first off, here’s a $10 off coupon for any $50 purchase at walgreens – now through may 2nd. enter code WONDERMOM at checkout.

the simple living guide

clear your clutter with feng shui

creating sacred space with feng shui

i finished reading scaling down, and clear your clutter with feng shui. the latter is a very good read, has great tips, and is very interesting how everything connect together. i’m going to reserve her book, creating sacred space with feng shui. now, i’m starting the simple living guide.

we’d gone through just about everything in the garage and have more donation items that we need to drop off.

i have greatly reduced the amount of clothes faith, jaelynn and i own. now, they have a very reasonable stash, and just the things that i know they will wear and fit. anything that was stained or doesn’t fit right were thrown away or goes in the donation bag.

i decluttered some cupboards in the kitchen – most of them are fill with dishes anyway – so that i left alone. the old spices and seasonings we no longer use or never liked went in the trash. i feel so much better with everything and feel like i have a lot of time each day. i’m starting to get an idea how content and free i feel with everything neat and orderly. sure, i was content before but this feeling is slightly different. you’ll have to experience it to know for yourself.

my next steps are the bathrooms – although i sorta declutter them a bit already. and the last step is my skincare and make up stuff. most of it is going to trash because i don’t care for them. you should see our walk in closet! i mean that in a good way. it’s clean and tidy.

i also didn’t just threw the clothes away; i cut and made a bunch of shirts into cloth rags. 2 goals i have for us in the next 2 months (until we’re out of our current supply of paper towels and water bottles) is to be paper towel-free and water-bottle-free. that’s going to be a big step for james but i feel we can make it work. therefore, all the cloth rags that we’ll need for the transition; by cutting these shirts into rags, we won’t have to spend money to buy any re-usable towels.

i get elle magazine every month; but i sometimes asked myself as i flipped through this magazine, what is the point?? there seems to be more ads than contents…wait, maybe those ARE the contents. anyway, 99% of the time i don’t find anything i want to read in this mag. however, since i was really bored when i got this issue, i flipped through it and guess what?

yep, there was a $5 off a $10 purchase at ulta. i guess i’ll at least look at it now. perfect timing as i’m running out of moisturizer and i want to try the cetaphil moisturizing lotion – i can save money with the coupon! frugalicious!

lastly, it seems like every other posts is about decluttering these days. maybe it’ll be a staple thing for a while.

we really went through the garage – i dropped off 3 bags of shoes, clothings, and toys at the snowline hospice thrift store yesterday. yes, i went through all of mine, the girls, and james’ shoes and threw a bunch out and donating some. i found this really cute pair of baby sandals that i bought for faith when she was about 1. hmm…about 5 years ago. it looked so cute – i should have snap a photo but i was really tired.

yesterday was my rest day because my heel was killing me after the 2nd day. i think later today, we’ll focus on the inside of the house.

ya-hoo!! it sure feels good. james and i declutter most of the day today and my back is really reminding me of all the bendings i’d done. also, i realized we’re not even close to being done. why didn’t anyone warn me? j/k.

i love the feeling though – of getting things neat and organized. hahahaha it sure makes one feel good.

let’s see, i boxed up all the books to go to the library – we have a few bags of clothes and toys to go to the thrift store and a few bags of baby clothes for my 1 year old niece. and that’s only going through jaelynn’s clothes – i still have faith, james and mine to sort through.

we also have about 2-3 bags of just things to throw away – wow!!

i boxed up all my dvd’s – a box of just classic and current chinese movies and a box of american movies and work out dvd’s. i have some random dvds and vhs that i’m going to see if my brother wants to keep otherwise they may be donated or throw away. i can’t stand to look at some of the dubbed movies – they are just horrible – luckily i don’t buy anymore. *shudders*

if i’m not too aching tomorrow after work, i told james i’ll continue cleaning up. ^^

i’ll be adding some frugal and simple living blogs and sites, so watch for them. i signed up for a trial to nicole’s savings advantage. it costs $1.95 for the 30 day trial and you get a $25 target gift card. not bad eh? just remember to cancel. thanks to little people wealth.

i just finished amy tan’s the kitchen god’s wife last night. it was a very good read – i really enjoyed it. i thought some things were quite funny in the beginning, in a dry sort of way. weiwei’s story is very engaging i felt so bad for her. i do recommend it if you haven’t read it yet. i’ve also enjoyed the joy luck club from amy and am looking forward to reading more from her.

with that done, i picked up scaling down, living large in a smaller space by judi culbertson and marj decker. this is my how-to on starting to declutter my house!! so many things we just hang on to because they were free or we just couldn’t throw them away. i said to james that this is what we need to do, and he agrees but some of the things i want to declutter, he doesn’t agree! *sigh*

but first things first, i’ll be boxing my dvd’s and donating the vhs if possible. all my books with the exception of a very few are going to the local library. those are the easiest things for me to start with. okay, need to read some more and get started.