March 2nd, on which I quickly had to find two things to purge in an alliterative manner:
A pair of pink plastic pretties, purchased, not purloined. Peace, people.
Tag: minimalist challenge
March Minimalist Challenge, Day 1
I’m so sorry, but there were requests for me to continue this. I’ll keep them brief and alliterative when at all possible.
Day one: A broken, bejeweled backscratcher:
Peace, people.
Minimalist Challenge, At Long Last Day 28
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November,
All the rest have thirty-one.
February has twenty-eight,
But leap year coming one in four
February then has one day more.
2018 is not a leap year, thus today, February 28, is the last day of the February minimalist challenge. It has been a good month to get rid of stuff, beginning on day one with this green bath rug, which developed its own story https://nananoyz5forme.com/2018/02/08/be-careful-what-you-ask-for/.
Along the way I’ve surrendered books,
And old makeup containers.
I’ve also bid adieu to spices, shoes, sample products, and a boatload of other stuff that I won’t bore you with.
Don’t worry, the cat didn’t get tossed.
On this 28th day of February there was only one object I deemed perfect to celebrate the finale. Wine corks. Twenty-eight wine corks.
My cropping is lousy, but trust me, there is one cork for every day of a non-leap year February. I worked hard for those corks.
Thanks to everyone who followed my progress this month. Blogging about the challenge made it fun and gave me something to look forward to every day. I’ll continue in March, sparing you all the details, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned it’s that I have junk to spare.
Now, I think I’ll pop the cork on a new bottle of wine and celebrate the end of February properly.
Peace, people.
Minimalist Challenge, Day 27 Bye Bye!
Apparently in the world of the minimalist challenge there are such things as bye days. These are days that a participant might be awarded due to the excellent nature of a previous day’s offering. On a bye day, said participant doesn’t have to purge anything!
Great news, eh? Well, not exactly because the award left me high and dry in the blogging arena. I’ve begun to use the challenge as something of a reliable crutch and all of a sudden it was knocked out from under me. I’m limping badly here.
In case you wondered, this is the display for day 26 that earned me the bye. It was impressive, even if I do say so myself.
I’ve already prepared for day 28, so I’m taking the day off. Bye for now!
Minimalist Challenge, Puttin’ on the Ritz Day 26
Last night Studly Doright and I were watching the University of Kansas basketball team play Texas Tech for the Big 12 championship on television. It was a great, too-close-for-comfort game, and Studly worked up a powerful hunger while cheering for the Jayhawks.
Late in the second half he asked, “Do we have any snacks? I feel like I need to eat something if we’re going to win this game.”
Rather than throwing something at him or telling him to get his own damned snack I hoisted myself out of my chair and went in search of some munchies. The first likely snacks I came upon were several boxes of Ritz cheese crackers and a few more of the peanut butter version.
We don’t normally keep these on hand, but I recalled buying them in preparation for hurricane survival last summer. There’s nothing like a Ritz cracker to see you through the dark times, am I right?
Before asking Studly if the crackers would fill the bill for his snack I thought to check the expiration dates. November 17, 2017, was stamped on each box. So while they didn’t get to fulfill their destiny as snacks, the crackers were pressed into service for today’s minimalist challenge.
Twenty-three packages of Ritz crackers plus three of the boxes in which they were stored makes a total of 26 items for February 26.
I found Studly another snack, and the resulting energy revived him enough to power the Jayhawks through to a two-point victory over the Red Raiders and KU’s 14th straight conference championship. I doubt they’ll publicly thank us, though.
Minimalist Challenge, Day 25: A Sticky Situation
On day 25 I’m getting rid of items I used while working for a reading research program in Tallahassee. These stickers along with the non-refillable mechanical pencils and the plastic box I toted them around in, have been hanging around my closet for the past year doing absolutely nothing except taking up space.
My youngest grandchild might want the stickers, the regular pencils, and the pink box, but the mechanical pencils are going into the trash.
I suspect that if I’d counted individual stickers instead of sticker sheets I could have scored a lot more points, but honestly, who wants to do that? Plus, I’m not too worried about having enough detritus to meet my goals. This has been much too easy, and that’s kind of sad.
Peace, people!
Minimalist Challenge, Day 24
Today I’m ridding myself of a group of decorative items, a couple of pieces of clothing, three Texas license plates, an empty perfume bottle, and half a dozen empty boxes. There are actually more than 24 items in the mix on this 24th day of February because once again I made a purchase (perfume, because the old bottle was empty) that was merely a want and not a need; although, some would argue that perfume is a must have. I love to smell pretty, but I don’t mind going sans scent, either.
About half of today’s haul will go to Goodwill and some will go to the recycling bin. As long as they’re all gone, I’m a happy camper.
There are only four more days to go in the February challenge, and I feel like I’ve barely made a dent in the acclimated clutter. I’m still trying to decide if I’ll begin anew in March.
Minimalist Challenge, Guinness Day 23
I promise these Guinness bottle caps have been collected over many, many weeks, not a matter of a few days. There are 23, plus eight to compensate for two frivolous purchases I made on Thursday.
These bottle caps have been taking up space in a kitchen drawer and will be forwarded to Studly Doright’s youngest sister, the beautiful and witty Amy, in Texas. Amy is a creative soul who will turn these Guinness caps into a work of art.
Of course, some would argue, they already are a work of art. And the Guinness? Sublime.
Peace, people.
Minimalist Challenge, Day 22: A Disturbance in the Force
As I journey deeper into February with the Minimalist Challenge, I’ve begun to realize how much I cling to certain unnecessary things: empty boxes, shopping bags, expired spices. Ridding myself of those kinds of items, though, caused me little to no angst. Today’s choices, by comparison, almost made me cry.
I’m a Star Wars geek, having lost count of the number of times I’ve watched episodes IV, V, and VI. And during the desolate years between the film Return of the Jedi (episode VI) and the prequel series beginning with The Phantom Menace (episode I), I consoled myself by reading books about the Star Wars universe.
The collection pictured above is but a drop in my personal Star Wars bucket. The books commence where Return of the Jedi ended and follow the intrepid rebels and their imperial enemies on one adventure after another. Some of the books are outstanding, stand alone novels that would have made great follow up movies to the original series. I fervently hoped the story lines in these George Lucas approved novels would be pursued on the big screen. Alas, the writers and directors went a different route.
I’m going to see if my grandson wants these books. If he doesn’t I’ll donate them to the Goodwill book store. Farewell. May the Force be with them.
Peace, people.
Minimalist Challenge, Lizard in the Mix Day 21
Today’s haul came mostly from my closet. Included are two pair of seldom worn shoes, along with my defective motorcycle boots (I lost the sole from the left boot on Saturday https://nananoyz5forme.com/2018/02/18/anyone-know-a-good-blacksmith/), a T-shirt, and a couple of bags, a book on tape, several cosmetic items, and three heart shaped paper doilies. And then there’s the lizard.
Here’s a closeup:
He’s dead. Apparently one of the cats brought him in and left him as a precious gift for me. I damned near stepped on him while carrying fresh sheets from the dryer to the bedroom. Nothing good would have come from that.
So Mr. Lizard, along with the piece of toilet paper I used to pick him up are being tossed today. Never a dull moment at Doright Manor.
Peace, people.
Praying for Eyebrowz 