2024 Organizing & Decluttering Thread

I realized I haven't popped into this thread in almost a month. Probably because I haven't really done any decluttering or organizing. With summer birthdays, and just generally trying to make summer break "fun" for the kids, I haven't done much other than actual cleaning. Inside the house, and outside. 

Also, I am so tired of cleaning, but not seeing progress. Just cleaning the same dust, the same dishes, the same carpet to vacuum over and over again, but never really feeling that it is "done." Ugh.

Cleaning here, too.

On day two of cleaning the crud from the bottom of the oven. Another by product of COVID and 5 months of being basically useless. Normally, I clean the spills as I go. 

Took the card board to recycling Thursday. And, the Beast has destroyed 2 blankets. He no longer is allowed blankets for his overnight comfort. He is still being crated overnight. 10 months old yesterday.

Small amounts leave the house at this point. Many are simply attrition. 

Good fall project.

I’m putting off the rest of the work needed to be done in the garage for cooler weather. The good news is there is half of a shelf that has remained bare. LOL!

My bathroom is dome. I deep cleaning the closet and vanity drawers. I had a paper bag full of trash and about half of a bag of products that I going to offer to family next weekend. Tonight I’m going to find a show to watch and go through a catch all basket.

Added more to the craft destash box.

Going to try to tackle laundry today.

I haven’t been doing much because we’ve been so busy lately, but I did go through the canned stuff in the pantry cabinet and got rid of a bunch of stuff that was too old to even be questionable. I need to put a tickler reminder in my phone to go through that stuff twice a year and just donate anything that is getting close to the use by date. It made me a little sick to throw out almost a grocery bag of canned stuff that someone should have eaten but didn’t. The date on the oldest can was 2017! 😱

Another thing I could do is consolidate the canned stuff to one shelf since we really don’t seem to eat those kinds of things often, and use the extra shelf to give my baking stuff more breathing room, which I do go through more rapidly.

I've been cleaning out the walk-in closet and storage area in my lower level. I've been here over 2 years now, so if I haven't used things I need to think about letting them go. I have enough to fill the back of my SUV.

I'm donating a pile of organizing bins that I no longer use, a bag of nice silk flowers, 2 bags of Legos, glass storage containers, a Christmas throw, some 2 gallon Ziploc bags of scrapbooking supplies, decorative plates for under pillar candles, and a bunch more I can't remember.

My neighbor accepted a small bin of adorable toddler size pots and pans, along with play food.

I have been trying to clean up my sewing room (never ending task) and decided to post some stuff in a quilting sell FB group.  I have now made over $600. from fabric/quilt kits that I had purchased in the past.  I still have more stuff to put up for sale.

I've cleaned out a bit in the kitchen and in my storage closet.  Slowly making some progress.

We managed to get back down in the basement and got a large section of storage shelves accessible again. Multiple bags/boxes to the garbage.

Unexpectedly had to declutter both refrigerators/freezers due to 5 day power outage from a macroburst storm.

Unfortunately my summer break is over and it was back to work today. Didn’t get nearly as much organizing done as I wanted but some progress is better than none. Only thing getting decluttered now are all the picture books and work files as I get ready for the school year.

LOL I think I could save more time than that if the other people I live with would just put stuff where it belongs when they’re done with it. I’ve started jokingly saying, “That’ll be $5!” every time I have to go find something for one of them.

My DD is particularly bad. She’ll ask me where something is and I can give her a detailed description (it’s on the white shelf in your bedroom, under the blue sweater next to your desk calendar) and she still won’t be able to find the thing. Then I’ll go up there, move the sweater, and just like magic there the thing is, exactly where I said it would be. This happens multiple times per week.

Sheesh my eBay listings just got smashed in a good way… did I price things to sell? Yes. Why am I surprised they sold? Dunno.
Do I have four HUGE boxes of items going to new homes tomorrow? HELL YES!!!!
Seeing as what I sold has sat unloved and untouched in a cupboard for the whole three years I’ve had them, I’m okay with not necessarily “getting what they may be/are worth”. Price is subjective, and these things were 20 years old and they looked it!
Also, they were a nice memory of someone else’s house for me and me alone, my children have no attachment to them and they weren’t selected by me/mine so I didn’t use them. I’m spending the cash I got in getting tickets to an art display we’ll go to on holidays that I know my kids will love and that will be an amazing family memory for my family, and I know what I sold is going to houses that will love and cherish the new items in their collections!

Dropped off the three big boxes of clothes and shoes at the charity place yesterday. Filled up the three totes I bought with the fabric I want to keep and broke down a mountain of cardboard boxes and almost filled up the empty recycling bin. Bought three more totes for the rest of the fabric so I can get rid of more cardboard boxes. The banker boxes that the stuff was in were okay for moving but they’ve been a pain for longer term storage because the lids get smashed, etc. Plus the clear bins make it easier to find what I want when I’m looking for something. 

Now what was a huge messy pile will now be in a much smaller neat stack of clear totes. I want to go through the AccuCut dies I had on the shelf and reevaluate which ones I really want or need before putting any of them back. I haven’t used most of them in a decade, but there are some I still use or can see myself using. They’re nicer for heavier weight materials so I don’t want to just offload the whole setup, but there are a lot that could just go away and I’d never miss them.

I also identified a few other boxes/piles of things that I should go through again and reevaluate, like the huge pile of assorted stencils and cutting stencil things that I honestly won’t ever use. I need to pull out the handful of cute ones from Pebbles in My Pocket that I could possibly see myself wanting to do something with at some point and see if DD’s elementary school wants the rest that are basic shapes or alphabets. I still have some contacts at that school that I could ask, otherwise put up the lot on Buy Nothing.

The ones I got rid of were smashed which was why I replaced them with the plastic totes. You wouldn’t have wanted them!