My van is gone!  Yay!

You’ll remember that our old, beat up, huge van broke down for the last time in May.  My plan was to donate it to charity right away, but that plan was foiled due to clutter obscuring my extra sensory perception failing to discern the location of the title.  GRR!!!

This past Saturday we got a visit from our friendly City Code Compliance Officer!  Turns out there’s a law ‘gainst having a non-working vehicle on the premises.  We were given ten days notice.

THAT got the title found in a big hurry!  Took us about 2 hours, but Hubs finally located it under some clutter he had stacked up for no good reason.  Never mind, the clutter is all put away thrown out now.

And while I was searching in my files for the title I found the number for the Purple Heart Car Donation Program, where we sent our last Suburban when it died.

I know, I kinda personify my cars, but y’all, when you have to drive a car that seats 8 or more, and you’re on a tight budget, you find you are very appreciative when you have one that works out!  So appreciative that it leans toward personification.  I don’t name my vehicles.  That’s just too far for me.  But I will tell you that I refer to my new white Suburban as “My lovely Suburban” almost every time I talk about it.  That’s not weird, right?  RIGHT???

Anyway, the point of all this meandering is that yesterday was the day!  The tow truck arrived!  The man loaded our old van and drove away!

I’m so relieved!  It’s wonderful to not risk a fine from the ridiculous Code Compliance folks, but more than that, it’s another big step in our preparation for moving house!

I finally have all my kids at home for the whole day all at once.  When you have teens this just happens more and more seldom.

And since they’re all here and our city has decided that it is time for my neighborhood to have our wonderful brush and rubbish pick-up AND it’s the last time we’ll have this service for free before we move . . . it’s time for the boys to be cleaning out the garage!  BIG TIME!

I love it!  I am a closet minimalist.  I love LOVE love seeing all this clutter go out to the curb.

They are unearthing lots of junk I forgot we ever owned, much less kept.  What is the matter with us?

When we move we may very likely move to a place with no garage.  That would be a huge adjustment for us.  I do hope so.  Less clutter storage!

Anyway, I wrote this whole post to tell you about the phones.

Once upon a time we had a home phone.  The kind that actually plugs into the wall.

So, Tex brought these weird phones with all their cords and plugs and hugeness into the house to make sure that they were supposed to go into the Goodwill box.

Here’s the rub.

Sally Mae saw them.

And you know how girls are!  It’s coded into the DNA to NEED to talk on phones.  She almost cried when I told Tex that, no, we don’t want to keep them and, yes, please put them into the give away box.

I have to admit, I hate when she cries.  But it occurred to me to use a sneaky diversion tactic on my sweet, little phone-lovin’ girl.  I asked her why it made her sad to see those phones go.  She admitted that she thought they were neat and that we should USE them.  (See? DNA.)  But I was ready for her.  I told her that, while those phones might still actually be functional, they only work when you are at home!  Can you imagine?  How inconvenient is that?!?!!!

She dropped the idea like a hot potato.  Those neat phones, full of mysterious buttons, lost all their charm once she realized you don’t keep them in your purse!

I recently quipped to a friend, “Hey!  It’s 2010 now!  Where the heck is my flying car?!?!!”

I’ve decided it’s cool enough that I have children who have no idea what a dial tone is.

You may remember that we are getting ready to move house in a few months.  We’ve lived in this house for goin’ on eighteen years, and saying that makes me feel like a geezer.

The thing is. . . there is an, um, an accumulation.  An accumulation of CLUTTER!  Good grief.

I am so glad I have teen age boys who are willing to clean the garage for room and board.  They’re glad about that too.  They’re kind of attached to the whole concept of room and board.

There was a big difference made in the garage last Tuesday.

The boys took a little break to try and hack into our ancient 486.

Remember this post about how to let kids learn to ride a bike on their own by taking the pedals off for a day?  What a grand idea that was, except for the part where we couldn’t remember where we put Sally Mae’s bike pedals.  That was a few months ago.  My poor baby has been entertaining herself with her scooter all this time, patiently waiting for us to find her pedals and fix her bike.  Poor kid.

Well, during the clean up the pedals were found!  She’s been ready for those pedals for a long time.  She hardly needed any help before she looked like an old hand at bike riding!

Look at her go!

I thought about being teary eyed over the whole thing.  You know, my B.A.B.Y. has learnt to ride a bike!  Then I realized that she is gonna be able to entertain herself for hours and get massive amounts of exercise, all with only minimal assistance from me.  It’s a whole new level of freedom I hadn’t seen coming!  I decided to chuck the tears and indulge in leaping.for.joy!!!

This is what I’m gonna do with some of that free time and space!

I guess y’all know we are preparing to move house for the first time in 18 years.  This week is a big un-clutter push.  We’ve been working on the garage and the older boys’ room.

Good grief!  What giant heaps of . . . stuff!

We’ve hauled a ton of junk out to the curb to be picked up by  the city next week 0n their regularly scheduled rounds.  Tossing junk is the easy part of this equation.  Dealing with the rest of the clutter is the hard part.

Stuff has to be sorted.  Decisions have to be made.  Plans have to be followed through on.

I’ve been gearing up and adding to our to do lists daily.  We’re doin’ pretty good.

It’s the books though.  Books are hard to part with.  But we’re doin’ it.  We’ve made a ton of categories.

• Books to give to friends that we think will use them.
• Books to sell on my book blog and maybe eBay.
• There’s also a secret category that I’ll tell you about in a few days!
• Books to give to Goodwill.
• Books to list on PaperBackSwap.

What?  You haven’t heard about PaperBackSwap?  You don’t know know what a cool deal you are missing out on!  It’s just what the name implies.  When you sign up and create an account, you list your books that you no longer need (it’s easy, you just enter the isbn).  Then once you have entered your first ten books they give you two credits that  you can use to order books from other members.  Usually one credit = one book.

And if you tell them I sent you (MotherHen88) then I’ll get a credit too (once you list your first ten books)!

So, get crackin’!  Un-clutter your book shelves and sign up!  Please use one of the links in this post to do so, it makes it automatically credit me as your referrer.  However, if you forgot to use my links, you can still list me (MotherHen88) as the friend who referred you!

The rare post script: My letter-carrier had a package for me today.  It was a book I had ordered.  Crackin’ myself up!

This post is linked to Frugal Friday and Thrifty Thursday.

When I woke up this morning I had no idea that today I would be getting a “new” book-shelf unit to replace my 40 year old unit I’ve been using for our school books.

As is our custom, lately, Hubs and I have been enjoying our morning coffee out on the front porch.  And since it’s our neighborhood’s turn for brush and rubbish pick up this week, we have a heap of junk out at our curb, and so do all our neighbors.  Tres white-trash!  No?

Anyway, I noticed that one of our neighbors, whose junk heap I had view of from my comfy rocker on the porch, had put out a couple of pieces of furniture since yesterday.  So, I sent Tex over there to  ”See if I’d be interested in them.”

So he asks me, “How am I gonna do that?”

Well, we had to have a little impromptu lesson on junk pickin’!

(Aren’t y’all relieved I have set the bar so low for “redneck white trash” standards?)

I told that cowboy what to look for and sent him off.  You know how to junk pick don’t ya?

1. still usable
2. at least clean up-able
3. all the important parts are there
4. doesn’t look like anyone died in it (only applies to recliners and the like)
5. is light enough to be carried by those folks as are available
6. will fit in my house (or car if I have to drive to get it)(that’s how I got my computer desk)
7. I like it/want it/need it

Since both pieces of furniture looked to be book shelf type items we didn’t have to worry about rule #4.  And when he’d inspected them carefully he reported that they both were in ok shape and seemed clean and usable.  Handy kid to keep around, huh?

So now I had to go see for myself.  Hubs had already declared one piece to be to large for our needs.  I had my eye on the smaller one anyway.

It was just an ordinary 3′ wide, 4′ high book shelf like you’d find at Target.  Not quite as flimsy as WalMart shelving.  The only problem was that it was missing a few of the little pegs that support the shelves.  I had a sneakin’ suspicion that the other unit might have some in it, and lo and behold, when I opened it up (it had doors and therefore could have been subject to junk pickin’ rule #4 after all)  anyhow, when I opened those doors the inside was fairly bristling with shelf support pegs!  So I snagged 8 of ‘em! (I sent Dusty back a few minutes later for the rest of ‘em.)

Now, lest you think that my junk pickin’ ways are akin to stealing you need to know that this is what folks do here.  It’s like a sport.  Folks from all over town will come in pick-up trucks and troll the neighborhoods where the junk piles proliferate (only when it’s officially their turn, otherwise setting junk at the curb violates some city ordinance).  I’ve gotten lots and lots of nice, usable items this way.

• my first double stroller
• Sally Mae’s high chair (a nice wooden one)
• my computer desk
• a table we use for another computer desk
• chairs galore
• mini trampoline
• rabbit cages (long ago)

And just in case you think I have now ruined the second piece of furniture for some other hapless junk-picker by removing all the pegs, hold your judgement and read on.

I had Tex and Hank bring my “new” shelf unit home and all during the getting of this nice piece of useful home furnishing I had been plotting.  Plotting to disasemble and replace the 40 year old book shelf unit that I’d been using these past 10 years for our school books and throw it on our junk heap, ‘cuz I’m NOT takin’ it when we move!.

I knew I had to make the change fast, the rubbish truck could come today!  I had to get my old shelf empty and out at the curb today!

So, I’m sittin’ there planning how to make the change, still before 8 a.m., and I have only procured my new shelf and hadn’t even begun to empty the old one when I hear that rubbish truck coming.

It’s too late!

Opportunity missed.

Now I had to plan just where I can store a busted apart old shelf unit for the next 6 months until it’s our turn again.  I was thinkin’ maybe I could just bust it up real small and put a few pieces into our trash can every week.  That might work.  Then it hit me.  The truck only did my side of the street.  A quick call to my friendly neighbors across the street and we’re back in business!

You never saw books fly off a shelf so fast!  Good thing I have a huge dining table so I didn’t have to set those stacks of books all the way on the floor, that would have hurt my back, and that makes me grumpy.

Bustin’ that shelf unit up was WAY harder than I expected, but I was motivated.  By that time the truck was comin’ back up the other side of the street!  All four of my (at home today) kids were haulin’ shelves and boards across the street while I was wailing on those side boards and the top shelf with the big hammer!  It was a big unit and falling apart, but still some of it didn’t quite wanna give up the ghost.

We finally got the last of it across the street and onto my friendly neighbors junk heap just in time for the truck.

I installed the shelf supports gleaned from the other piece (which is now on it’s way to the dump in case you were worried about it not being useful without it’s share of pegs), and tacked some staples to hold the back in place nicely.

It took some rearranging to fit all the books where I want ‘em, but I am so happy with my “new” school book shelves!

And I worked pretty hard at this, so I hereby give myself permission to not exercise today.

Here’s your shortcut back to Wordful Wednesdays.

And here’s your shortcut back to Things I Love Thursdays.

I have been a busy girl.  Sometimes I get on a roll and ya just need to stay outta the way!  Bring me empty boxes and take out these full ones and get back outta the way!

Whew!  Then I need to sit down with a big glass of ice water and try to breath normally.

If I had stopped to count the items I would not have gotten nearly as much done.  I’ll just estimate that it was about google plex infinity!  Is that a real number?  If it is then that is how many items are in my garbage can, recycle can, junk heap at the curb (hooray!  it’s our turn!) and on my porch in reasonably neat boxes waiting to be dropped off at the Goodwill store.

I’m tired.  I feel dusty from my eyebrows to my ankles.  And I forgot to take before photos.  Well, forgot is not the whole truth.  I wasn’t sure just what areas I was gonna cover, and once I get started I know better than to mess with the powerful force that is… momentum!  Plus, if I take a photo of the before stuff then the boy (just pick one) would have photographic evidence that I must have done something with the amphibian coloring book that he has had since forever and only ever colored 2 pages, and that was at gun point because I insisted.

I have long insisted that homeschooling actually has one draw back.  The little beggars are always here to witness me hauling their old junk out.

Ah well, I did take some after photos.

I’m kinda scared to think about how many days I’m gonna have to do this much de-junking before we can even begin to pack!

HELP!  I need a mocha frappuccino!

Here are your shortcuts to Things I Love Thursdayand Frugal Fridays.