Notice a Difference November

Share your decluttering activities and ideas.
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Harriet
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Notice a Difference November

Postby Harriet » Sat Nov 01, 2008 11:01 am

What area of your home could you take notice of this month, work toward improving, and then enjoy a real difference? It can be stress-relieving and self-affirming to recognize an area that is causing some disappointment and notice yourself gaining control over it. When we can manage that, it can be hard to tell whether our home benefits more - or we do!

Does anyone have a deadline they'd like to share here, or a plan/schedule toward a particular date?

Have you had a success you'd like to share? It helps all of us to find out when one has made progress!

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bittersweet
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Re: Notice a Difference November

Postby bittersweet » Tue Nov 04, 2008 2:03 am

I read the first post in this thread and thought, "I haven't made ANY progress with decluttering lately!" Then I thought a minute more and realized, I have!! A couple of weeks ago, we took FOUR big diaper boxes of DGS's too small clothes to Goodwill, and there's another box ready to go as well. More to be done, of course....need to get back into the routine of getting rid of a few things each day. When you figure it out, we pay $1100/month to rent this place...all 1200sq ft of it (including the basement), and that's basically $1/sq ft/month....it's time to be making better use of my time and money and space!
"Write it on your heart that every day is the best day of the year." Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Harriet
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Re: Notice a Difference November

Postby Harriet » Tue Nov 04, 2008 6:47 pm

That is wise calculating, bittersweet! I need to think the square-foot way, too, for my parents in their spare bedroom, which is the room I will say is my "take notice area" for November.

No one needed a third bedroom since my grandmother stopped living with us, decades ago. It was not common for households to have an office then (no computers), no one even heard of a media room, etc., but storage was helpful, so it became storage, with one wall of shelving. It was never really well-organized, but lately with my mother's lagging strength and my father's forgetfulness, the truth is there is as much clutter as storage. So if we guesstimated half of a 12x12 room, for instance (not sure), that's being wasted, that's 72 square feet of space. Just think what anyone could do "discovering" 72 square feet in their homes.

Dd10 and I worked there for about 1.5 hours today. We took 2 large kitchen trash bags to the cans. We took another smaller bag home, mostly because my mother decided to give me all her gift wrapping supplies. We condensed all their stationery/office supplies, and all their stored financial papers without regard to decluttering them yet - we just gathered, because we are likely to find more cards, etc. as we go along.

We found many gifts still in their boxes: clothes for my mother, small gifts from friends or from the church at Christmas. (mugs get nowhere with my parents - they are saved for good) That's disheartening, because everyone tries to give the right things and obviously we fail most of the time. There was even a complete set of sheets, which drives me a little nuts because they cost me a bundle but after I gave them I couldn't ever find any extra sheets and was thinking I must not have bought them after all!

Why is this the area I need to concentrate on for November? Our hope is that with this room completely reorganized and some large pieces given away, it will become such a helpful storage space that other areas around the house can be neatened further and kept clean and clear easier. We want to start with the dining room, which is so seldom used it is starting to get cluttered.
If you don't believe in miracles, you're not being realistic.

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Re: Notice a Difference November

Postby Harmony » Tue Nov 11, 2008 10:01 am

It really is thoughtful of you, Harriet, to be helping your parents this way.

Has anyone seen the documentary movie called "7 dumpsters and a corpse"? I've seen it a couple times recently on the documentary channel. It was made by a man and his brother as they cleaned out their deceased mother's apartment.

She was evidently a hoarder and saved everything. They showed it all as they went through the place and threw away mostly all of it. They focused on family history as they discovered and showed lots of film of the family, they read personal letters, showed photographs uncovered. They explored their own feelings about growing up. This woman threw nothing away, no paper, bill, magazine, etc.

Even though they discussed the reason their mother did this (having been through the war in Europe, as the apartment was in Germany I believe) it struck me that their attitude was mostly irrereverant (sp?) toward their mother and the situation they had to deal with.

I came away with a new resolve not to leave anything like that for my family to deal with. These sons basically were laughing at the things their mother did (and I suppose that was one way they were coping with her death). I have a new thought about all the personal things I will leave behind and what my family will feel and say.

Maybe if we all look at things from that perspective it will be easier for us to declutter.

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Harriet
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Re: Notice a Difference November

Postby Harriet » Thu Nov 13, 2008 8:00 am

Gee, Harmony, that is :( isn't it. But I guess it is good for everyone/anyone to get a glimpse of how it might honestly feel for sons to just come upon a mother's STUFF and not have a clue except all the work ahead of them. Of course they would feel like that - just a kinda shock that they would put it OUT THERE for viewing public to see/hear what they say, etc. A reality dose.

Thanks for saying it is good of me to help my parents. But realize, I am an only child and they have now both reached 90. Part of this is protective of me, too, so not just a gift of work to them. We have done other declutters in the past. Hard to remember (thankfully :D ) but they were pretty intense. Guess I'll never know how much I've helped myself by getting in there and pitching at different times (some nagging, too ;) ). Recently if I don't declutter (and sometimes bunches) the dust accumulation without surface-clearing/cleaning can pose a health problem for them, I think.

Purchased a new accordion-style file holder that will help me gather in one place all paperwork to do with my care for them, from doctor info to legal info to repairman info. In a way it will be an additional household notebook, but heavy on the 8x11.5 sheets, so I decided on the file folder.


Do we need to start a papertamer thread again? Thinking about financial news, new need for thrift for many, upcoming property tax, desk laments lately ... ...
If you don't believe in miracles, you're not being realistic.

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Harmony
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Re: Notice a Difference November

Postby Harmony » Thu Nov 13, 2008 9:17 pm

Well, Harriet, this son's profession was some sort of film-maker, so I guess it seemed natural to make the picture. He said he used to pick up his Mother downstairs and she was always well-dressed, etc. He evidently didn't know the extent of her hoarding.

Accordion folders are our friends! I keep an ongoing project in one of those A-Z ones and it's an easy system. I also have a couple of those big plastic tubs with lids and hanging folders inside where I keep one project.

I don't know why, but paper clutter seems to be the stumbling point for many people. I have an ongoing job keeping it corraled around here, especially with DH doing the 52 pickup papers all the time!

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Harriet
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Re: Notice a Difference November

Postby Harriet » Mon Nov 24, 2008 8:20 pm

My focus has changed somewhat and become not just about that room physically but about paperwork in general for my parents, although that means a lot of work is still in that room. Started looking through their file cabinet today. It is poorly used, which means a headache but at least not a terribly difficult sorting of papers.

Posted in papertaming thread that I freed up 4 square feet purging our households files so far and decluttered desk, which I'm having a hard time maintaining.

Last trash day I completely topped off the cans. A victory there, making our tax dollars work re: trash collection.
If you don't believe in miracles, you're not being realistic.

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Re: Notice a Difference November

Postby sherinjoy » Fri Nov 28, 2008 1:48 pm

I have missed decluttering so much - and having to set aside my goal for the year of decluttering 183 days. But back on track now that I am home, and off to the races! I restarted my daily log, and will post today what I have accomplished. Thanks for your posts in this section, always motivating to me.


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