DECLUTTERING

[JustCallMePat]

I sorted and folded all of DD's outgrown clothes Sunday and dropped them at the Baby2Baby store that buys such things.  Today I picked up a check for $135!  DH put the Barbie Jeep on Craigslist and by evening had $100 cash in hand.  All in all, a good weekend and the basement is looking better. 

[gmatoy]

It's a small dent, but I got the Rubbermaid bins out of my bedroom, and holding toys in my DS's room.
Then I took a box of random stuff, and a large bag of clothes, to the thrift store.

I have a little more space in my bedroom now =).

Ahh, the Rubbermaid bins...At least 7 of them to go through before I'm done. Right now, I'm going to concentrate on getting the Barbie gowns made! Another 14 today!

[jayhawk]

How one person decided which books to keep: http://taramaemulroy.wordpress.com/2012/08/06/decluttering-books/

The Little Free Libraries are popular in my town. http://cjonline.com/news/2012-09-25/little-free-libraries-popping-topeka

use this to organize your library www.librarything.com

[Lynn2000]

Inspiring thread! I come from a family of hoarders and keepers, and I always fight that compulsion. I live in a really tiny apartment which is pretty packed with stuff--sometimes people suggest I move to someplace bigger and I'm always like, "No, I just need to get rid of some stuff I already have."

But, I don't really do purges. Too scary!  Instead I'll go through 100 things and throw out 10. Then next time I'll go through the remaining 90 things and throw out another 10... I'll gradually start to forget why I hadn't thrown out some of the things last time, and eventually I'll get down to maybe 10 items that passed "inspection" every time, that I really want to keep.

Also, I'm trying to use stuff up, too. In 2005 and 2006 I subscribed to a couple of magazines that I really liked, but I kept not getting around to reading them, and they piled up. Finally THIS YEAR I said, I need to do something about these--either throw them away, or read them. I really wanted to try reading them, so I set a goal of how many I would read each week. When I find an article I really like, I fold the corners down, and then I make a pile of the magazines I've read. When the pile gets "high," I go through and rip out the articles I've marked, and I save those, and throw the rest of the magazine away.

I know my mom would've just tossed out the entire pile of old magazines and not looked back. But for me, that would've made me feel like a failure, and I don't think I would've learned anything from it. I feel really good seeing the stack of magazines get lower and lower, knowing I've gone through each one and saved what I was interested in. And, the effort I'm going through now is a strong reminder that I need to not be complacent--either I read the (new) magazines I receive right away, or I should stop subscribing to them because I obviously don't have time for them. And I think that's working--I still get a few magazines, and now I really make an effort to read them within a week or two, instead of chucking them into a pile.

[gmatoy]

No sewing today, but I worked on the sewing room today and got a lot of things off the floor and onto shelves. Made things neater and have plans to work on more tomorrow. Not so much purging, but organizing.

[Cutenoob]

One way to make yourself clean out/declutter :  Bed Bugs.
Somehow they got into my place and they're a great way to get rid of stuff. It's been "I don't use this at all. Trash. This hasn't been touched in over a year. Trash. Let's pack up these winter clothes..wait..trash."
I would love to recycle this, but it's infested til proven clean. I put the dead books in the recycle bins, which WILL get shredded and kill the bugs. Some plastic too. But right now it's "fuzzy rough edges easy to climb: trash"
I have removed a lot of clothing, a lot of books, re-organized where I keep things, and it all makes it easier to clean and keep clean. It also gets me to vacuum a lot more often and tidy up!

[snowflake]

When I lived in an apartment, I adhered pretty strongly to "use it or lose it."  And then I moved into a house with two sheds in the back yard.  I've been uncluttering those this week.  Tons of stuff went to goodwill and I'm going to have to make a dump run.  Thankfully I had dinner with a friend this week and she offered me loan of her pick-up.

Now I just have to finish picking up the "keeping" pile (mostly gardening tools that we use) from the back lawn before it rains!

[siamesecat2965]

My big act of decluttering will come next week when I'm off. My town has a recycle center, which is free, but you need a sticker for your car. They take all kinds of stuff, including electronics. so my two old printers, giant computer monitor from 2000, and some other items are all going bye bye. I also bought a new printer yesterday, but won't pick up from the store until that's gone.

I'm also planning on going through my LR closet and hopefully cleaning out stuff from there, and bringing the trunkload of stuff in my car to Goodwill.

[Bijou]

Today I kind of took a break from the big stuff by just sitting at the table and decluttering and organizing my sewing box and another box that I keep odds and ends in.  It kept me on track, doing decluttering but on a smaller scale, as these things have to be done, as well.  I really like this feeling of gaining control.  I've even been thinking about doing some kind of craft project, now that I know what I have, where it is, and a clean table to work at.  I love this!

[VorFemme]

Two steps forward - the sewing machine, serger, and embroidery machine are on clean tables and useable!  The cutting table is cleared (except for the rotary cutters and my plastic sewing tote) and wiped down to be useable.

Now if I just had a clear floor to stand on - as it seems that I have been stacking things under that table....

I need to figure out more shelving in that room - drawers - something for storage besides "stacks of stuff"!

[Bijou]

Two steps forward - the sewing machine, serger, and embroidery machine are on clean tables and useable!  The cutting table is cleared (except for the rotary cutters and my plastic sewing tote) and wiped down to be useable.

Now if I just had a clear floor to stand on - as it seems that I have been stacking things under that table....

I need to figure out more shelving in that room - drawers - something for storage besides "stacks of stuff"!

I guess I am not alone when it comes to not enough storage space.  That makes it so hard to stay organized.  We have quite a few books...not tons (unless you count the ones my husband keeps buying at garage sales about obsolete computer stuff) but too many for our bookshelf, so I end up using them as decorative items, stacking them here and there around the room, on the TV table, the buffet, the this, the that and the other thing.  I often wonder what it would be like to be on one of those old decorator programs on HGTV where someone comes in and re-does a room for you.  How would they convert my storage-less place to one that has somewhere to put stuff.

[gmatoy]

I also spent part of today weeding through books; this seems to a very literate group! 

[pwv]

My office has piles of papers on the floor that meant something when I first put them down, but now I can't remember why.  I picked up one pile to sort through and found $5.00

[Sophia]

That reminds of one of my tactics for dealing with paper.  I call it Aging.  They are a lot easier to sort through when they are old, and if you really really need something, you can dig through and find it.

[Outdoor Girl]

This is a tip for dealing with paper, that works for me.

I keep all my papers - bills, credit card and bank statements, credit card receipts, etc. for the 6 years plus the current tax year that Revenue Canada requires in case of audit.  You only need to keep tax related stuff, though.  So when I do my taxes, I shred the oldest year of the 6.  These 6 years of records live in the bottom drawer of my two drawer filing cabinet.

The top drawer has all the manuals from various appliances and electronics, as well as 'current' files for all of my bills and statements.  The plan is that I file everything as I receive it.  Yeah, that part doesn't work so well.  I end up filing two or three times a year but at least I don't get completely overwhelmed.