The New Beginnings DeCluttering Thread -- NOW to Dec 31, 2013.
 

Hello Decluttering Buddies.

This thread is a decluttering support group to help us rid our living spaces of unwanted material weight. Whatever it is that is physically weighing you down in your environment, let's lighten that load and help each other get out from under it and give ourselves the room we need to move forward in our lives.

What do you want to tackle as we head to 2014?

How do you want your home, office, car, studio, garage, basement, desk drawer, junk drawer, moving boxes from when you moved three years ago (that'd be me) to look when we move into the next year?

I, for one, need to see some progress once again. Let's get stuff done, and let's get *credit* for it too.

Box Mountain awaits.
 

Hi Decluttering Buddies.

It's been a while since our last challenge ended. I'm ready to get things done and to get back on top of my environment. I have the mountain of boxes and the Landlord's visit to turn the air conditioning off in my near future. Also, my mother will be living nearby in about 6 weeks. So if I can use these events as motivation, I can understand why I relly do need to make my environment "visitor friendly". I have to remove that box pile so I can set up a dining room area. I'll need a place to serve coffee and snacks to my mom. I don't want to eat off the side tables inthe living room or the coffee table or our laps. I want to cook good nutritious food for us and to serve it cheerfully. This is my vision for what I want. The first thing to do to make it ome true is to open and sort and make decisions about those boxes and their contents.

I will tackle one box/bag/tray whatever the container/form but I will deal (toss/put away/give away the contents) with one today.

Hi onebyone - this sounds exactly what I need to get myself motivated to deal with my clutter. Over the past couple of years, I have done better & have actually made progress in most areas of my house, except my basement. I have boxes that have been packed up for several years & tons of outdated junky things. Would love to join in with you on your journey to a less cluttered life.

Just poking my head in and saying 'hi'. Although my garage and basement need work, I'm basically a featherweight in this area.

We spent last weekend working on the garage, though, and lots ended up in the trash. I'm usually pretty good at pruning--and DH is good at holding on to things. We got new shelving units for the garage and put up a rail to hold outdoor tools and such.

For the first time in, well, EVER, DH's tool drawers got emptied and cleaned out.

We had to stop the project Sunday night and there's still tons to do--but I'm not sure when we'll start it up again since we're supposed to go out of town this weekend. Fortunately, all of the work is in the 3rd bay (which is double deep) so both cars are still in the garage.

onebyone, good luck on your one item tonight--let us know how it went!

Hi Beth and Bandit2

So glad you guys checked in! I've made some major changes since I moved here but the day to day upkeep gets away from me--but not as much as before *credit* --I'm still looking at storage units, but only for my art stuff/show display stuff. My house stuff has to be dealt with and that means taking it out of boxes, bags, plastic bags, tupperware bins... wherever I have stashed whatever I have stashed.

tough.
 

Coaches

Yesterday I looked through one bag. It was full of canvases-some new, others used. I ended up stumped and put them back in the bag and back where I found it. I have no strategy for where to put art stuff as I can't bring it to my studio right now cause I am in flux over there. I am waiting until payday on the 15th to get a small storage locker for art supplies. I have no choice on this right now. Today I will simply choose another item to deal with. Not the best of starts, but whatever. *credit* for starting.

When we moved last, I went through many things as I was packing, asking items "Do I love you enough to pack it, move it, and find a home for you in our new house?" I got rid of a lot of things when the answer was "No, I don't love you enough." And some items I said I did love enough are still in storage in our basement. When I go through them again, I'll have to ask the question of each item again!

I also ask if the cost of replacing the item if I need it again is greater or less than the cost (emotional and practical) of storing it.

For items for which we have many duplicates, I have the "How many of you do I really need?" question. Even when I don't actually get rid of all of the excess, I do separate them out--the primary ones to be used are easily reached, and the extras are store out of the way--sometimes to never come out, but that helps me prune them the next time I go through stuff.

I also do the "this is all the storage I have for these items" thing. For example, I have two armoires for fabric and sewing supplies, plus several plastic drawer units. That's all I have and I may not overflow them. If I want to buy more than will fit in them, I have to get rid of stuff to find room for them, because the sewing supplies are not allowed to overflow their allotted space.

(Now I need to come up with a working concept for my closet!)

did not get to the mountain today. i think it will be monday before i get there next.

now it's monday.
 

Well I see that my last post predicted that it would be Monday before I got back to box mountain. Today is Monday. I better dedicate some time to this project today.

So, I will take the advice of a decluterring friend and isntead of worrying about where to put something away right now, I will focus on reducing the size of box mountain. If I can condense 3 boxes into 2, that is a reduction in the overall volume of clutter/stuff that I house.

I'm going to

1) pull out three items and deal with them with the goal of making them into 2 units, or less. I will dedicate one hour to this task.

2) I will wash the dishes that remain in the sink.

3) I will remove the stuff that is cluttering up the surfaces of the living room as we may have a landlord encounter this evening. Our washer is acting up. I loathe encounters with the landlord. We all try to keep them to a minimum.

Will update later tonight.

Hello I am making baby steps with decluttering,
Washed dishes in the sink,
emptied clean dishes out of the dishwasher,
spent 15 minutes organizing the garage, while doing this I realized that I will need to spend more than 15 minutes a day on the garage.

Beth you have great ideas to deal with clutter.

Onebyone Good luck with the landlord encounter. I can understand how that may be scary. Thanks for starting this thread.

Have a great day everyone.

No clutter update at home today--but I did wonders at BFF's this weekend--both her garage and a kitchen cabinet! (She has been known to come help me go through things as well--her support is when I pruned so much when we moved 6 years ago)

Hi all checking in,
I did well with eating and exercise but not with my clutter. I washed the dishes in the sink but that is it.
I will try again tomorrow.

Hi ladies - nice to see everyone chiming in when they can.

I am sure you have heard of doing this, but what I started to do is
have 3 containers: 1 for give away, 1 for put away & 1 for garbage &
started in less cluttered room first, sorted and cleaned it with using my
containers. And the "give away" box went directly in my car & was dropped off at charity shop. I really felt great having 1 room completely done.
Since basement is the worst, I am dedicated 1 hour/weekly to deal with this in the same way. Will take longer, but not so overwhelming breaking it into small time segments.

Keep up the good work, everyone & "happy decluttering"

Jumping in because I really need this. I did declutter my car yesterday, removing six canvas tote bags and some mail that just got pitched into the trunk once I knew there was nothing important there. There were six unread newspapers of June and July news.

I have a fairly large house for one person and things go and hide on me waiting for em to find them. I have a spare room upstairs that I'd really like to turn into a guestroom but it's full of partially finished sewing and quilting projects and has my unused treadmill filling the rest of the space.

Right now, I am going up there with a garbage bag and start to pitch, being as ruthless as a Ruthxxx can be!

and we're off!
 

Hi Everyone

Well, to be honest, this is what I managed to do from my Monday list:

PREVIOUS ITEMS
--I did do the dishes, all of them, It was about three sinkfuls. Today I have about one sinkful of dirty dishes, but no verflow onthe flow or the other counters. *credit* this is progress.

--I did clear off the surfaces in the living room: coffee table, chair, futon, plus the floors were swept and loose papers etc. were tossed. The landlord encounter was super easy. I guess cause he sad he just had to replace the belt on his own washing machine at home so our machine problems were undertandable to him. Everything is good.

--I pulled out three bags of canvases but they sit, leaning up against the futon, waiting for me to look at them. I will do that when I get off the computer, before I head out to the art store/garden/take my walk.

NEW ITEMS

--do all the dishes before I go to sleep. I remember it feels great to have a clean sink/kitchen when I get up in the morning.

--pull out one more item from box mountain to sort through tonight/today.

That's it and that's enough.

Bye for now. Check in when you can. Stay focused and things will slowly change bit by bit. even when you think they aren't, they are.

Hey onebyone, give yourself credit--you did a lot from your Monday list--all those things matter.

My plan for tonight is to spend an hour on decluttering in DD's room. She's out of town right now and doesn't have much time at home before leaving for college--and I want her room ready to use as a guest room in October when we're having at least 10 weekend guests and I'll need all the rooms! (DH may pre-empt that to work in the garage--if he does, I'll go along with it)

DH preempted my plan to work on DD's room to work in the garage, and we got a lot done, but it's in the "tear it apart to put it back together" stage.

We totally emptied off two shelf units (which are being re-purposed to the basement "warehouse"), and have two new (shallower and taller) shelf units put together. There's one more for the back wall, and then two for the side wall that aren't assembled yet.

There is stuff all over the place, but once we get the shelf units put together and attached to the wall we can start putting things back--in an organized fashion. I want the things we use most to be the things that are easiest to get to!

DH has put things aside for moving to the basement (collection of antique tools, collection of old meters--that sort of thing). The two shelves on the side wall will be reserved for his Model T stuff--old iron, engine parts, specialized tools--all that sort of thing. That will help a lot, because the meters took up a 4' long, 2' deep shelf that I could actually reach, rather than being in 'collection' space.

I feel good about our progress even if it's currently a mess.

Hi Beth, onebyone, Ann(Newlifestyle), Bandit2, and Ruth!

I suppose to a few of you I have been noticeably absent here. I have good news to share. Since our Spring challenge ended on June 21 I have kept going every single day. I kept going doing what worked for me (aligned with Beck principles);
I made a plan every day and did it "no choice". The result was I found it far less daunting and overwhelming when I just took a baby step but did it every day. The built up results have been remarkable.
My plan has continued to be my 1-2-3 dance (taken fromflylady)
Everyday I dedicate a short time (usually less than 1/2 hour)
1. old clutter
2. current clutter
3. clean(something).

It has been one of the most gratifying times of my life. Routine in one area of my life has helped with routine in other areas of my life. As my environment has become less cluttered and cleaner through a daily routine I find my exercise and food plan has become less cluttered and "more routine".

The other day I finally made a decision to switch out my "house dress". I live a block from my 92 yr.old mom and it's not uncommon for her to call me at 6am or 10pm to run over and do something for her. I got into the habit of the "housedress". Something I could wear to work at home....garden....go to the store...or walk down the street in. My old was a Nordstrom/shirt dress(cotton) with side and top pockets. It was way too big (which was ok) and totally worn out...with holes underarms, etc(which was not ok). I opened my closet and pulled out a beautiful maroon EddieBauer/velvetshirtdress (from a thrift store) which was too long and had no pockets(and used to be too small).
Wow! Clean office....I had the vision and could pull out the sewing machine/supplies....bring it to the right length, hem the sleeves AND I cut the pockets out of the old dress and inserted them into the new. This was so exciting to me and happened as a result of my persistence with my daily chores. I've been wearing it daily since I fixed it Sunday morning and I feel comfy. The old one was pretty outdated and kind of reflected the "old me".

Anyway.....I am in maintenance! My home is in order and my decluttering "projects" are very few. Mostly, my decluttering now comes one item at a time as I see something that no longer fits/or serves my purpose. I do keep a box downstairs AT ALL TIMES and when I find something I no longer need it goes right into the box.

My big "project" right now continues to be the renovation of my grandmother's tiny house. The water/sewer lines were finally finished 2 weeks ago and we're mostly waiting for our contractor friends to be freed up. While we're waiting I'm trying to do a few fun things, too, remembering how hard I have worked to get to this point.
Credit.

I'll pop in from time to time but I have an internet issue these days which makes it a little difficult to get to 3fc when I have personal time....

Best wishes everyone!


I'll think on that one. I know I'd like to have the renovation complete and the house rented but there are some issues there beyond my control. I will do my best.

I guess my greatest joy would be to continue to maintain my home as I have learned and learn to enjoy and better organize the space I have freed up

PS RuthXX, I am going to clean out my car TODAY!

hello ladies,
I didn't post last night but i was still doing stuff.
Lexi, you are doing amazing, congratulations.

1. old clutter (worked on garage for twenty minutes, bagged two bags for donation and one bag of garbage.
2. current clutter - picked up newspapers and books off living room floor.
3. clean(something), cleaned dishes.

I will try to maintain the 1,2,3 steps.
Have a great night.

I am happy to see this thread!

I can connect with the 'spirit' of wanting to get rid of dead material weight.

Lately find myself going through the kitchen cupboards with this mission: everything must have 'a place'. If I can't make a specific place for it, then there is no room for it.

sidebar achievement that is now happening: some of my junk drawers are getting cleaned out because I now realise they are valuable in terms of 'location' -- ie, junk is filling up the places that things I need could be placed.

Hi everyone - love reading all the posts!
Lexi - great job on all you have accomplished, really inspiring for all of us.

My laundry is caught up & I threw out torn/stained items as I went along.
And have a charity bag on the go.
As I mentioned before, most of the house is pretty good except the dreaded basement, but this week I sorted 2 boxes and dealt with those.
Small steps in the right direction which is key.

All - lets all keep focused and slowly, but surely we will see results!

Last night was a successful night in the garage reorganization project.

DH and I put together the 3rd (4' wide, 7' high) shelving unit and attached all three shelves to the back wall of the garage. We did a ceremonial placing of the first items on the unit--and we agreed completely on what they should be and where they should go. (Admittedly, there weren't many options for the drill recharger--there's only one outlet on that wall, so that's where it goes!) The 'small unit organizers' were the other things we placed.

One funny: DH went to get the leaf blower (he doesn't sweep the garage--he uses the blower) to clean the area before we put the shelves in. He went to where the leaf blower is supposed to be (where we put in rails and hooks to hang such items--and it wasn't there. He hadn't put it away the night before. (In his defense, it's hard to get to right now because we have all the stuff that was on the old shelves piled up and blocking walkways around the Model T)

The plan for the night is to load the shelves, in a nice, organized, planned way, and to reload his tool chest, which is mostly empty, also in a planned way, so that the stuff we use most is the most accessible (great concept, huh?).

When we emptied the shelves, we did a lot of sorting and organizing--much of the stuff is in plastic bins (many of which are shoe box or sweater sized) which can be labeled and put on the shelves.

Saturday, he'll be working mostly alone since I want to spend the day with DD, since it'll be my last day at home with her before she goes off to college next week. <sad> <empty nesting is going to be hard!>

hello all,
great ideas from everyone, I like the keep, donate, and trash plan. I think it will help me as I go along, thanks.
Beth, that is so difficult with DD going away to college, Is her college close by?
I washed dishes and picked up a bit of stuff, I only worked at it for about 15 minutes, it will all add up, slow and steady.

Have a great night all,
I am learning to accept that I don't need to do the all or nothing thing, baby steps.
Ann

Doing laundry for my trip this weekend. It's in the dryer now. I just asked DH to help me clear off the stove. I was stumped and burst into tears. Inspite of this, the stovetop is now clear. I think I need to get to bed. G'night.

Newlifestyle--DD will be about 75 minutes away, so not bad. That's how far my son is (different school). His freshman year I went down about once a month to visit for a few hours.

For the keep/donate/trash piles, I've learned to put the donate in the car as soon as I've got a bag full and commit to running it by the Goodwill the next time I'm out.

onebyone: I'm sorry the stove was so stressful. You're making progress--as Newlifestyle said, baby steps.

DD and I spent about an hour and a half in her room tonight--I was a whirling dervish. We gathered trash, organized things, and she's washing all the clothes that were on her floor (90% of her clothes were on the floor). Tomorrow we'll go through the stuff we organized and also divvy the clothes up into "pack for school", "give away", and "keep at home". She'll have the same steps to do at her dad's house Sunday or Monday--she's got about half her stuff in each house.

Then, DH and I spent about 4 hours in the garage (hence this late night post). All 3 shelves on the back wall are up. All of the tools have a home. All of the misc "stuff" has been sorted into boxes and those boxes have labels. (I have a lot of plastic shoe box and sweater sizes boxes that used to store kids' toys, and those are now full of "Screws", "Nails", "Plumbing", "Sandpaper", "Grinding" and things like that. There are more than two dozen of the boxes but they're easy to find now! There are also 3 boxes labeled "Sort me" that DH will have to go through--they aren't mine to solve.

I don't think I'll be helping DH in the garage tomorrow, other than to help him put together the remaining two shelving units--it's definitely a two person job.

He's ecstatic (his word) with the garage organization--he says he's wanted to do it for years and hasn't had the get-up-and-go to do it. (Sort of how I feel about the basement)

Take care all!

Hi Everyone

I am trying to focus on three boxes I pulled out of my box mountain and the first one is just a minefield. Full of family history. I have pulled some stuff from it for the donate pile, but have had my nose in a full-to-bursting manilla envelope of letters between my parents right after I was born and right after my mother left my father and left me with her parents, which is where I grew up, as I never did go back with my family. These letters are all from that time. I remember grabbing the envelope when we moved my mom into the nursing home but i thought it was correspondance my grandmother made not my mom. So I really need to refocus. Only 1/4 into box #1.

I will set these aside for reading tonight, as much as I can take, and am now going back to the boxes to sort. I am hoping to condense the boxes as I will not find homes for this stuff yet, but if I can reduce my overall pile, that would be progress--thanks to Lexxiss for suggesting this strategy to me.

My first goal is to have a functional eating space/dining room where my mother and I can share a meal.

1. old clutter--three boxes from Box Mountain a) sorted & b) re-boxed if necessary
DONE two boxes broken down for recycling+packing materials - all box conents put away - not perfectly, but put away- one box pull for donation credit

2. current clutter - clear off tables in the living room: 2 end tables, coffee table

3. clean- dishes in the sink and stovetop+ tiny counter beside it so I can fix dinner.

We have only been home about three hours and this house looks like a disaster, DH and DS are currently swimming. They is a path of clothes in the living room. It is rather comical. I will pick those up right after I post and then will go in the garage and go through a box. I think I need to leave the three boxes, donate, garbage and keep in the hallway as I am going through things.
Thanks for being here, slow and steady wins the race.
Have a great night.
Ann

moving ahead -- box mountain is becoming a steep hill.
 

Hi Cleaneruppers!

Today I pulled out one large box, one midsize box and two tiny boxes plus a plastic drawer I brought over from my studio.

I've got stuff all dissected now, all over the living room floor. I am feeling stumped.
I keep finding stuff and I can't seem to decide what I want to get rid of. Today I want to keep everything and it's all small piddly things that just stump me. So I think I'll gather like things into a ziplock bag, and label the bag and then gather the like bags together. I can see much of this stuff is craft supplies/parts/pieces.


1. old clutter: 4 boxes and one plastic drawer done
2. current clutter - cleaning off chair in living room
3. cleaning countertop in kitchen. done

THOUGHT about what to do as I move forward and I need to make space for the stuff I am going to find and put away so I need to also take time to straighten up/declutter my shelves, which are up but poorly used. Time to to step back a bit so I can go forward.

onebyone, if you want to keep everything in a box just put it all back in and open a new one. If you can let go of just a couple of things your pile will keep getting smaller. At least, too, you are getting reacquainted with whats in them.

I've been busy enjoying the "fruits" of my previous labor. With a clean and organized home I've been able to pull out my dehydrator and start drying organic local peaches. Definitely a project (3 cases purchased, so far) but very rewarding. Enriching my life.

As I'm accustomed, now, I do my 1-2-3 dance every morning. It still feels good.

Gotta run...have company over for dinner.

Thanks for the help Lexxiss. I have a box on the floor right now and two box lids with stuff in them from the boxes I tackled today. I know where they will go, but I have to clear out those spaces next. It's all a chain reaction kind of thing. I do feel the spectre of perfectionism rising in me though, and wanting to "do it perfectly" as in find everything a home. This may not be possible, but I can make significant improvements. It doesn't have to be perfect or totally ignored. There is some middle ground here...

Take Back the Shelves Day
 

Hi Declutterers

Today I am reclaiming the space on my shelves. Honestly, I have used them as a "place to put stuff for now". I have more shelf space than I used to have and so some stuff can be re-shelved/re-assigned to other areas of the house. It's become obvious that I need the space for the stuff coming out of my storage boxes so now I need to condense and clear off the shelves I can access. These are four shelving units: 2 in the living room and two in the hall. I am dedicating one hour to each unit.

1) 12 cubes in living room shelf unit

2) 6 shelves in tall bookcase in living room

3) three shelves in hallway (left side of hall) bookcase plus surface of dresser (bookcase sits on dresser unit with three drawers. drawers for another day/space/time)

4) three shelves in hallway (right side of hall) bookcase plus surface of desk (bookcase sits on desk unit with three drawers, plus long desk drawer above space for seating. Drawers for another day/space/time)

Will I Deal With What's On The Top Of The Shelves???

All of my shelving units have stuff sitting at the very very top of them. I think I am going to not worry about that today. For whatever reason, they really stump me. I think I have enough to keep me busy today. Maybe when I get the rest of the spaces reclaimed it will be more obvios where that stuff goes.

I am taking before and after pictures.

Bye for now.

How did it go, onebyone?

Not much decluttering going on here. I was thinking today....it's been almost two months since I've been over here and this used to be our primary home. We'd be here for months at a time just heading over the hill the other direction for a quick check. I had the opportunity to start "new" here in 2005 and I'm really happy now that I get to come over so infrequently. It's really a joy to walk into a clean and organized space and realize it's mine, especially since I get such a short time to enjoy it anymore. I do make an effort, when I'm here, to keep up with things, too....which reminds me I have a beautiful dress I need to try on again and see how much closer it is to fitting. I bought it several years ago at a very upscale thrift store. It's black ultra-suede with beautiful flowers on the bottom...short but pretty formal. I think I'll go look....I'm guessing not quite yet.

in my email box today--modified my day because of it.
 

Hi

So I had these intentions to get all my shelves done. What I managed was one shelf unit, in the hall, the 3 shelves above the desk. Then, when I decided to move "projects I am working on now" to the clean/clear desk top, well the whole thing got covered up with stuff really fast. Then, right after that, after seeing how quickly things went back to being messy on the desk top--which wasn't even part of my plan to begin with (HELLO???) I just felt depressed. And I have had a low level anxiety all day long. So I went to my email and found an email sent to me via the Flylady website. She is really my anchor throught the decluttering --well her and everyone here is is happily trudging along this same path. SO I read this--btw I snipped out paarts and kept the stuff that spoke to me...

And so, I decided that my list WAS too long for today and yep, I was feeling liek a failure and yep it had to o with being perfect and getting it all done today, like as if I could by magic somehow, and that getting 1 out of 4 done was really nothing and... well it was all just so perfect this little email message. Now I feel better about my one shelf unit that has been dealt with. Tomorrow I'll do another one.

I don't like the term baby steps though. Not sure why.

Hello all, quick check in to say hi and that I am still at it.

I'm still at it, too. I made a point to unpack/put away right after we returned home yesterday. I was glad this morning! I work early but have made the bed, cleaned the kitchen sink and picked up some old stuff I didn't put away before we left. credit.

Slowly, slowly picking away at things in the upstairs spare room. I have sorted out a lot of old papers. (Is it really necessary to keep tax returns from the last century?) Several unfinished sewing, knitting and quilting projects are now gone and I have rescued a few things.

Along with the upstairs stuff, I've also pitched things from my pantry hoard - nobody wants 2 year old jams and pickles! Several unmarked bags of Bulk Barn stuff are also gone. However, my Santa collection is still standing on the desk in the upstairs hall. I have a box and some bubble wrap so will do that today!

At least the clutter is shrinking rather than growing!

Today was a good day, I think I want to move and downsize and get rid of all clutter. If I keep at this I will be ready to move by spring. Two loads of wash, packed up a box and clear garbage bag for the diabetes association. I even recruited my DS to go through his stuff and donate all the things he doesn't want to play with.
Cleaned kitchen, didn't take as long as I though it would.
I am off to post on the main Beck site, have a great night.
Take Care
Ann

Wow! This is the thread I need for the remainder of this year! I am very grateful to the original poster! I've slowly de-cluttered various parts of my house, still have some to tackle, and now my garage looks like a hoarder's haven. I moved my living room and dining room around a couple weeks ago and got all the windows washed. My son already power-washed the outside of the house.

This week's goal is to tackle my personal closet and dressers. And I need to get it done tomorrow, because the housekeeper is coming on Tuesday and I want her to get all the dusting done after I've cleared stuff out.

I can't get everything done all by myself, so I hire people to help me. I need to call a handyman to help me hang a big picture in my living room (it's been sitting in a box for over a year!) and to hang my TV over the fireplace. I need an electrician to run the wires under the house for me as well as repair my ceiling fan light kits. The fireplace needs to be scoured out too, but I think my son can do that for me.

So this week, I'll get all those people set up to get this stuff done. And I'll report back here once everything is accomplished and I'll move on to my next short list.

Baby steps...

keep on truckin'
 

Hello

With September on the doorstep, I have the feeling of a new start/new beginning/new year. Septembers always make me feel this way.

My mother will be here in about a month so I am going to create a three week plan to get my apartment's "social spaces" in order. I want to tick the box that says it si DONE by the time my mother comes over for her first post-move visit. Not to mention my sister will be here too, to help ease our mother's transition to a new care faciilty.

I ma going to write down, in tiny steps both a work schedule (I am self-employed) and a decluttering scheduloe/goal list. In there are some deadlines too so I need to be flexible as it can take me longer to make what I need to make.

I am not interested in punishing myself. I am not interested in feeling bad that it "got this way" or that we "live this way". Really, what I need now is some success. I need to meet my goals instead of always shifting them around. I want to move on already. I firmly believe that getting unstuck in one area helps me get unstuck in others. Success breeds success. It's why I believe a decluttering thread DOES belong in a weightloss group. This is another area I am stuck in and need to face. It's all connected inside of me. So I will go do that, infact this is my goal for today:

- to create a daily check list to meet my goals in one month's time in the following areas:

1= living room space
2=dining room space
3=kitchen
4=bathroom
5=entry way

6=art show deadlines written down
7=steps needed/ time scheduled for my art work in the three categories I work in a) weekly market b) art submissions c) christmas shows d) development of online art presence re:long term goals

8=weekly commitment to exercise written down

9=food plan written down

I'm going to take a *credit* for posting and for starting to look at this right now.

geoblewis thank you for joining us. We hope you can find support and help here for your decluttering journey. Thanks for posting and let us know how it's going.

Newlifestyle I am thinking about my next move too, even as I upack boxes from this past move that is now 2 years old. How can the time go so fast? The diabetes people are in my area soon too... I already have a box for them. *credit* Thanks for checking in!

Ruthxxx As long as the clutter shrinks--you are right with that. No amount of "organizing" or rubber maid bins can actually lessen the clutter as much as just chipping away at it does. You're doing fantastic. I also found 2 xmas related items this week. I found my only xmas decoration my Santa Star and then an unopened box of SpongeBob Square pants xmas ornaments (very small all like 1" tall). I love them.

Lexxiss Great job keeping everything at bay Lexxiss. What are your next projects? Any kind of "dream project" on the horizon now that you've got the underlying structure in hand???

Hi everyone,

I'm home after my week away. DH finished the garage organization while I was gone. I worked with him on most of the stuff--and then he sorted out his antique car stuff himself. The shelves in the garage look great.

Yesterday, when I got home, I unpacked and realized that my closet really needs to be gone through--but it's not high on the list.

What is on the list is the basement "warehouse"-a 14' x 30' area that has tons of stuff in it--and we can't find anything.

So, tonight we cleared out the back wall and brought down the 3 shelf units (2' deep, 4' wide, 6' high) we're repurposing from the garage. We now have 8 of those shelves in the garage.

DH and I do not want to approach this project the same way, so it may be more stressful than the garage was. For today, we cleared one of the previous shelves off completely and started sorting things out to be gone through on an additional pass: craft stuff, stuff for DH to go through, stuff for me to go through, stuff belonging to DD the elder, pictures and frames...

Our first pass is to sort everything, cleaning things out as we go. We ended up with a big bag of trash and two boxes of things to give away, so we're getting rid of stuff as we go. There's just so much to go through!

We did make progress tonight, though. First task for tomorrow is to move the electrical panel so it faces the other way--I hope it turns out to be an easy job!