Dare to Design December

[Harriet]

Welcome! In this thread we encourage each other in our decluttering efforts. You'll find a lot of understanding here, no matter how early a stage you find yourself in your decluttering plan, no matter if your plan's been underway but has suffered a setback or two! We hope you'll join us.

Here we are at December and our year's attention to clearing, neatening and organizing our Lovely Homes may well be appreciated more now than any other month, as we offer hospitality. So often we who fight the ongoing Battle of Clutter are just grateful for a clear space (which is beautiful!). But creativity makes the world go 'round, and without clutter we can enjoy it!

So, this month, tell us In what previously cluttered area of your home you can now Dare to Design? Have you been able to decorate a formerly cluttered corner or piece of furniture? Has decluttering inspired you to consider new curtains/furnishings, to hang pictures, display treasures, etc? Do you have hopes of opening, this holiday season, that door that you've always rushed to close in the past ( ) because it's become a pleasant view to enjoy, and the decor has been uncovered?

Next month our "designs" will be on a 2009 Plan of Action, so be thinking whether 2009 will work best for you with everyday regular declutter appointments, weekly focuses on rotating rooms, or even a marathon session of dumpster proportions. You'll be supported and cheered here!

[sherinjoy]

Hi Harriet! Thanks for starting this month's board, but I don't think I can contribute to Design this month. I'm getting back on track with decluttering though, listing daily what has left my home. Where is Lavenderbliss and Hannibelle? I miss you and would love to hear about your successes. I am currently challenged with handling my parents paperwork, and have gotten some tips from the paperwork challenge board. I'm having my organization lady come on Friday to work with me for 3 hrs. on setting up the estate files and a task list to work off of. There is so much to do, I have gotten overwhelmed and easily sidetracked. I'll let you all know of my progress.

[Harriet]

That sounds wonderfully freeing, sherinjoy, to get that kind of careful help in setting up files just for that purpose. It is definitely like what is "on my plate" right now, as my parents and I try to organize and plan. We have a challenge in getting past the unnecessarily-saved things and gathering the important ones for proper storage.

Here the door that will be open for visitors to see decor instead of clutter this season will be dd10's. At previous Christmastimes, her room often had to be last on my list because I needed to focus on making ds' room ready for guests when needed. She really wasn't mature enough to keep it attractive by herself, so she'd just want to close the door to visitors' eyes sometimes, and I'd have to agree. Now with a little more maturity and her regular deadlines to open the room to her sister's family's visits, the room needs just a quick once-over to be fine at a moment's notice. It's going to be no-hassle this season and make her proud.

[BookSaver]

Harriet ~ WTG dd10!
Sherinjoy ~ It's good to see you back in gear.

The recycle bin went to the curb stuffed full this week. Which is good because I skipped filling it last week because of the holiday.

Combined decluttering, crafts and thrifty = I converted a Tshirt from work that I'll never wear again (a little too small, this year's summer reading program theme of bugs, wrong color of green for me) into a project bag. Easy easy just sew across the bottom, cut off the sleeves and cut the neck deep enough to get stuff in and out. I did fold over the edges and stitch to reinforce, but I'm not sure if that was absolutely necessary. I needed the bag to hold the yarn created by unraveling a sweater, which will become a scarf and fingerless gloves. That's a shirt and a sweater out of my dresser drawer but not in the landfill.

DH has a drawer full of too-small Tshirts that I believe will soon become a project bag full of fabric strips. I need some kitchen mats to stand on at the sink, the floor gets rather cold in the winter.

So many projects, so little time ...

[sherinjoy]

Yea - I finally got to declutter something today! I have missed decluttering daily so much, and really want to get my momentum back. There was an ad in the newspaper that a recycling place would pay cash for old computers and stuff. We have had one in the garage since Oct. that my DH would not let go of. Today I got up and declared we were going to release it to the recycler and make money too! He couldn't argue with that, so packed it up in the car and drove to the place. Guess what - the cash was a nickel a pound - ha, ha, ha. We got all of $1.60 for the computer, monitor, and keyboard. We're rich! And I am so happy to get one more useless thing out of the garage, so a big win-win for me today.

[ch112803]

Hello...I'm new here and looking forward to getting my house into shape.

Anyways, I asked for two cube shelves for Christmas so we could organize the kids' toy area. I'm really looking forward to getting them and setting it all up. Each kid, I have two, will have their own color coded cube totes for their toys. I've already boxed up half of their toys to be donated that they don't play with anymore. They haven't even noticed they were missing.

[Harriet]

Greetings, c h!

[sherinjoy]

Hello to ch - come post with us. I got to donate another big item - our old TV. We just got a new one and I thought I would have to fight with DH to let go of the old one. He suggested today we drop it off at Goodwill - just like that I was in the car and ready to go! Maybe this is the beginning of daily decluttering again - I hope so.

[sherinjoy]

Another big day of decluttering - books, books, books! I got my DH to help, and we emptied out two big bookcases and sorted/purged all the books. I wanted to remove one bookcase and move another, so we had to empty them to move. I released 23 to the used book store at the library, and recycled a few that were too old to donate. We have more boxes to go through and two more bookcases to empty, so I hope to do that while DH is home on holiday break.
Thinking about my decluttering/organizing plans for the new year. They have to be very scaled back and reasonable amounts of time, because I have the new, big responsibility of my DM's finances and paperwork to handle. It has been quite time consuming, with a steep learning curve, but should smooth out in a couple months I hope. But it will be constant maintenance, with a weekly block of time. So my decluttering time has been effected, but want to keep the momentum which is so important to the tasks.
Would love to hear of anyone else's plans for the year.

[happylittlemom]

2008 has been a full year. More on that somewhere else I suppose, but trust me it has been a whopper! My entire house is in choas and I'm totally freaked out! My problem is not making decisions about items in the first place so they end up in stacks... which add up to be a lot of stacks!! I have been dx with generalized anxiety and meds help, but my anxiety shows up in exhaustion and clutter.... NOT a good mix. The more clutter, the more anxiety, the more anxiety the more clutter... see where I'm going with this. Today I did manage to clear off the dining room table which has been stacked high with all sorts of Christmas items... wrapping, presents, ornaments holders... you name it, it was probably on my table. NOW it is beautiful!! I taped up some boxes that need to go out to the storage building and now I desperately need to tackle the master bedroom that has a pile in nearly every place one will fit. Makes me feel like crying, but that won't get me anywhere Tomorrow we have another round of family coming to the inlaws for Christmas. I enjoy seeing everyone but that is another day I am not in my house to declutter. Hopefully, my parents will get the boys sometime next week and I'll get to tackle the house for a whole day. Here's hoping!!