We have a deadline for getting the basement storage area put back together: next week, because we need those f***ing bins etc. out of the living room before Thanksgiving. Haven’t been able to do anything the past few days, but this weekend it Will Be Done.
And I finally figured out what a random charger we found was for. It was in my daughter’s things when she came home from a summer college program in 2014. No clue what it was, so I wound up sticking it on my dresser and forgetting. Nearly threw it out a few times. Then I was putting away several small lamps from that summer program, that had been in a bin all this time - and it was the plug for one of them. Phew.
No, you didn’t cheat. You took the opportunity to stimulate your local economy and provide work to someone who was grateful to have it. In doing so, you improved both her life and yours. Good for you!
If you can afford to hire help and want to do so go ahead - that’s not cheating, that’s time management. And providing employment.
I confess I have not made any more progress in really cleaning up my household. Between my father’s death and working retail during the holidays it’s been all I can do to just maintain what progress I’ve made … but I have maintained it, not gotten worse.
But isn’t there a risk of a housekeeper throwing something away we wouldn’t consider garbage?
Housekeeper: “I threw it away because it was broken.”
Us: “But I was going to fix it sometime!”
If you hire a housekeeper it helps to be specific about his/her duties and where they will be doing them. Saying “this room is off limits” or “do not throw anything away without letting me know first” are entirely reasonable limits.
I generally find a professional housekeeper has a much better notion of where to dig in than I do. Me, I see this wreck and wring my hands and can’t imagine where all that crap is going to go.
Housekeeper just makes it clean, tucks like items away with like items, and keeps on trucking til it’s done.
I need help. I’m not a hoarder, I have no trouble throwing stuff out. But I’m not neat, I’m not organized, and I’m pretty lazy. I’ve got stuff still in boxes from my move to this house 12 years ago. I have crap that people insist on giving me that just needs to go. My house needs so much, but there’s so little I can do without clearing it out. I want to get my brother to rewire the house - no more fuses! But he’ll need to access walls to install outlets, etc.
My goal for this month is to hire my occasional handyman to bring his truck and make some dump runs. I don’t need boxes of VHS tapes, clothes that don’t fit, and mildewed books. Ratty dog beds should be replaced.
So nag me until I say that it’s done. I need a nudge.
After a few months break I finally got back to the decluttering. We used to play a lot of games, classic board games and dice games and things like Boggle and so forth. But they haven’t been touched in like forever. So I finally cleared them all out of the chest and sideboard they’d pretty much filled – three big carton’s worth – and listed them on Freecycle though I really doubted this era’s kids would be interested in Monopoly and such.
But I got a TON of requests! And they went to a special ed teacher who adapts stuff like that to teach/reward her students. So now not only do I have less clutter, I get to feel all warm-glowy because that stuff will make kids happy instead of being more unwanted crap in my house.
I’ve got to remember this feeling. And use it to push me onward with the decluttering. All those things I’ve been holding on to because “there’s nothing wrong with it” or “I might want it someday”? Well, someone else probably wants it NOW.
Culled two garbage bags full of kids toys for Goodwill, and a third bag of kids toys that are too broken or mismatched to be of any interest to anyone.
I was happy to find this thread, because I recently started a big decluttering project. It’s been going pretty well*, but I run into trouble with things that are even slightly sentimental.
Can someone please tell me that it’s okay to toss old Christmas cards, birthday cards, postcards, etc.? I mean, rationally I know that it is, but I have a problem here and I think it would help to have someone just tell me to do it!
*Tip for anyone else with a bunch of unused or partially used art supplies: I emailed the art teacher at the local high school and she was delighted to take a shopping bag full of these off my hands.
Cards have a very special job. Their job is to convey wishes and messages. They are to brighten your day and bring a smile to your face.
Your cards have done wonderful work with their task. Now, they have completed their job and it’s time for them to go on to their next role in the universe. They don’t want to sit there making you sad and stressed (or, more precisely, whoever sent them doesn’t want that).
Thank them for a job well done, release them from their task, and set them in the recycling bin.
You’ve been reading Marie Kondo’s book too, I take it?
This is a long thread and I haven’t gone back through it to see if The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing has been discussed yet (although I assume it has), but I did find it inspirational even if I am only sort of half-assedly following Kondo’s advice. For instance, instead of going through my things category by category and completely discarding my unloved clothes before moving on to my books, I’ve been skipping around a bit and getting rid of the clothes it was easier to part with, then the books it was easiest to part with, then the clothes it was a little harder to part with, and so on.
I made progress on my hoard of cards today, tossing a bunch in the recycling and selecting some others with notes that I want to scan before discarding. But my milestone accomplishment involved my books.
Before the holidays I had sold/donated enough that all of my books actually fit upright on my bookshelves for the first time in years. I took six more books to the local used bookstore today, mostly large hardcovers, and now for the first time in possibly EVER I actually have extra room on each shelf of my bookshelves.
I’ve been spurring myself on with my decluttering and cleaning programme by watching old episodes of How Clean is Your House? It’s working; I’ve put aside three bags of stuff to take to Vinnies and I’ve been cleaning like a demon.
