2018 Get Organized & Declutter Your Stuff

[Waffle]

debthaven, Yes I'm still doing antiques. There's a few things I'll have to change - she used to do simple reupholstery. I don't have her skill or at the moment the time to do that - so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the "project furniture". No more buying pieces of furniture that it takes two people to move. I actually just rented another space in the local antique mall, so that I can hopefully get rid of more of the inventory that's in various places throughout the house. I also hope to focus more on the Ebay part of the business this year. I love the antique business - I frankly think continuing it will be good for my mental health.

[Iggy aka IG]

Jan 3, 2018 19:14:40 GMT -5 oped said:

[snip]

He also got extra shelves in the hall ... was supposed to be my pantry? Its kind of a catch all room at the moment. I'm going to organize that tomorrow. He actually put one extra high shelf in (We have high ceilings) and so I MIGHT put some appliances, etc up there since I have the extra space, with the rule that, if they do not come down to be used at least once in the next 6 months... they leave. Put off some decisions. Otherwise I have to organize and clean and I have more bins, etc. to put in there. 


Then i'll go upstairs and start pulling down boxes since i'll have a place to put things!  eta... actually I might do kitchen cabinets next? We'll see where it leads. 

I did this over the past several years.  When I put a shout out about the bread and ice cream makers (a gift from my dad and never used) for sale, even for $10, I was surprised there were no takers...?  The bread maker went to a thrift store.  A few years later, the ice cream maker and a toaster oven went to a local Boy Scout Troop for their fundraising yard sale.  I did manage to sell a rice maker to a friend for $10.  (Purchased by DH for me, he thought it would serve as a slow cooker as well.  It didn't.)

Here's to more cupboard and counter space!

[seriousthistime]

Waffle, I am so sorry about your mother.  

Ditto on what everyone says about losing one's mother.  We are never ready.  

My mother was widowed at a young age, with three small kids.  Years later, she remarried and they were together for 31 years until she died.  Stepfather died the year after she did.  Between those two deaths, my marriage exploded.  I so wanted to talk to my mother about how she handled the grief and disappointment of being robbed of the life she thought she had when my father died so suddenly.  But she was gone, and I could never process it with her.  In some ways, the grief of her not being around never ends. 

If it's any consolation to you, it's been almost 15 years and I still remember her voice, clear as day.

 

[nidena]

The other thing that I succumbed to but have since remedied: I figured that since I had the cabinet space, I needed to fill it.  There are 23 cabinet doors in my kitchen.  Only 15 have stuff behind them; 11 out of 12 drawers have stuff in them.  I remind myself often: You don't need to fill it up just because it's there. 

[dee27]

Jan 4, 2018 11:10:42 GMT -5 Iggy aka IG said:

Jan 3, 2018 19:14:40 GMT -5 oped said:

[snip]

He also got extra shelves in the hall ... was supposed to be my pantry? Its kind of a catch all room at the moment. I'm going to organize that tomorrow. He actually put one extra high shelf in (We have high ceilings) and so I MIGHT put some appliances, etc up there since I have the extra space, with the rule that, if they do not come down to be used at least once in the next 6 months... they leave. Put off some decisions. Otherwise I have to organize and clean and I have more bins, etc. to put in there. 


Then i'll go upstairs and start pulling down boxes since i'll have a place to put things!  eta... actually I might do kitchen cabinets next? We'll see where it leads. 

I did this over the past several years.  When I put a shout out about the bread and ice cream makers (a gift from my dad and never used) for sale, even for $10, I was surprised there were no takers...?  The bread maker went to a thrift store.  A few years later, the ice cream maker and a toaster oven went to a local Boy Scout Troop for their fundraising yard sale.  I did manage to sell a rice maker to a friend for $10.  (Purchased by DH for me, he thought it would serve as a slow cooker as well.  It didn't.)

Here's to more cupboard and counter space!

I had extra ice cream makers that I donated to son's daycare facility. The staff was delighted. However, I inadvertently donated the metal insert for my own ice cream machine, too, and I had to buy a new one.

[countrygirl2]

My DIL says DON'T get rid of anything before you ask me, I will take it. LOL!

Not going to happen, son would have a fit if we keep dragging stuff up there.

He is telling her they will only move 18000 pounds, anything over is $1 a pound.

Yep he expects to be moved in 3 to 5 years again.  I think he will be paying a $1

a pound.

[debthaven]

My DH is another one who thinks all the kitchen cupboards need to be filled.

I spent about 3h tonight going through my Job 1 teaching shelf. I had a big paper fire going for hours. I still have one small file left to go through but I'm too tired to finish. I got rid of nearly half of the big pile. I also put last semester's evaluations and marks together, but I need to keep those till July. I usually cull my teaching papers in July but for some reason I did that big pile now, and I was ruthless.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Peter Walsh's

2018 #31Days2Organized

Day Four

Nightstands

Clean off AND Clean out all the nightstands!

Make the drawers decluttered and pristine!

[busymom]

Sorry Kids, no progress for me this week.  This virus, or whatever, is kicking my butt, & I had to cancel the contractor until next week.  I'm doing a crazy amount of sleeping, but hoping to be feeling better by next week.  

[dee27]

Jan 4, 2018 10:38:52 GMT -5 Waffle said:

debthaven , Yes I'm still doing antiques. There's a few things I'll have to change - she used to do simple reupholstery. I don't have her skill or at the moment the time to do that - so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the "project furniture". No more buying pieces of furniture that it takes two people to move. I actually just rented another space in the local antique mall, so that I can hopefully get rid of more of the inventory that's in various places throughout the house. I also hope to focus more on the Ebay part of the business this year. I love the antique business - I frankly think continuing it will be good for my mental health.

What a nice way to honor your mom's memory, declutter your house, and elevate your mood .

[Deleted]

Husband put up my hall ’closet’ shelves. I moved everything from the cupboards to the top shelves. If it comes down to be used it can go back in a cupboard. Otherwise, tossed. 

I also did the utensils in a big box thing  

and otherwise organized the shelves/bins. Feels much better. 

[startsmart]

After 8 hours of coaching today I am exhausted! Still hoping to go to the gym and do a light workout. I did take the dogs to the park for a walk but I am not getting anything else done around the house tonight. 

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Jan 4, 2018 23:31:17 GMT -5 oped said:

Husband put up my hall ’closet’ shelves. I moved everything from the cupboards to the top shelves. If it comes down to be used it can go back in a cupboard. Otherwise, tossed. 

I also did the utensils in a big box thing  

and otherwise organized the shelves/bins. Feels much better. 

Alton Brown is quite against "one use only" kitchen utensils. We've found that to be good guidance in purging and what to not buy.  

[nidena]

Jan 4, 2018 23:38:39 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

Jan 4, 2018 23:31:17 GMT -5 oped said:

Husband put up my hall ’closet’ shelves. I moved everything from the cupboards to the top shelves. If it comes down to be used it can go back in a cupboard. Otherwise, tossed. 

I also did the utensils in a big box thing  

and otherwise organized the shelves/bins. Feels much better. 

Alton Brown is quite against "one use only" kitchen utensils. We've found that to be good guidance in purging and what to not buy.  

I've yet to find another use for my wine bottle opener but I can't see myself parting with it.   And the rolling pin counts as an "thief head bonker" so I'm good there.  

[debthaven]

Hope you feel better soon busymom .

I finished going through that last file of school papers. I guess I'm just trying to exercise a bit of control where I can while they dig up the garden doing a ground survey for the sinking extension before it gets repaired later this year (Gd knows when).

[wvugurl26]

I think the one use thing is good advice for some crazy specialty things. I can't think of many uses for my cookie and cake batter scoops but I'm not giving them up. For myself I try to think if I will really use the item and if it will make my life easier.

[finnime]

Jan 5, 2018 8:03:00 GMT -5 wvugurl26 said:

I think the one use thing is good advice for some crazy specialty things. I can't think of many uses for my cookie and cake batter scoops but I'm not giving them up. For myself I try to think if I will really use the item and if it will make my life easier.

I agree - I'd separate out the recreational/hobby/special use items because they matter in my mad baking efforts, kind of like special art tools. The rest of the stuff can go, though.

[Lizard Queen]

I think unitaskers are okay if you do that uni task fairly often. If I didn't have my garlic mincer, I'd buy the preminced stuff in a jar, wasting money.

[nikiz628]

I think I want to play here this year! I generally stick to the racers/savers threads but I set my word for 2018: LESS. It's meant to take many forms, like less clutter. less junk. less chaos. I kind of started decluttering after Christmas when I was finding new homes for the kids' toys, etc. Just doing that filled an entire trash bag full of literal garbage. But I want to really work my way through the house this year and scale it back. My goal will be to purge 2,018 items this year. Can't wait to help cheer you all on this year! 

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Thursday was busy but not productive in the way I wanted it to be. Happy Friday!

[nikiz628]

Today I will continue working on my digital decluttering. I have already backed up all the photos on all my devices, and cleaned up 1 email account. I am working on unsubscribing to irrelevant emails as they come in too.  I want to clean up my bookmarks and other online items as well. 

[Chocolate Lover]

I don't have any specific goals number wise, but my first project needs to be the pots and pans and tupperware stuff. If I had more than 3 cabinets total for everything it would probably seem rather minimalist. 

[debthaven]

Chloe, I can post the Peter Walsh challenges too most days, but my posts certainly won't be as pretty as yours. I'll post Day 5 but please tell me if you mind.

Day 5: Sock drawer. Take 10 minutes to get rid of stretched or worn out socks, and neatly pair up what's left.

It's funny because I am generally a total declutterer/neatnik, but I started the PW challenges the year after he started them ... maybe 2013? I even went back and did the previous year that summer. They used to be 20 minutes per day. Then they went to 15 min per day. Now they're 10 min per day.


DS3 and I thought 12th Night was tomorrow but turns out it is today. So we took the tree down and put Christmas away. There are still two presents on the floor (one for Baby, and DS2's gift that arrived after Christmas).

I made DH go through the magazines today, and we culled the pile by about 1/3. What's left should really be boxed up and put into the basement but with the current house issues, the basement, like the two master bedrooms, are all in waiting mode. Most of the magazines that are left have photos of our kids and travels from when they were young, or my freelance articles, so we want to hang onto those. (I was a scholastic magazine writer/editor in my former lifetime, and DH was a scholastic graphic designer in his.)

DS1, DDIL and Baby! arrive late tonight, leave tomorrow morning for his Dad's 60th 1.5h away, come back on Sun, and go back home to the UK on Mon. But they'll be back for a week in Feb! I am on a reduced schedule next week (1.5 days instead of 3.5 days). In the end I'm working 3.5 days most weeks this semester, instead of 4 full days like last semester. I'll still have plenty of prep and marking, but I'll have an extra half-day during the week which I'm VERY happy about. 

This weekend
- A's coffee on Sat
- declutter kitchen buffet drawer

We remodeled our kitchen in May/June 2016, so it's still in great shape. We have a small buffet with dishes we don't use often. It has one drawer and two shelves. That drawer tends to be the "junk drawer" so I want to go through it this weekend.

[WholeLottaNothin]

Does anyone have any recommendations for a new mattress? I've decided to declutter constant backaches for 2018.

[debthaven]

WholeLottaNothin we LOVE the mattress we got two years ago, but I could not find the equivalent brand in the US (I looked for my sister). We got it because DS2 got one when his grandparents gave him a double bed.  Our best friends got the same one and they're thrilled with theirs too.

Maybe you'll have better luck finding it in the US?

Otherwise you might consider posting on YM. I know Kittensaver posted about an organic mattress, and Works4Sarah got the same one. You could look through old YM threads too.

ETA: Oops, forgot to say, it's a Pirelli Climo.

[midjd]

Jan 5, 2018 15:39:44 GMT -5 WholeLottaNothin said:

Does anyone have any recommendations for a new mattress? I've decided to declutter constant backaches for 2018.

We bought a LUCID memory foam mattress from Amazon just before Thanksgiving and so far I love it. The price was comparable to what we paid for a (smaller) spring mattress in 2010 and that one was less than comfortable for the last few years.

We got the 13” but they are available in a range of thicknesses. Very little odor, even when you take it out of the delivery shrink wrap.

[startsmart]

Well, now I'm going backwards! I just picked up the items that didn't sell from the charity consignment shop so those are staying in my car so I can drop off at Goodwill this weekend. 

But the good news is that someone I know is moving and wants the huge stack of boxes and bags of packing material that I've got taking up room in my garage so WIN. I hope to get some cleaning done in the garage this weekend but it's going to depend on the weather. THere's a leak in the window seal of my convertible so I can't leave it outside in rainy weather for too long.

I need to box up or move the scrapbooks on my nightstand to make a little more room. I laid out the things I use every day (deodorant, toner, perfume, etc) on a nice little tray so it's all corralled but I also need to set up something similar in the bathroom for face cleaner and such. 

[debthaven]

This weekend
- pharmacy/Fri
- declutter kitchen buffet drawer/Fri
- clear up under the kitchen sink/Fri
- take magazines down to the basement/Fri
- finish decluttering the jasmine tea/Fri
- A's coffee/Sat

DS1's train was 45 min late so I did the kitchen buffet drawer tonight. Got rid of a lot of odds and ends like old phone boxes and broken garden timers. It looks much better now! We also took the magazines down to the basement, although they're not boxed up yet.

[dee27]

Shredded a bunch of papers today that are not needed to do our taxes.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Just out of curiousity, I counted my kitchen cupboards and drawers: 27 cupboards, four of which we only use to  display my grandmother's china. 
Nine drawers. That's an interesting thought to see how many I could empty. 

WholeLottaNothin, we have one of the adjustable bases for our bed with a Serta mattress that is designed for it. If you want the specifics, let me know. We went that route when DH had a fall off of an eight foot ladder onto a concrete slab. They are not cheap though, and we were in a fortunate financial position to be able to pay cash for one. It does help significantly with aches and pains. 


debthaven, absolutely feel free to post the challenges. I normally have time in the morning before I depart for work. However, DH's leg is in a walking cast, so he cannot drive. My chauffer-ing put a cramp in my morning routine. 

nikiz628, welcome!

countrygirl2, I'm sorry the grandbaby has left. I know you'll be less exhausted, but not being able to see him everyday will be hard. 


whoisjohngalt, Lena, where are you!!! 


busymom, I hope you feel better soon. 


Sharon, how've you been?