October decluttering/organizing accountability!

[AFWife]

Okay, I'm going a different route this month...

My goal is to go through one box in storage per week. I'll either donate the stuff, find a home for it, re-store it, or it becomes garbage.


What do you need to do this month?

[boheime]

I need to touch up wall/ceiling paint. I'd like to get started scanning in all of our old photos. We are pretty decluttered, but I'm always looking to declutter more. I also need to get the old laptop fixed and fix up a kids' computer station.

[kirstenb]

I'm joining this month because I have a little over a month left before this baby arrives and I have some serious decluttering to do! I'm hoping it jump starts my non existing nesting instinct. I need to:

Declutter upstairs hall closet
Declutter two downstairs closets
Locate all baby gear and clothes and get organized
Go through bathroom drawers and toss old items
Donate old clothes to Goodwill

I am sure I will be adding things as I go and think of more.

[Alyantavid]

Since I did not get everything done last month, I'll just list what's left on the list.

hangers for coats inside the door
hang strings for artwork
do something with my yard sale pile
hang laundry room shelf
hang shelves in ds1's room
make curtains
set up new bathroom
organize storage room
install new lights in bedrooms
hang up hooks in ds2's room
move around tv's

[hillymum]

Sort through upstairs closet and divide clothes into four piles.....
Wash for use.---Done, washed and put away.
Re-store for next child-----Done, all in neat piles in the closet.
To be listed on CL Didnt bother! All went to a friend.
To be donated Done!
Sort summer clothes for storage.--------Done.

Paint N & D's room.

Sort papers and re-file or recycle them.

Reorganise my closet. Done!

Continue sorting out out-grown toys for yard sale/ donate.

(I'm on new meds and I think they are working a little too well!)

[mamabutterfly]

I have been avoiding a major disaster for several months... Our dining room has become a storage room.

It's pretty bad. Overall our house hasn't been too cluttered/messy, but we cleared out a whole area of the house, including 2 closets, to make room for my mother-in-law, and everything went into the dining room. (We don't have an attic, only a damp basement).

Specifically there is our entire book library, awaiting built in shelves being built, and my old home office in the corner.

This has to happen in October! It is ridiculous. Seriously.

I can't seem to get started. Well, first I need to schedule building bookshelves, so that's stopping me. We've saved up the money for the project, so I just need to get it done.

Ugh.

[Porcelain Interior]

We've switched our internet/tv/phone provider to a cable based one and they will need access to my two most cluttered rooms. The rest is great and tidy, but not my bedroom or my office. Ug.

So I did my bedroom yesterday (I had baskets and baskets of clean clothes either folded or waiting to be folded) and got all the laundry dealt with. Part of the problem with this laundry is there is no place in my house (which is huge so I totally have no excuse) for linens, bedding, towels etc. It all goes in my room in my closet, and then overflows into laundry baskets where I keep it foled, but it's in the way. I had 2.5 big huge bags of stuff to get rid of when I finished. I used the brutal honesty technique to decide what to keep.

Today I'm doing my office which is the dropoff point for the whole entire household when it comes to things you can't find a place for. My husband keeps bringing home "perfectly good" computers and so we've got 2-3 of those with monitors just sitting here, the room is like 8x10 so it's really not working for me.

My plan is to donate as much as possible, and store the computers until I can get him to agree that we don't need them. He's not a hoarder, but we've had several computers die an early death (in his opinion I think 4 years is fantastic!) and he doesn't want to spend money on another one so he brings home rejects from his work.

This will be a big task because the floor is covered in PC'ers and peripherals, so I haven't been able to really get to my desk and filing cabinet so I have an archialogical dig on my desk to face after I get the stuff off the floor. Sigh...........

He should totally be doing this, but he's not. I am.

I wish me luck!

The mantra for the day is "Saving children's artwork and schoolwork doesn't make you a better mother. It's ok to let go."

[PoetryLover]

I have so much to do before the end of December! I'd really like to have my apartment organized and decluttered before that time, as my baby is due at the end of January--and I want January to be committed to last minute baby preparations and just plain peace of mind and relaxation. I joined the September thread really late (with only a week left in the month) and didn't complete my goals.

October Goals:

1) Finish packing away prepregnancy clothes.
2) Organize coupons by date now that they've been catorgorized.
3) Organize Card/Correspondance drawer.
4) Go through drawer of papers in the kitchen: file or toss.
5) Organize Control Journal (Household SOP).
6) Organize/purge items in Bathroom closet.
7) Organize cabinets in the kitchen. Organize cookbooks.
8) Go through plastic bins in bedroom and toss or put away items. Bins can be stored in spare room, as I may need them for baby items.
9) Throw away broken shoe rack.
10) Donate items to thrift Store and/or place on FreeCycle.
11) Go through numerous boxes of books and donate many of them. Be realistic. I don't need old text books and so many poetry anthologies. Keep only my favorite anthologies. Purge Self-help books, as well.
12) Go through 5 other boxes in spare room. Put Away/Give Away or Throw Away.

[HydeParkB]

I haven't decided on my priorities, but I'm in! This baby will be arriving sometime, so I'm not going to be over zealous. But having a few goals will be a good idea. Be back with those when I'm thinking a little more clearly.

[Jennifer3141]

October Goals:

Outside
1. Put the worm bin back inside for the winter. DONE. (In the rain, no less!)
2. Wash all windows and steps outside. DONE
3. Cut down all dead plants and move the columbines. Pending...
4. Take down all hanging baskets and put into garage. DONE.
5. Clean up beach and toss all broken toys.
6. Wash and fill bird feeders. DONE
7. Wash and organize recycling bins for winter. DONE
8. Plant garlic. DONE

Inside
1. Completely mop basement floor. DONE
2. Take all basement toys back downstairs and put them away.
3. Clean area next to dryer again. DONE
4. Clean ceiling fans. DONE
5. Mop bedrooms wood floor. DONE
6. Wash stuffed animals in basement. DONE
7. Wash Webkinz animal holders. (One of my cats nailed them!! Ack!) DONE
8. Move play kitchen downstairs and put shelves for homeschooling stuff up.
9. Clean refrigerator. DONE
10. Pick and buy new vacuum.
11. Clean off shelf next to table for buffet for gathering. DONE

[doubledutch]

playroom - total disaster. we dumped all the toys in there (former bedroom, just made it the playroom about a month ago) and haven't yet figured out where things go. have furniture, need small storage to sort things.
library - heavens to mergatroid. that's all i'm gonna say about that.
bedroom - really needs to be made cute, as we just moved in and it's very utilitarian right now.
dining room - i want to bring in the hutch from the garage and put things in it, definitely has to happen in october!
eta: basement - of course i forgot the basement! thanks for the reminder, jennifer! yeah it needs to be tidied, mopped, etc.

[naptimeishappytime]

I have 14 days to go thru entire house and clean out closets, cupboards & boxes (been "moving in" for months) for a community yard sale in 2 weeks. I NEED to do this.

Goal 1: All baby clothes & gadgets tagged & boxed to sell.

Goal 2: Go thru house and clear out 500 or more items to sell. (1000 maybe)

Goal 3: Unpack some remaining boxes (hopefully all) and keep / sell stuff.

Goal 4: A little fall cleaning as I go. Make note of needed small repairs & weatherproofing to do.

Plan:
Kitchen & breakfast room & guest bath - TODAY (all tools & gadgets & extras are out)

Living Room & Entrance, utility room- Fri 2nd (go thru dvd, cd, books)

Dining Room & front porch - Sat 3rd (started to put stuff in DR, just price it)

Master Bedroom & Study & storage closet- 4th & 5th (knicknacks, books, boxed baby clothes, etc... put on hangers or in boxes)

Master bathroom, my closet, his closet - 6th & 7th (extra stuff, clothes to go, my scrapbooking / stamping stuff to go)

Stairs, hall, Kids room, Kids bath & vanity - 8th (mostly the kids closet- seasonal & size of clothes)

Guest room & Office- 9th (guest closet has boxes & office closet has holiday overflow-sell it)

Back Porch, Back Patio, any loose ends: 10th (any riding toys too small, gadgets, etc to go)

The Garage: 11, 12, 13, 14... only 4 days????!!!! YIKES! (Pull out clothing racks, boxes of books, extra furniture that doesn't fit in this house & sell it)

15th -to bank for change & gather items sunscreen, apron, etc)

16th - ready to SELL!!!!

With all that and babies, I sure hope I can do it! I will post as I go...

[guestmama9920]

moving to the USa helped my get rid of old stuff but now I find myself buying too much crap

I need support ladies! I need to "just say no!" when the stuff in the shop calls my name

[kirstenb]

Progress so far:

Bagged up old clothing items to take to Goodwill tomorrow
Started cleaning the two bathrooms, but still have to go through drawers and organize

[HydeParkB]

My goals for the month:
* Set up kids rooms and closets (this is partially carried over from September. I'm still moving my clothes into the closet in the baby's room.)
* Clean in the basement
* Sort the sheets in the linen closet - We put our full size guest bed in storage, so we don't need the sheets to be accessible. They will probably go in DD's closet.

Now, this will be my postpartum month, assuming baby every gets here. So I don't want to overdo it. But it would be nice to get a few things improved. I'm sure there will be a drop off at the thrift store too.

[MamaFern]

october! ak. the snow is very low on the mountains surrounding my small town and there is a chill in the air. im not ready..i have stuff i want to do before winter sets in! house stuff has been put off fr the last 3 months. we moved in july and since then i have been settling in but also busy out and about. i know its a great time to start nesting but the things i realkly want to do right now involves paint..and we need sunny days for that. they will come. im glad for some rainy days!

i have a ton of gaols but i find myself overwhelmed when i write it all down, so for now im going to list the job that i most want to tackle..

The Spare Room & Laundry Room are kind of a jumble of a bunch of stuff right now and i want to really reorganise things and get them in a space where they are usable.. i was going to use the spare room for my craft room but i have decided that for the winter the laundry room is a better space..so everything that is crafty needs to get put in there, organised in a nice looking way and i need to get my laundry under control. i love hanging it and since its gotten cooler my laundry has been getting less attention because i really hate using the dryer.

so here i go. first is first...closet in spare room. wish me luck!@ im missing a box from the move so im really hoping to find it today!

[CrunchyDoula]

Originally Posted by AFWife

Okay, I'm going a different route this month...

My goal is to go through one box in storage per week. I'll either donate the stuff, find a home for it, re-store it, or it becomes garbage.


What do you need to do this month?

I need to do the exact same thing. We are currently staying with my mother as we wait for hubby to enlist in the Marines and all our stuff is sitting in storage. It is funny how not having it daily makes me think of all the things that I do not need!

[chely7425]

We need to declutter our garage something awful... it is SO bad!!!! That is getting started on this weekend, for sure. We also probably should do something about the toys and other random stuff... OH! My desk... my desk is a major disaster area.

[Jennifer3141]

I keep finding more projects. It figures I give the house a good spring cleaning in OCTOBER.

[MamaFern]

since my post earlier today i have gotten quite a bit accomplished! i have unpacked and put away about 10 boxes/bins of stuff.. i have this amazing built in cabinet in my laundry room that im sorting all of our craft stuff into. the top is our pantry, which i may move..and next to that on the top is where all of my canning is being stored. i have put up 2 shelves, one above my washer, one above my dryer as a place to put some things that i like to look at..but also with in organization in mind. i have this rustic table in front of the small window in there that im setting up as my work desk, so i have some fun stuff on there, with my sewing machine stored under for quick access, and i have finally unloaded all of my craft books and magazines.
still more to do!