Instead of just slopping these beautiful pink muscat grapes into an old Tupperware on the counter, this week I’m serving them in my beautiful pink Depression glass pedestal

This week I’ve declared it to be “Use it or Lose It” week at my house. I’m decluttering and simplifying a bit, but mainly trying to appreciate the things that I already have.

I shouldn’t lust over antique teapots on eBay when I rarely use the six I already own. Instead, I pour water out of a kettle into a boring old mug. I could just as easily serve myself tea in an elegant porcelain cup, poured from a beautiful vintage teapot.

My closet, even after all my fall and spring sorting, still is half full of dresses I don’t wear and shoes I think I will need but have never worn.

While I don’t strive for a life of “simplicity” (I simply like shopping and decorating and entertaining too much!) I definitely need to have less items sitting around in my home. A few well-curated treasures, the items I use every day, and well chosen furnishings should be the only things one’s eyes wander onto when walking into any of the rooms in my home. I have some lovely things, and I should be using them and enjoying them more often.

This is what I’m thinking about this week – I hope you’ll join me in examining your own lovely things and seeing what you should use more of or what you should find a new home for.

QUICK THINGS TO DO TODAY:

• Make menu plans for the week; create grocery list
• Serve dinner tonight on your best china. Use it or lose it!
• Try to remove one item, permanently, from your bathroom counter and from your nightstand. Whether you throw the item away, give it away, or store it somewhere else, you’ll be making your life a little less visually cluttered.
• Need to clean out your purse or car so you’re starting the workweek fresh?
• Pop a load into the laundry if you didn’t finish your laundry this weekend.
• Look over your calendar, seeing what’s coming up in your social life, with birthdays, holidays, events and appointments this week and this month.

TODAY’S PROJECT: Floors

Though I cleaned this weekend, our rainy weather, three dogs and one cat have furred, muddied and tracked things onto all the carpets and floors of the house. Today I’m vacuuming every carpeted room (probably something I’ll have to do tomorrow as well!) plus mopping the kitchen floor, laundry room floor and entry. I can skip the dining room and breakfast nook because the forest of tables and chair legs prevents the dogs from running in there with muddy feet!

It will be nice to walk barefoot on the carpet without cringing from stepping on sharp twigs!

LOVELY BLOGS: Cafe Cyan

Here’s a lovely cooking blog written in Apple Valley, Minnesota. Read along as she makes stone beer soup, creates a baby shower for her sister, and makes black bean burritos with mushroom and onion. She also reviews restaurants and markets in her local area.

http://cafecyan.blogspot.com/

LOVELY DISHES: Vintage Style Dishes

These modern reproductions remind me of the juice glasses my grandmother would serve us her homemade grape juice in, and the bowls she’d pour our Cheerios into in the morning. Cute, colorful and perfect for spring!

Vintage Juice Glasses and Bowls, at Fishs Eddy

-Carrie

Copyright 2011

Lovely Living