Happy New Year

Last day of 2011.

Strange.

Feels like it had only just begun and now we're already through. I won't complain about how fast the time goes (hah- just did!) because I've realized it's an age thing.

 

Best wishes to you all of a

HAPPY NEW YEAR 

A nice cup of tea

I love these quiet days between Christmas and NewYear.

No hustle and bustle, no particular plans, nothing that has to be done.

Only have a nice time.

And a nice cup of steaming hot tea. In our new letter cups from DesignLetters.

Love the simple graphic expression, typography by Arne Jacobsen.

Trash calendar - no 24: House tour

My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.

This is the final post in my Advent Calendar 2011.
Come join me on a little house tour.
It is the same house as before,
but to us a brand new home.



From all of us to all of you 
- MERRY CHRISTMAS

Trash calendar - no 23: Worth while

My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.

I claimed in an earlier trash calendar post that I had pride.
I was only joking:)

Here's all my trash for my Advent calendar 2011
And proud of it:)



With only one post left the trash calendar is coming to an end. Doing this has been a useful experience but I'm glad it will soon be over and I hope I won't ever have to do this again.  I never thought I would be showing off my trash like that - but it's such a relief to get rid of all this stuff.
Good riddance!

Thank you all for your sweet comments - they have been such a great help and inspiration:)
And I promise - tomorrow's calendar post will be completely trash-free.

Oh, and I forgot to mention; I cheated a bit today and let my regular household garbage make my bag of trash for no twenty three. 

Trash calendar - no 22: Heaps of paper

My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.




A stack of envelopes - when I need one I can pick and choose



Today I've been sorting through papers of all kinds. Some I'll keep - some I can toss.

It takes forever - I don't want to throw away papers that I ought to keep in my files

But some I was able to trash anyway.

This is my pile of trash for number twenty two.

Trash calendar - no 21: Memory boxes

My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.

It's getting increasingly more diifficult to find things to trash. But I'm not quite there yet so I have to keep looking. Today I found most of the stuff in the upstairs closet.

Also I started looking through a couple of boxes of old and new greeting cards and photos - and for a while there I kind of got lost in the old times.
Found a couple of so sweet letterheads that I had when I was a little girl - clearly I didn't write too many letters:) And the little figurine's also very typical of my childhood decade - the 70's.
And look what I had kept - a 10 NOK note - it's ages since they were used:)



My pile of trash for number twenty-one.

Trash calendar - no 20: Baking day

My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.

Finally we got round to do some baking; my daughter did the dough stuff, I did the oven stuff.
Outside it was snowing, making it picture perfect:)

For my trash calendar I went rummaging in the downstairs cabinet, and I made this pile of stuff to trash for number twenty.

Trash calendar - no 19: Easy decision

My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.

Just a few glimpses from around the living room:

The corner by the fire place has got a wall for Christmas cards.

My daughter brought home this cute singing angel that she made.

Fresh hyacinths. 

Candles lit .  

For my trash calendar I've dragged out some stuff from the upstairs closet which were left there the last time I clerared in it cause I couldn't make up my mind to toss them. 

Since then I haven't used these things for anything.

So now it was easy. 

To make up my mind to toss them, I mean. 

So easy I don't know why I didn't just do it right away:) 

This is my pile of trash for no nineteen. 

Trash calendar - no 18: A wonderful day

My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.



Today has been the most wonderful day!
We have celebrated Christmas in advance. Since my daughter is spending Christmas with her father on the other side of the country, we've had a mini-Christmas Eve here at home. Of practical reasons mostly - so she wouldn't have to travel with all the presents (she'll get enough presents where she comes as well), but also because it's so nice for us to have some Christmas celebrating together even though we're spending the  Christmas days apart.

So we invited  her father and her grandmother, and we had rice porridge (my daughter's choice) with the nut in it, afterwards she got to open her presents. The rest of the evening we spent playing with her new presents. She was so pleased with everything and she really enjoyed being centre of attention:)



The trash calendar hasn't been my main focus today, by far. Although I did start to prepare a pile to trash I didn't make it very big before I had to turn my attention to other more fun things. b



But here is the meagre pile of trash for no 18:)

Trash calendar - no 17: Clearing for crafting

My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.



Today I've been trash hunting in my crafting supply and I've cleared three shelves in the designated cabinet. The basket in the top shelf holds all kinds of crafting supplies just thrown in together. The two boxes to the left hold tapes and strings of all kinds. On the middle shelf I'm storing decorating papers of all kinds. The bottom shelf  in the picture is really an open space in the cabinet and so I've made a little still life on top of the cardboard drawer.


Before - trashed - after


So this is my pile of trash for no seventeen.

Trash calendar - no 16: Double up?

My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.

So I missed out on no 15; we had sickness in the house, and clearing had to move over for nursing.
Now that my daughter's well again and the house-wise down from a couple of days ago has turned to an up, I'm itching to get trashing again. Will I be able to make up for lost time and trash twice over for today?
I'll certainly try!


We've got our Christmas tree up - and we're ready for some sweets. It's Friday!


I've felt how the daily clutter can really throw me off my feet and that I'll have to tackle that every day as well. I'll try to be more multi-focused for the future:)

It's the dreaded cabinets upstairs that I'm tackling now. Started yesterday, but wasn't able to finish it then.
The problem is that while there's such an overload of stuff I never get round to do much crafting. Hence the amount of supply never decreases. So I'll just have to let something go!

I've started with emptying the cabinet that I want to store yarn and fabrics in. I also used a shelf for blankets and extra pillows and the bottom shelf for paperworks. Then at least the inside of the cabinet is how I want it, and I've made a pile of trash, but now there's also a huge pile of stuff that has been thrown out of their former home and needs a new one.




After - after - before - trash

Still lots to do, but at least I managed to make a pile for no sixteen:)

Trash calendar - no 14: What's the point?

My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.



Beads on strings that my daughter made for the Christmas tree. What lovely colours!

So, we've been crafting for Christmas, my daughter and I. We got these beads in these gorgous colours and made little pendants of them to go on the Christmas tree. It's so nice - sitting in-doors doing things like this together, not minding the rain and wind.

 I'm feeling a bit down at the moment - house-wise. I've been throwing out trash for two weeks, I'm more than halfway on my calendar - and it doesn't show! On the contrary - the house looks more cluttered now than ever. I've been so focused on looking for things to throw out it seems I have completely forgotten about the finishing touches - how to keep it neat and tidy.



I'm not inspired to go trash-hunting today. I know I have the heavy tasks ahead of me and I'm dreading it. The heavy tasks being sorting through my crafting stuff and all kinds of paper work - because there's way too much of it and there has to be a lot of decisionmaking - what to keep - what to let go.
So for today's post I'm doing a light version. I've picked out a few big pieces of furniture/equipment that have been in store around the house and are now ready to let  go. I've made an ad for some of the items, what do not sell will be donated.
So this makes my fourteenth load of trash.

Trash calendar - no 13: Pitch black

My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from our house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.

This weekend we had a trip to the charity shop to deliver some bags of our trash (only in the sense that we are not keeping it). And of course we couldn't leave until we've had a look around.
And I found two little treasures that came home with me. A small plate decorated by the Danish designer Bjørn Wiinblad, love the simple and playful line and that it's black and white. Also I found a very vintage game of Scrabble, some of the letters were missing but we could play nevertheless.

Now to the trash hunt for today's post I went to the garage.
Preferably the garage would shelter the car and nothing more. Not so in our garage! We can hardly squeeze the car in:) So for todays post I went searching in the dark for furniture and children's equipment that I had in store there and in the adjoining closet. For ages I've been meaning to prepare an ad - and now I finally have.

Trashed

 Hopefully someone will come to my rescue and relieve me of my thirteenth pile of stuff.

Trash calendar - no 12: Plastic fantastic

My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.

Stars we made of Fimo this weekend

Another quick post from me to say I've turned my attention to the kitchen today. I've got an entire cupboard for plastic containers, half of them I hardly ever or never use.

The before - the trashed - the after

 

I was sure I'd be able to trash more of the plastics, but that'll be another day:)

At least now it's easier to see what's in the cupboard.

 

A plastic fantastic pile for my twelfth bag of trash.

 

 

Trash calendar - no 11: Three candles



My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.

Third Sunday of Advent and we have lit three candles.



The before

Trashed

The after

For my trash calendar today I sorted a couple of drawers in the dining room bench. They hold drawings and some crafting equipment - and quite a lot of clutter.

A nice little pile of clutter for my eleventh bag of trash.



 

Trash challenge - no 10: Flippin' through the pages - and an unexpected visitor



My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.

This clematis I didn't get round to plant before the end of garden season, so I took it inside so it wouldn't freeze. And now it's thriving, growing buds and flowers. Lovely. But suddenly I noticed the flowers were rapidly disappearing and I couldn't understand why - until I saw this little fellow:)

For today's trashing I had planned a new go in the upstairs closet, but it will have to be postponed. We've been buzy doing other stuff all day, and then it became evening and I just couldn't bring myself to rummage around in the upstairs closet on a Saturday evening.

Way to many magazines - time to let some of them go

Instead I've placed myself in a soft chair, feet high and a fresh cup of coffee, quiet, and a pile of old interior design magazines, to see if I can't trash some of them, but first I'm going to flip through them and tear out pages I want to keep.

So I don't have nothing to show for myself today except a pile of work not yet done.

EDITED THE DAY AFTER:

I got through the pile of magazines. It's funny, while looking through the magazines, most of them 3-4 years old, I noticed that already back then there were some interior features that I thought was quite fresh, like black walls and blond tree. And then again there were stuff that was everywhere in the old magazines - now hardly to be seen at all.  And also to see how my own style and likings have changed; features I loved looking at a few years ago, now no longer interest me. Well, anyways that made it easier to throw these old magazines out.

The after

Trashed

The little pile is the tear-out-keeps, and the big pile is the had-to-go. I weighed it; it's 12 kilos. 12 KILOS!

A really heavy load made my tenth bag of trash.

Trash calendar - no 9: Heading for a new home

My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.

Yesterday's trashing felt so good! I got a good sized heap of no longer used clothes out of the house.
And I just did it. No debating back and forth - do I love it?  need it?  -geeez.
Just trashed it - no regrets!

Today I've organized the cabinet in my daughter's room that I purged for my own clothes yesterday. Now her hanging clothes are in this cabinet. Also she's had some toys stored in the upstairs closet which I moved to her room / this cabinet to sort through.


The before, the after and the mostly donated


Today my daughter helped sorting through the boxes looking for toys to donate. She did very well and we found this pile of  mostly toys  to take to the charity shop tomorrow.
And that'll be the ninth load out of the house.

So now after a job well done we're going to relax with a cup of coco and a cookie while listening to the rain drumming on the windows. 
And it's Friday - joy.

Have a nice weekend:)

Trash calendar - no 8: Moonlighting in the bedroom

My Advent calendar:

I challenge myself to each day till Christmas fill a bag with stuff from this house and trash it,

either to the dustbin or recycling or charity, but it has to leave the house.

Starting on the second week of my advent calendar I realize that the first week has just been the warm up for the difficult tasks to come. Sorting through napkins and vases and games - that's easy.
What comes next however...

Today I started trashing in my bedroom.
In here I've shoved four cabinets and a bookcase, which is OK.
But it's also here most of the mess and clutter is stored, and that's what I want to get rid of.

I'm not going to show how my bedroom looks now - I have pride!

But here's how it can look.

I've been dreading this sooo much because once I start with one cabinet then it will have significance on the contents of another and so on and so on. It's all connected.  And when I start the reorganizing and clear outs of my cabinets it will be more caotic then ever!

But here goes!

I've made a plan of contents for the cabinets and if what I have is too much to fit into the designated cabinet - well, then I'll have to trash it.
I keep repeating to myself I'll only keep what we love, use and need.

So late last night - actually it was today because it was after midnight -  I had a clear out in the cabinet for hanging clothes.
It also contains beddings and table cloths, and the boxes are for sewing accessories.
Most of the clothes hanging here I never use, but I've held on to the clothes because I've been thinking  I might!
No more so - trash it.
I've also emptied a cabinet in my daughters room that had my clothes in it and which were just as seldomly used - trashed!
No thinking about it - just do!

Before

After

Trashed

A lovely big pile of clothes to donate makes my eigth pile to trash.

Even my old broken mac will have to go.