tanaqui: Illumiinated letter T (Default)
[personal profile] tanaqui
Last year, [personal profile] fred_mouse made a weekend decluttering post inviting us talk about our decluttering goals for 2018.

I thought people might appreciate a post on the last day of 2018 to reflect on the goals we posted last year (for those who posted them and who want to look back -- no pressure or judgment! I certainly didn't achieve all my goals!) and what we hope to achieve in 2019.
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (Default)
[personal profile] rmc28
Last week my son was ill, and one long evening he was very fretful if I left him alone in his room. So I unexpectedly achieved my goal of sorting out his room by doing a bit at a time in between soothing him back to sleep. I've now spotted a couple of extra tasks to do before I consider the room "finished", but I've done everything I originally specified. So 1 down, 2 to go!

As a result of the reorganisation, I've ended up ordering a load of extra storage boxes which are on their way; I've also been able to see where we have gaps in the children's books, so I've been ordering and mooching (thanks for the reminder last week!) to fill those gaps. And we were kindly given a lift to the DIY store by a friend and got in a load of things we needed. This is all pushing up my INs, but for good reasons.

Totals:
Read more... )
syntheid: [Avatar: TLA] Iroh glancing to the side with noodles hanging out of his mouth, clutching a noodle bowl. (what's going on?)
[personal profile] syntheid
So I suppose this is an introduction, since I haven't actually posted here at all yet, so hello. I'm trying to declutter as much as possible in preparation for a cross-country move in June. Organization is my big downfall-- I have decluttered quite a bit over the past couple years, but there always ends up the dregs that I'm not sure how to organize in a useful manner (I have ADD, and so it's a bit of a struggle sometimes between wanting things to look nice/clean/clear and knowing that if I put it out of sight, I won't remember I own it or where it is and this causes problems). One of my goals for this year is figuring out how to organize these things so I can keep my bathroom, computer desk, endtable, and dining table from getting overwhelmed.

The second issue I'm having is books. I love books, and I love having a physical library of them, but good lord they are a pain to move. And as I expect to be moving at least a couple more times before I settle into a place for a good length, I'd kind of like to travel as light as possible (plus the housing where I am planning to move is more expensive for less square footage than I have been used to where I am at, so I will need to make things space-effective anyhow). I've actually already been through my library several times and eliminated a lot, but I still have approximately three bookcases (small ones-- 3 shelves each) worth of books-- artbooks and language reference with fiction and a few odds and ends. The fiction is mostly what I am struggling to part with, since it's pretty much impossible to replace the reference and artbooks with digital copies, but the goal is to clear out at least one case to pare down to really essential things, so probably more fiction must go.

Third goal is that I actually need to go through and sort and toss most of what is being stored at my parents' place, because they may be moving in the relatively near future as well, and aren't happy with me leaving so much at their place. And if I leave them to deal with it, I'll end up with most of what is important being tossed, which is very not okay, so I will have to get that sorted before I leave.

I don't really do well with the one-in-one-out method, because it's hard for me to really keep track (and make sure I actually do get the "out" thing out of my house and don't just set it aside) at this point since it ends up stressing me out more than it helps. Hoping as I get things cleared more, it'll be easier to do a literal 1-to-1 thing, but for now my mentality is mostly "Get rid of as much as possible and buy as little as possible" until I get to a manageable state, and I'm not going to worry too much about a solid tally.

On that note, here's my approximate tally for the month thus far: )

And a question for you all: What do you do to get rid of hangers? Apparently the thrift stores won't take them, but I have two of those pant-rack hangers that I find I never use, and I'm not sure what to do with them. Would rather not put them in the trash, but I don't think I can put them in the recycle bin either?
rmc28: Rachel in hockey gear on the frozen fen at Upware, near Cambridge (Default)
[personal profile] rmc28
Hello, I'm Rachel and I keep failing to quite finish decluttering. I've been aware of the concept since about 2000, and I feel like I've been recycling and freecycling and donating stuff ever since, except I still have oodles of stuff. One thing I learned from the unclutter_2009 community on LJ is that this is because I haven't stopped buying up bargains as though I were a poor student, long after I stopped being so.

Last year I tried again but fell out of the habit of tracking about halfway through the year. I'm working on my ability to resist "bargains" and I find just tracking my ins and outs really helps: if I measure it I can manage it, or at least it feels that way.

So apart from just tracking and trying to get down by at least one thing a day, I think I have three goals for this year:

The first is to finally clear my half of the horrible "junk room" which I dream of making into a little study/music room with a single futon as an emergency spare bed. (My jobseeking brother's overflow stuff temporarily occupies the other half, but he knows that it has to be gone by the time I finish my half; so far he's decluttering faster than I am!)

The second is to empty and remove at least one set of floor-to-ceiling shelves in my living/dining room, to make the room feel a little less crowded. Some stuff could go elsewhere in the house, but I think we could usefully get rid of quite a lot, one thing at a time.

The third goal is to get my four-year-old son's room sorted out by the time he starts school in September. We need to clear out all the stuff of ours that ended up dumped in there on high shelves; move all the remaining children's stuff from our room in there; tidy up and cull the books and toys; try to arrange the bookshelves so the stuff for under fives is low down and the stuff for ten-year-olds is accessible at roughly a ten-year-old's height.

One really useful thing happened last summer: a new charity shop opened around the corner, and they take nearly everything. My brother J volunteers there regularly, and they have deals with local waste collectors/processors who pay them by the kilo for unsellable stuff (especially textiles and electricals). I no longer worry about ebaying or freecycling stuff: if it's salable the shop will sell it (and they are very busy), and if it's not they'll generally still get some money for it, and I don't have to take it to the tip myself. We're lucky enough not to need the money and it's a cause I'm happy to support.

Profile

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

May 2025

S M T W T F S
    123
45678910
1112 1314151617
1819 2021222324
25262728293031

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated May. 23rd, 2025 12:05 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios