Spring fever, anyone? After making my list, it's been a busier and more fruitful month than I had remembered!
Go, me! (Wow, now I'm a little embarrassed at how long this list is, but I'm including house projects because, for me, spiffing things up and taking care of the things we choose to keep is a form of decluttering and simplification. Also my memory might be a little hazy and some of these things might have been done in late February, not March. LOL.)
My accomplishments this month are:
- decluttered and cleaned up the food storage area in the garage along with some other storage tubs
- packed up a whole ton of recycling in my Suburban, including some old stuff that was cluttering the basement (will get rid of it later today)
- start seedlings without making a mess of the room I do it in
- emptied one bookshelf in my kitchen so I could move books from a counter to the shelf, clearing off the counter
- emptied one cabinet in my kitchen so I could move my glass jars of flour from a counter to the cabinet, clearing off the counter
- removed all unnecessary permanent things off the counters - all that is left is the compost bowl, dishdryingrack, soap dish, dishsoap, small tub for scrubbies, small tub for used/gunky washcloths, small cutting board, urn of wooden spoons/whisks/etc. That's it!
- pulled out the stove and fridge and thoroughly cleaned them and the floor underneath them
- degunked all of the kitchen cabinet doors (big job; they were awful) and replaced the cabinet knobs and drawer pulls with new, spiffy ones
- decluttered kids' games, matching random pieces to their games and definitively throwing away unmatching pieces
- reorganized the living room cabinet so there is hideaway space for the kids' games, which were previously inaccessible in a tub
- made space in the boys' closet and moved a garment rack full of costumes from the laundry room to that closet (clearing space in the laundry room)
- worked on my photo organization project, organizing and labeling the backs of a pile of "new" photos and getting ready to do more
- donated a total of four tubs of stuff to the swap shop, along with a bag full of clothes to the thrift shop and three bags full of clothes to my sister
- worked more on getting a list of things ready to e-bay and craigslist and freecycle
- culled through my clothing, and the kids' clothing and books, and pulled out some to donate
- pared down number of blankets in living room to two, and moved extra to closet in boys' room
- moved night diapers from storage drawer in living room to kids' own drawers
- moved yoga mats and supplies from cluttery closet into large empty drawer in living room
- moved all the "second-rate towels" into bathroom under-counter-cabinet so they're accessible but not visible; main closet has only "pretty towels" now
- tidied kitchen odds-and-ends cabinet by putting small things into a rectangular basket on a shelf and reorganizing so that the things we use are most accessible; moved kleenex from countertop into this cabinet so it's hidden but handy
- helped girls declutter their dolls, stuffed animals, and doll clothes so they truly fit in their baskets
- replaced awful, stained, icky toilet with a nice new one, and went from two baskets on the back of it (books, family cloth) to one (family cloth) because it's smaller than the old toilet - looks much neater anyway, and no one read books there but me
- decluttered empty photo frame collection and kept only frames I have specific plans for using
- installed brand-new bedroom mirror that had been languishing in the closet for months
- fixed broken food processor that had been cluttering up a cabinet for a couple of years waiting to be fixed. Not broken = no longer clutter, LOL!
- rearranged comforters so the ones in our bedroom match and the ones in the boys' bedroom match (basically I moved the red plaid one into the girls duvet cover that matches my duvet cover, and moved the white one that was in that duvet cover out to my son's bed - his brother also has a white (er, non-duveted
) comforter so now they match)
- cleaned out fridge (but still need to scrub it)
- freecycled a computer printer
- recycled DH's old cardboard shoeboxes and lined his shoes up neatly under his dresser
- consolidated several years' worth of pre- and post-camping-trip notes into one computer file, and recycled the originals
- had furnace maintenance done for the first time in (too many years)
- moved and vacuumed underneath living room couch and big chair
My current goals are:
- to continue keeping my kitchen clean, with counters clear and dishes done as quickly as possible
- to continue work on preparing all the walls for painting
- to take more steps toward ebaying/selling four tubs of stuff I think have enough value to make it worthwhile (I much prefer to donate, but we need the extra money if I can get it)
- to declutter my desk and continue working on keeping it clutter-free
- to clean out the cabinet under the kitchen sink
- to continue working on specific home improvement projects for selling the house next spring
- to declutter the dressup clothes so they all really and truly fit into their bin
- to continue organizing photos and reducing the amount of space they take up by putting them in albums and on walls
- to get standup magazine file holder thingys for the magazines I intend to keep (anyone have four or five they want to get rid of?)
- continue organizing and decluttering the garage and shed (our main storage spaces)
- replace broken and unsightly miniblind in bedroom
- scrub inside of fridge and maybe also freezer
- looking forward to packing away all the winter clothes and get out the spring clothes, but we are in the middle of a 3-6" snowstorm so who knows when that will be
- move canvas camping tent into the two storage tubs we purchased and find a good place to store it, which probably means moving the cedar chest out of the closet and re-evaluating its use
- replace crushed book storage boxes with uncrushed ones
Whew!!
However, it may be a little while. Right now, although I've been going through & purging a lot, my house looks more of a mess because I've everything pulled out everywhere. My plan is to have 80% of this purging done by the end of next week if not sooner . Clutter really can weigh down your mood......so once I get all of this done & organized I can go on to work on projects that I've been wanting to do 
). Kuddos to you. Keep posting here.
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Thanks. I used to be an overachiever, but I have been working hard over the past several years to transform myself into someone who is NOT that. Nope, I just had a productive month and got a lot done. (Also my kids are finally at ages where they play independently and help each other out so I don't always have to come running every five minutes to help them with something). I have been working on this decluttering thing for 2-3 years and I think I've come far enough that it's become ingrained in how I live my life. I used to read posts from people on this board who reassessed and potentially decluttered every single thing they touched, and thought I would never be able to become like that, but I think now maybe I have. I truly started that post thinking I hadn't accomplished much this month, but I think it's become a part of my life.
hopefully she will enjoy making something pretty out of it!
I didn't realize that is where it came from until I had a taste. LOL That bottle of wine has been in our first apartment together and then in this house for nearly NINE years!!! 
)
).
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