April/May Room challenge..declutter a room of your own choice - Page 3

[clutterwarrior]

I made some progress today with my son's room...got the bookshelf cleared and moved it off the top of the other shelves...all ready now for moving the shelves out of his room next week!

[MamaFern]

Originally Posted by zebra15 

Couldn't cope with life today... will try do to more tomorrow. 

some days are just like that. hope today is a better day for you

[MamaFern]

my kids room is done! when i get some boxes i do plan to pack up stuff, but everything is declittered, clean, organicanzed and tidy. hopefully it  can stay that way long enough for me to get things into boxes.

im thinking of starting on my bedroom today. mostly its th closet that needs help. it has a lot of my craft stuff in bins which i want to go through and declutter..also my clothing and my dd's.  i did recently did this, but here is always more to get rid of! sunday is dump day and i want to have a van full to take to the free store/thrist store and dump. i love getting things cleaned out!!

[zebra15]

Decided to leave a bunch of junk at the post office today.  No need to lug it all home to let it sit here or toss it.

DS got his new swim backpack, tossed the old reg. bag he was using.

Maybe tonight I will feel like tackling something more in the house.    Had a shitty class for subbing this AM, it was 1/2 day and man were they wired.

[justmeandmybrood]

Zebra, yuck - kids are always SO wild on half days!!  Hoping your tomorrow goes better!

Clutterwarrior, that bookshelf is a sight to help inspire for sure!

I have hit a plateau - homeschooling and DD's therapies as well as the activities are taking their toll on my time and energy this week, while trying to get in as many days as possible before an upcoming move (do not want to fall behind with school!).

I have many enquirers from my Craig's List postings, but still have several things waiting to sell.  Once I clear that stuff out, I can tackle the crafts and manage them a bit better.

MY QUESTION:  My kids have a shared desk for arts/crafts.  It is an old computer desk with a little shelf going across the width of it (for a monitor and printer most likely).  We have some baskets and drawers on the shelf to store most of their everyday supplies.  However, they just started scrapbooking and now we have 12x12 books, papers, and photos that have nowhere to go! Should I get a basket to toss them all in for under the desk?  Should I store them in the storage part of the basement with my scrapping supplies?  Should I empty out my scrapping "suitcase on wheels" and let them go crazy with all the organization it can keep (scissors, pens, papers, glue, etc.)?  Hating the arts and crafts area with a passion right now!!!

[justmeandmybrood]

Okay, here are my before pics of our storage room in the basement.  On to continue working on it this morning and I will post some almost done photos!

[justmeandmybrood]

I cleared out all the boxes no the ground (we still have a large box in the lower left corner filled with paper stuff to burn in the fireplace), got rid of our yardsale stuff and have been selling on CL...we still have our luggage, one big memory bin per person in there, as well as extra linens.  

The craft stuff is bugging the cain out of me, as well as the box of yearbooks.  Oh, well.  Baby steps, right?  We have not received our orders to move yet and will receive 90 days' or so notice, so we have at least 3 months to get this stuff pared down!

[clutterwarrior]

Looks like you have made good progress with your basement.   Sorry I don't think I can be much help re the crafts stuff....I find it hard enough sorting my own crafts area!

[3xMama]

I was on a cleaning burn out for several days though and accomplished nothing other than making a huge mess of my entire house.  So I'm keeping the TV OFF today and I'm going to tackle a good chunk of my house and I already got a few extras in the kitchen done. The stove is mostly clean! The burner tops are soaking and the self clean is running (and I'm waiting for the oven to either burst into flames or explode...I'm terrified of the self clean LOL) but otherwise its done! Even polished the SS! The stove was a huge hurdle for me so I'm glad that its done. Really I only need to clean off the counter tops and clean and wax the floor! Then it'll be all pretty!! And I'll be off to my next project....

[clutterwarrior]

I have stalled on this, because the mess I had to make in the process of decluttering, has resulted in me feeling rather overwhelmed.   

I really need to get moving again, but seem to have hit a brick wall mentally.

Is anyone else making progress?

[zebra15]

Originally Posted by clutterwarrior 

I have stalled on this, because the mess I had to make in the process of decluttering, has resulted in me feeling rather overwhelmed.   

I really need to get moving again, but seem to have hit a brick wall mentally.

Is anyone else making progress?

No real progress here.  I can say my 'adult' closet is staying neat and tidy.  GO ME .   We are also eating through the pantry and I may just keep up that pace and not restock right now.  It's too overwhelming to try to get in there, sort and organize.  Starting fresh seems like a better and easier option right now.

Part of me totally hates living here (my lease is up in May) and I really want to live on the other side of the country.  If I can get some sort of feedback on employment over there or temp agencies over there ALL this needs to go and fast so... maybe keeping things to a minimum for a bit is a good idea?

I need to get my arse to the lab by the end of the week, I'm only ummmm 4 months late for my blood draw. And I should have no excuses for making my drop off at the kiddie resale shoppe this weekend. (I'm going to give them some old books and movies too- instead of holding on to those items for the bookstore)  I just want this stuff GONE.

In other news, I filed my taxes today!  So I guess that is some type of progress!

[3xMama]

Originally Posted by clutterwarrior 

I have stalled on this, because the mess I had to make in the process of decluttering, has resulted in me feeling rather overwhelmed.   

I really need to get moving again, but seem to have hit a brick wall mentally.

Is anyone else making progress?

I've hit this point several times as well, esp after I tackle something big. I took a break from the kitchen to go through all of the kid's old clothes when the consignment shop I sell them at starting taking spring stuff. Oh wow...that was a much more massive undertaking then I expected. After going through it all, sorting, refolding and putting it away, I was on hiatus for a good five days. 

On the plus side, I am done with the kitchen! I have a problem spot on the counter. Its kind of an out of the way place and basically anything that's on the counter when I go to cook just gets shoved over into it. So things like random bills, library books, toys that made it to the counter, bottle of Tylenol etc just get pushed over because I need to make dinner, not put a bunch of crap away. I'm thinking I need to put something there, something decorative, to keep it from getting cluttered. Seriously, I can have it shiny and clean and within a day its havoc again. Its driving me batty! 

Anyway!--From here I'm going to hit the kid's rooms hard because we are switching their rooms over the next two weeks. DD will move into the smaller room and the boys will start sharing the bigger bedroom (DS2 is currently co-sleeping but he will move into the other room in the next few weeks). I'm pretty psyched since this is a big clutter area and this will be the perfect opportunity to get through all the junk they no longer use, sort, organize and declutter. 

[laohaire]

Well, I was the first to commit to joining all those weeks ago and then you never heard from me again. At least I bumped the thread, lol.

I have these cycles of energy - basically, I work my way up to being energetic and productive, then something will happen (illness, travel, etc) and then bam! I have to spend time recovering and working my way back up.

So now I'm back "up" again and have tackled the guest room closet, which was used for storage. I'm afraid I don't have a "before" picture - I never think of it until I'm halfway through - but I can describe it. I could barely get it open, for starters (sliding doors would get stuck on the junk piled in there). Then I risked an avalanche when I did. It was utterly useless, since I couldn't get to anything in there anyway. It held DD's clothes to grow into (she gets handmedowns from a couple of sources), some on the rod and some just in bags, never yet sorted. It held DD's toys that she outgrew and I wanted to get rid of but I hid in there because I couldn't take on the additional chore of actually getting rid of them. All manner of musical instruments. Oh, I don't even know what, just take my word for it, it was literally STUFFED FULL to the ceiling.

And here's the after:

It's a double closet, above is the left side. I went through DD's clothes and kept the ones she would actually like in the future. (Actually, I added more clothes later, but not much more, maybe half again what is shown). There is my guitar against the back wall, plus the vacuum cleaner which I am SO EXCITED ABOUT because the vacuum did not have a place before. (It wasn't in the closet originally). Now I have a place to park it instead of sticking it in various corners around the house.

Right side:

There is a cheap old dresser which is the other thing I am SUPER excited about. It wasn't in the closet before either. This is the particleboard dresser I've used since college, which is a long time when you consider what a cheap piece of junk it is. Last fall I got a real dresser (used from estate sale, beautiful piece) but had the idea to keep this one and use it for off-season clothing storage. It was actually sitting in FRONT of the closet before (as in you couldn't open the door, but no matter, why would you WANT to open the door to this closet before??) but now it's parked beautifully IN it. Inside are DD's clothes to grow into and her summer clothes, plus my own summer clothes. On top of it, looking kind of messy but what can ya do, is my suitcase (lovely to have a place to store that too). Ironing board (which gets a lot of use in this house.. not), wrapping paper, and 4 violins behind and to the right of the dresser that you can't really see. Shelf on wall to the right has a flute and the iron.

Whoo-hooooo! I've opened this closet about 50 times just to gaze at it. DD is also excited that she finally has closet space of her own - I mean, it's not all her closet (some general house storage) but she likes it better than sharing my closet, plus she can reach the rod better.

YES! Next project is my own closet. I'm actually most of the way done already but not 100%, so I can't show you the After picture yet. I can, however, show you a Before - but I have to confess it's not really a fair Before photo because the closet isn't quite as bad as it looks. It looks awful but the stuff in there is there because of ANOTHER decluttering project I had just done before but hadn't completely finished, and then I put it in the closet when guests (inlaws) came. So really it's more a project to finish the previous project than truly decluttering my closet, which looks really full but is generally organized other than the junk I stored in there recently.

Most of my house is not at all cluttered like this, but the closets are a tough one for me. The other hot spots to come, after this closet, would be the cabinets in the kitchen, and the office. I would say that other than those places, we have a reasonably clutter-free home. Oh, I forgot - the front porch also needs some loving attention again, it tends to attract junk.

[laohaire]

Darn, I forgot - I really wanted to share.

DH took out:

* 4 large garbage bags to the dump

* 7!!!! large garbage bags of children's clothes to the local children's clothing exchange

* 2 large bags worth of toys in great condition ALREADY delivered to their new home (friend with toddler).

I also have 1 large bag of my own clothes earmarked for goodwill but I'm not going to send DH to deliver it until I finish my own closet and drawers (the latter will be an easy, 5-10 minute task). So there will be some more bags this weekend, though probably just a couple.

[clutterwarrior]

OK I have realised that life gets in the way of the best intentions, so I am starting over on clearing out my craft room....I have edited the title of the thread to April/May.

I just took some new photos....it seems that I have managed to undo any work I previously did so here are my new 'before' photos...

My desk, table, and the paper stack is currently obstructed by mess. We never use that door btw.

The floor area and under my computer area is a clutter magnet.

As you can see I have a lot of work ahead of me...the problem is that I need to do major sorting and organising and purging, not just superficial tidying up.

[clutterwarrior]

Oh laohaire......my closets are a shocker too! Thank you for being brave enough to share photos of your closets.

[clutterwarrior]

Made some progress...

[ngabriel]

Are you all finished with the challenge?? :) 

[clutterwarrior]

Not really....   more of a work in progress...