Thanks for visiting Ultimate Money Blog! If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. I had to unsubscribe from the feed of one of my favorite home decorating blogs this morning.  I’ve been reading it for years, but lately I’ve noticed that their pictures of beautiful rooms and neat projects was making me feel like my house was greatly inferior.  Years ago I was embarrassed of my house, and while the feeling is still there sometimes, for the most part I am proud of how I’ve fixed up and decorated.  It really feels like home now, and I love the size and layout.  I have such a hard time reading blogs and looking at pictures online and not comparing them to my house.  It’s hard to picture the houses not picture-perfect (and I’m sure that most of the houses aren’t immaculate all the time).  I realized that by reading all these house blogs I was setting unrealistic expectations of my own house and had to change something.  It was stressing me out when anything in [...]

Every Wednesday I’ll post about how many items I’ve decluttered for the 365 Declutter Challenge. I’m going to keep a running tally of how many items I’ve decluttered. If it seems that 365 items is an easy goal and I meet it quickly, I’ll probably strive for the 2011 items goal. It’s a little scary, but hopefully it will challenge me in a good way! I decluttered 53 more items this week.  Included in the pile of crap you will see a few paint sheets, some crappy yarn that was given to me that I held onto forever before deciding I’m not going to use it, and clothes.  Also? Note that really weird gourd thing that I was given.  I still have no clue what its true purpose is. I’m going to cut back from the weekly decluttering posts because I’m worried I’m boring you all with the mundane details.  I’ll start posting on the first Wednesday of every month.  I’ll still keep decluttering, but I’ll just be updating once a month. When I first started the challenge, I was [...]

I’ve been sick, so I apologize for not getting the post up on Wednesday.  It seems that my immune system isn’t up to par.  This week I decluttered 52 items, which brings my total up to 68 items! I think it’s going to be a little more challenging than I thought to get rid of 365 items this year.  I’m really going to have to go through things and figure out what really is worth keeping and what’s not.  It does feel good to get rid of things, and I think when I have a big pile of stuff to donate that it feels more impressive than if I have more of the smaller items.  I don’t have pictures this week because I can’t find my digital camera (I didn’t get rid of it- at least I hope not!).  I’ll be sure to have some up next week. How is your decluttering challenge going?