February 29, 2012

Happy Leap Day or whatever it is called!  Okay, today is another one of those, "I am embarrassed to confess what I found" posts.  B, Mr. B and I cleaned out the chest freezer.  Grim, grim, grim.  Do not think less of me because of what I am about to list.

1. Cardboard cubbie.  Had 8 slots for papers, etc.  I didn't need it anymore.


2. Meat.

3. A package of meat with a label stating "Best if used by Oct. x, 2000".  Yup, I know.  At least it was frozen all this time.

4. A basket of old frozen food, including a huge package of spinach artichoke dip purchased from the Stouffer's food outlet.  They came in packages of two and B remembers eating its twin during the opening ceremonies for the 2002 Olympics.  Ugh.

5. A basket of old frozen food.

Destinations:  Freecycle, Garbage

Items De-owned to date: 309

February 28, 2012

Today I reach the 300 items de-owned mark.  Like I said yesterday, I still feel like there is a lot of stuff in my house.  BUT, I am also feeling something that is harder to explain.  I feel like the "bones" of the house are getting cleaner and I am making progress.  I hope that makes sense.

Child's bathrobe.  Too small

Nalgene bottle lid mug thing.  I good idea that didn't work for me.

7 Francsican Hacienda coffee cups, see below.  I grew up with this pattern and found a big box of it at a yard sale last summer for $10.  I don't drink coffee, so I don't need them.  Maybe someone can do something crafty with them.

6 Franciscan Hacienda saucers, see below.  Part of the same yard sale box.  I checked with Replacements. com and they weren't buying this pattern right now.

Franciscan Apple Pattern Lasagne Pan.  I kept forgetting I had it and didn't really use it. Replacements.com wanted to buy it for a low price and I felt it wasn't worth my time and money to insure and ship it to them.  I did see they are selling for a good price on eBay, but I worry about accurately describing breakables and items that can craze.  B likes it, so she took it home with her.

Destinations:  DI, B,

Items De-owned To Date: 304

February 27, 2012

Good morning!  We are approaching 300 items and my house still looks pretty full.  On a good note, certain areas have been cleaned out by my family, such as videos and water bottles!!

1. Winnie the Pooh overalls.  Yes, another pair from B's early life.

2. Video case. 

3. Water shoe. Note the singular, one water shoe.  I searched for the other and couldn't find it.  I wondered what good would one shoe be when I have another pair?  I don't have three feet.  I imagine somewhere down the road, I will be posting another "water shoe".

4. 4 latex swim caps.  I spent my childhood summers living at the subdivision swimming pool.  Girls HAD to wear swim caps to their hair wouldn't clog the filters.  I would wear a dreadful thick, rubber, white cap with a chin strap and thought even though I hated it, it was worth being able to swim.  I remember when the rules changed and girls didn't have to wear swim caps.  I felt so free!  

When one does open water swim triathons, one is given a certain swim cap color depending on the category one entered.  I have a number of caps and hate them. Have you ever tried to put a thin latex swim cap on your head?  It is so grippy, it really hurts. Then they are so tight, one feels like one's head is going to implode.  Ugh.   I use silicone caps, while a bit more expensive, are much more durable and comfortable.  And no, my caps don't look like this. 

5. 15 water bottles.  My family LOVES water bottles.  If there are some on the Target clearance row, at least one comes home with FHA.  If there is a new cool one at the bike shop, it comes home with me.  We had devoted a ton of space to water bottles-Nalgene, Camelback, Polar, Eddie Bauer, etc.   We finally went through them and kept the ones we truly use.

Destination:  Deseret Industries, Garbage.

Items De-owned to Date:  288

February 24, 2012

Good morning!   The de-owning continues and the first item is something I am truly embarrassed about.

1. Cupholder lid from Astronerd's  booster seat. It was one of those flip up features Astronerd would open and close and open and close and open and close until everyone in the car went nuts.  I removed it, promptly lost it and just found it.  I am embarrassed about this because Astronerd is now well into her teenage years and has been tall enough to sit in a car without a booster seat for a loooong time.

2.  Winnie the Pooh shorts overalls.  So cute on B when she was little and SO 1990s.

3. Flower t-shirt.  Astronerd and B had cute matching Target shirts for a Disneyland trip many years ago. I finally parted ways with the B's shirt (Astronerd's shirt was long gone) and kept the memories.

4. Youth council shirt.  This is mine from a time when I was the city council liaison to our community's youth city council.  While I feel youthful, I am not young.

5. T-shirt.  This is a t-shirt promoting the local elementary school.  A school that hasn't contained any of my children since spring 2007.

Destinations:  Garbage, Deseret Industries

Items De-owned To Date: 266

Have a great weekend!

February 23, 2012

Good morning!   Welcome to  first time visitors via my friend's blog, Be It Ever So Humble!  Of course I welcome those who have plugged along with me thus far.


1. Packet of flower seeds.  As much as I long to be a "hang out in the backyard and play in the dirt" gardener, all I have time to do is grow weeds.  However, I am the master of whiskey barrel flower garden.

2. 2005 Boy Scout Merit Badge Requirements.  Like that is going to help any Boy Scout in 2012.

3. A very special UPC code from a Breyer Horse.  Every Christmas and birthday, I would ask for a real horse.   I would pray for a real horse.  Oh, how I wanted a horse.  I didn't get a real horse, but I would get Breyer horses.  Sadly, in a fit of teenage de-owning, I sold most of them for next to nothing.  I think the selling of the horses is about the only de-owning regret I have ever had.  I will now step off  Memory Lane and back to the topic.  Astronerd collects Breyer horses and received a horse that was part of a "Buy three certain horses, save the UPC codes, mail them in and get a fourth horse".  The additional purchases didn't happen and I believe the offer expired.

4. Calculator with  Rosemary Wells bunny stickers on it.  When B was in junior high and starting the "one needs a calculator to figure THIS math out" stage, we bought matching Texas Instruments solar calculators.   It was way I could support her and make her think I would be able to help her with her math.  Heh.  These calculators could solve all sorts of math problems.   I put Rosemary Wells stickers on my calculator to differentiate it from hers.  The bunny calculator gave up the ghost, so out it went.  Maybe each calculator has a set number of math problems it will calculate in its life and when the time comes, Poof!, it's done.

5. Singer mending gluey stuff on a roll.  Since I have an aversion to sewing right now, I thought this would be great for tacking up hems, etc. The package said it would wash right out.  Don't be fooled. It is like that stuff that attaches credit cards to mailers, but a lot stickier.  This would have been a nightmare in the washer and dryer. Fortunately, I saw what could happen without experiencing it.

Destinations:  B, Recycle, Garbage

Items De-owned To Date: 261

February 22, 2012

Better late than never!

1. Singapore Twenty Cent Coin.  Someone must have sneaked this to me at a store.  I have absolutely no plans to go to Singapore and use it.

2. Poinsettia plant.  Beautiful at Christmastime, still looking pretty good, but getting a little scraggly.  I didn't have the heart to let it die of thirst, which is a slow death,  so I put it outside where it froze.  I am sure my neighbors were thinking, "Doesn't Karen know those plants need warmth?"  Why yes, yes I do.  I just wanted Mother Nature to kill it, not me.

3. Cracked IKEA Candle holder.  So cute and I accidentally killed it.

4. Box of unbreakable vintage Shiny Brite ornaments. You know the ones-green thread covering a styrofoam ball.  I love glass Shiny Brites and these are NOT my thing.

5. Cloth tote bag.  I love totes, bags and duffles and have been working really hard to avoid keeping every one that crosses my path.

Destinations: Deseret Industries, B, Recycling, Garbage

Items De-owned To Date: 256

February 21, 2012

Yesterday was a holiday here, so I took the day off from posting.  However, the de-owning continued.

1.  United Mileage Plus member card.  I haven't any idea if this is still good.  I tried to redeem the points several years ago with magazine subscriptions, but the magazines never came.  I gave up, it's not worth my time.
2.  Ski pass that expired in 2009.  Sundance Resort offered a great deal and I used it to snowshoe and ride the chair lift in the summer.  I didn't actually ski, but still got my money's worth.
3. Expired Sally Beauty Club Card.  I have a new one.
4. Bottle of shampoo with just a little bit left.  I am the world's slowest user of shampoo , and yes, I do wash my hair regularly.  I just got "scent fatigue" after a year or so and threw out the last couple of tablespoons.
5. 3/4 empty bottle of shampoo.  It was not my shampoo and at some point in time, may have belonged to FHA.  He is now a loyal user of another brand, so this bargain brand bottle was outta here.

Destination:  Garbage, recycling

Items De-owned to Date: 251  This "not being in increments of 5 anymore" is troublesome to B.  B, I will even it up soon.

February 17, 2012

Oh what has been lurking in my house?  Looks like some things that should have left a while ago.  Today's post includes a couple of free enterprise victims.

1. Calendar.  I love calendars, planners, schedules and lists.  I was already set for 2012 when this freebie came along.

2. A plastic whipped topping container.  Have you ever seen the expiration date on this stuff?  I think one can use it to embalm someone.

 3. Astronerd's eye prescription from 2008.  Yeah, like an optician is going to let me use that.  Besides, her eyes have changed.

4. Borders free books coupons.  Borders used to have a free children's book coupon program, but now that they are no more, these aren't worth a thing.

5. Habitat for Humanity card for Albertsons grocery store.  Albertsons used to have a program where organizations would receive a percentage of what one spends and we love and support Habitat for Humanity.  A couple of years ago, Albertsons left our area, so this isn't of use anymore.

Destination:  Recycle, Garbage.

Items De-owned to Date:  246 Yesterday should have been 241, oops.

February 16, 2012

Today's five are pretty straightforward.  I gave B, who no longer lives at home, extra Sunburst cups and vintage  pink aluminum pitcher that looks kind of like this  that reminds me of a caterpillar.  Yes, B wanted the items.

Destination:  B

Items De-owned To Date: 246

February 15, 2012

Today contains a variety of items with loads o' links:

1.  8 pieces of laminate flooring.  This was left over from FHA's work in the entry and hall.  I have no idea why we kept them these several years as it is nearly impossible to use them as replacements.

2. Barbie country camper parts.  Oh, how I loved my Barbie Country Camper!  My sister and I had matching campers and would set up elaborate camps in our living room.  Suddenly, a tornado was coming!  We need to decamp immediately!  The leisurely camping trip would turn in a race against the clock as we loaded up and pushed our campers across the shag carpet, over the tile entry (I can still hear the roar of the the hard plastic tires on the tile), down the hall to safety in our bedrooms.  My camper fell apart years ago and I still had a few pieces I couldn't let go.  I finally did it.

3. Wallety thing.  Some sort of billfold thing I didn't know I owned.

4.  Bruce the oven mitt.  Have you seen the movie Finding Nemo?  If so, you know Bruce.   Well, we had a blue silicone oven mitt  we named Bruce.  Sadly, Bruce got punctured in a bad spot, resulting in burns for wearer (me), so out he went.  There was some mourning.

5. A Sunburst cup.  What is a Sunburst cup you may ask?  It is this.   I went on a collecting binge and had tons of these cups.  I remember my Grandmother Romney serving us homemade root beer in these cups. I can still hear the clink of the ice cubes hitting the sides of these aluminum babies.  I must digress and tell you about my grandmother's root beer. Did she make it with dry ice?  Nooooooooooo.  She would concoct a mixture containing yeast a few weeks before our visits, pour it into large glass bottles and use a bottle capper to seal the lids.  It would then ferment until our visit.  Heh.  It was good stuff.

Destinations:  Deseret Industries, B, Garbage

Items De-owned To Date:  236

February 14, 2012

Happy Valloween!  This is what FHA calls Valentine's Day, because to him, it is the scariest holiday of all.

1. 3 VHS Cases.

2. Boo boo bunny.  What is a boo boo bunny you ask?  It is a cleverly folded washcloth that one puts ice in to put on boo boos.  Our boo boo bunny ended up being a chalk eraser thanks to Astronerd.

3. Make Practicing Fun cd.  Yes, Astronerd, practicing CAN be fun.  The software was outdated and the pass code was already used by B.

4. Children's book.

5. 20 books to B.

Destination:  B, Deseret Industries and garbage.

Total Items De-owned To Date:  224

February 13, 2012

Let's see what I can scare up on this cloudy, cold day.

1.  Taste of Home Magazine.  A sneaky one tried to stay in our home.

2.  SoCal/Las Vegas Tourbook.  This book is from AAA.  I have always loved travel guides and maps.  Remember when you could go to the gas station and there would be maps for the taking?  I remember getting maps from the Chevron station in Winnemucca, NV while travelling to my grandmother's house.  The prospect of a map made crossing Nevada a little more bearable. I think I still have one around, somewhere.  Heh.  The tour books are a fun read.  There is all sorts of helpful information in the Tourbook, but this one is out of date.  Fortunately, it isn't from the 1990s.  That would be embarrassing.


3.  Scrapbooking paper templates.  There was a time in my life where I thought I would scrapbook.  I was wrong.

4.  Bible stories for bedtime.  We kept a book of children's Bible stories, so this one left.

5.  Home décor item.  'Nuf said.

Destination:  Deseret Industries

Items De-owned To Date:  198

February 10, 2012

We will wrap up the week with a variety of items.

1.  VHS tapes
2.  Ancient computer cable printer.  You know, one of those ones that is a few inches wide and very flat?  Yeah,  I know USB has been around awhile.
3. Little pink undershirt.  One of those pieces of clothing that floats in and out of the laundry world and around the house for years after anyone could actually fit in it.
4. Personal Finance book.  It was good advice for the time it was published, but wasn't timeless, so out it went.
5. The Bisquick Cookbook. Yikes!  A cookbook straggler.

Destination: Deseret Industries

Items De-owned To Date:  193

February 9, 2012

A few more movies, noisemakers and something rather embarrassing to admit.

1. Princess Bride VHS.  Oh how we love this movie!  The book is wonderful too.  We already had it on DVD.
2. 3 sets unopened, uninflated thunder sticks  
3. Horatio Hornblower Series 1998 VHS.  Great series, but we never watch it.
4. Secret of Roan Inish VHS.  Kids loved this tale based on a folk tale.  I liked it too. I got it on DVD.
5. Stack of merit badge cards from 1995.  What are these doing here???  Yikes!  Back in the 1990s, I was in charge of organizing Troop 885's advancement records.  I am sure that responsibility didn't include keeping cards for seventeen years.    What things have you hung onto for far too long?

Destinations:  Deseret Industries and garbage

Items De-owned To Date: 188

February 8, 2012

We have made our way out of the land of children's books.  Now we briefly head back into the land of recorded media.


1. Little Women VHS.  My kids and I enjoy this movie but we don't use VHS anymore.  Found it online for very little money (I think DVDs suffer from the same monetary value fate as cookbooks, unless the DVD is a discontinued Disney movie).
2. Henry V VHS.  FHA  LOVES this movie.  I can still hear Kenneth Branagh giving his St. Crispin's day speech.  We bought it on DVD.  Yeah, I know.  Is it really de-owning if you are replacing it with something else?  Yes, because you are replacing something you aren't going to use with something you will.
3.  Computer Monitor Owner's Manual.  Do you ever look at these manuals after the first day or so of monitor ownership?  I don't.  This one lived with us for eleven years.  The monitor left before the manual left.
4. Student Manuals on CD.  These are the student manuals for the LDS Seminary program.  I can get the information online now.
5. Computer User's Guide.  The computer left our home several months ago, so it was time for this manual to go.

A few months ago, I cleaned out the file where our belongings' owners manuals, warranties, etc. are kept.  There were manuals for things we hadn't owned in years.  What manuals do you have hanging around?  Do you know where your manuals are?  Now that so much information is online, does it really matter where your manuals are?

Destination:  Deseret Industries, Recycling.

Items De-owned To Date: 180

February 7, 2012

Last day of children's books and the bending of the definition of "de-own".  Today I am using "de-own" to mean returning something to its owner.  BUT, in defense of my definition, I thought  four books were ours and I was de-owning them.  Both Astronerd and B said "Mom!  Those are Grandma's books."  I had completely forgotten one of my kids borrowed them.  I returned them to Grandma, who by the way, remembered them.  Sorry we had them so long, Grandma.

Two of the items I de-owned were Scholastic children's book/tape sets.  My kids loved listening to books on tape, especially the ones read by grandparents.  When B was small, my parents read a collection of picture books onto tape, complete with Vivaldi's Four Seasons background music and a bell and I believe bulb horn to indicate page turns.  Those are still treasures in our home.

Items De-Owned (and returned): 15

Destination:  Deseret Industries, Elementary School Faculty Room and Grandma's House

Items De-Owned to Date:  175

February 6, 2012 Warning: a wee bit unsettling

We are almost done with children's books.   Now I will tell you how I almost de-owned part of my finger.  I was using this, but not in the safe manner shown in this picture.  I was slicing an onion and the onion didn't stick to the "gripper thing that saves your fingers".  Others had been using it and I kept warning them "WATCH WHAT YOU ARE DOING SO YOU DO NOT SLICE YOUR FINGER".   So guess who slices her pinky finger.  Yep, you're right.  Part of my fingertip was held to the rest of my finger by a teeny, tiny piece of skin.  FHA used Home Depot grade super glue gel to glue the piece in place. The thought was to keep it there until the area below healed and then the cut part would come off.  But something different happened.

My finger did heal, but the cut part reattached itself to my finger!  I was shocked!  It is still numb and I don't know if I will ever get feeling back, but I am glad to have my finger intact again.  Bodies are amazing.

Do not try to de-own body parts.  Trust me.

Items De-owned:  15 children's books

Destination:  Deseret Industries and  Elementary School Faculty Room.

Items De-owned to Date:  160

February 3, 2012

When I started de-owning stuff last month, I started keeping a detailed log of what I was getting rid of.  The initial reason for this log was to keep track of items' value for tax reasons.  I was particularly interested in the value of the cookbooks and learned they weren't worth much.  I thought the new ones (thanks to the credit card thief) would have some value, but they were only a couple of dollars on used book sites.  Some of the books were only a penny.   Needless to say, this endeavor will not give a me a big tax deduction.

Want more information about organization, de-cluttering and home life?  Stop by Organized Home,  a site run by a gal I met online over 20 years ago.  Lots of good stuff.

Items De-owned:  15 children's books

Destination:  Elementary School Faculty Room and Deseret Industries

Items De-owned to Date:  145

February 2, 2012

Today is Groundhog Day! Bear, the family guinea pig, performed her annual duty and did not see her shadow.  This means an early spring!   That's the way Bear, de-own Winter!  I am all for that.

Today's items:  15 children's books

Destination: Elementary School Faculty Room

Items De-owned to Date:  130

February 1, 2012

Well, yesterday marked 100 items de-owned!  While I am excited to reach this milestone, my home doesn't look like I have gotten rid of anything.  I have come to the conclusion that it is going to take hundreds of items departing before my home looks less cluttered.  One step at a time.

The next several posts are going to be a little redundant.  When Astronerd was wee, I organized a neighborhood Scholastic Book Club ordering group.  Because of this and the desire of my neighbors to purchase books, I received a gazillion free children's books.

Now my children are older and do not have any attachment to most of the books.  The entire family went through our children's book collection and picked out the ones that meant something to them.

B said "Mom, if you list those books at five per day, I am going to stop reading your blog. That will be sooo boring."  B is right.  A lot of February would be spent listing books.  What I decided to do is report them in groups of 15.  That way, I can get the satisfaction of posting about stuff I have de-owned, but not take up my blog for the next three weeks.  Don't fret!  I will add some other stuff so each post  won't be too boring.  I will even include the non-TMI tale of how I accidentally tried to de-own part of my finger a couple of weeks ago.

15 children's books de-owned.

Destination:  Elementary School Faculty Room

Items De-Owned to Date: 115