The De-Clutter and Clean Up Support Thread

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
641

I keep hearing people repeat stuff like that, and I could see that as a truth for some things, but given the chaos in my personal life this past decade (including but not limited to the death of 5 relatives) there’s a bunch of stuff I haven’t looked at for a few years, but it wasn’t because I didn’t care about the stuff, it’s because I was having to re-locate for months at a time to take care of sick or dying relatives and the like. I am hoping to get back to all that stuff. Throwing out my sewing machine, for example, because I haven’t touched it for 5 years just means I’ll have to buy a new one in a couple months when I get back to sewing things. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve opened the box with mom and dad’s ashes in them for about two years now but I’m not throwing them out, either!

Certainly everything needs to be *reviewed. * I’ve been getting about 1 garbage bag a day on average out of the house, and that’s just garbage (yay me!). I’m gathering up the spouse’s clothes and stuff like that for donation.

642

You’re making steady progress. That’s great to hear.

You’ll have it all clutter free before much longer.

643

I had a large (about 18 inches tall) of shirts my husband used to wear in his shop that were all stained to one degree or another and therefore considered unsuitable for donation for most purposes.

I gave them to a contractor friend I know who goes through shirts like a hayfever sufferer goes through kleenex in a field of ragweed. He doesn’t care if they’re pre-stained, the shirts get used, it helps someone out, and they’re out of my house. He also took the open package of socks, only one of which had been removed because he goes through socks almost as fast.

Sold a stack of books (mostly mine) and DVD’s (husband’s, ones I don’t personally care for) to a 2nd hand store. Didn’t get much for them, but I got something, they get re-used, and they’re out of my house.

Time to take the recyclables to the local scrapper

Did get a lot of paperwork out of the house, but then our former health insurance company “helpfully” sent me a stack of notices and bills asking for money for covering the husband for the second half of this year. This is annoying, because I have twice told them he’s dead and therefore does not need health insurance and is not billable. Not quite sure how to handle this. Was going to call them yesterday but the 8 hour boat-moving job I got talked into wound up taking 12 hours instead so got home too late to do this. I guess that moves to next week.

So… not fast progress but some progress.

I need to inventory my husband’s collection of model kits - he once had a business selling them and we have leftovers he had been selling from time to time still, building, donating to Toys for Tots over the years…and we still have a lot. I have a hobby shop owner who might buy some, and is able to help me find potential buyers for the rest. No super valuable in the lot (so far as I know) but most of them are worth 3-5 times what we paid for them wholesale.

Have a second-hand contact at a local trade school I’m hoping can find a buyer(s) for the two computer-controlled routers my husband had for his business/shop.

Have to go through a LOT of supplies and stuff in my husband’s shop. Some of it is stuff like dried up paint that just needs to be tossed, some of it may still be useful. In addition to all the other stuff in the house to go through.

644

I love your last post, Broomstick. Its almost a portrait of your husband, and I admire how you deal with his loss and how you want his suff to be of good use to others.

645

Going through and disposing of your husbands effects must be very painful for you, but I’ll just echo what Maastricht said.

646

It is painful, but sending the useful stuff off to a new life and usefulness helps make it less painful.

647

Got rid of something of dad’s this week - an old computer. I was referred to a shop where they determined it was most sincerely dead and beyond redemption. They salvaged the data off the hard drive and will dispose of the rest responsibly. Yay! less clutter! Also have a place to deal with some of the computer stuff lying around here.

Also found a taker for a bunch of the medical supplies. Actually, two - a home health nurse of my acquaintance put me in touch with a charity that sends such things to 3rd world countries, and also said he could use some of the stuff in opened packages (like chux type pads) with his patients, as he already carries some extra stuff with him because the destitute disabled often run short before they can re-up their supplies. I now have more incentive to find and consolidate all that now and get it out of the house. This will, if nothing else, open up a lot of room in the linen closet and bathroom.

One of the biggest things I did to get control of the clutter is to stop things coming INTO the house, which I’ve largely done. So really, the stuff isn’t building up, this is dealing with the backlog of stuff from years and years of bad habits.

Trying to get into a habit of a half an hour a day on clutter on most days, and an hour when I have a day off paying work, but it’s hard to establish this when combined with my emotional (and sometimes physical) exhaustion from grief, and of course some of the emotional upheaval involved with some of this stuff.

648

Worked on the closets and clothes today.

Bundled up more of my spouse’s clothes for donation, as well as a few of my own. Also threw out a bunch of that foam you use under invalids to prevent things like bedsores - let’s just say it was ugly and no longer useful. Also some quilt batting mice had made a home in… let’s just say that had gone ugly, too. Put a couple of things into storage bags, like my best winter coats and some of the heavier blankets/comforters, to keep them nice until winter again. Tossed a few items in the rag bin because, well, they were rags.

Had to stop when the dust kicked up provoked an asthma attack. Yeah, bad me, should have worn a dust mask.

649

I’m glad you’re making progress here, I have a good deal of decluttering to do myself. You will be much better off for it all.

650

Cleaned out the bathroom today.

Which may not sound very impressive, but my late spouse was disabled and used a lot of various medical supplies, some of which we purchased in bulk because he needed them daily.

Not one, not two, but FIVE glucometers. With all the associated test strips, lancets, prep pads, etc. to go with them.

Cold packs, hot packs, bandages, various creams and ointments, tape, urinary catheters, betadine, alcohol, packages of cleaning cloths for the bedridden, etc., etc.

All the opened tubes of stuff, expired medications, and anything else previously used went in the garbage. TWO BAGS of garbage, now in the dumpster, and a half of another.

The non-opened tubes/bottles/etc. have been set aside with the packages of chux and various other things - I have a line on a medical charity that might be able to use all that stuff.

It is very weird to now have a bathroom with just my stuff in it.

I also have a very nice rash blooming on my right arm in the bend of the elbow, some sort of bug bit me on the left wrist, and I had a minor asthma attack out of all this due to dust and possibly emotion. It was weird - in some ways it wasn’t as upsetting as some other clean-out stuff I’ve done, maybe because neither my husband or me really liked all that medical stuff and would have been happy if he could have dispensed with it in life. It was like I was throwing it out on his behalf. On the other hand, I’m handling some rather intimate stuff of my late husband.

The bathroom needs a really thorough scrub-down, too, but I’m stopping right now because I think getting all the crap out of it was enough for today, and there is now more room in it, less clutter, and doing a thorough scub-down should be easier.

Feel like I accomplished something today. But I’m also emotionally and mentally exhausted and itchy.

651

I’m taking a week off work and in between catching up on my rest and having some fun I will be doing some more de-cluttering.

As an additional note, my best friend is also here this week, to join me in fun, eating good food, and helping me with the deep cleaning.

We started on the closet. Yes, I did the closet before but this is round two (or may be three - well, who’s counting?). Three bags of stuff for donation - we actually DID drop it off at the donation box during our mid-day break! Yay! And about another bag worth we accumulated after that. The hangars were sorted into three piles: Keep, give to laundry service (I’m still out-sourcing some of my laundry, it’s a small luxury but also a big time saver for me), and recycle. We’re going to the recyclers tomorrow morning with a load of aluminum, steel (including the hangars), and paper, and I’ll be getting a few pennies for the metal at least. A few bags of stuff went in the dumpster - how many I don’t know, because more stuff makes it out the door if I say “Here, trash” and not try to go further so my friend is who actually took it out the door. Sometimes you need to play little tricks on yourself, you know?

Then we moved out into the bedroom and are hanging stuff up, folding stuff, etc. Looks like I’ll have the laundry and linens fully under control. Yay! This is day one, there are five more days to keep working.

Meanwhile, the chicken teriyaki is marinating and we’ll be cooking about three pounds of it tonight. The landlord has been working on the building/grounds all day so we’ve invited him for the meal, too.

I feel… GOOD. This is one of the very few times I’ve done a clean up like this where I feel GOOD. Relieved. More relaxed. Yay! OK, the allergies are a little annoyed but not too badly.

If things go well I’ll have more to report in the near future.

652

Six dead pillows out the door.

Another bag of garbage.

My friend ventured into the Middle Room (it’s in the middle between the living room and the bedroom), tossed out some dried up paint jars, labeled some containers, and got rid of yet more medical supplies that turned up (those will be off to a medical charity).

Today plans are to measure the front windows for a replacement for the dead/dying blinds, attacking the dishes (we ate all the chicken last night, and followed up with rambutans for desert), trip to the recyclers, and working on either the Middle Room or the kitchen.

653

159 pounds of old magazines and catalogs according to the scale at the recyclers. Also several more pounds of aluminum and steel scrap.

Also got the windows measured for the blinds replacements.

Worked on the kitchen some and the front room. Several more bags o’ garbage to the dumpster.

Then had lunch, shower, and a nap. Laundry next.

654

Keep up the good work! I’ve merely been doing laundry today.

655

We outsourced the laundry to give us more time to work on the house and also do things like shower, eat, and rest. I had to dose myself for allergies and take a nap today, but I’m feeling much better for having done it.

Tomorrow I’ll be downsizing the book collection (nooooooo…!) and doing more bits and pieces in the living room and kitchen. Filing will be in there are well (my friend convinced me to purchase a label printer). Sunday we’ll be tackling some computer maintenance and trouble-shooting, also the TV in the bedroom (the parrots got ahold of it at one point).

Monday she has to go back to Michigan and I have to rest up for work, but I really feel we’ve made a dent in things this week. I should be able to at least maintain it going forward, and continue to nibble at things.

It’s hard, but I’m starting to feel I’m replacing old, dysfunctional habits with newer and better ones.

656

Got the laundry back, it’s fantastic to have all that stuff cleaned… although I’m already finding more but I actually have room for most of the clean stuff. Which I have been putting away.

Sold off some of the books, not all. The market for used books is, of course, extremely weak right now.

My friend tackled the back hallway which, due to a roof leak (yes, the landlord is fixing the roof) ruined some things of enormous, enormous emotional value. I just could not face doing it, so she did it for me. I am very grateful to her for tackling a messy, nasty job and being sensitive to how upsetting losing items that once belonged to my deceased mother and sister was for me.

The building dumpster is almost entirely full now.

I’m sort of running out of steam on this current project, but feel like a lot of progress has been made. I still have a lot to keep hacking away at.

657

I got a new housekeeping book out of the library today: Unfuck Your Habitat. Only a couple chapters in, but it’s got a nice emphasis on doing what you can, given your life circumstances and abilities, rather than dictating a routine everyone should follow.

Now it’s talking about working in 20/10s, in essence picking out a small mess to work on, like single flat surface or one drawer of a cabinet, and working on just that for 20 minutes, promptly followed by ten minutes doing something you enjoy. As a way to get you to stop associating ‘cleaning your house’ with meaning “gotta work til I’m exhausted and hate the whole process so much I’ll never even start again for months.”’

The author seems to pound on her points too much, but so far it seems to make sense to me. I know the most successful cleaning/organizing job I ever managed was when I cleared my mom’s house after her death, and because of other time demands I did it by just doing a half hour a day and then leaving. Took many months to finish, but I was able to stick it through all the way and didn’t get exhausted, either physically or emotionally.

658

Today was another load of laundry and computer stuff. My friend used to work a computer help desk and after I backed everything up helped me go over my security, software, and maintenance. Apparently I’ve been doing an OK job.

Wound up having to take a really long nap today - wasn’t feeling well, combination of stress, sleeping badly, and allergies. Have one more day before I have to get back to work, might just take it easy.

659

I dove into my storeroom this morning. I chucked a whole load of boxes that I had kept in case I needed to return the items they originally contained. Of course I have kept the items themselves and the boxes had become filled with stuff. Most of that stuff went too. I folded and stored away some old suits and trousers that will fit my nephew in a couple of years. Repacked my guest duvet (not that I’ve ever had a guest here). Washed a bolster pillow. Chucked some boxes which used to hold wine bottles long since consumed or transferred to my wine rack, and re-purposed one to stack wrapping paper. Chucked yet more rubbish. Now there’s a LOT more room.

Still to do is the other side of the storeroom - particularly the far corner - and my wardrobe.

And I treated myself to a complete set of new socks (3 packs of 7) yesterday. Which means that the old socks will be recycled.

And now I need a cup of tea.

660

I cleaned up and organized a big area in my bedroom that had been attracting clutter for a few years now! It looks so good! I can walk in there again.

Gone: 4 bags of old clothes. 1 big box of books. Several large boxes that various items arrived in but had been hanging around for reasons unknown. An ancient stereo system. Various knickknacks. Several pairs of shoes.

So much improved!