2014 Get Organized & Declutter Thread

[Deleted]

My biggest frustration is things I have no control over, which means my husband's stuff.

Kilroy, are you married to my husband?! I've gotten him to "contain" his mess though ... his closet, his basement bookshelves (which I cleaned last month), his basement storage shelves, his desk drawers, etc. That way at least the rest of the house is neat and uncluttered.

DS3's friend came over for dinner and a sleepover. I made a small ham I had in the freezer, but I "decluttered" the fridge for all the side dishes. Yay, finally, no more leftovers! 

Constanz, could you try a goal of keeping one room clutter-free? Before my sister decluttered for good, she got to the point where her LR and kitchen were clutter-free. The rest of her big house looked like a bomb but at least she had a couple of rooms she could relax in. 

Beth, can you just start on your "house" list, and do / contract out one project at a time? Choose the easiest / cheapest / the one that drives you craziest, but just start? And when one is done, move on to the next item on the list? I'm sure some of the items are faster / cheaper / easier than others. You may not be able to do all of them, but at least you'd get some of them off the list. 

[kilroy]

I've suggested getting a display case or something like that for the cows, which would have the added advantage of protecting them from the cat.  No go. 

[Deleted]

Kilroy maybe the cat will eventually "get" them?! JK! 

Constanz, also, weren't you going to have somebody help you clean / organize after the holidays? Have you set up a date yet? 

[constanz22]

Jan 2, 2014 15:49:03 GMT -5 @debthaven2 said:

Kilroy maybe the cat will eventually "get" them?! JK! 

Constanz, also, weren't you going to have somebody help you clean / organize after the holidays? Have you set up a date yet? 

Yes, and I was hoping it was going to be today/tomorrow as I am off work, but we are in the middle of a n'oreaster so that ruined that plan.  Not sure now.  I won't have any other time off for awhile.  I'll have to see if she's available weekends at all.  And I have to pay her so need to make sure I have the $$.  Not easy when I just ordered a half tank of heating fuel for over $550 that won't last 5 weeks...

[Deleted]

Ouch Constanz! That is so expensive! 

If you can though, it might be worth taking her even once or twice. I know my sister ended up doing that and it helped her A LOT, and then she was able to continue on her own. The woman helped my sister come up with a system that "worked" for her.

[kilroy]

Jan 2, 2014 15:49:03 GMT -5 @debthaven2 said:

Kilroy maybe the cat will eventually "get" them?! JK! 

Constanz, also, weren't you going to have somebody help you clean / organize after the holidays? Have you set up a date yet? 

Oh, he's gotten a few over the years, much to DH's fury.  Let's just say we should buy stock in SuperGlue.

[constanz22]

Cleaned some old stuff out of the freezer.  Threw out some old donuts that weren't even that good when they were fresh, a couple old packs of peirogies, ones best by date was 2011 and they were pretty freezer burned, some cooked pork roast from 2011.  I also threw out a mostly burned candle.  

Decided to cook some other junk out of the freezer, for one, it helps warm up the house while it's so cold, and two, reduces the amount of stuff in the freezer.  Nothing very good or healthy, but, oh well.  

Haven't decided if I'm shooting for the 2014 items this year since I lost track about a month in last year.

[Wisconsin Beth]

I know Constanz, I lost track last year shortly into it too. 

[KaraBoo]

One of the things I'm realizing in the middle of my frustrations and depression (which I've gotten help for) is that I'm frustrated because "X" isn't working for me.

So, I'm picking one item at a time to work on until its "fixed" and no longer frustrating me. An added benefit to this is the process is naturally decluttering and cleaning at the same time.

For example - my dresser is always a mess. One of the messes was my work sweaters always being piled on it. I've had hooks bought to put in our closet forever, but couldn't get DH to agree to the location of the hooks. I finally just installed them myself and my sweaters have been in their place for a month now.

Im now kicking myself for not doing it sooner as its working and keeping my sweaters neat, off my dresser and I'm not as stressed seeing them piled up. I'm taking this approach with more things and hope to have similar successes.

[startsmart]

Finally took in the big basket of stuff for consignment so that's 52 items gone! If everything sells from this batch my cut is $160, not bad for stuff that's been sitting on my shelves, unused. My unofficial policy is that if something doesn't sell in 2 months I make it half price, another month after that I'll donate it to Goodwill. Oh except Goodwill shut down here so I suppose it's Salvation Army now.

Next up is the box of donations that I'm not going to even bother trying to sell. If I can get that out by the weekend I'll be close to 100 items

I'm trying to remember that the 2,014 items breaks down to 5 per day. So even if I just open a drawer and find 5 things that can "go away" I'll be on track.

Stay safe all you with the rough weather! I really can't complain, it's 68 outside and it's projected to be sunny until next Wednesday at least. What is this "snow" you speak of?

[mizbear]

Okay- This is a long list- but I figure I better put it all down while I am sitting here looking at my master list...

Ongoing-

Dishes

Laundry

Trash

Recycling (to include shredding after it is caught up)

Exercise/Meditation

To Do:

Finish pureeing chili base

Package and store said chili base

Repair Collectible ornament

Clean out storage area

Restock storage area

Fill yard sale bins, place lists of items with prices on computer

Finish assignments for Winterim (lit review {IP}, project {IP}, 2 quizzes)

Start spring semester reading

Back Shredding (goes to recycle)

Post budget to excel

FAFSA

Taxes

Febreeze and remake bed

Assemble filing cabinet

Filing

Go through all clothes and stuff and sort

Redo coupons

Give house post-chili making scrub

Purge all e-mails

Start redoing budgets and looking for Momma Bear's new place- budgets to include replacing necessities that will go or stay, her security deposits, making sure what I need to have in order to stay here

Other miscellaneous

[constanz22]

I had an almost full trash bag of old clothes.  Most are stained, etc and probably could even go in the trash, but there is a donation bin right next door to my office.  I think they are one of those places that just recycles per pound, not to use.  I had a few more items to fill up the bag.  I will put it in my car this weekend and drop it in the bin when I go back to work Monday.

[chalupabatman]

Hi guys!  In the past few months I have read through the 2013 de-cluttering thread and would love to join in. 

My husband and I bought our house a few years ago, and we really underestimated the importance of closet and storage space.  We have been going through our rooms, donating and throwing things away.  The biggest problem is that the whole house is not de-cluttered and organized at the same time.  I haven't figured out a good solution for the things that we want to keep, but don't have a designated place. These things get shuffled around and around.  I get stressed out pretty easily when the house looks cluttered and messy. 

Our to-do list is enormous!  We have a 2.5 year old and I am due with baby #2 in 4 weeks. 

Reading about your progress and accomplishments has been tremendously motivating, thank you!

[Saving4Norway]

From last week's deep cleaning of the laundry room/walk-in pantry, storage shelves, my clothes, and DH's socks, I dropped off 187 items to our local charity thrift store. In fact, while I was there, I even stayed and volunteered for 4 hours.

If making it to 2014 items is about 5 items per day, then I'm good for January, right?

Awesome!

[busymom]

Chalupabatman: feel free to join us here anytime. With a 2 1/2 year old, & a baby due soon, I think your plate will be full for awhile.  (Congratulations a bit early.)    We love new friends, & we all go at our own pace.

It's been a busy day here. I was going through checkbooks & bank statements (end of year stuff), & paying bills. I did make time to get rid of more stuff. 14 more things went out the door. So, my total should be 44. I'm trying to get "ahead of pace" on purpose, because this weekend I'll be focused on getting DD packed & moved back on campus.

Beth, I feel your pain.  My dog tracks up my house the most, but DH is 2nd most likely to track up my house.  I figured out years ago that he just doesn't see any mess below knee level.  (Yes, it gets annoying at times.)

[KaraBoo]

I just finished a project that's been on my To-Do list for the last 6 months - I finally finished sending off the last bit of our flexible spending account documentation.  I don't know why this particular project takes so long for me to finish - but every year it does.  The same thing happened last year.

Another project for me to figure out how to "fix" because it just doesn't work the way I'm doing it now.  At least it's done with time to spare - if they kick anything back, I'll have time to fix it again before the March cut off.

[startsmart]

Working a bit in the guest room tonight, trying to at least clear off the bed after letting it get buried for 2 months! I've consolidated my boxes (from equipment), organized some of the projects on the bed. Honestly, the hardest thing will be to figure out all of the cords and stuff. I foresee a lot of Googling in my future

I did cash in a bunch of money from my piggy banks - I usually do this in December but I forgot. $44 for my Amazon account

Posted both of the remaining bookshelves on Craigslist again tonight - if I sell both this weekend it'll be an extra $55 I still have 7 other bookshelves so I'm not exactly lacking over here lol. I can't wait to be able to sell my table and set of 6 chairs! I would get rid of them sooner but when I host clients at my house we use the table to work all the time.

[Wisconsin Beth]

I did talk to/with DH about this last night.  He's hoping we can work on the kitchen cheaply.  So maybe this IS the year the kitchen carpet comes up! 

I don't remember what was on my list for last night but none of it got done.  I worked late, put gas in the car and picked up DD from my Mom's.  She fed me and I lined up a niece to babysit Sat. night so DH and I can have a date night.  By the time we got home, it was bedtime for the kids.  I fell asleep while getting DD to bed.  Then DH needed to talk about his stuff and then I went to bed. 

[sheilaincali]

CB - (love your name btw). One thing that helped us start to turn a corner was our decision to live for the 98% of the time. We found we were keeping things "just in case" someone needed to stay over at our house. Or "just in case we hosted Thanksgiving". We started to realize that the just in case crap was taking up valuable space.  We decided that we could always rent or borrow something if a "just in case" time actually happened. 

We are continuing to move in that direction.  It's a lengthy process.  

[kilroy]

Beth, I hope you're able to get your kitchen done this year.  And as far as the sandpaper for the bathroom wallpaper, I'm sure it will turn up. 

DH decided that he wanted to store our Christmas decorations in the big space under our bed, which would free up a closet.  To do that we had to haul out 2 things we've been holding onto for no good reason: the ginormous suitcase I brought when I moved from Seattle to NYC (it was a gift from my Seattle boss), and a ratty chair cushion stuffed with about 30 lbs of down that DH bought years ago (the down, not the cushion).  So now I need to decide what to do with the suitcase; it's really good quality & in good shape once we got all the dust off, but it's huge and I will never need it again.  DH & I travel a lot but we've perfected the art of traveling with 2 carryons.  I hate to just put it down by the recycling bins where one of the building hoarders will take it.

But this is progress!  I've been holding on to that suitcase because of what it represented, not because I actually needed it.  Time to get it out of my life.

[constanz22]

I know I have brought this up in previous years threads, but, I really struggle with what to do with undies!  LOL, I mean, you can't donate them obviously, but I tend to accumulate a ton that I might wear once and don't like them.  They go through the wash, back in the drawer and then I end up with 25 pairs of undies stuffed in my drawer that I won't wear, but I can't bring myself to throw them in the garbage!!  I don't have a problem throwing them out when they get old and worn out.  Sigh...any suggestions?

[WholeLottaNothin]

Constanz - Could you use them as cleaning rags? If that doesn't weird you out too much. Then once they get dirty you can feel better about tossing them.

Didn't get much done last night. The weather here was frightful and I slid on the way back home from my mom's house last night. Today we have windchills of -25 to -35. I'm not sure how the weekend is supposed to be but if it doesn't improve a lot I don't think I will leave the house.

[financialpeace]

Jan 1, 2014 18:23:51 GMT -5 KaraBoo said:

I'm going to at least hang out and read the thread...this may be my only post, but will be cheering others on and gathering ideas (sometimes I only have time to read, not post).

One of the things that is currently helping me (granted, I've only really gotten into this for the last couple of weeks - it may not be helpful later for me, but others might find it useful - I've been using this method before, but without clear purpose until now):

I am making lists on my Smartphone - I have a "reminders" app, "notes" and an app called "Any.Do" (all free or included with the phone).  

Reminders - is used for anything I do on a regular basis - daily, weekly, monthly and yearly.  I can set up multiple lists for what I need - I've included lists for birthdays, Christmas presents and occasional events (anniversaries, boss's day, etc).  Anytime I run across something that I realized I have either forgotten about or have a good chance of forgetting about in the near future, I add it to the appropriate list and if needed, add a reminder for an appropriate amount of time in the future.  For example - with birthday gifts, I set the reminder a month in advance so that it's on my radar as I'm shopping for other things.  

If I find or complete something well in advance of the event - no problem, I can go in and mark the item off as complete and the reminder won't pop up until the next occurrence/year.

Notes - I'm using to remember things that are important but not necessarily to be completed - gift ideas for myself (so I have a ready answer for when someone asks me what I want); medications I'm currently taking; quotes; goals; etc.

Any.Do - is my to-do list that are extra projects that need to be completed, but don't fall into a rotating category (cleaning out my closet for example).  I can open up the list, gauge how much time I have to complete something specific and pick an item off the list to work on.  The app even has a built in little voice that says "Way To Go!" or "WooHoo!" to provide verbal encouragement for marking something off the list (cracks me up to hear it and makes me happy at the same time since DH could care less that I completed a project).

Anyway - these things are really helping me stay motivated and organized and I hope sharing will help someone else as well.

Thank you for this post. I didn't realize I could use my reminders app like this for recurring things. I think this will really help me stay on top of the semi-regular cleaning. I have no issues with clutter, but I do have trouble with remembering to do the more detailed cleaning that isn't done on a weekly basis.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Constanz, can you donate them to a women's shelter?  If they've only been worn once, I might try that. 

I do have a friend who'd buy bras, wear them once, decide she didn't like the fit/color/whatever and sell them at a rummage sale.  They sold really fast too.  But she's an odd/large size. 

[kilroy]

I like the idea of using unwanted undies as cleaning rags, but Constanz's mileage may vary on that one.  DH takes holey, worn out underwear & socks when we go on vacation and throws them away as he goes, so he comes back with less stuff than he left with.  I've done this with socks but not with underwear yet; I think that would weird me out (and the person emptying the hotel trash )

[Wisconsin Beth]

Jan 3, 2014 11:14:43 GMT -5 kilroy said:

I like the idea of using unwanted undies as cleaning rags, but Constanz's mileage may vary on that one.  DH takes holey, worn out underwear & socks when we go on vacation and throws them away as he goes, so he comes back with less stuff than he left with.  I've done this with socks but not with underwear yet; I think that would weird me out (and the person emptying the hotel trash )

A woman I used to work with once said that she knew someone who did that - except the person she knew was like a size 0 or 2, so my coworker didn't think she'd free up a whole lot of space! 

[constanz22]

I've taken bras to consignment before, but I've never seen "not new" underwear for sale here, even at thrift stores.  

[Chocolate Lover]

Contstanz, can you use them for the really icky cleaning jobs that need to get done and then toss them? Better than just straight tossing them. My mom volunteers at the local thrift store (I think I've mentioned that) and undies do come in. They can tell how well used they have been by the condition of the tags most of the time, if it makes you feel better.

ETA: and if they won't sell them there may be some other way they get used, mom's store fills a semi trailer with the unsellable clothes and someone hauls them away for something, but I forget exactly what right now.  Making rags of or something maybe? 

[snapdragon]

Well, I found a few more things to go in my donate pile so that is a plus.

I just can't seem to get motivated to do much of anything. I have about 3 or 4 loads of laundry on the bed and I still have not folded or put anything away.

My plan is to work on it this weekend...get some music going, rock out and do some picking up and tossing! And vacuum --- I really need to vacuum.

My thrift stores take undergarments. But typically I just toss undies and donate bras. 

[busymom]

I've used baby wipes for the really disgusting cleaning jobs. But, old men's t-shirts are AWESOME for washing a car.

I'm already losing control of the desk area (remember me mentioning it's one of our households "" zones), so I need to clean it up again....