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Thread: 40 Hrs Decluttering and Making My Home Nice Using Flylady's Timer Method: 1/21-2/15

  1. #11
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    When I lived in a 2 story house I kept a basket downstairs for stuff that needed to go upstairs. Then when I went I took the basket, put stuff away and brought the empty basket back down with me. I think I can now declutter all my books on the subject since all my stuff except clothes fit into 26 plastic bins).

  2. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Chicken lady View Post
    my biggest problem area is the room that used to be my kitchen. The counter becomes a drift of “moop” (material out of place - burningman) Dh dumps everything that is “my” domain on the counter - recycling, things he can’t identify, things he asked me to get him but he doesn’t know where to put them away (like a bottle of word glue yesterday) that is another problem, but....

    I’m finding that most of the moop is stuff that would be “one and done” but is just too small to pay attention to - example - one hair band, oh I don’t want to walk all the way upstairs to put away one hair band, I’ll probably grab it later - later it’s hidden under the envelope I need the address off of.....
    Put several boxes or baskets on the counter either labeled with the names of various rooms, or labeled "Upstairs", "Downstairs", and "DH" (add other family members if you need to).

    Once every day distribute all the stuff in the downstairs box to wherever it should be. Once a day at a time when you have to go upstairs anyway, distribute all the stuff in the "Upstairs" box to wherever it should be. The stuff in the DH box can sit there and rot until he figures out what he wants to do with it. And if you have a DS box or a DD box, make a rule that every time they go to their room they have to take the contents of their box with them.

  3. #13
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    Georgeparker,

    those are good ideas, but it is just us, and there is no Dh box - Dh has a little hanging bag in another spot where I put his things. Dh could clear off the whole counter in 30 seconds. He knows there is nothing there he wants and he does not care if things intended for recycling or reuse get thrown away - one earring! A game piece? Not worth his time - all to the trash. I have bags for recycling, but Dh is not interested in learning what recycles. So, he either throws things in the trash or puts them on my counter - whichever is closer.

    There just needs to be less stuff - I do pick up a few things when I go upstairs or down to the basement, but I also tend to consolidate things there when I am picking up, thinking I’ll just put this here and take a bunch of stuff when I go...(upstairs, down to the basement, to school, out to the barn... then I don’t, because my hands are full, or I’m thinking about why I’m going. Or I do take something, but there is other stuff I don’t see because there is too much mess.

    Honestly, sometimes I will be going down to the basement to say, get jam, and I think, “oh, I’ll grab those jars and put them away”, and then I put the jars away and come back up with no jam.

    the goal is to eventually have nothing on the counter.

    so far I have put 75 things where they belong. That includes a basket of laundry and the clean dishes, plus a bunch of random trips with things I grabbed off the counter. (I will also take the laundry out of the dryer, put it in a basket, and leave the basket in the hall. Because I needed the dryer but I have to leave for school in five minutes. Then I never come back. - I’m hoping these 100 things will help me make good habits too.)

  4. #14
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    Hi Chicken Lady! It's so good to see your posts!

    Others here can advise you better than I, but I did read something recently where a home organization expert basically said whenever you move in your house (from the living room to the kitchen, from the downstairs to the upstairs, etc.) get in the habit of looking around to see if there is anything you should carry with you to put away.

    Also, my daughter and I *try* to follow the "touch things once" rule - that is, when you come in the door and take off your coat, hang it up then, don't drape it over a chair so that you have to touch it again to hang it up. This works well for dinner dishes (when you get up from the table, scrape your plate off in the trash, rinse it, and put it in the dishwasher), or mail we carry in from the mailbox (recycle what needs to be recycled in the bin, "file' the rest where it needs to be - don't set it down to deal with later). We don't always follow it, but it's a good habit to cultivate.

    I have the same issue as you with leaving clean laundry in the basket for days instead of just putting it away!

    Today, a meeting I thought would be one hour turned into 2 and a half hours, so I only got one hour of decluttering done. New total: 8.

    Tomorrow is another day!

  5. #15
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    Hi ejchase! An hour is good!

    I finished my 100 and a few more last night. Today might be hard because it is a long school day and I have a lot of class related work to do.

  6. #16
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    Wow, Chicken Lady, putting away 100 things is a LOT!

    I actually did 4.5 hours of decluttering today. Whenever I start another batch of these 40 hours, the first 20 hours or so are really, really hard. I have to give myself a LOT of pep talks. It's just emotionally exhausting. As I go, I feel a lot of shame about having let things accumulate (even though my house is in MUCH better shape than it was when I started this process 5 years ago) and of course, at times, the decisions about what do to with things is overwhelming. I just have to remind myself constantly not to be a perfectionist.

    So today, I went through some boxes of summer clothes that were in plastic tubs. In the course of transferring them from the tubs into under-the-bed storage bags, I found about 35 items my daughter has outgrown which I will pass on to friends or Goodwill in the next couple of days. I also passed on 11 items to a Girl Scout in our neighborhood who is holding garage sales to raise money for charity.

    Then I tackled our guestroom, which is pretty decluttered, but I tidied and found some items to give away or recycle and swept.

    So much more to do, but it was a pretty successful day. New total: 12.5 hours.

  7. #17
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    Wow ejchase, that is a big chunk!

    I did 36 things yesterday. Not my goal, but not too bad for a Wednesday. Yesterday was full of a lot of emotional stuff, so not the best time to be tackling things that are extra challenging.

  8. #18
    Senior Member Teacher Terry's Avatar
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    You are doing great CL!!

  9. #19
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    36 is totally respectable, Chicken Lady! Sometimes I just say to myself, "Any step forward is a step forward."

    I did 4 more hours today and made noticeable progress clearing out some clutter in my bedroom. I've been throwing out so much that the recycling bin is full, and the trash bin about half full. Those bins won't be emptied until Tuesday, so I'll have to figure out a way to deal with that.

    I took 26 hand-me-downs from my daughter to a neighbor and have about 25 more items boxed up to go to Goodwill and a Girl Scout who is holding garage sales to raise money for charity.

    New total: 16.5.

  10. #20
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    I did two more hours today. New total: 18.5.

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