2019 - Organize Your Life & Declutter Your Stuff

[startsmart]

Hello everyone! I am back from the mountains and settling in for a productive week! for those who don't know my parents bought their retirement house right outside Yosemite Park here in California so I went there for a few days of quiet. We painted their long hallway and got crown molding up in one more bedroom, made 7 dozen cinnamon rolls and I went into Yosemite on Monday. Bonus: government shutdown meant there was no one to take money at the gate so I got in for free! (Saved $30 too) 

Now that I'm home I have a few goals for this week:
1. Deep clean the kitchen countertops + microwave
2. Take the Christmas bins + tree to the storage unit
3. Write down quotes from last year's books 
4. Catch up on laundry
5. Make another batch of cinnamon rolls
6. Tidy up backyard before it rains (Saturday)
7. Finish chapters 1-3 of my book

[plugginaway22]

Startsmart that is awesome! My parents did something similar and lived within an hour of Yellowstone for 8 years before they moved back to the east coast.  So great to be able to visit.

[debthaven]

Yes that's a fantastic location!

[tcu2003]

Peter Walsh’s 31 Days to Get Organized Challenge:


Day 1 -Set up a donation bin. And, everyone in your house finds 5 items to place in the bin.

Day 2 of #31Days2GetOrganized - Shoes. Gather all of your shoes up from your closet. If they have dust on them, don’t fit, etc, put them in your donate bin. Only keep shoes you love, wear, and that fit you well.

#31Days2GetOrganized

[tcu2003]

Jan 2, 2019 8:55:59 GMT -5 finnime said:

I'm impressed by the organization and decluttering work in progress by everyone, and dispirited by what I have to do. It's overwhelming right now, the sorting and cleaning to be done and the major clean-up and work on my home needed.

I don't have the habits of organization. When I do declutter an area it ends up covered again. The one shining thing I was able to organize last year was the part of my too-small kitchen devoted to baking, and it now needs some help again in the wake of the holiday wave. Plus most of my more-expensive clothes are too big now. They make me look dowdy.

Small, medium-term and long-range organization and clean up efforts are needed everywhere. Ugh.

Hang in there. My house is a disaster and I always start the year strong, but usually fall off the organizing bandwagon. I remind myself that it didn’t reach its current unorganized/too much stuff status in a day (or a week or month or even year), and I’m not going to conquer it in a day. I also have two small kiddos (ages 6 and 2), and I think it was underwaterchloe who reminded me in the last year or two that I’m in a season of life right now that is busy and full of things and stuff, so to focus on what I can do.

[mollyanna58]

I took a bin full of sheets that have been stored in the attic for a couple of years, and everything went into the donate pile.

Liberty the dog turned a book into recycling material.

[debthaven]

LOL mollyanna58 !

[imanangel]

I just went through my makeup drawer!!! That is huge for me.  I threw away old mascaras that I don't even use because...well they are old. I tossed lipsticks that I don't wear because they color wasn't right or because they were too old and gross looking. Baby steps!!!

[Malarky]

Hello Everyone,

I still pop in from time to time, but rarely post.

In anticipation of this thread and because I had a few days off, I got a jump start this year.  Unfortunately most projects are started but not finished.

Christmas is all packed up and (finally) organized.  Every bin is labeled.  For the last five years or so I've let the family put stuff away and it was spread all over the basement, even though it has dedicated shelves.  DH needs to carry down the last 5 bins.  I have an excessive amount of Christmas crap-even though I did managed to toss some.  
 

2019 GOALS:

*Organize entire basement

*Organize and maintain spice/baking ingredient cabinet and pantry cupboard

*Donate/toss clothing I don't wear

*Declutter excess weight/make better use of my gym membership


SUCCESSES:

Thanks to all of you and this thread, all my kitchen drawers and dish cupboards are neat, organized and have stayed that way for a year.  I need to tweak it a bit when the family puts stuff away willy nilly, but since everything has a home it doesn't take much to sort it back in order.  


Happy New Year!



 

[debthaven]

Hello Malarky !!! So good to see you again!

I have actually given up on my basement, after 20+ years of fighting DH about it. I realized that as long as DH is alive, his and his late parents' crap will live in my basement. I decided I prefer DH stays around.

I go back to work tomorrow. It's only for 2 hours so I really shouldn't complain. Reduced schedule next week (2 days instead of 4). Back to a full schedule the following week.

ETA: Just for a laugh, for your regulars ... When DS2 called to wish me a happy new year, he said, what can I wish my Mama besides health and happiness? He said, oh, I know! I wish you fewer final exams to mark next semester! So I counted ... I'll have 121 finals instead of 174!!!

[sheilaincali]

I did the heck out of this challenge in 2013- goal was 2013 items and I think we purged out over 3000. Granted a lot of them were books, movies, etc.

We downsized again in the summer of 2017. So our current house is about 1800 sf. The rooms are smaller and we have fewer of them. We are doing "ok" for the most part but there are still some areas where we just shoved stuff when we moved and it isn't very well organized. I know that our mechanical/storage room is a nightmare. I need to get new totes and go through what we have to declutter and organize it better. We bought cheap totes originally and with the move and things being stack on them some of them are in rough shape.

So that's my goal- not so much a specific number of things to get rid of but more of a general decluttering / organization of everything.  The downside of our house is that it has a ton of built in storage so some of the cabinet and closets are full but not at all organized and I know we have duplicate items and items we've never used.

[debthaven]

sheilaincali !!! SO GOOD to "see" you all again! How is The Boy doing?!

I told the bank to make two extra payments to the kitchen loan but our banker's reading comprehension skills aren't great so she only made one. It's probably for the best after Christmas.

So my tagline on the kitchen loan will be accurate on Sat, once the regular payment goes through.

 

[sheilaincali]

debthaven  The Boy is amazing.  He's home on winter break for another week. He's at University of Dayton in Ohio majoring in Computer Engineering. He'll graduate with his first bachelor's in May 2020.  He'll return for a 5th year to do his master's in Computer Engineering and hopefully pick up his 2nd bachelor's in Electrical Engineering (after spring of 2020 he'll be 2 or 3 classes short of this 2nd bachelor's). He spent fall semester as a TA for Thermodynamics and really enjoyed that.  He got a new gig though and is now a research assistant for a joint University/Military 3 year research project researching artificial intelligence and it's potential applications for the unmanned drone program.  They want him to stay on through his master's- he can use all of the research for his thesis. 

He's heading back a week early to visit friends in Columbus and get another tattoo. He'll turn 21 in April.  I was thinking about it the other day and when I first started with these boards back when they were still on MSN I think he was 9? So it's crazy that he's already nearly 21.

How's your family doing? Your youngest is right near Stephen's age IIRC

[debthaven]

That's fantastic! What amazing accomplishments for such a young man!

All the kids are doing well, thank Gd! DS1 and his wife have an 18 MO so I'm a grandma now!

Yes my DS3 is just a month younger than your Stephen! He's doing great too. DS3 is not a STEM kid. He's doing a Bachelors in Politics and International Relations. In Europe a Bachelors is 3 years, not 4. But he's doing his 3-year program in 4 years. That's a thing in the UK, kids can opt to do their 3-year BA or BSc in 4 years, either to improve their language skills, or (in DS3's case) to work for a year. The kids who do that have a great employability rate because they graduate with extra language skills and/or a year of work experience.

DS3 is doing his "placement year" in Brussels, working FT for a US company. He'll go back to his UK university in Sept to do his last year.

Feel free to PM me if you'd like to! I'd love to be back in touch. Just remember the time difference, I'll be going to bed soon.

[busymom]

Hiya sheilaincali!  It's been too long.  Hope life has been treating you well.  (I'll try & PM you, so we can catch up.)



I weighed myself at the local grocery store, and it looks like I "decluttered" another pound or two.     Amazing, since we had so much good food over Christmas week.

[TheOtherMe]

I have found I tend to go in spurts.  My first goal of this year is my t-shirt closet.  

We shall see how tomorrow goes with taking dad on his errands.  It will either happen tomorrow or Friday.

I also want to get back in to scanning family photos.  

If I would clean out the pantry or some cupboard in the kitchen, I am thinking all of Lucy's food, bowls, treats, extra toys could all be in one place.  

[nidena]

Jan 2, 2019 16:26:07 GMT -5 TheOtherMe said:

I have found I tend to go in spurts.  My first goal of this year is my t-shirt closet.  
 

You have a tshirt closet?  I have a sweater closet.  Cardigans, flyaways (hip-length sweaters with no fasteners), and dusters (longer versions of flyaways).  My actual coat closet is downstairs because the sweaters must match what I'm wearing but the coats and jackets need not.  lol

[snapdragon]

I am in for this coming year and I already have a few things to get rid of in my sights! I just need to follow through on getting them out of the house.

[nidena]

Jan 2, 2019 12:14:03 GMT -5 nidena said:

I'll be decluttering my third bedroom.  It's been repurposed for a couple years now and that need is no longer there so I need to get rid of most of the stuff in there.  Today will be the start of that.  I'll be taking a number of books to the used book store and throwing old papers and magazines into the recycle bin.

I also need to do another round of clothing purge to make sure I didn't miss anything and to see if any of my "joy" has waned or left.

My desk and office bookcase are another target, along with the bin of papers that need to be shredded.

Well, most of the room is done.  I didn't count how many items but four years worth of monthly magazines and weekly newspapers just went in the recycle bin and all the books went to the local used book store.

[TheOtherMe]

Jan 2, 2019 17:21:42 GMT -5 nidena said:

Jan 2, 2019 16:26:07 GMT -5 TheOtherMe said:

I have found I tend to go in spurts.  My first goal of this year is my t-shirt closet.  
 

You have a tshirt closet?  I have a sweater closet.  Cardigans, flyaways (hip-length sweaters with no fasteners), and dusters (longer versions of flyaways).  My actual coat closet is downstairs because the sweaters must match what I'm wearing but the coats and jackets need not.  lol

The master bedroom has his/hers closets.  It's just Lucy and me.  So my nice clothes have one closet and my t-shirts are in the second closet.  

I have hundreds of Paul McCartney t-shirts as well as Colorado women's basketball t-shirts.  It's about half of each.  The ones that I don't wear are either going in totes or will be donated.  Some don't fit any more, but I was too sentimental to get rid of them the last time I went through that closet.  I didn't make a dent in the t-shirt closet.  I emptied about 75% of the nice clothes closet.  

I've been retired since 1995 (early out offer) and worked various part time jobs.  I used to live in blue jeans, but now I wear more pajama pants or yoga pants.  

I don't have many coats and they do fit in the coat closet by the front door.  However, it is too small if I had a family.

[TheOtherMe]

Jan 2, 2019 15:04:14 GMT -5 debthaven said:

I have actually given up on my basement, after 20+ years of fighting DH about it. I realized that as long as DH is alive, his and his late parents' crap will live in my basement. I decided I prefer DH stays around.

My niece and nephews tell me they dread having to go through their parents' stuff.  The basement is packed with the things he couldn't part with when his parents' passed.  Most of what I didn't want when sister and I went through a small part of our parents' stuff ended up there, too, because sister couldn't part with it.  

The kids call them that a hoarder's basement.  I have a feeling sister's craft room is pretty bad.  She keeps the door closed and doesn't let anyone in.  Her machines are all upstairs for when she is actually working on a project.  

DN3 furnished his house with stuff from his parents' house.  So he has some things from both sets of grandparents.  

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Jan 2, 2019 8:55:59 GMT -5 finnime said:

I'm impressed by the organization and decluttering work in progress by everyone, and dispirited by what I have to do. It's overwhelming right now, the sorting and cleaning to be done and the major clean-up and work on my home needed.

I don't have the habits of organization. When I do declutter an area it ends up covered again. The one shining thing I was able to organize last year was the part of my too-small kitchen devoted to baking, and it now needs some help again in the wake of the holiday wave. Plus most of my more-expensive clothes are too big now. They make me look dowdy.

Small, medium-term and long-range organization and clean up efforts are needed everywhere. Ugh.

So, that's a good thing about your clothes being too big! Can you take them to a consignment shop?


Also, I'm a naturally organized person. However, that doesn't mean that it doesn't take any effort to keep everything de-cluttered or counters/surfaces cleaned off. It definitely does take a lot of effort; it's just that the routine of it is probably easier for me as a naturally organized person. What I'm trying to say is that, please don't think that it's just you who struggles with making sure stuff is cleaned up and organized. 

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Jan 2, 2019 9:32:38 GMT -5 imanangel said:

Dec 28, 2018 13:51:26 GMT -5 tcu2003 said:

I want to declutter some kid stuff (other stuff as well, but kid stuff is my priority), and get more organized, specifically in my kitchen and pantry, and my craft room (which is currently a catch-all).  

Assuming he does them again, I'm going to follow the Peter Walsh challenge in January, as I feel that even doing some of them helps me start my year off on the right foot.  Every other year I fall off the decluttering bandwagon fairly quickly due to life, but I try to be kind to myself and remember that any steps, even a few baby ones, are progress.  

I am not sure who Peter Walsh is.....I will have to google him. I need a declutter challenge to keep me focused.

You can follow him on FaceBook. 
He was on the TLC show Clean Sweep several years ago. 

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Yesterday, DD purged her room. She dumped an entire bag of trash and six pairs of shoes. 

I'm working on some kitchen deep cleaning this week. I will probably only get to two of the kitchen chores tonight. 

My work day went to heck pretty early this morning, so even though it's almost 6:00 pm I'm still working. 

[nikiz628]

You guys aren't wasting anytime! 3 pages in on Jan 2- whew. I need to get caught up on this thread and then I will post my to do list for the week (its going to be a long one- I haven't done anything since before Christmas  ) and my goals for 2019! 

[empress of self-improvement]

So far this year, the only thing I'm decluttering is money. We finally got our sill fixed and now are looking at getting a deck with a ramp for that door. Then we need to get the driveway replaced. The house needs to be painted. We need an electrician for some wiring projects. I need a lobotomy. I'll be decluttering a few more pounds since I won't be able to afford to eat!!! Ok, it's not really that bad. We are working on eating what we have before I have to go grocery shopping again. DH has been informed he needs to lose weight because he's getting too heavy for me to lift off the floor. THANKFULLY!!!! He hasn't been there in a few weeks so keep the fingers crossed!

I finally finished organizing my basement. I did such a great job that I have absolutely no idea where anything is anymore! I went to look for something and I have no idea where I put it. Took so long looking for it that I forgot what I was actually looking for! I hate when that happens.

I am definitely stepping up with the decluttering of the spare room this year. I have to really think about if I want to sell stuff or just donate it. Some of it is good stuff that could bring a little bit of money but the time and effort in setting it all up kind of overwhelms me.

The most important thing I am trying to declutter, though, is my job. I need a new one closer to home with daytime hours. And more human interaction. With more than 3 people a day.

[bobosensei]

I finally got all the inside Christmas decorations packed up.  There are some lights outside and a light up penguin and a few Christmas tin decorations I'll get tomorrow.  I at least unplugged the lights this afternoon so they aren't on (anymore).  I was so focused on getting the 10 foot tree out of the house before my boyfriend left for his work trip on New Year's day that I didn't get to anything else.  Next year I think I'll take off on the 2nd too   I feel realistically I have until this weekend to get all the decorations down, but it is still bugging me.  I wanted to take things down the weekend after Christmas, but my parents always left the tree up til the first.  It was bad enough that I was undecorating it that evening.  Maybe I need to get over that.

I got my trash picked up today, new cans don't come until Monday so the garage will continue to be a wreck.  The recycling is really crazy and will be worse tomorrow as I discovered that my boyfriend put a bunch of stuff in the bin that I will have to take out as the old trash company is just coming to get the cans so that will add to the mess.  I did reorganize my kitchen and managed to move a bunch of stuff from storage in the office closet into the kitchen.  I also have more room to get to things since I spread stuff out.  There is one area of cabinets I need to fix, but I am happy.  Just need to get used to the new layout.

I also need to finish culling my house for things to donate to Goodwill.  I have been sidetracked, but know getting rid of the junk will make it that much easier to organize.

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Here's a musing: 
There's a concept of "An Ideal Day". 
Basically, one maps out from wake to sleep what their day would look like every day as a regular routine. 
A completely simplistic example version would be

(with times next to them)
Wake up
Morning Routine
Work
Afternoon Workout
Dinner
Homework
Evening Routine
Sleep

(What I wrote out for mine is more specific. )

For the last few months, I feel like I've had very little structure to my day. Part of that is because I changed jobs. I'm not a classroom teacher this year. I work in four different buildings, and I have five different job descriptions that technically add up to a 1.0FTE. 

Now, I enjoy my work. I just don't feel like I'm organizing my day well enough. I came across this concept of "An Ideal Day" and thought I'd block out my weekdays to match. 

And then I went to work today--day one of this new plan. By 8:45am, my day had gone to heck. Granted, a horrible bitch of a woman decided to target me this morning; that took up three hours of my time that I wasn't anticipating. That doesn't happen more than once a month--at least since I took this new job in August. Then, I took DD#2 to an appointment and I went to PT this afternoon, and because I can flex my time I didn't take any sick leave. That means I need to make up two hours of my afternoon. 

So I'm 0/1 on following my ideal work day. 

Am I just being unrealistic that there's such a thing as having a proper schedule? 

[startsmart]

Making the cinnamon rolls and I will have 8 pans to give away tomorrow.

Someone stole my debit card info so now I’m waiting for the replacement and then need to update accounts.

Otherwise today was a big wash, I didn’t get mich done from my list but at least I’m keeping up with cleaning little by little. Having a sick dog cuts into my free time drastically.

[Lizard Queen]

Jan 2, 2019 22:18:52 GMT -5 Knee Deep in Water Chloe said:

Here's a musing: 
There's a concept of "An Ideal Day". 
Basically, one maps out from wake to sleep what their day would look like every day as a regular routine. 
A completely simplistic example version would be

(with times next to them)
Wake up
Morning Routine
Work
Afternoon Workout
Dinner
Homework
Evening Routine
Sleep

(What I wrote out for mine is more specific. )

For the last few months, I feel like I've had very little structure to my day. Part of that is because I changed jobs. I'm not a classroom teacher this year. I work in four different buildings, and I have five different job descriptions that technically add up to a 1.0FTE. 

Now, I enjoy my work. I just don't feel like I'm organizing my day well enough. I came across this concept of "An Ideal Day" and thought I'd block out my weekdays to match. 

And then I went to work today--day one of this new plan. By 8:45am, my day had gone to heck. Granted, a horrible bitch of a woman decided to target me this morning; that took up three hours of my time that I wasn't anticipating. That doesn't happen more than once a month--at least since I took this new job in August. Then, I took DD#2 to an appointment and I went to PT this afternoon, and because I can flex my time I didn't take any sick leave. That means I need to make up two hours of my afternoon. 

So I'm 0/1 on following my ideal work day. 

Am I just being unrealistic that there's such a thing as having a proper schedule? 

It's certainly interesting to think about. On the one hand, it meshes well with what I've learned about making automatic routines. On the other hand, the labeling of "ideal" seems to be a road to misery, from what I've learned about Buddhism.