thanks but I really couldn't have continued decluttering (and continue more now) with out the support of everyone here. I too find it really depressing when I have to make so many decisions on decluttering especially papers. dd15 is in school all day and dh has been ill so my time IS at home. when I was in school and just with kids and volunteering I didn't dejunk for over 6 months and my house showed it. I haven't decorated in the past as the junk I had always caused me so much work and now I feel I can do that. i also found that I have to take dindiana and dharriets, and dnancy's advice to take a break on weekends otherwise you burn out.
I found another container of checks this weekend and my heart just sank, but I know now that if I grab one at a time and look and write it down that it will eventually get done. I wish our brains could see the pile of something not as a mountain but rather a bit by bit job that always suprising me how much torture I put my self through and then bit by bit it's done. it makes me laugh. I think it's from years of thinking I was lazy and useless at being a homemaker.
I finally have one container near the files that I put the week's filing in. one area in the front hall for bills I get during the week,stamps, stapler, check register etc. (I no longer keep all the checks but in a binder the statements or anything special.. dh taught me that). and a container now in photo area for collecting pictures and keepsakes... (I find by Sunday most things can be tossed instead of filed in keepsake boxes). for dd15 she has a clear container where she tosses her papers for the school year and near the beginning of the school year she tosses everything) Also using dharriets storage cleaning I every so often go through a keepsake box and papers and pare down again. this took me
years of going in there every so often to get to this point and then I would have to hit it days in a row, all day to accomplish it. And yet there is no gaurantee that I won't let it get out of control as that's MY tendency.
the one area I still haven't figured out yet is wrapping paper and cards. I know for a fact without out the support and focus here I would be like a puppy dog running after a butterfly.