Don’t forget.  Today’s the day to check in on how we’re all doing with our second decluttering project.

Are you ready?

We’ve got a full plate of projects going on around here today, so I’ll hop in with updates on my second decluttering to-do and see how you’re doing just a little later.

p.s.  Have you read this children’s book about a little girl tempted by her parents’ world of 1933 aviation?  It was on my bookshelf when I started my Decluttering Project #2, and I couldn’t stop reading.  Children’s books are so fun, don’t you think?

Welcome September!

(Image compliments of msn)

If this isn’t the bee’s knees!  We’ve got some all-new journals for you to peek inside of over at Gadanke.

Martin has caught me flipping through the pages of these books on several occasions since we got them up and running (you literally hit the < and > arrow icons to turn the digital pages).  I just can’t help myself!  And I don’t think you will, either.

First up in the new collection of “Share Your Journal” books is something you might recognize:

Right along with it are some very cool shots of Lisa’s lovely personal {She} journal:

(You might remember Lisa from a few months back when she shared her touching discoveries about repurposing + creating art here on Making This Home.)

And of course, my own {Love Where We Live} journal about Berlin and our apartment is over there:

So go check them out! Just don’t blame me if you get hooked on flipping through those addicting pages or thinking about how you’d fill them out.  I warned you it’s easy to have happen!

The days of socks and fuzzy sweaters are slowly slipping in up here in the mountains.  I can see summer waving goodbye with a steady calm.  Autumn has the BEST flying weather thanks to this calm (so if you hate to fly, there’s a little heads up!).  It also comes in little chilly bursts, which means it’s time to switch our wardrobes.  So should we go shopping for new clothes?

You know the answer at our house:  absolutely not!

A couple of weeks ago, the owner and his family came to vacation here.  We had to move out all of our clothes and most of our personal belongings.  We’re pretty much moved back into the house now, yet a funny thing has happened.  I still have not brought in all of our clothes.

All this time, I thought we were doing really well with less.  Turns out we can get along just as well with far less than we thought.

The incredible thing is that with only about five shirts and two sweaters available to me, I’m actually happier.  I’m not struggling with what to wear or trying to find out what matches.  I already know.  With so many other things to juggle, I kind of like the break from any clothing conundrums.

My classmates from German class in Berlin come to my mind.  Many of them probably had about five outfits that they’d wear to class.  They were totally okay with it, and those clothes looked really good on them.  I felt like they focused their energy (and money) on clothes that worked for their bodies instead of clothes to fill their closets.

my mom and me – brrr!

Most of you and I will eventually have to pull out some warmer clothes.  But I think I have more sweaters than I need. What about you?  If you are not wearing something, do you need it?  If you have so many sweaters that you wear them all, but not very often – do you need so many?

So this fall, we’re not going to shop for clothes anywhere but the two plastic bins we have tucked away: one labeled “Martin’s clothes” and one labeled “Katie’s clothes”.

Then I think we can get rid of some of those clothes that aren’t in our regular rotation and focus on clothes that matter – just like my old classmates do.

What are your thoughts on the clothes you have as we approach a changing season?

Catch our whole No New Clothes Challenge journey right here.  15 months strong, incredible personal growth, and no unnecessary clothes purchases!

Sometimes I can’t believe that Making This Home will be turning two years old very soon. It’s helped me continue writing and building my voice. It’s connected me to so many beautiful people (like you!) and taught me that living big does not mean living better. Or at least it’s not better for me, and I feel so happy and confident in my decision to choose more simplicity.

I hope that maybe joining me here every day has offered you some really great things, too.

There are a few things that Making This Home hasn’t quite fulfilled for me. I haven’t felt connected to handmade artists and small online businesses like I would like to. This summer has really connected me to some really incredible artists and small business owners in my community… okay, county.  Last month, Martin said, “It’s amazing how rural communities really take care of their neighbors and support each other.”

It’s so true. When we lived in Berlin, I’d forgotten what it was like to wave at every-single-person-I-passed, which is such a huge part of our life here. Sometimes when I’m walking down the gravel roads, it involves waving twice – once on their drive up the road and once on their drive back.

When Martin mentioned the rural community perspective, I paused. We were eating locally made ice cream at the locally owned campground. Eating that ice cream over any other not only tasted really good; it felt really good. I started to wonder. Why aren’t I supporting my online neighbors with this kindred attitude?

I’ve decided to open Making This Home to a small number of handmade artists and small online businesses in September.

If you are interested in promoting your shop, creations, or ideas, and getting the word out about your business and what you’re trying to achieve, please click here for all the advertising information.

Thank you all for sharing this journey with me.  I can’t wait to start spreading some “country lovin’!”

We don’t use paper napkins.  We don’t wipe our hands on our pants.  (At least I don’t think anyone at our house does that!)  We reach for cloth.  Skipping the paper towels and napkins is an awesome way to use fewer resources, create less trash, and save money.  What’s there not to love?

Going paper free in the kitchen hasn’t been a huge challenge, probably because both our parents were quick to grab dish cloths to wipe counters or clean up spills instead of paper towels.  You know how it is.  The things we learn as kids certainly become huge habits as we get older.  So when a few comments came up on the topic of paper in the kitchen last week, I just knew it was time to show what we know.

So here we go – the ins and outs of making your kitchen paper free.  (Stay tuned next week as we talk about the other paper products in the house.)  I’m going to talk about our home in Berlin because living in the tire house here is living in someone else’s home.  I can offer you more heart by describing the space we’ve created and organized ourselves.  So who wants to go to Germany for the day?!

We have three types of cloth in our kitchen:

• fabric napkins: on the table or in the cupboard
• cloth dishtowels and rags: hanging by the sink/on the sink or clean, folded, and in the cupboard
• rags: under the sink, made from old towels and scraps we’ve cut up

If you want to reduce the paper use in your house, here’s the trick:

Make paper products hard to reach; make cloth easy to grab.

There’s a reason our fabric napkins are already on the table, and there’s a reason we don’t have a paper towel dispenser.

We do keep a small stash of paper napkins tucked in the deepest part of our cabinets.  They’re tucked so deep in the cabinet that it takes more time to get paper napkins out of there than it takes for all the bakery treats and breads to disappear.

Most paper towels and napkins are made from virgin trees.  That means we’re cutting down trees just to make things to clean up with and toss.  In the very least, read the labels and consider spending a little more if it means your paper products come from recycled sources.

Fabric napkins can be used for several meals.  Let everyone pick her own unique napkin ring. Get engraved initials or add names.  That way everyone knows where her napkin is.

I’ve been sewing some napkins and dish towels for us.  It really adds a fun touch!  Here’s a whole slew of fabric napkin tutorials.  Or check out all of these handmade napkins for sale by handmade artists on etsy.

The key to making a paper-free kitchen work is just throwing all those fabric towels and napkins into the washing machine on a regular basis.  You’re doing laundry anyway.  A couple more rags won’t add much space or add more resources to wash.  I don’t know about you, but going to someone’s house for dinner and using a fabric napkin instantly makes a meal feel so classy!  What if that were your house?!

How do you do it at your house?  Is your kitchen paper-free?  Or is it something you’ve considered?  If you’ve got some tips on the transition, I’m sure we’d all love to hear!

After releasing baby books in the journal shop and being away for the weekend to celebrate two birthdays, it was pretty obvious that this week was going to be pretty taxing in terms of the higher-than-normal paper load and lower-than-usual available time to tackle it.

How about you?  Did you manage to cross off the first decluttering item that you chose to tackle at your house for our little challenge?

Luckily I started right away, so over the week I was able to take care of all the little paper details.  I started by gathering all of the papers in our house and putting them in a cardboard box.  Every day I worked on the stack just a little.  Some projects are good to just dive into.  Others have to be done a piece at a time so you don’t get burned out.  I’m glad I stretched the project through the week.  It made all of those “I might need this some day” papers sooo much easier to drop into the recycling bin.

The good news is that my paper box is empty.  Well not entirely empty.  As I worked through paperwork, I occasionally grabbed a postcard to send a quick hi to friends and family.  You can see them all sitting there, stamped and ready.  Just have to grab those on the way out the door.

I keep my paper box on the top of our bookshelf… the bookshelf that just happens to be next week’s decluttering project!

So hooray!  I’ve crossed off this week’s goal.  My box is empty.

Here’s how I made it happen:

I like to keep our filing cabinet incredibly organized and simple. Every file is organized by category, then subject.  That way we can find whatever we need for taxes or – and this seems to happen a whole lot more – we can easily walk other people through the contents of our files when we’re overseas.  When bills get paid, I’ll write “pd” (paid) and the date.  The only challenge is taking the time to then put those suckers into our filing cabinet… which is what this week was all about.  I like to tack papers down onto the file folder like you’d see at a law office.  That way everything is always chronological.  Again – so much easier for future reference.

The file folder in the very front of our filing cabinet holds scratch paper. Any paper that is blank on one side automatically goes into the file.  It’s perfect for printing test copies of journal pages or other documents.  It’s one more way to slow the process of garbage/recycling heading out our door, and you’d be surprised how easy it is to fill that folder.

The last thing I did was streamline all the small papers, stamps, and little Gadanke supplies that were starting to clutter my desk. Some simple notecards and an old plastic basket offered the perfect setup.  It’s as easy as pie, and now I know exactly where to find everything.

And by the way.  All that scrap paper in the front?  That’s those journal test prints.  Since they have so much blank space for journaling and I can’t use them any more as full sheets, they’re still perfect for jotting a quick phone number or note.  It beats buying a little pad of paper any day!

Remember this page from my {Love Where We Live} journal about our home in Berlin?  Martin actually used one of those repurposed pieces of scrap paper from journal test prints and wrote a little note to tuck into my school books one day.  Isn’t that the sweetest 100%-recycled-paper…that-gets-printed-on…then-printed-on-again…then-cut-into-scrap-paper note ever?

(The scrap paper excerpt came from this journal.)

But enough about our house and my first decluttering project.  How did you do?  Were you able to finish?  Did you go above and beyond?  Anyone already moving onto decluttering project #2?  Wherever you stand, do tell, do tell!

Don’t forget The Decluttering Project main page – a directory of all sorts of tips and tricks for various decluttering issues.  May be just the ticket for your next to-do.