Wednesday, 14/6

[fred_mouse]

Before I start on What I Managed Today (spoiler: little), I'm wondering whether a regular post for people to comment on would go somewhat towards getting a little activity in this comm? Daily might be a little challenging as a starting point, but maybe twice weekly (say, Wednesday and Saturday?) to see whether there is much response?

So - what did I declutter today. Mostly, I've been finding rubbish. I've had several deliveries in recent days, and thus there is much packaging. About half of this has gone in the bin, the rest is going to be stashed for possible further use (assuming that there is still space in the 'postal packaging' box; if not it is going in the bin).

I also dealt with one item out of the sewing pile, which doesn't get it out of the house, but at least gets it back into general usage, and out of the general class of items cluttering up my sewing room.

Comments

[kalloway]

Twice weekly would be good! It'd be good to have a reminder.

I managed to take a few items to the animal shelter's charity shop last weekend, one of which was something that I'd been back to multiple times before finally being sure it needed to go. ^^;;

I haven't really been getting much done, though. This month so far has been a lot of strange commitments that have either been keeping me out of the house or unable to brain (like covering a different shift at work, pls never again) well enough to do more than watch youtube videos. I'm having an estimate done for badly-needed new windows this coming monday, though, and I think that's going to spur a renewed decluttering/organizing effort.

[fred_mouse]

I think I can manage twice weekly! Although it looks like it will be three times, because someone else is doing a great job of posts on Fridays.

[adair]

A regular time would be good - I can commit myself to a post on Friday. Wednesday is Reading Post day, and I have enough trouble getting to that regularly, but a quick clutter post on Friday should be possible. I need to get to my reading post some time today.

My clutter removal happened on Monday, and the results on Tuesday. I got 22 bankers boxes of books for Illinois prison libraries from my garage to someone else's, and on Tuesday 3 prison librarians came to pick out books they wanted for their collections. I now have a big plastic box to start putting more books in as I find them. Some things never end, but at least for a while it is one big box.

[fred_mouse]

Thank you! And thank you for getting to it so quickly - I can't believe that two Fridays have gone past before I've remembered to make a post.

And, wow, that is a lot of books to have sorted out and moved.

[adair]

Confession time. Those 22 boxes of books were not from my house. Here's a link from the book meme a couple of years ago - if anything there are more books. https://adair.dreamwidth.org/25566.html

There were a few of mine; my old high school French text, and some odds and ends of fantasy novels, probably not even one box total.Most of them were collected from the B2P sales, other local book sales, donations from a friend who was actually clearing her books, a few bought by me specifically at the request of librarians. They were in my garage, and that certainly counts as clutter removal, but it is not the result of deaccessioning a lot of my own books. Someday I will post some pictures of some of my bookcases, and the stacks on the back of the futon and the coffee table, and next to the bedroom reading chair.

[fred_mouse]

I very much recognise that pattern of bookshelves everywhere and teetering mounds of books, and few rooms with no books (the only books in the front hall are ones going home to their people, there are no books in the ensuite, toilet, bathroom, or laundry. There may not be books in the study, only because I repurposed those shelves for craft items). I have just declared that the to be read mound just inside the bedroom door (3 piles about a metre high, books too big to go on those stacked to the side) was Too Much, and moved all but a dozen onto the floor in a different room, which is technically uncluttering the bedroom, right?

But that collection of books that you have done sounds like a lot of work and commitment - well done on making a difference, even if few of the books came from within the existing collection.

[tyger]

Sure, regular posts sound like a good idea! Hopefully it'll help me keep on track. :3

Today I: got rid of the shell of a finished up candle, and put a poster that fell out of its frame back where it's meant to go. (The latter has been living on my floor for a few weeks, so uh yeah, super glad to have that done!)

[fred_mouse]

Well done!

[nou]

Weekly or twice-weekly sounds good to me (I can’t volunteer to help with it though).

I haven’t done any decluttering for a while because of house-full-of-builders, but I look forward to doing plenty after they depart!

[fred_mouse]

Looks like it might be three times a week (because I need the motivation of having to post to actually do anything), so I don't think we need anyone else to get involved.

How long are the house builders there?

[nou]

Hopefully not too much longer. The scaffolding came down last week, and I’ve been told that by mid-July everything should be finished enough that I can get someone in to do the garden (which has been covered in builders’ stuff since early May).

[fred_mouse]

Sounds like a fairly major bit of work being done! Here's to them being done properly, and early.

[tanaqui]

Regular posts would be a great idea if people are willing to step up and make those!

Because life /work got unexpectedly busy in the last couple of months, I haven't done any proper decluttering "projects" for a while, unless you count "decluttering" weeds from the garden. However, I've noticed I'm a lot better now at assessing and getting rid of stuff when I'm simply getting out or putting away things I don't use every day. So continuous low-level decluttering of damaged/worn out/replaced items is taking place.

But I do have a big stack of paperwork that needs to be decluttered and shredded (which was what I was planning to work on before I got distracted by life)....

[fred_mouse]

Well done on the low level decluttering of things that don't get used.

And, oh, I hear you on the papers. There are so many piles around the house, I just have to make the time to look at them.

[peaceful_sands]

A regular post would not be a bad idea at all - I don't mind helping out if you're looking for volunteers. Although I regularly find stuff to declutter, I tend to collect it up so a bulk load goes at once and as much as possible gets either recycled or donated in one form or another.

Speaking of which, I only came upstairs to look for a pen so that I could label some things that I was getting rid of by donation, then I turned on the computer to check on a hoped for email. I'd actually been in the middle of some major decluttering. There are currently four full boxes in the hallway waiting to go and some bags - this may be more than I can fit in the car and at least one of the boxes is heavier than I can lift - unfortunately good size sturdy boxes don't seem to be easy to come by at the moment (I don't want to spend anything on them - which is why I'm not using the plastic crates that I currently have around the house as I'm not going to be bringing them back from the donation point with me). I sometimes acquire boxes from the local supermarket but of late the only ones they've had have been the ones that hold about 6 bottles of wine - that's great when I'm getting rid of paperback books and the like - unfortunately the stuff I'm getting rid of is too big for that to really work well this time round.

[fred_mouse]

How do you feel about being the back up poster on Wednesdays? I *should* be able to do it, but there will be weeks when it can't happen (mostly due to kid having training)

And I hear you on collecting things for donation. My front hall is a disaster zone of random Things needing to leave the house. There was a time when I was going past an op-shop weekly, and things moved much faster then!

[peaceful_sands]

Apologies for not replying sooner, I've not been at home. I don't mind posting on Wednesdays as a backup. Will you be letting me know or am I to post if you haven't by a certain time?

[fred_mouse]

No worries on the delay in reply - I'm very much in the fails to be timely camp myself, no matter how hard I try. In general, it will be that I need you to post if I've completely failed to realise it is Wednesday. My expected posting time is between 8pm and 9pm (+8 UTC). I don't have a sense of where you are located, so as to know how obvious it will be to you that I've fluffed it?

[peaceful_sands]

I'm in the UK timezone (I think that's currently UTC+1 because we have summer daylight savings, but October-March would be UTC), so I think that means that if you haven't posted by the time I get home from work between 6 and 7pm here, I should try to post something then as you'll probably be sleeping!

[fred_mouse]

That sounds like a pretty good timing. Much appreciated if you will do that check each week.