Pantry Clean-out

Do you have a pantry?  They are wonderful.  So nice to go into your pantry when you need something for a meal, a snack, whatever.  Problem is if you don't cook that much, many times items in your pantry get beyond the expiration date.  For example the photo below.

This very sadly is all the food I threw away tonight.  Huge waste of money and I feel guilty when I know there are people all over the world that do not have enough food.  This is only because of poor planning on my part and laziness.  I'm sure this is not all but I was tired after going through all of this and it is the majority.  Many of the items were farther than a year beyond their best buy date.  Ugh.

In our preparation for moving, or if we don't end up moving, at least I have one more area in the house pretty much cleaned up.  Trying to decide what I want to clean tomorrow. 

Watered the garden tonight.  The drought continues.  Hopefully all this work is not in vain but I have a bad feeling that we will end up with not very much on the plants.  I haven't given up hope yet.  We are forecast for 90s all week with no rain.

Reality

The reality of my situation is I am in my mid 50's have credit card debt, have a home in two different states, have a husband who likes loves to spend money and buy stuff.  Obviously I do too otherwise I would not  have credit card debt.  Dumb choices.

We are currently living in an older home.  We are not older home people, we are not fixer-uppers.  Never have been.  We don't have the knowledge and I don't like the mess.  We have been looking at newer homes in the city we currently full-time reside in.  The home we have in another state is a newer home, although now over 13 years old, it hasn't been lived in very much since we haven't lived there for at least 10 years.

As we are looking at these homes, there is excitement.  I love a newer cleaner home.  Reality hit me this week that if we move we will do it ourselves rather than have a moving company and I am not moving all our crap, treasures, possessions, overwhelming amount of things, stuff.  Just the thought is overwhelming.  To that end today I have decided to take on the major task of getting rid of stuff I would not move into another home.  I have tackled the bathroom closet (should have taken a before picture, but here is an after picture).  It looks nice, it looks organized and these are things we will move, if we move.  I have a bigger box and 3 trash bags full of towels, blankets, sheet sets, etc.  All perfectly good and usable for someone else.

Top shelf, two pillows, two electric blankets, next shelf 5 bath sheets, next shelf bath towels, hand towels and wash cloths, next shelf 6 couch blankets, next shelf 2 queen sets, 2 twin sets, floor cat and cleaning supplies.  This is much more than we even need but is a reasonable amount to have.  The before picture would include every shelf looking like it is going to vomit all over the floor because there was so much crap stuffed in there.  I like this much better.  Yea, nothing like getting one out of control area back into a semblance of organized bliss.

A friend and I are having a yard sale the end of August.  If I can keep the motivation up I should have a good amount to get rid of.  The big question is where to store it until the sale.  Any money that is made will go directly to credit card debt.

This past week I joined Weight Watchers.  Our first meeting is Tuesday.  This has to be a total lifestyle change to work and I am ready.  Hoping for a feeling of increased wellbeing, more energy, better health.  Couple steps at a time.

Focus' are:
1. Credit Card payoff.
2. Weight loss.
3. Organization/purge.

Exhausted

In an effort to begin my minimizing of my life, the stuff, the crap, the clutter, the chatter, I decided to start with my personal e-mail. 

After watching an Amazing Packer game, it was time to tackle (pun intended)  a project.  So how long does it take to delete over 3,000 e-mails you ask.  Probably about 3.5 hours.  Cleaned up and deleted folders.  Moved some information into folders.  Unsubscribed from quite a few sites and as new e-mails come in I will continue to unsubscribe to them.  Too much unnecessary junk mail.

I always find it amazing after doing most of my Christmas shopping on line that I am then inundated with e-mails announcing sales, coupons, discounts, credit cards, etc.  Don't want them, not interested, just wanted to order a Christmas gift or two.  Marketing at its best.  I don't blame them because I'm sure it works otherwise they wouldn't do it.

My DH and I have been trying to not eat out.  This past week I stayed on track, he went to a conference.  Tonight he went to another so I will have leftovers tomorrow.  We continue to eat out of the pantry and freezers.  Goal is to get them empty by the summer.  Empty so they can be cleaned and turned off until needed which hopefully we will only use one not both of them.

From last week's goals I finished actually all 7 items I wanted to get done.  That is unusual for me.

This week I want to:
1. Finish ironing my husband's shirts (14 left)
2. Knit heel on Aunt's sock.
3. Cut out apron.
4. List Son #2's games on Amazon.
5. List Food magazines on Amazon.
6. Box up 1 box for yard sale.
7. Empty my car of work items.
8. Enter Coke Reward caps.