Okay I have my 27 items that are leaving this house. I just found the items as I was doing daily tasks this morning. As you can probably tell, these are the type of items that generally don't make the garage sale cut!!

Day 1
1 bag of freezer burned carrots (not in picture)
1 bag of freezer burned green beans
1 sponge
1 book
1 sewing machine box
8 pairs of socks
2 t shirts
5 pairs of underwear (not shown)
8 empty items to recycle

Oh look! That's 28 items. Can't wait to hear how you all do. Now here's the picture.

My mom is taking on a 9 day challenge to declutter, toss, recycle, purge 27 items each day. She started yesterday and made it to 27. I'm a little reluctant to say that I could do that many each day, but I think I'll try.

I'll be back later with an update. Maybe even a picture!

Anyone else want to join in for the next 8 days? Might helps us prepare for the upcoming holidays.

My youngest daughter decided she would be a Hufflepuff witch from Harry Potter. She owns a wand and she just wanted a scarf made in the black and gold colors of the House of Hufflepuff to wear with her 'muggle' clothes. Sure. Seems easy.

I made my way to the fabric store and purchased a 1/4 yard of fleece (her preferred fabric) which was on sale for $5.99 a yard. Thus $3 out of pocket with the two colors.

I eventually sat down and cut the fleece for the block pattern she desired. Cutting whet smooth with my rotary blade.

Next I set up my machine, ready to sew with gold top thread and black bottom thread. I also ran a test stitch. And I had a problem. Lots of stitch skipping. Big amounts of stitch stitching.

I went into detective mode and started making adjustments to fix the problem. Needle bent? Tension checks...mutliple times. I even dusted and oiled the machine per the manual. It did need it anyway! Still was having a problem.

At this point, I'm starting to look into the cost of repair. It's a Kenmore machine, so I checked into Sears repair online. Flat fee of $62.99 plus any necessary parts. More than I want to spend, but was definitely considering it as a possibility. It wasn't just the scarf I wanted to sew. I have holiday gift ideas!!

I tried a few more things. Looked at the needle again. Swapped it out. And realized my needle was in backwards!! I have no idea when that happened.

Finally, the machine was working like it was suppose to. Maybe even better than the last time I used it since it had now been oiled and dusted. It's like a whole new machine.

And of course, I was able to complete the $3 Halloween costume. Here's a picture:

Are your Halloween costumes homemade or store bought? We've done both, but I'd love to hear your take.

Spending a rainy afternoon in a laundry mat. I took my comforter and one daughters comforter in to be washed in preparation for winter. Total cost to wash and dry both: $9.50. This is a far better price than dropping them off at a cleaners which would have cost me $24 each. Yes, each.

And while I feel like I accomplished something today, there is nothing like curling up with a cup of coffee and the internet on fall rainy day.

Here's the view out my backyard. I wish you could hear the pitter patter of the rain and the smell of the air. But trust me. It's wonderful!

Whew! Those sales are always a whirlwind. I've almost got the house back together.

I only saved two bins for a possible spring sale. Some items might get posted to ebay for the holidays.

I have about four small boxes of items to drop off at Goodwill. I'm also going to take some books into the used book store. I know it won't amount to much but I'd like a few dollars anyway!

The total sales for the two day sale were $664.50. My portion was $144.50. And considering I had a sale back in July and made $150, I think that is pretty good.

Okay back to work...still need to put tables and empty bins in the basement.

I'm participating in a garage sale this Thursday and Friday with my neighbors. It was a little up in the air if we were going to follow through. But we are!

I have all but a small bin of items already priced and ready to move down the street tomorrow. I'm donating a couple tables and putting up the signs. Of course, I will be there to staff the sale, too.

I'm REALLY looking forward to moving these items on. If they don't sell, I expect most of them to be donated to Goodwill. A few items might be held back to sell on ebay.

Today I need to wrap up some errands around town. The cats need food and I have batteries and CD's to recycle. I think Best Buy has a drop box for those.

And if you were at all wondering: I did get all my windows and blinds cleaned last week! They look fabulous.

This week has seen very little spending. Can you say $5 for concessions for DD to attend a school social and $4 for a few loaves of bread? I expect some of that concession money back, too!

I know you want to know the big secret of staying out of the stores. Right?

Cleaning windows and blinds. Yep, that is the secret. I'm spending a majority of my free time this week cleaning each and every slat on our blinds. I'm also cleaning the windows inside and out. On many windows this involves removing the window and cleaning the track they slide on, too. It is a dirty job. But one that must be done...especially if the house is to go on the market soon.

Nope. Still don't know where we are going. We hope to be moving in January. Not that I like the idea of moving during the winter. At all. Unless I'm moving somewhere warmer!!

My advice this week: stay home, clean something, and save some money!!

Wow! It has been gorgeous here the last few days. Highs in the low 70's. No humidity. The air conditioning hasn't run for about four days now. I have even slept with the window open since it isn't getting too cold at night yet. Nice to think we are saving a bit of cash and energy in the meantime.

Yesterday I purchased a gallon of stain at Home Depot. Turns out there was a $5 rebate on it! And we qualified for the military discount. That gallon of stain will only cost about $24, rather than over $32. I bought the stain for our deck. I completed the floor of our deck today and it looks much much better. I will find another day to do the railings. But in the meantime, I'm just happy this update didn't cost too much.

I had a couple items listed on craigslist. I thought I had an interested buyer. Yesterday they were a no show. I did have an email much later in the day, indicating they were no longer interested. That was nice. I guess. I was looking forward to a $40 sale. Darn.

Today, I'll be painting our interior garage door with paint I have on hand. Free home repairs make me happy!

Once I'm done with that, I need to clean bathrooms. DH will be home for several days this weekend. Yipee!

I tried to write this post yesterday. I lost it and gave up.

I have been starting to do some small home repairs and maintenence on our house in preparation for selling or renting. Our move is coming we just don't know when or where yet.

Over the weekend, I recaulked two sinks and a shower. I throughly cleaned our storm door glass and front window. This included taking a razor blade to them to remove small splatters of paint from when we had the house painted last year. They look much better.

I also began making some drywall repairs. Very minor. Just filling in with spackling, sanding and repainting. Yesterday, I opened four different colors of paint to complete the job. I feathered out the paint and it seems to blend pretty well.

Today was basic mowing of the lawn. It needs to be watered more and fertilized. I took down the garden about two weeks ago...we planted too late, thus no produce. Oh well, for the best likely. That area now needs to be reseeded. Need to borrow a rake to flatten the area out.

So far I've used spackling, caulk and paint that we have on hand. I'll need to buy the fertilizer and grass seed. I'll probably head out to do that today.

And the list goes on...there is more to do. Including making a decision on replacing some vinyl in the laundry room. It has chips in it...just like it was when we bought it. We probably need to price it to decide.

I'm starting to work on small repairs around the house. The kind you put off, or just get used to living with.

In the last couple of days, I have repaired some minor dents in the drywall with spackling, sand paper and paint. Turns out I had all the items needed on hand. I just opened the old cans of paint, stirred well and dipped the small roller in! Easy. And free.

We bought caulk for the bathrooms a couple months ago. This weekend I finally took care of updating the caulk by the sinks and our shower. I still need caulk by the tub in the girl's bathroom, around all the toilets and a section near the kitchen sink. All the tools are here, I just need to commit the time to it.

I also cleaned the front window and storm door using a razor blade to clean up very minor paint splatters that were made when the house was painted last year. I suppose I need to clean all the windows inside and out, and dust the blinds.

A few other items I'll be working on in the coming weeks: staining the deck, moving dirt in the back yard, planting the grass seed and watering the yard a bit more regularly.

Cleaning and repairs that need to be done and if I tackle a little bit everyday it will eventually get done! Luckily many of the items can be done for very little, if any, money. Yipee!!

I officially packed about three or four boxes for my husband's move. Again. Very weird. However, I like packing and organizing, so it is kind of fun. All of his stuff is taking up a huge amount of our basement at the moment. In addition to excess furniture, bikes and garage sale items, our basement is packed full!

Youngest daughter wanted something to do, so I had her write garage sale stickers and start marking things for our garage sale. The date is still yet to be determined. We marked three bins of items and there are at least two more that could be marked. After that it will be a matter of going through the house for more stuff to get rid of.

My basement will be very empty by the time DH moves his things and the garage sale is over. Then it will be time to organize what is left. I'm kind of looking forward to that part, too!

The girls rooms have been decluttered. Well, as much as one can actually declutter a 10 year olds room. They do love their trinkets.

I did shop garage sales yesterday, but came home with empty hands. I enjoyed the outing despite the heat. I did see some things I might look for in the future, but nothing that needed to be bought at that moment.

I came home quite energized to work with my girls on clearing out their rooms. We filled three traditional sized Rubbermaid bins with stuff to get rid of. Yipee!! Some will get tossed or recycled. Some will get donated and the rest will be sold in some form or another.

I moved those bins to the basement and will plan to sort those this weekend. Amazingly there are at least four more bins in the basement with stuff to sell. I really need to get stuff listed on ebay. For some reason I'm procrastinating.

Oh, I did receive my $38 payment from secondspin.com for the DVD's I sent them. Obviously declutter can pay off!

Yesterday, I went through my kitchen cabinet where I keep my baking supplies. I tossed out at least 10 expired spices. I had no idea I had that many!! I also moved the cookie cutters and two cookbooks to other cabinets. It is still a full cabinet, but it looks so much better. I am not replacing the spices, until I see a need to replace. I rarely use paprika or cardamon.

I found I had many slips of paper with recipes on them. I recycled the ones I won't use or didn't like. I typed the ones I still use into my Evernote account for future reference. I did this while watching a movie with my daughter, so it was painless.

I also found some expired vitamins in another cabinet. Those were tossed, too. Do you think you have any expired items? If so, toss them today!! It only takes a few moments of your time.

It's been a productive weekend! This puts me on a great foot to start the week and accomplish more.

I did the usual tasks of making a grocery list, getting groceries, doing laundry and helping with homework. I also officially filed our taxes, washed the van floor mats (since we had a warm day), vacuumed the van, and finally sewed two curtains and six coasters for my sister. I also cleaned up after myself!!

Since I was so productive, I didn't have time to ponder the "What Would I Change" topic! We'll see, I might weigh in tomorrow. Nice to see what everyone has to say.

I used this site,

I accomplished everything on the list yesterday. Well one could always clean more. And I might.

In additon to yesterday's list, I took down the outside holiday lights and all decorations except tree and lights. Right. No ornaments are left on. Tomorrow it will be down until next year.

Today, since my guests have postponed their trip here because of ice, I will list a few more year end tasks to accomplish.

1)Clean out baskets of paper near my desk.

2)Write thank you notes.

3)Bake chocolate chip bars(because the diet starts in three days).

4)Write and send card to my husband.

5)Mend two items.

6)Okay...more cleaning. Vacuum lower level.

7)After the market closes today...record investment balances! At least they will be up from last year.

Enjoy the day and the beginnings of a new year!

My year end list of things to do today and tomorrow.

1) Pack up a few more items to take to Goodwill. The girls found about 6 CD's and 2 DVD's they are done with. I checked online and they are only worth about a dime a piece...so off they go to charity. We also found four pairs of mittens, some new but too small.

2) Make a final donation towards our charity.

3) Rabies shots for the cats.

4) Basic cleaning. It's just nice to start the year fresh.

We have completed our Christmas celebrations and travels. It was a fabulous time, but it feels good to get home. Luckily, no weather worries on my travel days.

I have put away a majority of the gifts. The girls have to put their own away. Right now it is all sitting on the stairs to clue them in that the items need to go to their rooms. I have broken down packaging for recycling and trash. I will put away the gift bags, boxes and bows before bed tonight.

The tree and decorations will come down on New Years Day. I will have guests (my dad) that can actually lift the tree back down to the basement. That will be a big help.

I'm also ready for a new year financially. I'm want to calculate our financial results for 2010. Then I will start tracking the new goals for 2011. Yipee!!

I made our last non cash donation to Goodwill today. I have already entered all the items donated in the last year to my tax program. The total value, based on thrift shop values, is $1098!!

Wow! It sure didn't seem like that much stuff, but it will offset the amount of taxes we pay by a little bit.

I'm going to add in each tax form as I receive it this year, with hopes that many of them will be available online by the middle of January. My husband's W2 will not be available until January 24th, but it would be nice if that is the last form I need. I would then be able to file by early February!

I filled a prescription yesterday at Target and redeemed a coupon for a $10 gift card. I'm not sure when I expect to use it. I might just see how long I can hold on to it!

I'm spending the day baking breads to give as gifts. It smells yummy in here!

I'm also going to make a run to goodwill with some final donations. Turns out the items I listed last week on craigslist did not sell. Again. So it is time to just let go.

I made a stop at Goodwill today with one very large box and a smaller box of clothing, shoes, books and household items. Much of it came straight from our closets. I also went through the garage sale pile. Nearly all that went to Goodwill, too.

I'm positive I will make at least one more trip there by the end of the year. We itemize our taxes and make sure to include our non cash donations. If you do also, don't forget to get a receipt!

I noticed the drop off line is much shorter at this time of year. Just wait a few weeks and it will be crazy!!

I just put three items up on ebay. I didn't think I'd actually get around to it, but I did!!

I think getting out the Christmas decorations, got me into an organizing and cleaning mode. I have two large boxes of things for Goodwill and will go through my garage sale boxes to see if there is any more to donate.

I'm positive that I won't spend my free time putting a garage sale together this spring when I will have my DH to spend time with! As a result, I might as well donate now and be done with the stuff.

Is anyone else decluttering?

All the snow everyone else is getting missed me. And I'm thankful. Everyday of winter that goes by where I don't have to shovel snow is good for me since I'd have to do the scooping myself. I do have a snowblower, but I'm not a big fan of it. It would be really nice if it could at least until after Christmas traveling. Wishful thinking. One can wish right?

We have put up our holiday decorations. We actually had my husband direct where he wanted a couple of ornaments to be hung on the tree when we talked on Skype today. It was nice to have him participate even in a small way.

I'm very close to having Christmas shopping done. Maybe another $20 worth of gifts to buy. I had to buy Christmas lights today. The ones that worked last year would only light up 2/3 of the bulbs. I tried changing fuses with no luck. The cost $7. We are about to make another run to Target...fingers crossed I can keep the spending low there.

I'm painting our master bedroom today. I hope to get it done quickly. The nice thing is the rebate for the paint arrived yesterday. The check is for $15.

Crazy as it sounds, I need to decided where to put the $15. Right now it feels like I'm squirreling away bits of cash for different reasons: holidays, van loan, money for clothes. I guess it is a good problem to have. Decisions,decisions.

Do you ever have indecision over small amounts of money? Or is it just me?

OMG! My garage is packed with stuff. We are still in the organizing phase that we will finish up tomorrow. But, really it is packed and going to make for a great garage sale.

Besides the sale, I'm looking forward to payday on Friday (which means saving and debt paydown), free space in my basement, the ability to park my mower and my van in the garage again. Ah, it's the simple things really.

This is garage sale week at our house. We prepping to rake in the cash by disposing of our unwanted items. Yipee!!

Almost everything is priced. Today, I need to sweep out the garage and move things around. The tables may actually be put up today, too. I have two neighbors participating and they often bring over their stuff and price as they put stuff out. So, it is best to have the tables out early!

We will put out bright signs, and find online sites to post a free advertisement. I'm definitely doing craigslist. Any other good sites I should know about?

I might actually have to time to baked some cookies or banana bread to sell. But I'm recovering from a cold, so that is the last thing on my list.

I would like to thank all of you who have supported me in pursuing my new skill. Plumbing. I managed to unclogged one drain and install a new disposal on my kitchen sink today.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I have decided to wait to purchase a new sink and faucet. The disposal did need to be replaced since it completely stopped working today. It was the least inexpensive model. I spent $87.72 for the disposal and a new cord kit. Yes, I wired the disposal because I'm also an electrician.

It feels good to have spent less money than I originally thought I might have to. I don't plan on attempting a new sink and faucet install alone, but if I do I'll let you know.

This week I'm working on our landscaping. The primary motivation was to get three rose bushes that I bought for $5 each planted. I only bought them in June!! Time to get on it.

We also have five very large hostas in our front landscaping that were taking up way too much space. The previous owner planted them and they were much to large for the space. I dug them all out. They weigh at least 20 pounds each!! Right now they are waiting in my back yard to be split and replanted. I have to wait to dig back there. It is possible there are power lines of some sort. I want to make sure before I start digging. Smart of me, right?

Turns out my neighbor has some much smaller hostas she offered me for free!! These have now been planted in my front landscaping bed where I took out the large hostas. These look much much better. I now need to buy mulch for this bed. Darn, spending is involved. However, I'm not in a rush.

I did buy fertilizer today. I will put it down tomorrow. Can you believe I haven't put any fertilizer down all season? We had so much rain and the lawn stayed green all summer and had no trouble growing.

It's almost time to take down the garden fence and stakes. There are a couple of small pumpkins that need a little more time. Otherwise it's all done for the season. It wasn't the best season for our garden, but we enjoyed what we did get.

Yes! It was a very light spending weekend. Ran to the grocery store for a couple of things on Saturday and spent $7.48. On Sunday, I paid for some french fries to eat while we were treated to two games of bowling with my parents and spent about $4.50 with a tip. Today, I filled up my gas tank with about $28 in fuel for our return trip home. Not bad for a three day weekend with an overnight trip.

I do have a list of regular purchases to pick up this week to include cat food, kitty litter, fertilizer for the lawn and a furnace filter. I will try to hold out a couple of more days before I go to the grocery store.

I plan to do yard work outside this week and expect on spending my own energy on that! I will also work on cleaning out the garage in preparation for the garage sale sometime (still waiting on a date) in the next month.