Hi De-Clutterers, I've been absent for months. I was active here almost exactly one year ago, when I jumped in to commiserate about our challenges and projects.
Lexxiss, you now have multiple rentals to take care of??
but I see how your home infrastructure is on maintenance basis and that is fantastic
I also remember onebyone, gardener'sjoy, geoblewis, and Hi
to others
My living room project, which i told of last year, has been in maintenance for one year now - YAY. Small piles do start to accumulate and I ruthlessly deal with them, lol (My situation is a DH who 'does not see' clutter and is loath to get rid of ANYTHING, even an empty junk mail envelope; and a DS who is easy going but not as tidy-oriented as I'd like
)
Another project that has stayed in maintenance is the kitchen glassware cabinets, I bravely removed many items last year, expecting to get flak about it (novelty cups and glasses) but not a word, and putting away glasses and such is so much easier when you are not fighting for space.
Now..I have 2 more major challenges. One is to make our tiny dining room, useable again. It has a large computer wall unit thing taking up one wall, and this workspace is abandoned by my DH, he does his computer work upstairs now. There are so many discs, software things, I folders, stuff that I don't know is important or not, and he is soooo very loath to tackle it. There is a shelving cabinet that only holds our collection of Waterford crystal. And a small dining table that has a small amount of stuff on it.
As onebyone mentioned, I also want a place to SIT like a normal person and eat a meal, NOT in the living room.
DH will not do this on his own. I am willing to do all the hauling to reuse, recycle, dump...but I can't make the decision on throwing out something electronic that might have sensitive info on it.
so this is always frustrating for me.
The second project is the back porch, I mentioned it last year, it is 'out of sight, out of mind' until you go out there and go out of your mind, lol. DH and sometimes DS have put stuff back there, for years, when they don't want to deal with it.
Yesterday I started on one corner..I was getting very angry at what I was finding. Empty boxes, when they bought electronics and were too lazy to break down the boxes. Multiple computer towers, multiple monitors, multiple dvd players, a tv. I counted FIVE Christmas tree base/holders (when DH can't find something he just buys more)
I took a carload to the ReUse center and filled our trash/recycle bins. There is a noticeable difference in that one tiny corner. But it's a start.
Anyway, wanted to say Hi and continue on, ladies!!
read the following a few pages ago -
"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 am almost 53 years old but both my parents are gone. I had to deal with my dad's home and estate..thank goodness he was not a hoarder and just had 'normal' amounts of life possessions in his condo. My mom was living in a 19 room farmhouse but did not have abnormal amounts of items either. I will NOT put our 2 sons through the horrible hassle of dealing with our stuff.