Decluttering my kitchen

I started reading a book called Simplicity Parenting that, according to the Website,

offers a simple, orderly, and effective pathway to simplify four realms at home, which reduces stress on children and their parents, and allows room for connection, creativity, and relaxation.
These four realms for simplifying are:
Environment: De-cluttering too much stuff at home.
Rhythm: Increasing predictability by introducing rhythmic moments for connection and calm.
Scheduling: Soothing violent schedules brings moments for Being into all the Doing.
Unplugging: Reducing the influence of adult concerns, media and consumerism on children and families to increase resilience, social and emotional intelligence.

 In the book he talks about how having too many choices, for example, having a roomful of toys, causes stress for kids, and I think that is really true for me, too. (See my posts on clothing.) Our kitchen was "organized" quickly when we moved in (I was pregnant at the time, and just needed to get it all unpacked) and then re-organized along with way in response to the arrival of new gadgets and changing babyproofing requirements. I finally started to feel too much pressure from all the stuff in the kitchen, and today I went through and got stuff out. Some I will get rid of and some I will keep in the storage room downstairs, but at least I got out all the stuff that is clogging up my drawers and cabinets that I don't use, don't like, feel guilty about, etc. And now, just like with the clothes, I feel more like I know what I have and what I need that I don't have (very little, as it turns out). I happened to be in Bed, Bath, and Beyond today, and it was just like with clothes. I was more able to look at things and think, "Yeah, I don't need that." And I'll tell you, it feels great. I am ready to do it in every room in the house!

Abundance Measures, Part II

Continued from an earlier post. Continuing the list of things that can be ways to save money, but also create a greater feeling of plenty: Austerity Measures reframed as Abundance Measures.

• A garden. This one is sort of obvious, but, just think! With hard work, knowledge, and some luck, you can have so much zucchini you can eat it for dinner every night, share it with the neighbors, and still have to make loaves of zucchini bread to use it all up. I will try to post about my gardening adventures another time.
• Coupons. There are all these sites now that offer substantial deals on local or national products and services--even museum memberships! As with all shopping, one must be careful not to buy things one does not want or need just because it's half price. But I am always looking for ways to get to know our region, activities to do with kids, places to go on dates with my husband other than Home Depot, and new restaurants to try. We have gotten to try a lot of new things that have been really fun because of Groupon and LivingSocial. I also glance through those coupon magazines we get in the mail for new restaurants to try, and I have an old email account I use to get coupons from stores I go in often. 
• Memberships to local attractions if you have kids. Zoo, nature center, natural history museum. Even if the attractions in your area aren't world-class, if you have kids, they don't care. There's something so awesome about knowing you can go to the zoo FOR AN HOUR and not feel like you have to spend all day there to get your money's worth. And if you go often, the whole family starts to feel some familiarity and ownership of the place, and that, I think, is when you can really enjoy it. You know where the bathrooms are. You have a strategy for avoiding the giftshop. You know if there's a place you can eat a packed lunch. Plus, these kinds of things are great gifts to ask for from family who want to get you or your kids something but you feel like you already have more toys than you your kids can put away. 

Abundance at the Mall (but not the kind you expect)

Today I was at the mall a few miles from our house, returning things (I get so much satisfaction from returning things; it's almost perverse). It's not the biggest mall in our smallish city, and when we first moved to the area, I found it depressing, because it seemed like a lot of stores had recently closed, and I couldn't imagine/believe that we had managed to move to a city that was more forlorn than Cleveland. The economy was going down the tubes, and what is sadder than an empty mall? Plus, there was a branch of the library at the mall, which depressed me even further. Shouldn't the library be in a grand old building in the town center? Apparently we had moved to a city with no soul, or, at least, no town center.

But little by little, over the past 3+ years, a whole wing of the mall has become something new. As I walked along today, I realized most of the spaces are now occupied, and lots of them seemed quite busy. Here is a partial list:

• Niki's Party Place: bounce houses
• Black Mamba (indoor) Skate Park: today they were having girls' beginning roller derby, as well as skateboarding and scootering
• Buff Body Works: kickboxing
• Central NY Chapter NRHS: huge model railroad display
• CNY Boxing
• CNY Triathalon
• CORE Fitness
• Home Run Softball: people were actually in there batting
• Pools Brook Driving: golf
• Rhythms of Syracuse: after school music lessons
• Salt City Improv Theatre: classes and $5 performances
• Syracuse Kung Fu
• Syracuse Martial Arts Academy
• Syracuse Musketeer's Fencing
• Syracuse Project 4 Our Teens (The SPOT)
• CNY Gym Center: huge gymnastics place
• Branch's driving school: cars; not golf
• CNY Artists.com

These are in addition to a children's play area, the library, and a movie theater. The mall has really become a busy place, with people taking classes, bringing their kids to classes, walking the mall, meeting people at Dunkin' Donuts, etc. I love how the mall now feels like a town center, and since it's Syracuse, its being indoors probably isn't a bad thing. It turns out the town does have a soul, it just happens to be at the mall.

The mall took an economic difficulty and turned it into something that makes me feel rich: so much to do so close to home, all in one place. Talk about turning austerity into abundance.

Good But Not Perfect Home Baked Bread on Church Avenue Chomp

Here is a guest post I did for my great friend Meredith's blog last spring. It was the wrong time of year for bread, and it didn't inspire many comments, except for my cousin, who pretty much refuted the idea that it would work (the recipe she had used was, in fact, a different, but very similar, one). BUT, when I first started to write it, it seemed like it was going to be about how to get a feeling of Plenty in your life. Plus, it was a chance for me to think about just doing something, not waiting for the perfect time and the perfect bread, but just starting. Good bread that gets made is a helluva lot more tasty than perfect bread that never gets made.
Guest Post: Good But Not Perfect Home Baked Bread on Church Avenue Chomp

Abundance Measures, Part I

Last year at this time, due in part to the fact that we still own a house in a very depressed market in the city we moved from almost 4 years ago, we implemented Austerity Measures. It was actually a fun challenge. We (sort of) had a plan. We sounded like a European country. It was a Project, and we found that if we set our minds to it, we could buy very little other than food from week to week.

I should say that not buying things is something we're actually pretty good at, maybe too good at in some ways. At times we border on stingy. Spending money within one's means and mindfully is a beautiful thing. Indiscriminately not buying things that one can afford that would actually improve quality of life but not grossly negatively impact the world is just stingy, and does not bespeak an abundance mindset.

Well, after a few months, the particular crisis of a year ago passed, and gradually we let the project go to some extent. My husband and I are in agreement, however, that it would be in our best interest to spend less, to be more in line with our long-term financial goals.

I have decided, in light of my interest in Abundance, to reframe Austerity Measures, and instead call them Abundance Measures. In practical terms, these will be very similar. As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I think the two are different sides of the same coin in many ways. Here are some things that I think can be seen as both and why:

• Baking bread. I  started baking bread as a small way to save money, and it turns out that nothing says Abundance like freshly baked bread.
• Going to the library. I have a Masters in Library and Information Science, and have worked in a number of libraries. I hold libraries in very high esteem. I believe it is true that in hard economic times, libraries increase in use (if not in funding...). Not only can you get books there, but you can get music, movies, use of a computer, free children's programming like story hour, free classes for adults, etc. Your local library system allows access to more stuff than you could ever own, plus online catalogs can help you find what you want and have it sent directly to your branch. Talk about richness and abundance!
• Joining groups and seeing friends and family. It is my understanding that in difficult economic times, people find that spending time with other people is inexpensive but highly enriching.

Time to get the kid from preschool. That's it for now!

Abundance is the new Austerity

Or, maybe, Austerity is the new Abundance?

Reduce
I have been reading, and trying to put into practice, clutter clearing, such as getting rid of clothes I don't wear. It turns out once you get rid of stuff, maybe giving it to someone else who can use it, you are actually more able to use the stuff you do have. E.g., after clearing out your closet, you can see what's in your closet and actually wear it. You know everything fits you and is something you actually will wear, not something: you hope to fit into someday/someone gave you and you feel guilty about not liking/you wish you were the kind of person who would wear/etc. I have done this, and I actually do feel like I have more.

"Spend out"
Another prong of this Austerity/Abundance thing is using the things you have, not saving your good stuff for some "right" time to use it. Don't save the cloth napkins for a suitably fancy dinner party, or save the Le Creuset dutch oven until you are a better cook, or save the scented candles for the time when you finally have nothing on your To-Do list other than "take a leisurely bath" (haha!). Those times may never come.

Both of those things, reducing and "spending out" seem to me to be related to both Abundance and Austerity.

• You use what you have(letting it sit in your closet, unused, is wasting it).
• give away to someone else what you don't use (sharing abundance with other people), and then,
• having less, you actually have more (because you're actually using it all and can find it all).

This feels very incomplete. I'll try again another day. The first link above is to the Fly Lady, who I have found very helpful in getting ideas for approaching housework and clutter-clearing. The second is to Gretchen Rubin's Happiness Project website. I just finished reading this book, and I got so much out of it. It is the most practical and interdisciplinary book I've found on the subject of happiness. GR and the FlyLady seem to be of the same mind re: clutter clearing and using what you have.