View Full Version : Setting A Decluttering Goal in Units of Time Using Flylady's Timer Method - Apr. 2016
Hi All,
Since I made my earlier goal of 20 hours, I'm going to set a new goal here: 40 more hours by the time I leave for an overseas trip on June 19.
Thanks to all of you for your support. It's helped a lot! And if anybody else wants to join in with a time-based goal, that would be super.
Elizabeth
Spent 30 minutes with my five-year-old yesterday, going through her drawers and closet and weeding out clothes that were too small and letting her pick which of three younger friends she wanted things handed down to.
This was the first time I actually attempted to let my daughter do her own decluttering and it went pretty well. I'm really hoping I can raise her with some good organizing skills - which means I'm going to have to be learning right along with her!
New total: 1.5 hours.
Chicken lady
5-2-16, 8:00pm
I think it's great that you and your daughter are learning and working together!
Thanks, Chicken Lady!
Did another 30 minutes today. New total: 2.
Did another 30 minutes last night. New total: 2.5.
Chicken lady
5-5-16, 12:42pm
Keep chipping away!
Thanks, Chicken Lady!
Did 1.5 hours today going through the panty. I had no idea that it would take that long - I had originally planned to go through the fridge and freezer too! - but I literally took every item out and then wiped down the shelves and reorganized everything. Happily, I found 37 items to get rid of - some to a friend, some to a food pantry, and some, unfortunately expired stuff, to the trash.
Big lesson: I need to do this about every 3 months. It would save me so much money because I realized I had bought more of certain things (rice, beans) because I didn't realize how much I had.
New total: 4.
Just did one more half hour. New total: 4.5 hours.
Chicken lady
5-8-16, 9:14am
Wow! You were rocking it yesterday!
shadowmoss
5-8-16, 10:30am
I am packing to move into my RV. Yes, it is a revelation to me to actually take everything out of the cabinets and fridge. Knowing I won't have room for most of my stuff doesn't keep me from keeping too much, but it is making me eat at home to eat up this food. I think of stopping for a quick snack when out, then remember all the food at home.
Teacher Terry
5-8-16, 1:24pm
One thing that I now do it every few months we don't grocery shop except for milk etc until we have eaten most of what is in the freezer and pantry. It makes it cheap that month and keeps things from going bad. You guys are making some great progress!
Well, I'm obviously not going to get to 40 hours by June 19th, but I did do 30 minutes today. I've been feeling a little depressed the last two days, and it did WONDERS for my outlook.
I'm also setting up the Sidetracked Home Executives card system to see if that will help me keep my surroundings relatively tidy. I'll let you know how it goes.
New total: 5 hours.
MontanaWard
6-6-16, 6:45pm
I am new to this forum and was in search of a way to get my life/home decluttered. It seems to me that when my life is hectic and chaotic I tend to keep more "things". My goal is to have my home organized and devoid of all the senseless junk that I keep by the end of July. I love the idea of this timer method and so glad that I found this thread! So in the spirit of my goal I'm setting a timer and sorting my home office space! Thank you for posting such a great idea!!:D
I am new to this forum and was in search of a way to get my life/home decluttered. It seems to me that when my life is hectic and chaotic I tend to keep more "things". My goal is to have my home organized and devoid of all the senseless junk that I keep by the end of July. I love the idea of this timer method and so glad that I found this thread! So in the spirit of my goal I'm setting a timer and sorting my home office space! Thank you for posting such a great idea!!:D
Thanks for posting! So glad you found a good idea to use.
I just moved my DD out of a house her ex-boyfriend owns and into her own place. As it usually the case, seeing all the other "senseless" (at least in my own mind) junk OTHER people (ahem) cart from place to place, I am motivated yet again to get rid of stuff.
I'm on a 10-day business/personal trip, so I needed more clothes than usual, and I brought 4 different pairs of shoes because I was going to be hiking in VT and I also needed work shoes, and casual shoes and flip flops and then I took my DD to Costco for stuff for her apartment and wound up buying my DH 5 lbs of MacKenzie hot dogs which you can only get in VT and a few other states--not NJ. He loves them, so I put them in my suitcase. It was so heavy that I was afraid that it was going to give the nice gentleman who offered to help me put it in the overhead compartment a heart attack.
It made me wonder about humans vs animals. Animals don't have to carry around toothbrushes and vitamins and make-up and stockings and umbrellas and pajamas and underwear for every day of the week and sweaters and dress clothes and casual clothes and snacks and notebooks. So what's OUR problem??
Thanks again for posting MontanaWard. Looking forward to hearing more from you!
Welcome, MontanaWard!
I made another big step tonight - at least symbolically.
When we moved into our home 5 years ago, I was eight and a half months pregnant, so things got unpacked rather haphazardly. One drawer in the kitchen just became the junk drawer, and for as long as we've lived here, it seems like everything we don't have a place goes in there. Every time I have to open that drawer to get something out (we do have a couple useful things in there like scissors and chip clips), I feel filled with shame and stress. Every time someone comes to visit and is in my kitchen, I worry about them opening that drawer. For five years I've been saying I would deal with it, but I haven't.
Well tonight, inspired by a couple recent difficult life events, I just decided I was going to deal with that drawer. I went through it, found a lot of stuff that could go in the trash, a lot of stuff that could live elsewhere, completely wiped out and cleaned it out and then organized what remained into different ziplock bags until I can put them in drawer dividers. Then I went online and figured out which size drawer dividers would work best for what needs to be organized there and I ordered them. They will arrive by early next week.
I wish I'd taken a "before" picture, but in any case, it doesn't look great yet because of all the ziplock bags, but still ... this was a big deal for me. I don't know why it is I get paralyzed by stuff like that, but I do, and it was good to just push through it tonight.
It also feels good to report here to a group of people who I knew would understand!
The whole thing took 1.5 hours. New total: 6.5 hours.
Chicken lady
6-8-16, 7:37am
Very nice!
it always helps me to know that even if things get disordered on the surface there is order underneath. I love cleaning out drawers and closets, even though nobody sees them.
Spent an hour tonight on various stuff: breaking down for the recycling bin 6 or 7 HUGE cardboard boxes that my 5 year old has been playing with in the backyard since we are about to leave town for a while, taking out trash and washing out the trash can, carrying out a few more items from the kitchen to the trash bins. New total: 7.5 hours. I just hope the recycling folks take all the cupboard - it didn't all fit in the bin.
Hello All,
I'm reviving this thread because setting time goals using flylady's timer method really works for me. Also, I have two more weeks before I resume full-time work, and I know I want to use a lot of that time to make my home a nicer place to be.
Soo... I think I'm going to aim to complete the 40 hours I started a couple of months ago by the end of this month. I was at 7.5 hours, and I did 30 minutes yesterday, so my new total is 8 hours. I think if I can do 32 more hours by August 31st, that will be a big old gift to myself before work gets busy.
I'm also playing around with the Sidetracked Home Executives index card system as a way of establishing some routines for keeping my home tidy on a daily basis (if not totally organized). I did it for about a month before I had to be out of town for two months, and it was working really well.
Thanks to all of you who have been offering support here. It really helps me stay motivated.
Teacher Terry
8-16-16, 12:14pm
I find that if you put things back right away and pick up at the end of every day it really helps to keep things neat and in order.
I find that if you put things back right away and pick up at the end of every day it really helps to keep things neat and in order.
Yes, I know I would save myself so much time and stress if I just developed these habits. I'm working on it.
Did an hour today, so my new total is 9 hours.
Did two hours yesterday, so my new total is 11 hours.
Chicken lady
8-20-16, 11:08am
You are rocking! Does it feel good to be back into it?
Thanks, Chicken Lady.
On Friday, even though I got through two hours, I was dragging, not inspired at all and then yesterday, I had planned to put in several hours, but various obstacles, including my just not being motivated, appeared, so I got nothing done.
Finally, last night, I said to myself, "If I do nothing else tomorrow, I need to just push through and get four hours of decluttering done." My daughter is with her dad this weekend, so I knew I had the opportunity.
So I got up this morning and just did it. I'm embarrassed to say that it actually took the entire four hours (timed with a timer, with breaks) just to get the first floor of my house what I call "surface clean." That just means everything is basically put away where it belongs, though there are still pockets of clutter. That is, toys are on the toy shelf, though the toy shelf itself is pretty disorganized; paper clutter hasn't been sorted, but paper is stacked neatly in piles. I always try to get things to "surface clean" first because I feel so much better once things are at that level, and it's a good way to remind myself that the house doesn't have to be perfectly decluttered for me to feel good in it.
And then I vacuumed and swept, and made sure all the counters in the kitchen were wiped down and clear.
So, *now* I'm motivated to keep going. Tomorrow, I'll tackle getting the second floor "surface clean" and then start tackling all the pockets of clutter (in drawers and cupboards and neat stacks) one by one after that.
New total: 15 hours.
Chicken lady
8-21-16, 6:14pm
Hey, my GOAL is to be able to get my entire house "surface clean".
Sooo ... I did 30 minutes yesterday, so my new total is 15.5, but I have to move the deadline for this goal back a month. Have too much going on here, though I am working on daily housekeeping a la the Sidetracked Home Executives' card method.
Chicken lady
8-27-16, 4:22pm
You will get there. Just don't give up.
i might suggest, that even though it's hard to purge in a messy space, if you just dedicate even the first ten minutes to actually cleaning out anything - a drawer, a box, one shelf.... That will be less that you have to tidy next time.
(like me finally setting aside a chunk of time to fix the fence so I could stop spending little bits of time putting the goat away over and over.)
Did an hour today. I tackled my desk drawer which has been a mess for a long, long time. New total: 16.5.
So, work is busy now and will remain so until late December, so I'm moving my goal of getting to 40 hours back to December 31st.
But I'm still plugging away. Having the goal really does motivate me to do 30 minutes or an hour here or there when I can.
Did an hour on Saturday. New total: 17.5.
Chicken lady
10-10-16, 9:34am
hey ejchase, do you think you could commit to finding ten minutes every day? That would be 12 hours, and some days you might keep going.
i will be your timer buddy - I'm trying to schedule 15 minutes every day to work on one of my unfinished projects.
Hi, Chicken Lady!
Thanks for the offer, but I'm realizing at this point in the semester, no, I can't commit to even ten minutes a day. I'm working a lot of 12 and 16-hour days, and I think a more realistic goal for me on weekdays is just to focus on routines like committing to deal with mail immediately (recycle the junk, put all other mail where it goes), cleaning up the kitchen after dinner, tidying up the downstairs, and making sure all my clothes are hung up or put in the laundry before I go to bed. If I manage that much, I'm happy.
For four months out of the year, I work 60 hours a week, and I'm in one of those periods now. So when I'm in the thick of it, I can only do real decluttering on the occasional weekend. Then I can do major decluttering during winter and summer when I work less.
That said, I put in 2 hours of decluttering last weekend and an hour today (short work day), so my new total is 20.5!
EJchase, I find the amount you are doing as well as working commendable. If I worked 60 hours a week i don't know if I could even bathe....
Chicken lady
10-19-16, 9:49pm
Wow! Yeah, a 12 hour work day is pretty much sleep, eat, shower, commute, work, commute, eat, sleep. At 16 showering and eating get rough.
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