February Declutter to Love Your Space, 2019

Share your decluttering activities and ideas.
BookSaver
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February Declutter to Love Your Space, 2019

Postby BookSaver » Fri Feb 01, 2019 11:28 am

One of the major reasons to declutter is to create the living space you love, with lots of light and open space to be able to move around and relax.

Last month blessedw2 posted a link to a video which included images of rooms that look like a couple of the rooms in my house, and a quote from an organizer that impressed me.
I know your lack of attachment and your lack of trauma-based accumulation. This is not a hoarding situation; this is life situation.


"Life Situation" means that only a limited amount of time is available to sort through and declutter stuff. The decisions about what items to declutter are not difficult; instead the difficulty is lack of time to do the work.

Nevertheless, we have all seen that every little amount of time spent decluttering will eventually add up to success in clearing space.

This thread is to document large AND small amounts of progress in converting cluttered areas into places that you love.

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Harriet
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Re: February Declutter to Love Your Space, 2019

Postby Harriet » Sun Feb 03, 2019 8:08 pm

Went back and re-watched that because BookSaver mentioned it again. A great piece. I think there are more reasons than the young organizer mentioned - one I thought of as I watched is the hope of money savings (or not wasting money) if I can wear a garment again, perhaps through losing weight or through finding something to go with it, etc. I'd say concern about an investment being wasted is a biggie. We always think "that other guy" is making poor decisions, don't we? (smile)

If time can be found, I hope watching the KonMarie series will be good impetus for me, in the way that watching How Clean Is Your House always was. So far, I've watched 2.

Dd has worked on decluttering her room and is making a "Mom box" of things for me. This I've got to see. I imagine it will be things she has borrowed that I never saw again, lol. Anyway, she's happy about her progress.

January was not a great declutter month for me, but my own bedroom really got a good dose. I was happy with what happened there. Office got attention because of "end of/first of" year impetus.

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Harriet
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Re: February Declutter to Love Your Space, 2019

Postby Harriet » Tue Feb 05, 2019 9:38 am

15 pounds of catalogs and freebie mini-magazines out the door. I didn't think there was going to be so much, but half-way through I regretted not counting them! So I took them (in paper grocery bags to toss) to the scale and weighed them, to be able to post some kind of quantity here!

Truly don't understand the poor decisions about sending out catalogs. It's not that they aren't beautifully done and interesting, often with a theme or informational format that shows thought. The grands have had fun craft projects with some at times. But a lot of these were from companies from whom we've never purchased. If we did purchase, then the money spent on sending multiple catalogs forever surely eats up their profit.

3 wide shelves of a large kitchen cabinet decluttered and organized. Pantry items. Maybe half a tall kitchen trash bag's-worth was tossed, but not a lot of waste since most I let go were partially used.

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Nancy
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Re: February Declutter to Love Your Space, 2019

Postby Nancy » Wed Feb 06, 2019 6:36 pm

I tossed a stack of magizenes from the living room no longer needed.

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Harmony
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Re: February Declutter to Love Your Space, 2019

Postby Harmony » Thu Feb 07, 2019 4:42 pm

Just emptied the shredder and took the full very heavy garbage bag out of the office to the bin. Besides what I did last month, I went through another big file and that paper was all in there.

Our work together in the shop today was the contents of 2 cabinets which burned in his truck. 60 small individual drawers. a 10 lb. bucket full of every size and shape of fasteners, nails, screws, bolts, washers, sockets, etc. you name it he had it. Some time back he bought another cabinet with individual drawers. We threw away anything rusty and a bunch of stuff for equipment or house fixtures that are no longer made. Sifted the sand and dirt out of the piles with a screen and spread it all out on a table.

We ended up with about 4 gallons of stuff to throw away. Great to have this done.

We get lots of catalogs. I only keep a couple of them, and I throw away older ones from the same company and no longer stack them up together. One company who we bought maybe $25 worth of stuff from years ago sends us a big phone-book-size catalog at least twice a month. I can't imagine how much money they've lost from our order.

Editing: 2/12/19 Another bin of papers / books gone through. Big plastic bin empty now out in the garage. I kept one small box of stuff. 18 lbs. to the trash!

Editing again 2/14/19 Worked in the office. cleaned off the bulletin board which is 24" x 36". All that's left is 6 pieces of paper and 2 clear file pockets with 3 stacks of 5x7 manila envelopes. Course, that morphed into another project of organizing business cards. Lots just marked down in the rolodex file we use again, duplicates thrown away, and my card file at my desk sorted. One category sorted and put in the big box we use for business cards but in the back with guides. That freed up my bulletin board and my card file which was stuffed full.

I guess what I've been doing is sorting older stuff, no longer used anywhere since we've been in business so many years...and disposing. Someday it will not be so hard to get it all out of here if I do this now.

I put the Hoarders show on the tv and with it going in the background I didn't feel like I was working alone.

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Kathryn-in-Canada
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Re: February Declutter to Love Your Space, 2019

Postby Kathryn-in-Canada » Thu Feb 14, 2019 6:44 pm

Harmony: I rewatched the Konmari series while working on office supplies for exactly the same reason - I didn't want to feel alone while I worked.

I'm noticing huge differences in the apartment even though only small areas are finished. The kitchen is staying much neater (although not cleaner because I tend to not clean, just tidy and it looks clean!)

The bedroom is staying much tidier and that's just because I have order other places, so I'm keeping order there. I won't be doing the clothing until everything else is done (because I did the clothing 3 years ago) but I am culling and folding and thinking about how I'll be doing things differently when I redo clothing. If I actually cull more cloths and fold properly, would I have room to fold items I currently hang? And if I fold a lot of things she says to fold but I hang (nice tops, pants, even dresses and skirts) would I have room to put more drawers in my closet? And do I want to do that? I have one extra set of cube plastic shelves that I could use with those cube boxes, so the cost would be minimal and they'd be deep (my dresser drawers are shallow which is why I hang so much because the drawers don't hold much.)

The living room and dining room are feeling tidier too. When I open mail, I put it away because I have a system for current stuff that does not involve piling things. and my desk is still tidy (it has been 5 days now.) A week ago I had to do a dash and stash in the living room and dining room when dh had a visitor for tea. This week, I had to nothing. I did drop the roll top but not because it was hiding a mess. The room feels different when I drop it, changing from an office vibe to a visiting vibe.

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Re: February Declutter to Love Your Space, 2019

Postby blessedw2 » Wed Feb 27, 2019 10:31 am

hello fellow declutter friends!!!
you are doing awesome!

I have been decluttering again since November at least one hour a week. I thought I would be done but photos etc. have taken a lot of my time. I still can't believe I have dd youngers stuff to help her go through - long distance phone calls will start Saturday with dd older helping show dd younger her stuff.

dh has been on board with his stuff. i didn't say a word.
he no longer is commenting on the stuff I am getting rid of that is mine. yay.

once a week for the last 4 months dh has been driving to the donation place - even if it is only a small thing.
I also had got junk and they took 1/2 of the basement and a old tv away.

cheering you all on.
it is always a joy to be here with you!

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Harriet
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Re: February Declutter to Love Your Space, 2019

Postby Harriet » Wed Feb 27, 2019 7:19 pm

Decluttered a couch that had belonged to my parents but was not special. About 12 years old, and really did not stand up to use well - possibly the frame was not made as well as some others are. I had "let it go" in my mind months ago. We called the town and they had a man who comes and takes them for a fee if you will get it outside your home, so we got it to the porch to wait. They were fine with that. My parent's oldest couch and chair (60 years?), which have been reupholstered twice, are still in great shape, and are two of our favorite things.

blessed, that's a great report I enjoyed reading.


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