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Aug 27, 2014    |       12 comments

Found a Cheat!

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As of yesterday we are a book free house…at least temporarily.  We gathered every single book in the house and sorted them into four piles…

  1. Goes to the apartment – mostly schoolbooks but a few personal books
  2. Goes to donation
  3. Schoolbooks to sell – homeschoolers have lots of sites they sell/trade used curriculum so I’ll try that route with my old stuff before just giving it away
  4. Book Exchange (this is a link to their Facebook page in case you wanted to check them out and maybe find one near you.  It is NOT an affiliate link of any kind.)

The fourth one is my new cheat…I knew there were used bookstores, but I’m such a fan of the library that I rarely buy books.  But over the years we have amassed quite a collection between gifts, etc.  So a few weeks ago as we headed into this transition I drove by this place and thought to give them a call.  They will take our books and based on their inventory and the condition of the book, will give us store credit for the books.  That way, down the road and as a treat, we can go in and “shop” without actually spending any money. (When I dropped them off, they even offered to donate the books they didn’t want to keep for me so I didn’t have to do that…score!)

We dropped off four huge boxes of books to them yesterday…dropped two more at the local thrift store and put four more boxes into storage so it’s ready for the apartment without being in the way.  Our house is now book free. (Ok, the schoolbooks to sell are still here, but they will be gone soon and are neatly stacked out of the way.)

It would have been great if they actually gave us cash for our books, but I think this is a great alternative to that and will be a neat treat down the road when we have the “shopping” itch!

As the principal, administrator and only teacher in our homeschool, I made the executive decision that we will delay starting our new school routine until after the move.  Since we school year round and I believe that the kids will learn many lessons from this move, I am certain it will not affect the overall scheme of things and it takes a lot of pressure off both me and the kids as we have daily tasks pertaining to the move.  It also made putting all our books in storage for this last month a possibility.

 

Aug 27, 2014    |       12 comments

Garage Sale Time

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With my job, part time job, school starting, part time foster kids and getting ready to move…not to mention regularly scheduled kids’ activities our lives are humming right along.  And before I know it we will be packing up a truck to move just a few miles away.

That being said, I’ve scheduled our IT’s DONE DAY otherwise known as Garage Sale day.  My goal with this is to inspire us to continue working through things a steady if not rushed pace.  We are making every other day trips to local thrift stores to drop things off, the garage is full of things listed for sale or being held for the garage sale and our home is getting more organized by the day.  I’m loving it!

So my IT’s DONE DAY is to be the final day of our purge.  By that time, we should have gone through every room, every cupboard, every box, every closet and divided things into four groups…1) goes to the apartment, 2) goes to the trash, 3) goes to donation (and is in the back of the car) and finally 4) for the garage sale.    At the end of IT’s DONE DAY, we will have had our garage sale, and had a donation truck come pick up everything that did not sale.  The only items remaining in our home will be 1) the things going to the apartment and 2) the appliances that we need to continue to use until we move ie: refrigerator, washer, dryer, lawn equipment.

I’m pretty proud of my plan…here’s the schedule for the remainder of these two weeks (I’m typing this up on Sunday so I’ll have already gotten through some of this:)

Sunday/Monday*Kitchen
TuesdayGymnast' Room including closet
WednesdayPrincess' Room
ThursdayCoat, Game and Linen Closets
Friday*/Saturday/SundayMy Room
MondayPrincess' Closet
TuesdayBathrooms and Misc
WednesdayGarage
ThursdayWalk thru house, check all cabinets, closets and cupboards
FridayGet ready for sale tomorrow!

*The asterisks represent a goal to get to the thrift store that day for donations.  Because I have so much else going on, it’s important I put these on my calendar so I make sure they happen, otherwise our car will be full of donations and nowhere to sit!

I have to admit I HATE garage sales, I never feel like they are worth the effort.  And when I mean hate, I mean, like on my top 10 things I do not want to do.  But I am hoping since we have so much furniture that must go we can actually see some benefits from this one.  I know this has been written about before, but if you have any hints for easy garage set up or making your garage sale a success I’ll take it!  The little ones have already started working on their sigh for a lemonade stand and the twins are setting their stuff aside that they think they can make some money off of…this is a family affair!

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