Declutter update
 

OK, fellow declutterers! I know you're out there. How are things going? Are you digging through those dusty boxes? Discarding those mounds of magazines? Clearing out those unused clothes?

I'm pleased to say I've been making slow but steady progress. A most recent triumph has been a return to reading. I have bookshelves full of books that have gone unread because I "didnt' have the time," and I told myself I either needed to get rid of them or read them. I'm making the time, and I'm satisfied with the decision.

When you get done come to my house, I am a pack rat and find it hard to get rid of stuff, after all " I might be able to use it someday."

Great topic.

Several months ago I started a major declutter project. Most recent steps:

A four foot stack of magazines - to the magazine rack at the recycle center
One nice silk dress shirt - too big - to Good Will
One wool blue blazer - too big - just hated to see it go
One Egyptian Cotton Brooks Brothers shirt - too big - had been reluctant to let a good shirt go

I'm making progress one square inch at a time.

My lifelong goal seems to be to declutter and organize my life. Recently I checked out theflylady.com... have you ever been to this site?

Bill and Ufi - great job on your progress. I need to do the same!!

i haven't done a whole lot of decluttering...but i am in the process...i have about 20 things sitting on my dinning room table waiting to go on ebay. They still are in good shape...so i figure, try to make money. DH and i last week did go thr clothes and give a bunch of stuff to good will since it will still count for tax deduction until december.

We are having our company party next Sat....a dressy affair...I de-cluttered 2 pairs of pants I have been saving for my skinny days to return....not gonna happen! They were my 165 pants....

decluttered 2 pair of nice black slacks to the Goodwill pile in the garage today

I have been slowly but surely trying to get through my room and decluttering everything. I live with my parents, so really only have my bedroom for storage. It's a tiny space, but I am such a packrat that I have so much stuff around!

Anyway, trying to get through things has led to 5 bags of clothes and 1 bag of flip flops/shoes/purses to Goodwill and 1 bag of trash for Trash Pickup tomorrow. I still have piles everywhere! haha

I am redoing my room after Christmas....buying a bigger bed and getting new bedroom furniture, so I am planning a massive "trash" party when that happens. I am going to do the whole "if I haven't used it in the last year, it's gone!" Too many times in the past, I have kept things for the mere fact that I could possibly need it in the future. I need to get away from that train of thought.

Decluttering my house (and my life for that matter) has become a goal of mine.

One thing I did back in October was make a public declaration on my blog to get rid of 100 things in 100 days. I'm up to 57 and my deadline is Dec 31st. I'm not entirely sure I'm going to make 100 things (although I'm going to keep trying), but I have gotten rid of a significant amount of clutter and managed to streamline a lot. It's really freeing to get rid of things, once you get into the swing of it.

I've donated a lot to Goodwill and I've sold a fair number of things on Ebay as well.

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i've been pretty good about keeping clutter to a minimum. we're moving over the next couple of weeks so whatever is left is getting dumped. i dun wanna take it to the new place! so far we've got two bags of clothes to donate- most from my hubbys great weight loss success! i'm proud of him- but kinda wish it was my clothes going.
i do have a hard time w/ the magazines. i've made a goal not to take any of them with me... we'll see how that goes.

Good job on progress!

I've been to that site. I read "It's All Too Much," and it was helpful. Life before possessions. Sometimes, it's actually painful to consider the things I'll either use or toss. Really makes you look at how you're spending your time and space. But I'm proud of how my place is shaping up.

My husband and I are on a mission to get rid of everything we don't absolutely need. Our dream is to move into an RV and travel the country's warm zones (we're both on disability and getting less and less able to stand Wisconsin's winters).

The RV may not be realistic for several reasons, and it might be more practical to move permanently to a warmer part of the country, but either way getting rid of excess stuff is going to be necessary either way.

We shared our plans at Thanksgiving and hubby's family thinks we're nuts and did their best to talk us out of it. Maybe it is a stupid idea, but the alternative is to stay where we are and try to cope with winter. So far, that has meant a pseudo-hibernation where we're both reluctant to leave the house.

I have needed to weed through my closet for months. I have drawers that are over-full and I know the stuff on the bottom hasn't been worn for months (maybe years) and can be donated to charity. I just haven't had the time. As for the rest of my house, I'm pretty clutter free. I don't keep magazines (unless it is Cooking Light) for more than a couple of weeks before recycling. I will keep catalogs for a few days (I mark things that are interesting and set aside, then in a few days I review my interesting finds and if they are still interesting I'll keep it for a few more days or toss it. Seldom do these interesting items get purchased, though!).

I emptied my storage unit this weekend! It will save me $80 a month. I took several home accessories to a local consignment shop to be sold. I could use the Christmas $$$ too.

Strange that I should spot this today. I just packed up and sent two bags of my dear departed husband's clothing to Goodwill. As I dig out the Christmas stuff, I'm filling a box of unused stuff for the next yard sale at the Church.

I have a list... that I made last December. It didn't get done during last year, but I keep trying. I need to declutter, but honestly, when I get busy with my kids (ages 12 & 14, sports enthusiasts), that's what gets put on the back burner. But, I still have the list and the clutter, so it will be a goal for 2009.

I luv your concept====i'm going to have to steal that idea ---get rid of 100 things in a 100 days!!!! whooo!!! i'm going to go make a list and get started

Here's a hint. We decided to replace some of our bedroom furniture, and the reality set in that not all furniture is as big as it seems. I measured the INSIDE of the drawers in a piece we had years ago that was moved to another room. I compared it with what we were currently using. No wonder it was more cramped. The drawers for quite a few inches (width, depth and height) smaller. I took a tape measure with me to the store and made a point of measuring the INSIDE of the drawers. The biggest pieces usually had the smallest drawers.


Since I reclaimed 25 hangers last year, I haven't done a lot of replacing. However, I haven't cleaned out the chest of drawers. Maybe that will be my Saturday morning project this weekend.

Oh my goodness, do I ever need to do this. It always seems such a monumental task. But I really do crave an uncluttered home.

I actually just found this website yesterday and my dishes are washed and put away, my sink clean and my first 15 minute session very productive.

I loved the concept behind the flylady, but after a couple of weeks the emails just got to be totally overwhelming. I wound up shuffling them off to a holding folder and eventually deleting them w/out reading them, which winds up being counterproductive.

I still implement some of the concepts I learned from the site, though. Making sure my sink is empty and "shined" every night before I go to bed has been a big one.

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I tried to sign up for the newsletter and message boards but it kept giving me errors. Maybe that was a good thing....

I am going to start with 15 minutes each Mon-Thurs after work and try for more like 30 on the weekends (in addition to the everyday cleaning that has to be done). I am good at washing my dishes--it's the putting them away that I am bad with, but I put them away and shined the sink and it looks so good and such a simple thing to do. I guess it's all about habits.

the biggest thing i got from Flylady was - you can do ANYTHING in 15 minutes! And after getting that into my head i realize most tasks don't even take the full fifteen. extra time for me. I also had to stop the emails and junk from coming- there was just too much of it and sometimes i'd find myself getting sucked into it and reading it all for way too long, very counter-productive.

i really think if clutter is a big problem for you- then the fifteen minute rule can really get you there- just a little bit every day and a commitment not to bring more of it into the house and you can get yourself the organization that you need.

i really like the 100 things in 100 days idea. or maybe something less daunting - 52 things in 52 weeks?

lizziep - Thanks for the reminder that "you can do ANYTHING in 15 minutes!" I've noticed that my DW, who doesn't have a clutter problem, will frequently do something by hand in, say, about 15 minutes, while I spend half an hour setting up the tools to do it automatically, LOL.

I just found this thread...first let me say I am a flybaby who is still learning to fly. I dont use all the daily tools...but i do make my bed daily and swish ad swipe my bathroom toilet and sinks daily in the mornings. I also keep my sink empty.
I give stuff to goodwill ...I have gotten my wardrobe from the goodwill store this year as i lose weight. No reason to pay alot for temporary clothing.
I use freecycle.org ...its a great place to get rid of nice items and bless someone else with them. Last year we were able to bless a young family with a twin bed and box springs. I was also blessed with a 52" projection TV. Its awesome! EVERYTHING IS FREE!!!
My daughter just bought a house and moved out..I have decluttered alot of her stuff but last week i got 90 gallons of clutter out of my dinning room and kitchen...
I think body clutter and house clutter go hand and hand...
hugs to all

Just did my kitchen cabinets/pantry /laundry room---I threw away a bunch, have some to take to goodwill,organized the rest...it looks so pretty...

wow---jules' you're on a roll---as for me i cleaned and scrubbed the refridgerator!!! so the only gross surprises in there were about 3 or 4 rotten soggy looking cucumbers---but in all --not bad but took like 2 hours!!

since i start winter break in a few days i'm planning on doing major decluttering ---i cant stand it anymore !!!

Thinking about goals for next year, I've been thinking about my long-term goal of decluttering and cleaning my home again. And I had kind of a realization about it...if I can lose weight by simply consistently staying on plan every day, and little by little losing the fat over time, then there's no reason I can't take the same approach with my home. Even if it's only 15 minutes, or 30 minutes per day...just a little bit every day will get me there eventually.

So yesterday I spent 2 hours decluttering and cleaning a 2x3 section of my kitchen counters. More than 15 minutes, yes, but I had the time and the energy to do it, and I wanted to do it. Now I have a shockingly decluttered area in my kitchen. Awesome!

Haven't quite decided what small area I will concentrate on today.

I got my entire office area decluttered yesterday.

I took 3 large bags to Goodwill, dumped off over 60 magazines in the recycle area at Whole Foods, and am about to put about 40 items on Ebay to hopefully pad my Christmas budget a little. :)

I also have a huge pile of old paperwork than needs to be shredded but my little bitty office shredder can't keep up. It overheats after about 15 mins of steady use. I'm wondering if there's someplace in town that I can take all this stuff to shred it. I wonder if Kinkos has shredders that I can use. Hmmmm .... need to go look.

My biggest dilemma now is from old client files. I've been a photographer a LOOOONG time - meaning I have stacks of old film negatives from weddings from 15-20 years ago. I honestly don't know what to do with them. I have no idea how to track down these clients anymore. Some of them are from different states. And I'm sure some of them aren't married anymore. I cringe at the idea of throwing away negs from a client file - but I just can't keep these for another 20 years. *sigh* I'm having a real dilemma in trying to figure out how to proceed.

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Is it possible to transfer negatives to disc? I have no idea.

It is, but it's expensive. Much of what I have are medium format negatives - the big square negatives from professional format cameras. To have them properly scanned can cost around $1 per image. And we're talking probably 3000+ images for multiple weddings over the years.

While I'd love to do it - it would nicely solve the dilemma - I simply can't afford to invest $3000 and more in client files from which I'll never make another penny.

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Nope, I agree.

Maybe you should start by getting rid of some of the oldest stuff. No one can reasonably expect you to have anything for them from 10 or more years ago. Or, if you're feeling very generous, send out one mailing for each set. If you don't hear back within a month, or if the letter/card is returned, toss them then. You might even get some business out of it.

I'm getting ready to tackle another load of shredding. There's something I find satisfying about it. I have just the little home recycle bin that doesn't hold a whole lot, so I do it in batches. They have a community shred day here once a year, so maybe they have one there, too. Your sanitation company should know.

I'm pleased that I'm so far doing a pretty fair job of maintaining the parts of the house that have undergone some decluttering.

This thread has encouraged me. Here at work, I cleaned out 2 file cabinets and rearranged them so I can get my hands into the files as well as having them organized.

I've started doing some at home. I don't want to go too gung ho because it may give boobalah the idea that I want to do ALL the house and he'll throw away stuff that I want to keep.

I found a place just down the road from me - in fact on my way into the office every day - that will shred up to 50 lbs of paper for $15. If you make an appointment, they'll do it while you watch and provide you with the shredded material back or send it off for recycling.

Whee. I think I'm going to call and see if I can make an appointment for next Monday. I should be completely through sorting the files by then and have all the shredding set aside.

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That's quite a deal! Go for it!