View Full Version : February Declutter Challenge!
Here we go! A new month and new opportunities to declutter our life. I personally love reading about what others are decluttering and having a place to record the items I 'let go' inspires me to keep 'letting go'.
It's a snow day here (actually freezing rain and ice). My main goal today is to tackle my tax prep work. It's become a cluttered pile because I keep putting it off. It won't take long once I really get started and then I should be able to see my desk again.
Yesterday I decided to give myself a little more work space and declutterd the top of my desk that holds two file cabinets. I moved the printer off onto a lower cart and in the process dropped the printer and broke it! A rubberband is holding it together but I'm not sure it'll last. So much for that decluttering my space because now I may have to buy a new printer and that was an expensive one.
Feb 01 I had a great month in Jan. so will try for that again the place is starting to really be declutterec
--sewing and finishing projects/mending; not exactly getting rid of but, at least they are being used and won't buy more e.g. remmant of blanket made into a cozy wrap for TV watching, hemming a pair of pants,
buttons of two pair of pants you get the idea.
--also, with DH not able to go much with tireness and drs. appts and with all the snow we are getting this winter I decided today this is a good time to start a deep clean and declutter. Started in spare bedroom/sewing room today.
--also, using up and finishing food in pantry/fridge/freezer so I can at least take an inventory and know what we have; it has got out of hand. Part of the problem is I have never learnt to shop for just the two of and the kids have been on there own for 20 some years...about time I learnt I am wasting too much, or just giving it away. We do not have the money for that.....
My 5 items a day
--15 car magazine DH is giving to a friend
--2 more Christmas ornaments to charity
--1 fancy container I have no use for to charity
Todate 18 items
i am continuing to glean out our files; i am on my third bag of shredded material; it feels good to have so much room; may also try to work a bit on the photos; actually they are slides so its a little dificult as i can only due so much eye things;
Trying to clean the bedroom this month. I would like it to be a sanctuary rather than a storage area!
Finished the closet last weekend, and filled a box for Goodwill, two bags of trash, and a bag of dry cleaning hangers for recycling. Now only the clothes we actually wear are hanging in there.
Next job -- nightstand! I hate it (it is ratty IKEA that I bought used 15 years ago) but I am hanging onto it because it has storage. All the nightstands I love have one or zero drawers, so I need to get rid of the stuff in order to not need the storage anymore. There is also a random cheapo file cabinet whose contents I can't even recall -- that needs to go too.
babr, my MIL has spent the last 4 years working on over 50,000 slides my FIL took. He was meticulous in his own storage and records of them which has made her 'job' easier. We've rec'd maybe 10 cd's so far of collections of slides from various travels or family events. It's been quite an undertaking but I'm so glad she's worked on it so hard on it.
Today: Didn't get much done yesterday on the Tax Prep Piles - something about a snow day and the kids being home we watched a lot of movies. They are home again today so I'll probably get them to work on their rooms some and will try my hardest to get my stuff done. I really want to get it to my accountant a.s.a.p. since corporate taxes are due in March and not April.
Love the concept of bedroom as sanctuary, maribeth. I too am striving for that, using the little furniture and storage and accessories I have. Pls continue to share what works for you!
So far, with chiildren home for 2 snow days, all I've done is sort thru piles of paper. But Sort is a first step to Purge, right? :)
winterberry
2-2-11, 11:38pm
Well, I finally got the Christmas things put away this morning....
We moved two years ago and I'm still unpacking. But 2010 was the year from hell, so it doesn't count.
Working on a small bedroom that has become a catchall for things I don't know what to do with. Still going through things my kids left behind. The youngest is in his midthirties. His stuff is the worst. What do I do with his letters and photographs, pieces of his regretable past? He lives far away. I hate to send them to him because I think they will bring up painful memories, but I don't feel free to get rid of them, either.
What do I do with works of art that aren't good enough to hang on the walls, but not bad enough to throw away? Also not good enough to give to goodwill. Two of them are oil paintings I did in high school. They remind me of the potential I haven't realized....
Hello all, this thread is sheer encouragement to me as I'm trying to make sense of all the STUFF that I have. I'm working through listing my assets as I start to go through The 9 Steps. I know that I need to lighten my load by getting rid of a serious amount of it.
I too need to make my bedroom more like a sanctuary maribeth! I think I would get a better nights sleep if I minimalised the amount of furniture and clothes in there. I've already begun making new pillows out of recycled materials, and I got some Egytian cotton sheets at a ridiculous knockdown price, but I've squirrelled them away until I get through sorting my stuff.
I plan to sell some things on ebay to get some money for a new carpet - the old one was given to me by a friend and has seen better days!
Sometimes my husband works away so I would really love to completely transform the room and surprise him when he gets home :)
winterberry
2-3-11, 10:26pm
Today I dismantled the wedding album from my first marriage. I saved some of the pictures, but shredded a lot of them. It was more than forty years ago, and we all looked so good. This decluttering process is painful.
Made some more progress on the spare bedroom. When I have it empty I might turn it into my bedroom. It could be a wonderful sanctuary -- small but cozy, with a dormer window.
If I could be snowed in all winter I'd get a lot done....
New roof going on, and then I can finalize (is this possible?) the sort of the stuff that was under the eaves where the leak was, and is now in my textile studio haunting me.
This weekend, it all gets sorted. Really. For good, right... ? Please say yes!
winterberry - I actually hang works of art like that in the closets. Things I don't mind seeing every now and then but don't want out on display and don't want to get rid of. Even dark corners deserve a little art.
I'm in. I plan to hunker down at home this weekend and tackle the piles of books and papers that have grown and grown. I got rid of a couple of dozen books in January, but I have more to organize. And the paper! Ohh....it needs decluttering pronto. I might check in a few times as I declutter to keep me motivated this weekend.
I added a pair of shoes (beautiful but uncomfortable), two books, and two sweaters to my thrift shop bag this weekend. That was about it.
I'm in the mood to attack something my husband 'started' last month. He started going thru his books and he left piles all over the library/music area upstairs and then he left for FL. I need to let him 'finish' it and let it be his project but it is bugging me with all those piles. I know he's going to end up putting every single thing back on the shelves that he put in his 'get rid of basket'.
I am onto the kitchen. I find the kitchen a bit scary -so many things. So far I have purged: a crock pot, juicer, wine glasses, tupperware, anything chipped, and some cookbooks (I went through and wrote down the recipes I use and then got rid of the book. I am more of an inventor than a follower.) So far so good.
Feb 07 so far to day @ 12:30 p.m.
--25 old magazines glanced though and pulled articles some to charity--some to recycle
--3 piece DVD/book/ and exercise thingie for your neck never used--to charity maybe someone will love to get it.
46 items
sugarbowlbaby
2-7-11, 12:30pm
I'm chiming in a bit late, but will try to remember what I have put aside in the last 7 days. These items will all go to the Epilepsy Foundation when the truck comes around next month. For now they are being collected in a box in the garage.
7 boys pants
2 boys shirts
2 books
1 wall floral accent
2 blouses
1 sweater
1 cat dish
1 pair shorts
1 kitchen wall hanging
1 insulated bottle
1 VHS
20 items to date
Feb08
--2 picture frames to Dd
--1 picture frame broken to garbage
--5 more magazines to charity
--1 pillow to Dgrandson he liked it
Total 55 todate....
Unfortunately, DH invited BIL, SIL and nephew to stay with us this weekend, so now all the homeless junk I carefully removed from the bedroom needs to go back in there, since it is the only place in our small house to hide clutter from guests. And now my weekend will be spent entertaining people instead of decluttering. Sigh.
Hopefully I will find time to at least get the Goodwill boxes, the dry cleaning, and the clothing returns out of the house properly instead of hiding them.
dh has been slowly getting rid of his clothes and i have been going through my books that i can donate; i have shredded most of the old files; still haven't gotten to the old picture slides as its so hard on my eyes;but will try a bit at a time
I've been organizing old photos, removing them from old books that were not photo-safe, discarding ones I didn't want, and placing the keepers in new photo books (which I bought at an amazing sale price prior to Christmas). Shelf space of photo books reduced by 1/3 so far. Also donated about 25 pounds of foreign-language books to a local cultural organization that maintains a library.
sugarbowlbaby
2-11-11, 2:38pm
1 boys shirt donated
1 cd of children's music donated
2 combs trashed
24 items to date
I can't seem to find much right now, but once I get to the basement it will be a different story.
Just cleaned out the bathroom that was the kids', and now that it's the guest bathroom, no need for all that blue hair dye, old deodorants, etc. Off they go! Feels so good to clean it up & make it really gracious and welcoming for company. I brought in some gorgeous Mexican textiles I already have, and it looks like a place for grown-ups. I love being an empty-nester! My focus is on the nesting part, not the empty part.
Stained clothes gone to dry cleaner. Library books returned. Pile of checks deposited in bank account. Big pile of recycling gone. Two boxes and a file cabinet in the car ready to go to Goodwill tomorrow. Missed the post office though.
Sounds like it has been a busy weekend for others as well. I finally got my 2010 tax prep finished up and everything is ready to mail to my accountant. That means I was able to unclutter my desk and work table of piles! Everything is filed in it's box and ready to go to the storage attic after the accountant tells me he is done and there are no questions. Was able to clear out enough old files that I've got an empty drawer in one of my file cabinets so I decluttered my shelf unit and moved some extra things to that drawer. I'm so visual that I have to have current work out at all times but visual clutter really bugs me too. It's nice to have an organized workspace again.
Last week when I got home I was planning to do a big declutter, of the kids toy room in particular, but I didn't get around to it. Ended up being too big a job to contemplate. They really should help me with it, anyway. Need to learn to let go of stuff they don't use. So my laziness can hopefully become a "teaching moment" somewhere down the line.
I did take the Christmas tree down, and cleaned the whole house, so I wasn't a total sloth!
On Saturday I discovered there had been some kind of leak under the sink, and a box of stuff we had in there had gotten pretty soaked. Luckily there were two rolls of paper towels in the box, so they soaked up a lot of the moisture (that is why we didn't notice it earlier). Those got tossed, as well as a few other things that were beyond salvaging. Switched to a plastic box, adjusted the drip tray under the drying rack to try to fix the moisture problem (I think the water was draining back under the drip tray and seeping in through a crack in the seal around the outside of the sink). Generally tidied up under the sink. Decided to take a risk and run the dishwasher for the first time -- we hadn't used it since we moved in in June 2009, and I was afraid it might leak, but it was fine. So now I have an excuse to get more dishes so that we can actually use it (what we have now would have us running out of dishes before we had a full load). That isn't decluttering, but maybe it will mean we can get rid of one of our dish racks, then no more leaky sink. Justify, justify...
I also tackled my way overflowing in box, which is where I throw all the household paperwork. Got things generally tidied up, though I didn't actually tackle getting stuff into my new filing system. Too much for one morning. But I did sort and file a few insurance claims, requested an invoice from the hospital for others I need to settle the final bill on, and now have an idea of what is in there that I still need to deal with -- a couple of small claims to file, some frequent flyer stuff to deal with, taxes and filing.
Oh, and I have finally decided to start throwing out baggy, saggy underwear that is taking up space in my drawers. I have more than enough non-saggy undies, and the saggy ones have lived a good life, (;)) so I am letting them rest in peace. Some I was able to identify on sight, others are getting one final wear and if they don't pass the elastic test they are gone to dead undy land.
lhamo
sugarbowlbaby
2-17-11, 10:06am
Did just a little bit over this week, but it's still progress...............
1 Future floor finish bottle (not enough to use on any of my floors), throwing
1 squirt bottle (with a dab of an unknown substance), throwing
1 bottle puff paint (very old, doubt that it works), throwing
1 Tide roller gadget, donating to the Epilepsy Foundation
2 Downy balls, donating to the Epilepsy Foundation
1 Atkins carb counter book, donating to Epilepsy Foundation
1 pet water dish, throwing
32 to date.
I wanted to declutter the number of days that are in the month so I made my goal of 28, but I'll keep looking!
At my work place we had two unopened boxes of plastic forks and spoons - 500 count in each - that we'd purchased from Costco several years ago and never used. Today I donated them to our local Rescue Mission, along with some other items on their wish list that I purchased including Chapstick and women's hygiene products.
But it felt especially good to see those boxes of plasticware actually get sent to where they'll be used!
I wonder if that could be a parallel challenge - see if there's office supplies or similar that's not being used in your work place and then getting the okay to donate that to a school, or a non-profit group. If your workplace is anything like mine there's stuff just languishing like 3 ring binders, pendaflex folders, older file cabinets, etc. that I'm sure someone will be thrilled to get.
fidgiegirl
2-17-11, 8:38pm
Got rid of a bunch of newspaper at work that I had had the kids shred up for piņatas last term and had them shred waaaaaay too much. I had neatly tucked it on top of my cabinets and hadn't bothered to get rid of it and thought it was just destined for the recycling. Well, my friend needed it for her foster puppies so away it finally went.
Also got rid of about half our rags. We can't stand to get rid of rags because we get good use out of them. But we had soooo many. She will use them for those pups, too.
We are waiting for curbside pickup. We will be out of town for the next one so just going to let the junk sit there a little longer.
I really want DH to pare down the antiques. They are starting to stress me out. I like them but it's just too much. Don't know how to breach this, though. Boo. I want to paint this summer so maybe that's a way . . . we would have to take everything off the walls and maybe it just won't all go back up.
We moved everything out of the kitchen for a remodel and "decrapified" (is that a word?) as we went. I didn't keep a list, but we got rid of a bunch of stuff we didn't use--2 serving bowls, some wine charms, pens that didn't work, etc. Feels good! I'm going to go through everything again when we move back in.
Will do the same thing when we empty the room that will be the nursery. Hope to get rid of most is what is in there to make room for the baby!
We moved everything out of the kitchen for a remodel and "decrapified" (is that a word?) as we went. I didn't keep a list, but we got rid of a bunch of stuff we didn't use--2 serving bowls, some wine charms, pens that didn't work, etc. Feels good! I'm going to go through everything again when we move back in.
Will do the same thing when we empty the room that will be the nursery. Hope to get rid of most is what is in there to make room for the baby!
Not only is decrapify a word, it's a software! http://www.google.com/search?q=declutter&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=&oe=#sclient=psy&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us%3AIE-SearchBox&q=decrapified&aq=f&aqi=g-s1g-sx3g-o1&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.1,or.&fp=6ec3191c2b79d4d0
Been MIA for a while, but did manage to donate several boxes and bags of childrens clothes, boots, etc. and landline phone (gave it up for the cell!) to Goodwill.
Also prepped and delivered my tax info.
Also made several lists (does that count? LOL)
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