April's Dynamic Declutter, 2014

Share your decluttering activities and ideas.
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Harriet
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April's Dynamic Declutter, 2014

Postby Harriet » Tue Apr 01, 2014 8:02 am

Welcome! We strive to give the equivalent of 15 minutes a day to the decluttering of our lovely homes! Sometimes you may go for a marathon session, or, sometimes you might like to measure efforts by space (in sq ft cleared or bags leaving) rather than time, and please post about that, too. But that 15-minute minimum does wonders!

Here's a great quote from Andrew Utter on what just 15 minutes can do.

You'd be surprised at how much you can accomplish in fifteen minutes of focused work, and that does tend to accumulate quickly as the days and weeks pass.

Plus, you get the enormous added benefit of staying close to your work, so that your comfort with it grows, it begins to appear less demanding and menacing, and your mind continues to chew on the problems even as you are occupied with other things.

Large, ambitious projects can induce procrastination and guilt. By committing to a small amount of work each day, with absolutely no pressure to do more than the minimum, steady progress can be made.



Looked at from afar, clutter DOES seem demanding and menacing :shock: . But from daily, no-pressure time spent right in the midst of it, the path out :arrow: seems clear.

It's the quarter-point of the year, 2014! What steady declutter progress are you making - what progress do you hope to make in April? We have 30 days ahead of us to make change and improve the calmness of our lives!

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Harriet
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Re: April's Dynamic Declutter, 2014

Postby Harriet » Tue Apr 01, 2014 8:11 am

Some of us schedule decluttering with Focus cleaning, by decluttering for a week in the area we will clean the next week. That way surfaces are recently cleared, and a deep cleaning easier.

What's the Focus cleaning plan? It was designed by our own Indiana while we were posting on our previous board, and carried on here, in our Organization and Simplification Tools Forum. The Focus plan divides a household into 9 rooms or areas for cleaning and gives one thread to each area. Each thread rotates, coming up in the Focus forum 3 times a year, and then just before Thanksgiving, Focus goes over to maintenance threads during the holidays. Focus cleaning is adaptable, of course, so even those following it drift in and out of different rooms as needed.

For anyone who would like some "company" decluttering "where" others are that week, here are the rooms where you will find some company this coming month:


Week of.........you'll find some of us

3/31 Decluttering bathrooms as we Focus Clean bedrooms
4/07 Decluttering the office/other room as we Focus Clean bathrooms
4/14 Decluttering closets as we Focus Clean the office/other room
4/21 Decluttering the laundry area as we Focus Clean closets
4/28 Decluttering storage as we Focus Clean the laundry area

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Ivy
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Re: April's Dynamic Declutter, 2014

Postby Ivy » Tue Apr 01, 2014 6:41 pm

I folded dry laundry on our half-way made bed, put it away, then made the bed. I cleaned the desk in the bunny room, have a wet hand towel on the cutting mat, soaking, so I can get the glue off. Then, I'll put the room back together, in an orderly fashion, so it looks much nicer than before the window washers visited. :D

I decluttered my desktop, it only had a few items on it, and it's kept orderly ever since I hung a bulletin board above my desk and re-hung some items on the wall. It looks so much *nicer* in here.

I decluttered the dining room table, where the gift box and ribbon were, for BFF's gift. The box is full, closed, and tied with ribbon and a card inserted beneath the ribbon. The table looks nice, it only has a parcel to be mailed out tomorrow or the next day, to dgrson-turning 3 soon. :D

It's so nice the window washers came at a spur of the moment yesterday. I've decluttered the coffee table in the bedroom, will redecorate the dresser, and the master bathroom's decorated really pretty, but needs dusting because of baby powder. Then, it'll be time to clean bathrooms, dust, dust mop, what we didn't get done prior to the window washers. Having clean windows is more motivating to get a really clean house for Easter and for Spring now, too. Just think, summer's fast approaching. 8-)
Touch the earth, love the earth, her plains, her valleys, her seas. Rest your soul in her solitary places. ~Henry Beston

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Re: April's Dynamic Declutter, 2014

Postby Ivy » Fri Apr 04, 2014 11:09 pm

Spent 45 minutes decluttering 2 spots in my small office. Threw away manuscripts, which have already been published into stories. Got pen pal stuff taken care of. Have a forest green grape metal plant stand, which doubles as pen pal cards/stationery/list pads shelves. Need to sort through them now. I put my J. I. Rodale "The Synonym Finder," on my desk along with the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary. My Thesaurus and Webster's Quick Word Guide are close at hand, too. I need to dust in here, dust mop, and would love to get out more computer stationery, for pen palling, to these shelves, rather than in the main office, down the hall.

Whew! I'm beat! :!: :P But the office looks GR8! :D
Touch the earth, love the earth, her plains, her valleys, her seas. Rest your soul in her solitary places. ~Henry Beston

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Re: April's Dynamic Declutter, 2014

Postby Ivy » Sun Apr 06, 2014 12:17 am

Decluttered clean laundry & put it away, have more laundry to declutter tomorrow. I decluttered the eating bar, only to put a towel down to flat air dry a pullover sweater. I supposed that's adding clutter, but it's temporary until the sweater dries.
Touch the earth, love the earth, her plains, her valleys, her seas. Rest your soul in her solitary places. ~Henry Beston

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Re: April's Dynamic Declutter, 2014

Postby Nancy » Sun Apr 06, 2014 2:09 pm

Got some stuff in the trash we were done with.

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Ivy
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Re: April's Dynamic Declutter, 2014

Postby Ivy » Sun Apr 06, 2014 8:20 pm

When I decluttered 2 stacks of paper in my small office the other evening, I made a bare shelf spot for computer stationery. I got it out from the main office closet, put the stack onto my small office built-in shelf, where I keep pen pal items. The main office isn't a pen palling storage spot, however, I've discovered several return address labels. Next plan is to sort them, bring them into my small office, where the pen pal stuff is. I'm decluttering the messiness of pen pal items, from the main office, and I'm making them tidy, organized and orderly in the small office. It's such a nice feeling to be able to see organized order beautifying my small office. :mrgreen:

Later, I put away dry clean laundry with DH. Then, I hung up bedroom clothes on my chair in there and it looks nice once again.

I have the dried cotton air-dried flat pullover sweater to run through the dryer on the cycle that uses a bit of steam to take out small wrinkles. The sweater's on top of the dryer now, so the eating bar's been decluttered.

Tomorrow, I'll work on decluttering in the main office. :idea:
Touch the earth, love the earth, her plains, her valleys, her seas. Rest your soul in her solitary places. ~Henry Beston

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Re: April's Dynamic Declutter, 2014

Postby Ivy » Wed Apr 09, 2014 1:37 am

I never decluttered the main office, but I DID throw away some old SPF tinted moisturizer and regular SPF moisturizer, because DH bought me Aveeno Moisturizer today, on sale $2 off. I needed new. I also asked him to get me a dark red nail polish and he got the darkest red polish that I've ever seen. :!: It's practically burgundy. I wanted to be spiffed up when DD comes on Easter, although she'll be alone. I have a new hairstyle, will polish my nails red, and will try to find something Spring-like in my closet, too. I have a floral t-shirt BFF gave me or an aqua sweater set, to wear. I just want to look nice. It's such a Special day.
Touch the earth, love the earth, her plains, her valleys, her seas. Rest your soul in her solitary places. ~Henry Beston

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Re: April's Dynamic Declutter, 2014

Postby Ivy » Wed Apr 09, 2014 11:25 pm

I decluttered my basket on my great room end table next to my chair. I never did get to the main office. :roll: :o :oops: :oops:
Touch the earth, love the earth, her plains, her valleys, her seas. Rest your soul in her solitary places. ~Henry Beston

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Re: April's Dynamic Declutter, 2014

Postby Ivy » Thu Apr 10, 2014 4:22 pm

I decluttered my dining room china cabinet today! Yeah!!!!!!!!! :D
Touch the earth, love the earth, her plains, her valleys, her seas. Rest your soul in her solitary places. ~Henry Beston


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