We are in the process of decluttering at our house. I knew it needed to be done. Really needed to be done but I was too overwhelmed with all our stuff I didn’t know where to start. I kept putting it off.
Then a couple of weeks ago Jocelyn posted this on facebook and I knew it was just the thing to get me started!
Ann Marie at White House Black Shutters provides a download for planning what areas of your house to go through each day. It has really helped! I haven’t quite kept to the exact plan but I have been doing a little something every day and it adds up.
Here’s a little report of what I have done:
- Gone through all the kitchen drawers
- Got rid of half my cookie cutters
- Reduce the amount of aprons we have – this was particularly hard!
- Cleaned out the cupboards in the laundry room
- Got rid of half our flower vases
- Made an inventory of all our garden seeds
- Cleaned out the cupboards in the kids’ bathroom
- Gone through 2 bookshelves in our room (still have one to go)
- Filled a box with books to either sell or donate
- Went through the boys’ clothes and reduced the amount by 1/3
There is still a long way to go but progress is being made! Chipping away and seeing the bags totals add up is actually very rewarding.
What system do you use to help you declutter? How do you keep on top of it once it is done?
Not a problem for me. I love to throw things away–it soothes my soul somehow. I find it harder to take things to DI–not because I don’t want to help others, but it feels like I’m not getting rid of things right then. I especially love the weeks preceding Christmas when I get rid of all my children’s toys except the Schleich and Imaginext stuff. I seriously love throwing things away. My hubby, on the other hand . . ..
I’m like you, Andrea, doesn’t bother me to get rid of stuff. I am emotionally attached to very few things. And like you, my hubby, on the other hand…I just got after him yesterday, asking why is your side of the room and your closet always so cluttered? We have a broken banjo, and old cuckoo clock that no longer works, still living in his side of the closet. When we remodeled part of our house a few years ago, only about 1/3 of what went out in the garage during the remodel came back in. And I have disciplined myself not to buy something because it is “cute”, an antique, “would go with…”, etc. It is still all of those things on the store shelf, as I walk out the door.
I also learned a valuable lesson when we cleaned after my m-i-l passed away, and decided then not to do that to my kids, when I go. By mid-afternoon we were tired of taking loads and loads to the thrift stores, so we just started going to the dumps. I am ashamed of how much went to the dumps, perfectly good stuff, stuff that meant something to her, but not to any of the kids. My new mantra; “Why do we encumber ourselves with so much ‘stuff'”?
Haha! It’s funny to read your other comments because it is also my husband who has a terrible time parting with ANYTHING. To me, purging and cleaning out and getting rid of makes me feel so free and unencumbered that I actually dream of the day when I can get rid of all our kids clothes, etc. Etc. But, it is something that stresses my husband tremendously, so I have to find a balance between his sentimental ways and my own to keep peace.
Ooh, you’ve been doing well!!! I was on a roll in the basement, moved to the kitchen, front hall…and now I need to get focused on it again! Way to go! (Thanks for the shout-out!)
One things at a time…isn’t that the best way to do everything? A few years ago I followed “Spring Cleaning” routine found on a blog I was reading at the time. She had the whole house divided into days of the month. It made it all so much easier for me, knowing that I just had to do this closet today, or that chest of drawers tomorrow. I don’t do it all everyone month now, but I definitely still break down my major cleaning and organizing that way. One week…one thing. DONE! This week it’s the sewing room. 🙂
I am planning on spring cleaning these next few weeks. I am going through each room with a notebook to list what needs to be done. As I clean each room I get rid of the junk. I also just went through all of our clothes bins in the garage and only kept what we actually will wear.
I am late to this comment party, but love the topic. I also feel overwhelmed at times with how much “stuff” is lying around the house. I try to tackle one big cleaning/ organizing project each week, taking it a bit at a time. If I am working on the den, for instance, I will sort through all the drawers to declutter paperwork/ art supplies/ games/ puzzles. I will clean up the book shelf another night, and then work on counters in there another night. And so on. I realized that I generally have a brown paper grocery bag in our larder for “give away”. As I pass through rooms during the week, I pick up things here and there that we don’t need/ use (clothing, books, toys, knick knacks, etc) and collect them in the bag. When it’s full, I catalog it and put in the back of the van. Every few weeks, I’ll pull into the local thrift shop and drop off the bags. I find that I am less likely to buy things to just fill a space on a counter, too, since I’ll just have to dust it!!!