What did you declutter today? Part II

[disneysteve]

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!!

One of the things that always bugs me is when we are cleaning the house because we have company coming over. We are always shoving stuff in drawers and closets to make the place more presentable. It would be so much easier if we didn't have all of that stuff around in the first place. It would also be easier if the drawers and closets actually had space to stash the stuff we did want to put away. That is part of the goal of the decluttering process for me: having a house that is always ready for company or maybe just needs a quick clean up instead of one that takes 3 days.

[Aleta]

DisneySteve: I think it's good to dedicate a drawer for a quick pick up. Sometimes I'm working on the finances, or groceries and I have everything layed out it's just perfect to have a spare drawer. When I would be in a hurry some of my items got accidentally mixed up with other things.

A few years ago we took everything out of the Family room and started putting everything back one at a time. It's easier to declutter when you have a project like minnie1928 has

[snafu]

You are well down the road of making your home "Company Ready" by continuing the de-clutter process. If you are sitting in the Lv Rm. have a focussed look around and think about what is used nearly daily, loved and enjoyed. If you have newspapers, magazines and catalogues it helps to clear out the old as soon as the new comes in the room. If you retain magazines, use a magazine holder and store on the bottom shelf of a bookcase. An empty cereal box, with the narrow side 2/3 cut out [great children's decorating project] is a fast, easy, no cost solution. Dollar Store or IKEA's magazine holders are inexpensive. A 3rd option, plastic, slide holders from on-line sellers like Drake, offers 3 ring binder storage. It's important to insert some discipline so that you are only keeping magazines for a designated time. There is no point keeping a basement full of National Geographic for example.

All drawers, shelves, bookcases benefit from semi annual purging. Our needs change, but we tend to just add items without taking anything away. Working through one drawer or shelf at a time, ask yourself when you use it, do you love it, what would the worst thing that would happen if it were no longer in this room [better yet...can it go?]

[My English Castle]

More Stuff Out!

I finally connected with my freecycler and got rid of a bag of DD's shoes today.
I hope to make it to the charity shop tomorrow with more stuff.

And while I was stuck in my office waiting for a student to show up, I cleared up a bunch of old files. My former office mate left me her presentation files on various writers, and many of these were writers I never teach. Out they went. And they've been in that filing cabinet since she left in 2003.

This weekend's project is to ebay some holiday clothes DD has outgrown.

[disneysteve]

Coming down with a cold and feeling lousy today but still did my item-a-day. I just sorted through my one dresser drawer. I thought, perhaps, I'd find some socks in there that I could toss but actually found they were all okay. I must have cleaned that out some other time. I did, however, find some assorted trash in there - business cards, receipts, etc. - that I was able to toss out. Not a huge accomplishment but I keep plugging along bit by bit. Some days more, some days less.

It has now been a month since I started the original thread (9/14) and I think I've really accomplished a lot. Thanks to everybody who has joined in.

[marvholly]

Been WAAAY too lazy these last couple of days. Need to push harder. However, I had 2 sets of bake/broil pans from old toaster ovens. They do not fit my current unit. Adios, into recycle they have gone. This brings my total number of pieces to >89+ (+ =counted the 1/2 carton as 1) for this month alone and we started in mid-Sept.

Moved 1 file cabinet from FR level to 2nd bedroom office. Filled w/all the office supply stuff which emptied a crate, 1 drawer from bed 2 desk and 1/2 cabinet from bed 3 (current office) desk. Since I am already 64, I do NOT think I will ever need to buy pens, pencil, pocket portfolis, 1" ring binders, legal pads or note pads again. It s/b at least 3-4 years befor I need lined notebook paper for my weekly shopping list and meal plan.

Found a shoe box of discs from 3 computers ago (<2001), a spare cell phone battery from b/4 2001 and a plastic ??. All tossed. Total for the month now at 92+ pieces.

I will be dropping the carton of donation stuff that has been in my car about a week at Salvation Army today.

[disneysteve]

Took 2 big boxes of stuff to Goodwill today. It is stuff that I've packed up along the way but the boxes were still sitting in our living room waiting for their final journey out of our house.

Going to go work on taking apart the sofa bed in the basement right now.

ETA: Whew! Got the springs disconnected from the bedframe. Got the bedframe disconnected from the wooden frame of the sofa. That was enough. Came up and took a shower after that.

Now I'm going to pay some bills to help declutter my desk a bit.

[Aleta]

I deleted more emails. A kitten came to my house and I found it a home yesterday. Didn't want to procrastinate and get attached to it. I also went through a few days of mail and cleaned out my coupons. Not too much done because I I am still getting over the cold that I have.

[PennyPrincess]

today i dropped off a bunch of paper and cardboard recycling at our town's public works. we have recyclables pickup every other week with trash, but I was sick of looking at it. Also dropped off a bag of clothes at the salvation army box that I purged out of my closet after being inspired by other posters. they are clothes that technically fit, but I don't feel good when I wear them. and I'm sick of wearing clothes that make me feel awful. So out they went!

[disneysteve]

The sofa is gone! My cousin came over a little while ago and before he left, he and I hauled the bedframe and the sofa out to the curb. Wow. That was a biggie! I bought that sofabed used in 1986 when I graduated college and got my first apartment. It was a studio so during the day, it was my sofa and at night, it was my bed. I lived like that for 2 years. In my next apartment, I had a bedroom but only the living room had AC so in the winter, I slept in the bed and in the summer, I slept on the sofabed. So all together, it was my bed for at least part of 7 years. Then it was our sofa for a couple more years after that.

[disneysteve]

Entered a couple of Coke Reward codes off bottlecaps.

[My English Castle]

Sounds like you got your money's worth from the sofa, Steve!
We took a couple bags of clothes to the charity shop, and inspired by Credit Card Free's post on the blogs, I listed half a dozen things quickly on ebay.
It's slow going, but it's going.

[marvholly]

One thing I have noticed about myself since the inception of the original thread:
I am MUCH better about putting things away immediately. Instead of telling myself, ‘Oh I’ll get that later’ after I use /drop something or collect the mail or whatever I IMMEDIATELY take care/clean up after myself. Just do NOT want any added clutter.

My 'plan' for today is to go through the box of medical supplies in my basement (I think there is only one there)-toss the expired & repack the good stuff to donate. I will NOT count pieces tossed; too much work. Also need to finsh up some house chores & do some cooking prep.

[disneysteve]

One thing I have noticed about myself since the inception of the original thread:
I am MUCH better about putting things away immediately. Instead of telling myself, ‘Oh I’ll get that later’ after I use /drop something or collect the mail or whatever I IMMEDIATELY take care/clean up after myself. Just do NOT want any added clutter.

Same here. Now, if I put something on the steps to go upstairs, I actually take it upstairs the next time I go up. If I sit at the kitchen table and sort the mail, I actually take the recyclables to the recycling bin as soon as I get up. If there are groceries to go to the basement pantry, I actually take them down and put them away instead of them sitting by the basement door for days.

This morning, I reorganized all of the paperwork from our synagogue's gift card fund raising program which I run. I was using a couple of 2-pocket folders but the program, which is new, has outgrown that so I transferred everything to a file box. I labeled the hanging folders and filed everything accordingly. I also got rid of a bunch of papers that I didn't need anymore. This will keep this program from generating a lot of clutter going forward because I now have a nice orderly filing system in a portable file box that I can easily transport back and forth to the synagogue.

[snafu]

Huge Pat on the Back to those purging items no longer used, needed or loved. The research says...after repeating a process for 28 consecutive days, it will become a habit. Making dumping un-needed paper, without letting them become piles of un-needed papers into a habit is a monumental step forward! Good on you!

There are many benefits of releasing clothes that are no longer loved [closet is more orderly, you can locate items you want, things aren't crushed/wrinkled, you feel good about yourself, others can enjoy those items, you've shown yourself to be generous whether re-selling or donating and so much more].

Tiny routines that 'eliminate the evidence' [ETE], avoids big, overwhelming tasks. For example when getting ready for bed, drop items in a hamper/container for wash or re-hang to wear again, rather than drop on a chair or flr. If you have a load of whites/color/darks, drop in the washer & dryer but take the time to fold/hang and put that load away without creating another pile. If...Whoever cooks, cleans as they go, puts away ingredients before serving, the post dinner clean-up is a snap and in fairness done by the rest of the troop.

If you are a guest in our home, you would be included in our 9:00 PM ETE. We set the kitchen timer and spend 15 minutes putting things away or placed for fast morning launch. It has eliminated all the AM stress with non perishable bkfst foods & tableware out + no searching for a shoe, homework, important papers, presentation materials, keys, electronics, returns, etc.

Great going all!