Clutter Clean Up

Virginia Belle has inspired me! She was talking about all the pack rat tendencies that she has and while I was reading it, I was thinking about all the unnecessary stuff that I have in my apartment. I don't like clutter and I don't like waste. I want to clean up my act and start acting like a grown up! I have also been listening to Suze Orman's book called Women and Money and I am totally inspired by her too. I am listening to it on CD, but I think that I am going to buy it as it is full of charts and websites and tips and tricks to becoming financially secure.

I want to be financially secure! I want to have a nice, comfortable retirement, I want to live comfortably now and feel safe! I want to buy a freaking house!!!!!!!!

I am on the path! She has created a 5 month plan for getting yourself positioned to be doing the best you possibly can with your money. First, on the list it to get organized. She says that having bills and receipts and statements all over the place leads us to feeling powerless and helpless. She also says that if you are disorganized and/or feeling helpless to stop blaming yourself (or others) for your situation and start doing something about it!! She talks about taking 5 minutes with the mail each day to look over your statements/bills and put them in a folder/envelope/box whatever that is just for them. Then toss any and all trash accumulated from the mail. You only need the statement and the envelope to mail back the payment. I am going to apply this to all the areas of my life that seem to collect clutter. I am going to get rid of the magazines that I have/have not read that are older than 3 months. I am going to shred/trash everything in the spare room that I don't need anymore. I am going to create folders for tax information, rental information, house buying information, etc.

I am going to clean out my closet of all the clothes that I have not worn in 6 months, I am going to remove all the shoes that I have not worn in 6 months and take everything to the goodwill, I may not have money to give to help those less fortunate, but I have clothes that are going to waste in my closet.

I am going to go through all the old school work and file what I need to keep and trash what I don't. I am going to list all my old textbooks for sale on Marketplace or eBay. I am going to pack up all the wedding memories, one box of bigger stuff and another for the cards, papers, certificates, notes, etc. once we get moved into the new house, I can unpack those and turn them into a scrapbook.

I am even going to tackle the kitchen and box up anything that we are not using much of - this will make the cooking that we are doing easier and keep our stuff nice until we have a kitchen worthy of it!

I think that this is going to take some time, but I think that I can devote 1 day a month to tackle one room at a time. This way it will not be too overwhelming!

We are going to go to the bank to do the pre-qualifying in month of November, so that we can start house hunting! I hope that all the timing works out so that we don't have to extend our lease any, or pay anything to get out of it early!

My dream house would be of new construction, that will not be finished until about the time we are ready to move. All new appliances! Fresh warren ties! Some home builders will let you pick different stuff, like colors, cabinets, flooring options, stuff like that! That would be totally cool.

I would love to have a fenced back yard, a finished basement, a fireplace, and a garage. I am not naive enough to think that any of these will be possible with our first house. The only real major stuff is: 2-3 bedrooms, at least 1 full and 1 half bath, central air. I think that we would settle for something with 2 bedrooms if there was a good sized basement, or without a basement we would need at least 3 if not 4 bedrooms, and a storage shed or garage. I would really like to find something without gas heat since the prices are so outrageous. We would like to be fairly close to work, and Smug-Hub would like to have some land with the house. All these things are negotiable! We just need to see what we can get for what money and so on! I am sure that we will find just what we need for just what we can afford!! I have faith!!