2013 Declutter & Organize Thread[{locked}]

[Wisconsin Beth]

I brought this up on the older kid thread too. Hopefully I won't respond to the wrong thread!

[Deleted]

Beth, based on what you describe, I wouldn't keep them either.

DH's has huge wooden shelves in the basement. I'm going to consider they have 24 "parts". If so, today I/we did 6 of them.

In reality, we did NOWHERE near 1/4 of his "stuff", plus, there is a TON of stuff on the floor too. The goal is to get everything off the floor. But I put some of his "sacred cows" on the top shelf (old stereo, old speakers, old video projector, you get the idea), so at least the rest of his treasures are easier to access and sort through now.

(In DH's defense, he also has all the tools and paint stuff on his shelves.)

[Wisconsin Beth]

And a bunch of it is learning how to color in the lines. It's kinda interesting to see the progress in her coloring skills but not enough to make me want to save them forever and ever.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Yay! It's progress. We take it anyway we can get it debt!

[Deleted]

Yes lol! If he keeps this up, it will be a miracle! Most of those boxes arrived in 1999!

[WholeLottaNothin]

So i only got rid of some old mail last night

I am at 30/2013.

[Wisconsin Beth]

I mentioned the 2013 in 2013 and DH was curious (and kinda negative) The 'definition' is anything moving permanently out of our lives/house, right? Mail, donations, boxes being recycled?

[moosmommy]

Bethy - I have to ask what is a German Immersion school (4K)?? I am meeting three people today that purchased items off of me. So I will hopefully (if everyone shows up) get rid of 6 items and make $28 toward my first debt goal. Will update later on if all the items left or not.

[moosmommy]

Suppose to be Beth can't read tody.

[moosmommy]

Or spell obviously!

[Wisconsin Beth]

lol. We enrolled DD in 4 year old kindergarten class in a public school that practices immersion teaching in German. Just about everything is spoken in German to the kids. English is rarely used for the first couple of years, then they start working on English and reading in English around 2nd grade. There's French and Spanish schools here too but they're a solid 30 minutes away and I'm too much of a helicopter parent to let my 4 year old go that far from me...

She sings the alphabet song in German and in English. Basically, if we stick with this, she'll be bilingual in German and English. She is liking it so far and the school's got a good reputation. And her teacher grew up 2 doors down from me! Which is reassuring to say the least. ;D

[startsmart]

beth - the school papers that are just basic, nothing special can be recycled IMHO. I've seen cute projects where you take a pants hanger and clip on their most recent coloring and then when it's full you toss half. If the kids is sensitive about their work. For nicer art projects I loved the idea of taking a picture of the kid holding it and saving that instead of the art. I went through 2 huge boxes of school papers from kindergarten to college and had so much CRAP. Why did I need the "dear teacher I was on a field trip so I'm excused from the quiz" paper? WHY did I haul it around for the last 3 moves? Your kids will thank you some day

Guest room - I figure if I can sort the clothes for donation tonight and start moving stuff into the hall closet (rugs, pictures, curtain, pillows) then I should be able to get the room done in a week. My biggest concern is energy since I crashed hard last night after getting home and fell asleep on the couch. And my feet are still killing me.

PSA: don't wear high heeled boots when you may have to walk on uneven streets, downtown, dodging scary homeless men, whilst carrying a bag and tripod.

5 of the 6 bathroom cabinets have at least a first coat of paint. One of the shelves is very damaged so I'd actually like to tear it out and replace the MDF (Dad can install the new one) so it's FIXED and not just covered up.

Now that most of my rooms are painted and the ceilings are getting done I'm refocusing on all the little things that really make a house look amazing. Spray painting hinges and door knobs, replacing air vents that were painted pink, filling in gaps with wood fill and caulk. It's much harder, detailed work but I'm glad it's getting done.

[sheilaincali]

Beth- that school sounds awesome. DS would have loved to have been able to do something like that.

Dropped the DVDs off at the post office and got the Boy on the bus for his YIG Convention. He is growing up so fast.

For the 2013 in 2013 I'd count everything that leaves the house- donation items, magazines, weight, etc. I plan to add "cable tv" to my list since i canceled that yesterday.

DH has to get me a count on today's items that he is dropping off at goodwill.

But currently at 36/2013

[Waffle]

Beth why was your hubby negative about the 2013 thing?

[sheilaincali]

Today:
Mail out DVD set that paid last night
do a load of laundry (preferably 2)
organize library closet
Bring up the last load of books from basement to library
Buy paint for the family room.

DH did a count before he dropped things off at Goodwill. 55 items. So that brings me to:

91/2013 ;D Hoping to break 100 before Monday.

[moosmommy]

Tonight's List:
1. Go through son's top two drawers in dresser (there will be a bunch of socks to get rid of - He wears a 12 - 16 men's socks now ) Do socks count as 1 or 2 for pair?
2. Put any laundry away
3. Wash two loads of clothes
4. Go through and sort mail sitting on counter
5. Hang mirror that has been sitting in my living room since beginning of November

[startsmart]

Okay I started moving stuff out of the guest room ;D

Pictures are down
Rugs were rolled up
Pillows put away
Magazines moved
Boxes of toys now in the closet

Still need to:
take down quilt and curtains
move bookshelves to the living room
move file cabinet to the office
move mattresses to the master bedroom

[sheilaincali]

moosmommy- DH claimed that he was counting each pair of shoes as two pairs. I'm pretty sure that's what he did so I'd say a pair of socks counts as two items ;D

[grits]

I got #1 on my list taken care of today. I took a nap.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Jan 10, 2013 13:22:00 GMT -5 Waffle said:

Beth why was your hubby negative about the 2013 thing?

he doesn't think we have that much to get rid of, I think. it he doesn't think I can actually do it. 13 more things out of the house today. 38/2013

[moosmommy]

Sheila I like the way you think

[moosmommy]

My total today is 12/2013.

[startsmart]

Added a second coat of paint on cabinets 2-5! There's one more to paint and a shelf that I need to demo and replace.

I also added caulk to the outside of the cabinet in the gaps and above the door frame. Next up is measuring the contact paper for the interior!

[grits]

Some of you are super industrious. I only got 2 boxes packed, and the customs forms filled out.

[Saving4Norway]

As for accomplishments...

I did NOTHING productive.

But, I DID go over to my puppy's house for 2 hours.
I think I'm in love.

[startsmart]

Half of the 6 cabinets in the bathroom are done. paint has dried and I put down the vinyl and refilled those shelves with towels, extra toilet paper and kleenex. Still need to finish the last 3 cabinets and restock with the extra shampoo, soap and a bunch of candles. I am so glad I didn't buy many candles after Christmas this year (just 2 large ones for 75 cents each) because I have 4 bins full!

[Waffle]

I got everything on last night's list done! Also, I remember a few other items that I threw out earlier this year - so my total is 7/2013.

Beth - I'm not sure that I have 2013 items to get rid of either - so I'm just looking at it as an interesting exercise to see how much extra stuff i can get rid of this year.

Startsmart - 6 bathroom cabinets! That must be a big bathroom.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Oh, we have more than 2013 items to get rid of. He's delusional if he truly thinks we don't. We've got a ton of crap in the basement to wade though, DS is constantly going though growth spurts and stuff wears out.

[sheilaincali]

Yesterday's List:
Mail out DVD set that paid last night
do a load of laundry (preferably 2) Only got one done
organize library closet
Bring up the last load of books from basement to library
Buy paint for the family room.

Plus I convinced DH to go through his books and he found 44 books that he can part with. He is bring them to the Friends of the Library today. So that brings us to a grand total of:
135/2013.

He claims he is completely on board with this 2013 in 2013 plan. He has several can of paint that are drying out in the garage so they can be thrown out. He plans to bring those to the tomorrow. Will add those to my total once they are officially off of our property.

I think I'll easily be able to hit 2013 items over the course of the year and that to me is pretty sad. Our house isn't really very cluttered the way it is. Makes me wonder how much unnecessary crap we've been burdening ourselves with over the years. Plus how much money I spent on said unnecessary crap. Oh well. Live and Learn.

[constanz22]

It has been such a long week here. I never get much done during the week anyway, but this week was a total loss. I don't have any plans this weekend, and have been adding stuff to my "list" at home all week. So, hopefully will get some accomplished. I did bring in around 10 single serve bags of chips to work to share with co-workers. Hey, at least they are out of my house...lol. I have a big paper grocery bag full of junk mail, newspaper ads, etc. Guess I'll just count the whole bag as one since I didn't bother to count each piece that went into it. Nor would I really even wanna know how many it is, and didn't even make a dent in my paper clutter. I have a few items in my car that I'm taking to a client today and am going to try to drop a few things off at the consignment shop, if I have time today, so, will have to add up my total later.