Well, my house is still cluttered, but my efforts on my mother's house are paying off. Two bedrooms have been completely cleared and scoured. One of the bedrooms has been redecorated and is ready for Thanksgiving house guests.

I seem to LOVE this sort of work! I guess I love managing the project. All the electrical work is done, as is the plumbing and installation of new appliances. This coming week, a handyman is coming out for repairs, and the following week the house is getting pasteurized to remove odors, mold and termites.

Today, my younger son and I are loading the boxes I packed and are taking them to a storage unit. I need them out of the way before we can continue with the work. Hoping that by the end of the weekend all the clutter will be gone from the inside of the house. It really opened my eyes about how much we accumulate over the course of a lifetime. And how much waste we accrue. I am seeing a change is how I spend money. Not going to buy anything unless it's something I can use up now or reuse over and over again for a long time.

I made good progress on my organizing project today. Tomorrow, I should finally be able to fully implement my new scheme for keeping myself organized.

November organizing tasks log:
1. Organize writing stuff
2. Finish organizing writing stuff

gardenerjoy, I am speechless with admiration--major credits to you!

Most of our mess is hidden, but today I got it in my head that I should spend some time in the "warehouse" (which is what DH calls the huge unfinished area of our basement).

I cleared off one of the large gorilla-type shelving units (5 shelf unit, 4' x 2'), and went through multiple boxes, separating into 'give away', 'this belongs to DH so I'm shoving it out of the way', 'unpack and put somewhere' and 'go through'.

And I did go through them. I still had teaching materials from 18-25 years ago. It's been that long since I've taught--none of my class notes would be current at all--so lots of stuff got dumped.

I gathered up all the gift wrap/gift bags/ribbon. I could start a store--I have no idea why I'd accumulated so much other than that it wasn't all together so I didn't know how much I had. It's now all together, one plastic bin of flat and tube wrapping paper, a smaller one (but not small) of gift bags, another one of tissue, and a box of ribbons. (Yeah--it's that much) It's also now accessible, so I won't find myself buying things I've already got!

I also arranged everything from the volunteer job that I picked up in the spring when my friend passed. I had his files and various boxes on the floor, all spread out, and now they're neatly on a shelving unit and labeled.

There's plenty more to do down there but I made incredible progress and feel really good about it.

I also found a plastic bin with some pants in it. If I'd found that tote earlier, I'd have worn the capris this summer--they're just a bit big right now. Another pair of pants (down there because they were too small) are too big. One pair fit but is too out of style to keep.

I also now have an incredible quantity of plastic bins. I love plastic bins. As we go through the second pass on the basement, many things in boxes will end up in plastic bins and the boxes recycled. I'm moving in that direction.

Each time I spend time on this, I feel more and more organized! I knew all of you would understand.

Yay, bethfromDayton! That sounds like very satisfying work!

I got my new organizational scheme functional today. I'm very pleased so far. It worked well enough to figure out what I'm doing this week and tomorrow. I'm starting a big filing project tomorrow. It's been hard to get going on it, so I've given myself permission to work on it just 10 minutes a day. We'll see how that works.

November organizing tasks log:
1. Organize writing stuff
2. Finish organizing writing stuff
3. Implement new scheme for time management

I worked on my filing project for 10 minutes -- only because I said I was going to here. It was enough to get a start on it. I'll aim for that again tomorrow.

November organizing tasks log:
1. Organize writing stuff
2. Finish organizing writing stuff
3. Implement new scheme for time management
4. 10 minutes filing project

It's great when accountability leads us to accomplishing a task, even when it seems small. A small task completed is progress forward.

DH and I are battling common colds, which doesn't fit well with working in dirty/dusty rentals. Today we would just be "finding something to keep busy with" because the drywallers haven't finished so we could do some major painting. Rats!

We went to bed early last eve and when I woke I thought things through and committed to small, attainable projects today which will move me forward.

I've spent several hours in the office filing...getting rid of sticky notes and sending off some checks. I took time to mend a bra and it's back in it's drawer. I had a heating pad I was about to pitch (didn't work) and I fixed it. credit. Now it can go back in it's place, too.

I've identified other things I can accomplish today
~household stuff to recycle
~project stuff to recycle
~get a birthday box in the mail

I noticed this morning that as I plowed through my unfinished stuff in the office that some other pressing business felt "easier to accomplish".
That's the time when I know that this continuous decluttering really works in my life.

Following gardenerjoy's example , I'll start building a November log. Today I'll empty and put away the suitcases and other bags.

I like looking at Gardenerjoys list. I'm going to keep a project log since its where I really need to make daily progress right now. I had helpers today and didn't really feel like going up (still sick) but I did it anyway. Credit.

November "Project" Daily Log (rental #1, #2, #3)
1.change locks(#3),wash all floor vents(#2), test floor stain(#2)
2. Drive up and check heat after work (real job)
3. Same as day 2 plus email contractor and make two addl. calls regarding carpet installation
4.drive up after work then call contractor to ask why they didn't show up, contacted helper to discuss bathroom issue(#2)
5. Drive up with helper to look at bathroom(#2), remove couch and mattress and tear out carpet/pad (#3)
ETA-listed to piano which was left at(#2) with local free cycle group

Lexxiss: You're making terrific progress. It is kind of motivating to see it all in a list, isn't it?

silverbirch: unpacking and putting away suitcases is a huge thing for me -- not getting that done can derail me for weeks after a trip. So I've become quite determined to do it as quickly as possible.

I did my filing today -- I even spent longer than planned so that I reached a good stopping point. More tomorrow.

November organizing tasks log:
1. Organize writing stuff
2. Finish organizing writing stuff
3. Implement new scheme for time management
4. 10 minutes filing project
5. 18 minutes filing project

Lexxiss, you're doing so well. Having three rentals to sort out all at once is challenging. Let us know what happens to the piano!

Gardenerjoy, are you throwing away as well as filing or have you done that part?

We had the sitting room replastered when we were away (to get rid of horrible textured paint which attracted lots of dust). Everywhere is slightly grimy and there's a lot to do. Today I'll clean the sitting room window and window ledge.

Yesterday turned rather busy as I had to rush out and collect a fish (long story) but I made myself do the suitcases by the end of the day. And that was because I'd told you I would. Credit.

5 - Emptied and put away the suitcases and other bags.

Decluttering Chums!

Hi everyone. Finally I am getting grounded again and after the Big Birthday and this week's Big Event I am truly free. I have had some major success with making my household liveable:

-we cleared out enough stuff from the back room/spare room/DH's room that we were able to have my childhood friend stay over
and sleep in a room of her own where she could close the door. Awesome! I NEVER envisioned making that much progress in this apartment that the back room could be used as a second bedroom. *credit*

I still have Box Mountain V2.0 in the dining room. My plan is to start dealing with it on the weekend. My goal is to have it dealt with by the end of this month, before I leave for Florida the first week of December. I think I will be back for xmas so I want this space usable with a table and chairs and everything -- maybe even xmas dinner at my house. Who knows?

My clothes are a disaster though. I have too many laundry baskets of all things! And each one is full all the time meaning I am not putting things away and partly cause the dresser I use is obstructed by... the laundry and the laundry baskets. The solution will be to cull the clothing herd.

So those are the highlights. So much good, continuing work going on here with everyone. [

Lexxiss a special shout out to you and your three rentals and two houses (is this right?) Sorry about the cold I think of you often

My filing project deals with all the masses of paperwork generated by my husband's family's business, since the early 1980s. I've already done a lot of work (and thrown away a lot of newspaper clippings) when I organized everything chronologically in order to up date some records. Now that the records project is done, the material needs to be re-filed by topic so it can be found without someone having to remember what year something happened.

With the records project done, I'm also finding that I'm comfortable throwing away more. Today, much of my filing time went into de-duplicating what I filed the two previous days. Everybody in the family gave me their files, so I have multiple copies of meeting notes and financial reports when we really only need one.

Thanks for asking, silverbirch!

I'll be continuing this project tomorrow.

November organizing tasks log:
1. Organize writing stuff
2. Finish organizing writing stuff
3. Implement new scheme for time management
4. 10 minutes filing project
5. 18 minutes filing project
6. 10 minutes filing project

onebyone, good to hear your highlights, especially that you've now got a spare bedroom! That Box Mountain V2.0 was only ever a temporary installation, wasn't it? Time to take it down and make room for the next piece of art.

Gardenerjoy, thank you very much for explaining your filing project. So interesting. I think hearing about detail can encourage us in our endeavours. I was an ardent taker of newspaper cuttings before the web got going. We used to laugh that my office had information on any subject you cared to ask about. It was my USP. Now, any fool can call themselves a researcher* and I am binning a lot of material unless it's clearly of historical interest, in which I include old typefaces and pictures of daily life.

*Please forgive my lack of charity today. I'm rather cross about being so under-employed in terms of paid work.

Once again, I squeezed in yesterday's task in the evening to be sure of doing it. Today I'll reconcile my bank account and do the outstanding sewing. Pieces of school uniform which arrived late have to be labelled and a shirt has to be mended. This will mean that several cubic feet of clothing can be put away.

5 - Emptied and put away the suitcases and other bags.
6 - cleaned sitting room window and window ledge

Welcome back, onebyone!

My DH is feeling better and today we will attempt painting walls (#1) since drywallers still havent shown. DD will clean (#3) and another helper will continue prepping floors for carpet(Kilz application) (#3)

I'm going to homedepot soon to get paint reshaken/buy Kilz and pick out carpet. One day at a time.


November "Project" Daily Log (rental #1, #2, #3)
1.change locks(#3),wash all floor vents(#2), test floor stain(#2)
2. Drive up and check heat after work (real job)
3. Same as day 2 plus email contractor and make two addl. calls regarding carpet installation
4.drive up after work then call contractor to ask why they didn't show up, contacted helper to discuss bathroom issue(#2)
5. Drive up with helper to look at bathroom(#2), remove couch and mattress and tear out carpet/pad (#3)
ETA-listed to piano which was left at(#2) with local free cycle group
6. Figured out new configuration for carpet/linoleum replacement (#3)

As of yesterday, all the bedrooms and bathrooms of my mother's house are cleared out. OMG! I filled a whole recycling can with junk mail alone! I don't know why my parents hung on to all that paper. And I'm angry with those people who send out all the junk mail. I hope they make it with recycled paper, but really, all the energy that goes in to recycling paper, and the chemicals for the inks too. There has got to be a more cost-efficient and energy-efficient way to do this.

Really an eye-opening lesson for me, going through my mother's house. I don't care to make life so hard on my sons when I'm old. I'd rather they wanted to spend time with me rather than clear out my house someday. I've hired a man to take away all the bags of garbage now piling up in my mother's backyard. I think I'm going to include a few bags from my house in the pile.