Spring cleaning!

[IfIOnly]

DH, kids, and I spent last weekend, worked some throughout the week, and this whole weekend getting rid of stuff and cleaning. We went all out this year. I am so beat! I feel so much lighter and less weighted down though. Yay!

 

What's been done so far:

 

A truckload of stuff went to the thrift store: books, clothes, baby gear, lots of random stuff 

 

A truckload of trash went to the dump: yard debris, last year's corn stalks, random stuff like an old, heavy, huge TV and entertainment stand taking up space in the garage and that no one would want because we got them used and  beat up and by the time we were done with them, well...  I had every single work book my kids had ever done stored. Rod and Staff, math work books, ETC, cursive. I got rid of it all. 

 

We whittled down the stuff in our garage by a lot. So much more space now. We were ruthless. We had so much random stuff like chicken gear even though we've lived in a place where chickens aren't allowed for years now. We were once dairy farmers and my DH has tried out a ton of random hobbies/business pursuits too. So much junk to sort though. Our garage looks amazing.

 

Garage has been swept and shelves cleaned

 

I went through our books and got rid of 8 or so boxes. The boxes weren't huge or tightly packed, but still. Again, ruthless. I got rid of my precious Little House series that I bought when my oldest was born. Sniff. But none of my kids loved that series, plus it can be found at the library. Now we don't have boxes of book in the garage because we didn't have the shelving space in the house.

 

I did very little declutting to the house because I keep it clutter free

 

Ordered a larger deck box for all the kids out door play stuff (balls, nerf guns, whatever) since the one I had is always overflowing and stuff is all around it.

 

 

What hasn't been done:

 

A good cleaning of the house yet. Under the fridge, on top of cupboards kind of thing. 

 

I have so much paper work to sort and get try to get rid of. Stuff like tons of drawings and school papers, internet research printouts, a crazy amount of random stuff. Ugh. 

 

We want to reseed our grass in the back yard this spring and fill in some holes in the yard dug by our doggy.

 

 

 What have you been up to?

[Night Elf]

Our garage needs to be tidied. We cleaned it out when we had to have work done on the foundation of the house so there really isn't much clutter in there. We got rid of a lot of clutter when we moved into this house 12 years ago and despite it being that long, I don't have a great deal of stuff to wade through. Our ds doesn't own a lot so his room is okay. Dd, OTOH, is such a hot mess! Talk about needing to declutter and clean! She'll be home from school the first week of May and I'm going to put her to work on some of it.

 

DH worked in the yard today. There were lots of dead plants in the garden bed, sticks laying around the yard from storms, and great patches of clover that needed to be mowed. The yard looks really nice now.

 

I cleaned some of the house yesterday, but not all of it. The two rooms that need a good cleaning because they've been neglected are the living room and my bedroom. In the living room there are several shelves way up high with knick knacks. They're probably super dusty. I've got to get under the furniture. I'm also thinking of culling out old DVD's. For example, I think we still have the High School Musical movies that my youngest dd liked. No one will ever watch those again! I also need to clean underneath the furniture in the bedroom. We rotated our mattress a couple of weeks ago and changed the bedding from winter to summer linens.

 

 

[SparklyUnicorn]

I need to do some myself.  I had planned to during the break in March, but that didn't happen.

 

 

[Carrie12345]

We were finally able to do some minor yard work yesterday.  Our property is mostly wooded, and it's impossible to keep up with all the downed and damaged branches, but we managed to tackle some.

We also found that the very soggy thaw made it nice and easy to yank some large rocks out of the edge of our driveway that we've been trying to wish out for years!

 

Dh finally did some work on the storage shed, and now the Christmas boxes are finally where they belong.  :001_rolleyes:

 

It's still rather chilly and gloomy, so I'm not ready to tear open all the windows and attack inside.  We did a pretty good cleaning a few weeks ago in order to get at all the fire extinguisher "dust" that settled everywhere, but you wouldn't be able to tell how meticulous we were at this point!

[mom2scouts]

Please come to my house and help me! When my dh lost his job and couldn't find anything for a couple of years, he spent his time doing house clean outs and metal scrapping. Guess what he did with all the potentially useful stuff? That's right, it's all piled in my garage. I've decluttered and decluttered my stuff and the kids stuff and did tons more this weekend and, after asking nicely for years, I've given him an ultimatum. I want our garage back and not full of other people's castoffs. He claims he should sell it, but it's still there. I'm getting rid of it this year. Most of it isn't even our stuff! Oh, sorry to hijack your post with my vent, but I can't stand clutter and all the stuff makes me crazy.

[Spryte]

We have been doing outdoor work the last few days:

 

We've weeded and mulched, and straightened out rock gardens that needed some love. We've cleaned and repaired the outdoor lights in the back, but not the front yet. Blew and raked leaves that had been posing as mulch for the winter, so we can have another load of mulch dropped off this week for the backyard.

 

We installed an in ground fence, so that was the Big Job over the weekend.

 

Next up is finishing the fence (one more flower bed and across the driveway); lights in the front; mulch in the back.

 

Then we stain the concrete in a gazebo, and hopefully paint the front door and front porch.

 

OP, what are you using to fill in dog holes? Our new pup is a digger (and jumper, thus the in ground fence).

 

We need to reseed, too, but we've heard not to do that in the spring in our area. Bummer.

[Spryte]

Please come to my house and help me! When my dh lost his job and couldn't find anything for a couple of years, he spent his time doing house clean outs and metal scrapping. Guess what he did with all the potentially useful stuff? That's right, it's all piled in my garage. I've decluttered and decluttered my stuff and the kids stuff and did tons more this weekend and, after asking nicely for years, I've given him an ultimatum. I want our garage back and not full of other people's castoffs. He claims he should sell it, but it's still there. I'm getting rid of it this year. Most of it isn't even our stuff! Oh, sorry to hijack your post with my vent, but I can't stand clutter and all the stuff makes me crazy.

We used to have neighbors who had something like this happen. The husband loved junking in his spare time. Their garage was stuffed to the rafters. He ended up getting some kind of crate and storing what he couldn't part with, and they made their garage into a beautiful, usable space. I thought he had stopped junking, but apparently he just moved it to a separate storage area. He opened an antique store after a while, and it's been his side job for years. He loves it. His wife doesn't do anything with it, it's all his thing.

 

So... there's hope for your garage. :)

[Baseball mom]

I need to do a major spring cleaning/decluttering.  We are not hoarders but we do have WAY to much clutter. 

[Soror]

I LOVE spring cleaning but haven't had the time to do it yet. We are however in the midst of some home renovations, that will (hopefully) be finished in a couple of weeks, coinciding with finishing our schooling and a break with my yoga teacher training. Next week I hope to be doing some painting! After we get everybody situated in the rooms they are going to then I can start on the actual cleaning part, I need to do all the windows and the outside of the house and some landscaping. It is fairly decluttered here but always good to refresh things

[Pink and Green Mom]

I would love to go through our garage and dump everything but the husband is a bit of a pack rat.  Sigh.  I am getting rid of tons of books though.  I collected hundreds of great history books over the years to get through elementary and middle school.  As we finish a topic it goes in the pile.  Sniff.  I loved pouring through library book sales and thrift shops getting those great books for a quarter or 50 cents....

[melbotoast]

We just got All About Reading for my daughter but I couldn't find all of my letter tiles! I've been putting off organizing my homeschool stash since we quit for the summer last year so....

 

I straightened the shelf that has all the materials we're not currently using. I sorted everything by subject so it is really easy to find everything now. I still need to go through and discard or sell things we won't use again, but I'm not afraid to open that closet now. I also got rid of some old toys no one plays with.

 

I did not find my letter tiles so I will also get to clean out the filing cabinets that hold our current stuff + math manipulatives + art supplies. I'm telling myself that's a good thing.

 

Also, DH decided it is time to rearrange DDs room, which really needed it. We took out a toddler bed that was holding a huge collection of stuffed animals and put her bed on risers so the animals can go in tubs underneath. We also got her a desk so she has a space for crafting, instead of using her bed/dresser top. We still have a lot to declutter in there but it looks so much better already.

[El...]

I'm on a decluttering spree.  We're moving at the end of summer, and will put quite a bit of stuff in storage because we will be moving to...... drumroll..... Europe!  That means most of our electronics are going into 110v storage.  So I have to sort every little thing.  For example, I don't want to take Christmas lights that won't plug in all the way across the ocean.  That means I need to sort the Christmas décor boxes. 

 

Also, the owners of this house we rent are putting it on the market this week, so the realtor is coming to take photos.  I feel like I need to make everything inspection perfect.  I'm a touch stressed about it all right now.

 

 

[mom2scouts]

We used to have neighbors who had something like this happen. The husband loved junking in his spare time. Their garage was stuffed to the rafters. He ended up getting some kind of crate and storing what he couldn't part with, and they made their garage into a beautiful, usable space. I thought he had stopped junking, but apparently he just moved it to a separate storage area. He opened an antique store after a while, and it's been his side job for years. He loves it. His wife doesn't do anything with it, it's all his thing.

 

So... there's hope for your garage. :)

 

Well, maybe, but he's not allowed to rent a storage space. There's no way I'm paying to store other people's junk. It's bad enough that he already bought a junk hauling trailer and pays to store it. I think the local thrift store can try to sell it all!

[thessa516]

Way to go IfIonlyhadabrain! I'm listening to organization and decluttering podcasts to help get me in the mood. So far I've sent 4 large boxes of stuff off to Goodwill and made $16 at the used bookstore by selling some books. I've decluttered my desk, organized and printed photos of the youngest for his year's memory album, and did a deep clean on the fridge. Oh, I also decluttered all my sewing stuff! 

 

I really do need to tackle the school stuff, but I want a wall of IKEA bookcases for the basement. I keep putting it off because I know I'm just going to have to put it all back on the ugly, falling apart bookshelves we currently have.

[6packofun]

My kitchen is a disaster, an  organizational nightmare.  So I've been cleaning everything out--golly, look at all the old, old food at the back of the cabinets!  :ack2: --and trying to reconfigure everything so that it stays somewhat clean most of the time.  I have WAY too much stuff on my countertops.  I did buy a large metal shelving unit that is very nice, but it's not hidden so I don't want to pile stuff on there and make the place even uglier, if that's even possible.  lol

[SparklyUnicorn]

sometimes I want to buy 50 tubs of those Clorox wipes and just clean from ceiling to floor...those things are so awesome

so wasteful though...LOL 

[Bluegoat]

I started the beginning of March - I realized last year that once it turns nice, I will need to be in the garden.

 

I've done a good clean of most rooms, except the kitchen.  That's the biggest job though.  I did clean in the fridge, but that's about it.

 

I am really eager to get outside, but we had a foot of snow last week.  It's on its way out now, and we likely won't get more but it isn't impossible.  I need to get something to spray my peach tree for peach tree wilt, and I need to cut back some perrenials I left for the birds, my Butterfly Bush, and get some compost or manure worked into m vegetable plot out front.  I have some ugly cedars to cut down and root out.  And I need to start some seeds indoors too. 

 

 

[happi duck]

We've cleaned/decluttered every inch of:

Fridge

Pantry

Kitchen

Bathroom

Bathroom cabinets

 

The front room is close to finished.

 

The linen/catch-all closet is a looming task.

 

My bedroom is the "I'll get to it later" that never makes the cut so I'm trying hard to get to it.

[IfIOnly]

Please come to my house and help me! When my dh lost his job and couldn't find anything for a couple of years, he spent his time doing house clean outs and metal scrapping. Guess what he did with all the potentially useful stuff? That's right, it's all piled in my garage. I've decluttered and decluttered my stuff and the kids stuff and did tons more this weekend and, after asking nicely for years, I've given him an ultimatum. I want our garage back and not full of other people's castoffs. He claims he should sell it, but it's still there. I'm getting rid of it this year. Most of it isn't even our stuff! Oh, sorry to hijack your post with my vent, but I can't stand clutter and all the stuff makes me crazy.

 

I'm with you! Time to sell or get rid of it. It sounds like a garage sale first could work for you though maybe?  And then get rid of the rest? Call Goodwill to come pick it up the leftovers? 

 

We have been doing outdoor work the last few days:

 

We've weeded and mulched, and straightened out rock gardens that needed some love. We've cleaned and repaired the outdoor lights in the back, but not the front yet. Blew and raked leaves that had been posing as mulch for the winter, so we can have another load of mulch dropped off this week for the backyard.

 

We installed an in ground fence, so that was the Big Job over the weekend.

 

Next up is finishing the fence (one more flower bed and across the driveway); lights in the front; mulch in the back.

 

Then we stain the concrete in a gazebo, and hopefully paint the front door and front porch.

 

OP, what are you using to fill in dog holes? Our new pup is a digger (and jumper, thus the in ground fence).

 

We need to reseed, too, but we've heard not to do that in the spring in our area. Bummer.

 

We have painting projects too (playset and house trim touch up), but it's too cold here still. Painting is a late spring, summer project here.

 

I don't have a plan for the holes yet!  I was thinking compacting soil in the hole and getting a bit of turf and patching might work. Def. going to do some research beforehand and figure this out. 

 

I had remembered spring being recommended for starting grass here but will have to double check that because my memory ain't what she used to be. Thanks for mentioning that. We will have to wait until middle of April at least just because of problems with frozen pipes and sprinkler heads bursting.

 

I LOVE spring cleaning but haven't had the time to do it yet. We are however in the midst of some home renovations, that will (hopefully) be finished in a couple of weeks, coinciding with finishing our schooling and a break with my yoga teacher training. Next week I hope to be doing some painting! After we get everybody situated in the rooms they are going to then I can start on the actual cleaning part, I need to do all the windows and the outside of the house and some landscaping. It is fairly decluttered here but always good to refresh things

 

Me too!   lol

 

I would love to go through our garage and dump everything but the husband is a bit of a pack rat.  Sigh.  I am getting rid of tons of books though.  I collected hundreds of great history books over the years to get through elementary and middle school.  As we finish a topic it goes in the pile.  Sniff.  I loved pouring through library book sales and thrift shops getting those great books for a quarter or 50 cents....

 

Yes, the books are hard to sort through! Lots of our books are from the same places you listed. Honestly, my DH needing the workspace in the garage was a good motivator for him to get rid of his stuff. He already took up half of our garage last year to build an office in there, so space is a limited.

 

We just got All About Reading for my daughter but I couldn't find all of my letter tiles! I've been putting off organizing my homeschool stash since we quit for the summer last year so....

 

I straightened the shelf that has all the materials we're not currently using. I sorted everything by subject so it is really easy to find everything now. I still need to go through and discard or sell things we won't use again, but I'm not afraid to open that closet now. I also got rid of some old toys no one plays with.

 

I did not find my letter tiles so I will also get to clean out the filing cabinets that hold our current stuff + math manipulatives + art supplies. I'm telling myself that's a good thing.

 

Also, DH decided it is time to rearrange DDs room, which really needed it. We took out a toddler bed that was holding a huge collection of stuffed animals and put her bed on risers so the animals can go in tubs underneath. We also got her a desk so she has a space for crafting, instead of using her bed/dresser top. We still have a lot to declutter in there but it looks so much better already.

 

I hope you find those tiles! Your DD's space sounds fabulous! Under the bed storage tubs make me happy. :laugh: 

Way to go IfIonlyhadabrain! I'm listening to organization and decluttering podcasts to help get me in the mood. So far I've sent 4 large boxes of stuff off to Goodwill and made $16 at the used bookstore by selling some books. I've decluttered my desk, organized and printed photos of the youngest for his year's memory album, and did a deep clean on the fridge. Oh, I also decluttered all my sewing stuff! 

 

I really do need to tackle the school stuff, but I want a wall of IKEA bookcases for the basement. I keep putting it off because I know I'm just going to have to put it all back on the ugly, falling apart bookshelves we currently have.

 

Thank yo and you too! It will be nice when all there is to do in spring is clean the house and some yard work and work on photo and memory books. Ya, right. :P We're getting closer though!

 

My kitchen is a disaster, an  organizational nightmare.  So I've been cleaning everything out--golly, look at all the old, old food at the back of the cabinets!  :ack2: --and trying to reconfigure everything so that it stays somewhat clean most of the time.  I have WAY too much stuff on my countertops.  I did buy a large metal shelving unit that is very nice, but it's not hidden so I don't want to pile stuff on there and make the place even uglier, if that's even possible.  lol

 

Oh, I love your metal shelving set up. I like the industrial kitchen look it gives. We don't have room in the kitchen but put shelves in our entry closet and use it for a pantry and appliance overflow space.

 

sometimes I want to buy 50 tubs of those Clorox wipes and just clean from ceiling to floor...those things are so awesome

so wasteful though...LOL 

 

My husband used all my Clorox wipes on the garage shelves. I need to get some more!

 

I started the beginning of March - I realized last year that once it turns nice, I will need to be in the garden.

 

I've done a good clean of most rooms, except the kitchen.  That's the biggest job though.  I did clean in the fridge, but that's about it.

 

I am really eager to get outside, but we had a foot of snow last week.  It's on its way out now, and we likely won't get more but it isn't impossible.  I need to get something to spray my peach tree for peach tree wilt, and I need to cut back some perrenials I left for the birds, my Butterfly Bush, and get some compost or manure worked into m vegetable plot out front.  I have some ugly cedars to cut down and root out.  And I need to start some seeds indoors too. 

 

Yes! Once the mowing, weeding, and gardening starts things get busier. I'd like to start some sunflower seeds this year but have no idea where we would keep them in the house. There's not really space for things like that.

 

We've cleaned/decluttered every inch of:

Fridge

Pantry

Kitchen

Bathroom

Bathroom cabinets

 

The front room is close to finished.

 

The linen/catch-all closet is a looming task.

 

My bedroom is the "I'll get to it later" that never makes the cut so I'm trying hard to get to it.

 

Nice! We don't have a linen closet, and I'd like to put some thought into where I'd like to store things. Right now they go on a shelf about our clothes rod in our closet. I'm thinking maybe Sterilite drawers below would be nicer.

[mom2scouts]

I'm with you! Time to sell or get rid of it. It sounds like a garage sale first could work for you though maybe?  And then get rid of the rest? Call Goodwill to come pick it up the leftovers? 

 

 

Nope! Two years ago, or maybe three, we had a huge garage sale and some of the stuff in my garage is stuff that didn't sell then. Almost all of my stuff and kid's stuff leftover from the sale went right to the thrift store at the end of the day. Dh hauled his junk back into the garage. :banghead:  When we set up for that sale, I told dh that I *hate* doing garage sales and that would be the last one I was ever willing to do.  I find it stressful and a huge amount of work for the amount of money we make. I'm in my 50's, probably having a mid-life crisis, and I just want all the junk gone! One of the reasons we hang on to the stuff is because we could use the money, but the stuff doesn't sell and it just piles up. We need to just donate it and be done.

[IfIOnly]

Nope! Two years ago, or maybe three, we had a huge garage sale and some of the stuff in my garage is stuff that didn't sell then. Almost all of my stuff and kid's stuff leftover from the sale went right to the thrift store at the end of the day. Dh hauled his junk back into the garage. :banghead:  When we set up for that sale, I told dh that I *hate* doing garage sales and that would be the last one I was ever willing to do.  I find it stressful and a huge amount of work for the amount of money we make. I'm in my 50's, probably having a mid-life crisis, and I just want all the junk gone! One of the reasons we hang on to the stuff is because we could use the money, but the stuff doesn't sell and it just piles up. We need to just donate it and be done.

 

Totally. My kids begged to have a garage sale last week. No way. We gave it all away!

[IfIOnly]

Geek out with me, if you will. I'm so happy about a large enough deck box for all of the kids' outdoor play things. Here's a photo for some spring cleaning inspiration. :P 

 

 

I actually put the new deck box on the front porch and the older one in the backyard. They're exactly the same model and color though. I got the older one at the Goodwill. The front porch box holds all of the roller blades, helmets, knee pads, and other riding gear.

[ondreeuh]

I'm doing the same as elroisees and preparing for a move to Europe. We don't know if our new home will be a 1000 sq ft city apartment or a 2000 sq foot country house. I'm kind of hoping for an apartment (or row house) because I do not want yard work sucking up our weekends.

 

Ideally, I would just pull out everything I don't want to move or store, and stick that in the garage. However, that still means I need to sort through every single item and make a decision. I ended up starting to box up things to move and things to store, but those boxes have nowhere to go, so this house is in chaos. And our garage flooded, so we spent a ton of time working on that. It is dry now, and I have been sorting the garage sale stuff on shelves in there. We will have a sale soon, and then the garage will be our staging area for things we are storing. 

 

So far I have cleaned out part of the master bathroom (got rid of misc. beauty items and cosmetics). I have also sorted through the board games and science kits. School books have been mostly sorted but there is so much random office supply stuff everywhere. And I haven't touched the craft stuff. Maybe I will just pull that bin out and try to sell it for $5 at the sale.

 

I have been ripping apart workbooks and scanning them, so that I don't have to move them around. That takes up a ton of time, but the end is in sight. I'm also backing up all my digital files on an external hard drive.

 

I've started to purge some kitchen stuff, like gadgets we never use. The appliances I will probably save, because I don't know how big my future kitchen will be. We will buy an Instant Pot from the French Amazon, and I plan to just bring minimal kitchen gear. Belgian kitchens are pretty small.

 

I have so much work to do, and 6-8 weeks to do it. Plus dh has a ton of projects - he will probably hire a handyman to help get all the little things done. We have to get the house ready to rent out.

[Rebel Yell]

I'm ignoring all of the stuff inhavto declutter, clean, and organize.

 

For those of you who have a hard time donating stuff, here is what worked for me:

For homeschool items, I had a " mostly free" garage sale. I had one bookshelf (five shelves) about 2/3 full of better or newer curriculum with prices. That was inside the garage. Then I had tables, boxes, and piles of free stuff. I advertised on my local list and via friends and my Facebook page. Almost everything was GONE! And I made a few dollars. Very easy since I didn't waste days pricing every little thing, justbe big ticket items. Also, DD had a lunch n lemonade stand... crockpot full of hot dogs, bags of buns, canned sodas and lemonades, bottled water, individual bags of chips, and cookies. She made a decent amount of money, and people were happy to pay about what they would at a drive through.

 

Also, for other things: does your town or major city have any places that give away furniture and household items to people in need? What about building material resale shops? My city has several, and even though I'm not making money on my donations, it's so much easier for me to let things go if I know they'll be given to people in need. We also have a creativnresue center which accepts arts and craft supply donations. They sell super cheap to teachers and the public, plus do free atprt classes in the city.

 

And hold on to your hats, ladies! This life-long pack rat and fabric hoarder gave a way TEN large laundry basket-sized boxes of fabric and notions to a Catholic school's costume department! And an extra sewing machine and serger! The lady in charge there took everything, I only kept one box of fabric. What she can't use for costumes she uses to make fleece blankets and other clothing for ministry groups.

 

It felt GOOD to get rid of so much. I have a long way to go, but I'll get There!

[2_girls_mommy]

I try to follow the Flylady blog. In the summers I do everything she has, every routine and daily mission, plus extras. So I guess I do more "summer cleaning" and decluttering than spring cleaning.  I did the get rid of 10 years of homeschooling stored used workbooks thing last year and whittled it down to the precious folders of awards and notebooks the kids had made, each having just a few saved things from each year. That was a big project.  But by following her blog and missions, I keep things somewhat more reasonable and declutter small amounts on a daily or at least weekly basis with bigger jobs in the summer.

 

So today what I have been doing (using Flylady lingo:) 

 

morning routine done daily: make beds, clean bathroom, clean hotspots- my dresser, the top of the piano, and the kitchen table throughout the day, switch laundry and fold and put away immediately. Get showered and fully dressed. 

 

15 min. zone mission:  This week's zone is the kitchen. But I didn't do my kitchen mission. Instead I decluttered two of my dresser drawers. Our church is having a clothing drive, so this is a good time to work on it instead of kitchen. And I do a consignment sale twice a year, so I pulled out boxes of stuff I have been sorting and storing for it for the last 6 months since the last one. In doing so, I pull things that aren't good enough for the sale and put in the goodwill bags, getting rid of some more stuff from the house. The consignment sale will be most of my decluttering over the next two weeks. I pulled outgrown cloth diapers in good shape, baby carrier, toys I set aside, schoolbooks, etc. It takes a while to iron, type up labels, print and pin to the items, but it gives me money each season to restock on the next size up or new books and such. I have been doing this for 10 years, so I have a system. 

 

Zone mission tomorrow: I will give the kitchen a good bleach mopping at some point in the day. 

 

Homeschool mission: Today I printed out all of my dd12's history lessons for next year and put in a notebook. I am getting ready for convention in a few weeks, assessing what I have, planning, and seeing what I need to purchase while there. 

 

Homeschool mission #2: get a study plan ready for co-op latin study class tomorrow. 

 

Weekly home blessing steps: Flylady has a list of 7. You can do them all at once, spending 10 minutes on each, or do one or more a day, spreading them throughout the week. During the schoolyear I spread them out doing one or two a day. Today I emptied all trash cans, relined them, and did a quick sweep of all main living areas for two of the steps. 

 

Daily focus: Wednesday is antiprocrastination day, a day to do things that have been put off. My two were to register for the baby sale and commit to a day to work there and to update my April calendar, getting all dates on it. I also needed to look at my checkbook and write a couple of bills. Didn't get that done- will do tomorrow. 

 

Yesterday's daily focus: Tuesday is planning day. I made a menu for the next week and a half and wrote the grocery list. I didn't get to that yesterday. So I did it today and did the shopping after I made it. 

 

Before Bed Routine: lay out tomorrow's clothes for everyone. Check the calendar to make sure I know exactly what is going on. Make sure keys are in the right place. Lay out everything by the door for wherever we are going, and pack backpacks, snacks, and diaper bags.  Dishes completely done. I will admit I have a couple of pots in the sink. Long day. I will have to do them with my morning routine tomorrow. 

 

 

[IfIOnly]

I'm doing the same as elroisees and preparing for a move to Europe. We don't know if our new home will be a 1000 sq ft city apartment or a 2000 sq foot country house. I'm kind of hoping for an apartment (or row house) because I do not want yard work sucking up our weekends.

 

Ideally, I would just pull out everything I don't want to move or store, and stick that in the garage. However, that still means I need to sort through every single item and make a decision. I ended up starting to box up things to move and things to store, but those boxes have nowhere to go, so this house is in chaos. And our garage flooded, so we spent a ton of time working on that. It is dry now, and I have been sorting the garage sale stuff on shelves in there. We will have a sale soon, and then the garage will be our staging area for things we are storing. 

 

So far I have cleaned out part of the master bathroom (got rid of misc. beauty items and cosmetics). I have also sorted through the board games and science kits. School books have been mostly sorted but there is so much random office supply stuff everywhere. And I haven't touched the craft stuff. Maybe I will just pull that bin out and try to sell it for $5 at the sale.

 

I have been ripping apart workbooks and scanning them, so that I don't have to move them around. That takes up a ton of time, but the end is in sight. I'm also backing up all my digital files on an external hard drive.

 

I've started to purge some kitchen stuff, like gadgets we never use. The appliances I will probably save, because I don't know how big my future kitchen will be. We will buy an Instant Pot from the French Amazon, and I plan to just bring minimal kitchen gear. Belgian kitchens are pretty small.

 

I have so much work to do, and 6-8 weeks to do it. Plus dh has a ton of projects - he will probably hire a handyman to help get all the little things done. We have to get the house ready to rent out.

 

:grouphug:  When we get to our move out date, we just start throwing things in trash bags and boxes and just go through them when we get to our new place. That doesn't work when leaving the country. Going to Europe is way more exciting than moving across town though!

[IfIOnly]

I'm ignoring all of the stuff inhavto declutter, clean, and organize.

 

For those of you who have a hard time donating stuff, here is what worked for me:

For homeschool items, I had a " mostly free" garage sale. I had one bookshelf (five shelves) about 2/3 full of better or newer curriculum with prices. That was inside the garage. Then I had tables, boxes, and piles of free stuff. I advertised on my local list and via friends and my Facebook page. Almost everything was GONE! And I made a few dollars. Very easy since I didn't waste days pricing every little thing, justbe big ticket items. Also, DD had a lunch n lemonade stand... crockpot full of hot dogs, bags of buns, canned sodas and lemonades, bottled water, individual bags of chips, and cookies. She made a decent amount of money, and people were happy to pay about what they would at a drive through.

 

Also, for other things: does your town or major city have any places that give away furniture and household items to people in need? What about building material resale shops? My city has several, and even though I'm not making money on my donations, it's so much easier for me to let things go if I know they'll be given to people in need. We also have a creativnresue center which accepts arts and craft supply donations. They sell super cheap to teachers and the public, plus do free atprt classes in the city.

 

And hold on to your hats, ladies! This life-long pack rat and fabric hoarder gave a way TEN large laundry basket-sized boxes of fabric and notions to a Catholic school's costume department! And an extra sewing machine and serger! The lady in charge there took everything, I only kept one box of fabric. What she can't use for costumes she uses to make fleece blankets and other clothing for ministry groups.

 

It felt GOOD to get rid of so much. I have a long way to go, but I'll get There!

 

Wow, that's a lot of fabric, and what a blessing to the school!  I love your DD's food stand. So cute and smart. 

[SparklyUnicorn]

You inspired me.  Past three days I've been doing some major massive deep cleaning everywhere in the house.  Making good progress!

 

Bought new curtains for downstairs too.

 

I did go and buy several tubs of the Chlorox wipes.  LOL (not 50 though)

 

So far I am happy to report I've only filled up one small garbage bag with stuff to get rid of. 

 

 

[Soror]

Got some work done yesterday, rearranged books. Rearranged stuff in the basement. There is currently a thick layer of dust over the basement and a thin layer upstairs as dh prepares the stairs for hardwood (which is supposed to be laid next week) so no cleaning until then, maybe we'll do some outside work while we wait on that. I want to wash the windows and siding and we need to weed the flower beds. Once the construction is done then it is cleaning all the mess and rearranging the bedrooms.  I'll be clearing out some from dd2's room, she is a clutterbug, she has a horrid time keeping her stuff put up, she needs less stuff, it will help when dd3 moves to her own room but it won't totally fix it. We'll go through clothes then and switch them out for the spring/summer. Otherwise I need to do a deepclean of my kitchen, paint trim/doors upstairs, touch up dd2's walls and thin out my clothes.

[SparklyUnicorn]

What I find odd is that for some reason cleaning books and book shelves is so darn tiring!  It doesn't seem like much work, but man that always knocks me on my arse.  Maybe it's the bending and lifting and awkward positions.  I don't know!

 

 

[IfIOnly]

What I find odd is that for some reason cleaning books and book shelves is so darn tiring! It doesn't seem like much work, but man that always knocks me on my arse. Maybe it's the bending and lifting and awkward positions. I don't know!

Dealing with dust wipes me out too, and my bookshelves are usually dusty!

[IfIOnly]

You inspired me. Past three days I've been doing some major massive deep cleaning everywhere in the house. Making good progress!

 

Bought new curtains for downstairs too.

 

I did go and buy several tubs of the Chlorox wipes. LOL (not 50 though)

 

So far I am happy to report I've only filled up one small garbage bag with stuff to get rid of.

Well, you've inspired me now. Been dragging my feet on starting in on cleaning the house! Still working on other stuff though here and there. I was hoping we could get a good clean in this weekend but forgot about a wedding to go to. I think I'll set a goal to have the cleaning and everything but the grass done by the end next weekend.