July Clutter Control, 2015

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

What I like about the declutter challenge is my thinking is more critical, not just on the focus of the day but all things. So, when I was deciding one purse or two, I made sure I went to my purse stash and found some to give away. After all, if my life isn't working for purses, why do I have such a collection?

Clothing gets looked at Spring and Fall when I shift things around so this is less of a declutter and more of a tidy focus for me. There are two tops on my radar though, both from a thrift store and neither have worked out the way I thought they would. In both cases, fabric plays a role in my not wearing it (synthetic so too hot) but one, although XL is cut narrow through the hips. While writing this I realized that my theory of keep it until my hips are smaller won't work because by then I'll be too small for the chest area and it will still look wrong on me. The top is simply not cut for an apple-shaped person.

[Nancy]

Went to the thrift shop to see if I could get a replacement chair for hubby , came home empty handed grateful I did not add clutter 2day here.

Pulled a wagon load of weeds & gave em to hens.

[Dove]

Harmony, how exciting to find so much money! Woohoo!

I got off to a good start with the fridge on Day 1 --only needed to toss a bottle of horseradish & one of salad dressing that was expired. I usually clean it out the night before our weekly garbage pickup.

I was able to deal with the pantry by reminding myself not to be a perfectionist. I told myself I didn't have to reorganize & neaten the pantry items, just declutter anything expired. There wasn't much, & I did move all the close to expiration items to one section so I remember to use those soon.

I decluttered a few similar sized spatulas on Day 3 & what a difference that small task has made in everyday cooking! I keep many of my utensils in a crock near the stove & it was stuffed too full & I always had to wrestle items in & out of it. Not anymore . I have more areas to declutter in this category but was pleased to have gotten even a little done. Even just those five minutes of time has made a difference in making cooking dinners easier.

Skipped the Linen Closet & Medicine Cabinet Days, but they both could use attention. I'll see if I can fit those areas in later this month.

Makeup Day was fun. I had too much stuff, & lots of old nail polish & lipstick were tossed. I had bought plastic bins a while ago to organize cosmetics & I took the time to organize what was left into face, eyes, lips & polishes. Even broke out the label maker & labeled the containers .

Jewelry Day I had to skip. I really should fit this in to another day, because it needs doing.

I did declutter sunmmer clothes, but not yesterday or today. I did it when I switched over to summer clothes earlier this year & ended up with a lot for donation. I still need to go through my closet (what I decluttered was all foldable shirts & shorts, not hanging items).

I like many of the categories listed in this challenge, but some seem daunting when I scan the list because I know I have a lot to go through in those areas. I gave myself permission to declutter only, & not to worry about organizing what remains unless I want to. This way I don't get overwhelmed in the areas with a lot to go through, or when I'm time crunched. Looking ahead, I like the idea of substituting areas I need/want to work on (or have missed the day for it) with areas I won't be doing or don't have (like the garage & kid items).

Looking ahead, how do you all interpret Day 23, "Multiples of an item"?

Great work, everyone!

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Dove: for me, multiples of an item will be back to travel items. I have so many duplicates of travel things and can't possibly use them all at once, nor do I need many of them - they were my first attempt at solving problems but I've moved on to other ways of solving the issue but still keep the 'good' first item because "just in case".

I'm sure for many of us, multiple items will refer to office/school supplies.

I refuse to think of my 4 sets of binoculars as multiples (there are 2 at each end of the apartment so if something catches our interest we can both look at the same time) but old cameras would be another place where I should seriously consider letting go.

[lucylee]

I just posted about meds in PWYC... I was totally amazed to find partial-bottles of meds from more than 10 years back. Good grief. That is really ridiculous.

I like this challenge because it seems like a small task each day -- medicine cabinet, not the whole kitchen, just the medicine cabinet. That seems do-able.

I'm behind a day, b/c I haven't started on clothes, but I don't really want to. I have my hangers turned backwards and I can see what I have worn since Feb. 2014 (b/c the hangers are turned back frontwards when I wear something) and, although "they say" if you haven't worn something in a year, you should discard it, I'm going to wait till Feb. 2016 and give it two years. I just don't feel ready to purge yet.
I should do ds's baby & toddler clothes though...
OH, WILL Y'ALL PLEASE QUIT LAUGHING AND ROLLING YOUR EYES.
Of course if I have meds from 1986 (I forgot about that one in PWYC), then you know I have baby clothes from that far back.

I promise y'all, we do NOT live like Hoarders. I have (I think, if I remember when I calculated this when we were building) approx. 400 sq ft in walk-in closets, plus dresser drawers, etc. That is truly a mixed blessing though. If we didn't have all this storage space, I would have been forced to declutter long ago, and dh would more easily see the need for it.

[Harriet]

When I saw "multiple items" I thought of things that, when replaced, never actually left the house, so you still have two (or more). I guess it could be anything that might fill in the blank : "Why do I think I need two ______s?" Recently I've had this thought about staplers but HRH might disagree since technically we have two desks. Hmmm... ...

The list really is "just right" in one way for me, and that is that it is somebody else's idea of where to go next, to shake up my preconceived notions about where clutter might be. So far, I did find it puzzling that "medicine cabinet" wasn't followed by any other area of the bathroom. Either my vanity drawers or cabinets could certainly use as much scrutiny.

I had to postpone "more clothes" until tomorrow because we had company until after nightfall and I've only just gotten Evening Dailies done by 11:00. Sigh. I'm actually looking forward to it tomorrow.

lucylee, if your closet seems fine, think in terms of drawers or how you are storing winter clothes and whether that is well organized, that sort of thing.

[Harmony]

today I went back to the jewelry. Needed to finish that to get the box off the kitchen counter. Well. I am just amazed that I used up almost 4 hours with this. I'll bet it's been 8 years since I've done any shining or decuttering in this area. I couldn't just toss things that looked bad because I had to see what they looked like after cleaning.

I started cleaning stuff and have discovered that even costume jewelry with questionable metals shine up and the black disappears. So, after all this I have a small box of stuff for DGD, some of it can be used for playing dress-up but some is fairly nice but more suitable for a little girl than for me. I added to the donation bag. I switched around some chains and I can now wear my nice cross DD got me. I found some pairs to earrings that I thought were lost.

This was big big progress in this area. Still the case is a mess inside and I've come to the conclusion that the only way I can get it right is to sometime take everything out of it and put it all back in. I guess I quit bothering with all of this after DMom died and I brought home a bunch of her jewelry and put it in a nice seprate tray...and have been mostly using that.

If I was to change the decuttering schedule somehow I don't know if I would continue to put Sunday on the list. And I don't know about doing something with a lot of little pieces in 15 minutes...and in the midst of decluttering all the other places. With this, since I dragged out the cleaning supplies for jewelry there was no way to stop at 15 min. And I still have clothes to do.

[Harriet]

I have a double report today.

For "more clothes" I was able to get more things put at the right places and two more items went into donation bag. Dd got a jacket.

For "underwear drawer" it was a longer declutter than I would have thought.
Tossed:
ALL knee-highs and slacks hosiery except a new package of knee-highs
3 bras
Donated:
one bra new in package
to dd:
a half-slip and a couple bras and panties that she can try tomorrow - toss or keep

I have been wasting space hanging on to knee high hose and slacks hosiery, which I simply never wear any more. My footwear "uniform" is thin cotton blend socks in black or blue. Knee-high lengths are uncomfortable to me.

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

Knee hi's are uncomfortable to me too, but I still wear them since I dislike preaching without hose on. I do it in extreme heat (and all last summer when even standing in my ortho sandals was painful so I'd change to my lace up shoes the moment church was done) but in general I try to wear hose and closed toe shoes.

I'm a day or two behind now. I did pull the two tops I thought I might and tidied a few drawers, but decided to call it quits. Underwear was done in February when I bought lots of new things and ditched anything that was unraveling. Bras I'm keeping because my weight is on the way back down, although I suppose I should get rid of duplicates. How many strapless 36B ivory bras does a woman need, especially when she's enjoying a new style of 40C bra at the moment and might buy it in smaller sizes when she loses weight?

OK, I've convinced myself. Now to go deal with the bras. (And look to see what today's challenge is.)

[Kathryn-in-Canada]

BTW: I agree with Harmony, Sunday's should be off. But they can be if we think of this as 5 week challenge instead of a 30 day challenge.