BS: De-cluttering - part two

Subject: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 02:34 AM

In the interests of de-cluttering my computer - here's the second part.

This week I have cleared 2 bags of paper to the recycling - most of it old envelopes from bills, old shredded statements and 6 months worth of junk mail. I've re-organised my shelves to accommodate the comb binder and I've comb binded a heap of printouts to make them easier to store.

I've re-organised a few folders on the computer so that I can delete duplicate documents, scanned about 50+ photos onto the external hard drive we have, organised the other 400+ loose photos into category envelopes and bundled all the loose negatives together in one place. I'm hoping to spend some time today in putting up a shelf for Limpit, so that will be off the table here, and when that's gone, I can sort the craft stuff onto the table before putting it into the proper boxes.

First of all though, I have to go and buy the boxes. Before that, I have to get dressed. Will it never end?

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 03:20 PM

Computer clutter--that virtual stash has a cost too, doesn't it?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: maeve
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 11:14 AM

Good for you, Liz! That's a lot accomplished or begun!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 12:00 PM

This is the first decluttering thread:

the old thread

It is a rainy day so I'm kind of house-bound. It's time to re-assign some of these newly empty cupboards with things that 1) are worth keeping and that 2) I'll remember how to find once they're in these new cupboards.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Alice
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 12:11 PM

I have to replace my washing machine, which has served well for almost 21 years!
The new washer is being delivered next Saturday afternoon, so the declutter project this week is to finally organize the tools, potting soil, pots, and odds and ends stored in the laundry room.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 01:03 PM

I did that a couple of weeks ago, Alice, and found an amazing number of things I'd accidentally bought in duplicate. I don't think I'll ever use that many 3-prong adapters, but all of the energy efficient light bulbs mean I can ignore the sales for several years. I found a lot of things that had gone missing, and was able to donate or toss enough of the contents of those cupboards that there is enough space to see everything that's in them now.

Cleaning your laundry room is also very good for your spirits--it's easy (generally) to take a damp rag and clean up the linty dust that has accumulated on everything in there over time. The room sparkles after relatively little effort.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Alice
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 01:10 PM

... and I have to repaint the cement floor in there.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 02:06 PM

I have to pull up the Linoleum squares and put tile down in mine one of these days.

Just pulled out a few bathroom mats I'm not going to use any more. They're in good shape so they're in the donation bag. That gets rid of a little stack in the corner on the hall--I never got around to putting them in the cupboard but couldn't get around to putting them back in the bathroom.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 11:54 PM

Sorted a whole fairly large box of books plus a sack to take to my sister-in-law when I go visit next time. And her quilt is nearly done. Delivered a finished quilt to my stepdaughter the other day. Have another box of books to take to the used book store as soon as I can talk JIK into carrying it out to the truck for me. Am trying to get motivated to recycle some of the hoard of magazines I have been saving for no good reason--would clear out a lot of room in my crafting room if I can get to that!

Keep the de-cluttering going, ladies. Just knowing someone else is dealing keeps me inspired.

Lin

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 12:20 AM

Me, too, Lin.

We cleaned up the front yard some more. Rog cut the grass, whacked the weeds and even did a little bit in the backyard. I painted the old wicker rocker that sits on the front steps. It's been needing new paint for years and years. THAT felt good. I also only have FOUR more shutters to paint! Did two of them, each got three coats, over the weekend.

I also cleared out my house plants and moved out the wobbly table some of them were on. They are large enough to sit on the floor. It looks a lot less cluttered without the table gathering dirt, leaves, etc.

Still a lot to do and we haven't even contemplated the shed and the old van-turned-storage-unit, but I have hopes of Rog taking a week off for a massive assault!**bg**

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 12:55 AM

Lin, if you have any New Yorkers from 1997, let me know, I'm looking for a couple. Have JunK look through them before he carries them out to the recycle bin (I have to keep that great moniker going in this thread--it's too priceless!)

This weekend has been more about catching up in housework but I've gotten some de-cluttering in. I had a shoebox full of stuff that needed to be handled piece by piece. I'd say I was able to comfortably discard 1/2 to 2/3 of it. It's that kind of stuff like early kids' drawings and old correspondence with addresses, the last one known for someone you've been meaning to get back in touch with. . . it is probably time to let go, but I'm not quite there yet.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 02:50 AM

Ah yes... the joys of a digital camera, a flat bed scanner and a paper shredder...

Much as I like to have these old keepsakes, it really is time to photograph or scan them to the Xdrive and send them to recycling. That way, I still have the keepsake, but it isn't cluttering up a box file on a shelf. Also, should the worst ever happen, and we have a fire here - all this paper and fabric should keep it going for a good few hours - I could just grab the external hard drive and run.... clothes and bank statements may be replaceable but those photographs and drawings are not.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 06:43 AM

Of course, I still haven't put up that shelf for Limpit - she's worse at decluttering than I am!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: maeve
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 08:10 AM

A new washer, Alice? Sigh...Good for you! I suppose it's time to move out my wringer washer that needs a replacement agitator. That would at least give me a staging area to use for things we're getting rid of. Hmmm.

Still working on getting yard and greenhouse things cleared and organized. If the rains come I'll take another whack at it inside. I have gotten rid of quite a few magazines and catalogues. I need to work on my files, most of which must be gone through and shredded for compost. Most of the birdhouses we've been given over the years are now up where they can be used.

I need to figure out a new clothes drying line and catch up with the laundry somehow.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 09:56 AM

When I was a child my mom routinely dried clothes on lines in the back yard. Woe to the child who got the clean laundry dirty, but running between the lines was such a cool sensation when everything was still damp. In winter she had lines in the basement. Now I wish I had a clothes line in the house or out. I'm sure I'd have to fence off my area to keep the dogs away from it, but the toughest part would be convincing my son that his jeans won't stand up by themselves for more than a couple of minutes once he has put them on!

Last night the Am Staff terrier turned up lame, though I couldn't find an injury. She recovered use of that limb after a while, but I think she stepped on a nail on the pile of fence boards in the back. I started hauling them out to the curb last week, and must have left a nail exposed. I noticed she paused and sniffed around the stack last time she was near it. I'll be lucky if I don't end up with an expensive vet bill before I finish hauling this off--I've been lucky up till now that when they run around and cross and leap from this stack they haven't hurt themselves (I did check it for exposed nails when I first made the stack).

I decided to hurry this process and took the equivalent of 5 or 6 fence panels (broken down) out to the curb last night. Each panel has three backers and 26 slats. I have probably 10 more panels that I'll break down this week for Thursday and again next Monday--they can be piled on the drive and away from the dogs until they go in the trash. Our bulky waste pickup is in early June and I don't want to wait, hence the staging of the process.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 12:58 PM

As I reported above and on the diet/accountability thread, I moved fence slats over the last couple of days. The latest batch have been moved, not removed. Yet. I'm considering renting a chipper, if they grind the wood and aren't bothered by nails. Otherwise, it's out to the curb. So I'll see what is available in the chipping department. Meanwhile, there is a big BONUS!!!

The wood was over an old veggie garden plot I abandoned when the dogs arrived as big pups. They were in and out of the old garden all of the time. I'm going to till up that area, surround it with a wire fence (4 feet) and do some more veggies in there. Yes! A garden plot I didn't have to hand dig first! Such riches!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 07:20 PM

A challenge to each of us, before the possible three-day shut down of Mudcat while Max moves to a new town.

I'm going to keep a text file of my activity. I'll pare it down so it isn't 2 volumes hardbound after three days, but reporting to this thread has really been helpful, and if it isn't here, I can write for when it will be back. The rest of you need to give yourselves the same kind of boost if you need it.

This afternoon while waiting for my lunch to cook I started looking at the antiques over my kitchen cupboards. I could see that there was stuff up there that isn't antique, it was just stuck up there for looks or to get it out of the way. So I pulled down a mended tea pot (won't ever be used again) and a couple of other things that had been kept for no good reason and put them in the trash or the recycle bin. I'm going to rearrange that area, maybe move something extra up there. I really like the museum look some of these things have, and it needs to be refreshed.

I also finished re-spacing and attaching (with carriage bolts) some redwood boards on a table I picked up at the curb about a year ago. Someone else's trash has been on my front porch not exactly usable for all of this time, but now it is on it's way. I need to clean it then prime a few spots and I'll paint it with the dark brown trim paint we used on my house last fall. Before and now. Not finished yet. The rock is one I uncovered in the tall grass when I transplanted a couple of things. It had been put down when the grass wasn't in the garden and decorative rocks were decorative!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Alice
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 08:52 PM

Cleaned out a big dresser drawer yesterday, all the mismatched socks, old tee shirts, etc. I got rid of 2/3 of what was in that drawer!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: mouldy
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 04:39 AM

I've been putting off joining in with this - just like the decluttering. After Ian died I got rid of the majority of his stuff quite easily. I was relieved to at last be able to get the detritus from his flat in China out of the spare room. It had only been in there 3 years.

I am in the process of gradually getting the house brought up to a saleable standard. Part of this involves chucking out. It's been a gradual process, but I got a box of small stuff off to an,auction house last month, stripped out some old wardrobes from the spare room, most pieces of which are at the tip now. Problem is, I "acquire" things that might be useful for fancy dress... they are all piled up in another bedroom now, as their wardrobe is gone.
I got rid of a desk to the tip this weekend, as well as an old tent, but this is only scratching the surface, if I have to downsize.

I am being very strong minded for me, honest!

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 10:08 AM

Andrea, you've taken on a huge challenge in a timely and much more mature way than a lot of us (or at least, me). I have stuff from my parents' estates that is still packed after nearly 10 years. Each time I moved it was simply easier to move and store the box again than it was to open it, examine the part of a life it represented, pay respect, and throw, give away, or sell the items and move on.

My hat's off to you!

I'm going through the estate stuff along with my own clutter (plus the antiques from several great aunts and a great grandmother). This is far easier than going through your husband's articles. Feel free to continue to enumerate your de-clutter accomplishments; writing it down really does help each of us to see our forward progress.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 11:25 AM

Been stowing winter items.

It never ceases to amaze me how strongly old "overwhelmed" feelings can slow down present-time action. Yes, my brain KNOWS I set up that great closet, but the hamper-full of winter items has been sitting for a week-- looking so big, so completely overwhelming.

Today I finally made myself stand in the closet to start stowing as much as would fit. I did NOT need to drag a tray table into the tight workspace to hold the hamper-- I'd left myself a small stepstool in that closet, DUH! Instead of a tray table, I was crowded with joyous doggies.

I had resignedly figured I'd deal with whatever didn't fit by hiking it upstairs to the other closet, where I'd spied some open shelf space before I came down this AM. To my shock, the hamper is now empty (ready to catch dirty laundry piling up), and the DOWNstairs closet is not overstuffed at all. There was room for a whole pile of wear-only-to-hockey-games stuff. I had enough hangers, I had enough hanging and shelf space, and I still have enough space in there to handle the spring/summer hanging items I know are in the newly-organized UPstairs closet of offseason stuff.

I'm so tired of the winter colors and textures-- uggghhh!! And I know there are fresh and colorful things to re-discover upstairs. I do NOT need to buy a lot of new stuff! What a relief-- the catalogs are full of crap styles and crap colors this year.

Heck, I think I can even unpack the garment bag that still has unworn contents from a month ago! :~) Good thing, too, as now I need to restock it for a weekend retreat.

===

Another handy little solution-- since I keep losing my carefully-crafted grocery lists, I looked online and found one I liked. Already made and ready to print, with check-boxes for everything I might ever want. I checked off some boxes, Hardi checked off some boxes-- who knew he wanted that stuff?-- and it's too big to lose so easily before I go USE it.

===

We CAN do this.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: wysiwyg
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 11:55 AM

... and the last item to rehang was "the one" I was SURE I would not fit into-- feeling so fat-- it was barely wearable and very tight last summer-- but it actually HANGS, on ME! Today is also the last day of the aquatics class I've taught this year (just a short break until new classes), and it will be GREAT to share this success with the ladies as we contemplate next goals and summer plans.

Remember the Wicked Witch of the West? "I'm mellllltinnnnnggg...."

"I'm shrrrriiiiinkkkinnnnggggg........" :~)

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 12:11 PM

I may have found a solution for those hard to find little bits that take up all the flat surfaces....

Doesn't this look fab?

Now all I need is somewhere to hang it....

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 02:12 PM

Liz, you sound a lot like me--I love storage boxes, envelopes, and containers of all kinds. There are lots of them (including some of your Really Useful Boxes) in my crafting room, and they're all full of Really Useful Stuff, of course. Need to weed some of that out and get it out of the house...yea, another project!

Having a crafting room is such a luxury for me. I spent years doing everything on the kitchen table; now I actually have a place to store fabric, scrapbooking paper and tools, art supplies, sewing and embroidery notions, etc., not to mention the loom I have yet to set up and my "mobility scooter" which is sitting in the middle of the floor until I need it next. Crowded, yes, but still a lot more room than I ever had before we bought this house.

SRS, none of my magazines are New Yorkers--nothing so intellectual I'm afraid. Mostly Country Living, Country Home, Herb Companion, and lots and lots of quilting magazines which I just cannot get rid of because of the patterns for all the gorgeous quilts that I might make some day. Of course, first I'd have to FIND the pattern...

Onward and upward. Maybe the only solution is to move?

Lin

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 03:38 PM

Before and after.

No longer clutter on my front porch, now a repaired and repainted little table (all it cost was the price of 6 carriage bolts with washers and nuts) to look great on my porch. A brightly colored plant needs to reside there. It gets sun in the morning, deep shade the rest of the day. So maybe something with colorful foliage rather than a bright flower.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: mouldy
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 02:24 PM

I have a load of stuff in bags in the hallway, piled up for going to a boot fair in a week or so. I have got to get that lot shifted out so that when Ruth gets back from uni in a couple of weeks, she has somewhere to dump all her crap, as her old room is devoid of space since I moved her single bed out and put the spare double in. Her new one (the old spare) won't be ready till after I have been to New Zealand. It is stripped out and awaiting the attention of the electrician and decorator. At a guess it will be late June or early July before I get it done. So the back of the living room and the hallway will have to be called into play.

I have also got a new tent stacked up in the hall. I'd put it in the shed, but at some point I have got to empty all that lot into the garage (also full of crap) while the shed is re-roofed, sometime over the summer. It's more of an outbuilding, and one of the roof timbers need some repair, so the contents have to be moved so that ladders can get in.

Ian's stuff was mainly cleared out relatively soon after he died. Most of the stuff that was here (especially his clothing) I saw as surplus to his requirements, the rest got shipped to my daughter's from Russia, and we sat round and sorted it all there, and chose what items we wanted to keep. I still, however, have a pair of cross-country skis stacked up in the study...
At least I offloaded his welder onto my son in law, after he helped me clear some of the stuff in the garage last year!

Andrea
- wishing that the clutter fairies would send me away and do it all for me so that I couldn't cling onto so much stuff!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Apr 08 - 03:58 PM

{{{{Andrea}}}} You're doing fine, darlin'...give yourself some time and credit for what you've already done. AND, go enjoy that new little darlin'!!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 May 08 - 12:40 PM

Andrea, it sounds like you need to establish a starting point and work outward. I thought I had a lot to do here--sounds like you're dealing with a lot more real estate!

Do you ever hit a point where you simply have so many things crying out to be done at once that no direction is right and you are at a standstill? The last couple of days have felt that way. The semester will end and it will get better, but some of these little accomplishments in the decluttering feel like the only progress made the whole day!

Sometimes I think it is the result of running up against the emotions that are triggered by the stuff in the room. Issues with my mom come to the surface readily as I do this work. It all seems to boil down to things not used, left packed away, because they were so musty from her smoker's household, and recognition at the discomfort of rejecting the smell and trying to not reject the person. Anyone else encountering these bogeymen in the clutter?

On another note, this morning the trash guys toted off the third load of the rotten fence slats removed from the back yard. There is still an ugly tangle of them resting against the fence, but this weekend I think I'll manage to finish piling them at the curb. I have a neighbor who will be out of town for a week, leaving this afternoon--I can pile some there also (he won't be putting trash at his curb) so I can spread it around a little. ;)

I'm headed to a meeting at the office today so I'll see if I can round up another bag of donation stuff to take to the thrift store and rag recycle place nearby. The more things I can do in the same trip the better. This morning on the Diane Rehm show (NPR) it was pretty depressing to hear them talk about the strong possibility of $4 a gallon gas this year. $80 to completely fill up my pickup. It cost $20 to fill it when I first bought it 8 years ago.

I think I'll take the dogs for a walk before I drive to work, see if a little exercise helps my mood.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: maire-aine
Date: 01 May 08 - 02:15 PM

Next week I plan to do some serious de-cluttering. I'm on vacation for the week, and I'm starting on what I laughingly call the "music room". More like the "clutter room" right now. I will report results at the end of the week.

Wish me luck,
Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 01 May 08 - 03:55 PM

"Do you ever hit a point where you simply have so many things crying out to be done at once that no direction is right and you are at a standstill?"

Yes... so consequently, I still have no space in the dining room to do the waistcoats I must Must MUST finish in 3 weeks time, the room here emerges and submerges under a moving tide of paper - different paper each time, but still paper.... and I end up not doing anything.

Ho hum.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 May 08 - 04:07 PM

Yep, I've been feeling that a lot, ever since we moved here. This thread and you, esp. Maggie, have helped me get some of it started and some of it done. There's a part of my mind, a corner, which laughs like a gibbering idiot at the folly of believing I will ever get any of it done, let alone all of it. My goal is that my children NOT have to go through it all when I am gone.

One other thing which has helped is making a Master List, long-term and short-term things I want to get done around here. I have already crossed off a bunch on one I made last Dec. Slowly getting some of the other things crossed off, like those shutters. Since my friend isn't coming to visit today through Sunday, MAYBE I'll get the rest of them done this weekend!

Anyhow...one foot in front of the other, eh? OH, and maybe better glasses so I can focus more?**bg**

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: maeve
Date: 01 May 08 - 04:11 PM

And yes, SRS, the emotional burdens of my father's estate, things from my mother, everything in the children's room. The laundry without a washer. The truckloads of compost to move. Thousands of seeds to sow, plants to pot, weeds to dig, mulch to spread. Quite overwhelming.

On the other hand, we received our license to sell the fruit trees and perennials we've been growing, and I sold two little pots of pink violets this afternoon. We'll have milk and a newspaper before dark!

Bit by bit, corner by corner, row by row.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 May 08 - 11:52 PM

When I encounter this kind of stressed-out feeling I make myself a big list, broken down into chores I can do today and things I may have to perform several steps to complete. I list the steps so I can cross them off. Sometimes I'll start the summer with a list of things on the fridge that I'd like to accomplish. I think it is time to generate such a list. This is separate from the list I often carry folded in a pocket, including my shopping list and a few chores to try to remember to do.

I'm taking tomorrow off and along with some personal things to take care of I plan to do some more clearing. Tonight I'll finish the write-ups from all of those donations in April so I can make fresh start on May. Part of this clearing up is to help reduce taxes by donating good workable stuff. I think in the long run the benefit is greater than doing a garage sale, though I do have a few things to take to a garage sale the neighbor is going to fun one of these days.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 May 08 - 03:36 PM

The charitable donations for April are cataloged and printed and filed. Now I'm bagging up more donation items of many types, aiming at once again clearing off that corner love seat.

This morning I culled a bunch of older computer books--I'll let Half Price Books decide if they're still new enough to sell. I'm going to mail one of these to a friend who was asking about computer clip art earlier this week. And I have updated the dictionaries in the house and am taking the oldest to Half Price.

It's a gorgeous day out. Maybe I need to go do some digging and accomplish a little yard clearance.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Alice
Date: 02 May 08 - 03:46 PM

If you are clearing out books (as I will be, purging my library this weekend) please consider donating them to the effort to start a public library in Colorado City, AZ. This town has had books banned by the religious leader, and now that he is in prison, a group has formed a non profit Friends of the Library. A building has been donated and now they need hardbound books. Any kind - novels, science, history, textbooks, current reference books (encyclopedias that are not out of date, etc.)
children's books, novels, classics, books on CD or tape, documentary films. They need every kind of book you would find in a public library.
Here is the thread about it and here is the mailing address to send boxes of books or mail cash donations.
Thread click here

Here's the address for donations:

Colorado City Public Library
C/O Stefanie Colgrove
PO Box 1935
Colorado City, AZ 86021

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 May 08 - 10:13 PM

I made the rounds this evening, mailed a book, dropped off puzzles and kids' toys, took books to Half Price (as I thought, the computer books are too old to be of interest and the dictionary is not up to date.) They were interested in only a couple of books and the cash offered covered the cost of a sandwich for dinner.

I think this is a good evening to go through the house and organize the cupboards and closets I've emptied out. What now goes in those spaces?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Alice
Date: 02 May 08 - 10:34 PM

Tomorrow is my big "start on the basement" day.
It's great to have a group to report to here!
The library is downstairs next to the laundry room, and there are two bedrooms that need digging out down there. One has been filled as a storage room. I have books I used when I home schooled my son for 7th and 8th grades, and lots of hardbound novels and classics I can pass on to the library.
This project has given me a good incentive to clean out books and ship them to a community that really needs them.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 May 08 - 03:46 AM

It's late on Friday night (early Saturday morning) and I've made a lot of progress. With nothing but a bottle of wine, a romantic movie (You've Got Mail--I do like Nora Ephron!) and a paper shredder I've completely emptied one file drawer in my office closet. It filled three and a half mid-sized kitchen garbage bags with old bank statements, 20-year-old tax returns, and paperwork to do with three vehicles back. Who knew that was in there? I never looked. I also moved some empty shelves out of that closet. I'm not sure how I'll re-purpose the space, I have an idea, but I'll wait to see how much paper I can evict. If I can empty three more drawers I might even get rid of a four-drawer file cabinet.

SRS (who will probably sleep late tomorrow!)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Alice
Date: 03 May 08 - 11:30 AM

My son is moving to is own apartment this week, so it is time for the big heave-ho of all the stuff he will turn loose. It is hard to imagine that he was in about the first grade when I joined mudcat!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 May 08 - 11:59 AM

I have a daughter in college who has a bunch of stuff in a room here that remains closed most of the time--we forget about that space. But I do want it as a guest room so it will come under the declutter scruitiny when I finish the rest of the house. This will allow a couple of things--no recriminations about making her clear up in there without having done it myself, and we'll do it when she can spend a couple of days here and have a good visit.

My neck is stiff today--I spent a lot of time hunched over the shredder, I think that's it, but I also had to work on my line trimmer yesterday so may have overworked something with all of the starts (I need to tune it up, it's not running well right now.)

This morning is bright and clear but chilly, so I'm finishing some moving around of stuff then heading out to the yard. I can't resisit gardening in this weather, so I'll find something to declutter out there. And despite my good work (on the last thread) since I last found the spark plug wrench for my tiller I have a new place where it needs to live but I've misplaced the wrench. I have a couple of possibilities from when I first found it, so I'll start there.

A big end goal is to have everything in logical places so I just go get what I need before doing a task, not waste time looking for a part, or avoid a job because I can't find what I need.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 04 May 08 - 04:55 AM

Finished my sister-in-law's lap quilt (finally) while watching two of my favorite movies: Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. Now I can watch Return of the King tomorrow with no distractions, as a reward for being industrious two nights in a row, right?

Am also working on proofing another book, so haven't done diddly on rearranging my desk or sorting things in the crafting room. But I know those projects are "hovering," just waiting for me to get back to them.

I did get a bunch of clean clothes folded and put away yesterday, and have done a bunch of research on the web about an interesting subject or two I have need of information for.

Sigh. No large progress, but a couple of baby steps, I guess.

Lin

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: maeve
Date: 04 May 08 - 06:30 AM

From baby steps grow giant steps, Lin. Good for you!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: GUEST,rock chick
Date: 04 May 08 - 07:52 AM

Just about too enter the black hole of Calcutta, the spare room needs to be spare again!! But where do all the musical instrument go, and ALL the boxes? ;^/

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 May 08 - 12:47 PM

Rock Chick, welcome to our reducing club! Empty the boxes, recycle or sell what you can, dump or donate the rest, flatten the boxes and recycle them. Easy, right? (Tongue inserted deeply into side of cheek.) Good luck!

This morning I took a look at a couple of dozen paint cans from working on the house six years ago. If there is much in them, they'll go to the city paint collection site to be blended to paint over graffiti. If there is a little I'll pour out the paint on a cardboard flat to dry, let the can dry, then toss it in the recycle bin. Paint isn't supposed to freeze so I've kept it in the house, not the garage, but I need to reduce the amount. I'm more likely to repaint the entire room something else than retouch, so I wonder at keeping any of it.

Also--I went through my earrings. Pulled out those I never wear for donation. Single ones I liked are all in one place. If the mate turns up, maybe they will be reunited. Tossed old backer cards. Emptied out one wooden box on my dressing room counter top.

This afternoon I will set up my barbecue grill--I have the Mother-lode of paper files to get rid of and I'd be all day at the shredder. I'll set these up between the grill wires and let them burn down at their own pace, with the cover on to prevent embers. One thing about having worked for the Forest Service for several years, I'm really good at burning stuff safely! I am to empty that big file.

Oh, and the last of my old fence goes to the curb today for tomorrow's trash, and I'll prop a good (but not needed) glass screen-type door there and put a "free" sign on it. And I'll tape the hardware to the door.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: LilyFestre
Date: 04 May 08 - 01:37 PM

I cleaned out my dressers this morning. I've been losing weight and have too many different sizes of things that just don't fit as they should, so I cleaned out each drawer, tossed the unmentionables in the trash and bagged up things that someone else could use. I moved my winter clothes to another section of the closet and noticed how few spring things I have for work. *Shrug* I'll make do with what I have. It feels great to get that stuff out of the way!!!

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 04 May 08 - 08:22 PM

I got the last of the tall shutters painted today. Only four shorter ones to go! (Three layers of paint, each, with one set of saw-horse to dry them on, or I'd do them a lot faster!)

I also got out the art paper I'd bought last Sept., measured and cut it to fit the glass panes in the bottom halves of our bedroom windows and glued it on. It helps to cut down the bright light in the mornings and also adds more privacy. It doesn't really matter except on the north side. That window looks across our yard to the neighbour's driveway and the pampas grass we planted outside that window last year has not grown tall enough to provide privacy. It's heavy, hand-made paper with flocks of leaves, ferns and real flowers in it. And the colours I picked out really compliment our inside decor. Felt good to finally do that!

Rog tackled some more of the old dead weeds in the backyard, raking some of them up and he got the irrigation water hose dragged around back and watered his grape vines and the willow tree. All of those things have been needing to be done for ages.

We also took the car to car wash and MUCKED it out. There was all kinds of trash, dog hair, kid toys and giveaway stuff in there, as well as three lawn chairs! Felt really good to get that done, too.

Now, maybe we'll do some inside stuff. My sister is coming tomorrow, though. Tues. and Wed. will be spent at her storage space helping her go through everything to decide what she wants to keep and move to Alaska and what goes. Should be quite interesting as she is a powerhouse when she gets going on a project and has a timeline.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 May 08 - 01:38 AM

With your de-cluttering momentum going, Kat, maybe you can help your sister discard or donate lots of stuff and keep what she takes to Alaska down to the truly important stuff.

I worked mostly in the yard today. The last of the fence planks are at the curb for morning trash pickup, and I got rid of a glass door that used to be outside my front door. I taped the frame to the door (it's all aluminum) and put a note "free" on it. It was gone in under an hour, and the guys who stopped asked if it was okay. I pointed at my new security door that had replaced it, so he would understand that it had was fine, just no longer needed.

It is interesting--a lot of this free and garage sale stuff is taken to family members in Mexico. I advertised "leftover stuff from remodeling" for a garage sale several years ago and the Mexican family that bought all of the barely used ceiling fans said this was part of what they were taking these to Mexico to the family. (I had replaced them with some less inexpensive Hunter fans.) At that same sale I had a corner for "free to a good home" for all of the harvest gold and avocado green stuff that had come out of my 1976 house. Amazing how fast that went--what goes around does come around! A gay couple building a retro house in the country got most of it. I'd love to see it when they finish!)

Guess I'd better save most of today's activities for the gardening thread.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 May 08 - 11:55 AM

That's great, SRS.

I don't think my sister will have much of a problem at whittling her stuff down. She's less sentimental than I, plus she's only got the two days to go through it all, AND has to consider the costs of having the movers bring it all up to Alaska. I will certainly help her with it, though. I'm looking forward to that, but mostly to just seeing her.:-) Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: mouldy
Date: 05 May 08 - 12:46 PM

Just got back from an overnight stay in Northumberland (and a visit to the Sage in Gateshead for the Toumani Diabate concert). My friend's husband has been and carted away the old tacky shelf unit that was stacked up in the dining room. Now all I got to do is price up all the stuff that's stacked up in the hall for when I take it to the boot fair in York on Saturday. That will leave the hall empty enough for Ruth to empty part of the contents of her life into next Tuesday! Anything I don't sell will be left at the tip on the way back.

Have just spent an hour trying to rationalise the pots and planters on the yard.

There's not a lot of Ian's stuff left in the house - it's all my crap! I went and bought 2 more pieces of pottery on saturday - a staffordshire figure of a grandmother helping her granddaughter to read (very topical) and a Bunnikins Morris Dancer (well, I couldn't let THAT go....)

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 May 08 - 01:18 PM

Psssst! Half the battle is putting prices on things! :~)

I expect to take a carload of stuff out into the "someone else needs this" stream later this week and carry back home a little lovely, easily-stored cash in its place.

Also the very few items for the camper that were picked up on sale over the winter will get stowed out there IN the camper when we open it tomorrow for the Annual Spring Open to see if any rodentia's been squatting for a takeover, in which case the first thing to carry out will be the hunting party's litter box. :~) (The fleeing rodentia will find handy alternate housing right next door in the vacant barn.)

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 May 08 - 11:04 PM

House elves to make stuff go away--what a splendid idea!

I had some "Mom's Taxi" driving today, so I boxed up a few games and puzzles that could go to Goodwill then tried to drop them off on one of those trips. The attendant was gone, so I'll leave it tomorrow.

There are more games and puzzles in the garage, so I spent time this evening thinning the contents of the garage Rubbermaid storage tubs. There is now a bag of soft toys to take to the thrift store (the one that recycles fiber, so if they don't want to sell the toys they can turn them into paper). I tossed a bunch of paper and cardboard in the recycle bin, and in the end emptied the largest of the tubs.

I have close to a dozen paint cans in the back of the pickup, ready to take to the hazardous waste drop-off station on Thursday when they're next open for business. They also take garden chemicals, lightbulbs and batteries, among many other things. I'll have some of all of that for them. These cans in particular occupied a lot of space on the bottom shelf of a wire rack I use as a rolling pantry. Good riddance!

I have a bunch of furniture to rearrange, and in some cases there is stuff on top of it. I think before I try moving the furniture I need better control of the evolving filing system, because that is a lot of what is on the top of things. Paper.

It always seems to come back to paper!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Alice
Date: 05 May 08 - 11:30 PM

Went through books and found about 2 boxes full so far to send to the Colorado City library project.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 06 May 08 - 07:32 AM

I excavated my bedside table today.... threw away all the rubbish, recycled all the papers.... still can't see the wretched thing. I'm beginning to think someone is trying to tell me something.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: mouldy
Date: 06 May 08 - 03:54 PM

I fully intend to stick prices on everything - not that there's anything of great value!

I have a kitchen table and a dining room table that haven't had their tops seen for a while!

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 May 08 - 04:06 PM

Still no one at Goodwill this morning after dropping my son at school. My back seat is filling up, I added a bag of toys.

As mentioned above, I need to rearrange the files that I want to keep to accommodate the things that will be moved from the file cabinet I want to get rid of. I shredded about an inch of old bank statements (2003 and earlier--I try to keep at least 5 years, though at this point the banks have seven years worth online as PDF forms). This cabinet might possibly have a useful life in the garage--I have lots of things on open shelves out there that really ought to be a little better organized and protected. Before tossing big stuff I do try to re-purpose it. (I have a door propped against the wall out in the garage, it is the one replaced after the burglary 3 years ago. I occasionally set up saw horses and lay this door on them when I need a big work surface. Very handy and out of the way when not needed and the cosmetic dent doesn't affect how it works.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 May 08 - 12:20 AM

Oh boy, I have my work cut out for me. One day with my sis at her storage unit and my dining room floor and part of my living room are full of boxes. All of the heavy stuff she didn't want to take to Alaska, which means a lot of books, 78s and our mom's extensive collection of antique glass bottles.

Alice, she has a lot of hardbacks of John Grisham and other best-selling authors. I think I'll pull some of those out and send them to that library.

We loaded my car to the gills, twice. I ran to my daughter's house on her lunch hour so she could unload yard sale stuff. The second load her partner came over and unloaded for me at my house. He's a trooper!

Tomorrow, we do more of the same and Rog and I have to bring in the stuff he unloaded onto the driveway from his truck. Big stuff, some to sell, some to keep.

We are all knackered!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 May 08 - 12:58 AM

Don Aslett would advise you to take a look at the stuff, maybe pick a few small pieces with special meaning, take nice photos of the rest for a scrap book or other photo display, then find a way to move them along to their next owners.

He didn't say it is easy. You'll have to take a look, but keep in mind that these objects aren't substitutes for your sister or your Mom. (And remember that Martha Stewart exhibit with the tray and the bottles? Who knew you'd be coming into a whole bunch! Make up a bunch of displays and sell them somewhere!)

Here at my house I'm looking at files that aren't stuffed as full now and bookshelves that aren't packed so tightly. I see a few places where I could set objects on display and they won't be surrounded by clutter. The effort is paying off, but it does take time.

For some reason lots of mail has started arriving for "occupant" or names the family that moved out of this house when it was a rental eight years ago. Pottery Barn has some pretty settings, and some of their stuff that looks line my furniture is turning up on their pages. I've torn those pages out of the catalog and recycled the rest. Keeping in mind what Aslett says about using the stuff you keep, I have been pulling out some of the things that were somehow "too good to use." What's the point in having them if you're not using them? So I'm trying to use what I have here. I put a lovely quilt out on my bed that I had tucked away. It was made by an old friend and sent for my birthday a few years ago. I'm going to get some pillows (I probably have fabric, so I'll get just the Dacron inserts) to put on the bed that pick up the accents in the quilt. Yes! It's about time!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 May 08 - 07:21 PM

Paper really is at the heart of my problems here, so I worked on getting into more of the files and paper baggage late this afternoon. I just shredded a bunch of really old job stuff I forgot was there. In the shorthand of my shredding system, I emptied the pickle bucket three times so far. NOW I need to label a few folders of files I'm keeping and recycle a lot of the old ratty folders.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 May 08 - 11:38 PM

Thanks, Maggie. I will have to keep mom's bottles for some time, I think. I've missed them and really love them. The 78s will stay in the family and, I hope to get them transferred to my hard drive. Some of the bottles will probably get sent to my daughter back East, my nieces and nephew, maybe, and go to my son and daughter who live here.

I agree with you about getting the nice things out and using them. What's the sense in just tucking them away for the next generation to tuck them away?! I have a set of kitchen towels my grandmother made for my dad's cousin. She gave them to me, nice and neat as the day she received them on her wedding day over 50 years ago. They'd never been used. They have the days of the week and whatever household chore was supposed to happen on that day, embroidered on them. I am thinking of having them framed in a row and put them on my kitchen wall.

The books I can let go much easier and will definitely sell a bunch of them, as well as give some away. There are not that many that I will keep, mostly old ones which were my grandparents', both sides. Of course, I say this without having looked through them so my story may change.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 May 08 - 12:17 AM

I have a lot of dish towels from my great aunt's home, older cotton and linen and even some flour sack towels. I use them all of the time, though a few have finally worn out and went in the rag bag. Every time I pick one up I remember the old fashioned kitchen in Connecticut where I found them. (She lived in the little town next to the town where Mudcatter Jerry Rasmussen lives.) I also have a favorite walnut (or some equally heavy dark wood) rolling pin and her big cast iron skillet with a fitted lid. "That's for frying chicken," my friend Emma told me when she saw it. "You need to keep that!" I did, and I use it regularly. I make fried rice in it and other stir fry more often than I fry chicken, though. :)

Shredded and filed some more. Amazing what you find tucked away when it was dropped in a box and forgotten for a while.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: freda underhill
Date: 08 May 08 - 03:17 AM

aaaaggghh. as quickly as I remove things from my lounge room (re-emerging after renovations) strange things seem to accumulate and pile up. Is there some cosmic wave of clutter which is breathing in and out of my life? tonight..... I shall remove some more, and then sit and recover by sewing in front of the TV..

freda

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 May 08 - 08:28 PM

freda, that is another goal of mine. To have enough clutter and stuff out of the way so I can roll my portable sewing table into the room with the television and sew again. I haven't done it in ages. Okay, okay, the last time I tried it I was having to pay a lot of attention to the garment and I was nominally "watching" Moulin Rouge, the new one with Nicole Kidman. It makes no sense if you aren't looking at it every moment of the film.

After more shredding I fine-tuned some of the files this afternoon, pulling out some of the slim ones and finding stuff I don't need. I'm to a point of reordering the drawers and moving in files from the other rooms. The surface area of the dining room table is a little more visible this evening.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: mouldy
Date: 09 May 08 - 04:36 AM

Freda - I know the feeling. I've bags of stuff going out tomorrow, but it doesn't seem to have made a dent! Hopefully I can enlist Ruth's help after she's back, and after I get back from the other side of the world!

It doesn't help when the contents of one bedroom have been dumped into a much smaller one, which was full of crap anyway. I just wish the electrician would get in touch so that I can get the wiring done, then I can get it decorated....etc

SRS - my tables still aren't very visible yet, although I have enough room now to sit at the kitchen one! My sewing machine is at the back of the bedroom that's full of clutter. I have actually found that the stuff is piled up so that it is climbable if I need to get down there! Does mean doing something approaching the splits, but hey, I need the workout!

Andrea - who is about to start and load the car for tomorrow.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 09 May 08 - 04:41 AM

Ah, junk climbing... I remember it well. I thought that was over when we got a house with a cellar and a loft.... guess what I have to do if I want anything out of the loft... and the gymnastics the poor Gasman has to do to get to read the meter - well, he could book his place in the 2012 team right now!


I'm working on the removal of several hundred bits of paper now... the choir song book is finally done (apart from printing a few covers) and I'm binding it now, so that's a job done and out of the house next week!

Then there are those waistcoats...

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Diva
Date: 09 May 08 - 05:35 AM

Few more bags to charity shop and janes old knackered bed went to the dump yesterday.........loads of space in her room now..of course she'll need a bed when she gets back from Inverness tonight.....

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 May 08 - 01:02 PM

That's scary--climbing over the top of it all--I'm afraid someone will post to Mudcat with one of your accounts to tell us the sad news that after you apparently went missing some unfortunate family member found you, impaled, on a four poster bed post in the spare bedroom junk pile.

I don't have a lot in my attic because this house is built with trusses, not joists. It can't support a floor up there. I have a few plywood paths through the attic so I can move around from a central area to reach wires and vents for general maintenance. This summer I will put a few more boards around to make it easier to climb over duct work. My garage is built with joists, so there is some space but not much headroom. There were flattened boxes that Moonglow took to use for a college project, and I have no plans to refill it.

I am still working my way through the old files, they don't look too full, but when opened, there are documents or bills from several years back. I've filled the pickle bucket twice more and have also found duplicate files to combine.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 May 08 - 01:57 PM

Whooo Hooooo! De-cluttering results in found money!

I put a new roof on the house last fall. I had my mortgage lowered this year due to lower homeowner's insurance costs, but I didn't realize that they mailed me an excess escrow check that is the equivalent of a whole month's payment! I always just stuff the postal statement in a file because I pay it online. I'd opened it and glanced in at the amount due but didn't pull it out to find the check on the bottom--until today. I'm going through my files, and there it was!

It was written five weeks ago and is good for 180 days.

I'm headed out to the bank. May all of our declutterers have such a good find!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 10 May 08 - 12:57 AM

WOW, SRS! See how good intentions are often rewarded? Yay for your great find!

LTS, Way to go on the choir book--just think of all those pieces of paper you won't have to deal with any more. That's one of my goals, to get my Family Scrapbook put together in some sort of order, so I don't have a zillion pieces of paper all over the place. Not only do I have MY research stuff, but I have a copy of most of my cousin's also, which I have yet to try to sort...

JunK has been scanning and shredding stuff the last few days. I don't ask, I just appreciate. Any paper that goes away is fantastic, in my opinion. His son and daughter-in-law bought him a new shredder for his birthday, so he's been having fun cross-cutting old CDs and bills and things.

I gave a big sack of old clothing to the DAV yesterday (they pick up from your front porch every month or so). Never seems to make much of a dent in my closet stash, but I keep trying. Still need to get rid of stacks of magazines; will have to truck them to the grocery store recycle bins.

I've come to the conclusion that I could get rid of a LOT more "stuff" if I didn't feel guilty about not recycling it. Wichita doesn't have much of a recycling program, unfortunately, so everything has to be boxed up, carried to the truck, taken to the disposal sites, and unloaded there. Some days just the thought wears me out. And it's a half-day project to get anything to the post awful to mail it!

Yes, I know, bitch, bitch, bitch...I'm trying to get more positive about all this. You guys help, big-time!

Lin

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 10 May 08 - 04:45 AM

I still haven't put up that shelf for Limpit though!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: mouldy
Date: 10 May 08 - 11:34 AM

Back from the boot fair and the dump. Have only come home with one or two bits that I had alternative offloads for. AND I DIDN'T BUY ANYTHING ELSE TODAY, EITHER!

I now have a hall that works as a hall - at least until Tuesday, when Ruth gets back!
As soon as I get the front bedroom sorted out for Ruth I will have places for a lot of stuff in her old furniture. However, still no word from the "Sparks".

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: wysiwyg
Date: 10 May 08 - 11:56 AM

Duh.....

Izzit like this for you? Whole house making me crazy, despite pockets of well-organized items that are maintaining quite well...feeling overwhelmed but not sure why.... brain spinning with can't-gotta-can't-gotta DO something about it..... not even sure what "it" is.....

Well, for me it's like tumblers in a combination lock. Not until they settle into the right combination of mini-solutions does that spinning quit. I just felt it QUIT. [big sigh]

There is ONE key area I had not thought about AT ALL even though I know all the organizing theory I could need. Suddenly the thought popped into my head-- what about a better "landing pad" for the daily return from the POOL? Near the back door, the laundry machines, wall outlets to re-charge digital gear....... and I HAVE exactly that area. All I need to do is clear it the f**k OFF!

I can DO that! Most of what is on it, now that I think of it, is actually stuff that by now has other places waiting to receive it. When I satrt, all the stuff to clear from there will cause all the other tumblers to move as Thing A goes to Place 2 where Thing B will be sitting that belongs in Place 3, etc. etc., and I will no longer be Queen of the State of Overwhelm.

Duhh................

See the thing is, I LIKE my life-- I like its three or four very different, major-day-occupying areas of activity. Each area has had a central place in my house. But the aquatic one.... present, but not working as well, so spreading all over everything else.

Roughly: mornings are for keeping promises the way Rick taught me to do it-- work that involves the computer and printer, correspondence..... punctuated by nutritious mini-meals that prep me for the afternoon "job." And that job is aquatic, taking all afternoon most weekdays. Evenings, hockey time with Hardi or parish activities. All this punctuated (notnotnot "interrupted") by Diocesan activities. (Where are friends, you may ask-- they're in all of those. I'm talking just the practical actions here.)

So all I have to do is reclaim that large counter across from the laundry machines that tops a pair of wide kitchen cabinets, with more cabinets above. It's adjoined on one end by the home-classroom I converted to my treadmill studio and summer small-group meeting space. On the other end, the kitchen (with well-organized hutch holding electronic aquatic gear for "garage sale") and bath I can clean up for company and still keep the main house private for Just Us.

If I whip that counter, I can have my aquatic seminars RIGHT HERE at my house, with sales available amid healthy workout snacks set out on the counter that used to hold Mudcat Gathering snacks.

Duh.................................

~Susan

PS, duh.....

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 May 08 - 12:41 PM

If I whip that counter, I can have my aquatic seminars RIGHT HERE at my house, with sales available . . .

So what's your trick? Do you fill your house up like a pool to use for aquatic seminars? That's a heckuva way to keep things clean! ;-D

On Thursday I took a dozen partial cans of old paint to the environmental hazard dump station, clearing space on my pantry shelves. All week I've continued to compress file folders as I move them from the closet cabinet to the other cabinets around the house.

Yesterday I picked up a couple of plastic magazine file boxes and milk crate file boxes at the recycle/dump site, out of the bin. It really is appalling the stuff that Americans throw away out if ignorance and laziness. Most of the stuff in the trash bins should have been given to a thrift store or at least put in the recycle bins. Yes, this is picking up clutter, but the point is, if I don't need these I can put these at my curb and someone who does need them will pick them up to use them.

My windfall from the escrow account will allow me to pick up parts for a couple of things that need attention, and I make a point of always doing more than one errand on a trip, so I'll probably drop more paper off at the recycle center. But this time I'll put my shredded paper in a box. That way I can drop it in the recycle bin. Yesterday I dropped a bag of shreds in the trash because I couldn't see them making much sense of paper shreds on the sorting conveyor belt.

Andrea, congratulations on not bringing any new stuff home. I was at the used book store to pick up one book last week but left with three. "My name is Maggie and I'm a bookaholic."

Liz, I need to put up some shelves for my son. Maybe this list will serve as a reminder. I cleaned out his room big-time over the holiday season, and he hasn't added that much stuff, but he doesn't seem to have enough places to put things.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: wysiwyg
Date: 10 May 08 - 02:00 PM

Very funny. DVD's on dry land, because the portable DVD player is so hard to hear poolside when I put it into the Ziploc bag. :~) We review the video and then use the poolside player for reference, minus sound. Then too, people know what they're signing up for.

But seriously, I did see a house shown once on TV that was totally hose-cleanable. Trouble is, the drain wasn't big enough for the crap I'd want to be able to flush!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 May 08 - 05:57 PM

I sorted through 4-5 boxes of books from my sister's Major Storage Clean Out and have started on the LPs. I only have one box of books for keeps, most of which belonged to one or the other of my grandfathers. Still more to go, but we ran errands this afternoon, just got home, so I'll save them for tomorrow, most likely, unless I get a second wind this evening.

Finally bought a water filter so we can quit buying water in bottles and get the recycling clutter of that out of the kitchen.

I hate to say it but we did a small bit of what Bush wanted us to...we spent a little bit of the Chinese loan money.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 May 08 - 08:33 PM

Heck, I dropped most of that "incentive" at the dentist this week. I told him that's what I planned, I knew it would hit the bank on Friday, so they made the appointment for my crown on Thursday. I paid the (big!) co-pay with a credit card, then on Friday I turned around and paid the credit card. I also spent some on new garage door rollers since I had one fail this afternoon. I'll replace them all. It's amazing how things breaking can always happen to match the cash you have available.

I dropped a big box of toys at Goodwill, and have a lot to sort still, but a more manageable amount. Last night I did some more shredding and today I picked up a couple of organizers to replace a lot of the loose file folders I don't need (that have had mulitple scribbles and lables attached--time for the recycle bin for those!)

Kat, your kitchen will feel luxurious from getting a source of bulky clutter out. The few times I manage to empty my counter tops it feels like an entirely new room. I don't achieve it often, but it is a nice feeling.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 May 08 - 12:40 AM

More files. Estate stuff. There are boxes of it. The sting hasn't gone out of all of it, but it is time to move on. Actually, there are forms from several estates. I'll keep probate lists so I can identify for my kids where things I own came from. De-cluttering these will clear out a couple of small sized U-Haul moving boxes and may take a while. Perhaps I should burn the boxes--faster than shredding the contents.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: wysiwyg
Date: 11 May 08 - 09:18 AM

Got started on the AquaZone countertop yesterday. First pass resulted in one small box to sort, a large sack of curtains headed up to the linen closet, a heavy terry bathrobe to return to the upstairs loo (its always FREEZING up there), the finding of two small packets of extra-huge musicians' paperclips (to hold songbook pages open in the wind), a peck of last year's catflea eggs, and a start on the landing pad which I covered with a piece of aqua-blue fabric so the swimsuits don't snag on the wodden countertop.

Things from the main house that belong out there are already finding their way out to that counter top. Today I will dust out the upper shelves and begin storing the aquatic video's and books there. I have my eyes open for more fabric (already on hand) to aqua-up the area.

There are two or three large items needing corraling and I already have a box of XXL ziplocs on hand (fake spacebags) in which I can package and hang them. Some will live in the car over the summer and some in the AquaZone cabinets.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 May 08 - 10:50 AM

Nothing 'lives' in my vehicle in the summer here--you must have a milder climate!

It's Mother's Day! So when the kids come for a visit, take them aside and ask if they'd mind spending a little time decluttering their old bedroom or closet. ;-D That's what I'm going to do with Moonglow, if I am not finished with the mowing by the time she arrives.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 May 08 - 11:37 PM

I didn't get all of my mowing done today but by way of compensation the house has had more de-clutter work. I convinced Moonglow to clear off the desk in her room, not dump the contents on the floor or bed, but actually keep or toss or take to school or store neatly. This was a major undertaking but resulted in a lot of trash, a lot of recycling and donation, and a good-sized bag of costume stuff going back to school with her ("I get unlimited free dry cleaning. Might as well take them in!") Good girl! She'll hang them in her rather large (but probably cramped by now) walk-in closet in the house she shares with four other students.

So... it was a nice Mother's Day. The ex stopped by a local Chinese take-out and brought Moonglow's brother over and we all had a late lunch on a completely cleared off dining room table.

There was a little other progress: the file cabinet in the office closet now has two empty drawers, two to go. The truck has several bags of stuff to go to the thrift store next time I'm near one.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: freda underhill
Date: 12 May 08 - 04:31 AM

yes, SRS & andrea, ploughing through the debris....

on the weekend I sorted and gave away 6 Indian shawls, one eggshell blue silk one, and numerous scarves (of course I still have many left!!).

put out the front of the house four wooden chairs in various states of disrepair - they all went walkabout and i replaced them with four new dark wooden chairs, strong and sturdy.

I also sorted, packed and delivered to a friend books, articles and photos from a shared interest - magazines on yoga, feminism and vegetarianism, some clothes, coat hangars, a back pack, shoulderbag and ... more scarves. she helps women coming out of jail and can pass these things on.

went through letters, bills and numerous items that have been gathering time on my kitchen shelf and chucked out many of them.

'phew! house feels emptier, my bookshelves are lighter (tho still overflowing) and i rewarded myself by reading Sidetracked by henning mankell. Now collecting henning mankell from every second-hand bookshop I can find... aaahh, no wonder i accumulate to voraciously.

but this weekend's de-cluttering felt GOOD - the tsunami has abated a bit, and I hope it ebbs off somewhere else...
freda

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 12 May 08 - 12:31 PM

I'm sure there was a dining room table downstairs last month.... now it's a pile of hats and instruments again. Even Raven cat's live in lover has taken to sleeping in the cupboard because there's more room in there.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 May 08 - 05:40 PM

freda, it keeps feeling better the emptier it gets (within reason, of course! It isn't like you're moving out).

I dropped off shredded paper this morning--it finally dawned on me that if I take the shredded paper in my cardboard box to the bin that only takes paper and cardboard that it doesn't matter if it is in a bag or not. Chances are these contents won't go on a conveyor belt. At the dump it is a different story because that bin is commingled paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum and everything is dumped and sorted off of the belt.

A LCD monitor (I use two) is failing to operate crisply enough to continue to use for photo work, so I had to go shop around for a new one today. I hadn't planned to use the rest of my tax incentive this way, but I can't risk more of the kinds of problems I discovered when I viewed a photo adjusted on the old monitor (left) on the newer one on the right. I know, I could just do work on the right, but then why have the left one? And I'd forget. And since I'm now so accustomed to working on the considerably expanded "desktop" monitor workspace, I can't easily drop down to just one.

I'll probably donate the old monitor. It works fine for stuff like word processing and casual browsing. It just doesn't have the brightness for the fine photo work. It will go on my list of donatable stuff.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 12 May 08 - 09:55 PM

WYSIWYG, I can definitely relate to the "what do I do next? No, this, no that, no..." feeling. I got my proofing job shipped off today, and had planned to do some embroidery work while my sewing table was relatively clear. Instead, visited Wally-World and wound up with several sacks of plastic flowers to decorate with on Memorial Day. Some of them I need to wrap and tie ribbon bows on, and figure out what specifically goes to which grave (I have seven to put them on). So...do I do that first, and THEN clear the table again for the embroidery projects, or do I do the other projects first as I have time before Memorial Day? Or do I skip both of those and clear out my desk drawers like I've been intending to do for a couple of weeks now? Or do I go help my (soon to be ex-) daughter-in-law clear out the laundry room so we can move in there?

Help! My brain is spinning!

Lin in Panic

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 May 08 - 10:12 PM

Lin,

Which one of those tasks can you start and finish in one "unit" of time, meaning, if you have an hour, or two, or an afternoon, what can you complete? Cleaning a drawer? Clearing the laundry room? Do one of those things that you can physically SEE THE CHANGE every time you walk past, so you have a feeling of accomplishment. I vote you hold off on the flowers and work on the laundry room. Everything seems to center on the laundry and the kitchen, so take on the smallest room and make it shine, then move outward from there.

Does that help? Go, Lin, Go! Rah rah rah!

(BTW: Glad to see you're online and didn't blow away with the recent heavy weather.)

I've made inroads into another file drawer, but I must say, it will be a tough one. Now that I've gotten rid of stuff of mine I stored in there, I need to go through the various envelopes of Kid Art. All keepers, of course. :) I have some in frames, and more that needs to go. As they grew, they each had a distinctive style from when they even first picked up a pencil or crayon, so I can tell the 2-year-old Caroline from the 2-year-old Dylan. Amazing, isn't it? Like knowing your child's smell or your child's cry, knowing your child's mark.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 12 May 08 - 10:25 PM

Isis! Isis! Ra! Ra! Ra!

Go, Lin, Go!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 May 08 - 12:37 AM

I knocked out about four inches (at least) of school papers out of the files in a half hour this evening. This is just the sh*t they send home with the report cards, with the reports, with everything. Get rid of the school district nonsense and there is a lot less paper to deal with. Those little bitty kid drawings are so cute--I'll hold onto those.

So, I have stuff I removed from that third drawer (that is now also empty) that will go in a different file (that isn't full, but hasn't been organized yet to receive the new stuff). That leaves one drawer left to empty, then I can move this large file out of my closet. Yes!!!

Kat, I meant to tell you, I didn't forget to look at that Word file of yours again. But it did take me several hours to get my computer back up to speed after I tried to open it the first time. My system said that your file was more advanced and I had to download some stuff so I could open it. That led to tinkering with XP's new Service Pack 3 while I was at it. My computer is apparently also now in tidier shape than it was when I started (or closer to disaster, if this means it is more like VISTA than it was before).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 13 May 08 - 05:07 AM

The 'Quandry' is the biggest step to get over... once you've made the decision to clear one spot, you need to get on and do that one spot... not faff around like a fart in a colander, not knowing which hole to get out of!

Having said that... my own quandry is unsolved.

Here we go again!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 May 08 - 09:49 AM

Liz, I vote for your dining room table. Not only humans but also cat-like-creatures will benefit from this transformation.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 May 08 - 11:20 AM

Oh! Thanks, Maggie...glad my file didn't cause any major problems...I hope?! No rush, anyway.:-)

We moved some boxes around, closer to the door for yard sale. Also went through the books. Determined that my sewing machine will not fit my mom's cabinet without some creative drilling of holes and do I have the room for it, anyway, yes, I hope! And, I hope I cna get Rog to figure it out and drill.

Off to exercise then make jewellery, I hope!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: wysiwyg
Date: 13 May 08 - 11:27 AM

I agree with SRS: Do the DO-able, first. From there do the pinball and soon it will ALL seem do-able.

Moving contradicts the inner feeling of "can't." Just get up and move one thing, and THEN see what you are able to do next. Maybe nothing. That's OK-- ONE thing moved. Next time it will be better. Just keep moving.

When it's overwhelming to the point of frozen, keep moving, but away from it-- I'm going to my workout, for example, and on the way back in I'll move one more thing to where it goes. But the AquaZone will greet me and my dripping bag of gear, this time, as I turn to toss the wet stuff into the dryer.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: mouldy
Date: 13 May 08 - 11:52 AM

We have landed back from emptying Ruth's uni room into the car.
Ruth - 'It won't all go in. I'll have to pick the rest up next week when I bob back to uni to meet up with my boyfriend'. (They are then driving up here).
Me - 'It's a bloody Volvo. Watch me get it in'.
And I did, with room to spare. Even her 4 drawer plastic crap holder/chest of drawers.
Once home she walked in, looked at the dining room and kitchen tables, and the folding single bed which is stacked in the kitchen doorway until I have a room to put it in, and announced that 'this needs tidying'. She then proceeded to dump all her stuff on and around the dining table! She says she doesn't want her boyfriend of 6 months (who we haven't even met yet) to be put off by my mess.

I have suddenly got very protective of my mess, even though I don't like it! Trouble is, I still won't get to meet him as he's very conveniently arriving while I am out of the country.

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 May 08 - 02:33 PM

I spent some of my lunch hour wading through the file drawer with graduate school notes and papers and a fair number of commingled subjects of InterLibrary Loan articles. Going down this memory lane at lunch I managed to evict quite a few inches of paper. Some will get filed, most recycled.

Hmmm. There is a little toadstool of a pile of papers on the floor next to my desk. I wonder how that got there? I'd better do something about it before it becomes a full-blown paper bunker. You know how those things can experience explosive growth!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 13 May 08 - 03:43 PM

OK, panic is dying down a bit. I decided my desk drawers were the "practical" thing to work on, since the laundry room is (literally) all the daughter-in-law's stuff and I don't know what to move where. So I now have two desk drawers with a lot less paper junk in them! Yay, only four more to go.

I'm not going to my home town until the 22nd, so can leave the flowers to be done later. Sacks are on the floor in the crafting room so I've got my embroidery unit attached to the sewing machine and can get those projects done fairly easily. Whew, onward and upward....

Kat, what kind of sewing machine cabinet are you trying to fit your machine into? Is it one of the old treadle cabinets? (Those are so cool, but yes, they would take some re-fitting.) SRS, definitely keep the kid's artwork. I wish I had some of the ones my son did when he was little.

Liz, you really CAN get that shelf put up for Limpit. My vote is do that first, THEN clear the dining room table for the cats!

Is everybody having fun yet?

Lin

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 May 08 - 04:55 PM

Good for you, Lin!!

Not one of the old treadle ones, I wish! Mom bought her Elna in the 50's. I barely remember when she got it. I think they bought the cabinet at the same time. It's worn, wooden, but still sturdy and it would be so nice to have somewhere for my sewing machine. I don't use it nearly as much as I might if it were more handy. It's going to be a case of can I get Rog motivated enough to figure it out!:-)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 13 May 08 - 05:32 PM

I would put her shelf up if she would clear her floor enough for me to walk round her bed without it going crunch, crack or squeak.

Apple didn't fall far from this tree!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: wysiwyg
Date: 13 May 08 - 05:50 PM

Is everybody having fun yet?

Oh my YES! I never can do it otherwise! Some days I just play the game of "How much trash can I create?" That's a real fun game. When I'm on my game I can fill sacksfull. (That's called "purging.") The first 4-5 items can feel kinda hard and then it gets easier and easier and more fun.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 May 08 - 08:14 PM

I'm going in for that fourth drawer in the file cabinet tonight. I started thinning and moving the contents of the other cabinets so I can actually move stuff, not just stack it around the office. I'm going to take this out of my office closet. And maybe also take out the spare kitchen cabinet that is in the corner of my office (built for a small space a my Dad's old house, but not fastened down and the buyers didn't want it so I brought it along).

I have to feed the kiddo first. Will report back. I everybody having fun yet? Not exactly fun, but there is a great deal of pleasure in getting ahead in this job!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 May 08 - 10:45 PM

I went through all of the LPs from my sister this evening. I am only keeping a few. Can't decide if it's worth selling them at a yard sale, on ebay, or just give them away. Anyone have any idea? I still have the 78's to go through and the bottles. That will be fun!

I also made some progress on a gratis editing job that's been bugging me. It's prestigious in a smallish circle, but I wanted to do it regardless. Was feeling badly about not getting it done by now. Maybe by the end of the week, I hope!

I am decluttering my bod, next...getting most of my perm cut off tomorrow!:-)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 May 08 - 12:29 AM

I have a friend who has used his old LP covers for various things. He nailed them up (like tiles) on the walls in the bathroom of a gay bar he frequents in Greenwich Village. And he is cutting them into notebook sizes and binding them with blank paper inside to use for gift books. Use the most interesting part of the cover art on the journal. Does that help?

I made progress in the file drawers that will stay. Probably tossed about 4" of paper. I'm not ready to put more files in there yet, but I did want some closure on the closet file, so I emptied that last drawer into a milk crate box. The cabinet has been evicted and is now standing in the hall (it's dark out, there are thunderstorms, this isn't going to cross the dark driveway to the garage tonight). The stuff I dropped in the crate is old federal forms and maps. Shredder and eBay materials to be dispatched this week.

Okay, so I cheated a little, moving from the drawer to the crate. But the footprint of the crate is smaller and it looks good to have the cabinet out. This evening I did some honest decluttering with the paper eviction, but the cabinet shell game is a little psychological boost. :)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 May 08 - 12:31 AM

100!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: freda underhill
Date: 14 May 08 - 04:05 AM

great news.. I have found a home for the mini-fridge that's in my living room. My major post-renovation clear-out is ALMOST finished - I have new, workable chairs and spaaace in the living room.

tonight i have a clutter-free evening, in that nothing's on the agenda - except that new henning Mankell book. yes, another 2nd hand one acquired this week - that's five in the last fortnight.

yes, clutter free room - now, for the clutter-free brain. I invented a type of clearing meditation for my head a few months ago - it seems to work as a sort of mental garbage disposal process. will do some tonight b4 a date with Henning.

freda

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 14 May 08 - 04:08 AM

Are you at home on your own PC now Freda?

G

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: GUEST,freda
Date: 14 May 08 - 04:45 AM

no, Giok. That's the last step (second last step is connecting my sound system). just visiting! :-)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 May 08 - 10:01 AM

The landing pad in the AquaZone is working great. Knowing that I will have a smooth takekoff from there in a bit, I was able to get some meatloaf sliced that was overdue and, from there, set up a supper plate for poor Hardi so he can have what he ikes later while I'm taking a friend to the doctor's office post-workout.

I think it's important to remember that no matter how gratifying it is to organize for its own sake, ultimately the best reason to do it is so we can spend more time doing the things we want and/or have commmitted to do.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 May 08 - 02:42 PM

You've illustrated the reason for all of this--it makes things easier to do and take less time. Those areas around the house that are now finished (or on their way) are much more functional. The shelves by the door that hold my gardening stuff are wonderful, and the laundry room cabinets are simple to navigate. And the file box that I use most often is much easier to use when there is air in it. Papers aren't shoved in (you know the move--slip the edge of the paper at the back of the folder then push the document in with the wedge of your flattened hand and spread fingers).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 May 08 - 06:50 PM

More shredding, and a couple of pickle barrels later a stack of legal papers is lighter (free of duplicates) and now tucked away in a file drawer, and while I was at it I weeded paper from the floor of the office closet, mostly graduate school stuff. Several inches of paper went out, but about 1/2 of it remains in an "sort and file" stack. It was too much to organize as well as thin; this first pass was to get rid of the stuff I positively know I don't need to keep.

On my errand run this evening I'll drop paper off at the recycle bin. Shall I swing by Goodwill while I'm at it? The 4-drawer file cabinet is empty--can I really let go of it? Why not!

SRS Who does actually still have a life and who is getting a bit tired of all of this, but knows it's her own damn fault it got so cluttered.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 14 May 08 - 09:37 PM

My desk is actually functional and I have a fairly large trash can overflowing with the stuff I've thrown away that used to be in the desk drawers. I haven't tackled the most disorganized draawer yet, but hey! no rush, right? There were catalogs I'd saved from (ye Gods!) 1995 in one of the cleared drawers!

Only downside to that is I now have a shoebox full of pictures and other things to scan and store on computer... but I can do those as time and inclination permit. Old checks shredded; LOTS of paper dumped, now on to the sewing projects I've been ignoring!

Progress, it's wonderful. AND JunK is in the other room cutting up boxes for the trash--YAY!

Lin

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 May 08 - 10:22 AM

I need to rearrange some furniture in my office this morning. One of my monitors has been failing (so gradually I could hardly see it until I realized an embarrassing lack of resolution on a photo I had to Photoshop someone out of--only to see on the other screen later that you could still see his legs!) The UPS tracking screen says that it is out for delivery today. Yesss!

The old monitor works for normal stuff like browsing and word processing, so I will donate it.

Catching up:

freda, how is the book?

kat, how is the hair (doesn't it feel good to get a radically new look?) and the editing?

liz, how is the shelf and the dining room table?

andrea, how is the hall and the spare room? Has Ruth helped tidy the house?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 May 08 - 11:10 AM

This feels like death. I can come and go and get the housechores done too, but it doesn't FEEL that way. It FEELS like I should sit in the chair all day instead of going to stretch those happliy sore muslces at the warm pool.

Going,

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 May 08 - 12:36 PM

Thanks for asking, Maggie. I love the hair! I still like to have it long, so will grow it out, but we took off four inches, all that was left of the perm, and it is swinging very healthily! I can still, barely, put it back in a ponytail, though it looks more like a pigtail now.:-)

I also got some more done on the editing. I don't think I'll have it done by the end of the week, but for sure by mid-week next week. Now I have to figure out how to get some paying editing jobs. The magazine is coming up again in June, maybe, but until then...no bites on craigslist, yet.

Decluttering, I am going to list a Victorian rocking chair for sale and get it out. We had a sentimental attachment to it as it was my mom's but none of us use it; it is not comfortable and it's taking up too much space, plus none of my kids or sibs want it!

kat

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 May 08 - 04:27 PM

Progress on the office today. The new monitor arrived, and yes, it is a lot brighter than the one that wasn't replaced, so now I decide to live with it or replace both. ARggggggh!

Filed more papers at lunch. Moved a cabinet out of the office to the hall for now. I had some stacking units in the closet that I've lined along the wall near the computer and will see how those work to hold was remained in the cabinet.

Is our aqua-maid in a slump or catching a bug? What's the next big thing to clear out in the parsonage?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 May 08 - 06:15 PM

Is our aqua-maid in a slump or catching a bug? What's the next big thing to clear out in the parsonage?

Old feelings.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 May 08 - 07:24 PM

Old feelings, or feeling old? ;-D

I got smart, after I got over the shock of how vivid the new monitor is, and I lowered the contrast and brightness so it is a closer match to the old one. I think I would have lowered it anyway--these things can cause eye strain when they're too bright. And while I was tinkering moving the monitors I found an address I'd been meaning to send to a friend and a whole bunch of little things I piled here to address--then they were buried under the next thing I needed to address.

My office still has piles and boxes, but there is a lot more air and floor space in the middle. My halls now have a kitchen cabinet, a four-drawer file, and a couple of stacking plastic organisers on casters. Looks like this weekend I'll be moving things out to the garage, but I have to clear the garage some before I do that. From there it is garage sale or Goodwill.

Does anyone else remember those plastic slide puzzle party favors where you have to move everything to finally get it into number order?

My house is up to about three of those numbers in line now.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: maire-aine
Date: 15 May 08 - 11:23 PM

I made a list this afternoon (while I was waiting for jobs to run), so I started on it this evening. I went through the buffet drawers, and got the diningroom table cleaned off. I also hung a picture and started on the upstairs hallway. Got about a third of the list crossed off. There is something very satisfying about crossing things off. I should be able to get the rest done tomorrow and Sat.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 May 08 - 11:43 PM

Good work, Maryanne! To make the list look even more realistic be sure to add the "second shift" items also. Not just "hang picture" and "clean table" but "make dinner" and "wash and dry and fold laundry." It makes the list a lot fatter when you really see what all you're doing.

i.e., this evening I put in laundry and washed dishes, then made burritos for my son, shredded a leftover chicken for fajitas for myself, and made guacamole from some ripe avocados for the fajitas. The extra guac was scooped into an ice cube tray and the leftover fajita mix was packaged for later. The chicken carcass was boiled long enough to get the meat flavor for stock.

That usually doesn't wind up on the list.

But no one else here knows about that second shift, right? So I guess I shouldn't mention it. . .

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: maire-aine
Date: 16 May 08 - 09:04 AM

Thanks. Laundry is on the list, but washing dishes isn't. Neither is cleaning the litter box, but that's a given. If it doesn't rain this weekend, I'll get some of the outdoor items done. I kept a flowerbox of herbs growing on the front porch thru the winter, so I want to plant them outside. But before I do that, I'll have to pull some weeds in what's laughingly called the "herb garden".

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 May 08 - 03:33 PM

I have a lot of garden decluttering this weekend. Looks like good weather for it. I have quite a few shrubs to move, one way or the other. If I can transplant, I will. Over the years I've taken the old black plastic pots back to the neighborhood garden center, and I'm hoping they'll help me out by letting me get some back. That would make it easier to transport and place this stuff.

I moved that one cabinet into the kitchen to see how it looks. It doesn't match, but it would be a better use of the space than the table the microwave sits on now. I am leaving it there for a day or two to see if I get any ideas about what to do with various kitchen gadgets (the ones I use and want to keep but that don't have a good place to live right now.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 16 May 08 - 07:06 PM

Shelf still on sewing table. Dining room table still buried under hats and music books.

I'm a dismal failure at this de-cluttering lark!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: LilyFestre
Date: 16 May 08 - 07:27 PM

We are installing a new vanity in the bathroom this week (YAHOO!!!) and that means I will have the perfect opportunity to go through stuff and get rid of things that are long past their prime or are no longer used and just taking up space.

    Also for this weekend, I have plans to hoe out 2 corners of my kitchen (both closet areas that are currently open and we will be installing doors next weekend). Again, lots of stuff that has been unused for quite some time. It is all going to go buh-bye. I don't even know what half the stuff is in there. One of these closests will be transformed into a wine closet (built in wine racks to free up space that current wine racks take up in the kitchen). :)

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 16 May 08 - 08:08 PM

Liz, no such thing--move ONE THING and you're successful; don't have to do any major projects to win! Right, ladies?

SRS, what did you do with the old computer books and dictionaries you couldn't sell to Half Price Books? I've got a 6-ft-tall stack of that sort of thing I haven't a clue what to do with!

Flowers are in process of sorting, wrapping, etc. I'm stacking magazines in the craft room to recycle, too. Anybody want a perfectly good cat bed? My bratlings won't sleep in any of the three we've gotten for them, so out the beds go...

Lin

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 May 08 - 08:49 PM

I took several bags of clothing, rags, rugs, and oddball homemade things that no one uses any more over to the thrift store. It filled a shopping cart when I emptied it all from the truck.

I've had a brainstorm about that computer monitor I need to get rid of. It is a flat panel LCD that still works, it simply doesn't have the contrast I need for using Photoshop. I have a friend with a huge monster of an old CRT monitor (along with a 7-year-old Dell) and I told him I'd let him have this. I'm going go call later and ask if he'd like to come to lunch and pick it up. I'll see if I still have the disk with the drivers, otherwise I'll get them online. Great way to recycle this and when I told him I'd save it for him he was really grateful to get this big CRT off of the desk where he works.

Lin, is JunK still clearing out boxes and books? I had Half-Price books dispose of my computer books. What they tell you is that if it might be useful someplace else they send it to their warehouse to be sent out or donated. They also have a recycle bin dedicated to paper. Have JunK box those computer books and take them over (do you have Half Price Books near you? I see by their web site that they have them in Lawrence, Olathe, and Overland Park, also in Kansas City (MO, I think.) Here's the list.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 May 08 - 02:35 AM

Late to bed, after sorting and shredding most of one box of family estate stuff. I found some interesting family information and vital statistics documents to file and label clearly.

Busy day tomorrow that includes a lot of recycling projects. Good luck to the rest of you. Liz, I hope you'll post a photo of the shelf once you have it up on Limpit's wall.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 17 May 08 - 03:19 AM

Don't hold your breath on that one Stilly - she still has to move a whole heap of crap from her room and she's worse than me at tidying up!

I am considering buying her a new book case though... that might help with the clutter a bit... if I can get around to it.


LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 May 08 - 09:24 AM

A-Round-Tuit, a popular business name for independent repair guys here in the U.S.

I found with my son's room that I simply had to wade in when he wasn't home and start by evicting the dirty laundry on the floor and then use a large plastic trash bag for the true trash. Do that when she isn't home. It also helped that I rearranged his furniture, and the new look was pleasing so he wasn't upset. I let him take a look through all of the stuff I was evicting, so it wasn't like he had no choice, but he had to have a place to put what he kept (he didn't choose to keep any of the stuff I got rid of, telling me that it was just on the floor and furniture from habit, not from use or need.)

Off to walk dogs then head to the annual shot clinic, followed by a busy day of decluttering the world. (I'm taking my pickup over to help a friend who has a small car but a large mattress to get rid of.)

Another good thing about this decluttering is finding things you do truly want that you couldn't find. Last night I came across a couple of binders filled with pages of photos I needed last summer after an old friend (only 50) died of a sudden, massive heart attack. I should have had these available to scan and share with our mutual friends at that time.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 May 08 - 10:44 AM

Well, we are continuing the trend in our house of decluttering the bods, too. Just sent Rog off to get an early morning haircut. HE was up at 630a!! I *thought* because he was going to mow, early, but he really just took his time fixing breakfast and surfing the internet.:-) He'll mow when he gets back. That will also include putting stuff away which is scattered around the yard, including a few more items from my sister.

You are so right about writing down EVERYTHING we do, Maggie. When I was so sick, I used to talk to Night Owl every night. She'd ask me what I'd done that day; small victories were worth counting. I say "nothing" then we'd get to talking and I'd say that I'd done the dishes, or dusted or something. She'd point out to me that those things counted for a lot and I should give myself credit. From then on I kept a list and it really did help. I didn't have so much despair when I'd see what I had already done.

Today, I hope to figure out what we are going to do with all of the books and LPs from my sister AND go through the old glass bottles. Our dau. is having a yard sale but her partner didn't want to get stuff mixed up so we will have one separately, later on, unless we decide to just donate it all to the Goodwill or something. Then it's out of here FAST!:-)

My office closet has been "calling" me all week. I really want to clear it out. Oh, R-o-g!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 May 08 - 11:33 AM

If you donate it, arrange it in groups on the ground and photograph it. Name the photo with the date and place to donate (i.e., 4-17-08-Goodwill-clothes). I drop all of those photos from the digital camera into the working 2008 donations folder on my desktop, ending up with the original and making a reduced size version for a document.

Then set up a document file and describe the contents of the photo (which you have inserted into the document) and price each item modestly, like for a garage sale, unless there is some conspicuous reason why you can claim more. It ends up looking like a bulleted paragraph for each photo on the page, and the photos don't need to be huge, just a big thumbnail. Total it all up, date it, STAPLE IT TO THE TAX RECEIPT the recipient gave you, and file it for next year's taxes. Until I'm finished with the particular page I leave the document and the image originals (which I will have printed at the camera store) in that working file. Once it is printed I move the document and related photos to the "processed" folder inside. That's the one I'll refer to at tax time if I need to.

I try to set up this document every week or so to keep track of donations, and finish it off at a logical point. Like I've made a couple of trips to Goodwill so they're commingled on the receipt.

I know this seems like overkill, but I'm donating so much stuff that I don't want them to think I am pulling a fast one. I figure my pedantic approach covers all of the bases as far as what I actually donated and if my prices were fair.

The animals have all been shot (and I am covered with cat hair and smell like a dog, duh. . .) and now I'm off to help a friend offload a mattress and any other big thing he can think of to get rid of in my pickup.

If you are methodical about this, kat, you'll find that there is a considerable tax savings in donating items. And think of it--the thrift store puts it out there and probably asks a simlar price, and people will buy them at that price. If you had a garage sale, you know someone is going to come along and insist on paying you 10 cents for something you've priced reasonably at $1. It's the best of all worlds, and you didn't have the work of the garage sale.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: wysiwyg
Date: 17 May 08 - 11:45 AM

Yesterday's Hardi-assisted "decluts" in the kitchen led to a bulk-cooking round that sorts out a lot of the recent "overwhelmed" feelings.

We "made" a whole bag of trash from one kitchen cabinet that had started to "catch" odd, unmatched plasticware.

My ready-for-anything kitchen is almost caught up for a spring/summer set-up-- a set-up I had not realized we need to formalize as much as the rest of the household.

In fact, this whole past year has been a huge AFGO series about seasonality:

My house has to be (and easily can be) a resource center for me, as well as for the people who depend on us.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Charmion
Date: 17 May 08 - 02:49 PM

It's time for me to join this merry band. Edmund is abroad for six months (note 'Catter deployed in southwest Asia), and when he comes home he will start a new job in Kingston, Ontario. That means we are moving, probably next summer, after 10 years in this house.

Where to start? I know where I should get to work -- the cellar -- but my heart sinks whenever my thoughts wander there. So today I shredded a box full of old tax files and personal correspondence, filling up a garden waste bag with paper shreddies and the recycling boxes. Getting them out to the kerb on Wednesday (garbage day) will be a test of upper-body strength, especially when three weeks' worth of newspapers is added.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 17 May 08 - 05:09 PM

Welcome to the thread, Charmion. Sorry to hear of the six months apart AND the move. I would dread having to move again and we've only been here six years.:-) Good for you for getting started, though!

Maggie, thank you for all of that info. I knew you had a method and I have seriously been thinking of it. I have itemized our taxes the past two years and it has helped, so donations would fit right in and I don't like doing yard sales! (My dau. didn't have hers, today. Her partner, who thought we should keep things separate, was too tired AND didn't think they had enough small items to attract a good crowd. IF they had me and my stuff there it wouldn't have been a problem!**bg**)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Charmion
Date: 17 May 08 - 08:25 PM

I decided to start in the kitchen. Who knows what evil lurks at the back of the pantry, where sun never shines and eye rarely visits?

Among other things that make me blush for shame, I found an unopened container of Duncan Hines chocolate fudge icing. Its best-before date? You'll get a laugh out of this -- 11 September 2001.

My favourite piece of "what to eat" advice comes from that guy who wrote The Omnivore's Dilemma -- No, I can't remember his name just now. "Don't eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn't recognize as food, or anything that doesn't go bad." The stuff was actually palatable. Too palatable -- I could feel the transfats racing through my system, not to speak of the drop-dead idiocy of allowing myself to be alone in the house with such an attractive nuisance (in the legal sense of the phrase).

Heave-ho.

The margarine that Edmund eats and I don't went with it: by the time he gets back, it will have either gone bad or proven that it won't, and it is therefore condemned twice.

And who knew we had so many cat toys? None of them worth a snap, either; the moggies prefer fingers (chomp), wine corks (bat, pursue) and guitar picks (swat).

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 May 08 - 11:22 PM

Charmion, I moved a lot of junk in the last couple of moves, stuff in boxes I left in boxes. It "may" have been easier, but only temporarily. Good for you getting started, and paper is an easy target and a good place to start. I have a couple of more quotes from Don Aslett I'll post in the next day or two to do with stuff and paper.

Kat, my main goal with establishing a routine with redundancy built in is two-fold--I don't trust the IRS to simply accept the printout with the statement, if I should be audited and need to provide evidence of my donations, so I keep the photos and make prints. In the 2007 tax papers I have a stack of photos in an envelope that I'll probably toss in a the recommended five years. I also wanted a way to make myself document the donations that was easy enough that I would do it regularly. It's too easy to forget what you did a few weeks out. When you start guessing or lumping, then you might seem less credible if you're audited.

Today I took a friend's mattress to the donation site, and on top of that he gleefully added his old huge CRT monitor after we set up and installed my old flat panel LCD. It looks fine, the contrast problem I was having doesn't effect most of its functionality. He has an elegant art deco-style glass table where his computer sits, and I'm frankly amazed that they had that old 40-50 pound monitor on it. I also took over an extra keyboard to replace his 7-year-old crusty keyboard. When we finished clearing the clutter (he has young housemates who leave a regular debris path) and cleaned and added a couple of bookends for his reference books, it looked so sharp! He'll afford a new computer when he can, but at least now it is easier to use and look at. I almost donated that monitor, but was at his house yesterday and saw the old computer and had one of those "ah ha!" moments.

One of the clutter bunkers in my house is this huge cabinet under the center kitchen counter. It's like Susan described, a bunch of mis-matched plastic containers. I have been pulling out my glass storage jars and pressing them back into service. Considering what I have been learning about plastic, I'm glad I still have them to use as I toss a lot of plastic. The big move, though, is to pull out the my Dad's kitchen gadgets in that cupboard, all quite nifty and probably expensive, and sell the ones I never use. I could put some of my regularly used appliances in one side of this huge cupboard and maybe get rid of a couple of cabinets that are in the corner. My dining room has a pretty chair rail and the picture-frame panelling below, like in my living room, but every square inch of the wall space is covered by furniture so you can't see it!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 18 May 08 - 12:47 AM

I didn't get very far, today. Rog worked outside, came in, went and did the grocery shopping, so wasn't much helps after that as he was tired out.:-)

I did empty the three bottle boxes and went through them all. I kept out some special ones that I like. The kids will come over tomorrow to see if there are any they want. The rest I will send/give to a few friends (anyone want one?) and maybe sell a couple. In all of the moves there was only one bottle broken. Some of them were wrapped in papers from 1983 and others from 1995 (I remember that move!) It was one of my favs., but was shattered. Still are some neat ones!

Tomorrow is another day and I hope we get more done.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Charmion
Date: 18 May 08 - 10:48 AM

Paper control is a Big Thing in our lives, too, SRS -- but Canadians don't get the tax credit for "in kind" donations that you do, so I just sort and purge, sort and purge. That's the only part of the de-cluttering process that I'm fully comfortable with.

This is actually not my first major clutter-busting operation; after more than 30 moves between 1973 and 1990, and a nasty divorce in 1994, I flatter myself that I got quite good at it, although it was a wrench every time. But Edmund likes to welter in Stuff and can't pass a charity shop or a second-hand book shop without strong yearning for acquisition. My great failings are crockery -- I can't resist the stuff, especially porcelain and English bone china -- and cooking equipment. Consequently, we have enough china, glassware and kitchen traps for two families of four and a restaurant, two whole rooms full of books, stuffed closets, at least two dozen large plastic sealer bins full of bed and table linen that we don't use and garments of huge sentimental value. How could I part with Great-Uncle Alfred's evening suit (white tie and tails), vintage 1917? My mother's honeymoon shoes (size 7), vintage 1951? My wedding dress? The dress I wore when I married Mr. Wrong?

Oh, God; the problem is even worse than I thought.

I'm familiar with the work of the great Don Aslett, and I fully accept and agree with everything he says with respect to busting clutter. But when you're a nester, and a sentimental one at that, the stuff creeps up on you before you know it.

This explains why I have two full sets of mixing bowls -- one made by my cousin the potter and the other inherited from my grandmother -- and I don't even bake.

Today and Monday will be devoted to cleaning up the garden; it's the Victoria Day weekend, the traditional date when residents of Ottawa can plant tender annuals without fear of losing them to a killing frost. My goal is at least one room's worth of clearance and tidy-ance every two weeks, and a load of clutter re-homed every month.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 May 08 - 12:04 PM

Charmion, if you try to set a pace of a room every two weeks I think you'll be disappointed--it is a difficult job, and there may be some negotiation involved. Unless you can have the Salvation Army truck back up to the door and load everything in, you might want to set a smaller goal and see how long it takes to reach it. Just a thought--your mileage may vary. I have a lot of stuff in trunks from the family in Connecticut that hasn't even entered this process. I'm working on the most recent generations now, my kids and me, and my parents. We'll get to the greats and grands after this.

I have to mow the entire yard today, and put in a few more plants in the first of several veggie gardens. What decluttering can I do that is gardening related? I need to get over keeping all of the little bedding plant containers. I rarely ever get stuff started from seed in the house in the winter, and yet I hold onto all of this with the thought I'll take that frugal approach. I have a lot of them stashed in the garage and today I'm going to pull them out and put them in the plastic recycle bin. Meanwhile, I was disappointed with my neighborhood garden center--I've taken them lots of black pots over the years to recycle, but now they won't let me have any back for some transplanting I have to do. I have to buy them! I'll cruise through the neighborhood before the trash guy this week and see if I can find some (there are usually a few in sight).

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 May 08 - 12:38 PM

Charmion, can you tell me anything about the very thin porcelain pieces in this photo (cup and saucer)? You can feel the pattern of the painting on it, and though it doesn't show, there is some gold in the paint. I'm trying to figure out what to call these on eBay.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: wysiwyg
Date: 18 May 08 - 01:26 PM

Charmion, (JUST Charmion!)

If you need a place to stash Edmund's pileup for him to sort out between getting home and moving into a new place, feel free to load it up and bring it all to our church basement. There's lots and lots of room down there, and we can put up a cot there for his eventual sorting operation. :~) Atticus can take up quarters for the duration to keep him company!

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Charmion
Date: 18 May 08 - 06:20 PM

SRS, what you have there is a porcelain cup and saucer made in Japan for export to the United States and/or Britain between 1865 and 1921; I believe the green stripe around the edge indicates 1900-ish and later, as that colour became fashionable at the turn of the century. Your cup may even say "Nippon" on the bottom, or have a maker's mark in Kanji characters.

Here's an article on Nippon ware from a dictionary of antique jargon I found on line at www.jjohnsonappraisals.com:

Nippon - (Ceramics, Japan) (Time Period 1865 - 1921) The word "Nippon" used in the back stamp of famous Asian china, simply means "Japan." Nippon china was produced for export to the United States beginning in 1865, when the country ended its long period of commercial isolation, and ending in 1921, when the United States enforced the McKinley Tariff Act, which prohibited the import of items that were not "plainly marked, stamped, branded or labeled in legible English words." Nippon was considered the Japanese word for the country of origin, "Japan" being the English equivalent, the period of the Nippon china mark ended. While Japan had a long period of porcelain manufacturing, dating back centuries with its close ties to China, Nippon porcelain was produced strictly for Western consumers. Early in its porcelain trade, the Japanese government commissioned a number of foreign experts to come to Japan to train people in the production of European styles. They were highly successful in these attempts at imitation, and much of the Nippon China that was produced bears a strong resemblance to such European porcelain products. Much of the antique Nippon china available has been hand-painted with ornate decorations that, ironically, the Japanese of the era considered excessive and distasteful. During the Meiji period (1868-1912) much of the Nippon porcelain pieces were decorated with gold. Much of this decoration was not very durable and wore away over the years, so it is common today to find Nippon china pieces with the gold rubbed off. Dozens of Nippon china marks were used during this period, representing the work of many different porcelain manufacturers working in Japan at the time. Today, Nippon porcelain is among the most highly collected and sought-after of all antique china.




If you Google "Nippon ware", you will get lots and lots of hits so you can and read around to learn about it.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 May 08 - 12:32 AM

Well one kid showed up and took a bag full of old bottles AND some other stuff left out in the driveway. Yes! The other kid didn't show. He was on-call, so probably had to go work.

I found another box of bottles when we shifted some boxes from one room to another! Not too many in it, though. It's been fun to look them all over.

I hope I get more done this week.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 08 - 12:36 AM

It doesn't have Nippon or any other markings, but I'll check to see if anything is embossed in the bottom. But this is great to know, thank you! One set was broken in shipping (my sister crammed so much in the box I'm surprised everything wasn't crushed) but there are four other sets.

My decluttering today was outside. I planted a dwarf silverado sage under my kitchen window six years ago, and the darn thing is huge. I have to prune it several times a year to see out over the top of it. I decided I'd tired of that and took it down to the ground. I'll be removing suckers for a while, but it is history. I put in a few peppers and a squash in the area where it had been growing, next to the new veggie garden.

I pulled stuff out of the garage that goes in recycling and trash. This occurred when I started digging out the mower and trimmer for the yard work. And guess what--I found the old sewer snake that was here when I moved in. I bought another one a couple of months ago because I couldn't find it. See why I need to declutter?

There are areas around the house that are much easier to work in now, but there is a lot more to do. This afternoon when I needed my spark plug wrench to change the spark plug in my line trimmer I knew right where it was, and it's back there now, where it belongs. That is so nice!

SRS (I will sleep tonight, I am soooo tired!)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 19 May 08 - 02:49 AM

Desk is actually fun to work at. Flowers are sorted, bows made and attached, and added to the pile by the back door that's going to my home town this week. Cut about 3 inches off the bottom of a denim skirt preparatory to hemming it shorter and adding embroidery to it. Two giant piles of magazines sorted to take to the recycle bin at the local grocery store.

Keeping lists helps!

Lin

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 May 08 - 03:33 AM

I decluttered the thistles out of a flower bed at church yesterday. That's as far as I got!

The shelf is still here on my sewing table, Limpit's room is inaccessible unless I suddenly acquire the skills of a mountain goat, the dining room table is still buried under hats, so I can't move the sewing stuff out of the sitting room to work on it, so the sitting room is full of stuff I can't move until Limpit's shelf is up and I've room on the sewing table...

I am defeated!

I will go and eat chocolate to cheer myself up.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: maire-aine
Date: 19 May 08 - 09:51 AM

I pulled enough weeds to make room for the herb plants, so I got them in the ground before the rain came. The rest of the outdoor chores got washed out.

The diningroom table is still uncluttered, and the furniture has been moved. (I re-arrange the furniture so that I can open the windows in the summer.) I got the upstairs hallway all cleaned up, and the floor & stairway swept.

And our team won first place in the monthly trivia quiz on Sunday.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 08 - 10:19 AM

Maryanne seems to be pulling out lengths ahead of the rest of the pack!

Liz, this is not the Eight Belles scenario! Pick yourself up (brush off the chocolate crumbs) and find one place to work on. The corner of the dining room table. Where should those things really go? Or maybe try a packrat's shortcut--arrange like things together and see if you can streamline the clutter. The lacuna created between the individual categories of stuff on the table will help you begin to move it all off.

Kat prophesied: I found another box of bottles when we shifted some boxes from one room to another! So did I, but it was three largish boxes. Antique trunks, in fact, filled with antique goodies that I forgot I'd put up on 2x4s in the garage and was hidden behind other boxes. Gotta move them into the house before another summer out there makes them deteriorate too much. I think there is a set of china for 12 in one of those. I've wondered where it got to.

My yard out front is lovely. The side veggie bed is going, and to achieve more room in this garden I did declutter--I took out the big sage. Moved around a lot of pots beside the door, stored the unused ones and tossed a lot of oddball stuff, and I gave the boot to daffodils growing out of the turf. Have to figure out where to put them, but I finally was able to mow over that spot and it looks great.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: maire-aine
Date: 19 May 08 - 12:08 PM

I just found out that there are hidden benefits to getting older. Our city sponsors a handyman referral service through the senior center, and I'll qualify after my birthday next month. That will help a lot with the small repairs-- I need a lightswitch fixed and a faucet replaced.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 19 May 08 - 03:03 PM

Well, I've been attacking it, even if I haven't been posting to this thread til now. I refer to it as "beating the interior into submission" -- and, while I've been de-accessioning things left and right, I REALLY wish it would actually start to SHOW one of these days.

Last week took boxes of books to the Nottingham Library sale -- was away the day of the sale, but bought some of the leftovers at half price the other day. But I won -- I took home fewer than I had donated.

Last week, too, I took several bags of fabric I'll never use (I don't actually sew -- and I've already Freecycled the two sewing machines I never used (because I had no room for them -- only hung on to them for 15 years or so...) to a friend who can use them. And this weekend I culled my loose recipe files and now have two binders and a large folder for her later this week -- AND she'll take the Better Homes and Gardens and Food & Wine magazines.

Another friend will get the Cottage Livings and Coastal Livings later this week when we have lunch. Instead of burdening her with rest of the shelter magazines (because she'll never get rid of them -- I've already given her the Fine Gardenings, Herb Quarterlys, British Homes & Gardens, etc.), I'll drop off the last couple months worth to the ER at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital. I was there for almost a day with Tom (Express Care) a couple weeks ago, and after I finished my book (which I had only just started), I was left with very little insteresting stuff to read there. I intend to make sure no one else is, like me, reduced to doing my arm exercises to keep from fainting from boredom.

I've got a stack of New Yorkers to go through, but none from the '90s. I give a friend Vanity Fairs; she gives me New Yorkers. In the cubic footage wars, she wins. And she recently decided she no longer wanted the shelter magazines I was heaping on her. (So the other friend above started getting them.)

This morning Freecycled a lamp needing the switch repaired -- I don't know if it's been picked up yet. And have a taker on the three yoga books and sheaf of articles on exercises for stress reduction.

Oh, and today I dropped off a small bag of clothes at Goodwill -- smaller than it was because I gave a shirt to a friend on Friday night and another shirt to another friend at the shanty sing Saturday.

Next thing is going through my "gift suitcase" and getting rid of all the "it was a good idea at the time" potential gifts that have proved unsuitable plus a couple other things that I won't wait til a significant gift giving occasion to pass on.

And it's time for Curmudgeon to start selling on eBay all the antiquish stuff that's been piling up.

I'm researching selling on Craig's List, too -- I think it's time to sell my first born, I mean, the vulcanizer and rubberstamp making tackle including all The Rubbersmith matrices and plates. That biz has been on the extreme back burner since 1990.

Gotta call the guy who buys LPs. (blues and whatever else he might want)...and the guy who buys magazines (he wants the Horticultures and the early years of Wired).

Our financial situation is a bit precarious right now so it's time to start selling what's left to sell and is worthwhile selling.

It's never ending!

Hey, SRS! I thought I was the only one who used the little numbered squares puzzle analogy -- our problem is we've never had the empty square!!!

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 19 May 08 - 03:07 PM

Oh, and after I got home today (spending six bucks in gas on Employment Security games I no longer have to play -- but I made an interesting contact) I hauled upstairs and into a trash bag the cardboard from the huge box I tore up several months ago. I'm trying to make my way to the shelves on that wall of the cellar -- and there's way too much crap in the way.

(Story of my life.)

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 19 May 08 - 04:55 PM

Well, I managed to vacuum two rooms, tidy three hats away and clear part of the dining room table - couldn't do one corner, it's an oval table!

And I ate chocolate.

Yum.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Charmion
Date: 19 May 08 - 10:12 PM

It rained and blowed coldly all day in Ottawa, so only the masochists were gardening. Being quite sane, I went shopping for a cellular telephone (my first!) and ended up with another clutch of books, too. (Gotta stop doing that.) The garden is still a bad mess, which it will stay until I experience a renaissance of energy and the weather improves.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 19 May 08 - 11:37 PM

Good for you, LtS!! It's a start!

Charmion, very wise, today.:-)

I don't see the decluttering from today's actions, but will soon, I hope. I finally listed the Victorian rocking chair which no one in the family wants, which I had a sentimental attachment to as it was my mother's. It's just taking up space, is not comfortable for any of us, and so I listed it on craigslist, to sell. I also listed for barter, a large Paragon pottery kiln which was given to me and I've never used. I want to trade it for a table top kiln so I can do some enamelling. Wish me luck!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 May 08 - 11:54 PM

As Don Aslett has stated several times in the book I'm reading now--your family members wouldn't have wanted to leave you things that you didn't want or were in the way. They wouldn't have had you associate them so strongly with the item that you feel trapped by it or with it.

I didn't do much in the declutter field today either. It's Monday, back in harness at work after a very strenuous weekend. I'm usually not kidding when I tell the folks at work that I go back to work on Monday to rest up from the weekend. I passed the day here without making matters worse, which is sometimes as much of an accomplishment as moving stuff out. I will confess that now that I've rediscovered them, I'm dying to bring those trunks in. But I need to have a place to park them first.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 20 May 08 - 05:34 AM

"your family members wouldn't have wanted to leave you things that you didn't want or were in the way."

Obviously the good Mr Aslett does not posses family members like mine... By the time the vultures that are my eldest aunt and her daughters had finished, all that was left of my Grandmother's estate was a large dresser that they wouldn't take because it didn't fit in their houses.

I have it now and it's perfect for the dining room alcove. If I could bear to part with all the odd glasses in it, it would be great for putting my china in!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: wysiwyg
Date: 20 May 08 - 09:12 AM

Had a great MP3 player/recorder that promised to "listen" to tapes and make 'em MP3s, but when I tried it, the recorder froze up and I had a hell of a time getting it to play songs again. Yet other same-model recorders and the one that froze could record hour-long live sound. So I bit the bullet yesterday, having bought several of these units for my aquatics clients, and did up a much-beloved (and until recently long-lost) tape. Of course it came out fine and the recorder behaved itself.

So now I am taking aim at that boxful of caseless audiocassettes moldering away in storage, now that I can Copy with Confidence. I may actually load them up and take them along on vacation to do them at leisure. I also have learned how to transfer sound files off one unit and onto another. One of the units I'd bought is a 1-GB model, and I also have an oddball 4 GB model that may sync also..... this year's vacay will entail less aquatics and more sitting in my camping recliner while Hardi goes road cycling, so this will make a nice brainless and vacationless harvesting project.

~Susan

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 20 May 08 - 03:10 PM

Not much so far today but I was busy with physical therapy, fainting over the cost of filling my gas tank, and applying for a couple jobs.

But I did bring some more cardboard upstairs, tear it up and bag it. And then I went outside and cut brush on the high side of the driveway -- tricky footing, so I had to be careful. Don't want to break anything else! I'm not done, but that's a decluttering task where I can actually see immediate results.

Amazing how fast that stuff grows when you have no time to hack it down.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 May 08 - 03:14 PM

I've been busy trying to clear my desk of work-related stuff, but today I finished something from the weekend. I rediscovered a treasure, a box with my old college botany herbarium. I emptied out the papers of plants long since forgotten and cleaned it up. Collecting and identification and mounting of plants is a hobby I used to enjoy that perhaps I will share with the kids. We can collect blooming wildflowers in the woods across the street.

I did de-clutter the oddball stuff I found in the box underneath the herbarium--old check registers to shred, an ashtray from a Reno casino (I never smoked, so it probably isn't mine), etc.

I have a rocking chair that belonged to my great grandmother (I have a photo of her sitting in it). It is beautiful and comfortable, but it was coming unglued when I moved it to Texas 25 years ago. My ex took it apart. He did that to a number of pieces of furniture, but only completed one of these projects of his (had my kitchen chairs dipped and refinished). I need to sand the dowels and reglue it and put it back into service. It's in the garage and is a keepsake I really would like to use. Aslett is clear that not everything is junk, and by getting rid of the clutter you can rediscover those treasures. It is too bad this has been set aside for so long.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 20 May 08 - 04:03 PM

We've started boxing up stuff for the impending move to a bigger house....although I don't want to fill the new place with too much tut! I'm doing one room at a time and it's not going to badly as alot of things weren't unpacked from the last move and I had a major declutter back then.

It was Harry's birthday yesterday and I have kind of managed to get rid of some of the wrapping paper and toy boxes to the recyling without him seeing!...who needs toys when a box and a bit of paper will do?!! *G* All of his small clothes are packed away in vaccuum sealed bags as we will be needing them again.

I suppose I should sort out the material pile and the wool pile at somepoint soon.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 May 08 - 05:22 PM

You've got it, Khat, the box is usually better than the toy.

The stuff in that box I just mentioned included a 1974 Seattle Times clipping about a rummage sale find, a book by Harriet Hubbard Ayer, called Complete and Authentic Treatise on the Laws of Health and Beauty, published in 1902. I don't know why I kept the clipping, but it is pretty interesting. I did a search and found a modest page with some information about Ayer, sponsored by a descendant of hers: http://www.harriethubbardayer.org/. She led a rather remarkable short life.

Now that I've told you about this clipping I will toss it in the recycle bin.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 20 May 08 - 10:29 PM

What a remarkable woman, SRS. Thanks for the link.

It felt good to drop off the two boxes of books, today. My house still looks like a disaster, but I can see order coming through. Tomorrow I call the Goodwill and arrange for them to pick up the other books and LPs.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 21 May 08 - 01:10 AM

Sigh. Needed badly to get out of the house for awhile, so of course went to Borders Bookstore, and of course came home with a bagfull of books, even though the bookcases are overflowing. Sigh.

Lin

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 21 May 08 - 01:28 AM

Lin - I know the feeling. I have so much to do here, things I've promised to people, but somehow, real life just gets in the way...

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 May 08 - 12:41 PM

Lin, don't beat yourself up for backsliding, simply find an equal number of books, plus one if you want to get ahead, and donate them somewhere.

I was mowing the back yard last night and made a mental tally of things to trim and move because I have to trim around or move them every time I mow. The stuff I kept to use "one of these days" should either get used or find a place to live where it won't be in the way. My yard work will be easier.

I'm busy, but can still manage small steps. At lunch today I'll escort some of the stuff I want to discard out to the pickup.

When I have finished this work I want to end up with a table setup that can be easily moved out the side door to enable baking (to avoid heating up the house in this hot weather). I have a Dutch oven that will work perfectly, and there is a GFCI plug beside the door. It's getting to that season, but the adjacent room is still too full to put the oven and table where they should go.

It looks like we're all feeling some frustration at not being able to see more progress from all of our work. What's a solution? I may try for a big Memorial Day weekend push. Anyone else?

Chocolate?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 May 08 - 01:27 PM

Chocolate sounds good. I have had a Sonic grilled chicken wrap with no sauce for lunch the past two days, but it didn't seem to help!

I did get totally disgusted with my desk this morning and went through a bunch of papers, stapled the ones I wanted to keep and transferred them to a hanging file holder so they are organised and handy at least. Didn't keep too many. Still have one pile to go through.

I have catnip and flax plants in the bathroom waiting to be planted. It's the only place safe from the cats, but first I have to go through the cluttered shed to find the fencing which will keep the neighbour cats out of it once I plant it!

I will be packing up bottles, today, to send to a friend, so that will help in the dining room.

Lin...SRS is right, no sense beating yourself up...just take an equal amount out.:-)

LtS...maybe say "yes" to yourself before saying "yes" to others? Just be nice to yourself, regardless.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 May 08 - 06:03 PM

One short but loaded hour today was spent going through a file of my Dad's stuff. Shredding most, but filing a few for further examination when I have the leisure to put it in order. Some for historic purposes for my kids, some for my own interest (legal proceedings). Contemplating the internal baggage that I can discard. There's one more box that is almost smoldering it has so much family baggage. :-/

Looks like I have to drive to work tomorrow, so to get a two-fer out of the trip I'll load up thrift store stuff.

I've emptied a large box of computer supplies and rearranged office shelving. Part of tomorrow's run will include computer disks to put in the shredder at work.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 21 May 08 - 06:21 PM

It's saying Yes to myself that got me so far behind and cluttered in the first place!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 21 May 08 - 06:46 PM

Oops!:-)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 May 08 - 12:28 AM

Heavy lifting of paper in the family baggage department this evening. I got through a few of the compartments in the big expanding file with estate stuff. Ooooof. The letters and accusations people made. We had one family member who didn't think equal shares suited him, and it didn't help that the deceased party played favorites with accounts that couldn't legally be included as part of the estate. I'm dumping everything peripheral and holding only the documents that the attorneys generated, which is still a lot, but not two boxes full.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 May 08 - 12:53 PM

This last box with its expanding file has been like immersing myself in a virtual dust storm. It seems necessary to stir up a lot of things in order to put them to rest. I think a bottle of wine and a bonfire will be the appropriate end to a lot of the contents.

As I work through files I end up with these little piles of paper that need to go somewhere else to live. So while the expanding file is shrinking, I have to stop every so often and put papers in existing new files or park them in the "look then trash" area.

Looks like I have to make a trip to work today. How many other things can I do on the way? Perhaps uncover a couple more square feet of floor with thrift store donations to take along? Pull some lumpy object from the garage to free up space (maybe something the truck door hits when we open it in the garage?)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 May 08 - 12:32 AM

No reports this evening? Lin, is JunK helping in any way this week? LTS, has Limpet cleaned her room? Kat, have the kids retrieved the bottles and LPs and such?

I have managed to get through the heavy-weather of family estate stuff. I need to make another pass because I know there is a lot more paper there I can trash. I took a big trash bag of shredded paper to work today and stuffed it into the administration office's recycle bin. It is usually filled with shredded paper and they have arrangements on campus for the careful disposal of shreds since so much if it has to do with hiring and benefits and personnel actions.

Stuff was dropped off at the Goodwill trailer, and I swung by the city trash/recycle station and emptied stuff in those bins. I'm in good shape to sort and toss over the long weekend (in the U.S. Monday is Memorial Day.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 May 08 - 02:38 AM

Update on Limpit's room - not a sausage. Plenty of old oat bar wrappers and the odd festering crust, but no progress.

It's half term next week.. that'll keep her busy for a while!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 23 May 08 - 06:28 AM

More boxes were delivered yesterday, just have to get round to packing more books and cd's into them....and digging Harry and cat out of them...they 'think' they are helping!!

Hope Limpit doesn't get lost in her room!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Diva
Date: 23 May 08 - 07:18 AM

Still in a guddle......kitchen not finished and have come to a halt with the de cluttering. However, weather permitting we are going to sell at a car boot on Sunday..so providing I don't buy anything....

Ah weans (babies/toddlers) and boxes....much more fun than the toy that came in it

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 23 May 08 - 10:42 AM

Well, Freecycled stuff picked up and gone and what I had no bite on (wood pulp egg cartons) will go to one of the friends I had lunch with yesterday. On the way home, dropped off foodie magazines and a large accumulation of loose recipes with another friend. This morning I pulled a couple things out of my "gift suitcase" to take to a friend's yardsale this weekend. Emailed a friend notorious for salvaging and using obsolete technology -- gave him a list of old still in box Mac software to see if he wants them along with the oversized Postscript laser printer when we get together (soon I hope!).

Investigating selling a vulcanizer and rubberstamp-making tackle locally on Craig's List -- too heavy to ship. Will come with all The Rubbersmith's plates and matrices. Sigh. I guess it's time to sell my "firstborn" (business).

Found some photography books to de-accession while I was in the guest room. Have someone in mind for them, too.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 May 08 - 10:57 AM

We made a playhouse with a door and window from the box that my dryer came in. After that finally went out to the curb my sister gave the kids a cardboard playhouse and there were a few times when we put bedding in it and they spent the night in their "house." It just doesn't get much more fun than that!

Today lunchtime is for file fine-tuning. Dealing with the little stacks that were set aside to deal with when a larger file of stuff was being shredded. Those piles have to go somewhere for all of this to work. I need to address the old files on little floppy disks also. I have several plastic cases that fit only those files, so I'll compress them, burn copies to CDs, and re-purpose or donate those cabinets. This is small, but will make moving around my office easier.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: maire-aine
Date: 23 May 08 - 11:23 AM

I have high hopes for the 3-day weekend. If I can get out of the office early, I can do the grocery shopping and throw some laundry in the washing machine. That would give me a head-start. I've had the ingredients for muffins on a tray on the counter-top, and I just keep moving it from one place to another, but I'll bake them over the weekend. I also want to make some home-made breakfast sausage on Saturday-- I'm thawing out the pork loin today. Once those things are done, I can clear the decks in the kitchen.

I've got 4 big containers of newspaper clippings and articles printed from various websites, all on political & economic topics. I would really like to go thru them (keep the general stuff and toss the Bush-specific ones), but that just seems such a daunting task. Maybe I'll just throw a table cloth over the whole pile.

The Belle Isle Botanical Society plant sale is this Saturday, so I want to go and buy my tomato plants early and get them in the ground.

If I can get that much done, I'll be satisfied.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 May 08 - 01:44 PM

That sounds like fun, Maryanne. I think I"ll get some tomato plants this weekend, too.

I have had a hiatus as I need Rog's help with moving out books and LPs. He's got to work part of this weekend at JUCO, the Junior COllege World Baseball Tournament.*sigh* BUT, he tells me it will mostly be at evening news time, so I hope to get his help in doing more.

I did get the bottles washed, the ones I've decided to keep and this morning I found, unexpectedly, a nice $3 tray at Walgreens, to display them on. I also did the dishes which had been soaking for a few days.:-) And a load of laundry.

We're also caretaking three of our granddogs, at their house...so at least three trips back and forth each day with Rog doing early and late, me in between.

Now, I know I can get some clutter done with on my jewellery table as my friend okayed the first design and I can finish it quite easily and quickly, get it ready to send off and start on the next! I'll post a picture when I get it done.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 May 08 - 04:12 PM

You know, don't you, that jewelry, chocolate, wine, beer, and crystals never count as "clutter."

The paper stuff goes slower when it is the type that really needs sorting. Maryanne, why don't you approach it a handful at a time, or maybe do it in stages; first simply sort into stacks--General and Bush. Then toss Bush (!) and leave the rest to do a handful at a time as you can. I've been working out a similar strategy with old legal papers and with kid art. Getting general stacks of related material makes it easier to choose which of those items you really want to keep. When they're commingled you can't remember if you already set one of those works or pages aside.

I have found things to think about then toss or file. For example, I almost bought a beautiful house in the mountains east of Albuquerque right after the divorce. A job was offered and the paperwork was set to go--but through passive aggressive delays my ex's attorney messed up the paperwork and the house fell through. It was a cascade of disappointments, and I still have some material and photos from that house. I'd love at some time to live in the woods like that with a view of wilderness, but right now I live in a beautiful pseudo-rural area in a city. I need to work on this one so the best thing is to toss the old plan and move forward. Something else will come along.

My office is significantly changed in the past month. Slowly but surely it is looking better, organized and more clear floor space. The couch in my living room is an explosion of laundry needing to be folded (like Kat's dishes waiting to be washed), one of those things that isn't pressing as long as you don't run out of clothes or plates or forks. :)

Dig your way out! Onward and upward, ladies!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: maeve
Date: 23 May 08 - 06:58 PM

I've decluttered the front yard near our farm stand by carting away most of the plants waiting to be divided. I'll need to get them repotted for sale or lined out in the perennial section of the tilled veggie garden, next to rows of basket and wattle willows.I have moved about half of my potting materials, pots, etc. The front looks much more inviting for potential customers, and the display gardens can be seen.

We decluttered the shed a bit by taking out one wad of plastic greenhouse sheeting and got it attached to greenhouse #1. Now I have a place to set up seed trays and get them planted and growing.

I can't seem to get to laundry lately. We're planting and digging and potting (and occasionally selling) plants from early until late each day. What glory it would be to chuck a load into a washing machine every morning or evening! To do the laundry means washing dishes and pots first, and then taking most of the morning washing and rinsing the clothes before finding places to hang them to dry. Dirt-filled workclothes must soak first, either in the bathtub or the kitchen sink.

It's wonderful to have one partially greenhouse at least usable! I'd like some rainy weather so I can return to clearing out the house clutter to sell as much as possible.

You've all done well with your progress forward.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 May 08 - 11:05 PM

I have a side yard that is much smaller than the space maeve described, but I decluttered it this evening. The greenbriar was trying to grow over old fence slats and chicken wire and landscaping timbers plus some other leftover construction stuff. Kind of in the way she has to wash dishes before soaking laundry, I mowed the front lawn before everything was moved out of the side yard. The timbers and slats were taken down to the curb to be placed on the mowed corner, for the trash or for someone looking for firewood. I pulled out the lawn mower and gave that area a thorough going over.

Okay, a favorite (new) British mystery program on PBS is coming on in a few minutes. I promised myself that when it started I would sit in front of the living room television and fold all of the laundry on the couch and in the dryer.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 May 08 - 01:48 AM

The living room looks pretty good! The couch is clear of laundry and I threw the woven shawl that was under all of it in the washer. I've used it on the seat to keep down the cat hair and crumbs if the kids eat in there.

Earlier in the garage I spotted some antique trunks, mentioned above, but on top of them was a balsa wood and cardboard doll house that has to be 50 years old. It was a hand-me-down to me from the neighbors. I know the dolls and furniture are somewhere here and I'll dig them out now that I've removed the big trash bag I had encapsulated it in. It's on display on a pretty library table in the living room. Out in the garage I had it sitting on the solid base of a framed map of the world. The map used to hang in my bedroom (mid-1960s and on). Mom got the old wood and gesso frame at the Goodwill and put in the print so I'd have something on the wall. It is chipped, but gesso can be repaired. And for years, between the frame and the house, was a numbered print from my Dad's house. Geez. The stuff you find when you start clearing up! I suspect I slipped that in there when everything was in storage but before it was moved down here. For years this treasure was hidden away.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: freda underhill
Date: 24 May 08 - 02:34 AM

That living room sounds great, srs. i've finally decided my place is decluttered enough to resume normal life, and will be having a singing session there next weekend. it'll be the first after 3 years of absence, due to relocation and renovation.

it'll feel good to have my living room ringing with music once more. when space is created, beautiful new energy can move in.

freda

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 May 08 - 11:20 AM

Congratulations! Our first graduate!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 24 May 08 - 07:37 PM

Today I consolidated some antique-ish stuff to eBay (get digital photos tomorrow), planted a deck planter with parsley (flat leaf), possibly found a buyer (without having to advertise) for my vulcanizer and rubberstamp making tackle (including all The Rubbersmith plates and matrices, etc.), and then got distracted while cleaning off the table enough to eat supper and ended up cleaning and rearranging the overflowing top drawer of the map chest that holds a substantial amount of my rubberstamps.

And read and threw out some papers...but that's an on-going project.

Tomorrow I take an even larger box o' stuff to a retired friend who is having a weekly yardsale.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 24 May 08 - 07:40 PM

Oh! AND found a new home for a bunch of obsolete Mac software -- including System 7.5 still in box!!!

I really hate throwing things out.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 May 08 - 07:48 PM

Bah! Humbug! To an old packrat-clutterer-camp robber auctionoholic like myself, this thread is obscene, PC, all those adjectives.


(Blindfold me and send in a cleanout crew. Can't bear to see it happen)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 May 08 - 07:57 PM

LOL...glad you could join us, Q!

For some evidence of my cleaning up, here's a not very good picture of the necklace I just made using a pendant provided by a friend and a fairly decent picture of most of the antique bottles I am keeping from my mom's collection: click here.

Rog has had to work all day, home for one hour to eat, then home for another hour or so for supper then back to work, so there sits all of the heavy stuff I needed his help with. I told him his employer should pay for a handyman around here. He got upset, said the mother-company had laid off over 200 people recently, so he feels he has to go and not grumble/make waves. I really hope we can figure a way for him to retire next fall. (Sorry, I know we're only supposed to post when successful!:-)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 May 08 - 09:37 PM

Understood about those handyman blues, Kat. Good luck on his making it to retirement before they get any bright ideas. Those bottles will look great on a table in front of a sunny window. And that necklace is lovely. What kind of beads did you use?

They say Jim McCain has trouble lifting his arms above his head after years in captivity--I think maybe that's because they had him saw limbs from up in trees part of the time. I have several areas of the yard where I need to thin out branches and I did some limbs between 3 and 4 inches through--with that little blade on the long-handled limb saw that you can buy at Home Depot. My biceps are almost hot they got such a workout. I'm cooling off a little before I go take my bath--I'm afraid if I get in too soon I'll still be sweating from the work when I get out. ;-D

I worked my way around the back yard and took out a lot of the branches and limbs that are in the way of mowing and the string trimmer (clutter!) and make my job harder when I mow. I also cleared out more piles of stuff beside the garage and have it ready for trash on Tuesday. If I can mow straight through an area without having to jockey the mower all around an obstacle, it will speed things. I'm also looking at how I've laid out some beds--I may reshape a few to make them easier to mow past. I'm done with the yard stuff now, I'll get cleaned up and spend a quiet evening in front of the television with the shredder.

Oh--I haven't found that doll furniture yet, but when I do I'll link to a photo. It looks quite interesting.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 May 08 - 10:02 PM

Thanks, Maggie. I am going to restring the necklace, though, there is something bugging me about the order of the beads and sizes.:-> They are carnelian and citrine beads with the gold pendant and three hangy-down carnelian pendants provided by my friend.

I am going to have to find a sunny window with enough shelf space to put those bottles on. Right now the sunniest is full of plants and the next to sunniest has my collection of stonepeople in it with more plants.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Charmion
Date: 24 May 08 - 10:30 PM

I have a sore back and a much neater front garden this evening, and now all I have to do is get the mason over here to repair the damage done to the retaining wall by the snowplow. The bastard took out more than four feet of dry stone wall -- you'd think he'd have noticed!

The kitchen cabinets have been dejunked and tidied. (How did we acquire all those coffee cups?) The dining table is completely covered with stuff to go, and those darned cabinets still look just as full. How does that happen? The St Vincent de Paul is the target of choice for this batch.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 May 08 - 12:04 AM

Charmion,

Don't you know? The cups breed at night when everyone's asleep. I bet you thought that gentle rattling sound you hear in the house at night was a train passing on the tracks a few blocks over--nope! It's the cups humping. The DNA is so complex that they come up with offspring with all sorts of messages and designs--progeny do not necessarily look in any way like the parents.

They're building retaining walls in the new housing development on the other side of our woods. I walked past slowly yesterday to get an idea of how they do it. I need to build one in front (semi-ornamental, but meant to front a berm I've built up in case any traffic decides to fly through the yard rather than stop at the corner where the road T's in front of our house.)

Kat, I have lots of great beads I've accumulated, and a number of good pattern books now. The process of simply lining them up in the bead tray or making a sample swatch is good to a point--getting the whole thing to "hang together" (pardon the pun!) is the trick, isn't it?

I found the doll furniture. The figures have moth-eaten clothes but are otherwise okay. The wood furniture looks good, though I had some inexpensive plastic furniture I'd added later that kind of stuck to the dolls--the plastic stuff is going in the trash. I need to clean it all out and do a few repairs and then this house will be ready for it's close up. No clutter in that house, at least!

I picked up a beer on the way home from running errands this evening, but I'm so tired from the trimming that I won't finish it. It'll work well to attract snails and slugs in the garden tomorrow. They don't care if it is flat from sitting open in the fridge.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 25 May 08 - 11:00 AM

What is it with coffee cups anyway? They're more prolific than coat hangers!

Part of the declutterification process is to make a workspace for beading -- a place that doesn't have to be cleared off once a day for a meal.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 May 08 - 11:30 AM

Glass shelves make a nice way to use all that sunny window space....

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 25 May 08 - 12:55 PM

Great idea, Susan, thanks! In the past when I wanted a window shelf, half-way up the window, Rog would just put in a wooden shelf. A glass shelf would be much better...the plants would still get light and the bottles could turn purple and green.

We got a tall, computer station from my sister's storage this morning which she gave us. Rog replaced his slanting tv tray thingie in the kitchen for the desk for his laptop and clutter which was on the floor. It looks much better, now, so that's a relief.

He also got the fold-up, heavy-duty, 4' X 4' portable pet fence and put it around the flower bed where I will plant the catnip today or tomorrow as soon as I get some chicken wire or something to put over the top to keep the neighbour's cats out of it.

I have compromised about the stuff on the living room floor which needs to go to the car for donations. We may go to the cemetery tomorrow, so I am waiting until after that for Rog to load books and LPs.

I feel as though we are getting somewhere now! (Yesterday was depressing!)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 May 08 - 01:52 PM

Going to the cemetery! Going to bury the treasures for future archeologists to find and collect?
(Watching a BBC program on the tomb of Tutankhamom (sp.))

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: wysiwyg
Date: 25 May 08 - 03:07 PM

I have seen used bathroom shelves or leftover louvered-window glass hung in a window to fill it with shelves. Much less hardware and no need for the glass to be cut to fit exactly. You'd put eye bolts top and bottom, and use wires strung through tubes at their crossings to make shelf-holders. Shelves sit on them with silicone plugs or other traction material to help hold them from slipping; the items sitting on the shelves hold it all in place.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 25 May 08 - 04:12 PM

I've seen those, too, Susan, but I wouldn't trust them around my cats AND I don't think I'd trust breakables on them. We've got the brackets, just need to get the shelves and I'll bet I can find some at Habitat for Humanity.

Q! good thought...maybe there should be some other *trinkets* besides my mom's ashes in her "jar." (Not canopic, though!**bg**)

We got four more shutters out of the kitchen and up on the house!!! That leaves only three more to paint and they are the shorter ones, so only four left to put up. The kitchen is definitely looking better. Plus I boxed up the (20)bottles to go to a friend. Will box up the leftovers by tomorrow, take down the table they were on and move the mini-trampoline in by the treadmill which will get it out of the living room. (Still offering old bottles to anyone, plus old insulators...they are all clear having been boxed up for ages. I don't know if they will turn colour or not, but if anyone is interested, please PM me.:-)

I see Daylight, people!!**bg**

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 May 08 - 05:56 PM

On the drive from Fort Worth to Albuquerque via Amarillo there is a long empty stretch of road that parallels an old railroad track for miles. Between the tracks and the road are old telephone poles with the glass inulsators still in place. I'd guess a lot of them are purple by now, but getting them down, that is the trick.

I just returned from a wedding shower, and I went determined not to give them something that would occupy their shelves until they regifted or exchanged it. I took a 3-litre jug of extra virgin olive oil for the soon-to-be-weds. Use it, enjoy it, move on. . .

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: maire-aine
Date: 25 May 08 - 10:33 PM

I got to the plant sale early on Sat. It was a little chaotic at the start, but I found 4 nice heirloom variety tomato plants. I pulled enough weeds to make a place for them in the garden, do they're in and doing well. Also planted some summer savory and cinnamon basil that I got from the Farmer's Market.

All the laundry is done, folded and put away. The sausage is done and made into patties & in the freezer, except one for breakfast tomorrow.

So far, so good. Enjoy the rest of the weekend, if you're off on Monday.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 May 08 - 10:41 PM

Just saw a vintage Vespa with sidecar on offer at Ebay. I think there is room for it in my garage.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 May 08 - 12:34 AM

And in your bank account? You'll have a lot of room there also.

My sun room is packed full, making it impossible right now to reach my eBay area. I'll work on it in the morning, but this actually represents a moment of success, of sorts. The two trunks that are in the way (I thought it was three, but one is very tall) are the last of the stuff that had been in storage lockers before I moved into this house. A lot of those items were moved to the garage to sit up on 2x4s until I could bring them into the house. I'm not sure where they'll go yet, and I need to probably sell a couple of these, I have a lot of antique trunks.

After I moved the trunks and rearranged some things I was able to pack a circular saw into its case and put it back where I can reach it easily--it had been used a (long) while back and set aside temporarily only to get lost under other stuff. It doesn't do me any good if it is buried in clutter.

Laundry folding awaits. I'll try to stay on top if it for a while, since my couch looks so nice when it is cleared off.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: LilyFestre
Date: 26 May 08 - 07:19 AM

My car usually serves as both my mode of transportation and catch all from my daily routine. Work clothes, yoga clothes, teaching materials, kayak gear and sometimes a lunchbox are sometimes enough to fill my car. It has been my habit to empty it all out of Saturday so as to start the new week with a clean vehicle. Lately, this hasn't been happening so I'll be de-cluttering my car in about 10 minutes. The kayak gear will stay....I love to be ready to hit the water in a moment's notice....so there is a large tote full of everything I need for those planned and unplanned adventures. :)

Michelle

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 May 08 - 11:27 AM

I decluttered my truck glove box a while back--I hated having to force things into it to see if I could get it to close. Makes it very nice to get the few things I need. I have also figured out where to put a specialized vehicle trash bag (it has a strap to hold it in place). I'll try using it instead of dropping trash in my cup holder or on the floor. (I do clean that up regularly, but best not to do it at all!)

Haven't touched the trunks yet. Soon. People can get in through the door past them. . . that isn't a very good sign, really, is it? ;-)

I feel like I've had a big workout at a gym this week. My arms and neck are still aching from the tree trimming.

SRS (200!)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Charmion
Date: 26 May 08 - 05:00 PM

I hate clutter in the car, and make a real fuss when Edmund drops receipts and Tim Horton's doughnut wrappers on the floor and the unoccupied seats. Almost as soon as he was on the plane, I emptied the glove box of all the things I don't approve of, and now I can actually put the map book in there! Not to speak of some gloves.

On the home front, I have packed up the crockery and gadgets purged from the kitchen cabinets and the limbo shelves in the cellar (where potentially useful things go to await re-homing). The crockery, baking pans and kitchen gadgets are going to the Salvation Army. The biscuit tins, large Mason jars and never-used George Foreman grill have all been offered on Freecycle, and the Mason jars and electric grill are already on their way to new homes. So far, no nibbles on the biscuit tins.

I have also established a Craigslist account and offered my battered but quite usable copy of the 9th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (the "scholar's edition", if you please) for the princely sum of $100, about right for 25 volumes in crumbling leather bindings. Only the dedicated Victorianist need apply ...

Next: the bins under the stairs! (No, not the bins!)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 May 08 - 07:11 PM

You are clipping right along there, Charmion!

SRS, I am glad I am not the only who does drop stuff on the floor of my car! With Morgan in the car, it got so bad, I finally bought a regular, 18" tall trash can and put it behind the passenger's seat. I can just reach across and behind and now all of the stuff goes in it and it is easy to dump. Morgan used to be really bad about dropping stuff, but he likes using the bin now.:-)

We have had a productive day, finally! Rog carted all of the giveaway stuff from my sister, out to the car. He brought in a few things from the car which found immediate homes on shelves, in drawers, etc. He mowed the huge backyard, while I washed the dishes and a few more of my mom's bottles. He also decluttered some more in the kitchen so now, in his area, there is NOTHING on the floor and the pile of STUFF on top of the 2-drawer file cabinet is GONE!! (I saw him summarily dump an old footstool I kept thinking he'd fix and I was OKAY with that!**bg**) Yes!!

He helped me plant the catnip and flax, in between letting my daughter's dogs out, twice, AND setting the water on her lawn. We also went to the garden centre and bought three heirloom tomato plants and got the pots ready for them. I have to buy more soil to mix up for them, tomorrow, or we would have them planted already. I also gave the dog a bath - he really, really needed it - and washed the towels and bath mat used for him, as well as our sheets, today. And, we have already made the bed, instead of waiting until late at night when we can't go to bed unless we do!

And, I had a nice long talk with a friend on the phone, and an almost long one with my daughter and grandsons who live back East as today is their 10th birthday. I cannot believe they are that old, already!

Phew! Time to relax a bit, I think. I love this thread; you all are so helpful!

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 May 08 - 09:37 PM

Sounds like a good day all around!

I've continued to rearrange the garage and placed two more boxes in the pickup for Goodwill. I've swept as I work, and when I could put in sturdier containers or rearrange shelves I've done so. I can actually SEE my bags of organic fertilizer and soil amendments, and see my extra little pots. The scrap lumber had been jammed in an old cardboard box under my work bench, but has been thinned and the culled scraps are at the curb while the usable pieces are stored in the retired green plastic recycle bin, again under the work bench. Meanwhile, as a measure of success, I think we are close to being able to open the pickup truck doors wide, simultaneously, on both sides and not hit stuff! Yesss!

I barbecued some pork country style ribs and did a dozen extra burgers so we have leftovers for during the week. (Got a new recipe from a friend--they're tender and juicy and full of flavor.) Moonglow is coming by in a few minutes with a costume for her brother to try on (Anime convention coming up next weekend) and I'll ply her with fresh barbecue and send a loaf of frozen banana bread back home with her.

I could use a three day weekend every week!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 27 May 08 - 08:47 AM

Another productive day yesterday. Jeri came over and photographed a whole bunch o' stuff that Tom intends to eBay. (She should really put "photo stylist" on her resume -- some things like a small crystal souvenir "vase" or something was very, very tricky to shoot without reflections or glare.)

After she left I cut more brush -- up behind the rock garden and then down to the back of the back flower bed. Then, when I thought I was too zonked to do anything more, I raked four huge piles of leaves up from around my hammock "room" under the hemlocks. Later today, if it doesn't rain, I'll transfer each pile to a tarp and drag the leaves to some place more convenient for them to decompose.

The hammock just got put up this weekend. It was a birthday present from Tom two or three years ago to replace the one that finally rotted away after 15 years of use. But I didn't really have any time to use this one until this spring!

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 May 08 - 10:02 AM

I'd say we're closing in on a pretty successful month.

This morning's trash collection included a large plastic bag of stuff I've held onto for way too long. Over the years as a park naturalist I picked up road kill to use for study skins. After skinning I salted or put borax on them, so they were green, never tanned. And years in the garage dried them out so much that they couldn't be tanned now even if I wanted to. I have a box of those chemicals that will go to the hazardous waste folks at the end of the week. I did keep a few interesting skulls, but one (an alligator gar) still had some dried meat on it so is sitting on an ant pile to see if they can clean it more. I'm not giving up my interest in being a naturalist, whether by employment or writing, but I am giving up hauling along samples. :)

Kat, I've been chuckling about your trash can. Maybe when he gets older Morgan will graduate down to a waste basket behind the seat.

A hammock sounds wonderful--but the flies and mosquitoes would make using one out-of-doors a misery down here by the creek.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: wysiwyg
Date: 27 May 08 - 10:14 AM

I think I'm the slow coach here, but I'm fine with that. I have no problem leaving the clutter behind to get out and get stuff done. This is because in the past year I have been learning so much about seasonality in my life, and it works for me.

The LR clutter has been annoying, but I forgot that in just a few short days or weeks, hockey season will be over. At the end of hockey season, warm weather coincides (for our northern area).

That means it will very shortly be time to unglue the glued drafty windows, put the comfy chairs back in front of them and away from the winter heating register. (The heat register and avoiding the drafts prompts the fall cleanup when we put the recliners closer to the TV for the all-important hockey games.) At this time, a pair of other chairs and a large couch also will be moved back to their non-winter positions.

It will take about 30 minutes to circulate these items back to their summer position, and I can do it on my own without Hardi--

BUT

As the clutter falls off the horizontal surfaces....

This annual event also always, always, always reveals not only dust bunny colonies that are then easily removed, but the amount of clutter that truly exists-- just when the increased sunlight and fresh air flowing through the summer-oriented household make it a heckuva lot more fun to clean and sort and tidy. Hardi will take care of the vacuuming and dusting; the stacks of stuff will be mine to deal with-- fair trade IMO!

I'm just wishing for it a tad early, is all! :~)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 27 May 08 - 01:17 PM

My month wasn't that successful, but I am going to declutter the camping box this evening... if only to see if I can find the S hook to hang the lamp up with... got sick of bending tent pegs over.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: maire-aine
Date: 27 May 08 - 04:51 PM

Hello, all.

It occurred to me that I've never exactly introduced myself to the group. I live just north of Detroit MI. I finally found a photo, taken by one of the guys in our session, that's not too unflattering.
So here's me. I hope this link works.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 May 08 - 06:04 PM

Looks like a fun session, MaryAnne! Thanks for the link. It's fun to see everyone and also each other's projects.

I took a carload of stuff to the local, indie, alternative radio station for their upcoming yardsale. They unloaded it and were quite grateful, it seemed. I told them I have more to bring them this week as Friday is their deadline for donations.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 May 08 - 10:54 PM

I have stuff in the back of the pickup but haven't driven by the Goodwill when it was convenient to stop. Maybe in the morning. These items weren't photographed yet, they went in straight from garage to truck. This afternoon I took my digital camera with me and stood in a parking lot and got a few shots inside the pickup bed while my son was at his guitar lesson. The IRS doesn't care what the background looks like!

I've hit a lull after the busy weekend. My allergies are acting up and I'll skip the shredding to get to bed early. Maybe I brought up too much dust yesterday.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 28 May 08 - 03:06 AM

I failed again.

Didn't do the box last night... guess I better do it this morning. But I'm supposed to go to work later... ho hum.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 May 08 - 10:40 AM

Liz! Pull yourself up by your bootstraps! Kick a path through! You can make it, this is just like the point in Rocky where he's winded, he gets back up and goes into battle and is victorious. Someone wave some dark chocolate with cranberries under her nose. That'll help revive her.

Dropped off stuff at Goodwill this morning. I have to go to work today, maybe I can work up another load of stuff for that thrift store near the university.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: maire-aine
Date: 28 May 08 - 12:57 PM

LTS, please don't be so hard on yourself. "Failed" sounds so permanent. You just POSTPONED it for a while. You'll get to it. In the meantime, chocolate sounds good.

Maryanne

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 28 May 08 - 02:57 PM

Don't know how much de-cluttering I've gotten done today -- threw some papers away, filed some others, just schlepped two tarps full of dried leaves off to decompose in a better spot than under the hammock or in a flower bed.

But I've also just applied for two jobs plus landed an interview tomorrow for what is probably not the world's best job -- doesn't pay a lot, either, but it's 10 minutes away, has decent hours, and I don't have to take it home with me in any way shape or form. And according to web sources, the company is professional and reputable. Any kind of income at this point is good.

Think I'll do a bit of de-cluttering in the cellar and then take a break and read a book out on the deck or...what a concept!...in my hammock!

Oh, better check the mail too (and count the ladyslippers coming and going) and probably throw most of THAT out.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 May 08 - 03:18 PM

Good going on the job hunting, Linn! That interview one sounds dandy for the short term. Good luck with it.

LtS, it's okay for the stuff to sit there a bit longer, esp. when you are living with others who contribute to the clutter! Have some chocolate and put away the stick.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 28 May 08 - 05:13 PM

I would de-clutter the cellar, but in the course of sorting out the camping box and gas bottles, I discovered the cellar was flooded.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Charmion
Date: 28 May 08 - 07:22 PM

Oh, shit!

But this might be God's way of telling you to hire a skip and heave the lot. It happened to me once, and that's what I had to do.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 May 08 - 11:09 PM

I boxed up the leftover bottles, today, and folded away the table they were on, which cleared up space for the mini-trampoline to be moved out of the living room. Also, Morgan and I took his cardboard dulcimer kit out of its box, which we chucked, and started putting it together. That involved buying paint in his chosen colours - green on the inside, blue on the outside, and staining the fretboard. I glued in the string-separator, set the end nails for the strings, and set in the bridge. Tomorrow, he will decorate it and we will glue the fretboard on and string 'er up! That will be THAT clutter out of the way and the kid and I will be able to play our dulcimers together! The gal who cleans my floors is coming tomorrow, so I'll try to do more before she gets here, but I have a dental appt. in the morning.

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 29 May 08 - 03:00 AM

When I say flooded - it's about 2-4 inches of water and as the house is on a gravel bed, it will disperse pretty soon, but if memory serves, it will be smelly. Luckily, we tend not to put stuff down there that doesn't like the damp.

Although hiring a skip does sound like fun, I can guarantee that in this area, if we did that, it would be filled before we could pay off the delivery guy.

I had a scrape around in the child's room... found a multitude of horrible things including 7 old drink bottles, oat bar wrappers, Dorito packets and 15 dirty socks. This now means there is more space for her to fill with other stuff so that I can reach the wall to put the shelf up.   Trouble is, Raven kitty has manoeuvered his bean bag onto the shelf as it sits on the table and he looks so cute, curled up in the sun.....

Ho hum. Back to the ironing!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 May 08 - 10:38 AM

This is your last chance, Liz, before she's too big, to remind her that you're the parent and at least one of you needs a clean room. :) (This is the "do as I say, not as I do" phenomena.) Actually, I think you'll find that if you move everything out of the room, clean the floors and windows, then move the furniture back and rearrange it and put the shiny baubles where they can be seen and used that she won't miss the 65% of the outgrown childhood crap that was on the floor and tucked away filling useful drawer and shelf space.

That worked for my son. I also moved a set of sturdy wire shelves from my front room into his and put a television (garage sale, $40) on it so he could play his video games in there on a TV dedicated to games. He was so blown away by finally getting the exact room he requested (with a bed and the sofa couch for friends to sleep on and the TV so he could play games) that he didn't even notice how much I moved out. He walks past his old toys in the garage as I'm sorting and clearing and rarely even blinks at them. When I gave a Fisher Price castle with cannon balls and knights and draw bridges and such to my next door neighbor so her age 2-6 grandchildren could play with it, and told him what pleasure they got from this toy, he was okay with it. He's 16, he looks at it fondly but won't play with it, and it gives the kids at Jackie's house an opportunity to play together, side by side, which is a good thing with siblings!

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 May 08 - 06:37 PM

I was all set to post earlier when I received an email from work urgently requesting images of a co-worker who has a retirement breakfast tomorrow. I missed his lunch today or I'd have had current photos, so I had to dig through my files. At least they're all in one place and it didn't take to long. Some of my life is a little bit organized!

I shredded some more papers today, and filed others. May not have cleared up too much office floor real estate, but the stack sitting in front of the shredder is a little shorter. ;-D

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 May 08 - 01:04 PM

Finished a costume piece for my son who will meet his sister in Dallas for their annual Anime convention. The laundry is drying--clean jeans and shirts to go in his luggage before we head to the train. This morning I got in a token declutter when I dropped off the newspapers at a recycle bin. That may be all I accomplish.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 May 08 - 11:58 AM

Okay! It's the last day of the month, we have to make a big push to get out of May lighter than we entered it. I'm going to work in the yard today but this evening I'll work in the house.

In the front by the porch I'm going to bite the bullet and "de-clutter" my bed with the day lilies and daffodils and such. I planted salvia out there and at one time even some lantana, and it is a thatch of plants with a few flowers poking through. This is a favorite color of salvia, so I'll dig a hole somewhere, prune this way back, dig it up and move it and see if it will come back.

I want to put a little porch extension (a deck) a couple of feet out over where I took out cannas (a post a few weeks ago) at the back of this bed, and the front of it I want filled with interesting looking lilies and other perennial Old World looking flowers. Before that I must move these shrubs.

In the house, I think it's time to aim at the eBay table again. It's a little full.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: De-cluttering - part two
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 May 08 - 02:23 PM

I've started a new thread and given each of us an assignment for June, to help us make the most of our summer clearing and rearranging.

Here is the new thread and here is the older (first) de-clutter accountability thread.

This was a great idea, Kat. I've gotten so much done this way! Sharing makes it go so much easier.

SRS