The Happy Linen Closet

Unless you are Martha Stewart, you probably don't think too much about your linen closet. That is, until it's overflowing onto the floor every time you open the door, and a strange smell develops on your sheets and towels. Not that I'd know or anything.

Actually, our linen closet was stuffed to the brim, for some reason. I couldn't find what I needed in it, and kept saying, 'I need to clean that out........when I get a chance.' Oh yeah. After the usual cleaning and upkeep of our humble abode, we kept forgetting.

That is, until I opened the door and one of our cats walked out.

How long had little Hope BEEN in there? Why didn't we hear her crying? UGH!!

A deep freeze that kept me housebound was the perfect day to tackle the huge mess. While I am so persistent in cleaning out our drawers and closets on a regular basis, I felt a huge need to keep every single blanket, sheet and towel that had crossed our threshold in the last 8 1/2 years. They weren't all 'company presentable,' either. Blankets and towels with holes chewed in them from deceased pets......scrub rags that literally took up several shelves ('how many rags do you use to clean your bathroom, Claire?' 'Two.').

Needless to say, I filled a huge, black trash bag to the brim with stuff I had to throw away, NOT donate.

So, what do you need to have on hand in YOUR happy linen closet?

As in most areas of life, there's no hard and fast rule that fits every household. You need enough towels for not only your family members that live in the house, but probably 4 visitors. Depending on your extra bed situation, enough linens for overnight guests. At our house, we have regular sheets for warm weather, and flannels for cold. Several blankets to have on hand, not just for guests, but also for snuggling up on the couch, or doubling up on chilly nights, is a good rule of thumb.

We recently redid Brendan's old room into an office/man cave for Michael. We purchased a very nice futon bed, complete with underbed drawers. Having those allowed us to store the pillow, blankets and sheets needed for the futon, freeing up more space in the linen closet. So, we were able to also store our huge beach towel supply, two vaporizers, and our collection of medical slings, wrist and knee wraps, and shoe boots, plus our heating pad. NOW I can find everything!

Believe it or not, after the cleaning, I saw that I needed to buy a few items. We needed more guest pillows, and one set of guest sheets was missing it's fitted member. Not too shabby.

While I was cleaning out the closet, I kept the door open to air it out, and completed the cleaning by sprinkling carpet fresh powder on the floor (I am NOT storing ANYTHING on the floor of the closet!). Made for vacuuming up, I left the powder there, for an extra 'oomph' of freshness.

Because I'm a weirdo who doesn't get our very often, I then Instagramed my beautifully organized linen closet.

What fun is cleaning and organizing if you can't share the results?

Buying Memories, Not Things

I've always had so much fun buying STUFF. Whiling away an afternoon at the thrift store, loading my cart with goodies. Then, at the end of the year, when I'm cleaning out my closet and drawers and finding all of that stuff that went unworn and unused........ugh. The fun quickly fades.

It may be because I'm turning 50 this year. Or, I had a awfully long time to reflect as I recovered from 3 surgeries. Or, it just may be the clean out last year really got to me. At any rate, this year, my focus is spending on experiences, not things.

Many of you are fortunate to be able to finance both, while hardly breaking a sweat. You can go to the mall, enjoy a dinner at the food court, then buy your kiddo goodies from their favorite stores.....all while planning and financing a trip to Disney World.

I can't do that, and I'm glad I can't.

There was a time when I had that much money. I didn't like what went along with it. I would rather live my simple life, with my happy family and restful home, and live on the little God has provided for me. It could be a lot less.

However, in order to enjoy experiences, and the resulting memories with my family, I must plan ahead. I have to cut things out, in order to put that saved money aside, so we can have fun later down the road.

What would I cut out? Well, for starters, I can bring my lunch from home again. After I went back to work, since I was conserving my energy as much as possible, I was picking up a fresh spinach, fruit and nut salad for lunch, plus greek yogurt with oatmeal as a snack. Sounds harmless and cheap, right? I thought so too, until I added it up and found out my 'harmless' ready made meals were costing me $22 a week. At that rate, if I put aside the same amount of $$$ and brought my lunch and snack from home, that money could finance a trip to Canton to see Brendan, and take he and his roommate out to lunch. Isn't that incredible?

See, I hadn't been doing the math. I do it for clothing and things I can buy resale. I wasn't doing it so much for other areas. Will I go into bankruptcy by buying salad and yogurt at the store daily? No. Will I end up in a cardboard box under a bridge if I have a daily coffee from Starbucks? Highly unlikely.

Would I rather enjoy visiting with my 21 yr old kid who lives 2 hours away? Most definitely.

Taking my food from home means I must get it ready the night before. Oh my goodness, I might have to forgo that 1/2 hour rerun of 'Big Bang Theory' to do it, but isn't it worth it? YES!

For those of you who save easily, thank you for putting up with my epiphany. Stifling that huge DUH didn't hurt at all, did it :P

Year End True Confessions

Who has two thumbs and is ready for a new year? This girl!

I am SO ready. What a long, strange trip 2013's been. It's been hard, it's been long............and it's drawing to a close. Thank you Jesus!

A year ago today, I was struggling with some very big feminine issues that I knew I would need surgery for, and we had no health insurance. I was scared, and I spent most of December 2012 crying. A year later, December has been MUCH happier. I am all done with THREE surgeries, and am looking forward to a much healthier new year.

For all of you who have read my blog this past year, thank you so much for sticking with me. I realize, some days I wasn't the happiest person, and I grumped along in my blogs. You can see where
I was a bit testy. If I came across as judgmental and picky about little things, I'm sorry. That wasn't my intent. I was hurting, and try as I might to put a happy face on my 'stuff,' some days I failed miserably. Add to all of that, financial upheaval, a child that moved out after turning 21, and the usual work fun........plus another child who turned 18 and entered her senior year with even more of a extracurricular activity load (and I STILL had to keep up, regardless of how I felt).....well, the 'Little Mary Sunshine' act wore a bit thin some days.

If anything, my blog should give you HOPE. For those tempted to say, 'oh, I HATE Erin's blog! She thinks she's SO perfect! I can't relate to her thrift shopping and budgeting!' HAH! If you didn't think I was human before, consider THIS: in order to have my hysterectomy, I had to use my 2 week vacation, PLUS go without 2 paychecks, in order to have a proper six week recovery. And, because AFLAC has taken their sweet time reimbursing me, we had to put our Christmas shopping on credit cards. Does that even REMOTELY sound like a thrift goddess? PSH! There was no gigantic stash of cash we had saved for this surgery, because we took a $1000 hit a month starting in September.

Feel better?

Enough of that. We have 2014 ahead of us........a crisp, shiny new year. Inhale that fresh, new year smell. It's alive with tons of possibilities. I know I am refreshed and renewed just thinking of what I can do now that I couldn't do a year ago.......stand on my feet for long periods of time, keep my house clean and my laundry caught up.......yeah, it's mind boggling!

We're all in this thing together, my sweet friends. Just as you struggle, so do I. Let's be transparent and help each other! For every bill we pay off, let's also talk about the ones on which we make minimum payments. For every $10 prom gown, let's also showcase the full price heels we bought to go with it. Life is a journey, it doesn't always look or smell good, but we're living it, regardless.

Let's learn from each other, and feel comforted that we're not alone.

Happy New Year!!

Post Op Clothing.......The Ballad Of The 'Swelly Belly'

I steer away from featuring pictures of myself on this blog.....it's much more fun to post pics of my daughter and friends! However, I felt led to write this blog post, as I'm sure I'm not the only one to have to deal with buying temporary clothing in larger sizes. Please excuse the boxes in the background.....we're still getting rid of the Christmas gift boxes!

Almost 10 weeks ago, I had a hysterectomy. I am feeling so much better, and have lost weight, but I am still burdened with what us 'hystersisters' affectionately call a 'swelly belly.' Basically, my tummy is much larger and swollen due to my surgery, and I read last week it could last a YEAR. Not happy news for someone needing to find clothing that allows me to be socially acceptable.

As of this writing, I can wear approximately one pair of my pre op jeans. Not comfortably, I might add. They are tight, and my belly regularly swells later in the day, so I was making do with two pair of pull on pants. I can dress them up or down, and tuck them into boots, but I wanted more variety.

I wanted JEANS.

My secret sister from church gave me a $20 gift certificate for Goodwill for Christmas. I finally decided to try and find at least one pair of larger sized jeans there to hold me over until my swelling goes down.

Now, can we talk? With very few exceptions, we as women get very hung up on the size printed on our clothing labels. If you're regularly a size 8, and have to buy a pair of size 12 jeans, no matter HOW good you look in them......you feel a little crestfallen because of that stupid label.

Well, I sucked it up and tried on just about every pair of larger sized jeans in the thrift store. 1 1/2 hours later, I found a pair that not only fit comfortably over my belly, but were skinny and perfect to tuck into boots. I also got two cute smock type tops that will billow over my midsection, but I can rein them in with a fitted cardigan. The picture above is my outfit from church this morning. I felt great, and everything fit perfectly. Plus, I didn't feel as if I had a neon sign flashing above my head, advertising my increased jeans size. No one would care, anyway, so why should I?

Thrift stores are the perfect places to buy such temporary pieces. Whether you're seeking maternity wear, or just looking to camouflage a belly like I am, you can find great stuff for little $$. My jeans were $5.99, and my tops were $3.29 a piece. Perfect.

Don't be afraid to go up a size, if the end result is rockin'. No one but you needs to know :)

The Gently Used Christmas Present

WARNING!! The following blog post contains information some of you might find down right offensive. I'm not kidding. I'm about to step on some serious sacred cows.

Ok, if you're brave enough to read on, here we go........

Christmas gifts should be new, right? Nothing says Christmas morning or 'I love you' like a crinkly, crackly, plastic wrapped goodie, fresh from the store. To stoop so low as to buy something like, say, a USED item for a Christmas present? Dear God. What's wrong with you?

Well, I'm not advocating dumpster diving as a means of Christmas shopping. I'll bet some out there do.

My precious daughter is about the easiest going teenage girl you'll ever meet. This child was raised on frequent trips to the thrift store, and she's worn her share of resale clothing, so she's managed to grow up a reasonably balanced individual. She knows she can find the good stuff second hand, and doesn't have to shell out big bucks at the mall if she doesn't want to.

So proud.

The thing is, if you are a reasonably balanced individual, as you grow up, you begin to develop certain tastes. You begin to know your body well, and dress it accordingly. You know what works and what doesn't. Often, that means buying certain brands that fit you better than others. Sometimes you are lucky enough to find those items at a thrift store. Sometimes you must save up money to buy them brand new.

And sometimes, you find them on Ebay.

Such was the case with Claire's Ugg boots.

Now, before you turn up your nose, hear me out. Claire has a few brands she likes. Tom's shoes. Victoria's Secret Pink yoga pants (they wear like iron). She has happily worn knock off Uggs boots for years. This year, she happened to try on a friend's REAL Uggs, and it was like Cinderella found her slipper. She loved those things.........they were like walking on a cloud.

So, I started the search for a pair of her own for Christmas. Starting with the Ugg website, I found the black, short, classic style she preferred retailed for the fabulous (!) price of $155. Yeah, I don't buy MYSELF shoes that expensive.

That didn't deter me one bit. I know I could find a pair of Uggs on Ebay.

Have you used Ebay? You must be careful, as you can get into big trouble. I went through a phase where I bought way too much on Ebay, to the extent that the UPS man knew my first name. Yeah, that was a long time ago.

Go to the website, type what you want in the search bar, and prepare to be amazed at the various entries for exactly what you want. Once you hone in on the entry with the price point you desire, check out the seller's feedback and rating. Since I wanted to make sure Claire got the boots of her dreams, the seller I chose had a 100% positive feedback rating. I bid on the boots, and won.......$85, and that included shipping, for gorgeous black Uggs that had been worn ONCE. I saved so much, I bought Claire an Uggs care kit off the brand's website, so she could keep her boots clean and protected from the weather.

On Christmas morning, I couldn't have put a price tag on the reaction Claire had when she opened her boots. She was thrilled and absolutely shocked. Never in a million years did she believe she'd get a pair of Uggs......at least not before she had a job and bought them herself. Did it matter to her whether I'd paid $85 or $155? No, because the boots looked brand new, and no one else will be the wiser unless she tells them.

Or, unless they read my blog :D

Shopping Less........Enjoying More

We frame pictures to make them unique....to set them apart. With a frame, your eye goes right to the picture. You can see the important, instead of focusing on things you don't need to. Without a frame, a picture would melt right into the wallpaper.

It's the same with shopping less. When you're not constantly going shopping 'for fun' or recreation, you tend to think more about the things you NEED to buy. If you're bored, and you head to the mall, a simple trip to Hot Topic can turn into a wardrobe of Dr. Who apparel. Just sayin.

I've thought a lot about this while I was recuperating from surgery. I was literally stuck at home, and even if I'd wanted to, shopping wasn't an option for several weeks. When I finally DID head out to the store, it was because Claire had bronchitis, and we had to go to Meijer for her prescriptions. It wasn't a fun trip.

Anyway, when you're not going to Meijer every day for milk, you aren't confronted with the clothing department right there at the front. So, you tend to think less in terms of 'instant gratification,' and more along the lines of 'what do I really need?'

Towards the end of my time at home, I realized that the weather had turned colder. When I left work, I'd been wearing t-shirts. Now, I was going to need a new fleece jacket, and long sleeved shirts. Those items would serve me well for several years at work. Usually I'd find those items second hand, but this time, because I didn't have the time (or stamina) for thrift shopping, I picked my jacket up at Meijer (on sale, of course), and the long sleeved shirts were had at Target.com (free shipping!). When I woke up this morning, I was all set to head back to work :)

I'm getting better about not buying things on impulse, but I know how hard it is to resist when you're always running to get the basics at a big box store. There's gorgeous sweaters with the potato chips, for pete's sake! For those times, grow yourself a nice pair of blinders.

Your checkbook and credit card will thank you.

Post Op Priorities

Some of you sweet Thriftnerd Herd members have mentioned you miss my blog posts. Oh, you guys. You warm my heart!

For those who aren't aware, on October 18th, I had a hysterectomy and bladder surgery. Big doins for sure. I am happy to report that I am alive and well and healing on schedule. Slowly, of course. Tomorrow, I have my first of 2 cataract surgeries. Does it go without saying that I will be thrilled and relieved to see 2013 end?

I haven't done any thrifting lately. In fact, not for at least 5 weeks. My shopping trips have been limited to grocery runs, and they've worn me out. One day last week, I stopped into Kohl's across the street from my house, and stayed about 5 minutes. Yeah, retail is far too exhausting right now to be enjoyable.

Nothing clarifies your mind and priorities quite like being unable to do anything but think. So, I've used this time to do just that.

First, I've found that, although I espouse and live a simple lifestyle, I found I STILL had way too much. More clothing, shoes, purses and jewelry than I needed. So, when I was able to do a little moving around, I loaded another bag full of just that. Nothing is as spectacular as having just enough. My closet is pared down, and I can get dressed even quicker. Kind of a big deal when you're recovering from major surgery, and what used to take an hour (getting dressed) takes a bit more time now.

Second, I promised myself to be the change I want to see in the world. I want a happier work place? I'll be a happier employee. Not a giggly, vomit-producing Pollyanna who drives her coworkers completely up the wall. Rather, someone who they look to for shedding positive light on situations. As positive a person as I am, I let my physical issues and the daily grind influence my work attitude more than I want to admit.

And, while I'm at it, I will strive to be the person who remembers those who are shut in. You who have sent me cards, goodies, emails, messages and brought me food and pretties? You absolutely made my entire life. Words can't adequately describe how you brightened my days here at home. I was always pretty good with the card sending, but now I vow to step it up a notch. I know first hand what a difference it makes.

I've also (finally) learned my husband's love language. It's doing things for others in need. Michael wore himself out cooking, cleaning, making me comfortable, and completely taking care of Claire and her many activities. He did such a great job, it just makes me want to do as much as possible for him. I love you, babe.

That's what's new with me lately. I go back to work soon, and shortly thereafter, I will resume my happy thrifting. We're knee deep in senior year, ya know, and my girl might need a few new pieces to brighten up her wardrobe, and reward her for being such a fabulous nurse.

Happy Thanksgiving!