simplify my life

the next thing I’m going to do is to send Ligaya her shoes back. I don’t sell enough of them, and don’t make much on them, and she could probably do a better job than I am!

I’m eventually going to need to sell all of the India Silk skirts, but that shouldn’t be a prob. After that, NO MORE things that I didn’t make myself.

Gotta clean mah kitchen. That’ll be freeing!

I’m selling my old costume pieces that I no longer use. That feels SO good, and others can enjoy them, then!

I cleaned out my closet. I put all my costumes into it. This freed up some major space in my office!

Now that my house is so much more in order, I’m going to start working on the schedule.

1. One big stresser, for me, is that I have a new business. I love my business. And I often feel that it’s the ‘fun’ stuff in my life, while other things are the ‘work’ – silly, I know. I need to change my thinking about that.

2. Another one is that I need to just plain schedule fewer things. I’d gotten it down to one performance a month, but to be plain – even that’s just a killer. So, for at least a while, I’d like to get that down to once every 2 months. That includes vending, bringing me to my next point:

3. I’ve found that vending makes NO extra money rather than just selling online. WHY AM I DOING IT, THEN??? I think I’ll cancel the vending events I have lined up, and just enjoy the last event I’m going to perform in. I’ll sell at home. If I do vend anywhere, it will be super limited.

I need to do the following soon:

*create a few filing system (tweak the existing one)
*get my stupid SS card in my current name to simplify bills
*create a few crazy button items to get rid of my huge ridiculous stash
*have my daughter’s garage sale and then dump the rest off at Goodwill
*figure out what the hell to do with my beloved couch with no cushions to store it
*create a system for organizing The Gypsy Kiss monthly events.

EDIT – cleaned the filing system
- sold loads of button items
- had garage sale and Goodwill dump
- sister gave me a new couch as a gift, that I love, and hauled away the old one. Other couch still needs to be refurbished.

Found a beautiful glass cupboard at a garage sale – finally, a place to keep my creations safe and free from kitty fur and dust! It freed up a basket, which in turn freed up a bin of clothes which I could put INTO the basket. Which in turn freed up the bin for lots of the beautiful fabric that was just sitting there on the couch. It was like dominoes!

Next comes more of the main level – and I”d like to make several layered skirts out of all that fabric. That’ll get some of my ridiculously prodigious fabric stash out the door and productive.

I”m going to try to get a few things done in a zen-like way. It’s funny – the cleaning actually calms me now, rather than stressing me out like it used to.

So I did all the stuff on the list below, and I am writing a new list.

• organize earrings.
• clean off buffet top.
• Clean off bedside table L
• ”” R
• do bins under costumes.
  *put away heaters -> basement.
• clean out kitchen.

Admittedly, I didn’t get rid of a lot (chagrin) but I did clean and organize the whole thing, and it looks beautiful again. Going to take another trip to Goodwill tomorrow – I have so much to bring in (from the closet cleaning) that I can barely see out the back window!

Got nothing done this past week for this goal. But I did have a nice vacation (if not a relaxing one). I’d like to get back in gear on this, since it makes me feel so good! My goals for this week are mainly cleaning out my room:

*completely cleaning out my vanity
*completely cleaning out the closet (eek!)
*completely cleaning out my shoe collection
*going through my earring collection
*unstacking the clothes on the costume collection
*putting all the clothes bins for the $10 sale in the car

I really hope this helps clean up my bedroom! Honestly, it’s so bad right now that I don’t even know what else will need to be done at that point – I think I’ll start with those things and then see what still looks messy!

EDIT: GOT EVERYTHING done on this list except the earrings. Plus got rid of lots of clothes by selling the grab bags. New list above!

http://www.sinc.sunysb.edu/Clubs/buddhism/story/cows.html

Well, I”m not Buddhist, and I don’t go in for complete antimaterialism – big surprise there, since I’m a retailer and a marketer – but I do think that has some merit when you’re simplifying your life.

I know that I write a lot about cleaning out my house – but there’s a reason for that. It’s a freaking hurricane of stuff.I have 3 kids, lots of animals and hobbies, and a flourishing online business inside this tiny home, and sometimes it looks like a troupe of drunk clowns went through here. OK – make that most of the time.

See, it’s hard to straighten up when you have no closet space, and when whole hobbies and sections of inventory for my business have no place to live.

Tomorrow will be putting a few more things into the car for the Goodwill, and maybe, if I have time, I could clean out the vanity in my room.