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Across the Fence:  Simplifying Life...Suggestions Please  |
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candismom
True Blue Farmgirl
560 Posts
Elizabeth
560 Posts |
 Posted - Jan 23 2007 : 5:49:51 PM
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Hello,
This is what I have been working on for 2 weeks. I have the seasonal closets to do next week and I am done. Today it was nice to work around the house and not have stuff everywhere. I bought canvas bags from LL Bean I take food shopping. When I check out I have them put everything back in my cart and I move off to the side and sack my own stuff. They don't have a clue how to sack it.
Here is a great blog that will help you.
http://orgjunkie.blogspot.com/
Hugs,
Elizabeth |
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daffodil dreamer
True Blue Farmgirl
805 Posts
Jayne
Hamilton
Victoria
Australia
805 Posts |
Posted - Jan 23 2007 : 8:49:43 PM
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I too have been cleaning/sorting out recently, as hopefully we are moving soon! So it is sorting with a mission - it is helping me be more ruthless that it costs a lot to move stuff from one side of the country to the other!
Just finished doing my son's playroom, so am allowing myself a treat to chat for 20 minutes until tackling something else! My question is how many toys can a 2 year old accumulate?! The answer is, apparently, thousands!!
Best wishes and happy sorting,
Jayne |
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Nance in France
True Blue Farmgirl
1438 Posts
Nancy
St. Laurent de la Salanque
France
1438 Posts |
Posted - Jan 24 2007 : 02:44:22 AM
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| Brenda, it took me being a transplant (even if only for a few months stretch at a time) to see the difference in lifestyle and quality of life between the US and the "other" country I happened to land in, France. People here generally have less stuff and seem no less happy than the next person. How does the Bible put it...."with food and raiment (clothes) be content". Certainly other religious tomes espouse the same sentiment, and it really is a good mantra to live by. Maybe it is because France is comprised of mainly small villages instead of big cities (nowhere to run, nowhere to hide), but I can tell you, the local news for this region we live in virtually never has a report of violent crime or robbery, as opposed to the city I live in back home, where the news often leads off with something like that! And I am by no means bashing the US because I love my home and life there, but we could sometimes take a cue from other nations in how we govern ourselves. Everybody in France is guaranteed health care regardless of ability to pay. Rosemary, you are right; now THAT is one good indication of a civilized country. Everyone is important enough to get taken care of. Instead of only two political parties, like we have, there are about 16 here, hubby says, including one labeled the Environmental Party! I think in America (and everywhere) it will take lots of little efforts, one person at a time, setting a better example, growing in numbers until they are too large to be ignored. Maybe we can start the Organic Party someday! To all my wonderful farmgal friends, sow one seed of a good deed today, and go to bed happy! Nance |
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ByHzGrace
True Blue Farmgirl
348 Posts
348 Posts |
Posted - Jan 28 2007 : 12:55:08 PM
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ok sooo much to say, and my limited time today to answer=(another part of my intentional living= is clocking my time spent in front of a one dimensional screen away from my 3dloved ones)... in sunday school today, we discussed a handout with stats: 65% of us spend more time with our puter then our spouse? ouch and on top of that American avg tv viewing= 28hours a week = solid 2months a year=9 years out of 65 ouch ouch
Nancy
very thought provoking responses, i do love your compassionate outlook and your ornament . Do you think the gotta get it consumption level in the states has anything to do with matching our longer work hours/less holiday time?
Reducing consumption does take planning, ya know we talked in Sunday School how now we are replacing time I spent shopping with organizing/remastering. I have been trying to catalog in a way all my incoming stuff to keep track of my re-useable things, especially from packing products... and the amount is overwhelming but inspiring too... my creative appetite has been whetted ... i had forgotten I took a scout leader class at a powwow on using scraps for crafts. I toted a half a car load to our nursery school at church, drop off crates to a elementary school, and called a scout pack to get their need list, so I'm down one recycle bin already.
Buying from local farmers/co-op bulk does minimize (I take my own crate,glass jar, basket for eggs and milk + my cannister goes w/ me to my friends coffee shop to load my fair trade beans)
Have any of your communities talked about a bag tax or demanding merchants use biodegradables? Have y'all heard about weaving with bags?
http://www.bagbed.com/
http://www.johndahlsen.com/thumbs/plastic_bags.html
Or the Missouri gals seen the above public art from bags?
My splurges have always been for guitars. I gifted my electric to one of my sons band friends yesterday...still debating on my amp.
Rosemary on the disaster scale... our stuff got whacked by the big guy 2004, when we had 3 hurricanes. House without a roof doesnt protect much stuff priorities realigned for me.
1. first lesson evacuation travel is sloooooooooow
be first out (...To go a 100 miles to Tampa took us 8 hours to evacuate).
2.what is important ...liquid gold=water. we know we'll be on our own 3days before our government trucks roll.
speaking of h20 do any of you divert your graywater? drink bottled water?
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/01/21/BUGE7NL8RA1.DTL
Brenda,I do lead an org to distribute surplus clothing/shoes to our local women and childrens havens,tho when you see the amount I have to alter to wear coming out of my own closet...  yikeys I have enough to open my own size 12-14 warehouse.I'm contemplating how fun it would be to cut up my sun dresses to make my own beach Tent. A true tent dress! Complete the ensemble with maybe matching picnic tablecloths and napkins. 
Weaving has brought me= fiber lust. With your yarn shop example,you could knit to clothe the naked  , the yarn owners stay in business because they operate to meet our preference.Say our preference is to knit with cashmere, somebody has to be the supplier to meet the cashmere demand. Aren't vehicle mfg with the introduction of anti steel bodies keeping my car from rusting as fast(making a used car last longer)? So are they meeting longer use preferences too? Have you seen those cargo bikes?http://bakfietscargo.blogspot.com/
this for me is one of those do we spend to conserve and feel safer healthier?
some idea links:
http://www.make-stuff.com/recycling/
http://www.eco-artware.com/newsletter/index.shtml#Scrapile
http://www.kid-at-art.com/
http://www.resourcerevival.com/
Elizabeth how is your cleaning going?
Jayne how far are you moving? |
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Nance in France
True Blue Farmgirl
1438 Posts
Nancy
St. Laurent de la Salanque
France
1438 Posts |
Posted - Jan 29 2007 : 03:34:17 AM
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Morning, ladies. Glad to see this interesting thread is still active. And Ellen, so happy you like the ornament, too! I agree with your hunch that our consumptive gotta have it/I deserve it mindset absolutely coincides with the longer workweek, less time spent with loved ones on a holiday and the frustration that brings on, which the AD GURUS take full advantage of. They get us at our weakest point; feeling out of control, guilty at neglecting family, tired, longing for and unable to achieve that Ozzie and Harriet life, but with cash and credit cards at the ready!! The irrefutable law that Money (and things) cannot buy happiness is what we continually try to disprove! An exaggerated (?) scenario: you come home exhausted at the end of the day, slap together a meal less enthusiastically and probably less healthy than you might like, and that is assuming you actually DO eat together, only to collapse later on the couch and stare into space (TV), and by Friday night you are really worn out by the routine. You're too tired to create that happy organized home so you choose the instant gratification route and buy yourself something to (temporarily) cheer you up. When that stuff begins to accumulate, your life is even more cluttered and one day you feel like that painting by Edvard Munch, "The Scream"!! Surrounded by beautiful things, and drowning in them! Now, gals, I love sarcasm and have painted a more drastic picture than most people live, certainly. But the message is the same. We are the richest nation in the world yet antidepressant drug use is at an all time high, not to mention teen suicide and personal bankrupcty. What is wrong with this picture?
Nothing will bring us more happiness and contentment than being in a cheerful home with our loved ones: the less we buy, the less debt, less to clean and keep on top of, which means we appreciate what we have more, more time to relax and de-stress, more time really "being" with friends and family, and more energy to be creative and reflective with our lives. Alot of your lives are already like that, and the rest of us are making our way, slowly but surely. I can say from experience that you cannot make a complete and instant turnaround like this. When I took early retirement and came to live with my husband here, his response to my requests to acquire something would often be "We don't really need this......." and sometimes I felt/still feel huffy afterwards, but gradually I began to realize the value in denying myself something that happened to catch my eye. It makes it much more rewarding now when I DO splurge on something. Discipline in prison must be horrible, but when we have the FREEDOM to discipline ourselves, that feels more like success in working toward a goal. Oooohh, long post ladies. My apologies!! Nance
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blueroses
True Blue Farmgirl
1323 Posts
Debbie
in the Pandhandle of
Idaho
USA
1323 Posts |
Posted - Jan 29 2007 : 09:51:24 AM
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Nance,
You are so right about self discipline, and love what you have to say. Last week, I asked my bank to reissue debit cards to my dh & me because a major retailer had their billing records hacked and I knew I had used my card at their store in November. So, I took some cash out of my account for our needs/wants for the week (I used a check @ the grocery). Wow - my dh was right. One is sure a lot less apt to spend when doling out cash!!! It really makes you think before you hand over the green stuff! I think we may have to begin doing this - sort of the way that Dave Ramsey advises. It was quite an eye opener.
"You cannot find peace...by avoiding life."
Virginia Woolfe |
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Persephone
True Blue Farmgirl
172 Posts
Katrina
Indiana
USA
172 Posts |
Posted - Jan 29 2007 : 10:05:16 AM
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| I'm doing my spring cleaning right now. (That way, when it's actually spring, I can be out in the garden! :)) I'm working my way from one end of the apt to the other. I started in our bedroom closet- we have all our stuff in boxes, and I went through each box one at a time, and sorted into keep, give away, and toss piles. Then I put the keep things back in the box, and moved on to the next one. Just keep doing that- it helps to break it into little bits- one box, drawer, shelf at a time, til you've made it through one room. Then do the next one. I LOVE decluttering- I do it twice a year, in spring and fall, and it really helps keep unneeded things out of the home- I have a mental inventory of everything we own, and I know approximately where to go to find it- once you've decluttered, the next times are much easier, because instead of years of buildup, you've only got about 6 months of buildup. |
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Rosemary
True Blue Farmgirl
1825 Posts
Virginia
USA
1825 Posts |
Posted - Jan 29 2007 : 10:10:08 AM
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No apologies needed, Nancy! Everything you said is so true. I think sometimes we farmgirls like to imagine a more idyllic existence than we really have. Oh sure, some of us are cheerfully up at dawn baking bread, and outside by noon hanging glimmering white sheets on a clothesline, surrounded by fragrant roses, with kittens in our apron pockets and all that, but let's get real! Sometimes, life's a grind, and we do fall prey to the lure of commercial excess. I think the powers that be try to make us more receptive to sales pitches by forcing us to believe the only control we have over our lives is to fill them with Things. Their Things. Or Their Political Party's Things.
I'm reading a book now that I didn't want to mention on the thread under Reading Room because everyone else was mentioning such charming and uplifting books. What's got my old grosgrain ribbon bookmark in it right now is "The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things." The author (Barry Glassner) goes into the reality of a lot of things the media pass off as fact, and finds that these are exaggerations or outright lies. At the back of this campaign of shock and awe, he believes, is that the more frightened people are of the big scary world around them (or right down the street), the more vulnerable they will be to the messages of the advertisers and corporate supporters on which the media thrive.
<cringe, gulp> |
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Nance in France
True Blue Farmgirl
1438 Posts
Nancy
St. Laurent de la Salanque
France
1438 Posts |
Posted - Jan 29 2007 : 10:28:03 AM
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Oh, gee, Rosemary....been spying on me while I hung the laundry??? (guffaw)!!! The good thing about having idealism and dreams are that we NEED them to continue to improve ourselves and our lives. As we inch closer we become happier and more confident that we are on the right track. And yep, people feel (me included) like credit cards are somehow "magic" money.....doesn't hurt at the point of purchase because we ain't yanking greenbacks outta the old wallet. We go home (poorer) but with our wad o' cash intact! THEN the day of reckoning cometh, once monthly, ha! Remember the old Patsy Cline song "Who's sorry now?".......cha ching! I was in that credit card mentality for along time. Banks LOVE people like that. When you don't pay the balance of each month that "really good deal" might end up costing more than the original sales price!!
And not wanting to end this on a note of doom and gloom, but what BETTER time to make the disciplined lifestyle become normal than when we don't HAVE to..... people during and after WWII had veggie gardens because they'd starve to death otherwise. People killed themselves in 1929 over the prospect of financial ruin. They rationed because they had to. If a black cloud lingers over America again (self inflicted or from an outside source), how much better prepared will we be able to get through it and even help those around us, if we aren't in some shell shocked frame of mind reeling at the reality of lost jobs, piled up debt, foreclosures.... you get the ugly picture I am sure. I love you guys tremendously, and learn so much from ya'll, gain confidence to try things, etc. With people like you spread all over the globe, we can get through anything!! Hope everybody is having a day of peace and contentment!! Nance |
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Rosemary
True Blue Farmgirl
1825 Posts
Virginia
USA
1825 Posts |
Posted - Jan 29 2007 : 10:39:20 AM
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<plucking the kittens out of my apron pockets as I speak>
Dreams are the stuff that we are made on, to twist the words of the bard. Don't get me wrong! Having an idyll or two up our sleeves is fabulous, and the simpler, the more pastoral, the better! It's the phoney-baloney ideals foisted on us by advertisers (and yep, credit card companies, too) that we need about as much as we need weevils in our bolls. |
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catscharm74
True Blue Farmgirl
4687 Posts
Heather
Texas
USA
4687 Posts |
Posted - Jan 29 2007 : 11:12:33 AM
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| I have to say that is one reason I am getting off the daily grind bus. Money is important but not so important to me. It never has been. I have always gotten by and living a simple life has helped that. I don't watch much tv or read too many newspapers or magazines (to much doom and glood for me) I keep one foot firmly planted in reality while the other is off having fun. Balance is key!!! |
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ByHzGrace
True Blue Farmgirl
348 Posts
348 Posts |
Posted - Feb 03 2007 : 12:13:49 PM
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this is a good topic, thanks for spending time adding your thoughts.
If one of our missions is creating a sustainable community ...what steps are you involved in to foster development in your area?
If we are peeking over this virtual fence and catching Nancy and Rosemary with their kittens in their apron pockets how much time do you spend peeking in on your neighbors? volunteering? baking and extra loaf? knitting a scarf?
Is your neighbor hood like ours, the front porch community is now the backyard community?
How many of you plant to share abundance with your neighbors?
Do we have victory gardens to make our community be winners?
(I planted 6 watermelon and 6 muskmelons today, way more then I can eat with the intention of sharing/canning.)
On the consumerism front have you seen the Visa commercial money shouldnt slow you down of the lunch room line?
1 minute
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDTDgVgQ9ic
here the whole world is running smoothly, while everyone swipes their card, then here I come wanting to use cash and everything crashes as the line comes to a halt?
What kind of sublimal=propaganda messages does this send out to our children when we use plastic? |
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doglady
True Blue Farmgirl
435 Posts
Tina
Howard
Ohio
USA
435 Posts |
Posted - Feb 03 2007 : 1:00:57 PM
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Ellen, I loved the commercial and how true. I actually had my trash service this week start charging a $2 fee if you write an old fashion check and mail it. They prefer that you make your payment online!! I refuse to put sensitive information online and I don't even own an ATM card.
I have been cleaning out the clutter one room at a time and It's still a work in progress. I am getting there but since I'm organizing at the same time - it's slow. As I go through each room, I sort things into Toss Out, Give Away, or Keep. As soon as I decide to give it away, it goes into my van for the next trip into town. That way the clutter is out of the house. It works for me. I also redid the budget and I find that I'm saying NO to a lot of things I don't really need to buy. I still have several books that I bought and haven't had the time to read so why buy more! It's amazing how many things you end of buying twice just because you can't find the first item. Such a good topic.
Tina
The dogs own the house but the people pay the mortgage!
www.kennelcreations.com |
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Nance in France
True Blue Farmgirl
1438 Posts
Nancy
St. Laurent de la Salanque
France
1438 Posts |
Posted - Feb 04 2007 : 03:06:15 AM
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| Ellen, that is one commercial that I love to hate! Imagine sending the message out that you SCREW THINGS UP by using "real" money..... and I loved your message to all of us about being more community oriented. I don't do half of what I could. But I did teach my little Sunday School girls a good lesson two winters ago when we knit scarves that I later donated to a battered women's shelter along with a few clothing items I put in the sack. With coupons the yarn was not terribly expensive for me, and it was good for them to labor over something that would be enjoyed by someone other than themselves. Remember that eggroll and fortune cookie message I got....."including others in your life will bring you great happiness".....it gave me the incentive to go across the street and knock on my neighbors door (who had also gone through a painful divorce) to invite her to dinner, and three and a half years later, here I sit in France, happily married to her father! I love that proverb "hands to work, hearts to God", and you have inspired me to get busier! Love to all, Nance |
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simpler1773
True Blue Farmgirl
234 Posts
Ricki
Ashland
Wisconsin
USA
234 Posts |
Posted - Feb 04 2007 : 05:54:03 AM
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Such amazing posts! The links, oh the links! I'm going to be looking at those all day, lol.
As for simplification ~ take everything out of your closet...everything! And only put back in what you absolutely love or can't live without. Put the rest in a bag or box, and if you haven't needed to dig in the bag for a certain time period, get rid of it without looking in it!
I just got done making bags with fabric I already had using the pattern at http://www.morsbags.com/
Now I plan to replace things as they wear out around the house with stuff from this website http://www.rawganique.com/index.htm I'm hoping that stuff will last a long long time and will be better for the environment. It's more expensive up front but then so is how many trips to sprawl mart?
Anyway ~ Loved reading this thread. You are all such an inspiration to me.
~Ricki~
You can't pour anything out of an empty vessel, take care of yourself! |
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ByHzGrace
True Blue Farmgirl
348 Posts
348 Posts |
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Across the Fence: Simplifying Life...Suggestions Please |
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Simplifying Life...Suggestions Please
