Time to Declutter!!!
 for the last few years and especially this last year, my Good Housekeeping medal has not only tarnished, but gotten lost in the clutter. Today I found Christmas 2009 gifts for DH waiting to be wrapped and set under the tree. I'm now curious to see what other "treasures" I find. Have any of you been so inundated with stuff? How did you get out from under it? Early in our marriage we moved frequently, that really helped. We've been here 31 years. We aren't hoarders but neither are we good about letting go of items no longer needed. Libraries and charity stores are reaping the rewards......but so much more to do......... |
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| Oh I so understand where you are coming from. The water damage in my loft made us move some boxes and looking around there is just so. much. stuff. ...and the insurance adjuster will be coming. We have to clean! |
| I recently found our wedding certificate crumpled and shoved in a box of stuff waiting to be shredded. Don't tell David! I ironed it, it came out just fine and he won't be any wiser. |
He might be surprised to see it again! LOL  |
| Perfect timing, Valentine's Day......compare wrinkles. Paper, people. |
SheepieBoss wrote: Perfect timing, Valentine's Day......compare wrinkles. Paper, people.  quite the incurable romantic, eh?? but good timing, as I was just thinking about the thread Pam? started about wrinkles...it got me motivated and I bought some face cream!!!  |
got sheep wrote: SheepieBoss wrote: Perfect timing, Valentine's Day......compare wrinkles. Paper, people. quite the incurable romantic, eh?? but good timing, as I was just thinking about the thread Pam? started about wrinkles...it got me motivated and I bought some face cream!!! Good timing for another reason, I've been looking in my wardrobe and thinking I need to sort through the stacks of clothes. I've just been shoving old stuff to the back of the shelf or the end of the hanger rod. I've run out of hangers and space, it's time for me to get it all out and get rid of things I'm not wearing. But I hate doing it, so boring. |
got sheep wrote: SheepieBoss wrote: Perfect timing, Valentine's Day......compare wrinkles. Paper, people. quite the incurable romantic, eh?? but good timing, as I was just thinking about the thread Pam? started about wrinkles...it got me motivated and I bought some face cream!!! Glad I'm good for something Dawn...What are you using?  Susan, last time we moved I had to clean out a room that you couldn't walk into. I put if off as long as I could but finally HAD to do it. I took it one piece at a time, literally, picked up one piece and decided what I was going to do with it and did that, next piece, etc. I took about two days and I had a huge pile in the hall that had to go to the trash. I had a heck of a time keeping dh out of it because he saves trash...everything is good for something. It ended up being a cute little bedroom, which is what it was intended for. Now I just need to do that here  |
| I call decluttering "de-crapification" and the best place for me start is my dining room table. It's so bad that I think a crazy person lives here! But what do I do with the flower seed packet that will be planted in a few months? It's too cold to put it in the garage and if I put it in a drawer I will forget about it. So it needs to be on the dining room table... |
| About the face products... I went with Neutrogena. For the wash I got Deep Clean gentle scrub - oil free. For the moisturizer I got Oil-Free Moisture with spf 35. I've had them a little over a week and they both agree with my skin, so I will continue! I am notoriously bad with keeping up w/ any skin care regime  The downside of having good skin genes...I have been able to coast along...but 50 is coming this year and I can tell  |
Quote: "de-crapification" that fits! This room was my office so I have design books, etc. I justify keeping the more technical hort books.....why, I'll probably never need them, but they were $$$$. The rest can go...if I get the nerve. Cook books here too. We despertly need to redo the small bathroom before we fall thru a rotting floor. Ideally we could transfer DH's bed here.... during the remodel. A heck of a lot more would need to leave here first: 3 file cabinets, 1 drawing table, a file for drawings, 3 8' work tables......and books...I'm estimating about 400 more to go. |
| This post was made for me!! Paula, I can so relate to the flower packet of seeds on the table. Mine has the ability of going from table to drawer for a few seasons. The past couple weeks i have spent every spare moment..not that I have much- as the priority is always animal related..but what's left over - to declutter! With someone (professional pet sitters) going to live at my home soon while I accompany Kaj on his work related trip. Oh gasp...I need to clean the garage...that's the bone of my contention...on the other hand it may be the closets that are always stuffed full...then again my dining room table or the boxes that i would "get to" when I moved her two years ago. Slowly the clutter is diminishing...remember you're talking to the lady who once had 3-4 couches in her garage..people always want to give me stuff. ha ha! I now am visiting the dump weekly to get rid of stuff. It helped that we had a unscrupulous contractor (he abandoned the project after ripping off the ceiling of my garage and exposing two exterior walls and left it open to the elements for months. That's another story that I'm still so upset about I haven't posted about that experience. My once stuffed full garage was a sodden horrible moldy mess that I finally started tackling for the past several months. I visit the dump weekly all the while mumbling my mantra about scum of the earth. One day we'll have our day in court - but again that's another story. |
| Oh Maryann, I forgot about the garage.....and now learn about your AH contractor. I'm so sorry. |
 Because I know I'll have to move again probably within the year, I'm devoting my time to cleaning things out!  This isn't easy! I took 3 boxes of books to a second hand bookseller on Friday who gave me $8 for a few books sying that most of the books I had brought her were "obscure and out of date"! This is probably true of most of the stuff I've held onto for years. If only some of it were worth the sums you see on Antiques Roadshow"!!!  Anyway, after the books, (I have several more boxes to fill) it's on to clothes and linen. This is more difficult than it sounds!  |
| I have the opposite problem...I get rid of too much. I hate clutter, it stresses me out! I can't even leave the pups food bowls down, they get put up after every use. For clothes, I turn all my hangers one way at the beginning of a season, as I wear clothes, I turn the hanger the opposite way. At the end of the season, if I don't wear it, its gone. Good luck to you guys! You'll be so happy when its done! |
| Jennie, can you share some of that OCD with some of us? I was born with IDGAD gene (I don't give a ....) |
Wow...Jennie, you & I must've been separated at birth.  I can't stand clutter either. Everything has to have a place and it needs to be in its place if not in use. As for getting new stuff, if there is no place to keep it, we can't buy it OR we have to get rid of something so the new thing can take its place. I understand this attribute can be very difficult to live with.  My poor sainted husband  puts up with a LOT.  Good luck to you in sorting through it all, Susan. |
| I'm the same way, if there is not a place picked out for it, we don't get it. When I buy a new set of sheets, a set gets thrown away (I keep 2 sets per bed, I just don't need more than that). We only have what we need/use. I'd rather buy something again then store it for years. One huge reason I hate clutter, it makes it more difficult to clean. I am a clean freak. I vacuum/sweep everyday and NEVER dust around stuff, everything must be picked up so I can dust under it, dust it, then put it back. A place for everything and everything in its place. You'll have fun cleaning, it's always suprising what you find! |
| Clean That's when company comes. |
| I used to be the queen of clean BUT, I threw that out many sheepies ago! |
| I have that same gene, IDGAD!!! I am so happy there is a name for it. Initally I thought something was wrong with me. I keep saying I have too much stuff and I need purge. Just looking at these mountains of stuff makes me tired and I close the doors. The best way to decrapazize would be a match and a bulldozer. The only things I cannot get rid of are SHOES and ok, Abbey and the delinquents. |
| I think I'm a bit of an anomaly among OCD neat freaks...I love order and neatness, but I also adore STUFF!!!! So, my obsession is with organization, as opposed to "getting rid of". I'm doing my annual re-organization of my studio right now, and its all about efficient storage and labeling My collage style artwork requires about 10 million little bits of miscellany(buttons, beads, yarn, shell inlay,metal leaf, etc), as well as many types of paper, fibers, dyes, paints etc...etc...etc, so Ive had to become the QUEEN of neatly organized and labeled drawers and cupboards! Next challenge...my husbands office! |
| Most here already know I'm in the jcc9797 and Beaureguard's Mom side of things. I'd love to marry someone who was like that as well. But... I didn't. My husband will use his SAW inside of the house for big chunks of wood and right over all my stuff (not even thinking of moving it before everything falls on top). KNOWING he has a wife like me... It's just the way he is. His dad is a lot like him, so his mom and I vent a lot Anyway, it's easy to AT LEAST declutter half of the mess. If it's not yours (meaning it's your significant others) ...just throw it away!!! That's what I always do. I don't even ask if it's something he wanted to save... the guy won't know!!! He'll talk about stuff he has, although it's long gone, but I am 100% he will never go looking for it again. Getting prepared for another baby is when you're at your best. If I'm sitting down... I'm TOTALLY in the wrong. I get up and start tearing up another drawer, etc. I've dusted the blinds daily ...counting down. God knows my mother will look for every speck of dust to then tell me how to properly do it. |
| Mrs. J, you are nesting........however I'm not sure you ever stopped nesting. I have great hopes with these books gone I can move my craft boxes off the floor onto the shelves and get them labeled. Ha, they probably should be tossed as well.....some embroidery projects are 5 years old and probably will never get finished. I have yarn for several afghans......yeah, they should go too. No books......no need for bookshelves.....oh, think of the wall holes |
| Oh Sheepieboss...you're nesting comment to Ms J was priceless!!! Ms J and others who have the neat gene you can come visit me anytime! I tend to be a bit of a packrat. I mean does anyone else have all their Valentine Cards/Work Books/Notes from Grade 1??? I just can't bring myself to throw them away. On the flip side, I'm fanatical regarding the animals. 10 -12 cats means I clean and scrub 4-5 litter boxes daily. I am determined that my house never smell like pets. The cats have their own room and the room is spotless. I do it more as a preventative measure as the cats couldn't care less if the room is clean. 7 of the 10 cats are long haired like Himaylans, Persians and Maine Coon. I seem to spend 3/4 of my life grooming animals. The bunnies also have a extremely clean cage..there's also 10 of them. I remove all bedding weekly, it's scrubbed down and only fresh bedding and hay are laid down. There's 5 litter boxes in their pen. The two little guinea pigs get their cage completely cleaned every second day. Three of the four dogs are groomed nightly. I do all this before and after work. Who has time for daily household chores? |
| ^^^^^^ Lordy!! I'm exhausted from reading about your workload.  I need to go to bed now. |
SheepieBoss wrote: Mrs. J, you are nesting........however I'm not sure you ever stopped nesting. I have great hopes with these books gone I can move my craft boxes off the floor onto the shelves and get them labeled. Ha, they probably should be tossed as well.....some embroidery projects are 5 years old and probably will never get finished. I have yarn for several afghans......yeah, they should go too. No books......no need for bookshelves.....oh, think of the wall holes Mr. J says I start nesting the second I find out i'm pregnant, so I don't think he'd disagree w/your statement. However, I think I only get this way when I'm in the third trimester. Your projects sound a lot like my scrapbooking ones! I have bought soooo much stuff to scrapbook and I had a built in closet made by Mr. J JUST to organize and hold it all ...when truthfully, it's just a waste of space. When will I have time to do any of these planned projects?! All the kids won't be off to school for several years! ...and I don't think ANYONE can compare to Marianne. If I did all that you do, I definitely wouldn't have time to clean. My back hurts when I think about all the things you do! |
| Played poker this afternoon with friends. Hostess house looked......different. "I'm decluttering"......HA, must be some virus going around. |
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