Decluttering Kitchen Cabinets: ALL of Them at Once

Posted on April 7, 2016 by blogqueendiane

Decluttering the kitchen

I vowed to declutter my entire house during 2016 and even picked “declutter” as my 2016 word of the year.

Have done pretty well so far — and my biggest accomplishments to date have been decluttering the entire garage (which was a horrible mess) and cleaning and organizing the kitchen pantry and the linen closet (as well as some other miscellaneous areas — the downstairs bathroom, the pots and pans cabinet, and under the kitchen sink).

But  one of my biggest stumbling blocks was tackling the kitchen cabinets.

My brother-in-law teases me every Christmas when he visits and says when he opens the cabinets to finding cooking supplies that things “fall out on his head.” And it’s true. Continue reading →

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Bargain Gardening: 12 Ways to Save Money on Flower Gardens and Gardening Supplies

Posted on April 5, 2016 by blogqueendiane

Bargain Gardening 12 Ways to Save Money on Flower Gardens and Gardening Supplies

Planting flowers and enjoying their colorful blossoms during the spring and summer is something a lot of people love.

But it can be expensive.

Bargain gardening is the way to go.

Here are 12 ways to save money on flower gardens and cut the cost of gardening supplies. Continue reading →

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Highs and Lows of March

Posted on March 31, 2016 by blogqueendiane

Highs and Lows of March 2016

Nothing momentous happened in March, but nothing bad did, either! Continue reading →

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Decluttering the Kitchen Counter — Weeks 11 and 12 of 52

Posted on March 29, 2016 by blogqueendiane

Decluttering the kitchen counter

The stacks of paperwork and general chaos on my kitchen counter has been driving me crazy for a while now! Although most of the papers are jam-packed in containers, you can see there’s a lot of them  — as well as quite a few other miscellaneous things — and it looks super messy.

And it’s also sort of overwhelming.

But here’s the thing: I need my paperwork to be close at hand in the kitchen, where I spent a lot of time during my few off-work hours at home, since I consider it to be the “control center” of my house. (And my favorite place in the house is the kitchen alcove, which is surrounded by windows.)

I’m also the kind of person who needs detailed long-term and short-term “to do” list and who has to write notes to herself to remember to do just about everything. (My son thought my funniest note ever was one that said “Shave legs.”  What? Don’t people forget sometimes? :)) Continue reading →

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Thrift Store Treasures #8

Posted on March 24, 2016 by blogqueendiane

Thrift Store Treasures #8There’s nothing like wearing bright spring colors again after a long winter, is there?

Continue reading →

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Alexa’s Cool New Feature: Get Fitbit Stats on Amazon Echo

Posted on March 22, 2016 by blogqueendiane

Alexa's Cool New Feature: Get Fitbit Stats on Amazon Echo

Have an Amazon Echo? Have a Fitbit fitness tracker?

Now you can set them up to “talk” to each other.

One of the most recent tricks Alexa (the Siri-like speaker on the Amazon Echo digital assistant) can do is give you info about health and fitness stats stored in your Fitbit.

Continue reading →

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Decluttering the Garage: Weeks 9 and 10 of 52

Posted on March 15, 2016 by blogqueendiane

Decluttering the Garage: Weeks 9 and 10 of 52

Confession: I’ve never cleared out my garage — and have lived in this house a long time.

When my son was growing up, I tried to close my eyes to the jumble every night when I parked the car inside. (After all, kids — and moms — accumulate a lot of stuff.)

And not worry when I stashed something in the garage because it didn’t “belong” anywhere else.

My son’s in grad school now… and it finally got the better of me: the chaos and confusion in that space is the primary reason I embarked on the 52 weeks of decluttering and made “declutter” my official word for 2016! Continue reading →

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Celebrating Spring in the South with Green Snow

Posted on March 6, 2016 by blogqueendiane

Celebrating Spring in South Carolina with Green Snow

March 21 is the first official day of spring — and while Northerners are still getting the white stuff, we’re celebrating spring in the South with — green snow! Continue reading →

Posted in fun, green snow, life, miscellaneous, pollen, South Carolina, spring, spring in the south | Tagged , , , , | 8 Comments

Decluttering the Bathroom — Week 8 of 52

Posted on March 4, 2016 by blogqueendiane

Decluttering the Bathroom: Week 8 of 52

My first floor half bath gets a lot of use, but I haven’t cleaned out the cabinet for many years.

And since I had sinus surgery last year– to stay healthy, I have to use a saline spray made with distilled water once or twice every day. Unfortunately, I can’t remember to do it unless it’s right out in front of me, either!

Those are the factors that contributed to the sad shape of my cluttered downstairs bathroom.  Continue reading →

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Are Bloggers Narcissists?

Posted on March 2, 2016 by blogqueendiane

Are Bloggers Narcissists

My biggest fan (my mom) has tried to get several of her friends to read my blog over the past two years.

She says they all say something like, “I don’t want to read about what someone had for lunch.”

They think people with blogs are self-absorbed egotists who write about minutiae like what color nail polish they’re wearing.

And that was pretty much what I thought about bloggers, too, until I starting reading a whole lot of other people’s blogs — and become a blogger myself.

Continue reading →

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