Room Time

One of my goals, I always have a ton, for 2016 is to de-clutter my life. I am trying to do this by changing some of the ways I say things, what I buy, what I spend my time doing, who I let bother or disrupt my life, and by trying to get rid of extra items. 

I work on most of them daily but the cleaning is more of a once a week type thing. I keep going through room to room closet to closet, drawer to drawer one at a time. The goal is so look at each and every item, decide if it is something I use or need and then keep it or toss it away.

One of the places that I needed some extra help with was New Dude's room. I wasn't going to go through and decide what was important or not important. I had to negoitate a time and place to make this happen. And for the record, yes, he has is own room. I feel like everyone should have a space just for them and their stuff. At least now when we don't have kids, I can say that. 

However, over the last few weeks and months his room has gotten a little out of control. We couldn't let the puppy and kitty in the room for fear it would be lost. 

So with a bit of determination, a small bottle of rum, and some convincing New Dude and I cleaned his room. We went through every drawer, ever item that hangs in his closet, every tub and container.

It took about 5 hours. We removed about 3.5 bags of items to be donated.

This picture is a little deceptive because I also had items that I had collected that needed to be donated the same day. About half of the above picture were items from his room

The below picture are items that were thrown away or for the boxes, recycled.

We didn't argue, we didn't yell, we found a lot of cool items and I learned some new stories about his past.

We did end up having two other containers that we used to help with this cleaning. One was a trunk that he could fill up with memory items he wanted to keep. The second was for his summer clothes. We didn't have much to put in that one, but come summer time it will be filled with winter items. 

After a long day, we finally could see the bed again and everyone, New Dude, Lock, Teach and I were all very tired. We slept very well in this now uncluttered room.

Is anyone else going through a phase like this? Do you have any tips or suggestions? If you do, please leave a comment below. Thanks always for reading!

To the Zoo!

I went to the zoo with New Dude, one of my nieces and my sister. It was in South Carolina.

It was a good zoo, very fun day, lots of walking, lots of talking, lots of seeing animals. It was nice to be in 60+ degree weather in January.

I do not agree with or use chewing tobacco. I think it is gross and probably going to ruin at least something on your body.

However, New Dude, still working on stopping, does. I thought the picture of the Grizzly  Can + Adventure Bear + Actual grizzly bear sleeping int he background was kind of cool.

That's the only reason I am posting this picture.

The bears,there were apparently two in the enclosure, when passing by them later in the day, were fighting. That was crazy awesome yet scary to see. They were just playing, but the power man! The POWER!

Also, I posted this picture because I look kind of zoned out. I like it!

I can say that one goal was failed that day. I forgot to lean against a cage and go..... I wonder what that animal tastes like while some small kid was listening. I missed it. I failed. I just don't know what to do with myself.

Oh well, there is always the Bronx Zoo later this year, crossing my fingers!

Anyone have a favorite zoo they like to visit? Let me know with a comment below!

Too cool for school

Sometimes you just need to put on a fuzzy had with antlers.

I did, the day was awesome.

The dog park was more warm.

AND, being in city limits after deer season, I felt pretty good about my choice as well.