De-Clutter Project - Week 22 - More Ways to Win Than One

"If what you own makes your life tougher - why do it? Think about your relationship to your assets and possessions. Do you own them or do they own you? Many of you are collectors. Is your collection a dusty albatross around your neck? What can you do to improve how you handle your stuff?"

Georgia Nichols wrote that in my horoscope for this week.

I had just been searching for something on a crowded bathroom shelf, making a mess in the process. I didn't find what I was looking for, but I'm sure it's there. I decided this collection of stuff just might be the albatross mentioned above. Since I have just won a basket full of new products, I thought this might be a good time to clear off that shelf, display the new products, and only replace the other things I find myself reaching for over the next month or so.

The basket came from a draw at a local Home Show, and contained a wide variety of Arbonne products. If it's used on your hair, face of body, it is probably in that basket somewhere. There are even a few dietary products, that I'll test out next week.

The left hand side of the cupboard is always used for bandages, and cold or allergy products. The right hand side has bath products. Other odds and ends went into a low box to contain them, with my every day stuff right in front of that. That left the centre open for the new products. I want to use them all during the month of June so this seems like a good place to store them for now.  I left them in the cases they arrived in, but will likely take them out as I work my way through them.

I threw away a lot of old products and put the rest in to a bin, which will be in the (where else?) spare room next to the bathroom until the end of June.  Then I'll deal with whatever is left in there that hasn't made it's way back to the cupboard with use during that time.

During this de-cluttering process I did find a couple of things that I had duplicates of.  That most likely happened because I couldn't see what I had, or couldn't find it when I needed it in the past.  Not only did I win a basket full of new products to try, I think I won in another way too.  I now have this terribly cluttered shelf, where I couldn't find what I was looking for, all cleaned up. 



 

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It's All in the Stars

Apparently, according to astrological charts,  Mercury is in retrograde and this week we are all told to "expect cheques in the mail to be late. Postal and courier services will suffer from delays. Everyone will be dogged by silly errors and confused communications."

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm certainly experiencing something along those lines.

I won a $100 from Subway early in January, and while others who won this contest seem to have received their gift card, mine has not yet arrived.  I put in a query a few weeks ago, and they sent me a form that needed to be filled out and sent back. I did that, and they promised to mail the card out on January 20th. If I had not sent in the query, I likely never would have received the form.

It's now two weeks later, and my prize is still not here. I know Canadian mail is slow, but it doesn't take two weeks for an envelope to go from anywhere in this country, to someplace else in the same country.  I told them that and they are now looking into it, though that was several days ago, and I haven't heard anything since.

I even told them how much I'd love to tell my blog readers about experimenting with different combinations of Subway sandwiches that I haven't tried yet.  Let's hope I get that chance.

Meanwhile the Linen Chest was having a 75% off sale and I found something on their website that I've been wanting for months.  Hunting for, in fact. I even put it on my Christmas list, but I didn't get it.  I don't often buy stuff on line, and after my experience before Christmas, one would think I'd know better.  But I wanted new pasta bowls and this set was perfect, so I put in the order. 

The original e-mail advertising the 75% off sale also came with an offer of 10% off if I signed up for their newsletter, so I did that.  I expected an e-mail giving me that additional code to plug into my order, but it didn't come, so I put the order through.  Several days later I got another e-mail saying there was still something in my shopping cart, and if I completed the order, they would give me 5% off.  I went to look at my account, and it appeared that my order was "processing", but it did indeed show the pasta bowls sitting in the shopping cart.  To me, "processing" meant the order had gone though just fine.  I wanted the bowls but didn't want to duplicate the order, so I decided to e-mail them and ask.  I also asked why I would be satisfied with a 5% discount when they originally promised me a 10% one that never came through. 

I got a response that said, "normally one receives this notice if they did not complete their purchase or completed the transaction from a different computer or browser."  That wasn't the case here though.  They then offered to take the extra 5 % off this order if I transferred the offer I received back to them by e-mail.  I eventually figured out they meant I should forward that message to them, so I did, and got that extra 5% after all.  I also got a another e-mail from them giving me that original 10% discount off my next order.

Checking my account once again, I see the order is still "processing"  but at least now there is nothing in my shopping cart.  I have no idea when the package will arrive, but at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if something was broken.  That wouldn't be the fault of the Linen Chest, or the Post Office, of course.  It would just be my luck.....or perhaps I could blame it on the stars.

Did I mention I've been getting lovely e-mails in my g-mail account, complete with photos of a lovely little girl, that were all meant for someone else?  I alerted the person who was sending them, and he seems to have it all straightened out now. The e-mails were meant for someone with my last name and my first initial, so I can see how this could happen.  It's just the timing that seems to fit into the predictions at the moment.

According to astrologer Georgia Nichols, the kind of mix up and confusion I have been experiencing will continue until March 20.  Oh Joy.  Can you just imagine how bad the Ides of March will be?

But on March 21st, I get to celebrate my 40th Wedding Anniversary, and it should be good as I will be in the clear by then.  Hopefully......