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In honor of my continuing efforts to appreciate what I already have, I have decided to recruit (or force, however you want to look at it), my children into "operation organization" in our house.

Now, tackling "operation organization" is a long, arduous, and continuous process. Step one is to know what you have and give everything in your house its own space. If we know where things belong, we can find them when we need them, and clean them up easily. Sounds quite simple, yet most of us have junk drawers in our kitchens (I happen to have 2!)

I have been working on my home room by room to break the project down into manageable steps. Last weekend, I decided it was time for the garage and the play room. Yes, very ambitious of me, but it was the start of Spring and so I wanted to celebrate with a little Spring cleaning.

I gave each child an area of the playroom to sort. We would take everything out of that area, and then put the items into categories. Once we had thrown away any trash or pieces of games that no longer existed (I'm embarassed to say we filled an entire trash bag!), I was going to have them each choose some toys to give to charity. My daughter beat me to the punch. She is six, and I've been attempting to teach her about giving to those in need for quite some time. So imagine my great pride when she announced "Mom, I want to give this pile of toys away to other children!" I almost burst with pride. As I pictured myself accepting the "mother of the year" award from Parents magazine, she added "Can we put them on a table in front of the house with a sign and I can charge money for them and buy another game for my DS?" [imagine the sound of a deflating balloon here]

Well, she is SIX, so I won't beat myself up too much. As Clark would say, she's an entrepreneur. In the mean time, the playroom is neat for now, and my children rediscovered toys they hadn't played with in years. As an aside, I chose to clean the garage because my husband was out of town for the weekend, and so I know he will never miss all of the junk - I mean valuable guy things - that are magically no longer in there.

We have a new member of our family - a little dog named Snuggles. He came from a puppy mill bust in North Georgia and is about two years old. He is as sweet and happy as can be, and he's a wonderful addition to our family.

If you're a knitter, you know the term "yarn stash." My stash is obscene, so I've decided to try to knit on it rather than buy new yarn in light of my efforts to save money.

As I was watching "Oprah" last night, I was struck by a couple on the show who had lost basically all of their material possessions. They had to file bankruptcy and their house was foreclosed on.

When I was a newlywed, I decided to learn how to cook. I bought some shell pasta and all of the ingredients for stuffed shells from my "Joy of Cooking" cookbook that we had received as a wedding gift. "Brand name man" loves Italian, so I thought an easy dish like that would be a great way to begin my foray into culinary excellence.

In my opinion, Brian Regan is the funniest comedian in America. I have seen him live several times, and each time my stomach hurts from laughing when I get home. Here is a great bit he does on airline customer service http://youtube.com/watch?v=jxe0uO2Dpuc

Enjoy!

This is a very cool site if you have ever wanted to make your own cleaning products. It also tells you how to clean pretty much everything in your house. Clark would love it because it saves money - I love it because my cat peed on my rug when we were out of town last week.

http://www.pioneerthinking.com/homecleaning1.html

I had a huge personal realization a month ago that I really need to cut back on my spending. It only took me 35 years (ten of which have been spent working for Clark) to figure that out!

I find that once I get something I want (new clothes, a new piece of furniture, a vacation, etc), there is always another "want" waiting in the wings. In addition to weighing down my wallet, I feel that this has been preventing me from taking good car of the things I already have.

So for the last 30 days I have spent money only on the essentials - mortgage, car, food and utilities. We have eaten out once using money from some things I sold on craigslist. Whenever I want something, I think "what can I take better care of that I already have?"

The results - not only do I have more cash flow, I feel in control of my money rather than my money controlling me. My house is cleaner, my closet less cluttered. Quality time is spent in the kitchen and eating together rather than driving to restaurants, trying to chase down our 2-year-old as he bolts from our table. In short, I feel a lightness and happiness that I never would have guessed would come from NOT spending money. I always thought that acquiring things was a way to achieve happiness. Not so.

For those of you who have listened to the show for a long time, you might know that Clark often refers to me as "Imelda" because of my love for shoes. I have always loved buying shoes and had an appreciation for beautiful shoes. On my desk at work sits a calendar with a picture of a pair of shoes for each day. It was a gift from Clark. So I'm sure you will understand that when our puppy got into my closet and chewed up several of my favorite pairs of shoes, I was not happy.

With my ban on buying and acquiring, what could I do? I looked through my unchewed shoes, and found that most of them are open toed and for the summer months. Should I buy some inexpensive shoes at the mother ship (DSW - Designer Shoe Warehouse)? Should I wear summer shoes on a chilly day?

I decided to "take better care of what I already have." I pulled out a pair of boots that have been a staple in my wardrobe for 3 years now. They were still in tact (many of the other shoes are not wearable at ALL). I put them on, and I'm wearing them today. If someone looks closely at my heels, they will see how torn up they are, and I will tell them the story. But the funny thing is that noone has commented on them yet, because most people just aren't looking that closely. I can walk just fine in these shoes and they work for me today. So my dog ate my shoes, and I'm wearing them anyway. It feels great.

I can't tell you how many emails I have received asking me about the store I mentioned during a local Atlanta broadcast in December. I was raving about a store that garage sale fanatics would love. They sell furniture and nothing costs more than $99. Now, you aren't going to find any new stuff at this store. You will find some antiques, and you will find some junk. It's a lot of fun to peruse everything they have, and the inventory is constantly changing.

At any rate, the store is called The $99 Only Store and it's located at 1117 Alpharetta St.
Roswell, GA 30075. Their phone number is 770-998-9299 and their hours are Monday - Saturday 10-6 and Sunday 12-5.

Have fun and send me an email with what you found. I have not stepped foot in there since I put an end to my constant shopping last month!