Yes, it’s both really. I like your idea of just doing the smaller task first. But then I still have all the boxes of pictures.
It will sit there until I get motivated again.
bawmp bawmp bump
Another one (box) bites the dust!
Awesome. And I’m on FB marketplace looking for used cube storage. I can’t afford the system I really want (over $2000), but I can buy some used stuff so I have something to move keepers into instead of just the toss and donate piles.
Last decluttering on my house. Kids moved out* 90 minutes ago. We’re 99% packed for our move. 3 large lawn bags of excess packing materials and non-food trash just went out with a regular garbage pail worth of trash.
Now I get to start again at my mom’s place where at least half the stuff is just going and the family is taking some of it and my daughter will be storing a lot in my basement for when she gets her first apartment.
*’ Kids are staying with my sister until we move into our new place.
Not one, not two, but THREE boxes unpacked today.
Packing materials consisted mostly of old pillowcases, so I’ve also initiated another “donation” bag.
Stuffed a couple of my Other Shoe’s things into it, while I was at it.
They sorta bring me comfort, in that they remind me of warm, happy times with him. But they also make me cry (because those times are gone, gone) so I think maybe just not seeing them anymore is best.
So having finished my own decluttering, now I’m clearing my Mom’s place. (She’s in a nursing home and won’t ever be able to come home.)
So 3 dozens trash bags so far and 6 bags of clothes to my sister for my Mom and maybe a dozen for Clothing Boxes.
Prepping for a house emptying in less than 3 weeks where over half the furniture goes to the street for a mass pickup by the town.
It seemed insurmountable when I got here, but now it is really looking a lot less cluttered already. We also boxed up a lot of dishes for my daughter which will have to go with us to our new home.
i have finally gotten all the summer clothes into bins. now to put the bins away…
still finds bits and bobs of random holidays. opened a bin of winter clothes and it had tea towels for spring and halloween in it. le sigh.
Just went through all the canned stuff you. Everything but what I bought in the past couple of months were at least two years past their expiry date. A couple should have been thrown out before Bob moved here.
I have purchased a cube storage shelving unit (secondhand) and am about to place it in my bedroom. As a result, I have moved and cleaned the area of the room it will land in. All has to be in place or I won’t get to bed tonight as my bed is loaded with the removed items. So I’m really motivated today.
I’ve been sorting through some little stuff to prep for this and am actually excited to make it happen. Who cares that I can’t afford carpet for the floor? I can still get a bit more organized and start shedding unneeded stuff. I suspect my energy for this won’t last long so I’m stopping by browsing to get on with the job. Woohoo!
My efforts to keep up with my laundry have been stymied by a new tenant who seems to not understand that 14 households have to share 3 washing machines and three dryers. They will load machines, then not come back for 7-8 hours, as if it were their personal machine in their personal household and not a communal laundry room for a multi-unit dwelling. They’ll leave off the laundry in the evening, leave their stuff in there all night, and take their good ol’ time getting to it the next morning. Or afternoon.
After listening to suggestions ranging from “unload the machine onto the folding table and do your clothes” to “dump a bucket of piss into the washer on top of their stuff” I have decided that rather than clutter my psyche with this battle I might just start taking my stuff down the block to the laudromat with the drop-off service and have them start doing my laundry again. Sure, it costs a bit more, but there is no drama and I can be doing other stuff while someone else is washing/drying/folding. I can afford that small luxury, especially if it means avoiding battles with the neighbors.
Yes, it’s a bit of a tangent, but part of being able to unclutter your life is setting priorities. I don’t want to spend the time and energy on this battle, I want to spend that time and energy on projects that actually benefit me. Pick your battles.
Also, getting the clothes back either already folded or already on hangers makes them easier for me to put away, and now we’re back to dealing with the material clutter.
Good job to all!
Broomstick, I second this idea for you. If it is only a slight increase in price, well worth it for the “mental de-clutter.”
I keep up with this thread to cheer you guys on, but I haven’t decluttered much. Oh, I did clean out the cabinet under my kitchen sink! That counts, right? 
Absolutely, the under-the-sink area counts!
Plus, you’re supporting a local small businesses!
I recently stumbled on a large quantity of old photos, over a thousand, that I wanted to convert to a digital format. Scanning them all would’ve been a painfully slow and time-consuming project.
I got fantastic results from using my tablet to photograph the photos. If you are careful with the lighting and positioning it’s just as good as a scan. I thought the result was better in many cases, the photographs enlarged and cleaned up some of the older, smaller photos, like the Polaroids my mom and her friends took back in the 1950’s.
And it was fast, once I got a properly lit surface set up I could photo a couple of hundred photos in about a half hour and I did the whole batch in my spare time over the course of a week.
Wow AH, I am impressed! I’ve been tempted to bring a whole box of pics to the professionals and let them do it. I have not priced it however.
I told someone how inspired I was by this thread, so came here, picked a random post, and … copy catted! One big 30gal garbage bag chockful of vintage crap, outta my life!
It was tough tossing some old memories, but it felt great… and I can use the top of my workbench again!
Yay digs! That’s how we are approaching it. Because if we look at the big pile, we get overwhelmed. But one box, one bag, one shelf at a time we can still win.
Yesterday, I sorted through a big stack of old papers and today, I made phone calls based on some of what I found. I resolved a few issues and I knocked the price of my internet service back down to what it should be. Small progress but still progress.
Hurricane Sally decluttered the house - two feet of brackish water mixed with some sewage does wonders. That was followed by a three month clean/rebuild.
Now it’s time to move back in. Everything salvaged from the house is stored in sixty boxes in my daughter’s barn. Probably should send it all to the thrift store but I won’t. Hopefully I can be selective about what goes back in.
Well, holiday madness is upon us where I work (yay, retail) so my de-cluttering is on hiatus until January because I can barely keep up with the dishes and my own personal hygiene, much less anything else…
… sometimes ya gotta know your limits.
Come January and my usual post-holiday vacation, though, I hope to get back on track and keep swinging away at the pile(s).
Today I put a small bag of stuff in the goodwill bin, along with 2 empty tote bags. The cat had one last go at trying to convince me one of the totes would be a lovely cat bed. I pointed to an actual cat bed, and told him, no.