2016 Decluttering Thread

[msomnipotent]

My family is away on a camping trip and I am stuck at home because I am sick. I'm taking advantage of the situation. I threw away a large garbage bag filled with junk of theirs. I also found that I have 12 pairs of gardening gloves in the garage. I only threw away the uncomfortable pair because I have some landscaping projects to do yet. At least there is more room to walk in the garage, but I am not nearly done. I think I will call the charity and schedule another pickup if I can get a few boxes packed up tomorrow.

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

I've fallen into a habit which I think is fairy common, and that is using the spare bedroom for temporary storage, a quick place to just get something out of the way before really dealing with it. The bed is piled with blankets that have been washed and aired but need to be stored for summer. Also my bazillion winter silks scarves are sealed in bags but just sitting on that bed. When we had a plumber here --what? two months ago?- I put things from under the sink in that bedroom. Out of sight, out of mind.

So I kind of welcomed it when DH made arrangements to have someone come get the window air conditioner from that room. There's nothing like shame and a little perceived social pressure to make me tidy up a room!

[disneysteve]

I've gotten into a MAJOR decluttering binge.

My wife went out of town on Thursday which is exceedingly rare in our family. In fact, this is only the 2nd or 3rd time she has gone away overnight without me in almost 24 years of marriage. My cousin in Florida was just diagnosed with cancer and she and my mom flew down on Thursday to visit him and help him when he goes home from the hospital. We're not exactly sure when she'll be back but probably next weekend.

Anyway, since she was doing something really special, I figured DD and I should do some special stuff for her while she's gone. I started with a session in the basement and focused on the area right at the bottom of the stairs in front of our overflow pantry shelves. That space was a mess with all kinds of junk piled up there. I've picked at it now and then but this time I attacked it full force. The space is now entirely cleaned and open floor. I put up a new shelf under the stairs for bottles of alcoholic drinks. I threw out a bunch of stuff, recycled some stuff, and found a few things to give away. There is always more to do down there, but she won't be able to miss this when she walks down the stairs. So that was Thursday.

I didn't do anything yesterday because I was at work all day and out last night.

Today, I started by totally clearing the floor space when you enter our bedroom in front of our cedar closet where we store wrapping paper, gift bags, etc. That's one of the problem areas in our house where stuff gets dropped and never dealt with. I took care of everything there and it is now open space. Again, it's something that she can't miss when she walks in.

Then DD and I worked together to declutter the hall closet. The inside of the door has a rack of shelves top to bottom. We emptied it all onto the floor, sorted through it all, discarded a bunch of stuff we just don't need, gathered like items together, and restocked the shelves in a much more orderly manner. In the closet itself, we took care of everything on the floor and a couple of removable racks down there plus the lowest shelf which holds all sorts of toiletry items like sunscreen, meds, peroxide, baby oil, etc. We were able to throw out quite a bit of that and much better organize what remained. Also, some of the stuff that started on the shelf ended up on the door rack since we had emptied off a couple of those shelves in the process.

The last thing I did today, which is purely cleaning, not decluttering, but I'll mention it here anyway. Our shower stall was pretty icky to be honest. It's hard to find a time to clean it because my wife is pretty sensitive to strong odors and fumes. She can't really get in there and scrub it because of that and I really can't either because the house smells for hours afterwards. So this was the perfect opportunity. I got out the long scrub brush and went to work scrubbing the tile from ceiling to floor. It's not perfect but it's the cleanest it has been in years.

I may do some more work in the basement after dinner if I have the energy. If not, maybe tomorrow. I'm really on a roll and want to do as much as I can before she comes home.

[DaveInPgh]

The timing is funny for me stumbling upon this thread. We are decluttering at this very moment. So why am I on here typing? Because I was kicked out of the room.

We were forced into decluttering this past month. I discovered a moisture problem where we had some "stuff" stored. Of course being forced to move it all got me wondering why we are keeping much of it. I ended up giving a box of clothes to each of my two brothers. Probably about 10 boxes went to the thrift store. 3 storage totes full of shredded paper went to the local recycling bin. I think we now have 5 or 6 empty storage bins, one of which my wife is filling with stuff we still want to keep.

Ok. I was just told my break is over.

[disneysteve]

We were forced into decluttering this past month.

Great job, Dave! Welcome to the thread.

So often, folks are forced into decluttering because they are moving, someone has died, there's some sort of problem in the house and you need to clear it out to have repairs made, etc.

I think one thing all of us on this decluttering journey have realized is that it is so much better to do the decluttering on your own terms and your own schedule rather than having to rush to do it because something happened.

I saw what my mom went through when she decided to move out of the house she had been in for over 50 years. I don't want to have to do that if and when we move from our home. And I don't want our daughter to be stuck dealing with so much junk after we're gone.

[Gailete]

Steve, that is just so incredibly sweet of you! My first husband was the type to not think of anyone but himself. When I was pregnant with my last son, I was doing home daycare and during a 7 week period I had a child throwing up due to flu or breaking out in chicken pox. I got totally exhausted and ended up with a sinus infection. My OB told me to go to the hospital right after dinner. When I came hom a WEEK later, those dinner dishes plus were still sitting all over the kitchen, some with mold growing on them since it was summer! nO t like even his mom a mile away would come and help either. So when I hear guys doing what you are doing today for your wife I always want to encourage that type of behavior!

[disneysteve]

My first husband was the type to not think of anyone but himself.

Sorry to hear that. Well I'm her first husband and I'm not planning on there being a second. We will celebrate our 24th anniversary in a month so we're doing something right.

She chose well. I cook. I clean. I do laundry. I'm not Mr. Handyman, which is sometimes a problem, but you can't have it all.

[msomnipotent]

Our exchange student is coming in 2 weeks, so I have been working on clearing out the guest bedroom/junk room, closet, and guest bath. I'm down to just one cabinet and the linen closet left. The good news is that I have found some paperwork I have been looking all over for. It has been a nightmare trying to organize everything. We had our hardwood floors refinished and some painting done, so we have kitchen chairs in the master bath, everything that should be in the study is in the dining room, and so on. I try cleaning the dust up every day and I can still see dust in every room! I have decided to have laminate installed next time, because I am never going through this again!

[Gailete]

I try cleaning the dust up every day and I can still see dust in every room! I have decided to have laminate installed next time, because I am never going through this again!

We moved into our house before hubby was finished with building it. Talk about dust! I thought I would never get it cleaned up. It was weeks before things didn't have thick layers of dust on them.

[41Fin]

Moving next month has us decluttering. No yard sale but I've been listing 5-10 items every Sunday/Tuesday night on ebay.

results
- Around 800 made after Ebay/paypal/shipping fees
- 3 grocery bags full of paper to the burn bin at work
- 2 boxes of clothes to goodwill

Crazy part is we only have a 2 bedroom apartment and aren't done sifting through things either.


New eBay listings going up in 4 hours or so

[snafu]

Have you read/listened to the audio ...life changing magic of tidying up [Marie Kondo] She offer a different take on evaluating our stuff. It's particularly helpful if moving is on your agenda. It's a quick read, a bit of different thinking due to culture but I'm floored by how much it's improved our home management on nearly every sf. There is a great deal of discussion on You Tube if you are open to new ideas.

[DaveInPgh]

Thanks Steve.

Did some more today. Shredding almost everything from my "Medical" folder, consisting mostly of statements. I use my Visa card to pay for those expenses so I can always search my payment history if an issue arises.

Also disconnected a Personal Computer that no longer works properly. That has been sitting on an office desk since I wiped the hard drive well over a year ago. I also have 3 hard drives from old computers I need to find a location to dispose of them properly.

[snafu]

A great many communities have e-cycling programs. Office Depot, Staples and Best Buy mostly have drop off bins.

[disneysteve]

Have you read/listened to the audio ...life changing magic of tidying up [Marie Kondo] She offer a different take on evaluating our stuff.

We've spoken about this earlier in the thread. DW and I read the book a while back and have used her system in several areas with great success.

Not all of our decluttering efforts have followed her plan but when we have used it, it has worked really well.

[DaveInPgh]

A great many communities have e-cycling programs. Office Depot, Staples and Best Buy mostly have drop off bins.

I researched this after my prior post and Best Buy is the closest to me with an e-cycling program. They will accept 3 items per household per day for free. Long list of what they will accept.

Glad I checked because I saw they have an offer right now for 15% off an HP inkjet printer when you bring in any used printer for recycling. We have a printer we need to replace. Not sure if I will end up buying a HP, but nice to know about the discount.