Wanna buy a bracelet?

It's February, and at Flylady.net that means it is the month where we focus on decluttering. Because of the Olympics this year, the Flylady has decided to turn our decluttering into an Olympic event so that we can really get rid of the clutter that weighs heavily on our shoulders.

I'm jumping in a little differently this time because we are in the midst of fulling funding an emergency fund (Dave Ramsey, Baby Step #3). Normally, the Flylady suggests just giving things away, and I am all for that, but I don't have a substantial paycheck to contribute to emergency fund effort, so I've decided to sell anything in our home that is not tied down. I've been doing well with books and DVD's, but I decided to peruse the jewelry box to see if there was anything of value there. Oh, the horrible memory I found there.

In college I lived with a sorority sister who came from an affluent family. They were cabinet makers in Missouri. This sister met a man who really liked the idea of being affluent, too, and they became engaged. As I lived with her at the time, I was invited to be a bridesmaid. Thankfully I was not the only one because I don't think I could have done this by myself.

We went through weeks of dress issues to be part of this wedding. We took a group trip to the bride-to-be's hometown for a fashion show to choose the perfect ensemble. We, the bridesmaids, tried on each dress, and they, the bride-to-be, her mother, and her aunt, commented on how horrible each of us looked and the specific flaws that each dress accentuated on our forms. Flat-chested, large-chested, too fat, too skinny...we left that dress shop feeling horrible. Then they took us to a restaurant that specializes in HUGE portions so we could feel even better about ourselves while we ate.

Now, I must say that 33 year old Rachel would have handled that wedding differently. I would have laughed in their faces and caught a cab home. 20 year old Rachel, however, wasn't quite ready to be that assertive, so I just went along with it and resisted the urge to develop an eating disorder.

I could go on about this wedding, but you probably get the gist of the whole thing. It. Was. Awful.

At the rehearsal dinner, we received 14K gold bracelets from England (Ooooh!). The groom had picked them for us. In each box was a cute little thank you note from the bride. Mine said, "Who knows? Maybe one day you'll be in my shoes!" Meaning maybe one day I, too, would get to be the bridezilla. Grrrr.

During my decluttering rampage the other day, I found that pretty little box and bracelet, and the catty little thank you note in the bottom. I thought to myself, "That was a horrible experience. I wonder how much I could get for this?" Now, friends, the bracelet is for sale on eBay. The auction ends later this week, and I already have some bids.

So, I'm getting paid to get rid of a harbinger of ill-feeling that I have carried around for about 13 years and worn one time. To the wedding. That's it. Ahhhh...decluttering feels so good!

Are you holding on to anything that upsets you when you see it? If so, I encourage you to send it packing! It really is a great feeling to be rid of bad memories!

Oh, and if you need a gold bracelet, here's the link;)

14K Gold Victorian-Style Bracelet by Solar England

Little victories...

When it rains in Florida, it pours, and sometimes it pours for days. It is easy for me to feel a little down at times like this, so I wanted to celebrate some of the things I accomplished this week because of the rain. Here is my list of successes for the week:

• We finally started living without paper towels. It isn't really that hard!
• We finally got our shoes organized in their new clear, plastic boxes under the bed.
• I finally used the hot glue gun to turn an old bottle of dish detergent into a cool new reality play toy for my son. (I also figured out that indeed my little idea didn't work as well as I'd hoped. I will be tweaking the idea thanks to the recent failure, and maybe I will have a neat thing to share in a future post!)
• I finally finished preparing our family and household for hurricane season. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, literally.

What did you do this week? Celebrate your accomplishments with us!

Weeds To Pull

While we are anticipating guests this weekend, I am running around the house trying to get everything perfect. I am scrubbing the baseboards, the floors are being swept, even the garden is getting weeded.

Everytime I have guests coming I go through this routine. I do a deep clean trying to make the house as presentable as possible. I always end up asking myself, "why do I not go through all of this for my family...for me?"

I know why, simply, we live in this house. It is lived in. If you pop by my house at any given moment, the dishes will be done, but there are sure to be toys on the floor. The floors will be swept, but I guarantee you'll see a stray crayon lying around. You're even bound to find piles of laundry waiting to be put away.

I would love to have my house immaculate, just waiting to surprise a guest who might pop by, but it is not my number one priority. Spending time with the kiddos - they won't always be here to play in the sand, but I guarantee there will always be weeds to pull.