simplify and declutter

Easy – I want less stuff. Less stuff to clean, less stuff to work around. Live light!

and there are definitely some that can go, some others I´m not sure about too. Of course, there is the 20% I wear all the time and the other 80% languishing in the wardrobe.

I think if i had it all better organised though, I would wear more different combinations and would also be able to identify just how many black tops and dresses I have!!!

Next step after the clothes, is books and magazines….

I got rid of SO much stuff before I moved to Portland. Goodwill, consignment shops, friends, my roommate – I even had people come over and take some of my artwork away. I’d rather have friends enjoy my prints than have them sitting in storage collecting dust.

I feel pretty comfortable with the belongings I have right now. There’s nothing really that I have in the apartment right now that I don’t love, or need in some way. I don’t have any of those guilt-inducing projects that never got finished, or gifts other people got me that I never really made use of… or articles of clothing that I bought and never wore but felt like I’d be wasting the money if I got rid of them.

It’s funny, I got rid of so much stuff, then moved into a bigger space, and part of me wants to fill it with STUFF because it feels empty! But I have to keep reminding myself that I like the space. I have space to do yoga, I don’t have to meander a specific path through furniture and boxes and junk… it’s great!! Helps the chi flow. ;)

I will be moving out of my apartment at the end of this month and (probably) moving to Portland, so I decided to once again take up the task of simplifying and declutter-izing.

I picked up the book “It’s all Too Much” by Peter Walsh for some motivation.

It was pretty easy to get rid of all the stuff I had never unpacked from the last time I moved a year ago. Then I went through all my clothes and asked myself: “Have I worn this in the last 6 months? Do I LOVE this?” And if the answer was no, out it went. Oh, and I’m a total convert to the religion of organizing clothes by color. I sold a bunch of unwanted CDs, took a lot of unneeded stuff to Goodwill, and gave my old computer to a coworker for his kids to use (after boot ‘n nuking it)

The next step is to get rid of misc. kitchen crap I don’t use, and shred a lot of bank statements, insurance stuff, bla bla, that I don’t need anymore.

My goal is to arrive in Portland clutter free, having with me only the things I really love, and want to have in my life.

is the ultimate motivator. We have been iced in for days, on top of a rainy weekend. I am pretty amazed by my long list of accomplishments, especially since my ‘to-do list’ only consisted of watching the news and staying busy between the every 2 hour phone calls to my work’s weather hot-line.

I organized my built-in bookshelves, decluttering mass amounts of junk. How do we accumulate so much? Then I finished building a table to match the chairs we put together 5 months ago. Yes.. 5 months. The chairs were such a pain and we ended up arguing and deciding to just forget the whole thing. Forgotten, the pieces hid under the bed, and taunted me. It took me less than 10 minutes, and I did it without help. I’m embarrassed by how long such a simple task lingered. Now we have a place to eat like adults, instead of our laps in front of the TV like we have been doing for years. I am also happy to say that all expired medications and such have been thrown out, along with expired makeup, lotions, etc.

Clutter begone!

i have a lots of pictures, cards, letters, etc from over the years, that just sit in a box. maybe once every 2 years i go through it. while i had not considered this ‘clutter’ before, there is simply no other way to describe it. i think that i am going to make a scrapbook so that it is all organized, and i can enjoy it when i want to. this will also eliminate the ugly box, and leave me with just an extra book or two on my shelf. i can use my high school yearbook for one of them, but i need to find a scrap book kit. once this is done, i will consider this goal complete (for now).

I swear as fast as I clean things up, my kids create chaos. Its 2 steps forward, one step back all the time…. but the bright side is that I am at least moving forward.

I don’t even subjectively think I am half way there yet- I will say when I am!

Feeling a bit under the weather today (flu) but have a pile of things to tackle whilst spending a quiet day at home with my kids. I have promised to take them to the park in a few hours, so I will see how much I can do between then and now…..

And when I say I have a pile I mean it!! Its a huge stack of clothes and paper that needs to be sorted and put away. I should photograph it!

UPDATE: It has gone well, feeling a bit more organised, however still so much more to get through. Little by little, step by step.

Huge amount of stuff to sort through, but I keep having little internet breaks to research new computers and software… well, I need these little breaks or I would go mad.

I am moving in about a month, and before I start establishing myself in the new place I want to clear out everything that I haven’t used or looked at in at least a year.

I have a lot of printmaking stuff that I’ve kept because there was always a thought I might start doing it again. But now that the print studio is closed there is no chance of that happening. I have copper, paper, ink, misc. stuff – I really don’t know what to do with it all now.