March Appointments for Declutter and Organization, 2013

[BookSaver]

All of you are doing a great job decluttering! *\o/*

Nony at ASlobComesClean.com posted yesterday about decluttering 3 things before she drank her coffee. The main point was that she identified them as trash and threw them away immediately rather than waiting until she had the time to thoroughly clean the whole area.

I did a similar thing Monday morning. On Friday morning, I was rushing around trying to get out the door to sewing retreat. I reached up into the cupboard for a coffee cup and bumped one of my favorite mugs off the shelf. It hit the counter and the handle broke off. Of course I set it aside, thinking that I could easily glue the handle back on. After all, it was one of my favorite mugs for coffee -- the right size and kept the coffee hot a long time.

Then Monday morning as I was doing dishes, I looked at that mug and thought how dumb it was to keep it. I would have to buy superglue or epoxy to mend the handle, and make time to use the glue carefully enough not to make a mess. I have a duplicate mug and plenty of other cups on the shelves.

So I threw the broken mug away. And then I was trying to wash a plastic cup that I got free at a class and it's always been hard to clean. I checked for a recycle triangle on the plastic and didn't see one, so I threw away that cup, too.

Sometimes we just have to remember to use the baby steps. Finishing a major decluttering session is satisfying, but so is taking care of a job as soon as we see it needs to be done.

[Nancy]

Decluttered some fabric scraps dgd took them thought she had hit a gold mine!

[Ivy]

Oh! How CUTE!

I'm "tempted" to take all my papers to file, to just jam them into the filing cabinet, and get the surfaces where I have my stacks at cleaned off.

However, I do think the best way to approach this filing problem is use my 15-min. timer. Why not just do it right the first time! I wouldn't want my filing cabinet to turn into more stored clutter.

[Nancy]

I worked on the table today before the counters tossing stuff first and then the recycling went in a bag for a quick start it's not done but I made progress. Counters were gobbling up my time and I was not getting to the table so I had to change it up a bit.

[Ivy]

I have several labeled file folders with specific-to-them crochet patterns in them, standing awkwardly in a small bin. My thought now is, do I continue to leave the patterns in the bin? Or do I put them in the filing cabinet and use the small bin for something else, such as keeping currently-doing paper craft items in, to make cards and scrapbook?

I also noticed, when I moved an open binder of patterns, which need to have more filled into the empty plastic sleeves, how the short long bin has some writing items in it. Now, I'm trying to decide what to do? Do I leave them there, where I can get to them? Or, do I sort through them, find homes for the papers and folders inside my small office instead? I can always use the bin for yarns I have in open totes. The yarn would closed, I could add a dryer sheet, and that sounds like a good idea to me!

Thanks for letting me "chat" to myself! Talking out loud on the screen helps sometimes.

[Ivy]

Oh, I went into the other room, looked in the bin, saw how there were things for writing in it, so I put it inside my office on a yarn bin. All the materials I need are in the bin. One less bin in the other room now! At least this makes my material easy to get to, too. So that's a good idea.

I need to run. My washer is doing its "thing". When it's on a cold cycle with an extra rinse, it fills up with the 2nd rinse, then stops, ding-ding-ding-dings me to come drain and spin it, so I can dry the load. It's so odd that this happens sometimes and not others. My washer has a personality of its own!

I hope to declutter better tomorrow, too.

[Nancy]

We seem to have a stock pile of empty creamer jugs the grands could play at bowling with 'em!

[ellyphant]

Good idea, Nancy!

Chat away, Ivy! I've been known to talk to myself on FB!

One book dropped off for library book sale.

[Ivy]

I set my timer for 60 min.! I filed, I emptied out yarn totes (2) and put yarn in a bin, the totes are on the walk-in closet shelf, and I decluttered the art table desk where I keep my pen pal return address labels, stamps, etc.... I labeled 2 boxes for ARC donations, added 1 shirt to 1 box. My files are put away, but still will need to be gone through, with a fine-toothed comb, and purge out things not needed or duplicates I've printed. Or I can file them back into plastic sleeves into my binders AND send patterns to crochet pen pals, too.

I made the bed better, from our rush this a.m. to get up. So the bed looks nicer. I put a bin of remnant for quilting in the linen cupboard in the hall on the floor. I added 2 dryer sheets. Also, in my haste of filing the files of patterns, I found a wall calendar of quilting patterns from a pen pal and a quilting magazine, DH got me! I'm thrilled!

Also, I found how I have a real nice tidy small bin of 3 calendar crochet years' worth of patterns. I found a facecloth, which I want to try. I'm so glad I found the bin of patterns all tidy and orderly from some other previous declutter session.

I wrote a list of 33 lines, of things to read, declutter, clean, sort, etc... from now until about April 7, I believe. I put the dates on the top margin to cross off as I go, at the days' ends. I used pretty ink pen colors, which make looking at my to do list more inviting, too. I worked up a big sweat in 30 min., so I'll count that as my exercise for today. My face was red, sweaty, and I was so tired! Hot face is what I was! I'm looking forward to the weekend, too, to do a little more. Baby steps and slow and steady wins the race.

[Nancy]

The catch all corner in my office/creativity room has been cleared out finally yea!!!