Exciting Plans Ahead

Now that I sort of have more energy compared to being pregnant (haha, the baby boy doesn’t really know the difference between day and night just yet…) I sense that I am starting to get things going in my life again. As we do not desire to have more kids, our family is complete now. Having been pregnant for almost two years in a row has been tiring. My lower blood pressure dropped to 40 most of the time and didn’t go over 60. Yep…that meant feeling tired and having no energy at all…for 18 months in total.

Oh, wait, this wasn’t going to be a complainypants blog.

I’d do it again all in a heartbeat. We are thrilled with our kids! Anyway, the point I was trying to make was that I am able to do things again…if the kids let me 😉 My first round of decluttering Kondostyle was a huge success. I managed to fill up the whole car (!!!) with shit I don’t want anymore and drove it to a thrift shop collection point. I also have some exciting ideas for things I want to do on the Web. Still working on those ideas. I have also started to devour books again (low blood pressure even took away my appetite for reading!), yay!

Lots of love,

Mrs EconoWiser

P.s. Life is wonderful. Enjoy every moment and do not waste time and energy on things that aren’t worth it.

Tidying Up….Kondostyle

I’ve read the translated into Dutch version of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. She’s a bit cuckoo, but her writings have worked rather contagiously for me. It’s hardly doable with a seven-week-old who wants to be carried around all the time AND an almost fourteen-month-old….but hey, let’s do this!

You can also listen to the English version here.

However, I am cheating or not don’t stick to her plan. I just can’t go through all my clothes first…since I haven’t lost all the pregger weight yet. So that’s a good excuse, isn’t it? 😉 I really want to try on everything I own first, before I start to toss things out.

KonMarie is all the rage….have you started tidying your home yet?

Lots of love,

Mrs EconoWiser

Decluttering And Financial Independence

I read this great post on GRS about saving your sense by decluttering. Ever since we moved to our new home two years ago I’ve been on a quest to declutter. We threw a lot of stuff away during the move, but I couldn’t part with a bunch of other stuff back then. Since then, I’ve made a lot of progress. See, the hoarder in the household used to be me. The husband doesn’t have that many possessions.

I read a book called Organizing from the Inside Out by Julie Morgenstern and that really got me going. During the first year that we lived in our home I started decluttering and organizing room by room. At the same time I started getting a grip on our finances again. Before our wedding I went through a couple of frugal years…but totally let things slip out of my hands ever since the proposal. Yes, the wedding cost a lot!

I noticed that decluttering and getting a grip on your finances go hand in hand. The GRS article also describes the same effect. It has given me cravings for another round of decluttering as in: throwing or giving the last bits and bobs away which I couldn’t part with earlier but which have not been used since we’ve moved into this house.

Sounds like a sensible idea, doesn’t it? Do you agree that decluttering helps you reach financial independence?

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

More Decluttering: The Cupboard Under The Stairs

I am really starting to get into the decluttering mode. Unfortunately I forgot to take a before picture of our cupboard under the stairs. Let’s just say it was a big old mess. There were two closets in there which didn’t fit properly. This also caused things to clutter up on the floor as well. My father installed these floating shelves for us and I decluttered and organised all our stuff. I threw away quite a bit as well.

And here’s the result which we are very proud of.

How are you doing with your declutter projects?

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

The Declutter Wardrobe Project Is Finished!

Yes, it is!

On the left is my husband’s side:

And my side is on the right:

I decided to store all my winter clothes in there for now and store my summer clothes somewhere else. I am now using the hanging cupboards my husband didn’t like and I love them!

Ah, the joy of a finished declutter project!

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

I Wasted Time Decluttering…Or Not?

I decided to invest time my wardrobe decluttering project again. We bought a cheap hanging cupboard at Ikea. I decided to fold my husband’s t-shirts very effectively and put them in these little drawers that came with the hanging cupboard.

Start of the project:

After half an hour:

Unfortunately, my husband HATES the way I stashed his tees! So I unfolded the whole bunch again. Was this a waste of time? Maybe not. I realised that I have to think hard about an organising solution.

To be continued!

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

What’s On My Wish List?

Every time I think I really want a product I’ll put it on my virtual wish list and let is sit there. This comes in very handy for Christmas and birthdays. We are not at the Mustachian level yet where we ask people not to give us gifts anymore. We haven’t found a way to tell family and friends to stop the whole gift-giving thing just yet. Besides that, we don’t know whether that’s something that we would really want. Our group of friends all have these online wish lists, so people end up giving you the stuff you actually want instead of potential clutter.

Enough said. I’ll show you my wish list people can get inspiration from when buying me a gift.

• The Bogleheads’ Guide To Investing
• The Bogleheads’ Guide To Retirement Planning
• Economics Explained
• A Random Walk Down Wall Street
• The Intelligent Asset Allocator
• Or Amazon gift certificates so I can buy the Kindle version of these books…less clutter yeah!
• Crock Pot Slowcooker (this is not a very common item in The Netherlands, but having read so many positive blog posts I would love to give this a try)
• Dominion expansions (Dominion is a really cool game that we love to play a lot)
• Hiking socks
• A cargo bike trailer (how Mustachian is that?!)
• Rustic candles in lots of different colours
• Essie nailpolish in classic red (NOT Mustachian)
• Blond Amsterdam service (not very Mustachian)
• A Babyliss hair dryer and brush in one (not Mustachian either)
• A big pan for soup, at least 6 litres

What’s your opinion on gift giving and wish lists?

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

Bits ‘n Pieces

Yesterday my internet connection broke down so I was unable to write a blog post. Today I’ll just write about a few bits and pieces.

Clutter
Things are on a roll in the declutter department. Yesterday I had ample time to declutter since I wasn’t stuck behind my computer watching funny YouTube clips. I forgot to make before and after pictures again,duhuh. Sunday I had been watching YouTube clips about organizing your home. Fun! This lovely lady is extremely precise when it comes to decluttering. She’s a professional organizer:

Selling
Slowly but surely I keep on selling the things that haven’t made it on the “keep” pile while decluttering. I did find that my Craigslist advertisements were more popular by the end of the month. Obviously this is because people have their salaries in the bank then. So I’ll post new advertisements by the end of this month again.

Mortgage
Still haven’t heard from our mortgage advisor. We’re waiting for her to get some documents ready for her to sign so that we can add 5 months worth of average expenses into the savings bit of our mortgage account. I really want her to get things ready before the new year. Otherwise we need to pay capital levy tax on a part of our savings.

Side business
Towards “the season” I am getting even busier with the side business. The things I sell are ideal presents for Santa to give. Yay!

Government plans
Our local government changed its plans. They’re not going to make the higher incomes pay ridiculous amounts for their healthcare insurance. Instead, they’ll raise taxes. However, it’s less bad than before. Probably our purchasing power will drop by 4%, instead of the 8% we calculated in before. It’s still a bit of a relief.

Personal
Still not pregnant…

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

 

 

The Joy Of Decluttering: Motivate Your Partner To Engage

Ah, the joy of decluttering! We have had a crate full of manuals and warranties for a couple of years now. Each time we would buy a new piece of equipment we would throw the manual and warranty in this crate. This crate had been bugging me for over a year now….until this morning!

I thought of a great plan. That plan consisted of time, a label writer and these beauties which I got for free:

All in all it cost us about one hour to complete the task. By the way, buying a label writer was one of my best purchases ever. It makes organising fun and keeps things organised.

We alphabetically categorised everything and stowed the folders in our filing cabinet. We also promised each other from now on to tuck away all manuals and warranties we will encounter into the correct folder.

HA! The EconoWise-Asses will eventually overcome the battle against clutter!

Will you get your decluttering mode in gear any time soon? You might as well…the weather sucks so no excuses!

Love,

Mrs EconoWiser

Sensible Saving: I Am Not Allowed To Buy Eyeshadow For A Long Long Time

The Frugal Girl started blogging by posting all her food waste on her blog. She said that the shaming on the internet helped her a lot in order to stop wasting as much food. I think this tactic will help me with certain things as well. Such as make-up. I am a sucker for make-up on sale. I decided to go through my stash, since I am also in a declutter phase. I was shocked at the amount of eyeshadow I own. Ready?

Here’s my eyeshadow stash:

Conclusion: I am not allowed to buy eyeshadow for a long looooooooong time.

Do you find yourself in a similar situation?

Love,
Mrs EconoWiser