get rid of all my clutter

Got rid of a tub of baby clothes….slowly letting go. Lots more, but for right now we have no babies other than a 7 yr old, so giving them away!

I found a box full of magazines I have been hoarding in those magazine storage things, and I really have no room for them, nor do I look at them a whole lot. My next step is to go through them, cut out what I have been hanging on to, and purge this down to 1 or 2 magazine holders max. Space is too precious.

I have observed, clutter indeed has a psychological effect that actually causes clutter to reproduce on an hourly basis. Through my moving experiment, having a “show home” and putting all clutter in my storage shed or getting rid of it caused the other residents in my household to all pitch in and keep things neat.

That has changed!! With the chaos of moving, I have discovered just the simple addition of a pile of unpacked cardboard boxes in a corner can make clutter reproduce hourly. The room fast becomes a pig sty in less than a day, which even includes dirty dishes, kid clippings (shredded newspaper or “art projects”), remotes everywhere, blankets, DVDs, wires, computer parts, and the like. Then it is all downhill from there!

I need to work very very hard to reclaim this. I was down sick last weekend, and this weekend just reclaimed my kitchen…and made it look “perfect” in attempt to get others in the mindset.

I also noticed with the toys, somehow too many ended up unpacked and in the play room, so it has been a daily explosion up there…the kind you can’t walk into. My strategy? Pack up some toys….that’s the only help. Clutterbugs need controls in place or it only gets worse, me included!!

you have to move it all somewhere….with the moving thing, we filled sooo many boxes and made sooo many u-haul trips it wasn’t even funny. Unloading the truck 2 nights in a row at 1 am, and dropping a bottle of our most expensive wine on the new garage floor brought a lot of things to light! Plus, we still have the storage unit, and it is half-emptied. Knowing I have even more in there makes me sick….even though most of it is books.

Clutter is plain and simple, a burden. And you definitely feel the weight of that burden when you have to move it. Goodwill will be seeing many more donations in the coming month from this home!

More pics of the accomplishment!!

Not perfect, but presentable….all in preparation for the house showing!

About as decluttered as you can get! Ta da!

My kitchen! In preparation for the house showing….I even put the toaster oven away!

We are getting the “rest” of the stuff out of the house today…

Master bedroom detail cleaned, master bath cupboards dejunked and tidied

Clothing sorted, tossed, and stored

More stuff to storage, Goodwill, Craigslist and Dump!

Looking good so far!!

Looked at a house by the lake with a dock and dreamed about it to keep us going. Don’t know if that is the place or not, but it was fun to dream about!

The whole family had a crazy day today…. intense days at work, and son started 1st grade officially today (he does year round). Instead of working the garage tonight as we have been, I am using my energy to get caught up on some of the routine stuff…kitchen, laundry, etc. and hubby is weeding. We will go back to full speed for the last push on the garage tomorrow.

I can’t tell you what an incredible feeling it was to open the garage door when I returned home and to see a “shining” garage!