2015 Declutter and Get Organized Thread

[Malarky]

Calling it quits for the day.  

The living room and dining room are in great shape.  Cleaned, dusted, vacuumed.  The plants are watered.

The kitchen, not so much.  That's where I dumped all the stuff I haven't dealt with yet.  

I started the day by paying bills, dropping bills at the post office, taking DD to DD (Dunkin' Donuts) and then to someone's house to drive her to practice (an hour away!!) While I was out, I stopped at the bank and dropped off bottles at the liquor store.  All by 8 am.

Came home and discovered I forgot to pick up milk for my coffee.  I don't drink Dunks.  
Luckily, DS was taking yard waste to the , so he got it for me, otherwise, I would have accomplished nothing.  ( -lightbulb-I should add the 5 things I sent with him!)

Then I hit the floor running and have been cleaning and organizing ever since.  

Somewhere in there, I tossed dinner together-the beef and gravy were already done for the beef stew, I just had to pull it out of the freezer and add veggies and noodles.  

I'm combining toss and recycle into one category for convenience sake.  

Today's totals:  2 paper grocery bags full of recycled paper and cardboard.
                       1 kitchen trash can full of recyclable water bottles, etc.
                       1 kitchen trash can full of actual trash.

If I count the pages individually, I think I already hit goal.  
Instead, I'm calling it 50 and done with it.

I have about 30 things in a box I haven't counted yet because they're still here.  Plus, I passed a bunch of stuff in the basement that I'm planning on rehoming.  

Feeling pretty good about day one.  Tomorrow is the real challenge, dealing with crap I dumped in the kitchen.

[Martivir]

I finished going through DS's dresser. Going through things with him is hilarious. He gave me permission to donate some items that I thought he loved. His reasons for getting rid of? One was too red, another was too scary, and one he took out of my hands and flung it as hard as he could into the tote. All this while trying to avoid it by pretending he was sleeping. Didn't complain when he actually did take a three hour nap because I took a short one as well. So didn't get to the stuff in the basement. Ah well. 

[3catslady]

I brought the tub in and opened it to see what I would be dealing with.  It's all material tablecloths, napkins, and curtains from my Mother's place.  She has been gone about 7 years or more.  I guess it's time to go through and see what I want and put the rest in a box for the church.  Tomorrow should be fun.

[Jaguar]

Jan 2, 2015 21:54:07 GMT -5 3catslady said:

I brought the tub in and opened it to see what I would be dealing with.  It's all material tablecloths, napkins, and curtains from my Mother's place.  She has been gone about 7 years or more.  I guess it's time to go through and see what I want and put the rest in a box for the church.  Tomorrow should be fun.

[busymom]

<HUGS> to 3catslady!  It is REALLY hard when a much-loved parent is gone to get rid of their things.

I'm pleased to report that FAFSA is done for now (until our taxes are done, & in the IRS's system).  So nice not to have THAT to look forward to. 

[plugginaway22]

Only goal for this weekend is to have all Christmas put away before we are traveling next week.  Cold and rain forecast here, so should keep me working inside.

[Saving4Norway]

When DH was checking for a piece of plywood in the attic I also snuck up the ladder and grabbed several (10?) small/medium boxes of who-knows-what and brought them down to the pool table. Some were empty others had old board games, checks from over 20 years ago, AND my wedding veil and that poofy skirt thing that goes under your dress!
So now DH and I are watching bowl games and shredding old checks.

[Jaguar]

Every little bit that you find and purge counts.

[Deleted]

I heard back from the other consignment shop ... they don't take kids' clothes anymore.

I'm going to hold onto this one bag of DS3's clothes till Feb when the lady at the local consignment shop says she'll take them. Whatever she doesn't take, I'll give to my friend at work. I usually don't care but there are a lot of expensive clothes this time so I'd really like DS3 to get a bit of money for them (we didn't buy those clothes, his Gdmother did.) I'm going to try my old wedding dress there too. 

[Sam_2.0]

Christmas is packed away. Random fall decorations are put up too. Storage room roughly organized - will have to wait for another time when baby isnt crying. DHs bar glasses are back downstairs (had brought up for NYE). Laundry is all caught up - including diapers! Both kids bathed - friend's wedding this afternoon.
And I made banana muffins to use up the frozen nanas.

[Saving4Norway]

Man! shredding 15 boxes of checks took FOREVER! Now, I want to remove everything from the floor of my office (within reason) and do a good sweep. Ready, set GO! 

[busymom]

DS & I just got back from Mom's house. We didn't fill her dumpster this time, but we did add more to it.

Tomorrow I've got to get caught up on laundry. But, I'll probably get started on it tonight.

[3catslady]

I have gone through the tub.  I am thinking I will keep what will go with my dishes each month.  As some of you know, I change my place setting every month and I have at least 14 different place settings.  I only buy a single service since I live by myself.  If I get company then there will be different service for each person. I change the tablecloth, napkins and curtains.  I am still short on curtains but I am not buying any until I get through all the tubs and see what is there.  I did laundry today, only whites, and washed up 2 tablecloths, 6 napkins, and a doily that Mom embroidered.  They are packed away until I need them.

Next week I work 2 jobs and will not have the time I did this week so I am planning on going through shoe boxes of cloth squares that Mom cut up for quilts.  I am going to put like colors together and like sizes together.  I think there are 12 boxes so that will take me a little while.  I think I'll try for 2 boxes a week and if I get more done that's okay.  On my list of 20 for the year, I have 3 crossed off.  I will be adding to the list but not until I get a couple more crossed off.

[Martivir]

Listed 6 items for sale and took a diaper box and then some over to my friend who is storing the baby stuff for our friend who is currently out of state. Freed up two boxes that I can use for donations and got rid of a kitchen garbage bag of junk. It packed neatly into a diaper box and the baby tub. I think I can DH to do some shredding tomorrow. He is the one who hoards paperwork after all. 

And DS goes back to school on Monday. Love him dearly but I get more done when he's gone. 

[startsmart]

I'm really going to miss these long holiday weekends... it feels like Sunday already. 

I had the electrician come by and review what I want done. He'll work up some quotes for me to do: 
1. add 2 outlets to the garage
2. add an outlet to the hall closet
3. add a can light in the shower stall
4. install 4 can lights in the kitchen

We'll probably do that work in batches as he has time. Oh and he also replaced my lightbulb in the living room light that was stuck (in about 2 seconds - arg!). 

I'm working on cooking up some stuff for the week ahead including boiling chicken breasts, making a casserole and steamed a bunch of veggies. 

If I can get the big tub of garden stuff sorted tomorrow I'll be happy - that should fill up a big trash bag for Goodwill. 

I did pull out all my donation receipts for 2014 and made all new file folders for my 2015 bills and paperwork. Sending in my receipts for processing Monday and already hung the new bag on the fridge to fill up. 

[tcu2003]

Unpacked two boxes in the office/scrapbook room and put that stuff away. Maybe I'll finally get everything unpacked this quarter so I can do some actual crafting sometime soon.

DH and I also went through our junk drawer and the misc mail/daycare paper pile, and recycled and shredded a bunch of stuff.

[Angel!]

I had a super productive day!  Got the tree taken down and all the Christmas stuff packed up into the garage.  Threw out a lot of old/broken decorations, started a donations pile, and got my laundry room back into an almost usable state.  Probably won't get much more done tomorrow, but at least got a lot done today.

I was frustrated with DS2 for a while because I couldn't figure out at first why he wanted to throw everything into the trash.  I finally had to put the trashcan out of reach after digging out too many toys.  Then I realized they have really been working with him on putting stuff away at daycare, so I think the trashcan was the only place he could figure out to put things away.  So I gave him a really big box & showed him to throw toys in there & he picked up quite a bit on his own.

[Saving4Norway]

Jan 3, 2015 14:52:53 GMT -5 Saving4Norway said:

Man! shredding 15 boxes of checks took FOREVER! Now, I want to remove everything from the floor of my office (within reason) and do a good sweep. Ready, set GO! 

I forgot the "within reason" part... Oh well, a good deep cleaning every 10 years isn't a bad thing, right?

[Malarky]

Another successful day of decluttering!

I managed to get through about 50% of the crap I brought into the kitchen, most of which doesn't belong in there.

Since I was in the kitchen, I couldn't help but cook.  Two loaves of bread, a batch of broccoli soup and a ham and cheese calzone.  

While I was at it, I did some decluttering of the fridge.  I spend so much time at work between the middle of October until Christmas that I tend to let some things go.  There was some seriously scary stuff in there!    Luckily, I did so much batch cooking earlier in the fall so we ate well.  We just clearly shoved leftovers to the back and left them there.  Gravy from Thanksgiving?  Anyone?

Also finished filling, emptied and refilled the dishwasher.  It's running again now, thanks to the fridge clean out. I also worked in three loads of laundry (easy peasy-it's right off the kitchen).  Then I had the added bonus of dismantling the dryer hose that was completely clogged again!  Not what I wanted to do at 10 at night.

Another full grocery bag of shredded and recycled. 
Another full trash bag ready to go.
My box of to be donated items is close to overflowing-still won't count those til they're gone.

I'm giving myself credit for another 50 today.  It was probably more but I forget to count when I get really involved.

I'm determined to finish the shytepiles in the kitchen tomorrow.  They should generate at least one more bag of shredded paper.

[stillmovingforward]

I got 4 upper cupboards cleaned out and organized in the kitchen. Only 15 more to go. And the drawers..........I have 15 of those to go thru too.

I have a car load of stuff to take to the thrift store and I'll do that tomorrow. I am doing MAJOR purging finally. I am going to guess at 100 items in the car now to go? Many of them some good books.

I need to do laundry. And vacuum.

[Deleted]

You guys are on fire lol! 

DS3 and I took down the tree ornaments this morning. I'm waiting for DH to go through several years of Xmas cards that he stashed in the decorations box, and then I can put the box in the basement. The tree will go out to the wood pile on Tuesday (12th Night). 

[marvholly]

I decluttered a BUNCH of old paper stuff in the kitchen this morning. Into recycle went old health insurance stuff (except membership card in case I need info for taxes) and PILE of coupon inserts that were more than 6 months old. Thee is MORE than enough to fill another brown paper grocery bag.

[3catslady]

I am taking the rest of the tub to the laundromat and wash it with my clothes.  I have another tub started with the items I want to keep.  The other things will go in donation boxes for my GF's church.  I can then bring in a box of squares and start that item.  I have a couple of empty plastic shoe boxes that I can use for the colors.

Have a great day.  It's supposed to rain off and on all day so a good day to stay in.

edited: Didn't make it to the laundromat.  I took a nap instead.  It will get done on Wednesday when I do my laundry again.

[Sharon]

Wow everyone is off to a great start.

Yesterday I got the house pretty much nice and clean, still need to vacuum.  The kitchen is looking great, got the pile of mail that hangs out there whittled down to what is necessary, cleaned up all the ads I was keeping in case I needed some last minute Christmas shopping.  Returned Mom's pie plate and container.  I also got rid of 22 cassette tapes that were left over from a spanish class I took over 20 years ago.

This morning I cleaned out one drawer in my desk, while watching Swagbucks TV , found some stuff that needs to go back to the safe deposit box and shredded a while pile of stuff.  I also cleaned off the extra table that sits next to the desk and shredded a bunch of receipts etc.

The calendar for the new year is ready to go and hanging up.  The birthday's/anniversarys have all been transferred over.

[sp08]

Wow - I am so glad I found this thread!  You all are really getting me motivated.  Our basement has been a disaster for years.  We have boxes from 3 moves ago.  So, we spent the last few days going through boxes and boxes and more boxes.  I can't believe the crap we had!  Boxes of old magazines (why did we keep them) Boxes of old bank statements and checks dating back to 1988!  OMG!  We have gone through so much in just 2 days, but still have lots more to go.  I just also noted on my calendar when our county's household hazardous waste spring collection is, as we'll have lots to drop off there too.  Goal is to have the basement cleaned out and organized by end of January (excluding the stuff that needs to wait for the spring collection).

It feels sooooo good to get rid of clutter and crap!

[stillmovingforward]

BTW- thank you everyone for your *hugs* on the lose of my dear old dog. Today, I'm going to try and pick up her dishes. OMGP (Oh My God Puppy- which is what I say to him a lot) is wandering around still, looking for his 'mamma'.

[sp08]

Oh!  I must have missed that post, Stillworking.  I am so sorry for your loss.  I know the heartbreak.  Hugs to you.

[Malarky]

Welcome aboard, sp08!

You're off to a great start.

I'm curious, did you burn or shred all those papers?  I suspect that my paper shredder isn't going to survive what I have in mind for it, and I don't have a fireplace or fire pit.

I'm contemplating getting one these :

www.amazon.com/Uniflame-C-4301-Newspaper-Log-Roller/dp/B0012M9UZ6/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1420396773&sr=8-5&keywords=paper+log+maker

and burning it all when I go on vacation. It would solve the problem of account numbers and save me from having to actually buy wood this year.

[sp08]

Shredded. 

[dogmom]

Does snow shoveling count? 

I located some old Christmas lights that will be recycled.  (City hall takes them thru 2-7).  Otherwise, packed up a couple of things that I had in a kitchen cabinet that younger sister wants.  A very low key day here.