DrDeClutterBlog.com

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold,
it would be a merrier world.”
~ J.R.R. Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings trilogy  

It’s too easy to go through a rushed holiday season and forget to keep track of what was really good, awesomely yummy and something you want to bake, cook, or create again next year.

RECIPE AND MEMORY KEEPER

Create a simple Holiday Recipes notebook, scrapbook or index card holder where you can keep all of your recipes in one place, share with others and hand down to your children in the future.

Be sure to add your personal handwritten notes to them too! Those are  great to read by the generations to come.

SCRAPBOOK THEM!

Embellish with photos  of your family and friends enjoying them too! Make it really fun to look at and use every year. Keep them clean buy using clear plastic sheets or laminate them.

Happy Holiday Cooking!

The City of Longmont, CO fire stations are accepting used bicycles for donation to Bicycle Longmont’s Christmas Bike Program. Drop off unwanted, used bikes at the nearest fire station. Santa’s elves will repair the donated bikes! Go Santa!!

Kids receive repaired and happy bikes through charity organizations: The Safe Shelter of St. Vrain Valley, the OUR Center, the Inn Between and the school district’s Safe Routes to School Program.

Check this article for deadlines, drop off points, contact information and more.

For over two decades the Christmas Bike Program has been helping local children get a “pre-owned” bike to change their lives in an important way. A bike might enable a child to earn money with a paper route, see relatives who live far enough away that walking would take too long, get groceries and . . . just have some fun with friends or alone!

Scooters and tricycles are also welcome.

Make a difference this year. Declutter and old bike for a new life for a child.

Start a Christmas Bicycle Program in your community this year!

Decorating... for the holidays or any day.

Sometimes a big makeover or the big holiday decorations isn't the answer, but a quick and easy small one might be to freshen up your room and make it holiday fresh too! 

In "Speed Decorating", the new book by Jill Vegas the author gives some quick and easy ways to liven up your kitchen:

• Remove the clutter. Put away items that don’t belong on the countertop.
• Do a quick food inventory. Use up quickly and/or throw out anything that’s starting to spoil or is open and you’re never going to eat.
• Hang fresh dish towels.
• Put a fresh bowl of fruit on the countertop (make sure to eat it while it’s fresh!)
• Add some fragrance. Simmer mulling spices or pop some cookies in the oven just before guests arrive.

What a grrrreat birthday I had last Saturday! Many thanks for all of your calls, emails, tweets, facebook texts, gifts, sidewalk well wishes and more.

WHY I’M SHARING THIS

I’m sharing this because I want you to see how a day can flow like butta’! How lovely that this was flowing on my birthday too! Every day should be so smooth! That’s my goal!!

Here was my awesome day. Having a birthday on a weekend is great!  

First… I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and knew I wasn’t going back to sleep, so, I got dressed and took a walk under the FULL MOON down to the lake – 1.3 mile walk, always good. The sunrise on the Rockies and Longs Peak was breathtaking as always.

Then, I went to the new Family Dollar on 17th and Hover (Longmont, CO) for their Grand Opening – the first 50 customers were to get a $5 Gift Card! Shoot! I’m there! I was 2nd in line – a beautiful Saturday morning to hang out. I ended up getting TWO GIFT CARDS! $10!! (Okay, I’m easy!) I felt like maybe they made a mistake. So after I spent one of them I asked if they wanted the other one back. They said no, that some people got two of them! Yea!

Then, I went to our lovely Longmont FARMERS MARKET. I haven’t been there yet this year. What a treat. I walked around, talked to friends, ate good samples, bought some fresh green string beans, sat and listened to the bluegrass band play while eating an organic brunch. Perfect weather and lovely morning!

Then, I went to Vitamin Cottage health food store on Main St.  It was their 10th Year Anniversary Celebration! So tons of great samples of everything I could eat and enjoy, bring home and enjoy trying lotions, potions and such for awhile.  Talked to friends and signed up for 2 raffles. When I got home, the phone was ringing – I’d won one of the gift baskets! WHOOT! (See photo above.) Yes, the new grocery bag was free too! Goooo Vitamin Cottage!

Then,  I figured, with all this awesomeness going on, I’d better leverage it, right? I went to Safeway to get some extra groceries and bought a few lottery tickets!

Guess what?

I checked the numbers online after 10 pm that night and…. no winners! : (  Oh, well!! ; )

NO MIND FLOW

What I became very aware of is how all of the lovely inflow of goodness happened during a 1/2 day when I wasn’t thinking of anything. Buddhists call this “no mind.” I was just doing the doing and enjoying it all without expectations or desires. A good example of childlike innocence and the Law of Attraction at work.

Thank you all again for blessing me with your love and gifts of friendship, support and joy!

Let me know about a “flow” day that you’ve had in the comment section, on your Birthday or not!

Blissings!

Kim

Is your closet bursting with clothes are are still good and could enjoy a second life?

Whether you’re retiring from decades of 9-5 work, working from home more and not needing all those dress clothes, or just don’t wear them anymore – but they’re still in very good shape – take the time to donate them to women (and men) who can use them for job interviewing and their new job wardrobe.

WORLDWIDE HELP FOR THOSE IN NEED! 

Thank you, Carol Levine for telling me about Dress For Success - its mission it to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women through career development and employment retention. And, as we know, we need nice clothes to help us with job searches and to feel good about ourselves! Cool, huh?!

Dress for Success has more than 105 affiliates in the United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Poland and the West Indies.

Find out if there is a location near you, or help to start one!

LOCAL HELP NEAR YOU

Also, contact your local Chamber of Commerce and ask if there is a similar service in your community.

It’s a great feeling to know that the clothes that have served you so well for a long time can be moved onto someone who will be helped to feel good about themselves and be seen as professional by their new employers and co-workers!

Plus, think of all the room you’ll have in your closets for clothing that is best for your lifestyle now!

Pass this to anyone you know that is undergoing chemotherapy.

Cleaning for a Reason – http://www.cleaningforareason.org/

If you know any woman currently undergoing chemotherapy, please pass the word to her that there is
a cleaning service that provides FREE housecleaning – once per month for 4 months while she is in treatment.

All she has to do is sign up and have her doctor fax a note confirming the treatment.

Cleaning for a Reason will have a participating maid service in her zip code area arrange for the service.

This organization serves the entire USA and currently has 547 partners to help these women.

It’s our job to pass the word and let them know that there are people out there that care.

Be a blessing to someone and pass this information along.

You may not know someone going through chemo, but someone on your email list might. Please forward this link!

 Disney rocks and never disappoints!

I just got home from seeing the late, late, late showing of Tangled. Wow! Soooo good!While in the bathroom afterwards I overheard several late teen/early 20′s girls talking about the movie. They decided that (spoiler here if you haven’t seen it yet) “He shouldn’t have cut her hair off before she saved him from dying.” What these young women didn’t get is that her “magical hair” had to go exactly at that point. She had to learn through that moment of pure love, loss and letting go that her magical powers of healing weren’t in her hair, they were in her!

As all fables and fairytales go, the lesson’s are for the viewers.

We each need to remember that our powers are not in our hair, looks, clothes, money, houses, titles or cars… our power is in us. Always has been, always will be. Take away the outer stuff and things and looks and you have you. YOU are your power!

This new year, take up your inner, true power and save yourself first… then others and the world!

Here’s Disney’s interactive site – dive in and have fun! You have to watch the trailer first, then you get into the gallery of real fun stuff! http://adisney.go.com/disneypictures/tangled/#/home/

Or, check out their CREATE section! http://disney.go.com/create/#/create/  Enjoy with your kids or grandkids, or that inner kid in you just aching to play more!

HAPPY NEW YOU!

How to create world peace and wellness (joy makes up happy, happy heals our body!)one food court at a time!! Excellent, thank you Flash Mob! …course, it does make me hungry for all kinds of junk food!

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This is very cool!

I’m not great at using photo manipulation software as I don’t take, send and use photos that much, or if I do, I don’t crop and change them, they have to work as is.

Well, hallelujah! Here is a cool site that makes tweaking our photos more than fun! You can crop and type words on a photo and frame them and all kinds of stuff for free – and for fee if you want more, better, bigger doodads. Awesome. Thanks, Picnik! Go to http://www.picnik.com/, click on GET STARTED NOW bar and have fun!

Do you get tired of typing “www.” before the name of a site, and then the “.com” after? Well, for one thing, you actually don’t have to type www. in front of every URL anymore. Just type the name.com, or .org, or .net, whatever it is, and click ENTER, the search engine (Google or others) will add the http:// or www.

However, you can also do this! Type in the “name” of the site, no www. or .com and then key in CTR key plus ENTER. It will take care of the http://www. and the .com for you! Very cool! Go ahead, try it now! If it’s a .org, .net or otherwise, it may not pick it up, it only works with .com. But, very cool!