get rid of all my clutter

is helping me to get rid of more clutter, some of the furniture is now clutter too, need to put ad at local shop to try and get rid of it.

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 have not been on this site for a long time, and I am sad to say that my progress is at a standstill. I need to get more focussed.

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.

And ended up with two bags of clothes that I gave away.

Next up—the grown up’s clothes.

I have been reading “It’s All too Much” by Peter Walsh and it has motivated me to do some more on this goal. I have also managed to get the family involved by getting their input which has helped us to focus on how we want our house to function. The kids are starting to declutter their rooms a bit and tomorrow I am planning on rearranging the kitchen so that it is more efficient. Some stuff will have to go as I do this.

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!

Packed a big bag for charity. I was absolutely ruthless. Pared an overstuffed dresser down to one drawer of clothes I actually wear, and one drawer of good clothes that almost fit and I’m working on getting to. That leaves 3 empty drawers.

Big decluttering to get ready for the new school year. But I got the kids to do it and just stayed in the room to keep them on track. It took an entire day for each room, but it’s a skill they need to learn.

All the drawers cleaned out, old and small clothes sorted into garbage, charity and give to cousin bags. The kids went through their toy trunks, toy shelves, bookshelves, desks and the floor and got rid of all the toys that are broken, missing pieces or not getting used and sorted them into garbage and charity bins. Reduced the amount of possessions by more than half. Also had the kids reorganize their shelves and desks so that everything has a place to return to when used.

I bribed the kids. Told them they could have 1 M&M for each big toy they got rid of. Debated this in my head quite a bit but decided it would help them stop and think about the value of each thing (is it worth an M&M?). In the end I distributed 39 M&M’s which is only about 2 handfuls but the kids were quite happy with their “earnings”.