2024 Organizing & Decluttering Thread

She is finally resting a bit, which is a good thing. I've gotten most of the car packed (I have my backpack, medicine, toiletries, etc that I'll load up in the morning), so it should be easy to leave and pick up 2 of the dogs from the kennel.

This visit was a bit frustrating, as there were a variety of reasons why she isn't a candidate for the new Alzheimer’s medicine. I wish I knew more about what to expect for her progression, but I know every case is different. She has declined remarkably over the past few years, and I don't know when/if we'll be back at Mayo.

She got a nerve block for some abdominal pain today, so I'm hoping it kicks in soon (I read it can take up to a week to take full effect). If it works, I think it will improve her quality of life a lot.

I need to figure out how to make her stop driving so wish me luck on that front.

He basically told her that and recommended she get tested for driving if she insists on it, so that it my next route. I woke up to her crying this weekend about me "trying to take away her freedoms." I'd hide her keys, but she is obsessive about keeping hold of them. Maybe I'll pop out the batteries on the fobs.

Thank you for praying for her/me. She's been really secretive about all of this, and the only people who know about her diagnosis are her doctors, a few of my friends (whom she never talks to), and our pastor. My immediate family knows of the MCI (mild cognitive impairment), but not about the Alzheimer’s, as she doesn't want to tell them. I don't think she's told any of her friends, although I'm sure many of them suspect something. It's been draining.

Hugs to you. Alzheimer’s is such a horrible disease. I hope you have support as it’s hard to be a caregiver. Stopping them from driving can be really hard.

linda Thank you for posting the Cleaning Grand Plan challenge for this week, and it matches up with the declutter calendar for the week…perfect! Feeling pretty crappy so tonight I’ll get this written out specific to our needs and decide which areas I’d like to concentrate on this time around. 


That’s so great that he gets to do that, and how many grandparents/grandchildren get the opportunity to really get to know each other like that?!? Very cool.


Thank you, you are too! Gotta love it when they’re volunteering to get rid of items. Doesn’t sound weird at all. We are helping my brother with his spaces, and DH found at least a dozen cards in them, I think one went back to 2009. We keep ours all together in a specific spot but often forget about them. So I have 3 or 4 cards and a set of movie tickets I need to check and see if are any good or even have any money on them. I always manage to lose the post-its or get them mixed up so I just use a sharpie. Will do that tonight, thanks for the reminder!



I agree with you, it’s a great method when you want/need to avoid making it worse before it gets better, and I know a lot of people function better like that and are more highly motivated when they work like that! I do the same when I just want to pop in and do a drawer or small area but don’t have time to clean everything and reorganize. And I love that even if you get interrupted part way through everything is still greatly improved when you stop. 

But even as a child every Saturday when it was time to clean my room I would take everything out of all my drawers, wipe them out, and reorganize all of my belongings. It drove my mom to distraction! No idea how she didn’t smother me in my sleep    I mean, she probably wouldn’t have been out of line to show me a better way to handle it, but…Anyway, there is a benefit from doing those unseen areas first because that’s usually a lot of storage and when you're cleaning/decluttering the visible areas first you need some place to put things. And you can’t because the drawers and cabinets are full. But, that doesn’t really help if you lose motivation so soon after you start because you’re not seeing visible progress. 

And nothing shows us what our home really looks like than the threat of someone coming over, does it?  


I’ve never heard of this, what an excellent program! Will definitely keep it in mind for when DH has business attire to pass on, thank you. 


Glad y’all are heading home, have a safe trip!

Daily declutter task from My Simpler Life Declutter Calendar:

Clear off the center of your dresser top.

If you don’t have a dresser, or the top is clear work on a clothing drawer or two.

Bonus: If you have items plugged in on top of your dresser consider doing what you did to your nightstand, and attach a wire holder to keep your wires neat and tidy.

Finally got some things posted on Buy Nothing and several of them are already off to their new homes yesterday with a couple more things out on the porch now waiting for pickup!  I love it when it’s easy.

DD wanted a shelf in her room but DH broke the toe kick skirt off of the one that had been in there. I flipped it over and looked at the little plastic parts that snapped off and thought, hmm. Wonder if there’s something on Thingiverse that I could 3D print to fix that thing? Sure enough there was a perfect replica for the part, and 27 minutes later I had three new pieces printed to replace the broken ones! Fixed the shelf, put it back in her room, and she already started getting her stuff on it last night.   While she’s not jazzed that it isn’t white like she wants (cheap laminate doesn’t paint too well), at least she has a shelf for now until I can find her a bigger, nicer one at the right price. This is DH’s slow time of year for work, so we’re holding off on spending a lot for stuff we don’t really need until later in the spring when his schedule starts filling up more regularly again and the budget has a little more breathing room.

Ironically, I LOVE peel and stick wallpaper and did that very thing with a different smaller shelf that was intended for her room and she hated it! I found the prettiest floral self stick wallpaper that was white with flowers in the color she has always said was her favorite shade of peachy pink that I was certain she was going to love. I did a really nice job, was extra careful and lined only the inside of the cubbies with it so it would be a nice accent piece for her room and she rejected it out of hand because “the flowers have green leaves and it doesn’t match my room’s aesthetic.” I swear to God you can’t make this crap up! 🙄 I was so tempted to tell her, “Fine, then you get NO shelf!” But sadly, she really does need the extra storage for clothes and books. She finally did agree to use that shelf inside her closet where no one would see it. It kind of kills me, because it really did turn out pretty. After doing all that work and using that expensive wallpaper, I wasn’t going to take it off.

On a related point, I have used peel and stick wallpapers for many DIY and upcycling projects and the good stuff isn’t cheap. It’s like $50 a roll and it would easily take more than one roll to cover the 6’ tall shelf she has. I could just buy her a whole new white laminate shelf at Target for $40 but DH said no (at least not right now), so here we are. And honestly, the shelf she’s using is so cheap it isn’t even worth investing in three cans of spray paint to try to change it. So I’ll keep my feelers out for something on Marketplace that will fit or watch for a tall white one on clearance at Target like the one in her closet (minus the pink flowers, ugh).

And with that, I’m off to Target to return the pink sweater I “just KNEW” she would love—and then she didn’t. Teenagers! 🙄🤦🏻‍♀️ One more thing out of the house, only this time I’m getting my money back.

Oh, I hear you on all points! What sucks is that this project with her room reno has been going on for close to a year now and it has quickly turned into a “give a mouse a cookie” scenario. I wanted to pull out the carpet since she was diagnosed with a pretty good dust mite allergy when she was nine and replace with hard surface flooring, but at that time we were eyeballs deep in our lake cabin rebuild so tearing the house apart too wasn’t going to happen.

Then when she was turning 13 last year we agreed to redo certain aspects of her bedroom to reflect her current more grown up tastes. One thing has led to another, and another, and ANOTHER in there, so the scope of the project has had continually moving goal posts (and costs) so I really can’t blame DH for not really wanting to spend a bunch more money on things that are just want to haves or nice to haves at this point. Thankfully she’s a pretty decent kid who doesn’t typically act all entitled, she just doesn’t hesitate to point out what her likes and dislikes are, LOL.

I bagged up a few more items of DH's clothes. I felt like my DD was upset at the pace I donated his clothes after he passed. I have just a few things left finally.

I'm working on cleaning the pantry and reorganizing it.

1000x yes! I’m a natural shopper…with bipolar disorder. Scary combo! So this is definitely a skill I had to learn, and have to keep working on. Unfortunately, DH is a shopper as well. Normally we try and keep each other in check, but when we both need retail therapy? Eeesh. I have gotten a lot better at shopping from the wish lists of things we actually need though, so at least it’s not bringing in things that are just fun for a moment. 

lg, the markets sounds interesting. Are these booths in a building?

I went through a bunch of paper then shredded it and bagged it up for recycling. Last weeks bin was picked up early this morning. Went through cardboard boxes we were keeping. Suggested to dh to collapse them good as I am going through things. Listed a couple more things in Facebook Marketplace. Thinking about listing a couple of things in the buy nothing group.