It's the weekend, and for me that's decluttering time. So let's make it a community check-in too. How is your week going for decluttering things? Set goals, vent about difficulties, celebrate our successes in the comments.
Today's goal: do 3x 15 minutes of decluttering work, with 5 min rests in between.
First 15 min: go round the house with the bag of "things that belong elsewhere" from, um, a fortnight ago and empty it out. And then stand just inside my front door and start looking for trash & easy things to rehome.
Emptied bag in 7min. In remaining 8, took a broken umbrella to the bin, took a toy broomstick to the donate space in my back room, and started pulling WEEE and other trash out of the tall shelves by the door. So. Much. Rubbish.
I've done about a quarter of the unit, so the next 15min will be continuing to pull crap off the shelves.
Omg there is so much junk on these shelves. I vaguely hoped I might get through them all, but no, not even halfway down yet. I'm totally bugging my kid, who is playing games in the room where all the lightbulb and battery type stuff lives, as I keep finding more of them lurking and re-home them. And the rubbish, recycling, and WEEE piles just keep growing.
Well, I finished the shelves just before the timer finished: final score is 1 bag of rubbish in the bin, one small pile of recycling (which meant I had to empty the recycling box to the bin outside), and one bag of assorted small WEEE. Plus much tidier-looking shelves, go me! Hopefully it will be easier to find things on them.
There is definitely an existing stash or two of WEEE in the study, but my son is about to explode with the number of times I've been in and out of that room already today so I put my bag in the garage along with other things that need to go to a recycling point or wait until we can get a lift to the tip. I have just been looking up local recycling points, and it looks there are separate places for "bulbs and batteries" and for "small electrical items". So I think either tonight or tomorrow morning when child is not playing computer games, I should combine all the WEEE stashes and set up one bag for each of those points, to be taken when I'm next going in that direction, or need an excuse for a walk.
(Oh, and during the week I found another stash of textiles for recycling, so I can take them too.)
Congratulations on getting those shelves uncluttered and looking tidier!
One of the things Dana at a Slob Comes Clean mentions quite a lot is that simply taking away the stuff that doesn't belong often results in a space becoming naturally more organised, because what's left actually fits and can be stored so you can get at it without having to move (and probably not properly put back) a load of other stuff first. Definitely happened for me in a few spaces I've decluttered!
We spent a bit over an hour out in the garage Sorting Out the shelf at the back that we have not cleared out properly since our ex-landlord moved all of his stuff out! Some things got binned. Several things go Oraganised. It is MUCH tidier and there is SPACE up there and now we will -- hopefully -- be able to use it to sort out some of the main section of the garage.
I continue to read A Slob Comes Clean, from your link the other week, and the house is mysteriously Tidier. It's really nice.
I am reading my way through the blog from the beginning in small bursts and finding it encouraging. Also I signed up to the mailing list so I'm still getting the encouraging introductory emails, which often come with links to specific posts.
I did nothing all day, but then when I came home from church, I ate dinner while reading A Slob Comes Clean posts from 2009, and was inspired to: - clear off most of what was on my desk that shouldn't have been - take some of it back into my bedroom, where I then put away the box of shoes which has been on my chest of drawers for months, and in the process moved a bag of hangers which I then decided to recycle and found a parcel of new pairs of trousers I bought in summer 2021 but hadn't had room to hang until I took out a handful of items last week for donation - reshelve all the graphic novels my friend gave me back in the morning - pull out receipts and bank statements old enough to be recycled and put them in a logical place to be packed for my next trip to the office (where the industrial-strength shredder lives)
So that's better than it could have been... if not great.
(I'm so there with you on things like the box of shoes, where I will walk past something multiple times thinking I must put it away -- and when I finally do and it takes moments and makes such a visual difference I wonder why I didn't do it weeks ago!)
There was a reason why the box was still there, originally. But I decided that after mumble-mumble months I might as well admit I wasn't actually going to do it, and I can get the box out of the wardrobe as and when I change my mind...
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-21 02:05 pm (UTC)Today's goal: do 3x 15 minutes of decluttering work, with 5 min rests in between.
First 15 min: go round the house with the bag of "things that belong elsewhere" from, um, a fortnight ago and empty it out. And then stand just inside my front door and start looking for trash & easy things to rehome.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-21 02:25 pm (UTC)Emptied bag in 7min. In remaining 8, took a broken umbrella to the bin, took a toy broomstick to the donate space in my back room, and started pulling WEEE and other trash out of the tall shelves by the door. So. Much. Rubbish.
I've done about a quarter of the unit, so the next 15min will be continuing to pull crap off the shelves.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-21 02:45 pm (UTC)Omg there is so much junk on these shelves. I vaguely hoped I might get through them all, but no, not even halfway down yet. I'm totally bugging my kid, who is playing games in the room where all the lightbulb and battery type stuff lives, as I keep finding more of them lurking and re-home them. And the rubbish, recycling, and WEEE piles just keep growing.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-21 03:23 pm (UTC)Well, I finished the shelves just before the timer finished: final score is 1 bag of rubbish in the bin, one small pile of recycling (which meant I had to empty the recycling box to the bin outside), and one bag of assorted small WEEE. Plus much tidier-looking shelves, go me! Hopefully it will be easier to find things on them.
There is definitely an existing stash or two of WEEE in the study, but my son is about to explode with the number of times I've been in and out of that room already today so I put my bag in the garage along with other things that need to go to a recycling point or wait until we can get a lift to the tip. I have just been looking up local recycling points, and it looks there are separate places for "bulbs and batteries" and for "small electrical items". So I think either tonight or tomorrow morning when child is not playing computer games, I should combine all the WEEE stashes and set up one bag for each of those points, to be taken when I'm next going in that direction, or need an excuse for a walk.
(Oh, and during the week I found another stash of textiles for recycling, so I can take them too.)
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-22 06:47 pm (UTC)One of the things Dana at a Slob Comes Clean mentions quite a lot is that simply taking away the stuff that doesn't belong often results in a space becoming naturally more organised, because what's left actually fits and can be stored so you can get at it without having to move (and probably not properly put back) a load of other stuff first. Definitely happened for me in a few spaces I've decluttered!
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-21 04:33 pm (UTC)I continue to read A Slob Comes Clean, from your link the other week, and the house is mysteriously Tidier. It's really nice.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-21 05:58 pm (UTC)Hurrah for getting Sorting Out done!
I am reading my way through the blog from the beginning in small bursts and finding it encouraging. Also I signed up to the mailing list so I'm still getting the encouraging introductory emails, which often come with links to specific posts.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-21 08:41 pm (UTC)I am also reading my way through slowly! It is nice that they are Sufficiently Short that I don't even need much attention span.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-22 06:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-22 04:01 pm (UTC)- clear off most of what was on my desk that shouldn't have been
- take some of it back into my bedroom, where I then put away the box of shoes which has been on my chest of drawers for months, and in the process moved a bag of hangers which I then decided to recycle and found a parcel of new pairs of trousers I bought in summer 2021 but hadn't had room to hang until I took out a handful of items last week for donation
- reshelve all the graphic novels my friend gave me back in the morning
- pull out receipts and bank statements old enough to be recycled and put them in a logical place to be packed for my next trip to the office (where the industrial-strength shredder lives)
So that's better than it could have been... if not great.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-22 05:27 pm (UTC)That's lots of good stuff! Go you!
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-22 06:54 pm (UTC)(I'm so there with you on things like the box of shoes, where I will walk past something multiple times thinking I must put it away -- and when I finally do and it takes moments and makes such a visual difference I wonder why I didn't do it weeks ago!)
(no subject)
Date: 2023-01-24 03:59 pm (UTC)