The De-Clutter and Clean Up Support Thread

I do that too. :slight_smile:

We just moved into a larger apartment at the end of June. I still cannot believe how much stuff we pulled out of our previous place, a quite small one-bedroom (we’re now in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom. Even though it’s only the two of us plus the cat and the bird, we do appreciate the extra space, and having two bathrooms is at times quite useful for a household of more than one).

I’ve got all the boxes unpacked, and someone from my local Freecycle is coming tomorrow to take at least some of the empties off my patio. I still need to hang pictures, finish neatening up the storage room so we can get a table in there for sewing/crafts/electronics/etc., get a shelving unit (we already own it) into DH’s computer area (currently using plastic drawer units), and get under-the-sink areas under somewhat better control (this task will probably require buying or building shelves to put in).

OTOH, it’s quite clean, since this place is a lot less cramped and in better condition to begin with (very little in the way of inherited perma-stains). Friday, I went through and cleaned both bathrooms and the kitchen, dusted and vacuumed our bedroom and the living room, and vacuumed the second bedroom. The last is currently a storage area, with intent to add hobby work area as we get more settled. Garbage went out and things like dishes, catbox, and birdcage have been attended to today, so while it’s not House Beautiful, it’s at least reasonably acceptable. Now to KEEP it that way and improve on it a bit.

It wouldn’t work for me because I have some things I genuinely do feel a need to keep that would be tossed in such a scenario. Such as the magazines I keep because some of my writing was published in them. Every time I have a helper they start marching towards the dumpster with the set and I have to say no, I’m keeping these because they’re my published work, and maybe the archival-quality sleeves they’re in (as opposed to the genuinely throw-away magazines with the rips and beverage stains and so forth) might have been a tip off these are special? I also have a few comic books and graphic novels that have my artwork in them. I don’t have a lot of such items, but enough that I don’t want folks going through my stuff without me around. They occupy all of one shelf of my rather extensive library so I don’t think keeping them will result in a hoarding problem. There are a couple other things around the house that are the same way. Short of the apocalypse or a house fire I don’t want to part with them.

I will note, however, that having a helper is extremely helpful in clearing out my home and we’ve made much progress that way. I’m not the sort that follows the helper out to the dumpster snatching bits off the pile along the way. What I need help with is deciding to get rid of it in the first place, once I am able to make that decision I can keep to it.

The other reason that I won’t go for that method is that it only treats the symptoms - the pile of stuff accumulated. It doesn’t touch the cause, which is my tendency to gather too much stuff in the first place, and hold on to too much stuff that is genuinely stuff and not something of actual value. It would do no good to clean out my home to the bare walls if I’m just going to fill it up again in a few years and then I’m back to where I was before the clean-out. I don’t want just a clean house, I want to change my habits so I keep a clean house.

Ooh, THAT’s a toughie. Anyone got a good article I can read on that?

Thanks! Before it went bad, I used it as a meditation space and I want to do so again. So I don’t want television or anything noisy in there, but I am on the hunt for a futon I can put in there and make it into more of a guest space.

Awesome job!

Now that the bathroom renovation is over, we got around to cleaning out the garage. It really wasn’t that bad, it just looked awful because while the contractor was using it, we couldn’t really put anything away.

We also hung some shelves in the linen closet to hold my collection of bathroom stuff that I stock up on when it is on sale. It’s so nice to know how many items I already have and what I don’t again.

And, it’s Monday morning and the whole house is tidy! Everything is put away! Keeping the house up on the weekends when the kids are home and have friends tromping through all day is tough and this is the first time all summer we have managed to do it.

Well, one the things that gets in my way is that no one else prioritizes the house cleaning. As of noon today I’ve had “urgent” requests to move furniture, move machinery, rehab a bathroom, mow a lawn, trim trees and bushes, and run a half dozen errands. And some of them waved money at me, too, which I do very much need.

>sigh<

I am declaring the afternoon to be a Clean Up Broomstick’s Home Space Time.

OK, that didn’t happen. It didn’t happen because the “oh, it’s just a 10 minute fix, no problem!” plumbing issue in the upstairs apartment turned into a 3 hour ordeal involving bailing, buckets, debris, a toilet leaking like a sieve, discovery there is NO water shut-off valve for that bathroom, the toilet plumbs into the building pipes with no shut off.

[Insert cursing and swearing of your choice in this space]

We FINALLY figured out how to shut off the water going into the toilet by jury-rigging the busted intake thingy. And bailed the toilet tank. And cleaned up the bathroom.

Three hours. THREE FREAKIN’ HOURS! Three hours I had intended to spend cleaning up MY place!

Then I went downstairs to MY place.

And found my kitchen had flooded. Being under the problem bathroom and all.

[Insert LOUD cursing and swearing of your choice in this space]

Fortunately, as my house is much more organized than it used to be, I quickly found and deployed buckets, went to the rag bag and pulled out sufficient absorbent stuff to sop up what the mop couldn’t get, and cleaned up the kitchen.

I am NOT happy.

See, it’s NOT just that I’m lazy! Stuff really does happen!

Grr.

I have elected to use what feeble energies I have left to cook a real and tasty dinner for us and will veg out in front of the TV watching reruns of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or maybe nature specials. Whatever. I am done cleaning stuff up for the day. The cleaning can resume tomorrow.

Grr.

I need a hug. And the upstairs needs a new toilet.

(offers hug)

Thanks.

I need to remind myself that things ARE better than they were a year ago, this is only a temporary road block. I will get my life organized, my house cleaned up, etc., etc.

I am feeling very overwhelmed and depressed about trying to keep my house clean(er). Last month I had all but 1 bedroom and the garage clean and orderly. Now it’s ALL a mess again. Behind on laundry again, barely staying even on dishes and kitchen cleaning, the clutter is reaccumulating…

I did clean the toilets and vacuum and sweep downstairs. But there’s so much.

I need a swift kick in the rear. :frowning:

For me, watching something like Hoarders or Hoarding: Buried Alive provides that burst of motivation. :wink:

No you don’t. You need to quit looking at the entire task. Break it down into smaller projects: Clean the bathroom; sort the kitchen food cupboards; sort the non-food cupboards; spot clean the carpet. They are all separate small projects.

Most of us can’t do it all and some of us don’t even try. But try to do something every day. Even if it is just something small.

On some days, I am able to accomplish more than one thing. Some days, I can accomplish a lot. But some days, I can only accomplish one thing regarding de-cluttering. Life just gets in the way. But doing nothing at all because the whole thing is overwhelming is what gets you into trouble.

And on that note, I’m going to move a bunch of paperwork into an unoccupied room for sorting and start sorting it.

Take a deep breath…

But you got at least that much done! Sure, there’s more, but you DID get some tasks done! Be glad! You have clean toilets and floors! Yay!

Meanwhile - my plans were completely derailed: my work colleague was sidelined by a kidney infection (when she started pissing blood she went to the ER - she’ll be fine, but obviously needs some recovery time) so instead of working on my own projects I had to go into work to cover for her. Well, it’s just one of those weeks, I guess. I might get Thursday off, in which case I’ll do some stuff then, otherwise I’m not off again until Sunday.

I did do the dishes and take out the garbage before leaving for work though. I can at least do that much.

making the bed is unhealthy!!! the bbc said so!

so i’m going with it. no bed making unless i am changing the sheets.

now that the heat waves have broken i’m going to get back into it. time to corral the painting supplies and actually get the last little bits painted, and the paint neatly stored.

then get ready to closet change on labour day weekend!

Interesting. My mother taught me to toss back the covers, get up and complete my morning ablutions, and complete my toilette before going back to make my bed. Her claim though, was that airing out the bed linens would help prevent me from getting yeast infections. Maybe she was right. :smack:

I did get caught back up on my kitchen, and started making some headway on my laundry backlog.

I still need a swift kick in the rear, though. LOL.

About all I’ve gotten done most of this week was maintenance (laundry, dishes, trash, cat box, bird cage). At least the place isn’t any worse than it was a week ago. Unfortunately, it’s not any better either.

Yesterday, I began to remove things from The Dreaded Heap ™ which is a space that separates my bedroom from my office (think of bedrooms with knocked out walls). Stuff went into this area a couple of years ago when my basement flooded and I had to get paperwork and electronics out of there. Since then, it has only been disturbed when I have been looking for something specific.

The dust level is horrible. When I disturbed it, dust went flying or rolling in several directions. But so what? I am removing it down to the now bare (but dry) bedroom where am sorting all things. Some of the stuff I have uncovered is totally needless. It feels good to sort into filing or shredding piles and shake the dust off to boot.

That space will be replaced by an Ikea freestanding shelf unit that will serve as both a room divider and organizer. Once I picked up the shelf unit, I had to clean the space. But it will probably be two weeks before the new unit is up. I want to attach it to the wall and that task will take two people.

My latest: I got our computer’s firewall set up so the multifunction unit (print/scan/fax/copy) will work when using the buttons on the device itself.

How does this relate? It means I can go through stacks of things like stock statements, and scan them, and shred the originals. I mean, I always could (by initiating the scan from the computer itself), but this requires fewer steps both literally and logistically. Now I can stand at the scanner with a stack of stuff, feed one group of papers, hit a button, wait a few seconds, then send the next batch.

So once I’m done that stack, I grab it, sit down at the computer, and glance at one file at a time to make sure it scanned, rename that file to something meaningful, and feed it to the shredder.

The shredder and my Dropbox account don’t know what hit them :).

I’ve barely made a dent in things, but at least I’ve got a start. c

I intended to get more done this weekend, but I dd maintain the last few weeks worth of work. I’m ok with that - my big project right now is sorting/shredding, which, as I’ve started working through stuff, it looks like I haven’t done in a major way since I left knoxville in 2004 - and in that time I’ve moved three times, two of them cross-country. oops.
FWIW, maintaining is the hardest part for me, so the fact that I’m getting stuff done and keeping it neat means I am slowly for ing the new habits I need to have.