Still Tweaking the Spare Room

Uppuma - Indian Style Cream of Wheat

On Friday, I cooked uppuma for my breakfast - this is made with cream of wheat, to which I added curry leaves, chilies, and peanuts.  I posted how I make it, here.

Later, Friday afternoon, I removed all the large cooking pots and cake pans, etc., that were being stored on the bookcase I had in the garage and got friend M to carry it outside, where he and I cleaned it (so much dust and cobwebs, etc.!)  I thought I could bring it inside the house to use as storage space in the spare room.  However, upon closer inspection, I realized that the bottom portion of the unit was water damaged and the particle board had begun to split.  It was still useful in the garage, but, not something I wanted inside the house.  So, M carried it back to the garage and set it up there, now nicely dusted and clean!  Well, that answered that question!  Now I know that if I want a taller shelving unit in the spare room, I will have to buy one.

In the meantime, I found a different container for my button collection:

Old Button Box

My mother and I used to buy buttons when they went on sale for $.10 per card, many, many, years ago.  Plain buttons, decorative buttons, in all sizes and colors.  Plus all kinds of trimmings, too.  My mother stored them in this repurposed wet wipes container.  I used to store it in one of the desk drawers.  On Friday, I pulled out this other container, a small round thin wood box that I had covered with gift wrap paper, several years ago (I used to store spare batteries in it), and dumped the button collection into it:

New Button Box

Everything fits in nicely and, best of all, I can close the lid!

Closed Button Box

There's another round box like that, covered with the same paper, which holds all my decorative edged pairs of scissors for scrapbooking.  I'm thinking of gluing a button to the top of this box to make it easier to tell them apart.  For now, the button box is placed on the chest of drawers, with the other sewing supplies and the scrapbooking scissors box is on the desk, near the scrapbooking papers.  

If I get additional shelving in the spare room, these would be the sort of things I'd store on them.

In addition to playing with buttons and cleaning the garage shelves, on Friday, I scrubbed my bathtub, did some grocery shopping, and decluttered these plastic Easter eggs and bunnies:

Plastic Easter Eggs and Bunnies

The Easter Bunny no longer comes calling at this house since there is no little girl to get excited about waking up to find trails of glitter leading to hidden eggs containing treats (she didn't like candy, so, she received things like hair bows, novelty erasers, coins, etc. in the eggs).   These days, the only bunnies one is likely to encounter here are dust bunnies, of which there are plenty!

Today, Saturday, I pulled the desk and the chest of drawers away from the walls and swept behind them!  Then, I swept the floor again and went over it with a damp mop.  The main reason for pulling the furniture out was to reach the outlets behind them - I plugged in a radio I had in another room and set it on the chest of drawers, and I plugged in an extension cord to the outlet behind the desk, to make it easier to plug in the sewing machine or a hot glue gun, etc.  I also need to buy a desk lamp for the table.  

After that, I went through another file of papers (car insurance and auto club membership) and tore up everything other than the most current ones.  I took a full bag of paper to the recycling bin!  

Breakfast, today, was a rice cake spread with peanut butter.  For lunch, I pulled out a container of spaghetti  sauce I had in the freezer and a package of ground beef I had browned and frozen.  It was a matter of thawing them in the microwave before heating them together in a saucepan while the water boiled and the spaghetti cooked.  There is more meat sauce left for a couple of meals, as well.  For dinner, I had a sandwich with the last of the beef steak I had cooked earlier.  

Today, I am grateful for:

- A sunny day

- Chatting on the phone with aunt C

- Lunch from the freezer

- All what I was able to accomplish

- No phone calls from the doctor on Friday, either

Tomorrow, a member of the extended family is hosting the monthly rosary and a brunch to commemorate her father's first death anniversary.  I will be giving cousin P and friend F a ride to the event and back.  I haven't made any other plans for tomorrow, but, I'll probably sort through more files in the evening, after I get back.  The forecast calls for scattered showers, tomorrow.  Depending on how much rain we get, I might not have to water the garden for another couple of days.

How is your weekend coming along?  What are your plans for Sunday?

May Grocery Shopping: Week 3

5/24 Groceries

I did a little grocery shopping, today.  I went mostly to buy bananas, but, when I was at the store, I realized that the cherries were on sale for $.99/lb., and the salad dressing was on sale for $1.99.  I also bought a pineapple for $.99 and a packet of frozen corn since I had finished the packet I had.

I spent a total of $8.58, which put me over this month's budget!  Oops!

5/24 Grocery Receipt

My May grocery budget is $75 + $6.40 carried over from April = $81.40

Spent to date: $15.72 + $1.50 + $32.92 +  $21.02 + $1.99 (oil; on 5/15) + $2.50 (bananas, crackers, popcorn on 5/19) + $8.58  = $84.23


Balance left in the budget = $81.40 - $84.23 = - $2.83

I will carry the negative amount forward to June and deduct it from the June grocery budget.  It's OK, because some of the things I bought this month, such as the tea, oil, salad dressing, etc., will last me well into June.  I will need to buy more bananas and probably bread, next week, but, as long as I can keep the amount I go over budget to under $10, I shall be fine. 

How is your May grocery shopping and budget coming along? 

Books, Glorious Books

According to my mother, on my first birthday, when I was fed rice for the first time, as part of that ceremony, a mat was spread on the floor with several different object placed on it and I was placed on the mat to see which objects would attract my attention.  It was supposed to be a foretelling of my future interests.  Apparently, I went for gold jewelry and a book!  As far as the foretelling is concerned, it turned out to be quite accurate!  I do like gold jewelry and I love books!

Throughout my child hood, I received books as gifts for birthdays and other holidays.  I grew up in a time and place where there was no television.  I was 17 when I first watched television and that was after I had left Sri Lanka!  We would go to see movies at a cinema theater, but that was not an every day event.  As a result, reading was a main pastime.  I had a collection of my own books, I would borrow books from my cousins and friends, and I would borrow books from various libraries, including the British Council's and the United States Information Services'.  When I left Sri Lanka, however, I gave away all my books.

I had access to the university's library when I arrived in the United States, which was good because I didn't have money to buy books, other than text books.  Once I had some spare money, however, I began to buy books.  I used to belong to several mail order "book of the month" clubs: cook book of the month, craft book of the month, history book of the month, romance book of the month, etc.  Plus, there were all the book shops, including one across the street from my office!

At first, my books were kept in boxes, which we covered with table cloths and used as occasional tables because we didn't have money for furniture!  Later, I made book cases with some pieces of wood I found and cement blocks and bricks.  This was back in the 70s when wood and cement block (or brick) shelving units were quite common, especially in student housing.  Eventually, my mother acquired a small bookcase which someone was giving away.

Later, in the early 1980s, I bought bookcases.  A set of three for $19.99, each, that came in a flat package which I assembled - I still have two of them!  Considering that they are chipboard furniture, that's not too bad!  One of them is in the dining area:

Bookcase in the Dining Area

Table Linen in the cupboard 

I display some of my blue and white china collection on some of the shelves, my cookbook collection on one shelf, and table linen, kitchen towels, ect. in the cupboard part behind the doors.

The other one, which has all shelves and no doors, is in the garage.  I am thinking of bringing it back in to use in the spare room, but, I need to check it for damage to the bottom (which is why I put it to use as storage in the garage). 

Later, still in the early 1980s, when I worked in an office space design/office furniture company, I bought two more bookcases, with my employee discount (cost + 10%, deducted weekly from my pay check).  I have those two with me, as well.

This one is in the living room:

Living Room Bookcase

Two shelves for display space and three shelves of books.  Mostly history-related books, with one or two classics.

The other, matching bookcase is in the family room:

Family Room Bookcase

This one has gardening and religion books on the top shelf, mostly crafts books on the next two shelves, and decorating and Christmas books on the bottom shelf. 

In addition to these bookcases, there are three shorter ones, including the one in the spare room, two wall mounted shelves in my bedroom (for my collection of paperback romance novels!), plus two tall bookcases in my daughter's room, with her books. 

According to one of my friends (L), it is not a bookcase unless each shelf is crammed full of books, with paperbacks set two rows to a shelf, and there are books lying horizontally on top of other books!  LOL!  That is exactly how these bookcases looked, several years ago!  I had about 9 linear feet of cookbooks, alone!  Also, according to her, there's no such thing as having too many books.  I am rather inclined to agree with her, but, I began to feel that I had an over abundance of books.

I have stopped buying books.  Instead, I have been borrowing from the library system, which consists of 72 branch libraries (the City of L. A. is very spread out).  If your local branch doesn't have a particular book but, it is in the system, you can request it and it will be sent to the local branch, or any other branch you specify (sometimes, when I was working, I used to request it be sent to the branch near my office, as it was convenient to pick it up during my lunch break).  In addition, I am a member of the public library system in the adjoining city, too (they have four branches); membership there is free, even if I am not a resident of the city, because I am a member of my city's public library system.

I have been going through and decluttering a few books at a time, over the past several years.  My books no longer overflow the shelf space I have for them.  But, I still have about 350 books (give or take a couple, and that doesn't include my daughter's books!).  I am looking at how many I have and am wondering why I am keeping so many.  Just how many gardening/landscaping books does one need?  How many knitting books?  How many cookbooks?  Especially, these days, when there is so much online?  How much is too much?

Which is why, in June, I want to challenge myself to declutter 30 books.  One book a day.  My friend L suggests decluttering one book for every 10 books I have, but, I don't think I can just go across the shelves and pull out every 10th book and put aside to donate!  It might be easier to do so, but, that is too random for me!  I have read most of the books on my shelves, but there are a few that I haven't read or finished reading, yet.  There are a few that I would like to re-read before I give them away, and that is OK, too.  But, the goal for June is 30 books to be decluttered. 

Anyone else wants to join the 30 books decluttering challenge?  You can declutter more than 30 books, if you like, of course, but, for me, for now, 30 is a good number to start with. 

Overcast Thursday

It's been another cloudy, overcast day.  There was a slight drizzle in the morning when I went outside to pick some curry leaves, but, no real rain.

I had a hard time falling asleep last night because I was excited about cleaning my spare room!  It was past 4:30 a.m. when I finally fell asleep.  As a result, I slept till after 11:00 a.m., this morning.  I spent a relaxed rest of the morning and early afternoon, replying to blog comments, visiting a couple of other blogs, having cream of wheat for brunch, and playing a few games of sudoku online.

Later in the afternoon, I returned to clearing the spare room.  I went through the rest of the desk drawers.  I put the box of scrapbooking/card making supplies into one of the empty drawers.  I put some files to be sorted through in the same drawer as the old bank files.  As a result, I now have a total of three empty drawers in that desk, and one drawer that is only half full.  I have plans for those empty drawers, though, so they won't remain empty for long!

Then, I took a break and had a cup of tea and some food.  I watched the evening news and decluttered another magazine (I look through the magazines one last time before decluttering them).

I returned to the spare room and cleared the top of the chest of drawers/dresser where I store the fabric stash.  It was piled with sewing stuff and the box of scrapbooking/card making supplies.

Dresser - Before

What a mess!  I moved the scrapbooking/card making stuff to the desk.  The half finished quilt went into the linen closet for the time being.  Then, I put everything else on the bed and dusted the top.  I put back the baskets of fabric scraps - these are the smaller pieces that I am trying to use up in quilts and other projects.  Then, I put all the reels of thread and other sewing notions from a smaller plastic shoe box type container into a larger pink plastic basket that I had freed up, earlier, when I filed all the papers that were in that basket:

Blurry "After" Picture

One of the items I had stored on top of the dresser was this box of sewing patterns:

Sewing Patterns

I only have about 7 sewing patterns and some of them are for various craft items, not clothes, and they were all mixed up with some patterns my mother had.  Sorting through the patterns and putting them in this plastic shoe box was a first step in organizing them, several years ago.  Today, I put them all in some page protectors I had and put them in a binder:

Organized in a Binder

The binder of sewing patterns is now being stored in the bookcase next to the desk.  I cleaned and tidied that a bit, too.  

Bookcase

I am thinking of replacing this bookcase (bought for my daughter, when she was a little girl, for her books) with a taller one (more storage space!), but, for now, this is what I have.

I also reorganized one of my own dresser drawers, as I found a sturdier box than what I had been using to sort my socks.  I also decluttered four unopened packages of pantyhose from that drawer, as I no longer wear them.  Plus, I "decluttered" one lone sock by turning it into a catnip toy for Dancer.

Among the items that I decluttered, today, are:

Message Board

This message board has a magnet so that it can be mounted on a fridge.  It came with a calendar in the upper half.  I couldn't find a replacement calendar, so we just wrote messages on the plastic board!  The message written on it that you see, written by my daughter, reminding me to eat, was from the time I was undergoing chemo and would forget to eat!  No wonder I lost weight!  LOL!   I took it down when I bought the new fridge - when was that?  September 2017!  Almost two years ago!    

I also decluttered this binder organizer that my daughter had when she was in high school:

Binder Organizer

I love anything with pockets and pouches!  But, I am not using it, so, it needs to go.

So must this small sewing machine:

"Tiny Tailor"

I bought it for my daughter, when she was still a little girl, because she wanted a real sewing machine.  But, she has a regular sewing machine now (well, I am using it, as mine doesn't work) and this was just sitting on the dresser, gathering dust.  I put it into a bag and set aside with the rest of the bags of donations.

By the time I sorted through all that, I was too tired to do anything else.  There's a little bit more to do in the spare room, and, as I told one of my friends, today, the closet in that room is still a scary place (even though I sorted through it, once), but, it is no longer The Dump!

Today, I am grateful for:
- No call from the doctor's office, again!
- Being able to sleep in
- All what I was able to accomplish
- Phone calls and emails from friends
- Chatting with my daughter


Thursday's To Do List:

- Clean my bathroom 

- Clean the kitchen 

- Paperwork/filing - DONE

- Do one decluttering/organizing task in the spare room - DONE (did more than one task!)

I didn't clean my bathroom or the kitchen, as I didn't want to lose my momentum in the spare room.

Friday's To Do List:
- Clean my bathroom
- Clean the kitchen
- Paperwork/shredding
- Start the car (at the very least)/drive it around a bit

How was your Thursday? 

Rainy Wednesday

It rained, on and off, today.  There was even some thunder, which is rather unusual for us.  Around 4:30 p.m., however, it stopped raining and we had a little bit of sunshine.

Dancer woke me up, this morning, with that strange sound he makes when he is about to throw up!  Sure enough, he came right next to my bed and threw up his undigested breakfast of kibbles!  He has a tendency to eat very fast and then, he throws up.  Just why he has to do it right next to my bed (or, sometimes, under it) is something I haven't figured out, yet!  At least he didn't throw up on the bed!  I am very thankful for that!

I had a slow start to my day, but I made up for it in the afternoon and evening.  I watered the indoor plants (I only have two, so it takes all of two minutes to do that!  LOL.)  Then, I vacuumed the house, cleaned one bathroom, sorted through the second stack of papers I had put aside to go through, today, and cleared the desk in the spare room:

Cleared Desk Top and Empty Drawers!  

There are no "before" pictures, because I was too ashamed to take any!  But, this was how the desk looked just a couple of days ago, after I had already done some clearing:

"During"

I boxed up the old bank files I had stored in those drawers, using two boxes I had saved when some gifts were mailed to me over the holidays.  I will sort through the other drawers another day.  I need to find a better place to store the boxes that are under the desk, but, they can stay there for now.  By the time I cleaned the top of the desk, I was tired.

I decluttered a magazine and another book, today:

Another Book for Donation

I bought this book for my daughter when she was a little girl, partly because it was about an Indian girl and partly because it was a story about the power of doubling.  In it, an Indian girl is offered a reward by the raja (king) for a good deed.  It is a time of famine but the raja is hoarding all the rice in the storehouses.  The girl asks for a single grain of rice, to be doubled every day for 30 days, as her reward.  On the first day, she receives a single grain of rice, on the second day, two grains, and so on, until, on the 30th day, she has received over one billion grains of rice, in total!  The royal storehouses have all been emptied by then and the girl shares the rice with the people of the land who were starving.  There is a table at the end of the book, showing how the grains of rice multiplied:

Over a billion grains of rice

I thought it was a cute story and held on to the book long after my daughter had outgrown it.  Time to release it for another little girl to enjoy.

Today, I am grateful for:
- No phone call from the doctor's office!
- Dancer seems back to normal.
- The rain we received (don't have to water the garden, this week!)
- My new insurance card, with the new doctor listed, arrived in the mail
- All that I was able to accomplish, today

My joyful activity for the day has to be clearing the desk in the spare room!


Wednesday's To Do List:

- Water the house plants - DONE

- Vacuum - DONE

- Clean the bathrooms - STARTED

- Do one decluttering/organizing task in the spare room - sort through the basket of stuff - DONE
- Paperwork/filing - the second stack - DONE
- Shopping? (I want to get some storage boxes for some files and maybe a better desk chair)  - NOT DONE; I used boxes I had and will shop for a chair, later.

Thursday's To Do List:

- Clean my bathroom

- Clean the kitchen

- Paperwork/filing

- Do one decluttering/organizing task in the spare room

How was your Wednesday?  What are your plans for Thursday?

Overcast Tuesday

A cold, drizzly, morning; the drizzle stopped, later, but the day remained overcast and cool.

Dancer seems to be doing better.  He meowed around noon and led me to the kitchen!  I was so happy to hear him meow that I rewarded him with some tuna!  He vocalized his thanks when I fed him, again, around tea time.  Then, later, when I was making my dinner and I wouldn't give him more tuna, he meowed his complaints for a few minutes before going off to eat his kibbles.

Thank you to all who commented and said to keep the bed in the spare room.  I think Dancer is happy about it, too!  In the afternoon, he decided that the freshly made bed in the spare room was an ideal spot for his nap:

Dancer Approves!

There was no phone call from the doctor's office about the blood test results, today; since no news is good news, where this is concerned, I hope that it continues to be so!

I spent a good portion of the afternoon sorting through a stack of paper.  This was more recent mail and other paperwork which needed to be filed.  I got through that pile.  There is a second stack of paper to go through, tomorrow.

Then, I dusted the furniture in the living room, dining room, family room, and my bedroom.  It's getting easier!  I also did a bit of decluttering, including this book:

For the Donations Bag

Craft books are next to impossible for me to declutter!

Later, I washed the dishes and scrubbed the kitchen sink.  That was the extent of my productivity, today.

Today, I am grateful for:
- The doctor's office didn't call!
- Dancer seems to be better.
- What I was able to accomplish today
- Warm clothes to wear on a cool day
- Phone calls from family and friends


Tuesday's To Do List:
- Call the vet's office if Dancer is still not meowing - He's better, today.
- Take Dancer for a check up?  - Didn't need to
- Bring in the trash cans - DONE
- Dust the living room and dining area - DONE
- Dust family room and my bedroom - DONE

- Water the house plants

- 30 minutes in the spare room (sort through big basket of stuff) - Did other paperwork, instead

I forgot to water the house plants, today.  All two of them!  Now you know why I have only two left!  LOL!

Wednesday's To Do List:

- Water the house plants

- Vacuum

- Clean the bathrooms

- Do one decluttering/organizing task in the spare room - sort through the basket of stuff
- Paperwork/filing - the second stack
- Shopping? (I want to get some storage boxes for some files and maybe a better desk chair) 

How was your Tuesday?  What are your plans for Wednesday?  Do you find it difficult to declutter books?

Productive Monday, Too

I was up by 9:00 a.m., today, even though I couldn't fall asleep until after 3:30 a.m.  I had a cup of tea, replied to blog comments, and commented on one or two blogs.  Then, it was time to get ready to go to my doctor's appointment, which was at noon.  But, I left the house by 11:00 a.m., because, depending on the traffic, the drive can take one hour.  Today, however, traffic was not too bad and I arrived at the doctor's office a little after 11:30 a.m.  The receptionist told me, rather apologetically, that I will have to wait as the doctor didn't come in until noon, today; I assured her it was fine, I didn't mind waiting.

I was seen by the doctor shortly after noon.  Since this was a follow-up appointment, he had me do a blood test to check my iron levels.  If the results show there is an iron deficiency, then, he said, his office staff will call me and schedule another appointment for further testing.  If everything is OK, however, the office staff will not call me and there won't be any further appointments!  That, of course, is what I am hoping for! I did ask if I should call to find out about the test results, but was told not to do that.  He told me, "You'll hear from us if something is wrong".  I guess I will have to be content with that!  In the meantime, I am praying that I won't get a phone call!

On the way home, I stopped by my favorite fish and chips place and ordered a piece of fried fish and mini shrimp to go, no chips!  Came home and had the fish and some of the shrimp for my lunch, along with a banana for dessert.

Aunt C had called and left a message while I was out, so I called her back and chatted with her.

Then, I started on the laundry.  I did three loads of laundry.  I washed the sheets and blanket from the bed in the spare room (I washed the quilt, last night).  Then, I washed the comforter I use as a mattress pad on that bed and I did a load of regular laundry, too.  I'm afraid I dried everything in the dryer, instead of hanging them up to air dry!  Then, I made up the bed in the spare room with the freshly laundered bed linen.

One of my favorite quilts

When not being used as a dump, the spare room functions as a guest room for occasional overnight visitors!  I go back and forth on whether to keep the bed (convenient if I have a guest sleep the night) or get rid of it (I'll have more space!)  I guess the bed stays for now!

While I did laundry, I also went through more papers.  I cleared the stack that was piled on top of the filing cabinet and other papers that were stored in baskets.  Most of it got recycled, the rest filed.  I now have three empty baskets and one empty plastic shoe box.  I also did some mending and replaced an elastic on a pair of sweatpants. 

Later in the evening, I cleaned the fridge and took the trash cans to the curb.

Poor Dancer is a bit under the weather - yesterday, his meows sounded hoarse; today, he's not meowing at all!  He's eating, drinking, and using the litter box, so I am not too worried, but, if he continues to be silent, tomorrow, I will call the vet and ask if I should bring him in for a check up.

Today, I am grateful for:
- A good appointment with the doctor (hopefully, the blood test results will be good, too!)
- A safe drive to the clinic and back
- A working washer and dryer!
- Phone call from aunt C
- What I was able to accomplish today

Monday's To Do List:
- Doctor's appointment (at noon; need to leave the house by 11:00 a.m.) - DONE

- Change bed sheets - DONE (did the spare room bed)

- Load of laundry (bed sheets/towels) - DONE (did the spare room bed linen)

- Dust living room & dining area

- Clean the fridge - DONE

- Take trash cans to the curb for Tuesday trash pick up - DONE

I didn't dust the living room and dining area because I was busy sorting through papers.  I did dust the top of the filing cabinet which is in the spare room, but that was all.

Tuesday's To Do List:
- Call the vet's office if Dancer is still not meowing
- Take Dancer for a check up?
- Bring in the trash cans
- Dust the living room and dining area
- Dust family room and my bedroom

- Water the house plants

- 30 minutes in the spare room (sort through big basket of stuff)

Basket of Stuff!

When I was tidying up the spare room, I put some stuff into this basket to sort through later.  The majority of it belongs to my daughter.  I have this basket and a big plastic storage box in which I have kept some sentimental items to be sorted through, next.  Once they are done, the desk area will be cleared. 

How was your Monday?  Did you have a good day?  What are your plans for Tuesday?