Continuing yesterday, we recently decided to sell the small house we had bought in northern Minnesota as our “when we retire” home, before grandbaby came, and other “need to change direction” events. We moved the stuff back to the townhouse, we had an “ahhh” moment – mostly thankful that dreaded work was done – and then … The fall reality set in, more time in the house, summer is over, and “what are we going to do with all this stuff?” Back to decluttering again.

It occured to me that while, yes, the garden is still blooming away with sedum, and the fall colors are starting, and there is still some work to be done, my “garden”, the place where I encourage “bloom” from October to March, is, once again, transitioning to more inside than out. We can look out, walk out, sit out, but we do not “live” as much out Nov-March.

I looked around last week and said “not peaceful, need a plan”. I am not in a place to take on a big project right now. I need to keep it fun and simple. It occured to me – 1 thing per day goes away. Not overwhelming. No decision fatigue. No 30 day challenge where I am looking for 30 things to get rid of on day 30 and resort to 30 sheets of paper from old files.

One thing. Big or small. That’s it.

I will share. I hope you enjoy. Sometimes I will be laughing as I compose. Life can be that way 🙂

Let’s get started.

Day 1 – A rice cooker, vegetable steamer thingy

We had a wonderful rice cooker for years. It was super simple – a cooking element, a pot inside, a lid with a steamer vent. I think we got it for free with Coke Rewards (remember that program? :)) We literally used that rice cooker up until the non-stick coating started to flake off – at which time we knew that was not pepper. We couldn’t find a replacement pot. We went back to cooking rice on the stove. And then, we were walking down the aisle of our favorite household staples store where you pay a membership and buy larger quantities of stuff than you really need, but at good prices, and we saw – a rice cooker, with a vegetable steamer bonus! How fortuitous we thought. We were trying to eat more vegetables! This is going to be great!!!

Yah, no. It is huge for us, and it is a pain to clean compared to the rice cooker we loved.

As a last ditch attempt at trying to use it, we brought it to the little house up north. Like we would change being “us” up there 🤣. It was still a “not for us” item up there. When we moved everything out, we realized we had used it once, to keep Velveeta and Jimmy Dean sausage dip warm for a New Year’s Eve gathering.

We moved it back, only because we know where to donate here. In the donate box it goes. I really hope it blesses whoever owns it next. It is just not us.