Cable-free for a year

Yeah, you read it right - we've been free of cable television for a year now! In fact, we didn't even bother with bunny ears, so we've been free of all live television for a year now (in our home at least).

When we first moved in together in 2008, we lived in a small apartment and our dining table (a worn, retro-diner style one) sat in our living room, near the TV. We started out by eating our meals happily there, visiting about our days. However, after awhile we started watching part of a movie during Friday night dinners, and watching a little more the following morning while we ate breakfast. And since the couch was so close by, we would vacate the table and lounge on the couch, snacking away while we continued to watch. Dishes piled up, and little was accomplished after meals (unless you count finishing a movie). PVR exacerbated the problem. While recording shows meant we didn't watch stuff we weren't interested in, nor commercials, it meant we could catch a bit of Grey's while we ate breakfast before work, or a little Flashpoint during lunch. We began to watch TV with EVERY meal and then some. EW!

When we found out we were expecting JC, we started thinking about cutting the cable (it was satellite at the time, actually). However, we moved into a new apartment which put our table (we bought a new used one - wood this time) in the kitchen, and the TV upstairs in the loft. We decided that having the TV and the table separated by a whole floor would be enough. And it was ... at first. But then we ordered pizza one Friday night and decided to eat it while we watched a movie (on demand). And then on a Saturday morning we ate our breakfast while we watched another movie ... and, well, you get the idea.

Finally, one night, we were flipping through the "on demand" movies and tried to order one, but we kept getting a message that the program was too busy. It gave us a support number to call, so we called them. My husband spent some time arguing with the voice on the other end, repeating that if we are going to pay for a service, we expect to receive it - on demand!! We must have spent an hour trying to get the movie between trying and re-trying and calling the cable company.

That is when we knew it was time to cut the cord (or cable, rather).

(Besides, I was terrified that I would sit down on the couch with the baby, flip on the TV, and miss her childhood because I was absorbed in daytime TV.)

Once the cable was gone, we started going for walks every night. It was good exercise in general, but it gave us a chance to chat, scope out houses, and stretch my pregnant body. We were even a little more on top of dishes!

Since JC's birth, we've bought a house and moved in. The TV is FAR away from the table, and we RARELY eat lunch or dinner in front of it. Sometimes on weekends if JC is sleeping and the weather is lousy we'll eat breakfast while we watch part of a movie, but that is sure to stop once JC starts eating breakfast with us. Also, once we finish the basement, the TV will be banished from the main floor.

We still watch Grey's and a couple other shows by watching them online from the broadcasters' websites, but only occasionally, and it's FREE! We have more DVDs than I am comfortable admitting (though we do not plan to purchase anymore and may sell a good chunk of what we own), and we also borrow movies from the library for FREE!

Yes, by cutting the cable, we've saved money, upped our exercise, and most importantly, we are LIVING OUR LIVES rather than watching other people's made-up lives! And it feels GREAT!

Decluttering: Step 1 (of MANY)

The first step will be to go through any magazines lying around.

Now that I have conquered the art of writing in cookbooks, I will conquer the most logical next step: ripping up magazines. (Ok, so maybe that isn't the next logical step nor the next step at all, but we'll go with it.)

I have countless home design and cooking magazines lying around our place. They are not organized in a magazine stand. They are not neatly stacked on my bedside table. No, they are not even stashed beside the toilet or strewn across the coffee table. They are packed in boxes, packed in beautiful pine chests, and laying around in other spaces where they will never be looked at. (Why do I do this??!!!)

So, the first step to de-cluttering our home will be to go through said magazines and to TEAR OUT the pages that appeal to me.

Here are the rules:

No tearing out ...

1) photos of clothes I'd never wear.
2) pictures of good-looking men (haha ... this is just here for my husband. I'd be hard-pressed to find pictures of men in the kind of magazines I have lying around. Mostly just kitchens and food here ...)
3) dessert recipes which are too decadent and/or artery-blocking for me to feel good about making
4) photos of design options that we will never have (ie. they could never work in our current home)
5) recipes which are made up primarily of ready-made store-brought products

Once pages have been torn out, recipes will be clipped and taped into my recipe scrapbook for later use. Home design inspirational photos will be sorted by room category and placed in a folder for future reference. Craft ideas will also be sorted and placed in a folder. EVERYTHING ELSE GOES IN THE RECYCLING BIN ..... no second chances or pass-throughs.

Wish me luck!

And in the fine print at the bottom it says:

If you do not want to receive these daily deals, please Unsubscribe from this mailing.

We're VERY slowly decluttering things around the house and I am so very thankful for that!

However, my inbox is a HUGE source of clutter. How huge you ask? Well, I currently have 2156 messages in my gmail. I pride myself on keeping it under 2200. I know, I know - I have high standards ... haha.

So, my current mission is to unsubscribe to newsletters etc. when I receive them rather than simply highlighting them all and deleting them.

I had been doing very well with my "unsubscriptions" until one made me stop and think yesterday. When I clicked "unsubscribe," it led me to the usual type of website where they either a) let you off easy by saying they're sorry your won't be getting there mail anymore b) ask you to enter your email address so they can remove you, or c) ask you to explain (or click checkboxes) as to why you no longer wish to receive their mail. Well, after completing the mini-survey for why I was leaving, I actually felt GUILTY about leaving. WHAT?! Yeah, that's right. I was concerned that I may have hurt some huge corporations FEELINGS by unsubscribing to their newsletters which I don't even read! How silly!

So, from this point forward, I will unsubscribe with abandon and not worry that multi-million dollar corporations will have hurt feelings because they won't be able to fill up my inbox anymore. And I won't burden myself by worrying that I am missing out on something hugely important because I no longer have a subscription to every last company and corporations' newsletters.

Just 'cause it's pretty ...

... doesn't mean I have to OWN it.

This is something that I NEED to get through my head!

We moved in to our new home on December 16th (2010) and I am still unpacking. I don't mean that there are a few boxes of rarely used things left to unpack. I mean that there are LOADS of boxes of rarely used things left.

What does this mean? It means we (or more likely I) have TOO MUCH stuff!

I have a horrible habit of buying things because they're pretty. I'm like a monkey attracted to shiny things! I buy note cards that are packaged in cute and pretty little boxes because I like to have them. Not because I use the box for something after I use up the note cards - nope! I do it just BECAUSE.




This also applies to clothing. I have boxes, and boxes, and BOXES of clothes I never wear, but they're too pretty to get rid of. So silly...

Then there's the difficulty of gifts. I have lots of beautiful gifts that I've been given over the years that are just that - they're beautiful (and often not all that useful). Sure I can store things in some of them, but do I NEED them? Do they add something to my life? (Other than another thing to unpack/dust/trip over?)


How did this start? Why do I (and many others) do this? I don't know, but I seem to remember having a closet FULL of empty tissue boxes. Yes, I collected empty facial tissue boxes. Why? NO IDEA. I should also mention that I collected empty sugar packages for a period of time as well.

I no longer collect anything. Nothing. Well, maybe money? (And it seems that I collect yarn, too.) But no teddy bears, elephants, giraffes, buttons, pins, thimbles, and DEFINITELY NO tissue boxes!

What do you collect (on purpose or by chance)?