boxes and bags full of papers and I even had a box that I moved from a previous apartment (yes, I packed up my paper clutter and moved it to my current home and the box sat unopened for 6 years).  I think I finally hit the breaking point this weekend so I started chipping away at the papers and managed to get them all sorted.

I made 3 piles for sorting, FILE, RECYCLE, and SHRED and I went through every piece of paper and sorted them by these categories.  It turned out that most of the papers did not need to be filed.  Part of my paper clutter problem was that I thought I needed to file every single bill and statement I got and when I first started sorting, I was putting my electric bills from 2002 in the FILE pile.  Then it dawned on me, why the hell do I need to keep old utility bills for?  So I went back and put the old bills and statements in the SHRED pile.  My FILE pile was actually the smallest pile out of all 3.  I ended up with 3 bags of papers to recycle and 1 duffle bag of papers to shred.  The scary (but good) thing is that I found some really important documents that NEEDED to be filed.  They were living in a box and I would’ve never found them if I needed them.  I also found a $50 amazon.com gift certificate, woohoo!  I think I shall treat myself to something nice for all the hard work I did … maybe I’ll get that book by Peter Walsh from Clean Sweep, nah, I’ll probable get those cotton/bamboo blend bed sheets that are supposedly antibacterial.

So yes, if you have piles and piles of paper crap taking up space in your home, take a weekend or three and deal with them.  It is the most freeing experience ever and you might even find some money. 

Dang, desktop computers take up a lot of space.  I know computers used to take up a whole room but these have been taking up valuable space in my room for way too long.  The good news is that you can recycle these in a safe way for FREE (and you might actually get paid if your equipment isn’t as ancient as mine).  Check out Costco’s recycling partner, GreenSight.  They will pay shipping charges for your old electronics.  All you have to do is find boxes to pack them up and off they go! 

I’ve changed the “Living with Less” category to “Simplify”.  This is something I’ve been thinking about recently and it’s kind of a broad topic and I’m still trying to figure it out.  One thing I do know about simplifying is getting rid of clutter and things that I don’t need or love.  I’m still working on that and I’m trying to “diversify” my givings so I can get rid of more things faster.  There are some things that I just don’t want to donate to a Goodwill for whatever reason and that’s when friends come in handy.  A friend of mine works at a youth center in Chinatown so I’m giving the center a guitar and extra craft supplies.   Another friend has decided to give only handmade gifts to others so I’m giving her some of the handmade stuff I have.  I’m also going to try to sell some stuff on Ebay, Etsy, and Craigslist … a little extra money never hurts.

So that brings me to breakfast.  Another part of simplifying for me is making my own meals as much as I can.  I’ll still eat out with friends but I don’t want to buy meals for convenience.  I try to eat breakfast at home but most of the time I don’t have enough time so I end up buying a muffin or oatmeal at the cafeteria.  These pumpkin chocolate chip muffins make great on-the-go snacks and they are much healthier than the ones at the cafeteria (even with the chocolate chips).  I used this recipe but cut out half the sugar and replaced half the white flour with wheat flour and threw in some oatmeal.  Now I’m all set for breakfast for the next 2 weeks and it didn’t take that much time to make.  The house smells good, I’m saving money, and I’m eating something good for me … it doesn’t get much better than this.

I just stumbled onto this website, GreenDimes.  This company helps you reduce the junk mail you receive by up to 90% AND they’ll plant 10 trees on your behalf (all this for $15).  Sounds pretty good to me.  Check it out for yourself.

Here are some facts from the GreenDimes website about junk mail:

• 100 million trees are cut down each year to create the approximately 4.5 million tons of junk mail in the United States 
• 28 billion gallons of water go into the production of American junk mail annually

Argh, all this tree cutting and wasting just makes me mad!!

This is how I dry my clothes sometimes.  This fits with my living with less theme nicely … less electricity used, less wear and tear from/on the dryer, even less time to dry! 

and it’s green to boot.

100% ghetto though but I don’t really care.  :)