Friday 5: Home is where the Hearth is

I limped through another 5-day workweek, although I worked from home on Monday so I guess it didn’t really count. I

figure I’ll get the hang of the five-day workweeks by the time President’s Day rolls around. For now, though, the productivity juices are really starting to flow again. I mean, I don’t want to brag, but today I was a productivity goddess.

Notable things this week:

• I was gifted a Mickey Mouse Chia Pet from coworker DR. The seeds sprouted tiny roots, but it dried up over the 3-day span I wasn’t there. I started it up again today with a plastic bag over it. CHILDREN grow Chia Pets. I’m sure I can make this work.
• I made Bang Bang shrimp for dinner tonight. Just cooking for myself, but it cost more to buy the ingredients than it would have to take myself to Bonefish Grill. It was still pretty tasty.
• It’s soooooo cold. I’m finding solace in the fact that the sun is setting later each day again. Fry the climate all you want and kill the change of seasons, but you’ll never affect the solstices and equinoxes.
• I’m still taking myself out for fancy coffee every Friday morning. Today I sat next to a meeting between a mentor and a mentee. At first I was all eye-rolly and cynical but then I listened in. The “find a mentor” thing wasn’t around when I started out in the workforce, so I’ll admit to being a bit jealous. Even though I’m not in the same field as they are, it’s still nice to glean words of wisdom from people who have been working longer than I have.
• I finally purchased World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor and my video card can’t take it. It heats up to almost 100 degrees C and then the computer dies. That stinks, because I played the beta and it was fine. I guess I need a new video card (sigh) but that’s going to have to wait a week or so.

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I started this blog post at 11:45, so it technically still counts as a Friday 5 on Friday even though it’s now 12:06am Saturday morning. The Friday 5 home office is in Hawaii, so I’m going to use that as my time standard.

This week’s theme is Home is where the Hearth is. Let’s do it!

1. What is your approach to dealing with (or preventing) clutter?

Clothing-wise, I get rid of anything I haven’t worn in a year. Let’s face it, my weight fluctuates. But I can’t keep a closet with clothes from size 8 to size *cough* because I don’t have the space. So if I ever get to an 8 again, I’ll get new duds. It’s okay. For general clutter, I find great inspiration from UFYH. The concept of a 20/10 was a gamechanger for me. It’s EASY to take only 20 minutes and dump things you don’t want.

Here’s where I get politically incorrect. I think the push to donate and recycle anything you can really hampers peoples’ ability to get rid of things. Because then these things get put into bags and boxes, and STILL remain in the house until people can get to the dump/Goodwill/library/etc. I’ll recycle. I’ll donate my undamaged clothes. But the rest gets trashed.

2. What kinds of (tangible) things do you seem to have an unreasonable time letting go of?

Birthday and Christmas cards from other people. I trashed them all a few years back, but I felt so guilty – especially when I got rid of family photo Christmas cards. But years and years of cards were really starting to take up space. Now I take time to read everything one more time before they get recycled.

3. If you could start completely over with your existing living space (and money were only a slight limitation), how would you make it more suited to you and your lifestyle?

I’d upgrade my charming red sofa to a sectional that would fit me along with the other human and dogs who like to hang with me.

4. How many standalone small kitchen appliances do you own, and how many do you use regularly?

• Waffle maker – use frequently
• Ninja blender thingy – use occasionally
• FoodSaver – use rarely
• George Forman grill – use rarely because it doesn’t heat up like the old models did.
• Keurig coffee maker – use at least twice a day
• Kitchen Aid mixer – use frequently
• Toaster – use frequently

5. What does your current living space really need more of?

I would love some kicky area rugs, but the window of opportunity between Old & Leaky Cat and Old & Leaky Dog was too small to make that move.

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WM’s away visiting his family this weekend so I’m bacheloretting it. Other than a trip to the bank to deposit a check and to Target for necessaries, looks like I’ll be spending this weekend going through my SQL book while streaming Friends off off Netflix.

Happy weekend to you!

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Next morning edits – I shouldn’t blog after midnight:

• Corrected spelling to gamechanger
• Added link to UFYH
• Added toaster to appliances
• Added categories/tag