February De-clutter Challenge? - Page 6

[Bufomander]

well, DH mailed out two books for paperbackswap today, so that brings my total up to 111! i'm hoping that tomorrow i will truly start some real work on sorting pictures/the study table!

[kathirynne]

Update

I have made a little progress with goal area #1. (The dreaded hatbox full of photos. : )

I bought 4 albums from my friend who does Creative Memories. (They were a little on the expensive side, but that's what tax returns are for, right? ) I sorted through the hatbox and segregated all of the photos into piles according to which child was in them.

Last night, I got rid of all of my eldest son's duplicates and put almost all the "baby book" photos into his baby book. :

Tonight I plan to go through the remaining photos and set aside the ones I want to have professionally framed. Tomorrow (through the week-end, probably, to be completely honest! : ) I will mount the rest of his photos in his new album, and repeat the process on my next eldest son's photos next week.

I'm so embarrassed that my eldest is nearly 14, and I'm just now getting his baby book and photo album under control, : but better late than never, right!?!

[BinahYeteirah]

bs"d

Got rid of two more things.

Total: 28.

[PinkyPan]

I am an organizational freak! I bought a house after leaving hubby 3 1/2 years ago, starting from ground zero to fill a house. Now I find I have more than I need. Usually I take it to Salvation Army of the local women's shelter. Often I find need of an item later and have to re-purchase it. This time I am storing everything in my garage for a huge spring yeard sale. I can go through each item then and if I still don't need it, I'll sell it.

I am a firm believer that we own material possessions, but it can get to the point that they OWN US! If I have to pick up the same item from the kids over and over - it goes to the yard sale storage.

[Bufomander]

threw out three socks -- 114!
Kathirynne -- Good for you! I really need to start sorting pictures... i've been doing my scrapbooks chronologically and i'm only about four pages into our wedding scrapbook (we'll have been married 5 years this summer). So all my pictures from then til now are sitting around in the envelopes they came in. My goal is to get them all sorted and into the powersort box i got for christmas by the end of this month. i 've not started.

[fremontmama]

boy do we need to join in on the de-clutter challenge!

I think if we do a 3 area goal and keep count of what we get rid of, that will especially motivate me. At least I hope

Goal for February;

1. our one closet

2. the office desk area

3. the walkable area of the garage (it's that bad )

So, hopefully I can keep up with this

[Bufomander]

Hey! I'm making some progess on the pictures -- last night i assembled my box for sorting them -- took like 15 minutes! and i put all our pictures from our trip to guatemala in there. so that's a start!

[gardenmom]

OK--more to add to my former total of 81 items:

50 paperwork items--a huge pile of paperwork, mostly receipts, (about 4" thick)--all the receipts had to be entered into my budgeting spreadsheet or sorted for business expense, so it took some time, whew. I'll call it 50 items, which is ultra-conservative.
25 kids hangers into the recycling
12 nasty bibs disposed of
3 nasty/moldy toys trashed
2 shirts into the rag bag
7 items set aside to drop off to a friend.
6 pairs of shoes--(5 prs from dh's closet, that were spilling out onto our bedroom floor, and I convinced him to chuck--we can actually close his closet now! hooray!)
1 kids robe into goodwill bag
2 items into the yard sale box

That brings my grand total to: 139

I also got a box of dd's clothes packed up for storage, but I'm keeping those, so that doesn't count--still feels good, though.

Back to work!

[BinahYeteirah]

bs"d

I got rid of two things by sending them from my dd's preschool dress-up project that they are doing this week.

Total: 30.

[The4OfUs]

Well, I can't believe it only took me one weekend, but I did it - after doing nothing for a couple weeks after I posted my 3 areas, this past weekend I sorted the bedroom closet, went through our dressers, AND sorted through the file cabinet in the office.

We have a huge pile of clothes to donate/sell (yay DH for letting go of some things! He's a notorious packrat)

I have a gigantic tub of papers to shred/get rid of- goodness, it's probably the size of 2 paper boxes, so it's got to be around 1000 pieces of paper (I FINALLY am OK with getting rid of my paystubs from 13 years ago )

I actually have room in my file cabinet now....and I'm going to try to continue to only keep things for as long as I "need" to - it's so liberating to actually know where things are!

I think I'm so inspired, I'm going to go into the scary basement (we live in an OLD house ) and go through some of the tubs of clothes I have down there....

[BinahYeteirah]

bs"d

I did well today.

I got rid of a box of stuff I was planning to donate for some time now, all kinds of random stuff. 25 items.

I also got rid of 3 bags full of plastic grocery bags. I took them to the bag recycling place. 3 more items.

Total: 58.

AND I cleaned behind the fridge today, so that's some work on my 3rd area.

[Stone Fence]

I had a good 3 day weekend

I went through my dresser and closet and sorted out donations and rags. I went through all the outgrown baby clothes and boxed up the donation stuff and made up a box of clothes to save for next one. I only kept the things that I really used.

I have not kept count, but by all accounts I am making progress.

[fremontmama]

Originally Posted by fremontmama

Goal for February;

1. our one closet

2. the office desk area

3. the walkable area of the garage (it's that bad )

Okay, so I didn't actually work on any of the outlined areas, BUT, I did get a couple projects done yesterday.

Dd has two shelves for her books in the livingroom, and lately, the books have spread from the shelves, to also on the coffee table, under the chairs and in the end table. So I took all of the books and,

1. separated out the ones for older kids (dd is only 1.5yrs, some of the books are my old ones and really more for 5 to 10yrs), and put them in a box in the garage to be opened in a couple years.

2. took out all the books she never reads or looks at or that we have dupes of and gave to her daycare.

3. put everything back in the two shelves and they all fit! hooray!

So, we got rid of 9 books and 1 set of alphabet "flashcards". I didn't get rid of much, but the book situation is much more manageable now!

[Bufomander]

uh-oh, people, the end of the month is fast approaching!
but i am making *some* progress around here.

i've started getting pictures sorted, which feels like one of those tasks that will go more quickly now that i've started it, so hopefully that is the case.

i sorted through one 10 gallon box from the basement, threw out/recyclyed 73 items (catalogues, old envelopes, useless negatives, etc), and freecycled a riding toy. i think that brings my total up to 188!

and i got the box down to one shoebox full of old letters (granted... it's a big shoebox... ). what do people do with old letters? is it terrible that i'm saving them?

[Oceanone]

Originally Posted by Bufomander

and i got the box down to one shoebox full of old letters (granted... it's a big shoebox... ). what do people do with old letters? is it terrible that i'm saving them?

One shoebox full of old letters is fine in my opinion. I too am keeping certain old letters. Letter writing is a dying art so I don't expect to be overwhelmed by them in my old age. I have several letters written by my dh's grandmother before she passed away, in her own dear, beautiful old fashioned handwriting. I am hoping her great grandchildren might be interested in seeing them some day, but if not, they still warm my own heart when I read them.

On the "Feb is fast closing" front, I have been almost a total flop with my set task so far. I have been busy elsewhere though and this thread has been such great inspiration. I just can't believe all this beautiful weather and believe me, where I live you have to take advantage of it when you can. My garden is so much prettier to look at now. Who knows, I may still get to that huge box that has insinuated itself into my closet. I still have a week.

[wendygrace]

Alright. I admit. I've been hiding. But I finally got to the closets yesterday with dh's help. All I have left is to do one small corner that holds misc stuff and organize all the clothes we pulled out to get rid of which, of course, went into the kids room...which is my other thing on my list to do. I'm gonna have a very busy Sunday! End of the month is Tuesday everybody!! Get de-cluttering!!

[ShannonCC]

I want to join this thread I haven't been counting items and I haven't been working on specific areas but I've been de-cluttering.

Today I got rid of four bags of out grown clothing and child stuff. Two went to the consignment store (I use the money to buy the kids new clothes) and the other two went to Goodwill. The Goodwill donations were winter clothes and the consignment store is only taking spring/summer right now. I briefly considered holding on to them until late summer when the consignment will be taking winter but I decided not to. I realized I'd rather get them out and get the place two bags cleaner than hold on to them for 6 months so I can maybe make a few bucks off of them. That's a big step for me

Also, in the consignment bags were two of my kid's outgrown SPF 50 swim suits. I've had them for YEARS intending to put them on eBay. I finally just sent them to the consignment store, fully realizing I wouldn't get as much money from them but that I'd get more money than if I held on to them for yet another year intending to eBay them and not managing to do it. I mean really, that could have gone on forever

[BinahYeteirah]

bs"d

I got rid of two toys yesterday, so that brings my total up to 60. YEAH!

[gardenmom]

I put a coffee pot and 6 t-shirts on the tp today and I cleaned dd's toy area tonight and got rid of 18 junky toys...this brings my
grand total up to 163!

March is fast approaching, though. Doubt I'll make my 500 goal at this point...

[gardenmom]

OK--I've looked at this so many times, and never asked, but I just can't figure it out. What does bs"d mean?