BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: katlaughing
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 08:46 PM

Do the dogs scoop their own poop?**bg** (Try changing to Feline Pine litter. Cats like it better AND it never makes a mess and is easy to change. As for barfing...put good-sized rocks in their food dish so they cannot gobble their food down too fast and make sure they get greens to keep their system ship-shape. If you don't want hairballs...comb them everyday and/or give them a tiny bit of oil with their food or get a supplement from the vet.)

I think I am about to start going through the boxes in our bedroom closet. I can do that and watch Antiques Roadshow.

Maryanne, that's beautiful glass. I, too, could use a china hutch, but no room as Maggie says. Maybe as I clear out and if I could find one to fit a corner.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 08:31 PM

Liz, I can't think of the last time I saw someone eat grapefruit that fussy way. I remember doing that when we were kids and it seemed silly then. In my teens I was well down the path of a hardened grapefruit abuser, boldly and blatantly peeling and sectioning them.

Maryanne, I could use a china cabinet also, but I don't have room for one now. Maybe some day. I do have built in shelves in the living room and right before the burglary (Feb. 2005) I was all set to have a glass company come in and put up sliding doors over the shelves so I could use them for display and keep out a lot of the dust. That money got used for deductibles instead.

Everything got done early today, pets fed, etc. because we had a little false alarm emergency (a trip to the ER with a kid who felt much better by the time we got there, so we came home.) I have work to do for work, but I think I'll also go sort the cardboard boxes run amok in my eBay room. And I have some t-shirts to list that one of the cats slept up against for days or weeks before I realized it. Masking tape then a trip through the wash and keep those out of her reach. (I'm so sick of cleaning up cat barf, cat hair, cat pee and cat litter--does anyone want two cats? I'm spoiled now, having outside dogs who take care of everything outside!)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 08:09 PM

I know it is. But look who comes out on top. :~)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: maire-aine
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 07:24 PM

Well, I finally tackled the china cabinet today. Unfortunately, the china cabinet won. I have a whole cabinet full of glassware Fostoria Chintz . Some of it started out as wedding presents to my parents, but I have been adding to the collection ever since. I don't want to part with it, because I use it for company (holiday parties, etc). But right now, I can't because it's so crowded that, if I take anything out, I'm afraid I won't be able to get it back in. I took out the non-Chintz stuff, and it filled up my diningroom table.

Conclusion: I must buy an additional china cabinet/hutch/dresser thing. I have space in the diningroom, and there's a nice second-hand furniture dealer here in town. I'll go shopping over the weekend.

If I can get one of the bookcases out of the livingroom, it won't look so crowded.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: maeve
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 06:40 PM

Thanks, Susan. It is a battle.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 04:16 PM

Grapefruit knives are bent so that you can slip it around the edge of a halved fruit, making it easy to lift it out for eating and it avoids that unfortunate squirting when a spoon is inserted. One never eats grapefruit with ones fingers.

I never did get around to that other cupboard today. Went to work and was exhausted when I got home.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 02:30 PM

((((maeve))))
nursery battle

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: wysiwyg
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 01:29 PM

Grapefruit peeling-- best way to get the rind-lining off is to open up the peeled grapefruit with your fingers, making two halves. Peel each section out of the rind-liner. It's much easier to get at it from that angle.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: maire-aine
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 01:07 PM

When I had my bathroom remodeled a few years ago, I deliberately did not install a medicine cabinet. I have a shelf for the toothpaste/brush & floss only. Any other meds go in my nightstand. And the bonus, there's nothing for nosy visitors to snoop in. Ha-ha.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: LilyFestre
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 11:38 AM

Piles. I like piles or rather I like to make piles. Now that I have a little free time on my hands, I decided to tackle the bathroom. Oh, the big stuff is clean, sink, toilet and tub but there are these wonderfully deep shelves that RidgePlucker built for me. They are great for storing stuff but the problem is, I have been piling stuff there while running to get ready for work, yoga, kayaking, WITO, etc. and I have forgotten what is there, not to mention it has gotten rather dusty. Okay. It had to work for awhile but today I took care of it. It looks SO much better and I feel so much better having completed it instead of looking at it every time I go into the bathroom. I also cleaned out our medicine cabinet. I threw out 24 (YIKES! Yes, I know!!!) boxes of expired meds, many of them either new or barely used (we don't like to use lots of meds here, only when really necessary). I ended up with a ton more room in the cabinet, only 4 boxes of remaining meds (mostly cold meds) and a few bottles of Advil/Tylenol that kind of thing. Ahhhhh, yes. It looks and feels SO much better. De-cluttering feels GREAT!

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 10:22 AM

I never thought of that! We don't have grapefruit knives--I always peel it and eat it like an orange (after peeling off that tough membrane on each section). My favorite knives are some straight blade high carbon steel knives that I sharpen every so often on a stone. I agree with the earlier suggestion about wrapping the unwanted knives in a stiff sleeve of newspaper and taping it shut. Mark it clearly and hand it off to the thrift shop folks.

Sounds like you've gotten a toehold on the declutter process--kitchen cabinets can provide almost endless entertainment and a strong element of nostalgia. I have a couple of stacks of my mother's old booklet-style cookbooks on the dining room table. In the last couple of weeks I've had visitors who sat and looked through them and would burst out with some particularly unappetizing or truly remarkable food combination (last night Moonglow found a recipe for a celery stick appetizer that called for a can of Dinty Moore sausages (I thought they only made canned stew), pureed, 1 cup of sauerkraut juice, and I can't remember the third ingredient. Cheese? Anyway, it was ground up and piped into the celery and laid out for a snack. Yuck! But what fun to get to that Yuck, sitting around the kitchen table looking at 40 and 50 year old and older cookbooks. Maybe instead of an eBay fate, these need their own shelf in the kitchen, and can come out as ice breakers during social gatherings?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 03:05 AM

Stilly - the knives are all ones that we haven't used for years - and I kept a selection of the sharper, more useful ones. How did we get two grapefruit knives (The ones with the bent blades) when neither of us eat grapefruit? In one of my mother's choicer phrases, some of them 'you could ride bare-assed to Bridport on and never notice'.

Besides - most of them are single bevelled edges and of course, they bevel to the right. Me being left-handed, I can't used single bevelled blades very well, without spraining my wrist in particularly hard cheese. So they're the ones that have gone. The remaining ones are double bevelled or serrated edge.

It's tough being a southpaw in a northpaw world.

It's the turn of the ovenware cupboard today...

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jun 08 - 12:56 AM

I transplanted an agave and a cactus from a place where I put them three years ago that turned out to not be a great place for them. The big agave has been planted (oops--forgot to give it a little water) and the spineless cactus moved. I have a whole bunch of baby agaves I may poke in the back yard and turn into an agricultural enterprise. A neighbor tells me that these things are expensive in the grocery store.

I've been letting a soaker hose soften up the ground beside the driveway (next to where this agave was) and I'm going to dig it up for another bed, the next part of the veggie garden.

There's a toad out hoping around in the tomato patch this evening, happily gobbling up June bugs.

I'm bushed.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 05:31 PM

Wow! Sounds like there might be another echo in a Mudcatter home. Those plants had to muffle a lot of sound.

I've come in to cool off for a few minutes and eat a juicy grapefruit; we broke 100 today. I've been moving slowly around outside, staying in the shade, puttering. Working on a new drip irrigation system (dropped a timer and broke off the spigot--no way to fix that, darnit. Had to get another timer, and settled for one like the old fashioned kitchen timer that ticks down the minutes, isn't electric or programmable.)

Before I went out this morning I did another pass over the central kitchen counter. I had removed a lot of stuff that didn't belong there, but then I looked at the stuff that is always there but is never used. Cork-topped phone pad, recipe card holder (too fancy to use), a glass tray, ornamental things (there is a little shelf that is better for those anyway). The whole thing finally looks airy, not just the outer 2/3 of it.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 03:22 PM

I wish we could all come over and help you, Maeve, even if all we did was sit and visit with you while you went through it all. {{{hug}}}

We took the seven foot schefflera, my mom's good-sized Christmas cactus, and two philodendrons to our son and his family, today. Now there is an very empty looking corner in the living room and I have decided NOT to fill it up! Rog was sweet when we came home and I was looking at it. He said, "Gettin' there...one houseplant at a time!" Of course he was grinning.:-)

My office is where I dump everything and do everything...ebay, books, jewellery, Morgan's arts and crafts, etc. I am grateful for the space being mine.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: maeve
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 12:57 PM

Thank you SRS. The wringer was so much easier than doing the wash by hand and washboard that it seemed a disaster when its agitator wore out. Well, it was a disaster, come to think of it :) I can almost remember the pure pleasure of using modern appliances. What we have is better than what we had, and I'm grateful.

Can't use the dryer until I manage the nursery battle, and I haven't managed that yet.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 12:19 PM

Last night I was so tired when I posted that I turned off the computer and went to bed early. This morning I realized that of course I was tired, I'd also mowed the back yard (the big one) and mixed a big batch of potting soil and filled several pots along with the other stuff on my list.

Liz, do you think that now you've discovered them you might put a few more of those knives into use? Before I give away something like that I will use it a time or two to see if it is more useful than I thought. I have a couple of knives from my Dad's house that look quite ornamental, they are handmade and in their own leather cases, but I almost got rid of them as too fussy. Finnish fish fillet knives. When testing them, they really are the best thing for filleting fish, and they are also the best knives around for filleting mangoes. :) Oh, it is also my experience that you can never have to many spatulas (if we're talking about the rubber-scraper variety).

Alice, good job! You'll simply have to pace yourself, or get a few neighbors to help share your trash. I had a stack of fence slats that I wanted to get rid of but it wasn't time for bulky waste yet, so I took portion of the pile to the curb each trash day. It took at least three weeks (Monday and Thursday pickups) to get rid of it all. Plus, we have a recycle center near us and bulky trash can also be dropped off. I live in Edgecliff and it serves Fort Worth, but since I have a Fort Worth mailing address I can use it. I have a copy of the ex-spouses water bill handy in case I need it.

Linn, my craft room is where I also do my eBay stuff, and it is getting pretty full again. If I hadn't been so tired last night I'd have sorted and maybe listed a couple of things. It's the yard work in heat that really takes it out of you--quiet pursuits like researching old plates made in Northern Alberta just doesn't keep me awake after a day of lugging bags of dirt and compost.

maeve, I have used a wringer washer a few times, and my hat is off to you. They're a lot of work. My mother used one at our lake cabin where I spent all of my summers until my early teens.

Susan, extension cords are scary. Two or three years ago the fire marshal at the university literally banned them (at the university library) and made us switch to power strips (got compliance by threatening to seize any equipment that was plugged in, like radios, etc.), so at home I've gotten rid of most of mine, unless they are used for one small item and only because they go to a plug hard to reach otherwise. You might want to upgrade to power strips that are rated to resist electrical storm events. Much less fire hazard.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 10:42 AM

The LR conversion to the summer configuration is going well, as slowly as it needs to for the high humidity and busy weekend we're having, but it is approaching that moment of critical mass where it's more "done" than "cluttered-and-impossible to get-done." How I can tell, aside from my own subjective sense, is that the dogs think the room is big enough now to wrestle in it. :~)

A surprising number of the extension cords that go with this process are right where I think they should be. Even the remote that controls a hard-to-reach fan (cools the LR all night long) was about a 30-second find.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: maeve
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 09:24 AM

Liz- We just fold stiff paper or boxboard around each knife blade (then use tape to secure it) before dropping the excess knives off at a recycling or charity shop. You've really managed a lot of de-cluttering lately: Well done!

It's raining today. We paid $20 for a used clothes dryer yesterday. I will gird my loins and venture into the unused nursery (changing into a guest room) to clear memories and child-things out. The dryer will help me immensely. Now if I can get through this painful clearing, I will then see about locating a replacement agitator for the wringer washer. Hand washing has been hard on me in many ways, but it is what's available for now.

Congratulations to you all for steady efforts in the de-cluttering department.

Yesterday morning, after transplanting more corn and squash, I decluttered a little more from the "Potted plants needing ground to be prepared and then planted" area. For the first time on weeks, I chose to plant one of the rose bushes and planted it just for my pleasure. It's a Morden Sunrise, and I planted it next to our new gate: a metal headboard (found at a church yardsale for $2) with a sunrise design. I'll be painting the gate periwinkle, with a warm butter yellow sun.

When the guest room clearing is well underway, I'll plant another rose just for our babies- Goldstern (Gold Star) shrub rose.

Warm regards to all who are clearing out and regaining tranquility and space.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 08:35 AM

Back to the craft room for more reorganizing this week. It's one of those "but first..." projects: I want to do some machine embroidery work and needed to clear off the sewing table and put things away before I could fight with the laptop computer my embroidery software is (not) working on. I sorted two huge basketfuls of magazines, to take to the recycle bin at Dillon's Grocery, and put the ones I'm keeping in magazine boxes. I still need to label the boxes so I'll know what's in there without having to dig one out. Took care of some telephone calls I've been putting off and scheduled a couple of meetings for this next week. Scanned and organized a bunch of papers and photos my sister-in-law sent back with me from my last visit with her.

No guest room yet; stepson is still in there, AND in the other (storage) room at the back of the house, too. At least I can now see the floor in the laundry room, and the counters, and the top of the dryer--believe me, this is progress. JIK has been cleaning the wooden floor in the dining room (bless his heart), and bleaching out some critter stains from the two dogs who are no longer staying here. The silence from barking is wonderful!

Need to clear papers off my computer desk (AGAIN!) and do some more photo scans--there doesn't seem to be any end to that particular chore, although John does a lot of it for me.

Kat, I like the idea of seeing this place as a stranger would. We never use the front door to come in the house; maybe if I do, it would make it easier to see what needs to be de-cluttered next. The craft room is in the back of the house--not where strangers or friends would normally see it. I think I tend to do more in that room because the things in it belong solely to me and I can dispose of them whatever way I want to. Anything else I either have to have permission to throw it away, or risk getting complaints for "rearranging things so no one can find anything."

Lin

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 15 Jun 08 - 05:39 AM

Smug mode - sorted half the kitchen drawers out today - before breakfast!

Can anyone tell me how we managed to acquire 5 roasting forks, 6 cheese knives (not including the little chisel set), 3 assorted cake slicers, 8 whisks in 3 different styles and no less than 5 spatulas?

When I counted up the knives, there are 5 we use regularly, with another 27 available. So here's a serious question - how do I dispose of carving knives and serrated blades safely, without being labelled a Psycho-watching serial killer, allowing them to get into the wrong hands or damaging a refuse collector?

Any suggestions gratefully received.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Alice
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 11:10 PM

Friday I took two boxes and two large bags of clothing to the thrift store. Threw out so much stuff this week the garbage truck driver tagged my garbage can and told me to order a bigger one from the city.
No way. I'm the only one living here now, as Ryan has his own apartment. Just one store room and the garage left to clear out and the house will pretty much be decluttered completely.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 10:59 PM

Yes, Maggie, you had a friend over and cooked!! Good for you! Thanks for your kind words about the chair. I called the gal back and asked her to call me IF their upholstery person said they couldn't use it. (Bad of me? I just want to know it will go to a good home. I don't see any reason WHY it couldn't be recovered and she did say it was a beautiful old chair.:-)

That wall...oh, how I have loved that wall, esp. the colour, but it feels cluttered and wrong to me, now, even the artwork is going, well some of it. That wall is dead ahead when you come through the front door. On the right, as you come in, is the other red wall with some of the books. Those are some of the books I will be going through, the ones that have been friends for a l-o-n-g time. All of the furniture etc. has been moved and changed since that picture was taken. It's funny to look at those pix...it looks so much better to me then than now! I have a very strong sense of poignant sadness tonight, but a good feeling, nonetheless...feels as though good things are coming/happening...just change which rattles my nerves a bit, even good change.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 10:46 PM

Wow! All of you have had VERY productive days! Congratulations, Liz, for conquering the kitchen and breaching the bulwark that is Limpit's room. And Kat, many things we give away or don't need have an identifiable "value," but if they're in the way or not needed, then that value works against you, so this was a good move for that chair. Start a Word document now, date it, insert a photo, state the listing price you felt the chair was worth when you tried to sell it (give a little history if this will help validate the value) and then put it in your files for tax stuff for this year.

I finished clearing off most of the kitchen counter (had a friend over for dinner and I rolled out pizza dough on that counter!)

I puttered with some gardening work--I'm adjusting the watering system here, so I found some short hoses and clamps and such for making an irrigation system for the garden. I'm still battling ants, though this is for the benefit of future fridge or freezer clutter--if I don't get the ants out of the food plants I won't have so much to preserve later. I am also moving around pots for planting (I filled them with a new mix of potting soil today)

Kat, that red wall is a gorgeous color. Is it just one wall in the room? It's a great background for that art.

Linn, I still probably have a few manila envelopes packed around here somewhere, boxes of papers that my parents clipped and mailed. So that's what they were doing--de-cluttering their own houses!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: maire-aine
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 08:41 PM

I found out about a charity garage sale coming up in about 3 weeks, and they're willing to accept donations. So now I'll have a place to pass the "unique collectables" off to. My dining room table is still 95 percent clear. The 5 percent is stuff I take back and forth to work with me.

LTS! You opened the jar??? You must have nerves of steel.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 04:19 PM

THIS is a big deal to me: It is done. We delivered the Victorian rocker to hospice this afternoon. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 03:00 PM

LMAO...oh, Linn! What a concept! That book made it there quickly! Glad it was one you didn't have; hope you didn't mind the no warning.:-)

Congrats, LtS!!!

Charmion, I *think* I knew that when I hear him talk about how many books and movies he owns and I know he enjoys all of the clutter Unique Knicknacks and Toys at Sinsull's house, but if he wants clutter by the time he gets here, I HOPE I have to tell him to go out to the storage caravan!:-)

I just took a bunch of my artwork off the Red Wall of Art...some goes down the street to my daughter, some will be mailed to my daughter back East and some will be sold or given or put away depending on if I think I'll want to look at it again. It is surprising how differently the wall looks without it all up there! (That picture was taken when it was fairly fresh from painting and before more clutter!)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 02:39 PM

Congratulations, katlaughing!

You've discovered the de-cluttering method of sticking things in an envelope and shipping them off to some poor unsuspecting soul! (Tom thanks you for the book -- I'm looking forward to reading it, too -- we didn't have that particular Curmudgeon collection.)

I've been sending clippings, etc. to select friends over the years, occasional books, too. When I commented that sticking things in envelopes and mailing them off was how I cleaned off my table, another friend asked if I sent them to anyone in particular or just to addresses picked at random from the phone book.

What a concept! "Hi, you don't know me, but here are some interesting things off my table that I thought you might enjoy..."

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Sorcha
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 01:51 PM

Does getting rid of money (paying bills) count? LOL Still waiting for HIM to de clut the garage. I don't dare. I'd be shot at dawn, drawn and quartered, drowned, dis owned and divorced!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 01:45 PM

I have had a successful day!!!

I decluttered and de-stickied the big kitchen cupboard today. Evicted all the out of date packets that were too far gone or never used - the best was a jar of Saxon recipe savoury spiced fruit sauce that was delicious back in 1999, when it expired, but had turned into something completely different. It did give my silver spoon a good shine though.

I consolodated packets, threw out dried up stuff, rearranged the racking and put the pasta and rice into its new storage boxes bought cheaply at the market this morning.

I discovered 3 tubes of tomato paste where yesterday there were none, another packet of chocolate chips, more silver sugar balls than any cake maker could possibly need, and a jar of marmalade I never knew I had.

I also discovered that both my good china mixing bowls have now got big cracks in them, so sadly I've had to say goodbye to my mums 35yr old huge mixing bowl and my own 20 yr old smaller one. Cakes just won't taste the same. But then, neither will they have bacteria from the cracks in them.

Then I started on Limpit's room... don't go there, not if you value your sanity!

So... a good day on the decluttering front - hopefully tomorrow will continue the same way.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Charmion
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 12:56 PM

Oh, Kat, I hope you realize that Micca is the Prince of Clutter ... but both a gracious host and a downright fascinating guest!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 12:23 PM


Donate it and claim the sales prices as a tax deduction

Thank you, yes! I have just called Heirlooms for Hospice and made arrangements to take to them today. I also called my son who is going to give a few houseplants a new home, including a seven foot schiflera, my mom's Christmas cactus, and some Phil O'Dendrons. This will help with the clutter and is something I never would have contemplated before this.

As for short term goals. I think I'd be more realistic in saying I will get the rest of the shutters painted and up before Micca gets here. That I know I can do on my own.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 10:47 AM

I pulled some items from the shelves on one side of the room and arranged them on the mantle. I view that area as a revolving display, but I hadn't set anything there for a while. Now it is an ecclectic mix of avant garde pottery and traditional Indian baskets. Kind of interesting! And this came about because I was moving items on those shelves. I did that while I was watching a couple of Friday night mysteries on PBS and then the very sad but beautifully edited Charlie Rose show, where the hour was dedicated to his old friend Tim Russert, who had visited the program every year over the last 15 years.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 10:17 AM

Even better is when you de-clutter and clean, and then you're gone for a few days and come back. Or even when you only go to bed for the night and forget you did all that work, and you walk in on your NICE "new" space. THAT is a really nice shock.

I'm the de-clutterer, but Hardi's the cleaner. The other day I came down late, one AM, after he'd left for work, to find that before going to bed the night before he had started the annual summer re-arrangement of the LR-- the post-hockey configuration where the chairs move to the breezy windows after cold drafts are gone for the season. And it really motivated me to de-clut the space that had been next to my main chair, becaue he had simply moved big stuff without waiting for me to de-clut so we could vacuum dog hair and dust as we moved each piece.

He had set his need to clean aside, in foavor of supporting my need to de-clut, and by moving things he had exposed the mess AND made more room to get IN to where it was lurking-- stuff that had tumbled off my chairside table, etc., was now easily reached.

Partnership is SO COOL. The LR always looks huge when we do this-- spacious and breezy and aimed toward the focal points that make us want to keep order. [sighhhhh.....]

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jun 08 - 12:38 AM

Donate it and claim the sales prices as a tax deduction. Make sure the price is reasonable, keep a photo, etc. IF you know of a comparable sale somewhere, keep a note of it.

That trick of being able to see your house through the "eyes of a stranger" is a good one. It also happens (unbidden) when a strangers or friend who doesn't usually visit your home walks into your house and you turn back to see how it looks.

I've moved a few things around this evening, set more out for the garage sale next weekend.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Jun 08 - 10:56 PM

I opened up my front door to come inside this evening and I *saw* my whole living room, dining room as if I was newcome or a stranger and I saw clutter and no sense of order/decor. It made me even more determined to change things. I like the idea of taking everything out and then putting back in ONLY what I like and want...what brings a serene feel to the place.

No calls on the chair I am trying to sell. I may have to give it away.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jun 08 - 08:27 PM

I don't have a cellar, I'm on a slab. But I still have managed to store a heckuva lot of stuff around here.

I decided this afternoon to give myself the VIEW of a serene clear kitchen, so I'm slowly but surely, once again, clearing off the kitchen counter in the middle of the room. The staging area for everything, the spot that ends up sticky or covered with crumbs, where meals are prepared and sometimes eaten, where fruit ripens, the bread box sits, where the mail sometimes is set, where drink glasses pile up (there are two of us in the house--I have to remind my son that he doesn't need to use 8 different glasses in a day. Last year I marked spaces on the counter with painters tape, for each of us to keep the one glass we use that day. I'll have to do it again.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: GUEST,Logged Out
Date: 13 Jun 08 - 06:03 PM

My thanks to a couple of you; you know why.

LO

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Jun 08 - 04:44 PM

Contemplating starting work on the cellar -- the bins, the dreaded bins ..

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jun 08 - 11:21 AM


Gardening this morning, watering and enjoying the effects of decluttering plants. The cannas that I disliked next to my front porch (they always looked so ragged and they took over more and more space) are thriving at the side of the house, now beginning to bloom. A hummingbird and I were over there admiring them this morning.

I emptied out the box of sponsored cookbooks. Pillsbury, Bisquick, Schilling (McCormick to you Easterners), etc. Some have that truly classic 1960's look, like glistening copper fondue pots on the cover. Looks like kitchens designed a la Frank Lloyd Wright. A few I'll keep, but I'll poke around the advertising ephemera section at eBay for most of these.

I had two rolling three-bin plastic storage things from my Dad's house--an attractive kind of marbled looking plastic, but I didn't need two side by side, so I took the wheels off the second and stacked it on the first. I used the one in the kitchen for my boxes and bins of tea, and it was packed full to overflowing. It might look a little odd for now, it might compel me to rethink how I store tea and spices. Maybe I need a taller shallow shelf (like the one I built in the front room that now holds VCR tapes and DVD movies).

Friday--and the possibility of making enough progress around the house this weekend that it won't be embarrassing to have the neighbors in! Perhaps I will reach that short-term June goal!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: GUEST,Logged Out
Date: 13 Jun 08 - 10:09 AM

I de-cluttered something really big today: most of my summer and, in the process, our vacation. I cleared out the planned but very unrealistic mixed-family get-together in favor of a very un-directed, wandering, go-where-we-will, real vacation instead.

I shed some lovely, cleansing tears yesterday as well. A long-awaited passage for someone we care deeply about came to pass, and was marked in a special way yesterday. Big boo-hoo opportunity, the kind where you happy-weep at weddings, only not at a wedding. One result was the image of a couple of places in my life where I know that certain people definitely "have my back," and the idea to look for one or two more folks like that in the places where, as Paul Simon sings, the wind blows. Or-- I could just go to Graceland.

I've reduced expectations in a number of other areas, as well, so I can let my poor brain work itself out in its own time.

LO

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jun 08 - 12:31 AM


I cleaned off the dining room table, then pulled a box of odd little speciality cookbooks out from under a stack of clothes and left it on the table to sort tomorrow. These were books my mom collected, a lot of them appear to have been ordered from box tops or came inside the laundry detergent box (not really, but you know the era of free stuff that came with special packaging). I haven't heard a peep from mg about the Women's War Memorial stuff, or the old uniforms, but I saw some uniforms on eBay. Time to box these up, methinks.

I drove over to the office today (I telecommute most of the time now) and took in items I'd been meaning to take back because I don't need them here but didn't want to throw them out. And I picked up some stuff I do need here, so the trip is kind of a wash.

Linn, I hate to tell you how many real and faux critters are in this house and yard. There is a realistic-looking rubber big lizard, looks like a skink, in the window near where the cats lie (here behind the fat calico, for example) and lots of fake bugs. Fossils, feathers, interesting rocks and minerals, skulls, beaver-chewed sticks, you name it, they're around here.

I'm going to have to take some time off this summer, I finally have "use or lose" time, but I'll wait until next week and take Friday. My neighbor was going to do his garage sale this week but it had to be postponed one week. Darn! It's going to be hot out there!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Jun 08 - 04:08 PM

Wow, Linn! You've been busy and congrats on your arm!!!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 12 Jun 08 - 03:26 PM

Cool! A rubber cobra!

I've just got a very realistic rubber snake curled around the beam in the bedroom. I used to have a bigger one curled around the beam in the guest room -- I'll have to see where that one slinked off to so it can greet ClaireBear when she gets here.

Also have a rubber gecko climbing a post downstairs -- I just like to see if anyone notices...

A friend once described our house as looking like the storage wing of the Smithsonian -- I chose to take that as a compliment.

Got rid of an accumulation of egg cartons today (I truly hate to throw out potentially useful things), and a couple magazines. Meant to drop off some yardsale stuff with a retired friend who has a yardsale every weekend, but she wasn't home. It's in the car, so it will get there soon. Hmmm... I wonder if Tami remembers that I'll be bringing her the tape deck this weekend that she "forgot" on the way home from Connecticut over Mother's Day. She may have spaced it, but I haven't. (I was asleep when she got here to pick up her truck.)

This afternoon's project is to extricate the box (on the bottom of the pile, of course) that has the Spinning Wheel magazines in it. Then I can call the guy who is going to PAY me for my accumulations of Wired and Horticulture. Anybody have any ideas as to who might be interested in film magazines from the '80s? I'll have to check out film schools between Boston and NH, I think. And I need to ask the printing museum in Andover, MA if they want a donation of typesetting manuals and other ephemera. Also have to call the guy who buys LPs an see how many I can unload.

And today I Freecycled a bargello kit I'll never get around to doing -- for a pillow I don't need.

While digging around in the cellar the other day I found a bunch more stuff to be eBayed.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 Jun 08 - 12:49 PM

I know what you mean, Maggie. I wonder sometimes, though I could just ask him, if my son doesn't bring his girlfriend over because our house just isn't nice and a showplace like the one they are renting. I don't think I raised a kid to be that shallow and her mom has already been over...I hope I am being a bit paranoid rather than it be true.:-)

I took five packages to be mailed off this morning and cleared some more small piles of stuff around the house. I was getting discouraged thinking it should show more, but I think it's just spread out more as you say, Maggie.

When I look at the general cleaning that has not been done and I think of that AND decluttering I feel a bit overwhelmed. Part of it is because Rog has been MIA when it comes to helping out inside. He's either had to work during the weekend or had to mow the yards and other outdoor stuff to keep ahead of the weeds, etc. He promises to take time off, but I've heard that for several years now.:-)

Micca will be here around the 23rd of July, so maybe I will get the painting done, at least.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 11:06 PM

I pulled out a spiral notebook that my son used a few pages of in the third grade, removed the used part, and will use it to transcribe notes that are clustered around my computer. Once transcribed, the scraps go IN THE TRASH.

Charmion, I have the same difficulty of discarding pretty or clever containers, but one can have only so many sewing kits or bead boxes or twist-tie bins. I've also recycled some, though exceptional ones turn up at the thrift store so you might get away with a donation to Goodwill.

I cleared a little credenza area (four vertical shelving units that add up to a dozen foot-square cubbies when pushed side-by-side) and put the small television on top. It had been on a box on the floor, the box I built to raise up my last computer (the one that was stolen three years ago). This box can be a step stool somewhere, but it isn't in the office any more.

I met a new neighbor today, and her children needed to use the bathroom. I'm still embarrassed to have people come into the house, so I know I'm not "there" yet. Having Micca come is going to light a fire under you, Kat, I know it! When does he arrive?

Good news Linn, but don't be a stranger over here at the de-clutter thread! Those of us who have naturalist tendencies have some unusual things to give away, and it adds up to interesting stories. (BTW, we did a tarantula flashlight tour with the new neighbors this evening! This after the girl asked to play with a life-size rubber cobra that someone gave me years ago. It lives under a library table, and occasionally gets used in practical jokes.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: katlaughing
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 09:44 PM

I shifted some stuff in my office, today, to make it easier to get to the books I want to list somewhere, all of them old and deserving more than just to be discarded.:-) I also put away some packing materials which have been laying around. Picked up everyday clutter in the kitchen, living room, our bedroom.

Short term: get the kitchen painted and the new floor laid before Micca comes. Not sure IF it will get done or not, but that is what I'd like to get done!:-)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Charmion
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 07:52 PM

I just brought in the blue recycling box from the kerb -- another load o' stuff gone from my life. Biscuit tins, this time; I offered them on Freecycle and got no nibbles so out they went. Next is the growing pile of clothes on the guest-room bed, to be packed up in anticipation of the next pick-up call from the Canadian Diabetes Association.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 06:26 PM

I was poking around closet shelves in my office and have found about three reams of paper that have to do with finishing my thesis. I had dumped some already but more is turning up. The shelves in the office are much clearer, this is stuff that needs careful sorting. I usually have a brown paper bag in the kitchen to put my daily newspaper and junk mail in for recycling, but I've brought one in my office, dedicated to getting printer paper reduced.

You'd think after all of this time of pulling out extra that the house would be airy and clear. Instead, the clutter is less densely packed. I'm not ready to phone a friend to come on over for dinner; I'd still have to move a lot of stuff that is in the way so we could all sit down and eat. But that is a short term goal--before June is over, I want to have the kitchen, dining, and front rooms clear enough to comfortably ask friends over.

Maybe I'll put on the Mazeltones and dance as I clear those rooms. Anyone else have a short-term goal that will help with the work?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - June - part 3
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 11 Jun 08 - 02:00 PM

The peaches I've been eating (over vanilla icecream) the past few days are from a friend's trees -- but they've been frozen since last season.

Looks as if I'll have a bit less time to de-accession things -- I just came down with a job. And, though I told them I couldn't start until Monday, I'll be starting Friday after my check-up with my surgeon and registering my car.

Geez, first I can't get a job to save my life, then someone wants me and they want me RIGHT NOW!!!

(It'll be nice to be gainfully employed again.)

More details on my birthday thread -- looks like it's a birthday present!

Linn