Organizing Your Life Is Part Of Being Frugal

Early morning at Peaceful Forest Homestead

I have been working on trying to get more organized for 2011. By my birthday, which is in June. I am selling off most of my books. I am going through my photographs and dividing them up for the younger generation in my family. Those I am labeling and making albums for each of them so they will have them later on. One part of organizing your home is that it also organizes your life. It makes it easier so you are on top of all things, say like bill paying, taxes, pets, appointments, birthdays, auto insurance renewal, etc. All those things that need some kind of care are routine. That's the way I like it.

My used books all are being sold on Bonanza. Also collectibles includes souvenirs. So all those mementos from past trips and excursions can be listed and sold. Yes! People buy them for some reason. When I had my eBay store I bought bags of junk mail from a thrift store and that sold like hot cakes! Of course, it was "vintage junk mail" and that made it popular. Unfortunately, my junk mail is not vintage.

Going through our clothing and getting rid of anything we haven't worn in the last year. I do have a back up supply of warm clothing and I definitely will be keeping that. Those are things that we rotate into our closet as we need it, just like the rotation of our food that is stocked up. Anything that takes up space I will be seriously eyeing as to whether we need to hold on to it or not. It is surprising what a box here and there amounts to in space being wasted in our house.

Fresh green onion all winter!

To change the subject a bit, I wanted to share a couple of ideas I have done lately. One is two onions that got hidden in my pantry started sprouting. So I have put them in a pot, no dirt, and let them grow. Now I am using the fresh green onion! This happened by accident but I am thinking of doing this every winter. I hunger for those fresh homegrown foods in the winter months.

Another frugal idea I came up with the other night was because I was frustrated by the way they make coffee cans now. I hated when the name brands of coffee went to that pull off foil piece attached to rim on the can. Then when the brand I purchase at Save-Alot, McDaniels, which is still a bargain at $4.99 a can did it too.....I was really frustrated then! Let me explain why it bothers me. When you get to the end of the can you can not pour out, or get that little bit that is left in the can. It is trapped by that stupid rim! Well, being at the last of the can the other night, I decided to take off the bottom of the can, and see how that would work. It would. So last night when I opened the new can, I opened it from the bottom and left the top as it was. Left the plastic top over the foil part in case it wouldn't work. But it did! Now there is no rim to trap the last grains of coffee when I finish this can. I used another plastic top to cover it. Works great and saves this very frugal coffee drinker that last bit of coffee in the can.

NOTE: Since I wrote this earlier today, it has been pointed out to me that the rim can be removed with a can opener. I tried and it worked. So I feel that was dumb thing for me not to have discovered myself! I spent months tolerating this coffee wasting can. 

Snow on the deck is Nikita's favorite place to lay!

Since everyone seems to be sharing their photos of snow on their decks I thought I would put mine up here too. That is our dog, Nikita's favorite place to lay down and roll in the snow. It does not matter how cold or how much snow there is. She goes out with her tail wagging! I read yesterday that 49 states had snow, all but FL! That meant even Hawaii had snow! Wow, that surprised me but maybe they have had snow before? I wouldn't know since I have never been there. Counting the days till spring....................counting today....66 days till the first day of spring. 

Copyright © 2011  Kathleen G. Lupole

All Photographs Copyright © 2011  Kathleen G. Lupole