August declutter challenge - Page 3

[reducereuserecycle]

i want to make my husband happy this month. that means an orderly home ~sigh~ i'm just not a neat person, but dh really deserves to come home to a neat home.

i'll make it my goal to do the dishes everyday. no more letting them pile up-no matter what

also, i'll do the 10 things a day challenge.

[Stace]

I'll join in for this month, as we're moving in a few weeks and I refuse to move anything we don't need or use anymore! My goal is to sell as much as possible, but whatever doesn't get sold will be given away/Freecycled.

I'm tentatively setting my goal at 300 items. Eleven items are making their way out the door tomorrow at the very least.

[cycle]

Originally Posted by KnockedUpButtercup

I have an office/guest room that is currently my Secret Shame...that's the door we don't open.

I have a room like this. We moved in her July 1 and I put all of the stuff in the second bedroom. It is FULL of crap.....how I don't know because I got rid of so much stuff before the move. The rest of the apartment looks like a minimalist dream.....

I am totally in, wanna have a contest to see how many things we can get rid of? Pieces of paper don't count in this contest!:

[MyLittleWonders]

I didn't get to the movies or play room today ... the kids and I went to the park, and then when dh got home, I was in ds#2's bedroom all evening finishing the paint and wallpaper border. So ... tomorrow. But, I have taken to the idea of taking one thing that is out of place where I am currently, and when I get up to go to another room, take that one thing with me and put it in its proper place, even if its proper place is in the trash can! Right now my big decluttering of the night will be removing all traces of paint cans, paint brushes, screw drivers, sand paper, masking tape, etc. from ds's room so we can get the furniture moved back in, so we can get the main portion of the house prepped to be painted tomorrow. Isn't there a saying, "It's always darkest before the dawn"? That is my mantra right now on my house ... the dawn is *just* around the corner, but man did it get dark in here all of a sudden!

[MyLittleWonders]

Originally Posted by cycle

I have a room like this. We moved in her July 1 and I put all of the stuff in the second bedroom. It is FULL of crap.....how I don't know because I got rid of so much stuff before the move. The rest of the apartment looks like a minimalist dream.....

I am totally in, wanna have a contest to see how many things we can get rid of? Pieces of paper don't count in this contest!:

Ooo ... a contest sounds like fun! I'm not sure how much I'll end up getting rid of this month, but my goal is 50% of our "stuff" ... I did the linen closet 1 day early, so I guess I'll start counting now. VHS and DVDs are first on my list. Then it's off to the play room! Oh, my & dh's closet will be in there too ... maybe before the play room.

[goldfinch]

i'm just not a neat person, but dh really deserves to come home to a neat home.

i'll make it my goal to do the dishes everyday. no more letting them pile up-no matter what.

I'm in on this one, too. I've been having the same thoughts lately re: dh coming home to a catastrophe. Some things I can't get picked up every day, but I think I might be able to manage the kitchen.

-----

Yesterday I organized all the old check registers in numerical order and put them in a box. That was probably 75 things organized and put away, but I'll count it as "one" for the purposes of my daily 10. I am sure I threw away/recycled 9 other things. Paper is one of our big problems around here, so I'm definitely counting it for myself (even if I can't be in the contest! )

[WNB]

Got rid of our TV yesterday Yay for Craigslist.

[hellyaellen]

I just threw away 2 business cards i will never need and 1 index card that is too wrinkled to use. I also picked up all the index cards off of the floor in the computer room and put them away in their box where they go but I 'm counting that as one. so thats

3/500 to toss
1/200 to file/put away

its a start....:

now i'm going to change my siggie to reflect may progress

[veganf]

Originally Posted by MyLittleWonders

Today is the declutter of the movies and hopefully some of the toy room. My goal is to chuck all VHS movies - if there is something we *really* like, then we can buy it on DVD.

This is how I started last month! We had a yard sale, and the rest went to Goodwill, and I've taken a carload of more stuff each week since!

This is the first time I've braved the declutter challenge thread, but any motivation is so helpful I'm in for the 10 items a day, plus 30 minutes organizing per day.

[goldfinch]

Today I:
Brought two giant bags and one big box to Goodwill;
Called the transfer station for information re: disposal of some larger trash items;
Pared our mug collection from over 30 to about 8, although I'm not really counting that one because I just moved the extras into a box in the basement ( : );
Set aside for a friend's birthday some funky old Fiestaware I love but never use; and
Found and updated my Motivated Moms binder.

Yeah!

Thanks for this forum, mamas. I couldn't do all this without you.

[kissum]

I did another 28 today! Including some holey underwear. What is it about underwear? I have plenty, yet I was holding onto some that were really old. I guess I am afraid of underwear famine.

So, 43/200.

[triscuitsmom]

2 bags of paper out out out!!!

Running total: 2/310 done

I got a lot of organizing done!!! Tomorrow will be a big haul day :

[hellyaellen]

Originally Posted by kissum

I did another 28 today! Including some holey underwear. What is it about underwear? I have plenty, yet I was holding onto some that were really old. I guess I am afraid of underwear famine.

So, 43/200.

My pat de-cluttering in that area has been so sucessful that I'm going shopping for new tomorrow

I threw away two more pieces of paper. and I'll be putting away the index cards AGAIN since dh let ds get them out again:

I also did a rush job on the house tonite when i got home from work, deconstructed all the cardbord boxes tossed all the cans in the recycling etc. dh vacumed and put away all the toys while i was at work :

[Singfourever@yahoo]

I purged my pantry yesterday!! This has been a goal of mine for about two years. I threw out so many bags and boxes of old, stale chips and cereal. Just got rid of so mich junk! Oh it felt soooo good.

[VeganCupcake]

I convinced DH to go through the DVDs tonight and we set aside 3 to sell/donate. And I found another bottle of lotion I'm going to give to a friend.

Total: 11/93

[Suzmama]

In June an July I did really well. Four big bags of clothes to the thrift shop (where do all those clothes come from?)...purged and organized medicine cabinet, under sink area, pantry, kitchen cabinets, fridge, desk drawers....also had girls do their rooms.

Now I have about three weeks left before I have to go back to work and I want to get the house all clean and organized, and get on a definite system to keep it this way. I want to orgaize bills, organize photos and up to date album, sort/purge/store old toys in basement, and get into the habit of tidying DAILY.

On we go...

loving my DDs (12) and (15) and :

[queencarr]

I'm in. I ended up not quite meeting my goal last month, but I changed how I was counting halfway through. I think I would have exceeded my goal had I not done so. This month, I am going for a modest 150 items, counting the new way. 1 point per item (for stuff, trash at 1 point per bag), 1 point per overall project, or 1 point per hour depending on which way is easier for a job. My big projects this month are:

• to continue to get ds1 moved in upstairs (from his downstairs room) and convert the downstairs room into an workspace/office for me by the time classes start on Aug 27
  
• get my room cleaned out, all the corners, tops of dressers, under the bed gone through because we have to rearrange to fit our new king size bed sometime in the next week or so
  
• kitchen counters-stuff keep piling up, arrgghh! even though I keep doing them over and over. I need a better system in my very small kitchen, because there is just no cabinet or storage space. Thoughts or suggestions?
  
• clear off the hot spots--the love seat to the couch and the dining room table, both of which should be easier to keep clean once the office is done

So far today, I have:

• cleared off the top of 1 dresser
• cleared out 2 corners of "stuff" in my room
• 1 bag of trash

so I am at 4/175.

[goldfinch]

Argh! A setback. I went thrifting this morning instead of decluttering. Picked up a few useful items which I'm not counting against myself but definitely bought some other things (a vintage apron, a cool old pottery ramekin thing) which were NOT necessary. I blame the bag sale. :

Okay, seriously. Today I am giving away computer parts (two keyboards, a monitor, a printer) and will try to find at least one thing to donate for each new thing I brought into the house.

Edited to add: I forgot that I decluttered the foil/parchment paper drawer last night. And I used the two-tiered lazy Susan I bought at the thrift store to de-clutter part of the counter near the stove. I only actually recycled two jars, but the space is much more workable now.

Edited again: The computer bits are gone! Yes!

[superstella]

Okay, yesterday I got rid of 2 (old broken) computers from my living room (yay, I was so tired of looking at those things) along with a huge stack of papers. Today i'm going to work on the top of my desk (which should yield a bunch more paperwork lol) and my front room.

Off to change my siggy!

[PeacefulSeams]

So my mom will be visiting next week. I am so excited that she is coming. Her and my sister are going to look through the stuff in my garage and take some of it away!!! YAY!!!!

Whatever is left, she is helping me take to the Goodwill.