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September decluttering challenge!

post #1 of 175
8/31/08 at 2:37pm
Thread Starter 
Summer's nearly over and it's time to get back into the decluttering swing of things over at my house. And what better time than the fall equinox to get back into balance, right? Who's down?

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post #2 of 175
8/31/08 at 2:46pm
I'm with you. My kids are going back to public school after years of being homeschooled and I am feeling like I need to reclaim the house. Perfect timing
post #3 of 175
8/31/08 at 3:08pm
I'm fairly organized in most areas, but since we're moving this coming weekend, I'll have to do some refiguring once we get settled into the new house, so I'll join in! How did you want to do it?
post #4 of 175
8/31/08 at 7:34pm
Im in..with baby number 2 coming I need to do some major decluttering
post #5 of 175
8/31/08 at 8:23pm
Count me in. My 5yr and 2yr will both be in school half days most days. Iwill have about 6 days free this month set aside just for decluttering. Im a student otherwise I would have more time...It will be great to know im not alone sorting out clutter!
post #6 of 175
8/31/08 at 10:27pm
We just started the other day, so I'm in. We moved in mid-April, but never really settled in and are looking to declutter and simplify. I'm getting a lot of inspiration from Zen Habits. The kids are home full-time as we homeschool, but I'm hoping to reduce the amount of stuff in the house at any one time (I want to get back into rotating toys from the garage; today I had ds#2 tell me the two things he'd like in right now).
post #7 of 175
8/31/08 at 11:47pm
I'm in for 200.
post #8 of 175
9/1/08 at 1:06am
I am in. I want to aim for 200 items leaving my house/garage not including paper decluttering. I have some major craigslist listings to do this month.

To be filled in for week #1:

Day 1 - 1 (we spent the day planting trees)
Day 2 - 8
Day 3 - 6
Day 4 - 47
Day 5 - 15 plus 1 hour of paper tossing/filing at my desk
Day 6 - 5
Day 7 - 9
Total for week one: 91/200
end of week: felt good to get some things out of the house and gone...DH was shocked when I told him how many things had left the house and you can't even see a difference yet...lots left but this week I actually have to get lots of building materials off craigslist for our new house we are building (of course they will go into the shipping container at work and not the house)...still hoping to at least declutter some stuff from around the house.

Day 8 - 5
Day 9 - 0 (volunteered at ds school)
Day 10 - 44 (whew, just did a complete fridge purge, it is gorgeous!)
Day 11 - 2 hours spent cleaning my desk, filing and tossing
Day 12 - 7
Day 13 - 4
Day 14 - 0

Running total update after week 2 = 153/200

Day 15 - 3 (listed a bunch of stuff n craigslist but I'm only marking it after its gone)
Day 16 - 0
Day 17 - 0
Day 18 - 6
Day 19 - 1
Day 20 - 2 (this was actually 2 boxes with 89 new vacuum cleaner bags and belts that I had sorted and inventoried previously from an auction and finallly took it to sell at our local hardware...they are giving us $80 for it!)
Day 21 - 1 (plus I finally started our patio project so we can get the pile of bricks sitting in our yard installed instead of just cluttering everything)

Total update 166/200

Day 22 - 1
Day 23 - 0
Day 24 - 0
Day 25 - 3
Day 26 - 0
Day 27 - 0
Day 28 - 0

Wow, have I gotten distracted this month. Running total is only 170/200. I better get busy today and tomorrow.

Day 29 -
Day 30 -
post #9 of 175
9/1/08 at 10:55am
I AM IN!!!!!!!!!!!

Now that we have our life back (although I love the summer vacation, all good things must come to an end) and once I get thru this week of orientatations, PTA this and that, and the block party at the end of the week I am all set to jump in headfirst and not bellyflop.

I am in for 500 items, maybe more. RUNNING TOTAL208/500

I have to hit all 3 bedrooms, closets, the bsmt, plus the guest room.

I also want to declutter the girls' books and toys.

I set up the playroom and got rid of a few things this weekend.

We already hit the garage and gave away two strollers, and a few other things. Also put some stuff at the curb and someone picked it.

So lets do it! I will tally how much I have.
post #10 of 175
9/1/08 at 11:06am
We are moving on Friday, and I have been decluttering our current home in preperation for the move...I have NO idea how many items I got rid of, but I know it was a LOT! I know for a fact that I sent out 2 big outdoor trash cans full of trash, and at least a dozen indor trash bags and almost that many boxes full of yard sale items, but some pieces of furniture we won't need were put in the yard sale as well. All that in one or two weeks! We are downsizing to almost half the size we have now, so I had to get rid of a lot of stuff...and honestly, it was all stuff we didn't use or need anyway, so WHY DID WE HANG ON TO IT??? Who knows why we crazy humans do the things we do sometimes.


Anyway, I'm really looking forward to a neat, tidy, decluttered home when we move. It's only 4 days away! Woohoo!
post #11 of 175
9/1/08 at 12:17pm
Does trimming a tree of huge branches count as decluttering? It is bigtime clutter looking at overgrown things.....
post #12 of 175
9/1/08 at 12:51pm
I am in! My 3yo goes to school on Weds and I will finally be able to start eliminating all the plastic toys in our house. They moved out to the garage once and he brought them back in. I am going to move them out and take them to charity so he can't bring them back. We are working on switching over to natural toys this year.

I am going to set a small goal of 100 items and go from there!

Wendi
post #13 of 175
9/1/08 at 12:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Carla_KY View Post
We are moving on Friday, and I have been decluttering our current home in preperation for the move...I have NO idea how many items I got rid of, but I know it was a LOT! I know for a fact that I sent out 2 big outdoor trash cans full of trash, and at least a dozen indor trash bags and almost that many boxes full of yard sale items, but some pieces of furniture we won't need were put in the yard sale as well. All that in one or two weeks! We are downsizing to almost half the size we have now, so I had to get rid of a lot of stuff...and honestly, it was all stuff we didn't use or need anyway, so WHY DID WE HANG ON TO IT??? Who knows why we crazy humans do the things we do sometimes.


Anyway, I'm really looking forward to a neat, tidy, decluttered home when we move. It's only 4 days away! Woohoo!

Wow! Enjoy your new home! You are inspiring me so much--our moving day is one month from today, and our new home is smaller in a lot of ways than where we currently are. I've already got a giveaway pile in the garage and so far I reckon it's enough stuff to fill a walk-in closet (which we don't have in our new house). I'm so excited to not have to find a home for all of that stuff in our new house--whoo-hoo!

I'm down for at least another 100 things
post #14 of 175
9/1/08 at 1:05pm
Count me in! We are moving at the end of the month, and need to declutter and down-size. I usually try to get rid of anything (unless its seasonal) that I haven't used in a few months. If it has been stored in a closet collecting dust for months, what is the sense of keeping it? Ya know?
post #15 of 175
9/1/08 at 2:15pm
Goodness, there's a lot of us that are moving! I move on Wednesday myself. I'm going to try to do the 100 Thing Challenge, you may have heard about (TIME did an article on it earlier in the summer), so I might do even more decluttering after I move (although I've pared down a lot already!).
post #16 of 175
9/1/08 at 2:49pm
i would like to join. we are moving around the 1rst of october to a smaller place with less storage area (i think the new place doesn't have a single closet) i'm really excited about the move and we already have a box of clothes to get rid of. and several boxes of books
post #17 of 175
9/1/08 at 2:53pm
I'm in. Every month I see this thread. Sometimes I even join! And then I do nothing. So yell at me, mamas. Make me tell you how I'm doing!

I don't even know where to begin.
post #18 of 175
9/1/08 at 2:54pm
I'm in, too... we just have too much stuff and I need some extra motivation to keep decluttering. I have been doing about an hour or so a day (for about a week now), but my dh's work schedule gets really crazy starting tomorrow and I have a hard time decluttering with my kids around.

Good luck, everyone!
post #19 of 175
9/1/08 at 4:11pm
Count me in! I've still got everything pretty well organized, but there are some drawers and cabinets that have been slipping back into junky territory. I vow to do at least one drawer, cabinet, or closet every day.
post #20 of 175
9/1/08 at 4:11pm
Me too! Baby #2 is coming this winter and we have a small 2 bedroom condo, so I'll need to do some major purging

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