Mini Decluttering.
Pick something you can accomplish in a week.
Big projects can be accomplished by baby steps.
What can be done in a week to make your environment better?
What irritating project can you put to rest this week?

Goal for tonight - declutter/clear off my sewing table. Now has odd pieces of Christmas decor that were moved from the living room, cat toys, sewing items that need to be put away, etc. It's the first thing you see when you go into one of our rooms.

Thanks for the new thread, OneByOne! Hope this week is as productive for you as last one was! Major inroads, there!

nationalparker!

So. I have trouble getting going on Mondays when I have worked over the weekend. But I have an apartment with infinite needs so today I will regain control over the kitchen.

I will:
do the dishes
clear the counters
wipe down the kitchen table

My major decluttering of the living room/dining room began last week when I looked at all of the boxes in those rooms and repacked some of them into labelled boxes. Moving forward with this task I will:
open one labelled box and sort the contents.

I will choose one place to gather all my stray art supplies for every kind of art I do. I need it all together. By the end of last week I'd reverted to doing what I usually do with stuff-making small teetering towers of things and/or have overloaded small boxes with stuff piled on top. MUST CHANGE THIS
so I will take my empty lidless rubbermaid box and begin gathering stray art supplies, whatever I see right now, into it.

I need to remember this is temporary. Things are in flux and they look worse than they are. Progress not perfection at this stage.

UPDATE: decided I needed to see progress so focused on clearing off the chaise in the living room = moving labelled boxes into dining room
sorted one box and broke it down for recycling
added art supplies to art supply bin as proposed above
The labelled box will wait until tomorrow.

Thanks again, onebyone.

This week I'll be in the garden room still.

I'll mend the old flowerpots because I like their shape.

I'll go through the narrow storage unit by the counter (shoe cleaning things, gardening gloves, old bits of garden tools which need handles) and work out what to do.

I might do the bit by the door (push mower, two chairs, wellington boots etc).

And possibly the shoe rack.

Silverbirch How do you mend your flowerpots? I've had little success.

My Week's task, enter rest of receipts in Quicken then discard or file each one.

Second. Catch up on Ironing. In fact I may do this tonight while DH watches the College football playoffs.

I had a great success today! Several of you may remember a few years ago I took all of my grandmother's old linens and meticulously washed and ironed them. It was my desire to share them with any of the few family members who are still left. Nobody else wanted anything so it came down to my sister and I. I have been bugging her for quite a while to come over and help me sort through. Several days ago I asked again and she stopped by today after I got off work.
She took a Small pile and I took a small pile. The other 75% we have agreed to donate to our local thrift store which raises money for senior citizens.

When I first started going through all of these, I recognized that I did not want to hold onto boxes and boxes of sentimental items that serve no practical purpose of my life.
I do still have to take the big tote to the thrift store which will not happen until after I return from my days off of work, but it's a big deal for me to be able to let them go. I can always remember my grandmother and all the enjoyment she got out of making things without having physical boxes full of stuff. I do have several of her beautiful handmade quilts and I do put them on the beds occasionally when I have guests coming.

Before work I got through four more months of my QuickBooks entries. I will start June 2014 when I return from my days off.

Wow! Everyone's off to a resounding success on a Monday! Lexxiss, I confess that I wish I was shopping at that thrift store! But I don't need more here, either. But quality was different then, wasn't it?

Got my sewing table cleared off! I want to find a smallish basket for spools of ribbon and twine - had more than I remembered. Would like to organize it with dowels. A mini project down the line, though.

One box of holiday decor packed up and ready to go - need good tape. Many more to go.

The Christmas tree and all the decorations are down. I do miss the lights and I can see why you keep some of that around nationalparker!

This week- I need to find my car repair papers and figure out what needs to be done. The dealers want to charge m e 300.00 for 50,000 maintenance which seems like a lot since everything is running fine. My project is to try to figure that out, not that I know much about cars!
Great to see everyone hard at work, its inspiring!

I'm jumping in. I've been ignoring this because the clutter problems that I want to tackle aren't very physical. But they will respond to persistence and consistency each week, just like any other clutter.

I'm not sure how to set a goal for these because I suck at predicting how long this sort of thing will take, so I'm just going to post a snapshot of my current state. My goal is to see progress most days and every week.

Mail stack. Current state: 2 days behind. Goal: empty.

Tickler. Current state: at beginning of January. Goal: today.

In Box. Current state: empty - yay! Goal: empty.

Email. Current state: 2896 total, 1924 unread. Goal empty.

Checkbook. Current state: December not done. Goal: balanced as soon as statement arrives.

Credit cards. Current state: months behind. Goal: checked as soon as statements arrive.

Lots of great things are happening here!

Yesterday I mended the bedside lamp.

Today I mended a pair of trousers and a pillow slip. I also laid out one clay flowerpot and the glue to do tomorrow. (In fact, I've only found one to mend so that's a good finding.)

So, tomorrow it's one clay flowerpot and, I think, look at a small sea-chest of my dad's. Plus, maybe, the small unit by the counter.

lovetogarden, I use Araldite Rapid and make sure the joint is supported in some way until the glue sets. For the bedside lamp I used an elastic band. For flowerpots, I use masking tape and sometimes elastic bands.

Hello

I finally made this special bundt cake that I had put off so I never finished putting my baking stuff away but now I can. Tonight the kitchen table will be completely clear.

I cleaned up all the dishes before I went to bed last night. I think I have finally hit upon a system that will work for me. Right after making supper, I fill the sink with hot water and soap and place all dirty dishes around into the sink to soak. Then after we eat I put our eating dishes and then everything soaks until we are ready for bed, which is usually at least an hour before we actually are in bed so it took me only 20min or so to have the dishes washed and placed in the dish rack, sink cleaned out, counters wiped and table top wiped. In the morning I put those dishes away. That really worked for me. I will try it again tonight.

This evening I am going to sort/gather all my ceramic supplies. I return to the studio tomorrow where I will be able to store a bin's worth of stuff. I have had very poorly organized bins and so have carried lots back and forth and maybe if I pack things right I can avoid that this year.

Great job everyone. We're cooking!

I have much less time to make progress on these things today than yesterday. I will aim to at least not get further behind.

Mail stack. Current state: empty. Goal: empty.
Progress: processed 2 back-log days + yesterday's mail

Tickler. Current state: January 8. Goal: today.
Progress: processed the January file and the first 7 days

In Box. Current state: empty Goal: empty.
Progress: kept empty

Email. Current state: 2798 total, 1843 unread. Goal empty.
Progress: 98 fewer total, 81 fewer unread

Checkbook. Current state: December not done. Goal: balanced as soon as statement arrives.

Credit cards. Current state: months behind. Goal: checked as soon as statements arrive.

Hi

Today I organized my ceramic studio bin and now it's at the studio so it gives me a bit more room in the apartment. Yay.

I went to my studio and really focused. I cleared under and around my main work table and just slowly moved from there along the edge of the room. I got a lot done and threw out two garbage bags and three boxes were emptied. I still have not found my woodblock carving tools. I'm running out of places to look for them. I still think they will surface.

Until tomorrow.

I've mended the flowerpot. Also moved two sea-chests which has resulted in more floor space. Did a brief survey of the shoe shelves and recycled a pair.

Today's mystery. Found my cross-country ski shoes which surprised me as I thought I'd given away my skis some time ago and, if so, why didn't I throw away the shoes? Perhaps the skis are in the loft but I don't think so. The SO says he'd be surprised if I'd got rid of them. NB This is only a tiny house!

Next step. Either go through the small unit or move the textiles from the bookcase which is temporarily in this room before I finish painting the sitting room. No need for the bookcase to become a dumping ground!

hi everyone- I found my car repair history- all together in one folder, gasp! Paperwork is always a problem so that is a miracle! I discovered I don't have an owners maintenance manual- which is different from the OTHER manual,they hand you about six in the beginning I think!! so I looked for it online.
I scoured my history and the recommendations and have come up with a plan, and I researched on Angies list some independent mechanics, so I think I have done well.
I will call and make an appt for maintenance and call this project done.
So glad this loop is here to report to! Go team!