March 20, 2016 · 2 comments · Categories: Musings · Tags:

My coat closet has two shelves at the top. The lower shelf has hats, gloves, and scarves that we use regularly. I tidied the ones on the top shelf and got rid of a few when I started cleaning up my clutter two years ago, but I don’t think any of them have budged since then. About time to send them all on their way!
 

Hats, gloves, and scarves on a closet shelf 

It hasn’t been quite two years since I started writing weekly Clutter Comedy entries; I started posting them in May 2014. But it has been long enough that my husband recently said he thought there wasn’t much clutter left in the house to write about. Of course, no matter how much of it goes out, clutter always builds back up when it gets a chance. He’s probably right, though, that my blog could use some fresh new energy, rather than having so many posts about old junk.

So I’ve decided to make a change—today I am “wrapping up” the weekly Clutter Comedy posts, and I’ll replace them by writing about good things that come into my life. When clutter goes out, it leaves plenty of open, inviting spaces for something new and cheerful to come in and play! I don’t yet know what they may be, or how often I’ll find them; but of course, that means it’s going to be an adventure!

Although spring is near, this post is not about baseball, but about all the old stuff in the sock and underwear drawer that never seems to get thrown away until after it has been sitting around for years. There’s no good reason for that—replacing socks and other small items of clothing is not that big of a chore, and it is nice to have new socks even if the old ones are not full of holes.
 

Wooden drawer stacked high with socks of many kinds. 

Maybe the socks are neatly stacked up and not in the way, but that doesn’t mean they ought to stay there forever. The fabric gets more worn and stiff than we may notice because it happens gradually. Or it could just be a type of fabric that doesn’t wear well, like that awful crinkly synthetic that everything sticks to after one washing. Early spring is a good time to purge the sock drawer and get a fresh start!

About Clutter Comedy: Every Sunday (which I envision as a day of rest after a productive week of de-cluttering) I post a Clutter Comedy article describing my most memorable clutter discovery of the week. Other bloggers who wish to join in are welcome—just post a link in the comments! There’s no need to publish any “before” photos of your clutter, if they are too embarrassing. The idea is simply to get motivated to clean it up, while having a bit of fun too!

Among the heap of stuff that has been in a corner of the basement since my daughter moved out, there is a baby gate. One of my daughter’s friends gave it to her in 2014 to keep her new puppy in or out of rooms. Now she has no use for it because the dog is full grown and reasonably well trained. But some of my daughter’s friends have babies, so I didn’t want to get rid of the gate without asking. I thought one of her friends might want it.
 

Baby gate with plastic rods and mesh in between. 

My daughter came home for a visit this weekend; and of course when I finally got around to asking about the gate, her friends were not at all interested in it. So, off it goes to charity. As for the other stuff my daughter is supposed to take, hopefully she can fit it all in her car when she departs. Though, I am not sure about that because she brought home lots of laundry to do!

About Clutter Comedy: Every Sunday (which I envision as a day of rest after a productive week of de-cluttering) I post a Clutter Comedy article describing my most memorable clutter discovery of the week. Other bloggers who wish to join in are welcome—just post a link in the comments! There’s no need to publish any “before” photos of your clutter, if they are too embarrassing. The idea is simply to get motivated to clean it up, while having a bit of fun too!

Although my daughter has moved out, I keep finding stuff that she left around the house. This week’s unwelcome discovery was a Snow Cone Maker on a kitchen shelf, along with cups and a half-empty bottle of grape syrup, which evidently was left on the shelf for years when it should have been refrigerated, yuck. The syrup left purple spots on the shelf; I hadn’t realized because it is above my height and I had to stand on a stepstool to see what was up there.
 

Snow cone maker with syrup and cups. 

I threw away the syrup, of course, and put everything else in the basement along with all the other stuff my daughter is supposed to collect. My husband thinks I’m being too nice and should just throw it all away, since she probably forgot about it long ago and “that’s the only way it’s leaving the house.” He is probably right, but I’ll give her just a little while longer…

About Clutter Comedy: Every Sunday (which I envision as a day of rest after a productive week of de-cluttering) I post a Clutter Comedy article describing my most memorable clutter discovery of the week. Other bloggers who wish to join in are welcome—just post a link in the comments! There’s no need to publish any “before” photos of your clutter, if they are too embarrassing. The idea is simply to get motivated to clean it up, while having a bit of fun too!

A few years ago, I ordered blue jeans from a catalog, with embroidered flowers and sparkly dots. Because the model was wearing a long blouse with the jeans, I didn’t see that they were a low-rise style. Otherwise I wouldn’t have ordered them, as I’d prefer not to put my rear end on display when bending over. But when the jeans arrived I kept them anyway, because I liked the embroidery and I had bought the long blouse too, which meant people wouldn’t notice that the jeans were cut too low.
 

Blue jeans with embroidered flowers and leaves. 

But of course, I noticed, every time I put on the jeans. Although the embroidery was pretty, the jeans always felt funny because they weren’t my usual style. So I didn’t wear them much, and after a while it got to the point where the only time I put them on was if I hadn’t done laundry and none of my other jeans were clean. When I saw them at the bottom of the drawer again this weekend, I had to admit that was ridiculous! They are now in a bag for the thrift store, where I expect some teenager will be delighted to find them on the shelf.

About Clutter Comedy: Every Sunday (which I envision as a day of rest after a productive week of de-cluttering) I post a Clutter Comedy article describing my most memorable clutter discovery of the week. Other bloggers who wish to join in are welcome—just post a link in the comments! There’s no need to publish any “before” photos of your clutter, if they are too embarrassing. The idea is simply to get motivated to clean it up, while having a bit of fun too!

I decided last summer that it was time to bid farewell to my old kitchen canister set (shown here) because I rarely bake. After that, one of the cabinets still had a shelf with baking items such as flour, sugar, and chocolate chips, which I left alone because my daughter enjoys baking.
 

Flour, sugar, and two half-empty bags of chocolate chips on a shelf. 

My daughter moved out a few months ago, but I didn’t get around to cleaning out the shelf until yesterday. When I looked at the bags, I discovered all that stuff had gotten old and stale anyway, far past its expiration date. I should have tossed it long ago! Vigilance is the price of a clean kitchen.

About Clutter Comedy: Every Sunday (which I envision as a day of rest after a productive week of de-cluttering) I post a Clutter Comedy article describing my most memorable clutter discovery of the week. Other bloggers who wish to join in are welcome—just post a link in the comments! There’s no need to publish any “before” photos of your clutter, if they are too embarrassing. The idea is simply to get motivated to clean it up, while having a bit of fun too!

Last week my husband left an electrical cord on the floor next to the basement door, apparently meaning to put it away. After it sat there for several days, I said something about it being there for a while. He picked it up, saying he wasn’t sure where it came from or where it should go. Then it ended up being put down again on the carpet next to the couch.
 

Orange electrical cord on the carpet next to the couch. 

Hmmm… that’s not what I meant! Okay, maybe the cord doesn’t have a regular place where it goes. That just means one needs to be found, or maybe it needs to be given away instead, depending on whether or not we’re likely to have a use for it.

Edit, February 11: He did find a use for it, so perhaps my complaint was a bit premature!

About Clutter Comedy: Every Sunday (which I envision as a day of rest after a productive week of de-cluttering) I post a Clutter Comedy article describing my most memorable clutter discovery of the week. Other bloggers who wish to join in are welcome—just post a link in the comments! There’s no need to publish any “before” photos of your clutter, if they are too embarrassing. The idea is simply to get motivated to clean it up, while having a bit of fun too!

While I was tidying a kitchen drawer that holds instruction manuals for appliances, I found a small cookbook that came with the microwave in 2002, entitled “Great Meals From Your Microwave Oven.” After it went in the drawer with the microwave’s instruction manual, it never saw the light of day again because my family just uses the microwave for reheating leftovers and for packaged microwavable snacks, such as popcorn. We’ve never cooked dinner in the microwave.
 

Small cookbook with the title "Great Meals From Your Microwave Oven." 

So, there’s not much point to keeping the cookbook, is there?

About Clutter Comedy: Every Sunday (which I envision as a day of rest after a productive week of de-cluttering) I post a Clutter Comedy article describing my most memorable clutter discovery of the week. Other bloggers who wish to join in are welcome—just post a link in the comments! There’s no need to publish any “before” photos of your clutter, if they are too embarrassing. The idea is simply to get motivated to clean it up, while having a bit of fun too!

When I was a young woman learning to live on my own, my mom bought me a new (1985) copy of her trusty favorite cookbook “Joy of Cooking.” I kept it all these years, and when my daughter went away to college I bought her a new copy too. I thought there might be some recipes she liked in it. But of course, my daughter’s generation would rather look up recipes online than use old-fashioned cookbooks. So she brought her copy home and left it in my kitchen with the older one.
 

An old "Joy of Cooking" next to a newer one. 

To be honest, I haven’t used the cookbook in a long time because I generally cook simple dinners, and my husband and I have given up eating desserts. There’s certainly no reason for me to keep two copies! So, it’s high time for the 1985 version, which has less content anyway, to go bye-bye.

About Clutter Comedy: Every Sunday (which I envision as a day of rest after a productive week of de-cluttering) I post a Clutter Comedy article describing my most memorable clutter discovery of the week. Other bloggers who wish to join in are welcome—just post a link in the comments! There’s no need to publish any “before” photos of your clutter, if they are too embarrassing. The idea is simply to get motivated to clean it up, while having a bit of fun too!

I sometimes eat dried pitted dates as a healthy snack. They are naturally sweet and have no added sugar. When the supermarket ran out of them last month, I picked up a bag of chopped dates instead. If I had looked at the label I’d have noticed that the chopped dates were sprinkled with sugar, but I just picked them up without paying attention. When I opened the bag later and discovered that they were too sweet to eat as a snack, I tossed them into a drawer in the refrigerator, thinking that maybe they would be okay mixed with something else.
 

Bag of chopped dates in a refrigerator drawer next to butter and cheese. 

Unfortunately, they weren’t. I tried putting them in unsweetened hot cereal, but they still had a weird aftertaste. Then I thought, what the heck was I doing? As kids, we’re taught not to throw away food if it has not spoiled because we don’t want to waste money. But, if the chopped dates had been unsweetened, then I would have eaten them last month and still would have bought more of the pitted dates when the supermarket restocked them; so, I did not spend any extra grocery money on dates as a result of my blunder. As far as I know, I did not spend significantly more because of eating other snacks, either.

And if the chopped dates had tasted okay in hot cereal, they wouldn’t have been ideal because I prefer to mix in berries or other unsweetened fruit. I might have saved a little grocery money buying fewer berries, but then I’d have felt annoyed every time I ate hot cereal until I used up all the chopped dates. It’s also possible that I could have eaten more snacks if the sugary chopped dates left me feeling not quite right—and then, not only would I have made myself feel unhealthy, I wouldn’t have saved any money at all.

About Clutter Comedy: Every Sunday (which I envision as a day of rest after a productive week of de-cluttering) I post a Clutter Comedy article describing my most memorable clutter discovery of the week. Other bloggers who wish to join in are welcome—just post a link in the comments! There’s no need to publish any “before” photos of your clutter, if they are too embarrassing. The idea is simply to get motivated to clean it up, while having a bit of fun too!