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Old 08-08-2013, 09:43 AM   #1  
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Arrow 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.
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Old 08-08-2013, 10:01 AM   #2  
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Default 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.
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Old 08-08-2013, 10:25 AM   #3  
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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 I have boxes that have been packed up for several years & tons of outdated junky things.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.
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Old 08-08-2013, 08:25 PM   #4  
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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!
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Old 08-08-2013, 08:39 PM   #5  
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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.
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Old 08-09-2013, 08:57 AM   #6  
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Default 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.

Last edited by onebyone; 08-09-2013 at 08:57 AM.
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Old 08-09-2013, 11:40 AM   #7  
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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!)
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Old 08-09-2013, 11:21 PM   #8  
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did not get to the mountain today. i think it will be monday before i get there next.
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Old 08-12-2013, 02:51 PM   #9  
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Default 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.
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Old 08-12-2013, 04:30 PM   #10  
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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.

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Old 08-12-2013, 09:34 PM   #11  
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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)
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Old 08-13-2013, 09:29 PM   #12  
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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.
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Old 08-14-2013, 12:02 PM   #13  
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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"
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Old 08-14-2013, 12:10 PM   #14  
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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!
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Old 08-14-2013, 02:43 PM   #15  
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Thumbs up 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.
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