I love dropping in to this thread and seeing the changes that everyone is making and gaining inspiration and motivation for continuing with my own.
I made it to a milestone this weekend (one of the coldest on record for where I am) in that all of my mess is now sorted and categorised, things that need to be stored are boxed and out of the way. A couple of boxes contain things that are linked to specific areas (like the office area) and they are neatly stored there ready to be sorted and put away.
Overall, the floor space is now cleared, shelves hold what they are meant to and there are a couple of carloads of salvage, recycling and donatables ready to be transported.
The end result was that a person who has never met me before arrived at my house and made the comment that 'it's the neatest renovation I've ever seen'
I have to make the beds, vaccum and put away the clothes in the bedroom and I will feel that my place is habitable.
It has taken a while, but my method has been to work in a room moving, arranging and getting rid of as much as I can handle at one time. I will move anything that belongs in other rooms to that room. I then move on to the next room until I have been through the house. Then I start again.
End result, each room has what it needs to function and nothing more! Even the stuff that is being stored is in the correct room for it, but discreetly tucked away.
Now that I have that under control the next step is actually getting the renovations done. Floors to be polished (now that I can see them again, might as well make them pretty) Doors to be fixed, bedroom wardrobes and then fireplaces installed. A few extra kitchen cupboards (overheads) and then the big one. The new bathroom to be installed.
This should increase my storage space to more than what I actually need - a strange concept.
An unexpected consequence of focussing on decluttering so much has been the change in my spending habits. It seems so wrong to buy more stuff when I am throwing so many things out that I have started to question my impulse purchases. This has lead to me saving money much more easily. Has anyone else noticed this.