November Clutter Control

[Harriet]

How did you do on your 15-minute areas last month? Are there a few rooms you can point to in which you really made a difference? How much remains to be done for your calendar goals (a holiday gathering, enough space to complete holiday decorating & wrapping/activities, or perhaps a year-end goal)?

Now if it's getting a little more serious when you look at the calendar and you realize you may need to bring out the big guns, go back to basics with Pam Young and Peggy Jones' advice. They suggested the use of

large boxes

to really move fast on decluttering projects. The boxes are labeled for 4 different functions:

"give away",
"throw away",
"put away",
"storage".

Don't sidetrack in sorting the "storage" now - just keep filling more storage boxes as you go, stack, and deal with them later. The "put away" box is an "anti-sidetracking device", too! Toss the put-aways in and, while you're decluttering, put them out of your mind. But when the "give away" and "throw away" boxes are full, go ahead and empty them right away into donation bags and trash bags and start filling again. With large boxes to toss into quickly and carry away, you can go from cluttered to clever FAST.

And last but NOT least, remember P and P's advice to wear an apron with a pocket! The pocket should hold a 3x5 notepad and pen for making notes as you find things you've been looking for for years and as you brainstorm about where to use duplicate supplies, etc.

What are your 4-Box-System success stories from the past?
Where do you find large boxes?
Or do you use laundry baskets or other helpful containers instead?
How can you use ordianary BOXES this month to jumpstart your house to Lovely Home status?

[Harriet]

Pam and Peggy suggested beginning at the front door of the home working around clockwise, then kitchen, then moving on to any other story of the house. This is a great month to choose that back-to-basics path if you'd like a jumpstart!

Focus Cleaners will be on maintenance this month but will have 2 weeks of concentration, for Thanksgiving cleaning and Holiday-decor cleaning. If those areas of your home need your attention before they are focus-cleaned, and it would help to be working on the same projects with others, come find FOCUS declutterers getting ready in :

Week of Nov. 16 - Thanksgiving-specific areas
Week of Nov. 23 - Holiday-decor-specific areas

[blessedw2]

Clutter is taking over my home again. I think its because I haven't culled every week.
and things aren't being put away. I can't believe how fast that happened.

[Nancy]

A bit of progress to report here:

I've pulled chalk pens and pencils from the toy zone
as younger grandchildren don't need to be tempted with
these items, I"ll be sorting these soon.

I noticed plastic bags are stacking up in the pantry
and will be going in to the car trunk to donate today.

Yesterday I put a book in the car to go also.

[Dove]

I love P&P's four box method! Years ago our basement had become a storage pit --er, area -- & general "put it there for now" place for misc things that did not yet have a home. I was so thrilled to donate still useful items & toss what should have been tossed years ago because the end result was so satisfying.

I added a fifth box category, "Ask dh" because a lot of the items were his & even though many things could obviously be thrown away I still wanted it to be his decision. This had an added side benefit, as dh embraced the "dare to dump it!" mentally once he started tossing & saw some of the junk that had been in storage for years. I loved it when I would ask him to make keep or toss decisions on the boxes with his name & he said, "This whole box can be thrown out."

There is still stuff to be gone through in several unfinished portions of the basement, but the finished off area looks nice & clutter free. I really like not having to look at a mess every time I go down there to do laundry.

I have been getting free boxes from Borders bookstores for years. They are sturdy & a good size; most are the same size. They have "cardboard only" dumpsters so they are clean & I pick them up already flattened & retape the bottoms at home as needed. This makes it easier for me to store them, too. Come to think of it, this is a great time of year to find lots of boxes there as they are stocking up for the holidays.

[Nancy]

Grocery bags to be re-cycled have been
put in the car trunk for delivery.
Dgkids helped with this!

Hubby and dson were sorting tools yesterday.

[blessedw2]

great job decluttering everyone!!!

my home is filling with clutter that I really have to say no to. but this time it has been useful stuff. I have to start missing my LET GO chant to work through it.

[sherinjoy]

Hi - congratulations to all the declutterers! It's hard work and I'm glad we're sticking to it this year. I just wanted to post that I am on day 310 of 365 days of the year, still decluttering at least one thing every day. I have been focusing on paper for the last 5 weeks, and it is going very slowly but I have made some progress to keep me going. Paper is about decisions for me - what do I do with this piece of paper? I have been stashing it for years and now I am dealing with it, and making decisions about what stays and what goes. Slow going, but must be done. At some point soon, I will take a break from it and get back to bigger, easier items - like the garage junk!

I'm getting rid of a bunch of magazines this weekend - old Smithsonians and Mary Englebreit mags that have been in the closet forever - need to let go. A group is asking for them for art projects - collages - and it was the perfect opportunity for me to give them away.

Cheering you all on!

[Harriet]

Great consistency, sherinjoy! The magazines can now be well-used for others.

Sensible tip about bookstores, Dove. Your basement sounds like a success story for sure.

Nancy, we are so much better off with tools sorted - good for your ds and dh, they will be glad.

It's tougher when an item can be called "useful", isn't it, blessed?

Here at home, I worked on papers (big surprise) and keeping a perfectly maintained dining room. The kitchen is in trouble. HRH says we probably need more cabinets. I don't know - I tend to worry that I'm not being efficient enough with the storage we do have. Efficiency takes time.

Boxes - For the papers, new "bankers boxes" (cardboard, but colorful and glossy) are very helpful right now, and remind me of how boxes help "wrap our minds around" the sorting.

At my parents, I continue with approximately 15 mins per day, 7 days a week. I usually get this done during the time that they eat, between cooking and washing-up chores for me. Today was especially good, and I got to empty and break down one mid-size box of mostly-linens about 2 ft by 2 ft in the dining room. (Not one of the bank of larger identical boxes.) I also prepared a large shelf in a hall closet for my ddad's kennel memorabilia and stored it there. I continue to find rosettes and ribbons, however - there are so many. Along with general consolidation, this means the "visual" of my parents' dining area is widening and clearing - maybe 10 square feet more to walk around in this month alone. Still a big project.

My initial idea had been to declutter spare room space and tote everything from dining room to those spaces to have a pretty dining room, THEN declutter dining room stuff. The best way I can explain the derailment of that idea is that I make progress until I reach a point at which what is before me must be called, "IMPOSSIBLE" . And then I retreat in bewilderment and make progress on another front the best I can.

[Harmony]

Harriet, I do hope your DParents appreciate your hard work in their house.

Here in my office I have a 6' wide closet with 6 full-width shelves, plus I use the floor underneath the bottom one. I have been in here for two days working on it.

I just now measured and I have cleared 124 linear inches - can that be right? Yes I just remeasured it and there's more than 10' of empty space I have now, plus little pockets of space between things as stuff isn't crammed together.

I have filled up the outside can (big one) and the inside tall kitchen size is presently filled. Big huge blueprint packages mostly. No sense keeping duplicates of stuff that is done, no sense keeping prints of projects in buildings that have blown away in the hurricane and are no more. It took 2 whole days, but boy am I pleased!

I just edited, was thinking about what I typed, I'd gotten my inches and feet mixed up and said 124 linear feet, my goodness that would have been a lot!