January Clutter Control

[sherinjoy]

Good work Harriet and Blessed . Hi to Hannibelle and Sadie (who mentioned her decluttering in PWYC) and Lavenderbliss (who may post again when life settles).

Consistency is the key for me, and Indiana's focus thread seems to have supported that concept for a lot of members. Glad to see others doing weekly decluttering, because it creates momentum, which definitely is clearings best friend. It just gets easier the more you let go, decisions get quicker.
I have been working on releasing books, and have donated over 30 to the library since Jan. 1st. I realized I haven't opened some of them for decades, and probably never would. And there are so many new books out there, gotta make room for them!

[Harriet]

Good job on book decisions, sherinjoy. When you mentioned focus you reminded me of something. I had neglected to mention the results of bedroom decluttering here in our house last week. I missed my chance at keeping track of time, but do know that we took 1 Tall Kitchen Garbage Bag of donations to the car trunk and have 1 smaller bag of hand-me-downs for dd28's niece. Also 1 Tall Kitchen Garbage Bag to the trash. I'd estimate 8 square feet of space freed. Some organization, too.

[sherinjoy]

Harrietyour success in the bedroom declutter motivated me to do a few rounds in mine today. Got 6 prs. of pants and some shirts for donation, and restored some order to the bookcase, removing books and magazines for donation/recycle. I may do another round tonight of the hanging shirts in the closet, noticed some I haven't worn for a long time. Thanks for the inspiration!

[blessedw2]

dharriet thank you for your focus for the week. I tossed one large garbage bag of all the old creams etc. from the bathrooms. I can't believe I had so much.

great job on donation things sherinjoy!!!

oh free space harriet how wonderful!

[Harriet]

Wanted to mention to you all that I stood in the cold (yeouch, fingers!) and packed and repacked our 2 household's 2 cans to get lots of throw-away in this time but keep it contained. It is so worth it.

Did anyone else pay their municipal tax bill at first of year? I remember when they were forcing us to be taken in to town "limits" (meaning they'd put up signs - no geographical reason) with higher taxes when NO ONE wanted it. The only benefit they could come up with was, "you'll have garbage collection now". Like it was going to be such a blessing. No one told us all the truth - it would be a line item on our new tax bill and if we didn't pay we'd be accused of not paying taxes. Yikes - $48 for ONE can's pickup 52 times per year, and of course that's nothing in the grand scheme of how the taxes went up.

Anyway, just one more argument on the priority for homemakers to use this service as best we all can, to be as efficient with family's resources as we can.

[sherinjoy]

Yes Harriet, I make best use of my trash cans every week. It's kinda a personal goal to fill my recycle can to the top every time.
I have been keeping up with my daily decluttering, mostly paper and books. I did work with my DS last weekend doing a partial clean out of his room, and got rid of a lot of old school papers. I wanted to do his clothes closet, but he was done and did not want to go any further. Gotta respect that when they hit their limit. Maybe this weekend I'll try again.
Keep up the good work Harriet and Blessed and any one else joining us.

[sherinjoy]

Just had to say that I counted up all the books I have released since Jan. 1 - 50! Wow - I knew I had been donating weekly to the library, but didn't know the number. That is great for me, because usually I will not let a book leave the house. I guess it is time to make room for something new, and I needed to let go. Thanks for this forum's encouragement, always appreciated.

[Harriet]

sherinjoy, that's wonderful. Be sure to make a note of that for 2010 taxes.

A container I've found helpful with organization, the 14x10x7 Sterilite stacking "ShowOffs" containers, are on sale at CVS now for $4.99. I bought one extra since I have several - may consider buying others. Our store had a wall full.

Also a nearby shop had a good price on those decorative type of wallpaper-covered board boxes with lids. I bought a 18x12x5 one with roses design and beige grosgrain ribbon as a b-day present for dd29. It will make her a good storage box for special/feminine things in a house that will become more and more masculine in time! It's already prettier than wrap, so no need to bother with that, and I will have added zero clutter to her home.

Speaking of that type of on-view storage, I've had good luck in the past covering my own ordinary larger gift boxes' tops with wrapping paper, especially if they were going to be on high shelves where visitors only got an impression, anyway. To give the impression of a lidded box, a dark line can be drawn with a ruler to look like the edge of a "lid" 1 or 2 inches down from the top. Any cheap shiny thing can be glued strategically to the front across that line and give the impression of a "latch".

[Harriet]

Report on Bathroom declutter week: Pulled out everything from the cabinets (all are lower) and both drawers of the Front Bath, tossed a lot, organized, and then vacuumed all those interior surfaces before putting things back. Ds23's old toiletries container and another tupperware-style container were put through the dishwasher, and now corral toiletries in the cabinets. Hand-washed my large cleaning-supplies container and arranged at a more convenient place. A small rectangular convenience-food container with lid reused for all tubes of first aid creams - that helped keep all first-aid together in one small drawer! Large swiffer container reused for all cleaning brushes (I use the handled type they call "dish brushes" for the bathtub, and also have plenty of old toothbrushes). I'd say 4 square feet of space freed up.

As a matter of fact, I literally have space in which I don't have anything stored - won't last long!

Office week so far has been a sort of continued papertaming. I had freed up lots of space in the filing cabinet in November and that is starting to fill some.

Getting ready for Closet week on Monday - light was getting so dim in master closet and now with dh getting the new flourescent bulbs (fixture?) in, I'll be able to see into every nook, so I'm confident!

[blessedw2]

great job dharriet and sherinjoy!!!! I love decluttering!!! happy dance
woo hoo! on a job well done

we pay during the winter (every 2 months) for water/garbage 180.00 about 70.00 every month. so I think for garbage you are paying more. we pay for our water as we don't have well any more.we can only water every other day here. our bill goes up to 300.00 during the summer because of watering the garden and dogs. it is a shocker to get that first bill especially when you never had that before.
We get our house taxes twice a year june and september. our taxes our taxes I don't want to even talk about that. our taxes are getting raised again last year it went up $1000 and they say it is going up again. living in chicago does that. The house they just built (our small house is near a house they built for $1,500,000.00,) their taxes are 24,000.00! lovely family with really young kids. I am wondering what he does for a living and see if they can adopt an old woman like me.

thanks for the desk thread to dejunk. I am doing it this week and setting up like you suggested 2010 for taxes.
thank you thank you