What did you declutter today? Part II

[disneysteve]

Steve
I think I figgured out why you fill your recycle bin EVERY week & I do not:
3 person household-I am a 1 person household
teenager in household -none here
teenager has friends-none here (soda cans/bottles, cardboard from pizza, milk/juice cartons...)
newspapers/magazines/catalogs received- you ?/?/?, me 1/2/0

That is partly true. However, I also bring home recyclables from my office where they don't recycle. Every week, I usually bring home a carton filled with paper, soda cans and water bottles. I also bring home the shredded paper from our shredder and lots of empty boxes.

At home, 90% of the recycling is probably junk mail. I get a ton of medical junk mail - journals, job offers from recruiters, ads for medical conferences, etc. We get one Sunday paper. We get very few catalogs because we virtually never shop from any of those companies so we aren't on those mailing lists. We do receive a few magazines - Time, Money, Kiplinger's, O, National Geo for Kids.

[graceful]

Most of my decluttering has been of the paper kind. We just have sooooo much of it! Home and work. Had a LOT of mail this week because of the long weekend. Been trying to keep on top of it and trashing or trying to file immediately or taking care of immediately instead of adding to my To-Do pile.

Yesterday, I went through all my purses and took everything out and discarded most of the stuff inside. They were full of mostly old receipts. I tend to use one purse for months at a time but I do switch them around. Did find something I was missing and looking for in one of the pockets of a purse that I hadn't used in about 6 months!

[graceful]

I've been doing a lot of e-mail de-cluttering too - between home and office.

[marvholly]

Steve
My office did recycle so the only thing I would bring home was paper printed on a single side so I could print coupons on the blank side.

As I was planning on loading (6 trips to do it) my car w/the men’s clothing to take to the resale shops (55 pieces and more to go) on Wed it started to POUR. That killed the plan for Wed. Instead I:

1. Cobweb dusted and found 2 pieces on the top of the mbed bookcase that I trashed
2. Went over the drawers of my 2 – 2drawer file cabinets and put all the old maps, tour books, receipts for electronic equipment DH bought in 1988-89, receipts for home repairs in 1988-89 and Girl Scout Leader stuff (from about 25 years ago) into recycle (about 10 lb)
3. Went thru my spices – tossed 6 that I do not use
4. Recycled my calendar that ended the end of Sept.

Rain cleared about an hour ago BUT now all I want is a nap.

[disneysteve]

DW and DD were out tonight so I attacked the basement again. I ended up doing quite a bit of shuffling around clutter from one place to another, but it was with a bigger goal in mind. I wanted to start getting rid of the old sofa I mentioned earlier. I had 2 full shelves cleared off. I was able to fill one of them completely with DW's cake pans and get them off the sofa. I cleared off another shelf and reorganized a bunch of Disney stuff there.

I did also put a bunch of stuff in recycling, trash and give away, too.

Most importantly, I succeeded in getting everything off of the sofa. That is probably the first time it hasn't been covered in stuff in 10+ years. I then made a few trips upstairs and out to the curb with the 8 cushions. It is a sofa bed and I also hauled out the mattress. Tomorrow is trash day so I wanted to get all of that stuff out tonight.

Finally, I started dismantling the support springs but didn't get too far on that tonight before I called it quits. I want to take apart as much as I can so that what's left is lighter and easier to haul upstairs.

[My English Castle]

I sorted student papers, but we spent the evening at a party and I got little work done.
I did freecycle a book--about children and goals for kindergarten. Probably a good thing since DD is now 8!

[Aleta]

When I get home from shopping yesterday, I had so much clutter in my purse, coming from to-do-lists, shopping lists, coupons that shoot out from the machines, grocery and drugstore receipts, and even a flyer or business card that has been placed under my windshield wiper. Needless to say my husband throws up his hands every time he has to look for the keys in my purse. Yesterday I decided that this purse needs to be kept neater and decluttered. I still have small pieces of paper that I THINK is important that I carry around. My next project is to either buy a new small change purse in another color or paint my leather one because it is the same color as the interior of my purse. It just blends in.

Without telling you an exact number (embarrssing) I deleted hundreds of emails from my accounts. That is another area that I clutter up. I at least went in there and got rid of what I knew I wouldn't use. I now have to go through my survey account and either do the surveys or get rid of them. There are a couple of survey companies that I don't plan to do anymore. Too much time involved for so little money.

[graceful]

While doing some filing yesterday (of mail that just arrived)or pulling out a file I needed, I took the time to quickly go through each file used and shred and recycle outdated and unneeded paper in them.

Our file cabinets at work are literally BURSTING and we have had to move some of the bulkier files to another area or cabinet because we couldn't add anything into any existing files because things were too tight. So hopefully, the cabinets will start to loosen up in space after a while. Also, when I get a chance, some older files can be archived at the end/beginning of the year so that will free up more space. And before I box them up and ship them off to the basement, I will try to go through them quickly to discard as much as I can first.

Taking care of the mail that comes in daily has been time consuming but at least I haven't ADDED stuff to do later on my desk. Hoping for a light mail day today.

[librarylady]

I really love this thread. Every time I take time to read it, it inspires me to get up and do something. I decluttered my email for five minutes this morning. Got quite a bit out of there!

[marvholly]

Went through 1 carton of medical supplies. Tossed everything that had expired. Kept 3 bandage scissors, 2 hemos & 2 stainless scissors for myself. Carton is now <1/2 full. Will bring up & go over the carton in the sub-basement soon.

Also, spent about 2 hours online at amazon, ebay & craigs list pricing some things I want(ed) to sell. At this point, I do not think the time/effort will be worth it. I will probably just donate.

Tried to buy my FIRST groupon today. They had a fast food place about 3 miles from me with a deal spend $4 and get $10 worth of food. A $4 test is CHEAP to see if this REALLY works and I can easily spend list price $10 on a bring in meal for dinner 1 night for my Dad & me when the rehab place food choices that ……..leave a LOT to be desired. ISP kept going down. Will try later.

Aleta
DEFINAELY knowwhat you mean about purse clutter (also my reusable bag for CVS purchases). I ‘try’ to do both at least 1x/week.

All
For emails my practice at home and work is to save to specific files or KILL immediately. I do this at least 1x/day.

[snafu]

They say "discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishments" making this cohort top notch. DS, getting sofa parts that waited 10 yrs for release is something to cheer about. Resolving to get rid of at least one item daily has huge results. If you add the 'new item in, old item out' mind set with potential for better outcomes [what will I part with ...before handing over cash or CC].

De-cluttering handbag is great! Adding a bright colored envelop or re-purposing a plastic cheque holder to shove all receipts makes retrieval easier. Filing is not a favorite task; it's easier to make up 'principles' for what needs to be retained & what could be released or archived EOY [end of year]. For example, staple the receipt for warranted/expensive items to the manual/pamphlet [dropped into a 3 ring binder full of page protectors]. At EOY, shred/recycle unremarkable Utility, CC statements and papers which no longer have potential for dispute. Retaining only CC statements showing warranted/problematic or tax related items keeps the file small.

mholly: have you tried kijji+name of your city? this is selling e-bay locally, kind of replaced the old 'Buy and Sell.' Sellers seem to have more 'hits,' if they take the time to post a photo along with the description. Craig'slist might be another local option.

[Aleta]

snafu: Thanks for the idea of using a plastic cheque holder. Most items are too large and take up too much space. I decluttered my purse so well that when I went to another CVS to buy an item that my closest CVS was out of - I had taken out my coupons. By the way, the CVS I went to had the item. I just need the easy retrieval way of doing things. I'll write more about that later on when I tell you how I reorganized my closets. But number 1 is I don't want to have to reach over 100 items to get what I want.

This is a great thread in time for New Year's. This will be one less item on our list to cross off. Maybe most of us will be pretty organized by then. GREAT TOPIC.

[marvholly]

snafu
I did try Craigs list for my metro area. REAL poor/no comparable. Will wait a month b/4 donating and recheck. I always post a photo w/my listings.

Aleta
I have SOOO much stuff as late DH was a collector and NEVER tossed anything and seldom resold. He considered it his 'retirement.' I have not even begun to hit up the basement or attic.

i KNOW I still have at least 2 LARGE cartons of medical supplies to go w/the 1/2 carton I have on the main levels.

[disneysteve]

Part of me wanted to work in the basement tonight, but I was tired and just wanted to rest a bit - didn't get a lot of sleep last night.

So while we watched some TV, I went through a stack of magazines, coupons and assorted mail. I read through some things I had held onto and then got a bunch of stuff into the recycling bin. I also found a few things that needed to be filed upstairs and took them up there. And finally, I found a few items that need to be listed on half.com, which I'll do in a moment. So that took care of my daily decluttering for today. Maybe I'll get back into the basement this weekend.

[minnie1928]

I gave a good friend of mine a winter coat and snow pants that my daughter had outgrown. I was going to ebay them, but I feel better giving them to a friend that I know will appreciate and take good care of them. Beyond that I didn't really get rid of much. However, my son and I did move our formal living room and family room contents into other rooms tonight in preparation of getting new carpet tomorrow. I REALLY appreciated not having a lot of clutter to move around!!