February purge

[Tybee]

Guy came early and took stove (it was a screaming deal for him, so of course he did) and just had to pull up old hearth plate and repaint floor where it was, and now need to clean up where he got my newly painted dining room all filthy. So not at all happy with him or DH who oversaw it.

On other hand, behemoth is now gone, which frees up the energy in the room. The chimney guy can't fix chimney until spring so we are sol with burning wood this winter, which has exploded our budget. And we can't afford to hire the guy anyway, since it is about twice what it should cost, which makes me not trust him. But at least that impediment to fixing the chimney and putting in a new woodstove has been removed. So progress, I guess.

[ejchase]

I gave away 11 items (books, CD's, etc.) to a Girl Scout in our neighborhood who is raising money for charity by holding garage sales. New total for month: 35.

[NewGig]

Used up a stack of backer boards, yay! Those are the cardboard inserts in comic book/magazine sleeves which help market them. I had a chunk stuck in a bookcase from the last time I prepped magazines... they got used. More space in a bookcase. BIG YAY!

Have been doing cull o junk off the porch. Still have boxes there to go through. Antique booth/thrift shop tomorrow.

Need to go to Habitat and pick up furniture soon too.

[Tradd]

I have a 13 year old laptop to get rid of. Been sitting on a closet shelf for years. Considering what to do with my notebooks from when I took the catechist’s course. I finished 9 years ago. I have not looked at them in a long time, if ever. I don’t do any teaching. Just did a wee bit right when I finished. I’m not even sure I could easily read my handwriting.

My living room and kitchen feel so much more spacious since I did a lot of decluttering over the past couple of weeks. Makes being at home all the time so much better.

[beckyliz]

I had a larger painting canvas in my office area - had probably bought it for a school project. Found out that one of my co-workers paints, so I brought it her yesterday.

[ejchase]

I took 26 hand-me-downs from my daughter to a neighbor. New total for month: 61.

[ejchase]

I took one item to a food pantry, 16 items to Goodwill, and another 13 items to the girl scout in our neighborhood who is holding garage sales for charity.

New total for month: 91.

[Tradd]

EJ-how much stuff do you have to get rid of?

[Gardnr]

EJ-how much stuff do you have to get rid of?

I've wondered too. The 40 hour challenge has been going on for several years.

[rosarugosa]

EJ gave us a nice update last year about this time (2/2/20), but it would be cool to know her overall perspective of where she stands today compared to a year ago, if she is inclined to share.
"I would say the guestroom is pretty decluttered - though my clothes are in the closet there, and I'm planning to make another "pass" through them in this 40 hours. But everything in that room is in its "home." There are no boxes of unsorted clutter or anything like that. That's pretty true of my daughter's room too, and the bathrooms. And in the spaces where there is still clutter, there are small pockets - a couple boxes in a corner, that kind of thing.

The most cluttered space has been our upstairs hallway, which is unusually wide and spacious. There are several boxes there - maybe 8 or more - stacked in a couple corners, stuff I need to go through and have had trouble making decisions about. When I started this process, though, there were easily 30 or more boxes up there. Seriously. I had a baby a month after we moved into this house, and I just didn't unpack those boxes . I felt too overwhelmed. And there were lots of boxes of clutter in the guestroom and my bedroom back then too. Those boxes are completely gone from the guestroom, and the clutter in my bedroom has been reduced by about 80%.

I know it's hard for "normies" to imagine why it would take so long for me to do this, but I've just always been a packrat, always had a tendency to accumulate too much and had a hard time getting rid of what I don't need. Also, I realize as I do this, that a lot of times I've just never thought through how to organize certain kinds of stuff ("Where should I keep the resusable shopping bags? The small paper bags sometimes good for lunches? The plastic bags I need for laundry when I'm traveling?"), so I am slowly developing that skill finally. This whole process has helped. And it has done wonders for my mental health. I've had such shame about my clutter for literally decades, so finally dealing with it has felt very empowering.

When I was watching the Marie Kondo show on Netflix last year, it was clear to me that it took some of those families hundreds of hours to Kondo their places. In general, I don't have that kind of time. But committing to 40 hours twice a year really works for me, and the support I get here makes a huge difference. And, as I slowly go through the house and develop systems for where things go and find homes for things, it's easier to maintain the progress I've made."