Week 38 PURGE- Paper to be Shredded

This morning Monkey and I made a fun trip to the University of Illinois Employees Credit Union. Nope, not for banking. For PURGing!

As mentioned in a previous post, the UIECU periodically hosts a shred event for confidential documents. So this week, I cleaned out our file cabinet of archived #262 bills and PURGEd anything over a year old. I also had a box of #263 confidential documents related to graduate school which made up the bulk of this box.

Thankfully Bo helped by loading it into our trunk. I'm pretty sure this box was the second heaviest PURGE item (the heaviest being a tub of textbooks). And then luckily two friendly UIECU staff unloaded it from the trunk to the large semi truck-shredder machine. There wasn't even a wait!

Despite this being a fairly simple PURGE project, I learned a lot. I've already requested that my bank bills be sent electronically. I plan to do that with more financial statements so there's less I'll have to shred and recycle.

PURGE is helping me realize the small ways that I can reduce what comes into our house, so there's less to PURGE later. What a fun and insightful challenge for the year!

What do your rooms look like?

Check out the Clutter Image Rating that I found. It is used to assess if a person has a hoarding problem.

For us, our bedroom is a 1. We've gotten good about making this our getaway retreat spot. Only our nightstands have some clutter on them.

Our living room is between a 1 and a 2, but much closer to 1. I have a a couple small piles of books that I want to PURGE, but haven't yet. We don't have anything on the couches that would prevent people from sitting.

Our kitchen is a solid 2. We don't have anything on the floor, but the counters are currently covered with dirty dishes and the kitchen table has an assortment of papers on it. I LOATHE cleaning the kitchen, so the counters and table issue is a more-often-than-not type of situation.

They should have one for your vehicle. Both of ours would be like about a 4 today and 2 to 3 in general.

So, walking through your house RIGHT NOW, no cheating, pick the numbers that describe your bedroom, living room, then kitchen. Be honest!

Week 37 PURGE - College Textbooks

Another school year has begun! While U of I students are buying their textbooks for the next semester of higher education, I got to PURGing mine.

I'd like to think that all the important stuff I learned in college and grad school is still stored in my head. So my "library" of textbooks (really just an unorganized pile on the floor of my basement) is doing nothing but providing hiding places for spiders and crickets.

Remember I mentioned that the Urbana Free Library collects books to sell for a fundraiser? This gave me extra motivation to donate my books soon because the next sale starts tomorrow and runs through this weekend during the 35th Urbana Sweet Corn Festival.

With an imaginary deadline (not a real deadline because they take books all year round) to work towards, I headed to the basement and dusted off over 25 books (#237- #261) from mostly my college years. My grad school books I plan to give away to friends and students of mine.

I contemplated selling them to earn some extra cash, but convinced myself otherwise after thinking about the hassle of looking up each book's info, posting them online or elsewhere and dealing with people who may or may not be interested in buying then. Kudos to you who can both PURGE and sell stuff for some extra cash! Maybe someday I'll have the patience to do that too. For now, I was happy enough that they were PURGEd and will likely get reused, not recycled, or worse, trashed.

And many thanks to my hubby for his help with this week's PURGE. Books have been by far the heaviest thing we've PURGEd and he did all the heavy lifting to get these out of the house and to the library. Gotta love a man who loves to PURGE!

Week 36 PURGE - Toiletries

In the past I have Freecycled toiletries, but thanks to friend, fellow blogger, and PURGEr, I know now how to donate them to a good cause.

Local charity, Empty Tomb, collects new and barely used cosmetics such as lotions, perfumes, make-up, etc. and assembles them into gift baskets. At Christmas, children from families of limited financial resources gift baskets for their parents. How sweet it that?

I was motivated to PURGE my bathroom drawers and under my sink and this is what I found.

#227 1 Full-size Conditioner

#228 2 full-size Face Washes

#229 2 Travel-size toothpastes

#230 1 Tube of Acne Medication

#231 1 Body Mist

#232 2 Travel-Size Conditioners

#233 1 Travel-Size Shampoo

#234 3 Trial-Size Body Lotions

#235 1 Travel-Size Soap

#236 2 Trial Size Eye Creams

You too can bring your donations to Empty Tomb at 301 N. 4th St. in Champaign on Monday through Saturday from 9:ooam to 12:30pm or 2:15pm to 5:00pm. The drop off door is on the north side of the building; just ring the doorbell. You'll love the feeling of less clutter and knowing that your donation helped a child give a beautiful gift to a parent this upcoming holiday season.

Week 35 PURGE - to Friends

PURGING can be hard enough, but to keep things out of landfills when you are PURGING can be even more challenging.

It will take a little extra work, but finding a new home for your stuff (as opposed to the trash) is well worth it. This week I PURGEd specifically to people I knew and it left me with a positive feeling that I was helping them out a bit too, in addition to all the usual perks of PURGE.

#219 Parenting Magazines - went to my friend Cyndi. This is the same Cyndi who received several of these during Week 3. She's a preschool teacher and uses them in her classroom for

arts and crafts.

#220 Size 12-18 Month Tops and #221 Pajama Sets - This went to a friend, Declan, who was the recipient of some of Monkey's clothes in the past, such as in Week 4. Several things I gave him were returned, so I don't count them as an actual PURGE, but Declan's mommy told me that he's in this size now and his growth has slowed, so he should be able to make use of Monkey's clothes this time. I can't wait to see him in these!

#222 Size 9-12 month boys's winter coat, #223 Tops, #224 Pants, and #225 Pajama Sets - Jay, the recipient of the 0-3 pants from Week 4 and the baby food from Week 19, got this lot. His mom my told me on the phone that they LOVE hand-me-downs and he just started wearing this size. Hope they still fit him when it starts to cool down.

#226 Stickers - I just got these from my mother-in-law last week, so it hardly seems like a PURGE, but we also got a small tub of stickers from her too and we're keeping those. Because this was basically new and in the box, I thought it would be best to let someone else have fun with them. I'm thinking that our children's ministry can use them for prizes or rewards or something. (no pic, got rid of it too fast).

All of this stuff I just brought with me to church and handed it out like it was Christmas in August ;)

You probably know people who could use some of your stuff more than you. It just takes asking around, but it's a great opportunity to help out a friend. Give it a try, you'll like it, as you know you're helping them with something they need and not just adding to their clutter.

Last of Garage Sale PURGE (Wk34)

The first Clean Water Garage Sale of 2010 created a lot of momentum. I was inspired to clean out even more for Part 2. I just forgot to document it until now.

#211 Wireless Router. We got a new one a couple in between the two garage sales. SOLD!

#212 Bag of Rags - These have been on the floor of my closet for months. We've done fine without them during that time. SOLD!

#213 Boppy Pillow. We now have 2 and no one I knew needed this one. SOLD!

#214 Bag - I used this a lot this year, but I got a new one. I can't remember if it sold, but if it got donated to a local charity, I know someone will make soog use of it. It's nice looking and in great condition.

#215 Photo Album Book - This was made of phthalates, so I didn't want my kids to play with it much. SOLD!
#216 Box of 12-month Boys Summer Clothes and #217 Blankets - Monkey still was wearing these, but he can fit in the next size up too, so I thought I'd PURGE these while they were in season. SOLD!

#218 Bag of Stuffed Animals - There were the few that didn't have as much sentimental value ans were just collecting dust. All were in good condition and some still had tags on them. Some SOLD!

What Not to PURGE #1: Recyclable Water Bottles

Welcome to "What Not to PURGE (WNTP)," a new segment of this blog.

My quest to PURGE is not just to get rid of junk in my house, its also to reduce my carbon footprint by living more simply. I've been trying to get better about buying items used or getting them from Freecycle because it crazy how much energy is needed to make a new product and how many harmful byproducts come from production. If you've seen "The Story of Stuff," you know a bit about this.

In light of the Clean Water Garage Sale, I wanted to put another challenge out to my vast (yeah right) readership. Watch "The Story of Bottled Water."

In my family, we switched to stainless steel water bottles. Everyone in my family has their own, actually, Bean and Monkey each have two: one they keep in their bed/in the house and one they take out with them. We take these everywhere we go so we always have access to water from our own faucet or a water fountain somewhere.

In my opinion, stainless steel is the way to go. Plastic sippy cups and water bottles that you can buy are harmful for your own body when you drink from them, they release nastiness when they are produced, and then you are done with them they end up in the trash, or if you recycle them, more nastiness is released into the earth.

Stainless steel is more indestructible, lasting for years before needing to be replaced, if ever. It is inert and non-reactive to what you are drinking (as opposed to some aluminum water bottles you may have seen around). Also when you finally do toss it (I dunno why you would) the metal is easily recoverable, reducing the amount of emissions when recycling it.

If you can't find yourself a stainless steel water bottle used (like I found one at the Clean Water Garage Sale for our baby girl), this is one item totally worth buying brand new. In the long run, it will pay for itself and the impact on our Earth from producing it will be far less than the alternatives of buying bottled water, or using another type of drinking canister.

In sum, those recyclable bottles from bottled water are #1 on WNTP, because you should try not to buy them in the first place. I know, it's a challenge. I never said PURGE was going to be easy but, are you up for it?

Next UIECU Shred Event Coming up!

I don't think it's only open to members, so I thought I'd spread the word.

The University of Illinois Employees' Credit Union is hosting it's next "Shred Event" on Saturday, August 28. You can bring up to five boxes of your old documents and they’ll shred them for you while you watch....and it's for FREE!

There are two locations and times:

Five Points Branch

206 East University Avenue

Time: 8 am-11 am

First Street Branch

Urbana 2201 South First Street, Champaign

Time: 12 pm-3 pm

Photo Credit: juvencioroldan

Book PURGE for Urbana Free Library

In case you haven't noticed, purging for fundraising has been on my mind!

Photo Credit: PaPeR.cLiP (It's good to be back!)

We all have books lying around the house that we aren't likely to read again any time soon. Why not PURGE them and have some extra shelf space?

3 times a year the Urbana Free Library hosts a book sale, which raises over $20,000 annually for the library. Some of the book they sell are ones removed from the library's collection, but most are donated by people like us! UFL takes book donations anytime at the circulation desk and they will give you a form so you can even write off your donation on your taxes.

It's so easy! This weekend after the Clean Water Garage Sale, I brought a trunk-load of books over that didn't sell. The librarian brought a cart out to my car, loaded it up for me and wheeled it all back in. So, all you need to do is go through your bookshelves and PURGE.

I'll be doing this over the next couple weeks because the next book sale is on August26-30th (but like I said, they take books all year). I need to attack my school books from grad and undergrad most importantly. I know we also have some cookbooks we can get rid of and a couple novels. I'll be updating with pics and stuff about what we manage to get out of the house.

What books can you PURGE?

PURGE for another Garage Sale Fundraiser

If you missed donating to to the Clean Water Garage Sale, you can still get rid of your stuff for a good cause. A friend of mine e-mailed yesterday about a garage sale she is organizing to build a women's shelter in Ecuador. I pasted her e-mail below so you can see the details. You can contact them for delivery times or pick up. So it's very easy! Happy PURGing for another good cause!

~~~~

Attention Friends and Lovers of Chambana:

I need your help! I am broke broke broke and trying to get to Ecuador to collaborate again with the women in my "extended family" to work to get the shelter we dream of having for women there built and functional! Together with the help of a generous friend of mine, we're calling upon our friends to donate items to be sold in

a garage sale on Saturday, August 21st, 2010 in the Cherry Hills Subdivision in Champaign. All proceeds will help send me to Ecuador!

Please help a sister out and donate what junk (I say that lovingly!) you can to the cause! All donated things can either be picked up by me or dropped off yourself on location between August 19th, from 6pm-9pm (during set-up) at:

2811 Cherry Hills Drive, Champaign, IL 61822. My phone
Organizers, Rachel Storm and Joan Wingo can be reached at:

217-840-8517 (Joan) and 630-677-7219 (Rachel)

We also are looking for volunteers to do the following:

• Staff the sale itself anytime on Saturday, August 21st from 7am-5pm!
• Help set-up on Thursday, August 19th beginning at 6pm!
• Pass the word around! Do you know more people who might want to get rid of their stuff?! Forward this message!

I plan to fly to Ecuador over Winter or Spring break this year and every penny counts. Please help me get there!

_____________________________________________

Kind regards,

Rachel Storm
Program Coordinator, Illinois Women's Resources Center
The Women's Resources Center, University of Illinois

Student Affairs--Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Relations
703 S. Wright Street, Champaign, IL 61820
MC-302
(217) 333-3137 (office phone)
(217) 244-3167 (fax)
(630) 677-7219 (cell)

Freecycle Leftovers from Clean Water Garage Sale

The sale is over, but don't miss out on these great free items! If you want to donate financially to help dig the well in Liberia, you can leave a check in the mailbox to "Quest UMC" with "Clean Water Garage Sale" in the memo.

Now at 3916 Aberdeen in SW Champaign, you can find these and a couple other things:

UPDATE: All of these were picked up before garbage collection day. So basically nothing went in the trash of all those donated items we collected ;)

Clean Water Garage Sale - The Final Count

$104.45.

That's how far we are from digging the next clean well for clean water for another village in Liberia, Africa. Yessir, from 2 weekends of garage sales, we raised

$1395.55!

Thank you so much for any help you may have offered. I can't believe that we are sooooooooo close. If you want to help us reach our goal of $1500, you can make a check to "Quest UMC" with"Clean Water Garage Sale" in the memo and mail it to:

Quest UMC

1212 Butzow Dr.

Suite B

Urbana, IL 61801

Compared to what we've already raised, this seems like pennies, so any thing you can contribute is a great help and would be much appreciated. I know we can do it! Thank you so much already for your donations, volunteer hours, prayers, and support!

For your viewing pleasure: what you PURGEd for the second garage sale:

Photo Credit: Emily Hays

Chambanamoms.com Highlights Clean Water Garage Sale

PURGE started with an idea from Amy Hatch from www.chambanamoms.com to have "A Year of Living with Less," whereby she'd get rid of junk each week and tell the world about it.

Brilliant! Potentially embarrassing, but also brilliant.

I decided to join her with "PURGE," but it's basically the same thing. I've been keeping Amy posted about things over here and when I told her about the Clean Water Garage Sale and it's connection to PURGE, she asked me to write an article for chambanamoms.com!

I nearly wet myself. I read Chambanamoms.com multiple times a day because I'm connected with them through every possible social media. I'm indebted to them for the amazing deal we got on our 2011 Toyota Sienna when we discovered we needed a van to accommodate Mei Mei by October. To randomly with a T-shirt from them at a pool party was the icing on the cake (though Bo wears it cuz it's too bug for me, even while pregnant).

So I was quite honored to be asked to write an article about the Clean Water Garage Sale and PURGE, but I was nervous. A grad school friend of mine commented that it has to be easier than writing a dissertation. Yeah, maybe, but only five people read my dissertation and only because they had to!

I'm hoping this will have more of an impact. May it encourage you not only to PURGE but also to put your junk to a good cause, whatever that cause may be.

"Living with Less," "PURGE," "Decluttering," etc.

Whatever you call it, you did it!

A small group of Clean Water Garage Sale volunteers met last night to unpack and organize from the last sale. AND we also sorted and priced all the new donations that came in. Thanks, newbies! Here's a preview of what you'll be able to buy tomorow from 8 to noon and Saturday from 8-2 at 3916 Aberdeen in Champaign:

Furniture (numerous bookshelves of different sizes $5-$10, hide-a-bed couch $20, futon couch, directors chairs - set for 25 or $15 each, white resin patio table and 4 chairs $25, kitchen cart $5, recliner)

Baby and Children's Items (space saver high chair $15, bouncy chair $10, boppy pillow $5, multiple car seats - $10, art desk with chair $10)

Children's Toys (Legos, Megablocks, door basketball hoops, coloring supplies, many Spidrerrman things, baby toys)

2 full Tables of Children's Clothes (infant to middle school, boys and girls) - 50 cents

Adult clothes $1

Shoes - $1

Books - Hardbacks $1, Children's books and Paperbacks 3 for $1

DVDs - $1

VHS - 25 Cents

Sport Equipment (junior golf clubs $20, assorted balls $1, free weights, rackets)

Home Electronics (coffee maker $7, phones $1-$5, hand-held massager $3, iron $3, printer $5, speakers $3, carpet cleaner, vacuum )

Household Items (kitchen, office, bathroom, linens, rugs, home improvement and repair items)

Home Decor (wall art, candles, knick knacks)

Holiday Items

Luggage, Bags, Purses

Don't miss the $1/bag at 1pm sale on Saturday!

Funds Raised from Clean Water Garage Sale are "Well Spent"

If you're wondering if your contribution to the Clean Water Garage Sale makes a difference, IT DOES. Check out the pics below of the 2nd well that Quest has funded. The first one was in Wazon, with funds mostly raised from our first garage sale in 2008.

A procession of singing and dancing on the way to the dedication of the well in Zoeger Town, Liberia

Words of appreciation from Zoeger Town UMC to Quest UMC and that includes you too!

Dedication Ceremony

Drinking the first flow

This well to access clean water in Zoegar Town...

Means no more of this: carrying gallons of dirty and diseased water from the nearby creek.

MANY THANKS for all your help and support with the Clean Water Garage Sale!

Come shop again at our next sale this Friday from 8-noon and Saturday from 8-2 at 3916 Aberdeen in Champaign. And don't miss the $1/bag at 1pm sale on Saturday! If you want to volunteer, you can sign up here.