I organized all the multiple cleaners, plus dog stuff like brushes and nail clippers and leashes and sweaters (I only have two dogs! - so much stuff!) that are on my laundry room shelves. I’ve asked my husband to put up more shelves in there. It has a pretty small footprint, but shelves all around would be great. I want to put my small appliances like the panini press, and blender, and crockpots and things in there. Stuff I don’t use very often. Right now they are getting super dusty stored on shelving in the garage.
Last weekend Mr Rebo and I moved out all the furniture in the guest room/granddaughter’s room and shampooed the carpet. Also in the office!
Still working stuff. Sold a few more items. Last time I was out at the Old Place I filled 3/4 of a dumpster with trash. Started pricing some of the remaining tools of my late spouse’s for a buyer.
Every time someone posts here, I get motivated to toss something else.
I just took old VHS tapes to get digitized. And took four boxes of books to a local bookstore… got a whole fifteen bucks!
While there, I asked, and they’ll take comics (“Yeah, but we’ll pay you crap for those, because we don’t know comics.”) They do pay about a buck apiece for old vinyl, I might take some of the LPs I won’t miss.
It certainly helps me but I’ve spent the last week hunting papers for taxes, job applications, bill paying research and such. March always catches me out because February is so short. So keep posting efforts and I’ll get back to it. Hunting papers caused me to trash half a grocery bag of unnecessary paperwork though. So I did something. It’s a win.
One of the best organizing idea I got from a magazine was putting cleaning/ laundry supplies in one of those over the door things with pockets. Most of the time they are used for shoes, but, boyhowdy, they work really well for supplies. They don’t have to go over a door, they can hang from the wall as well.
For me it was better than shelves. Nothing gets pushed to the back. It can work in nearly every room.
Rocking chair, a friend of mine who is an actress, uses those for small costume accessories and has one in the bathroom for bath items and the myriad of makeup her characters need. It’s a very clever solution for her because she uses clear plastic ones so she can see it all at a glance. I have considered the idea and may use it yet.
One think about my long slog of tiny steps over the past few years has done is make me much more cautious about buying more stuff - because I only want to do this sort of downsizing once!
I haven’t had a lot of time to work on my pile this week, but I did get to the Old Place twice and did get a few things done. One problem with moving stuff to the Storage Unit is that I’m using a pick up truck so that has to be mainly when the weather is dry, which doesn’t always line up with my days/afternoons off.
I finished going through my storage boxes of old bills and tax refunds. This involved recycling most but shredding plenty, especially the tax stuff. It was a long, boring job and not really rewarding. Small impact and overdue.
I’m out of the current round of de-cluttering the house. It has been a 30 month job really. It involved having the old house on the market twice and moving first to my Mom’s place where I emptied the place for its sale and then finally moving into my new place a month and a half later.
It started with me donating hundreds of books over a 7 year period I guess. Knocking my collection down from a silly 4000 or so books to under well under 1000.
I’m fine tuning some of the organization, especially kitchen/pantry; garage; basement shop & basement storage. But I’m pretty close on most of these.
Today’s Trash Day, and I realized I have a routine. Take garbage out the night before (too tired to toss anything else)… then wake up in the morning all motivated: “Garbage truck come yet? Good, I’ve got ten minutes to de-clutter!” And I rush a bunch of crap out to the can, often less than a minute before it gets picked up.
yestaurday i was wearing a pair of shoes, after walking 5ish blocks i had come to the conclusion that i would throw them out as soon as i got home.
when i got home i thought i should go through all my shoes and have a culling as i had just bought 4 new pairs of sneakers (danskin, from marshalls; so amazingly comfortable. one pair in particular cuddles my feet like slipper socks.).
i got out the small bin of spring/summer shoes/sandals. pulled all of the shoes out of the closet. spent 45 minutes going through all the shoes, trying each pair on, walking around. if they hurt in the slightest they got put in the bag to go to the goodwill bin. sadly some of my sam and libbys did not make the cut (some too loose and i walk right out of them), along with a pair of boc clogs (too tight).
added a radio/clock/cd player, and old winter coat to the bag, and dropped it off this morning.
now to find a shoe repair place for 2 pairs of shoes that need repair. my go to place has closed during the covid year.
Awesome work @rocking_chair. I’ve been waiting to get a couple of pairs of birkies re-soled by a friend who does shoe repair and I really should do it before summer. We’ll see what tomorrow brings. Tonight, I have a job to apply for.
Just finished my taxes for 2019 and 2020. I procrastinated because I knew I owed for 2019 and didn’t have the money. I had the IRS down my neck once before and was stressed enough to put my head in the sand last year. But now, I’ve found that I don’t owe much and that I have a refund coming for 2020 as well as a stimulus payment once the taxes are in so I’m writing checks tonight. Glad to not have that hanging over my head any more.
After many fits and starts since my last update I have enlisted the help of a reliable friend. We can’t always get together, but we’ve made significant progress.
Yesterday I went through a LOT of stuff, threw out more than I kept, filled about 2/3 of the bed of my pickup with “keep” items. My helper kept me on task and was VERY helpful at packing and lifting stuff. He’s interested in some of the tooling, materials, and mechanical/technical books my late spouse had. He’s intending to pay cash for that, but I’ll knock some off in exchange for his labor.
“Keep” items have been relocated to the Storage Unit. I’ll be doing further sorting there, but as it is secure, dry, and NOT next to bar that is increasingly creepy I am much more comfortable with going through stuff there.
Definitely making progress, I have completely finished with 2 of the 8 rooms I have to clear in total, 1/2 through two more, and ALL rooms have been significantly cleared in part. If my current helper can help me out once a week I’ll be out by July, if not sooner. FINALLY!
I’ll have to see if Goodwill is taking donations again in my area, so I can start clearing out usable-but-no-longer-wanted items again.
I recently went shopping and bought a bunch of clothes that actually fit! I cleared out all the old stuff, sorted it into toss or donate. The “donate” I gave to my DIL to go through and keep what she wanted, and let her donate or sell the rest.
My closet is much nicer now! (At least MY half. Let’s not talk about Mr Rebo’s side. ) And I donated a bunch of shoes, and got rid of the tacky shoe rack that didn’t fit well, and bought a much nicer one. Now I smile when I go in the closet.
Thanks for this reminder about getting stuff done. I’ve been absorbed in my new work project and getting flowers and herbs planted. I need to get back to getting rid of stuff. Oh Facebook Marketplace, I have a load of shoes and sandals for you…
Good for you! More space feels so good! I still need to go through that closet some more. And I WILL go through the 'junk" room soon. Mr Rebo agreed that I could spend the money to get all our photos digitized. Might be around $300, but that would be like 6 or 7 boxes of photos just sitting there we could get rid of, and organizing on the computer would be so much easier!
We cleared out our VHS tapes (of kids’ birthdays) and got them digitized onto DVDs. Before they did them, I checked and they’re MPEG files, so I could rip 'em and back them up onto a hard drive or two, but I’m wondering what’s the best long-term storage…
) And I donated a bunch of shoes, and got rid of the tacky shoe rack that didn’t fit well, and bought a much nicer one. Now I smile when I go in the closet.