Decluttering and Project Report for October

"murdered pumpkin" in leaves, plastic, wood and metal.

The most surprising thing to me about keeping house during the 31 day blogging project was how much time it took. Doing the routines themselves wasn't too bad. Taking pictures for the posts and editing them were time consuming on some days, but not on others. Writing the blog entry took time. A lot of time. I mean how many ways can you talk about the same thing over and over again? (It turns out the answer is 31.)

But the project as a whole did not leave me a lot of time for decluttering or getting things done on my project list. Still, looking this over, I managed to get a fair bit done what with hosting Thanksgiving and a family Birthday party for my newly minted fourteen year old son.

The Project List: (from this post)

1. Finish slipcover
2. Finish the kitchen cabinet project: doors back up, hardware cleaned and back on.
3. Insulate and construct wall in basement
4. Paint son's room.

Optional:
1. Stencil soffit in Kitchen
2. Sew cafe curtains for Kitchen.
3. Paint window trim in Kitchen.

Kitchen projects:

I'd started painting my kitchen cabinets. I finished them--and I did the window trim. I love the brightness!

I couldn't resist starting the other two "optional" projects too.

I've painted most of the soffit with a stencil I found free on the web. That took an enormous amount of time and it's still not done. I have to stand almost completely motionless on the counter and it is very hard on my feet.

What do you think? It looks a bit "off" somehow to me--does it seem that way to you? Any suggestions? I am thinking of painting the bottom cabinets a deep dark teal blue--would that restore some balance?

I managed to sew one curtain for the kitchen. Have yet to do the other.



Laundry Room Wall:
The basement was completely my husband's "staycation" project. He worked leisurely and almost finished.

Left of the sewer stack before:


Now:


Right of the sewer stack before:


Now:



Slipcover:
The slipcover will have to be put on November's list of projects, I'm afraid. Actually fear is the reason it will now appear on its third monthly To Do list. I will have to cut the fabric--and once that's done, there's no going back. Perhaps the third time's the charm to undo the paralysis.

My Son's Room:
When I mentioned painting his room to my son a few days before I'd planned to start, he told me he didn't want me to paint it red and blue. He said, "I thought we were just talkin'" As money is tight, I didn't really like the colours chosen and I was up to my eyeballs in work already, I let it go. He doesn't like change--that's all it is--and it's OK.

There was one spontaneous shelf paper project in the kitchen just before Thanksgiving

I also worked on two unplanned projects in the dining room.

1. I lengthened my curtains. (Outstanding from the summer project list.)

2. I installed lights over my desk.

Decluttering:

As for my decluttering I did take time during the 31 days to do the seasonal clothing switcheroo. Here's the donation pile.



I also purged old tablecloths from a drawer in this dresser while searching for my table linens for Thanksgiving.

I snapped a picture of everything on the floor but I didn't notice there wasn't a card in the camera until I was finished.

I was ruthless. So ruthless, in fact, that when I went to set the table for my son's birthday, I had only my winter snowflake vinyl tablecloth. I had purged the all because my (new to me)kitchen table is round--which is where I usually use the vinyl--except, of course, for birthdays.

There was one other small bit of decluttering. I decided I could get rid of a few books and dvds from the shelves over my desk including one with the title: "Everything that Linguists Have Wanted to Know about Logic (but were ashamed to ask.)" It's obviously a book I purchased while I was in University--and I kept it because I thought the title would impress anyone who saw it on my shelves.

Are you impressed?

Good. I can let it go now.

And that my dears was that. A fairly productive month, I'd say. I'll be making my plans for November, soon.