Hello

Today I wasn't going to do anything in terms of decluttering as I had a big deadline for tomorrow for some paintings, but as it turns out, I now have a big reprieve. So. I'm going to deal with the oversized extra large box in the bedroom, the one that came out of the closet yesterday. Yesterday I shoved some dirty clothes in there to top off the box in case a cat jumped in it overnight. This means that box that had only a few things on the bottom is now full to the top with...
I need to find out and get to the bottom of the box, literally and figuratively, and by the end of today, before I go to bed, I want that box to be a pile of cardboard, all broken down, never to be a box in my house again.

I'll update later.
UPDATE: The box is history. It held clothes, pillows, shoes, winter gloves, mitts, hat, bicycle helmet, garden plant supports (that I could have used!), and plant hooks for the wall. I put the winter stuff in one of my many suitcases in the closet, gathered stuff to wash and stuff to donate and stuff to throw out. It took less than 15 minutes, plus the year and 3 months that I spent thinking and fretting over it. crazy. Another box tomorrow. Maybe a sinkful of dishes tonight. We'll see. Bye.

nice....onebyone! I find that until I remove a box I will just keep filling it. Sending support as you deal with the contents.

That's gorgeous, Debbie! Such a wonderful shade -- cheerful but in a calm and elegant way.

Debbie,

In late tonight, but LOVE your new carpet. It fits so perfectly with the Victorian Era. What a stunning staircase. The light color sure brightens the area. Great job and hope you had a good time with your sister and family.

Hi Lexxiss

You have really done a great job wth the place. I have to say though, I LOVE your antique chairs! The staircase is stunning. So happy to see all those books too, and I am especially taken by the mysterious stormy painting. Does it remnd you of Alaska I wonder....?

Thanks for the pics

Thanks for all the comments regarding my reno. I have taken down the pics...I don't thoroughly understand the vulnerabilities of my FB page. I have spent lots of time decluttering before getting to this point. Like onebyone and the Bedroom Oasis, I had to start with a dream and then take the rest step by step. When I finish an area I want it to be the way it's going to be as long as I reside there. I don't want to have to ever do that space again.

The antique couch was my Grandmothers and had to be hauled out of a storage spot 100 miles away. The interesting chairs and the painting were both from my stepfathers basement. Yes, onebyone, the painting reminds my DH of the old days on the water. He loves it.

My next project in that area will be to find someone to do some reno on the furniture. I have a major issue....which is the hairy cat who resides on the Queen Anne chair. If I make that chair less desirable for her she just moves somewhere else.

Lexxiss: I agree about keeping things private, you never know who will try to find more information that is not up for sharing. I could see myself having a nice cup of tea or coconut mocha coffee in that room with a great book or having a Beck book club gathering.

I am off to regroup today. Had weigh in and am down 1 lb. I am on day 10 of Beck book and then will start posting daily. Just trying to get in my head the daily steps that are required.

Cleaned son's closet, 2 more bags to goodwill. I met with a friend whose husband is out of a job and she went thru the clothes to give to her son. That made me really happy to be able to help her and get rid of outgrown things.

No big projects this weekend, planning on cleaning the basics and writing a new project plan for next week.

Rachel, I really love it when someone else can use things that I need to purge. It gets tougher when I have to just let go without knowing the outcome. (control) Great that you have planned a weekend of maintenance, without any big projects.

I'm back from our other house. While there, I realized I'm more "at home" right now at this house. Thats good since it's where I am mostly right now. I unpacked immediately *credit*.
I am alone this week and think I'm going to try a week with Flylady. I peeked and next week is Bathroom(s) and one other room. It fits perfectly since the one room I have been procrastinating on is our combo TV/exercise room. It has very little clutter but is extremely dirty. Everytime I go in that room to relax, I observe...yet never move. I think I'll move ladders up tomorrow (very high ceilings and windows) but will resist starting until Monday. In the meantime, I will do some reading on her website and integrate some new ideas into my head.

Kudos for establishing that homey feeling at the house you are at the most. I may peak my nose into Fly Lady to share a prompt=action with you. In the past I have walked around and found 27 things to throw way. I also like the fact that she says to put your tennis shoes on to get your day started. More CBT training to learn.

Sending good vibes toward the one room you have been putting off. My room is my basement office. I have 3 major projects before I get to that but would like to at least start in Sept.

Be careful on that ladder :0 What do you want that room to function as and what is your vision for that area?

I am elated that I can run half of my treadmill time. Something internally is clicking with change and action in my life. Very grateful for that. Maybe I am finally controlling the things I can control. ( Recovering control freak)!

Rachel, interesting, I had already found that dressing/shoes on in the morning makes me feel like I'm ready to face my day/chores....I saw her note yesterday. Hey, great news that you are running part of your treadmill time!

The extra room I'm working on doesn't really have any other possibilities. It was the master bedroom and has three closets. We have a large couch and chair facing a large tv and in the middle there is a weight bench and recumbent bike with misc weights. We do use the weight equipment and the tv doesn't fit anywhere else. It just needs a good clean and I'm going to fix a standing mirror I've been procrastinating on. I'll be careful on the ladder it's just for washing the light fixtures and taking down the curtains for washing. Someday I'll paint it, but not now.lol

Will peruse the flylady site tonight. Per her suggestions I brought the laundry down to do a load tonight instead of waiting until tomorrow.

Hello

I have a dishpan soaking in the sink and I've washed some clothes and they are in the dryer now.

It's a start.

I want to do three dishpans of dishes today. UPDATE: 3rd load in hot water in the sink. Two loads washed, one drying and one put away.

I want to do three loads of laundry today. UPDATE: 3rd load in washer. Two loads washed, folded and put away.

I want to deal with three boxes in the bedroom, though I am toying with putting the Martha Stewart shelf together. This requires DH and I to do it together so... we'll see where we get on that. I guess my alternate bedroom plan will be the three boxes if we don't agree to assemble the cube shelf. I suspect the stuff in some of those boxes would find a home on some of the cube shelf shelves so I think that should be done first--but really it's 6 of one, half dozen of another you know? UPDATE: I have not even considered doing any boxes and DH is VERY resistant to tackling the Martha Stewart shelf. I may do it on my own sometime this week.

I used to get flylady emails daily. I totaly agree with the clean sink, shined up. I also know that getting dressed to shoes for the day really does make you feel like you "mean business". I just rarely do it.

Addt'l UPDATE: I feel like I have spent the whole day doing household chores Cooking three meals, doing laundry, doing dishes, cleaning veggies from the garden. It makes me feel cranky. My weekends are always all work-the opposite of DH's schedule. Oh well. I need a serious attitude adjustment. Perhaps it will come after our yummy cooked from scratch dinner. And if not, OH WELL, there's always tomorrow.

onebyone, I like your increments of three! I'm really going to give a go with some new habits, inspired by FL...While I do recognize that in the long run her idea surrounding the fact that our clutter didn't happen overnight and it's not going to be repaired overnight either, I think I would like to progress a bit more quickly with some general improvements. While I progress with my general improvements (in 15 min. blocks) I am going to start studying her plan and work some new habits in.

My DH doesn't mind doing things if he has a list. I'm going to make two master lists today-one for my hotspots and another for hotspots for him. He does help create many of the "messes" and one small chore a day will make 7 big improvements a week X2 if I do one per day, as well. I'll post them after I make the list....accountability!

Not sure what to do today. Finished packing my "Senior College Son" and he is off to college 3 hours away.

Our whole family volunteered moving rock and cleaning a backyard yesterday. It was for a home for young women who are homeless and it is faith based. When we finished with that project, we were called to go to another part of town to help with the "boys shelter" as a family of 4 didn't show up. We worked there for 2 hours and one of the church volunteers made the comment that my boys tied the tree brush bundles too loose so we were out of string. Then he proceeded to complain and re-do some of their work. For some reason that just ticked me off to high heaven. Here we are helping out ( volunteer) doing hard work and you have to complain how we are doing it. It must be my maternal mama bear side that flared up.

Thanks for letting me vent that because we did good work as a family and enjoyed the time giving of ourselves. I am glad that I didn't get feisty in the moment as It could have sent my value of doing the project right out the door.

Still regrouping will post next steps later.

OneonOne, great job on completing your tasks. I agree that it is a balance on the weekends between rest and personal chores. I sometimes find myself getting resentful when I do the laundry, fold it and no one puts their clothes away.

Lexxiss: Would love it if you shared your accountability list. It may spur me on to do something. Also, here to listen, watch and cheer you on with your home organization/declutter projects.

I watched hoarding while I ran yesterday. It made me so sick with all the bugs that were on the food and refrigerator. Almost too much. I found myself spraying for spiders around the basement windows. yikes!!

Hello.

I just completed a sinkful of dishes. credit. and plan on doing one more today: pots, pans and glass baking dishes. I finished the three sinkfuls yesterday and the 3 loads of laundry too. credit

Today I am moving the Martha Stewart shelf unit into the bedroom so I can attempt to assemble it tomorrow. I need to make some space for it in there. I plan to go through one moving box that's in the bedroom today, and to do one more load of laundry. If it bothers me too much I may try to assemble the shelf but it's a two person job. I don't know how ambitius I am today.

It all feels like a drop in the bucket . I'm feeling discouraged with my progress. I feel like I'm going over the same ground again and again, not really going forward, just barely even staying still. Oh well. I'm still 3 loads of laundry and 4 sinkfuls of dishes further than the day before yesterday. I'll remember that today.

Yes, onebyone, change is happening. Kudos for moving forward.

Rachel, thanks for venting...I had an incident today which was someone elses' dumb behaviour.(just like your guy) I had to breathe...and breathe...and not take my initial anger any further. I walked away and didn't take their negative energy.

I will report...it was a very busy day. I am committed, and yet, I am nowhere near being able to breeze through the FlyLady assignments, yet I understand that and did my best. I did change my addl. room to the office, which is where her focus is this week. Funny, I had already decided to change before reading...deciding my DH could help clean the TV room AND I really wanted more work done in "my space."

Today, I: (all FL stuff)
~emptied trash cans...
~changed sheets
~dealt with piles on both sides of computer
~dusted cobwebs of ceilings in both rooms
~decluttered for 15 min (actually more)
~did two hotspots

Additionally, I:
~dusted living room furniture (something I was going to originally do BEFORE putting back after carpet install)
~cleared a drawer downstairs for my keys, cell charger, ipod, etc.
~found and dealt with a lingering odor in the bathroom which has been bugging me for weeks now.
IF ANYONE SEES THE PERSON WHO PAINTED THE BATHTUB LET ME KNOW!!!!!!
It's an old tub and a renter painted it to make it look better. It peels away in small pieces and we have a mat on the bottom 'cause you can't stand to stand on it (we only shower would never take a bath yuk). There was mold under pieces of paint and on the bottom of the mat. The good news is that the wall isn't rotting or water is under the dumb linoleum. I had thought that might be the problem.
I peeled off more paint and used the flylady technique for soaking w/bleach, etc. credit credit credit
~I attempted to put the glass back on the bathroom light, a procrastination project. Ends up the reason DH left it off is because it's broken. I started to try some great fix and recognized that my energy would be better used somewhere else.

The bathroom WILL be my next reno, however, not right away. I need to save $$ and recover from the last project.

So, a somewhat long and frustrating evening with many rewards. I had a moment or two where I thought it would be much easier to just bag it and watch TV. I also recognized I would not be happy with myself and would be prone to frustration eating. credit for staying the course tonight. I want this and I know in my heart it takes plain 'ol hard work.

I do think that I'm at a point where doing the FL thing may really help me to identify areas which need improvement/fixing/etc. so that I can get to the point where I can maintain my progress on a regular basis.

I did pitch a bunch of small and insignificant stuff that I just didn't need to keep...extra combs, old lipstick, a vitamix CD, etc., and feel it helps me in my quest to not keep the stuff in the first place.

A major step forward to "owning my space" today.