Hello! I know Lexxiss and CyndiM from South Beach and I seriously need comraderie in de-cluttering stress. (I am not familiar with Beck however.) We've been in the same house for almost 30 years, and my DH does NOT like to 'release' anything. And he is a person with many interests, so that means so much 'stuff'.

I will get inspired only a couple times a year to do major de-clutter, and I do as much as I can in that period (usually not longer than a week) then it just seems too overwhelming, or I make a small change in one tiny section and then my usual 'blinders' come over my eyes and everything seems 'okay' until the next time.

Our living room looks like the llving room of college students maybe, lol. Cheap furniture, at least no wooden planks on cinder blocks but close. I want SO MUCH to have a pleasant space. My impetus now is our younger son coming at Christmas from out of state, and I want to surprise him with a nice space for he and his girlfriend to visit us, open gifts, visit, without having to pull out the lawn chairs for extra seats!

I've had 2 days of non-stop activity to start on 20+ years of accumulation. I can go into that later, just wanted to please insert myself here

"Even if none of this decluttering shows as it's all hidden in drawers and my cupboards I feel great about getting it out of the house." - someone posted this here, and it is exactly what I've done in the past 2 days, it was cleaning out an entertainment center that had over 100 VHS tapes, music cassette tapes, 8 track and BETA tapes!!!

Holly!

I hear ya on the 20 yr accumulation! What a great goal you have to declutter before your son comes to visit. You mentioned your DH's stuff...mine is the same way, too. As I've worked on areas I have tried to focus on my own stuff but do take stuff upstairs to his cave if it's in an inappropriate room.
I've been focusing on a 3 fold plan:
1. Get rid of the old
2. "Learn" not bring in "new" stuff as I free up space
3. Learn to keep my space clean/organized.

Two days here and I'm constantly amazed how fast things can get out of order if I let them. I'm so good at picking up at the other house now and need to work on that more here.

On my list here was "clean out freezer". Instead of cooking new stuff I have found us freezer meals for the days we were here. We leave today and I don't know that I'll get any more done than that but;
I did ask DH to take his pile of junk to the shed and he did. It's been sitting by the side door for months.

Ok reporting back....my posting that I hadn't really done much over here spurred me on to "just do it" and tackle several small projects instead of sitting on the couch just knitting. I can knit tonight after we travel.

I went through my file cabinet and got a small trash container for recycle...including a 2007 JCP catalog. I went through all the hanging file folders and got rid of everything that was outdated. I didn't go in depth to the several folders I need to keep. credit. I have several items to distribute and will take them with me today
1. a knitting pattern a friend wants
2. a brand new dog bowl set for hiking that my friend can resell at her store.

I'm finding that a large part of my accumulated success here right now is the progress that I see and feel as the months go on driven by small declutters on a regular basis.

We took a whole load to recycle yesterday so I have room to start accumulating more.

that is great!

Lexxis,I think you are on to something! Because my frustration is not cleaning up, it's how fast everything gets messed up again, and that is so depressing! I need to work on a regular routine of regularly picking up. It's like the old cliche about housework, it really never is done.

Hi everyone:

The tap is going full blast. DH did a lot of the dishes that I just left there. I feel great that he is doing them. Guess he got fed up cause he was cooking this weekend and needed to use some of the one's that were dirty. They just so totally depressed me. Thank you DH.

This week I need to make something in my new studio. I finally pulled out my supplies, a least the majority of them, that I need to make prints with. I've got only one one-day xmas show on the 24th of Nov and I want to make some xmas pins for it so I have to get my crafting supplies out too. I may not be able to use my supplies though. They may be too old and brittle. We'll see.

As I discover what I need in terms of my art stuff, I hope to also discover what I don't use anymore. Hopefully this will make it easier for me to discard/give away/sell online those craft supplies that are no longer relevant for me.

VermontMom to our decluttering thread. We're here to support you in your decluttering efforts and in reaching your goals. I totally relate to your description of your home. I too live like college kid. We have a futon for a couch, and everything we have was given to us, except for 2 dressers and our bed. Oh and the tv stand and the tv. I long to have an adult house and an oasis. I want a place that makes me feel happy and makes me feel like I am home, not just a place that I am living in for now or cause Iam stuck here and have no choice or someother place somewhere else will be better someday. Hello? I have found I do the best by choosing one thing to tackle and then breaking it up into tiny steps. I need to be specific, like "I want the cornerof the living room beside the tv stand cleared of all stuff". I have to write this down too. Keeping it in my head does nothing for me. I bought a big whiteboard and I have wipeoff markers and I make a plan with very specific baby steps and I check them off and then wipe them off the board with great satisfaction. It really worked for me this summer. I have MUCH to do and have felt depressed lately, but I think if I just get going my feelings will come round too. Thanks for joining us and thanks for posting.

Hello!

onebyone, I think it's great that your DH decided to pitch in. You both work and both add to the pile.

My DH has been increasingly helpful and we've had several great days of teamwork. He has taken over making our morning smoothie and I'm working on a "routine" which gets the kitchen picked up while he's prepping. It feels good.

I also went through several small drawers in the past few days sorting organizing and throwing away. credit.

Off to work. One of the best things (viaflylady) is to come up with a daily routine to keep the bathrooms tidied. I'm running behind this morning yet didn't like what I saw so I swiffed the upstairs toilet/sink. It took about 3 minutes...not a schedule breaker.

I've heard Flylady mentioned here. Went to the webpage and watched the sink video - total waste of time and way too cutezy. But what do you all think of her?

Mountain Mamma, I didn't watch the sink video...probably wouldn't have liked it, either. I do like some things about her "method" and felt I could learn some things. I went ahead and participated in the daily process for over a month and learned alot. Things I learned:
~to identify "hotspots" in my home and make the effort to keep them less cluttered
~I have found an easy way to keep my sinks/toilets clean on a daily basis instead of letting them get so bad before I got to them
~I've found ways to break my cleaning into small and manageable time slots
~during some of the assigned chores I found spots I had been ignoring for a long time and dealt with them (and now I notice)
~I've adopted her attitude...you're not behind just start where you are. I find it keeps me in a more positive space.

ETA-I think her plan for decluttering might really lead to some quick success. I've been decluttering for over 2 years now but think that had I found her back then I might have really tried to push forward with her "automated" plan for decluttering. I think 5 or 6 weeks with her plan might really make a big difference because she gives alot of mental support regarding the thought process of "letting go" of all the stuff and promoting the sense of well being we can find when we simplify our "stuff".

What I didn't like so much
~her constant emails promoting her "stuff" you could buy
~some philosophies which I felt got a bit too personal

If there was anyway I could have subscribed to the daily chore list by email WITHOUT all the other stuff I'd probably still use her to help me learn new skills but I was getting 20+ emails a day. Still glad I did it for the 5-6 weeks I did.

Lexxis, thanks. Appreciate your input - saw the stuff on the FL website about "drinking water" and "moving" - really!!? And the 'before bed routine' would take me 2 hours! But I hate dirty bathrooms & liked her ideas of keeping them clean, quicker than mine. I'll give the site another try.

Hello ladies!

onebyone oh my gosh your post made me feel better...that another 'grown up' has immature furnishings like me I am trying not to get my hopes up too much about our proposed transformed living room but I want it so badly!

Yes I agree that it's too much to say to oneself 'clean up corner' - it's got to be broken down into manageable increments.

mountain mama, I also checked out the FL a while back, and tried to embrace the kitchen sink thing..um, doesn't do it for me, LOL! I wanted to subscribe but it seemed too involved and busy.

Lexxiss, I forgot you have TWO homes to maintain congrats on your progress!!

I have been continuing my tedious and almost-impossible-seeming mission. It is making me feel a little lonely but I'm concentrating on the pat on the back that it will be all due to me. Today (day off from work) I emptied a cabinet that was in the living room, cleaned it, took it upstairs to the bathroom and put it in place of a shelving unit that wasn't as good. That shelving unit is in the back of my car for Re-Use station tomorrow. I vacuumed the horrid dirty space...it's impossible not to notice, but DH has not said anything about it* So that is sucky for me. I'm just going to power ahead though.
*edited to add, he did notice and finally said something hours later.

Box of electronics, and box of books, and another box of household stuff, and a 30 year old stereo speaker also in the car for Re-Use tomorrow.

Hey what IS a 'normal' schedule for cleaning house, do you think? I only notice dust when I see it, I have never dusted regularly to keep it from being visible.

Hello!

How's everyone doing??

Holly(VermontMom), great that you're moving forward! You mentioned this as a "lonely" process...that is why I think this thread is so great. We can understand the progress that others may never notice. You asked about dusting....
I am finding it much easier to keep stuff dusted now that I've decluttered. The dust is also easier to notice. I use the disposable swiffer duster right now....it makes it pretty easy. I'm trying to dust more often...(FL inspired)

My goal (also FL) is to have my home be "guest ready" at all times. It's working quite well right now, and is especially nice since my sis keeps popping in. Shes visited at least 3 times in the past 4 months.

I've got to run...work calls but I'd like to report my progress.
~keeping up with daily decluttering of all the "stuff" that goes in/out of the house.
~keeping kitchen cleaned up every day
~keeping sinks/toilets cleaned
~I did another reorganize/declutter in my office....got rid of 1 box of stuff and was able to consolidate and better organize contents.
credit for all.

I wanted to do more this morning but I'm out of time. I did post here because I am using (FL) technique of getting all dressed and ready to go before doing other stuff. Now I just grab my work bag and head out.

Hope to hear from others.

I think Lexxiss deserves and and !!! for starting decluttering efforts, following through, then maintaining!! That is so great. congratulations

Our living room project is moving along! Saturday, DH replaced the old living room window (like 60 yr old) with new energy efficient one, the difference in appearance and light is wonderful!) Sunday, the emptied entertainment system got dismantled and freed up that corner. This evening, DH spackled some of the living room walls. Wow!! I am so glad that he is 'into it' now

And I identified one of my 'hot spots' (well most of the house is hot spots, lol) a kitchen drawer that you have to yank hard on and paw through layers to get to any frequently-used utensils. I just pulled the whole drawer out, dumped it on the floor, washed/bleached the inside of the drawer; then pulled out all the things we never use; put that in a box to go to Re-Use center; washed the good things and put back in the drawer. And did this before going to work!

I took a close look at our attached back porch (leads from a door in the kitchen) that apparently DH and DS just put stuff out there when they don't know what to do with something..or don't want to take the effort of getting it out of the house in a legit way.

There are 2 TV's, at least 2 computer towers, at least 3 monitors, a stepper that broke and I did not know DH just put it back there...many storage bins that have ??? in them, a stacked washer/dryer that DH took from my sister when she said she didn't want it; OMG the list just is incredible. BUT each item taken one by one, could come out of there and dealt with. I just am not going to deal with it this winter, I will next Spring.

thank you for having this thread Lexxiss, it IS so nice to put in writing and see what one has accomplished!

Hello!

I accomplish lots this morning and was really reminded how much spontaneous exercise I get day to day when I strive to "clean out and keep up."

Holly, yay for your DH jumping on board. I find that any way I can positively influence my DH's participation is a great accomplishment. Things move ahead faster and he gets to take some "ownership" in the process. Great job identifying a "hotspot" and dealing with it. Growing up we always had a "junk drawer" and it was not until I came back down here after 20+ years that I found that when the junk drawer was full my mom would just dump it in a plastic bag and start refilling the drawer. I went through 40 years worth of junk drawer stuff piece by piece and even found a diamond ring.

I have to get to work...will check in later with specifics of my process.

PS Holly, thx for kind words! You inspire me to keep moving ahead.

Hello!

I guess I will jump back in here and post progress...For me, moving forward with decluttering and maintaining my losses is very similar to my Beck inspired food planning; it's about a daily process.

I had a success this morning-because I did the footwork last month. I went to the basement and brought up my big holiday wreath, hung it outside AND plugged it in. Last month I ordered the bulbs to reno it and took time downstairs to "just do it". Today was a 5 minute process. It is now my one outdoor decoration...simplify...simplify...simplify. All the other outdoor decorations have been taken to thrift. credit.

Yesterday I took advantage of a few quiet hours at home and attacked several items on my procrastination list.
~I finished my Colo.state taxes
~I made a decision (emotional) to use some of my waitress cash stash to pay off a big bill completely

I know that these unfinished items take up space in my head which makes it more difficult to deal with physical stuff still lurking in closets...in drawers...under beds....on bookcases. It felt so good to finally cross them off the list.

As always, I am amazed at the daily pile of *stuff* which accumulates when I don't take care of my stuff. The bed isn't made, theres a pile of clean laundry on top now, I have a pile of clothes in my office that needs put away, shoes everywhere, no room in the fridge, kitchen counters full of clutter, cat box full.

My immediate, and interesting (to me) task:

I'm going to set the timer and attack everything on the above mentioned list then log how long it took.
I know my mind says I don't have time to keep up with my tasks and I usually find the process isn't that bad (once I do it).
ETA_ 40 minutes today and everything is done. My day off is now freed to do what I want...whithout the tapes running in my head, "I should be doing__________"