Setting a Decluttering Goal in Units of Time Using Flylady's Timer Method - Dec. 2016

[ejchase]

Hello All,

I'm returning to this method because it really works for me when I am on a reduced work schedule - as I am for the next two months.

What I do is set a timer for whatever time I have 15, 30, or 60 minutes, and I work toward a certain number of hours over a set period of time.

I'm on a reduced work schedule from now until February 20th, so my goal for the next two months is to do 40 hours of decluttering by Feb. 20th. It's much easier for me to deal with my hoarding issues this way because it makes my efforts concrete and finite.

If you don't know about flylady here's a little bit about how she suggests you use the timer:

http://www.flylady.net/d/getting-started/flying-lessons/decluttering-15-minutes/

I'm also using other methods - trying to establish routines with the Sidetracked Home Executive card file and counting the number of things I give away - but my issues with clutter are so serious I need to work from a lot of different angles.

If anyone wants to set a decluttering goal of their own using units of time, please feel free to join in. In any case, I'll keep reporting here on how I'm doing!

Feeling very grateful today for the support this group has offered over the years. It's always a three steps forward two steps backwards process for me, but this group has helped a lot.

Elizabeth

[Chicken lady]

Hi again! How did you do today?

as you may have noticed, nothing motivates me like a brand new thread....

currently I am focusing on a different room or space each day with a focus on light/warmth/comfort/cleanliness and order in my home. I plan to evaluate and refocus January 7th, but between now and then I will commit to 30 minutes or more a day and check in with you.

today my focus was the living room. I dusted everything, removed some objects temporarily, finished decorating it for Christmas and tasked my dd with sifting through her piano and choir music from high school (she graduated in 2014) So that we can get rid of what she doesn't want and reclaim some shelf space.

yesterday was the laundry room, which is better, but not done. Dh is currently searching the shop for hooks to mount on the wall so I can hang winter barn coats in there as my reward for progress.

[ejchase]

Hi, Chicken Lady, so glad you are joining me on this and congrats on your strong start.

Unfortunately, I found out an old friend was in the hospital today, so much of my day was spent with his teenaged kids and his wife. I may have to table getting started on my goal for a few more days while I focus on that - hard to tell.

[Chicken lady]

People are so much more important than stuff.

i focused on my dining porch today - swept, vacuumed the throw rugs, took out the things that didn't belong, finished decorating including a table cloth I haven't had out in years, and had the fire going for an early "Christmas dinner" with dd and dsil.

Dd suggested I might want to get rid of a ceramic cookie jar she made in high school (8 years ago). I think I might at least move it to my classroom, it would be a good idea spark for some of my students, and it could be used to store something like extra sponges.

my Christmas gifts from them were a beautiful tabletop succulent garden grown by dsil in a bowl dd made, and a replacement for my favorite (but broken handled) bucket, so, as I will be discarding the old bucket, I would end up even on space and category (buckets and countertop art) with an increase in quality.

i did get hooks and two inches of shelf space yesterday.

[ejchase]

Congrats, Chicken Lady, on your progress.

I had a good day today: 4 hours decluttering. On my way finally!

[Chicken lady]

Yay! That's a big chunk - You are 10% there!

i didn't do anything on Christmas Day. I meant to haul a bunch of stuff away yesterday, but I got sidetracked - did a bookshelf and made more than enough room for my new DVDs, and then finished off the hanging bar in my closet. I didn't get rid of any clothes, but I hung the five things that are just a little too small (I've regained ten of the twenty lbs I lost and buttons pull) on red plastic hangers, threw away a broken hanger, and rearranged all the hangers in all the closets in the house -

the coat closet has all wood, dh has metal because he likes those and wood for pants and coats, I have a variety of mostly white based on what is hanging on them, and dd has an assortment of colorful plastic. ALL the bent wire and clear/white plastic store hangers are in the clothing free guest room closet along with a few extra good hangers. I am probably going to need to recycle/throw the unwanted ones away, but I'm giving myself to the end of January to find a place that can use any of them.

i also did part of the pantry and found a couple of expired things for the chickens (need to do this more often) and a couple of food items I should donate because we have changed our diet and probably won't eat them. (canned tuna, jello cups)

i need to hit it again today.

[Teacher Terry]

EC: since you are on a reduced work schedule I would try to carve out big chunks of time to really make things happen. Anywhere from 2-8 hours/session will make the process go quickly and you will feel like you really accomplished something. I did this when I was working f.t. but used the weekends. Then you will be done so much faster and can move on to do things you want to do. Once you have decluttered well then you just need to maintain by taking things our every time you bring something in. So if you buy a shirt one goes out, etc. It is a great way to keep your home from getting cluttered again. Good luck! There have been times when I thought that I didn't have anything else more to get rid of but then our local humane society will ask for donations for their twice/yearly garage sale and I start looking and find I can often fill my car. At the least I can always find a couple of big bags. Only once have I ever re-bought something I got rid of.

[19Sandy]

I think a full day of decluttering in the earliest stages is better than short bursts. Once you really reduce, then you can discard occasionally to maintain.

[ejchase]

Thanks, All, for your support and suggestions.

A full day of decluttering sounds great to me, but I'm single mom to a five-year-old and also will be working part-time, so decluttering 30 minutes or an hour at a time may be more realistic many days, and baby steps do work for me.

Also, since I have such big issues with hoarding, four hours of decluttering tends to be pretty emotionally exhausting for me. I might be able to do five hours in one day, but I doubt I'm up to much more.

In any case, this system has worked really well for me in the past, so I'm hopeful it will again. And as I said before, I am also working on establishing better habits to avoid getting cluttered again like dealing with every day's mail (into the recycling or putting it where it belongs immediately so that it doesn't end up in one of the piles).

It's hard for me to imagine ever being "done" with decluttering just because my issues with it have been so huge. I've never in my life lived in a home without a pile of unsorted clutter somewhere - not just too many of one thing, but literally, a pile of papers or other things that just are not put away. But I do know it is within my reach if I keep working towards it, though after I get there maintenance will be a whole other challenge.

That said, I do think I'm ten times better at getting rid of stuff than I was ten years ago, so I feel good about the methods that I'm using.

[Chicken lady]

Ejchase, I am right there with you! And any progress is good!

yesterday I worked on decorations a little and found a really big tin (bigger than a wastebasket) and a bag of bows I could pass on. I sifted through the pantry a little more, but am having trouble with the organizing - the space is deep and I can't see the stuff in the back.

[Chicken lady]

Are you still at it?

yesterday I gathered up all the papers and such that I had dumped in the second guest room and did a quick flip through for a handful of recycling.

Then I went out to help dh in the addition and swept up ten gallons of sawdust, tiny scraps of things, and bent nails. I gathered the small wood scraps into boxes for starting the wood stove. This took most of the afternoon (including stopping to assist over and over) and there is still a lot to clean up out there, but it is much better! I'm not sure that was really decluttering, but it filled a trash can and made a space more pleasant, so I'm counting it.

[mschrisgo2]

Chicken Lady, I love your criteria "...made a space more pleasant..." Yes!! that counts!

Also, you mentioned having trouble organizing the pantry because you can't see the things in the back. I wonder if putting in "risers" might help? i.e. graduated steps to set things on, so the things in back are the tallest. Just an idea.

[Chicken lady]

I actually thought about risers, but they are sturdy, reinforced fixed shelves 20" x 20" and spaced mostly for canning jars, so I could really only use them in the two extra tall zones. I am contemplating some type of record system on the inside of the doors - like dry erase paper or chalkboard paint.

i found four books I could part with yesterday. I am still astonished when I realize I am able to purge another book. For a long time they were overwhelming and piled everywhere and I was unable to let go. At the moment there are a few books stacked instead of shelved, but only because I have shelves that are taken apart for rearranging.

today I need to work on papers.

[danna]

ejchase
I have had a lot of luck using plastic bins and even cardboard boxes.....NOT large ones
but, ones that fit on the shelves and go to the back. One type of food in each box then the whole
bin/box can be pulled out to view contents.
Also, use this in fridge freezer/big front door freezer and my bottom kitchen shelves (works really well in them
because I can't reach the back of them at all.

[Chicken lady]

Image pretty good progress on the papers on the 30th. Then I had pretty constant company and lost my grip on this.

we did eat some food from the pantry, and I gave my kids a couple of small things I found that belonged to them so that they could take them away.

today I go back to work, but I will hit this again tonight or tomorrow.

[ejchase]

Hi All - I'm visiting family on the east coast, so won't be able to return to my decluttering until the 10th or so, but thanks for the encouragement here!

[ejchase]

Got back from seeing family on Sunday and did three hours yesterday. New total: 7 hours.

Thanks, all, for the encouragement.

[ejchase]

Another hour today. New total: 8 hours.

[Chicken lady]

Very nice!

i'm back at work and this is crunch time - evaluations are coming due and class proposals (basically I reapply for my job every year) go in today, so after a couple of days of effort, I have fallen off the wagon again.

[ejchase]

Thanks for the encouragement, Chicken Lady. When you're ready to get back to it, I'll be here to cheer you on.

3 more hours today. New total: 11.

[Chicken lady]

Well, I have 5 evaluations left to do, and today I found a book, a pair of socks, and some boots to add to the goodwill pile, so I guess I'm workings on it again.

nice addition to your total!

[Chicken lady]

Removed the last of the Christmas decorations from inside the house and put them away. Added 3 DVDs and a ceramic Santa to the goodwill pile, took dd her wooly raccoon from childhood when we went over for dinner tonight.

[ejchase]

Nice job, Chicken Lady!

My 5-year-old is with her dad for the long weekend, so I've been making a big push here. 5 hours today. New total: 16 hours.

[ejchase]

Four more hours today for a new total of 20 hours.

I still have so-o-o-o much more to do, but my big accomplishment of the weekend was to deal in part with the upstairs hallway. That's the place that tends to fill with clutter when I'm not dealing with it as I should be.

I'd say I got through about 90% of the clutter up there. Here's are before and after pictures of the one area I completely cleared out. If anybody can tell me how to rotate these pictures so that they're right side up, let me know.
grhttp://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=1685&stc=1http://www.simplelivingforum.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=1686&stc=1

[razz]

All I can say is "Wow!". You sure made a difference.

[ejchase]

Thanks, razz. There are a few more boxes on the other side, but I've weeded out the junk from them and now just have to sort what's left. I think I recycled about 8-10 grocery bags of paper.

Also, tonight I did another 30 minutes with my daughter, weeding out books she's ready to give away, so my new total is 20.5.

[Chicken lady]

Wow ejchase, that's great!

i just locked my screen and turned my iPad.

I worked in the basement a little more today. I found a dress that had been packed away that I'm ready to part with, and turned two cookbooks into two photocopies of recipes - which I actually made and like. The cookbooks will leave. And I put three shoebox sized boxes in the recycling and found some items to offer to other teachers at my school. Net about half of one of those hallway piles? Not the whole row, just an individual stack. But it's going in the right direction....

[ejchase]

Yes, Chicken Lady, every little bit helps! Keep at it!

[19Sandy]

When you rent here, you can't fill up the hallways. My tiny closets are getting emptier though.

[ejchase]

Good for you on the closets, 19Sandy!

Just 30 minutes more here today. It will probably be a week or so before I can put in more time. New total: 21 hours.

[Chicken lady]

Yesterday I moved a bookshelf upstairs. I only came up with a book and a shoebox, but they both left the house with me yesterday.

i don't think I'm going to have any time for the house today.

[Chicken lady]

Well, I didn't spend 30 minutes, but I did move a small box of toys from the open pile in the basement to an upstairs closet, toss some socks that shrunk into the goodwill pile, and take a shirt with me to school and give it away.

[Chicken lady]

Yesterday I found some books that can go for sure and some to run by my kids (if the youngest wants them, they'll be stored in her room, the other two have to actually take them). a set of twin sheets that can go, and three little pairs of shoes that I had kept for sentimental reasons that I'm ready to part with.

i'm working mostly in the basement right now, so I could end up focusing on things from any point in my life. I am also rearranging one of the upstairs rooms, which involves moving 4 full height bookshelves. I have to take the books off of them to move them, so I am flipping through them when I do it and alphabetizing them by author when they go back (which is how I normally store my books so I can find them quickly, but these got very mixed up in the hurry up before construction started.)

still trying to to keep it to at least half an hour a day, although this weekend is a big push - hvac guy coming to consult tomorrow.

[Chicken lady]

The room I was working on yesterday is mostly done. Today I worked on the basement some today, but my big task was the coat closet and tangentially the guest room closet.

emptied the coat closet and CLEANED it. Put back the extra leaf to the table and the TV trays. Put back dh coats/jackets untouched. Removed two coats and a jacket of mine to donate, moved a fleece of mine upstairs and pulled two of my fleeces from the upstairs closet to donate.

Hung the rest of my stuff on matching wooden hangers and put 8 more in the closet for guest coats. Rest of the hangers moved to guest room closet.

moved all of the games from the basement and the shelf in the coat closet to the guest closet. Found two games and a puzzle to get rid of.

chose five baskets from the basement and put them on the now game-free shelf over the coats to organize scarves, gloves, umbrellas, earmuffs, and travel blankets. Found four more baskets I can part with while I was at it.

good day. My basement us emptier and more organized, I can find all my games, and my coat closet looks nice and if anybody comes over they can hang up their coat!

it has been dark and rainy all day and the fact that I have done this at all instead of binge watching tv shows and eating chocolate is awesome!

[nswef]

You're doing great Chicken Lady. What's more fun is that the closet has the potential to STAY neat!

[leslieann]

Every time I pop this thread up, I have to run out and put something else in the "donate" box. This is good for me.

Your coat closet and game spaces sound so wonderfully inviting. Good all the way around.

[Chicken lady]

Well, no, the games have to be unstacked for access and might possibly fall on your head. So there is a lot of work to do there. But just getting them in one place was a big deal. I hope the coat closet will stay. Dh has two chamois shirts in there that I wish he would keep in the upstairs closet or his dresser, but as the beam is still in my own eye, I am wise enough not to mention the mote in his.

[mschrisgo2]

"chose five baskets from the basement and put them on the now game-free shelf over the coats to organize scarves, gloves, umbrellas, earmuffs, and travel blankets. Found four more baskets I can part with while I was at it."

I love this! You've have collected and saved baskets, giving yourself choices to use in this very lovely way, enhancing both the beauty and functionality of your home-- then you saw your way to parting with 4 more. This is why you save things, to give yourself creative choices!

[Chicken lady]

Well, I save things because EVERYTHING has creative potential, but I'm working on that.

dh came home last night and hung up his coat without noticing any change in the closet. he did notice a huge change in the basement though. And then he complained that the bookshelf in my upstairs room is not centered on the wall. I know. I like it where it is. Then he suggested changing what was on it. My room. My bookshelf. Go away.

he also doesn't seem to have noticed that I added 5 books,a pair of bookends, and a reading lamp to the formerly bare top of the shelf next to the couch. He even sat on the couch to play guitar and complained that the overhead lighting is poor. I didn't say "why don't you turn on the 2ft tall wood, brass and glass double bulb lamp that ds made in school? It's right by your shoulder."

i'm going to work in the basement some more today. I asked dh, and if I can free the card table from the pile that is on/under/around it, I will be offering it to the kids and donating it if no one wants it. Goal for the week. (It's a big pile, and I have leave the house stuff every day for the rest of the week.)

[ejchase]

I actually did 6.5 hours today, so my new total is 27.5. I won't get to 40 hours by Tuesday, but I should get to 40 within about ten days.

Today, I tackled my daughter's toys downstairs - an incredibly big and challenging job - so many little pieces of things which I wasn't sure belonged where. But I told myself not to be a perfectionist, and I allowed myself to fill up one small Tupperware of those little things that might belong to something I'd find later (a puzzle, a game, etc.) and got it done. I weeded out about 30 toys to give away.

I also tackled her art corner. I just read a few chapters of Simplicity Parenting while babysitting for a friend's kid the other night, and it really inspired me. I realized I had overbought art supplies, so I weeded out about 30% of what was there to store for when the other supplies have run out. The author of Simplicity Parenting makes a very convincing argument that too many toys, art supplies, and books really stresses kids out, even if they're organized. My daughter and I weeded out about 40 of her books a couple of weeks ago, but there are still a lot.

So the toy area and the art corner look ten times better. Tomorrow, I have to tackle the stacks of papers I let accumulate downstairs this fall. I think the rest of the downstairs will be about a four-hour job, maybe 6.

The sad thing is that when I started this goal of 40 hours, I think I really thought I'd be able to declutter the whole house in that amount of time. But the fact of the matter is it will probably take another 40 more to really get the job done, and I go back to my regular full-time work schedule on February 20. Nevertheless, I think I'll be able to do a fair amount of decluttering through the end of March. April through mid-June will be too busy for me to do anything more than practice good routines (e.g. dealing with mail every day, etc.). Then in the summer I should be able to do another big push.

I know it's a three-steps-forward-two-steps-backward process for me, so I have to just try to be patient. I have never in my life had a completely decluttered home, and even though I know it's probably not realistic for me to think I can eventually live totally without clutter, I'd love to just get my house completely clutter-free at least once. Then if I can't quite maintain at that level, maybe I can maintain at a level a lot closer to it than I've ever been.

[Chicken lady]

Ejchase, you are doing really well this time! You always set really ambitious goals, but instead of revising them, you are coming closer to meeting them every time!

i agree that having a totally, constantly clutter free house with a child is highly unlikely, but I think if you get your house clutter free, you will slowly reduce the amount of time it takes to return to that point. So maybe the art area stays messy all weekend, but you clean it up together in 20 minutes Sunday night or whatever.

i am going to fold up the card table today.

[Tammy]

I remember feeling upset with lots of toys. I was about 4. I always thought that was just me ... but apparently not.

[Chicken lady]

The card table is cleared off and folded up. I have a paper grocery bag of empty picture frames (and a couple with home decore "art" in them) to take to goodwill. Still working.

[ejchase]

Thanks for the encouragement, Chicken Lady, and good for you for the steady progress.

I did four more hours this morning, so my new total is 31.5.

[19Sandy]

Clutter stimulates the mind too much. When I used to work in schools, the classrooms that were full of stuff and messy had overstimulated kids. The minimal classrooms that were organized has quieter kids.

You can keep the stuff, but put it away until the old supply is gone.

[ejchase]

I did another 30 minutes this past weekend, so new total is 32.

[ejchase]

I spent one hour yesterday and one hour today, going through all the tupperware in my kitchen and switching the cupboards where I keep the tupperware and the pans. The arrangement makes much more sense now, and I found about 20 pieces of tupperware and old stained pans to throw out, give away, or recycle. Feels great. New total is 34.

[ejchase]

I did three more hours today, so new total is 37

When we moved into this house 6 years ago, I was eight months pregnant. At the very end of the move, I was losing my mind, so my brother came over and helped me pack up the last few boxes - which all ended up being just boxes of clutter (unsorted paper, all the things I couldn't decide what to do with). When we brought them over to the new house, I just put them in the storage shed in the backyard to deal with later. Well, they have, of course sat in there for six years.

Today, I decided to go fish them out, thinking there were about four of them. There were 15! I haven't gotten through all the piles of clutter still inside the house, so I almost just left them, but then I decided to bring them in. This has been kind of a challenging year, between separating from my daughter's father and certain political events, and I'm realizing the decluttering is really helping me focus on the things I can control (though I'm getting politically active too!).

So I got through three of the boxes from the storage shed today, and now have 12 sitting in my dining room. I'm hopeful I can get through them pretty quickly. For years, friends have been telling me that cleaning and decluttering can be enjoyable, and I have pooh poohed that whole idea. But it has felt good today to dig out all this old crap from my past and just deal with it. Sort of like dealing with my literal crap is helping me deal with my figurative crap!

Thanks for listening, Everybody. Being able to report and reflect here really helps!

[Chicken lady]

Good job ejchase! We call those "random boxes" at one point I think I had over 50 of them. Now I have one - the contents of which vary, it's more of an "in box" now - when it starts to get full I know I have to sort through it and deal with something.

[ejchase]

Hello All -

I did 90 minutes last weekend, so my new total is 38.5. I'm hoping I can finish up the last 90 minutes this weekend.

My regular work schedule has started up again, and all my "organizing" has meant the upstairs hallway is now filled up with boxes I pulled out of the storage shed after I got rid of the other clutter up there, and the bed in the guest room is covered with boxes of stuff I've been using to sort various things in. So my goal this weekend is to get every room presentable and usable even if there are boxes stacked in corners for a while until I get to them.

The downstairs is much, much less cluttered, and I feel really good about all the stuff I've gotten rid of.

Thanks, everyone here, for all your support. It has REALLY helped.

[Chicken lady]

So how is the storage shed? It sounds like you're still making good progress.

i finally took the goodwill/kid reject piles to the thrift store today.

[ejchase]

Thanks, Chicken Lady, for your encouragement. And it sounds like you are making a lot of progress of your own!

I finished my 40 hours last weekend! The 12 remaining "random boxes" I pulled out of the storage shed are now sitting in the upstairs hallway which I had cleared in my first big decluttering spree in January. On one hand, it's a bummer to have boxes of clutter in the hallway again. On the other, I'm glad they're there because my hope is to get through them bit by bit this spring, and that's only realistic if they are within easy reach.

Though there's lots of clutter still in my house, I feel like I did make some major steps forward in this 40 hours: got rid of around 200 things, got rid of 6-7 boxes of clutter in the upstairs hallway, decluttered my daughter's toys, art supplies, and dolls, got rid of several piles of clutter on the ground floor, reorganized the tupperware and pots and pans cupboards in the kitchen.

There's much more to do, but I'm really glad I met my goal, and I really appreciate the support I got here. I'm going to start some new goals for this spring in a new thread.