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Kappy
| Friday, January 02, 2004 - 12:16 am
Great thread ladies! And thank you to those who have posted ideas and links. I went over to Flylady.com and I too will be joining in on the Super Fling Boogie! I just discovered Clean Sweep this past month and it is now my new favorite show. I have been slowly parting with my boxes of clutter for the past year now and am finally at a point where I can walk into my spare bedroom which was impossible before. Not having a garage is pure hell on a pack rat so I am changing my ways. I still have alot more boxes in this room and in two other closets to go through but at least I am seeing light at the end of the tunnel. I look forward to reaching the point where I can paint the walls and organize what is left. It really does help to know that I am not alone in getting bogged down and overwhelmed by the mess.
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Lkunkel
| Friday, January 02, 2004 - 12:28 am
Kappy: Nope, you are not alone. I am excited--I will make it through the mess I posted last month and I will have a decluttered apartment--at least of my stuff and the household stuff. DH is on his own. The one lesson I learned is that you don't declutter for anyone over the age of 3 without their help and cooperation as you do not hear the end of it. How can we support you in your endeavor?
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Kappy
| Friday, January 02, 2004 - 11:15 am
Lkunkel ~ Just having this thread is a SUPPORT in itself. I really do believe it effects your emotional well being after awhile and now that my teen son is beginning to follow my bad habits, I have a different type of motivation for changing back to the once-organized-person that I use to be. Someone above talked about the boxes you can pick up at office supply stores. I used those for years as well as the xerox paper boxes because I had to move so many times during a five year period and they were handy for that. But now that I've been in the same place for 10 years(and without a garage), those boxes upon boxes became a real problem. And of course ripping through them trying to find things didn't help. I actually moved potential 'yard sale' boxes with each move because there was a time when I truly needed the extra money. About 3 years ago, I accepted that no more yard sales were going to happen and that the emotional toll the mess was creating was not worth the extra 100 dollars or so. At that point, I went box by box and began donating and trashing. I then switched my goal to simply getting rid of all cardboard boxes and buying plastic see-through ones instead but I still had the bad habit of just tossing things in a box without any order or reason just to get it out of the way. Getting to zero cardboard boxes was a real achievement ~ there must have been 50 of them ~ and now I am becoming increasingly brutal with the plastic ones. I am actually starting to have empty boxes stack up and while I still have alot left to do, at least I can see light at the end of the tunnel for the first time in years. Certain things I have found places to donate odd items to . . . 7 pairs of old prescription glasses to my optometrist to be donated to a group which uses them . . an unworking but still decent printer to an HP group which refurbishes them and then resells them. I just don't know what to do with lots of fabric I have. The local high schools don't have sewing of any kind anymore and I'm not sure Salvation Army will take yards of fabric ~ does anyone have a suggestion for fabric?
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Ddr1135
| Friday, January 02, 2004 - 11:55 am
Kappy, maybe try a local quilters group, an art and crafter person or local primary school that can use it for crafts with the children.
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Kappy
| Friday, January 02, 2004 - 1:06 pm
Great idea, Ddr ~ I'll look into it.
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Lkunkel
| Friday, January 02, 2004 - 1:34 pm
Also Senior Citizen Centers use fabric in their classes. I'm enjoying the space by my bed right now--it's emptied, and I am vacuuming it. I am figuring out what gets to have a home in there.
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Dipo
| Friday, January 02, 2004 - 1:53 pm
Well I am clean sweeping my office closet today, so I think it qualifies. I will then work my way around my office to have a really fresh start for Monday. I have been wanting to do this closet for a while so I can get more of my work stuff into it instead of out in the open where I have to look at it all the time. (I am homebased and my work involves a lot of home mortgage loan files so that is clutter in itself). Once I finish reviewing the board, when SO is over (it is on now) I will be pulling everything out to make sure it belongs, since my last organization - over a year ago. LK: thanks for all the helpfull ideas.
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Lkunkel
| Friday, January 02, 2004 - 5:03 pm
Dipo: You're welcome. My progress report for 01/02/04: Bedroom: My side of the room totally dusted and vacuumed; recovered one drawer from clutter; 3 boxes sorted and trashed. Discarded pounds: 52. Laundry: 4 loads washed, dried, folded, and put away. DW: Unloaded, put away, and reloaded. My sink is shiny. I did 10,001 steps today just in the house. And I'm now showered and in PJs to have a relaxing evening.
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Tabbyking
| Friday, January 02, 2004 - 5:28 pm
allietex's 'move' seems to work for me! only with me, it's purses. instead of cleaning out a purse, i just buy a new one twice a year and move only what i want into the new one. once it's piled with sales receipts, chewed gum wadded in scraps of paper, used kleenex, loose tic tacs, pens and pencils that don't write, a mismatch of make-up, and phone numbers i have scribbled on scraps of paper---but not to whom they go...i just move on! i kinda miss the days when i had blue or green stamps floating around, too! after i get son back to school tomorrow (and i don't have to get up to drive dd to school since she became licensed over the holiday) i can sit in my nightie and do one closet or dresser at a time--one each morning. i am dreading doing the closet under the stairs. oh man. i have to lean on the door to close it now! we have so much clutter, i pick something up and turn around and there isn't even anywhere else i could put it. i want to get rid of things. period. my husband wants to get rid of things so we can get new things. hello?! my daughter's school projects spill out of her room, onto the kitchen counters, and take over the dining room. glue, poster board, rough drafts, tape, glitter, notebooks, 8-pound textbooks. every couple of weeks, i can actually get the dining room table cleared for maybe a week. then comes the next big project. i am on my 4th load of laundry today--mostly son's--and have unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, oversaw my dd's AP history report (i am her thesaurus), drained the spa, where we replaced the heater only a week ago and now have major motor noise, and made my kids write all their thank-you notes. i also paid bills, and then i made a deposit and opened a savings account at wells fargo because you had to open a new account of some sort to get the damn horse that was on the shelf, looking cute and calling to me. my son's school mascot is the mustang, so i asked how to get one of the display horses...2 hours later, i had a sore butt, a savings account with 100 bucks in it, and a horse under my arm. i wanted the box it came in, too, because it held the horse and had a fence picture on the outside, but they wouldn't give me one. they were 'for displays only', they said. i wanted the box so much, i almost closed my new account. LOL at least son likes the horse and said he'll put it on his shelf at school. i had visions of coming home and saying, "here, son. you don't know what i had to do to get this damn horse!" and have him say, 'i don't want THAT!', but he just said "thanks!" it's a good-sized stuffed horse with a scarf on its neck and the wells fargo logo on the scarf. the legs are 'loosely stuffed', so you can kind of pose it.
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Dipo
| Friday, January 02, 2004 - 6:21 pm
Okay, just finished up my first pass thru. 3/4' done. Still have to go through a vertical organizer to de clutter on the top shelf of the closet, but other than that it is done. Have vaccummed the areas needed to set up the printer, and the rest of the room which included using the special tools on the baseboards and edges of the carpet, now that I have a new table (it was in the closet). Got some new storage space with the new printer table. Have to figure out what would go best in there. Maybe my scrapbook stuff which is now stored in the dining room??? Just have to put a few items back in the room and I am done for the day. Tomorrow I will dust and declutter the bookcase, clean the desktop and call it complete. The desk drawers will be for another day since part of that is tax preparation. It was a fun project and I am happy with the results. Don't have a BBB full of trash yet, but working on it. Love how nice my closet looks now and do have a pile to give away.
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Lkunkel
| Friday, January 02, 2004 - 6:34 pm
Dipo: Don't forget to weigh anything leaving your house. Sounds like you had a great day--congratulations!
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Tabbyking
| Friday, January 02, 2004 - 8:18 pm
wow, i love the idea of weighing the crud that leaves. i try and donate good stuff to the lung or heart association and trash the rest. but why does stuff seem to multiply? for me, it's junk mail, too. i can have my counter cleaned off and a week later there are 162 pieces of junk mail, ads, fliers, etc. once our phone calls cut down, our online and mailbox junk seemed to increase. you guys have some great ideas. i just don't want to get overwhelmed and feel defeated before i even start. i am going to start monday with one good chunk. a closet or a large dresser or something. one day i have to get to my sport card collection under my bed. and on my closet floor. and in the chest we use for a coffee table...and the cedar hope chest. thank God, i only collected for one year!
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Lkunkel
| Friday, January 02, 2004 - 8:53 pm
Tabby: Don't bite off more than you can chew. I invite you to reread the FlyLady declutter essay. She encourages you to not bite off more than you can chew and to not burn yourself out. The timer is your friend.
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Tabbyking
| Friday, January 02, 2004 - 9:26 pm
thanks, Lkunkel!
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Dipo
| Friday, January 02, 2004 - 11:21 pm
LK: I will weigh it once I get there with the BBB. Does stuff I send to the dump count. I am calling 1-200-got junk to get rid of the over the years, I have been waiting to get new stuff, but have been waiting on something, I am not sure what, but now am ready to let go. Thanks for your support.
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Lkunkel
| Saturday, January 03, 2004 - 8:25 am
Dipo: Everything leaving your house counts. Charity donations, books sent to fellow TVCHer, garbage--everything that goes out a door of your home and doesn't come back in, counts.
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Catfat
| Saturday, January 03, 2004 - 10:06 pm
Hello All, I just joined this thread after reading all of FlyLady's web page. I am going to follow her directions as closely as I can, mainly for decluttering, cleaning can come later. I have already scrubbed my sink twice today and washed the dishes immediately after supper. Usually I wait til he next day and then drag around maoning in the morning because I can't get started until the dishes are done. Even that much is progress--for years, I just let the kitchen pile up and then cleaned everything up every two or three days. Baby steps, baby steps.
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Catfat
| Saturday, January 03, 2004 - 10:19 pm
Lkunkel, I'll Boogie with you. I like your idea about doing the 3-D stuff one week and the papers the next. In addition to our house (10 rooms, two people, and still not big enough for all this STUFF!) I also have my studio with all my art making and framing supplies to deal with. Maybe that should come before the papers. I need to get my workspace cleared up before I tackle the papers and files. And then there's the barn, two levels crammed with boxes of more stuff. I can't even get the horse in her stall anymore. Sigh. OK, I need to focus on one square yard at a time, 15 minutes or 60 minutes or whatever each day. I think tomorrow is the kitchen, according to FlyLady, so maybe I'll throw out the boxes and stacks of jars and cans I have been saving in case I ever start buying food in bulk again. And what am I going to do with all my Y2K stuff? Food bank, here I come.
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Solifelike
| Saturday, January 03, 2004 - 11:37 pm
My husband and I did the proactive thing for the New Year Start. We spent New Years eve (day) out at the gym, and after 2 hours of a murderous workout, we went to lunch and discussed our resolutions. In discussing them, I emntioned needing a work space specific to my needs so we went browsing and actually found almost a perfect set up, he built it that night and while he was building it, we decided we wanted to get up early and go through the house. He set up a wonderful stained glass work station for me and the next day we tore into the house as a whole. We completely renewed our bedroom, the toddler's bedroom and got about half way through our teenagers room. I did the kitchen and he did the workshop. The amount of work we did was incredible. We worked for 10 hours--nonstop. However, the house looks fantastic. We removed all furniture and vacuumed walls and floors and washed curtains in each room. We threw out about 70 lbs of junk. We did not do our closets, but I will do them over this next 90 days. We are due to move and don't know where. Much of the stuff I am holding onto would be expesive to replace if we end up back in a cold region. Last year, I went through our closets and donated three gigantic sacks of clothing. If I do much with my clothing again this year, I will donate to one of the professional organizations. Most of the clothes I have left to really reduce are my office clothes and I was always a very savvy professional dresser before I became a stay at home mom. It feels so good to be this far ahead of the game. I feel rejeuvenated and ready to battle the other piddley stuff! My husbands mood did a 100 percent upswing in working on all of this. We really needed the hard labor.
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Lkunkel
| Sunday, January 04, 2004 - 12:09 am
Cat: Quite a job! Welcome aboard! So: I am soooooooo happy for you. How wonderful that DH pitched in to help! I wish mine would, but he points out that the homemaking isn't his responsibility.
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Lkunkel
| Sunday, January 04, 2004 - 9:46 pm
Okay, today I did some errands and did my freelance writing commitments for the week so I can spend the week tackling boxes. Since FlyLady (and I) are in Zone 2: The Kitchen during the SuperFling Boogie, I thought it a good time for this: 9 Traits of Organized Kitchens by Barbara Myers 1. The number one rule of an organized kitchen is to store items where you use them. Put your plates near the table, glasses near the fridge and cutting knives and board near island or counter where you cut up produce. 2. If you do any baking, set up a baking section. Store together all items you use when baking. 3. Clean and organize your fridge and freezer. Do a quick upkeep once a week on trash day. If you don't use it, get rid of it. 4. Move the excess clutter. For example, seasonally used items such as platters and holiday dishes are better stored in a basement or attic. Unless you have a very large kitchen, it is best to remove items that are not used on a regular basis. 5. How many glasses do you really use between dish washing? Store only as many as you regularly use (glasses, dishes, wine glasses), and place the extras in storage. 6. Go through your cookbooks and keep in the kitchen only the ones you use regularly. Seasonal cookbooks can be stored with your holiday dinnerware. Others can be kept elsewhere or given away. 7. Here's a tough one. If you don't use it every day, remove it from your counters. So many of us complain about not having enough counter space, yet we crowd the counters with things we don't even use. 8. Check out all the racks and drawer units on the market to more efficiently store all your kitchen items. You will find a large selection at home stores around the country. 9. Set up a small pantry somewhere in your home for extra cans of soup, coffee and other essentials. You'll save money by buying in bulk or during sales and you'll save space in the kitchen. A small closet can easily be converted to a pantry. Once you have one, you'll never want to be "pantry-less" again. Copyright 2002-03 Barbara Collins-Myers So, tomorrow I'll work on boxes and double check the kitchen for clutter. I'll also be working on my MCL (Mind Clutter List) of things I want to do/need to have fixed/etc. in the kitchen. I'll check in periodically. I would say that we could meet in a chat room, but the rooms confused me. (Not that it takes much right now.)
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Catfat
| Sunday, January 04, 2004 - 10:24 pm
Hi Lkunkel, please stay here and don't go to a chatroom. I do much better here, and I will keep you company. I'll work on my kitchen this week, not because I want to, but because it is on the schedule. Today I sorted and threw away the contents of a box full of 1991 receipts and records that I had been saving in case I was audited or something. I have a box like that for every year. Into the fireplace it all went. Burn, baby, burn. I like your list of how to set up your kitchen, which I will do a soon as I can unclutter it. My sink is shining, however. {{{myself}}}
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Lkunkel
| Monday, January 05, 2004 - 9:30 am
Cat: No fears--I couldn't figure out how to get into a chatroom--let alone how it would work. You don't have to do your kitchen--honest! If you have more pressing rooms, choose them. I just meant that, since my Zone 2 is actually the kitchen, I'll be doing the missions and working in there as well as in the disaster of boxes that I have. Just as an FYI, the receipts only have to be kept for 3 years from filing, so the ashes of 1991 can be joined by the receipts of 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 1999. Unless of course, you are as paranoid as I am--or filed late--and want to keep them for 7 years (the length of keeping the return) after filing. (How paranoid am I? There are 7 years from filing receipts in Ziplock freezer bags in my upright freezer--aka, "the poor man's safe." I don't trust nor like the entity called the IRS and figure I want to make sure that while I know I didn't cheat, I have no dangers from a federal court. ::sigh:: I am paranoid, aren't I?) I'm thrilled that your sink is shining. It does seem silly that something so small can make you feel so happy.
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Lkunkel
| Monday, January 05, 2004 - 10:07 am
FLYLADY: Zone 2: Mission #1 Monday by Kelly "We are in the thick of our Super Fling Boogie and we are heading into the kitchen. This week our missions will be dedicated to de-cluttering our kitchens! "Your mission for today is to de-clutter your silverware drawer, get rid of those leftover plastic spoons, wet wipes, sippee cup lids that don't have bottoms anymore, etc. We all have the stuff that just seems to pile up in that drawer!! Set your timer and fling, fling, fling!!!" PS Don't forget to post your pounds for the Super Fling Boogie!! (Scroll down to the blue section.)
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Zules
| Monday, January 05, 2004 - 11:23 am
Hi all, Just wanted to give all you declutterers a round of applause! I started to clear out drawers and stuff I hadn't used in a while because a friend of mine is having a yard sale soon. I started with my media center. I was surprised to see that with my first quick pass, I was able to get rid of 23 videotapes! And anything that doesn't get sold at the yard sale will be donated to charity immediately following the end of the sale. YIPPEE!
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