Any decluttering happening out there?

[unsinkable]

In regard to my basement:

 

I had a strong external motivation to completely empty 40% of it, plus a deadline. That kept me going. And I did it. I was looking recently at the pictures of the empty portion (which has been repurposed and is no longer empty) and I am amazed I was able to do it!

 

The difficult part was to keep going (with the other 60%), but with the external motivation gone, my progress really slowed.

 

I wish I could make the progress I did make when I don't have an external motivation.

 

Another stumbling block I have is that once I start decluttering, I start to see clutter everywhere in my house.

 

No one room is as bad as the basement,but there are areas/litt!e corners that can be decluttered but I'm so used to seeing it that it doesn't always register as clutter.

 

That is so discouraging.

Edited October 3, 2017 by unsinkable

[prairiewindmomma]

About $600 in change.  As part of my loved one's dementia, he began collecting every quarter that had a state print on it, thinking they'd be very valuable in the future. He had boxes and boxes and boxes of quarters to sort through that were mingled in with his other, more valuable coin collection. I had to sort it all by hand, according to the surviving spouse.  It took weeks. It was an act of love for both of them but I came home and cried at night because I hated the task so much.

 

 

[MotherGoose]

I convinced my mom, after years and years of effort, to consign some dishes and other things. The dishes she hasn't used since about 1985ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ and they aren't family heirlooms or valuable China, but I do see them for sale at consignment stores. Plus I got rid of a bunch of random garden pots.

[2_girls_mommy]

I spend my summers decluttering and deep cleaning in small doses via The Flylady. During the schoolyear, I don't take on any big decluttering projects, or even really any small drawers at all. I try to maintain during the year what I accomplished over summer break. 

 

I will however start her holiday missions soon to get ready for the holidays. If I follow it, even just a few days a week instead of every day, I will be so much better prepared and less stressed. 

 

I do try to do some small decluttering in areas that have already been decluttered. She is fond of having small daily assignments like throw out 2 pairs of shoes or clean out your silverware drawer. Those are areas I deep clean during the summer following her plan, but during the year, if it is master bedroom week, I will spend a minute looking at my closet and making sure the shoes are picked up and thinking about if there is another pair I can now part with that maybe I wasn't ready to the last time I cleaned it out.  Also I am better about throwing out the baby's artwork and "school" papers than I was with the big girls after having spent summers decluttering!

 

I am off now to start the weekly home blessing steps  

[2_girls_mommy]

In regard to my basement:

 

I had a strong external motivation to completely empty 40% of it, plus a deadline. That kept me going. And I did it. I was looking recently at the pictures of the empty portion (which has been repurposed and is no longer empty) and I am amazed I was able to do it!

 

The difficult part was to keep going (with the other 60%), but with the external motivation gone, my progress really slowed.

 

I wish I could make the progress I did make when I don't have an external motivation.

 

Another stumbling block I have is that once I start decluttering, I start to see clutter everywhere in my house.

 

No one room is as bad as the basement,but there are areas/litt!e corners that can be decluttered but I'm so used to seeing it that it doesn't always register as clutter.

 

That is so discouraging.

Don't be discouraged! Spend literally like two minutes a day decluttering those tiny areas. It really will make a difference. Just say it is morning. I am going to start the coffee, the laundry, make the bed, and clean that shelf before I get in the shower. That is just about 15-20 min to start your day off fantastically. 

[alisoncooks]

This thread inspired me to start a (small) decluttering project after school was finished. Today, one junk drawer was cleaned out and streamlined (purpose-wise). I feel pretty good about it. :D

 

(And I made the girls clean their rooms while I worked.) 😈

[Spryte]

Oh dear. I have just returned from the basement. I thought it would be easier to unpack book boxes than sort homeschool stuff. :(

 

What was I thinking?!

 

I have many (not most, but all the ones I wanted) of my best friend/mentor's books. From her dissertation and her teaching years. I have doubles of the books she taught me. I have her dissertation and notes. And her published works. And so I bawled my way through loading the bookshelves. Happy tears, mostly, but oh my, I miss her. I'm going to have to send her son some of these...

[HS Mom in NC]

Rabbit Trail:

Could you please link to an example of these ornaments?  This sounds like a wonderful, meaningful gift! 

 

 

Traditional Swedish woven stars:

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/8c/2e/fb/8c2efb5224d5cc2f4311618976ecbb94--paper-ornaments-christmas-ornaments.jpg

 

I’m planning on painting these a dark brown:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MA5I61V/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I29GMGFF5UW8ZD&colid=1X9F7T994JEE9

Then cutting out major plot points of the nativity story slightly smaller and gluing them on.  Then I’ll age the outer parts of the paper with text  with some brown and put on some sort of sealant.  Maybe a sprig of red berries and greens at the top of the ornament or some other little embellishment.  I’ll hang them with a red silk ribbon.

 

I may do some Polish Stars too.  My youngest and I already made a set in red and another in white with silver dots a few years ago:

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ea/1b/d1/ea1bd1c9b1a46d6779f172e854b5b930.jpg

 

 

Here are hundreds of ideas for making Christmas decorations and ornaments with recycled book pages:

https://www.google.com/search?q=christmas+ornaments+recycled+book+pages&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiin8fBuNXWAhVhr1QKHZPCAF0QsAQIKg&biw=1536&bih=756&dpr=1.25

[StephanieZ]

I decided to make chocolate pudding. 

 

On the shelf of pudding and jello boxes, I found 3 boxes of chocolate pudding mix. I also found about 10 boxes of long-expired jello and one box of no-cook pudding (gross, must have been bought in error). 

 

Cooked one box of jello. Discarded 10 (or so) boxes of expired stuff and the gross no-cook pudding mix. 

 

One for the win. 

 

Baby steps!

 

Keeping my eyes open for clutter is helpful. 

[StephanieZ]

Random tip . . . when we were really broke about a decade ago, I made a project of collecting the 37,000 travel size/hotel freebies/etc of all sorts of toiletries and using them up. I think we probably used them up in a few months, so that would have been $20-40 worth of toiletries we didn't buy. I need to do it again. Travel sizes have been accumulating. Another way to use them up is to take piles to VRBO vacations (what I used to save them for, as we used to go for a month to a VRBO each fall before the kids went to college and messed up my long fall vacation habit). I'm thinking taking piles to college dorms might be helpful, too. I've also heard that donating them to shelters, in particular domestic abuse shelters, is very welcome. I think I might get a big bag and collect them all (sparing a couple of each major item for guest bathrooms) and take it all to the homeless shelter -- that'd be easier than anything and a quick way to unload them w/o the guilt wasting them. 

 

Should we see who can come up with the most trial/travel size toiletries and a good use for them? I've got to take my kid to fiddle lessons and jam . . . but next up is toiletry collection. Maybe tomorrow. 

[historically accurate]

Random tip . . . when we were really broke about a decade ago, I made a project of collecting the 37,000 travel size/hotel freebies/etc of all sorts of toiletries and using them up. I think we probably used them up in a few months, so that would have been $20-40 worth of toiletries we didn't buy. I need to do it again. Travel sizes have been accumulating. Another way to use them up is to take piles to VRBO vacations (what I used to save them for, as we used to go for a month to a VRBO each fall before the kids went to college and messed up my long fall vacation habit). I'm thinking taking piles to college dorms might be helpful, too. I've also heard that donating them to shelters, in particular domestic abuse shelters, is very welcome. I think I might get a big bag and collect them all (sparing a couple of each major item for guest bathrooms) and take it all to the homeless shelter -- that'd be easier than anything and a quick way to unload them w/o the guilt wasting them. 

 

Should we see who can come up with the most trial/travel size toiletries and a good use for them? I've got to take my kid to fiddle lessons and jam . . . but next up is toiletry collection. Maybe tomorrow. 

 

We just used up all the travel sizes this summer. I didn't have to buy shampoo or conditioner all season. In fact, I think there are still 2 bottles in the shower. 

 

I need to go through the nail polish drawer. The kids just chuck them in there, and I very rarely use nail polish so I hardly ever look in there. Some are probably years old and dried out.

[Ali in OR]

When I did our bathroom drawers this weekend, we had 3 trial sizes of soap which I saved for camping. There were maybe 5 bottles of lotion and I threw out most of them because they looked weird--kind of separating. I think I kept one that looked newer. There were no shampoo or conditioner--we tend to use them up on our travels, or I may have donated some to our church which then donated them to a homeless shelter. I threw out maybe 5 old nail polish bottles that were probably 15 years old. I'm still using one that is 10 years old--do they ever get fully used up?

[hjffkj]

Today I filled two large storage bins with boardgames we don't play regularly but still love. They will be in the bins until after we move. I filled another bin with games to go to Goodwill. I also packed 2 boxes of books. Decluttering is tiring but worth it.

[Beth S]

Traditional Swedish woven stars:

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/8c/2e/fb/8c2efb5224d5cc2f4311618976ecbb94--paper-ornaments-christmas-ornaments.jpg

 

I’m planning on painting these a dark brown:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MA5I61V/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I29GMGFF5UW8ZD&colid=1X9F7T994JEE9

Then cutting out major plot points of the nativity story slightly smaller and gluing them on.  Then I’ll age the outer parts of the paper with text  with some brown and put on some sort of sealant.  Maybe a sprig of red berries and greens at the top of the ornament or some other little embellishment.  I’ll hang them with a red silk ribbon.

 

I may do some Polish Stars too.  My youngest and I already made a set in red and another in white with silver dots a few years ago:

https://i.pinimg.com/736x/ea/1b/d1/ea1bd1c9b1a46d6779f172e854b5b930.jpg

 

 

Here are hundreds of ideas for making Christmas decorations and ornaments with recycled book pages:

https://www.google.com/search?q=christmas+ornaments+recycled+book+pages&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiin8fBuNXWAhVhr1QKHZPCAF0QsAQIKg&biw=1536&bih=756&dpr=1.25

 

Thank you for answering my Rabbit Trail Question.

It seems people make handmade Christmas Cards from book pages.

And use sheet music (of Christmas Carols) instead of book pages..

What a creative craft.

 

And I'm still getting lots of motivation from this thread!  Thank you!!

:lurk5:

 

 

Edited October 3, 2017 by Beth S

[klmama]

I've been decluttering the bathroom closet, helping one of the dc with a bedroom closet, and occasionally attacking a drawer.  What I really need to do is declutter all of the school books and papers.  I know it's highly unlikely my dc will ever need to prove they took a course in high school, but then I remember that someone's dc (FaithManor's?) had to prove having taken high school biology after completing college, and I hesitate to get rid of anything.    

[StephanieZ]

About $600 in change.  As part of my loved one's dementia, he began collecting every quarter that had a state print on it, thinking they'd be very valuable in the future. He had boxes and boxes and boxes of quarters to sort through that were mingled in with his other, more valuable coin collection. I had to sort it all by hand, according to the surviving spouse.  It took weeks. It was an act of love for both of them but I came home and cried at night because I hated the task so much.

 

Man alive, that's a lot of change. I'm so sorry. It really is *so* heart breaking to face these things. :( 

 

My mom stashed tissues everywhere. In. Every. Pocket. I can't tell you the thousands of tissues I've pulled out of pockets. Each one made me so sad. Since she was living with us, I was keeping her supplied with tissues, and I'd taken to buying 12-20 boxes at a time, as she went through a couple boxes a week. When she passed away, it took us about 2 years to go through the dozen or so boxes that we left. I finally bought more tissues last month, the first time . . . that was hard. 

 

A woman I knew on the internet who had cared for her mom through dementia and then cleaned up her things when she passed away . . . Found an entire large suitcase, entirely full of tissues. Not used, of course, but just folded and crumpled and completely filling the suitcase. Dementia does some really strange things. It seems funny unless it is your loved one . . . I could laugh about it some when Mom was alive, but once she was gone, it's never funny, just sad. 

 

:( (((hugs)))

[StephanieZ]

I'm back at it this week! How about you??

 

Yesterday, with a little help from dh, I tackled some shelving in the garage . . . Turned two completely chaotic sets of gorilla racks with a huge mound of bins/boxes/junk along side it .  . . to three sets of gorilla racks . . . nicely organized with all paints and stains and their related tools binned/sorted. I've got about 20 cans of old/won't be used paints and stains set aside for hazardous waste collection day, and about 6 large black garbage bags ready for trash pick up. It was pretty amazing, actually. Plus, I have the equivalent of an entire set of gorilla rack shelving still "empty" waiting for me to go back in today and attack the other sets of shelving in there . . . which means I've got enough room for the stuff I need to keep . . . making it a lot easier to sort through the stuff and get rid of more! I have WAY more clear space on the floor in the garage now, and it just looks so much better when you walk through. 

 

Over the weekend, I also went through several more boxes/bins worth of stuff from my mom. These were big bins full of desk-paper type of stuff. I got rid of several boxes/bags of garbage and now have lots more empty bins to use for my garage sorting/organizing.

 

DH also emptied out a half-rack of gorilla shelving in the basement storage area, reorganizing and trashing some stuff, but mostly just consolidating things. Looks way better and more floor space, and that half rack (plus the other half rack that was already broken down and in storage) got repurposed to the garage project. 

 

Shelving is my friend, and we have TONS of it, but I have *so much* storage space that it had bred chaos, as you can always just "stick it in the basement"  . . . and then . . . it multiplies. Somehow. And you never know what is where. We're doing much better. 

 

Next up today, I'm going back into the garage with a sharpie and tape to label the multitudes of bins and tool boxes that are in various locals. And maybe attack those other two sets of gorilla racks. (Dh and I got maybe 10-20% of those "other two" sets decluttered yesterday -- the low hanging fruit . . . but there's much more to do . . .) 

 

What're you attacking this week?

[desertstrawberry5]

I'm almost done. I dropped off 6 large bags of clothes and books at Goodwill last week, and I have 2 more in my car for a friend along with a couple of small appliances.

I might regret getting rid of so many boy pants. I let the older boys sort their own and I didn't check before donating. I may be rebuying pants this winter. 

The last thing I need to go through is toys. Ugh I've done less than half. We don't have tons, but what we do have doesn't see a lot of use. Luna has outgrown most of her baby toys. It will be good for her to have more suitable playthings. 

[Spryte]

I'm getting ready to dive back in. I took a few days off while we moved the elderly in laws into assisted living. We still have a lot to do for them, to get them settled but I need a break after three days of solid moving and work with them. So today as soon as school is done, it's back to the basement.

 

I'm still tackling books. I did about 20 boxes last week, more to go.

[prairiewindmomma]

I'm working through my desk right now.  I cleaned out a bathroom cabinet this morning. I have had an incredibly busy summer and fall, and a number of things were "left for later".  Well, now is later. I'm dealing with it now.

[StephanieZ]

I'm working through my desk right now.  I cleaned out a bathroom cabinet this morning. I have had an incredibly busy summer and fall, and a number of things were "left for later".  Well, now is later. I'm dealing with it now.

 

LOL, I feel like I'm finally digging into the stuff that got left for later . . . not from just over a few months, though, but from the past 6 years! My mom got sick in 2011-12, and everything sorta' went crazy from then until very recently. I've got oh-so-many things to sort through and get rid of . . .

[StephanieZ]

Nifty tip: In my googling for local hazardous waste collection opportunities . . . I found that I can discard (safely) old paints (even oil based) if I fill it up with cat litter. They can't take liquids . . . but soak it up in cat litter, and we're good to go. So, I've got dh bringing home a big bag of the cheap clay cat litter (not going to waste the fancy clumping stuff on this!) and hopefully will be able to get rid of the 20 or so cans of paint I've got to discard . . . (Since our annual hazardous waste collection day is in the summer, and we were out of town this year, and I don't want to wait until Summer 2018!)

[Carol in Cal.]

Well, mine is *nothing* compared with yall's, but I finally found a place to donate a couple of complicated rental costumes that I had.  One was a 4 piece Christmas caroling outfit, a la London in the Dickens era, and the other was a 6 piece Renaissance Faire peasant woman costume.  I didn't want to donate these to a thrift store because the pieces would inevitably get separated, but a local theater group was thrilled to get them.  I hate to admit it but they have been hanging in a back doorway in my house for literally several years because I didn't know what to do with them but I knew I didn't want to put them back in my closet and forget about placing them.

 

I had the weirdest conversation on Sunday.  I talked with someone I know slightly at church who has young children.  I asked if they homeschool or know anyone who does--that I am looking to give away a bunch of homeschooling curricula and craft stuff to someone who would use it.  The wife took offense to this, and I felt really bad.  I am not sure what is up with that.  I am having hard time placing homeschooling stuff, so slowly but surely I've been bleeding some of it, especially reference and high school materials, into the local Little Free Library.

 

A local church is sponsoring a clothing drive for a human care nonprofit in a couple of weeks so that's giving me an excuse to dig up some more clothes to give away.  I am going to let go of all my heels, I think.  Sometime in the last 5 years it suddenly started to hurt my knees to wear heels, and so they have fallen into disuse.  Time to bless someone else with them!

 

 

[prairiewindmomma]

My desk is awash with post-it note reminders. Ugh. I'm transferring stuff into my planner and I'm wheeling my shredder over to sit by my side as I zip through these.

 

Next, I have a 3' high stack of papers to shred or file.

[Ali in OR]

My goal for this week was modest--to clean out under the sink cabinets in the master bath and the kitchen. But I keep picking up sub jobs so I haven't had time yet, and soccer will probably eat up the weekend.

 

The homeschool books are harder. I should go to the used bookstore downtown and see what they'll buy (or trade for store credit), but I'm having trouble mentally taking that step. They won't give much for them and I'm afraid they'll reject most outright. And selling on Amazon isn't worth it--they would take most of the money for what I would want to charge. So they sit in their boxes three...

[unsinkable]

Don't be discouraged! Spend literally like two minutes a day decluttering those tiny areas. It really will make a difference. Just say it is morning. I am going to start the coffee, the laundry, make the bed, and clean that shelf before I get in the shower. That is just about 15-20 min to start your day off fantastically.

Thank you! I'm sorry I didn't reply...I didn't notice your response until now.

 

I try to get into a "quick, little jobs" mindset but it is a struggle against my basic personality...I like wide swaths of time to get decluttering stuff done. But I do sometimes push myself out of my comfort zone.

[Carol in Cal.]

One thing that has been immensely helpful to me about decluttering is the Flylady injunction to pull out and sort only what you can do in a set amount of time, like 15 minutes or half an hour.  That way I actually do start, because it's less overwhelming.

[Ravin]

I tossed one bag of garbage from under the stairs, and some stuff was shifted to the craft room. It's not all done, but the side you can see as you walk by is (the other side is behind the lower half of the stairs between them and the wall, and the couch is in the way of the side view). I also cleaned up after the party and the newly empty space left room to put away the red wagon and the folding table and 2 new chairs I'd bought with the occasion as an excuse.

[Lecka]

This weekend I helped my daughter with some of her shelves and got about 3/4 of a kitchen trash bag for give-away, plus some trash.

 

It didn't seem like much -- but I just walked by her room and it looks really nice, she has done a little more herself.

 

It is a good Flylady reminder not to do too much; we didn't get to the last two shelves because she was tired by then! But it is still much better, and she had room to move other things onto her shelves.

Edited October 10, 2017 by Lecka

[Guest]

I have also started to use the flylady system, but only as Diane in Denmark on youtube does it. So, each time I'm in a zone, I try to do at least 15 min. of decluttering. It helps me to not feel overwhelmed. I figure that that we'll be cycling through the zones once a month for 12 months, so those 15 min. sessions will definately add up.

 

I also use a bit of the Kon Mari method: gathering together every item in a category, and then only keeping what sparks joy. I'd add in what is used regularly, too.

[StephanieZ]

OMG, I went back into the garage. My back hurts. My feet hurt. I'm exhausted!

 

I conquered *all* the sets of gorilla racks in there! (6 full height sets total -- I did most of 3 of them yesterday -- plus a short set) It's all sorted and organized and bins are labeled. There's three big shelves open for my 14 year old to store her regularly-used wilderness gear (she does an activity weekly and hauls a big backpack, plus camping/backpacking gear a couple times a month or so . . .), so, any hour now, she can get that stuff out of her room . . . any hour now!

 

I filled another 5 or 6 black trash bags! I think there's about 10 of them sitting next to our big trash can, waiting for trash day Friday. Got rid of lots of "just in case" stuff like the 20 year old booster seat (Really? When I have grand babies, I'll buy a new one!), gazillions of random tool like items that have no known use. A couple years ago, some of our best friends moved from their huge house to a smaller rental for 2-3 years, and they decluttered in a big way . . . They gave us big boxes of misc tool-like items, and they've mostly sat in several boxes and bins stacked in the middle of the floor of the garage since then. I got through *all of it* and sorted their nails in with our nails, their screws in with our screws, etc. I was able to throw away some of it, but mostly it just got put away properly and much more efficiently. And it's OFF THE FLOOR! Tomorrow, I do want to pull out the leaf blower and blow all the leaves/dirt/dust out of the garage . . . But, not today. I'm too pooped, and there's a big stack of lime (for the yard) in the middle annoying me, but dh has the spreader ready to go, and I'll try to get him to spread it this week, so that'll be super incredible. Our garage is looking SO much better. 

 

I'm wiped out, and I just washed off all the grime and dust and blech. I even had to neti pot my sinuses to get out all the dirt. (Gross!)

 

So that's all I'll do decluttering or serious cleaning for today -- I'm done! Tomorrow, I've got a cleaner helper coming for 5 hours, and so tomorrow will mostly be team-deep-cleaning some of the more neglected corners of the house and general cleaning, so probably not too much decluttering progress, but with the big progress I've been making, cleaning will be easier for sure. 

 

It feels so good to be making serious headway on all these long-neglected projects. Our lives were super crazy from Jan, 2014 through a week ago . . . and we had huge house remodeling 2014-2015 that created even more chaos . . . and I'm just *now* getting to actually thoroughly clean up the house and yard, bit by bit. We've been putting out fires for nearly 4 years, and now we're finally getting around to the more normal housekeeping projects that before 2014, we were always pretty good about keeping on top of. Maybe part of the reason we got to be such a mess (besides just having an overly large house with overly much storage space that makes it too easy to hoard junk "just in case" and for "the college kids when they get their first place") is that we haven't moved houses in 10 years, and we probably will stay in this house for many more years . . . Before we moved to this house, we always moved about every 3-4 years, so we'd have those chances to deep clean and declutter every time we moved. 

[Guest]

StephanieZ you've got your hands full. I've lost my mom, too, so I totally understand the sorrow.

[historically accurate]

I have been listing 1 item a day on ebay. Just mailed out 2 items. Have 2 currently with bids, so they'll go when the auction closes.  

 

The kids and I went through the bookcase and took 10 books to the Little Free Library by the elementary school. 

 

Took a garbage bag full of stuff to Salvation Army. Another bag to the consignment shop. 

 

Threw out used up cosmetics and nail polish and somewhat organized that drawer. 

 

Just keep swimming.

[Seasider]

Two rooms left to go through ruthlessly, but I haven't had the energy to tackle them in weeks.

 

I can hear them laughing at me.

[cjzimmer1]

Last week while canning, I cleaned out all the cupboards in the kitchen. Actually pulled everything out, and really thought about where it was used and then rehomed it in that area.  After that I went through all the pantry goods.  Ended up putting all my small appliances on one of the lazy susans and combined with putting most of baking items in stackable tupperware, it created so much extra space in my kitchen even though I really didn't get rid of that many things.  I just have my pots and pans cupboard that needs to be washed out and I'll have finished the kitchen.

 

This week is more about rearranging than decluttering.  I assembled the new dresser for my daughter and we've moved all her belonging into it.  Her old dresser is moving to the downstairs bedroom but the room down there isn't ready for it to be moved into place. I've got the downstairs storage room turning into bedroom almost emptied (we'll finish that after the 4 year old goes to bed tonight and isn't under foot).  Then I need wash the carpet.  After that, it's bring the bunkbed from upstairs down and move in the dresser and then move the bunk bed that is downstairs back upstairs.  I know it doesn't make much sense to swap bunkbeds from upstairs to downstairs but the one currently not in use will work much better for the 4 year old upstairs than the 19 year old who is moving downstairs.  Then it will be moving the rest of the 19 year old's stuff downstairs and moving the 4 year old's stuff from the girls' room into the vacated space of the 19 year old.  I am hoping to be able to purge a bunch of stuff aa the 19 year old goes through his stuff to move but will have to wait and see if he's cooperative on the matter.

 

Hoping to finish all that by the end of the weekend.  Next project after that is the storage room/canned food storage room.  One shelf had particle boards shelves and we had a massive overflow from a plugged drain upstairs.  The shelves are no longer strong enough to support all my jars of canned goods so I have to take it down and put up the one with metal shelves that I have waiting downstairs.  And in the process I will declutter that room.

 

That will actually complete my first pass of everything in the house.  I will need to take a second pass and trim things more but all in all things are SOOOO much better than when I started this 2-3 years ago.

[BarbecueMom]

Nifty tip: In my googling for local hazardous waste collection opportunities . . . I found that I can discard (safely) old paints (even oil based) if I fill it up with cat litter. They can't take liquids . . . but soak it up in cat litter, and we're good to go. So, I've got dh bringing home a big bag of the cheap clay cat litter (not going to waste the fancy clumping stuff on this!) and hopefully will be able to get rid of the 20 or so cans of paint I've got to discard . . . (Since our annual hazardous waste collection day is in the summer, and we were out of town this year, and I don't want to wait until Summer 2018!)

Ratio of litter to paint matters. Don't dump several cans in a large bucket (*cough*DH*cough*), add not enough cat litter (*cough*DH*cough*), and expect the thing to actually solidify any time soon. *cough*DH*cough*. Sorry, dusty in here...

 

There's still a 5 gallon bucket of bluish gray litter goop in my garage with a PVC "stirring stick" half -stuck in it.

[HS Mom in NC]

Last week while canning, I cleaned out all the cupboards in the kitchen. Actually pulled everything out, and really thought about where it was used and then rehomed it in that area.  After that I went through all the pantry goods.  Ended up putting all my small appliances on one of the lazy susans and combined with putting most of baking items in stackable tupperware, it created so much extra space in my kitchen even though I really didn't get rid of that many things.  I just have my pots and pans cupboard that needs to be washed out and I'll have finished the kitchen.

 

My baking and dried goods are in stackable Tupperware containers and neatly labeled too.  Oh how that makes things more organized and maximizes my space in the pantry! I cook from scratch often so I have 4 flours, 3 sugars, 4 lentils, 4 beans, 3 grains (barely, farrow, quinoa) and half a dozen different rices that I regularly use. 

 

I have decided to add an instapot to my life and I may get rid of my crockpot-I'll have to think about it for a while.

 

Piano and telescope are now on Craig's List.

 

I'm tackling the garage this weekend.

[Stacia]

StephanieZ you've got your hands full. I've lost my mom, too, so I totally understand the sorrow.

 

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

 

[StephanieZ]

StephanieZ you've got your hands full. I've lost my mom, too, so I totally understand the sorrow.

 

(((hugs))) It's rough going, isn't it? I'm so sorry for your loss. 

 

I was turning 30 when my dad passed away. I remember crying to my mom (they were long divorced but very amicable) that, "I'm not ready for this!" She told me, "You're never ready." She was right. I wasn't any more ready at 44 to lose Mom than I had been at 30 to lose Dad.

 

Losing a parent is just a hard, hard thing. Being part of the natural order of life doesn't make it any less painful. 

[StephanieZ]

Ratio of litter to paint matters. Don't dump several cans in a large bucket (*cough*DH*cough*), add not enough cat litter (*cough*DH*cough*), and expect the thing to actually solidify any time soon. *cough*DH*cough*. Sorry, dusty in here...

 

There's still a 5 gallon bucket of bluish gray litter goop in my garage with a PVC "stirring stick" half -stuck in it.

 

Good point! :) 

 

We went through one bag of cat litter last night and got about 10 cans of varying sizes/fullnesses taken care of last night. Dh will bring home another bag tonight, and I'll get the last 10 or so (mostly smaller cans) done in time for Friday's trash day. It'll be great to see all those bags go away!

 

Dh sent an email to our trash service alerting them to our large quantity of excess garbage bags this week . . . I think the mountain of big black bags is around 18-20 as of today, lol (not to mention or normal rolling trash can that holds probably 5-8 bags worth. Good grief. 

 

Today, I just cleaned and scoured with my helper. It sure was easier dusting with fewer piles of stuff and less clutter . . . and easier doing the floors with the closet floors pretty much empty. It was a good day. Nice to get things shiny and pretty after dealing with just GROSS mess in the garage for the last couple days!

[Baseball mom]

Y'all are all doing great

 

I went thru a couple kitchen cabinets and got rid of a lot quiet a few glasses.

 

Slow go but I keep plugging away.

Edited October 11, 2017 by Baseball mom

[EMS83]

I've ordered three 6' tall shelves so I can make the school stuff and toys tidier.  Our current school shelf has already been cleared of non-books and the books on it reorganized and straightened, so now the books & magazines are one layer deep and all the spines face out.   :hurray:  :hurray:  :hurray:

 

The new shelves will house the displaced art and educational materials, and toys on shelves that are in the spot the new shelves will go, and the displaces shelves will go to our storage unit to help organize that jumbled mess.  Did that make any sense??

 

We're not likely to get rid of too much, but it will all look a lot neater, so I'll count that as decluttering.  :)

 

 

But I've got a crazy pile of randomness hanging out on 1/3 my kitchen table...    :leaving:

 

 

[Annie G]

We're decluttering in anticipation of putting the house on the market in a year. (It takes dh a long time to accept he doesn't need every little item he's ever collected)  We have finally worked through the books in the house and have donated two entire carloads of them, and boxed up a bunch. We have 7 bookcases we no longer need. Some were tall bookcases and some were short, but guys, dh got rid of some books. This is huge!  We still have 9 full bookcases, so we didn't get rid of nearly as many as I had hoped. But it's a start!

 

Next up: the room we use as a workshop. It has all our tools, paints, table saw, mitre saw, etc. After living here for 24 years, we have a LOT of stuff we no longer need. Now to convince dh that it's ok to get rid of stuff from that room.  How many caulk guns do we really need???? We have three. 

[StephanieZ]

I've ordered three 6' tall shelves so I can make the school stuff and toys tidier.  Our current school shelf has already been cleared of non-books and the books on it reorganized and straightened, so now the books & magazines are one layer deep and all the spines face out.   :hurray:  :hurray:  :hurray:

 

The new shelves will house the displaced art and educational materials, and toys on shelves that are in the spot the new shelves will go, and the displaces shelves will go to our storage unit to help organize that jumbled mess.  Did that make any sense??

 

We're not likely to get rid of too much, but it will all look a lot neater, so I'll count that as decluttering.  :)

 

 

But I've got a crazy pile of randomness hanging out on 1/3 my kitchen table...    :leaving:

 

I've often said that (more) bookshelves are the solution to most household problems. Congrats!!!

[fraidycat]

Not my stuff, but I’m helping my SIL clean out her basement this week. Lots of decluttering happening there.

[cuckoomamma]

I have a bunch of stuffed animals to donate. Where can I bring them?

[Ravin]

Inspiration:

 

https://www.treehugger.com/cleaning-organizing/swedish-death-cleaning-new-decluttering-trend.html

[StephanieZ]

Inspiration:

 

https://www.treehugger.com/cleaning-organizing/swedish-death-cleaning-new-decluttering-trend.html

I just read that on FaceBook yesterday! So awesome. 

 

Swedish Death Cleaning is just the most awesome phrase, too. 

[2ndGenHomeschooler]

I had planned to declutter my whole house over the summer. I got through exactly NONE of it. We've lived in this house for 10 years so a lot has changed since we've moved in. One more kid, homeschooling, tons of remodeling...Now we're back into school and all of our outside activities and all of my piano students have started back. I have no idea how I'm going to find time to deep clean and declutter but now it's looking like it's going to have to happen.

 

We found out yesterday that dear friends are downsizing and would like to offer their amazing house to us at a fairly significant discount. My DH practically grew up in this house and it has some features that would be ideal for our family. I will be sad to part with our little house that we've put so much time into (it was a total rehab when we bought it) but I also love their house. It's a weird emotional feeling.

 

We don't have details yet but it's like nearly a sure thing. We'll hopefully be meeting with them within the next week. That means I have to get our house ready to put on the market. As I look around at everything I just see piles of clutter and a desperate need for deep cleaning. It looked perfectly fine and livable 2 days ago. I need to figure out where to start. We've never sold a house before. Decluttering, deep cleaning, finishing remodeling projects, packing....What an overwhelming project!

[StephanieZ]

I had planned to declutter my whole house over the summer. I got through exactly NONE of it. We've lived in this house for 10 years so a lot has changed since we've moved in. One more kid, homeschooling, tons of remodeling...Now we're back into school and all of our outside activities and all of my piano students have started back. I have no idea how I'm going to find time to deep clean and declutter but now it's looking like it's going to have to happen.

 

We found out yesterday that dear friends are downsizing and would like to offer their amazing house to us at a fairly significant discount. My DH practically grew up in this house and it has some features that would be ideal for our family. I will be sad to part with our little house that we've put so much time into (it was a total rehab when we bought it) but I also love their house. It's a weird emotional feeling.

 

We don't have details yet but it's like nearly a sure thing. We'll hopefully be meeting with them within the next week. That means I have to get our house ready to put on the market. As I look around at everything I just see piles of clutter and a desperate need for deep cleaning. It looked perfectly fine and livable 2 days ago. I need to figure out where to start. We've never sold a house before. Decluttering, deep cleaning, finishing remodeling projects, packing....What an overwhelming project!

 

You can do it!! It'll be easier with such a great motivation!!! Hang in there!