Blessedw2 , I AGREE with you, about Harriet! She's such a motivating person, she makes us feel like we CAN DO ANYTHING!
I put all the towels, dishtowels, and crocheted washcloths into the washer, which locks itself, and I found 1 crocheted washcloth, which didn't make it into the load. It's okay though, since I have oodles of them, in drawers, in the linen cupboard and under sinks, for cleaning,too. I use old faded ones for cleaning. Cannot muster up the courage to throw them away. Are always good for dirty jobs, too.
I decluttered in the bathroom, when I was hanging up fresh towels from the linen cupboard. After the towels are done, I'll strip the bed, will remake it with sheets in the linen cupboard, and perhaps wash these sheets, which will be stripped off the bed.
I decluttered in my small office,too. I have envelopes, photos, pen pal envelopes, etc... on my desk from a "pen palling session" last night. I put mostly everything away, except for a few things on a surface next to the wall, which I'll be using. I left my 5 new books, from The Dollar Tree on my desk, so I can tell Dfriends the titles of them. I'm thinking about finding a place for them, on my desk, making it look decorative with something, like an angel or photo, on the stack, too. I did that with horizontal stacks of books on my office shelf, and added photos, etc.. on top of each stack. The idea's from an organizing magazine, I can actually see the titles easier, and you get more books stored, using this method, as well as show off photos and/or decorative items. I just put up my "sunny-in-my-heart-Saturday" office display card. On top of the stack of 5 new books, I put a photograph of my 98.5-year-old d-elderly friend. She came to my b-day party when I turned 49, a long time ago. She was sitting on the sofa, was in a pretty blouse, smiled at me and I snapped the photo. I put it into the pewter sunsigns frame with a star on the left base and a crescent moon on the right base.
I just read a tip, which my Dsis told me about several years ago. Dsis has always been very organized, has a knack for decorating, and ran her own cleaning business for years, up here in W. WA State and in W. OR State. She said, as far as "clutter v. s. collections" goes, she's found if a person displays like objects together on a shelf or shelves, they look like a collection. The collection is contained clutter, as CEO states in her most recent book at the site, and Dsis says when she sees a collection all broken up, scattered about a room, with 1 item on 1 shelf, another item on a table, 1 on a window sill, 1 on the mantel, etc... she says it looks like "too much stuff" and looks like clutter on steroids. Dsis and CEO both talk about "contained clutter," where you can put like things or like-uses-things into a basket together, a decorative box, etc... Also, when you think about it, the eye is moving to 1 place, rather than bouncing from 1 area in the room, to another area, causing more distraction and confusion to the eye and the mind.
Also, 1 tip Dsis told me years ago AND I read in an organizing e-newsletter to my Inbox, is how, when you're sorting, if you have 1 box = trash, 1 box = donate, and 1 box = put away, you can have 1 box = pending! In the pending box, you store items you don't know if you actually want to get rid of it or give it to a loved one, or keep in the box, to bring out to change your decor, for a different season, etc... The pending box is a wonderful way to still keep things, yet have the intention of re-using it later or at last, giving it to a friend or donating it to a charity. You can mull over your "pending box" items, for 6 months. At that date, it's a pretty good time to finally make a decision.
I have a mini-problem with my "contained clutter," as I'm a writer, reader, and I put files of print-outs or newsletters, into files, standing them upright in baskets. I know where things are, I pull out 1 file at a time, read through it, then return it to its basket home. However, 1 basket is so full of files, it's hard to go through the basket to search for items. I've pretty much decided to:
1- pull out the front file,
2- read it, purge what's not needed,
3- file that particular file in the back.
4- slowly go through each file this way,
5- until all have been sorted through.
6- I can keep or purge as I go,too.