July CHALLENGE and Declutter Strategy, 2024

[Harriet]

Halfway point of our month's declutter is this morning.

Here's this week at a glance

Tuesday, July 16th - Desk
Wednesday, July 17th - Books and magazines
Thursday, July18th - Receipts, mail, and old paperwork
Friday, July 19th - Data in computer and DVR
Saturday, July 20th - Gadgets and accessories
Sunday, July 21st - Toys and Media (DVDs, CDs, video games)
Monday, July 22nd - Kid items

[Ramblinrose]

Most of what you mention for the coming week I don’t own. I dump magazines when I’m done, most all my books are either on my kindle or books that I borrow from my community library. I got rid of all my books when I moved except for a very few favorites…12 or so. They are on a shelve in my office. All my cd’s are boxes and stored in my closet and I don’t own a dvd player.

I do have a few toys…puzzles, coloring books and such, three small plastic dump trucks and several small board games, all kept in a cabinet of my entertainment center.

I have learned to hate clutter but I wasn’t always that way. Once I started working my box all those years ago I learned to live without chaos and for me an uncluttered home is an uncluttered mind.

I do have two closets that need to be straightened up. They are both organized but a few things though in the closet have escaped from their home. I hate when that happens.

I quickly learned from working the box is everything has a proper home it much easier to find things. I wasn’t always that way either, but loved learning that lesson. I think that’s why I don’t have any junk drawers. Everything is organized in baskets according to categories so usually I just make sure the baskets bottoms themselves stay clean.

All my bathrooms are set up with basket too. I know where everything is in my home simply because of the lessons I learned from the sisters. Their book was life changing for me and I am forever grateful I saw them one day being interviewed on the Today Show. Back then there was no internet and once bought their book and got it home, I set up their system and never looked back. Btw I still have my original books… they are sitting on my shelf in my office. :

[Nancy]

I am focusing on the dining room
I do not have games etc. and papers are current get them as they come in for the most part.
Desk duty was Sat. and I did two then!
I do not have mags. & occasionally one comes I toss promptly after looking through it / rarely pick them up at sales.
Books are under control.
Pens that is another story.

I put a planter out on the deck side table to go out to the plant cage next time I"m outside. x
I have a basket to go back out as well it needs to go also. x
Table cloths is folded up to go with the table near that other door now so I have a plan. x

[Harriet]

Baskets are great, yes, yes, yes. Mine helped me while dealing with the large, overflowing sewing project. I have two matching ones in the bookcase in the sewing room that look very plain, but hide a multitude of pieces when you need a clear head! In the den, because our tv furniture/cart has 4 large cubbies, an assortment of baskets shaped to about those dimensions really help it have a "we meant to do that" look. They don't match, but their colors of wicker/cane/twig look so much like the wood tone of the furniture they turn out to be just right. For a really odd shape, I made a container out of poster board to hold long items in sewing room. I think you might call that either a flimsy box or a flat basket, lol.

Entryway day will mean facing the truth about some baskets that are on the porch and maybe have faced a bit too much of the great outdoors, humidity, temperature, etc. Fond of them all, their funny shapes and their memories, but things can't last forever.

Toys, media, gadgets, etc. are truly HRH's domain around here. We don't have kid's toys anymore, and that's tomorrow's challenge. Hmmm... .. maybe more craft items organizing for me.

Dd was home yesterday for the get-together, came by here and got a bunch of items to take away with her.
I really need her as I think about "entryway", too, but that was all the time she had.

[Harriet]

Here are upcoming days at a glance, through the weekend

Tuesday, July 23rd - Multiples of an item
Wednesday, July 24th - Storage
Thursday, July25th - Travel items
Friday, July 26th - Entryway
Saturday, July 27th - Pet Items
Sunday, July 28th - Craft Supplies

[Nancy]

Decluttered the glove dept. in one rig today yea for that!

[Harriet]

let's have crafts declutter day all the time - love that day!

Today Holiday items - inventoried my wall hangings. One especially will be nice for den in autumn, I think. I need to find a way to place these small things on walls, rotating, without worrying HRH too much. If they are never displayed then they become CLUTTER ! In the other house having wooden hangers and little rods was nice but here it's just more weight to be a concern. So maybe tucking some tabs out of the way, using only plastic-tac, etc, very temporary, is the way to go.

Tomorrow is Gifts. I no longer really save up gifts for very long. I do have a baby shower to think about right now. Bought a requested gift but thought it would be fun to add a little homemade something to attach. Saw a sewing teacher saying she just makes a bunch of bibs and keeps them on hand.

[Harriet]

CoMpLePteLy RaNdOm discussion following on the 31st, to share funniest day, most embarrassing find, obstacles, mental blocks, biggest success,

My funniest-looking day was climbing up and facing, not just the top of the refrigerator, but the perfectly good cabinet up there that was completely empty. It was funniest because I looked ridiculous, believe me, but I had to laugh, too, to wonder at leaving a cabinet bare when I need space so much. It was just so precarious up there - hard to reach. So, I made a plan of what "holds" to use and the step stool, to open the refrigerator to get that door out of the way ( ha! ) also a fork to be left up there to help open the sticking door. (lol, hard to explain - decades of dis-use have left those cabinet doors tight while all others in the house probably open too easily)

Most embarrassing finds were definitely some among my makeup, which, when not non-existent, was out-of-date. (tossed)

Obstacles - the refrigerator door, lol! Also, the pile of clothes I continue to carry around in my car for my scattered daughter. My desk is an obstacle all by itself, as well - all kinds of things multiply like bunnies.

Mental blocks - some books. magazines because the information wavers somewhere between valuable and possibly available on the internet. Also, the move resulted in some missing books, and that still bothers me, so I tend to get more possessive of books now.

Biggest success was feeling positive, kind of happy, even, with "new" days of tackling some things I hadn't thought to tackle in a while, just jogging my memory about directions I need to remember to turn. Glad I did it!

[lucylee]

I totally fell off the wagon on this challenge.
Are we doing another challenge of some kind for August?

[Harriet]

lucylee, do you think it would be good to do the same kind? Maybe Bingo for August, a week at a time? Or something smarter (smile - not at my brightest this evening. I'm sure there are lots of others.) If it were Bingo, someone would need to play the Pam-and-Peggy style Fairy for us and proclaim a day's number, lol.