View Full Version : Setting a Decluttering Goal in Hours Using Flylady's Timer Method
Hi All,
I'm a teacher, so about four times a year, I have extended time off or extended reduced hours. Whenever this happens, I tend to set a semi-long-term decluttering goal in hours. For example, if I have two weeks off, I say I will do 10 hours of decluttering in those two weeks, then break up the time anyway I want. I might do an hour one day, four hours another, whatever works. I use flylady's timer method - setting a timer for the hour, then just decluttering until the timer goes off. I tend to get a lot done this way, especially in getting through paper, which is a huge issue for me.
I find it pretty much impossible to do more than 90 minutes straight through, so if I have a four-hour decluttering day (which is about my max in one day), I usually break it up into 90 minutes, then 2 blocks of an hour, then one block of 30 minutes.
I am on a reduced work schedule now until February 19th, so am setting a goal of 40 hours between now and then and will report back here my progress towards that goal.
Anybody else want to set a decluttering goal in hours for the week, month, or longer? If so, please feel free to join in!
Elizabeth
I don't like fixed times, I'd rather set a number of items I want to declutter. Or a certain area like my wardrobe or the corridor.
Okay, well, I hope nobody minds if I just report my progress towards my 40 hours here because it definitely helps motivate me to make my goals a little public.
Yesterday, 1/8, I completed my first hour.
And if anybody wants to set a goal in time (5 hours? 10? 20?) for a week or a month or longer, feel free to join in!
Today, 1/20, did 1.5 hours more so now have 2.5 hours total.
Well done, ejchase!
I like the timer method too. At the moment I am working on 15 minutes per day decluttering. If I don't get it done one day, I make it up the next. Today I had some catchup so I did about an hour.
I'm preparing for a major reno which will involve moving all the stuff out of my house, and then back again. (eep!) Definite motivation!
Today, 1/20, did 1.5 hours more so now have 2.5 hours total.
Mary B., your method of 15 minutes a day sounds like a good idea. I may try that when I'm back to a full work schedule.
As it is, I'm moving so much more slowly on my 40 hours than I planned. I keep thinking I'll be able to get in a 4-hour day but then other responsibilities interfere.
In any case, I did do two more hours today, so I am up to a total of 4.5.
Did two more hours today, so up to 6.5 total.
The recycling bin is full, so I may focus on more "beautifying" projects this weekend - e.g. refinishing some furniture, etc.
It is starting to look like something is happening around here ...
PastTense
1-23-15, 12:47am
I don't know. I spend a huge amount of time just to get one garbage bag of clutter. I think you would be better off setting goals in terms of garbage bags or pounds worth of clutter--or simply having gone through the entire house.
Each to his or her own, I guess, Past Tense.
If I think "I just need to go through these stacks of clutter," I get totally overwhelmed and just want to crawl into bed and watch soap operas all day.
But if I say to myself, "I just need to deal with this clutter, bit by bit, for two hours today and then I can stop no matter what," then, for some reason, I can face it.
Also, I have serious clutter issues - verging on hoarding - so going through the whole house is not a project I could complete in any reasonable amount of time.
In any case, I did two more hours today, so I'm up to 8.5 hours total.
ejchase, you are making progress! Good job. You mentioned you were a teacher, and had clutter issues. Is it really hard for you to make decisions about getting rid of something? I was curious if you really have to think through each item, hold each item and wonder if it could be used in the future or if you feel guilt for getting rid of something. In all the clutter shows I've watched it seems those with a teaching background really struggle with that, especially when it comes to school and art/craft supplies.
Thanks, Float On, for your encouragement.
It is hard for me to make decisions, but the source of a lot of my problems is also that I have some bad habits that lead to clutter such as not dealing with mail and other things as soon as they come in the door, not having a designated place for everything and not putting things away when I'm done with them.
I'm a community college English teacher, so arts and crafts projects aren't such a big deal, but paper is. At my college, we are supposed to keep student papers for seven years (!), but fortunately, these can be stored online now.
These long stretches of decluttering when I'm on vacation help somewhat, but I'm a little bit like an overweight person who goes to a "fat farm" every year, loses 100 pounds, then gains back 80 when she goes back home. If I don't make changes in my daily lifestyle, I won't really progress.
I would say every time I do these stretches I figure out places to put things, and I'm gradually getting better about taking mail straight from the mailbox to the recycling bin or to wherever else it goes, but it's a slow process. My mom struggled with these same issues, and I"m really hoping as I develop these skills late in life (I'm 48!), I can gradually help my daughter learn them. One of my highest priority goals for the next few years is to make our house a place I love coming home to. I've never in my life felt proud of the space I've lived in or like it was a relaxing, beautiful space. I really want to change that.
I've been part of these boards for over fifteen years, and the Organizing Your Life board has helped me SO much.
Onward!
3 more hours today, so up to 11.5.
I would say every time I do these stretches I figure out places to put things, and I'm gradually getting better about taking mail straight from the mailbox to the recycling bin or to wherever else it goes, but it's a slow process.
I've been part of these boards for over fifteen years, and the Organizing Your Life board has helped me SO much.
Onward!
Would love to hear more about what you are learning during this decluttering process. I think you are right that learning a routine really helps. I always pick up the mail while I'm in the car and sort it before I get out of the car. I keep a box just inside the door for paper recycling so as I walk in the junk mail goes right in the box and the bills go right to the buffet drawer.
You mentioned flylady in the title of this thread. I tried her for awhile - had to declutter the email of all her blasts but I do still clean out the sink every night and love the 27 fling.
It's been hard to get to it this week. A friend of mine had a baby, and I needed to set aside some time to take care of her four-year-old and bring her dinner tonight. But I did eke out 30 minutes today, which I guess is better than nothing. New total: 12 hours.
Chicken lady
2-6-15, 10:15am
Hi, new here but hoping I can join in. I only teach two days a week, so I have three days a week when my husband leaves for work well before sunrise and I don't have to get ready to go anywhere. My biggest problem area is my basement, but it is dark and chilly, and I suffer from SAD, so I never want to go down there.
I've started making myself go down after he leaves and work for at least half an hour - I have to rely on artificial light then anyway, and I stay in my warm down booties and giant fluffy robe so feel cozy. I guess my goal is 4 hours during your break?
Chicken Lady, Welcome and congratulations for making the stretch to begin. I have found that Fly Lady's 15 minutes at a time works better for me. I managed to clear the attic a couple years ago going up 15 minutes every day. Cold, hot, it didn't matter because 15 minutes works. So on days you don't want to do a half hour...remember the 15 minutes. Now, our basement needs doing....and the garage....and the shed....and I want to continue to de clutter drawers and cupboards. It is constant, kind of like bathing and brushing teeth. My favorite part and reward after decluttering is seeing and trying to keep an empty space.
Welcome, Chicken Lady!
Your consistency is so impressive, nswef. It does seem like baby steps can get the job done if you stick with them.
Chicken lady
2-7-15, 9:42am
baby steps are definitely the way to go for me. If I try to think of the whoe job, I just want to sit down and cry. Which I pretty much did about 15 years ago when I realized how bad the problem had become. I also seem to need many many fresh starts and new approaches, so the "do this much by February 19th" goal is appealing to me - it's clearly defined, but also limited, so I can get to the end and declare a success.
I think the people around me got burned out because I would say "ok, I'm going to do an hour a day until this is done" and then after a month or so I just couldn't stand it anymore and life would get in the way, and I'd start skipping days and then I'd skip weeks, and then eventually, the next time I started in they'd respond "yeah, we heard this before."
I am going to try to give it 15 minutes today even though we slept late, but I'm afraid that's long enough to spread things out but not really improve anything.
ejchase, do you work on it on the weekends?
There's nothing wrong with starting with 5 minutes. Set the timer and you'll be amazed at how much you can do- just one side of one drawer at a time. Or one side of one shelf. Or the floor in front of the TV. Or the chair where you sit. I like to do what it visible first, because it perks me up. Maybe just look around and pluck up anything that is junk that you don't even have to make a decision about. Just Pluck and Throw for 2 minutes.
Great advice, nswef.
Chicken lady, it's a little harder for me to declutter on the weekends because my SO and daughter (and sometimes my SO's daughter too) are home then, and I find I do much better when the house is empty. I really like to focus without interruptions ideally when I'm putting in an hour or more.
I do often set the timer for 15 minutes on the weekends just to get a little bit done.
Also, this may sound crazy, but I read somewhere - perhaps on this board? - that it was good to listen to baroque music when decluttering or cleaning, and I have found that to be very true. Sometimes I have to turn off the music when I need to sort papers I really need to read and think about, but I do find the baroque music (it's usually Bach) sort of helps me maintain a certain momentum.
Chicken lady
2-8-15, 1:02pm
I do better when no one is around too, but then I need to run the donate pile by everyone before I actually get rid of it. Usually, they look at me like "Why would I want that?"
funny about the Baroque music. dh has always put baroque music on on Sundays and we relax and read the paper or something, so it motivates me to slack off, not to clean.
I did work a little bit yesterday. I recycled a planner, emptied a folder, and found a thermos I can donate. I also sorted a bunch of stuff. I know I'm suppoesed to handle each thing once and make a decision instead of shuffling it around, but my brain doesn't work that way. Every usable folder would be a "keep". If I sort through all the office supplies and see that I have a pile of empty folders twice the size of my filing cabinet, I can flip through them, grab the ones in the best condition, put them in the filing cabinet, and then recycle the rest. And my brain can categorize "file folder" and toss it on a pile a lot faster than my brain can make a decision on "do I keep this file folder?"
Day off today, but back at it tomorrow.
Chicken lady
2-9-15, 8:18am
Did my half hour. total 45 minutes.
baby steps are definitely the way to go for me. If I try to think of the whoe job, I just want to sit down and cry. Which I pretty much did about 15 years ago when I realized how bad the problem had become. I also seem to need many many fresh starts and new approaches, so the "do this much by February 19th" goal is appealing to me - it's clearly defined, but also limited, so I can get to the end and declare a success.
I think the people around me got burned out because I would say "ok, I'm going to do an hour a day until this is done" and then after a month or so I just couldn't stand it anymore and life would get in the way, and I'd start skipping days and then I'd skip weeks, and then eventually, the next time I started in they'd respond "yeah, we heard this before."
Chicken lady, this used to happen to me too.
Now, I don't tell anyone in my household my decluttering goals because it's too discouraging when I don't meet them - for me and for them.
Instead, I post the goals here and then when what I'm doing has an impact around the house, it's a nice surprise for the people I live with, and they usually say really nice things about it.
I know I'm suppoesed to handle each thing once and make a decision instead of shuffling it around, but my brain doesn't work that way.
I'm this way too. Occasionally, I run across something I just can't make a decision about, and I just put it aside to deal with later. It's not perfect, but there is so much clutter I CAN make a decision about once I've got the timer on, that I try not to beat myself up about it. Sometimes I just take a deep breath and say to myself, "It's okay to start with what's easy."
Did my half hour. total 45 minutes.
Good for you!
As you can see, I've not gotten to any decluttering the last couple of days, but I'm going to try to eke out at least 30 minutes today.
I haven't been posting, but I have been making progress. I was determined to finish decluttering our back porch/laundry room in January, which involved going through several boxes of craft supplies (especially fabric -- I'm a quilter, though not a very frequent one.) I had visions that I was going to find all kinds of junk to get rid of in the boxes. I'm rather pleased to find I didn't! So I didn't get rid of a lot of things, but I did do a lot of sorting. I've identified some projects that I want to complete and they are now gathered up and labelled. Also found tools for various things and put them all in a single box with a list on the outside. ("I know I have an x" is an all-too-frequent cry around here.) I do have a couple of shelves still to declutter -- the dreaded hat and mitt shelf, which is high up so we throw things onto it, and the bottom shelf of the boot rack. Getting there!
Chicken lady
2-9-15, 11:05am
ejchase, that is what I am hoping for - to get some support here so I don't need to lean on my people as much and they can be pleasantly surprised.
It is ok to start with what is easy. And here is the amazing thing - you can rewire your brain. I started with what was easy, and some days I am able to do a little bit of hard. But on days when I can only do easy and I want to beat myself up over it, I remember that that easy thing I just did was only still here to be done because ten, or five, or even two years ago, it was still so hard I couldn't face it!
I hope you get your 30 minutes.
Congratulations, Mary B. on all the progress you're making. I definitely find that I buy duplicates of things I already have often because I can't remember where I put the original ones, so sorting and organizing and labeling seems to me like a super productive way to spend your time.
Chicken lady, thanks for your encouragement. I actually managed to put in 1.5 hours today, so my new total is 13.5.
I definitely found a box of stuff I just couldn't decide about, but I also found a box of stuff that was mostly full of papers that could now go straight into recycling, so I mostly focused on that.
I doubt I'm going to make my original goal of 40 hours by the 19th, so now I have to think about if I want to set a more realistic goal (20 hours?) or push the deadline back.
In any case, I feel good about the progress I'm making. I've been tackling the upstairs hallway which has been "functioning" as the place I throw all my clutter ever since we moved into this house four years ago (when I was eight months pregnant). My hope for this 40 hours was that I could at least get that space completely decluttered, and I'm pretty close, which is exciting. I will try to post some before and after pictures at some point if I can figure out how to do that.
Chicken lady
2-9-15, 8:25pm
Maybe you could change your goal to at least 15 minutes a day and finishing the hallway? It's only a little change since you apparently over-estimated how long the hallway would take.
Hi Mary B. I didn't see your pst when I posted. I agree that sorting and labeling is good use of decluttering time. Sometimes the difference between clutter and useful is location.
Maybe you could change your goal to at least 15 minutes a day and finishing the hallway? It's only a little change since you apparently over-estimated how long the hallway would take.
Maybe. But I have a whole week before I'm back to work full time, so I'm hoping I can put in a couple more hours and get that room finished at least. I think that's all it will take.
Then again, may try for 15 minutes a day when I go back to work to tackle other projects.
Sometimes the difference between clutter and useful is location.
Chicken Lady, I think this is quite a profound comment about decluttering. Thank you!
Chicken lady
2-10-15, 8:46am
I did an hour this morning! I spent most of it working on an unfinished project I unearthed, but that allowed me to move the container the project was in to the goodwill pile, along with a few other small things I found before I found the project.
1 hr, 45 min.
ejchase, I think if you finish the room, you have met your goal no matter how the time works out.
Chicken lady, it sounds like you are making steady progress.
I did another 30 minutes today, so am up to 14 hours.
Chicken lady
2-12-15, 8:28am
I did half an hour this morning, but it was a very baby-step kind of day. I didn't really feel engaged and I just picked at things. I did manage to find a handful of recycling, a handful of sticks and feathers my son collected when he was little to toss back outside, and three small books for the goodwill pile. finding the books let me move one of the fat books I'm keeping off a pile and onto a shelf.
I guess that's something.
I guess that's why I'm here really, to get confirmation that that's something so I keep going down to the basement. because presented with what I just said dh would probably look at me like "what did you do for the other 28 minutes?"
2hrs, 15 min.
It's DEFINITELY something, chicken lady! Any little baby steps count. Some days my motto is "Any step forward is a step forward."
I return to work on Tuesday and have a bunch of lesson planning to do before then so am not sure where I am going to squeeze in time to do more on the hall before then, but I think I still will finish it.
My SO and I have a "date" tomorrow to go through the small storage unit in our backyard. This usually takes us about an hour, and I'll definitely count the time as part of my 40 hours. We pull everything out, figure out what we can get rid of, then put everything back and find we suddenly have more space. We are doing this because I have some boxes from the hall that are ready to be stored (a box of old financial files, old paper gradebooks that I can't quite throw out yet from an old teaching job, those kinds of things).
I know I also will find about 4 or 5 boxes in the storage unit that are old boxes of clutter from our move here 4 years ago, and I think I've decided I'm going to pull them out and bring them up to the hallway so that I can finally deal with them. It means prolonging the hall job, but my semester of teaching won't get crazy busy until mid-March when the first sets of essays come in, so I think I should take advantage of the momentum I have now to get those taken care of.
One of the incentives for me cleaning out the hall was that we are inheriting an old wardrobe from my SO's mother who passed last August, and we needed space for it in the hall. Our house has 3 bedrooms, but only one of the three has a true closet, so it will be good to have that. Our hallway is wide, so with the clutter gone, there's plenty of space for it. Having the wardrobe will mean my SO can pull his suits and shirts out of the coat closet downstairs and move them upstairs, and we'll finally have closet space for guests in our guest bedroom. My SO is going to hire someone to move the wardrobe here sometime this week.
Thanks for "listening." It helps so much to have people to share this process with.
The other space I really wanted to deal with over this break was my office at school. In 20 years of teaching, I've never had my own office, but finally got one in the fall of 2013. But I have never taken time to make it nice so spend a lot of time at work feeling embarrassed about how bare and cluttered it looks.
I did some thinking last fall about what I wanted it to look like and collected a bunch of pictures on Pinterest (By the way, I highly recommend Pinterest for coming up with a "vision" for a space). And I did buy a bookcase and asked an artist friend to help me come up with colors for it (the interior is green, and the outside is beige which looks really pretty). She painted it for me over the break, and I got Maintenance at school to remove a table which was just a place for me to collect clutter, and today I brought the bookcase into school and set it up. I also had some ideas from Pinterest about how to arrange books and pictures and plants on it, so I went to Target and bought some pictures frames, a cactus, and few other knick knacks, and I arranged them all, then hung a picture of my students and me on a field trip. It looks SO nice.
One thing I've learned in terms of prioritizing steps in making the spaces I live and work in beautiful is that the most important view of the room is the one you see when you first walk in, so you should make sure that view is pleasing first. And though there is still tons of clutter in my office, including another bookcase which is ugly and metal and totally disorganized, the new, pretty bookcase and picture are the first thing I see when I walk in (and the view others have of my office when they walk by) and it is SO much better now.
Also, the progress I made today also inspired for me to look online for a pretty spindle backed wood chair and pretty cushion to replace the metal folding chair I have for my students to sit in. I haven't purchased anything yet, but I'm pretty sure what I want, which is great.
So I'm counting all of this as four hours because it was all time devoted to making the spaces I live and work in places I can be proud of and it is so rare for me to set time aside for that. New total: 18 hours!
Well, a good friend of mine got taken to the hospital with chest pains yesterday (she seems okay, though they are still running tests), so I went to see her and help her with some things, and the plans my SO and I had for cleaning out the storage space got scrapped.
I'm going to keep this goal "open" for a couple more weeks until I get too busy with teaching again to keep working on it.
I think I'll be able to do a few more hours and finish up a few more little projects in that time.
Chicken lady
2-14-15, 1:19pm
Oh no, I'm sorry about your friend!
It really does sound like you are making a lot of progress on your spaces though. Will you be ready for your wardrobe?
I'm picking up some extra work the next two weeks, but I will try to keep squeezing out some time here and there. The room I'm working on in the basement is going to be involved in a major construction project sometime between this spring and summer 2016 depending on schedules and finances. When that happens, 2/3 of one wall is going to be torn out. On the other side of the wall is dirt. I need to be able to at least move everything in the room to one side and tarp it.
Thanks Chicken lady for the encouragement. There is space for the wardrobe - just a 2-4 little bags/boxes of clutter left in the hallway to be dealt with when I can. Good luck moving everything out of the way for the big construction project.
I did 30 minutes today downstairs just on junk mail and other stuff we'd let accumulate in the living room, dining room, and kitchen. Up to 18.5.
Chicken lady
2-17-15, 3:41pm
I would be tempted to grab the bags and stuff them in a closet to make my hall look nice. Bravo if you don't!
I only spent about 15 minutes in the basement today. Most of my work time was spent deep cleaning my son's room. He is mostly moved out of it, only coming back for a few weeks at a time between semesters.
In the basement, I found some dried cattails I'm going to toss back outside - I can cut more any fall from around our pond. I also rounded up my sewing stuff - a bin, two sewing baskets, a machine, and some type sorter trays turned shadow boxes full of thread. I moved everything to my son's room and hung the shadow boxes on the wall where he used to have some pictures. I'm actually contemplating attacking the mending basket (which I left in the basement)
2.5 hours. I work the rest of the week, but I will keep trying for 15 minutes a day.
I faced my daughter's toys for 30 minutes today, and weeded out some old art projects and papers - new total is 19.
Chicken lady
2-18-15, 8:12pm
We had a snow day! I gave the basement about an hour. That puts me at about 3.5. I almost made it.
Chicken Lady you are moving along well. I'm inspired.
Chicken lady
2-19-15, 11:24am
Thanks, it was nice to get up to encouragement this morning!
We had another snow day and I met my 4 hour goal! And I finished emptying my mother's cedar chest. Now for the hard part - letting go of the chest.
No one in my family likes it. My mom gave away the matching bedroom set. It's been buried in the basement for some time. And yet, it's a cedar chest and my mom picked it out when she was a teenager and gave it to me when I was a kid and we saved things in it for my house. It's a large, unattractive thing I don't need. And yet it is potentially useful and "sparks joy"
Could you use it as a hall bench? Our hall is way too skinny, but maybe yours is not. Or...well, you don't always have to get rid of everything. Give it time and trip over it a few times and you might change the need to keep it. Could you paint it? Anyhow, you are doing so well. My job today is to clean which is off topic.
Chicken lady
2-19-15, 2:24pm
It's yellowed and chipped veneer. I talked to my mom today and she was excited for me and said about donating it "...and then we can all forget what horrible taste I had."
It's just the memories of sitting next to it tucking things away with her. I basically left home at 17.
I'm going to give dd1 one more shot at it when she comes to visit saturday - she and her SO are both artsy and good at carpentry.
Great progress, chicken lady and others!
I finally woke up today and realized how horribly behind I am on lesson planning and adminstrative commitments at work. It happened so fast - one week ago I was right on schedule. Sigh.
So I will probably disappear for a little while, but I am still going to chip away here and there at the hallway and other little projects.
I spent 30 minutes in my office tonight weeding out old papers from last semester and setting up and organizing my files for this semester. The earlier I do this in the semester, the better I feel. So I'm up to 19.5 hours on my 40. I've decided to just keep working on my goal of 40 hours. Having the goal there has motivated me a lot, and as long as I keep working on it in baby steps, it seems worth it to me to keep working towards it.
Chicken lady
2-24-15, 7:47pm
So dd couldn't get here because of snow, but she as me holding the chest so she can look at it.
Went down this evening for a few minutes and found a double handful of bits and pieces to throw out or recycle.
Chicken lady
2-26-15, 8:51am
another 15 minutes this morning - a few things put away, a handful of trash and recycling.
Chicken lady
2-28-15, 1:12pm
Hit it again - basically the same as last time, plus a couple of small items to the donate pile. It's sunny and my boy is home, so that's it for today.
30 minutes again in my office - feels so much better in here now. Total is at 20 hours.
Did another 30 minutes at home last night, so up to 20.5.
Chicken lady
3-5-15, 9:46pm
Good job keeping up with it!
I've been getting in at least my 15 minutes until today - I think I cut today a little short, but I got a thing out of the basement, so that helps.
Okay, I'm resurrecting this old thread because I'm still determined to finish the 40 hours I committed to in January when I had a lot of time off.
I'm on spring break this week so have a little time to work some more towards my goal. My dad is here visiting, so I'm busy, but I think I can commit to doing about 30 minutes a day.
In any case, in preparation for his visit, I did do an hour around the house on Thursday, so I'm up to 21.5.
I didn't manage 30 minutes a day this week - it was too hard with my dad here.
However, my SO and I spent all of Thursday finally setting up my daughter's room. She'd been sharing a room with her sister, then with us, and now that her brother is away at college, it was time to convert his room into hers. We hired someone to help us move furniture, went to Ikea and bought her a duvet, duvet cover, sheets, a guard rail so she won't roll out, and got some pictures for the walls too. In the process, we had to find new places for things, and we got rid of a lot of stuff too, started a new box of give-aways for Goodwill.
We've probably spent about 5-6 hours total on the project in the last two days, but since some of it was shopping, I'm just going to count 2 hours. New total=23.5.
Since my SO and I are both pretty challenged in the home organization department, we were a little worried we wouldn't be able to make the new room pretty enough to satisfy our girl, but it turns out she loves it. Sometimes in the middle of the day, she says she just wants to go up there and lie down on her bed. It's amazing what a pretty pink duvet set will do to please a four-year-old!
I'm so relieved we finally got to this. It's been hanging over our heads for a long time.
I came into work tonight (a Friday) and decluttered my office for 1.5 hours. It had gotten really bad and was really aggravating my stress level, so I decided to just take the time to face it. Feels so much better.
New total: 25.
I used opportunism and menopause to declutter and purge.
When menopause put me in a bad and ruthless mood, I would attack my file cabinets first. I put so much paper into recycling my neighbors asked if I was moving.
I didn't have a system for what room or type of thing I worked on, just trash / recycle bins at the ready for hot flashes and bad temper.
Purging felt great.
A year ago I discovered I am allergic to wheat, rice, grains, and corn. So out to friends and charity went my baking pans, bread making machine, rolling pin, rice cooker, etc.
As a result, I lost weight. My biggie clothes went to charity. I kept a few T shirts and sweat pants for pjs.
Unopened containers of flour, yeast, pasta, & rice went to the food bank donation bin at the grocery store.
Last summer my landlady decided to turn our shared front porch into a junk yard with "FREE!" signs. (She is inconsiderate and nuts.) So I took advantage and put out more lovely things, especially kitchen & collectables.
Books went to the Friends of the Library.
Last fall I realized I had enough to retire and move to Europe sometime this year.
So I gave away all but 4 small furniture pieces. I packed only my very favorite things and clothes. I have only a few hours left of packing. I move this fall.
So take motivation from wherever you can find it! Bad moods, opportunities, surprise events, charity needs, weight loss - you name it.
Work it, girl!, and good luck!
Wow, profnot, that all added up to a big lifestyle change. Please continue to post after your move to Europe, would be very interesting to see how you like it there.
profnot, looking forward to hearing more about your move. Have you decided on a country yet or going to travel a bit and just see where you land?
Wow, profnot, what an inspiring post! Good luck with your move!
I am still determined to finish the 40 hours of decluttering I committed to back in January. Did another hour yesterday, so now am up to a total of 26.
I am on a reduced work schedule for the next two weeks, so am hoping I can complete this goal finally. The house REALLY needs it, and I know I'll feel better if I invest the time.
frugal-one
8-15-15, 2:35pm
MIL passed away this spring so we can now move. We will put the house up for sale in the spring. We are having our 2nd garage sale on Friday. It is AMAZING how much stuff we have accumulated. The house did not look cluttered at all. I did not realize HOW MUCH storage space we had. The plan is to have a sale a month through October. Then, in spring, put the house for sale and have an estate or auction for the remainder. It is a tiring amount of work though. I can't wait to move and have everything clean and neat. That is my MOTIVATION! MY DH just commented that this is an overwhelming task but it is great to be able to see a difference already.
The good news is that I got 2 more hours of decluttering done this morning, so my total is now 28.
The not-so-good news is that I think I made a strategic error in how I am managing my time.
Here's my situation. I have major issues with clutter and being a packrat and have my whole adult life. Around 2000, I discovered flylady and this group, and though I have still never managed to have a completely decluttered home, I would say since then I have become much better at throwing things out, though it's been a three steps forward/two steps backward process. This group in particular, I think, has helped me keep from descending into total hoardarism.
Nevertheless, since having a baby and moving into a new house in 2011, my home has been pretty cluttered and is often a source of stress. I've been continuing to put one foot in front of the other in terms of decluttering and decorating, but what I want most in the world is to love the space I live in, and I have not yet reached that goal.
We just got back from two weeks away, and it was really hard to walk into the house when we got back and see what a mess it was without totally hyperventillating. I do have two weeks now on a reduced work schedule to devote some time to it, but I think the way I chose to spend the time on it this morning was a mistake. I asked my SO to help me go through a storage unit in the backyard because I knew there were some large items in there we could put out on the curb (we found 4, which was good) and also because I thought I had about 4 boxes of personal clutter in there that I felt confident I could deal with. Boy, did I have that wrong. It turned out that there were more like 15 boxes of things from when we moved in and I was eight months pregnant and just shoved a bunch of stuff in there because I couldn't deal with it. I took them out today thinking I'd go through them, but really, I think since I only have two weeks, I'd rather make it my priority to deal with the clutter in the house that's around me all the time and let the hidden clutter stay hidden for a while longer!
Nevertheless, since the boxes were out, I took a deep breath and repeated my mantra at times like this ("Start with what's easy") and managed to take out three grocery bags of paper to the recycling bin, loaded up a bag of books to be given away and another bag of stuff to go to Good will. Later this afternoon, I'll have to put all the boxes I took out into some sort of organized arrangement in the backyard and maybe I'll spend an hour or two more on them tomorrow, but then I'm just going to put however many boxes are left back.
Instead, I want to to focus my decluttering time over the next two weeks on the following: packing up 2/3 of my daughter's toys, books, and art supplies to either give away or store - the amount of stuff out is overwhelming even for her, I think; arrange the remaining toys, art supplies, and books into a comfortable playspace for her (in particular, I want to make sure she has an inviting place for her dress-up clothes where she can see all the choices available to her, an organized place for her art supplies - with a clear table to work on when she wants to - and an inviting place for her books, and a kitchen play space with her play food and dishes easily accessible). Then I just want to go room by room in the house, organizing, so every space at least feels what I call "surface clean," which I guess means things are put away even if particular drawers and other spaces may hide some clutter. Frankly, I have to be realistic about what I think I can do in two weeks and around 10 hours, and that's what I think is realistic.
If anybody is out there listening, thanks. Being able to reflect here helps. It's sometimes so discouraging to think how many years I've been working on this issue and how far I still have to go. It just doesn't come easy to me.
I just did 30 minutes more, cleaning up the boxes from today and putting them by the storage unit so that my SO and I can put them back in tonight. In the end, I threw out enough stuff to reduce the number of boxes by three, I think, and I found a lot of office supplies and other stuff I can use, so it was a baby step forward in the end.
Total on hours now is 28.5
rosarugosa
8-17-15, 5:34pm
Good for you EJ, it actually sounds like you accomplished a lot. Focus on what you did accomplish instead of thinking too much of what remains. Celebrate your successes!
Thanks, rosarugosa. I appreciate it.
MIL passed away this spring so we can now move. We will put the house up for sale in the spring. We are having our 2nd garage sale on Friday. It is AMAZING how much stuff we have accumulated. The house did not look cluttered at all. I did not realize HOW MUCH storage space we had. The plan is to have a sale a month through October. Then, in spring, put the house for sale and have an estate or auction for the remainder. It is a tiring amount of work though. I can't wait to move and have everything clean and neat. That is my MOTIVATION! MY DH just commented that this is an overwhelming task but it is great to be able to see a difference already.
Congratulations, frugal-one on your progress.
It wasn't until I cleaned out my mother's house and my grandmother's house after they died that I started to really look at my relationship to stuff and how damaging it would be to me if I didn't learn to get rid of things. Seeing how much people leave behind can be very motivating.
Did another hour this morning so new total is 29.5.
My SO and I cleaned out our downstairs coat closet which was a mess. We got rid of a lot of random items - old wrapping paper too crumpled or fragmented to be used, little parts to things we didn't even own anymore, old phone cords (?!). It felt good.
I have a lot of work to do at my regular job that I'm behind on, so I'm going to focus on that for the rest of the day, then tackle my daughter's toys and play area tomorrow.
I have to go into the office today and had some other work to do at home this morning, so only 30 minutes today but better than nothing. New total: 30.
My 4-year-old daughter has been happily daydreaming/playing on her own this afternoon (plans for playdates and other activities fell through). This is a new thing for her, that she doesn't want our attention during unstructured time. So I took advantage of it and put in 30 minutes of decluttering. New total: 30.5.
:) Good job EJ...I did quite a bit of decluttering today too. Yah for us !!!: :0!
Good for you, Tulips, and thanks for the encouragement.
Did another 30 minutes yesterday for a total of 31.
Then today, my brother brought over a big highboy from our mom's house, so I gave him my cheap bureau from Target to sell at a garage sale. In the course of transferring clothes from the old dresser to the new one, found about 8 pieces for the Goodwill box which was good and some other things for the trash.
It used to be I could only get rid of clothes if I absolutely hated them or they simply were too torn or damaged. Now I'm getting to the point where I can get rid of something that is a perfectly good piece of clothing that I just don't love and don't wear, which is progress though still sometimes hard. It helps to know that if I take them to Goodwill, somebody who will wear them will get them at a good price.
In any case, put in another hour today, so new total is 32.
I I so that too EJ...I got rid of 2 clothing items that were still wearable but I'm just tired of wearing them
SO and I tackled one of my daughter's toy areas today for an hour. That particular area still needs about 2 more hours of work. I did know when we started it was really a 3-hour job, but I resolved to let go of perfectionism and just do what we could in the time that we had. The best part is that we easily found about 20-25 things to put in the box for Goodwill, and though there is still some clutter there we haven't dealt with, it looks a lot more organized and attractive now, so it should be easier for her and her friends to find things to play with.
New total is 33.
Did 30 minutes in my office today. New total is 33.5.
Did another hour in my office today. New total is 34.5.
I weeded out 61 books from my daughter's collection, took a load of stuff to Goodwill. I think it was somewhere around an hour of work. New total: 35.5.
Spent an hour this weekend tackling my daughter's "art area" which has been so cluttered with old art works and projects that she doesn't even have space on the art table to work. I had to wait until she left the house to get rid of some of her old paintings and drawings. The area is still a mess, but the mess is getting smaller.
Also, cleaned out the interior of my car. Tried to get it washed, but the car washed was closed because it's a slightly rainy overcast day here.
About an hour of work. New total: 36.5.
Chicken lady
10-18-15, 7:19pm
Good job!
I cleaned out my car today. (didn't actually clean it, but took everything out of it that isn't supposed to live in there). I'm putting "unload car" on my habits list.
iris lilies
10-18-15, 8:00pm
I don't time de cluttering and I don't count items decluttered. I work on one small "area" when the occasion arises.
so yesterday and today I did the worst kind of de cluttering, the kind associated with death. Yesterday we put our ancient French bulldog, age 16, to sleep. She was the last of the liddle fwenchies running around here and I doubt there will be any more. I'm not looking for sympathy here, we just put another of the Frenchies to sleep a month ago,and people responded then.
we are down to one big bulldog in this household, amazing. But anyway.
But because I had not de cluttered dog stuff in more than a decaded I had work to do. I prepared these piles
* washed and banded harnesses, leads, and collars for big dogs
* towels and toweling rags
and I dropped those off at the shelter down the street
* washed and stacked small bowls for small dogs
* washed and banded leads and collars for small dogs
* washed sorted, and stacked sleeping pads for small dogs --I will keep these since two of them will fit a bIg dog
* washed in scented water, folded and bagged their "clothes" ( their little coats) for little dogs--dear god, this was the worst
i will give all of the Frenchie stuff to,our local French bulldog rescue.
Congrats, Chicken Lady and Iris Lilies on your progress. Iris Lilies, so sorry for your loss.
JaneV2.0
10-19-15, 11:39am
Iris lily, you are a stronger person than I. The big drawback to pet ownership is death, IMO. But sixteen years is a good run for your little Frenchie.
Good work getting all the gear taken care of.
Oh Iris Lily, what heart-heavy work. Good for you to stare it in the eye and get it done, but my deepest sympathy for this.
Teacher Terry
10-19-15, 1:59pm
IL: That is so very hard. So glad you are donating what you don't need. WE have 4 old dogs aged 10-18 so I am dreading what you have already faced. One is having surgery right now so we will find out in a few days if her tumor is cancerous. Ugh!
Old total: 36.5. Spent 1.5 hours this weekend tackling a corner of our living room/dining room where my daughter has a little table where she can eat or make art, so new total is 38.
Somehow in the last three months both the bookcase and the table in this corner became so piled with papers and junk that she couldn't use the table at all, nor could she see the art supplies she had in the bookshelf. I've been feeling really bad about it but also we had a lot going on in our lives that made it hard for me to face it and deal with it.
Finally, about a month ago, I started to do a little at a time. I had discovered through Pinterest that I could buy these great clear plastic jars to organize her different art supplies and then I got over my fear of her having markers and bought some washable ones, along with kid scissors, glue sticks, and tape. I organized those all into the jars, along with the crayons and stickers and other supplies she already had, then had to deal with finding space for all of them. I did a big purging of her books (we have plenty more books upstairs, too, and I also moved some up there) and also had to go through several piles of paper that had accumulated there. Most of them were artworks of hers, mostly brought home from school, and it was challenging for me to throw away about 98% of them ("This would be so cool to look at with her when she's 30!"), but I managed it.
The really nice thing about this project was to see the effect it had on my daughter herself. Ever since her art supplies have become more visible, she's been doing SO much more art than she has ever done. I've been thinking a lot lately about the effect my clutter issues have on her, so to see that when I deal with them, she clearly benefits has been really gratifying. I'd like to go to the art supply store and get more stuff for her to experiment with, but I'm so happy a few simple additions have been so fun for her.
My next goal is to organize a dress-up area, a kitchen area, a doll area, and possibly a music area. She has the toys/supplies, but since they are not organized and visible (her dress-up clothes, for example, are in a chest of drawers - I want to get a small rack so that she can see all her dress-up clothes at once), she forgets that they are there and doesn't play with them.
I wish so badly I had taken a "before" picture. One month ago, this table, bookcase, and floor around them were covered in papers and junk.
Here's my daughter drawing on the table this morning.http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=1540&stc=1
Spent at least two hours today and yesterday getting ready to have people here for Thanksgiving today, so I AM FINALLY DONE WITH THIS GOAL! YAY!
Yesterday, I made another "pass" through my daughter's toys. Our house is small, so our living room doubles as her playroom, and it looks so much better now, though I have a few more things to do this morning to make it even better. But I am learning that at this stage, I need to go through her toys about once every two or three months. It always feels overwhelming, but I'm learning if I just set the timer for an hour, I can get a significant amount done. And one thing that is so obvious is that SHE is so much happier in the house when I do it. Once her toys are organized and attractively arranged (and old toys she hasn't played with in years are surreptitiously weeded out and taken to Goodwill), she sits down and plays with what's there. I think part of it is that she just hasn't been able to see what she has to play with due to all the disorganization and clutter. When she can see it again, she enjoys it and doesn't need more.
In these last five or ten hours of decluttering I have set up a bunch of different areas for her: an arts and crafts area, a play kitchen area (still waiting for a cupboard for her play food to arrive from Target, though), a dress-up area, a doll area, and a music area. Once they are organized, she uses and enjoys them and so do her friends. It makes me so happy to see that, and I am finally able to let go of some of the guilt I've been feeling about my clutter.
I still have a few things I want to do for her: put up some pictures in her room of friends and family, put pictures and her baby quilt up on the wall, get curtains for her room. And I think for Christmas we are going to get her a dollhouse, so I have to find the space for that. She's exactly the right age for it. A friend passed on some dollhouse furniture a few weeks ago, and she plays with it incessantly. She even made a little house for it out of a box.
Then, after all that, I want to do for myself what I have done for her: think about how I want to live in the house and what sort of organization and decoration would make me feel happy to come home and then create that. It's hard to admit, but the fact of the matter is I've almost never in my life lived in a house I've felt proud of or that I enjoyed coming home to, and I really want to change that.
And then in addition to working on the inside of the house, I'd like to create some nice spaces in our outside too. We have a huge backyard that we are not making the most of yet, and we live in California where that space can be used about ten months out of the year.
Clutter is a huge issue for me, though, so I'm trying to be patient and allow myself to take baby steps when that's all I can do.
Chicken lady
11-26-15, 2:49pm
Ejchase, this is amazing!
Somehow I missed the post of your daughter working on her art. You should be really proud of yourself and all that you have accomplished!
Thanks, Chicken Lady, that means a lot!
Reading this made me think of something I want to try - does anyone else do this? I looked in my "tupperware" cabinet the other day. Sigh. Basically I can't seem to throw away a container that might conceivably still be usable. What I decided to try was an annual approach. Ok to accumulate over the course of a year, I'm not going to beat myself up every time I decide a Tropicana bottle or margarine tub or takeout chinese soup container might come in handy "some day", but annually (or if the cabinet starts overflowing), I have to throw out about 95% of the second use tinfoil, plastic baggies, juice bottles and other quasi-garbage, especially if it's recyclable. Is anyone else working with sort of binge-purge approach rather than a complete psychiatric hoarding overhaul? Did it work for you or just leave you with a lot of angst AND a lot of crap?
rodeosweetheart
11-26-15, 7:17pm
Reading this made me think of something I want to try - does anyone else do this? I looked in my "tupperware" cabinet the other day. Sigh. Basically I can't seem to throw away a container that might conceivably still be usable. What I decided to try was an annual approach. Ok to accumulate over the course of a year, I'm not going to beat myself up every time I decide a Tropicana bottle might come in handy "some day", but annually, I have to throw out about 95% of the second use tinfoil, plastic baggies, juice bottles and other quasi-garbage, especially if it's recyclable. Is anyone else working with sort of binge-purge approach rather than a complete psychiatric hoarding overhaul? Did it work for you or just leave you with a lot of angst AND a lot of crap?
I just went into our cupboard that stores this kind of stuff and threw away all the extra lids. Then I threw away the reused plastic containers and left the 3-4 glass containers with with covers that can go in freezer. That's enough.
This is hard for me because it makes my husband angry when I do it, but before I met him, I had a beautifully organized house, and it has been a struggle all these years of marriage to keep him from filling our house with this kind of stuff. He does get angry, but I tell him I can't stand to live like that, and I mean it; I'd rather be alone than live with all that stuff.
Not sure if that is a helpful answer!
Ultralight
11-26-15, 7:32pm
Reading this made me think of something I want to try - does anyone else do this? I looked in my "tupperware" cabinet the other day. Sigh. Basically I can't seem to throw away a container that might conceivably still be usable. What I decided to try was an annual approach. Ok to accumulate over the course of a year, I'm not going to beat myself up every time I decide a Tropicana bottle or margarine tub or takeout chinese soup container might come in handy "some day", but annually (or if the cabinet starts overflowing), I have to throw out about 95% of the second use tinfoil, plastic baggies, juice bottles and other quasi-garbage, especially if it's recyclable. Is anyone else working with sort of binge-purge approach rather than a complete psychiatric hoarding overhaul? Did it work for you or just leave you with a lot of angst AND a lot of crap?
I know I am an oddball. But I think that no matter what approach you take to cluttering that journaling helps.
I have done some "hell yeah! vs. Hello no!" type decluttering.
I have been systematic -- this closet, that kitchenware, my fishing stuff, etc.
The wear-it-out-and-don't-replace-it method is another I have done/am doing.
For me, no matter the method, I find journaling made it easier. It helped me to examine the item for usefulness or wear or if it is a space hog.
But what it really made me examine was: "Is this really worth it?"
Some of us probably want to get to 100 things or less, others just want the garage cleaned out, still others may want all sorts of simple living/minimalist configuration in between.
Reflecting on your goals, purpose, meaning, and so forth can really help reach all these end zones.
I cannot say from personal experience how much journaling helps with sentimental stuff because I am just not anywhere in the same universe as most people about sentimental items. I am not sentimental about stuff. I know other people are. I just lack those feelings in any intense level.
What I am saying is that parts of my journaling suggestion may help you, other parts might be totally useless.
Chicken lady
11-26-15, 9:30pm
I am a binger. Periodically I get overwhelmed and dig into whatever area seems to be the worst. My containers do tend to wax and wane, but one rule I have made for myself is that I do not keep recyclable containers unless I have a use for them right now that can't be met by something else.
My happy outside help this year is that I can finally put bottle lids in curbside recycling. They still don't take type 5 plastic or any type 1 or 2 that doesn't have a neck. This is a constant source of conflict with dh because he says if they can recycle type 1&2 it's equally recyclable in any form - but that isn't what it says on the card they send out.
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