Open House October

Share your decluttering activities and ideas.
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Harriet
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Open House October

Postby Harriet » Wed Oct 01, 2008 6:15 pm

Welcome! In this thread we encourage each other to give our homes at least 15 minutes of clutter attention each day. Some are in the middle of marathon clearing (sherinjoy will reach 100 straight days of decluttering this month - Woo Hoo! and lavenderbliss may have more to tell us about her own big clutter battles). Others of us are keeping up with maintenance, or redeeming a few areas that are on a slide, or tackling the paper tiger.

October is a great month to start thinking of opening our doors to more visitors. We have this month to get ready, with a trial run, perhaps, of little trick-or-treaters and their parents knocking at our doors on the 31st! We're probably looking forward to the young visitors, but it's a little scary to let a neighbor family a sweeping view of the house! And we know that Thanksgiving festivities are only a few weeks later.

Join in and let us know how you are progressing!

sherinjoy
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Re: Open House October

Postby sherinjoy » Thu Oct 02, 2008 2:15 pm

Thanks for mentioning me Harriet. Just 90 more days to the end of the year! With the furniture pulled away from the windows for installation, I took advantage of getting to a bookcase that needed decluttering. I have removed 28 books so far for donation, and that was one shelf! Yeah - good motivation for keeping at it. I'm starting to use the concept of moving as inspiration for letting go - If I was going to pack to move, would I take this item? I'm not planning on moving, but it is a good way to really evaluate items that could be decluttered. I read some where else, Do I really love this so much I would run through a burning house to save it? That's a bit drastic, but could be a good guideline if paring down to essentials/minialimist thinking.

My encouragement to all who are decluttering - it is a journey.

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Lilac
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Re: Open House October

Postby Lilac » Thu Oct 02, 2008 11:36 pm

sherinjoy, you are doing a great job. Recently, I read that if you get a new item, you need to get rid of three. They used books, shoes and something else as examples. I have always read of the one in and one out rule. 3 out at a time would get you decluttered in no time. I have always wished that I had the discipline to only keep what I would replace if I lost my house in a fire, tornado, flood, etc. I know if I had to start over that I would only replace the necessities. Once the girls grew up and left home, I had more money and more space and I managed to fill it up. I really believe that rule that 80% of the time you use 20% of your stuff. Because if I honestly evaluated each item, I would be letting go of a lot of stuff.

sheinjoy, your progress is encouraging and I need to start that journey. Occasionally dh will mention buying a bigger house for all my stuff. I always talk him out of it, by pointing out that if I had a bigger house I would fill it up and besides this house has 4 bedrooms and 2 baths. For 2 people, that is plenty. Plus the bigger the house the more there is to clean.

sherinjoy
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Re: Open House October

Postby sherinjoy » Sat Oct 04, 2008 4:13 pm

Hi Lilac - Thanks so much for the compliments. I really appreciate the encouragement, because often decluttering can be a lonely job. And yes, I have found when clearing out clothes that I only wear 20% of what I have. That helped a lot when releasing old clothes that just weren't worn enough.
I'm working on paper and books today, of which I have much too much of both.

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Harriet
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Re: Open House October

Postby Harriet » Fri Oct 17, 2008 2:58 pm

My dcousinMary admitted to me that though her house is pretty clutter-free she relies on her attic to use as storage and It's gotten cluttered. One day her attic door wouldn't close correctly and she was afraid she wouldn't be able to get it shut before her dh came home and started checking out just how bad that space had gotten. So she called her dbil to come over, swore him to secrecy about what he would see in her attic, and asked him to help her. She said she was afraid he would faint at the sight up there, but they got it fixed and he got away before her dh arrived! LOL!

I haven't been able to put much "gumption" behind declutter efforts this month, babying my back, but am pleased that I've kept up maintenance.
If you don't believe in miracles, you're not being realistic.

BookSaver
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Re: Open House October

Postby BookSaver » Fri Oct 17, 2008 3:18 pm

I'd like to document that by Wednesday this week, I had decluttered way more papers and cardboard than would fit in the recycle bin. :mrgreen:

This weekend I want to clean out the shed behind the garage to make room for the recycle and trash bins as well as extras.

This will not only keep them in a somewhat dry space once the snow flies, but will also give me a place to put the overflow if/when I get on a decluttering roll.

There, I've written it out, that should help make it happen. :)

sherinjoy
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Re: Open House October

Postby sherinjoy » Fri Oct 17, 2008 3:58 pm

Great to hear some declutter news from others, especially Booksaver with her over-the-top recycle bin. That has been my goal each week - to fill the recycle bin to the top. Well, as posted in PWYC, I have just returned from ill parent's house and haven't been home to keep my daily declutter sessions going. But since I have returned, I got back on the wagon and continuing on Day 109 today. Just before I left I had decluttered tons of books, and need to drop them off at the library this weekend.
My parents are born-organized, and have no clutter at all, even the garage! When we clear out their house, we will probably donate anything we don't want/need, and fill a couple of trash cans. Unlike my in-laws house, where we filled more than 14 dumpsters with trash/junk, and an unusable car that had been in the garage for 15 years. And we gave away tons of stuff to charity. It took us 6 months of weekends and holidays (the house was 500 miles away) to empty it. So I thank my parents for being clutter-free and am trying to accomplish that for myself and family. I definitely don't want my DS, an only-child, to have to fill 14 dumptsters (LOL).


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