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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Jan 25, 2021 8:43:26 GMT
JoP That's great progress, and for a good cause. 😁
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Chinagirl828
Drama Llama
Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 6,472
Jun 28, 2014 6:28:53 GMT
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Post by Chinagirl828 on Jan 25, 2021 8:57:39 GMT
I also accept that decluttering is an ongoing activity, and not a one off project. I give myself credit for each act of decluttering, and not only when the whole effort is finished (it never is). Thanks, I needed this reminder. I've been following along with everyone's progress but feeling like I'm not making any of my own. So those two pairs of jeans I tossed in the last week because they had holes in them are still a win, no matter how small.
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Jan 25, 2021 9:59:47 GMT
Chinagirl828 Yes, totally is a win! Heck, I did a little happy dance when I tossed a tee shirt yesterday while doing laundry. I bought it second hand over a year ago. It's too big. Not flattering. Why was I keeping this?! Gone.
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Post by MissBianca on Jan 25, 2021 13:31:09 GMT
Finally getting back into the swing of things now that my quarantined house guests are gone. They lived in the RV but it was still extra mouths to feed and laundry to do. I’m starting off slowly but so far we have moved DS19’s stuff to his dorm. That was a nightmare because we had stuff everywhere. My goal for that is a more permanent storage place before summer so it’s all in one spot. I also purged the body scrubbers. Some of the kids and I have switched backed to bar soap to get rid of plastic so I went from 10 scrubbers (why 10 when only 6 people live here) to 3. The body scrubbers will be repurposed to make washable dish sponges.
I reorganized 3 drawers in a rolling cart in my kitchen. We are now down to 1 rarely used utensil drawer instead of 2. I moved the cloth napkins to the empty drawer so now my towels are in a drawer by themselves. I also made a 2 week menu. I have completely gotten away from doing this so we have an over abundance of food. I’m trying to get back to pre-Covid food levels in the house. Now that the kids are back to school I don’t have to make 3 meals a day for 6 people anymore. This months goal is to shop the pantry and freezers.
ETA: I also went through my closet and purged a few things. I need to do more but it’s stressing me out. I’m between sizes so I’m going to wait. I do have a giant pile of running skirts I need to sell though. That has to be a priority this week.
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Post by MissBianca on Jan 25, 2021 13:32:24 GMT
I also accept that decluttering is an ongoing activity, and not a one off project. I give myself credit for each act of decluttering, and not only when the whole effort is finished (it never is). Thanks, I needed this reminder. I've been following along with everyone's progress but feeling like I'm not making any of my own. So those two pairs of jeans I tossed in the last week because they had holes in them are still a win, no matter how small. Little steps are still steps. I’m feeling overwhelmed with the sheer volume of stuff in our house so I’m focusing on one drawer, one box, one section of a room at a time.
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Jan 25, 2021 16:14:40 GMT
The last week of January and so much progress going on with everyone! Wonderful that you could help others while clearing out your wardrobe JoP . Chinagirl828 Anything you toss, rehome or organize for optimal use, no matter how small, is a WIN! This weekend I reorganized my clutch and smaller crossbody purses with the aid of these organizers. The shelf looks so much neater and I can easily pull out a single purse without rearranging the whole mess. I went with the organizers from Amazon because they were half the price of Container Store and held more handbags. The material isn't quite as heavy, plus the sides are a bit lower, but for something that is just sitting there I am happy. My next step is to organize the larger handbags that I keep in dust bags. I am going to make labels to put on the shelf edge below each purse as it is easy to forget what you have when they are hidden in the bags.
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Jan 25, 2021 16:18:12 GMT
Guilty as charged!
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Post by JoP on Jan 25, 2021 16:28:53 GMT
Guilty as charged! Same here 😁🤣
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Post by tentoes on Jan 25, 2021 16:36:20 GMT
Remember the shoes I bought last week? Well, I got rid of the box!! haha!! It was a really GOOD box, with an attached lid. I thought about covering it with some pretty shelf sticky paper, and keeping it, but out it went. I have a few empty "photo boxes" (really pretty ones) that I can use instead of the shoe box!!
I'm trying to make a little area in my mil suite for some craft activities, and so far, haven't figured out how to store many supplies. I have an empty 1/2 closet from where the shelves stop to the floor--about a 4x4 area that is empty right now, and I have a drop leaf rolling table that is about 2 1/2 x 3 foot opened up--that I can use for my working surface. I have to find a "storage unit" that will fit in my 4x4 spot now!! I also have a folding sewing table that is 4x2 feet I think. I "could" use that instead of the end table, but it's store behind my couch, and would be a "pain" to set up and put away all the time. I'm not sure the drop leaf table is "big enough" to work on!! I CAN use them both I guess!! end to end. THAT might work. I'm only going to bring in "essential" stuff from the barn to work with. I have to decide what is the "essential stuff." haha!! and do I really want the "mess" it will all involve?? I'll have to clean it up every day--It was much easier when I had a craft room at my house. When I was "finished' playing, I just left the room and closed the door. I don't have that luxury here!! My space is pretty small!!
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Post by workingclassdog on Jan 25, 2021 16:46:33 GMT
I'll pop on here cause I usually don't... but so far for January... 3 trips to ARC... about nine bags so far plus other misc. items. Mostly out of my craft room. We are getting new carpet down the line and I am packing and purging. And then I look in my room and it doesn't feel like I have gotten rid of that much I even found a box of Build a Bear clothing that DD had. She is now into PoshMark (I think that is what it's called).. she is going to sell it on there. There are TONS of outfits (mostly due to a bunch given to us)...but that is another box I got rid of..
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Post by Jessica on Jan 25, 2021 17:04:01 GMT
Happy Monday everybody! I'm still struggling through the final bits of my album reorganization project and they are more based on where I want to store albums and which albums do I get rid of rather than "how should these pages be sorted." I have a plan but it may involve an IKEA trip, so...it's complete as it will be for now.
Next up is to make the trip to Goodwill and clean out the piles that have accumulated.
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Post by dewryce on Jan 25, 2021 17:41:58 GMT
I’ve had a great month, flitting around doing a shelf here, a drawer there. I prefer working a whole area at a time so I can really see the results, but my brain is not having it so from area to area I go. To get started and not having to think I reference 3 different declutter calendars, using them in a way that works for me. For example, one calendar I’ve been done with January and well into February for over a week. But another is concentrating on the kitchen this month and that just isn’t moving me so I am doing February instead. If a listed task isn’t applicable for me, like clean child’s drawer or something, I try to substitute one of our drawers rather than ignore the task entirely. I’ve also made quite a bit of progress on various projects, rather than strait decluttering. I do think I’ll be finished getting all of our favorite recipes into Paprika before the end of the month; and currently am organizing our manuals/warranties as I go through and throw away those that belong to items we no longer own. And taking a closer look to see if it’s actually helpful And lots of similar tasks that have been ignored for far too long!
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smartypants71
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,704
Location: Houston, TX
Jun 25, 2014 22:47:49 GMT
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Post by smartypants71 on Jan 25, 2021 17:53:30 GMT
Just did my annual pantry cleanout. Gosh, I had to throw away so much expired stuff. I should probably switch to semi-annual! I also did a medicine cabinet purge. Pretty much everything was old. I've been putting off cleaning my cabinet under my bathroom sink with all the hair products. Every time I open that door, something slides out. I've been putting it off since I bought my house 5 years ago, so it's definitely time!
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Jan 25, 2021 18:43:03 GMT
dewryce - After owning the Paprika app for at least 3 years, I have finally started to use it regularly. Have just started doing a copy/paste of all my recipes that I put into Word about 20 years ago. This is going to take longer than I thought. So much nicer to just prop up my iPad in the kitchen now though. smartypants71 - My system is to do a pantry and medicine cabinet declutter/purge twice a year - January and mid-Summer. I still manage to find at least one long-expired thing every time!
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Post by MissBianca on Jan 25, 2021 19:28:28 GMT
I need an opinion from the pod. My kids bought me a new cricut maker for Christmas. Im tossing the 3 first generation machines I have, they don’t work well anymore. I had a gypsy but it died so I tossed it a long time ago. I managed to get cricut to help me load the cartridges I own on design space. So to the question. Should I toss the cartridges and the booklets? The plastic on the carts is starting to break down and they are sticky. I have the photos that cricut required to upload the carts to their design space. The maker does not have a slot for the carts and cricut isn’t making the adapter to upload them anymore. I just have this stupid fear of tossing them. I don’t really have another place to store them either. My craft room which is my dining room is being turned into a bedroom so I really need to scale down my stuff.
Permission to toss?
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Jan 25, 2021 19:53:41 GMT
Granted! If the plastic is breaking down and sticky, as well as not having an adapter, they are now obsolete paper weights. Toss the cartridges and recycle the booklets. We are in the process of getting rid of old 3.5 floppy disks that need Windows 95 or 98 programs to run. Time marches on and we have to keep up.
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Chinagirl828
Drama Llama
Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 6,472
Jun 28, 2014 6:28:53 GMT
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Post by Chinagirl828 on Jan 25, 2021 19:53:49 GMT
I need an opinion from the pod. My kids bought me a new cricut maker for Christmas. Im tossing the 3 first generation machines I have, they don’t work well anymore. I had a gypsy but it died so I tossed it a long time ago. I managed to get cricut to help me load the cartridges I own on design space. So to the question. Should I toss the cartridges and the booklets? The plastic on the carts is starting to break down and they are sticky. I have the photos that cricut required to upload the carts to their design space. The maker does not have a slot for the carts and cricut isn’t making the adapter to upload them anymore. I just have this stupid fear of tossing them. I don’t really have another place to store them either. My craft room which is my dining room is being turned into a bedroom so I really need to scale down my stuff. Permission to toss? permission granted. You have no way of using those physical cartridges. Back up the photos you needed to load them into design space to give you peace of mind.
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Post by MissBianca on Jan 25, 2021 20:06:37 GMT
I need an opinion from the pod. My kids bought me a new cricut maker for Christmas. Im tossing the 3 first generation machines I have, they don’t work well anymore. I had a gypsy but it died so I tossed it a long time ago. I managed to get cricut to help me load the cartridges I own on design space. So to the question. Should I toss the cartridges and the booklets? The plastic on the carts is starting to break down and they are sticky. I have the photos that cricut required to upload the carts to their design space. The maker does not have a slot for the carts and cricut isn’t making the adapter to upload them anymore. I just have this stupid fear of tossing them. I don’t really have another place to store them either. My craft room which is my dining room is being turned into a bedroom so I really need to scale down my stuff. Permission to toss? permission granted. You have no way of using those physical cartridges. Back up the photos you needed to load them into design space to give you peace of mind. I have the photos in the cloud plus all my photos go on 2 hard backups. I do have a scrapbooking album in the cloud with layout ideas and such. I will add the cartridge files there too
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Post by MissBianca on Jan 25, 2021 20:08:27 GMT
Granted! If the plastic is breaking down and sticky, as well as not having an adapter, they are now obsolete paper weights. Toss the cartridges and recycle the booklets. We are in the process of getting rid of old 3.5 floppy disks that need Windows 95 or 98 programs to run. Time marches on and we have to keep up. Lol we have large floppy disks kicking around here but I also still ha e computers that use them. DH is terrible about getting rid of computers. I’m like dude, pull the hard drive and toss the rest. We have to keep the hard drives for his work, security and all that jazz but I doubt the drives even work anymore.
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amom23
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,329
Jun 27, 2014 12:39:18 GMT
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Post by amom23 on Jan 25, 2021 22:59:09 GMT
I've pretty much finished my basement clean out project. Man it feels good especially since I've been wanting to do it for a couple years now. There was quite a bit that I tossed. I also have a decent size donation pile that I plan to add to when I go through the rest of the house again. The rest of it was just reorganized. The new shelves are great and it's so nice to not have my storage tubs stacked on top of each other.
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PLurker
Prolific Pea
Posts: 9,742
Location: Behind the Cheddar Curtain
Jun 28, 2014 3:48:49 GMT
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Post by PLurker on Jan 25, 2021 23:30:06 GMT
2 shelves came. One down... (or rather "up" [img class="smile" alt=" " one to go. srcc="//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/wink.png"] ) getting there, slowly but surely. http://instagr.am/p/CKe-tMaAqvE
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Post by dewryce on Jan 26, 2021 0:27:07 GMT
PLurker your shelf looks great! And you have a knack for placing things on it, I am definitely missing thy gene and am in awe anytime I run across someone who has it! **GypsyGirl** It is taking me longer than I thought as well. Many of our recipes are online so I can download them and just make changes; but those that aren’t can take quite a while. I love how easy it is to add photos though, so that all of the recipes I got from cookbooks have the original photo.
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Post by Linda on Jan 26, 2021 2:20:08 GMT
PLurker - love the shelf and I agree with dewryce - you have a knack that I too am missing. **GypsyGirl** - that was a project I did last year or the year before and have not once regretted the time involved. One thing I still need to do is start snapping pics as I make stuff so I can add photos where needed. MissBianca - permission granted - and yes, we still have quite a few old CPUs sitting around here - at least one dating back to DOS days preWindows. DH has this idea that he'll get it running again and be able to play his old DOS games - even IF he could, he hasn't in 20+ years and I doubt the games will be as good as he remembers. I did get his permission to bring about a half dozen to the computer place for recycling a couple of years ago - maybe we'll be able to get rid of a few more during this move amom23 - well one - that's an awesome accomplishment not much decluttering today - 2 teddy bears, a measuring cup set and a measuring spoon set. Electrican comes Thursday and the cleaner, hopefully, on Friday so we can start moving stuff over this weekend. I suspect it'll take several weekends at least. But it'll be a start. I did add some stuff today - DH's cousin sent us a box with Grandmom's sewing kit including a pin cushion that belonged to her mother and a bunch of photos and clippings and a photo copy of Grandmom's journal. I feel very fortunate that DH's family has appointed me keeper of the family history/archives.
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Post by melonhead on Jan 26, 2021 14:36:53 GMT
OK, I'm new on this thread. I had a loaded wire shelf collapse in my closet late last week. While I know I should be thining out the clothes, I started decluttering with giving away small kitchen appliances on the Freecycle. Why am I avoiding the clothes on the floor of the closet?
I've decided to bite the bullet and get real shelves instead of the wire ones, so everything must come out of the walk in closet. And I have to find a contractor or handyman to do it.
I need a freaking jumpstarter.
Ellen
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Jan 26, 2021 20:24:36 GMT
melonhead - Welcome to the thread! It sounds like you have the perfect opportunity to declutter your clothing once you get your new shelves installed. Don't let it overwhelm you, just focus on one category at a time. Not sure why, but clothes are hard for many. Not only are you dealing with the actual clothing item, but the memories (great date/event), hopes (gonna lose that weight!), dreams (when I lose 50 lbs I'll wear this), thrift (it was a good bargain/I paid SO much for this). I'm sure there are many more reasons/roadblocks as well. It's been 5+ years since I started downsizing/decluttering and there are still items of clothing/accessories that should leave this house but haven't!
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Post by melonhead on Jan 26, 2021 20:44:17 GMT
Funny about thinning out the clothes. My immediate reaction is that I just did that, but apparently it was 3 years ago. I'm of the opinion that when I clean something I expect it to stay clean without further effort from me. I know it doesn't work that way. Sigh
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Post by Linda on Jan 26, 2021 22:21:24 GMT
still packing, still weeding out as we go. About 50 or so kids books hit the donation pile today - they'll go to a 5th grade classroom...economically disadvantaged school, 1st year teacher.
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Post by dewryce on Jan 27, 2021 0:10:38 GMT
still packing, still weeding out as we go. About 50 or so kids books hit the donation pile today - they'll go to a 5th grade classroom...economically disadvantaged school, 1st year teacher. That must feel great, to be able to help them out like that. I am sure the teacher is thrilled!
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PLurker
Prolific Pea
Posts: 9,742
Location: Behind the Cheddar Curtain
Jun 28, 2014 3:48:49 GMT
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Post by PLurker on Jan 27, 2021 0:57:37 GMT
Got the matching shelf (to the one shown up thread) put together and up on other side of TV.
Didn't get a whole lot of anything else done as I was waiting for the scheduled pickup from FedEx THAT NEVER CAME!! I called and they promised tomorrow. Again.
They are supposed to pick up a cube cabinet for my spare/craft room that arrived in the wrong color. Another thing I have to wait to arrive again. Want to get things done while I'm on a roll and before I hit another 'eh' wall. Or hurt myself again. Knock on wood.
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Jan 27, 2021 9:04:25 GMT
Great job ladies! MissBianca Definitely permission granted! I'm giving myself the same permission to toss old clear stamps that have turned sticky or oily. melonhead Welcome to the thread! Good luck with your closet. Clothes are funny like that, with all the memories and hopes attached. I bet your closet will inspire you once new shelves are in place. Yesterday I finally mailed back an Amazon return, after it sitting for a month+ on my desk. Glad that bit of visual clutter is gone and will stop mocking me.
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