May Declutter and Organization, 2016

Share your decluttering activities and ideas.
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Harriet
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May Declutter and Organization, 2016

Postby Harriet » Sun May 01, 2016 12:42 pm

Clear surfaces, organized cubbies and lovely living spaces are available to us with just the commitment to manageable declutter appointments. Here in this monthly thread, we encourage each other to commit to 15 minutes of clutter control time per day, OR the equivalent on other schedules. We hope you'll join us.

Never feel you are alone if you have clutter struggles. We know where you are because we've been right there (and then have faltered after decluttering and ended up there again… … twice or three times :oops: ). We know the same prospect looms for our future if we don't stay vigilant! Clutter is picking a fight with ALL of us. We are with you.

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Harriet
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Re: May Declutter and Organization, 2016

Postby Harriet » Sun May 01, 2016 12:57 pm


If you're like me and find that cleaning and decluttering are linked to each other:

Consider scheduling declutter ahead of cleaning an area. I go along with the Focus Cleaning Schedule (that link will take you to the Cleaning calendar in the Cleaning Forum) and place decluttering of each of those rooms/areas in the week AHEAD of their Focus, and it helps.

For instance, my May decluttering will look like:

week of 5/2/2016 outdoors (cleaning then, in storage)
week of 5/9/2016 kitchen (cleaning outdoors)
week of 5/16/2016 living room (cleaning the kitchen)
week of 5/23/2016 dining room (cleaning living room)
week of 5/30/2016 porch/entry (cleaning dining rm)

I substitute different areas whenever it matches my home’s needs better.

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Nancy
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Re: May Declutter and Organization, 2016

Postby Nancy » Mon May 02, 2016 9:43 am

I decluttered a vacuum & attachments I had replaced so glad to free up that space in the closet! I need to get the empty bags for the vacuum out to the car to go th is week also.
Last edited by Nancy on Mon May 02, 2016 12:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Twins' Mom
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Re: May Declutter and Organization, 2016

Postby Twins' Mom » Mon May 02, 2016 11:11 am

I put 98% of the yard sale items into the back of my car to go to the Goodwill, keeping only some picture frames that I could reasonably reuse and a stampin craft carrier that one of the ladies in the stamp club might want to buy.
Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better [wo]man. Ben Franklin

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Harriet
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Re: May Declutter and Organization, 2016

Postby Harriet » Thu May 12, 2016 11:28 am

Good job on Goodwill for yard sale items. Frames are always of interest to me, too, and don't become clutter easily in my mind. I seldom find them unusable and have actually been known to quickly slap a different coat of paint on a few to make a new "matched" set, lol.

It's the week for kitchen declutter for me. The refrigerator is resistant. :lol: Does anyone else find that the healthier you try to eat, the harder it is to keep the fridge neat, and foods rotating wisely? Sigh. The reasonably priced produce items are seldom the ones that store neatly. For instance, the store had beautiful kale on sale for 99cents, but the bunch is huge. If I'd spent more I could have had a smaller package!

Also I have that situation of having lost that shelf to breakage. I bought a better rectangular rubber-coated grid free-standing shelf at Wmart - it fits the space well and will help me more, has even-steven space above and below, so really practical. Unfortunately, HRH had just learned that the taller one we were using is a perfect space for letting a watermelon chill underneath it :| so he wants to keep the old one. (loves watermelon) So I may have a summer shelf and a winter shelf. :roll:

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Harmony
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Re: May Declutter and Organization, 2016

Postby Harmony » Fri May 13, 2016 12:12 am

Have a nice-sized bag of old clothes in the trash now and another small bag to drop off at GW. Sent some nice clothes away to someone.

I'm finding that clothes wear out even if I'm not wearing them. I have "outside" clothes and "play" clothes. Play/work clothes eventually wear out from use. I found bunch of stuff with yellowing from simply not wearing. Everything was clean, worn out or not. This clean-out was an eye-opener. I thought my stuff was in better condition.

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Re: May Declutter and Organization, 2016

Postby BookSaver » Thu May 19, 2016 8:53 am

DH and I have been clearing out the garage in preparation for demolishing and replacing it later this month. We are saving tools that do not need repairs, but pretty much everything else will go in the trash and recycle bins as space allows each week. Last night was the 2nd week in a row that both bins went to the curb stuffed full of garage items.

Eventually we will have a dumpster for the building debris, but for that we will pay the landfill by the pound. We're already paying for weekly trash pickup so until the demolition company comes, I'm putting as many items in the normal trash bin as I legally can. We also have to set aside hazardous waste like paint and such, and take those to the landfill in a separate load.

I threw away a shovel with a broken handle and some totally rusted weed clippers. Wrote them on the list to replace next time I'm near a hardware store. However, in a bit of good timing, when I went yesterday to help DSis get ready for her garage sale this weekend I saw that she had a shovel and clippers in the sale items. $4.50 to replace broken tools with some that are used but in great shape -- what a bargain! :)

I've made a special effort in the last week to gather kitchen items and a few clothes that I would normally donate to a thrift shop. 2 laundry baskets full of stuff for DSis's garage sale. I put DMom's name on the price tags because she is selling things, too, and my stuff isn't worth much. I'm more than happy just to have those things out of my kitchen.

DSis's sale starts this evening but I have to work at the library so I won't be able to help her again until tomorrow morning. I found another decorative thing to sell and will look for more today before going to work.

Of course, books will be going to the library's annual used book sale in June, but I haven't started to declutter those yet.

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Harriet
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Re: May Declutter and Organization, 2016

Postby Harriet » Sat May 21, 2016 9:22 am

BookSaver, what fun to have a new construction project going on. Sounds like you are being smart in getting ready. I hope your dsis' yard sale was successful.

Harmony, that's a blessing to have such a handle on what's in your closet, even if you do feel some disappointment at what you were hanging on to - probably just thriftiness.

Living Room declutter was up, though this time not a lot needed to be done. The main work this past week was dd's room. I helped as she sent several bags out. We cleaned and vacuumed. I won't brag much on the closet, but drawers, underbed containers and the room itself look neat. HRH said, "Oh, there is a floor in there after all." He had been teasing her that woodland creatures were living under her bed.

I think I mentioned in PWYC that she watched a couple videos of folding clothes the Kon Mari way and got somewhat inspired that she could organize her drawers. That wasn't magic or anything, but it did help her see her drawers as having possibilities rather than just closing them and never wanting to look again.

Had finished up kitchen week with a deep declutter of the freezer, btw.

Dining room is up next here.


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