Personal Improvements

Is It Time to Clear Some Clutter?

In my next life, I think I want to be an organizer. I am not a hoarder, but living in the same home for years, things and stuff just seem to accumulate. Over the past few years, I have scanned many documents, going from 3 four draw file cabinets down to 1. Gone are the paper medical records, tax returns and other paper work. Yes, I have burned up a shredder or two.

So this summer, I took a break from this newsletter. I accomplished so much. We tackled the family movies, photos and slides. We looked through thousands and saved some, but mostly gave them to family members and had the others scanned and archived. This was a big accomplishment.

Earlier in the year, we started going through the collectibles, things that have meaning or are possibly valuable, so I didn’t want to just toss them. I wanted to find a place for them and this was a lengthy process. For my dad’s sports memorabilia, we gave it to the local high school’s hall of fame to be displayed. That felt good. They are out of our home and somewhere I can go see with a visit. His leather football helmet was one of the display items at the induction ceremony.

There is still more to go but we are seeing progress. Are their items that you want to get rid of but don’t know what to do with them. Check out the Resources Page on my website, as I keep updating it with the places that we have used.

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Chemical Free At Home

It started with a lecture at our local hospital about the chemicals in our homes and lives a few years back. That really opened my eyes to the chemicals in our household and we have removed many of them. BPA (Bisphenol A) was the start. Good-bye BPA plastics. We replaced the plastic food containers with glass. We try not to make plastic purchases (that’s not always possible) and NEVER microwave in plastic.

To find a lower cost alternatives to replace the plastic, we use canning jars in a variety of sizes for food storage. We switched from plastic bags to waxed paper bags, from aluminum foil to glass storage options. We stopped bagging our vegetables from the store and try to buy the without packaging which is not always possible.

Next, we started the eliminating chemicals hunt in our home. We found sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) and parabens in our personal care products – toothpaste, shampoo, skin care and more. We didn’t want formaldehyde, phosphates, dyes and more in our cleaning products. It’s these ingredients that makes me cringe.

Finding healthy alternatives at reasonable prices was a challenge, so I began making my own products. Essential oils were the answer for our household. First, I started with glass cleaner with just water, white vinegar and lemon and Thieves essential oils. Next, came the personal care products. Check out my Chemical Free Household Pinterest board for more information and stay turned for what’s next.

Want to learn more, check out my social media and blog posts as I am posting there regularly. To learn more or to start with essential oils, click here.

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Change Is The New Normal

To start, we have been making better food choices over the past few years. As we get older, I want to still be active and healthy. This is a journey with small changes happening. We are striving for 50% of our plate to be vegetables. Our proteins are certified grass fed meats and fish with no antibiotics and non-GMO all while staying within our food budget. We shop what’s on sale and plan our meals to get the most from our dollars.

It’s that time of year to plan our garden and have fresh picked vegetables right in our backyard, at a minimal cost for organic seeds. Love this part of summer!

Here are some of our favorites to get more organic vegetables into our meals:

•    Chicken Vegetable Soup making healthy bone broth with assorted vegetables. This is great to have on hand when we are short on time for dinner – just heat and eat.
•    Lettuce wraps for lots of foods. Big leaf lettuce replaces the bread, wrap, taco and more. Inside can be anything from tuna to tacos – let your imagination run wild.
•    Fries are one of my stress foods. But as I make these changes, there goes the fried foods. Now we bake or grill vegetable fries. Try it – avocado fries are one of favorites, but you can use many other veggies.

We are changing our food for the better. This wasn’t done overnight, just small changes (or baby steps) to gradually improve our choices. Our first step was to eliminate trans fats/partially hydrogenated oils, then came nitrates and then GMO’s. This exercise was eye-opening when I went through our pantry and even more surprising reading labels at the store.

As you can see, we are eating more at home and taking meals/snacks from home. Both are good things for our health and benefit our wallet too. More on the other areas of our lives that we have changed in the next issue.

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Taking Stock & Cleaning Out

This summer we have spent time cleaning out – lots was tossed and donated. We even had a tag sale! We also went through our bills and eliminated, reduced and replaced. Here is some of what we did.

We came to the realization we have too much stuff, much of it usable but too much for the two of us. So on one of those 90+ hot humid weekends, we had a tag sale. We cleaned out the basement, garage, and everything in between. Earlier in the year, I didn’t believe that we had enough stuff, but you can see we did.

We cut the cable to basic and slashed our bill in half. With one simple call and by the end of the call, the TV channels disappeared and the bill was cut in half. So now we have broadcast basic channels. We set up other options for streaming live TV channels as well as access on demand shows and movies. If you have followed me, you know we use the library for many services and Hoopla is one. We can watch movies for free from the comforts of our home.

We reassessed our car insurance and made some changes, reducing our bill. We switched electric companies to reduce our bill even more. Another thing in life that you need to stay on top of to save the most.

Yes, we had a lot more time this summer with Dave being home for 4 months and this helped us to achieve all of this. He put his time at home to good use. For us, less stuff means less stuff to clean, a more relaxing home as you enter each room, etc., and more CASH in our pocket. Our goal is to have a calm, peaceful retreat from the outside world in our home.

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A Meaningful Life

One of the last classes I took for my college degree was Senior Thesis. The theme for the class was “A Meaningful Life”. I did quite a bit of reading and wrote self-reflection papers on where I am today and where I want to be. One of the big take-a-ways, was to live in the prelist month, stay in the present moment and treasure that instead of looking ahead in anticipation or looking back at the memories. I read Cheryl Richardson’s The Art of Extreme Self-Care while away and learned that no matter how busy life becomes, I need to make time for me. With that said, we are blessed to have family and friends in our lives and very fortunate to be able to travel to spend time with them.

One of the things that I will be doing over the holidays is to take time to reflect back on my 2015 goals to see how I did. Then I will assess where I am today where I want to be tomorrow. Yes, I always want to accomplish a lot and I have to remind myself to slow down and enjoy the present.

One of the things I do every year during my goal setting time is to create a vision board to actually see my life in pictures. This helps me to have a visual reminder for what I want to achieve.

What do you want to accomplish in 2016? Let me know your personal financial goals, so that I may be able to help you achieve them.

How to Get What You Paid For

I have always been the kind of person who stands up for herself. It’s just something that I learned to do early on, and have gotten better at over the years.

What does it mean to “self-advocate?”

When you have a legitimate issue that is fixable, and you take it to the next level by contacting customer service or a manager, you are self-advocating.

By “taking it the next level”, I mean communicating politely. It doesn’t mean going all Liam Neeson on the issue.

Here are three examples of what I have been able to accomplish with a phone call:

1. I purchased a certain service while on vacation and felt mislead. The written description did not explain the service properly. If I had understood what they were saying (the way they meant it), I wouldn’t have bought it. So, I filled out the online survey and asked that the company call me. When they did, I explained what I understood the service to be and they clarified what it was supposed to be. After advocating for myself and politely saying that I didn’t think it was worded properly, they gave us a free dinner for two in a specialty restaurant the next time we sail on that cruise line.

2. I purchased a massage through a discount website but was unable to reach the massage therapist. I contacted the website and asked for assistance in getting a.) the appointment or b.) a refund. Everything was settled to my satisfaction, because I kept records of my attempts to contact the therapist (date, time of call and response).

3. I received a medical bill in the mail for services that were not covered by our insurance, months after the service date. I contacted the billing company to ask why they waited so long to bill me. They explained that they had let the billing person go and that they were behind in the billing. I explained my case, which was we have changed insurance companies since the time of the appointment and I didn’t know if I could go back and dispute the insurance claim since this was several months before. In addition, the H-S-A account we had with that insurance was now closed. We compromised and settled the bill for an amount which we both agreed was fair.

What you need to stand up for yourself

1. The will and desire to get what you paid for.

2. The ability to stay polite and calm. I can’t stress this enough. This isn’t about ruining someone’s day or getting something extra. It’s about establishing the facts – did you, or did you not, get what you paid for?

3. Documentation – What was purchased and when (a receipt is great), what is the issue, how often and when have you contacted the merchant.

If you are doing online chat with customer service, make sure you keep a copy of the chat transcript. I recently learned that if you are dealing with a merchant who records your calls, you can and should get a recording reference number as additional documentation. Even I can learn something new.

It doesn’t always work

You will never know if you don’t try. I think you need to try to get an amicable resolution that is fair to you and the other party. If not, you can always avoid that service in the future, or leave a negative (but fair) review.

Clutter: It’s time to let it go

Stuff.

It’s easy to come by and we all have too much (including me). But is it hurting you? It could be. Clutter is a budget breaker. I won’t go into details in this article, but trust me that having more makes you spend more. You’d think that once you had everything you’d stop spending. You’d be wrong.

Are you using that?

When you’re busy, things get messy. So how do you know if you have clutter or a mess? According to my friend Matt Baier, of Matt Baier Organizing, you should ask yourself whether it has a pulse:

Here’s an example of a living mess and an example of true clutter. If there is a playroom full of toys, all over the floor and they will be moved around and played with tomorrow, that’s a living mess. If, however, there’s a room full of toys and the kids have moved out and have kids of their own now, that’s true clutter. It has stopped moving. The heartbeat is gone. It’s dead.

Unfortunately, we had a lot of dead clutter.

Save it for a rainy day… I mean the project not the object

We needed to tackle our clutter, but I wouldn’t waste a sunny day on it – or even a whole day.

This is what we did on snowy weekends this past winter.

Scanned documents from the file cabinet, then shredded and recycled the paper (medical records, income taxes, etc.)

Digitized the notes, workbooks and CDs from conferences we attended – now it’s all filed in the computer and backed up.

We did a major cleaning of the basement. In our house that is where things get put that don’t have a place. Plus, living in a family home, we have stuff from our parents – photos and memorabilia that I wanted to preserve. It’s not all done, but it’s well on its way. We are tackling the basement one box and one shelf at a time.

Donated some useful items. We found several old cell phones that we donated to an organization that gives cell phones to battered women. We cleaned out the books for a donation to the library.

We cleaned out the pantry and got rid of foods we no longer choose to eat. Some was donated to the local food pantry.

The bittersweet goodbye is mostly sweet

There are so many positives with decluttering. It’s not all heart wrenching goodbyes and worries about being caught without “that thing we were saving in case”. The house feels bigger and brighter. It’s a place where we feel more alive because we’re not clinging to the past or the future. We’ve benefited from sales and donation tax breaks. We feel closer to each other because we’ve processed our feelings and made plans for what we really want out of life.

We’ve found that we’re actually more ourselves without our stuff. And our spending is more focused on the things we really want – like travel.