Daily Progress ~ August

So.. this week I listed 12 different things on freecycle. Only one has been picked up so far, but I'm hoping the rest go over the next day or two.
I sent out a few things for swaps, and I suppose that I will count those, because we are getting things we will be able to use in return.

I took one basket of clothing to the consignment shop, but that only put a small dent in what I had.. I have so many more things that need to be washed and folded to be brought in.

I started to paint the porch (it was really faded in some spots, so it looked terrible!) but I haven't finished yet because it rained today

I have to tell myself that I'm getting there... even though I have SO much more to do!

I listed the extra plastic food storage containers on freecycle today .

Having a pretty lazy day. Wanted to clean out the laundry area but I don't think I'll get to that. Spent this morning sitting in the garden and reading while the kids picked blackberries. I am so not regretting that.

School starts for me the 2nd week of September. Similar goal although the ony critical thing on my list is clearing out the bookshelves to free at least two full shelves for my school things.

Yeah, it's something about school starting and the cool air that makes me want to get everything organized

So what are you doing today?

We've got some dentist appointments this morning. This afternoon I'm going to clean out that laundry area. It is an outdoor area (er, under a shelter but open to the outside) and it gets MESSY in a dirt-lint-and-dust kind of way as well as cluttered because I don't bother bringing in and out used bottles, and there are even things on an upper shelf that were left from the last person to live here. I can't see them (I'm short) so I've never dealt with them...we've lived here over a year : .

What a great idea for a thread! It can serve as a sort of backwards list - we can write what we've already done instead of staring, open-mouthed, at a list of To Dos.

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Aw, mama, I hear you on that!

We're going camping for 4 1/2 days (leaving tomorrow) and I'm having to de-clutter even to freaking pack our van!! I'm also procrastinating and spending too much time reading this board b/c of how overwhelming it all is!

But, over the past few days, I'm proud to say that I've managed to be generous with the giveaways - I've got 3 bags full of misc. stuff, incl. toys, from just the past few days. I can't even bother trying to sell any of the stuff b/c I just need to get rid of it like yesterday (that is *worth more* to me, anyway).

~
I'll be checking in here and checking off stuff I've gotten done, as well as reading others' inspiring backwards lists, too!

Today Freecyclers in my area picked up:

A black fedora in a HUGE red hat box that was taking up too much space in our closet
A backpack
A bag of fabric and saris
a box of old paintbrushes
A wooden flower press that is wonderful but that I NEVER use
Three folkloric style purses that I also never use
A Packers football jersey that is too big for me or DH

Still waiting for four regular style purses to get picked up.

I Freecycle!!!

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Our van is cluttered, too. Lots of clothes, toys :
Definitely something on my to-do list!
Have fun camping! Sounds like fun!

About giving away vs. selling- I'm starting to figure that out as well. It's so nice to have it gone immediately that it really is worth it sometimes to sacrifice the little bit of money that you may (or may not) have gotten for it.

I brought one more basket to the consignment store. It was great because this was only my second trip and I already had credit on my account, so I was able to get a few nice shirts for ds to wear this fall without spending any money! Definitely a nice bonus to this decluttering craziness!

I still have to remind myself to only buy exactly what we need. (Still trying to figure out exactly how many tops/pants/etc. that is per child!)
Otherwise.. :

Listed on freecycle today:
toddler bed mattress
wooden train tracks that don't match the set my son has

Off to roam the house to see what else I can get rid of!!

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today, i washed the dishes that my husband didn't do while i was out of town. I was away in training for a week (thai yoga massage), and he was home alone. he did a decent job i would say, but he is really bad about dishes. on a good day, he does 85%. so today, i did those dishes to get caught up, did my laundry and his from the week away, and wrote out my list for this week.

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it's hard to list things as 'top' and 'lesser' priorities, but here are the things that i want to have done by saturday:

1. three pieces of furniture and storage boxes in storage--this requires reorganizing the closets in my home. I need to reorganize 3 closets so that i can put the furniture in as well as the storage boxes.

2. get rid of books--right now, i have a number of books that need to go to the used book store. the books are in my plastic storage boxes, and because of this i've been unable to put stuff into these boxes that i wish to store. so, i need to drop these off so that i can utilize the boxes to help organize my closets.

3. utilize storage boxes in order to clean up closet spaces.

4. i need to put the plates on the electrical outlets and light switches in the yoga room.

5. then i need to do a thorough cleaning of the house.

we're having an 'open house' on sunday for friends and family. we were in scand for 3 weeks so we'll talk about that trip; i went to thai yoga massage training, so i'll be offering that to whomever comes over (door prizes); and over the last 4-6 months we've been rennovating and cleaning up our house so we want to share that progress as well.

After this, i want to do another thorough declutter of the house. I need to go through my clothes again and see what i can give away or get rid of. My husband needs to do the same. We'll need to go through papers and whatever is in the storage boxes that i'm going to put away this week (see if we can streamline a bit more).

after that purge, i think we'll be in great condition for our move to LA, CA. we're focusing on downsizing. So, this is a great motivation for getting this kind of work done.