2022 Declutter & Organize Your Life

[Opti]

Jan 8, 2022 7:44:20 GMT -5 finnime said:

That is what I meant, debthaven . Just a couple dozen contractor's trash bags and I'd be done! Don't worry, I know I cannot do that in actuality. But a girl can dream.

Sometimes you just want it gone. 

[catsareme]

The drawers in the master bathroom are in for a ruthless cleaning/decluttering this morning.  Another baby step of progress but I will feel so much better when it's done.  

Christmas was sorted and put away on NYD, but I did leave the evergreen wreaths on the outside doors, just clipped off the red bows.  Interim decoration until the weather improves.    

Next up is sorting out the rack of cleaning products in the back hall and the miscellany on the counter in the laundry room.

[ners]

I really need to work on decluttering this year.  Small start last night.  I threw out 5 items last night. 

[TheOtherMe]

Flattened boxes have been moved to the garage.  How slick the driveway is will determine when they go to the end of driveway for recycling on a Tuesday.

[startsmart]

Managed to stay on track today and spend 3 hours editing videos for Monday. I also did 3 wheelbarrows of dirt to the raised garden beds (aiming for 2 every Saturday this month) and I have started using my rototiller to break up the dirt pile which is both frozen and congealed into one lump.

Tomorrow I am catching up on laundry and today I do need to finish the dishes from making soup in the slow cooker overnight.

Overall the house is still tidy and mostly clean, maintenance this week along with putting down the floor in the laundry room.

[debthaven]

I have one last HUGE binder to go through, but it's at school. I taught that class once 4 or 5 years ago and it's been at school ever since. I'll bring it home this Wednesday. 

I've been paring down my teaching binders for about a year now as I stop teaching certain classes ... it feels good! 

(I keep my Job 1 binders at school because I take public transport there, and my Job 2 binders at home because I drive there.)

[Sharon]

Yesterday was a productive day.  I got 3 more boxes and 2 more totes unpacked.  The previous owner left an old broken down picnic table in the garage.  It was too heavy for me to move very far so I deconstructed it in the garage and then carried the pieces back to the burn pile in the back pasture.  Now I just need to get a storm door moved from the garage to the shop and then I should be able to access the other half of the big cupboard in the garage.  That will allow me to put more things away.

I also got the sheets changed on the bed, did a couple loads of laundry, and run and emptied the dishwasher.

[finnime]

So far today I've gotten rid of 3 contractor's bags of Stuff, 20-lb and 25-lb weights, paper shredder, walking stick and a large, heavy Spanish tile depicting a matador. Got to keep going.

[seriousthistime]

Did any of you happen to see my motivation? 

I seem to have misplaced it. 

[anciana]

Jan 9, 2022 13:54:58 GMT -5 seriousthistime said:

Did any of you happen to see my motivation? 

I seem to have misplaced it. 

Did it just skip town together with mine?

[ners]

Jan 9, 2022 16:44:51 GMT -5 anciana said:

Jan 9, 2022 13:54:58 GMT -5 seriousthistime said:

Did any of you happen to see my motivation? 

I seem to have misplaced it. 

Did it just skip town together with mine?

or mine

[Sharon]

Today I got some more things thrown away, such as the last of the empty beer bottles that were in my hay storage lean-to.  I'm assuming they belonged to the previous owner.  I have been picking up some every week or so and putting them in the garbage.  I also threw away the curtain pull back hooks that I have taken down and the curtain rod holders that I have taken down.  They are black and that isn't my style.  The curtain pull back hooks were just down right creepy to me.  They are all in the garbage.

Part of one of the closet organizers that we took down included a wire rack drawer system.  It has 4 or 5 good sized drawers that are all wire.  That is now in the garage and has been repurposed as a root vegetable holder.  The hope is that because they will get some air circulation and that the garage is cold enough that it will postpone rotting.

The kids are coming over for dinner tonight and to watch some TV so I made some cookies for dessert.  I had been wanting cookies all week but figured if I waited until the kids came then I wouldn't eat all of them by myself.

[laterbloomer]

Jan 9, 2022 17:04:53 GMT -5 ners said:

Jan 9, 2022 16:44:51 GMT -5 anciana said:

Did it just skip town together with mine?

or mine

I think I got it from all 3 of you. I shoveled the driveway today, parks 4 vehicles, and almost enjoyed doing it. I definitely took pride in the fact that is one of the best done driveways in the neighbourhood cleaned right down to the asphalt with no packed down snow. I noticed that the times I walked the dog, just before I cleaned the bathroom and did the grocery shopping.

[anciana]

Jan 9, 2022 17:53:31 GMT -5 laterbloomer said:

Jan 9, 2022 17:04:53 GMT -5 ners said:

or mine

I think I got it from all 3 of you. I shoveled the driveway today, parks 4 vehicles, and almost enjoyed doing it. I definitely took pride in the fact that is one of the best done driveways in the neighbourhood cleaned right down to the asphalt with no packed down snow. I noticed that the times I walked the dog, just before I cleaned the bathroom and did the grocery shopping.

Hey, seriousthistime, we found it! Flew away to Canada! 

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

Jan 9, 2022 18:24:09 GMT -5 anciana said:

Jan 9, 2022 17:53:31 GMT -5 laterbloomer said:

I think I got it from all 3 of you. I shoveled the driveway today, parks 4 vehicles, and almost enjoyed doing it. I definitely took pride in the fact that is one of the best done driveways in the neighbourhood cleaned right down to the asphalt with no packed down snow. I noticed that the times I walked the dog, just before I cleaned the bathroom and did the grocery shopping.

Hey, seriousthistime , we found it! Flew away to Canada! 

[busymom]

DS wasn't feeling well this morning, so I stayed home for most of the day, and just cleaned house.  But, since I did a little of everything, my list sorta looks like this:  

[snapdragon]

Got clothing pulled out of the closet and in the big pile. I just need to write up and photograph for donation and get it gone. Hopefully late this week.

It's been wet and dreary here so I also lighted a vanilla candle to get extra heat and have the place smell good without baking. I plan to do it again until it's used up and I feel good about tossing it.

[nidena]

Looks like I'll be going through my "work wear" and figuring out what I'll keep and what I won't.  I don't need to keep all 20 blouses since I no longer work in an office environment.  I'll probably keep all the trousers.  There's only two black, three gray, and two or three print/plaid ones.

But...now that I'm thinking about it...there's a few pairs in the other closet that don't fit.  Hell, the didn't fit when I bought them but I thought my fluffiness would go the other direction.  It's been a year since I bought them.  

Okay, I just need to do a whole complete KonMari assesment of all my clothes.  They're all going on the bed today.  All of them.  Including the pieces that are still in boxes and haven't fit in seven years.  Some of those I may still keep because I really do love them and I KNOW I'll never find another one like them.  The fluffiness will decrease.  I know it.

[seriousthistime]

My motivation has returned.  (I guess it found Canada a bit too cold to stay longer.)

Paperwork taming continues. 

[debthaven]

You guys are cracking me up with the motivation flying off to Canada and coming back! 

And busymom I have to admit I didn't get it at first! Happily I reread it lol. 

As of today I'm back to a normal schedule. I'm looking forward to this lighter normal: Mondays/Tuesdays/(long) Wednesdays at school/Thursdays on Zoom. (It'll change in late March/early April.)

[anciana]

Kidding aside, we actually took down all the Christmas decorations last weekend, which might be one of the earliest times we did that. Everything is put away except for the tree that needs to be taken out and probably put on the side of the back yard until we can chop it up for trash (the city was picking them up the week after Christmas and that was way to early for me to take it all down).

[TheOtherMe]

Last night I told DN1 that I never received two boxes from Amazon for them.  He told me what it was and said it might be in the same box.  Yes it is so I have to get that ready to go to Canada!!  Just wish I was going with it.

[Iggy aka IG]

nidena, I did something similar with my clothes 3 or 4 years ago.  Prior to that, I hadn't done a major clothing purge for about two decades.  (After the purge a few years ago, I posted a picture here on WIR of the before and after of my side of the walk-in closet.)  I will admit I kept a bin each of concert shirts, Harley shirts, clothing that doesn't yet quite fit, and I refuse to toss, and a bin of keepsake shirts.  Since the purge, I've donated a bag about once a year, but lately I've been thinking it's time to do another major one.

Speaking of ridding of old items, I received an email from Decluttr saying they received and reviewed the CDs I sent to them.  They gave me just .80 less than they originally offered!  (Two of DH's CDs were damaged, apparently.)  This means $40 for our dining out account, and two boxes of clutter out of the house.  When I have time, I'll review more of my CDs for this process, as the majority of this submission were DH's.  If you decide to use Decluttr, PM me as they have a referral program.  

I started a new game with myself over the weekend called, "How long had that completed task been on your to do list?"

~Found my missing glove-about a month, well, more like 12 months because I was missing it last year, too, LOL
~Clear out kitchen pantry of all crackers, etc.-about a week
~Organize back pantry to get things off the floor-several weeks
~Figure out what is wrong with the new LED candle-several weeks (turned out it already needed new batteries)
~Review with DH trail maintenance reports-5 months or so
~Review auto service coupons to determine relevance-several weeks
~Store the remaining Christmas items-a week

Other regular tasks completed:

~5 loads laundry including sheets
~Emptied 3 garbage cans
~Scrubbed 3 toilets
~Meal and groceries planned
~Fun stuff:  Watched YouTube videos, listened to a few NFL games, played too many Words with Friends games, and made several meals in the new air fryer

I am pleased about the fact our main kitchen counter is nearly cleared off from the holidays.  

[nidena]

Oh my goodness!  This is working out so well!

I emptied my chesser of everything.  I emptied the lingerie chest of everything.  I dumped two boxes on the bed.  I pulled all the dresses from the spare closet and the skirts, pants, and blouses from my main closet and I've already relegated some pieces to "Style Encore", "Goodwill", and trash.

I also relocated the makeup that was in the top drawer of the chesser to the closet shelves that are right outside the bathroom.  Why I didn't do this a year ago, I don't know.

My goal is that everything I'm keeping needs to fit somewhere in my room.  No spare closet storage.  

And the stuff that is too small, I'm ensuring that I love, love, love it.

The funny thing is that I have bras is every size that fit 180lb me to now but I'm going to hang on to the ones that don't fit so that I can list them on the Marketplace portion of my website when it finally gets up and running.

Okay, break is over.  Back to clearing off the bed.

[nidena]

Iggy aka IG my first KonMari purge was in 2015.  I got rid of 150+ pieces.  I'm curious to see what this one nets me.

[Iggy aka IG]

nidena, glad it is working for you!  That is exactly how I started:  I pulled clothes from my home office closet, hall closet, etc. and piled them onto the bed.  Now everything is in the master walk-in closet except for coats and a few sweatshirts which are in the hall closet.

[Iggy aka IG]

Jan 10, 2022 15:24:07 GMT -5 nidena said:

Iggy aka IG my first KonMari purge was in 2015.  I got rid of 150+ pieces.  I'm curious to see what this one nets me.

  Cannot wait until you check back in with a number!

[debthaven]

My goal is that everything I'm keeping needs to fit somewhere in my room. No spare closet storage.

That's my rule too! No spare closet storage, and no storage under the bed.   (Our closet space is actually on the landing, not IN our bedroom.)

That doesn't count coats though ... Our bedroom is upstairs, our coat closet and coat hooks are downstairs.

My motivation also came back! (I'm guessing from Canada?!) Last night I put away a bunch of clothing that was on the chair in our bedroom (DH has a valet, I have a chair). And I did 2 loads of laundry today after work today.

[nidena]

Jan 10, 2022 16:36:17 GMT -5 debthaven said:

My goal is that everything I'm keeping needs to fit somewhere in my room. No spare closet storage.

That's my rule too!   Our closet space is actually on the landing, not IN our bedroom.

That doesn't count coats though ... Our bedroom is upstairs and our coat closet and coat hooks are downstairs.

Which makes sense 'cause...point of use!

That's part of why I'm surprised it took me this long to move my makeup from my bedroom which is 10 feet from my bathroom to the narrow closet that is right outside my bathroom.  It's so close that the closet and the bathroom are on opposite sides of the same wall.

[debthaven]

The ONLY exception to that is my ski outfit ... which I haven't used in 20 years.   I will probably never use it again, but a girl can dream, right?!  

Completely OT, but Iggy aka IG , Knee Deep in Water Chloe and anyone else who likes word games ... have you discovered Wordle? DH and I are hooked! It's very simple and clever, and there's just 1 word per day.