Declutter challenge - 90 days - clean up in 2016

[Mongoose]

Thanks. I found a few small shoeboxes that are keeping stuff at least upright and contained in the bathroom cabinets. I still am not excited about them but it is bearable, and improvement, and, best yet, free.

I've now diverted from my decluttering plan to tackle DHs tools etc. It wasn't on my list but I got annoyed and mentioned to him I was tired of tripping over stuff cleaning other areas. So, he told me I could rearrange them/find homes for them if I wanted. Hahaha, that may have been a tactical error on his part because I am doing it. But, I'm not sure what some of them are so he may end up with an interesting organizational system. It is cleaning up our garage and basement which will further my goal of getting the car inside.

[Rosy]

Update:
1. Finally, done with all shoe organization - donated four pair, ran all the flip flops through the washer. Yay - progress.
2. Started clearing the four open shelves in the closet - two are re-organized and actually look like something out of a magazine:) for now anyway, one shelf I removed entirely and the last one is giving me fits on how best to organize the space:)
May have to pick up a couple of those stacking wire shelves for better organization - so everything doesn't tumble about every time I reach for a clothes brush or shoe polish.

3. On the closet lighting:
Love, love the battery operated LED lighting, pivots and swivels too and it really lights up the space beautifully - the remote control works great too - I stuck it to the wall next to the closet door.
Highly recommended, although there is a minor problem with those two puck lights, the sticky part is not adhering, fell off twice already. They did come with screws as well, but it is certainly a super awkward location to reach - so I foresee a lot of cussing.
Overall though they are remarkably well made and sturdy - will get another for Mr. R.'s side of the closet.

Hated the second light I bought, a pull string LED bare lightbulb look, will be returned posthaste - it turned out to be a pain in the ying yang to even open up with a tiny screwdriver just to insert the three batteries, but the main reason is that it would hang in the middle of the rod amongst the clothing and that means you still have to find it in the dark. Naw.

@Mongoose, sorry I confused you with microspice:) I fixed it. I might take a cue from you and temporarily halt the bedroom organization to tackle the bookshelf in the hallway - it is a disgrace and I'm over it - so I will do it next and at least try to get some input on his closet over the weekend, before I tackle that hot mess.
LOL about the interesting tool organization.

[NeverLost]

Is anyone having trouble with spouse buy-in of the excessive decluttering?  My husband is starting to get really annoyed with me with all of this.  This is obviously infuriating to me since I'm the one that put in 15 hours last weekend implementing the KonMari method in my closet! I have only asked him to go through 3 things so far.  One was his sock drawer, the second was a drawer thing that was on his nightstand full of business cards and other crap, and the third was a pile of about 50 books that were his and I knew he'd want to donate some.  In total, this took him maybe an hour over the last week!  Aside from his socks, I have left all his clothes as they were and he's said a couple times, "I know I should go through those soon" but I haven't said one thing!  I think that just seeing my side looking so good is making him feel obligated to do it which is stressing him out.  Since I went through my clothes last weekend he now probably has around 10 times more clothes than me.  Anyway, just wondering if anyone else is experiencing this. :(

[Mongoose]

Is anyone having trouble with spouse buy-in of the excessive decluttering?  My husband is starting to get really annoyed with me with all of this.

This was me for years (like literally the last decade). I wish I had an easy way to deal with this but my approach was just to try to keep his clutter from spilling into common areas and do what I could with stuff that was my domain. We hauled and stored stuff through 4 moves (3 long distance). Someday, hopefully darn soon, we will move again. Any of his stuff we went through before this time was done together and I would offer to mend/iron or something else to help.

He is finally on board with major decluttering and purging! I think our hoping for yet another move (and the thought of hauling all the crap again) has finally got him interested. Needless to say, I'm trying to get it done ASAP.

[Ready2Go]

Is anyone having trouble with spouse buy-in of the excessive decluttering?  My husband is starting to get really annoyed with me with all of this.   

LOL. This has been a HUGE problem for me. Left to himself my DH would never discard anything. A frustrated hoarder with a minimalist. I am only getting him to take action because we're moving and for the first time we will be paying for the cross-country move. So we negotiated for him to purge 10 items a day until we start packing. Progress. Good luck!


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[Rosy]

@TealBlue - yes, years ago, but we've worked it out since.

These days I keep it all positive - about how great it will be when it's all done, how amazed I am that he has actually learned to let go of things - kudos I'm impressed.
Then I tell him when and how I plan to tackle the project, get his input ... which is usually that the game starts at 1pm or 4pm and what are we gonna eat?:)
So we work around that - guess we could order pizza or de-freeze... we might have to start early if you want to see your game.

I clear out whatever I know he'll be OK with, which might be nothing or a lot, but he needs to sort his own drawers, "tell me when it is empty so I can wipe it clean" - here is the bag for trash and a box for donation. That gives me an opportunity to come and evaluate the progress, intervene if necessary - as in smirk, are you really gonna wear this out in public? ... smirk, honey, can you keep it to three not ten holy t-shirts for garden work?
But I don't hang around too much, because his way of working is wayyy too slow for me and would have me stressing out and screaming if I stayed close. 

I play music and don't cook on a day that I do a serious full time purge and I do the same for him.

Tealblue - I hear you about working 15 hours to get it all done and him only putting in barely an hour. The good news is you have already done the big monster purge - good riddance. He however, may have a different style of purging - slower or not as intense or as radical as yours, who knows, maybe it brings up old fears to do with holding onto things or maybe he just reacts to your fury and stressing out.

Talk to him - think flies and honey:), make it a good experience for you both - you will both be glad when it is done. He wouldn't have purged his books and clutter and socks if he wasn't at least a little bit on board.

Maybe it is just that you need a break - take yourself and a bottle of wine off to see a girlfriend - he may surprise you and do fine decluttering on his own. You'll work it out:)



 

[Rosy]

 So we negotiated for him to purge 10 items a day until we start packing. Progress. Good luck!

Awesome!!! Ready2Go - come to think of it Mr. R. left to his own devices wouldn't dream of ever parting with a thing either. He is the original procrastinator.

[Rosy]

Quick update: Finished sorting the shelves yesterday.
Taking a break this weekend, but plan to go into overdrive next week - I really want to be done with the bedroom by Thursday-Friday at the latest. This is taking for forever...

[horsepoor]

I like this.  I've been following along in the Clearing out clutter thread for a long time, but putting a timeframe on it is a great idea.

I'm actually in pretty good shape since I spent the better part of a week over the holidays cleaning and reorganizing, AFTER taking a truckload to Habitat ReStore and a truck load to the local thrift.  I have several more boxes ready to go to the thrift store as soon as I go through the sets of sheets in the basement.  A friend tipped me off yesterday to a drop-off spot for fabric recycling, so anything the thrift shop won't want to sell can go there.  Today I just listed several items on Craigslist. 

90 days should be plenty to get across the finish line and make sure I finish this before the weather turns to gardening and horse activities.

Still to do: 

• extra glass to the recycling station
• scrap lumber either burned or thrown out, depending on chemicals involved Mostly done, feeding into the garbage each week
• craigslist/eBay items actually SOLD and out of the house Sold one, still working on the rest
• find a home for my old tablet, maybe with a co-worker's kidDH claimed it since he doesn't have one
• donate extra horse gear to a non-profit
• donate boxes that are in the garage
• hazardous materials all grouped up together so I can take them next time they're doing a collection at the fire station
• go through contents of guest bedroom closet; organize so all the useful stuff is easily visible
• see if I can get DH to get rid of a few things
• give away weed eater that needs some work

Today I dropped a carload of stuff off at the thrift store - a comforter set with shams that was used for staging our old house to sell, about 5 sets of queen size sheets (have a king bed now), a blanket, shower caddy, two plastic tubs, Christmas decorations and a few clothing items.

Still hoping Craigslist will pick up.  Sold the juicer last weekend, had someone flake on the ski helmet, and have gotten a bit of interest on the espresso machine, but no bites at all on the bike or aquarium.  I think they're priced fairly with a bit of room to negotiate, so maybe it's just the time of year? 

[Squirrel away]

I was moving things around and actually found some more clutter which was either recycled or thrown away. :) 2016 is going well so far.

[bludreamin]

Joining in now so I guess my 90 days will be 1/31 to 4/30. My entire house needs to be decluttered - but since that's an overwhelming thought I'll start with these three areas: clothing, kitchen, computer files.

[MicroSpice]

Anyway, back to my weekly goal list. I decided to keep it running so I can appreciate our progress as well as what we still have left to do:
- Linen closet
- Coat closet
- BabySpice's room
- Storage furniture (trunks, sideboard, TV stand)
- Hall bathroom
- Master bathroom
- ManSpice's clothes/shoes
- ManSpice's desk
- My desk Completely cleared out
- Filing cabinet This is now holding NONE of our files. All of those now neatly fit into the one-drawer desk filing cabinet. However, it is holding extra office supplies, clothes/fabric to mend, and some art that we're trying to decide on homes for.
- Old laptop (back up, clean, and give to sister)
- Garage (this has seen great progress, but has a ways to go)
- Back yard
- Shed

Not as much progress as I would've liked to see, but I'm going to finally go after the master bath today (it's really not that bad, I just don't want to do it) and then work on the old laptop. I'm going to see my sister in just over a week, so I'd like to be able to take it to her then.

ManSpice's Cardinals are out (WTF Palmer?!) of the Super Bowl, but he still hasn't made it to his clothes yet. I think he's still recovering ...

[Mongoose]

We managed to squeeze in a donation run today. As planned, two dressers, a side table, two adirondack chairs, and several bags of clothes and sheets have departed.

I still haven't tackled painting the inside of the bathroom cabinets or even finishing cleaning them out. We got temporarily swamped with business and I took most of the weekend off (warm, sunny January weekend...must play with kids). I did air up my bicycle tires and go ride with the eldest kiddo. First time I have used it in 3 years. What fun!

[NeverLost]

It sounds like I'm not the only one dealing with a hesitant spouse with all of this!  The last week has gone better.  I think he's really starting to enjoy our new cleaner spaces.  Well, so far in our 2016 decluttering I've done:

-My entire closet and bedroom including dresser, bookcase, side tables but excluding my husbands clothes
-My sons room... everything
-Cleared out our storage unit that we've paid $100/month for for 8 years!!!!!  Granted, it was also used for our business, but still.  Much of the boxes we needed to sift through are in our garage now so we can bring them in one by one to go through contents.  It's really cool and snowy here so it was hard to do on site. 

Next up:  My daughters room and the linen closet.  It's hard for me to do much on weekdays so I'm hoping to do these things by this time next week!

So far the following have exited my house:

1 bag* of clothes for friends son
4 bags of garbage
3 bags of St. Vinny's donations

*When I say "bag", I mean those enormous black outdoor leaf garbage bags!

[cityfolks]

I'm starting today and will go through April (or longer). My husband and I live in a one bedroom and are hoping to buy our first home (!!!) in the next sixth months, or at the very least move to slightly more spacious quarters. Nothing like being faced with the cost of a move to make you question how much you really like your stuff after all ...

We both have some hobbies that can take up space - guitars, cookbooks - but since they get used they don't feel like clutter. He is big into holding on to papers like old bank statements and whatnot, which can take up a lot of space, but he got a scanner for Christmas and I think he'll be working through a lot of that over the next few months. My biggest clutter issue is apparel, so my first priority will be tackling the closets.

There's also probably a lot of easy choices in the pantry and bathroom cabinet, either stuff we can get rid of because it's expired or half-empty things we can consolidate or just knowing what to use up before we move.

[norabird]

Horsepoor, craigslist is not working at all for me either! I have dropped prices a lot and it's only marginally helping. Other people's posts are also staying up for ages.

[horsepoor]

Horsepoor, craigslist is not working at all for me either! I have dropped prices a lot and it's only marginally helping. Other people's posts are also staying up for ages.

Not sure if that makes me feel better or worse.  :)

Maybe I will just donate the actual aquarium and stow the rest of the accessories. At least the aquarium stand is actually a groovy vintage end table that I could use as a nightstand in the guest bedroom.

I'm thinking the bicycle will sell when the weather warms up.  The espresso machine might need to go on eBay; I have shipped countless saddles, so I don't know why packing and shipping a 15# espresso machine seems so daunting.  I think I'm worried that it will get damaged, but that's what bubble wrap and insurance are for.

There's a giant coffee table in the basement that I'd like to sell too, but it just isn't worth the hassle given the lack of activity right now.

I have to admit to giving up a bit on some of the electronic stuff and putting a tub of it back into storage, but at least it's consolidated to a single tub now, and there is ample storage room for it after purging so much other stuff.

[norabird]

I think I will end up donating some of what I'm trying to unload and consider it a lesson learned. Not giving up yet but without a basement having a few extra boxes sitting in the bedroom gets tiresome! I know that in theory there is monetary value for re-sale, but practice is not cooperating...

[ruthiegirl]

Feeling the need for a bit of spring cleaning, so I am in for the next 90 days.  We live a fairly lean life, but there is always something that can be cleared out.  I got rid of quite a few things last week, so I am well on my way to a tidier space.

I am starting with my clothes and closet simply because I am holding on to a bunch of pre-baby clothes.   I am a bit emotional about letting them go since there is this part of me that would like to believe that I will be a skinny minny again someday. My youngest just turned 4, so clearly I have not put much effort to losing the weight.  And I know that when I clear out all of the clothes that do not fit, my closet will be shockingly empty.  I have 3 pairs of pants that fit and probably 4 or 5 shirts. 

So, closet and drawers today.

Day 1

[Rosy]

Welcome to the challenge bludreamin and cityfolks and ruthiegirl.

Right now, having a deadline is the only thing keeping me on track, I'm so over the bedroom I could scream. Decided on a list so I can come up with a time estimate and will indeed be finished by April 5, 2016

Here it goes:
BEDROOM
- closet, one tall chest, one large dresser, one small dresser, two nightstands, two tall cabinets, four open shelves and a small bookcase. * DONE with my side of the closet, all seven drawers of the tall chest - have three empty drawers now:), one small dresser and the shelves - donated three car loads full - installed new lighting in the closet and a new storage box for my shoes tossed two kitchen size trashbags full.
Next I will tackle the small bookcase and my tall cabinet.

UTILITY ROOM
- two long shelves, three large containers with paper clutter and a jumble the size of Texas on the floor  *DONE - sorted, re-organized, tossed and donated - BUT, there was also new influx of clutter - so it is back on my list.

CARPORT
- one tall shelf, one long shelf unit, a big utility cart, one large container and two medium size containers - plus a thorough clean up of furniture, floor, walls, window and window boxes, TV and ceiling fan. *** DONE *** tossed, donated and cleaned up - four huge trashcans full and a carload and a half of donations - yay, looking really good:)

then it is on to:
STUDY - HALLWAY - LIV RM - KITCHEN - BATHROOM - LARGE SHED/STUDIO - GARDEN SHED

Wish me luck - I know it will all be worth it in the end, but oh do I ever need more motivation right now:)

[Mongoose]

Nothing like being faced with the cost of a move to make you question how much you really like your stuff after all ...

+1

We have moved our crap several times and the prospect of yet another move in our future is what finally got DH on board with de-owning stuff.  Ironically, he is now much more gung-ho about getting rid of stuff than I am. Unfortunately, we don't have a move in our very near future, but decluttering now is still being driven by the idea that we really want to move and will do so ASAP.

Wish me luck - I know it will all be worth it in the end, but oh do I ever need more motivation right now:)

Keep going!  You've certainly gotten things moving (especially crap moving out of the house) at my place.  It may not be fun (although parts of it are) but it'll be worth it to just push through.

We had planned to rearrange beds this weekend by getting rid of an extra bed (how the hell does one end up with an extra bed??? Note to self: do not take any furniture just because relatives are wanting to give it to you!), moving a full into the guest room and switching the twin/bunk beds into my daughter's small room.  Of course, that means that we have the guest room completely torn up with no bed...and my parents want to come visit this weekend.  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! So, DH spent his day off building the frame for my daughter's new bunk bed (lumber leftover from building construction...so it's free!). Now we will get to have all that cleaned up and take some stuff that can't be donated off to recycle/landfill...by Friday????  Ugh. It would, however, greatly facilitate my goal of getting my car into the garage this coming weekend!

[ruthiegirl]

Did my closet and drawers as well as my younger son's clothes as well.  And my closet is so bare!  I knew I had hung on to a lot of clothes, but seriously...I had the outfit I wore to my hen party 19 years ago.  I haven't worn it in over a decade, so it was ridiculous to have it hanging around.  Lots of maternity clothes went and fancy dress clothes that haven't seen the light of day in years and years. 

It all feels a bit barren to be honest, but much more in line with how I really live my life.  I now own a total of three pairs of jeans, one pair of dress pants, 5 tshirts and 3 blouses.  I have a small number of underthings, a bathing suit, a lightweight jacket and a winter coat.  I have a pair of running tights too. 

The only thing that I kept that aim unsure about is a pair of winter pants that are tight.  They are expensive to replace and I am going to hang on to them just st in case...you know, wishful thinking.   

[sisto]

I'm happy to report that I've also made great progress. I've de-cluttered both of my bathrooms and gotten rid of some stuff in the process. I also made a huge dent in the office too. It's actually coming along nicely, just a bit more organizing to finish up.

[cityfolks]

Thanks for the welcome!

Tackled some of my books tonight; I'm donating 21 and selling 9. It was enough to free up a cubby in my Expedit, so I took some board games off the top, which looks much lighter.

I also did some digital weeding and cut down on my blogs, social media, email lists - all sorts of stuff. I've had a bag of assorted cords and whatnot sitting by my door, and I remembered to take it out to the car so I can drop those at Target on my next trip.

My guy also brought a staple remover home from work, without realizing I'd signed myself up for this challenge, to help him tackle his paper problem. I brought home a few extra boxes from work to help with the sorting.

Tomorrow is our first meeting with a realtor, yikes! It's stressful, exciting, and maybe a little bit motivational. 

[Larabeth]

We're getting ready to move, so I need to join in on this!!!  We close February 25 but the lease at the apartment isn't up until April, so I have a few months to work through some things.

1. I've already gone through a solid portion of my clothes, though I still have a small pile of more sentimental things I need to suck up and get rid of.

2. I need to hit up the kitchenware, but I'm having a hard time knowing what to get rid of because after awhile of being cramped in the tiny space I'm in, I packed up a lot of stuff I like to use.

3. I need to encourage my fiancee to go through a bunch of his extra stuff.

4. BOOKS

5. I need to make this list longer on my end... I just need to think of what else.

[cityfolks]

Thinking of the people in here dealing with sentimental clothes (as I am myself) - has anybody tried one of those t-shirt-to-quilt services? My sewing skills are not up to a whole quilt, but I think it's an interesting idea ... I guess I'm just hesitant to ship my old team apparel into the ether!

[Rosy]

cityfolks - My DIL made a couple of quilts like that for fun and as gifts. She used only a soft lightweight flannel type material as the backing, cut out the team logos and used some lightweight cotton batting in between - she sewed simply squares from the t-shirts, but kept them relatively big, it looked great.

I think you could probably make it as simple or as complicated as you want to make it. After she made the first one, someone paid her to make another - she used t-shirts from the Thrift store for that one.   

[Mountainbug]

Goals so far:
Clean office/spare room (paperwork, closet, miscellaneous piles)
Organize/purge converted garage
Decide what to do with all our sports equipment (we have a collection of semi-unused things like baseball mitts, soccer ball, dumbbells et c)
Purge bathroom cabinet
Deal with old laptop

Have made only incremental progress, which is kind of depressing. Took a massive load of cardboard out of the garage, finishing up that and some styrofoam disposal today.
The office is taunting me, it's hard to go in there and see things in the floor but I just haven't had time yet. Reading this thread has really helped though and I'm itching to get some stuff done this weekend!

[ruthiegirl]

Went through a few bit of old homeschooling material and was able to pass on a math curriculum to a local family.  It took up half a shelf, so the book case has a little breathing room.

We have guests coming, so not sure what I will be able to get in the next few days, but I have a list started.  These are all bite sized projects..things that should only take a few minutes.   

Go through kid's toys and do a purge.   
Clear out old school papers from laundry room shelf.
Fix broken lamp or finally get rid of it. 
Clean off mantel.
Go through winter coats, donate anything too small and put the rest away while we have guests and need to coat hooks.   

[Larabeth]

Today I'm hitting the cupboards... Lord help me, there are probably some dried goods in there from before I moved in with my fiancee...

But if I get it cleaned out, less to deal with during the move!

[Rosy]

@Mountainbug - don't fret, even slow progress is still progress. Sometimes it takes a while to get in the swing of things.

I'm with you on all the paper clutter - it always looks so overwhelming to me and is so freeing when organized and shredded and decimated. If I can manage to totally get the study sorted I will celebrate - I mean really celebrate! I have made inroads off and on in the last four months.

My plan is to ignore the overall mess, pick up one box, sort it, file it or shred/toss it - rinse and repeat and eventually all six boxes will be history - one box at a time:)

[Mongoose]

Everyone's successes, however small they might seem to the one doing the decluttering, are inspiring. It sure takes time to wade through accumulated crap.

I read all the replies this morning and waded into my oldest's room (I normally don't do kid room cleanup while they are in school but...). There was literally a 13 gallon bag full of paper scraps all over the closet floor. I arranged some neatly on the bookshelf and the rest will mysteriously disappear. I hope none of it is missed. I had to work in her room today to put the bed she had before back. The bunk bed idea was a fail. Didn't cost us any money though to find that out. I took the bunk frame DH made back apart this am and restored the room. Wood can go back to our collection for a couple of other potential projects.

Need to do the youngest's room too. But I think I'll allow a sleepover in big sibling's 'new' room and commit a neatness in his room tomorrow morning before he gets up. Still have to get the guest room inhabitable by Friday too.

I have 4 room air purifiers from when we lived in horribly polluted city (bought on doctor's advice due to developing/worsening asthma). We moved out of polluted-but-otherwise well-liked city for health reasons and don't anticipate going back. Don't need the purifiers. I guess we should donate?

We also have 3 very heavy duvets from when we lived in a much colder climate with unreliable heat. They are super heavy to sleep under and very hot. But I have a weird paranoia about getting too cold (very few blankets and froze growing up). We have cold weather sleeping bags now too that could be used in case of an emergency. And a wood burning stove for supplemental heat. And space heaters. I'm on the fence about them only because they are blankets... Pathetic!

[NeverLost]

Mongoose - Ditch the duvets!  Like you said, worse case scenario you have sleeping bags, wood burning stove, sweatshirts and sweats, etc.  How many times have you needed them over the past couple years? Duvets take up a ton of space!

DECLUTTERING FAIL:  1.5 weeks ago when I did my massive 2 day closet/bedroom purge, I had several bags, boxes and bins of clothes and other things for St. Vinny's, the dump and the dry cleaner.   I told me husband which bag was dry cleaning and he said, "oh good, because I need my suit for that trip in a couple weeks."  So I decided to put the bag into his truck so it didn't get mixed with the other things and so he could easily take it in.  Well, we think it somehow got left with the St. Vinny's stuff.  When we realized it I rushed to St. Vinny's but couldn't find any of our items.  Here's what was in the bag:

-My husband's only full suit - he has work events about quarterly where a matching suit is required
- My favorite summer nice event dress
- My 2nd favorite summer event dress (and ONLY other nice summer dress) -  I have had this dress since wearing it for my rehearsal dinner in Jamaica 11 years ago so there was a sentimental aspect to it as well
- A nice shirt of mine that I loved
- 2 very expensive (gifted from my parents) button down cuff-link shirts of my husbands

It's been 2 days now since this all happened and I am still absolutely sick to my stomach. 

[Mongoose]

Oh no TealBlue. What an unhappy situation. I'm already paranoid about donating and trashing. I know it's probably not possible, but I hope your bag was misplaced and you find it.

[cityfolks]

@Mongoose, for duvets and similar things, you might check a local animal shelter if you feel badly about throwing things away. I know the SPCA where I volunteer is always looking for sheets, towels, and "soft" things to help keep the animals comfortable in the otherwise-sterile kennels.

Of course, this is my challenge - I hate feeling wasteful and I always want to find another use or donate something, even if it impedes my actually getting rid of things. I have a pair of perfectly functional speakers which I purchased over ten years ago but no longer have need or space for, and they've been sitting by the door for months because I just don't know what to do with them.

[Squirrel away]

@Mongoose, for duvets and similar things, you might check a local animal shelter if you feel badly about throwing things away. I know the SPCA where I volunteer is always looking for sheets, towels, and "soft" things to help keep the animals comfortable in the otherwise-sterile kennels.

Yes, I was going to say the same. I'm sure they would be appreciated.:)

[Meowmalade]

@Mongoose, for duvets and similar things, you might check a local animal shelter if you feel badly about throwing things away. I know the SPCA where I volunteer is always looking for sheets, towels, and "soft" things to help keep the animals comfortable in the otherwise-sterile kennels.

Yes, I was going to say the same. I'm sure they would be appreciated.:)

Women's shelters can often use clean towels and bedding, too!  For things in a less nice state, I second the suggestion of an animal shelter.

[Rosy]

DECLUTTERING FAIL:  1.5 weeks ago when I did my massive 2 day closet/bedroom purge, I had several bags, boxes and bins of clothes and other things for St. Vinny's, the dump and the dry cleaner.   I told me husband which bag was dry cleaning and he said, "oh good, because I need my suit for that trip in a couple weeks."  So I decided to put the bag into his truck so it didn't get mixed with the other things and so he could easily take it in.  Well, we think it somehow got left with the St. Vinny's stuff.  When we realized it I rushed to St. Vinny's but couldn't find any of our items.  Here's what was in the bag:

-My husband's only full suit - he has work events about quarterly where a matching suit is required
- My favorite summer nice event dress
- My 2nd favorite summer event dress (and ONLY other nice summer dress) -  I have had this dress since wearing it for my rehearsal dinner in Jamaica 11 years ago so there was a sentimental aspect to it as well
- A nice shirt of mine that I loved
- 2 very expensive (gifted from my parents) button down cuff-link shirts of my husbands

It's been 2 days now since this all happened and I am still absolutely sick to my stomach.

@Tealblue - Damn I hate it when that happens, can you try (ha, easy for me to say:) thinking of it in terms of "these are only things" - sensible adults do not get attached to their clothing...?

1. Different perspective
It is an unexpected annoyance, but neither a failure nor a disaster. Clothing should not rate as something that could make you sick to your stomach, unless you are so poor that a replacement represents a financial crisis.
2. Someone else in the universe needed them even more than you do - channel KonMarie:) - tongue in cheek of course.
3. Time to leave those comfortable old favorites behind - now you have created room for new and better to enter your life.

I don't say that to trivialize your feelings - I do get that it sux, big time. I've lost everything in a fire once, I've also lost "things" in a move that were dear to me and I've left "favorites" with my family only to return and find out they were given away and sold - talk about feeling upset and my trust betrayed. Somewhere along the line I've learned that shit happens and often for a reason that we cannot fathom at the time.

[Rosy]

UPDATE:
Yay - I have advanced into Mr. R's territory - but, it was gross!

1. Dare I admit that I found fossilized cat puke and a dead frog skeleton? Yanked everything out of his closet, except for the clothes on the rod.
2. Steam cleaned the floor and the walls and gingerly touched and moved everything to be sorted or trashed. Apparently kitty made a nest in there - right on top of an open box of soft clothing - enough long siamese cat hair to knit a new sweater:)
3. Strange, how the top of his closet is all neat and clean and organized - a bit overstuffed, but clean and orderly.
4. Five grocery bags full of paper that he meant to shred at some point - well, guess what, that time has arrived! I'm shredding it today!
5. Lord help me - there is a huge box of sentimental crap. I must find a way to nudge about half of it out the door.
6. Sorted out and found storage elsewhere for the eight rolls of Christmas paper.
7. Thoroughly cleaning the shelf unit - not sure if I will allow it back into the closet, but I may have no choice, we'll see.

Fortunate treasure find:
Gold jewelry and old silver coins, incl. an 1890 Morgan silver dollar - sweet!


Laughed about the two dollar bill note I found, but it turns out that in 1976 they issued some.
Looked it up on line and it is worth - wait for it - you guessed it, two dollars. If you should come across a two dollar note with a star after the serial number or one that is a very low serial number it might be worth a couple of thousand instead.

Fun to imagine for a moment that we might be rich:), but there is some value there. Since Kennedy was my favorite president, I enjoyed checking into the values of that silver dollar collection, but haven't looked at any of the old quarters or any of the strange looking ones yet.

Thoughts on sentimental treasures and collectibles:
My coin value searches led me to e-bay where I noticed my Kennedy Memorial Album for sale. Got it for a buck at Goodwill and if you want to put a positive spin on it - it is selling for about $12 - how is that for appreciation?:)
I am coming to the realization that it is all just clutter - collectibles, ha!

NEXT: I'm off to find and feed our shredder - still sitting in the box unopened from eight years ago. For shame - but hey, I am using it right now to shred bank statements from 2001 which resided in said closet beneath the cat puke. I am so over it!

 

[Mongoose]

Wow Rosy. I just wandered by to lament my garage situation. But your closet horror has that beat. The frog skeleton is kinda cool...but not in a closet. Fossilized cat puke is just an unfortunate find.

I had the basement floor clean. DH used that as a reason to work on a wood project...you guessed it, right in the middle of clean area. That would be ok but...sigh...he just left all his stuff right where he used it and I can't walk through there again. Now I don't know what's important and what's garbage so I feel like I shouldn't just decide what can go.

Garage is part of the basement. It has a ton of wood leftover from an outbuilding we built. Plus the yard tools, lawn mower...all the usual junk...plus random crap that was dumped there when we moved in. It is a single car garage but a bit extra long. Except DH took over the end of it too for a "shop". He was very careful to leave enough room, technically, for my car if we can get the rest of the junk and lumber out. After wandering around in there a bit today, I'm pretty discouraged about ever getting it that cleaned up. I don't want to move the lumber into the basement since we use a lot of that for an exercise/rainy day wild play area. There is so much crap it's overwhelming. It's supposed to be our weekend project as DH has off. Ugh.

I really want my car in the garage. And I don't want to be the normal person I know who has so much crap that they can't park in their garage (although to be fair, most of them have a 2 or 3 car garage that they can't park a single car in).

On a brighter note, I have found a place to let go of the duvets where they will be used. I also have culled down to 2 purses (from 5). The other 3 will be donated. Taking a load of recycling tomorrow as well.

The main part of the guest bedroom is super clean. I haven't touched the closets in there yet but we have room for parents. And since they are coming this weekend and know I want the garage for my car, they offered to help organize stuff. I still need to get to the youngest's room and the kids' toy area. This seems like a never ending project. :-(

[Eric222]

I'm starting to get rid of old crap...with my two bedroom apartment, one adult, and two kids who vacate for half the week, I sure hope it doesn't take 90 days.  This apartment does not have a lot of storage space, so clutter ends up seeping into view.

My mother is in town for the week, so I've started while I have help with the kids (I like having them around when I change things in our home).

1.  Kitchen:
     a.  Got rid of all of the old cardboard boxes I'd been saving.  Initially I wasn't sure if this was going to be a place I stayed, so I kept them for the next move.  I now know I'm staying for a few more years at least.
     b.  Went through my 'pantry' food and got rid of things that weren't good any longer.  When pasta and flour have expired, they've already been around forever.  As an aside, I'd kill for a real pantry.  The rigged shelving I have is sort of adequate...

2.  Living/dining room
    a.  Organized board games, got rid of some old, old ones that were missing pieces and never got played.
    b.  Moved a lot of the kids' toys to their bedroom (shuffling clutter?)

To Do: 

2.  Living/dining room
   c.  Go through kids' books, reorganize - possibly triage, although I don't think I'm to that point yet.
   d.  I have some upper shelves that have collected clutter, I need to go through it and organize/dispose of as necessary.
   e.  Per 3 below, apparently move desk out to living room and re-setup my old gaming desktop.
   f.   My cheap chairs for my table are slowly breaking....I need to keep an eye out for an acceptable solution there.
   g.  There is a small closet here.  It just needs a quick sanity check - and possibly expulsion of a few older games. 

3.  My room
    a.  My closet - It could be worse, I had to clean it out for exterminators last spring... I need to dispose of old computer equipment and cables - while not getting rid of something I'll inevitably need the next day.  Tools also need to be sorted and redundancy needs to be reduced.  I have a toolbox, it is a mess.
   b.  Under my bed - things on the floor end up here.  This is mostly just trash and old socks.
   c.  Desk/computer area - Desk is mostly okay - a few cables need to be organized with those in the closet.  I need to decide what to do with the computer.  It was my baby, but I don't game much anymore, and my laptops are more than sufficient for what I do.  The components are all in the vicinity of my desk.  I may move my desk to my living/dining area - that would make my room feel much more spacious - I've got to have a functional wireless adapter somewhere in all my junk.  I could move my 'gaming' computer out there too and put "Chromixium" (a chrome OS-like operating system, with an actual linux kernel) on it for DS.  They use chrome-books at school.  Minecraft + old school nintendo games - I may have to put a timer on the desk...
   d.  Bike accessories:  These are in the corner of the room in a basket...so it looks like clutter.  I haven't decided how to handle this yet. 

4.  Kids' room
    Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!  Run and hide!!!!!  This room is the worst offender, so it is purposely left for last.
    a.  I got another set of cube-like things to store toys (my place has minimal built in storage). 
    b.  Dispose of old beds and mattresses.  Install new bunk-beds when they actually get here.  (Grrrr...amazon sent the wrong package, so the exchange will take ~a week. 
    c.  SO MANY TOYS.  Seriously, it is like an avalanche of crappy plastic.  A lot of things are going directly to dumpster-ville.  How many damn times did I take them to burger king?  Kids' meal toys say OFTEN.  The good toys are getting organized - and places (the little cloth drawers that go in the cube thing) are getting labeled with pictures so BOTH kids can pick up.
   d.  Donate old clothes - I have a filled plastic bag.  Figure out what to do with the huge box of clothes I have from DD's cousin - there are clothes in there I'll be grabbing from for two more years or so.  Her cousin grows fast, and her mother buys her lots and lots of clothes.  I may have to sort these by size/season and store in bins. 
 
Damn.  There are more things here than I thought there would be (and I'm just stopping with the kids room because I'm mentally exhausted thinking about it)....oh well, one bite at a time.

[Basenji]

 

b.  Under my bed - things on the floor end up here.  This is mostly just trash and old socks.

Eric222, hey, it could be worse...

[Rosy]

b.  Under my bed - things on the floor end up here.  This is mostly just trash and old socks.

Eric222, hey, it could be worse...

LOL:) like my fossilized cat puke and frog skeleton:).

Eric, it is mentally exhausting, but oh so worth it in the end. WELCOME to the challenge:) Oh, and you are so lucky not to have to deal with twenty years worth of stuff - when we were military it was easy - move every two years - no problem, no clutter:)

Basenji - hope you are hanging in there:) I'm spittin' mad, because I could not locate that shredder, but that's OK it will not stop me. Picking one up in the morning - those statements from 2001 are leaving the premises. Sometimes adversity just makes one more determined.

This whole decluttering business is turning out more of a journey than I realized.

Mongoose - do what I did - I evicted every last piece of lumber from the carport - carried it out to he curb all by my little self - huge sheets of it - some old lady probably my age, came and got it all, before the trash people arrived. I asked her what she is doing with it and she said she is building upper shelves in her shed to store more stuff. Oh the horror:)
It was gutsy, but Mr. R. did not say a word, I think he was glad he didn't have to deal with it:)

Hope you get lots of help and that by Monday, you will have a garage to park your car in:)

 

[Basenji]

Today I threw away some culinary experiments in jars that my husband had made a very long time ago. He finally relented after saying for months, "I'll take it to work and share." I pointed out that he might kill someone and he said, "Will you get rid of them for me?" Oh yeah baby, I'll toss it.

This weekend will be the Closet of the Unknown in our finished attic area. I honestly can't remember what is in there, some suitcases, a few Christmas ornaments, the rest--no idea.

when we were military it was easy - move every two years - no problem, no clutter:)

Totally this. We moved into our current home in 2008 and DH retired from the Navy. That's when the clutter crept in. Every two years or less I had gone over every belonging, now that we're stationary it sneaks up on us.

[NeverLost]

Cat puke and frog skeletons, you win some sort of surprise Rosy! 

Tonight my husband is out of town and my kids have a movie night at their school for 2 hours.  That gives me about 1.5 hours to tackle my daughters room.  I know I won't even come close to finishing, however there are things I have to get rid of when she's gone.  She's got a ton of toys and stuffed animals that she just doesn't need and they will strategically disappear tonight during movie night.  Tomorrow/Sunday = completely finish her room and the linen closet.  Stretch goal, under the bathroom sinks.  I have to do as much as I can while my husband is gone since decluttering apparently stresses him out.  At the same time, it's a great weekend to just hang out with my kids and play games and watch movies so I need to find some sort of balance there.

Rosy - Aside from my old dress from my wedding, my sickness from losing all those clothes is more of a financial sickness than anything.  We are in debt payoff mode and will be for a while, so replacing my husbands $500 suit or picking up a new dress for a nicer summer occasion isn't going to happen anytime soon.  It's just tough because I did get rid of such a significant amount of my wardrobe during my decluttering that I will need to build up some aspects of it this summer and that was one that I wasn't planning on.  You're right, maybe someone else needed them more :(

[Need2Save]

I'm very inspired by this thread. I've been lurking for a couple of weeks.  Since the holidays, I've been working to throw away or otherwise purge a minimum of 10 items each non-work day (which is most weekend days plus the every other Friday I have off).  I have met or exceeded this most days.  I don't have a pending move lurking or any big motivating event like that, but we have lived in our current home for 7 years and there are spaces that could use some serious trimming away of the fat, so to speak. 

One of my focus areas, is our master bathroom.  It's luxurious and large, but seriously dated and I've saved some money for over a year to spend renovating it.  However, since I hate the space the way it is, I find that I clean this room and go through the contents far less often than I should.  I need to tackle under the sinks next!!!  This shall be my goal for this weekend. Easy to pack up our stuff to start the serious reno process if there is less of it!

Eventually when I'm satisfied with our main living spaces....I'll venture into the abyss a.k.a our basement storage room!  It's terrifying. 

[Rosy]

@CaptainBenefits - Welcome to the challenge:) I really like the idea of purging a minimum of 10 items, although I find it terrifying as a concept.
Which leads me to think that I have started to show hoarder tendencies ...

[horsepoor]

A photographer friend pointed me to an online buyer for used photo equipment, so I got a quote from them this morning for my mom's old 35mm gear, boxed it up and will get it to FedEx on Monday.  There were also 6 unused rolls of film, and the stuff seems to be selling on eBay, so I listed it there.  So double win with hopefully making $50 and stamping out some clutter.  Boxing up the lenses used up a good amount of my extra bubble wrap too.

[Basenji]

Boxing up the lenses used up a good amount of my extra bubble wrap too.

That made me laugh...

Okay! Today was the large, throwstuffinandforgetaboutit closet upstairs, removed everything, cleaned it, and put back only groups of things, all the extra party glasses and utensils, the suitcases, and what turned out to be a large collection of coolers. DH won't let any of the coolers go (I think he still fancies himself a party dude), but at least they are all in one place. Did the same in an another area, random stuff now at least in groups. It helps DH understand what we have and possibly let go of some.

I went all G. Gordon Liddy on a huge pile of old financial statements. The shredder overheated once and I emptied 4 bins into the compost pile. The finished attic still has a way to go, but movement. Thanks for the nudge with this thread.

[Mongoose]

A photographer friend pointed me to an online buyer for used photo equipment, so I got a quote from them this morning for my mom's old 35mm gear, boxed it up and will get it to FedEx...

Do you mind sharing the contact (by PM if you would prefer)? I have 2 35mm cameras that we would love to re home.