2015 Declutter and Get Organized Thread

[Deleted]

Welcome 3cats, and good luck! Good for you for setting reasonable, attainable goals! 

[plugginaway22]

Same struggle with kids bedrooms, Sharon!  We have completely gutted one bedroom and made nice for guests, but the other two kid rooms are still full of their childhood 'stuff'.  The DDs do not live in this town, so when they come to visit we never seem to want to 'go through the stuff'.  Just need to determine what they want, pack it up, and re-do those 2 bedrooms.  DS had moved into older DDs much larger room and didn't care that some of her stuff was still in there, so that room is really a mix of both their things!  Not a help that the 3 kid rooms are upstairs, and DH and I are on first floor, so kind of outtasightouttamind!

Happy New Year!

[Sam_2.0]

My goal for January is to actually schedule a donation pickup from the next charity postcard I get in the mail. J has already outgrown his 3m clothes, so today I need to dig out the 6m clothes.

I am debating getting rid of most of the kid clothes. We aren't planning another for awhile. The girl clothes will be 5+ years old by then if we have another girl. Seems like a long time to keep things in storage when I can replace them fairly cheaply when needed with the consignment and garage sales we have around here.

[Sam_2.0]

You all are not giving me much hope about taming the kids rooms any time soon keep up the great work!

[startsmart]

Most of my sniffly nose is done but now I have a nasty cough. If this isn't a reason to shun holidays with my family, I don't know what is. 

Today I need to pick up the wood for the next build project and haul it home, I would love to get my new saw set up on the temporary work bench. 

Also need to drop off some Christmas cards and send in my receipts. 

Hopefully this cough will abate so I can get all that done otherwise my to do list will be sleep, sleep and sleep

[Sharon]

The outdoor lights are down, put away nice and neat in their tub and now in the attic.  The Christmas tree stands are also in the attic.  I also brought down 3 empty boxes from the attic.  The entire attic needs to be gone through but lets not get all nutso here.

The other Christmas decorations that were up inside the house are also down and put away.  Found a quilted placemat that DD had made.  We had been looking for it and all of a sudden it shows up exactly where I thought it was.   Next time DD comes around that will be gone.  She had been wanting it to put on her coffee table and then put candles etc on top.

[busymom]

DS & I FINALLY made a trip down to Mom's house. You all would've laughed at me. I did a major purge of clothes from my Mom's & Dad's closets, & I caught myself unconsciously singing "Let It Go". How true!   The only problem with getting rid of Mom's stuff, is, her weight has fluctuated A LOT the last few years.  And, sad to say, once I have to think about stuff like funerals (the doctors told me she'd be long gone 2 years ago), I've got several dressier outfits in several sizes that she liked, that I feel I HAVE to hang onto, until whenever she's "called Home".  At least I've got 2 yard-sized garbage bags of clothes to give to a charity.  And, I threw a couple more bags into her dumpster.

[bobosensei]

I just got home from my trip (it's 3am here).  We had quite a long night because we got the first snow this season while we were away and we forgot to put the shovel in the car.  DH stretched out my gloves cleaning the snow off the car and digging out a hole for us to be able to leave the airport.  We came home to a very clean house because I knew the landlord would be by to check the water meter while we were gone, and inspiration struck so we unpacked completely and started laundry.

DH asked how long the tree would be up, which was his gentle way of saying he wants it down ASAP.  So I have sufficient motivation to deal with it tomorrow.  We also have to pick up the dogs from the kennel and get groceries.  I have to return 3 library books and pick up at least one more that is waiting for me.  I also bet that I'll need a nap because I am up so late right now.  Since the house is clean I am not going to push past taking down the tree tomorrow.  If more happens, it happens, but if not, we have the weekend.

[stillmovingforward]

I had a good laugh at Plugginaway22 and Sharon with the kids' rooms. 2 years into college, my kids' stuff was OUT to their apartments or whittled down into a few boxes in the garage. But, I have a 1400 square foot house for 7 people (and ONE small bathroom). Its become a joke around here how fast I had the college kids pack their stuff when they got apartments. That still leaves 3 kids to go........... but they have their own rooms now.

My year goal is to touch everything in the house and garage. Decide what needs to go, stay, pack to deal with later (I still have boxes from 10 years ago that haven't been unpacked! All of those will be opened, touched, sorted). The whole downstairs needs to be repainted again and the living room and dinning room floors refinished.............

My month of January goal is to Declutter the kitchen. I planned on starting today but instead............ended up decluttering my dear, sweet old dog. She had cancer, was on 'doggie hospice' for the past year (read: low doses of pain meds, no treatment for the cancer as the treatment was worse than the cancer. The vet and I agreed she was past the normal life span for a dog her size anyway), and was the best dog in the World. I have foster kids and late adoption kids. She was kind and patient with all of them despite putting up with some rough play, lack of boundaries, etc. She was fine yesterday but got very ill this morning. The vet thinks her kidneys shut down suddenly (they've been weakening). So I had her euthanized while I sat with her. The kids are all devastated! Which is a good sign, really. I am heartbroken. Not a great way to start the New Year.

[Deleted]

I'm sorry for your loss stillmovingforward.

[Malarky]

Hugs, stillworking.

It wasn't an easy thing to do, but the best decision.  We have a cat that we're watching.  As long as she's reasonably comfortable, we'll plug along.  Once she's in distress, we'll have to make the same choice.  

As hard as it was, it's even harder to watch a pet suffer.  

[Jaguar]

My condolences to you and yours, stillmovingforward

[Sam_2.0]

So sorry for your loss, stillworking.

[busymom]

I'm so sorry, stillmovingforward. 

Regarding kid's bedrooms, DD's is packed to the gills.  I really hope she gets a lot of her things organized before she leaves for her internship. 

[Saving4Norway]

Stillworking

[Deleted]

I'm so sorry Stillworking. :-(

[Deleted]

I have similar issues to many of you with the kids' bedrooms ... 3 of mine don't really live at home anymore but they don't really have their own places either, so they still have their bedrooms here. DS2 has a tiny sublet in Paris that is smaller than his bedroom and doesn't even have room for his double bed (he sleeps on a convertible couch.) DS1 and DD both live / work abroad so this is still their "real" home/base. (DD is doing a one-year postgrad internship in Asia, and DS1 is a humanitarian aid worker.)  

We really don't mind for now. We switched the kids' bedrooms around when DS1 went off to college 10 years ago: we did up the basement bedroom for him, the other 3 kids all "bumped up" to a bigger room and we finally got our guest room back. I figure that if a kid's room gets emptied, DH will just fill it up with more Stuff, so I'm very happy to leave everything as is. 

ETA: DS3 said those clothes were too small for his FB HS site. I called the local consignment shop AGAIN, and she's not taking clothes until Feb, after the sales are over. So I'll probably hang onto them till then, but I'm also trying to find another one. 

[dogmom]

Stillworking, hugs. 

I believe I'm back.  I missed you guys.  I did mange to take down the Christmas tree yesterday and correctly mark the boxes and put them in YES!! a cleaned out closet.  Now for the rest of the house.  .  I started with the bathroom.  Scrubbed and clean.  YEA.  I did make one bedroom look worse before it will look better.   I have one bag of donation items ready to go.  I hope to have two more bags ready to go by the end of the month.  Would like to clean out the dresser drawers and the drawers under the bed, and polish the furniture.  It's dusted so far. .  Anyway, I thought I would stop in and say HI and congratulations on all you did last year, and what will be accomplished this year.

[Deleted]

Welcome back Dogmom! 

[dogmom]

Thanks Debt!!  HUG!  I did take a bit of time this week to also clean out a cabinet or two.  I'm not sure if I will keep count on what we get rid of.  I think more important is how your surroundings stack up to how you want them to be.  Even if it is as simple as keeping the fireplace mantel clutter free.  (Okay, that spot is one of my pet peeves, and, yes, it has exactly one thing on it...a candle.)    I do have some goals, I really hope to meet them.  Thanks for accepting me back. 

[Wisconsin Beth]

Well, my 5 year old boy managed to completely flood the bathroom over New Year's.  Which made DH much more aware of the 2 leaks into the basement.  So I'll be contacting my cousin the plumber for a reliable plumber.  My cousin doesn't do family work, which is fine.  But he IS willing to pass on a name. 

DH moved some stuff to get it out of the drips.  What he missed was the took bucket in the middle of the box that's 3/4 full of water.    I drained it out last night when I found it.  Guess the basement is getting worked on in 2015. 

Also I am damn well going to finish the sandbox for kids and paint DD's room.  And fix the F#$% #$% $%^%&&%$^^& kitchen sink. 

[Sam_2.0]

Yikes, Beth. I hope it all gets fixed soon.

DH is sick so my hopes of getting his side of the closet cleaned out are shot. I cleared out three grocery sacks of things from my closet/drawers/storage tub. The larger the pule grows in the basement the more I consider doing a garage sale in the spring with the neighborhood sale, but I dont know if its worth the effort. I may just go through and inventory everything to get a donation receipt and call it good.

[WholeLottaNothin]

I think of doing garage sales too Sam, especially to get rid of the baby gear as he grows out of it since we are definitely done. But then I think of the time it will take to prepare, which I don't have a lot of to spare right now. I may just donate it to a friend of mine who is currently trying to conceive. But that is just the baby stuff. Fingers crossed she ends up with a boy!

[Martivir]

-heart-Stillworking. 

I had plans for yesterday I really did. I was going to work on purging more baby stuff so I could move what I am keeping into the storage room. All that I got done was get more fish. Found out that the tetras we have do best in schools of five or more. We had two. So all I got done was a trip to PetSmart. The newer ones are getting along well with the original fish. 

I've noticed that the more "help" I have around, the less that actually gets done. Especially with DH home. He'll get a bug in his ear sometimes and get stuff done but never what I ask him to do. The last time he did something I asked was when they had the e-waste event down the street and he gave me a few things. "Well if you are going anyways I might as well". At least now it's illegal to toss e-waste at the curb in our state so hopefully the events are more frequent and we get a closer regular drop off point. And if I get outside family like my mom and aunts helping... well it's a disaster because they think they get a say in what should be kept and purged. 

Since it's just DS and I today I think I'm going to finish going through his clothes and maybe repack some of the baby stuff in the basement. My friend is willing to store it in her basement till our friend moves back to the area. Don't care as long as it's out of mine.

And on the kids rooms. My mom was moving her craft stuff into my brother's room as he was moving his stuff out. All junk left behind had to be in totes to be stored in the basement. And mine( the smaller one) was left as is except that it was called the guest room. We had one year from moving into a house to get all of our junk out. I think we still have some stuff there but it's so buried that we can't get to it. 

[Malarky]

Christmas is packed away neatly, near the bulkhead door.  I didn't do as much purging as I hoped, but it's all located so that maybe this year when the warm weather hits, I'll drag it out into the back yard and thoroughly purge and organize.  

In the process, I managed to organize a bit more of the basement.  That really isn't on my radar right now, but since I had to move crap anyway, I took advantage.  

The rest of the house in the "worse before it gets better" stage.  I have piles of crap to sort, organize and count.  I'm just taking a break right now.  

This project isn't going to be as popular as the last one I posted on my project board (30 Meals in 30 Days) but I've put it out there so the whole family can join in if they choose.

[startsmart]

I think my count is 2 because I tossed a few Christmas candles that had seen better days. Unfortunately the cold I got a week ago has moved to my chest so I'm coughing something fierce and have 2 client calls today.

My living room and kitchen area is a mess of half finished projects and dirty dishes since in going through a water bottle or glass of juice every hour. The electrician bumped up his visit to Saturday so I have one less day to get things cleaned up.

I need to make another trip to consignment Saturday, my goal is 5 pairs of pants and 5 jackets or sweaters.

[Angel!]

Well I got nothing done yesterday. My goal for this weekend is to get the tree & all decorations put away.  I need to get things just cleaned up too because my Mom is staying with the kids Monday & Tuesday, so the house needs to be in reasonable condition.

[bobosensei]

Well, I got the tree down, but we can't dispose of it until Monday. DH threw it out the window and it is outside waiting to be hauled off.  I'll have DH deal with the old puzzles then too.  The rest of the decorations are down, but I haven't put the usual stuff back up yet so the house looks a bit empty right now.

I threw out 3 old christmas stockings, and I have 4 sets of 220 volt christmas lights to give away since this was our last Christmas here.  I have 2 of them nicely sorted and 2 more to go.  Not much else I could get rid of in the Christmas boxes.

I didn't get to the library or grocery store, but we had some stuff in the freezer that needed to be eaten and it wasn't worth a trip to the library without going to the store.  I will get these things done tomorrow though.

I also did a load of laundry, made my bed, did some cooking (baked bread, made some peanut sauce, some marinated olives and feta, and some rice for the dogs), and I worked out.  Before bed I'll have to do a quick sweep of the house to get it back in decent shape.  It's looking a bit too "lived in" at the moment.

[WholeLottaNothin]

My goal is to purge at least 20 things this weekend. I think I can do much more than that but I am going to keep it realistic and attainable. Going to go through the medicine cabinet and see what is expired. I may get to 20 right there

[busymom]

I'm multi-tasking today. Actually, sort of running from one thing to the next. Mom's laundry is done. I got the first garbage bag of her donations written down (item, size, etc.) & I took pics to prove what was donated.  Then, I drove to drop off Mom's laundry, & got a little shopping in with DD. When we came home, we found a box on our doorstep. DD's textbooks arrived!  (Yes, she's doing an internship, but she'll be doing class time, too.)  I'm starting up my leaky dishwasher now, & getting some more laundry going.  Tonight, I've got to get cracking on some baking, & I'll probably get a healthy start on DD's FAFSA, although I doubt I'll complete it tonight.