August Appointments for Declutter and Organization

[Ivy]

I took the copper spittoon off the dining room china cabinet, cleaned it, and put it on the entry way china cabinet. DH moved a tall fake potted plant over to the middle of the dining room china cabinet, I fetched the one, which was causing terrible clutter to accumulate behind the corner country sink, and he put it on the left of the cabinet. Now 3 balanced-looking fake plants are there. (Fake plants are because my kitty cat eats living plants.)

Back to the mess in the back of the corner sink. Ditched a stained 100% nylon crocheted pot scrubber and soap holder, which never worked correctly because it just turned the soap bars into mushy sludge. I cleaned the granite tiles well, cleaned little dishes for when I make some new nylon scrubbies, and put away DD's ash tray, as she smokes outdoors, rarely gets down regularly, and we don't know smokers, nor smoke, so the ash tray was clutter, although cobalt blue and pretty.

I put out a glass vase with glass flowers in it, in the corner behind the sink, for some color and to bring a bit of summer to that spot, which was dark, although there are two windows there. It's nice to have the corner sink area looking "spiffy".

[Nancy]

I de-cluttered books from the car trunk at church yesterday.

[Ivy]

We're continuing to de-clutter things for an ARC donation for pick-up on Thursday.

[ellyphant]

I did drop off that rocking chair to GW last week with other small items. Garage is looking better. Took a load of cardboard to recycle yesterday. I would love to schedule a pickup for this week, but, alas, I have a dentist appointment on pickup day. Will call them next week for sure.

[Ivy]

Added a fleece throw, a woven throw, a pillow, a pair of valances, and a wooden tray with matching wooden fruit to the ARC donation boxes. I have my favorite valance up in the utility room and disliked the shoddy work on the blue one, so maybe somebody can fix it. Also, the pillow, throws and wooden fruit tray were never used by us = clutter!

I have a round wooden bowl with wooden fruit in it, in the entry hall with a wooden mountain landscape picture where the artist cut small pieces of wood to make the scenery. The wooden bowl/fruit go nicely with that. DH said he needs to sort through his things, to see if there are more to donate.

[Ivy]

5 BOXES GO TO ARC ON THURS.!

WOO-HOO! I found throws, mugs, a drinking bottle since I've got 5, this one was new-looking and very clean, went through hats, coats, old clothes, summer clothes, valances, pillowcases, and decorative wooden fruit tray with wooden fruit. It feels so nice to have it all done. There's a bit of room in one box, to tuck in one something else, but we haven't found anything yet. It's nice to get the job done.

[Nancy]

Today cleaning cobwebs and stuff from the front of the house found some things to toss!

[ellyphant]

Found a printer box that can be recycled. The big blocks of white styrofoam will have to wait until there is room in the trash.

Good job, Ivy and Nancy!

[Ivy]

I dumped all the trash from the waste baskets today, then DH took out the garbage and recycle, then took them to the curb for pick-up day tomorrow.

Later, DH put the 5 ARC boxes on our covered porch. ARC asks they be out by 7:30 a.m. so the night before is best for us. Our driveway is 1/4-mile long and nobody comes down here, so the ARC donation's safe.

Thank you, Ellyphant, for cheering me on!

[Harriet]

Decluttering in the bedrooms this week, and emphasis here on helping dd15 declutter and reorganize her drawers. She has a storage set of 16 small (each 12x11x5 or so) utility drawers and we've moved it into the larger closet. We're making labels for each drawer, for different hair accessories, scarves, small purses, underwear. So far, she's been able to free up two of those drawers for new storage by tossing things like socks she'll never wear again, or putting young-ish hair bows into a bag for her little cousin, etc. So that's another square foot of space freed in her closet, added to the tall-kitchen-garbage-bag full of space she freed among the hanging clothes to go to donation. And I think she'll have more.

Now that we've crossed over into the 4th round of Focus cleaning for the year (and that is so hard for me to believe), I need each week to COUNT for sure.

Wow, ya'll are getting rid of some individual big items - printer and rocker for ellyphant. Also Ivy 5 boxes, wow. Well, Nancy, thank goodness you learned about the product recall and got those out of the house, even though it is frustrating and a shame, really.

ellyphant mentioned having to wait to throw away styrofoam and that reminds me, we do need to be so careful with styrofoam because it is a toxic substance to gnawing animals. Pet rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters can die if they gnaw styrofoam since it can't pass through the digestive system and kills. Any gnawing animal outdoors, too, can die if they get into it, and it's very tempting to them. My ddad learned from a vet that it's common to find wild rabbits that died because they didn't know any better than to gnaw styrofoam that was littered outdoors.