weekend check-in

[rmc28]

Hi all, it's the weekend and it's time for me to declutter. One of my current challenges is that the two rooms I most want to work on (living room, study) are also the two rooms where other people in my household like to hang out, and decluttering can get in the way of what they're trying to do. So I am seizing the moment while no-one else is in the living room, putting on some women's ice hockey from earlier today to keep me company, and seeing how far I can get.

Share your challenges, successes, tactics and strategies in the comments!

Comments

progress

[rmc28]

Finished DKW-ing one bookcase in the living room with about 7 minutes left on the clock in the first period, and it looks great but I was definitely feeling tired by the end of that. I sat down and watched the rest of the period, and then got up again at the interval (yes, I could have skipped through, as it's a finished stream, but it motivated me to move a bit). I got set up for the next bookcase, made some progress, then something took me to the kitchen and I got distracted by making some food. So I think I'm going to take the middle period as an extended rest & food break, and carry on afterward. The advantage of DKW is that I haven't left a big mess, so it's fine to just stop when I'm tired.

Re: progress

[rmc28]

Finished the second bookcase - twice as big but less catastrophically cluttered - during the last period, which got very exciting (the game, not the decluttering). Astoundingly, no-one has come to complain about me monopolising the living room, probably because it is a cold, wet and windy autumnal Saturday and everyone else is staying in bed.

I am having another rest and will then tackle the mantlepiece and the corner unit, and then I will have done a first-pass on everything in this room. Either later today or tomorrow I can then start on the study, which is very much worse. (That's where I ended up exhausted surrounded by piles trying to sort out just a couple of shelves the hard way.)

Re: progress

[rmc28]

Done the living room first-pass, thanks to a well-timed coworking session via one of my Discords. There were two disintegrating feather dusters which have now, despite my best efforts, shed feathers over half the floor, but the next time we vacuum will deal with that.

Also had a soundtrack of Doctor Who musical celebration which helped a lot, and now my teenager has persuaded me to watch an episode or two with him ...

Re: progress

[kaberett]

HUZZAH. WELL DONE YOU.

Re: progress

[illariy]

Yay! Sounds like you managed to get a lot done even though the living room can be hard to declutter with other people. Congrats to you!

I love DKW's method for not leaving a huge mess and being able to stop at any time. :D I used her method for decluttering my desk a bit last night.

Re: progress

[word_geek]

The problem for me with the method is that I would 100% get distracted and never come back from one of my forays to put things away #adhdlife

But I do like the fact that you can just stop at any point. I mostly deal with the need to stop at any point by either doing a really small area at a time, or just chucking things as I see them, which is, I suppose, her method, but in a really diffuse way.

I also combine decluttering with a complete change in where the thing is being stored, so that you have to empty one item and put the things into the new item. You just don't put all of them away again.

For clothing, I either clear while swapping seasons, or I do it when I'm in a really bad mood and won't give clothes that no longer work for me a pass because I used to love them

Re: progress

[illariy]

Oh, sounds as if you have adopted her method into one that works well for your needs!

Decluttering in a bad mood sounds useful, I am going to take note of that for my next declutter. I, too, tend to keep stuff for too long, hehe.

[wychwood]

I have:

• Admitted that I wasn't going to finish searching through the big box of Lego for the pieces to make the set I was working on, and put it all away
• While I was at it, dismantled the big set I had sitting on the table
• Filed a couple of the things piling up on my desk
• Folded up the dry bedding I took down earlier and put it all away

The table is still overly crowded, and the desk isn't great, but progress is progress.

I do have an accumulation of Christmas presents on the table, and I'm not sure where to put them that's going to be safe and tidy and also less in the way; might be one to think about.

I'm also going to post separately on the comm about something else I'm trying!

[illariy]

Yes, quite a lot of progress done, congrats to you! :D

I, too, find it hard to admit defeat or at least a temporary stop on any project but putting it away is a very good thing in that case and I admire you for doing the deed with the Lego project.

[adafrog]

Good luck.

[illariy]

Last week, I did indeed do 15 min of traditional decluttering as I had hoped to do! I put out the over door mirror for bulky waste collection and it was removed, yay. The rest of my decluttering time was spent on tidying up my desk. There is still more to do on my desk, hopefully this week!

Unfortunately, I did not do anything on the penpal crafting project. Maybe this week but I don't have high hopes because I am working overtime this week, ugh.

But overall, I am satisfied with my progress. I am also working on not bringing so much new stuff in, which is more than half the battle of decluttering, I feel.

[kaberett]

This last week I have:

• sorted through the pile by the back door
• taken the things from it that want to go to the allotment to the allotment (we are not currently talking about the state of the greenhouse)
• established that I do have discard net curtain with which to patch the cherry stockings, rather than that being a blocker on any attempt to deal with the big box of 'em needing repairs

Which is not nothing! Hurrah me.

Goals for this week: Actually Make Some Progress On Some Of These Projects...

Taking care of issues.

[sisterofbloomerjunior]

Just brought a magazine rack down to the living room so Mom can sort through the catalogs and figure out which ones she wishes to keep.

I also went through what was originally in there and placed some of my health insurance information in one of my magazine holders in the bookshelf next to my bed. The other holder now has the few magazines I still read.

The cooking magazines that were previously in there were ones we’ve never made anything from those recipes, so I recycled the ones that were falling apart and will put the rest in little libraries around us.