Let it GO! Decluttering (simplifying) your life of (people, places or things) success stories?

suzij27

Thank you for posting to this thread and bringing it back near the top of the Success Stories section.

I know that there is a relationship between clutter in the home and my body “clutter”. I’m committing here to go through the stack on a card table that was suppose to be a temporary solution but has been there for at least a year. Sigh. I will have this completed tonight. Not just gone through, but put away, given away, or listed on eBay.

hipari

@suzij27 - thanks for helping me realize I started losing weight again after starting this decluttering/purging process... I haven't been logging my food, going to the gym or making very conscious choices lately, and I didn't even realize the turn in my weight happened around the same time we started making good progress on going through our stuff.

We definitely need to get a lot of new stuff when we move, but I don't count furniture, carpets and curtains as "clutter". The new place is shaped so differently we're definitely going to need new stuff. It's going to take a while to plan, find and buy everything we need. We probably need to get rid of some furniture, too.

I just finished going through all of my wedding stuff (married in August 2019), and I'm pretty proud of my progress there. Lots of unnecessary stuff thrown out or into the donation/re-sell pile. I also went through all the cards our guests gave us, as well as the notebook where my friends wrote their wishes and marriage advice in my bachelorette party. It was surprisingly emotional to read those messages and reflect how much my friends' lives have changed in such a short time since then. I'm also pretty surprised by how much prime "real estate" I had given to some literal junk in our living room drawers.

During this "inventory" and cleaning process I'm constantly surprised by how often I'm making a mental note that I want to keep something but it should really be stored together with something that's currently in a completely different place or something is really only kept for sentimental reasons and could be stored in a nice box on some upper shelf instead of keeping it in such a central location. A prime example of this is my wedding veil, currently in a tv stand drawer in the middle of the living room.... well, at least it's in a storage bag.

KeriA

Yay! My husband put away the big items from my art room I am decluttering and setting up for a home office. Now I can do the rest of that room myself. I will need him when I declutter the basement hallways but that is for next weekend. I think he has Friday off.

AlexandraFindsHerself1971

I finally gave up waiting for dump day and just broke the desk down further and put the pieces in the trash can. I've also finally decided where to put some of the reenacting stuff and so have the center of the pantry cleaned out. (My pantry's an 8 x10 room, so there's room to have a center pile, alas.)

I'm also moving the cats "indoors" for the winter. They have had their food and water and box out in the sunroom with their cat trees and toys, and that's lovely for warmer weather, but it's getting distinctly nippy. I'm going to leave them the cat trees out there, and a box, but I'm bringing the food and water in, setting up an indoor cat box, and putting a cat door insert in the sliding glass door. That will help with the cold draft, and that way they don't have to go out unless they want to go out. And we humans aren't moving the door fifty times a day because someone wants in or out.

LoveyChar

I three away 5 pairs of torn up shoes last night. I absolutely hate throwing stuff away because there's a sense of guilt in that for me. If only we could recycle shoes...

Gisel2015

Congrats everyone. It seems that you are all in the right track and that is wonderful. Keep up the good work and throw away or recycle/give away things that you not longer need.

Maybe in some distant part of the world somebody can recycle shoes (@LovelyChar), even if they don't seem usable/wearable anymore. Perhaps the shoe repair guy knows something about it....?

WildColonialGirl

I have found that when I declutter, it’s very freeing. I’m a huge fan of Freecycle and also belong to a trading group on FB.

hipari

The decluttering journey continues.... today we did cooking utensils, rest of cooking dishes and random stuff that's been sitting on our kitchen window sill. Another bag full of stuff added to recycling/donations pile, and the window sill stuff that survived the purge got new homes from drawers and cabinets where there's plenty of room after the purge.

I'm currently in self-quarantine due to some flu symptoms so I can't go anywhere, including the recycling center to actually take the donations pile out of the house. The pile is growing, and I don't like it. There's at least one huge bag full of stuff that already found new owners, and two big bags going to a recycling center that takes donations.

This decluttering process has created a surprising upside. We've actually managed to keep our home (well, the decluttered areas) pretty clean for a while now. We're inherently messy people and our house is always both messy and dirty, unfortunately. This might be the longest time we've ever kept it this clean and organized. We have both made a resolution that we'll fix our household habits. and start taking better care of our home once it's our own brand new home instead of the rental place, and so far it seems that we're actually forming those habits.

RVLife33912

Speaks volumes...

AlexandraFindsHerself1971

What I have found is that once you've had an area cleared for a while, not having it cleared off will bug you.

I really like order, and it's SO nice to be in a household where the other people in it also like order and, even though I'm the main housekeeper, they aid and abet the creation of order. (I'm not talking about the cats. The younger one is named Nyx, Daughter of Chaos for a reason.)

suzyjmcd2

WildColonialGirl wrote: »

I have found that when I declutter, it’s very freeing. I’m a huge fan of Freecycle and also belong to a trading group on FB.

A friend of mine just told me about Freecycle. Can I ask where you do your trades or have others pick up? I wouldn't want to give someone my home address.

Hope_bay74

We have a great neighborhood recycling program (as I call it). Anything I put out on the street gets taken really fast.

I started my fall cleaning this weekend (never managed a spring one lol). Vacuumed out my car and hosed down the rubber floor matts (that I never took out and cleaned after last winter). Disconnected the sprinklers and brought them in for the winter. I didn’t get much else done but it’s a start. In my head there are so many projects and decluttering to do but then I get lazy. I’m going to try and do a little something each day. Hopefully, I can stay motivated through this group!

Gisel2015

I have an excel workout sheet with 4 columns labeled:

1) Category (organizing, de-cluttering, cleaning, etc)
2) Chore (could be a room, a drawer, boxes, garage, cars, etc.)
3) Status: on going/started, pending, etc
4) Completion/Date: The date that the chore was all done (bolded and in red)

It helps me to keep track of what needs to be done, register the completed task(s), and to add notes if the cleaning or whatever, was delayed/pending (reason). For me it is another way to be more organized, and to start with the easier task that can be done quickly. It is a morale boost.

KeriA

I am now finished setting up my art room that was being used by everyone as a store room back into a art room/home office. I start back to work remotely in a week from today. Basically there is not much different from a desk for work and a desk for my art room. This job is for a limited time so when I am done with it or start back into the office I will have a place to do my art.

I had already taken a small load to good will earlier but after going through it all and recycling and throwing away stuff I had 5 boxes of kids art supplies from teaching art during the last economic downturn. I contacted a local art organization that has classes for adults and kids and asked them if they wanted my supplies. They did and Friday I set up an appointment to deliver them. They took it all even the straws. I had a project where the kids made looms from straws. They were happy to get them and I was happy to get rid of them. I had colored pencils, paints, brushes, crayons, construction paper, palettes, beading supplies.

Then I started decluttering the basement hallway so I could get into my art room easier and the bathroom. I sorted towels and linens. We remodeled our main bathroom upstairs and I got new towels so the old ones went to the basement. We had over the toilet shelves we took out of there too. I had my husband put them in the basement bathroom. I rearrange the shelved in there and was able to put all the old towels in the basement bathroom. Then all the linens that don't go to beds upstairs I put in some hall shelves which I had my husband move away from the art room door so I could get in it easier. He also set up the desk in there. I put all the art stuff away and then I had office supplies which I organized and put away ready to use. We vacuumed. So now the basement is decluttered for the most part and I have a home office/art studio now. I have a corner of the living room that I have been using as a home office. I can now put the office supplies etc. from there downstairs thereby decluttering the living room even more. However I will still be using my home laptop there a lot. Yay! my living room will actually function as a living room. All of us have space to do work so we don't need to use the living room as a project work space.

Basically we are finished with decluttering our whole house except for our garage/converted to a storeroom and 1 small basement room. My husband needs to do a few things in the office upstairs. So this feels good.

AlexandraFindsHerself1971

We still have the garage to do, but I still have the guest room to finish. We have the bed ordered, and a good mattress from a local store, but I have to wait on those. All the bed furnishings are here.

KeriA

AlexandraFindsHerself1971 wrote: »

What I have found is that once you've had an area cleared for a while, not having it cleared off will bug you.

I really like order, and it's SO nice to be in a household where the other people in it also like order and, even though I'm the main housekeeper, they aid and abet the creation of order. (I'm not talking about the cats. The younger one is named Nyx, Daughter of Chaos for a reason.)

I like order too. I used to be the one to put things away. I hate how people leave things on the kitchen table. At some point though I gave up the fight. So then we needed to declutter everything. It was really my daughter who got us going. Now we need to have an agreement where everyone puts things where they belong. Or every Saturday morning we set aside a time and all do it together.

Sand_TIger

KeriA wrote: »

Basically we are finished with decluttering our whole house except for our garage/converted to a storeroom and 1 small basement room. My husband needs to do a few things in the office upstairs. So this feels good.

I'll bet it does! That's great progress. I love reading about your progress and that of everyone else on here. Right now I'm decluttering to make more room for winter stores. I have some shelves that are kind of haphazardly stocked, and could use some reorganization. Already did a bit of that and have more room for dry goods. It fools good to look at things when they used to be chaotic and now are orderly. Besides, it's another excuse to move around.

WildColonialGirl

suzyjmcd2 wrote: »

WildColonialGirl wrote: »

I have found that when I declutter, it’s very freeing. I’m a huge fan of Freecycle and also belong to a trading group on FB.

A friend of mine just told me about Freecycle. Can I ask where you do your trades or have others pick up? I wouldn't want to give someone my home address.

You can arrange to do pickup in public places if you prefer, or you can deliver to the person’s home. I’ve done deliveries for people who didn’t have transportation.

WildColonialGirl

Gisel2015 wrote: »

I have an excel workout sheet with 4 columns labeled:

1) Category (organizing, de-cluttering, cleaning, etc)
2) Chore (could be a room, a drawer, boxes, garage, cars, etc.)
3) Status: on going/started, pending, etc
4) Completion/Date: The date that the chore was all done (bolded and in red)

It helps me to keep track of what needs to be done, register the completed task(s), and to add notes if the cleaning or whatever, was delayed/pending (reason). For me it is another way to be more organized, and to start with the easier task that can be done quickly. It is a morale boost.

This is good! I’m going to try that.

Gisel2015

WildColonialGirl wrote: »

Gisel2015 wrote: »

I have an excel workout sheet with 4 columns labeled:

1) Category (organizing, de-cluttering, cleaning, etc)
2) Chore (could be a room, a drawer, boxes, garage, cars, etc.)
3) Status: on going/started, pending, etc
4) Completion/Date: The date that the chore was all done (bolded and in red)

It helps me to keep track of what needs to be done, register the completed task(s), and to add notes if the cleaning or whatever, was delayed/pending (reason). For me it is another way to be more organized, and to start with the easier task that can be done quickly. It is a morale boost.

This is good! I’m going to try that.

Good for you, but I warn you that if you don't check the list and complete the tasks nothing will get done. Been there and done that!