40 Hours Decluttering Using Flylady's Timer Method - March 3 - May 24, 2023 [Archive]

ejchase

3-3-23, 4:32pm

Hi All,

I'm a teacher who is on a reduced schedule for about four months a year, mid-December through mid-February and mid-June through mid-August. I also have a REALLY cluttered home. In the past, I've had some success with setting myself a goal of doing a certain number of hours of decluttering during my periods of reduced work. I set one overall goal (usually 40 hours), then chip away at it in smaller increments of time. Some days I aim for an hour; others for four hours (with breaks!). I basically use Flylady's timer method described here, but with longer periods of time than 15 minutes:

http://www.flylady.net/d/getting-sta...ng-15-minutes/

Last summer (2022), I had to teach, so I was not able to finish my regular summer 40 hours until mid-February of this year. And this winter, I had a big work project which kept me from doing much, so I'm having to revise the timeline of these batches of 40 hours. Instead of completing a whole batch in winter this year, I am aiming to complete a new batch between today, March 3, and May 24, when my dad will be arriving for a visit. It will be hard to declutter much while I'm teaching, but decluttering has become so important to my mental health, I actually think I'm going to devote most of my spring break to it this year.

Though clutter is still an issue, over the years of focusing on getting rid of it, I've also discovered I need to spend time on making my home comfortable and pleasant which involves putting in time on things like repotting plants into pretty containers, picking out a nice bureau scarf and a "jewelry tree" to make the bureau in my bedroom pretty, and finding a nice tray for the containers of salt, pepper, and olive oil by my stove. I've learned that decluttering is not all it takes for me to finally enjoy my living spaces - figuring out what's pleasing aesthetically to me is super-important too - and really fun.

In any case, since I started these batches of 40 hours of decluttering in winter of 2017, I've made a lot of progress. My home isn't perfect, but it is MUCH less cluttered and MUCH more comfortable to me than it was six (!!) years ago. And recording my progress here has really helped.

I know for some people setting up a home is kind of second nature, but I've always struggled with it and always lived in cluttered, uncomfortable spaces, so these batches of 40 hours have been a real breakthrough for me.

In any case, thanks for "listening" and for the encouragement so many of you have given me over the years. Your support has kept me going and made a tremendous difference in my life and I think in my daughter's too.

And, as always, if anybody else wants to join in with a decluttering/homemaking goal of their own for a certain number of hours, that would be great!

ejchase

3-3-23, 4:49pm

Yesterday, I had to have an upsetting family conversation in the afternoon, which I was really anxious about, so I decided to spend about 3 hours decluttering my office at school before that as a way of grounding myself. It really was as gratifying as I hoped. I got rid of SO much paper! And then, incredibly, today, as I was sitting in my now lovely almost spotless office (I do have 4 boxes stacked against a wall which I need to go through, but all other surfaces are clean), the new president of my college came in and chatted for about 20 minutes. SUCH GREAT TIMING! I would have been mortified if he'd come in before yesterday. Shout out to all of you who have kept me going on decluttering. It's because of you I now know how satisfying it can be.

Total: 3 hours

ejchase

3-3-23, 4:55pm

The batch of 40 hours I completed in mid-February was fine, but it wasn't very focused. In that batch, I was mostly doing kind of maintenance decluttering, which isn't nothing, but with this batch that I'm starting now, I want to tackle some more focused decluttering projects which are overdue, so I'm going to make a little list of them here with an estimate of how long each will take:

Corner of Dining Room (4 hours)
Kitchen in general (4 hours to go through most cabinets)
Food pantry (90 minutes)
Refrigerator and freezer (90 minutes)
Upstairs hallway (3 hours)
My bedroom (4 hours)
My daughter's bedroom (4 hours)

In terms of making the house look better, I want to focus on these 2 projects:

Getting a new LR rug
Finishing the guestroom (get rug, get pictures hung, finish decluttering in there)

That's all I can think of for now.

iris lilies

3-3-23, 6:34pm

Wow, great timing for your visit from the boss.

Our local garden club is having a sale of vintage, antique, and collectible items. I have nothing to donate because I got rid of it all in the last sake we donated to before we moved. It is kindacweird, being in this position.

ejchase

3-4-23, 1:10pm

Our local garden club is having a sale of vintage, antique, and collectible items. I have nothing to donate because I got rid of it all in the last sake we donated to before we moved. It is kindacweird, being in this position.

I've heard other people here say they have "nothing left to donate." I look forward to getting there one day, even if it's just momentarily. At times, it feels impossible, but then I see how much I've gotten rid of in the last 7 years, and I think, "Well maybe." :)

iris lilies

3-4-23, 5:48pm

I've heard other people here say they have "nothing left to donate." I look forward to getting there one day, even if it's just momentarily. At times, it feels impossible, but then I see how much I've gotten rid of in the last 7 years, and I think, "Well maybe." :)

I was pretty ruthless when we moved in getting rid of stuff. Now we have many pieces of furniture that I hate, and will never come to live inside my house, but those pieces of furniture belong to DH and he gets to store them in the garage, or the basement, his choice.

ejchase

3-4-23, 11:18pm

I was pretty ruthless when we moved in getting rid of stuff. Now we have many pieces of furniture that I hate, and will never come to live inside my house, but those pieces of furniture belong to DH and he gets to store them in the garage, or the basement, his choice.

That sounds like a healthy truce between the two of you!

ejchase

3-4-23, 11:38pm

Today's story: sometime during the pandemic, or maybe before, I stopped using my file system for incoming paper. It may have been because my one file box had filled up or because so many of the items I used to file, like bank statements, are now, fortunately, stored online. In any case, over the last couple of years, when there was a piece of paper that came in that I needed to save for some reason, I just put it in a stack on my bookshelf without filing and just trusted I could go through the stack when I needed it. I know reading this is probably making those of you who are good at dealing with clutter hyperventilate - I'm sorry!

So-o-o as of this morning, that stack of paper on my bookshelf had turned into about 6 boxes of clutter in a corner of my dining room! So I decided today to finally deal with them. I had gotten some Penaflex folders from someone in my Buy Nothing Group, and I knew where they were because I had actually, in a previous wave of decluttering, established a place for office supplies. And I had bought 2 attractive cloth fileboxes and a bunch of file folders. So it took me 4 hours to go through the 6 boxes, set up folders for items that needed them, and to organize them all into the 2 fileboxes. I also set up extra blank folders in the front of each filebox, so as new stuff comes in, it will be easy for me to establish new folders quickly and file things where they go.

Because I have a lot of other work I have to do this weekend, I didn't quite find a place for everything in the 6 boxes. I have one box left of recipes I need to organize, one half box of mementos I need to find a way to part with or find a place for, and one half box of things I need to deal with in some form or other (correspondence to follow up with, etc.). I just had to give myself a break and say dealing with those could be the project of another day.

And about 20% of the paper in the 6 boxes went right into the recycling bin which was obviously very satisfying. I guess not everything that ended up in those stacks was so important! I found a lot of junk mail, even though I thought I was getting better about recycling that stuff immediately.

I suspect if a year from now, I go through the fileboxes themselves, I will find things that i can store digitally rather than in those files, but I have to do all this in stages. I'm just so happy it will now be easy for me to file incoming important papers. I need to get my taxes done and I want to see a financial planner, and I couldn't do either until I knew where all the relevant documents were!

Work is about to get insanely busy, so it may be a while (spring break in April) before I can do another significant decluttering push, but I'm hoping these fileboxes will help me prevent the clutter build-up getting that bad again. We'll see!

New total: 7 hours.

iris lilies

3-4-23, 11:56pm

I have very little physical household paper that needs to be saved. But of course I’m not the one that keeps Household bills, DH does that. And yes, he has piles of paper. Once in a while he will get rid of one of the boxes squirreled away in the basement. I’m not gonna tell him what paper he needs to keep for our household records but I do think he keeps a lot that is not necessary.

For my garden club stuff I have very well defined paper files and I keep only the minimum that is necessary. I have one statewide job for which I feel obligated to keep records in paper form because some of the records have to live for seven years and what if I have to hand the records over to someone else? They need to be in paper format if so but I do keep the bare minimum.

rosarugosa

3-5-23, 12:06pm

rosarugosa

3-5-23, 12:07pm

I have very little physical household paper that needs to be saved. But of course I’m not the one that keeps House of bells, DH does that. And yes, he has piles of paper. Once in a while, he will get rid of one of the boxes that his girls away in the basement. I’m not gonna tell him what paper he needs to keep for our household records but I do think he keeps a lot of it is not necessary.

For my garden club stuff I have very well defined paper files and I keep only the minimum that is necessary. I have one statewide job for which I feel obligated to keep records in paper form because some of the records have to live for seven years and what if I have to hand the records over to someone else? They need to be in paper format if so but I do keep the bare minimum.

It's a good thing we know you well enough to know that your DH probably doesn't actually have girls stashed away in the basement!

iris lilies

3-5-23, 12:12pm

It's a good thing we know you well enough to know that your DH probably doesn't actually have girls stashed away in the basement!
Ha ha, I went back and read that just now and changed all that. My typos can be very entertaining, you’re welcome!

ejchase

3-5-23, 1:52pm

Well if you get there and don't like it, you can always take a pottery class!

:) Yeah, for now, I can't take pottery classes or even really go to garage sales or thrift stores. It's so hard for me not to accumulate!

Teacher Terry

3-5-23, 5:40pm

When I moved 2 years ago I didn’t have anything left to donate. But since occasionally I have replaced a small piece of furniture or gotten rid of clothes or a household item so I have donated or sold an item.

ejchase

3-9-23, 6:08pm

ejchase

3-9-23, 6:11pm

I had a big influx of paper in my office this week - partially because I brought in some paper from home after the big office declutter there and partially because of a new work project - and I had it all just stacked on my desk.

I am badly in need of a massive reorganization and purge of my files at work, but I don't have the 4 hours it would take to accomplish that. So today I just took 1 hour to start the reorganization and to file and weed out the new stack of paper on my desk. The desk is clear now, no unsorted piles anywhere! It feels so much better to be in here.

New total: 8 hours.

nswef

3-10-23, 11:29am

Bravo EJ, Tackling an hour at a time and having such success in the office!!!

Teacher Terry

3-10-23, 1:58pm

EJ, it’s only possible because I live alone. Luckily the dogs aren’t hoarders:)). I think you have made excellent progress through the years.

ejchase

3-12-23, 1:40am

Thanks, nswef and Teacher Terry.

And Teacher Terry, I don't live alone, though my daughter - the only other person in my home - is better at throwing things out than I am. But it has gotten better.

I spent 2 hours this morning decluttering in preparation for my daughter to have a sleepover tonight. New total: 10 hours.

Teacher Terry

3-13-23, 12:11am

I knew you had a daughter and kids inherently have stuff.

ejchase

4-19-23, 12:05am

I am making a big push this week because I am on spring break.

Over the last 2 days, I've done 2.5 hours, straightening up the upstairs hallway where some clutter had collected. I also weeded out 11 pairs of my daughter's shoes and got her okay to post them on the Buy Nothing Group.

New total: 12.5.

nswef

4-19-23, 9:41am

Yay EJ! I tidied and cleared stuff in the top drawer of the filing cabinet. The bottom was done during tax time. I cleaned out the recipe box. Threw away many things and they are now fairly organized so I can find the ones I use often.

ejchase

4-19-23, 11:18pm

Wow, that's fantastic, nswef! I need to organize my recipes. You're inspiring me.

I made a big push (4 hours!) in my bedroom today, and it looks SO NICE. I'm very happy. New total: 16.5.

ejchase

4-20-23, 2:27pm

I did 2 more hours this morning before our housekeeper arrived. I'm looking forward to her being able to dust all the places in my bedroom that have been covered by clutter! My car is loaded up with things to take to Goodwill later.

New total: 18.5.

iris lilies

4-20-23, 6:44pm

Someone gifted me 2 things I did not want as a”thank you” for performing 2 jobs at a conference. Why doesn’t a simple verbal “thank you” suffice??!!!

Anyway, I was able to foist one of these unwanted things on someone who vaguely liked it on a stop on my way home. Victory! This object did not even come into my home.

At the conference they tried to force a stupid bag thing on me at registration, but I just took out the conference program and gave the bag thing back saying “ here I don’t want this” and did not even say “thank you” because it irritates me so much, these bags and their contents of “goodies” at conferences.

sweetana3

4-20-23, 6:57pm

yes, those things at conferencs or meetings usually end up getting tossed. Such a waste of money. I would like a lower ticket price and no swag.

ejchase

4-21-23, 2:17pm

Ah, Iris Lillies, I really need to learn that skill of just not bringing stuff I don't want into the house! I manage it with junk mail sometimes now - just walk from the mailbox to the recycling bin before I go in the front door, but I need to apply it to things like conference swag too.

ejchase

4-21-23, 2:19pm

Yesterday, I was taking a moment to realize how far I'd come when I started these batches of 40 hours in 2016, and I wanted to share my progress with all of you because you have been so much a part of it, so I made this little video: https://www.dropbox.com/s/yhuc6fxa8lzourw/Simpleliving%20Update%20April%2021.MOV?dl=0

I hope the link works. Let me know if it doesn't!

iris lilies

4-21-23, 3:12pm

I should mention that at the same conference I got something I actually wanted that someone else did not want, and I’m going to enjoy it for a couple of days and then take it to our iris meeting where we will have a drawing for it. So not all of the free stuff I got at the conference was worthless.

rosarugosa

4-21-23, 3:13pm

I love your video, EJ! Thanks so much for sharing with us. You have a lovely home.

iris lilies

4-21-23, 3:24pm

ejchase

4-21-23, 4:58pm

I love your video, EJ! Thanks so much for sharing with us. You have a lovely home.

Thanks, Rosarugosa, your encouragement has really kept me going over the years.

ejchase

4-21-23, 5:00pm

I have to fight with my dropbox account to get in, but will try again later because I want to see your progress!

No rush, but I moved the video to my Google Drive in hopes it will be easier to access that way. See if this works:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-86TLi2oZpwPfFeI0p0MUWzHldyqlzE0/view?usp=sharing

happystuff

4-23-23, 9:30am

Wonderful, ejchase! Thanks for sharing the video. It's actually very motivating for me as I do have some "cluttered corners" to deal with. Again, congrats on all the progress!

iris lilies

4-23-23, 10:51am

No rush, but I moved the video to my Google Drive in hopes it will be easier to access that way. See if this works:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-86TLi2oZpwPfFeI0p0MUWzHldyqlzE0/view?usp=sharing

I watched your video. Nice job on hallway and bedroom!

You need a big bookcase. Were I you, I wouldn’t spend time going through books right now, I would just get them off the floor onto a bookcase. Books are the final frontier of decluttering and you probably won’t get to them for years because you’ve got a guest room full of boxes to go through.

This advice sounds presumptuous, yet that would be my approach. You do you!

This reminds me that I inherited two nice built-in bookcases flagging the fireplace in our Hermann house. It is extremely annoying that the shelves are not high enough for anything other than a standard size trade hardback book. Any book that is even slightly oversize will not fit. The shelves are not adjustable. blech. So, all of my garden Society publications will not fit.

I keep them at my condo.

ejchase

4-23-23, 1:36pm

I watched your video. Nice job on hallway and bedroom!

You need a big bookcase. Were I you, I wouldn’t spend time going through books right now, I would just get them off the floor onto a bookcase. Books are the final frontier of decluttering and you probably won’t get to them for years because you’ve got a guest room full of boxes to go through.

This advice sounds presumptuous, yet that would be my approach. You do you!

This reminds me that I inherited two nice built-in bookcases flagging the fireplace in our Hermann house. It is extremely annoying that the shelves are not high enough for anything other than a standard size trade hardback book. Any book that is even slightly oversize will not fit. The shelves are not adjustable. blech. So, all of my garden Society publications will not fit.

I keep them at my condo.

I welcome any and all advice, Iris Lillies! I actually have 4 big bookcases downstairs, and yes, I've put organizing them low on the priority list. That one corner in my bedroom with the books and papers does need to be cleaned out, but the stacks of books on the file cabinet and by the bureau, I kind of like. One thing I've learned from watching a lot of house tours online is that I love homes with lots of books everywhere - they just make a home feel warm to me. So I guess that is the "me doing me" part. :)

I could probably still weed out about 10-20% of the books in my house, though, but for now, that remains lower priority.

All those boxes you could see in the guestroom are actually empty. I'm just holding on to them for now in case I need them for trips to Goodwill. I envision a future video when I finally have the guest bedroom set up and can share that victory with all of you.

I sympathize with your plight with the built-in bookcase without adjustable shelves. Very frustrating.

As always, thanks for your support and encouragement.

ejchase

4-23-23, 1:37pm

Wonderful, ejchase! Thanks for sharing the video. It's actually very motivating for me as I do have some "cluttered corners" to deal with. Again, congrats on all the progress!

Thank you, happystuff!

rosarugosa

4-24-23, 6:03am

EJ: I totally agree that a house is not a home without books.

nswef

4-24-23, 10:09am

EJ Thank you for sharing this video. What huge progress!!! You did the work and are still doing it. You are motiving me, as well. Lots of corners in my house and horizontal surfaces that gather paper!!! You should be so proud of yourself.

Teacher Terry

4-24-23, 9:18pm

I used to have hundreds of books but they are heavy. Each move I took less and this last one I took 7. My bookcase also didn’t make the cut. My condo is only 855 sq ft so I got brutal.

ejchase

4-25-23, 5:08pm

Thank you, nswef! That means a lot to me.

ejchase

4-25-23, 5:11pm

I used to have hundreds of books but they are heavy. Each move I took less and this last one I took 7. My bookcase also didn’t make the cut. My condo is only 855 sq ft so I got brutal.

Though I like having a lot of books around, I probably am due for another pass through them. It always helps me to remember there's always a library nearby and most books are easy to get your hands on that way. My mother was a librarian, and she really felt that generally, at home, you only needed books you were going to refer to again and again like cookbooks.

ejchase

4-25-23, 5:50pm

I did an hour on linens on Saturday and hadn't posted that here yet, so my new total is 19.5.

I'm hoping to get a couple of hours done tonight, but we'll see.

nswef

4-26-23, 11:41am

Oh linens!!! good for you! I'm such a "just in case" person and that leads me to have way too many sheets, blankets, pillows...

iris lilies

4-26-23, 12:06pm

Linens…
I found an apparently new set of twin sheets. I have absolutely no memory of where they came from. We will have twin bed in the guestroom eventually but …not yet. We do have the beds purchased and laying on their side in storage position because I found them on Facebook marketplace at a really great price. They are vintage spool beds.

I also took stock of bed linens recently and threw out several extra pillowcases. A couple extras are nice to have, but I didn’t need six of them.

Our towel situation needs to be inventoried and organized. I’m still in the “white towel “mode for both of our houses because theoretically, you can use a little bleach and brighten them up. Although actually, I never do.

ejchase

4-26-23, 2:58pm

iris lilies

4-26-23, 3:13pm

Nswef and Iris Lilies, I probably have too many sheets and blankets for a family of 2, though my daughter is in middle school and very big on sleepovers at this stage when all our extras have come in handy. They are also handy for building forts. So, for now, I'm just trying to keep them organized in storage and reminding myself there is absolutely no need to buy more.

building forts…Ha ha! I have two or three sheets sitting here that will probably act as my paint drop cloths. I already have two flat sheets to cover furniture that dogs sit on.

frugal-one

4-26-23, 7:33pm

We are getting the house ready to sell. I have worked very hard cleaning out the basement, linen closet(s), pantry, and freezers (so we use all the food by the time we leave). I still have to tackle my office. There is only one room left in the basement where I have tons of stuff on the floor from sorting the cabinets around the room. Hopefully, tomorrow that will be done. I staged the first room in the basement as a game room. It sure looks different! The appraiser is coming early next week and we have 2 people interested in buying. One has already seen it and wants to come back. I have put them off until we know what we want for the place??? The market is hot here and there are NO houses (except for new builds) for sale. DH put in a new surround for the bathtub today. We had everything here but never got around to it until now. The walls around it will be painted tomorrow. It looks nice. DH will pressure wash the cement in front of the house this week. The rest looks nice but that does need to be refreshed. Sadly, the village wide garage sales were last week and we had horrible weather. We have a 3 car garage and almost 1 car stall of it is filled with stuff to get rid of!!! We had to put the stuff somewhere but hope this is not a turnoff??? We have lived here 35 years and have tons of storage so you can imagine. We called and probably will have a live auction to sell everything. There is very little I want to move. The few things will go into storage until we find a place. We can rent the mobile home we stayed in this winter if need be (for dirt cheap). If all works out, we may have time to travel a bit this summer??? That would be the best case scenario! I am so psyched for a fresh start!

mschrisgo2

4-26-23, 7:55pm

You could do what one of my neighbors did when our community garage sale got rained out last month… call a hauler to come and take it to charity!
(unless, of course, you really Need to Sell it).

We also have “pickers” who will make an offer on a pile of stuff- you accept their price, they come, pay you, and take it all away, with the understanding that they may/will resell some of it. ( find these people on community bulletin boards, online or IRL)

frugal-one

4-26-23, 9:46pm

We have decent furniture and EVERYTHING is going with a few exceptions noted above. An auction in this case is the best way to go IMO.

ejchase

4-30-23, 12:57pm

Hi all - my 12-year-old daughter and I tackled her room yesterday for about 2 hours. I was determined to let her direct the process, but she thought it was a good idea to dump everything from her desk (which was the main issue - it had gotten so stacked with stuff she couldn't work on it anymore) in the middle of the hallway so it was hard to walk through. Sigh. But she ultimately ended up doing pretty well, and we found a lot of stuff to get rid of. She's finishing it up on her own this morning.

She had a soccer game yesterday and when we were coming home, I said, "You can rest for a bit, but then we really need to work on your room" and she said, "I'm actually looking forward to it" which made me so happy - that she recognizes that decluttering ultimately feels better than living in a cluttered space. I'm really hopeful she won't develop the same issues with clutter I have.

New total: 21.5.

iris lilies

5-2-23, 11:01am

Today I am excited because DH is putting up a shelf in the garage for flower show tools. I can hardly wait to get in there and organize stuff.

For more than a decade, I’ve kept on my flower show tools in a tub, hauling it up and down stairs from the basement in our old house. In this new Hermann house where everything is on the first floor it is right outside the kitchen, in the garage. But I still have to take everything out of it to get to something in the bottom of the tub. So this new shelf will afford a wonderful organizing opportunity to have all tools out on a shelf, yay

I really get off on organization!

iris lilies

5-2-23, 11:04am

And speaking of enjoying organization, my digital files are organized in files in sub folders within sub folders within folders, etc.

I know that would drive some people crazy because in order to get to a file you have to go through so many folders, but that’s the only way I can keep things straight. I do work in multiple garden organizations and each has its sub sub folder, and then file names are directly clear.

The Apple environment makes file access easy, and that this time of year, when I’m looking at my Iris database every day, it offers it up as a recent file that is easy to access.

ejchase

5-3-23, 8:41pm

iris lilies

5-4-23, 8:13am

Congratulations on your new shelf, Iris Lilies! It sounds like it will be satisfying to set it up.

And I admire your digital organization. I'm starting to see that digital organization is the next frontier for me, where I may spend a good deal of my 40 hours this year and next.

well, you know, the digital world is like the physical world, in that when you move you jettison stuff.

I moved from an HP computing environment to an Apple environment and in that move, got rid of a lot of stuff. I had always organized files within sub sub folders within sub folders within folders, so the organizing principle came with me to the new computing environment. But I did delete files in the move.

ejchase

5-20-23, 11:15am

I did 2 hours on Thursday preparing for our once-a-month housekeeper to come. New total: 23.5.

Today I need to make a big push because my family arrives Wednesday. My dad will only be staying with us one night, but it's good motivation to get a lot done anyway.

ejchase

5-20-23, 11:10pm

I only did 2 hours today - so tomorrow will be a big push. New total: 25.5.

ejchase

5-21-23, 8:19pm

iris lilies

5-22-23, 10:28am

Well, I did my big push to prepare for houseguests coming Wednesday and a friend who came over today). 4 hours! My house, if I do say so myself, looks AMAZING. There is still clutter, but it is mostly hidden - I will deal with it when the guests leave and my semester ends.

But preparing for the guests got me to get rid of a lot more stuff. My car is packed up with a load for Goodwill, and there is a bunch more stuff on the front porch awaiting pick up from members of my Buy Nothing Group.

Moral of this story: if I just tried to get my house "surface tidy" like this once a week, it probably wouldn't require so much work when I do it for guests. AND my daughter and I would enjoy our house so much more! Something to think about after I get through the next 4 insanely busy weeks.

New total: 29.5.

it’s great that you’re entering these busy weeks with a clean house. Nothing better than a clean and tidy house!

We now have a house that is available for guests to drop in to. Our old house had smelly carpet, leaking/falling in ceiling, and I hated to have houseguests. It was such a load of work to clean the carpets. Here I don’t mind it at all. All I have to do is sweep the floor and clean the bathrooms. If I’m extra energetic, I might run a mob over the floor, but I don’t really have to.

ejchase

5-24-23, 12:31am

Oh, Iris Lilies, it's so great you've made that change.

Yeah, a few people have come over unexpectedly in the last week (my daughter's friends, etc.), and it's so nice to feel relatively proud of my living space now.

ejchase

6-12-23, 8:01pm

I did 4 more hours this weekend, so new total is 33.5.

I'm realizing I've hit a sort of "tipping point." I think I really hit it when I decluttered my bedroom last month and made the video for all of you. There's still much work to do, but I realized there are now more spaces in my house that I love than ones I don't. In fact, the only room in the whole house that is not presentable is the guest room which is kind of functioning as a junk room at the moment - though really there are only about 8 boxes of junk in the there, and most are tucked away in the closet. Considering I had around 50 boxes of junk in the upstairs hallway when I started this decluttering push 6 years ago, 8 boxes doesn't seem too bad. :)

Of course, the house as a whole looks more presentable some days than others, but it usually can be whipped into shape in a couple of hours if needed. It's really changed my whole outlook not too feel ashamed of where i live and to even feel proud to show it off sometimes.

When I started all this decluttering, I had to take a lot of deep breaths and just focus on making one particular space nice in the midst of all the clutter (the top of my bureau, a corner of my bedroom, a corner of my daughter's room), and one-by-one the nice spaces have proliferated and now are the "norm" in the house. Amazing.

iris lilies

6-12-23, 10:17pm

It’s so great to hear! Pretty soon you’ll get to a place where there’s a place for everything, and everything in its place. More or less. None of us are perfect that way.

Teacher Terry

6-12-23, 10:20pm

Echase , you have made amazing progress!! I am so happy that all your hard work and dedication paid off.

rosarugosa

6-13-23, 6:13am

EJ: I'm so glad you are transforming your home into a place you can enjoy!

nswef

6-13-23, 11:20am

EJ I remember when you started with the 50 boxes!! Bravo to you! You are an inspiration. Congratulations.

beckyliz

6-14-23, 4:54pm

Way to go, EJChase!

ejchase

6-15-23, 12:38pm

Thanks, everybody. What a miracle this group has been for me. Where else could I have shared by shame about my clutter and the zillions of baby steps it is taking to clear it? I'm so, so grateful to you all.

ejchase

6-28-23, 2:30pm

I did 30 more minutes this morning upstairs dealing with clutter that had accumulated. New total: 34.

ejchase

7-2-23, 4:42pm

Yesterday I spent an hour cleaning out the fridge and the freezer. I found a lot of expired stuff and plenty that's not expired that I now know I can use up.

In all my hours of decluttering, I've never really done a thorough pass through the kitchen, so that's a priority for the next 40 hours.

New total: 35.

ejchase

7-25-23, 2:53pm

I knew I wouldn't be able to do much in the first part of this summer since I have some work commitments, but I did do 1.5 hours yesterday - packing up some extra dishes for storage and packing up other stuff for Buy Nothing folks and Goodwill.

New total: 36.5.

ejchase

7-27-23, 12:53pm

I did another 2.5 hours yesterday in preparation for a guest who then had car trouble and couldn't come! I guess it was a blessing? The first floor looks great!
New total: 39.

iris lilies

7-27-23, 1:58pm

I did another 2.5 hours yesterday in preparation for a guest who then had car trouble and couldn't come! I guess it was a blessing? The first floor looks great!
New total: 39.
2+ hours of sheer decluttering is a lot! Good for you

ejchase

8-13-23, 1:18pm

Thanks, Iris Lillies.

The day before leaving for vacation in July, I drove around for several hours to return items to stores and take others to Goodwill. I'm going to count that time as the last hour of this 40 since forgetting to return stuff on time has been a big source of my clutter in the past.

Thanks to all of you for your support with this 40. I'll start another 40 soon.

rosarugosa

8-14-23, 6:19am

Good job, EJ!

iris lilies

8-14-23, 10:28am

I hear your about the tediousness of returning items.

uncharacteristically, I returned to purchases to Amazon and had to learn how to do that. Because I didn’t read the instructions carefully, the first time I thought I had to return it to a “UPS store “which is 85 miles away OR have a UPS truck come and pick it up and that cost seven dollars.

I read instructions and learned that if I box it up myself with the label, they said, I can drop it off at a regular UPS drop off place which exists in my local grocery store.

oh, I also returned three pairs of shorts to Goodwill, and I NEV ER return items to Goodwill assistant. These were a size too small for DH and I truly had no use for them and there was no point in putting them in the garbage.

So yay for me, three returns in the past six weeks that I would not normally do.

Teacher Terry

8-15-23, 11:18am

I didn’t know you could return items to some thrift stores. I usually just donate them.

rosarugosa

8-15-23, 2:51pm

I try to carefully consider my purchases and I always try on clothing, so I seldom need to return items. I did have to return a few pairs of shoes in the past few months. I was getting anxious about not finding really comfortable walking shoes, so I think I kind of convinced myself that shoes were more comfortable than they really were. I eventually found a pair by Skecher's that were really comfortable, so I bought 3 pairs. That should hold me for awhile!
My sister is a shopping machine with an Amazon habit and she never tries things on, so she always has stuff to return.
It is definitely more frugal to make the returns than not.