View Full Version : Decluttering - How are you doing in February?
Bastelmutti
2-22-12, 9:03am
How is everyone doing with their decluttering in Feb.? At the last minute this morning, I remembered I needed to put out my bags and boxes for the charity pickup - 3x books and 4x clothes/household misc. out the door. :cool:
We're in the process of selling our home, so decluttering has been my middle name this month. We've brought two truckloads to the local Sally Ann and have more ready to go!
I'm doing fabulous! Getting toys of so much stuff - books, CDs, papers. And I thought I'd had gotten toys of a lot of stuff before I had to get out of my apartment due to the renovations.
Bastelmutti
2-22-12, 10:30am
I don't envy you having to move, Rose, but that's cool that it's enabling you do downsize like that! Tradd, school papers? :-) Congrats on completing your program BTW. I am in school, too, and trying not to accumulate too much! I am seriously thinking of giving up one of my volunteering gigs next school year, and if someone takes over from me, hopefully that means I can give them a bunch of papers and clutter from the curriculum I have developed.
Bastel, yes, a lot is school papers, now that I'm done with my program. But also some other stuff. School stuff is all in digital form, anyway.
folkypoet
2-22-12, 11:11am
We're moving again in a little over a week. Kiddo (14) and the pets will be staying with my family in north Texas for a few months (this is just tearing me up - ugh), and hubby and I will be staying in my parents' empty house that's on the market in Austin. We'll have only the basics and will have to make it look like no one is living there when we go to work each morning.
I'm thinking this will be a perfect way to declutter. Almost everything we own will be in storage for a couple of months, and I'll see what - if much of anything - we actually miss. When we have our own place, I'll only bring into it those things we'll love and use.
I had some progress on this front over the past couple of weeks. I reorganized and decluttered the linens -- sheets are now sorted into separate drawers under DD's bed according to bed size. I moved some extra pillows that were in some of those drawers to another storage area, threw out some yucky old polyfill ones (HATE HATE HATE polyester pillows -- make my head sweaty!), and got rid of some sheets that had huge holes in them. DH tried to convince me to keep them for scrap, but I wasn't having it. Realistically I am not going to take up quilting any time soon, and these were large king sized fitted sheets with rips across the middle from being too worn and loose elastic, so not much worth salvaging. I did agree to keep some stained pillowcases that he promised to try to bleach. That will probably happen in oh, 10-20 years. they are in the laundry room now. If he doesn't act on that promise in a reasonable time, they may just "disappear".
I also sorted through my "stuff" drawer where I keep all paperwork pending action/filing, etc. Couldn't bring myself to do the filing, that is backed up for about a year -- thankfully now when I do get to it I can shred all the quarterly statement stuff as we now have annual statements for all accounts. But it is better sorted and ready when I decide to tackle it. Went quickly through medical insurance stuff and discovered they overcharged us on the family deductible in 2011 (deducted for 3 people when they should have stopped at 2), so that should get us $100 back. Pretty good return for a few minutes of checking claims!
DH is gone this week so I MAY try to rope the kids into sorting/decluttering their old art and school work. Not sure if I have the energy to take that on, though. Have to do taxes, which might be enough.
lhamo
I took the empty print cartridges to Staples last weekend. Took a garbage bag full of patchwork and ruffled pillows to the thrift store. These were from DH's mother's house and have been bagged up in the basement for 2.5 years. He just ummed when I asked what to do with them. I bet he doesn't even notice that they are gone.
This afternoon I posted empty cardboard boxes for free on kijiji and within ONE minute I had a taker via email; she came and gathered them up and I now have some space where they were in the basement. I am thinking about taking a day off from work to declutter.
There is much more to do, especially in the basement but every little bit deserves celebration IMHO. Yay!
It is very inspiring to read your decluttering progress everyone.
I got a BIG scare visiting a close relative's house last week and realising they had definitely fallen from messy to hoarder. We share genes!!
Really the only difference between us is that I have learnt as an adult to undo 'messy' but seeing my relly made me realise that I need to pay more attention to my own tendencies ie not just tidy but keep up the decluttering to keep alive my willingness to let go and my awareness of what needs to go.
So I have recycled the third of my clothes that no longer fit me and a couple of piles of magazines that have been ready for recycling for a couple of months to the library. Whew!!
I still have a long way to go and I've been handicapped this month by some kind of viral bug that came back for a second visit Monday morning. Forget heaving stuff around when I feel like I may hurl at any moment. :sick:
Made some progress with the files, but haven't sorted through them yet. There is a lot of stuff in there that's either obsolete or should never have been kept in the first place. I'm really itching to get rid of this big, hulking, useless-for-computer-work desk. One bonus of having taken so long to clean it out is that I found a local guy who removes saleable items for free, and this desk is pretty and in good condition. I was going to call 1-800-GOT JUNK and I'm guessing they would have charged me somewhere between one and two hundred to take it away. Sometimes procrastination pays!
Got through some of my backlog of magazines and am now filing articles I want to keep in plastic sleeves that are punched for noteboooks. I've even gotten some of them into the notebooks.
Still have a car trunkful of books to take to Paperback Trader. SIGH. I don't have nearly as much free time as I expected when I retired!
I have the wooden toy box that was handmade for me when I was 5. It's nicely made, and has a big wooden letter on the front that is my first initial. It's sat at the bottom of my bed for years, or been used as a coffee table, but I just toss stuff into in a heap, or I pile clothes and towels on it for days. I offered it to my goddaughter's mom. Goddaughter has the same first initial as I do, and this will be a good addition to the girls' bedroom. They just have to drive out to the burbs from the big city to get it.
Bastelmutti
2-22-12, 8:55pm
Jemima, hope you feel better!
I did a bit of electronic decluttering today, too - unsubbed from some company and organization e-mails I had been receiving. I will do more of that as new e-mails arrive.
Keep on truckin!
I'm nearly ready to take another car load to the thrifts. To make up for all the fine duds I've been bringing home from there lately.
rosarugosa
2-26-12, 6:37pm
Spent a few hours at Mom's house today and brought home 3 big bags of clothes to be laundered and donated, and a pile of stationery items, some of which I'll keep and some of which will be donated. Mom doesn't think I should have to take the clothes and launder them, but I pushed for it because I will do it and be done with it, and it will make me happy to get the stuff gone! She seems to feel like she is burdening me, when it's actually a pleasure to pull that clutter out of her life. I would say we're almost finished with two of the three bedrooms. It's a little hard to define finished, because her standards of acceptable clutter levels differ from my own. I have to keep reminding myself that it's her house :)
We also found some wonderful old family photos from prior generations that we really enjoyed looking at together, and she gave me a nice silver & amethyst pin that I'll enjoying wearing on the lapel of my work suits.
We are getting dead serious about decluttering in the next few months. We are on a mission to get rid of all of the stuff that isn't working for our family in this house and replace it with stuff that does.
After a tip from Fidgiegirl that a local charity is badly in need of furniture, we are going to get rid of both of the girls' beds, their (empty) dresser and a desk. We'll be replacing the beds with loft beds and the living room desk with a desk that actually works for a computer. We're also getting rid of a chest and possibly the train table (to be replaced by a smaller, more multipurpose table) and we gave Dad the dresser from James' room because he needed it and James doesn't. We're getting rid of two odd shelving units from the garage and building inexpensive, but custom shelving that actually holds what we need it to hold.
Best of all, we are finally, finally after 25 years of living with the hideous stuff, "decluttering" the salmon pink paneling in the family room and replacing it with drywall.
rosarugosa
2-26-12, 7:43pm
Good for you Stella! Pink paneling would not be my cup of tea either!
Thanks Rosa! My mom painted that paneling pink when I was about 7 or 8 years old and I have never liked it. Normally she has good taste, so I don't know what that was all about. I am so ready to get rid of it!
I've been decluttering, updating my YMOYL everything-owned items list, and packing in and labelling bins as I go - preparing to probably put my house on the market soon due to still-unemployed-desperately-seeking-job status. (I say 'probably' even though it's inevitable, but haven't Quite Let Go yet!) Any encouragement from those going through the same thing is welcome!
We're moving again in a little over a week. Kiddo (14) and the pets will be staying with my family in north Texas for a few months (this is just tearing me up - ugh), and hubby and I will be staying in my parents' empty house that's on the market in Austin. We'll have only the basics and will have to make it look like no one is living there when we go to work each morning.
I'm thinking this will be a perfect way to declutter. Almost everything we own will be in storage for a couple of months, and I'll see what - if much of anything - we actually miss. When we have our own place, I'll only bring into it those things we'll love and use.
Sorry you have to be separated from part of your family, folkypoet. I've had to do that too much in my life. But thanks for the inspiration - love your commitment to, "if it's not missed, get rid of it" !!
I think I ended up taking February off from Decluttering, about all I managed to do was clean up my 'favorites' list on my computer.
March will have to be some serious decluttering in the laundry/sewing room.
I've done well. We've hidden several of DS's toys, and then when he hasn't asked for or played with them for a month, we pass them along.
Our next bit is to simply reorganize the closet and start organizing our books a bit better. We don't have many with us, but I would like to have them sent to us relatively soon. We have several boxes of books.
Also, at the office -- sold 4 massage chairs, got the landlord to store doors and frames, got one of my guys to haul out the 'junk' in the room (walls and stuff that were taken down), and so now we are looking at: 1. putting the light bulbs back into the light fixtures, but not so that they can turn on -- they are long, tube flourescents; 2. looking at what is being stored in the room (so far, my itemized list is as follows: 2 fans, 1 heater (possibly broken); 3 massage tables, 3 massage chairs, two laundry baskets, two cans of paint, a tv, a balance ball, several boxes of practitioner marketing supplies, and several feldenkrais mats; and then 3. getting shelving to store what we need to store, letting go of those things that we do not need, and getting the room cleaned up and use-able as an office-cum-storage-cum-changing room. There is also a desk in there already, and we are looking at putting the chairs that we moved into our house back into that room so there are comfy reading chairs. I'm also looking at hanging curtains to divide the shelves from the rest of the room and give the storage a "clean" look.
That's my idea anyway. I want to keep the room relatively simple (as humanly possible!), so that it's a nice place for DH to work, as well as a nice place for people to change their clothes before/after class, and so on and so forth.
This office will be for DH to use for his writing/work, as well as a place for DS to play and have activities when he is in the office (we are going to have legos and keep them ONLY there in the office, plus a chalk board and some chalk since he loves that),
happystuff
2-28-12, 4:04pm
Haven't been doing as well as I would have liked, but I have high hopes for March!!!
Kicking further butt. By the end of this week this house should sparkle. Well, except for the family room which will be in the process of being drywalled.
I had a dream last week that I stopped to use the restroom on the road and the feds came and confiscated my label maker from my car and accused me of being a terrorist. I think the nesting hormones have kicked in. :)
Evil Label-making terrorist!
My mother insisted for the last two years that all of the boxes that we left in the US were unlabeled.
I told her that all of our boxes were labeled in the most intense way possible: room, box number, and a list of what was in each box -- is on the box. Then, I have a piece of paper here (in my one folder of papers that I keep) that has each box, box number, room, and list of what is in each box.
So, yesterday, my mother was "fed up" and went through "my" boxes, only to discover that they were *her* boxes and my *sister's boxes* completely unlabelled.
I knew that I only had 25 boxes -- each one identified and labelled. My mother insisted that I had "at least 75 boxes!" Turns out at least 50 of them were hers. LOL
Our plan was to create one-pallet of boxes and have them shipped over when we were ready. We are nearly ready. Once I get the closet properly organized, we'll be set.
So, properly organized is as follows:
1. getting the suitcases put up on the upper shelf -- empty and/or labelled with the off-season or to-grow-into clothes for DS.
2. keeping the shelves and bar as is -- since it holds coats, etc, as well as our day-to-day things that need to be in baskets (eg, we have one for our electronic stuff such as computers, cords, cell phone, cords, etc -- all near the plug, too, so that we can charge them there if need be;
3. shoes are in their shoe rack (already done)
4. shelves along the long wall -- on the floor beneath the shelves will be DS's baskets of toys, drums, and other things that he can get to easily (he has two baskets, but I'm going to divide the smaller one into blocks and cars); DS's books will be on the next shelf for easy access; then on the shelves above that we'll have room for our 15 boxes of books. I have 5 boxes of shoes/clothes/unneeded items (which we will likely not have sent). And we have 5 boxes of kitchen gear (wrapped tight for safe shipping). It's actually not a lot of kitchen stuff, honestly -- it just 'reads' like more than it is.
And, we only used "small" book boxes, so it's not like it's a LOT of stuff, even though it is a fair bit of stuff. LOL
Once those shelves are in, we'll be set.
Then I can start working on things like making the place pretty. :)
You know what I hate? Electronics stuff. That crap with all of the cords. It all gets dusty and I would be constantly cleaning them if I actually cleaned that deeply. I keep a card drive and thumb drives in a small cardboard box with a lid because out computer area gets so freekin' dirty.
DH and two of my friends made fun of me because I put the tv remotes into baggies. But. I. Do Not. Care. So maybe I should invite all them them to come and clean my house? I am sick and tired of having grungy tv remotes, once they get that way you can't get them clean.
I was impressed by the ones in a hotel--they had flat screen and the hotel maids could easily wipe them down without ruining the inner workings.
I had been getting rid of stuff since 1995. Then this January I moved from a small furnished efficiency to a two bedroom unfurnished condo, so the flow has reversed. I've bought more stuff in the last month than probably in the previous dozen years!
You know what I hate? Electronics stuff. That crap with all of the cords. It all gets dusty and I would be constantly cleaning them if I actually cleaned that deeply. I keep a card drive and thumb drives in a small cardboard box with a lid because out computer area gets so freekin' dirty.
I truly hope to downsize the electronics in the new house. No more huge stereo system that doesn't even work right. Maybe buy wireless speakers that can talk to the computer, and digitize all the music onto it? We shall see. Cords are a PITA.
Bastelmutti
3-1-12, 4:09pm
Cords! Arrrrgggghhh! I have a pile of tech stuff to unload, too.
I'm with you. we have no lamps (and thus no cords), one fan (which I'm taking back to the office), and then our computers and their power cord (lap top) plus the modem and it's power cord and the phone cord that goes with it. And then fridge, range, and washing machine. No other cords, thank goodness.
At the office, once i get rid of the main computer, we'll be down to 2 phone lines, 3 cords (modem, phone plug, and debit card machine) on the front desk area, and then two cords at the printer (power and printer to computer cable).
Each little office has a heater, fan, and lamp -- so three cords there -- and sometimes people bring their own things (such as a negative ion machine and their own computers and power cords).
it's pretty nice, actually, to have so few cords.
getting that last office sorted as well. this weekend the debris from the build should be out, and then I'll go through and do a thorough declutter. after that, some shelves to use as storage at the back, and the room should be use-able again.
I brought these two chairs to our place -- and the are nice, but I think that we'll put them back in that little office/storage space. I'm not sure though. :)
A friend posted this (http://amy-newnostalgia.blogspot.com/2011/12/26-tips-and-tricks-to-simplify-life.html) on facebook tonight and immediately thought of this thread. I thought that first tip was pretty good.
Bastelmutti
3-2-12, 9:17am
Stella, do you read Life Hacker? They have an ongoing series of articles about all the amazing things you can do with binder clips!
I haven't read that. It sounds interesting. I'll have to check that out!
that first one was nifty-as, stella~
the rest of them, i don't have much use for personally, but hey -- cool stuff. :D
managed to declutter the kid's toys and his clothes. Still need to do another pass through my stuff and DH's stuff.
closet is clean, and the office at the office will be free of reno debris this weekend (hopefully), and then I'll be able to re-org and declutter.
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