Stockpile Issues

I guess everybody knows by now that I have stockpile issues. A few days ago, I went into the pantry and was immediately attacked by bags! Bags of every description---shopping, brown paper, plastic grocery sacks and canvas bags.

What in the heck am I saving them for? And, when Butch takes one, I say, “Oh no, not that one”!---as if one is more valuable than another. In all fairness to me, they do accumulate more during the holidays. I haven’t cleaned them out yet this year, hence the “attack!”

I have to have multiples of everything and I really don’t know why---measuring cups, wooden spoons (23 to be exact), spatulas (11)---a whole drawer designated for them which  led to Mindy counting them.

 You’d think I was Martha Stewart!

Sheets (at least 3 sets for every bed in the house), towels (enough for a Turkish bath). Actually I've already gotten rid of most of the sheets. Just keeping two sets per bed. I got new towels for after the renovation, so the towels are going too.

22 tablecloths (after I gave away 3!) and don’t even get me started on my scrapbook supplies. 

5 drawers of ribbon---need I say more? Okay, some of that is class related.

I have tons of holiday paper goods—

for sure, enough Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas to last me the rest of my life! I just can't resister an "after the holiday sale!"

I have too many white blouses to count—which I rarely wear since you can bet I’ll spill something on them. 

Why am I saving them? I should wear them, spill on them and then clear them out. 

Stephanie says I’m a hoarder. She says the only reason that our house doesn’t look like a hoarder’s house is because it’s big with lots of room for stuff and I’m extremely organized, so my hoarding is very neat. 

I definitely have stockpile issues, but I don’t think I’m a hoarder. Hoarders have mental issues—I’m not admitting to that—although a session on a therapist’s couch might reveal that I do! Real hoarders cannot throw anything away! I admit, I keep way more stuff than I should, but that’s because I can. I’ve always said, “no matter how much space you have, you will fill it up!” That is certainly true with me. But when I get on a “cleaning out” jag, I am ruthless! 

I believe that everyone stockpiles something. What do you stockpile? Be honest!

Stockpile Issues

Would you believe me if I told you I have stockpile issues? I guess after revealing my box obsession, this isn’t much of a surprise. But I’ve just realized it myself. A few days ago, I went into the pantry and was immediately attacked by bags! Bags of every description---shopping, brown paper, plastic grocery sacks---what in the heck am I saving them for? And, when Butch takes one, I say, “Oh no, not that one”!---as if one is more valuable than another.

I have to have multiples of everything---measuring cups, wooden spoons, spatulas (you’d think I was Martha Stewart), sheets (at least 5 sets for every bed in this house), towels (enough for a Turkish bath), and don’t even get me started on my scrapbook supplies. 5 drawers of ribbon---need I say more?

The point of going into my stockpile issues is because last night, I had to face the fact that I really do have a problem. I got home from an evening with friends to find Butch in a bad mood. I figured it was just work related, but no, he was quick to inform me that someone had left the freezer open and EVERYTHING thawed. Now, there are only a few things that really get him wigged out: leaving the water run in the pool overnight, ordering an expensive meal and then wasting it, Styrofoam peanuts, opening bottled water in a hotel room that costs $7.50, people backing into his car, and a certain daughter accruing a $35.00 overdraft fee for the love of a $6.00 Starbucks. Okay, there are a lot of things that wig him out.

Back to the freezer. Oh, my, gosh, what a gloppy, sticky mess there was. How did this happen? Well, let’s just say that the girls have been here all week. Enough said. Well, in all fairness, it could have been me.

We threw away all the ice cream, popsicles, pizzas, vegetables,
pizza rolls, fish and anything else that was warm. I spent the day cooking meat that was still cold and partially frozen: 8 lb. standing rib, 4 packages of chicken breasts, 1 turkey breast, 1 pork tenderloin, 1 beef brisket, 2 cherry pies, and 4 lbs. ground round. I put it all back in the freezer after I cooked it. I guess there’s some comfort in that.

But the point is this---why in the world do I have that much food on hand? There’s just the two of us now and I only cook twice a week (remember my plan---cook twice, eat 4 times?). I just need to get rid of that darn freezer. And if I can get myself to do that, maybe I can turn loose of some of those bags too.

A Few Layouts

Here are a few of the layouts I did on our sister's crop a few weeks ago.

I am not a particularly artistic scrapbooker. I rarely use ink or stamps. My formula is: pictures, title, story. Then if there's room, embellishments. My main goal is telling the story. I pretty much always have a lot of pictures.

 The flip flop to the left is a fold out to accommodate more photos.

 The little book opens out.

 This was my AYM (A Year of Memories) layout for January. I took this one straight from my blog: "Let me tell you about my stockpile issues!"

I finished quite a few more, but since we didn't have a printer, the journaling is not done. I'll share when I finish them.

Monday Mail, Memos and Me

Well, my mail mostly consists of junk. There is the occasional bill and TONS of travel brochures! Those travel brochures are very nice. They must cost companies a fortune---only to have them wind up in the recycle bin. We travel a lot, but we don't use those brochures and don't look at them.

Then there was this:

 The book for my prescription drug insurance. Oh My Gosh!!

Seriously! This thing is a half inch thick. I would like to know who reads this? Not only is this a waste of a good tree, it's a waste of time. Surely Humana could come up with a more concise way to get us the information we need. I've put this in Butch's pile to read. It's too much of a snoozer for me! I'll bet if they did away with this, our insurance rates would go waaaayyyy down! What an archaic way to convey information.

Now on to the fun stuff that arrived this week. I've gotten new rugs for the new bathroom. I'm going with all white this time. I can't wait to show you the color I've picked out for the walls---(well, I've actually had it picked out for over a year). These rugs are really thick and fluffy. I hope they don't get matted down. We'll see.

Along with the rugs, my new fluffy, white towels have arrived. Remember my stockpile issues? Well, I'm getting rid of most of those since they are 20+ years old. I'll now have exactly 4 new towels. Maybe I'll keep a couple of the old ones. 

After all, I'll need a few to put on my new ladder towel rack. This is not my bathroom---just a picture of the ladder I bought. I would have preferred to have a really old ladder, but I wouldn't know where to buy one. I did get one at the flea market years ago for Mindy's condo, but she didn't want it. Butch got rid of it as it was too rickety to use as a real ladder. Luckily, I only paid $5.00 for it. This one was a bit more, but it's going to look really good against that new paint color!

Finally, this is the new ceiling fixture for the toilet/shower area of the bathroom. I opened the box and there are so many parts that I closed it back! I don't know if I'm supposed to put it together of if the guy installing it will. Of course, I'll want to clean it. 

So there's my mail report for the week. Thanks to Sian from High in the Sky for this fun meme!

Did you get anything fun or interesting in the mail this week?

Pantry Pandemonium

Last week, Butch and I made a "date" to clean out the pantry. The grandkids thought that was pretty funny. But we're both busy and I wanted to get it done before our vacation so it just made sense to schedule. It reminds me of the time when the girls were little and I planned a "family clean out the pantry day." I tried to make everything an event. They didn't always buy it. I remember Stephanie complaining, "mom, we're the only family that has a "family clean out the pantry day, or family clean out the garage day." I always prefaced any work day with "family....day" to make it sound like fun. It never was. Neither was our "couple clean out the pantry day."

We started at 8 a.m. I have a problem that Butch has been putting up with for years. I ALWAYS underestimate how long something will take. I planned 2 hours for this. It took 4. We ended up having several interruptions to the day. I finished at 8 p.m.

We straighten out the pantry right after the holidays every year. But about the only time we ever take everything completely out is when we move or paint. It's been about 5 years since we last painted. It was time. Here's how it looked before:

A whole lot of chaos. No judging please!! Through the course of my organizing business, I always told clients that it doesn't matter how much space you have---you always fill it up. If you have a lot of space, you keep things you wouldn't have kept if you didn't have room for it. That's exactly what we faced.

Then we had a few surprises. I "lost" this pro boost a few months ago. I thought I had somehow thrown it out. It's a natural product that my doc recommended to help me deal with my hives. Turns out, I just forgot I put it in the pantry---really, in plain sight---just not my sight as I put it on a high shelf. I'm short, never saw it again.

I bought this for the pickles I was going to make a couple of years ago---along with the jars and pickling salt which has expired.

We were ruthless in sorting out and getting rid of stuff. We tossed a lot of expired things, The oldest was a pasta mix from 2003. Butch tried really hard to not be critical, but he just couldn't help himself. He'd say things like, "okay, give me the 3000 packs of stuffing mix that we only eat once a year." To which I replied, "you have no idea what I use that for."

Remember my stockpile issues? Then he said very calmly, "I'm not trying to be critical, but can we just buy the food we need for the week instead of stocking up?" I said, also very calmly, "yes, I've been trying to do that." In fact, I'm very proud of myself----I really am trying to stop buying "extras" just because it's on sale.

Case in point. Two weeks ago, I stopped by the liquor store to pick up some cherry vodka for our fruity pool drinks. They had some on clearance for $4.99 a bottle. I wanted to snatch up every bottle they had left which would have been about six, but I stopped myself. I only bought three. Since the recipe only calls for a cup and a half of vodka, I figure I have enough for three years!

Anyway, he made that statement, I agreed, but he didn't stop there. "We really don't need to stock up anymore. Let's just buy what we need for the week." I could feel myself starting to get a little snappy. I said, calmly, "okay, you can stop now---you're starting to get critical." Then I released him. I really only needed him to help me with the "high up" shelves. I didn't want to climb up and down the step stool a zillion times. It's just easier with two working together.

Of course the kitchen was a complete disaster as we worked:

I was so happy to "find" this casserole from Louisville Stoneware (my last remnant of our life in Louisville 35 years ago). I thought I must have gotten rid of it since it's been "lost" for at least 10 years.

And now for the results:

 The best part---NOTHING on the floor! We'll see how long that lasts.

Finally, we've gone from pantry pandemonium to pantry peace!

Do you think I would be pushing it to ask for help with this:

Really, I'm pretty lucky.  I don't know too many husbands that would agree to help with such an "unfun" task. Wait, maybe he fell for the "couple clean out the pantry day" after all!

Just About Back to Normal...

...for me at least---sleeping-wise that is. I'm still not off the prednisone, but have been able to step it down from the high dose I was on. That makes me feel better. Plus, for 2 nights in a row, I've gotten my normal 5-6 hours of sleep. I'm feeling more rested and not quite so hyper. That's a good thing. I was sort of feeling like I was going to wear my body out. Living on speed dial is fun sometimes, but I know it's not good for the body, or spirit for that matter. I felt so emotionally on the edge most of the time---which isn't at all like me. I'm happy to be back to my normal self.

Anyway, Butch and I are meeting my "sibs" in Vegas today. You know me, there was just one little (actually "big") thing that I didn't get done over the weekend. Could have, but decided to slip in a movie with Mindy---Little Red Riding Hood and dinner. We liked it. I don't think I really knew much about that story except for the grandmother's big eyes, ears, teeth.

I woke up normally at 4:30 a.m. this morning and realized that would give me the time I needed to finish that one "hanging over my head" job---TAXES! Took me 3 hours, but I got it all done---just to prepare it for our accountant! If I had to do the math---well, it could never possibly happen. I'd just go to jail and have to admit I'm math challenged. My punishment would be the inmates attacking me with #2 Ticonderogas! I'm obsessively "goal oriented."

Since we've been out-of-town so much, I decided that it would be silly for Margarita to clean a clean house. She has it pretty easy with me. Since it's just the two of us, I only make her clean upstairs about once a month. If the girls are here and the bedrooms are used, then I have her do them. Otherwise, she really only has to work about 3 or 4 hours. I was going to give her the day off all together, but then decided I'd have her do something extra---a job I HATE! Defrosting the freezer.

Since Christmas, we've been eating out of the freezer and pantry---limiting the grocery shopping to fresh fruits, vegetables and perishables. That's been going really well. I think we still could live another 2 or 3 months on my stockpile---I definitely have "multiple" issues. I moved all the food into my kitchen freezer, turned the deep freeze off and started it off for Margarita with the bowls of hot water. When she got here, I told her that all I wanted her to do today was water the plants, defrost the freezer (which was well on its way) and blow the leaves out of the garage---about an hour's worth of work.

It became pretty evident to me that she has never defrosted a freezer. Here's how I do it. Empty freezer, turn it off, put 2 huge bowls of hot water in, close the door, put 2 beach towels rolled up on the floor beneath the door to catch the drips. That's how it was when she arrived. I had even changed out the hot water bowls once.

Here's what Margarita did. Got a smaller bowl, dipped it into the large bowl of now lukewarm water and poured it over the shelves. OMG! What a mess! I said, "I guess you've never defrosted a freezer before." To which she smiled and said, "yes, Miss Barbara." Remember the language barrier? Sooooo, I demonstrated what needed to happen. I took the bowls, emptied them and refilled them with hot water again. I then sent her to do the garage while the steam did its work. I got her a few more beach towels to sop up the mess she had created. She's back working on it now. I'm not going back in there. I'll let her figure it out. Good thing I only do this once a year.

Now I'm off to deliver taxes and get money to lose. I guess that's not really a good attitude to have when going to Las Vegas. I'm in it for the shows. Donnie and Marie tomorrow night, Criss Angel with Cirque de Soleil on Wednesday. If they had matinees, I'd see a few more. Segway tomorrow too.

I'm sure I'll have another list of family observations later this week...until then...