Mid-week uncluttering

[fred_mouse]

How is your uncluttering going at this point of the week?

I'm writing this relatively early on Wednesday, and so while I have plans that involve going in to the music room/sewing room/general disaster area and trying to find things that we don't need (in particular, sorting out plastic containers and glass jars) and making a to do list for how to get it back under control, I haven't actually done any uncluttering today. The last two days have involved a lot of lying down feeling grumpy and unwell when at home, so little to no uncluttering has happened.

As we come close to the end of the calendar year, I know some people will be reflecting on achievements for 2017 and setting themselves goals for 2018. In this post, as well as sharing any current uncluttering wins, maybe tell us all how you feel about your overall uncluttering achievements for the year?

Comments

[peaceful_sands]

I've made progress this year but still feel like there is a lot to do. I've got the dining room and living room mostly sorted and now I'm trying to train myself into maintenance of these rooms. The kitchen is mostly organised as well, although I have identified a few problematic items - things like the breadmaker which aren't used all the time but I don't have room to store easily, but equally don't want to get rid of. I'm going to have to think about a good way to store these somewhere else in the house until they're needed.

A big step this year has been to admit to myself that I'm very unlikely to go back to my old job and that therefore I can get rid of the equipment that I'd accumulated over the years because of that job. It's almost all gone now and now I'm contemplating things like getting rid of the old filing cabinet that I stored some of the stuff in. It was frightening to think how much I'd spent over the years on things for the job with no prospect of getting any of those funds back. (I tried selling some of the most recent books with no luck at all - the only offers were for less than the cost to post them to destination).

I've also been working on reducing the numbers of books and DVDs. Approximately 300 books have left the house this year, some as part of the work related clear out, but about 100 were because I'd either read and not enjoyed them enough to keep or couldn't finish them. I've also got rid of almost 2/3 of my original DVD collection. I've added to the book and DVD collection but feel that as it is more of a cycle of in/out this is acceptable. I'm working on reducing the number of books I acquire in physical form as I really don't have space for them all - another helpful step this year was to exchange many of the old classics with small type for free ebooks facing up to the reality that smaller type is more of a struggle to read for any length of time and that the added space in a box (I wish I could say it was on a shelf but I haven't got to the stage where all of my books are on shelves yet!) is a positive.

In the coming year, I need to continue to work on the book and DVD collections and work in the yarn stash as well. I would like to make enough progress that I could feel that I had recovered at least one of the bedrooms. I also need to maintain the positive step I've taken to reducing the number of books that I acquire. My goal this year was to reduce the To Be Read pile by at least 50 (as in balancing the length of the list by removing ones read or removed with no intention of reading against the new books acquired). I'm going to set myself that goal again next year - it's getting a little more difficult as I've read more of the thin books and am beginning to have to tackle more of the doorstop size books!

[fred_mouse]

That is a fabulous amount of progress to have made -- so many books and DVDs gone, three rooms close to where you want them, as well as making those hard decisions about the work related items. I can absolutely sympathise about not wanting to let go of those things. I have a set of resources for a job I trained in that I'm never likely to work at (but is always a back up plan, because supposedly there are always rural jobs in the area) that I can't bring myself to release in to the wild, because I'll never be able to replace them. And now I'm giving Eldest the same advice, because they want to go in to teaching, so I'm telling them to hold on to all of their school books. It seems so counter-intuitive!

[tanaqui]

It sounds like you've made some really great progress this year. Particular congratulations on dealing with the old job stuff -- those items that are about part of your identity are really, really hard, so well done on being able to handle that.

Good luck with next year's goals and with maintaining the rooms you've already achieved!