Chinagirl828
Drama Llama
Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 6,475
Jun 28, 2014 6:28:53 GMT
|
Post by Chinagirl828 on Jan 2, 2016 9:07:44 GMT
She likes getting the money for the outgrown toys so she can choose age appropriate things that she wants without hitting up the family wallet quite so hard. I think this is a great way to motivate the kids to help. I've been super motivated today and cleaned out the sewing patterns that were in my sewing table and started on the closet in the same room. A lot of it went back in (family photos and memorabilia that I really need to finish scanning) but I managed to throw away a good couple of armfuls of stuff. Am I the only one that gets distracted easily and starts cleaning somewhere else in the middle of my current task? I started on the closet at lunch time, went through the boxes of CDs that are stored there and pulled out a heap to get rid of, then decided that the space left in the box would be a great place to store old cassette tapes that I want to keep so emptied out that location, then decided something else in that spot would be better stored somewhere else so started moving that ... then finally decided I should really do something about the huge mess I left on the floor in front of the open closet.
|
|
kathyb
Junior Member
Posts: 52
Dec 29, 2014 22:50:04 GMT
|
Post by kathyb on Jan 2, 2016 9:14:03 GMT
My sister has challenged me to sort our clothes. We are turning our hangers round the other way and then after a set time the ones that still remain show those clothes not worn and therefore need to go.
|
|
|
Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Jan 2, 2016 13:17:20 GMT
Okay, it's early yet today, but this is what I've done so far.
I cleaned out my purse. Purse clutter counts.
And cleaned out my wallet. Why did I think I needed to keep all those receipts? Gas receipts? Really? But I guess it's so easy just to tuck it into my wallet & continue along with my day. Well, they're gone.
|
|
|
Post by mikklynn on Jan 2, 2016 14:04:43 GMT
Chinagirl828No, you are not alone in getting distracted! I made a conscious effort yesterday to clean one room at a time after the holidays and having our son's family here for a week. I feel like the older I get, the more easily I am distracted. It worked SO well! And, I felt like I really accomplished things. Both guest rooms have clean sheets, everything put in it's place, and look awesome. I did our bedroom, too. On the purging front, I found two boxes of small Christmas ornaments for a little tree I don't even have any longer! Thank goodness I looked through them, because I found a little bird ornament from the 1950s that belonged to my grandmother. I am donating 90% of the boxes.
|
|
|
Post by mikklynn on Jan 2, 2016 14:08:46 GMT
One of the last things that I have to "de-clutter" are photos. I know that I have negatives & thumb drives & dvd's that have the pictures on them, BUT, the actual photos are difficult for me to shred or destroy. I have 2 big Rubbermaid totes full of photos and negatives. A lot of the pictures are of my dd (deceased) and I am having a very difficult (tearful & sorrow) time of the actual pictures. I don't have room for these totes as I would like to make my storage space in my condo a bit easier to move around in.
I have already taken pictures of all of her school projects stuff and have that on a thumb drive. I have a few special pieces that I have kept but the d@mmed photos are just about doing me in. A couple of years ago, I did put a bunch of them (duplicates) into a suitcase and left them at my x's place. He called and asked what he should do with this stuff and I told him to deal with it. She has been gone for 11 years, and yet, the actual photos, yes I have negatives & dvd's are torture to part with. They have been in these totes for 10 years. I need someone to simply take the totes and have the stuff shredded for me. I have downsized her clothing to her 4 favourite t-shirts, a sweater and 2 hoodies. This is so physically painful for me to do. She was so pretty & I miss her so much.
HELP!!!! Aw, I can't imagine how hard this is for you. But, please, re-read your post. You have done so much already. You got rid of the duplicates, you've dealt with her school projects, and downsized her clothing. That is a LOT. Do you have a friend that would hold the totes for a while? I really don't think you are ready to shred the contents. You'll know when you are. You parted with other things as you were ready. Hugs, dear pea friend.
|
|
|
Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Jan 2, 2016 14:51:12 GMT
I just trashed all the Christmas trash from my daughters' room. Boxes and wrap and Styrofoam, oh my!
And as I'm doing laundry, I'm tossing the outgrown clothes from dd2, who doesn't purge them even though I just bought her well-fitting clothes this past month.
|
|
Nanner
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,968
Jun 25, 2014 23:13:23 GMT
|
Post by Nanner on Jan 2, 2016 15:59:52 GMT
Yikes. I went through the pantry and tossed 1-1/2 trash bags of expired packages!
|
|
|
Post by crazy4scraps on Jan 2, 2016 16:58:32 GMT
She likes getting the money for the outgrown toys so she can choose age appropriate things that she wants without hitting up the family wallet quite so hard. I think this is a great way to motivate the kids to help. I thought I would get a lot more resistance than I did from her, she takes after her dad who is a bit of a hoarder and she likes hanging onto things. But when I told her she could have ALL the money from the toys that sold (I keep the money from her clothes, to buy bigger clothes), she was definitely on board with it and quickly found quite a few things to get rid of last time. Hopefully that will work again even though the next sale is still a few months away so the gratification won't be quite as immediate. She made $74 last time and had a blast spending "her" money on new stuff.
|
|
|
Post by crazy4scraps on Jan 2, 2016 17:01:11 GMT
Yikes. I went through the pantry and tossed 1-1/2 trash bags of expired packages! I need to do this too. We have a bunch of open stale bags of cereal, crackers and other stuff in our pantry and almost all of it can go to the chickens who will happily gobble it up! Now if I could just get DD to finish one bag of stuff before opening another one, I'm golden.
|
|
|
Post by salem on Jan 3, 2016 1:45:50 GMT
I'm so done with living in clutter and crap. We have a very small home which doesn't help. Any extra stuff gets suffocating. After many years of living with two kids and all their stuff, stuff, and more stuff and a husband who not only tends to procrastinate but hates to clean out, I'm ready to start the process to a clean house. If they don't want to help, the crap is going out anyway.
I started in younger DD's room. I took several trash bags of paper, old toys and books out. Some trash and others for donation.
Moved into our room which also has a nice desk my DH built for my crafting. I'm about 1/2 way through and hoping to make a huge jump tomorrow. I need to have a peaceful space. After I'm organized in there, I want to paint and get new bed linens and curtains.
Tomorrow the tree and decorations are coming down. That room just needs to have the furniture moved back in place. We did major clean out in there before the holidays.
Next week, cabinets.
|
|
finaledition
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,896
Jun 26, 2014 0:30:34 GMT
|
Post by finaledition on Jan 3, 2016 1:53:04 GMT
I'm keeping a running list of small areas to declutter and every time I read a post here I keep adding to it. But in the last two days I bagged a year's worth of 2 magazines to bring to the library, 1 bag of old/not using Xmas decor, and 1 bag of outerwear to donate. Plus I got my husband to go through a basket of magazines and catalogs and recycle those. Tomorrow is the last day of vacation for everybody so I may skip tomorrow and then go full force on Monday.
|
|
|
Post by AussieMeg on Jan 3, 2016 2:22:54 GMT
I was looking for my iced tea jug but the cupboard was full to overflowing so I decided to clean it out. I threw out a lot of old stuff such as straw baskets, a gazillion drink bottle lids, old tins and jars, baby bottles from when my kids were babies ( ) , cups, egg holders etc. There were also 15 stubby holders in the cupboard. For those who don't know what a stubby holder is: How many does one man need? I asked DSO to pick a few he wanted to keep and I would chuck out the rest: "Oh no, you can't throw stubby holders away!" This from the man who is forever on my case about getting rid of my scrapbook supplies or cookbooks etc.
|
|
|
Post by papercrafteradvocate on Jan 3, 2016 2:27:50 GMT
I'm totally cleaning out my craft room and purging tons!
|
|
|
Post by carolynhasacat on Jan 3, 2016 2:28:46 GMT
I'm so done with living in clutter and crap. We have a very small home which doesn't help. Any extra stuff gets suffocating. After many years of living with two kids and all their stuff, stuff, and more stuff and a husband who not only tends to procrastinate but hates to clean out, I'm ready to start the process to a clean house. If they don't want to help, the crap is going out anyway. Moved into our room which also has a nice desk my DH built for my crafting. I'm about 1/2 way through and hoping to make a huge jump tomorrow. I need to have a peaceful space. After I'm organized in there, I want to paint and get new bed linens and curtains. Yes, I know exactly what you mean about a peaceful space. There's not one room in my house that's peaceful. Working on fixing that because it's so stressful!
|
|
|
Post by papercrafteradvocate on Jan 3, 2016 2:33:33 GMT
I keep a box on each floor (3) and just put items in it to get rid of. Stuff I want to sell goes into a large bin in the basement for now.
I have 3 closets that are virtually empty!
I also have a tote bag in my hallway for thinks that I think my coworkers might like and I take it in at least 2x a week.
I need to come up with a short term purge/clean plan as I could spend days in my craft room!
We moved into a new place, so we are not to far off goals of keeping a simpler life, but still have items in bins from the old house that need sorted out.
|
|
|
Post by redshoes on Jan 3, 2016 2:47:21 GMT
I don't know what has gotten in to me this year, other than I'm sick of seeing the same to do's on my list ALL year long: clean out toys in den, clean out art room, clean out kids closets/coat closet, etc. In the last week, I've done it all!! Well, actually, I still have the kitchen junk drawer to go through, but I'll get it done this weekend! I'm on a roll and I love it!
I have huge piles to take to goodwill or toys to donate to my sons school, books to pass on, etc! For the first time in a long time, I feel like we truly are having a fresh clean start to the new year!!
|
|
|
Post by AussieMeg on Jan 3, 2016 3:35:05 GMT
I've just done the kids' bathroom. OMG, WHY can't my DD throw empty jars/tubes of stuff OUT?!?! And used make-up remover pads? For some reason she puts them BACK IN THE DRAWER even though there is a perfectly functional rubbish bin RIGHT NEAR THE SINK! And there were 5 (FIVE!) empty shampoo/conditoner bottles in the shower! Surely, any normal person would throw the empty bottles OUT at the same time that you get a new one. Or is that too much to ask? I threw out 2 garbage bags worth of stuff.
|
|
zookeeper
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,909
Aug 28, 2014 2:37:56 GMT
|
Post by zookeeper on Jan 3, 2016 3:44:18 GMT
I just opened this thread and I am going to shoot for 5 items to purge tomorrow. We have a lot going on tomorrow so I am going to focus on small easy things to purge. That way I will feel a little accomplished and feel motivated to do more next weekend.
|
|
tincin
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,368
Jul 25, 2014 4:55:32 GMT
|
Post by tincin on Jan 3, 2016 4:32:03 GMT
I am on a roll. Cleaned/straightened the basement today. Tossed a bunch of stuff, old shoes, empty boxes, misc. things that I have no explanation for. It's so easy for that area to become a catch all. Both my recycling bin and my garbage bin are filled with an additional box that will have to be tossed in by hand. My trash collectors are going to boycott my house soon. I have started a donation pile but I am not counting those items until they are officially donated. I am currently at 12/2016. I have to average getting rid of 5.5 things a day so I am right on target. Next up, my coat closet. I know of at least 3 coats and several scarfs and pairs of mittens that will be going into the donation pile.
|
|
Deleted
Posts: 0
May 13, 2024 0:26:13 GMT
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2016 6:09:30 GMT
My husband threw my lint troll away. The space between my washer and dryer looks naked.
|
|
|
Post by AN on Jan 3, 2016 14:07:48 GMT
Over the last couple days Iwent through all the closets and drawers and shelves and did a round of decluttering. We have stuff pretty well pared down, but I still have to do a pass through a few times a year to keep on to of it. We used to have a "doom room" and when we first got married had a garage sale where we sold over $800 worth of stuff (nothing over $10, most under $2), and still took 2 stuffed car loads to Goodwill. It is much easier now to do a pass a few times a year. We also usually stop at Goodwill in DH's hometown the day after Christmas because he has one aunt who gifts excessively and lots of stuff we can't use - although she is getting better.
Sold a juicer on Craigslist yesterday. That thing was never getting used again, let's be serious. Yesterday I took a couple bags to Goodwill with clothes I no longer wear, a couple knives we don't use (safely packaged and marked!), a metal pan I don't use, some cat toys, a game we won't play, some stuff DH had in a bag in the closet for 6 months, and some beer koozies. Somehow DH got to digging through the bag and was concerned I was getting rid of 4 beer koozies - we have easily over 15 left, and the drawer didn't open easily. Seriously dude. He went back to the drawer and swapped some out... they were all freebie cheapos. -_-
I also packed up a bag of nicer clothes to send to Thredup, which will get picked up tomorrow.
I love purging stuff...
|
|
Deleted
Posts: 0
May 13, 2024 0:26:13 GMT
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2016 15:54:31 GMT
Just cleaned out the lazy susan cupboard ... Holy crap that felt good!
Ann
|
|
AnotherPea
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,968
Jan 4, 2015 1:47:52 GMT
|
Post by AnotherPea on Jan 3, 2016 16:12:08 GMT
Started yesterday with some containers from the attic. Tossed some pants and handed some down to dd. Also got rid of some Christmas stuff I'll never use again.
I haven't decided quite yet, but I think I'm going for 520 items. Ten per week. Might end up shooting for 2016.
Yesterday alone got me 32.
|
|
Nanner
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,968
Jun 25, 2014 23:13:23 GMT
|
Post by Nanner on Jan 3, 2016 16:23:29 GMT
January 3 - today I went into the cupboard in the main bathroom and tossed:
a make-up travel box tin with 3 lush bath bombs Lush Volcano (never used) 3 candles unopened container of leg wax (expired)
|
|
luckyexwife
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,067
Jun 25, 2014 21:21:08 GMT
|
Post by luckyexwife on Jan 3, 2016 18:16:04 GMT
One of the last things that I have to "de-clutter" are photos. I know that I have negatives & thumb drives & dvd's that have the pictures on them, BUT, the actual photos are difficult for me to shred or destroy. I have 2 big Rubbermaid totes full of photos and negatives. A lot of the pictures are of my dd (deceased) and I am having a very difficult (tearful & sorrow) time of the actual pictures. I don't have room for these totes as I would like to make my storage space in my condo a bit easier to move around in.
I have already taken pictures of all of her school projects stuff and have that on a thumb drive. I have a few special pieces that I have kept but the d@mmed photos are just about doing me in. A couple of years ago, I did put a bunch of them (duplicates) into a suitcase and left them at my x's place. He called and asked what he should do with this stuff and I told him to deal with it. She has been gone for 11 years, and yet, the actual photos, yes I have negatives & dvd's are torture to part with. They have been in these totes for 10 years. I need someone to simply take the totes and have the stuff shredded for me. I have downsized her clothing to her 4 favourite t-shirts, a sweater and 2 hoodies. This is so physically painful for me to do. She was so pretty & I miss her so much.
HELP!!!! I'm so sorry for your loss. Could you maybe give the totes to a trusted friend, and she could go through the photos, put the best ones in a photo album or two, and get rid of the rest of them for you? That way, when you are ready, you can still easily look at the photo albums.
|
|
quiltz
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,703
Location: CANADA
Jun 29, 2014 16:13:28 GMT
|
Post by quiltz on Jan 3, 2016 18:40:34 GMT
luckyexwife - unfortunately no, I cannot give them to a trusted friend to do this for me.
One of the parts of being an adult is that it is you, the person, who needs to work through stuff and not push aside for others to do. This is part of project within my therapy treatment. A friend wouldn't really know "which" photo would mean a lot to me, as there are several candid shots, thankfully, this is before the camera phone became popular (2004 and earlier).
|
|
AnotherPea
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,968
Jan 4, 2015 1:47:52 GMT
|
Post by AnotherPea on Jan 3, 2016 18:55:21 GMT
Wow- cleaned out half of the second attic. Tossing tons of stuff that I'll never need and might miss once a decade. I won't add the total to my list until dh has taken it all to the dump/goodwill but right now I'm sitting on 100 + items that are leaving forever!
|
|
scrappinghappy
Pearl Clutcher
“I’m late, I’m late for a very important date. No time to say “Hello.” Goodbye. I’m late...."
Posts: 4,306
Jun 26, 2014 19:30:06 GMT
|
Post by scrappinghappy on Jan 3, 2016 19:20:57 GMT
How did 2 drawers in my dresser hold an entire garbage bags worth of give aways? Next up.. shirts and scarves
|
|
Gravity
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,229
Jun 27, 2014 0:29:55 GMT
|
Post by Gravity on Jan 3, 2016 20:17:54 GMT
I cleaned out my makeup caddy and threw out stuff I never use. I also cleaned out my bathroom cabinet and threw out toiletries that never get used.
|
|
|
Post by meridon on Jan 3, 2016 20:22:34 GMT
I waged war on the closets yesterday and got rid of a pile of clothes from my closet, 4 or 5 old blankets, coverlets and sheets for a bed we don't even own any more. I also went through the hall closet and linen closet and got rid of 10 or so old towels and wash cloths and two old shower curtains. I also got rid of 3 florist vases and a bunch of old office supplies like CDs and envelopes for them. All told, it was a copy box full of stuff and 6 large trash bags full of items taken to the Goodwill and two bags of trash.
|
|