Here is your chance to win the pair of books – Romancing Your Husband and Romancing Your Wife both by Debra White Smith.
Just leave a comment about why your mate rocks and you will be entered in the drawing to win!
Today’s Project – Get Rid of 21 pieces of Jewelry
So when you were cleaning out your jewelry last week, did you come across any of your “guilt gems”? These are the pieces that you don’t wear, but have a hard time getting rid of.
I have several pieces, but the main piece that weighs on me is the wedding ring from my first marriage. What do you do with something like this?
It has been sitting in my underwear drawer for six years. I have had various thoughts about this ring: Do I save it for my kids? (Why would they even want it?) Do I just keep it? It doesn’t seem right to take the symbol of my first marriage, hawk it for cash, and then go to Vegas. What to do?
All these thought go through my heard and take up more energy than this little ring should.
That is, until I read Susy Flory’s book So Long Status Quo. Take a look at what Susy has done with her jewelry.
Jewelry for Water
I had jewelry, sitting in a drawer gathering dust. I didn’t wear it much. Some of it was out of style or didn’t even fit anymore. Then by chance I saw a brief video with an opening scene that turned my stomach … filthy greenish water being collected in plastic jugs by African women and children from what looked like a weedy ditch.
Some startling statistics popped up on the screen:
The video, from the Africa Oasis Project (link to: http://www.africaoasisproject.org/), draws support for a charity that drills deep wells and brings fresh, clean drinking water to African villages where none exists.
I wanted to help, but I had no money.
Then I thought about the jewelry in that drawer.
At home I checked the price of gold. It was trading at over $900 an ounce. I gathered up rings, bracelets, and necklaces and headed down to a local certified jeweler. While I waited for him to finish with another customer, I wondered if I was doing the right thing. My heart began to beat hard. What was I doing? Many of the pieces had been gifts for special occasions. A gold nugget necklace had been created by melting down my father’s college ring; he had died when I was 20. A stunning Italian gold bracelet had been a graduation gift. One of the rings had garnets, my birthstone. I began to have serious second thoughts. Was it really worth it? Would I be sorry in the morning? Would people think I was crazy? Would my family be offended? Would anyone understand what I was trying to do?
I thought of Jesus, telling the rich young ruler to sell everything he had. I thought of the children from the video, filling plastic jugs with green water. And I remembered my jewelry drawer, overflowing with so many things I really didn’t need as much as those children need fresh water.
Now that I look back on it, it’s simple. We have jewelry; we don’t need it. They need water; they don’t have it. So I did it; I traded my jewelry for water. And you know what? I don’t even miss it.
——-from So Long Status Quo: What I Learned From Women Who Changed the World, by Susy Flory (link to www.susyflory.com)
I love that Susy took things that had sentimental meaning and traded them for something that could make a difference in someone’s live.
So here is my question for you. Do any of you know of a reputable place where I could trade my ring for cash? I want to use the money to 1) Support my friend Katie who is doing a mission to Cuba, and 2) Do microloans for a group called Kiva.com (More about them in an upcoming post. Kiva Rocks.)
If you know of a place – either brick and mortar or on the net, please let me know and I will get the process started.
At first I thought there was no way that I could get rid of 21 pieces of jewelry. It’s not like I am Liz Taylor and have to have someone vault and itemize my baubles.
But, as soon as I started to go through all of my stuff I realized that there was plenty of stuff that needed to be dealt with: Target specials that looked very cool in the store, but really didn’t go with anything, pairs of earrings that have lost each other along the way. Bracelets that need to have needed to have their clasps fixed for three years and even if they did I wouldn’t wear them.
Often times there is a lot of sentiment attached to jewelry, and I don’t want you to become overwhelmed. So here is what I want you to do: Grab out 21 things – whether they need to be donated to a charity, thrown away, repaired or dealt with in some other way. Gather them up and we will start to deal with them tomorrow.
OK – so we have been at these projects for a while now and you may be wondering if it’s really doing anything. Your life is still a mess, you still don’t have clean socks and it doesn’t matter if you do these stupid little projects because it’s hardly making a diffrence.
Bitter much?
So if you need a little encouragement today, let me share a letter that I received from Cathy who has been doing the Project. I love how she asked for help to get it done – we all need a partner in crime when it comes to bringing life into order.
Hi, Kathi,
I love getting your blog’s. I’m not that familiar with how to post, so I thought I’d just reply to this email.
My sister Mary came to visit last weekend, and I asked for her help in the bathroom, because it was a two-person job. I had soap, shampoo, tooth brushes, etc. from Costco in big packages, and no place to put them, so they’d been on my bathroom counter for two months.
We set up a bunch of laundry baskets, and she sat on the toilet seat (lid closed, of course) while I pulled from each cupboard. Items went into baskets as “Cathy’s cosmetics”, “Jim’s stuff”, “Medicines”, “Travel sizes of stuff we actually use”, or “Shared stuff” (like toothpaste and toilet paper). Everything else went into the last basket — “Throw out”.
In the process, I had discovered I had bought the same product more than once, because I had no idea I already had the first one.
When we were done, I had tossed travel sizes of items I never use, old cosmetics, samples I would never open, old toothbrushes, hair brushes, etc. and I had room for everything to go under the sink with space to spare. Now there’s a drawer for Cathy’s stuff, a drawer for Jim’s stuff, a center container for shared stuff, and separate shelves for medicines, first aid, and travel. And it’s easy for me to see how many I have of anything.
Having my sister help was important, because there was so much stuff, and not enough room for me to walk to each deposit site. (I don’t get up as easily from sitting on the floor reaching into the back of cupboards as I used to). She says she didn’t do much, but she was the extra extension to my reach to help distribute into each pile, and then hand back to me.
Regards,
– Cathy
Project for Today:
Clean 21 items out of your purse/wallet.
Here is an easy one for the you – something you can do while driving in the car with your husband, (as long as you are in the passenger seat,) waiting for you kids to get out of T-ball practice or while you are watching 24.
Things to take a look at:
Do it quickly and don’t look back. Just pitch it.
Today’s Project: Throw away 21 things from your fridge.
Note from Kathi: Hey girls – my server has been having issues, so I am sorry that you haven’t had your projects – but don’t worry – we are back on board!
I know technically I should be cleaning out my fridge once a week. But honestly, it takes one of the three following event to happen before I dig in:
So today – I toss!
Items I will be taking a long hard look at:
So, in clebration of getting rid of my culinary glut, I will also be giving away one of my previously loved books to a randomly chosen commenter:
Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously is a very funny – if not raw (wow, pun totally not intended) read. I loved the book (after all, it was a PROJECT she was working on,) but she does cuss like a sailor who drank a little too much cooking sherry.
Since I don’t use those words, but also realize that a lot of otherwise great books use those words, I still offer it here, with appropriate warnings J
You thought you were safe. You thought we were going to stay in nice easy non-personal spaces for getting rid of stuff; like your underwear drawer. You were wrong.
So now it gets personal.
Let me ask you a question: How crammed is your inbox?
When it comes to this time-saving technology, for me it can be as overwhelming as a messy room.
I receive between 40-100 emails a day in my main mailbox. (I have a yahoo account for things I have signed up for and loops.) Those are e-mails that, for the most part, that I need to respond to. It can get a tad overwhelming. But this week I got it down to Zero! Whoo – hoo and neiner neiner.
And yes – I am working on my Christ-like attitude thank you very much…
If you are overwhelmed by your inbox, could you get rid of 21 e-mails today? Once you start, you can’t stop. It’s addicting.
Case in point: here is my screen today. Isn’t it pretty?!?
I got it that way yesterday, and then tweeted on Twitter that I had my inbox to zero. (And maybe I was a tad self-righteous…)
That is when my obnoxious (loving) friends started bombarding me with e-mails so it would no longer be empty.
If you need some step-by-step help in the inbox area, look at this great post from Michael Hyatt about staying on top of e-mail: Michael Hyatt’s Blog Especially helpful for those of us running a business or involved in some kind of ministry.
So start responding and deleting! Put a post in the comments so that we can celebrate your lighter box together.
Don’t we all have that one thing that is just oh-too-much.
For me, it is books (OK my daughter would argue it is also handbags, but I can only deal with one obsession at a time.)
I have no idea how much you have of your obsession, but I do know that I need to get rid of a lot of books. My plan is to get rid of 21 books this month. But not today.
Today I am going to start small – you know the old adage: One Book at a Time.
So as I get rid of some of my books, I thought maybe some of you would like to be blessed by them (really, I am not just passing on junk – these are great books that I have read – but I need to make room for all the other great books I want to read.)
So leave a note in the comment section and let me know what obsession you are going to be dealing with this month. If I randomly draw your name, you will get that book – postage on me.
Today’s Give-away Generation Next Marriage. You will love it!
Here are the results of the cosmetics clean out:
In return – I am getting a new eye shadow. (I mean look at that nasty eye shadow I was using. Ugh.)
OK – Two big bags of clothes down – 20 more days to go.
Did you get rid of some clothes yesterday? If so – I am so proud of you and know that others will be blessed because you are letting go.
If not – hoarder!
Today’s challenge is in the bathroom – do you have 21 things in your bathroom that you could get rid of today? That shampoo that makes your hair frizzy, the blue eye shadow that you kept from Junior High. In fact – here is a list from a cosmetician on when to get rid of those things that have been hanging around:
Lipstick-get rid if it changes smell or consistency
Eyeliner, Mascara, Eyeshadow-3-6 months (any longer and it breeds bacteria and could cause eye infections).
Blush-1 yr.
Foundation-1 yr.(sooner if it has a strange odor)
Pressed Powder– 6mos-1 yr
I love the idea that this cosmetician gave to make sure you always know how long to keep that Maybelline:
When you first buy a product, take a permanent marker and write the date on it. You will know at a glance when it is time to replace.
I don’t want to lose any of my faithful blog readers to death by eye pencil – so please – pitch the stuff.
It’s Day One of the Get Rid of It Challenge and I wonder what is in your closet.
Today’s challenge is this: Could you get rid of 20 things in your closet, drawers or wherever you store your clothes? (Treadmill, anyone? Anyone?)
It will be important for you to set up a place where you can put things that you are going to donate later in the challenge (spot in the garage, trunk of your car, closet in your spare room.) You need to get it out of your room and not pile it up on a spare chair in your room (where it will topple over, and then, instead of sorting it all again, you just throw it back in the laundry and deal with it “later”.)
Donate all that you can – but if something is gross or beyond repair (bras with safety pins – really?) recycle or throw it away.
This will be the easiest time to go through your closet – we all have 20 things that we could get rid of. Just realize, we will be going back to the closet and digging deeper next time.
Post your results here and let us cheer you on when you actually Get Rid of It!
