2015 Declutter and Get Organized Thread

[Wisconsin Beth]

Jan 21, 2015 14:53:38 GMT -5 startsmart said:

Well I've been sleeping in way too much this week.

 

I was moving from bed to bed again last night.  Thanks kids. 

[WholeLottaNothin]

Don't feel bad Beth. I've been up since 2:30 this morning with a snot filled baby.

I have been mostly just trying to keep up the status quo at home. Lots of laundry being done and dishes being washed.

My DH threw out some stuff but didn't keep track. I'll have to remind him to let me know what he does so I can add it to my numbers.

[Deleted]

*kicking Norway* (just start one project ...)

[Deleted]

Fri list
- order meds
- haircut 11.30
- make carrot cake
- take cake / DS3's clothes to school cocktail (5.30 pm)

Tomorrow will be dominated by carrot cake. I have to follow a specific recipe because the food at the cocktail is served in bite-sized portions so each dish is made by a bunch of different people, using the exact same recipe. (We are asked to volunteer for two events per year, and this is a new one for me. I usually make brownies for a different event.) 

The Miracle Bug spray arrived yesterday but it has been bitter, bitter cold here. I'm waiting for a slightly warmer day to spray so I can open the windows wide for a while. 

Dentist update:
Just two more appts, if all goes well: pulling the last wisdom tooth next Thursday (Gd I'm dreading that!) and checking it / replacing the last silver filling the following Wednesday. I have had 32 appts since April, ie every Wednesday except for summer / Christmas vacation. (I'm having the tooth pulled after work on Thurs so I have 3 days to recover). The end is finally in sight!  

[snapdragon]

I printed off the photos for donations last year from the 2nd camera...I am still looking for my missing camera from last Feb -- going on 1 year missing. Yeah me! I have the best spots for putting something away.   

I have to drive down and see/deal with Mom tomorrow. So we shall see how that goes. **Crosses fingers** I hope to have most things handled and taken care during business hours. But at least she will get out of the rehab place for a few hours anyway.

[Saving4Norway]

OK, Debt, my goal is to pick one pile on my desk and put away at least half of it WHERE THINGS ACTUALLY BELONG in 24 minutes. Ready... GO!!! 

[Deleted]

Which desk, Norway, school or home lol? Good luck, I know you can do it!

ETA: I'm looking forward to reading your progress tomorrow! I can't stay up anymore LOL. 

ETA2: I'm guessing Norway is still at school and that she's got a class now lol.     

[Martivir]

The only thing that got decluttered today was my Netflix queue. I wasn't feeling too hot today so spent the day resting. I did get the dishes and some casserole dishes listed yesterday and she should be picking them up tomorrow. Oh and the kid peed the bed last night and while DH was washing the sheets( he did it fairly soon after going to bed) he cleaned up the laundry area. Got a black garbage bag of stuff that was just shoved under the table down there. Our laundry is in the basement so it's an out of sight, out of mind thing sometimes.

[startsmart]

yay! scheduled the electrician to come out on Sunday and spend several hours installing new lights in my kitchen. While he's here I think I'm going to work in the garage (even though the couch may still be lingering) and in the garden. 

[busymom]

I finally got my new dishwasher installed today. It is more energy efficient than our old one, and a LOT quieter!   Unfortunately, I wasted a good chunk of the day waiting for their truck to show up, & when they finally got here, they'd forgotten some of their tools, & had to go back to get them.  So, I only got 1/2 of my errands done before DS need to be picked up from school.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll finish my errands.  Then, it's back to working on my paper pile.  I got more 1099's in the mail today that need filing, too.

[Angel!]

Worked on my bathroom today and threw out quite a bit of stuff. I've also discovered my problem is just starting. I know I need to declutter, but just avoid it. But if I can even just throw out one or two things, then suddenly I'm into it and can spend 45 minutes working on it.

I've also put together a list of areas of the house to tackle just to keep myself organized and focused. I've come up with 37 and so far taken a first pass at 7, although I think they all will need at least one more look through because I have a hard time letting go of stuff.

[Chocolate Lover]

Jan 22, 2015 22:43:15 GMT -5 Angel! said:

Worked on my bathroom today and threw out quite a bit of stuff. I've also discovered my problem is just starting. I know I need to declutter, but just avoid it. But if I can even just throw out one or two things, then suddenly I'm into it and can spend 45 minutes working on it.

I've also put together a list of areas of the house to tackle just to keep myself organized and focused. I've come up with 37 and so far taken a first pass at 7, although I think they all will need at least one more look through because I have a hard time letting go of stuff.

Awesome!  I think most places need more than a one time purging anyway. I've discovered stuff I kept before that I still haven't touched and it's slowly getting out of my house.


Now if I could just magically shrink all these quilts I have. (My great aunt made them and gave me 2 or 3 that her mom or grandmother made, I need to get her to tell me which is which again so I can be sure I have it straight.)

[megaptera]

I have a superpower. It's called procrastination.

My goals this weekend are:

Take the two gigantic boxes of "stuff" (that have been sitting in my hallway for the past couple of weeks) to Goodwill.

Organize our homeschool stuff (it's my first year homeschooling one of my kiddos, and let me tell ya, there's a steep learning curve for me, lol.)

Pick up/clean the main level of the house.

This past week, I did end up somewhat organizing the pantry, cleaned out my dresser and closet, and threw a ton of papers away. Shocking that I got that much done.

[startsmart]

Got the backyard somewhat cleaned up this morning but I still need to go out and cut back all the rose bushes. Today's indoor project is cleaning out my cutlery drawers and seeing what I can toss.  

[tcu2003]

Updates to include the latest Peter Walsh #31Days2GetOrganized Challenge items:




DAY 1 - FOLD YOUR LAUNDRY!
DAY 2 - GET RID OF ANYTHING THAT DOESN'T BELONG IN YOUR MASTER BEDROOM!
DAY 3 - SET UP A DONATION BIN!
DAY 4 - TACKLE YOUR PLACEMATS AND TABLE LINEN!
DAY 5 - INSPECT THE LOWER THIRD!
DAY 6 - DEMOLISH JUST ONE STACK ANYWHERE IN YOUR HOME!
DAY 7 - CONQUER PLASTIC FOOD STORAGE CONTAINERS!
DAY 8 - CLEAR OUT THE SPACE UNDER A SINK!
DAY 9 - TACKLE KIDS' ARTWORK OR YOUR PETS' CLUTTER!
DAY 10 - TODAY'S THE DAY TO TAME YOUR MAGAZINES!
DAY 11 - EXAMINE YOUR MAIL ROUTINES!
DAY 12 - TACKLE THE TOP OF YOUR BATHROOM VANITY!
DAY 13 - DECLUTTER FOR GOOD!
DAY 14 - FIND FIVE ITEMS IN YOUR GARAGE OR WORKSHED!
DAY 15 - GET IN TOUCH WITH SOMEONE YOU'VE FALLEN OUT OF TOUCH WITH!

DAY 16 - TODAY IT'S YOUR UNDIES AND SOCKS DRAWERS! Here's today's 10 minute challenge. Empty your sock drawer onto your bed. Immediately sort pairs together. Discard any single socks, any socks you no longer wear, any frayed or 'holey' socks. Arrange like colors/types together and put them back in drawer. Bid the others farewell! If you’re brave – do the same with your undies drawer! Send photos of progress and let me know how you did! And, no comments please on the color of mine!!!

DAY 17 - HOW MANY BAKING TRAYS DO YOU OWN? Back to the kitchen today and 10 minutes collecting any baking pans, trays, muffin pan or baking sheets. Get rid of damaged, rusted, warped or never-used items and open up some space for these larger items in your cupboards. Be tough and brutal – say goodbye to anything you no longer need, use or want!

DAY 18 - CONQUER THE JUNK DRAWER! You know you need to do this! It’s Junk Drawer Day – one of my favorites! All you need to do is clear a table, grab that junk drawer and all of the contents onto the table. From there, put like items together, discard any trash, and set aside any objects that belong somewhere other than this space. Then, decide on some reasonable amounts and put things away neatly. If you have a drawer divider or even an old egg carton lying around even better – those will help!

DAY 19 - YOUR BOOKS ARE OUR FOCUS TODAY! Don’t panic! I know getting rid of books is very hard for lots of people. There’s lots of strong emotion that goes along with books. So, I’m not asking much. All I want you to do is look at your bookshelves and find just five books that you can get rid of. If you have a lot of books, it shouldn’t be hard to find just five. And, if you find five easily, then maybe you can find another five and another five (and so on) until your bookshelves are a little lighter!

[Saving4Norway]

Yesterday's "half of one pile of papers" goal was met just in time. I had told myself that I'd leave at 4:30 done or not, and I just got done in the nick of time. Today I'll set another goal like that, although, now at 3:30, I'm still not sure what it will be. It's not like I don't have a million things to do, it's just a matter of choosing one.

[stillmovingforward]

I have been down and out for the past week. But here's what I finally accomplished:
- total of 0/18 drawers in the kitchen cleaned
- total of 10/18 cabinets cleaned
- I've donated another 40 items; some kitchen dishes and a few clothes from my ex-SIL (she had expensive taste- lots of silk) and 4 heavy coats
- I listed 'my' fancy china (a donation from ex-SIL and I never use it)I'm not going to list it as gone until its sold. If it doesn't sell in a month, I'll donate it.

I really wanted to get thru all the kitchen cabinets and drawers in January. February is going to be the month of the bathroom. Since there's only two cabinets in there, maybe I can slide the kitchen into the first half of January.

[plugginaway22]

Well this is definitely a drive-by post, we are leaving in the morning for the weekend, hopefully in not TOO much snow.
DH and I both put in at least a 40 hour work week, so not everything I wanted to happen did.

But, I changed sheets on the guest room bed (DH has horrible cough and slept there 4 nights, it was BLISS for me).
I did not get any of the paperwork, tax prep started, but I did pay some bills that are coming due.
Did a short grocery trip for oranges and pet supplies, made it to 2 exercise classes this week (first time since T-giving), kept up on laundry and kitchen clean-up.

Really want to stay home next weekend and get to de-cluttering, there are so many closets and drawers that I am ready to attack, it has just been a time issue around here!  Happy clean up to all. 

[Deleted]

Today I did 3 small "hotspots" that have accumulated recently:

- near the coffee machine
- top of basement stairs
- kitchen dresser

The kitchen looks much neater! I also cleaned the expresso machine and put some things away in the garden shed. 

Now DH is sick again ... we keep passing this bug around.

If he's well enough, we want to go to a new home deco / crafts store and get frames for some artwork. Two pieces have been hanging around for a long time (thank you Peter Walsh for the challenge!) The other two are gifts from DD that my friend's friend brought back when she went there at Christmas.  

[Sharon]

This work week was very busy and highly stressful so not much was done on the home front.  This weekend there will be the usual chores to get the house back in order and ready for the next week.  I also need to do a major grocery run.  If the weather isn't too bad I am going to try and get out and do some yard work. I also need to get the taxes started and make a salad to take to the church potluck tomorrow.

Looks like another (the usual) busy weekend.

[busymom]

DS & I are headed over to Mom's to see what we can accomplish.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Jan 19, 2015 0:07:55 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

Weekly Goal
for the week of January 18
Big Goal List
Kitchen
Office
Living Rooms (should be done on Monday!)
Laundry Room
Master Bedroom
Garage
Girls' rooms
Linen Closet
Organize Camping Trailer

---

For this week, 
1. Label cords in living rooms; purge any no-longer used cords
2. Clean and label bench seat in laundry room
3. Clean, purge, label, reorganize white cabinet in laundry room
4. Clean, purge, label, reorganize cupboards above washer and dryer
5. Clean, purge, label, reorganize open cupboard in laundry room
6. Clean, purge, label, reorganize water heater storage area
7. Finish detail cleaning in laundry room. 

(This is mildly cheating on my part as the laundry room is the room I would detail clean this week anyway.)

I am not as far with this week's list as I thought I'd be by today (Saturday). I plan on finishing it today!

[startsmart]

Got started on taxes with a new bookkeeper this morning and have a laundry list of files and receipts to find and send over this week. I'm setting up shop at the kitchen table with my laptop, scanner and printer so I can take care of stuff as I find it. 

Working on the garage today too - lots of stuff to clean up and the wall to paint. 

Got rid of 2 items today at consignment, dropping off 4 more jackets on Monday. 

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Jan 23, 2015 18:59:31 GMT -5 stillmovingforward said:

I have been down and out for the past week. But here's what I finally accomplished:
- total of 0/18 drawers in the kitchen cleaned
- total of 10/18 cabinets cleaned
- I've donated another 40 items; some kitchen dishes and a few clothes from my ex-SIL (she had expensive taste- lots of silk) and 4 heavy coats
- I listed 'my' fancy china (a donation from ex-SIL and I never use it)I'm not going to list it as gone until its sold. If it doesn't sell in a month, I'll donate it.

I really wanted to get thru all the kitchen cabinets and drawers in January. February is going to be the month of the bathroom. Since there's only two cabinets in there, maybe I can slide the kitchen into the first half of January.

I definitely agree that you should let the kitchen clean-up trickle into February!

[busymom]

I'm back! DS & I got in 6 hours at Mom's house. I was mostly boxing up old dishes in the basement, & moving them to my car. Some of it is serving pieces that match Mom's china that I'm keeping, but a bunch of stuff is other dishes that I'll try to sell for Mom.

Obviously, this means my paper pile at home continues to grow.   I need to catch up on laundry tonight, so most likely the paperwork will have to wait until tomorrow.

[Angel!]

Got my taxes done today. I also finally dealt with my bathroom sink that barely drains. Finally figured out how to get the stopper out and I pulled out about two handfuls of disgusting black muck. One of the grossest things I've ever done, but now it drains great.

I started tackling the basement. Mostly hopping around, but I finished 2 drawers of the desk. I want to focus on that because I realize a lot of stuff I have in my room should really be filed or put away in that desk. I just want to get it cleaned out before putting more in it.

I also got through most of my ex's stuff. Tossed most of it, but saved a boxful to send to him or just keep for the kids if he won't tell me what to do with it.

[Angel!]

Productive day today. Since my previous post I went throught the kitchen. Tossed about 20 items and added around 20 to the giveaway pile. I am now up to 400 items gone and have close to 150 in my giveaway pile that now has taken over an entire table.

I have several kids toys that I want to go, but first I need to pull all the batteries out and I am too lazy to do that task right now. Maybe after they are in bed tomorrow. These have to disappear in the night, the kids I think will argue about them even though they never play with them.

[dogmom]

Hi.

I did get some deep cleaning done in the kitchen and organized the "pantry".
Laundry is caught up.
Linens are changed.
I did go through a stack of papers sitting next to the computer.... it was ugly.

My plan today, since it's supposed to snow again  is sort through a few dresser drawers.  I am sure I can get rid of about a dozen items.
Maybe bake some cookies.

You guys are inspiring.  Thanks for keeping me motivated. 

[Deleted]

DH is still in bed but DS1 and I went to the deco / crafts store. We found frames for 2/5 pieces (the 2 little ones DD sent from Asia). There's one more store I can try, otherwise the 3 frames we still need will have to be custom-ordered, which is more expensive. But we've been meaning to do it for several years. At this point, I want to get those pieces out of the cardboard and up on the walls. I may go to the other store on Wed, but if we custom order, DH needs to do it (he's the artist). 

[WholeLottaNothin]

I need to go to the store but I am lacking motivation. It is starting to look like old mother Hubbard up in here. I have spent the weekend trying to potty train the 3 year old. I'm looking to declutter some diaper changes from my life.