March Declutter, Breeze Through Each Room, 2018

Share your decluttering activities and ideas.
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Harriet
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March Declutter, Breeze Through Each Room, 2018

Postby Harriet » Thu Mar 01, 2018 12:17 am

March is known for its breezes, both stiff breezes and soft ones. Take a cue from the weather and make sure each area in your home gets its breeze of your declutter attention.

Round Robins through the house (whoosh!) are a fun break from intense declutter in one area. Why not pick a different room each day for a while and go through the house systematically to be sure you're on top of what's needed. Write down notes on the areas you want to offer more time in the future.

Do you have a chance to open some windows for real? :idea: Lynlee mentioned today in PWYC that she was enjoying a pleasant fall day. Maybe you are enjoying a pleasant temperature sometime this month. Could you get an inspiring real bit of air and light in, to see just how you want to banish some stagnant clutter along with stagnant air?
 

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Nancy
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Re: March Declutter, Breeze Through Each Room, 2018

Postby Nancy » Tue Mar 06, 2018 9:08 pm

I decluttered a couple of books and a table cloth today.
Working on the counter while listening to a decluttering vid. Was a win as I had a place to put the stuff after a store run.

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Harmony
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Re: March Declutter, Breeze Through Each Room, 2018

Postby Harmony » Sat Mar 17, 2018 2:28 pm

Do y'all ever think this is all a bit too much? The constant throwing out, reorganizing, going through things? I'm at that stage right now. The clutter is just overwhelming. I get it all sorted out and organized and junk thrown out and then I turn around and it's in the same condition.

I got some of the master bathroom sink done, the top of DH's end table (beyond awful) a drawer in the lingerie chest and top of the lingerie. Baskets and plastic trays and boxes in specific places to put things, like emptying pockets, etc. never seem to get emptied out and the stuff in there just grows and grows. I took all the medical equipment out and put in a box for top shelf in closet. Wrist braces, finger braces, back braces, padding for all those, straps, elastic things, slings. Really, have we been that sick? Whole stack of those footies with the rubber stuff on the bottom they give us in hospitals...6 pairs of them.... I could outfit a whole sick room with all this stuff... and the big stuff like crutches, walkers, is already in the closet.

I don't know what's come over me today, but I'm beyond frustrated. If it was just me here and I didn't have to answer to anybody, I could fill barrel after barrel for the collections. It's really hard when 2 people aren't on the same page about all this stuff.

Working away. 5 more drawers done. Whole bunch of socks to the donation bin. A sweater there too. A whole bunch of clothes tossed, not good enough for donating and not worn any more. I liked it when DH used to dress up. He doesn't do that any more.

Ok now I have a question. Our church is having a trailer come by to pick up everybody's donations, housewares and clothes they said, and this is a ministry to the homeless. What do y'all think about that? First I thought oh that's a good idea I'll take all the stuff I took out of drawers this past weekend. Then I began to think...what would homeless people do with housewares? What do they do with a lot of clothes? Don't they just get ruined out in the weather and tossed about? At least in a thrift store whoever buys them has a place to put them and ability to use them. Trying to think what to do. The trailer will be in our parking lot next Sunday.

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Re: March Declutter, Breeze Through Each Room, 2018

Postby Harriet » Tue Mar 20, 2018 1:28 pm

Harmony, there have been some very smart articles written in the past - I believe some of it was going on when Haiti was getting so many shiploads of items - about how we do get mixed up about physical needs. Sad for someone who wants to send a quilt, for instance, but it's for a warm-weather place, or where homes are lost, so how can it be anything but a burden. Some information really does need to make it clear exactly what is needed, when.

I know that at the Food Pantry when I worked there we used to be so full of fancy food at Thanksgiving and then early February when Boy Scoots gathered, that we couldn't store it all and some went to waste. And then by July, we'd be going to grocery stores ourselves, hoping to find enough of staples like canned beans just to be able to help the next family.

I've never thought about what you said - if it's a drive for items for the homeless, where will they put it. If individuals are waiting to take it when they can find a home, has someone made arrangements to store it all?

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Re: March Declutter, Breeze Through Each Room, 2018

Postby Harmony » Thu Mar 22, 2018 12:19 am

Harriet, yeah I was just thinking about all this again. If this homeless organization is selling items to use the $ for helping the homeless, yes, anything would do. If they are setting the homeless up in homes then yes anything goes. But how do you set up homeless people in homes if they have no jobs, or $. I do not know enough about the organization bringing the trailer to judge all this. Maybe I will call the church to see if they have information.

My DMiL, when she was alive, worked with the women of the church to sew basic quilts with little or no padding inside. They sent them all to some mission in some place like the Sudan where they lived nomadic lives and would bundle everything they had in these covers and take to their next place.

Yeah, I have an old quilt I could donate. Not to the homeless, though.

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Re: March Declutter, Breeze Through Each Room, 2018

Postby Nancy » Thu Mar 22, 2018 12:50 am

When I donated some items some camping pans were very well worn and blackened and dented but the thrift shop said they could take those for the homeless, I ask twice to ve sure said I would take em back home if they were unacceptable but they took them. This was for local folk.

Today I took out some boxes thought I would use them but did not use them so they are going out the door. I put old blankets in the rigs comes in handy if you come on an accedent and some one needs it. Old sheets for camping it feels good to make decisions.

Some items were in wrong rooms, and I did get a couple other dresser drawers sorted out too, toys are back in the toy rotation totes again that helped. And some in the storage zone yea for progress!

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Re: March Declutter, Breeze Through Each Room, 2018

Postby Harriet » Thu Mar 22, 2018 11:42 am

I have had some chances, while robins are on the lawn :) to breeze through with Round Robin round the house. Also several days were okay (not perfect) for opening some windows. It's been worth it to get fresh air and air movement while considering some TRUTH about cluttery spots. Also some light on the subject. As usual with March here, the wind makes a lot of difference from day to day - seems it's either whooshing or calm, nothing in between!

Have been getting to the recycling and trash bins/cans regularly and not missing pick-ups. another thing about March - the bins sure do get turned over! If contents are mostly lightweight, that will go right over with the bin and spill. :roll:

Hadn't heard of that type of charity quilt distribution.

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Re: March Declutter, Breeze Through Each Room, 2018

Postby Harmony » Thu Mar 22, 2018 4:52 pm

Ok, my closet work today. 6 hours on big photo alums where the "magnetic" pages had turned yellow. First I cut index dividers from 5X8 index cards and then I started sorting. I put the pictures into one of those photo box storage things. As I went along I put names and approx. dates on the backs.

I grouped them into years or subjects like a vacation, a couple weddings that happened in 1 year, stuff like that. In one of my acid free albums I put all the big pictures, like all the kids' school pictures 5x7 or 8x10. And graduation programs. What I have left is 1/2 of a big album, a full photo box, 1 small spiral album of really old stuff of mine.

After getting stuck with a HUGE bin of photo albums of DMiL's, that nobody in DH's family wants or even cares to look at... I thought maybe this is a better solution. Maybe this way they won't be a burden for others someday and won't get pitched because they take up so much space. Anyway, I'm hoping.

We are the last generation to even understand a great majority of DMiL's old pictures (some of them at least). I think of the geneology work people do, but how would any of us know who might want to see some of them?

I have 1 nice album in my donate box and I had a big bag of stuff for the garbage bin.

It was bittersweet looking through it all and seeing everybody and the changes for us all.


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