It has been a long time since my last post- I hope you’re all doing well. Our little home has been overwhelmingly busy with travel and baby preparation, and other adoption adventures. We have been painting, cleaning out, building furniture, registering, childproofing, completing training hours, and much, much more to get ready, and our excitement grows to bring our little girl home. With the help of a couple of great friends, we turned our second bedroom into something that actually resembles a nursery now, and our downstairs dining room is now a library/office with plenty of play space for our daughter.
Here's a preview of her room...there's still a lot to be done, but the new wall color (it was maroon below the chair rail when we moved in) is much lighter and brighter.
I have decided that one of my favorite things to do is clean out the house. Our friends are well on their way in their adoption journey (PaulAndKirstenAdopt.blogspot.com), and they’ve been collecting items for a fundraiser garage sale. This has been exactly the motivation I’ve needed to go through everything we own, and really decide what we “need” and what we don’t. I am so happy to say that we literally got rid of almost half of our belongings, from clothes to furniture, to decorations and kitchen items. And to be honest- I don’t miss any of the items we got rid of.
It is so freeing to clean and simplify your home in this way. I didn’t think we had a lot of belongings until I actually went through everything and saw that we had plenty of items that we were not using on a regular basis. So, as the Robertsons say- “they gone!” The added benefit is that the next time we move will be so much easier than the last…and with four flights of stairs leading up to our little “tree house,” that is a very good thing. I’d love to extend the challenge to you of cleaning our your home too, even if it is a room- heck, a drawer- at a time and donate it. Trust me when I say that it is more therapeutic for you than for the recipient. Check out Paul and Kirsten’s blog if you’d like to donate items to their garage sale, and they have other great giving opportunities as well.
For those of you doing the $100/month challenge (or any set amount per month, for that matter), I have found a “cheating” opportunity that I wanted to share with you. If you are a member at Costco, they are currently doing a promotion where if you spend $100 on any P&G products, you get a rebate offer of a $20 Costco cash card that you can spend as a gift card for whatever you want, including food. P&G products include Charmin, Crest, Oral-B, Tide, Olay, Febreeze, Swiffer, Vicks, Gillette, Iams, and many more brands. Many of these brands are also on sale now through 3/30/14. So if you already buy these household items, you may want to stock up now on products you are going to purchase in the future anyway, and you could use the $20 cash card toward groceries in later months. You’ll save money on sale P&G items that you already use, and you’ll get a little bonus for your grocery budget- it’s a win-win. Be sure to read the fine print- only two cash cards per household, and they’re mailed out 6-8 weeks after the promotion ends.
I’d love to hear how you are doing with your grocery budgeting! So far this year, after March, I have $47 in my “rollover” fund, which is good since I’m sure we will need to be buying more when our little one comes home. Now go simplify your home and your life ;), and thank you for reading about this mindful home!
