March Clutter Control, 2015

[Harriet]

March comes in like a lion, winds blowing, in North America! (Whoosh!) In Australia, a breeze in March means welcome cooling from summer heat. Take a cue from the weather and make sure each area in your home gets its breeze of your declutter attention.

Round Robins through the house are a fun break if you've been decluttering intensely in one area. Or, pick a different room each day for a while and breeze through the house systematically. Write down notes on the areas you want to offer more time in the future.

Another way to be sure each room is remembered is to join those here who are decluttering one week ahead of Focus Cleaning.

[Harriet]

If you’d like some partners while working:

Some of us like to use decluttering as a preceding step that can (literally) make cleaning a glide instead of a stumble. We go along with the Focus Cleaning Schedule (that link will take you to the Cleaning calendar in the Cleaning Forum) and we place decluttering of each of those rooms in the week AHEAD of their Focus.

So you’ll find some March declutter partners in these rooms and areas:

Week of Mar 2 – Living Room decluttering (Clean up the Kitchen!)
Week of Mar 9 – Dining Room decluttering (Clean up the Living Room!)
Week of Mar 16 – Porch/Entry decluttering (Clean up the Dining Room!)
Week of Mar 23 – Bedroom decluttering (Clean up Porch/Entry!)
Week of Mar 30 - Bathroom decluttering (Clean up Bedrooms!)

Always substitute a different Focus area whenever it will match your home’s needs best.

[ellyphant]

2 worn bedsheets and an expired medicine thrown out-----was planning to make curtains from the sheets, but not worth it to me at this time.

[DeeClutter]

I continue to declutter -being forced to by water invading our premises has caused me to look at a lot of things with new eyes. Some things I think I can store in plastic bins in the garage -will necessitate cleaning an area in the garage. And I'll need to purchase some bins -small for pictures, etc and larger ones for books.

[Nancy]

H is letting go of mags he has read in a timely manner these days, sets them aside to pass along and did that this weekend.

[DeeClutter]

That's so nice to hear, Nancy. DD's lament is how many magazines dsonil saves. He refuses to part with any and won't allow her to touch them. He has a walk-in closet and it's filled with them! Plus I've separated many on bookshelves in the art room -many that used to reside in the living room. She always says, "If anything ever happens to "dh", those will be the first to go". Wonder if he'll want to move all those if they ever decide to move......

I've cleaned off our antique bookcase and have put 4 books in the donation box, 14 in a gift bag to take to church, disposed of 3 magazines, and have a stack of 8 books for dh to go through and decide what to do with them. Some just might belong to his db. (Can I say I'm so glad none of these books were on the floor. I even dried one of lighthouse pictures and have that in the give away box now.

[Nancy]

Ds used to do the same thing with mags. Finally cleared em out. Dh & I came to an understanding after 2 mo. It goes if they have not been read by the. They will not be in all likelyhood.

Not the case with my knitting ones however LOL! I did go back for sweater patterns.

[DeeClutter]

Unfortunately dsonil is completely anal about his things -DO NOT TOUCH. But other than that he's a good guy.

Put 4 boxes of greeting cards in the give away box. Decided I almost always pick up something special if I'm sending a card anyway (albeit $ store ones). Also put boxes (really nice boxes at that) from our iphones in the recycling bin. Slowly, slowly -but it's getting easier and easier to let go.

[ellyphant]

Great work DEE and NANCY!

I took a hard look at our bookshelf and found old seminar stuff that could be recycled. Pleased about that.

[ellyphant]

Decided to donate 3 wobbly kitchen chairs. Looks like there is a move in our future and I will get new chairs after that.