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Post by ntsf on Jul 12, 2025 20:05:31 GMT
good going lavendarlayout lady!!!!
progress is great!!
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amom23
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,635 
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Post by amom23 on Jul 14, 2025 15:46:57 GMT
My DH really struggles with decluttering and organizing (takes after his mother). He is generally on board when I am doing it though thank goodness. Our home stays pretty neat and tidy. Long story short here we have our own walk-in closets and every so often I just can't take DH's messiness and I clean it up. Yes his closet door is usually shut, but I go in there to put laundry away, etc. I started yesterday doing some tidying up and this morning I went back and did a deeper dive. I filled 2 large black garbage bags with clothes he won't even miss as they are way too small. I'm confident he will be happy. I've also purged more in my closet. Tomorrow I will be near the thrift store so the car is already loaded with my donations ready to be dropped off.  |
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Post by ntsf on Jul 15, 2025 0:49:32 GMT
we have had a storage unit near where my mother in law used to live. it stores some stuff we wanted from her house, plus stuff his sister wanted from her mother's house. (we pay for it currently). my sister in law just bought a house.. and we have plans to have her get her stuff in august, and then (we will be up nearby at that time).. we can load up a uhaul and bring it back to CA and get rid of storage unit!!!! course, this means getting rid of more stuff from our house which is mostly ok with me.
also, we are first on the list if a garage becomes available in our condo complex. this would be very special as we could get rid of our small storage unit here. we have a tiny 700 sq ft condo.. so the unit stores the winter toys and such.
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Post by alsomsknit on Jul 15, 2025 16:20:32 GMT
Attrition of cleaning type products is working nicely. More room in the bathroom closet and weird cabinet.
My goal is for extra hand soaps, bath soaps, shampoos to fit in the drawer under the dryer. The cleaning products have reduced to the point they are where I want them to be located.
Have about 10 greeting cards that need to go in the trash. It is a small start. Though, there arenāt many of them considering there has been 30 years of events. Itās hard to get rid of the ones from when Mom was with us. Makes the cards from Dad rather special.
If I want the closets as planned, I need to pare down clothes. The office closet, extra storage for my hanging clothes, has been largely ignored. The shelves are in need of being assembled. Unfortunately, I crashed during yesterdayās deep cleaning. The office closet was set for today.
I need to revisit the garage. Too much has been put out there temporarily. Though, the rear mat for my CRV has been put to use in Jayās SUV. Not a perfect fit, but fits better than it did in my CRV.
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Post by Scrapper100 on Jul 15, 2025 23:34:42 GMT
we have had a storage unit near where my mother in law used to live. it stores some stuff we wanted from her house, plus stuff his sister wanted from her mother's house. (we pay for it currently). my sister in law just bought a house.. and we have plans to have her get her stuff in august, and then (we will be up nearby at that time).. we can load up a uhaul and bring it back to CA and get rid of storage unit!!!! course, this means getting rid of more stuff from our house which is mostly ok with me. also, we are first on the list if a garage becomes available in our condo complex. this would be very special as we could get rid of our small storage unit here. we have a tiny 700 sq ft condo.. so the unit stores the winter toys and such. Cleaning out and getting rid of a storage unit is such a good feeling. I hope you get a garage soon. |
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Post by Linda on Jul 25, 2025 17:24:47 GMT
Tomorrow I will be near the thrift store so the car is already loaded with my donations ready to be dropped off woohoo! we are first on the list if a garage becomes available in our condo complex. I hope that happens for you soon My goal is for extra hand soaps, bath soaps, shampoos to fit in the drawer under the dryer. The cleaning products have reduced to the point they are where I want them to be located. awesome! not a lot of decluttering happening here at the moment. Once it cools down some, I'll probably tackle more - along with a deepcleaning. I did read a 6-book series and put it in the donation box along with a couple of other books I've read. DH has sold a few more Lego sets... I'm trying to eat through some of pantry and freezer back-stock. With just the three of us at home, we don't need to keep as much on hand as we used to. And how we eat/what we eat is changing also. I used to buy lots of frozen veg/fruit - now we get a farm box weekly and while I do freeze some of that - esp. onions, peppers, and blueberries - and we DO use those - I'm not using the frozen from the store much. I've stopped buying it but I need to USE what I have. I don't need the backstock of dried beans - we don't use them often enough - or the baking supplies (some yes- lots no) or snacks etc...I'm buying less and trying to shop the pantry and freezer but it is a bit of a slow process. I currently have a pantry cabinet AND a 3 shelf bookcase with mostly canned goods. I would, ideally, be able to just have the shelf and re-purpose the pantry (it's dark, narrow, deep, and not super practical) |
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Post by mikklynn on Jul 25, 2025 20:08:49 GMT
I dropped off a load at Goodwill. It feels so good to get it out of my garage.
I'm deciding to use some things that my kids have no interest in for my junk journaling. I tore some music pages out of an old hymnal, gasp! I also have a couple old maps I am going to use.
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Jul 27, 2025 13:11:14 GMT
Something very small, but I recycled the box my laptop came in this week. I held onto it for 6 months.
I am hoping to fill a bag with random unneeded, unremembered, just left behind stuff to put out this week. I feel like there's a countdown timer above my head, ticking down the days or weeks or years until I injure my knee or hip or back, and can no longer haul things from the basement out to the curb for trash. I don't want my kids to have to do it.
There is also a bagged up mountain of outgrown school uniforms down there. I am so frustrated because the PTO announced a pop up used uniform sale this month, but only gave 17 hours notice, and the sale was only 2 hours long, from 12-2 on a Wednesday. I couldn't take off work to donate, and I didn't have anyone that could drop it off for me.
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Post by Linda on Jul 27, 2025 14:08:19 GMT
There is also a bagged up mountain of outgrown school uniforms down there. I am so frustrated because the PTO announced a pop up used uniform sale this month, but only gave 17 hours notice, and the sale was only 2 hours long, from 12-2 on a Wednesday. I couldn't take off work to donate, and I didn't have anyone that could drop it off for me. that would be frustrating - surely these days most parents are working? Even when my kids were in school (my youngest is in college), I was a rarity as a SAHM.
edited - and it feels like the families who would most benefit from used uniform sales are the least likely to be able to show up on short notice on a random Wednesday |
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Jul 27, 2025 15:26:59 GMT
There is also a bagged up mountain of outgrown school uniforms down there. I am so frustrated because the PTO announced a pop up used uniform sale this month, but only gave 17 hours notice, and the sale was only 2 hours long, from 12-2 on a Wednesday. I couldn't take off work to donate, and I didn't have anyone that could drop it off for me. that would be frustrating - surely these days most parents are working? Even when my kids were in school (my youngest is in college), I was a rarity as a SAHM.
edited - and it feels like the families who would most benefit from used uniform sales are the least likely to be able to show up on short notice on a random Wednesday Exactly! |
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Jul 27, 2025 15:48:12 GMT
So, I worked on the basement a bit. I have an untied contractor bag down there, half filled with stuff that will go out on trash day this week. I'm waiting to take it out to see if I can find more to add to it.
Also set aside two framed thriftstore artwork that I'm not feeling, and a little shelf thing that I curbfound 7+ years ago, had intentions on repainting it, and repurposing it, and just have never made it a priority. It can go.
I also checked in on my greeting card & gift bag/gift wrap stash. I reuse giftbags (with my own kids) as long as they're in good condition. I have a little stash of tissue paper that I just bought.
I tossed several cards that I will never have a use for, and made note of needing more general birthday cards. Christmas I'm still covered for (probably for several years, as I use down my stash, and only have seven people to send them to).
I have three bags of outgrown kids dress clothes & shoes, sneakers, rainboots, snowboots to donate. Those things aren't worn often enough to show wear & tear. I will either wait until my closest thrift store reopens, or I will call the church down a couple blocks from me and see if they have a donation clothes closet for the community (they had a coat drive before that I donated to, so I figure I will give it a shot).
I also grabbed and threw away four items that could go from the hutch. |
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Post by Linda on Jul 28, 2025 0:35:21 GMT
well done LavenderLayoutLadyI finished up a massive 6-album scrapbook project today and did a good clean of my scrapdesk and reorganised my travel themed supplies. I pulled out a bag worth to add to the donation pile. |
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Post by mikklynn on Jul 28, 2025 12:11:03 GMT
I went through the stack of random papers on my desk yesterday. I was surprised how much I just recycled or shredded. I had been procrastinating that for ages.
It probably only took me 20 minutes! It was at least 4" high.
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Post by Linda on Jul 30, 2025 19:17:06 GMT
deleted about 400 files from my computer - slow but steady progress
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Post by crazy4scraps on Jul 30, 2025 19:36:06 GMT
I went through the stack of random papers on my desk yesterday. I was surprised how much I just recycled or shredded. I had been procrastinating that for ages. It probably only took me 20 minutes! It was at least 4" high. I need to do my shred bucket, itās about half full. I go through the mail every day and rip off the parts of credit card applications, etc. that have any sensitive info on it and toss those bits into a five gallon pail. The rest goes in a paper grocery bag to recycle. When the shred bucket gets full or as I have time, I run just those little pieces through the shredder. It takes way less time to shred a business card sized piece or smaller than it does the whole page, and it creates less volume of stuff that has to go in the trash (because our recycler doesnāt take shredded paper). I havenāt been able to do much decluttering (or any real deeper cleaning) since I had my surgery two months ago and my house is showing it, ugh. I did break out the vacuum yesterday for a quick run around the main floor because I just couldnāt take it anymore. (When I asked my DD to do it she vacuumed up the big clumps of dog hair with a DUST BUSTER. Seriously kid? Who does that? š) I still have about a month to go before I can āresume all regular activitiesā so heaven help me. I donāt know if Iāll make it another month in this mess LOL. |
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Post by **GypsyGirl** on Jul 30, 2025 20:08:07 GMT
I've gradually been wading back into the organizing and decluttering projects recently. DD helped me get the storage unit organized a bit better. While we were there she helped me load up a pair of lined drapes for an 8' patio door and the matching valance for a 12' picture window wall that had been in storage. My decorating scheme has changed and I'll never use them again. Both have been given to my housekeeper and are out of the house!
I also took all the surplus bed pillows and custom throw pillows to storage which freed up a good bit of space in the guest room. My goal is to have that room redone this fall. Paint, ceiling repairs/paint and new ceiling fan at the very minimum. Depending on the estimates, I may be converting the reach-in closet to a built-in wardrobe and relocating the door for the small walk-in to the hallway. Fingers crossed that is in my budget!
Today I found a place to donate DH's power wheelchair. It should be picked up next week. They also have a contact that may be interested in the hospital bed as well (and possibly the 4 wheel walker for a tall person). I also reached out today to an organization about donating the ostomy supplies that were left. I really need to get that stuff donated and out of the house in order to move on, which I am ready to do. Wish me luck!
Last week I cleaned out one of the island drawers that had held DH's water bottle collection and all his protein powders, etc. DD took a few, I kept a few and relocated them. The rest were donated. Also went through the box with all his medical files and tossed about half of it. Then I added 6 years worth of tax returns to the shred box. The little things do add up over time.
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Post by mikklynn on Jul 30, 2025 20:25:41 GMT
I tackled my mom's entry closet in her assisted living apartment. I also cleaned out old canned goods. One big bag to trash and another to donate, so that is a big win!
Plus, I found a box of Fiestaware random pieces for my brother to take to his DD. I thought that was long gone.
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Jul 30, 2025 21:04:26 GMT
I finished up a massive 6-album scrapbook project today That's amazing!!
I went through the stack of random papers on my desk yesterday. I was surprised how much I just recycled or shredded. I had been procrastinating that for ages. It probably only took me 20 minutes! It was at least 4" high.
I tend to procrastinate the final shredding/filing of paperwork, then surprising myself by how quickly it gets finished once I do it.
I try to remind myself that the task is less painful than the procrastination & worry, but still I procrastinate and dread the task.
Good luck! |
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Post by Spongemom Scrappants on Jul 31, 2025 20:09:27 GMT
I went through the stack of random papers on my desk yesterday. I was surprised how much I just recycled or shredded. I had been procrastinating that for ages. It probably only took me 20 minutes! It was at least 4" high. I'm always surprised at how much paper accumulates in my office. I think I need to keep it... file it... and then when I finally go through it? Very little is really important. I'd like to get better on the front end of it but as long as I DO discard it on the back end, I think I'm still doing okay. |
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Post by iamkristinl16 on Jul 31, 2025 21:10:24 GMT
Last night I did a very quick and not very thorough run through of my bathroom drawers and closet. I wasn't as ruthless as I should probably be, but it made the closet look a little more orderly. I am cleaning the garage right now. Took a break because I need to have DH look through some of the things to decide what to keep and what to toss.
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Post by cecilia on Jul 31, 2025 21:19:51 GMT
Took a load to GW and going to take another load to a different thrift store Monday. (We try to spread it around).
My Dad hauled off things to the scrap yard and had a couple trips to the dump.
Bidding on things at an online auction. Trying to limit things. Hopefully things we don't want to sell will go to thrift store Monday so we won't have it long.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Aug 1, 2025 0:00:31 GMT
I went through the stack of random papers on my desk yesterday. I was surprised how much I just recycled or shredded. I had been procrastinating that for ages. It probably only took me 20 minutes! It was at least 4" high. I'm always surprised at how much paper accumulates in my office. I think I need to keep it... file it... and then when I finally go through it? Very little is really important. I'd like to get better on the front end of it but as long as I DO discard it on the back end, I think I'm still doing okay. I would agree with you but I end up needing to go digging through those files more often than Iād like to admit. And it makes me absolutely crazy when I realize that DH randomly opted out of getting a paper statement from somewhere, doesnāt print it out when he gets the emailed version, and then still expects me to be able to find it when he decides he needs it to look something up. Maybe Iām weird but I like having paper copies of stuff and actually LOOK at the statements that come in especially for DHās business. Iāve discovered that we were getting billed for things that we shouldnāt be, discovered mobile deposits that didnāt actually get posted to the account, receipts for stuff that has a warranty, so many things. |
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Post by iamkristinl16 on Aug 1, 2025 1:46:20 GMT
That garage is done for now. There is still a bunch of DS's baseball stuff in there that he needs to go through next time he comes home. I am guessing he won't want any of it, but we will see. We also could organize some of the other items on shelves a little more, but there wasn't time for that tonight. Overall it is much better. In addition to the regular garage stuff, I have all of the junk that was in my car (got a new car a few weeks ago and there was an obscene amount of stuff in there for work and sports stuff. So, I am also going through all of that stuff. ![]() |
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Aug 1, 2025 12:50:59 GMT
Maybe Iām weird but I like having paper copies of stuff I do too.
I feel distrusting of having everything electronic, because it can be changed without my knowledge, either in error or maliciously, and I have no way of proving otherwise without a paper copy (or sometimes a screenshot).
I have had an instance when, after a lengthy back and forth between doctors, myself, and insurance, my son was approved for medication, and I received the approval letter in the mail. Then when I went to the pharmacy to pick it up, their electronic records showed it being denied for coverage. It had been a hiccup in the system, but my paper copy made it possible for me to dispute it. |
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Aug 1, 2025 13:01:58 GMT
I'm feeling pretty positive about making progress today (and this week).
Not just decluttering, but checking things off the list.
This morning I got three contractor bags of stuff out of the basement. Mostly stored decor that I will never use. Trash should be picked up today.
I also tossed produce that wasn't eaten into the compost. Most of it was a bag of apples that had a terrible texture from the day I bought them. I really feel that produce quality is diminishing anymore.
I'm cooking up a batch of tomato sauce from garden tomatoes. And I've been making fridge pickles every week for 3 weeks now.
I also ordered photo prints for April, May, June, and July of this year.
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Post by crazy4scraps on Aug 1, 2025 19:42:13 GMT
Maybe Iām weird but I like having paper copies of stuff I do too.
I feel distrusting of having everything electronic, because it can be changed without my knowledge, either in error or maliciously, and I have no way of proving otherwise without a paper copy (or sometimes a screenshot).
I have had an instance when, after a lengthy back and forth between doctors, myself, and insurance, my son was approved for medication, and I received the approval letter in the mail. Then when I went to the pharmacy to pick it up, their electronic records showed it being denied for coverage. It had been a hiccup in the system, but my paper copy made it possible for me to dispute it. Being self employed, any time we want to buy something that we need to take out a loan for, we have to dredge up an insane amount of documents. Same for when we signed up to get our health plan through our stateās exchange, they needed a boatload of documentation, tax returns, you name it. Every time there is an issue with some account (personal or business), DH expects me to deal with it since Iām the āoffice managerā and itās nearly impossible to research anything when you donāt have all of the statements at hand. He has a ton of stuff on autopay AND we donāt get paper statements so he could be getting overcharged for all kinds of stuff and he would never know because he never even looks at the emailed statements when they come in. When we had our solar panels installed last year, same thing. DH wanted to see what our typical electrical usage was which meant unearthing two years worth of bills from the power company for him to look at. Because I keep all of that stuff, and relatively organized by year and for whatever major category, I could put hands on those records within 15 minutes. If I would have had to sift through his fifteen million emails that he never, ever deletes it would have taken me a week. I hate, hate, HATE electronic billing. I also hate autopay. |
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Post by cecilia on Aug 3, 2025 1:42:45 GMT
Got all the things I bought at auction priced or ready to go to thrift store. So glad I didn't end up with some of the lots I bid on. It would have just made everything a mess.
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Post by lg on Aug 3, 2025 11:49:50 GMT
Peas I have completed the great Lego sort!!
Just buying one or two missing pieces to complete sets and then Iāll be able to send a list to my BIL to see what he wants. After that items will be listed on eBay, and if they donāt sell and for all the random pieces left over I can donate them to a local school.
I am so excited to get them out of the house and get my dining room back (to be fair it was a large task and I did leave it for a few months as I was just sick of looking at Legoš¤)
Apart from that Iāve been getting out older albums and trying to complete them from my stash which has been goodā¦ but my laptop just died along with the photo editing program I used since 2011 (company went out of business in 2013!!!) and Iām now having to see if I can do what I need to do in other programs instead (canva is winning at the moment.)
Side rant - why does every program have a monthly fee now??? No wonder everyone is broke! We got our new laptop and loaded windows 8 onto it as we own the program and itās so old it doesnāt have a monthly fee attached and we refuse to pay monthly to use windows š I did find one comparable program thatās similar to what I was using but the lifetime fee to use it is $1500 and I donāt know if I can justify that (and Iām not paying a monthly sub with the Aussie dollar being how it is now).
Another win is dd cleaned out her closet (was overflowing) and now has space in thereā¦ Iām sure sheāll buy more clothes tomorrow š
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Post by cannmom on Aug 8, 2025 15:51:09 GMT
I cleaned out my side of our walk-in closet and realized that it didn't take nearly as long as I thought it would. I looked at every single piece of clothing I had hanging up and I ruthlessly decluttered. The really big win was the next day I took everything on to Goodwill and took the trash to the trash site. It is completely GONE! I also went through most of my dresser. There are a couple of drawers I still need to get done, but the main part that I use daily is finished.
It really was an eye-opener that it went far quicker than I anticipated. Now I don't need to procrastinate on tasks that I think will take forever.
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Post by cecilia on Aug 8, 2025 19:09:24 GMT
My Dad took off the recycling this week along with taking things to thrift store. Trying to get all of the postcards and patches/badges I have in my room priced to get to booths since we have room in them now.
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