Homesteading: A Woman's Journey

Decluttering & Freecycle Weekend

09:34, Monday, June 23, 2008 .. Posted in Homestead Happenings .. 1 comments .. Link

Greetings! Hope that your week is starting out productive.

Over the last few days, we have been doing another major decluttering of the house. It seems that as we purge our home of things, we find more that we can do without. It is amazing how many "things" you can collect, thinking that they are needed and necessary only to find later that you really don't need them at all.

After reading the post, "Simple Frugal De-cluttering" by Leslie Valeska, we were inspired to have a Freecycle Yard Sale. We spent several days boxing up items that were useable, but no longer needed. On Friday & Saturday, we had the boxes outside with a yard sale sign. Everyone who came was able to go through the boxes and take what they wanted without having to pay for it. One memorable customer was a minivan with a half dozen kids in it. The Dad saw a large bag of stuffed animals that we had out there. He carried the bag to the van, opened the door and dumped all the stuffed animals on the floor. The kids went nuts! We are going to continue doing this until we are fully purged of all unneeded things.

Joe set up recycling bins in the kitchen. Next week's trash pick-up will be the last one. Starting in July, we will be recycling all of our trash. We realized that all of our trash can be recycled. A recycling center located about 35 miles from here will take just about everything a typical household has in trash. We have livestock and a barn cat that will eat the kitchen scraps. I am no longer using disposible diapers at home. We are using cloth only. I have a few disposibles on hand for when we are away from home, but will be sure to put a cloth diaper back on the kids before returning home. I can easily see us using cloth away from home once these few disposibles are used.

I am going to try and find an old wash board and clothes drying racks. These will be good to have on hand for times when the poeer goes out. I have hand wash the diapers and let them dry on the racks or out on the clothes line. I am making Micah new diapers this week using the Rita's Rump pattern. I have altered the pattern abit to make them more adjustable in the waist. I am making them without a pocket, instead will simply trifold a prefold diaper and lay it inside the diaper. The diaper will have a thin layer of absorbant material inside but I want it thin enough to be able to line dry easily & quickly.

I am really lookiing forward to the day when all the clutter is gone and our home is purged of all the unnecessary things. Each step taken is bringing us closer to the simple, plain life we desire. A life uncluttered by the things of the world that distracts us from our family and our relationship to the Lord.

I haven't been wearing my cape dress for awhile. Friday, I was able to put it on for the first time since having Micah. It felt so good to be able to wear it again. I have 2 that fit. I have fabric to make a new one. I am going to make the skirt abit fuller. The cape dresses that I have right now were given to me alittle over a year ago and the skirts, while not snug are not as loose as I would prefer. I do enjoy the long length of the skirts though and will make mine the same.

By summer's end, I hope to have made each family member a complete outfit. I have set the goal to learn how to make all of our family's clothing with the exception of shoes. There are so many wonderful pattern companies that make even the underpinnings patterns available. It is simply a matter of learning to sew them. One of the surprises for me was Kwik Sew. On their website, I found patterns for under clothing including the hard to find bra patterns and patterns for winter thermal underwear. They have a couple of patterns for socks made from polar fleece. Made from a lighter fabric, these could be made for year round. The fleece ones will be great for wearing as boot socks in the winter.

Buckaroo Bobbins has patterns for men's western style clothing. Joe loves the western style shirt that has the removeable panel on the front. The company also has a pattern for broadfall pants, a suit coat, vests, and the long ranger coat. Some of these patterns are also available in child size which will be great when Micah is older. For Abbie, there is a sweet dress with a pinafore. I already have a pattern for her for underpinnings that I bought from McCalls and a prairie sunbonnet pattern. Abbie sunburns so easily that the sunbonnet is almost a necessity. My cape dress pattern is one from Candle on the Hill. They have many patterns available for the family.

I can't wait to reach the point where I am able to sew all of our clothing needs. How good it will be to be able to not have to rely on a store for those things. Especially for Abbie and I when the clothing for girls and women at the stores are becoming more immodest as the years go by. Shorter hemlines, mid-drift exposing shirts and plunging necklines are prevalent in the stores. Being able to make our clothing will give us a way to insure that the clothing worn will be of a modest nature.
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11:31, Monday, June 23, 2008 .. Posted by GypsyFarmGirl
Sounds like you had a great blessed weekend, especially with the free cycling of the stuff you did, which I am sure became a blessing to others.

Jeannie

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