unclutter | Recent Entries

How goes the decluttering? Have you shifted anything out of the house? Found something to sort through? Had thoughts on things you can let go of?

Comments open to locals, lurkers, drive by sticky beaks, and anyone I've forgotten to mention.

fred_mouse

How goes the decluttering? Have you shifted anything out of the house? Found something to sort through? Had thoughts on things you can let go of?

Comments open to locals, lurkers, drive by sticky beaks, and anyone I've forgotten to mention.

Also: I've very much appreciated the posts people have been putting up through the week, I just haven't had the spoons to respond.

sisterofbloomerjunior

I managed to clean out the main floor of our playhouse. The garden cart’s pieces, a tarp, and a plastic container are now in the screen house. I cut up the box the cart was shipped in. The rest of the items are currently in the raised planting box. I moved the play oven to underneath the rafter, if the Servpro staff need more room to put items from our basement, I’ll clean that out.

I think the screen house also has enough space for storage, but not our regular shed or garage.

Put a bunch of paperbacks with rather small font, Cliff Notes, and a coupon flyer for a supermarket we don’t shop into the neighborhood little library. Should put also that college flyer in there. Mentioned to person operating the Giving Tree that Ridwell is collecting textbooks this week. I donated a wooden basket and a can crusher. I doubt anyone still uses can crushers, but at least it’s no longer on our property. Hopefully she activates her Ridwell account in time.

Also ordered some twenty gallon trash bags, should also buy some 13 gallon ones.

Current Mood: accomplished
Current Location: Upstairs
Current Music: Fan

zenigotchas

Milestones are marvelous.

In an attempt to live more efficiently for my own mental illness, I've taken to learning abt SMART goals, time boxing and task batching to help make this cleaning stuff go by smoothly.

I have managed to achieve about half of this week's milestones, getting me closer to my overall goals.

The place looks nicer, smells nicers, FEEEEEEELS nicer. I love it here!

I've got several trashbags to take out, a bit more than my trashcan can actually fit, wheh. But it'll be okay, even a little taken out is good.

Elephant in the kitchen is going to be the floor. Cleaning it, figuring out where to put everything blocking me from cleaning it to begin with... It's a mess.

Time to eat the frog then and add that to my milestones and daily cleaning rituals then. Enough with the excuses!

Anyway what did I want to achieve? To have most of my dishware clean and such. And it is! Now all I have to worry about are pots, pans and the jars I've got lying around (speaking of which, any ideas for those things? I eat a lot of peach preserves so now I've got a MILLION of them!)

zenigotchas

I'm slowly doing a big clean up of my present cave. Then I have to pack but that's future Mint's trouble.

I have been following 2 rules so far:
1. UnfuckYourHabitat.com's 20 minute unfucking span. You pick up trash, wash dishes and then clean surfaces. I can consistently remember to at least throw things away.

2. I have begun incorporating doing the dishes into my nightly bedtime routine. It is surprisingly relaxing.

3. To combat having lots of dirty dishes and NO dishwasher, I am resolving to eat only out of 1 dish and keep that washed while not using the rest of my dishware or silverware. I'm also making dishes that do NOT require several pots, pans, bowls, etc. to make.

Progress so far: The living room is looking A LOT better. Like, almost ready for me to be able to go back to lifting and doing other exercises at home!

I'm slowly but surely washing everything up and it really cuts back on the amount of time I spend cleaning up before and after meals. Which only helps me with the amount of time I need to take out the trash (I have so much to throw away).

Most of my fridge has been cleaned out. Just needs a wiping down.

(idk if I'm allowed to give myself my own tag yet or not but hi! Been here for a while and this is my very first post! Seeing if this helps me accountable and measure my progress)

fred_mouse

It's been a bit of a damp day today, so my motivation is low, but I love hearing what you mob have achieved, so at least making this post is an easy thing to achieve!

How goes the decluttering? Have you shifted anything out of the house? Found something to sort through? Had thoughts on things you can let go of?

Comments open to locals, lurkers, drive by sticky beaks, and anyone I've forgotten to mention.

fred_mouse

It's a long weekend where I am, so Monday is the new Sunday. Which brings me to the topic of the post!

How goes the decluttering? Have you shifted anything out of the house? Found something to sort through? Had thoughts on things you can let go of?

Comments open to locals, lurkers, drive by sticky beaks, and anyone I've forgotten to mention.

fred_mouse

How goes the decluttering? Have you shifted anything out of the house? Found something to sort through? Had thoughts on things you can let go of?

Comments open to locals, lurkers, drive by sticky beaks, and anyone I've forgotten to mention.

matsushima

I'm a grad student and I read best on paper whenever possible. That means I have a lot of paper around my apartment. I need to hold onto it because I'm taking notes and working towards writing my thesis. So what to do so I can find what I need, what I need it? a hybrid paper-digital system inspired by the Kerlan Collection archives, where I've visited a few times.

Each item is logged in my research bookmarks with tags and notes and the location is listed as "Box X: Folder X." I also mark that on the first page of each article so I know where to put it when I find it. (I also date when I read it digitally and on the paper. My goal eventually is to digitize my highlights and notes but I haven't had time yet.)

I haven't applied this to my other papers (apartment paperwork, pet paperwork, copies of bills and taxes paid, and so on) but I don't see any reason this hybrid digital-analog system wouldn't work for any kind of paperwork.

This is the system I'm using for my grad studies and I thought it might help others uncluttering, especially with that stuff you have to hold onto in print for whatever reason.

Current Mood: okay

sisterofbloomerjunior

Managed to clean off and move my loveseat so an energy auditor can check to see what areas need more insulation for winter. Quite a bit of the items were laundry, so I spent the weekend washing.

Too bad we’re having a late summer heatwave or I would had taken a vacuum cleaner to be repaired at one of Hennepin County’s Fix-It Clinics. :/

Mom’s getting to the point that she won’t be able to drive much longer, so this time it is likely we’ll have to sell the Buick, so I’ll clean that out soon.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: The upstairs bedroom I cleaned, huzzah!
Current Music: Fan

fred_mouse

How goes the decluttering? Have you shifted anything out of the house? Found something to sort through? Had thoughts on things you can let go of?

I personally haven't managed anything, having been--to quote the vernacular--'flat out like a lizard drinking' on other tasks. But I'm here to celebrate the rest of you!

Comments open to locals, lurkers, drive by sticky beaks, and anyone I've forgotten to mention.

fred_mouse

I've rather dropped the ball on check in posts. I'd like to claim that I'm going to be doing weekly posts (and I'm going to put it back in my reminders, so maybe!).

With that said: what have you achieved in the declutter sphere? Have you done a tiny thing? Something marvellous and magical that has transformed your life? Made a plan but haven't yet carried it out? Tell us, tell us!

Comments open to locals, lurkers, drive by sticky beaks, and anyone I've forgotten to mention.

the_broken_tower

There is a new(ish) rule in place that any new sewing projects need to use natural materials - a semi-synthetic like rayon is okay, but there is no plastic allowed. There's another rule that new purchases must be for a specific project, when that project is ready to start.

Those two rules have cut down on fabric purchases and delivered boons in the form of stash purges.

I went through the fabrics bin earlier in search of a material that I thought could be used for trousers. I found it, but it looked and felt semi-synthetic. A flame test confirmed that it's some kind of plant fiber and plastic blend. It was disappointing, but not something that I would have used anyway.

Since it's been in there for years, I put it (and a bag's worth of other old fabrics) out for donation. The bin is finally half-empty.

- Clair

the_broken_tower

... That the inbox category that's been purged over the past week is finally at an acceptable number of recent messages. [confetti]

Also went through the DW inbox recently, and it's back down to reasonable numbers.

- Finn Amara (he/him)

the_broken_tower

I went through a round of email purging. 3k+ emails in one category have gone to within 2k.

Over the next year or so I'd like to clean up old emails until everything that is needed/desired is in its own folder, and everything else has been deleted.

- Olai

the_broken_tower

Weeks are about to get even fuller with a summer class and impending semester. The main point of progress this week was clearing out the fridge, and cleaning the handwash-only dishes in the sink. (Dishwasher FTW, it keeps things so much more manageable.)

These are some things that have helped with preventing clutter in the first place:

1. No-buy rules on craft projects. The current in-progress shirt gets finished, THEN the next project in queue, and new fabric (fabric samples included) only happens if it is being picked out for a specific, immediate project.

2. Only one craft project out at a time, and it lives on the coffee table. Keeps the mess consolidated and easier to clean.

3. Trying to maintain a schedule. Recycling goes out on Monday or Tuesday, which is the same day as big errands (car refilling, groceries). One day between Friday and Monday is for housekeeping tasks - sweeping/vacuuming, cleaning, putting things away.

4. Dedicated days off. No working, paid or otherwise. Housework counts as working. This lets the energy bar go back up so it's not a continuous struggle on low-energy weeks to keep things tidy.

... But things still get overlooked and hectic. Some tasks get postphoned because of weather or fatigue.

So here are the general goals to hit next week.

1. All of the glass recycling (minus lightbulbs) taken out.
2. Thing 1 and Thing 2 mailed off.
3. Big box of donations taken to a donation drop.

These tasks have been pending for several weeks, so it would be nice to see them off.

- Ode (he/him)

arlie

I was making slow progress last year. But then my housemate was injured, and needed to use a walker for a while. Clearing space for the walker basically boxed in everything that she didn't need to access, including all my work in progress. I couldn't - and still can't - even close the door to my home office.

She's now almost completely recovered. The walker has been retired, and so has the cane that came after it. Last week I made a very small inroad into the surface mess in my office. I'd planned to work on that daily, but life happened. Until today.

Tonight I wanted to read a book. My book reading chair was well positioned for light in the morning, but not at all good when it's dark outside - artificial light sources near it are inadequate. So I kind of lost it, and attacked the mess.

Things that got moved to my bedroom from e.g. the living room to make space for the walker have been consolidated or removed. The reading chair is in there, with a pair of plastic storage bins stacked as a coffee table beside it. A largish number of unread media have been evicted with extreme prejudice. The matching chair that was full of objects moved from the housemate's bedroom has been unburied, and moved to where the usable chair had been, still containing the smaller objects that had been in/on it. I asked the housemate to clean them up eventually - no hurry - and she promptly shoved them into plastic storage boxes and carried them off.

There's more still to do - e.g. backfilling the place the second chair was with stuff from a heap on top of a rocking chair, or perhaps moving the whole heap there, chair and all. And I'm not entirely satisfied with the new location of my laundry hamper. But I can read comfortably in the late evenings, without sitting at the dining room table in a less comfy chair.

I'm physically tired, and I imagine my back will be screaming at me tomorrow. I've doubtless inhaled enough dust to give a susceptible person an asthma attack. But both my bedroom and the living room feel somewhat less like warehouses, particularly my bedroom. (I feel like it's all mine again at last, even though essentially all the junk that was blocking it up was mine rather than ours.) Phew!

Current Mood: accomplished

vysila

Not nearly as productive a decluttering month as May, but still got a few things done. Most of my efforts this month went toward managing a big project, the upstairs renovation. Still, made a bit of progress on the decluttering front.

• Sold my riding lawnmower to a neighbor. That was serendipitous. I had never planned on moving the mower (an icky lawnmower in with my furniture and clothing, ugh!) and will have a lawn service do the mowing until I move.
• Have amassed a small pile of things to go – the last of my Star Wars collectibles, some drapes & curtain rods, ignored new cat toys, unused office supplies – but haven’t actually gotten around to listing them as yet
• Also took a look around the basement and decided that all the leftover materials from various home improvement projects can also go, but again, have not done anything further than identify the items
• I have accumulated a lot of excess toiletries over time, so am currently trying to use them up. Have managed to clear out a couple of small bottles of things so far.

Will try selling things if possible, to recoup a little money, but if not, it will all get donated.

Current Mood: tired

the_broken_tower

Here's what I'm looking forward to:

The coffee table is an unholy mess. The paper piles are becoming paper towers. Once this extra-busy period is done within the next week or so, I get to sort out all the papers and clean it.

- Psii (he/him)