: : : . . .
One of those intense winter colds got me, and set me back. But after I catch up with my web chores and Christmas shopping/mailing, I am determined to resume the two hour a day cleanup plan!
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Declutter by Painting the Bedroom
: : . .
It was a spur of the moment decision to get the bedroom painted now. It was supposed to take only one day last Thursday, but here it is Saturday and it should be finished at the end of the day! One principle keeps showing up: things always take longer than you plan for!
It was a spur of the moment decision to get the bedroom painted now. It was supposed to take only one day last Thursday, but here it is Saturday and it should be finished at the end of the day! One principle keeps showing up: things always take longer than you plan for!
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Beginning My Cleaning Journey
In 2007 I moved from a junk filled 3 bedroom single family home to a 1000 ft one bedroom apartment with very little closet space. We threw out tons of stuff. Mountains. It was very freeing and for the most part I do not regret letting go of so much stuff.
I was very happy in my new home for awhile and when I think back over what was so wonderful, what stands out is spotless surfaces and little to worry about. Everything had a place because there wasn’t much of anything. There was also an opportunity to create a new me because I no longer had to worry about everything I had been carting around from place to place my entire adult life.
Five years later and this apartment has no spotless surfaces left. My mind is never clear and I blame part of that on my living space. I want to regain that weightless happiness I felt when we first came here. We’re also planning to move soon and I want to make that as easy as possible.
I hope that sticking with this blog will keep me focused on achievable goals. I have a lot to declutter and I usually get so overwhelmed that I can’t start cleaning anything. I’ve got both huge and tiny projects and I plan to pick up tiny projects in between the big ones so I don’t feel like fixing my space is so impossible.
This weekend I need to tackle clearing a path to my desk so I can begin a new class on Coursera on Monday. I also think it is about time that I finish painting and decoupaging the IKEA step stool I thought I needed so desperately for so long. It has been sitting in the corner since the beginning of the year.
I was very happy in my new home for awhile and when I think back over what was so wonderful, what stands out is spotless surfaces and little to worry about. Everything had a place because there wasn’t much of anything. There was also an opportunity to create a new me because I no longer had to worry about everything I had been carting around from place to place my entire adult life.
Five years later and this apartment has no spotless surfaces left. My mind is never clear and I blame part of that on my living space. I want to regain that weightless happiness I felt when we first came here. We’re also planning to move soon and I want to make that as easy as possible.
This weekend I need to tackle clearing a path to my desk so I can begin a new class on Coursera on Monday. I also think it is about time that I finish painting and decoupaging the IKEA step stool I thought I needed so desperately for so long. It has been sitting in the corner since the beginning of the year.
Donating Clothing
: : . .
I got up yesterday morning and opened my closet to a small clutter horizon. So I nagged Gerry to put away his summer clothing and check out the plethora of clothing in storage in the attic and the basement. I was pleased that he too was in the declutter mood.
It was very hard for him because he had great love of many of the very nice coats and jackets and shirts, and vests that he has collected over the last ten years. It makes it feel a little better to send the clothing to some who will use it and need it. The local Thrift Shop run by St. Christopher's Church is a very convenient place for this.
For donations of other "collections" of clutter, see this list from the Cleaning Up the Clutter Blog:
http://cleaninguptheclutter.
I got up yesterday morning and opened my closet to a small clutter horizon. So I nagged Gerry to put away his summer clothing and check out the plethora of clothing in storage in the attic and the basement. I was pleased that he too was in the declutter mood.
It was very hard for him because he had great love of many of the very nice coats and jackets and shirts, and vests that he has collected over the last ten years. It makes it feel a little better to send the clothing to some who will use it and need it. The local Thrift Shop run by St. Christopher's Church is a very convenient place for this.
For donations of other "collections" of clutter, see this list from the Cleaning Up the Clutter Blog:
http://cleaninguptheclutter.
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Whoops! It's worse than I thought!
: : . .
A picture is worth more than anything I can write about how bad the clutter has become. From my experience, it will get even messier during the cleanup.
A picture is worth more than anything I can write about how bad the clutter has become. From my experience, it will get even messier during the cleanup.
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| The Attic Eaves (1 of 2) |
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| The Bunk Area |
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| Attic Guest Area |
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| The Guest Bed |
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| I think I will start on the Back Hall Closet! |
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Just Starting Up
: : . .
The goal is to be happy and contented in a clean, decluttered home. This requires cleaning out three generations of extra property collections. Tomorrow morning, Thanksgiving Day, I plan to trudge up to the attic and take some before photos. I expect to see a wall of storage boxes, linens, furniture and little used essential items that could be typical of a true hoarder. (I do pride myself on finding places to do tightly packed vertical storage!)
I read an article in the New York Times recently recommending a book written by an esteemed psychologist on this very contemporary problem that seems to span the generations. When I went to Amazon to find the book, a plethora of titles on this decluttering subject appeared. Many of the titles were available FREE for download to a Kindle Reader app if you subscribed to Amazon Prime. Since our family has a subscription, which we use to stream movies and TV shows and to order coffee and tools, I was tempted to get five or six of these books before going headfirst into the project.
Is this golden mother load of free books on decluttering just another way to add clutter to my life? I may run out of memory on my iPad, spend tens of hours reading the books instead of working on decluttering, and then have to make sure I delete the books when I am done, something I am reluctant to do with about 50 books in my library on the Kindle app. Is this a more technological form of shopping at the dollar stores and acquiring lots of junk to add clutter?
The goal is to be happy and contented in a clean, decluttered home. This requires cleaning out three generations of extra property collections. Tomorrow morning, Thanksgiving Day, I plan to trudge up to the attic and take some before photos. I expect to see a wall of storage boxes, linens, furniture and little used essential items that could be typical of a true hoarder. (I do pride myself on finding places to do tightly packed vertical storage!)
I read an article in the New York Times recently recommending a book written by an esteemed psychologist on this very contemporary problem that seems to span the generations. When I went to Amazon to find the book, a plethora of titles on this decluttering subject appeared. Many of the titles were available FREE for download to a Kindle Reader app if you subscribed to Amazon Prime. Since our family has a subscription, which we use to stream movies and TV shows and to order coffee and tools, I was tempted to get five or six of these books before going headfirst into the project.
Is this golden mother load of free books on decluttering just another way to add clutter to my life? I may run out of memory on my iPad, spend tens of hours reading the books instead of working on decluttering, and then have to make sure I delete the books when I am done, something I am reluctant to do with about 50 books in my library on the Kindle app. Is this a more technological form of shopping at the dollar stores and acquiring lots of junk to add clutter?
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