1. Project Life update. Amber has now joined Turquoise in the “sold out” club. So as of right now, there are no Project Life kits available for purchase on Amazon. For now. As I have said before, more are on the way. Should be in stock within the next couple of weeks.
2. Cute friends. Speaking of Project Life, some friends came over last night for a little “Project Life Par-tay”. It wasn’t really a party at all. I just used that as an excuse to buy Costco’s chocolate lover’s delight cake. And I most certainly did that. Back to my point. It was so fun to sit and put our books together, getting them all ready to fill. Here are a few of the cuties.
3. Side note. As I said yesterday, I’m doing digital Project Life. But last night I was putting together Jason & Kyra‘s book as a wedding gift (Kyra’s our niece & they’re getting married this weekend). They are already taking their POTDs, starting with the New Year. How cool is that? Seriously – can you imagine having an album with a picture every day of the first year of your marriage?
4. Digital questions. Thanks for your feedback & questions about Digital Project Life. We’re working on FAQs to share soon.
5. De-cluttering. This is the real reason for today’s blog post. De-cluttering is on my brain and being that resolutions are floating around so much right now, I’d be willing to bet I’m not alone here. Raise your hand if you have some goals related to de-cluttering.
So I thought it’d be fun to have you guys chime in on this topic. What’s ONE thing you have already de-cluttered this year … OR … one thing you plan to de-clutter in the near future?
I’ll start.
Magazines & catalogs. I’ve had this growing stack for a few months. I’ve been letting them pile up thinking, I’ll get to that as soon as I’m not so busy and blah, blah, blah. I’m not a catalog shopper. Nor do I read magazines very much at all. I just enjoy flipping through for inspiration or whatever. But seriously — am I really going to prioritize going through a stack of magazines when I have so much else to do?
Um. No. The answer is no.
So buh-bye to this whole stack yesterday. Felt sooo good to let go (figuratively & literally) and drop them in the recycle bin.
One more example. My friend Megan (shown on the far right in that top picture) has had a big problem called laundry. Can you relate? With 7 people in their family, she always feels like she’s drowning in clothes. The solution: For each child, she is keeping out 5 school uniforms, 5 casual outfits, church clothes, a couple outfits for lounging & sports, a few pajamas and … that’s it. Everything else went into storage bins and under beds. When & if the kids want to rotate clothes, they can swtich them out (maybe once-a-month-ish?).
Great idea.
So — what about you? Name one thing you’re de-cluttering. Maybe we’ll all catch the bug.
Tags: catalogs, digital Project Life, laundry, magazines, organizing, Project Life
First of all WAY way cute friends…love that. Ok I am proud to say I de-cluttered my walk in closet. A.K.A. my dumping ground. UGH!!! Why do we do that to ourselves…I could NOT even hardly get a shirt to wear without tripping over everything that had piled up on the floor. Goodwill things, sweaters that need dry cleaned only, gifts, shoes…the list goes on.
But with the sweet help from my sons girlfriend she helped me. Oh I am so thankful, and it does feel SO good. Now I need her back to go through the clothes and say “Thats gotta go!” Yea I am not very good at that:)
LOVING my torquiese project life. Becky you really did it this time….love it even more than last years…thats a tough task to do and you DID that. Thank you!!!!!
Cleaned out my closet and dresser drawers and sent that that I do nto wear to goodwill and many socks to the trash (my sock drawer was a mess!) I did the magazine thing too — Monday was trash day so sent a big stack to the recycling. Feels good to clean out the junk! My craft room is next — post Christmas messiness!
Magazines piling up make me crazy, they go into recycling when I’m done reading them… even the sb’ing ones. My biggest area to declutter is my youngest sons bedroom.. he’s a collector and it’s gotten out of control. I actually go through our house often to declutter and get rid of piles because clutter makes me crazy, I can’t concentrate in a mess at all.
Happy Thursday!
Definately clothes that are no longer worn—I’ve already got a huge pile and still working on more—going to goodwill soon.
BOOKS—if you have unwanted books check out PAPERBACKSWAP.COM—–I have been using this for a while and Love it—
LOL love the post Becky….so glad I didn’t PROCRASTINATE any longer than I did and my AMBER box is in the trusty hands of FedEx winging it’s way to me!
I know you will think I”m insane…I’m decluttering MY WHOLE HOUSE…and I’ve started in my attic…my daughter wants to move into what is now the playroom (read, dumping ground) on the 3rd floor so I’ve started de-cluttering the house from the top down! I’m serious, I’m doing it and it’s working!! Free Free Freeedom! Plus, we’re tossing the idea around of moving to a bigger house this year so it will have to be done anyway.
My biggest problem is selling off all the things I don’t want, freecycle is great for giving things away, am off to drop off some old wreaths & a mini-tree i made that someone else thinks is gorgeous! I’m craigslisting things today and if they don’t sell by the weekend, I”ll just have to find someplace to donate them too…
One other tidbit to pass along….there is a great little book called “throw out fifty things” that i read a few years ago….great for physical and psychic de-cluttering!
Have a super day!
I love the book “Throw Out Fifty Things!” It’s a great inspiration!!
Where to start-the whole house needs to be done but I think I am going to start in the attic and move where the Christmas decorations go so they are closer to the stairs and the other things we never touch are further away. Maybe then it wont be such a hssle putting the Christmas decorations away and getting them out every year!!
I’m with Sue– though it will not be a fast process, I really want to go through the whole house– all the closets, all the cupboards, everything. Sounds a bit “Dr. Phil, but I want to “get real” about what I am going to really use in the future, what crafts I really do, how we really entertain and don’t, how we really live and don’t.
(Ssshhhhh– I am kind of excited about it.) Starting with my craft room.
As a family, we decluttered our closets! It felt so wonderful to give away 4 big bags of clothes we no longer wear!! My younger daughter LOVES the “keep/give away game.” She went through her Barbies and my older daughter went through her Matchbox cars. We all felt so good!! My house has been clean all week!! Feels and looks great!!
I too decluttered some magazines. They had been in the nightstand for a year or two (scrapbooking mags) and it was time to let them go. I took one last glance through, pulled out a couple of pages and sent them for recycling. We also repainted our kitchen/family room right before Christmas. We put the shelves back up, but only had Christmas decorations up. Now the Christmas stuff is all down and we have a totally blank slate to start with. I am going to take my time to decide what I want and where I want it. I will use some of the stuff I already have and I am sure I will find some new things. I will definitely get rid of the things that don’t “speak” to me any more.
I completely have the de-cluttering bug this new year! We’re expecting our second child in March and I think the nesting has already set in as we start getting my son’s “big boy” room ready for him to move in. Yesterday I decided to start on one room at a time and instead of doing something really boring, I did my craft room! I got rid of so many things and now have room for my Turquoise Project Life to be spread out!
TOYS!!!! My daughter is 5 and we have not gone through her toys since we packed away the baby ones. A good excuse: donating to someone who’s house caught on fire. Some of the toys my daughter chose to give away aren’t the ones I would have chose (as they were pretty new). But I continue to teach her that it is better to give than to receive so I had to apply that lesson to myself as well! And do we miss them? NO!
I have been de-cluttering quite a bit since I took the Christmas decorations down. This time of year always makes me feel like cleaning and organizing…I think maybe its a combination of transitioning from Christmas back into regular life and the beginning of the new year and wanting a fresh start. The first thing I started with was my kids TOY ROOM! I’m sure many moms out there can relate to this one! We donated a few older toys and took half of them to the basement so I can rotate them later. I am also in the process of cleaning out my office/scraproom….it is much needed! Feels so good to be getting it done!
Have taken the kids to small clothes piles to Goodwill. Cleaned and reorganized the storage room…and actually have a ton of space. What a great feeling!
I’m itching to do my closet. I feel the same way about my clothes as your friend with the laundry problem – I really don’t need that many. I want to reduce so I can see what I have and wear what I have rather than forget I have items altogether because they’re buried. I’m thinking three weeks of outfits is plenty. We’ll see how it goes…
I have been decluttering my craft space this week. I’ll share what I wrote in my One Little Word album in regard to this very topic. Oh and your little stack of magazines Becky? I have 5 stacks a foot high to go into recycling over the next few weeks. I hope this inspires others…
When I first set up the area in the basement at our new house, I told myself that it didn’t have to be perfectly organized, just functional. Before Christmas I was so excited to have it all unpacked and accessible. I was set on doing some projects for little gifts. Much to my disappointment, I was creatively zapped. I couldn’t get anything to work so I gave up and changed my focus.
I started planning for Project Life and the One Little Word class. I realized I needed to rediscover my creative side as it had not been nurtured in some time. As part of that, I knew I needed to set up a studio in the basement that was organized and functional as if it were the permanent location.
So on January 4, 2011 I dug in. First item of business was sifting through the mounds of magazines, publications, binders, etc that hadn’t been used or even opened in years. I discovered that all that stuff was just weighing me down creatively. As the day wore on more and more stuff just kept finding its way into the recycle bin or sadly, the big black trash bags.
As I was sifting through box after box and shelf after shelf my creative evolution became clearer. In the beginning I wanted to do it all…scrapbooking, altered art, stamping, etc etc. I know myself enough now to realize that traditional scrapbooking is going away for me and has been for a long time. I am so glad I’ve preserved the memories I have, but no longer will big fancy layouts be the way. As for the numerous items waiting to be altered…well, they’ll get altered in the recycling facility. I only kept the basics…tiles, notepads, etc.
I’ve kept most of my stamps because I love making cards. The industry would like me to do everything, but I just want to do cards. Cards make people happy and they don’t take up space. I tossed all the little cutesy samples of 3-d items. It felt good to simplify (’09), focus (’10), and discover (’11) what direction I want to take this year creatively.
I made some progress yesterday discovering. I found all kinds of little tidbits hiding in envelopes, boxes, and albums. I realized that I was pretty gung ho creatively in the early 2000s. It was about doing something that others thought was neat. I needed and wanted the approval and to be one of the best. Around 2005 I started fizzling. Part of that was the rough year of 2005 and part of it was also just life. What I do now is only to satisfy a personal need to enrich my own life or that of my family and close friends. I don’t care to have a fancy blog or be a big name in the industry. I just want to have something of myself for Andrea to have in later years..a legacy. I have a renewed committment to memory preservation that involves more about capturing life rather than having the coolest page. I want to brighten others’ days by sending them a card I’ve made
I still have some work to do downstairs, but I’m well on the way to an organized work space that will allow me to be as creative as I want to be or as simple as I need to be. This need for creativity is an important aspect of my life because it is, and always has been, therapy.
I organized my downstairs pantry. When the upstairs pantry needs stocking, we go downstairs to pull things out and bring them up. The downstairs pantry was getting to be a mess, so I took the time to re-organize and it’s so great now because I know now what we have for food down there and I can find everything!
Working on my turquoise PL kit and am absolutely in love with the design! Great job, Becky!
I have been going thru one room at a time since Thanksgiving and I am proud to say that it is almost done. My craft room is left and the spare bedroom whcih has been de-cluttered, but is holding all the bags to go to Goodwill. It feels amazing. I have no idea what made me start the project, but I am so happy at the result.
We moved into our new house a few months ago and put everything ANYWHERE. So…i still have to declutter the whole house! To make it fun though, i signed up for an online organizing class, which i hope will bring the inspiration!
My mom and I are eagerly waiting for our kits to arrive, can’t wait to do another year of Project Life. I enjoy flipping through my last year’s album so much! Since we’re having our first baby in july, i thought 2011 would be a special year to document!
Decluttering is definitely a passion of mine! I truly feel that if your house is cluttered with projects and things that need to be put away, it takes away your creative inspiration and the motivation needed to get other things done. I know it’s true for me – I have a lot of creative ideas, but I feel like I need to take care of the obvious corners of chaos in my house before I can enjoy the fun stuff. I’d love to organize other people’s houses for a living. For right now, however, I feel my focus needs to be on my own family and rearing my kids.
We solved the clothing monster problem by getting each of our kids a reasonably sized dresser (medium to a little on the small side) and only keeping the amount of clothes that fit comfortably in each dresser (i.e. no cramming!). I taught my kids by the time they were 5 or 6 how to fold their clothes and put them away, so if it starts getting hard to fit clothes in their dresser, we just go through and get rid of a few articles of clothing until it all fits again neatly. It encourages them to take care of their clothes, and we’ve always found families who are happy to take the clothes we do not need anymore.
I just cleared my craft desk of all paper receipts and projects that don’t belong there – so I am ready to start the new year fresh and get some scrapbooking done!
You all inspire me so much to get moving on my POTD – my kids are getting excited about these, too! I think I’ll have them help me with the journaling and putting it all together!
De-cluttering is a constant around here. I can NOT stand clutter! Magazine come in (recycled to me from family) and I immediately sort (willing to read & know won’t be worth my time). Catalogs: Nada. I know I’m not going to buy from them so when/if they come in I call the 800# and get me name taken off the mailing list. Most catalogs have websites these days so catalogs BE GONE! What I have de-cluttered so far this year… VHS tapes, DVD’s, game systems games, pots and pans, children’s closets and ALL Christmas decor was touched then debated and the result was letting a lot go. We’ve been in our new home for 3 years now and if I hadn’t used it in those 3 years chances are I wasn’t going to so off it goes. Everything I “toss” get either recycled, sold at a yard sale or taken to goodwill. Can’t see adding it to a landfill if there is a chance someone can use it. Next up: Paperwork! This is my year to scan it in, back it up and shred it up! Clutter Be Gone!
I kind of took on what Lisa Bearnson was doing of ACAD except I do ACAW….a cupboard a week. Lisa did a day (just to overwhelming for me to do it everyday). But I have loved doing it a week!!! I have done my kitchen pantry and am working on my kitchen drawers. Sometimes it is just wiping them out other times it is getting a lot of clutter thrown away and reorganizing. I try to do at least one cupboard a week…if I do more than that is a big bonus!!! I want this to be a goal that I honestly keep doing the whole year and not just in January cause I feel the “bug” to clean and organize. I have the words ACAW on my fridge as a reminder to keep me going. So far so good!!
GARAGE! Started yesterday…got 2 new shelving units up and 4 bins sorted and on the shelves. We just moved in August and the boxes of garage stuff has not even been unpacked!
Then on to the rest of the house since I had no time to purge before our move.
Oh for those looking for somewhere to dump stuff go to http://www.freecycle.org and find your local chapter. People will COME PICK UP your stuff!
No landfills, no trips to goodwill and you actually help another human being. I have made tons of friends from that group as well.
Over the holidays I got rid of clothes that my kids no longer wear. Some went to a dear friend, others to a local charity and others I sold at a kids second hand store. I also got rid of a stack of magazines….although I still have some to get rid off. I also plan to declutter my makeup kit and throw way old makeup. There’s lot of little things I need to get rid of too like DVDs and VHS tapes (sigh).
i need to do some serious decluttering! my magazine pile is twice as high as yours!!!
I am always decluttering and reorganizing things in my home and at my desk at work. My friend and neighbor has a cool project going for this month related to excess and simplifying her wardrobe. Check out her blog as she shares her progress!:
http://www.pamsponderings-hippochick.blogspot.com/
Decluttering toy room (say 10 years of accumulated toys= one very cluttered, messy, disorganized, “can’t find a toy” toyroom.
Scrapbook space – donated materials that I know I will never use and rearranged computer desk in room.
Recycled all the magazines.
Children’s books outgrown have gone to goodwill
Guest bedroom and den have been stripped down to the essentials and bookshelves in den have been organized so that books look like they belong there and is a welcoming, cozy space.
Clothes in a bin that will be donated,
Taken a lot of “trinkets” off of horizontal shelves and most of my *gasp* picture frames off of tabletops that have made my living room and den look amazingly streamlined and C.L.E.A.N. The photos I am keeping are hanging on walls – makes it easier to clean/dust and my walls look nice with famiy photos.
I’m on a roll and not stopping.
The best thing so far was that I went thru all of the kids craft supplies. They are older now and their skill level has grown. My daughter got “real” art supplies for Christmas, so I sorted out all of the old things we had stashed. I put a HUGE box of things together and took it in to the school’s art teacher today. She was thrilled and we got rid of age-inappropriate things. Love. Now, I will organize what we have left into type (paint, pencils, jewelry making, etc.) and they will be ready for some fun projects on long winter days.
On the catalogs, I called and had the delivery of all of them stopped. Clutter AND temptation removed.
Many more things on my list, but I love to organize, so it is a good thing.
trying to figure out how to declutter my kids artwork.
81/2 x 10 sizes are not bad. I just scan them into my computer.
But the ones that are 13 x 16 or larger… hmm, don’t know what to do.
Any suggestions?
Take a picture of them. I know that you can scan and stitch (in Photoshop programs) together. I’m sure you could google a tutorial on that. Or just don’t have the need to save every single piece they’ve done – less is more precious.
take a picture of those larger ones. I just did this as part of my craft room cleanout. I’m scanning what comes in from now on but the old stuff, I just photographed. I’m making her a quick basic digital album. When it’s full, it gets printed, then I’ll create another.
Your friend’s laundry issue reminds me of a friend of mine. She has 9 children and I’m sure understands the plight of your friend. Her solution has been to buy small colored safety pins, assign each child a color, and attach them to all their clothes (usually on the top tag). This way, anyone can help with laundry sorting, folding and putting away – which saves her a great deal of time.
I, on the other hand, am still working on cleaning up after the whirlwind of Christmas…
Tuesday I, unexpectidly, had no power for 6 hours. So I cleaned out and straightened up my closet. Went through a few scrap magazines that piled up and pulled the few things I liked and recycled the rest. December 31 we headed into the city and loaded up the car, full, with stuff from the basement to donate to Goodwill.
What do you do with PAPERCLUTTER? I mean important paper clutter. I have a file that I file all my important tax documents/bank statements/investment papers/phone bills, etc as they come in… but what do you do afterward with all those papers once you get them back from the accountant? I have years of boxes of documents. Never know how long to keep and WHat to keep!
I’m the queen of anti-paperclutter around here….I drive my family crazy…if it’s lying around more than a day, it’s disposed of. So, they’ve learned if it’s important they better keep it in their designated drawers.
Go to http://www.irs.gov and somewhere it will give you the statutes of limitations on financial records, especially if you have a business, etc. If it’s just household and personal records though, I shred them after they’re paid or suspend paper billing/statements altogether. You can always have a utility or investment broker print a history for you if you need one. Many companies will e-bill, then you can set up files in your inbox to sort. Most everything can be accessed via an online account of some sort.
I also eliminate paper clutter as it comes into the house EVERY DAY. I shred anything with an address or personal info, put in the ‘mixed paper’ box the rest. If a catalog comes in and I either don’t need anything from it or I can’t spend money on anything I DO want in it, then it goes in the recycle bin right away. I’ve all but stopped magazine subscriptions. The only thing we still get is Runner’s World and that’s hubby’s…I’ve got him nearly trained to toss them after 3 or 4 months.
As good as I am at the household stuff, I can’t figure out what my issue was in my craft area…but that’s now been solved as well.
All my tax returns and supporting documents from the first year of marriage (15 yrs) are in big envelopes and stored in a file box in the basement. I keep the last three or so years in my file drawer.
Why don’t you ‘drop scan’ them? Scan them into the computer into a ‘main’ folder with various subfolders under (I use the year and then sub folder again under that EG ‘house’ ‘warranties’ ‘receipts’ ‘bank statements’ etc). Yes it would take some time but once done, you can move it to an external hard drive.
If it sounds like too much work, scan them in bulk under the ‘year’ only and if you felt the need later, then you can re-sort into the sub files.
I am totally relating to the accumulation of magazines. I need to take your “de-clutter” advise and pitch them right into the recycle.
Thanks for the tips
Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. ~William Morris
I think of this quote as I am cleaning out drawers and closets. It feels good to say, “Sorry, you are neither useful or beautiful, you must go.” I assure you, I only say that about material things, not people.
One of the clutter problems I have is old VHS tapes – blank ones, and ones with things I recorded off of TV. I cannot stand the thought of just tossing them into a landfill, so I have them in a box in the garage but it’s still “cluttering” my mind being there. Anyone know of how I could get rid of them , or anywhere I could donate them to?
Freecycle them. You’d be surprised who needs them
Thanks so much!
Sounds like you had a fun night. I can’t wait to get together once a month with my girlfriends to share and work on our project life albums.
De-clutter..everytime I watch hoarders I clean out something…It’s a total motivator for me. But I really need to work on my scrapbook area. I have way to much and I doubt I’ll ever really us it. I’m dissapointed in myself for over buying things just cause I thought they were cute or thought I couldn’t live without …as they sit there collecting dust and I continue to pass it up cause the colors aren’t right with what I’m working on…or it’s so old and outdated I just wont use it. I’ve decide to declutter my scrapstash..and I’m only going to purchase things that work with what I’m working on right now!
Love this.
I told hubby yesterday that the best way to eliminate is not to accumulate.
I have the de-clutter bug too! Already did my scrapbook room and kitchen cupboards – have plans to do each of the kids clothes that they have out grown along with the linen closets, my car (a freakin’ disaster!), and the garage….oh, and I have started the picture-a-day with my Project LIfe for our family album — so excited!! Loving the concept and hoping it gives me more time to work on my kids’ traditional scrapbooks! Thanks Becky — YOU ROCK!
I’ve been decluttering for a while, and this morning was noticing the benefits in small ways. For instance, make-up. I pitched a bunch, and divided what was left into two bags. One has the basics: moisturizer, powder, eye-liner, and mascara, things I use every day. Everything else went into a second bag. I just reach my hand into the first bag and grab what I need without digging through all the other stuff. Sure streamlines my morning routine!
I went through all my cardstock and dismissed all the colors I know I will never in my life use again {lets just say they date back like 10yrs ago!} I always go through my stuff and give it up for grabs and in return someone else who really needed it didn’t have to spend anything on paper and they could use that money else where. I do this at least 2 times a year! I love seeing the enjoyment from those who want it!
Love the picture of the ‘Par-tay Girls’ What fun to be together to get started on this journey. My book is on the way and am so excited for it to arrive.
De-cluttering has been the theme around this house since the 27th of Dec. We have gone room by room and made blutal decisions on what stays, goes to Good Will, what gets thrown out and what needs to be stored. One of my POTD is the pile of garbage bages that we placed on the curb this week (along with our full large wheeled bin). It feels like a huge wait has been lifted off us.
The calendar now has rooms scheduled to revisit, so hopefully we don’t get into this mess again!
Becky I to have collected a substanial pile of magazines and that was one of the tasks this past weekend was to go thru them and recyle!
Karen
Hi, Thank you, everyone, for the inspiration! My goal is to de-clutter this year (hopefully this month). I REALLY need help though. I want to be able to just ‘let things go’ like I hear so many of you have been doing. I can do it but my problem is mainly time…ok, maybe a little lack of discipline too. I just had my 6th child (after 8 years) and I homeschool four of them. My oldest is in college and married. School takes up so much of our time and we’re already behind.
Well, I know there’s not really much you all can do for me but I’m thankful to be able to post and maybe ask for a prayer or two to get through this. I really have been inspired by everyone’s comments and hope I can just ‘let go’ to unnecessary things in my life! It has to be a lifestyle change for sure. I would LOVE to do the PL but can’t add another thing to my already full agenda right now. I’m sooo overwhelmed as it is.
Well, thank you again and thank you, Becky, for this post to hopefully get me going on my life!
I have already decluttered the girls’ toy boxes and closets. Next on the list are the end tables in the living room, and the island in teh kitchen.
I have gone thru all of the toys and gotten rid of 4 boxes of stuff! (this is totally disgusting to me…how many toys to 2 kids need? ugh)
A set of hives by my youngest son just caused me to re wash ALL of his clothing, blankets, etc (Daddy used wrong detergent) so also purged a trash bag of clothes that didn’t fit, worn or stained clothes.
I have also been working for quite sometime on purging all craft and scrapbooking supplies from my stash.
It feels great…but so hard to get started! Thanks for the update on Project life. I am excited to see them restocked…have banked enough swagbucks to get mine for FREE now! whoo hooo!
I have recently finished decluttering my scrapping supplies (gave away a 7inch high stack of patterned paper this week plus 2 large bags of embellishments and rubber stamps), but I am really pleased to have made a start on decluttering the linen closet – giving away eight raggy towels to the local animal shelter so far. Ahhhhhhh I feel free-er already LOL. My ‘one-little-word’ is simplify – so I asked myself why do we need fifty million towels that don’t even fit in our linen closet, and now some of the local stray animals will have bedding. =)
I de-cluttered my scrap room and threw out all those mags I had been saving for layouts that I never look at again. The only safe ones were my Becky Higgins Scetches books. I still use those!
Moving is a really great motivator to de-clutter! First, you have to de-clutter to “neturalize” the house and not distract buyers. Many of our extraneous things went right away just trying to remove excess eye clutter. Then, in painting the kitchen/dining room and our bathroom, we let go of everything we didn’t want to keep to pack.
The effort of packing provides excellent clarity of our stuff. Also, when you’re selling, you’re forced to keep everything clean and “bare” and that’s creating some great habits about putting things away and living with less clutter. (My favorite new thing is the hidden trash can in the bathroom cabinet–had to make room for it, and now it’s out of sight.)
Our new house is being built right now, so in the interim (after we sell our house, fast–hopefully!) we get to “camp” for a few months at the in-laws and that will also be a great exercise in living with the bare minimum, and when we finally get to move into our house, we will be very selective about what additional stuff we did pack into that storage unit gets to come back into our lives.
It’s a lot of work, but clutter free things helps with the clutter free mind.
I agree. Having just moved recently myself it’s so necessary to eliminate for all the reasons you stated. My common areas are in tip top organized shape, its just those other spaces now that need the love. It feel sooo good!
The rule in my house: once you are in the 2nd grade you make your own lunch; and in the fourth grade you do your own laundry. This took some kid-friendly set-up, organizing and supervision on my part – it took a few years to get ingrained too. But by middle school it was running like clock work. My kids are now graduating high school, so I haven’t had to do this chore in several years – Woo hoo!!
SO looking forward to when the Project Life’s are back in stock. I took too long to decide I want to do it (again) this year.
De-cluttering so far………bin of hats, gloves and scarves. Had more scraves than necks!
And…..the hall linen closet. Specifically the first aid and cough and cold stuff. Now streamlined – Yahoo!
So glad I ordered my turquoise Project Life in the nick of time. I’m going nuts waiting for it to arrive next Tuesday (now I’m wishing I had paid for faster shipping) – I can’t imagine if I had to wait for them to be restocked. I’ve not done much scrapbooking for the longest time (many reasons), but I’m so excited to get started with this (my first time doing PL).
I spent the better part of yesterday cleaning off the top of my desk (it gets REALLY bad and then I can’t stand it anymore and clear it off). I felt so good about that that I decided to attack the pile of memorabilia on my craft counter. I save all the school papers my boys bring home for the whole year, then at some point over the summer I go through them and save a few of the best ones (the ones where they’ve actually written their own thoughts instead of filling out a worksheet). I haven’t gotten around to doing it the last couple of summers and the piles were getting out of hand. I went through quite a bit of it yesterday, but there’s a little more to do and I’m itching to finish. Unfortunately, more pressing issues are in the way (my job, for instance!), but hopefully I’ll get back this afternoon. Maybe, just maybe, I’ll have time to do a page or two for their school albums while I’m at it. That would be the best of all.
I feel like I can never declutter enough! Around the new year, I have decluttered my closet, pantry, pictures that I’m not going to use, magazines, and other stuff I found in drawers that I wasn’t ever going to use so I might as well get rid of it!
I just did all my under kitchen cabinets. I went to the container store and bought pull out drawers for my husband to install. Any pots, pans or tupperware that didn’t fit in the pull-out – was donated. I got rid of A LOT of pampered chef stoneware!
less is so much easier, more relaxing, less wasted energy.
My kiddos actually de-cluttered their toy bins and did a great job! Bye bye to many small dollies, random pieces to who-knows-what and lots of baby stuff to donate. My husband and I have so far tackled the linen closet (still had crib sheets in there!) and next on my list is getting all my old videotapes together to have someone convert them to DVD. 2011- bring it on!!!!
We had a HUGE garage sale in Nov ’10 and decluttered a ton of stuff, it is amazing what we had in our house and once it was gone…we did not miss it! I am planning on declutterig my scrapbooking stuff!
ONE thing? My house, top to bottom ; ) Aside from kid clothes which I have a decent system at being on top of and organized for grown out of and hand me down clothes.
Really, flat surfaces get me….my desk, counter tops. Trying to eliminate, organize, and MAKE A HABIT of NOT making these flat surfaces full of piles.
The past couple weeks I have been working on scanning/picture taking my daughter’s school work. Scanning/picture taking and keeping some stuff. Scanning/picture taking and TOSSING some and sometimes just tossing without a digital file for it. Working on current grade, 1st, have a massive amount for grade K. I have your school kit and the folder intended for school work cracked the other day because I put too much stuff in it. Bad on my part, totally bad.
Amy
First, ordered my project life this past Tuesday(Amber) and so happy I got my order in before they sold out
..My husband installed brand new cabinets in a very small home office I use for work & play, so I have spent over a week downsizing my supplies and re-organizing my space the way I want. On another note, we decluttered the kids rooms before the New Year. I didn’t to add in new toys with the old neglected ones. So we cleaned out the unused toys and donated them to younger cousins. After the home office, my walk in closet..started back in May & never finished..embarassed to say!
I did my spice cabinet on Sunday. Was needed badly and it felt good. Did my daughter’s closet yesterday. Again, was needed badly and felt so good.
Now, if I could just get to all these Christmas decorations that are ALL OVER THE PLACE!
Bills! Not only did my hubby call each of our services (like cable, phone, OnStar, lawn service, etc…) and cut $200 from our monthly bills, but I finally got all of those envelopes into a file folder system. Now, I just pay the bill, then put it in the folder…instead of it sitting on the counter or stuffed in a drawer! It feels sooo good to be organized!!!! and to make the budget cuts!!!
I just went back to work this week after 10 weeks off on maternity leave. I finally broke down this morning and de-cluttered my desk… it was a mess to say the least. Now it looks much happier.
1. Scrapbooking stuff
2. Quilting fabric (this is ongoing)
3. Kitchen drawers especially the junk drawer
And that’s just for the next two weeks.
My sister gave us the idea to share documents on Google documents. My husband and I just spent 30 minutes setting up combined calendars on Google Calendar. We will no longer have a HUGE calendar hanging on our fridge cluttered with stickers, coupons, crossed out things, and smudges. We will have a print out for the month. Then when that month is over the print out will go into the scrapbook. It is so exciting to me, I can hardly express it. The print out doesn’t show all of the details that the actual document on the computer shows, but it has something for every event. This is a reminder to check the electronic calendar for more details. It is wonderful. For everyone who is allready doing this I congratulate you on being ahead. For those of us who are just getting in on this, it is amazing. I just decluttered my brain in 30 minutes.
I’m working on decluttering my scrapbook room. I’m doing Project Life this year (using last year’s kit!) and have been doing a lot of digital pages. If I haven’t used something in more than 2 years, it is going, donated, sold, whatever. I teach card making so I still have a LOT, but I can see the desk and tops of bookcases, etc now
Also working on “decluttering” our expenses
We are cutting our tv down to bare bones and getting rid of our land line. Then we are shredding, sorting and purging our filing cabinet and working on a new system to track our budget. 2011 is a year to get on track!
TOYS. I brought 2 big storage bins into our play room and the kids helped me sort through pre-Christmas toys. One bin was for our garage sale, one was to save (they will be stored and rotated back in later).
Also, for my 14 month old, he gets so bored with his baby toys, so I separated them all into 4 big $1 buckets from Target. He gets one bucket each day and we rotate them so he doesn’t follow me around all day long begging, “Up? Up?” I feel like a genius and can get dinner made or dishes done without tripping over my little crawler.
I am de-cluttering my stress this year.
It’s amazing how much I let stress me out, and how just being stressed can make my life feel cluttered. I stress if dinner is late or not perfect, so I reorganized my kitchen to make things easier to find and get together. I stress over my laundry, so I gave each family member a day that’s just for them, and they have to help. If it doesn’t get washed, I don’t worry about it. I stressed about missing my school work (I’m a stay at home wife, mom and college student), so I set up a specific time to work on that while the rest of my family is out of the house. For each thing I find that stresses me, I find a way to lessen the stress and put it into action. I’ve been working on this for a month now, and it’s awesome how less cluttered I feel! Now if I could just figure out how to KEEP things this way, I’d be good! 
The declutter bug is in my house too. This morning I decluttered the drawer in my nightstand…the sheer number of pens and ponytail holders I found in there was astonishing! This afternoon I’m decluttering my pantry and pitching out anything I haven’t used in the past year including herbs and spices which lose their pizazz after a year anyway. Then tomorrow I’ll reward myself with a trip to Penzey’s Spices…my absolute favorite spice store to stock up for the new year! I am convinced Penzey’s spices are why everyone loves my food so much!
I just did the same thing with all the holiday issue magazines and catalogs–tossed them all (well, actually recycled them all) and it felt so good. I enjoy looking through magazines and catalogs when I have time, which is rare but I usually take one or two with me when I’m carpooling or going to appointments and such to look at while waiting.
First were toys, now I am working on under beds & in drawers & closets. After that..the pantry. Oh and magazines are also on my list too!!
Organizing feels sooo good!!
We did a room a day over vacation. The kids rooms are ready for 2011 – threw out all the random pieces of plastic that seem to accumulate in the toy box, gave away the clothes that don’t fit, inserted the new clothes that are ready to wear. Cleaned out the downstairs toy closet one day. Spent 2 days on the garage. One day on my husband’s closet. The grand finale was the scrapbook closet – I had all three kids sorting products and paper by color – it was fabulous. One project left: my bathroom drawers. Looking forward to the weekend when I can get to it.
I’m so excited! I saw one of your posts a few days ago, and remembered I bought the kit last year and could start it this year. (A little move from UT to TX kind of ruined starting it last year.) I had taken out the journaling cards before the movers came, and I can’t find them, but I had everything else together. I just ordered more journaling cards off Amazon, so I’m so excited! My binder is all set up (thanks to your video and one you recommended on BPS)! Whooohooo!
De-cluttering is one of my big goals for 2011, and so far I’m off to a good start. I’m currently working on getting rid of a backlog of old paid bills that I no longer need. Before that, I worked on purging my kids’ school papers. I still had ever page my first-born brought home from preschool (she’s now in second grade). It was definitely time to let go, and I’m so glad that I did.
I decluttered my coupon organizers and drawers and got rid of all the coupons that are expired and the ones I know I’ll never use (why did I clip them in the first place?). Then I decluttered my purse. It’s amazing what gets buried in it. I have a stack of magazins staring at me as well. I’m not only into decluttering, but also want to jump in on Spring cleaning! I plan on starting with the family room. After taking down the tree and Christmas decorations, I’d like to rearrange the furniture, so why not vacuum under it as well as vacuum it!
Toys toys toys! I sent my older girls off to Grandma’s while I did a big sweep…the 2 hours was not enough though;). I think I’m going to put aside even more of the *almost* outgrown and old girls toys and see if in the next few months they even notice. If not, yard sell they go!
i am de-cluttering my whole house, i am so sick of all the extra stuff that hasn’t been touched in years, and i am finally getting rid of it all!!! I’m planning on doing a huge garage sale this summer and earn some extra cash too!!
Megan
My little pantry and my kitchen cupboards. I checked all expiration dates and tossed stuff I hadn’t seen in forever. Usually better at rotating stock. Next is my scrapbook room. What a nightmare.
My WHOLE house! I actually had started on the garage last week, worked on it for days (yes, i had that much stuff!), had it kinda organized to where I could finish it after alittle break..then my car got broken into 2 night ago, my purse stolen, so we had to push everything I had out back into the wall, nothing in order (it was 11 pm at night, the car had also broke down on the way home, and it was freezing so we just wanted to get the car in the gargae so I could go make some phone calls to shut my whole financial life down basically)…and now I gotta start over. Then, I would like to get my photo files organized and printed for Project Life (which I got the day of the theft, and the next day, it truely cheered me up and made me happy). I hope to finally have all of my photo frames up within the next month
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kym, J Old, Becky Higgins and others. Becky Higgins said: Had a little Project Life par-tay last night … and … today we're talking about DE-CLUTTERING. Hop on over. http://tinyurl.com/2ehjwoj [...]
HUGE decluttering in my world these days. With 4 kids under 6, I cringe at the thought of putting away stuff after the holidays!
I’ve done the following:
1 – all too small baby clothes – sentimental stuff – cut squares out to make a quilt in the future and donated the rest to a community closet
2 – Had the girls pick older stuff to make room for the new stuff (the twins are too young yet!)
3 – donated all my old cookbooks (who uses them these days?) and older out-of-date books to a school book sale.
4 – Got rid of old electronics. This was CRAZY how much space we gained throughout the house. Remember the old TV you put aside when you replaced it with a flatscreen? Still works, yes – but really, what was I saving it for? Old out-of-date satellite receivers (since going to HD and PVR). We had 6 of them! Along with some other stuff…especially kitchen appliances. Will I ever use my deep fryer I received at my wedding shower 8 years ago? Nope! Donate!!!
I still have the decluttering itch for a lot of different things around the house, but for now, I am enjoying my last remaining bit of maternity leave before going back to work!
we are off to a grand start this year.
hubby spent literally 12 hours on the garage new years eve day and pulled EVERYTHING out, vacuumed it and i labelled and we put only about 2/3′s back in – but neatly SO WE KNOW WHERE IT IS! even numbered them. i’ve also done the baby clothes, ds’s drawers and im giving it all to a friend today.
plus we moved the lounge round to get ready for dd who is about to crawl and got new easy access toy bns – so nice to see the lounge floor!
We are on our summer holidays here in New Zealand and the whole house /garden/garage are being attended to.
So far we have sorted,de-cluttered and re-organised the garage; underneath house storage; the linen closet; the laundry; my daughter’s bedroom (heaps of toys donated or into storage); the spare room (which is also where I scrapbook) Feels sooooooo good. The local Goodwill store is loving us! Next is to go through lots of files and get rid of what is not needed.
My One Little Word for the year is DISCIPLINE, one of the main things I’m hoping to be disciplined about it the clutter in my home. I’m a pack-rat and have many, many, many stashes. My plan is to tackle one a week (I’m thinking of using one of my extra pockets of my weekly Project Life spread to capture my progress). Anyway, I found Be More With Less blog http://www.bemorewithless.com/ via Ali Edward’s blog. Great ideas. I’ve started some of the mini-missions – 5in10 – get rid of 5 items in 10 minutes; also trying out Project 333 – just 33 items in wardrobe for 3 months; everything else is put away (similar to what you mentioned one of your friends is doing for her children in your post); I’m adapting it to be Project 345 – I don’t think I’m get down to 33 items in my first attempt, but should be able to manage with only 45 items for 3 months. I’m also starting a ‘Trash a Stash Tuesday’ routine. I was late by one day with my first one of the year, but it felt so great yesterday to trash the stash (mostly into garbage and a few items just went back in their rightful spot in our home). I’m taking photos – and may digitally scrapbook a few ‘episodes’ – I think one of the reasons is hang onto things is the memories they spark in me – so taking a photo allows me to keep the image/memory rather than the item itself. Good luck to everyone with their decluttering.
Brenda – Thanks so much for mentioning Be More With Less and for leading me to Becky’s site. Can’t wait to check it out.
well becky it is summer here in NZ…so instead of a SPRING clean… i have done mine in my summer holidays… I started weeks ago with my scrap room….cos someone wanted to stay so needed floor space for them!!! Next i finished the lounge area (using the shelves and cupboards for the purpose they were intended for!!!) next i moved into my bedroom… the DUMPING place!!! i sorted the cupboard and now i can place stuff in there…..all that;s left is one small pile….yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
just about done the outside also (done the garden, started to compost and have planted my vegetables!!!) just need to wash the windows and house…then wahooooooo list ALL ticked off!!!!
lUCKY i still have a few weeks of holiday to relax!!!!!!!!!!!
my way is one box/pile/area at a time…and take breaks!!! has worked for me!!!
The other day I gave my kids a box each and asked them to fill the box with toys that they have not played with for a little while but still loved. I put the boxes in the garage and will get them out again in about 3-6 months and have them refill the box with another lot of toys.
During this exercise the other day they also came across quiet a few toys they no longer played with, which we donated.
My goal for 2011 is to be more organized in my work space…. I am a paper piler and i need to change that to work more efficiently and more productively….
That is so funny, because I have been on a mission the last several days to make my home a more ordered, peaceful place. I am systematically going through each room of my house, and though not nearly done, already am enjoying the benefit of at least some parts being “unstuffed”. The best thing I did was my laundry room in the basement. Cleared out all the old rags, old paint, old cleaners, and (almost) got caught up with the laundry, although we all know that is an impossible mission.
I am actually blogging about this tonight!! I took advantage of having to put away the Christmas decorations as an excuse to launch a full scale attack on the storage room. We moved into the house in April and just piled things in there and closed the door. I carefully looked through the boxes of un-used Christmas items and decided what to toss and what to give away. Looked through other things – condensed, shifted and re-prioritized. Moved things that were not always used to other places.Took advantage of the 4-day sale at Ikea for some awesome $20 shelves and transformation complete. Now you can go in for a quick scan rather than an all day dig! Awesome!
Already checked off a 2011 to-do item off my list! And on January 1st!!!
here it is!
http://gronicktales.blogspot.com/2011/01/conquered.html
I’m decluttering my mind…letting go of negative thoughts. At least that’s the goal. It’s always harder said than done.
Also, I think it’s time to get rid of baby clothes. Sad & hard, but true. I’ll be taking pictures of lots of the outfits (for memory’s sake) & then donating them. Maybe I’ll make a small tribute album to showcase all the adorable baby clothes we’ve owned through 6 children!
Just today I purged my card making supplies and ready to send cards. I’m de-cluttering /purging fifteen minutes a day through the month of January. That should kick off my year!
Toys…toys….and more toys. Especially since Santa has come to visit I have been going through the mounds of toys stashed around the house and donating the gently used ones and trashing the others. It is sort of a challenge and must be done while kids are distracted, otherwise I will have to keep all the toys. It feels so good to get rid of the toys that aren’t used anymore.
I am decluttering my house, like most of you. I also chose a word of the year: purpose
http://skourasfam.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/2011-word-of-the-year-purpose/
I am finding ways to ask myself “what purpose does this item serve in my house/life?” and then making decisions accordingly. Share it, Throw it, Give it… Pay it foward… all come to mind.
I have had a great last few days planning my “cleaning schedule” I know that sounds crazy as I do the typical stuff regularly, but I mean the deep cleaning stuff. I visit the “Clean Mama” blog regularly and download all her super nifty planners and trackers to get me started. Just a thought.
I am about 95% done with de-cluttering (reorganizing) my food storage room. We bought all new shelving and THREW OUT the old! (Sigh of relief!). It looks so much better and it feels great to have all of the shelving match! I have so much more room now! I TOTALLY plan on taking pictures of that room when I am done!!!
Just having moved into a new house is the perfect time to purge! Although I have a huge task ahead of me, its exciting and can’t wait till I can see the finished product……(will I ever be finished???) I think for me its a constant battle, especially with three growing children in the house!
I have been working all week at decluttering my house. I have a room full of stuff for my garage sale this weekend, taken many loads to Savers and feel so much better. I took vacation this week and have worked on a room a day. Even got my husband to get rid of old trophys and college text books that we have moved around with us over the last 24 years, He never read them in college, not sure why he kept them,
My plan is to go through my whole house and I have been with the most annoying piles of clutter being tackled first. Now I am down to the closets the don’t store clothes. I am a pretty organized person but I also will stick things places for “later” well, as we all know later is much, much, much later sometimes. : ) And now I am tackling those problem areas. I love it. It feels so freeing to let go of unnecessary stuff.
My scrapbook room!
I am currently decluttering my 10-year-old daughter Claire’s room and walk-in closet. She is on a 2-night Outdoor Education trip with her fifth grade class, so I decided now is the time to tackle the beast! Found lots to recycle, donate, and put in our Spring garage sale yesterday that I’m sure she was totally unaware that she had in the first place. When she gets back, I’ll have her go through the toys she once played with a lot and have been sitting for awhile and see if she’s ready to part with them yet. I’m just thrilled that I’ve now found a place for everything!
I just finished my boys room and it was totally worth the moans & groans (so much easier to do it when they were little). All up we took 2 x large bags of rubbish and 4 x large bags of outgrown clothing out of that room. I made them try on EVERY SINGLE THING they own so I would now if it fit!! I can’t believe how much they both grew in the past year. We cleaned every surface and sorted their book shelves. Ahhh, feels good.
Like many others, we did TOYS. We usually pack some toys away and keep others out to play, then rotate every few months, but by the time we were finished there wasn’t anything left to pack away! Yes!
Tuesday is “trash day” at my house, so every Tuesday I “sneeeeaaak” an item or two of my husband’s into a trash can. He needs to declutter, but doesn’t, so I do it for him. He’ll never know!
This totally made me laugh! I do the same thing for my husband!
My closet! Boy does it need it too! I am just going to bite the bullet and do it because there are so many clothes in there and some of them are 12 years old! That is bad, but that is my January goal and I have a goal for each month this year so that by the end of the year, I would have done everything I planned on doing.
Something about New Year’s…I put away all my Christmas stuff, and while I was at it, got rid of all the stuff that I don’t like and/or can’t remember who gave it to me. I also went through old papers and got rid of a stack of 1/2-used notebooks and the like. I haven’t touched it in the last 5 years, except to reorganize, so…out! It felt soooo good!
OMG decluttering is my one little word. So i am all over decluttering this year. I actually started with my office at work. It’s in great shape. I’m now moving on to the house. I haven’t done big things yet but I did organize my tupperware cabinet.Have you ever noticed that tupperware lids are like socks after you do laundry? MISSING? LOL.
Our family new years resolution is to get more organized. We have already started with our dvds & I have been busy getting our bills organized, my husband has been ‘organizing’ the bills & his system is the total opposite of organized I found paperwork from 2003 that he forgot to throw away.
We’ve been decluttering all year. I’m still at it and that includes our shed. The more we get rid of by donating or selling, the better our life will be.
super cute!
I think it is AMAZING that your niece is starting her married life with POTDs… that is a gift to themselves that will last FOR-EVAH!!!
My computer desk. Round one done. My ‘playroom’ is another story, but a girl can dream!
Today I decluttered some toys in my den–we don’t have a playroom, so most of my son’s toys are in his room, but some of them are in the den—I’m sure he won’t even notice they are gone, but if he does, he can go up to the attic and get them—–and that will never happen! I’m also decluttering my craft supplies (mostly papercrafting stuff)—HORRORS!!! It’s true—now this is a slower process—to let go of “my toys”, but I’m doing it—then I’m going to sell some on Craig’s list and give some to friends and art teachers, etc—My hope is by the end of 2011 to have MUCH less crafty stuff and use MUCH MORE of what I have! Sorry for the rambling—it’s how I roll! ;D
I’ve been following and participating in a 21 Day Organization Challenge at a Bowl Full of Lemons at http://abowlfulloflemons.blogspot.com/, doing one challenge per day. We take before and after pics and share what we did for that particular challenge. The most rewarding one for me was the linen closet. I’m very motivated to keep up with the challenges.
CAS
We are on a mission in our house! With two kids and two dogs the sheer volume of stuff feels overwhelming at times. Therefore the hubs and I are trying to purge and organize ev-ry-thing! I started with my daughter’s school/craft supplies. Then I worked on my craft supplies. After that I tackled the spare closet. Other rooms have been sproradic as it all depends on what my busy toddler is up to, what I need to put away, whether the hubs is sleeping (he works graveyards), etc. But our goal is to get the entire house (including garage) squared away this year in addition to landscaping the backyard. I am looking forward to a more stream-lined existence in 2011
!
We had “Goodwill Roundup Day” at my house on January 1st. I went through all my dishes and we ended up with 4 boxes of stuff. I plan on doing more this weekend to include clothing.
Just a few days before the end of 2010, I decluttered my clothes closet. I should stop there. Too much “stuff” in this house. I will start taking down my Christmas decorations and declutter some of that, too. My scrapbooking style is simple and the things I have around me should be that way, too
I meant to say “I shouldN’T stop there.”
I went through my wardrobe yesterday and removed nearly half my clothes. I have been working hard to lose weight lately and was still holding onto bigger clothes in case the joy was short lived. But what kind of attitude is that to have??? So I got rid of anything that doesn’t fit and some pieces that I knew I was just never to wear. This all due to Project Life and seeing with great clearness the things that are really important and the stuff that is just STUFF!
Well I actually have 2 areas….the first is TOYS…with 4 kids…and 3 of them under 8…I have more toys floating around my house than I care to even admit. So I started organizing and sorting….I have the legos in a bag….all the barbies in a bag…..etc. I mainly only kept sets or collections…because even then…there’s wayyy more than they need or play with!!
My next area is my collection of all the kids school work, projects, and art work. I have REALLY been trying to go through and throw away….but I still look around and see piles and piles of ‘important’ stuff that I want to keep. This project may take me some time!!!
So glad I found you on the WWC web site. Becky, I have transferred all my picutres of the year onto DVD for storage in the safe. I have each moth in its own folder. I also break out a folder for each special event, such a birthday, or an art event. I then make a highly edited Best of 2010 folder for my favorite picutres I go to over and over. This keeps the 100s of picutres organized, safe and useable.
Also, I print out picutres.Ii want to sit in a chair and look at real picures. Cannot wait to start using your new system for this!
The dreaded filing cabinet is my decluttering goal for the new year…just as you said Becky, not something I would otherwise prioritize b/c it is out of sight, out of mind…and I KNOW that most of the stuff in there can probably go straight to the paper recycle bin, but b/c there are probably a few important papers lurking in there somewhere, I must go through them item by item (tedious task=major procrastination). So, I am envisioning file folders, putting my label maker to good use, and transforming the mass of papers so that when I open the drawers there is order and not chaos.
ha.
OK,
First let me say that I have clutter everywhere. My word to live by this year (inspired by Ali Edwards) is STEWARDSHIP. I have started my year, by decluttering my Christmas decorations. As I am putting everything away in the basement, I am bringing up those decorations that haven’t been used, and making the decision to let most of them go. What am I keeping? Everything we used this year, and a pair of porcelain angels that my grandmother painted for me that had been “lost” for a while. I was so happy to find them, and I know just where I will put them next year. Until then, they are in a clearly labeled box on my Holiday Decor Shelves.
Oh, I forgot. My darling husband is going through and organizing all of the gift wrap. I bought 3 new bins for it. He wants me to buy more, but I told him that he skipped the “Purge” step in SPACE (see Julie Morgenstern’s “Organizing from the Inside Out” or an article by Becky many years ago in CK), and that we don’t need any more bins!
I just decluttered the kids toys, from around the house and in their room. I told my 4 kiddos that with all of the new toys coming in, we needed to make room and donate the toys we were not using anymore to children that are not as lucky to have so many toys. They did a wonderful job pairing down, with some help from Mommy : ). This resulted in a nicely organized “toy closet” and very few toys in the rest of the house. Now, we just need to stick with our resolution to put a toy away when we are done with it!
As a nice side effect, my husband saw our progress and decluttered his clothes and some “collections” in the basement. I think the donation trucks are going to love us this month!
Recent Christmas card fronts and old card fronts from other occasions are being sent to St. Jude’s Children’s Ranch where they will be recycled into new cards that the kids make and sell. What a neat project and a worthy cause!
Send card fronts to:
St. Jude’s Ranch for Children
Recycled Card Program
100 St. Jude’s St.
Boulder City, NV 89005
Becky, Just a thought on getting rid of magazines…our local library will take magazines and then they offer them free to people who want them. Also, I’m sure nursing homes, or shelters, or thrift store, or other places like those would be open to taking them too, so that they can be shared (again) with people who will enjoy them and it also makes us as the givers feel good that we could make someone else happy with our unwanted STUFF. I also like that they will be used more before going to be recycled.
I would like to say that my local library takes magazines like that in the Friends of the Library corner and they sell them for a quarter to raise funds for library projects. Also my aunt, my mom, my sister, my cousin, and my friend all trade magazines too. Recycling is great, but reduce, and reuse come before that.
I work 46 hours a week, however, I want to organize and clean but not have it take over my week-end. I have assigned a cupboard a week-end. Starting at the recipe cupboard, tupperware cupboard, hall, bathroom, etc. I am looking forward to being more organized without it becoming to much of an obsession.
I have decluttered one closet, my laptop, my paper punch drawer, and the food container cabinet…where DO those lids go???
Yeah. You made ALOT of people feel pretty bad about being left out. Maybe you should have thought about that. You can’t just invite some people and leave others out.
I plan to get my whole house decluttered. So far, I’ve gone through and decluttered, sorted and weeded and cleaned out all my cupboards. I still have a few drawers to do. I got sideline though with vertigo. I got it yesterday and my Dr. says it usually lasts two weeks. The medicine knocks me out, so I spend my days sleeping :0(
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