Life as a mixed bag

Life continues to surprise me, and I have to admit I am never too old to learn something new that will make my life better.  I’ve also done some purging around the apartment and found ways to make the space work even more efficiently for me, and finally I have a couple new projects to share with you that I recently acquired.   This is definitely a mixed bag for you today.

Update on No Poo

I have had a private struggle with something very embarrassing to me.  I have had dandruff.  Horribly bad dandruff all my life. Over the years, especially when I was dumb and uninformed, I used every dandruff shampoo made, even prescription medicated shampoos. Nothing worked. I would have to limit the colors of clothing I wore so flakes wouldn’t show.  I couldn’t touch my hair after dressing or I would find my shoulders and the upper back of my shirts covered in white flakes.

Over the years I resigned myself to having this problem, but it was always something that made me very uncomfortable.  Until now!  As I was running low on shampoo I made the switch to baking soda wash with a white vinegar rinse.  I read up on this, and decided to comb through the vinegar to make sure I removed all traces of baking soda as I didn’t need any more white flakes than I already had.  That first combing was disgusting. The amount of white on the comb was shocking.  I didn’t think much afterwards, until I noticed I had no flakes on my clothes. Upon close inspection, I  had no white flakes on my scalp or on strands of hair.

I was nervous to mention it here on the blog, believing this was an anomaly, but it’s been months now and I’ve had no return of white flakes any where on my scalp. It’s been freeing to say the least.  After noticing the changes in my hair, which also feels soft like a young child, I did a search and found I’m not the only one who has benefited from using vinegar for dandruff.

If you are new to using vinegar, here are 101 more ways you can use vinegar around the home.

Streamlining my belongings

Entire contents of the closet emptied out to sort

Once I was settled in to my new apartment nearly 2 years ago, I thought my decluttering was finished, not true.  I began in December letting more stuff go and started with the drawers in the night stand and the one in the table I use as a desk.  Then after Christmas began a more thorough sweep through my home.  I am amazed by how little I really need and found plenty to get rid of including the following (sorry no pictures of what was donated):

• calculator
• food dehydrator, it may have been a cheap brand but needing to have this plugged in for a minimum of 3 days to dry even a small tray of cranberries was using too much electricity for me and not worth the effort.
• clothes
• 4 more books
• one small set of shelves
• mop, I have never used it since moving. My bare floors are small enough a quick clean with rags and vinegar water only takes a few minutes and does a better job in those pesky corners.
• 2 more baskets
• kitchen utensils
• silverware caddy for a drawer, it just took up too much space that could be used more efficiently.
• A few toys the children no longer play with
• coloring books that were filled went into the recycling

I set the broom next to this box for scale, this box contains all my summer clothes

Prior to cleaning out the one drawer in my kitchen I had a basket storing my potholders and cloth napkins and another storing my dishcloths and towels.  Now here is my updated drawer.

You can see I have cloth napkins in the front, pot holders in the middle, folded towels and dish cloths, and cooking utensils along the lower portion of the picture. I even found room for a beautiful tea box given to me years ago as a gift. In the very back, not easily seen, I have the lid from an egg carton (no not Styrofoam) that holds a few tools I use on a regular basis.  I have a silverware caddy I now store the eating utensils in for easy access. One caddy takes up so much less space than having 2 baskets and the tea box needing to sit some place around the kitchen.

Welcoming new projects

Not all the projects I work on come from other people.  In cleaning out my closet I realized I didn’t need two shelves to store all my clothes.  Here’s one that will have a new home shortly.

This shelf looks pretty sad right now.  This was originally a VHS cabinet with doors. Yes, another need eliminated by technology.

My grandfather bought this in the late 1990s to store bathroom items in a small corner. He couldn’t find anything else that would fit the space, so instead of adding all the little plastic things that would hold the VHS tapes he extended the inner shelves.

This was passed on to me and it’s held various items in our homes, in various places in each home.  I’ve used it to store everything from books and movies to pantry items.  I then passed it on to my son and his wife for storing their movies.

When it came back to me shortly after moving into this apartment, I used it to store pantry items again, then took the doors off to use it as a bookcase/nightstand.  Finally, it was put in the closet to store my clothes so I could eliminate a dresser.

Now it will be updated and given to a little girl for a small bookcase in her bedroom painted to match the colors she chose for her room.

Of course you didn’t think I would only be eliminating items from my home did you?  I was asked to take on two art projects by my ex.  He has a collection of guitars and found two were in such bad shape they couldn’t be used and weren’t worth trying to sell or find a home for.   He asked me if I could do something with them to make them art pieces for his home. I’ve never worked on guitars before so this should be interesting.  Here they are.

From a distance they don’t look too bad, but up close they are in pretty sorry condition.

cracks in places

The next picture is hard to see, but there is a long crack just to the left of where my grandson began sanding yesterday, and to the left of the crack the wood is warped as if it had gotten wet at some point.

Yes, the grand children are very observant and will look for where I am hiding the latest find.  While they are busy sanding they are also taking time to play with the strings on the darker guitar creating music for each other to dance to.

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My home may not always be as organized as I would like, the guitars are currently residing in the closet, yes my nicely cleaned and organized closet, but I do have a home that is creative and the little ones love the new items as they rotate in and out of the apartment.  While some people rotate toys around so their children don’t have all their toys available at all times, I have “projects” that rotate in and out for the children to experiment on with me. They may only be 4 but they no longer need me to show them what direction to sand the wood which surprises me when I think how often I need to look through a finish to see the natural grain of wood.

What new things do you have lined up for you this month?

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