2015 Declutter and Get Organized Thread

[Wisconsin Beth]

I don't even know where to start in our bedroom.  Actually, I do know.  If I want it decluttered, I'd have to get rid of DH too because a solid 3/4 of everything IN the bedroom is his.  I don't even has a dresser drawer in there (hence my pile of clothes on the dresser...)

[Sam_2.0]

Jan 14, 2015 14:15:23 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

I don't even know where to start in our bedroom.  Actually, I do know.  If I want it decluttered, I'd have to get rid of DH too because a solid 3/4 of everything IN the bedroom is his.  I don't even has a dresser drawer in there (hence my pile of clothes on the dresser...)

That's my DH too. He has two dressers and 3/4 of the closet, and STILL piles clothes on top of my dresser. I got rid of 50+ items of clothing from my closet. I was hoping it would inspire him to do the same, but so far no luck.

[Chocolate Lover]

Do what I do, just do it for him.  DH has never asked where something I gave away was.

[Deleted]

Jan 14, 2015 15:05:29 GMT -5 Chocolate Lover said:

Do what I do, just do it for him.  DH has never asked where something I gave away was.

This is what I do with the kids a lot.  If I ask if I can toss it they freak because that rock is "really important", but if it's just gone it never comes up again. 

[Deleted]

My DH would know if I got rid of anything.

When I get fed up I tell him, somebody needs to go through your clothes, very soon. Do you want to do it, or shall I? DH knows I'm ruthless so he always agrees (but I only do that once every year or two).

[Chocolate Lover]

My DH wears the same 5 things most days and you only need so many dress clothes when you don't go to church. He couldn't care less if I toss something, he'd be happy if I would do more. 

[aprilleigh]

Jan 14, 2015 13:35:24 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

I'm glad your DH is recognizing the hard work you're doing Martivir. 

A few weeks ago, I had tv on and found some Lost History show that had something on the Titanic coming up.  So I dvr'd it and ran it a couple of days ago.  The narrator/host guy does a couple of promos for "lost history item that are found in attics, etc." to roughly paraphrase.  I'm 100% damn sure that there is NOTHING in my house that is a loss to the world if it gets destroyed.  But I told DH that we are not EVER going to tell his dad about this show.  DH agreed.  His dad likes to keep everything because "it's old, it's valuable"  Um, it's an old camera.  One of thousands that were made, bought and used in the 50s.  Toss it please so we don't have to. 

LOL. I'm sure you won't want to hear this, but (certain) old film cameras are making a huge come back! My husband "flips" antique & vintage cameras. In fact, he listed one on Etsy last night for $675, and sold it this morning! He paid $100 for it. I'm sure you just used "camera" as an example, but if you want, you could PM the model and I could see if my husband could tell you what it's worth. Unless that would open a whole ugly can of worms!!  

[Wisconsin Beth]

That would open up a can of worms.  But I appreciate the thought behind the offer. 

[Saving4Norway]

Jan 14, 2015 14:09:12 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

I'm pretty sure it's going to take the whole month to declutter the master bedroom. 

I read Day #2 as get everything out of the master bedroom whose permanent home is NOT the master bedroom. As in, the hair brush actually belongs in the bathroom; get the coffee cups back to the kitchen; WHY is there an extra bag of dog food under the bed??

[startsmart]

I'm rethinking my goals this week... I really need to declutter the car since I'm going to be spending more time commuting for a personal project over the next few months. I currently have 2 bags of dog food and a case of water in the trunk. And it realllllly needs a vacuum since I had the dogs in there before Christmas. 

As soon as my friend moves into her new apartment I can reclaim my garage (she's taking my old couch) and I have so many plans! 

This afternoon I cleaned up the dog poop in the backyard and (of course) started thinking about making some changes, having a landscaper out... I just need to a) keep up the cleaning and b) replace the gutters. Those are my priorities this year!

Oh, and the guest room still smells musty, like there's something gone bad. Just called and have a company coming out to inspect and let me know what's going on so I can get repairs done if needed or figure out if there's something in the room causing the smell. From the phone convo it shouldn't be too expensive to patch the roof so hopefully I can take care of this sooner rather than later. 

[Martivir]

Two grocery bags of kid clothes gone and two more scheduled on their way out tomorrow. And waiting on someone to see if a third is on it's way out as well. DH is starting to see some of his computer stuff as available to declutter. Not exactly to just donate but he's more open to getting it out if he knows someone who is looking for it. 

[dogmom]

I went through a box of old CD's and cassettes today.  Cleaned out and waxed the entertainment center.  Wow, they were a mess.  Amazing what gets packed away and forgotten about.  We had I think four old Walkman's.  (remember those?)    The ones that worked get donated, the ones that didn't, get electronic recycle (town has one going on this weekend). 

Also went through a box of old paperwork.  The shredder got a workout 

[startsmart]

Counted up the items I've taken out so far and I'm up to 68. That's not including the 2 bins of stuff I have to donate. What helps is that I found a small container full of mismatching socks. WHYYYY!! From the state of a few of them I think the youngest dog used them as chew toys so I tossed all but 4 pair which were clean and matched and non-chewed and are going to Goodwill. 

Finished today: 
picked up the leaves outside
scrubbed toilets


Still to do: 
big basket of clothes to put away
refill the dog food container

[Deleted]

Jan 14, 2015 15:45:44 GMT -5 aprilleigh said:

Jan 14, 2015 13:35:24 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

I'm glad your DH is recognizing the hard work you're doing Martivir. 

A few weeks ago, I had tv on and found some Lost History show that had something on the Titanic coming up.  So I dvr'd it and ran it a couple of days ago.  The narrator/host guy does a couple of promos for "lost history item that are found in attics, etc." to roughly paraphrase.  I'm 100% damn sure that there is NOTHING in my house that is a loss to the world if it gets destroyed.  But I told DH that we are not EVER going to tell his dad about this show.  DH agreed.  His dad likes to keep everything because "it's old, it's valuable"  Um, it's an old camera.  One of thousands that were made, bought and used in the 50s.  Toss it please so we don't have to. 

LOL. I'm sure you won't want to hear this, but (certain) old film cameras are making a huge come back! My husband "flips" antique & vintage cameras. In fact, he listed one on Etsy last night for $675, and sold it this morning! He paid $100 for it. I'm sure you just used "camera" as an example, but if you want, you could PM the model and I could see if my husband could tell you what it's worth. Unless that would open a whole ugly can of worms!!  

Oh good Lord. If I PM you with info/pics, could your husband take a look at ours or let me know where I could find info? DH decided we needed to keep all the old cameras that we found in my house when packing it up after my dad died. Some were my grandparents, I'm guessing, but heaven forbid I just get rid of them. They might be worth something when he's dead. Sorry pal but we could use the money now and it won't do me any good if I'm in prison for your murder.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

So, this week, my goal is to take care of the living rooms. Neither should take more than 30 minutes.
I want to:
1. Label the cords; get rid of unnecessary cords
2. Purge the unnecessary picture frames
3. Clean out the baskets that are holding goodness knows what
4. Clean out the blue bowl (supposed to be for keys and earbuds. They seem to have mated and produced weird things.)
5.

While cleaning out the baskets, I found my car/house keys. I lost them November 2013. I have no idea how they got there. 

[Angel!]

So last night I was on a roll. I was supposed to be working, so I think I decluttered to avoid that. It started because I was annoyed at all the junk sitting on top of my drawer organizer in my closet...one of those 5 drawer clear plastic things that I think someone posted a pic of earlier.

So I started cleaning off the top and just tossing stuff. Then just got into it and started going through all the drawers. I was amazed how much junk was in there. Filled 2 small trash bags and had a 4 inch stack of papers to recycle. I still need to do more because a lot of what I kept needs to go elsewhere, but I was too tired to put it away.

[snapdragon]

I had to clean out my car last weekend. I am amazed at how much stuff I had in there! But now I need to go through everything I brought up into the house.   My living room is insane right now and I am starting to get to the point where it's really starting to bug me. So I hope to do some cleaning this weekend.

[aprilleigh]

Jan 14, 2015 22:53:40 GMT -5 @empressspunkles said:

Jan 14, 2015 15:45:44 GMT -5 aprilleigh said:

LOL. I'm sure you won't want to hear this, but (certain) old film cameras are making a huge come back! My husband "flips" antique & vintage cameras. In fact, he listed one on Etsy last night for $675, and sold it this morning! He paid $100 for it. I'm sure you just used "camera" as an example, but if you want, you could PM the model and I could see if my husband could tell you what it's worth. Unless that would open a whole ugly can of worms!!  

Oh good Lord. If I PM you with info/pics, could your husband take a look at ours or let me know where I could find info? DH decided we needed to keep all the old cameras that we found in my house when packing it up after my dad died. Some were my grandparents, I'm guessing, but heaven forbid I just get rid of them. They might be worth something when he's dead. Sorry pal but we could use the money now and it won't do me any good if I'm in prison for your murder.

Absolutely! Let me know about where you live, also, if you're comfortable with that. He has photographer friends all around the country, so he might  be able to find a buyer for you, too! 

[Martivir]

It's fish tank day. First time cleaning one larger than a two gallon starter tank. And I learned not to microwave frozen brine shrimp. Now I need to clean that as well. But the fish loved them when I just tossed them in frozen.

[Wisconsin Beth]

Just remember to let the new water age before you put it back in!  We (my parents and I) have killed off more fish by thinking "oh, it's only 1/3 of the 10 gallon tank, they'll be fine"  nope.  But then again, there's a reason we stuck with feeder goldfish and neon tetras (when we wanted something fancy...)

[Martivir]

We have red eyed tetras. We use the stuff that allows us to put it right in the tank. Otherwise I would have 10 gallons of water sitting in my living room for a couple of days. And either the one fish ate way too much for we are about to get baby fish. Reminds me of when I got the supposedly male gerbil and the next day I came home to six cute little pink jelly beans. 

[mizbear]

Start- Hope you feel better!

The master bedroom at my place tends to be a catch all because no one is allowed in my room. That is something we are changing.

We are decluttering the kitchen right now, as well as getting trash and recycling out, running laundry and taking care of 2 assignments I need to finish.

[Wisconsin Beth]

We've used that stuff too.  We still lost fish.   

[megaptera]

Well, I just threw out (recycling, that is) about a million of the kids' old school papers (and I'm still not finished). I'd almost rather stab my eye out than declutter paperwork, be it school papers or stuff that needs to be filed.

What is everyone else's least favorite thing/room to declutter?

[Wisconsin Beth]

All of it. 

[Deleted]

Clothing.

I now have at least 7 totes and a couple laundry baskets full of clothes strewn about my room.  Some is useable, some fits older son, some is too small but too big for younger son, some is too small for younger son, but could be given to my ex for his little ones, some should just be tossed out.

It's been driving me nuts for months.

[Chocolate Lover]

Paper. Paper, paper, paper. It's the bane of my existence. I don't know how it can reproduce  faster than a wet Gremlin, but it does! 

[Martivir]

Jan 15, 2015 14:44:05 GMT -5 Wisconsin Beth said:

We've used that stuff too.  We still lost fish.   

One thing I didn't know before we got these ones was that a temp change of four degrees is enough to kill a fish. So I'm sitting in the kitchen with a thermometer checking the temp of each gallon jug to make sure it's between 72 and 78 degrees.  

[Martivir]

And the last of the bags of clothes fell through. One person never got back to me and the other is having problems picking them up and said she would pass. I think I'm just going to send them all to the goodwill. Not worth it to me to re-list things multiple times to get someone to take them. I do have an issue with liking to know where my stuff goes but if I don't start now getting over it, I'll never get rid of anything. 

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Jan 15, 2015 14:49:18 GMT -5 megaptera said:

What is everyone else's least favorite thing/room to declutter?

The garage, for several reasons. 
It's cold. And unattractive. And big. And there's stuff I don't want to acknowledge that I have, not because it's inappropriate but because it's just overwhelming. And it's not easily organized. Even with it being organized, It's hard to remember where stuff is because it's not stuff we use on a regular basis. So frustrating.