Post Your Decluttering Successes Here!

[annettemarie]

Here's a spot to brag about your progress.

Yesterday I managed to weed out about half of our wooden vehicles (too much of good thing can be a bad thing!). About half can be sold, the other half is going to the mission. I also am sending the stupid huge cardboard brick blocks my mother sent to the mission.

Oh, and I am moving all the nature guidebooks to a basket by the window so they will actually be used!

Annette

[Spookygirl]

Well, I mentioned my 12 boxes of toys and 5 bags of clothes that went last Monday. I also cleaned out about 15-20 boxes of various sizes that I had been saving, in case I needed to ship something, that was on Wednesday I can walk in my office now

[ekblad9]

Thanks to you ladies I finally faced my girl's room (and closet) on Saturday night. I got rid of a bunch of toys that I'd been avoiding. It looks and feels alot better in there. Their room was really the last of the rooms I had to declutter. It felt great to get it done! Thank you!

[whateverdidiwants]

I went through all my clothes and got rid of all the things I was holding on to not to hurt anyone's feelings (which makes no sense because we don't live anywhere near anyone who gave me the offending garments anyway!) - 2 more bags to donate.

The thing that has been helping me is to get rid of all the cute little boxes and baskets that attract random junk. I find I keep a lot more little things if I have somewhere to stash them.

[Losgann]

Hi, I'm new to this forum. I've been working at decluttering and I've gotten pretty far this week!

Dh and I cleaned out the garage and he installed some wire shelving which we then put all of our excess kitchen stuff (dh is a wannabe chef and food snob :LOL) and our holiday stuff. When we were done we actually had enough room left over to park our car!

I've freecycled quite a bit of stuff and only have a few items left-my son's old bike, a helmet, a glass pitcher, a few cassette tapes.

I washed several loads of clothes, making my laundry mountain a tiny molehill in the hallway. :LOL

I emptied out a giant junk basket (mostly toys) and put them away in the kids rollaway plastic toyboxes in the garage that we use to rotate toys. Then I used the empty basket to put bedding-to-be-washed in, getting the mountain range of blankets off the garage floor.

I cleaned the living room yesterday morning and put out a few hot spots-magazines to be donated away, newspapers to be recycled, school papers tossed or saved and put away in the keeper box..

I hope I have this much energy next week!

[Losgann]

Originally Posted by whateverdidiwants

I went through all my clothes and got rid of all the things I was holding on to not to hurt anyone's feelings (which makes no sense because we don't live anywhere near anyone who gave me the offending garments anyway!) - 2 more bags to donate..

I used to do that!! : I held on to things for like 20 years thinking "I'd be so ungrateful if I tossed that. Even though it's been in a trashbag in the garage for 15 years..." When I discovered Flylady I finally got over that and started tossing things with abandon! LOL The weight that lifted when I did that.. Less definitely is more!

I had nightmares of being in another bad situation and relentlessly just packing stuff trying to get away but I never could get it all packed, but it ALLL had to go.. Horrible! I don't have those as often anymore.

Originally Posted by whateverdidiwants

The thing that has been helping me is to get rid of all the cute little boxes and baskets that attract random junk. I find I keep a lot more little things if I have somewhere to stash them.

I am a basket junkie!! I love great big roomy baskets. I tend to go overboard with them though (especially with freecycle), then I have to declutter THEM! :LOL

[FillingMyQuiver]

At the beginning of the year, DH and I tossed or donated to the Salvation Army over 300lbs. worth of STUFF. That's all it was, stuff. Stuff taking up precious crawling/ walking space for my wonderful DS, stuff taking up closet space that didn't fit us was never worn, stuff looking at me making me feel guilty. A lot of it was computer stuff that DH insisted on having/ keeping cuz "ya never know!" Thank goodness I found FlyLady It is so much easier to clean our apt. and DS has so much room to move around

[tinyshoes]

oh my gosh...a thread inviting bragging about de-cluttering success?

I'm positively giddy with the amount of de-cluttering and trashing and donating that's gone down in my humble home in the past 4 weeks!!!

We have just sold our house, in no small part to the stuff we hauled out of here--both to a storage facility (uh, dh's cousin's basement) and to Goodwill.

We've been LIVING with minimal stuff for a few weeks now, and it has underscored the importance of de-cluttering.

It is liberating to let go of stuff that we've had for years and years, just in case. We've not yet had "the case." It's going. It's good. I am so excited to move, and when we do, we're moving half the stuff we moved INTO our house--goodbye couch, goodbye lame microwave cart, goodbye bookshelf I thought I shouldn't get rid of!

[annettemarie]

Hooray for you, tinyshoes!

Set it free!

[Ruthla]

Well, I went through my spare closet to find Purim costumes for my girls. When we were finished, I bagged up most of it for charity, saving only a select few. I haven't yet given the bag away but I gave away another HUGE bag of girls' clothes (that fit but they won't wear) earlier this week.

[Irishmommy]

I'm getting inspired!!

[hotmamacita]

We've moved a lot in the past seven years and I've really decluttered a lot. BUt I always feel I need to do more.

I have managed over the years to cut down to four towels for dh and I and a few handtowels and washclothes. Each child has two towels. Sheets are minimal and so are clothes and pjs but for some reason I've accumulated a lot of blankets.

I've really minimized things in the kitchen too. I am down to keeping things we use on a weekly basis.

And today, I finally put the second TV away and all the DVD and VHS in a box for a while. I want to go through it and get rid of all but those we really love. I want a break from the TV for a while. Esp. while the weather is so awesome here.

[Ellien C]

I'm getting depressed. I thought I was doing OK, but we have SO far to go...

[AngelBee]

Just wanted to drop in and say...

I AM PROUD OF ALL OF YOU!!!

Keep up the great work!!!

[magemom]

Ellien, me too.

I have fully decluttered my masterbath- 1 drawer at a time at bathtime. WOW!
I have also been freecycling like crazy, but nothing compaired to some folks. This week during bathtime I want to tackle my shelf in my closet. It has sweaters, books and my jewelry. And alot of dust. I took 2 full bags of books to the swap and came back with less than half a bag. Plus many of the books I can't take to the swap the school band sale will love.

During playtime I want to clean out a kitchen cabinet every night.

Little bit at a time, every day. One day, it will be time to start over because it will never be done. And that is ok.

[Belleweather]

I finally removed all the clothes that I KNOW I can't and/or won't wear when I'm pregnant from my bedroom... and lo and behold, there IS a floor! I don't think I'd seen in it a year, since we had so many clothes that never got worn and seemed to just live there forever!

Next task: Socks. I'm going to find the moral fortitude to just throw away all the holey and unmatched ones, you just watch!

Okay, I know they're very, very small successes, but we all have to start somewhere, right?

[magemom]

Originally Posted by Belleweather

Okay, I know they're very, very small successes, but we all have to start somewhere, right?

I pulled out 3 cookbooks. Tossed 4 empty containers of spices (had 2 of same, consolidated) Offered packing materials on Freecycle.

It is hard to part with socks. What did it for me was new shoes- with open heels. Can't show the holes!

[westernskies]

removed

[Autumnschild]

I've somehow managed to bag up five huge trash bags of clothes, a box of shoes, a box of toys, and some other miscellaneous clutter for a local charity. That was half a room. I'm just getting started! I am excited to see the floor of my sewing room. I'm also glad to be rid of the gift hand-me-down leather coat that smelled of cigarrettes. I was too guilty to give that one up for a long time.

There's something about being able to throw the windows open and let the air in that inspires a good spring cleaning!

[tessamami]

Just a little decluttering in the kitchen

I bought just a few plastic jars for spices, nuts, etc. that kind of look like a mason jar - it has a rubber seal on the top, and snaps shuts. And a few small mason jar for spices. I faced my fear of identifying seaweeds, bought in bulk, and found to my surprise that each variety was labeled. And I bought plastic storage bags, throwing away my guilt about buying plastic storage bags. Now, I wash and reuse them, but if I have to buy some more, well. . . I just do.

I also made my first weekly meal plan today, I feel good. My aim is to use up my pantry supplies! And I will. I also put my flours in the freezer, again in those plastic ziplock bags. Now I don't have to worry about them going bad.

It looks really nice, in the kitchen and pantry, now.