December Declutter Challenge, 2015

Share your decluttering activities and ideas.
User avatar
Harriet
Moderator
Posts: 16505
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:48 am
Location: The Carolinas

December Declutter Challenge, 2015

Postby Harriet » Tue Dec 01, 2015 11:13 am

Welcome to our thread in which we chat about declutter efforts. We try to give at least the equivalent of 15 minutes a day to clear and organize our lovely homes! You might rather combine efforts into longer spans on a few days, or maybe you like marathon sessions to get a bunch done at once. However you fight against clutter's takeover plans, we'd love to hear about it!

User avatar
Harriet
Moderator
Posts: 16505
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:48 am
Location: The Carolinas

Re: December Declutter Challenge, 2015

Postby Harriet » Tue Dec 01, 2015 11:23 am

The Focus calendar is in maintenance until the end of December. From the Focus sub-forum, Indiana's Tips for this time of year, which also helps explain the answer to the question, "what is 'just' maintenance, anyway?" :D and here's the post itself:

Here are Indiana's tips for December preparations, posted November 28, 2010.

Now that all our rooms are deep cleaned we can enjoy the holidays by just doing maintenance and holiday preparation as our focus.

Maintenance:
dusting
floors
tidying
erasing footprints
cleaning bathrooms
cleaning kitchen
touch up where we see it is needed
give your plants some TLC.

Divide and Conquer

Divide your home into 3 sections. Freshen the non-public areas this (first) week.

Declutter:

Declutter Thanksgiving decorations as you put them away.

Declutter Christmas decorations as you put them up.

Calendar

Make a calendar for the month of December that includes the last few days of November.
Mark Christmas Eve, Christmas, and New Year’s Day.
Mark all holiday activities.
Mark days that cards and packages must be mailed to assure delivery by Christmas.
Mark days for baking.
Mark days for shopping.
Mark on the calendar the day a project (if you are making one or some) must be done. Count back the number of days it will take to make it and mark it. Mark benchmarks for how much should be done. Be realistic on the time it will take – add a cushion.

Activities

Begin thinking about a menu.

Buy stamps, cards, and wrapping supplies.

Sign, address, and send holiday cards.

Spend a few hours shopping on weekdays or after work, when stores are calmer than they are on weekends.

Write out gift lists, write down clothing sizes, and organize addresses, preferably on a computer or a PDA to help with neatness and efficiency. Carry them with you for easy reference. If the store offers free shipping, you will be ready.

When shopping on the internet don’t forget to Google the store name followed by the word coupons for any discounts available.

User avatar
Nancy
Member
Posts: 23443
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:52 pm
Location: Washington state in the Pacific Northwestern part of the USA.
Contact:

Re: December Declutter Challenge, 2015

Postby Nancy » Tue Dec 01, 2015 12:06 pm

I decluttered some videos while I was to be donated today. One more thing to round up goes today. Last years Christmas decluttering made sorting and finding what I wanted needed. Except one Christmas cd sigh oh well.

I have found another stack of kids videos to declutter.

BookSaver
Administrator
Posts: 2970
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:08 am
Location: E Iowa

Re: December Declutter Challenge, 2015

Postby BookSaver » Sat Dec 05, 2015 12:57 pm

This month working in the dining room which we don't use very often for dining, so it ends up being used for storage. Not good.

Last night I made it through a big box of magazines and other papers. Tore out 5 articles to read more closely, and tossed all the rest into the recycle bin.

User avatar
Nancy
Member
Posts: 23443
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:52 pm
Location: Washington state in the Pacific Northwestern part of the USA.
Contact:

Re: December Declutter Challenge, 2015

Postby Nancy » Sat Dec 05, 2015 9:35 pm

I dropped off the bag of donations that I had ready to go.

BookSaver
Administrator
Posts: 2970
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:08 am
Location: E Iowa

Re: December Declutter Challenge, 2015

Postby BookSaver » Sat Dec 05, 2015 10:17 pm

Found a box with nice heavy paper plates and napkins that I bought late spring 2014 when I thought we would be hosting DH's family reunion picnic. The family decided not to have a reunion party that year because there were 3 weddings scheduled in the summer. Then this year DMIL passed away so that was our reunion event.

I'm going to use up these supplies this winter rather than try to keep them clean until summer. Especially this month, my calendar is already getting so full that I wouldn't mind saving time by having fewer dishes to wash. ;)

BookSaver
Administrator
Posts: 2970
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:08 am
Location: E Iowa

Re: December Declutter Challenge, 2015

Postby BookSaver » Sat Dec 19, 2015 12:37 am

I've been decluttering this week in the kitchen & dining room but although I've put away or gotten rid of a lot of stuff, it's hard to see any progress yet. Then of course I needed to buy groceries today, so all cleared space in the kitchen is full again. The pantry cupboards are packed so the overflow items are on the counters. I'll be doing extra cooking in the next couple weeks and that will use up the overflow.

I needed a project tonight that I could do while listening to a long podcast. I wanted a project that would have immediate visible proof that I had actually done some work.

Sorted through 2 huge boxes of papers in my office and got rid of enough trash and recycling to reduce them to 1 box. That was the easy stuff that needed no time to make more difficult decisions.

I think I can reduce it by half again but I need another session to read those papers before making the decision to file or toss.

User avatar
Nancy
Member
Posts: 23443
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:52 pm
Location: Washington state in the Pacific Northwestern part of the USA.
Contact:

Re: December Declutter Challenge, 2015

Postby Nancy » Sun Dec 20, 2015 4:02 pm

Whole waiting on h to finish up with washer faucet repair I was tidying up a bit in the basement rec room found two more stacks of journals to declutter yea for that progress!

User avatar
Nancy
Member
Posts: 23443
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:52 pm
Location: Washington state in the Pacific Northwestern part of the USA.
Contact:

Re: December Declutter Challenge, 2015

Postby Nancy » Mon Dec 21, 2015 7:23 pm

I have some plastic bags to recycle, I sorted a few things today upstairs, more to do. More like a stash and dash.

User avatar
Harriet
Moderator
Posts: 16505
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:48 am
Location: The Carolinas

Re: December Declutter Challenge, 2015

Postby Harriet » Wed Dec 23, 2015 1:27 am

The best I can do for keeping holiday clutter at bay right now is to absolutely put away the previous project as I get the next one out. If I hadn't stuck to that between cards and decor, and then between decor and wrapping, I think I'd have had both my house and my brain scrambled.

In general I've been pleased with how I've been able to lay my hands on items needed. There was a little time that passed while I "slept on" where I'd put the bookmark tassels I knew I used to own. Finally remembered I used several for hangers on patchwork ornaments I'd made, and sure enough they were in the "ornaments" drawer of a small Rubbermaid set of drawers. I'm so grateful for the time I spent labeling drawers etc.


Return to “The Decluttered Home”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 12 guests