Take It On Tuesday – Frugal Living at The Nut House – Lightening a Heavy Load

If you haven’t noticed yet, I have a new page up in my menu bar called I’m Not Cheap, I’m Frugal. I used to have another blog with that title that was based on freebies, coupons, samples, penny pinching advice, great deals found and shared, simple ways I stretch a small budget for my large family. I love coupons, requesting free samples and getting deals on everyday things that we need. The past couple of days I have been moving all of my Frugal Living deals and tidbits over here. For the most part that project is over and I wont be posting on my old blog any more and have made I’m Not Cheap, I’m Frugal a permanent part of The Nut House. Every week I search the internet for coupons and freebies of my favorite products and for things that I need to run my home. I search for samples of laundry detergent, shampoo, toothpaste, diapers, cleaning supplies, even vegetable seeds and food. I find coupon codes for shopping online, and purchase things through rebate sites, and use credit cards that give cash back. I look for all sorts of things a couple of times a week, and post them directly to my Frugal Living page.

This week I managed to get some serious work done in my new studio/office. I am only a few hours away from having a fully functional space that I can call all mine. The other day I found pile of cards that we got when Owee was born. Many of them were from people I never met from all over the country, strangers all praying for him, friends and family from all over the country all praying for him. It was one of those moments when I was working along in my own little world, everything stopped, and I just didn’t know what to do. So I sat and cried. When I look around at my mess that I made over the past couple of years, I know it is things like this that keep me from getting things done. It is also taking care of things like these that help me to grow stronger, and move on. When I look at my house for the past couple of years, and not even thinking about the addition and how building that affected everything – but looking at how our living space has been for the past couple of years and seeing how I have managed my home. For the most part, the main living areas have been taken care of, but my space, my studio, my bedroom, the closed closets and cupboards, they have all be where I put everything I don’t know what to do with. Just like my emotions and the way I function. I can keep everything on the outside running, I can keep the living areas running, the place that everyone sees is good to go, but the part that you don’t see, it piled up with all sorts of randomness. You don’t see that behind the closet door is piles of stuff full to the top with things that make my brain hurt. Things like the pile of cards that were sent to us when Owee was born.

For the past couple of months, I have been chipping away at all of that, and throwing out junk, giving away things we don’t need, and organizing everything we do need. As I have been doing that, I can feel myself getting stronger. I see what I am doing, and it feels good. I am not looking at closets that I know are full of useless things that I can’t seem to make a decision about. I am not looking at piles of paperwork that needs to be filed or shredded. I am not looking at the chaos piled up around me. No broken toys that I grabbed out of little hands to stash somewhere with no intention of ever fixing it. It feels great!

I am getting close to the end of it all. I sat down at my table, in my office today to drink my coffee and open up my blog reader and catch up on what was going on in the blogosphere. I sat in my chair and rolled around my office and there wasn’t bins and cardboard boxes in the middle of it all. I had work space and I leaned back in my chair and stared out my window and watched the clouds go by. The burden of being alone with everything for so much of the time is heavy, it feels good to lighten the load some. One day at a time, one baby step at a time.

It felt super duper awesome, with a side of way cool.

Now my kitchen sink is another story completely. Not worth elaborating on that though.

So what are you Taking On this Week? What kind of projects do you have going on?