The "Stuff Manager"

Recently I've been on a "kick" to get rid of some of the junk that clutters up our life and our house. When it comes to this type of thing, I tend to get into two different moods (which completely contradict each other by the way).

Mood #1: I focus in on something that I dislike about a room in my house. A simple "that window needs a window treatment" snowballs into a complete room makeover. I decide that I simply don't have enough cute objects to decorate my new space with, or I see something on a blog/Pinterest that I can't live without. I shop all over Eastern PA and I.MUST.FIND.CUTE.STUFF is all I think of day and night. True story, just keepin' it real.

Mood #2: I need a gift bag for a birthday party so I head down to our small storage space in the basement which is where we keep items of that nature. I open the door and can't even walk one step into said small storage space because there's simply WAY too much stuff in there. I then get obsessed with getting rid of each and every item in the ENTIRE house that isn't useful to us anymore. (During this mood, nothing is safe. Better nail it down if you want to keep it folks!)

These moods are very cyclical, and I happen to be at the tail end of Mood #2 at the moment.

A few days ago I felt myself shifting back to Mood #1. I saw something on a blog that I really wanted to try and I was planning a "quick" trip to the local craft store to buy the necessary items to make it.

Then, I read a post on a favorite blog of mine that stopped me dead in my tracks. Here is what it said:

Hello. Nice to meet you!

What do I do? Oh, I’m a Stuff Manager.

Gosh, no, I don’t really like it but, isn’t that what everyone does?

My daily routine involves looking through my stuff, putting stuff away, organizing stuff, feeling guilty because I haven’t organized other stuff, fussing at my kids because their stuff isn’t put away, wading through misplaced stuff in our garage, piling up stuff I’m tired of so we can sell it, packing away stuff I’m really tired of to give it away, asking my husband where he put his stuff, sorting, washing, and drying our stuff, and then dreaming about more stuff that I want and the bigger house I “need” because my precious stuff won’t fit in our current house–I guess it’s too small.

I never planned on being a stuff manager, it just kind of happened and now that’s my job. Oh, gosh no, I don’t get paid for it. I just do it because I think I have no other choice. I have a whole other job that I get paid for and I use most of that money to buy more stuff. I’m training my kids to be stuff managers too.

Wow. That is so totally and completely true.

BAM! Right back to Mood #2 I went and I now have a renewed focus to use what I already have on hand and not add any more junk to my life.

So what I wanna know is......Do you have "Moods" that flip flop too? Or are you always a Mood #1 or Mood #2 and you just don't ever switch? I'd love to know!

Halloween mantel - 2012

I took some time the past few days to work on decorating my mantel for Halloween. Halloween is one of my favorite holidays to decorate for, and we have TONS and TONS of decorations to show for it, but let's just say most of it is "orange overload".

So this year I decided that less is more, and that I wanted a more muted and toned down mantel with natural colors and elements, as well as some handmade elements, mixed in.
Here is what I've done so far....

The owl and book I already had, the two silver plates on either end I picked up at the thrift store for a couple of bucks. The plant was already there and I liked the greenery and natural element that the basket added, so I left it.

Watch out for the sneaky crow hiding in the bush. I've heard he has a temper.

I made myself a set of "BOO!" blocks, and I love them! And of course, a sad little black bird on a plate always makes me think of Halloween. HAHA!!!

A couple of old spools (another thrift store find), a spooky old tree, and a little handmade garland (book pages stapled to twine...couldn't be easier) finish it off!

I really wanted to make some sort of handmade wreath to go over the mirror, but I haven't been able to carve out the time to do it yet. If I don't get to it soon then I'll just utilize my motto..

There's always next year!