sisterofbloomerjunior: Minnesota's orginial NHL team (North Stars)
[personal profile] sisterofbloomerjunior
(Realizing I never created a post here.)


My main challenge this week has been figuring out if we’re still going to get ice on our sidewalks in the Twin Cities and to clear enough space in our basement storage room to keep the ice melting chemicals until next winter. I learned the difficult way the stuff becomes unusable if I store it in the unheated garage. So I’ve thrown away at least one can of dried latex paint and have one that’s almost dry in the garage. Hopefully, I can find that tool for prying off the lids and let the rest of them dry outside if we can’t find anyone that could use some excess paint.

I also washed our linens and threw away a torn flat sheet. I’ll put away the towels and fitted sheet later today and ask Mom how many flat sheets she wants to keep so I can figure out if we can donate any extras. I also threw out a pajama top that tore as I was trying to put it on, so I’ve technically started to remove clothing from the top of my dresser.

As I sort through our receipts and bills for tax season, I’ll probably have enough paperwork that will be taken to the UPS Store for shredding. I’ve destroyed too many of them over the decades, yet UPS shreds only paper, so I might buy another one for ID cards and other data on plastic.

Update: Went through the paint cans and threw half of them away. Brought the rest of them outside. Also brought a wooden kitchen cart to the curb. Threw clothes down the laundry chute and will clean out a drawer to store pillow cases. Still sorting through paper, but haven’t put away the sheets yet. :/

Second update: Sorted through paperwork and brought a trunk to the curb as well.
yukonsally: (Default)
[personal profile] yukonsally
I cleaned up my desk a bit!  Over the weekend, I've filled our recycling bin to the brim and may need to make a trip to dump some of it to get us to curb side pick up next week.  I also rotated some items out of my closet and will donate them to the community closet.  I added a few things to the handmedown box, including a few things I had listed for sale that I've sort of given up on.  I think I'm more interested in getting that mental and physical space back rather than wait for the $2 for a shirt.

For the past few years, I've told myself I'm on a yarn diet, not buying anymore yarn to knit with, knowing I would have weak moments when I found something pretty from a local artist.  Staying at home during the pandemic has helped me not buy anything!  Meanwhile, I've been knitting up various yarns.  Nothing has sold yet.  I may donate a few things to the community closet, just to clear space.  And who doesn't enjoy a hand knitted woolen cap on a cold day?
rmc28: (charles-blocks)
[personal profile] rmc28

Week 24

  • Laundered all the sorted-out clothes and then either bagged up for donation or put away for wearing
  • Reconnoitered M&S, who are not currently doing the clothing drops but showed me where they will be when they are again, and decided I couldn't face John Lewis.
  • Used one of the two weedkillers (the one for brambles) but the other we couldn't get the dispenser working, sigh.
  • Agreed delivery of woodchips, but discovered my driveway was too narrow for the delivery vehicle.

Week 25

My neighbour very kindly allowed me to have 3 cubic metres of woodchips delivered to her driveway on Monday (she is away at the moment) so I could take my time moving it by wheelbarrow to my own driveway. I got that done mostly on Tuesday and Wednesday, around work. I did about 3/4 of the work myself, with some help from offspring and spouse. (It goes noticeably faster with two wheelbarrows and someone else trundling a barrow back and forth while I fill up the other one ... and when I can't keep up with the barrows, it's time for a break.)

Plan for week 26

  • Survive the heatwave
  • Use the replacement weedkiller dispenser
  • Upgrade the offspring's curtains
  • Attempt to freecycle old curtains
  • If the weather allows, start laying weed control fabric and moving woodchip to cover it
rmc28: (charles-blocks)
[personal profile] rmc28

Week 22 mostly garden )

Week 23 mostly clothing )

Plan for week 24

I am on leave from work all next week, but from Tuesday afternoon onward I'm going to be primarily occupied with CoNZealand. However there should be time to:

  • Launder all the clothes!
  • Put away the clothes I'm keeping, bag up the others for donation
  • Use the weedkiller, on a calm day with no rain, wearing suitable protective clothing
  • Upgrade offspring's curtains
  • Attempt to freecycle the old curtains
  • Attempt a reconnaissance of bra drops in M&S and/or John Lewis at an off-peak shopping time

(I did consider whether to ebay the more valuable clothes, but I have a lot less spare time than I do spare money at the moment. Donation seems a better option now that charity shops are cautiously beginning to reopen. I'm aiming to take one bag a week to my local shop, so as not to overwhelm them.)

yukonsally: (Default)
[personal profile] yukonsally
On the bright side, as I try to wear everything in my closet, I find what doesn't fit anymore (I loved that shirt) and accept that I'll never wear the skirt that still has tags on it (...years after purchase).  More things to list for sale on poshmark.  I'm trying SO HARD to avoid the one in, one out, with clothes right now.  Buying things on poshmark is so much easier and faster then selling... stay strong friends.
yukonsally: (Default)
[personal profile] yukonsally
I've found a lot of little things lately and remind myself the little things make up clutter.

Last night I shipped a thing to my mom. I recently found a stash of half used tiny toothpaste tubes, so I am using them up--how kids can brush their teeth with bubble gum toothpaste all the time is beyond me--and I'm sure I'll use up the watermelon toothpaste they are currently ignoring. I have finished off two tiny shampoo bottles and am working on a third, all from my travel bag. On to the last bottle of body wash I don't particularly like, but it's soap and I don't actually mind it. Always gathering outgrown kid clothes to send to a friend--and make room for the handmedowns coming from another friend soon!

I reactivated a seller's account on amazon to sell a book. It's not worth much but it might be worth the effort.

I've made a list of things to sell to the consignment store, whenever I can make it there. One is particularly sentimental but no longer useful so I am working through those feelings. A friend will pick up a large baby thing soon (I hope soon) and I cannot wait to regain space from it! She will also take the excess of handmedowns as her kids are right behind mine, size-wise.

Last week I gave away an instrument case that didn't fit my instrument well, and I replaced it with a case that fits much better. This is a great investment and it takes up less space than the previous case!

In my travels, I am happy to report that I purchased only the case, 5 CDs, a hoodie and a picture for the kids, a lawn decoration already in place, and a collectible mug. This sounds like a lot, but in past years, I've come home with 10 CDs, shirts, yarns, scarves, etc. Instead of buying a jacket for me, I got my favorite hoodie embroidered so it feels new.
fred_mouse: line drawing of sheep coloured in queer flag colours with dream bubble reading 'dreamwidth' (Default)
[personal profile] fred_mouse
One of the things I'm trying to deal with in February in order to reduce clutter is the sewing pile. This is a multi-box monster that has eaten the floor space in the room that is variously the sewing room, the music room, and my study (depending on which wall one is facing). What I'm finding is that there are a number of things that are fiddly, and for a long time I've been ignoring them. 

This week, I've been wandering in there, and just picking something up, working out 'what next'. Thus I have repaired a pair of work trousers*, a child's jacket, and a child's skirt. The latter two items have been added to the declutter pile - I'm hoping that one of the friends-with-smalls I catch up this week will be enthused about taking them home (and the slowly growing mound of outgrown clothes). 

Plus, middle child came home from dance to report that there is another child in the dance school in need of a specific and unusual item**, and could we please bring in any outgrown such items, which I found two of. So not only may I manage to rehome those, but I might get actual cash for them as well!

*which had been there so long I'd forgotten I owned them

fred_mouse: line drawing of sheep coloured in queer flag colours with dream bubble reading 'dreamwidth' (Default)
[personal profile] fred_mouse
I'm still approximately managing rehoming one thing per day, although it is still more like 7 things on a weekend - this last weekend gone I took some small person items to a friend with a toddler and an infant; today I emptied a small box of rehomeables into an op-shop collection bin. 

In the last week, I've found two skirts (one outgrown childrens, one unloved adults), multiple too small coat hangers, jars (many). Tonight, I'm going through printed journal articles left behind when a co-worker went to more interesting pastures, determining whether full text pdfs are readily available through the work library, and then gleefully ditching them. I started with about half a ream of paper, I'm a bit over half way through, and I've only had to keep three!

Other items in my list of rehomed since Mar 7 - old mobile phone, 7 craft books, 2 dozen plastic container lids, more coathangers, 8 pieces of unloved clothing, 4 scarves/light shawls, cocktail glass, more paper, child's table and 2 chairs, 6 old phone books, and some more outgrown kids clothing. 

As a result, the music room floor is clear, the shelf I've been planning to use for display is clear (although there is a small pile of paper to still sort through, and some other items I've no idea how to rehome), and I have an 'empty' bookshelf ready to move to the study, just as soon as the study has space. Also, the front hall has been clear of Stuff! for about a month, and we are back to using it for forward planning.

And on the topic of knitting - I'm slowly working through the donated yarn, although a new donation means I'm above where I started at the beginning of the year. But I've been loaned a knitting machine, which I plan to use with scrag ends of yarn to make blankets for the Cat Haven, so I might actually get back one of my plastic tubs by the end of the year!
beachlass: text: keep your shipyard clean (clean)
[personal profile] beachlass
Admittedly going against one of Marie Kondo's principles (dive wholly in and tackle decluttering in one fell swoop); I have been experimenting with her question:

"Does it give me joy?"

And I'm finding it to be a transformative one. (Orienting towards joy has been an ongoing piece of self-work for me in the past year, so this is a very timely question for me to use in the house as well)

And although I was skeptical, I've also taken the time to try and follow some of her instructions around the way I keep clothing - taking everything out of the dresser, handling each piece, folding it carefully, arranging clothing so that it is displayed, rather than stacked. It's time consuming; and I'm trying to not fuss about whether it's sustainable; but again - it's a transformative way to handle my things - to treat them as valuable paradoxically allows me to let go of more. To set a vision for how I want the drawer organized sets a boundary on how many things I'm willing to keep. 


fred_mouse: line drawing of sheep coloured in queer flag colours with dream bubble reading 'dreamwidth' (Default)
[personal profile] fred_mouse
In the last week, I (with appropriate assistance) have at least partially uncluttered the following:
  • 3 small shelves of picture books - about 20cm of children's books, some gone to new home already
  • DVD collection - about 50cm of mostly non-fiction and children's. 7 have been rehomed, the rest to go.
  • adult books - three unloved items identified. Yet to do anything with these.
  • bathroom cabinets (both the under the sink, and the wall mounted lockable medicine cabinet) - out of date medicine, several near empty boxes of sticking plasters consolidated and the boxes thrown out, random accumulated plastic containers. Also, ~1 cup of broken pegs (I always plan to fix them, and it is the cupboard closest to the washing line). Apart from the medicine, everything went into the rubbish - too hard to sort the tiny things. 
and in previous week (? timing uncertain) also found 3 Vogue sewing patterns I'm never going to make, and put them in the Box To Go. 

Plus, the kids are starting to bring out clothes that they don't want/fit any more, so I'm accumulating a pile of those to deal with. 

Not quite one thing a day - I've had spare time, and a couple of areas where I was looking for something it was easier to pull everything out and put it back in order or we were reshelving, so it was a good time to have a coarse level cull. 

Current declutter goal: have all the books on shelves once the current bookshelf repair is done (ie. we will get rid of the temp bookshelves, and the stashed books in the games room will either go on the repaired shelves, or out). 
pinkadot89: (Default)
[personal profile] pinkadot89
I did get a lot of new items since my last post, but I also got rid of A LOT of things! I went through some of my dresser's drawers this week and filled up a few bags with clothes. I also systematically went through the two of the cabinets and drawers in the bathroom and found all kinds of things that don't belong! And I looked through a box and a basket in my closet which had plenty of random things, but also some useful items like a jewelry box!

Numbers under here... )

I've found that once I start removing things I don't need/want, it becomes easier to determine what I actually need/want. I'm finally getting some open space so I can see what I have right away, rather than having piles of boxes full of mystery items. It's nice. :)
pinkadot89: (Default)
[personal profile] pinkadot89
Here's my tally for the week of July 2nd - July 8th, and my cumulative progress.

Numbers under here... )

Not much activity this week, but I am trying to use up some of these bathroom products. How did I end up with 4 open bottles of shampoo (plus 2 conditioners)?! There's also 3 face washes and 2 body washes in my shower. I really need to use what I have before I get more. I guess I suffer from "Oooh new [insert product]! I must try it now!" syndrome.
pinkadot89: (Default)
[personal profile] pinkadot89
Here's my tally for the week of June 18th - June 24th, and my cumulative progress.

Numbers under here... )

This was a pretty good week. I managed to get rid of the hardest items: the stuffed animals from my ex. I also cleared out plenty of broken stuff that was hidden away in various places. I've also found a ton of random things which I'm going to need to sort through. My closet and non-clothing dresser are disaster areas. Instead of tackling them full on, I think I actually will do those one, or a few, item at a time to keep my sanity.

I also just wanted to say that I really appreciate the kind words and support this community gives. You're all awesome!
pinkadot89: (Default)
[personal profile] pinkadot89
Here's my tally for the week of June 10th - June 17th, and my cumulative progress.

Numbers under here... )

I checked a few places off of my uncluttering list. The first being the basket where I keep my hair/body products. I threw out things that I don't use, to make room for the things I would use if I knew I had them. Next was my dresser. I took out old stuff which I haven't worn in years, as well as torn/worn things, and stuff that was too small. Some headed for the trash, the rest is being donated. I also got new PJs and a rug to replace an old rug and old PJs. I'm not sure where I want to go through next.
pinkadot89: (Default)
[personal profile] pinkadot89
Here's my first tally for the weekend of May 28th - May 31st.

Numbers under here... )

Not bad for my first weekend! I'm probably going to have quite a few clothing related INs, since my mom and I just went through our clothes not too long ago and got rid of tons of stuff. I will be able to further unclutter my closet and drawers though, because I still need to rotate out the rest of my winter clothes and put my summer clothes in. I'm sure there's plenty of stuff that's worn or just doesn't fit anymore. So my project for next week (I have school projects to finish this week) will be to sort through my drawers and the closet for unnecessary clothing and random objects being stored there.
beachlass: (dresses)
[personal profile] beachlass
 My goal for April is to reduce the clutter in my bedroom. 

I started today by putting away my laundry. (Baby steps) 

OUT: 3 (stretched out tank top, capris and black short sleeve top too faded to wear for work)

IN: nada

It was hard to let go of the black top. Even though it's really faded. Even though I have other short sleeved black shirts. Even though it doesn't button up across my chest. I felt the anxious "What if I need it sometime??" voice crying in the back of my head. I'm reminded that I find it harder to let go of things if I'm stressed because that "What if?" voice is stronger, scared of not having enough.
beachlass: text: keep your shipyard clean (clean)
[personal profile] beachlass
Today I was reminded that I don't need an hour for decluttering; I've got enough disastrous corners in the house, all I need to do is spend 5 minutes in one of them, and I'm sure to find things to throw/give away.

IN: one vest

OUT:  seven pieces of clothing, mostly from the corner of my closet including a long abandoned half-knit sweater.

FOUND: two pairs of cords that fit!
 
beachlass: tsunade from naruto (tsunade)
[personal profile] beachlass
IN: a new (to me) coat from ebay
OUT: 5 coats  - 2 kids raincoats that are now too small and 3 of my coats 

So I got my new coat this morning. (Parcels in the morning! So exciting!) And after I got the boy shooed off to school checked to make sure the internet was still here, I went to look for coats I could release. Because: coats. I have lots. I like coats. And jackets And wraps. And big bulky sweaters. And live where we have lots of weather.

The first one went into the bin, with some regret - a classic denim jacket I've had since high school (more than 20 years ago!) - all hand embroidered by me with early 90's feminist slogans and characters/symbols from fantasy novels. Let's be serious. I am never, ever, ever going to wear that again. No one is, especially with the half-finished dragon on the back. 

The other two were differently hard - because they're Still Good. One is too short, in a way that is just unflattering for someone with my cup size, and the other is a perfectly good aubergine coloured full length wool coat. That was a hand me down. That I never wear, because I prefer my black coats. And there's this voice in my head saying: "But! What if you need it someday?" I'm not sure what full length coat emergency I'm supposed to be waiting for, voice in my head. 

ETA: 
Also out! 9 cookbooks!
Given to my daughter, who is mostly living in the city these days. 

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unclutter: pairs of antique shoes (Default)
uncluttering one day and one thing at a time

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